Ranvir, Sansir, Grev, and Esmund arrived at the field together. Grev was still finishing his dinner, though it was only the bread. Ranvir was always surprised by how slowly Grev ate. He would’ve thought it was up to him talking so much, but Esmund talked just as much, and he was usually the first one done.

It might be because he doesn’t talk with food in his mouth. Ranvir thought. He couldn’t be certain, but suspected he’d found the answer. He still told himself to check on it during breakfast in the morning, and maybe dinner too.

“So what’s on the schedule for the next two hours?” Esmund asked, as Grev finished swallowing the last bit of bread. “Will Kirs be joining us this time?” He looked around cautiously. Ranvir noticed his hand absentmindedly wiping his mouth.

“Kirs will not be joining us this time, though. For future periods this will be when she joins us.” Ranvir explained. “Normally, she’s working during our other periods, so there are responsibilities she needs to handle. She can push them until later as Pashar is understanding, though only to a limit.”

The others nodded. Esmund’s shoulders slumped a bit before his attention returned to Ranvir.

“I won’t keep you for long tonight.” Ranvir said. “I’d much rather you think about what I’ve said today. Consider it, maybe sit with it in meditation. Find what you like best.” The boys nodded but didn’t reply. “I’m going to talk further on tether-spin, tether-stretch and low-impact training. The primary limitation on tether-spin is the concentration it causes, as much as it requires. We’ve considered a few ways around it, but haven’t yet found successful use in any of them.”

“What ways?” Esmund asked.

A flicker of blue excitement raced through Ranvir. “I want to see if I can get you guys’ thoughts on this. Which means I’m not going to tell you too much. If you find a way that I’d dismissed, then maybe it was just my personal lack of skill that barred me.”

Grev and Sansir nodded in agreement, while Es simply frowned. “You’re the second best in control in our group, you have skill.”

“Thanks.” Ranvir cleared his throat. “Next, I want to take you through tether-stretch. I don’t know how this will work for you, since the ‘tools’ I use are ones I have personal experience with. Let’s start with entering tether-space.” The others closed their eyes. “Imagine a set of hands appearing next to your tether.”

He saw Esmund and Sansir rear back from their seated position. “Big…” Sansir muttered, causing a sparkle of yellow amusement in Ranvir.

“Personally, I then imagine a pair of tongs I’d use in mother’s workshop that I grab the tether with. I don’t know how that’ll go for you as you might not be familiar with those tools.”

Ranvir watched for a few minutes as they struggled to summon forth the tools. “Let’s try with something else.” He knelt next to Grev. “Can you think of something that could be used to grab onto the tether with? Maybe it was a tool you saw your father use.”

“My father didn’t use a lot of tools outside of weapons, armor, and more recently quills and ink.” Grev replied, his voice distracted.

Ranvir thought for a moment. “What about your blanket, his old cloak, that was washed eventually, right? So it had to be hung up and dried.”

Grev hesitated for a moment. “You want me to use the cloth clamps?”

Ranvir nodded, then realized Grev was still in tether-space and blurted. “Yes.”

Grev didn’t reply immediately, instead there was a long pause, then a muttered, “huh.”

“Did it work?”

“I’m grabbing on.” He replied. “Just pull it tight?”

“Yes.”

Ranvir tapped him lightly on the shoulder, “Good man.” Then he moved over to Sansir. “How’s it going with you?”

“I figured it out. Tore used a pair of tweezers to remove wooden splinters from the hand. Using those, I can grab the tether.” Sansir, too, sounded distracted as he replied.

Ranvir wasn’t surprised. He’d known about the tweezers. It wasn’t something most of the people at the village had, but he’d once gotten a piece of metal lodged in his hand. His mother had to take him to the lumberyard, since they often dealt with splinters in hands. At first, he’d been trying to hide it from her. The man at the yard told him that some lumberjacks ignored the splinter and infection got in it. That’s how One-finger Grall got his name. For the finger he lost, not how many he had.

