“You still here?” A voice called through the window of a dim storefront, and Elach ignored it. The sign on the front said closed, the lights had been off for more than an hour, and he just didn’t want to deal with someone like Aray right now. Or ever again, if he could finesse that. It was just three days before the festival of wisps, and Aray had to know that everyone had their hands full preparing for all the tourists that would come through for the fifteen day long festival.

When Aray finally gave up and walked away with a few choice curses directed at Elach’s family, Elach got to work preparing the last of the candies that didn’t need to be made fresh. Their booth on the main boulevard would be serving other treats made on the spot, like popcorn and candy floss, but the bags of colourful and bright hard candies and chocolates made up the majority of his family’s revenue thanks to the egregious markups they subjected unwitting tourists to. He chuckled at the thought as he put a stone marked with pyretic Issi to a glyph at the bottom of a large copper mixing bowl, lines of bright red shooting through the material and slowly bleeding together like ink in water. It would take a handful of minutes before the bowl was evenly heated, so Elach took a moment to lean back and relax.

“Was that Aray hollering like a cat in a mousetrap?” Elach’s mother called down the stairs before creaks announced her arrival. “He should know better than to interrupt us at a time like this. We’re some of his best customers any other time of the year!”

Preht was fairly young considering her status among the town’s Issi practitioners. Elach’s mom was a fiery woman hailing from Pyreheld that took full advantage of a newly minted primal spring to elevate her and her family’s station from small business owners to guardians of the spring and small business owners. Which meant more work for everyone, since there were now twice as many jobs for the same amount of hands. Elach would be lying if he said he never complained, since most of his childhood, teenage, and young adult memories had begun with him arguing to be allowed just one day off to go and do... anything.

“It was, but I let him tire himself out instead of trying to explain again why he should leave us alone. Eternals, he’s annoying sometimes.” Elach said, tapping a finger to the rim of the copper pot. Still not hot enough. “When does dad need me to take over for him?”

“We still have two days before the wisps start getting skittish. Are you trying to get out of work, Elach?” Preht said in a mock scolding voice, walking up to Elach and patting him on the shoulder. “You’ve been working hard all day so I could take a break. Mom’ll take over from here, so go play with Kayvee.”

Elach rolled his eyes and bent down to hug his mom. “We won’t play too hard. I promise not to scuff my knees and come home with any boo-boos.”

Preht squeezed back with far more force than Elach could muster, making him squeak as the air was squished out of him. “I know you’re already twenty two, but you’ll always be my little boy. And since you don’t have any Issi to protect you, I’m always worried about you.”

“I’ll bond a wisp when someone else volunteers to chaperone teenagers to their wisp bonding.” Elach said, tapping Preht’s arms to signal she was gripping too tight. “But that won’t happen any time soon, so Kayvee and I are pretty much stuck here as long as we’re willing to be good people.” Elach untied his apron and slung it over a hook on the wall, tapping a faucet with every inch etched with blue filigree to wash his hands. “See you later, mom. Love you.”

“Love you too, Elach.” Preht said as Elach stepped out the door. “And Elach?” She called in a soft voice, making him turn to look at her. The fire in her eyes completely betrayed her tone, an intensity he hadn’t seen in his mother in years stoked to life for some reason. “You won’t have to be a good person for much longer.”

And with that, Preht turned her attention to the copper bowl and left Elach standing in the doorway with his heart beating double time. He’d been herding new practitioners through the wisp garden for six years now, his own bonding ceremony delayed indefinitely to keep the Issi flowing through the people of the nearby towns and living city. He could finally take that all important step himself, like his little brother had just over a year ago. To go out in search of bonds, and become the greatest Issi practitioner the world has ever seen!

Elach chuckled grimly to himself as he shook his head. His mother had promised him freedom for the past four festivals, and every time they would come and she’d plead with him to delay his bond for just one more festival. That she would find some way to get him free for the next one. He knew nothing would come to pass, since nobody was stupid enough to take this eternals-forsaken burden off of him. And for some reason Kayvee stood beside him, taking half of the hopefuls into the gardens so they could get twice as many people through on the solstice; the day where the most powerful and skittish wisps came out to bond. The only day he was actually paid for his work. And the day it became harder and harder to not just say screw it and let his nameless hometown fend for itself without any chaperones for their festivals.

