The sand pressed down until on Sansir. Squeezing down on his shoulders and sealing his arms at his side. He grunted at the pressure, pushing against it, but the pressure was too strong for him.

Inhaling deeply, he forced himself not to let the pressure get to him. The restriction of his limbs, unable to fight the weight of Ranvir’s hold. He glared up into Ranvir’s purple glowing eyes, unable to keep the tension from his voice.

“That’s probably good enough. I can’t move my arms.”

Ranvir nodded, and he was released. Sansir let out a deep sigh as the sand pulled away, forming a narrow set of stairs, allowing him to leave the hole. A few grains that Ranvir apparently couldn’t control still sneaked beneath his clothes. Just little enough that he couldn’t easily get rid of it, not so much that he knew exactly where to find it.

“Great,” he muttered, shaking himself to dislodge the grains. It didn’t help.

“Sorry,” Ranvir said sheepishly.

“It’s fine.” He had volunteered for the position as a test person. He could hardly complain now.

They stood in a topless enclosure; the walls made from sand courtesy of Ranvir. The room was small, maybe ten meters across, with three of them taken up by the hole of sand. Since there was no roof, natural light flooded, but the walls were solid all the way around, as to avoid students peeking inside.

“You want to give it a go?” Ranvir asked, looking at Kirs.

“No,” Kirs said with a slight chuckle as she shook her head. “There’s no need.”

Ranvir shrugged and nodded. “I think we’re ready.” he stepped outside and Sansir could hear him begin the brief speech for the test.

Essentially, escape the hole. For some, it would be easier than for others. Two tethered used obsidian. Those would likely have the easiest time getting out, but others weren’t so lucky.

“This is more elaborate than I figured Ranvir would’ve gone,” Sansir admitted, standing next to Kirs.

“How so?”

He gave her a long look, but she seemed genuinely puzzled. “This is mostly a trick, so he can run free throughout the plane, right? Why would he bother coming up with some elaborate test?”

“If you think this is ‘elaborate,’ I’ve got a chest full of items I’d like to sell you. As for the other part? You’re giving Ranvir short shrift. If he truly believed as you thought, why would he bother recruiting from other worlds? There would be no need to gather an actually competent staff. He wouldn’t run it himself.”

Sansir raised a hand in defeat as Ranvir brought back the first student. He gave them both a momentary look, but it told the ice-tethered all he needed to know. Ranvir’d heard them and he wasn’t particularly amused about the subject.

Once the walls closed and no one could see inside, he stopped the student, an Elusrian man. His spirit welled from the ground like a young glacier, steaming at the edges as the temperature dropped around it. A Sword, if Sansir had ever seen one.

He wasn’t familiar with the man, but averaging two-thousand tethered a year, it was difficult to keep track of others, even if they were only a year younger than himself. Sansir couldn’t help a little chastisement. He was good enough to get pulled into the group.

Another factor he had to give Ranvir. The students he’d picked from the academy weren’t slouches. Despite him complaining about all of them being ‘too battle-happy,’ each was still skilled and more talented than average.

He’d talked with the others about the process for recruitment and couldn’t figure out how Ranvir ended up with four tethered more talented than average. None of the request and questions that he’d demanded suggested even asking in to such a need. It must’ve been something he’d picked up purely through his tether-sense.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Sansir shook his head as Ranvir guided the fifth-year into the hole. They did not seem of an age standing next to each other. The student had a fresh haircut and was freshly shaven. While Ranvir also maintained a smooth jaw, he’d let his hair grow long.

The student’s clean face highlighted his youth, perhaps making people undershoot his age. It served the opposite function when paired with Ranvir’s features. His jaw and cheekbones were more sharply featured than Sansir remembered as teenagers, perhaps over the years or maybe the being half-bird. The scar on his jaw turned his usually stern features grim and gave him some grizzle and gravitas, especially when scowling. Not to mention the ominously glowing eyes.

Fatherhood had also worn him in other ways. He looked more responsible. Sansir wasn’t entirely sure how to explain it. Something in his bearing spoke of authority. And it fit him like a well-tailored cloak. At least, when he was teaching. In meetings and during simpler outings, Ranvir seemed, with a rare exception, to either not notice the authority or be uncomfortable with it.