“Es, how’s it going?”

“I can sorta grip it with my nails if I’m careful.” His voice was a little strained and, again, distracted.

“Really?” Ranvir replied. Somehow he’d imagined Esmund to simply wield the tether with his mind, flexing it without the need for objects at all. “I don’t know if that’s enough, Es. You should be able to both grip on and pull it tight.”

In the corner of Ranvir’s view, he saw Grev let out a muffled grunt and blink his eyes open.

“So nails aren’t good enough.” Esmund stated. “I don’t know what to use. I can’t think of anything that could grab on tight enough.”

“I have an idea. It might not work, and will definitely require more effort.”

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

“Go for it.”

“Do you remember that sap your mom used when you fell in that everberry bush? How it would harden after a minute and then she could pull out the thorns when removing the sap. Maybe you could use something like that to make it easier to hold on?”

Esmund blinked, clearly stepping out of tether-space. It was a much smoother move than the first time Ranvir’d seen him leave it. “Would that work?”

“It couldn’t hurt to try.” Ranvir replied, shrugging. Esmund shook his head and dove back into tether-space.

It took Esmund another fifteen minutes to figure out the minutia of sap. It was far more involved process as it had to ‘harden’ first, though once it had a hold he didn’t appear to struggle with grasping the tether too tight. Whereas when Ranvir did the exercise, he had to manage the pressure. Ranvir had tried before this to summon up different images, but he was only able to reliably manage things he was familiar with. Neither he nor Kirs knew why it just didn’t work.

Ranvir let them work at the tether-stretch for another fifteen minutes before he got their attention back on him. During this time, since he wanted to be available, he worked on shrinking space. Holding the finger length obsidian in his hand, he pulled it together until it was just a narrow slit. He was so close to making it wholly disappear. What would happen, then? Would it just shrink away into nothing? Maybe he would push it out of space?

He didn’t know and couldn’t wait to find out.

“Next, we’re going to talk about low-impact exercise.” Ranvir said, once their attention was all locked on him. “This is training that you can keep up more or less at all times.”

Why?” Es asked.

“Back at the boot camp, they used to make us walk around with a bucket.” Grev said. “It was empty and not very heavy, but by the end of the day it was still a relief to let go.”

“I ask again, why?” Es asked. Instead of replying, Grev simply rolled his sleeves up and flexed his forearm with a grin.

“They constantly worked the arms as a way to train their grip.” Sansir explained, when he saw Grev wouldn’t. “and it probably functioned as easy punishment.” Grev winced as Sansir spoke, and the tall boy smiled. “Step out of line and you get a stone in your bucket.”

“I get that, but otherwise it’s just an empty bucket.” Es sounded confused.

“Remember our trip out here?” Sansir said. “Remember that time you stepped off the wagon to walk with Ranvir? How long did you last? Half a day?”

“Most of a day.” Esmund replied.

“Three quarters, at best.” Ranvir corrected walking over. He’d figured out where Sansir was going but let him lead.

Sansir nodded to him briefly. “How did your feet feel by the end of the day?”

“Sore, I’d been walking all day.”

“But it’s just walking, though.”

Es perked up, snapping his fingers to mixed success. “I get it! It’s useful because it’s a light exercise. It’s exhausting because you do it for such a long time.”

“Yes.” Ranvir said. “Except it takes far longer for the body to recover than it does the tether. That means we can continue training the tether for a much longer period to, hopefully, better results.”

“That actually makes sense, sort of.” Esmund nodded once, sending one of his boyish smiles to Ranvir.

“But I don’t know how well it’ll work for you, though.” Ranvir bit his lip. Inside him, a seed of unstable gray uncertainty sat. “With how hard Master Svenar runs your private lesson, it might be better for you to come in as close to full strength as possible. He also just knows more about being a warp generator than any book I can read, or theory we can concoct.”

