A month passed quickly, everyone settled into a routine. Things were actually pretty good. They’d seen nothing of the Purists since their attack. The students were getting along well, though the Elusrians set up a bit of combat practice outside of the curriculum.

Unfortunately, Ranvir was forced to make them step it down after one of them broke an arm and he had to grab a healer from the academy, something they were happy to make him wait for once they realized the single injury. Besides, Ranvir had a brilliant advocate in the young man who’d had to suffer for nearly three hours before getting his healing applied and numbed.

Pashar continued to instigate conflict between him, Estrid, and Shiri. It was mostly small things, nothing so big that he’d force her to stop. He confronted her after the first week, asking her what her game was.

She just called it “Social training.” As if he was some kind of dog that needed socializing to learn how to behave around other animals. Unfortunately, it worked. The two being egged on soon made it clear no questions asked that there was interest from both sides.

Ranvir wasn’t sure he was interested in either of them. Estrid was strong, confident, and according to her, she ‘knows what a man wants’ because she had five brothers. She made her interest clear and concise, something Ranvir was comforted by. Something that surprised him more than anybody.

Her powers, focused on the Discipline of Flesh, made her tough and strong. At one point, Ranvir saw her run through a tree. She could stand in the stampede of a dozen horses, get up and keep going. She was also abrasive, blunt, and while she might ‘know what men want,’ it didn’t feel like she knew what he wanted.

Shiri was quieter, shy, and kind. She was prettier than Estrid. Where the obsidian-tethered had a natural beauty, the kind Ranvir associated with naturally tough environments. Reminding him of the continuous beauty of a waterfall. Compared to her, Shiri reminded him of porcelain.

She had almost a carefully created look. Her hair set off her eyes, a smaller smile, and a quieter voice made him want to listen to her. She seemed fragile, like she might break if a stampede of horses passed by the house she sat in. It was almost off-putting and worrying. Yet, he could not deny his attraction to her. The evidence ran around the school chased by a bear-sized cat.

In the end, Ranvir put it off. Dodging and avoiding both rather than being forced to decide. Which he realized was a decision in and of itself. He should investigate that further, but he didn’t want to.

So when Morphos approached him at the end of the month and asked to talk with him, suggesting they take a walk, Ranvir readily agreed. An hour later, they stood on a hill overlooking a small valley, clouds looming heavy and dark above them, sprinkling the grasslands with glistening, light-splitting droplets.

Morphos wore a heavy cloak. Autumn had fully come, and it got cold quick, especially this far North. His long gray hairs blew in the wind as he examined their collective little rainstorm.

“No offense,” he said, breaking the silence. Ranvir startled, not realizing they’d been quiet for as long as they had. “But you’re much better at controlling your mana than I’d thought you’d be.”

Ranvir smiled, examining a small herd of sheep sheltering beneath some tall bushes from the sudden rain. His sharp eyes needed no help from Perception to pick them out. “No offense, but it’s braced who are bad at controlling their mana.”

Morphos gave him a skeptical look. “I’ve seen your other students fight. The Elusrians aren’t bad, but they aren’t good. The Belnavir… are getting better. If their Abilities are any indicator of their Absolute, then none of them are anything to be impressed about.”

“You must not have been looking too closely,” Ranvir said. “Tethered only get one technique that you would call ‘Ability.’ Here they call it their Attuned Technique, something that lies close to their soul, which comes more easily than all other works. The rest is pure Absolute.”

Morphos gave him a long look, though Ranvir felt there was something of an act to it. What could that mean? He wondered. Is playing up his disbelief? Has he set up this whole conversation? He was the one who wanted to talk, after all. Or maybe I’m just reading him wrong.

“If that’s true, then you must not be overly impressed with my showing,” Morphos said, gesturing to the clouds above. Their rains had been mostly made using pure manipulation, which was impressive for braced.

“It’s hardly the same thing. The only reason I’ve got any kind of skill with my Absolute is because I’m cheating.”

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“Cheating?”

“I’ve come to understand, at least from the systems I’ve experienced, that each of them behaves differently. Amanaris has a lot of guides and rails to keep things going smoothly. It loses its flexibility, but makes it faster and easier to get going. It is often said that you can pack on power as fast as you can gather Katapetra.”

Morphos nodded.

“And that is true, but anyone with skill enough to understand their soul will tell you that something happens when it goes too fast. I have a somewhat reliable source that calls Amanaris a ladder. Once you begin building, you cannot deviate from the regulations or it’ll fall apart. Ease of access, but it is easier to get stuck.”

“What about Belnavir, then? They get stuck the moment they fuse with their animal.”

“That’s true,” Ranvir said. “They do seem to get stuck.”

“Seem?”

