Ranvir let out a long slow breath idly rubbing the sand of the sparring arena between his hands. He’d forced away the sounds of the other students sparring against each other, delegating them to the background. Piece by piece, the tiny stones and even finer dust rolled between his fingers until they fell away and he picked up another handful and repeated the motion.

They’d returned to the chaotic free for all today. Master Vigo saying it was important to be able to change their approach on the fly.

He rolled his shoulders, feeling the bruises from their previous spars like orange stains over his back and left shoulder. They flared up as he slowly went through the motion three more times, making sure to take slow deliberate breaths. Mimicking the state of tether meditation, while embracing the pressure was tough, though he could tell he got closer when the tether in the back of his mind slowed down.

This, of course, was enough of a distraction to force him out of it. Or it had been, but he’d been getting better each day, not that he spent so much time trying. Usually, only a quarter hour with the rest of the hour in actual meditation.

Gravel crunched underneath shoes as Sansir approached him. “You ready for another round?”

Ranvir blinked his eyes open, letting out another slow breath before nodding his reply. Examining the ground around him, he found what he needed. To the right of him, lay a small stone, even more so than the finger length obsidian he usually used. Snatching it up, Ranvir exerted himself for a long moment, hearing the tell tale snap and feeling the brush of air.

The wind was quiet today, the sun burning down on them like a physical weight that pulled on Ranvir’s shoulders slowing him down. It took little effort to keep the stone with him as he moved, enough to be distracting during an actual exchange but if that happened he wouldn’t need it.

This is such a stupid idea. He thought, pushing to his feet. I’m literally regressing to the state of a child.

Picking up his hammer, he joined the arena alongside Grev and Sansir.

“Ready?” Grev was jumping from foot to foot, clearly excited. His golden hair was matted to his forehead from sweat and he had a small bit of dirt staining his skin, primarily his hands. Compared to Sansir and Ranvir, he was basically clean. Sansir didn’t have hair to stop his sweat so his entire scalp pearled with droplets and dirt stuck to it aggressively for every time he’d been knocked down.

Ranvir’s head, too, held more sand and dirt than actual hairs. “Ready…” Ranvir replied, letting out a sigh.

“Ready.” Sansir twirled his axe once, lowering into a ready stance.

Grev didn’t even try to stifle his smile as he readied himself for another easy win. He approached Sansir with confidence, his sword in a barely passable defensive stance. “Excellent!”

Ranvir paced along their outside, harrying them and keeping Grev from pushing too hard. Grev had been doing well throughout the past few weeks. Really well, relying on his new combat trick. Ranvir knew there were counters to the technique. He could blur the space in front of him skewing the light, but that only protected a small part of him and did nothing to help Sansir. He’d even gone so far as to research Sansir’s counter possibilities, and there were plenty.

For first stage tethered. He needed both the power and the reach afforded by a first stage, something Grev didn’t need. When he threw light in a direction it spread but not fast enough. His blinding trick was working really well for him.

Ranvir’s breath hitched as he saw the signs he’d been looking for. Grev drew his hand back in the arch he needed to ‘throw’ light. Really, he was just gathering light along his forearm before pointing it at Sansir and letting go. He didn’t need to do much more, it was a simple technique that worked disgustingly well.

Ranvir reached to the little pocket he’d dragged beside his hand as he let go of the hammer. With a pop and a small brush of air, the stone fell into his upturned palm as he reared back for a throw. Like a kid that didn’t get to play exactly like he wanted it at the playground, and Ranvir launched the tiny projectile towards Grev’s thigh.

It was a small stone and if he wanted to disturb the older student he needed to put some real force behind it. The cloth of Grev’s uniform rippled as the stone connected hammering into his shin with a dull thump.

“Fuck!” Grev dropped his attack, jumping away.

From the corner of his eye, Ranvir saw Sansir’s surprise as Grev’s attack failed. Ranvir lurched forwards, he didn’t have time to bring his hammer, so he delivered a powerful front kick to Sansir’s hip.

Sansir twisted away, only staggering a few steps back instead of falling out of the arena. Ranvir swung his fist in a looping arc for his jaw.