As he walked out of the side street his parents’ shop was on, Elach stepped into a completely different world. The hustle and bustle of the festival was almost in full swing, with some of the street vendors already hawking their wares to the early tourists who either gawked with wide eyes at the blatant displays of Issi or chuckled at their wide-eyed brethren before stepping up to their favorite stalls from years of experience. Streams of Issi flowed through the air before coalescing into signs and advertisements, but when the festival started for real the Issi would take the shape of fireworks and street shows to keep the tourists’ attention away from just how much of their hard earned wages they were wasting. Elach dipped under a stream of purple and white braided Issi that flowed at his neckline to denote the festival limits, waving to his dad working on their stall as he made his way to the entrance to the wisp gardens. If Kayvee wasn’t there, he’d have to go climb the pointlessly large hill Kayvee’s parents had created to plop their equally pointless and large mansion on. Might as well spend five minutes for a chance to save twenty.

“Elach!” Called a deep voice from behind him, the scratching of gravel being kicked up announcing Kayvee’s jog to catch up. He turned and smiled at his only remaining friend in the village, watching as Kayvee slowed to a halt a few feet away, his smile a mirror of Elach’s. Kayvee was half a head shorter than Elach, making him about average height, but his build made him out to be half a foot taller than he was. Kayvee was all lean muscle, and every practitioner who met him wanted to know how they could put their Issi to use to get the same results he had. When they learned that it was a genetic predisposition to building muscle combined with a lifetime of hard work and rigorous exercise without a drop of Issi involved, interest melted away faster than cotton candy in a puddle.

“Your mom finally let you go? Or are you here to take over for your dad?” Kayvee asked.

“I’m free until sundown, thank the eternals.” Elach answered. “Want to go hang out in the gardens?”

“I was gonna ask you the same thing. We won’t be able to dip our toes in the creek for a few weeks with all the tourists coming through now.” Kayvee said, motioning at a group of people mostly dressed in blue and white robes save for a few teenagers in short sleeved shirts and pants. “The guilds, alliances and families are finally showing up, so it won’t be long until we’re overwhelmed with powerful people bribing or threatening us to get the best for their special pupils.”

“Like they don’t know there's a waiting list for the solstice.” Elach said, ducking under the purple ribbon on the other side of the promenade. “We keep telling them that a wisp is a wisp no matter what, but they’re insistent that the busiest day of the year is also the day with the best wisps.”

“Quality over quantity.” Kayvee nodded, the conversation a rehash of one they’d had many times over. It had been an argument years ago, but experience had shut that down before it got too heated. “You think any of the old timers are gonna bond this time?”

“I bet some kid corners the pyramid again and loses their chance at bonding at all.” Elach said, nodding at the security guard posted outside the pathway to the wisp garden.

“Best odds I can give you are one to ten.” Kayvee said as he stepped over a loose stone in the pathway without looking down. “That happens every year; pick something interesting for once.”

“For once? You take me for at least fifty coins every year!” Elach said with mock outrage, shaking a fist at Kayvee and raising his chin indignantly.

“Fair enough, fair enough.” Kayvee laughed as he held out his hands in surrender, taking a step to the side to avoid Elach’s powerless blows. “How about this; I bet in coin, and you bet in coins worth of chocolate? You must get a family discount, and maybe an employee discount too?”

“You know that I don’t. Mom doesn’t let anything walk out of the kitchen for less than the going price.” Elach sighed, and Kayvee nodded sagely.

“You can’t blame a guy for trying. It’s gonna be impossible to get a fair price on chocolate until the festival’s over.”

“And for a week after while the stragglers clear out.” Elach added, and Kayvee let out a groan and planted his face in his hands. “How about this: you bet in coin, and I bet in knowledge?”

“What kind of knowledge?” Kayvee asked, pushing open a wrought iron gate at the halfway point to the gardens.

Elach waited for Kayvee to push the gate shut once more before he continued. “Depending on how much you bet, I’ll share one of my families’ recipes. But you can’t go selling our stuff or telling anyone what’s in it. Does that sound good?”

