After one nightmare’s worth of research and the decision to never ever bring Frija to a library ever again, Ranvir felt much more equipped the handle the questions he’d come up with during his previous exercises.
Mana of different types reacted differently to degrees of control. The first example of this he found was fire mana, which contrarily was easier to control if you exerted less pressure on it, guiding instead of dominating.
Stone mana was rigid and powerful, which could make it hard to cast but easier to master. Not that any mana type could be easily mastered. Sand mana was similar to water mana in the sense that they were really easy to get started, but very hard to perfect.
Ranvir, along with many other scholars, speculated that this was caused by the nature of the elements. Sand and water both focused on controlling something that wasn’t a single object or item, but multiple working in concert. You were more likely to have spillover, but these material types were better able to handle it.
That brought into question mana types that mimicked energy, such as light and warp. Ranvir didn’t have too much time to spend examining their specific rules as they didn’t apply to him, and Frija was about to go insane from spending a few hours in the place where you had to be quiet. He’d ended up taking her to fish markets to pick out dinner for both them and Menace.
Ranvir’d forgotten how quickly baby animals grew. Over just the course of a single week, the kitten had grown from fitting easily in his hand and was starting to spill out of it. It was also unlike the cats he’d known from back home. Instead of thick and short fur, Menace’s was much longer and fluffy enough to make it look like a fuzzy ball rather than an animal.
When they got home Frija spent half an hour feeding him tiny pieces of fish, before Menace acted like its namesake and they spent half a flare cleaning up. When tucking Frija into bed, Ranvir found that a tired and cuddly kitty was the perfect soporific. Within moments, the two were cuddling on her bed, already on their way to deep sleep.
----------------------------------------
The day after, Ranvir caught Amalia on her way to Legea, finding her at the potragos station. The sun’s disk burning down with a violent hate that Ranvir’d rarely experienced since coming here.
“That’s not going to become a new season, is it?” Ranvir asked, tapping his jaw as he approached her. He already knew that Amalia’s trained senses would’ve picked him up, especially with her specialization as a scout. Amalia was nearly a match for Pashar’s senses, who’d been personally trained from childhood by a triplet master. He shook his head, dismissing Pashar from his mind before his thoughts could sour.
“I don’t think so,” Amalia said. Even her, a native, was fanning herself to ease the heat. The air was stale, thick, and just wet enough that it felt like someone had just exhaled onto his entire body. “Though, I did hear that the shivering might move over Legea. Have you experienced that yet?”
Ranvir shook his head. “That’s… it’s going to be bad, isn’t it?”
“I’ll be interested to see what heightened perception will do to you, at the very least.”
Ranvir shivered at the thought. “I was going to ask for your help with something.”
Amalia nodded, “I figured.”
He paused. “I don’t only talk with you when I need something, do I?”
She rolled her eyes and shook her head. “You don’t really talk much with anybody when you don’t need something, but you’re around often enough.”
“Then how could you tell?”
“You spoke unprompted and you never take this potragos to Legea. Either you’d be away much earlier, or later. Which meant you were tracking me down.”
Ranvir cocked his head. “Huh, I hadn’t realized.”
“So, what do you need help with?”
“I’m considering changing my mana type.”
“Changing, developing, or adapting?”
Ranvir cocked his head. “What’s the difference?”
“Between developing and adapting, it’s mostly semantics, but you can only change your mana type as a Kistios, advancing too far and such changes become impossible.”
“So, developing and adapting?”
“Developing would have larger changes, like Ione going from air to sound and then into speech and then translation mana. Adapting would be lesser changes, water to saltwater. Like I said, mostly semantics.”
“I guess I would be developing, then? Going from stone to sand mana. Does there have to be so many steps in between?”
“Sand mana, huh? There doesn’t have to be many steps. I think it has something to do with the development of your soul, or something. Why sand mana?”
“A few reasons,” Ranvir said. They were forced to pause the conversation as the potragos arrived, preceded by the roaring of waves as the massive structure rushed through the river. Ranvir thought his perception was high enough that he could’ve picked Amalia’s words out from the potragos’ noise. She likely couldn’t have done the same. “Mainly after looking into the specifics of sand mana, I think it’s a really good fit for me, as well as elemental bonding.”
“Bonding?” Amalia asked.
“Bonding!” Latresekt exclaimed in disbelief.
“Yeah, many sand elementals should be good at covering some of my larger issues. Space mana is good at getting a local picture of what’s going on around me, too good in fact. When I try to expand my senses beyond my immediate surroundings, the information overload just becomes too much. I don’t just know where every tree is, but every pebble, insect, which way the wind blows, how fast it blows, how many leaves are on each branch, how many branches, the thickness of bark, it’s too much…”
“And sand elementals can get pretty big and spread out.”
