Ranvir spread his wings, soaking in the sun across his storm-cloud-gray feathers. He couldn’t quite describe the feeling in relation to his previous experiences. Humans didn’t grow hair thick enough to cover their scalp like his wings were shielded. At least, he didn’t. He’d seen some hirsute men over the years. Perhaps they knew of a better analogue.

His wings didn’t boil under their cloak like he would under a too thick shirt. Instead, it felt like putting a warm blanket over his shoulders as he folded them in. For now, though, he felt that distant sensation of heat as he waited for the students to gather.

Without a dedicated bell-tower or bell-ringer, he’d needed to get a few clocks from Legea with their own bells attached. It was fascinating and intricate work. Complicated beyond even the most intricate jeweler’s work. They were also relatively new and, therefore, pretty expensive. It had eaten a significant sum of the money he’d been granted to pay for them. Enough that he’d considered simply gathering everyone himself.

In the end, he’d sprung for it, no matter how much it hurt his soul.

Ayvir sat cross-legged, his monkey running around exploring the nearby grasslands as he meditated. The monkey was deceptively powerful for its size. Small enough to fit just barely fit on the Ayvir’s shoulder, it was incessantly curious and willing to explore almost anything to the detriment of its own health.

Ranvir could only imagine that was how Ayvir found it. He could vaguely feel that connection between them. Even now, the monkey was constantly sharing information and things it found with Ayvir. Though the Master had dampened the connection significantly to further his concentration.

The monkey, Ranvir didn’t think Ayvir had named it yet, was definitely not as strong as Graywing had been. Graywing had been an anomaly, though, so it might not be so surprising. There was still plenty of power left in the monkey, enough that Ranvir felt a little on edge, letting it run around freely.

It was mostly black, with long grasping arms and equally long and grasping legs and toes. Black fur with a few accents of red along the neck, wrists, waists, feet, and a stripe from the nape of its neck and down to the middle of its spine. Occasionally, it would hock globs of steaming liquid, which thankfully never seemed to catch fire, even on the dry grasslands.

In the distance, he could hear Kirs and Dovar discussing how to best secure their surroundings. Initially, Ranvir’d figured she might attempt something like the ritual she’d surrounded the capital with, but it would appear to be a poor fit here.

From the snippets of conversation he overhead, it sounded like they were going for lots of smaller rituals, including some focused on detection. He wasn’t sure how they were going to manage those, but he’d be interested in the results.

Finally, chatter from the school slipped past the door, and the students emerged. They weren’t provided with a uniform, nor were they required to dress a certain way. That meant they were a mix of all three traditional fashions. The Elusrians wore their academy uniforms, as if nothing had changed. The Belnavir wore slightly ragged everyday clothes of sturdy wool.

Finally, the Korfiyans were dressed the least homogeneous. One man was wearing a skirt, a woman wore their traditional chiton, Morphos, the old warrior, wore a full parade uniform. It was an old fit, unlikely the others would recognize just how formal it usually would be. He’d torn off any emblems of office and any insignia that might suggest where he’d served. Combined with the age, gave it just enough wear and tear to stop him from standing out.

“Alright,” Ranvir said, gathering their attention. The monkey even peeped up from where it had been digging in a molehill. “This is the first lesson of the school, so I will set some expectations of what I hope to explore over your time with us.”

He rubbed his hands together and stepped in between Ayvir and the students. “There are, generally speaking, three factors where you can push your strength. Power, control, and understanding. For most of you, power is going to come naturally as you mature within you field, but control and understanding will be what limits you, whenever you hit a bottleneck.”

“Sir,” one the Belnavir said tentatively, raising a shaking hand. He looked at the ground purposefully, avoiding looking directly at Ranvir as he spoke. “Maybe there’s some misunderstanding—Or maybe I shouldn’t be speaking at all, Lord. Great sir, this is simply my—“

“I know,” Ranvir said, raising a hand to cut him off. “You’re thinking that your power doesn’t grow. Which is exactly my point. Belnavir, Korfyi, and Vednar each have bottlenecks at different points. When you first absorbed your animal, you stopped growing more powerful. When you reached the second-stage, you simply have to guess and push until you reach the third. At some point, your Tiers become more restricted, until you cannot push into the next at all.”

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He looked across at all of them. “At some point, your power reaches a plateau. Only increasing your understanding and your control well get you beyond that point.”

A few people lit up, notably the Belnavir and Morphos. Kasos had mentioned that the old man had been trying to follow in the Drowned King’s footsteps and failed. He’d likely stalled out his progression between Tier 10 and 15, as a Urityon.

“It can be done?” a Belnavir woman asked with too much worship in her eyes.

Ranvir nodded, deciding to just roll past any of that awkwardness. “It can. These systems of power are simply manipulating your spirits. The more you understand yourself, the further you can push them.”