All in all, Ranvir was quite attractive. If you were into the menacing and ominous winged-figure with unexplainable powers and also two children. Granted, there were at least two women who did.

Standing next to the student, Ranvir didn’t look a year older than him. He looked five or six. Even though Sansir knew better, he sometimes felt like Ranvir was a few years older than him. And they’d grown up together.

The ice-tethered student, now buried to his neck in sand, strained pushing ice out of his feet. He groaned in pain before bursting through the barrier at the top. Just strong enough to stop someone from brute-forcing the issue. He landed in an awkward sprawl on the now ice speckled grains.

Trained at the academy for five-years, he knew better than to exclaim pain that didn’t need treatment, though Sansir could tell his shoulders hurt from the way he held himself.

“Well done,” Ranvir said, effortlessly shuffling the student out of the pit. “We’ll run this test again next week, so see if you can’t figure out a different attempt then, alright?”

The student nodded. “Of course, sir,” he said before retreating, Ranvir frowning even as he opened a door out. Soon, another student stumbled inside. This time, Sansir detected two tether-senses that followed overtop the walls. Yet Ranvir did nothing to stop them.

“Two students are following along,” Sansir whispered to Kirs, waving fingers from his forehead to suggest tether-sense.

“Soul-sight?” she asked. He rolled his eyes and nodded. “Well, the test is to come up with unconventional uses for your powers… spying is fine.”

Sansir blinked as moments later, a third sense slipped above.

The next three students all passed with relative ease. One of them, the obsidian tethered who wasn’t Estrid, brute-forced it, but didn’t use his own body as leverage like the ice-tethered did.

The last person, a girl from Korfyi, used her sound mana directionally to soften it. She stepped out as if through a river. Sansir wasn’t entirely sure how it worked, but her initial attempt nearly dropped her to the bottom of the pit and Ranvir almost had to pick her out before she got the hang of it. Easily the most interesting showing so far.

Then came another Korfiyan. A braced using fire mana, who looked nervous as Ranvir explained the test to him. “Use your mana to get out of the pit.”

The man’s retreating hairline stood in sharp contrast to the sand as he stared around wildly. He blew out a streamer of fire once, but managed little more than that as turned and twisted. Sparks popped on the grains around his neck, and a heat haze surrounded him briefly.

“I can’t…” he admitted, hanging his head. “I-“ but he cut off before continuing, his voice trembling.

Sansir exchanged a worried glance with Kirs, as Ranvir lifted him out. They both inched closer as Ranvir spoke softly with him.

“Do you need a break? Do you want to try again?”

“What good would that do?” The man’s voice was barely controlled. “I failed, I’m a fuckup.”

Ranvir took him by the shoulder, his human hand laying heavy on him. “Do you want to stick around after the test? I’ll help you attempt the problem again.”

The man pursed his lips and mumbled something, but Sansir finally saw it. Ranvir wasn’t looking at the man with anything but concern. He cared for him. The man was a student, so Ranvir wanted what was best for him.

Sansir looked more closely at Ranvir. The scar on his jaw didn’t appear on its own, and there were at least a few others around his forearms as well. Including the massive one circling the transition to his bird arm. Sansir had seen hints of others when Ranvir’s shirt rode up as well.

Those kinds of injuries didn’t happen in a vacuum. They didn’t happen on their own.

He looked down at his hands. A thin scar ran through the center of his palm. A Purist had driven a knife straight through. He’d gained two dozen thin lines across his forearms when a piece of obsidian exploded in his face.

Ranvir had seen battle and so had Sansir… yet how could they be so different?

Sansir looked at Ranvir as he helped the man get steady on his feet. Assisting him towards the exit. Despite the circumstances, Ranvir had somehow evaded all the traps and bitterness that came with battle. It pulled at his face; the realization drawing it into a scowl.

In a burst of ice and cold, Sansir launched himself over the wall and toward the mansion, slipping inside before anyone can follow.