Weight of Worlds

Ranvir was a little surprised by how he felt after the morning jog. Getting up early, after having been allowed a single day of waking up as he pleased was surprisingly hard, but the run itself was a whole different surprise.

He no longer felt like he wanted to die, as he crossed the finish line, dropping down next to Sansir and Grev. He still felt like it might happen, but he no longer wanted it. Instead, he felt something of the runner’s high, he’d occasionally heard the two psychopaths next to him talking about.

Vigo allowed them a short water break, before he set up another game of King Stick. Ranvir set himself up against Esmund, despite knowing it was a bad idea. His friend was too competitive for this kind of head-to-head sport.

Setting off, Ranvir was tempted to keep at Esmund’s pace, but he’d shown himself to be the stronger sprinter. Esmund was somehow amongst the fastest sprinters in their group, even faster than Sansir. And he could turn on the head of a copper eye.

Still, as Ranvir kept his own pace, his friend ran into the wall all sprinters hit eventually: exhaustion. Esmund had almost won, but he was slowing down. A lot. Ranvir felt a grin creep onto his face, as he slowly gathered more sticks behind his own king.

Heaving for breath, but smiling he managed to even it out again. He was tired, his legs burning, breath moving nearly uncontrolled, and a wrung out faded green was all that was sustaining him. Esmund looked worse, though. He seemed dead in the water after the run and his subsequent sprinting. He grabbed another stick as Sansir passed them, himself heaving for breath.

“You’re winning? Good job!”

Ranvir just smiled at his friend, grabbing the stick and turned. Esmund just passed him as he turned, pushing a stick of his own into the grass. When Ranvir saw his face, he felt that same shiver come over him, as the first time they’d played this game.

Esmund was out for blood and if he couldn’t get that, he’d settle for sticks. This wasn’t the reckless sprint he’d seen before. This was the determined run of someone who didn’t believe in losing. And it was faster than Ranvir could keep up with in the long term

This is such bullshit… Ranvir slowed down not wanting to exhaust himself, before the myriad of other exercises Teacher Vigo was sure to throw their way afterwards.

In the end, Ranvir lost another game of King Stick.

“Sorry about that…” Esmund looked genuinely apologetic, as he tried to dig a ditch in the ground with his eyes. During their last pass, Esmund had shoulder checked him. It was more surprising than painful. Ranvir was both a head taller than his friend, and outweighed him quite a bit.

“It’s okay, Es.” He grabbed his friend’s shoulder, as he dragged him along. “I know how you get. It wasn’t a big surprise to me. Grev and Sansir looked more shocked than I felt.”

“I’m still sorry.” Esmund said. He looked like he wanted to continue, which Ranvir knew he would. He’d been going like that since physical, through lunch, and now they’d arrived at their next class.

“Settle down, students.” Their teacher said, Svenar according to Esmund. “You all know the drill, pads are on the table.”

Teacher Svenar’s set up was different from Floki’s. He didn’t have a throne-like chair, nor did his field have a shed attached. Instead, he’d brought along a shoddy little table, a bunch of cloth pads and a thin sticks. Ranvir couldn’t understand that last one, but wasn’t about to question a master.

Another notable feature was the dummies lined up on the edge of their field. Ranvir couldn’t figure out their purpose, as they were made of solid wood. The dummies were little more than a scarred tree trunk, with a smaller trunk on top and a few circles splattered on it.

Ranvir followed behind Esmund as they got in line. Each student grabbed a pad, using it so they didn’t have to sit directly on the grass. When it was Ranvir’s turn, Esmund waited off to the side.

“You’re the space manipulator.” It wasn’t a question, Svenar had spotted him immediately, despite only a week of familiarity with the class.

“That’s right.” Ranvir nodded, shaking the hand the teacher offered.

“I don’t want to hold up the entire class. Luckily, it seems you’re already familiar with Esmund, so I’ll let him explain this first part.” He smiled at Ranvir and let go of his hand.

Teacher Svenar wasn’t a huge man. Ranvir wasn’t even sure who was taller. Svenar just had a calming and protective air about him. From his clean shaven face, that seemed to emanate a peaceful energy, to his posture and attitude.