Retreating Sansir drew to the edge of the arena, diverting the blow with his left hand getting a move ahead on Ranvir. Now, Ranvir retreated. He needed some distance otherwise Sansir would overwhelm him.

Grev attacked. He rushed in from behind his sword whistling through the air towards Ranvir. Anticipating the move, Ranvir easily stepped to the side the thrust passing him by-

Ranvir blinked, staring at Grev’s wide eyed face as his surprise attack was effortlessly dodged.

“What the fuck?” Grev exclaimed, lurching to a halt between Sansir—who was staring equally wide-eyed—and Ranvir. “What kind of magic eyes bullshit was that? I know that you say we’re predictable, but fucking no! You can’t predict me like that! No! Not in the middle of a fight!”

“Uhh…” Ranvir didn’t know what to say. “I don’t know, I just knew it was coming? Maybe I heard the wind pass your sword?”

“We both know that’s not true, you’re not that fast. Only Dovar is that fast, if he’s cheating.”

“Using his tether is no more cheating than you doing it. But yeah, Ranvir.” Sansir said, stepping closer to them. “You moved too early and too well. Like you knew it was coming. And you timed it perfectly. That’s not possible.” Then he kicked Ranvir in the thigh, hammered Grev on the shoulder with his axe. Before Ranvir fully realized what was going on, Sansir’s axe lay on his collar bone.

“Finally!” Sansir exclaimed. That would his first win in almost two weeks. When Grev had first started blinding them, he’d been slow enough that sometimes Sansir could pull out a finishing move before Grev could stun him. That hadn’t happened for the past two weeks.

“Was that really necessary?” Grev got up from where he’d been lying on the field, rubbing his shoulder where Sansir’s axe had hit him.

“Do you want me to hug you and make it better?” Sansir asked, the victory still playing across his lips.

“If you’re offering.” Grev opened his arms and stepped towards Sansir. The taller student rolled his eyes and shoved him away, but the smile didn’t fade from his face.

“Seriously, though?” Ranvir asked, rubbing his now sore thigh. “Are you sure it wasn’t just accident?”

“You don’t move like that on accident.” Grev said, brushing away the dirt from his newly messy uniform. “Trust me Ranvir, there’s something going on and if you’re not doing it on purpose, then maybe figure it out.”

Ranvir bit his lip, scratching at his chin. “If you’re sure.”

The rest of the class passed without anymore freak accidents of him registering unseen blows, though it never left the forefront of his mind. At the end of class, Ranvir headed towards the library, both to report the incident to Kirs and to hopefully find out if it’s something that’s happened before.

Stepping into the building, he was stopped by Himir sitting behind his desk. “Hey, Ranvir! Your packages have arrived.”

“Already?” He walked over to the receptionist. “It’s only been three days.”

“Yeah, well I know a guy that does good work quickly.” Himir smiled broadly at him, before continuing. “Besides, I figured you would need at least one of them pretty soon. Your match is only in four days, right?”

Ranvir took in a sharp breath. He’d been trying not to think about it. It had felt like he had all the time in world, until suddenly the end of the trimester had snuck up on him and was suddenly looming entirely too big.

“Thanks, I really appreciate it.” Ranvir said, as Himir hoisted the packages onto the desk with a heavy breath.

“Not a problem, not a problem. What’s the other package for? I can kind of figure out the first one, but this?” He prodded the soft canvas wrapped and string tied package, that lay on the similarly wrapped surface of the first package.

“Just something for an experiment we’ve been working on.” Ranvir said, with a secretive wink. “You’ll take it out of my upcoming allowances, right?”

“If you’ll tell what it is.” Himir’ smile took a devious turn.

“It’s a robe. Thanks again, Himir.” Ranvir took the large circular package, the stiff boards underneath easily holding the weight of the second package.

Ranvir made his way through the halls of the building until he came to a smaller side entrance to the library. The same one he and Pashar had used when she’d first taken him inside.

Like that time, Kirs was sitting behind the smaller desk working on librarian stuff, though she noticed him immediately when he entered. It was pretty hard to be subtle with the packages.

