Master Ayvir waved Rafeeda over speaking in kisi. Ranvir couldn’t understand the ankirian language so he just had to watch confused as the woman approached. Her appearance gave little away, not even her form. From a distance, Ranvir was nearly completely unable to tell how tall she was. His every frame of reference destroyed by her overly bulky clothes. Even the way her mitten bulged suggested she’d put on at least two gloves.

“Guys, we’re going to do a bit of a different exercise today," Master Ayvir said, now that the others had gathered around him. Ranvir glanced across his friends, pausing briefly on Grev, who winked at him. “This is going to be a little bizarre and multifaceted," He turned to Rafeeda, speaking in elensk, “I hope you don’t mind.”

Judging from how wide her eyes had gone, Ranvir wasn’t the only surprised by this turn of events. “I’m only speak a bit,” Rafeeda replied in elensk though her accent was thick enough that it took Ranvir a second to recognize it.

Ayvir smiled at her and spoke slowly. “That’s fine, I will translate for you," his words seemed to calm her down and he returned his attention to the rest of the group, “Ranvir you’re in the ring, along with Sansir," As he spoke a bit of light shot from him and he carved out a quick ring of melted ice. It was lopsided and the line was uneven, but Ranvir supposed it was functional enough.

Not every fight is on even ground. He told himself, as he walked over to the ring.

“For the purposes of this sparring," Ayvir continued. “You will be allowed to use your powers, though Sansir, I will ask you to slow down giving Ranvir a chance to react. And, while they are effective, avoid anything he can’t dodge away from. The purpose is training, not winning.”

Sansir nodded, as he joined Ranvir in the ring. He held Dovar’s practice sword, a poor substitute for his usual axe, but surely still more than enough to beat Ranvir. Readying themselves, they listened as Master Ayvir counted them down.

This is a bad idea, Ranvir thought. I don’t get the point of this, still he trusted Ayvir so he fought down the growing light red trepidation, mashing it into the ground as the countdown finished.

Their exchanges were brief, Sansir only jabbing at him a few times. Ranvir got the sense that he was learning the range of the weapon. Despite trying his best to stop it, he was completely unable to do so. Sansir repelled his every charge, or withdrew from his attacks before he could land a blow.

Then, Sansir finally swooped in. He used his superior reach to push Ranvir, before surging forwards, using the lighter blade to circumvent Ranvir’s wooden hammer.

“Tough luck, Ranvir," Ayvir called as he got to his feet rubbing at his shoulder where Sansir’d hit him. “Grevor, your turn now.”

Ranvir looked up, startled as Grev took Sansir’s weapon. They could easily go get new weapons from the storage shed, but that was time spent getting the keys and then returning to unlock it only to return at the end of their training. They could share, especially now that Ranvir had his own practice weapon, bought from the academy at a discount. Master Vigo had told him about it after Ranvir’d asked about buying his own practice weapon, something the academy couldn’t take away from him.

Surprisingly, Ranvir’s fight with Grev took longer than the one with Sansir. Mostly, because the infuriating blond kept stopping to point out where Ranvir’s form was slightly off, instead of ending the spar.

Dovar simply steam rolled him. Even without his powers, the smoke tethered was bigger, stronger, and faster than him. It was a simple effort to disarm Ranvir and put his ass in the snow.

As Ranvir stepped out of the arena Ayvir was quietly conferring with Rafeeda, before he called Esmund in to fight. This time, he started off with Grev. The light tethered quickly lost his patience pointing out the flaws in Es’ forms and threw him to the ground. Despite Es general competitiveness, it was clear here that he didn’t see the sparring as competition.

Grev joined Ranvir on the side opposite as Sansir entered the ring. “What’s the point of this?” Ranvir asked, exasperatedly. “This is pointless.”

Grev snorted, watching as Sansir once more found his distance then started harrying Esmund. “You have to think of it, not as what you want to do, but why Master Ayvir’s doing it. You want to be working on your powers, becoming a better tethered, maybe work on your weapon forms, but you get enough sparring during weapon class, right?”

Ranvir nodded, but didn’t say anything, What was Ayvir trying to achieve? He looked to the master. His dimple showed as he spoke quietly with Rafeeda while Es was driven around the ring by Sansir. His gaze lingered on Rafeeda, Is he trying to obscure our training from Rafeeda?

“You think this is to confuse the ankirians?” Ranvir asked. “Wouldn’t it be better to simply send her away, then?”