“They also do really well when you feed them a ton of mana, so…”
Amalia nodded in deference to the point, even if most elementals did really well on a steady diet of mana, mana, and more mana.
“I could help you with developing your element, but I’d really recommend going to Kyriake or someone like her, for the elemental bond.”
Ranvir winced. He still wasn’t entirely sold on setting up underneath her as an apprentice. He really didn’t need to be stuck under her boot, especially not when Frija might get caught alongside him.
“I can see on your face that you don’t want to,” Amalia said. “But let me put it like this. She’s going to be able to get you into the strongest fold with sand elementals. She’s going to be able to help with petitioning the strongest of said elementals. Your overall growth is going to be greatly helped if you just allow her to help you on this one front.”
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Ranvir worried at his lip, staring speculatively at Amalia as he considered the option. Ranvir noticed a different voice, though much more subdued in its discontent and annoyance. Latresekt wasn’t pacing, it wasn’t growling to itself. In fact, Ranvir barely caught the most minor hint of lifted lip, revealing fanged incisors. Beyond all of those was a slight rippling writhing within tether-space, evoking a distinct flavor.
Latresekt wasn’t just angry, it was fuming. Despite the spirit’s best attempts, it was living within Ranvir’s soul and unable to hide from him.
“You’re furious,” Ranvir whispered.
“Huh?” Amalia asked.
Latresekt only let out a rip and tear snarl and beat its fist against the wall. But was it clever enough to trick him, capable of it even? It’s never really lied before…
“I talk with her about it,” Ranvir finally agreed.
“Good,” Amalia said with a smile.
----------------------------------------
“Here,” Kyriake said, offering Ranvir a katapetra marble. This was the first one he’d seen that was more yellow than blue, and for the first time there flecks of red on the surface as well.
“Why is it different?” he asked, honing his senses on it.
“It’s from a high-urityon fold,” Kyriake explained as she knelt alongside him. “It should make the petitioning easier. First, though, we need you to step into Tier 7 and develop your affinity for sand.”
Ranvir nodded, kneeling opposite the older woman. This was the first time Ranvir met her in the context of business and she came off far different from what he’d previously experienced.
Instead of kind and gentle, with a distinct protective motherly sensation, she was now stern, wise, and strong. The motherly sensation persisted, but taking on a stricter edge to it.
“Do you have the stone for your advancement?” she asked.
Ranvir nodded, retrieving his own katapetra. Though the two stones were similar in size and weight, his was mostly blue, with veins of yellow and less… significant. He found it difficult to describe the exact difference. Perhaps his senses just weren’t up to picking it out yet.
“Then you may begin.”
Ranvir nodded, allowing Amanaris to rise within his spirit as he focused his tether-sense on his marble of petrified power, leaving Kyriake’s untouched. In the space of a single deep breath, Ranvir drew his focus forth and consumed the stone.
Amanaris-space throbbed with the influx of power, the core at the center glowing and refining its shape, becoming more stone-like. Ranvir broke the rock core with a strike forged from intention and will. It shattered into pebbles, still glowing with power as his advancement proceeded. He cupped the stones and struck again. They shattered into gravel.
The glow had significantly lessened now and Ranvir could feel the changes occurring all throughout the space was winding down. Again, he struck. This time, he was left with a grainy substance. It was the right texture, but not quite sand. Not yet.
He had to move quickly, Amanaris-space had stilled finishing its changes. He was running out of time.
Focusing on the material, he infused it with his understanding of sand, changing it through the weight and might of his soul, forcing it to adapt to his requirements. Visually, he could detect no change to the new core, but spiritually it was laden with the idea, the understanding of what it was.
Ranvir opened his eyes, only then realizing he’d shut them, to find particles of yellow light emitting from him the same color as the sand at his core.
Amanaris
***
You have successfully consumed katapetra x1.
You have reached Tier 7 (60) Level 0.
As a reward for achieving Tier 7, you have been gained access to legends for your map. You can now add marks along with small descriptors.
You have changed element: Stone -> Sand.
All Ability slots have been cleared.
Ability: Sand Blast automatically learned
1 / 6 Ability slots
“That was well done,” Kyriake said. “Do you need a moment, or are you ready to continue?”
“I can continue,” Ranvir said, glancing around once. The fold Kyriake had taken them to sat on the beach of a small lake, within some rich merchant’s estate two hours run from Legea. With a brush of his power, Ranvir opened the fold. “Do we step in?”
“We are petitioning the inhabitants. It would not do to intrude on their territory.”
“Aren’t we going to do that eventually, anyway?”
“Creatures of folds rely more on their soul-sight than their other senses. They will not detect that we are human, or even human looking. They will notice our spirits, not our bodies. To them, each creature is an individual.”
“Huh, so what do I do?”
“Still yourself, and open your soul to the creatures inside. One of them will eventually come to your call.”