Ranvir and Esmund took seats at the back of the class. Sitting a little closer than average, so Esmund could explain. When the last student had gotten their pad, Svenar lit a candle, putting a hollow half-cylinder of hardened clay around it to protect it from the wind, while still allowing the students to see it. It was marked in what Ranvir assumed to be quarter hour increments, judging from the size and shape of the candle.

“So Teacher Svenar always has us spend the first fifteen minutes of class, ‘meditating’ on our tether. Even if you don’t need it.” Esmund winked at him, before leaning back to sit on his own pad.

Ranvir followed along, this step was easy enough. He was getting pretty close to an uninterrupted fifteen minutes in the space himself without issue. Pressing against his chest, he found the gap and slipped into tether-space.

It had grown, since the first time he’d seen it. It was still little more than a few thin threads of power, but they’d grown longer over the last week. They’d wrapped around each other more strongly, forming a definite rope out of the three strands. He still couldn’t tell which form the Goddess had blessed his tether with, but he thought he might soon.

And if he wasn’t mistaken, it seemed to have grown quite a bit yesterday, even though he’d spent no time with it.

When he was inevitably shunted out of the space, most of the fifteen minutes had passed. He wouldn’t have the time to re-enter, before the candle finished melting. Most of the other students around him were similarly aware of their surroundings. Only a few in still remained within their tether, Esmund among them.

In fact, his friend seemed nearly at ease with the exercise. The other students who hadn’t yet left were shifting and sweating, while Es seemed like he was actually meditating.

“Alright.” Teacher Svenar said, blowing out the candle, as the mark melted. “Time’s up. As always you’re free to remain seated, or you can come up to me and try the test.”

Ranvir looked curiously towards Esmund, who came out of his trance with a jolt. He looked a little strained, but nothing major. Ranvir was surprised by the aggressiveness that Esmund seemed to leave the tether with. Like it was a physical shove, rather than a mental one.

He got up from his pad, bringing it with him as he went to Svenar. In all, there were four students who went to try the ‘test’, whatever that meant. He handed them one of the sticks. They were thin, to the point that they could break with an accidental twist of the finger.

Esmund had within ten seconds cut it in half, with a flick of a finger that didn’t quite touch it. The other students took a little longer, but managed it as well. Esmund was already headed off to the dummies standing next to their field, the other four joining him.

As Svenar looked to be leaving the table, when a fifth student tentatively got up. The teacher smiled and handed him a stick. The boy looked a little nervous, but Svenar was encouraging and gave him a nod of approval.

Ranvir watched with interest as the student pulled out a knife, something the other’s hadn’t used. He focused on the weapon for a long few minutes, before suddenly jerking his hand at the stick. The thin stick rolled away but wasn’t split in two.

Svenar murmured something quietly to the student, who seemed crestfallen. The words seemed to cheer him up some, as Svenar said louder. “Maybe tomorrow you’ll get it, you only just lost it at the end.”

He turned to the class at large. “Remember that it isn’t a problem when you fail. We all fail, at some point in our lives we will fail at something. It’s only a problem if you give up afterwards. You should never look down on someone for trying.”

Ranvir looked intently at the teacher, as those words registered. Svenar was a very different teacher than Floki. He was at least a decade younger, had a full head of hair, and he seemed to actually enjoy his job. Ranvir had seen signs of that in Floki, but never on full display like with Teacher Svenar.

Ranvir noticed the students were retreating back into themselves, focusing on their tether. Looking towards Esmund, he found him standing nearly on top of a dummy. He couldn’t tell what his friend was doing, but assumed he was working on his ability.

Closing his eyes, Ranvir tried to find the gap to his tether. He thought he knew where it should be, but couldn’t detect anything. It was only when he pressed a finger against his chest, that he felt it open.

Slipping back inside, he once more searched for the pressure to escape. He couldn’t find it, in fact, it seemed to press in from the outside there was so little power.