“Counter offer, since I’m terrible at cooking; I buy the ingredients, and you cook up a batch for me when your family’s not working?”

Elach thought for a moment, but this was probably the best offer he’d get. “Fine. But you can’t buy a hundred kilos worth of ingredients and expect me to convince mom to let me use the kitchen. One kilo for every fifty coins you bet.” Elach offered a hand. “Deal?”

Kayvee grabbed Elach’s hand and shook it vigorously. “Deal.”

The path opened up as they approached the wisp garden, the four kilometer radius around the primal spring where wisps gathered en masse. Most of the year Elach would be lucky to catch a fleeting glimpse of a single wisp on a patrol, but in the weeks leading up to and after the solstice the gardens were alight with motes of colour, shape, and sensation mingling with nature. But the effects of the solstice hadn't fully taken hold as of yet, so the wisps kept as much distance as possible and floated away if they even tried to get close. That would change in just a few days, the primal spring pumping an absurd amount of Issi into the gardens and pacifying the wisps to a near drunken state for two weeks and one day. The only thing that could spook them at that point was the curated Issi of a practitioner, and that was where Elach and Kayvee came in; chaperoning each and every person who wished to bond with a wisp, working day and night while hopped up on Issi stimulants to get as many people bonded as possible.

“So you’ve got twenty on some parent or otherwise sneaking in with their kid and scaring all the wisps away at one to one odds, ten on one of the oldies finally bonding with someone at twenty to one odds, and one hundred on a guild’s chosen one not even bonding with a wisp at two to one odds.” Kayvee rattled off the bets Elach had agreed to on the walk over, and Elach nodded in confirmation.

Elach pushed a low hanging branch of ash grey wood with vibrant red and orange leaves out of the way, holding it long enough for Kayvee to pass with a grunt of thanks. “And you’ve got forty on someone throwing a fit when their protegee isn’t instantly snapped up by an organization at one to two odds, twenty five on one of the kids getting carted off as the chosen one at ten to one odds, and one hundred on the whole thing going off without anything exceptional happening at fifty to one odds.”

“Better hope something interesting happens,” Kayvee said as he elbowed Elach in the ribs. “Or else you’re gonna be my personal candymaker for life.”

“You know that’s not gonna happen. And thanks for throwing a hundred coin my way.” Elach said without a hint of sarcasm or teasing.

“Don’t sweat it. I know Wren’s schooling is expensive.” Kayvee said. “Your little brother’s still draining your families’ pockets even when he’s gone, the little bastard.”

“Not much we can do about it.” Elach grunted as he grabbed a handhold Kayvee had cemented into the rock years ago, climbing up twenty feet or so on the metal bars until he pulled himself up near a waterfall’s edge. The crashing of water was muffled by some bizarre plants living at the bottom of the waterfall, spinning like giant green water wheels and spraying out a fine mist. Elach stretched out his shoulders and made his way to a table that stuck out like a sore thumb, pulling a wooden case out of his pocket and sliding it across the table. It thunked against a slightly raised edge before tumbling off the side, and Elach muttered a curse as he bent over to pick it up.

“Think they’re gonna let us go this year?” Kayvee asked as he pulled a lacquered chair out from underneath the table.

“Eternals, no. Not a chance.” Elach replied as he pulled the playing cards out of their case and shuffled them. “Everyone knows us as the guides now; only way we’re getting out is on our own.”

Elach dealt himself and Kayvee three pairs of cards, one pair face up and the other two face down, before setting the rest of the deck in the middle of the table and flipping over one card. Kayvee frowned at the high cards he’d been dealt and grabbed the flipped over three of leaves to replace one of them.

--------------------------------------------

Kayvee stretched as he looked over at the setting sun while Elach gathered the cards to put them back in their box. “Looks like the hollow one is still watching us.” Kayvee said, pointing at a spot over Elach’s shoulder.

Elach turned to see a wisp that looked like the outline of a circle painted in thick black strokes with grey mist inside of it. From his experience with this particular wisp, Elach knew that it would look like that no matter which way he came at it; even if Kayvee crawled under it it would still look the same to both of them. They’d chalked it up to some kind of optical illusion created by the wisp’s Issi, a marvel of the gardens alongside the likes of the gilded pyramid and the flowing lotus.

