“I’ve been trying not to let it slip,” Ranvir said, sipping on the wine. Bitter, his tongue curdled on touch. Making a face, he put the glass down.

Shiri grinned at him from across the table. Her cheeks slightly flushed as she swirled her own wine elegantly. “That’s insane to me. So it’s sorta just… it feels wrong to say, ignorance?”

Ranvir scooted his glass away and took up his red. “Pretty much. The system doesn’t come with the same amount of instruction that many others do. Tethered, so long as they train, will eventually push into the second stage. Amanaris lays everything out for you, step by step. But bonded just… have to do their best with an unhelpful system.”

“Huh,” Shiri sipped her white wine. She pointedly didn’t make a face. In fact, she seemed to enjoy it quite a bit. “You make it sound so purposeful.”

“Like it’s designed?” Ranvir asked leadingly.

“Well, the Triplet Goddess made the tethered, right?”

“Yes,” Ranvir said hesitantly.

“So it makes sense that they were all made by their realms gods, or whatever.”

Ranvir sat back in his seat. Pursing his lips, he swirled his wine in the mirror to her own motions. The table had been cleared of all but their most recent servings. Small plates with even smaller cakes on them. Drowned in a sweet syrup, the dessert had fulfilled the slight sweet-tooth they’d developed over the course of their meals.

All that was left was the wine they served with the cake, the vile white, and the red Ranvir’d asked them to leave behind. Each meal had come with its own drink and Ranvir had swiftly learned to make them leave behind a bottle of whatever they both liked, in case they served some nigh-poisonous drink.

“You seem peeved,” Shiri observed. She spoke deliberately, though her movements were quite sloppy and quick. She smiled at him, cheeks flushed, eyes half-lidded, lips red. “Did you think you’d have to explain it to me?”

Ranvir shook his head. Thought I would have to convince you. “I would never doubt your ability to understand. I just never thought you’d be so understanding and biddable.”

“Biddable?” she asked, her flush darkening as she rose from her seat. “Biddable!” she strode around the table. Kicking the hem of her dress, pale leg and beige leather shoes showing underneath.

Ranvir rose as well, pushing his chair back. “A jest, Shiri.”

She gave him a sharp look and spread her arms. “A jest, then? You’re laughing at me?” for a moment, she seemed a teenage boy squaring up to fight, rather than a young woman in her early twenties. Her eyes were still sharp, though. Not nearly as hazy as he’d expected from her behavior. She licked her lips and pressed hands to his chest.

Ranvir shivered under the lingering touch of her hands. Then she shoved him. He took a step back and rolled his eyes. “What is this?” he asked. Without answering, she bent down into a runner’s stance. Difficult in her dress, it seemed.

She lunged for him. Grabbing her wrist, he set a hand on her waist and spun her into the wall behind him. Though he attempted to be gentle, she still landed with a hollow thump. Her eyes wide, face momentarily draining of color.

Then a slow smile sauntered onto her red lips. Ranvir became aware of her body. Her heat seeped through her clothes and onto him. Her breath, a pleasantly spiced breeze against his chest. She pushed against the hand on her hip, hand crawling up the forearm. Her perfumed scent, now mixed with a hint of the aromas from the food, overturned his mind.

His hand locked around her wrist, trailed down her forearm as she pressed it onto his chest, up his neck, into his hair. His hand ran past her shoulder, to her back, pressing them closer. The air darkened as his wings spread to encapsulate them. He saw the light of his eyes reflected in her ocean gaze, a purple glow that seemed to replace the reflection of the sun.

Shiri leaned up and Ranvir bent down.

The door opened. Spinning around, Ranvir’s heart thundering in his throat, he stared at the waitress. The woman stood pinned to the doorway, hands clutching her stomach, as she looked back at him.

“Thank you for your service,” Shiri said, almost entirely hidden behind Ranvir’s wingspan. Her hand ran up and down Ranvir’s side, across his blouse, inside his jacket. He blinked and looked down at the red-haired woman still half-trapped in his embrace. The waitress gasped and fled, no longer held to the doorframe by the will of a ‘god.’

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“I don’t think most third-stage tethered could have done that,” Shiri said, her hand beginning to wander.

Ranvir flushed. Whether from her compliment, the touch, getting caught, the intensity of the moment before, or some combination of the four, he couldn’t be bothered to guess.

He snatched her hand away and stepped back. “She didn’t close the door.” He cleared his throat and shook his head. “Besides, the date’s not entirely finished yet. We still have to see the aquarium.”

She pouted at him, and he had to grab her other hand before she got them into trouble.

“I think we both need a fresh breeze to sober up a bit.”