“No," Grev chuckled. “Master Ayvir’s spun the situation into one of his control. He’s mastered the ankirian’s environment. She only sees what he wants her to see, only understand what he’s allowing her to understand.”

“He can’t do that," Ranvir complained. “That’s not possible.”

“It’s not just possible. It’s been done before," Grevor smiled widely. “You’ve done it before. When we’re out here, practicing your wild plans trying to find secrets and exercises that a thousand years worth of tethered haven’t, you’re convincing us that you can do it. That you can break the norm. You’re making us believe in it. It’s not that uncommon.”

Finally, Ranvir got what Sansir was trying to make Esmund do. Colored lights formed around Es’ hand with a twitch of his fingers it slammed into the ground between him and Sansir throwing snow in the air, obscuring his enemy. Es used the opportunity to attack.

“Master Ayvir isn’t just content to let her watch, he’s letting her make her own assumptions about us based on what he’s telling her and what she’s seeing. But what she’s seeing isn’t the truth," Grev turned to Ranvir. “Ayvir doesn’t run our training, you do. We don’t spar with each other, we never do. And we would most certainly never use our powers in a fight with this little supervision. The story she’s walking away with couldn’t be further from the truth," Grev grin turned evil. “And yet…”

“Very good," Ayvir said pulling Rafeeda with him as he stepped into the ring. Dovar’d put Esmund on his back in less than three seconds. “From this very brief interaction, I want you to listen to what Rafeeda has to say about you," they exchanged a few words in kisi.

Rafeeda began speaking, a little louder this time and she was turned towards them. Ayvir translated for her. “Smoke—that’s you, Dovar—is the most skilled combatant, but also not a good teacher," Dovar didn’t visibly react. “Ice—that’s Sansir, by the way—is a decent combatant with a well trained foundation, he’s clearly aware of other’s flaws but struggles with explaining them properly," Sansir clenched his jaw briefly, if there was an extra bit of red that wasn’t from the cold in his cheeks, Ranvir couldn’t tell.

“Light—that’s… never mind, I’m sure you can figure it out—he struggles with moderating his tone when training," Grev’s mask was out in full form. “Warp is very powerful but is too afraid of his power for him to effectively use them. Yet, he seemingly has only done a minimum of control training," Esmund was definitely blushing after her concise deconstruction. “Space is lacking in strength and experience, but has a strong eye. While he recognizes his enemies strong sides, he fails to find their weaknesses.”

Ranvir winced. He didn’t know if her words were accurate, but it bothered him more that she’d so quickly and efficiently picked out his weaknesses.

“Your natural talents are as such: Light is skilled with quick techniques, giving him time to build up power is unnecessary. As such he has a very agile tether. Ice strongly favors controlling his existing material empowering them further as he fights. Smoke is strong all-around, though he does favor swiftness in his tether, similar to Light. Space has an extremely well defined and trained tether-sense, aware and sensitive to small disruptions. Warp has already started developing an explosive warp that explodes as much as it cuts, showing a forceful tendency to his tether.”

Ranvir gaped at Rafeeda, trying to peer through her veil to look on her face, How could she possibly know all that? How did she figure it out? All from our tethers? Ranvir turned to give Grev an incredulous look. Master Ayvir couldn’t possibly have meant for her to know this much, before he could finish he saw the self-satisfied grin on Ayvir’s face.

“So in conclusion, what do you think of the group?” The Master asked. He spoke slowly helping Rafeeda better understand.

It took her moment, before she answered. “You have two natural leaders offering the group more stability than normal. Light recognizes where he’s needed and can do the most for the group. Space watches over them all like a watch hound, his tether-sense never very far from any of them. He is perhaps more aware of their strength than their flaws, but he’s very aware of the group. Together, they keep you strong, forming a framework for the others to excel.”

Master Ayvir grinned widely, turning and bowing to Rafeeda, “Thank you for your assistance, Apprentice," She paused briefly before nodding. Hesitantly, she walked away, her gait awkward through her overdressed pants. “You’re all dismissed for the evening," Ayvir said, waving them off.

“That’s what I mean by mastering her situation," Grev whispered into Ranvir’s ear, “She’s going to report that the most special thing about us is our personal teacher, while we’ve just learned a lot about how an ankirian can dissect a situation and examine it. They’re gonna think Ayvir’s the cause of our growth, not you or Kirs. She’s only learned what Ayvir’s wanted her to learn. ”