There were a lot of considering glances all around as they examined him. “Let me give you a more direct example,” Ranvir said, picking his mana-typing based on the most common among the students. “How does water mana behave?”

Four students came from Legea, a city sitting on the crossing of two enormous rivers, making it statistically more common in those areas. The Belnavir were from villages which gathered around the resources required for life, most notable of which was water. Three Belnavir had water-based bonds and, if he included Morphos, three of the Korfiyans had water, or a derivative, mana.

“It likes to gather,” said a man in a skirt. “Channeling into powerful streams, though I’ve heard if you get enough power together, it will pool and grow still.”

Ranvir nodded. He noted a few confused frowns from the Elusrians; they didn’t have traditional water-mana, but it wasn’t rare for ice-tethered, especially manipulators, to branch into water control through their Concept in order to broaden their possibilities in a fight.

“It will gather until it grows so large individual currents can no longer be distinguished,” Ranvir said, nodding. “So we can assume its derivatives would act similarly, yes? Sea-water, lake-water,” he turned to look at Morphos. “What about rain?”

The old man blinked and shook his head, gray hairs billowing in the wind. “Uh, it doesn’t act like that at all.” He spoke slowly, but was encouraged by Ranvir’s nods. “It scatters, actually. I’ve never seen rain-mana coalesce enough to pool. It will just spread out over a wider and wider area.”

“So there’s a big difference between rain- and water-mana,” Ranvir said, looking over the class. “Maybe there are big differences in other types of mana as well. We cannot take it for granted that sea-mana will act like blanket water-mana. Unless you scrutinize it, you will never know. Maybe river-mana has entirely different strengths than lake-mana. How has your understanding of rain-mana improved its use?”

Morphos, ready this time, nodded and jumped in immediately. “I’ve developed an Ability called Rain Tunnel. Since I knew the mana would scatter, I focused on the droplets’ speed. My opponent will either have to take hundreds of unavoidable hits, or follow my choice of path.”

Ranvir nodded in acknowledgment. “When you understand your mana completely, you can play into its strengths rather than fight with its weaknesses. But that is only one avenue of understanding. If you understand your spirit, your strength can increase in different ways as well. I believe Master Ayvir is about ready.”

The monkey had crawled over to sit next to the Light-tethered and now seemed to doze against his side. Ranvir could feel the on-edge tension of Ayvir’s spirit and mind. While Dovar had been practicing and preparing for his second-stage advancement, Ranvir had been practicing with the others as well.

After having seen Es’ eyes, Ranvir was particularly excited to try this on.

“Once you start understanding your spirit and mana, you might realize they aren’t as harmonious as you thought,” Ranvir said. There were some muted murmurs from the students as he waved them closer. “I want you to extend your senses towards Master Ayvir, though be mindful not to disturb him.”

Holding himself on edge, Ranvir expected a multitude of sloppy tether-sense lashing towards the Ayvir’s silent form. It didn’t happen. Almost none of them had any accomplishment with their tether-sense, but they took care not to be brutish with their touch. He gently corrected a few, but most needed no help at all.

“When you spirit and mana aren’t quite fitting together right, you might attempt to align them in order to make them fit properly. This would be like dipping your bucket into a well to gather water. The better made the bucket is, the less water it will lose. The shorter the well is, the less time you have to spend hauling on it.”

“And this is something we can all do?” one of them asked. Ranvir wasn’t sure which, as he was too focused on Ayvir as well.

“Yes,” he said simply, signaling for the Master to start.

There was a ripple within the man’s native presence, echoing from the depths of his soul all the way out of his body. A few students gasped, but few could actually tell what was happening.

Then suddenly, another far stronger ripple passed through Ayvir. Mana built within him, quickly reaching a boiling point. Ranvir crafted six lines of space to withdraw to gather the energy. He still couldn’t control where they went exactly, but he simply parted the students around the single strand that moved towards them.

Ayvir’s form darkened, then burst with light. The energy was immediately absorbed into the six lines of perfectly efficient travel. One traveled five meters straight up before letting out a flare of searingly fiery light. Another ended in the ground near to them, smelting it into a pie of soil, dirt, and glass. The others flashed into bright light and heat, setting bits of grassland on fire, but hurting no one.

A quick flick of storm-mana soon had rain drizzling onto the burn patches.

As for Ayvir, he gasped and staggered back, opening eyes that glowed red hot. He blinked a few times before clutching a hand to his chest. His monkey was going haywire, hollering and slapping the ground. Slowly, his eyes faded closer to their natural blue. But they never quite got there, however. They were brighter and had an almost violet tint to them.

“This is called Spiritual Alignment,” Ranvir said. “When you purpose-make your bucket and well to fit with the source of water.”