Esmund shrugged. “I’ll talk it over with him.”

“Lastly,” Ranvir raised his voice to gather attention back to him again. “The most important piece that Kirs and I have found. This is something most of the Masters in the academy do in one variant or another. Meditation on your tether. This can take up a long time, but it should be something you do for, at least, a quarter hour each day.”

“How many Masters?” Grev asked. Ranvir knew he was probably already doing it, since Ayvir was his teacher.

“Everyone who achieved the third stage before forty.” Ranvir replied, with a raised brow. That was true too. Kirs and he had spent quite a significant amount of time getting an answer to two specific questions from the Masters. ‘How old were you when achieving mastery?’ and ‘How long do you spend in tether meditation every day?’.

Those were questions Ragnhild’s book had asked of Masters. But that was long ago, and it was nice to re-affirm her information, even though the book was nearly seventy years old.

Some things never change.

That was comforting to Ranvir in a way he couldn’t quite explain. He just knew that it filled him with a deep earthen brown surety that there were certain rules that were not, or could not, be bent or broken.

“So this is the only requirements.” Ranvir continued. “That you practice until the border of over-expression every day, except for days off and tether meditation for at least fifteen minutes every day, even on days off.”

“That’s not too bad.” Esmund replied. “We’re basically already doing that.”

Sansir sucked in a breath through his teeth. “Not in every class, I’m certain. And I have feeling patience for meditation is going to wear off quickly for most students.”

“Okay.” Esmund said, though his tone made it clear he didn’t really understand. Ranvir knew his brother well enough, by now, that he could tell Es didn’t get it. Esmund enjoyed meditating, so that didn’t bother him, and he’d always preferred going all out when playing and burning out early. Es didn’t pace himself and coast by on minimum effort. He was both too enthusiastic and competitive for that.

“Well, since we’ve technically done that today, what should we do now?” Grev asked, shooting a longing glance toward the dorms.

Ranvir shrugged. “I don’t mean to keep you trapped here. If you’re not having fun with the training, it’s only going to become boring and unbearable. You’ll grow to hate it.”

He thanked his mother for those words as he watched both Grev and Sansir take them in. Esmund didn’t seem to grasp it like they did. Not because he didn’t understand it, but rather that he was genuinely enjoying himself most of the time. Even when he complained he wasn’t going to.

“That’s also why those fifteen minutes of meditation are the only requirements.” Ranvir cleared his throat. “Even if you don’t like it, it’s only fifteen minutes.”

“What about working to the border of over-expression?” Grev asked, his brows furrowing together.

“Do that however you like.” Ranvir explained. “Tether-stretch, spin, tether-type training, generation, or manipulation. Some of those methods are probably more effective than others. Some of them might see faster immediate results. But as a wise man once said: ‘progression is measured in months and years, but achieved in minutes and hours.’”

Sansir let out a snort that turned into a full bellied laughter. Finally, when he stopped and had to wipe a tear from his eye, he spoke, “That was a throwaway line. I didn’t mean anything deep by it.” He let out a long, barely controlled breath. “Goddess.”

“Even wise words can come from the mouths of asses.” Grev muttered under his breath.

“Who would know better than you?” Es asked, getting up from where he was sitting.

“Hilarious.” Grev growled back in mock anger. He, too, got to his feet and offered a hand to Sansir. The tall boy took it and let himself be pulled to his feet, his face still a little blushed from mirth. Ranvir noticed their hands lingering before Grev let go and they stepped away.

“Are you coming?” Es asked, looking curiously at Ranvir.

“Nah, I think I’m going to give sensing space at night another try.”

“And you wanna be alone.”

Ranvir smiled and nodded. “And I wanna be alone.” He pulled Es into a brief hug. “See you in about half an hour’s time.”

“Sure.” Es took off in a slight run to catch up to Sansir and Grev, who’d walked on ahead.