Frija was dead exhausted when they came back to the inn. Nighttime, or their equivalent, had struck early and a new dawn was laying its soft warm light over the city as he opened the door for his daughter.
Outside, the streets were painted a rosy red from the light peaking around the edge of the… planet, Ranvir thought the locals called them. Did that mean they were on a planet as well?
He shook his head and turned to the receptionist. He’d been replaced by a new bird, similar in coloring to a parrot, which Ranvir’d just seen at the zoo. As he looked closer, Ranvir realized the resemblance ran more than just surface level. The man’s—or perhaps woman’s, distinguishing gender between these half-animal people could be difficult—beak was similar in shape, only sized up. This one’s arms almost made Ranvir think they were wings, the feathers coming off them were so long.
He even saw the suggestion of tail feathers from the bird-person. Ranvir ran a hand across his jaw and nodded to the receptionist. “Do you offer meals?”
“Yes, sir,” they replied in a voice that also reminded Ranvir more of the raspy tones of a parrot than a human. They seemed slightly startled at the notable change in their voice, though they quickly located the gray stone hanging from a thread around Ranvir’s neck. “Would you like some brought up?”
“Yes, please.”
“Very well, sir,” Ranvir was about to go when they cleared their throat. “Do you have any dietary preferences?”
Preferences? Ranvir thought, frowning slightly. “I don’t think so…” then he raised his finger. “Something warm, if you please.”
The parrot-person cocked their head in an off-putting bird manner, their beak clicking together a few times. Ranvir glanced down at the little bar of wood attached to their uniform, but the language was completely impenetrable. After hesitating a few seconds, “I’m sorry, sir, there appears to be a misunderstanding. Are you a carnivore, herbivore, or omnivore?”
“Omnivore!” Ranvir exclaimed. “That’s what the last one was called!” he looked down at Frija, who still looked to be dead on her feet, clasping his fingers tightly in her much smaller grasp. “Sorry,” he blushed, realizing the look Parrot was giving him was definitely misgiving. “Omnivore.”
Parrot nodded, “It will be brought up to you,” then belatedly, “sir.”
Ranvir nodded and smiled. “Also, before I forget, I was told you could provide wake-up calls?”
The clerk nodded. “Certainly, sir. In the morning?”
Ranvir blew out a breath. “I suppose. How long until then?” He’d made arrangements, but the time counting system was still completely impenetrable to his understanding.
“About eight hours, sir.”
Ranvir nodded. “That’ll do, thank you,” then he headed up the stairs. Frija made it halfway up the first set, before he could see the fight leaving her.
Ranvir fished the room key out of his pocket and unlocked the room, having already scanned it with his senses beforehand. The process was made awkward by carrying his daughter in one arm and maneuvering the unfamiliar key in the unfamiliar lock.
Stepping inside, Ranvir considered what he’d seen during the day. Most of the people here were human-like, but had traits incompatible, at least to his meager understanding, with actual humans. All of them were also strong. Almost as powerful as a first-stage tethered, however, he hadn’t seen a single person who exceeded the second-stage all day.
But he had seen people weaker. There were quite a few unfortunates on the streets, people who lived in the alleys and gullies of the city. Some of them had power, but many of them did not. The ones without power also notably looked entirely human. Little kids, as well. Children below a certain threshold seemed like any other.
So their powers, however they gain them, seem to transform them, Ranvir thought, working through all he’d seen. Most people seem pretty significantly changed, though some notable ones were only minorly changed. The weakest non-normal had only the slightest texture to parts of his skin, but then the guard patrolling the zoo only showed hints of his change in nails and the color of his hair and he was pretty powerful, too.
Ranvir shook his head and put Frija down, but the motion woke her up. “I don’t wanna sleep,” she groused, crossing her arms. “I’m not sleepy.”
Ranvir smiled. “Dinner will be up soon, then after that we can take a nap?”
Frija pouted and shook her head, running across the room and over to the windowsill. It was slightly too tall for her to climb onto unassisted, but it was deep enough that she could comfortably sit on it. The thin metal bars inserted into the glass Ranvir felt okay with her sitting on the sill.
“Talk to me,” Ranvir said as he lifted her up onto the sill. He rested his hip against it while waiting for her to speak. She didn’t, which wasn’t unexpected, but he’d give her the chance, anyway. “Is it because you want to keep watching the people?”
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Frija sniffed and nodded, still looking away from him. Down through the grate and onto the street. People in all kinds of colors and outfits passed by. Frija was clearly taken by the crowds. Despite the exhaustion clear in her shoulders and demeanor, Ranvir could see that she was insistent on keeping her watch.
He smiled to himself, “You stay there until dinner, then we can talk. We have a busy day tomorrow as well.”
Frija pursed her lips and nodded her okay. Ranvir smiled and rustled her hair before stepping away.
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Dinner turned out to be pretty simple, roasted vegetable, alongside roasted meat. They’d made a sauce as well. Ranvir’d tasted nothing like it, but he could only assume these people had been taught to cook directly by the gods.
