Yellow-orange leaves had made way for bare branches. The swirling whispers of old greens had fallen into a wet, sullen silence, a bare squish as feet passed over it. Grass was still green and glistening wet from the very rains that drowned dead needles from fir trees alongside their bigger cousins.

Ranvir had seen evergreens on Belnavir that were supposed to maintain their green colors even during the coldest months, and he was curious what trick of mana allowed such a feat. Surely, the park needed a good hand of the same treatment.

Despite the lack of greenery and sharp chill wind the trees now allowed through, plenty of people meandered Elusria City’s parks. Families taking their last moments of non-winter joy before the full on-set of the misery that was to come. Parents watched children play, couples held hands, and on a bench in one corner of the park, an older woman and a young girl close to her teenage years sat waiting for Ranvir’s friend.

Dovar shook himself, yet couldn’t seem to knock the grin off no matter what he tried. Once Ranvir had put the students in their place, they’d quickly fallen in with the rest. Oddly, they seemed almost to have been raised up by the experience.

A couple times through the exercises, they’d been forced to stop the others from whispering to them. Whispering about him. His attempt at making a point had been taken as another entirely. He wasn’t sure how to nip this issue in the bud.

Ranvir had a feeling the harder he pursued their murmured words about him, the more fervently they’d spread. When class ended, the story had already morphed from facts to him ‘beating them with objectively weaker power,’ and further into an easy teardown ripping each of them apart with a single hand.

Instead of stomping the rumors down, as he’d expected — and hoped — the Elusrians fanned the flames. Saying how they’d felt him holding back. The effort hadn’t even made him break a sweat, yet they’d fought for their lives.

Untethered from reality, he thought, scowling into the distance. A dark green cloud of malcontent boiled low on Ranvir’s horizon. Dovar was purely and openly excited about the training. Once they’d fallen in line, the team had cooperated splendidly, though with the previously noted exceptions. This only made it worse that he was putting up a harder fight than the others.

A strange notion, since Ranvir knew Kasos wasn’t just technically more proficient than him. He’d also been doing the same exercises for decades, and had his own fair share of misadventures. It was almost enough to make one suspicious of the old man. Perhaps Ranvir could buy that Morphos couldn’t put up the same fight, but Kasos should be stronger still.

Shaking his head, he returned to reality as the two women at the table looked up. Asny, young, dark-haired, and in a defensive posture sat with back on her bench, arms not quite crossed. Long hair was braided and fell over her shoulder today.

“Thank you for coming along,” Dovar said to Ranvir as he waved to greet them.

“Not at all. I have a few things I need to get done here, anyway. I won’t weigh down your family time.”

“Nonsense! Asny, Gudfrid, you remember Ranvir?”

Ranvir smiled tightly at them. Asny returned the gesture, though her gaze flicked down to his arm. Gudfrid smiled as well, wrinkles at her eyes bringing more warmth to her face than the gesture warranted.

“Of course. How could we forget such a notable young man?”

“He’s the principal of the school and the strongest tethered,” Dovar said. With a gesture that was a little too reverend, he waved for Ranvir to take a seat next to his aunt.

“I remember you as well,” Ranvir said, nodding to Gudfrid. The memory was indistinct and mostly about Dovar and Asny. “And you, of course,” he nodded to the near-teenaged girl.

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“You train tethered?”

“Not only does he train tethered,” Dovar explained with a grin. “He’s been to other planes and gathered their version of tethered as well.”

Gudfrid’s eyes shot wide. “Other servants of the Goddess?”

“No, no. Independent of the Goddess entirely.”

“This sounds dangerously close to heresy,” whispered the aunt.

Asny leaned forward across the table, her braid dragging across moss and algae marked wood. “You’ve been to other planes? Really? And they have different tethereds?”

“That’s how he got his wings and arm,” Dovar jumped in. “In the local realm, they called the bird a god — though it was just a vulture. It was stronger than a master tethered. Their clash was epic enough to shake the world. The next time he went to Belnavir — that’s the plane’s name — the king…”

Ranvir zoned Dovar’s explanation out with a wince and a grimace. From the way he was describing it, you’d think he’d seen the Goddess descend among mortals, let alone been there.

