Ranvir woke with a scrunching of his nose. With both hands, he shoved Graywing’s vast form off of him. The bird beat its wings twice, causing enough gusts to throw the blankets off and send the curtains roiling. Ranvir grimaced as a few gray feathers curled around the room.

Sleeping with Graywing in the room was weird. Normally, it just tucked its head under a wing and dozed, which still left a silhouette the size of the biggest human Ranvir’d ever met looming in a corner.

It hadn’t taken long to discover that sleeping in the same room increased the strength of their bond slightly. So he’d pushed it to the limit. Sure enough, the added connection was only heightened by proximity.

He scrunched his nose again. Graywing’s stench filled the room, but especially his bed linens. Within a few days, the stench would grow so strong Ranvir had to change them. Before increasing his Perception, he’d rarely felt the need to change the sheets. After, however, he could tell, almost to the hour, how much time he’d slept on them.

The bird’s own harsh odor only heightened the aroma wafting from his bed. Getting to his feet, Ranvir left Graywing to loom in its corner. The maned vulture was a late sleeper. If he didn’t make breakfast at the same time every day, Graywing wouldn’t likely rise until the afternoon.

Rolling his shoulders, Ranvir headed to the bath and washed down quickly. Not enough to get fully clean, but enough to get most of the scents off him. He’d take a proper bath after his more physically demanding training.

Washing himself with one hand was tricky. Mostly in the sense that there were places he couldn’t easily reach. Though he liked to think it was helping him develop some rare flexibility.

After the brief bath, he returned to the room and put on clothes. Stopping next to his nightstand, Ranvir looked at the three fruits lying on a platter. One looked like an apple with a hardened shell and a sparse coating of hairs, the two others were the fist-sized raisin-like fruits.

Over the past two weeks, Frija had found these in the trees. She’d spotted a few less mature ones as well, but on his suggestion had left them. Asking around in the village, Ranvir made some startling realizations.

None of the trees were supposed to be fruit bearing, yet not only were they doing so now, but the results were mana-attuned. The energies that affected them came not from the environment either. Sand mana was barely noticeable. He had to go digging through the stone and soil mana if he wanted to find even a few motes.

Of course, there was an obvious conclusion. He was the source of the trees’ mana. Except, Kyriake had never heard of anything like that, so why should he suddenly help the plants grow?

Then, two days ago, Frija had found a few berries growing on a bush that were space attuned. They were each slightly bigger on the inside. All they needed now was to find some storm mana attuned plants, and they’d have the entire package.

Ranvir shook his head and stuffed the fruit into his pants, then headed out to begin breakfast. Soon, he got it going and sent both Frija and Vasso down. They ate together, Graywing maladroitly descending the stairs once they’d finished so he could feed the bird by hand.

Again, a lesser benefit, but another he piled onto the pile of logs he intended to start the fire with. Ranvir already had a sizable head start since he’d finished his side of the bond early, then regularly controlled his soul to help further grow the connection. He then combined that with spending time together at night, feeding Graywing all the time, spending a bunch of time hunting together, as well as a few other exercises he’d developed.

Over the last almost five months that they’d been bonded, Ranvir was certain their connection would outstrip any year long bonds. Not that he could prove it. The bonds were a thing of the souls. In order to inspect them as he’d like, Ranvir would have to gain access to some kid’s spirit.

Not only was that highly invasive, but he’d need their permission, otherwise he was likely to crack their souls open in the attempt. Theoretically. Ranvir was sure there was a way to peek into souls. He just didn’t know how.

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But that was another point on his long list of shit that he needed to look at.

For now, it was meditation time.

As always, once Ranvir ushered the kids into the meditation room, Graywing went to the front door. It fiddled with the handle, but could not actually turn the thing. Hard experience taught him to get the door before it ran out of patience. Once the keening began, Menace would awaken and no meditation would be done then.

