Ranvir sat in an uncomfortable chair as the room around him slowly emptied. Finally, after nearly three hours it was just him and Master Sigurd. The hard wooden seat of the chair had long since passed the point of making Ranvir’s rear and gone entirely numb. It was the least of the punishments that would be his due.

Closing his eyes the image of the student, short and fast not one to think things through, echoed. Over and over again he saw the look in his eyes as he was thrown over two dozen meters into the air. The realization on his face as he saw the descent coming.

Ranvir shuddered as he rested his forehead on the bridge of his intertwined fingers.

“You’re not getting out of this one.”

Ranvir didn’t react to the master’s prodding. Master Sigurd had insisted of sitting in the waiting room with him, ensuring his punishment. Ranvir’d initially assumed the master thought him dangerous. He’d chosen to ignore Sigurd, the master hadn’t liked him when he’d been taking his classes and he definitely didn’t like him after Dovar quit to train with Ranvir’s friends. The look on the old man’s face made it clear more than a desire to see justice fulfilled motivated his staying within the room.

When Sigurd saw that he wouldn’t reply he snorted and looked away from Ranvir. They sat in tense silence every minute shift sending pain through Ranvir’s ass up his back and down his legs.

Sigurd snorted in derision and pushed off the wall, “You really are pathetic, you know that?”

Ranvir’s eyes tightened as the master began walking towards him, then past him to the door. Running his tongue over his teeth, Ranvir bit back any reply he might’ve made. He was fine with the silence, it had never bothered him.

Sigurd hesitated at the door, expecting something. Ranvir didn’t look in his direction, though, he sensed his presence easily enough. What is he waiting for? A last remark? A snide comment? It clicked then and Ranvir couldn’t help the little chuckle that escaped his lips.

“What was that, student?” Sigurd said with a sneer, his voice as pinched as his face.

A reason to come back, Ranvir thought glancing up through his brows at the older man. A reason to get in my face.

Sigurd’s booted feet were oddly loud in the room as he stepped in front of Ranvir. “Look at me and speak clearly, student.”

Ranvir clenched his jaw and kept looking at the boots. Polished leather, they looked new. Barely a tiny bit of dirt and grass on them. They must’ve been really new. And judging from the double stitched seams, the smooth finish, and the thick sole, expensive as well. In fact, as Ranvir looked closer, he realized Sigurd was dressed in a uniform that more closely resembled the noble’s tailored fit than the commoners’ space glyph uniforms.

The man crouched down, his boots squeaking as the leather bent.

Ignore him, Ranvir warned himself. Above him, he sensed two presences beginning to move. One was faint, but sharp, a warp tethered but barely into their power. The second had the powerful presence of a Sword, one Ranvir recognized and suspected more was hidden. They were joined by a third presence, obsidian and second-stage, that waited at the door for them as they stepped out of the room.

With two careful fingers, Sigurd pinched Ranvir’s left wrist in a loose grasp and pulled it away from his other hand, revealing the tethered’s face behind it, “I said, look at me and speak clearly when you’re talking to me, student.”

“I heard you,” Ranvir whispered and closed his eyes, the image of warp student, whose footsteps he could now hear outside the room, falling through the air replaying again.

“Speak up! Or I will be forced to punish you.”

Ranvir pulsed his jaw once, but didn’t open his eyes, “What are you going to do? Send a fifth-year after me this time?”

Sigurd snorted and let go of Ranvir’s wrist before straightening. He could sense the master’s tether was in uproar beneath the surface of his presence. His muddy intent poorly hidden beneath the force of his presence. Ranvir’d sensed cleaner Concepts from fourth-years than he was getting from the master.

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“Are you insinuating that I sent those students after you?” Sigurd asked.

The door opened, “Ranvir, come with me please,” Pashar’s voice was distant and monotone, just like it had been with any of the other students she’d gotten before him. Sigurd took a small step back giving Ranvir just enough space to get up.

Turning his back on the teacher was one of the hardest things Ranvir’d done to date. The small man’s jealous eyes stabbed into his back all the way until Ranvir stood before Ragnar’s door as it swung open on his approach.

“Student Ranvir,” Ragnar greeted and gesture to the chair opposite his desk. “Come in,” It had been made with short legs and a slightly too small frame for most people. With the tethered’s gesture the chair pushed out to and scooted in under him as he sat.