Ranvir nodded, turning his attention inwards for a few moments, focusing on his tether’s lazy spin. The waves of wind the movement called until he felt a calmness settle over him. Then he poured his intention into his tether-sense and his Disciplines opening himself for a connection with the creatures inside.
“Keep your eyes closed,” Kyriake said after a while, though he sensed her get up. He got the sense that she was seeing something and wanted him to remain calm, so he did his best to regulate his breathing despite the ominous sense of something approaching. Breaching the fold with his senses, even with it open, was difficult in his current state.
Eventually, Ranvir sensed something touching his tether-sense as well. Before he could react to it the connection was torn away.
“Ignore it,” Kyriake said, speaking with certainty and strength of mountains.
Later, Ranvir didn’t know if it was minutes or hours. Another presence touched him again.
“Good, you may open your eyes.”
Blinking, Ranvir opened them to find the beach lit in the yellow and red of evening. The gentle lapping of waves returned as his senses likewise came back to him. Before him stood a near solid mass of sand, blowing and ripping against each other, except for the very border of the fold.
A tiny pocket had opened up around a single twister. Ranvir caught the flickers of reflected light from tiny grains within the elemental’s form.
“What is that behind it?” Ranvir asked. Now that his senses were returning to normal, he could distinctly sense the difference between the elemental before him and whatever was behind it.
“The elementals it fought for the chance to make the exchange with you,” Kyriake said.
Ranvir forced a swallow. Now that she’d said it, he realized that the indistinct mass of behind the elemental were more of its kind mashed together so strongly that they became a nearly indistinguishable blob.
“Do I just?” Ranvir asked, lifting the katapetra she’d given him. Before she could reply, the front elemental extended a tendril of sand out of the fold and Ranvir get a genuine sense of its power, unmitigated by the fold’s limits. It was stronger than a master, stronger than Kyriake. The absolute heights of Urityon, if not stronger. The katapetra, Ranvir realized, glancing at the marble in his fingers, a fleck of red reflecting like the elemental’s grains of sand.
“Other hand, you want to offer with your left,” Kyriake said, gently pulling his arm back.
“Oh, why?”
“I assume you’re right-handed?”
Ranvir nodded.
“Then yeah, it’s going to be uncomfortable for a while, depending on your strength.”
Then the extended tendril of sand ran over the katapetra and Ranvir’s fingers before gathering on his palm. He realized with a jolt of connection as he felt it drill into his palm. Pain struck his hand with a silver-white fire and made him groan for a moment, and then it was over.
The elemental retreated, taking the katapetra with it and the storm wall of elementals disappeared alongside it. Ranvir blinked and gasped, feeling the indentation of something on his palm. Looking down, he saw that a golden stone had been embedded into his palm with the mark of an insect on it. A grasshopper.
“That wasn’t that bad,” Ranvir commented as he wiped some of the blood that was welling up from his hand.
“A storm locust,” Kyriake said, kneeling next to him. “That’s good you think that,” she said with a smile then. “Because it hasn’t even started yet. Feed power into the egg.”
“Egg?”
“As much as you can handle, I’ll pay the healer’s fee.”
“What?”
“You have to hatch the egg.”
“Don’t,” Latresekt said angrily, snarling at him.
Gritting his teeth, Ranvir reached for Amanaris and began drawing power. The sand that had settled at the core of his space began swirling in an almost familiar pattern as he ramped up his draw. Motes of unmanaged mana began leaking from him spontaneously generating sand around him.
Then Ranvir directed the power through his Discipline of Body, through Flesh, and into his palm. Immediately, the egg grew hot and started writhing.
“Smart. You must continue! Give it all that you can, Ranvir.”
He followed Kyriake’s advice and poured power into the egg on his palm until it grew red hot and he felt like it was melting away his flesh. Tiny tendrils reaching further, both physically and spiritually. Grabbing his arm by the elbow, long drawing throbs of agony pulsed through him, Ranvir kept only to the one task. Pour on power.
A thousand-million tiny crawlers, none of them big enough to see with the eye infested Ranvir’s flesh and soul, devouring him down to the bone, returning all they found to the egg as the center of his palm.
Ranvir heaved, his body shuddering and tears fell as sought the depth of Persistence to keep going through the pain. Seeking naught but refuge, Ranvir forgot what he was doing as he drew the cloak of his Concept, inadequate as it was, to protect him from the wrath that assaulted him.
It was only the barest shelter, the tiniest protection. Like being knelt beneath a shelter while the storms of power and pain fought above him.
Ranvir passed out.
Amanaris
***
Name: Ranvir
Age: 3 Years Old
Element: Sand
Tier: 7 (60)
Level: 0
Statistics:
Mana: Draw - 270
Perception - 30
Abilities:
Storm Locust Elemental - 1
Sand Blast - 1
Ability Slots: 2 / 6