Graywing hopped out of the house in three skipping steps, glanced about, then blew itself into the air with a heavy handful of mana. Squinting against the wind, Ranvir followed its path into the sky.

Sniffing, he closed the door. He noted, with a slight tinge of yellow frustration, how the bird’s ascension had thrown soil and leaves into the house. At least, the seasons had shifted to the writhing, so he didn’t have to worry about water.

Ranvir strolled into the meditation chamber, finding both Vasso and Frija waiting for him. “Are you ready?” he asked, tapping Vasso on the shoulder, though he looked at his daughter.

Her red hair was messier than a bird’s nest and looked like it could house more chicks in it as well. She took after Menace and Graywing when it came to sleeping. She grumbled and groaned at Ranvir, but nodded.

Vasso, dutiful in his practice, had already assumed the position and begun his practice. “Very good, Vasso,” Ranvir commented. “Nice slow breaths,” he said, sitting down facing them.

He guided them through the beginning before setting them free. To test their own discipline, as well as give him some time for his own practice. Already, he could feel Menace stirring in Frija’s bed. The cat wasn’t done napping, but it would soon be done doing it alone. If routine was any guide, it would come down within the next ten minutes, after which Frija wouldn’t be good for much.

Closing his eyes, Ranvir centered himself. First, he visited his oldest power, tether-space. Five years of connection left him an old hand at controlling the space. He had theories on advancement to the second-stage, there was even a chance that he could pull it off through sheer force of his spirit.

The ‘trick’ to advancing was not locked in Vednar, but within the tether’s inherent structure, much like Amanaris-space had all the tools necessary. If Ranvir took a katapetra to another plane, he could still absorb it and step forwards there. People did it all the time in folds. He’d done it dozens of times.

The tether spun up an idle breeze, pulling at his form as it churned the air. He could practically feel that latent energy within its bonds, though he could not parse it. Amanaris had been made easy to understand, the tether not so much. The Triplet Goddesses had not intended for mortal minds to crack open their creations and teach themselves from it.

After letting it spin for a moment, Ranvir departed, turning to his strongest space. Amanaris. A complex core at the center of its space. This space had no features meant to be understandable. The space appeared as a core of lights, mass, and energy, firing across and below the surface a thousand times a second. Surrounding it was his element. Gently turning around it, as if a screen to protect it from Ranvir’s eyes. It was poorly done, if that was the job it was meant to serve, however.

Where his tether was all latent power, Amanaris was only the power at his fingertips. It held the calculations required to increase, but not the actual resources.

Ranvir turned to his newest and most helpful power. The space came forewarned with a slight dampening of his spirit. The last vestiges of the storm mana that once ravaged him, siphoning into the space and crossing to Graywing. He wouldn’t be free from the damage he’d sustained at Orykto until he finished his bond with the vulture.

Ranvir flexed their connection, working it through the various exercises. Variations of the tether-exercises he’d created so long ago. Flexing the connection tight, widening it, shrinking it, anything and everything that differed from its default behavior.

Then, he went into the well, the center of the space. It was empty. Unlike his other powers, this centerpiece was not yet installed. As such, he lacked the power it would provide.

Ranvir licked his metaphorical lips and expanded the space, flexing it in each direction. It retracted immediately after his efforts, though not quite as much as it stretched. He always made sure not to compromise the walls of the space, all too aware of the consequences of such.

It was as Ranvir was working on the smoothness of the walls, that he felt a fundamental shift. Slipping into his generalized soul, he found his Fundament glowing, then Graywing’s space started emitting light. Eyes widening, Ranvir realized the walls were thickening. The space was changing before his eyes.

It’s too early, he thought, rushing back to his body. It’s a year and a half too early.

Returning to his senses, Ranvir felt as much as he heard Graywing striking the ground outside. The vulture descended at the head of a wind funnel, dragging bruised clouds behind it as it straightened. The cloud mist rushed over the entire house, leaving only a pair of purple glowing eyes hidden within them.

Reflecting his soul back at him.