“Principal,” Ranvir said feeling faint. In the small chair his chest barely cleared the desk. The table and master seated behind loomed over him, made all the more apparent by the discomfort of the too small chair.

On the edge of the desk lay a single strip of red cloth, closer towards Ragnar’s side there was a single folder containing a small stack of paper. Looking at the two people in the room, Ranvir found Pashar with a stiff expression, her lips were slightly pursed and something in her stance made him think she wasn’t happy. Ragnar, on the other hand, seemed mostly tired, drained from the efforts of the day.

Ragnar sighed heavily as he opened the folder and split the stack of paper in two, resting his hand on the left pile he spoke, “Ranvir, I don’t enjoy doing this. This doesn’t make me feel better. This isn’t why I accepted the role of principal. I want you to understand this.”

Ranvir nodded, managing to get a, “Yes sir,” out.

Lifting his hand from the stack it was resting on, Ragnar continued, “This is Master Sigurd’s personal record of the incidents as he saw it. It’s a bit disjointed but clearly paints you as throwing a student dangerously high into the sky. This along with the statements from the other boys, as noted by Head Administrator Pashar,” he nodded to the lady standing behind him, “Imply that you purposefully turned around and attacked him.”

Ranvir nodded, his throat too knotted to speak.

“Am I to take that as confirmation of your actions?” Ragnar asked his tone serious.

Ranvir swallowed, feeling like his body was fighting him as he began speaking, “Sir, when the student launched an attack on me, I got carried away. They had already cornered me once and forced me to run away. My blood was up.”

“We’ll get to that later, then,” Ragnar said looking down at the paper for a moment, “You threw the kid into the sky? Is that correct, around ninety feet? How exactly did you do that?”

Ranvir cleared his throat, “Yes, sir. There’s a connection between people and the ground. It’s what pulls you back down when you jump up. It’s documented in some of the research books. The umm… the last space manipulator died when accidentally severing it on herself.”

There was a moment of silence, “So you intentionally used lethal force against your fellow student?”

Ranvir shook his head, “No sir, I didn’t actually intend to attack him,” he debated telling them of Latresekt, but worried it would just come off as an excuse of responsibility, “A lot of things happened in that moment that I didn’t know I was capable of. I redirected warp away from me, somehow, and I’ve tried tempering with the connection before but I’ve never been able to sever it.”

“Very well,” Ragnar nodded, “We’ll note it down as an accident for now. This other event, the one where you assaulted student and broke his nose before running away, what exactly happened there? The others claimed it was unprovoked.”

“They were asking for me by name, sir,” Ranvir said feeling like he was on slightly more solid ground. “The six of them had surrounded me when the leader asked after me by name. I chose to react quickly and try to get away.”

“But the warp student caught you?”

Ranvir nodded, “He did.”

“And that’s all that happened?” Ragnar looked Ranvir in the eye for a very long time, the silence dragging on for more than a minute. Finally, the principal blinked then deliberately placed his palm on the other stack of paper. “Ranvir, these are a mixture of complaints and personal attestations on your character from Administrator Kirs, Master Svenar, Master Ayvir, and Head Administrator Pashar,” the last one seemed to sour Ragnar expression visibly as he said it. “They all speak very highly of you or complain that you cannot be punished for the aggression of others.”

He went quiet again, looking deep into Ranvir’s eyes. The student felt the need to squirm start to grow after a minute and he finally cleared his throat, “I appreciate that, sir.”

Ragnar snorted, “But the issue is that we’ve already looked away once. That the students spread the rumor of a red-eyed monster is up to them, but we both know what actually happened. Now, I don’t usually mind when some teachers or,” he turned to glare at Pashar, “some such, play a little favorites. It tells a lot about them and their character, makes them easier to work with. But the academy’s not in a position to let this go, not again. That you walked away from a fight without so much as a slap on the wrist looks bad. If you do it again…”

Ranvir licked his lips, “I’m not sure I deserve to walk away.”

Ragnar’s half lidded eyes blinked slowly, “You don’t. You were this close to killing a student, a fellow Elusrian, one of your allied soldiers.”

They were silent again, Ranvir’s hands were shaking as he looked the old man in the eye. He could see him weighing the scales. He swallowed hard, the sound audible in the quiet room.

Ragnar slammed the folder shut, the papers hitting colliding loudly and he opened his mouth.