“Dovar, sorry to cut in, but I wanted to ask about your garden idea,” Gudfrid said.

Startled, Dovar leaned back. He seemed not to have realized how intently he’d been speaking. Nor how intently Asny had been listening. She winked at Ranvir before setting her full attention on her nephew.

“Oh? It’s going good. The emberleaf’s droppings will start paying extra dividend as winter reigns. Good fire-starter that we can produce a lot of. It’s a good thing too, since the small regular money we’d been making from other garden projects will freeze up soon.”

Asny looked at Ranvir intently. “Can you really fly with those wings?” she asked, in a gap in Dovar’s explanation.

Ranvir blinked. “Not like a bird can. But I can control the wind to make up the difference.” Not that he’d need that, since he could simply leap from platforms of air.

“Really?” her eyes went wide. “Does that mean you’re a smoke like Dovar? I thought you were a space-tethered. Are you that new tethered that’s been making the rounds?”

Ranvir shook his head. “The mana, energy, that allows me to control the wind comes from a place where they don’t really have smoke-tethered.” There were probably a few bonded that used smoke mana on Belnavir. He just hadn’t met them. From what he now understood of mana and its behavior, it would’ve been a bizarre pick. Especially since an animal would have to make it first.

“You know, I figure you two want to talk alone, right?” Gudfrid said, leaning across the table and breaking Asny’s eye contact. Ranvir took in a breath of relief. All the bizarre intensity Dovar had possessed when first entering the academy seemed to have been passed onto his sister. He seemed to have replaced with… Ranvir would’ve called it zealotry, but the connotations were too uncomfortable.

Asny was slow to move, but she did as suggested. Dovar similarly so. They both seemed interested in continuing to talk with him, rather than with each other. Ranvir leaned back and let out a long breath as they passed out of hearing range.

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” Gudfrid said, scooting in to sit opposite him. “You did not look comfortable.”

“I wasn’t.”

“Then why’d you come?”

“I have some business in town and didn’t realize things would go this way.”

Gudfrid narrowed her eyes at him. Behind her, Dovar was picking up enthusiasm in his speech once more.

“They are talking about me again,” Ranvir growled. Shaking his head, he got to his feet. “I need to stop this.”

“Why?”

“It’s not right.”

“Is he lying?”

“Yes.”

“Are you lying?”

“Why are you trying to stop me? His behavior is bad for him. I’m just a person.”

“Are you?”

Ranvir swung his arms about. “Use your fucking words, woman.”

She laughed and leaned back on her bench. “It’s been a while since I’ve had to use these skills. You saw how she felt before you arrived. Was she happy excited to be here?”

Ranvir gave her a deadpan look. “I don’t know. I can’t read her mind.”

She rolled her eyes. “Guess.”

“No.”

She gave him an indulgent smile. The kind of smile a mother gives a disobedient child, one that is fast approaching the line of a scolding. “No, she wasn’t excited. And now?” she didn’t even glance over her shoulder. She knew the answer.

Asny was listening intently as Dovar spoke. “They are talking.”

“So let’s weigh it. Benefits versus costs. What does it cost? You’ll feel embarrassed. What is the benefit? Dovar gets closer to his sister. They both get to be happier.” She gave him a long look. “Is it doing more good than harm?”

Ranvir grumbled and slumped on the bench. Gudfrid smiled.

“You seemed a lot nicer when you didn’t turn that mind on me,” he noted.

She snorted in amusement. “What were you in town for?”

“I’m trying to set up a date.”

“Oh?” she brightened visibly. “Want my advice?”

“Might as well. I’ve gotten everybody else’s.” He jumped in his seat, straightening. “If it’s sex related, I’ll hit you.”

She grinned at him. “I could tell you about that as well, but that’s hardly for the date itself.” She grew a little more serious, running a hand through her obsidian black hair. “Try your best. It’s the effort that matters and if she doesn’t agree, you already know where it’s going.”

Ranvir frowned in consideration. For the moment, he was reminded that Gudfrid had broken off from a noble family to marry for love.