“How long’s it been there?” Elach asked, reaching with an outstretched finger to give the wisp a perch. The hollow one floated over as if blown by an unfelt breeze and settled on Elach’s finger, and he slowly brought it around to the table.

“At least you don’t have to worry about finding a wisp.” Kayvee said as he watched the hollow one pulse on Elach’s finger. “The hollow one’s been throwing itself at you for over a year now.”

“The gilded pyramid and the flowing lotus visit us sometimes.” Elach said defensively, but he knew Kayvee was right.

“The hollow one acts like a pet when it comes by. The others are like wild animals; they tolerate us sometimes but don’t really want anything to do with us.” Kayvee said, watching a teardrop shaped wisp dance around the waterfall. “The wisps are gonna be picked clean by the time we do the last run and try to find bonds for ourselves, and you know as well as I do that some years there aren’t enough wisps to go around. Maybe the hollow one won’t even show up while we’re out there.”

“If the wisps start running low we just bond sooner.” Elach said. “What are they gonna do, run us out of town twice as hard?”

“You’re right. Eternals, I know you’re right.” Kayvee repeated and sighed. “We don’t owe them anything, but they owe us everything. And killing off their previous chaperones, also known as us, would make finding new ones pretty much impossible.” Kayvee stood up and pushed the chair back in, leaning on the table and watching the sun fall over where their town would be if the tree cover was removed. “The plan still the same?”

“Get wisps, either get invited to or take Resthollow’s bonding trial, and go from there.” Elach said, pocketing the cards and joining Kayvee in leaning against the table. “I’m gonna miss this place.” he sighed. “The gardens, I mean.”

“I knew what you meant. And same here.” Kayvee agreed.

The walk back was mostly a comfortable silence, a melancholic stroll down memory lane as Elach watched the wisps going about their business. He held open the large iron gate that served as a warning for any practitioners for Kayvee, waving goodbye as their paths diverged. Elach would have next to no free time for the next few days, followed by negative free time during the festival, so he took the opportunity to walk the promenade and get a sense of what he’d be missing again this year. Empty stalls and unlit lanterns could only distract for so long, and soon after he was unlocking the back door of his house with an etched iron key. The door opened to his mother and father preparing yet more candy for the festival, turning their eyes to him with expectancy, and he sighed as he rolled up his sleeves and walked to the sink.

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“As all of you should know by now, no person is born with the ability to take in and use Issi.” Elach said to a group of fifteen teenagers adorned in a great variety of clothing. Most of them were stylistic choices, but a select few already wore the colours of a tyrant, living city, or guildmaster. Their expressions ranged from ecstatic to flat out despondent and everything in between, but none of them were fully listening to him. He didn’t blame them, since they knew everything he was about to say from their schooling. But he had to do this for liability reasons, so Elach continued in a raised voice for those in the back.

“In a few short moments, you will all take your first steps towards becoming a true Issi practitioner. Beyond this gate lies the garden of wisps, and even further beyond that lies the primal spring. We will be venturing into the primal spring to get the most docile and easy to tame wisps, but if you manage to capture a willing wisp on our way, I will repeat, a willing wisp, you may bring it along and attempt to bond with it at the primal spring. Bonding is not a dangerous process, but it is a lengthy one, and you all need to keep in mind that everyone is here for the same reason.”

Elach reached into his backpack and pulled out a stack of blank playing cards, walking through the group and handing one to every person before returning to the head of the group. He enjoyed the group’s collective moment of wonder as they studied the blank cards for a moment, but Elach had to escort another group in two hours.

Elach held up his own blank card and pressed his thumb to the center of it. “These are Issi markers. Right now they won’t do anything,” Elach pulled his thumb off the card for emphasis, the white material remaining unmarked, “but when you bond with your wisp these cards will react to the minuscule amount of Issi the wisp grants you. A wisp may sometimes fail to bond with you for whatever reason, so use these to ensure that you are bonded before you call it a day. Follow me closely, stay on the path, and remember that all wisps are equal. No one wisp is better than another, no matter their colour, shape, size, smell, taste, or anything else I can’t think of right now. Are there any questions before we head in?”