It took a fair bit more cajoling and quick hands, but eventually they both calmed down enough to leave the restaurant. The slight chill in the evening air immediately refreshed Ranvir’s mind. He thought he saw a similar effect on Shiri’s face.

She still clutched his arm to her chest as they walked to the aquarium. It wasn’t a long walk, thankfully, since Shiri’s shoes did not look comfortable.

“I can’t believe you almost made me do that,” she hissed at him as they promenaded to the ocean-side establishment.

Ranvir wouldn’t have thought there would be much interesting in an ocean, but apparently there was enough fish to make a habitat similar to their zoo. Still, he’d been to lakes on both Vednar and Korfyi. Other than the occasional strange fish, they’d been pretty boring.

But boring might help them cool off.

“I didn’t make you do anything.” He hip-checked her slightly, which would’ve sent her wobbling if not for her double grip on his arm.

She gave him a challenging glare. “Grabbing me by the hip, throwing me against the wall, pinning me there with your body-“

“I did not pin you.”

“It sure felt like it.” She grinned at him, cheeks flushing. “Maybe we should try-“

“Oh look, there we are!” Ranvir interrupted, gesturing to the aquarium’s facade with his free arm. An archway of splashing water and creatures similar to sharks, instead of a triangular snout, theirs was pointed. Overall, their form was sleeker as well.

Ranvir paid for entry and thankfully, none of the staff seemed to think anything was awry. It seemed this place had not been tipped about his presence. Then again, he hadn’t warned the Ungor Stratos about going here, only that he would dine at the Singing Kortian.

The Highwater Habitats was a fascinating place. The more Ranvir looked, the more surprised he was. Dolphins, the pointy nosed fish on the arch, turned out to be startlingly intelligent. He felt their nascent tether-senses, barely functioning, quest towards him. They seemed uncertain whether to run or hide from him.

Turtles controlled water mana to float from one habitat to another. They each seemed ancient to Ranvir’s senses. Not a one among them who didn’t have a century on him.

They eventually came upon sharks as well. About the length of his leg, they had vicious rows of teeth and a striped dark pattern across their back and fins. When noticing him, they would rocket forward in a shadowed cloud that sent ripples through the water from their speed.

Murk mana, he realized. The same as what Amalia and Kasos use.

An octopus cage had a bucket of food next to it. The eight-limbed creatures would create incredible images in the water, rendering paintings from mana alone. You could then hand feed it if it was done well. Shiri fed them once, though their many limbed appearance freaked Ranvir out a little.

“You have six limbs and their eight makes you uncomfortable?” Shiri asked, laughing. Still a little flushed from drink, she’d sobered up a little over the last hour. So had Ranvir for his part.

He shrugged. “That’s hardly the same. Everyone has seen a bird before. Octopuses,” he waved his hand in dismissal. “That’s not normal.”

She chuckled and leaned against his arm; the breeze tucking on her slowly undoing hair. The salty sea breeze, something he hadn’t expected, wasn’t being kind on her elaborate hairdo.

They were walking along a promenade next to the water, listening to waves. Beyond that, they could see the beach and the lapping water.

Frowning, Ranvir stared into the ocean. Something was coming. A bulge rising in the distant waves. A presence blooming forth. Perception sharpened Ranvir’s eyes, allowing the glance of a vast black and white form. Finned like sharks and dolphins, it was over thirty meters long and coming fast.

Water retreated from the beach as it gathered into the vast wave of the creature. Though the wave continued rising, it would never strike, Ranvir sensed. A function of travel, rather than combat. From the liquid burst its tether-sense like the wave wouldn’t. Already, people were murmuring and pointing. When struck by the enormous tether-sense, the animosity and weight, they panicked.

Some fell to their knees crying, others scrambled to run away. And the sense focused on Ranvir, then. Singling him out. The creature was powerful. More so than Graywing had been, and it sensed his presence as a breach of its territory. Or… as Ranvir got a better sense of it. Curiosity. It was testing him, seeing if he’d runaway.

Nails dug into his arm, bringing him back to his senses. Pallid and swaying, Shiri clutched at him. She’d been, by proximity, taken the same brunt of the monster’s attention. Without any of his protections. Only her dull senses as a regular protected her in this scenario.

Any bonded would’ve fainted from the pressure, if not suffered damage to their spirit. Wrapping his arm around her, Ranvir deliberately turned his back to the fifty meter tall wave and the monster within.

Stroking her back, Ranvir murmured comforts as he spread his own protection and safety over her. Using his tether-sense to press upon her comfort and security. Shiri shivered, eyes brimming with tears as she shook with fear.

Behind them, the black and white creature wailed incomprehensibly and retreated.