Ranvir was surrounded by noise. It buzzed below him, to his sides, above, even going through him. It flowed throughout, either agitated by or agitating his presence. It felt like popping and crackling all throughout. It came in quick intervals, not even seconds apart, leaving just enough space for an uncomfortable after-taste.

He dove around. Searching, not for the source, but for the cause. The disturbance was a misalignment of energy, but where it came from and why it happened, he wasn’t sure of. He reached the edge of tether-space, feeling himself press against the wall. Here the discordance was the lowest, as it was the furthest away from the source. Though the time between waves became greater, his understanding did not.

Ranvir startled as he felt the wall start to give. All throughout a thousand tiny holes were starting to let him seep through, the waves of energy his tether put out pushing him into the previously impenetrable wall. With a grunt of effort, he moved away from the wall. The energy dragged on him so strongly it felt like he had to swim through it, even though he lacked a physical form.

That’s getting harder and harder, Ranvir thought. Maybe I should stop training my tether for a while?

He’d considered the option before but in the end, decided against it. Over the last fourteen days since the first fight there’d been three more. Winter hadn’t yet come to a close, but it seemed all the students had a temperament like they’d just come out from a bear’s sleep.

He dragged himself towards the source of the waves the intervals growing quicker, the energy denser. Behind him the draft of his passage left huge disturbances in the energy of his tether-space. They even rippled the tether-space wall it had become so permeable.

Maybe I’ve gone a little too hard on the Wings exercise, he thought looking across the space. He usually didn’t take such an small scale view of his tether-space, preferring to observe it as a whole, though this allowed him to examine the energy permeating through his tether and into the area more clearly.

Traveling the length of his tether, he reached out with a hand-like sense. It wasn’t an actual hands, as he didn’t have a physical form inside. He couldn’t manage a full manifestation of himself inside the space, it was too small, his hand still dwarfed his tether.

Through the ‘hand’ he could sense a regular vibration moving through the tether. He knew by now that it matched the general waves of passive energy. The tether was always drawing a little bit of energy, not enough to be noticeable or usable, though he’d heard that some twin and triplet masters passive draw was so high it affected the ambient levels around them. Though he couldn’t honestly imagine someone that powerful having so little control of their tether. Even he could regulate it and he was basically drawing in nothing in comparison.

Focusing on the hitch, he increased the draw from his tether. The rapidity of the intervals became a constant flow of energy and the hitch came much faster. He increased it further to his ‘running speed.’

The hitch now came so fast as to remind him of a short bit of the carriage ride he’d taken with Esmund and Sansir, when first headed towards the academy. During one of their back road travels, one of the wheels had broken a spoke. Every time the broken part of the wheel hit the road, the entire carriage had skipped just like his tether was now, though it was doing it much more often than the carriage ever did.

A shudder ran through him at the image of a carriage going so fast as to mimic this level of thumping. Ranvir forced his attention away from his tether. Taking his hand away immediately made the sense dissolve as he no longer needed it. The three strings that made up his tether was glowing with Purple Space from where they touched and energy was pouring from it so rapidly he had to fight to keep in the center of the space.

Beyond it, the entirety of his tether-space was rippling with his output. If he wasn’t a space tethered, Ranvir was certain it would’ve had an effect on the environment around him. Purple light played across the limits of the area, seeping through a hundred thousand incalculably tiny holes. Like watching water sift through sand.

Drawing himself tight, he dove into the tether, the hitching thrum surrounding him on all sides. The mild agitation he’d felt before becoming a man-sized drum banging away at his ear. At the same time, he was assaulted by energy. Despite having done this before and being prepared for it, Ranvir was still sent halfway up the loop of his tether, before he caught himself and resisted the current.

The flaw in his tether was throbbing so strongly and powerfully that he could barely feel anything else. The energy was pushing against him so forcefully that every move was a fight.

This was why he’d gone running to the edge of the space hoping to find the solution there, and why he’d struggled to make any progress at all. The tension of the space felt like a physical assault. After just a few seconds he was already forcing himself to remain within tether-space and his concentration was starting to falter.

In front of him, he saw a clump of dark purple matter sitting in his tether. When he’d first spotted these, he’d thought they were the solution. Get rid of them and the imbalance would fix itself. But these clumps seemed to be made of ‘dried’ or ‘dead’ energy, somehow. Meaning they weren’t easy to break. Maybe ‘inert’ was a better word. Honestly, they felt similar to his tether, except he had no direct control of them. But he had been able to turn his energy on them, burning one out of his tether.

That same effort had burned a hole in the string, even as the inert matter was burned away. The energy had run rampant throughout the space. He’d been nauseous for hours until the tether’d finally scabbed over and started recovering.

Now, he no longer tried that solution, besides he doubted it had helped any. A smaller chunk ripped past him, having been torn free in the torrent of power. As he’d found out later, these patches of inert energy seemed to come and go. They would build up on a location until the rush of energy became too much and it would pass through into whatever was on the other side of the tether.

The flaw, the misalignment, in his tether finally overcame his control and power ripped him away as he was forced out of the space.

The remnants of a terrible itching sensation assaulted Ranvir. His entire body felt like it had been used as an ant nest. He shook himself out, scratching at his forearms before it settled into a general uncomfortable feeling. He knew within the next half hour or so, the feeling would pass and he would be fine. This was not the first time it had happened.

“Anything?” Esmund asked snowflakes making most of his hair white.

Ranvir shook his head, before rubbing his eye. His weeping eye was still sore, though, he didn’t really notice it unless he touched it in the mornings. He was only reminded of it now, because his eyes felt like they had sleep in them. They didn’t, but that was one of the after-effects he’d grown to expect.

“Nothing new,” Ranvir replied. He took Es’ proffered hand and got to his feet. “I’m really not sure what to do at this point.”

“There’s a slight chance this might be horrible advice,” Master Ayvir warned. “And judging from the sensations I’m getting from you, it definitely might be… Don’t worry about it. There’s nothing limiting you until you’ve picked your Concept.”

Ranvir smiled a little sickly. That was the idea he was reaching. He wasn’t going for Body just yet, so he wouldn’t be picking his Concept immediately. There were supposed to be some pretty big milestones to overcome before advancing again, either side-ways or onto the next stage.

“Have you tried with a full ritual?” Es asked.

Ranvir shuddered. He had. He’d done it twice and he doubted he would ever do it a third time. A ritual sharpened his senses into a fine point. That sensitivity came right back to bite him in the ass when he went diving into his tether. The first time had rung his bell better than Dovar had when Ranvir’d earned his nickname.

The second time he’d done a better job of calming his tether down and slowing the draw, but it had still felt like Master Orulf pounding on his temples. He’d returned after a few minutes dizzy and nauseous to the point of being physically ill. He’d almost preferred just getting straight knocked out. Then he hadn’t woken up until after the nausea had mostly passed.

“I have,” he replied smiling gently at his friend.

Ayvir frowned placing a hand on Ranvir’s shoulder. “Are you okay?”

Ranvir blinked at the master, he hadn’t expected him to be so perceptive. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

Ayvir smiled and squeezed his shoulder once, “Listen, I understand the feeling that you need to wait or come to the right conclusion before you advance but Veil and Dagger aren’t these huge jumps forwards. They’re big compared to what you know now but they’re mostly more of what you already have.” Ayvir glanced across the campus, looking consternated. “This place isn’t getting any safer, unfortunately, and you’ve already been attacked once. Consider it.”

“I will.”

“Good.”