Maybe Taggir made a mistake when he assessed me. Ranvir thought, not sensing the pressure. My type is so rare, that he made a mistake. The moment he thought it, he knew it to be true, deep in his heart.

Staring at the slowly turning tether, he realized that he was here by a fluke. His powers weren’t strong enough to compete with the others. He didn’t have any strength that wanted out.

He accidentally let himself get pushed out, when the tether first started struggling. It usually happened way before he was actually forced out. Like the difference between panting for breath and actually being too exhausted to keep up a jog.

He pressed against his chest again, opening the gap. His fingers pressing against the necklace of rings.

If he was too weak they would send him home. That thought made him pause. He could return home. He would have a month-and-a-half of travel before him, but he could return home.

Home to his parents, where they would find out he was a failure. No, he’d been through this before. It didn’t matter if he wasn’t strong enough, he would work through it. They didn’t know better, how could they know what he could and couldn’t do.

With an effort of will he returned to his tether.

At some point, after his fourth dive into the space, one of his fellow students shook his shoulder. It was a jarring way to leave, but effective. For a second he was filled with a black creeping dread, worried he’d been found out.

Before the thought could come to fruition, however, he noticed Svenar standing before the class. Even Esmund and the others had returned to their seats. In fact, it had been Esmund who brought him out.

“We have to listen.” He said, quietly. “He doesn’t often do this.”

“Let’s begin today with something I find quite apt, considering our company for the next week.” Svenar gestured to Ranvir, which caused way too many craned necks and staring eyes. “Something that warp and space have in common.”

That send a murmur through the crowd of students. There were more kids in Svenar’s class, than Floki’s, and Ranvir felt each and everyone with those murmurs.

“As Ranvir should know, space and warp affect reality directly, but they aren’t a part of reality.” He paused to pull out his belt knife, while grabbing a stick with his free hand. “As an example: If an obsidian manipulator grabbed a stone and moved it with his power.” He moved the knife off to the side, then swung the stick through the area it had occupied. “There’s no longer anything there for someone to hit.

“However.” He moved the knife back. “A warp manipulator couldn’t pull the knife away from where it was lying.” He tapped the stick and knife together. “It could, however, try to move the cut away from the knife.” He tapped them together again. “This doesn’t change the knife. There is, instead, an extra cut, ready to be used by the manipulator.”

The stick was suddenly sliced in half by what seemed like nothing to Ranvir. Murmurs of excitement ran through the crowd, even Esmund muttered something about the ease with which their teacher displayed his power.

“But if there was no knife, then there was nothing to cut with.” Svenar continued. “As such, the warp tethered must have directly affected reality, in order to cut the stick with ‘nothing’.

“But if the tethered is affecting reality, then why isn’t it part of reality?” Svenar asked, rhetorically. “Because it will dissipate once we’re no longer affecting it. Obsidian is part of reality, but exerts no direct force on it. When the manipulator moves the stone, it has changed location. No amount of time will make it disappear, or go back to where it was before.

“Even a light manipulator’s work, though it fades quickly, just travels away. It doesn’t dissipate. Warp and spatial does. No matter how strongly we anchor them, or how powerful the master expressing their ability is. They inevitably fade.”

“But isn’t that true for any generator?” One of the students towards the front asked.

Teacher Svenar raised a hand, acknowledging the question. “It’s true that once the energy put into any generated material is spent, it will fade. Except for space and warp. If space or warp isn’t anchored, it will fade immediately, despite them being some of the more efficient generator elements.

“On the other hand light seems to fade, but any Master would tell you that isn’t true. I’ve heard it can take weeks, or even months, before their energy is spent. It simply travels too fast, leaving their influence before they can reuse it. Warp fades the moment a tethered is no longer holdin-“

He was interrupted by the loud ringing of the bell. “I guess, that’s time. Thank you all for coming today, have a good rest of your day. Esmund, can I talk with you for a second?”

Ranvir glanced at his friend, but he waved him off, saying it was okay. He seemed a little excited, but not worried, so Ranvir nodded and hurried off. He had another class he wanted to try.

If his powers couldn’t cut stuff, then he sure as shit could get a sword that could.