“So I think I’m going to keep trying to figure out the problem. If I still haven’t figured it out by the end of the week, then I’ll advance during the break.”

Ranvir was speaking to his friends and Master Ayvir during their after period practice.

“So let me get this straight…” Grev said slowly like he was having trouble understanding what Ranvir was saying, “you want quiet and calm so you’re going to go off by yourself—while there’s ongoing unrest at the academy—to meditate on your issue?”

“Well when you say it like that,” Ranvir replied. “It sounds a bit stupid.”

“I think it’s an excellent idea,” Ayvir said causing everyone to pause.

“No! It’s fucking stupid,” Es argued.

“It’s fine, you go do you,” Ayvir waved off Es’ worries.

Ranvir narrowed his eyes at the master, “Good, I’m going to go then…” he waited for the teacher to take back his words, but the older man didn’t. Instead, he smiled and nodded waving for the others to return to their exercises.

Esmund would return to his control training. Despite him never having once trained to enhance his impact, he was still outperforming everyone in the damage department. Grev could pump an insane amount of concentrated light out in seconds, but the cutting power of warp was simply superior for pure damage.

Sansir could throw frozen projectiles, he was even starting to manage multiple projectiles orbiting around himself. In fact, they’d found letting a small snowstorm swirl around him was easy, but individually controlling three or four objects was much harder. That said, even if he had seven icicles swirling around him rapidly, letting his powers handle the control rather than himself, someone like Dovar could slip through in less time than it took a volley of archers to loose and hit him.

It was a common failing of obsidian and ice Veils apparently. In fact, letting your ability managing themselves was excellent for developing techniques but hardly ever worked out successfully in the real world.

Ranvir’s pocket-spaces would be another example. The more control he took over the space, directing apertures and braces, the more effective the space was. He’d even figured out how to have two smaller apertures on a space the size of his fist. His ability had first shown him it was possible, but the space was so unstable it couldn’t even hold his chess pieces. Now, it managed to hold both fine, though he wasn’t sure what he was going to do with two apertures, yet.

More skills wouldn’t hurt, though.

Ranvir adjusted the pad he’d slipped under his arm as trudged through the snow. He’d worn an extra set of clothes under his coat, because he knew he’d be sitting down in the cold tonight.

He shot a glance over his shoulder, seeing his friends practicing their abilities. Sansir was throwing snowball in random directions, trying to hit them with his orbiting ice shards. A network of what seemed like spark bugs fluttered around Grev, each of them a tiny manipulation and implementation of his attuned technique. Dovar was running about on the snow, his feet never pushing through to the layer of stomped down ice. He was somehow managing to turn on incredibly tight spots as well. Esmund was cutting a stick marked with different lengths, ranging from an inch to over a foot.

However, Ayvir was nowhere to be seen amongst the group and they all seemed oddly at ease with him leaving, especially after expressing their doubts beforehand. Ranvir narrowed his eyes as he scanned the area beyond what Grev was lighting up. Unsurprisingly, he didn’t find anything, not with his eyes and not with his tether-sense.

“Whatever,” he mumbled plodding away until he couldn’t hear Es’ warp impacts as loudly anymore, then he set down his pad. He didn’t intent to go into a full ritual as he still couldn’t resist the effects of the flaw in his tether when he was that sensitive. Instead, he simply sat down like they’d first been taught and started breathing.

Taking in deep breaths through his nose feeling the wintry air burn his nostrils, then breathed out slowly exhaling as much air from his lungs as he possibly could. He continued like that for a few minutes, similar to how he started a ritual meditation, then he opened tether-space and the real world retreated from his senses.

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He immediately felt the disturbance laying itself over him, it seemed to have grown stronger since his last deep dive. He dove down into the space, entering instead of observing. The weak pulses of disturbance washed over him as he fought his way around the tether. His senses were already overwhelmed by the waves, despite his best attempt at focusing beyond it.

He first slipped along the threads, trying to examine each as he delved through the loop. His head was started to developed a dull intermittent throbbing by the time he reached the end of the tether, still none the wiser.