Frija sounded like she belonged in the zoo as she dug into her food. Ranvir didn’t think he had the words to describe the ecstasy he’d seen on her face when they realized there was no silverware to eat with. They were only supplied with bowls of water and a cloth to wipe their fingers on. Now, she had sauce running down to her elbows and dripping onto her pants as she made her best imitation of the sounds a cat made when eating.
It’s a vacation, it’s just this once, he told himself. I’ll just make her take a bath tomorrow. He’d also brought along most of her wardrobe, just in case, which now seemed like it might’ve been a good decision.
With the way both of took to the food, it was soon over. Ranvir hurriedly cleaned Frija up as best as he could before she started running around, playing cat by jumping onto the beds. It was only as she crouches before the windowsill, growling to herself, that Ranvir stepped in.
“Maybe you won’t quite make that jump,” he warned, stepping closer. “It’s time for bed, anyway.”
Immediately, she fell back on her as, legs splaying wide, her face contorted into a mask of pain and Ranvir could see tears in her eyes even before she started crying. Hurriedly, he knelt before her.
“I’ll make a deal with you, however,” he said. “If you really want to stay up and watch the people as they pass below, then we can make a deal, yeah? You have to agree with me that you’re coming with me tomorrow. It’s going to be a busy day. We’re going to the museum in a guided tour and it took quite a lot of work from daddy to get right, okay?”
Even though she never quite built up into a full on bawling, Frija still hiccuped and sniffed as she reached for him. He embraced her as she spoke. “Okay.”
“So that’s a deal?” Ranvir asked. “You can stay up as late as you want, but you have to come with me tomorrow without complaint?”
Frija nodded against his neck.
“And if you complain, then you’ve broken our first deal and you won’t get a cat,” Ranvir made sure she understood. He wouldn’t stand a fit when she realized what had happened.
Frija stiffened, but after a moment, she spoke. “Okay,” her voice was a little rough, but she sounded otherwise fine.
“I love you, Fireheart,” Ranvir muttered as he gently deposited her on the windowsill.
“I love you too, daddy.”
“That looks a little uncomfortable, though,” Ranvir said, speculatively eying the platform. He quickly checked the closets and found a few extra towels. Rolling one up, he put it in the windowsill's corner, then the pillow on top before wrapping Frija in the blanket that’d been on top of her bed. “Just to make sure you’re warm and comfortable.”
Ranvir gazed speculatively at his daughter as she shuffled happily in her cocoon of warmth and comfort. He wanted to teach his daughter that there were consequences for actions, i.e. she decided not to sleep and got tired, but he didn’t want her so exhausted he had to carry her around all day.
He saw down crisscross in front of his bed and began his nightly training. He’d missed a few days of soul practice. Ranvir personally wasn’t sure what to make of it, as the techniques seemed really basic. He retracted his conscious into the half-way point where he could maintain power, but also watch his tether-space. Expanding his perspective, Ranvir witnessed his entire soul. His Fundament, a dark and rich green grass on top of a thick coat of nearly black soil, which itself rested on a sturdy platform of stone, the only blemish a bleached line of white running across the grass.
The remains of his injury hadn’t always shown up so cleanly. When it had first started bleaching, Ranvir’d written Kasos about it. The old man explained it was nothing to worry about. An acknowledgment of old injury, but no longer so. The purpose was to remind Ranvir that there still existed a weak point within his soul.
In the air above his Fundament flew two spheres, planets Ranvir would almost call them after seeing the new plane’s orbs. The smaller, but perhaps more densely packed, one was his tether-space. He knew for certain now that Amanaris exceeded his old power in sheer energy, though there was an undeniable flexibility that was lost with Amanaris. Ranvir wasn’t sure he’d trade his tether’s freedom for the power of Amanaris on any day, but acknowledging that one was more powerful was inevitable.
Amanaris-space was vast, a bubble of restrained power and energy. It was by all accounts way more power than he could reasonably handle, but Ranvir’d experienced coming up short in the power department too often while at the academy to ever let go of the advantage he was building.
Dismissing the two sources of power from his mind, Ranvir focused on the space in between. He began gathering anima together into one huge clump, a white mass slowly forming directly above the Fundament. He grew it until the rest of his spirit was growing thin and he could feel the anima created by his Fundament slipping into the air.
Holding it for as long as he could, Ranvir let it go slowly. It expanded organically until his spirit felt bloated with the power. This exercise helped his Fundament’s ability to generate anima when necessary. By artificially thinning his spirit, Ranvir was creating a perfect environment for the process to begin.
Then he started gathering eight lumps of anima together. This was much more complicated, and he got nowhere near enough to make excess energy, but that wasn’t the purpose of this exercise. Instead, he began drawing a strand out from each ball, twining them together into a massively complicated braid.
These exercises were respectively known as ‘holding’ and ‘braiding’. They both sucked ass. His spirit had no easily measurable progress, and they both caused tether weakness pushed to eleven. He couldn’t even draw on his Concept for aid, as his Concept was powered by his spirit as well and would only worsen the effects.
Ranvir powered through an hour of training before taking a break. He carefully sipped some water, while it felt like his bones might slip through his skin, while his skull exploded from built up pressure. He considered moving Frija but left her sleeping on the windowsill. Unsurprisingly, she hadn’t been able to stand up to a full stomach and a warm blanket.