“Hey.” She said.

He nodded in reply.

“Is that for the duel?” She asked. Ranvir nodded with a grin, she mirrored him. “That’s a pretty good answer.” She tapped a knuckle against it, a sound like tapping on a door returning. “And this is the robe?”

She picked up the smaller package, while gesturing for him to put the other package down behind the desk.

“It is.” Ranvir replied, gingerly setting the larger package down. Not so much afraid that he would break it as afraid of the noise it could make. “Are we ready to attempt it, yet? Or do we need something more?”

Kirs rested the soft brown package on the desk as she turned to him, lips pursed. “There’s still a bit of prep work necessary.”

Ranvir glared at her. Her lips were pursed, not in consideration, but to force the muscles of her face into an expression she could control. Her stance was too relaxed, like she was trying to emphasize just how little tension she held.

“You keep getting distracted with Esmund.” Ranvir said, schooling his own expression.

“No, I don’t.” She replied too fast. “You don’t know that. How could you possibly know that?”

Ranvir nodded to the dirt behind her desk. “You’ve been outside, dragging dirt back in. But it hasn’t rained for nearly two weeks. Yet, your shoes and clothes got muddy enough to drag dirt.”

Red blossomed on Kirs’ cheeks and she looked around in panic. “Oh, that. It’s not…”

Ranvir shook his head, sparkles of yellow delight at her discomfort almost making him chuckle. “You were late yesterday.”

She opened her mouth to protest. He lifted a hand, stopping her words with a simple motion. Then he ended the discussion with two words, nailing the coffin shut on her arguments. Destroying the base from which she would stand upon.

“Esmund brags.”

She slapped a hand to face, loud enough Ranvir was sure somewhere in the library a student was looking around trying to figure out where the sound came from.

“Sorry…” She muttered.

“It’s fine, it’s not like I’m going to have to fight for my life within the next few days or anything, right?”

“I know the deal as well as you do, Ranvir.” Kirs replied. “He can’t harm you, or get you killed. Shouldn’t you be more worried?”

Ranvir settled down, relaxing against the wall next to the desk. “Maybe, but I took a look at Grimar’s students the other day. He’s pushing them hard, don’t get me wrong, but not as hard as I am. They’re working on a technique, I think. Back when I first joined obsidian, they were just throwing the stones, they still are but there’s more power behind them. I think they’re adding force to their throws, maybe eventually accuracy too.”

“Eventually?” Kirs asked, pulling on the coarse unpainted cloth covering the robe.

“They weren’t hitting a whole lot when I was looking.” Ranvir paused, nibbling on his upper lip. “Though, I think they’re working on something similar to an archer battalion, sending volleys of obsidian down field, instead of arrows.”

Tension grew around the edges of Kirs’ eyes. “Isn’t that bad?”

“I don’t know… From what I understand, which isn’t a lot, yet, I don’t think that’s the tethered’s job. Maybe if only a single of the Ralith were necessary to push away the Goddess’ gift, then attacking from a long range might fit our role. But a single Cloak obsidian could easily fill the role of at least a squad of foot soldiers.”

The image of a tethered standing in the midst of his enemies, obsidian shards sharper than any blade spinning around him, misting air with the blood of his enemies filled Ranvir’s head.

“Maybe more than a squad.” Ranvir amended, rubbing his hand against his chin. He shook himself, “Anyway that’s not really the worry for today. Grimar’s student is likely going to just thrown some stones at me pretty hard. The duel’s in four days.”

“I’ll have the research done before then.” Kirs nodded.

Ranvir smiled in thanks and picked up the bigger package, and headed back. He briefly considered going straight through the library, it would be faster but more people would be looking. Greater chance someone would tell Master Grimar about the package.

“Oh, I should probably mention this.” Ranvir said, just before stepping out of the library. “I somehow sensed Grev attacking me from behind earlier today and dodged it. Perfectly, was how Sansir described it if I remember correctly.” Before he could even try to escape Kirs’ hand grabbed his collar.

“Explain. Everything.”