Ranvir blinked slowly, letting his eyes linger closed for a moment as he dove into his spirit. Graywing’s habitat came into view before. A flat gray expanse of floor tiles, each of them meticulously cut and perfectly laid out. Wind whirled softly across the ground, slowly spreading out two knee-high piles of dirt.

The expanse was big enough that Ranvir had to walk. He could no longer float like a spirit within the space to reach the enormous vulture huddling in the center. A tall cane-looking tree sculpture stood in one corner. He’d bought it in Belnavir. It was supposed to be something birds could stand on without being on the ground.

Normally, Graywing always faced the same direction. What Ranvir felt was North, when he entered. The day after he’d finished adding the sculpture, the bird had turned. Now it always faced the stand, its namesake feathers tousling in the breeze.

“Seem.” Ranvir reaffirmed as he returned to the real world. “They appear to have the biggest hurdle to overcome, but I don’t think Belnavir has showed us half of what they are capable of yet.”

“You’re that confident in your power?”

“I’m that confident in the system of power. Everything has benefits and demerits. Tethered have strict paths of growth, it limits how to use your mana, both how and where. It also severely limits your options, narrowing it down to six, one of which I’ve seen nowhere else. Or even heard of.”

“Warp? I thought that one was strange. It feels almost like sharpness, but…” he searched for a word, then with a grin. “Warped.”

Ranvir nodded. In all the time he’d gazed the lines, he’d caught not a whiff or hint of warp on Korfyi. Granted, it didn’t linger and warp was difficult to sense even when Ranvir knew where it had been recently used, but he could still find weeks old signs on the lines in Elusria.

“So, what would you recommend for me?”

Ranvir blinked at the subject change. “Recommend?”

“For me to work on,” Morphos said, nodding to the clouds that were dispersing, half returning to mana, half simply blowing away. “I’ve spent most of my time since plateauing, focusing on my Absolute and I’m, did you say average? I’ve tried a few of the tether-exercises Dovar mentioned, but I’m not sure they’re working for me.”

Ranvir nodded. “You’re looking for something else to do.”

“Mana control exercises are only exciting for so long.”

He could only nod in agreement with that statement. “You mentioned tether-exercises. Why don’t you think they’re working for you?”

Morphos shrugged, looking over the now glistening valley as the sun appeared around their artificial cover. The sheep had stepped out and were now nibbling on the grass. Ranvir could hear them talking to each other, ‘baah-ing’ excitedly.

“They are supposed to exercise the tether,” Morphos said, though his tone suggested he was following a train of thought, rather than answering Ranvir’s question. “The tether is rope-like and you can sense the insides. Power runs through it. You can pull harder on it and the faster it turns, the quicker you tire. These things are items you can train…”

He turned, taking a step back to examine Ranvir better. Ranvir let him, watching as the older man thought. “The tether-exercises were developed to increase the ability of the known functions of the tether. As well as those strange ones for Disciplines.” He pursed his lips. “So how does Amanaris function?”

Ranvir didn’t answer him, instead letting him work it on his own. Morphos closed his eyes and Ranvir sensed his focusing inward. In was almost unnatural for a braced to actually see Amanaris, using it was so seamless that most never learned to enter its related space.

“I don’t know!” Morphos said, throwing his hands wide. “I don’t know how to do anything with Amanaris.”

Ranvir sighed, turning his own attention to the crazy ball of yellow swirling lights and metal that sat at the center of his sand mana. Nothing about it was approachable. Interacting with it was difficult. He returned to see Morphos waiting impatiently, arms crossed, brows furrowed, lightly swaying in place.

He shrugged. “You’re ready to go back?”

“You will not tell me?” Morphos sounded annoyed.

“You think I know?”

“I see through you, Ranvir. I know you do.”

“How do you think you interact with Amanaris?”

“That’s what you’re here for!”

Ranvir frowned as Morphos yelled at him. The man was deliberate with his power as expected of a good soldier, but… he was genuinely angry. Or at least, very frustrated.

“I’m here to teach. You’re here to learn, specifically, how to understand. Morphos, you didn’t cut a path for yourself, instead following in the Drowned King’s build. And then you plateaued. What went wrong?”

“I gathered power wrong.”

“How?”

“By doing it too fast.”

“Why?”

“Because I thought I could.”

“Why?”

Morphos scowled, his jaw visibly clenching and unclenching, scarred fists knotted tight.

“I think it’s time to move out from the shadows of others. Maybe it’s times to let yourself discover.”

“Easy for the young to say.”

Ranvir spread his arms and spun around before heading back towards the school.

“This won’t work! You think they’ll let you continue this Ranvir? Do you think the Arkrotasia wouldn’t notice? What happens when they find out?”

Ranvir stopped and looked over his shoulder. “I’ll talk to them. They are still human.”

“He’s just a kid,” Morphos muttered, the words too quiet for others to overhear, except for Ranvir’s Perception perked ears. “He’s still just a kid.”