I need a break, he thought withdrawing not from the space, but from his nearness to it. It was like the welcome rush of water after a long day outside as he left the immediate presence of his tether. Taking a wider view, he examined the space as a whole. With this distance the pulses weren’t nearly as overwhelming, instead they only weakly touched him. Within moments, the ache started weakening and was soon completely gone from the back of his head.

What is it trying to tell me? Ranvir thought. Aches and pains always come from something. This is just a different type of ache. When I roll my ankle, it hurts to let me know I’ve strained it. When my throat’s dry it lets me know I need to drink water. So what is my tether telling me?

Ranvir tried delving back close, but again the pulses became overwhelming and he stepped away. He took a step back looking at the space as a whole. At this low draw, it looked no different than it had when he’d first entered the space, except his tether was fully developed. So maybe there wasn’t anything wrong with the space, then maybe the tether?

His mind returned to those stones of ‘dead’ tether he’d find throughout, but where did that come from? They had to come from somewhere. His tether grew as he grew in strength, but the tether was distinct from the energy that roared within it. Did the energy fuel his tether’s growth, like how the sun fueled plant growth?

So maybe the energy wasn’t quite ri—

Something flashed across his eyes. At the same time, the creature stirred within Ranvir, stoking sparks of yellow and orange all throughout him. In an instant, he was embracing the pressure.

He opened his eyes standing up from his pad. Whatever had flashed across his eyes was gone, but now he noticed something else.

Voices.

People were talking and laughing, he scanned his surroundings trying to figure where it came from. Absentmindedly, he opened a pocket-space and slipped his chest pieces into it.

“Over there.”

Ranvir turned in the direction, catching the glimpse of black and white uniforms. He saw three students walking along the running track. Two were walking ahead chatting and laughing, while the third was falling behind. As he did, snow started crawling up his body until it enveloped him and he became a true snowman.

Then with a yell, he charged his friends. One of them laughed and jumped away, before the snowman grabbed his other friend from behind and collapsed dumping snow onto him.

Snowman stepped out of the suddenly created snowdrift laughing, his other friend staggered over to him laughing equally as hard as they hung onto each other. Snowdumped burst from the drift, throwing ice and snow meters into the air from the force of his departure.

“That wasn’t funny,” he grumbled causing his friends to laugh even harder.

Ranvir hesitated, he should walk away. They still hadn’t seen him, there wasn’t any reason for them to. He could leave now and they would never know he’d been there. Sparks of red rose from where the creature slumbered, where those sparks landed, genuine orange frustration emerged.

Ranvir grit his teeth, realizing just how tired he was of watching the fighting going on. Worrying about every student who passed him by. They were supposed to be allies, he shouldn’t have to stop his training, or halt his action to make sure his own countrymen attacked him from behind.

This is stupid, Ranvir thought. Just walk away, find somewhere else.

Again the creature shifted, more red sparks, more frustration.

This isn’t me, Ranvir realized, what is going on?

The creature didn’t spark this time, though those lingering flames of frustration still burned. It didn’t even stir that time. Ranvir took in deep breath trying to calm himself. He picked up his pad—

“Hey, what are you doing out here?” Ranvir let his eyes shut, gritting his teeth in frustration. This time yellow sparks emerged from the creature, igniting a bit of mild irritation and evoking a clear sense of smug superiority.

“I’m exercising,” Ranvir called as he began to walk away. “I was working on my tether,” he looked over his shoulder, seeing Snowman and Snowdumped looking at him. They both seemed tense, worried.

“Which faction are you with?” Snowman called

Ranvir rolled his eyes, “The front lines. The United Alliance. Whichever faction supports them.”

“Are you making fun of us?” Snowdumped asked.

“No, I’m just trying to improve myself,” Ranvir stopped. The creature didn’t have to stoke his irritation this time. The two were managing fine on their own.

“Oh, so you think you’re better than us?” Snowdumped was working himself into a genuine anger.

Of course, I am.

“Look, I’m just—“ ice crunched behind Ranvir. He lunged to the side, turning to look behind him. He heard the other two students break into a run, as something settled around his ankle. The third member of their group stood behind him, well outside of Veil range, however, the obsidian shackle around his foot attested to his Discipline. He was close enough that Ranvir could actually make out the details of the accents on his uniform.

Second-years. Then Shackle began hauling his black-glass manacle back.