Damage to the school was minimal, thankfully. There was some damage to the facade, but they didn’t need to bring in a construction crew to fix that. However, once Ranvir got a kilometer away, the fighting became more evident.

Even second-stages fighting tended to get out of hand quickly. The ranges were more than big enough to do some terrible damage to the environment. Ranvir tracked through his own fighting, mostly to ensure no outlying village had their crops or stores ruined by the clashes.

He found two smaller villages, though they appeared to be long abandoned. Not that either had taken more than incidental damage. A kilometer, or more, could pass between evidence of their fight. Then suddenly he’d come upon an area of grass so badly frost damaged that it was already dead.

If the weather hadn’t been so wet before their fight, he could’ve probably spent a week putting out fires. Instead, his fires were entirely metaphorical. He didn’t want to go too far from the school, since he was still carrying Frija around.

The little girl had fallen asleep in his arms. Amalia had done him the favor of going to her as soon as she could. His little girl had been clamoring to see him once he returned from the fighting, but with his mind clouded by the poison, they kept her away.

She had seen him once he passed out, but once she fell asleep, they took her to an actual bed. Thankfully, he’d woken up before her. Master Stjarna had healed most of his injuries, leaving only a scar on his shoulder and frost-scarring alongside his slightly less subtle burn-scars.

All of that to say that Frija saw little of his injuries. She was left with the impression that the fighting simply took a long time. Still, her childish intuition had picked up on something. She crawled into his lap before she was even fully awake. Still yawning and blinking sleepily, as she clawed at his shirt to get properly close.

He wrapped her in his arms, holding her tight. He didn’t sense hysteria, or much fear at all, from her presence. The clinginess was strange, but likely because he’d been passed out when she could finally see him.

So he sat and rocked for as long as it took before she was happy to do something else. Pashar stood guard outside, turning all comers away. Whether Estrid or Shiri, Esmund and Kirs, no one was allowed through. Ranvir noted Vasso didn’t stop by, though he could sense his vague presence in the school. He’d have to check him out later.

He held her through breakfast, then told her children’s stories of both Korfyi and Vednar, as best he could from memory. It wasn’t until her stomach started complaining around lunch that they finally got out of bed. She seemed soothed, yet behaved as before. Unable to put his finger on what exactly had changed, he could only conclude that it was working.

After lunch, she had to show him “something funny.” Her path took them toward Shiri and Laila’s apartments and Ranvir was surprised to find his heart picking up a little as they got close. Frija opened the door without knocking and stepped inside. Grasping his rough fingers in her delicate hand, she pulled him after her.

Vasso was lying on a couch wrapped in blankets to the neck. Ranvir immediately counted at least three distinct patterns. Laila was puttering about, plumping up his pillow, then feeding him tea. Tea, which steamed so much it had to be scorching. After which, she checked he was still properly wrapped.

Shiri barely paid attention to the two of them, sitting in a chair on the opposite end and reading a book. From the look of consternation on her face, she didn’t like what she was reading. Her red hair was pulled back as usual, currently in a tail that fell down her front.

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Ranvir glanced her over briefly before turning his attention to Vasso. Frija was already stifling a mock-laughter and pointing at him as she led Ranvir into the space. The teenager was red-faced and sweating, not surprising swaddled in three layers of blankets as he was. He occasionally wiggled, but was completely trapped within Laila’s care.

That was until he saw Ranvir. His cell lasted only moments as he pushed up from the couch. Shedding layers like he was bursting from a cocoon. Instead of a butterfly, it was just a sweaty boy.

“Dad!” he exclaimed, causing the others to look over as well. Rather, Laila pouted at him, looking angrily between the blankets and Vasso. Shiri looked up before smiling and heading over.

Ranvir met Vasso with a smile and a hug. His son smelled strongly of sweat and tea. Ranvir suspected Laila wasn’t entirely accurate when making him drink.

“Are you okay?” Ranvir asked, concerned.

“No.” Laila put a fist on both hips and stared him down.

“He’s fine,” Shiri said at the same time. “Laila’s being over-protective.” Laila turned a glare on the woman that could’ve shriveled bushes and burnt trees. The sheer ferocity of the stare actually turned Ranvir slightly away, yet it simply deflected off Shiri’s cold indifference.

Vasso blushed and looked down. “I got inside safely.”

“It was very dangerous, Ranvir! Did you know how close he got to being attacked? And it was raining! He could’ve gotten sick. Or worse, sick and hurt! Now, he should get back under the blankets where he can recover properly.”

Vasso ducked his head slightly and turned away. Returning to the couch, he covered himself, after which she quickly started wrapping him again. All the while, Frija was snickering behind a hand and pointing at them. Finally, Laila leaned down and pecked Vasso on the cheek, causing both to flush and Frija to get even louder.

Ranvir shared a few quiet words with Shiri as Laila fretted over her prisoner. He noted the book she was reading was a collection of children’s stories.

“I’ve been reading for Frija while you were out,” she explained, noticing his stare.

“Thank you,” Ranvir said, as said daughter tugged on his arm. “I’m sure she’s very thankful,” he finished pointedly.

Suddenly, Frija turned coy. One foot turning in, a big innocent smile spreading across her face, as she looked up with wide eyes. She fretted at a strand of hair matching her mother’s and gave a lingering look. “Thank you,” she finally said.

Shiri rolled her eyes and smiled back at her. “You’re welcome.”

“Why are you reading children’s stories?” he asked, smiling curiously.

Shiri blushed and coughed into a fist. “Reading aloud was a little harder than I thought it’d be.”

Ranvir nodded in understanding. It could be quite the humbling experience. They left the room a few minutes later, leaving Vasso to his suffering. Not that he seemed to mind all that much. Laila was free with the smooches when she was taking care of him.

Ranvir had a bunch of actual work ahead of him, though Frija wouldn’t part from him even then. At first, he tried to go through the exciting parts, which she seemed to care about. Stuff like the damage to the school and what they could immediately improve. But then he got locked into a two hour-long meeting with the students in order to get their feelings on the subject.

With only a couple of exceptions, both from Korfyi, the others all wanted the option to help in the school's protection. The Elusrians were predictable in their approach. The rest, however, wanted something more substantial than simply throwing their power about.

They wanted to stretch their powers, discover where it could take them. Morphos, the veteran, mentioned a skill from Korfyi. There were Abilities that tied together well. An Ability that builds a wall from stone, another that reinforced stone. Usually, these kinds of combination were used by a single braced, but people had discovered that they functioned equally well when two people put their powers together.

Ranvir encouraged them to work on such efforts together. While they wouldn’t make any ground-breaking discoveries, Ranvir understood how empowering taking a situation into your own hand could be.

So he tasked them with homework. Come up with a combined effort that could’ve helped protect the school. Even the two who’d initially declined seemed eager to join in.

Ranvir left that meeting happy that things had gone well. With Frija complaining about being bored and tired, he took her outside to examine the damage of the fighting. Carried in his arms, she didn’t last long, nor did he see some growing issue he needed to take care of, so he returned.

After grabbing Menace and putting her to bed in one of the open rooms, he returned to his study only to find Sansir waiting for him.