A few hands shot up, but one boy wearing a red and silver sash chose instead to voice his question. “How should we decide which wisp to bond if more than one approaches us?” He asked in a fairly nasally voice, one of the more common tones Elach would be hearing for the next fifteen days.

“Someone thinks highly of himself.” Elach laughed, and the teenager blushed as he realized just how presumptuous his question was. “But it does happen a few times every year, so it is a valid question. And the answer is honestly pretty boring; pick the one you think is coolest. Or prettiest. Or dumbest, if that’s what you’re into. As I said earlier, the only thing that matters about your wisp is that it ends up inside you. Once it transforms into your container it loses most of its features, and when you finally bond someone that actually gives you Issi to work with it will change again, so don't worry yourselves too much about your choice.” Elach finished with a nod to the teenager and pointed at a hand that had remained up after he gave the answer. “You, in the back, with the green and orange bracelets.”

“When will we know if one of the great powers accepts us?” The girl asked, her clothes indicating that she held no allegiances yet.

“When you return to the festival there will be recruiters everywhere. Go talk to them and they’ll tell you more.” Elach said, noting the girl’s dissatisfaction with his answer. But it was the truth; he had absolutely no idea if any of the powers would accept these kids. Even the ones already wearing their colours or crests might be forced to take the bonding trials like anyone else depending on how important their families were. “I can’t in good conscience tell you anything else.”

At this point, there were only two hands still up. And they belonged to what were either identical twin girls or eerily similar strangers. He decided to call on the one on the right first.

“Why do you even bother taking the rest of this rabble along when they aren’t worth investing a single coin into? Eternals know you’d do this faster with only us.” She asked, then stated, in a tone that grated on Elach’s nerves, but he’d had years of practice dealing with this kind of person.

“I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that and let you keep your spot on this expedition.” He said jovially, and the girl puffed up her cheeks in indignation at being rebuked. “Do you have an actual question, or are you just going to be a pompous brat like your sister?” He asked the other girl who still had her hand raised, and she snarled at him like a wild animal.

“How dare someone like you speak to us like that. We are Kistravians! You don’t even have any Issi of your own to justify your awful manners. Our parents could buy out this shoddy little town and everyone in it and work you like slaves for the rest of your days! I demand an apology this instant or….”

“Alright!” Elach clapped his hands, startling the girl out of her classist tirade. “One more word out of either of you and I’m blacklisting your entire family from ever bonding a wisp here! So unless you want to explain to your parents why you have to take a trip to Pyreheld or Freshetfall next solstice, shut up and fall in line!”

They didn’t know that Elach didn’t actually have the authority to do any of that, or that if everything worked out he wouldn’t even be here next solstice, but the threat seemed to stick. Most kids that threw around their parent’s name like that didn’t actually have one hundred percent backing from said parents, and even if they did try to buy out the town they’d be rebuked by the people who currently owned most of everything south of the wisp garden: Kayvee’s parents.

Elach undid a chain on the gate that he’d put there earlier that morning and held it open to the teenagers. “Let’s get going; the next group is coming through here in two hours and we don’t want them getting all the choice wisps, do we?”

Two day’s time was all it took for the wisp garden to blossom into something amazing. Wisps of all shapes and colours floated through the air and created a bizarrely wonderful display of Issi in motion. The ash grey tree had ivy-like wisps of flame dangling from its leaves. A cluster of huge rock-like wisps scooted out of the way as the group passed through. Little light wisps zipped through the air at unimaginable speeds, blowing past long, cloudlike wisps that puffed into smoke whenever a light wisp passed through it. All conversation among the group died down as they took in the splendors of the gardens at their second most active, and Elach watched each and every one of them to get an idea of what kind of wisp they were subconsciously wanting to bond.

A moment of hesitation could destroy a potential bond with a creature as immaterial as a wisp, something Elach kept from the kids so they wouldn’t psyche themselves out. But now was where his job really began; steering each kid towards a wisp that they wouldn’t screw up bonding. He pulled out a pad of paper and started taking notes so he wouldn’t mess anything up, starting with the ‘sure things’ and moving on to the ‘unsures’ and ‘haven’t-seen-anything interesting-yets’.

The sashed teenager, whose name was Grej according to Elach’s notes, was completely entranced by the swaying wisps latched onto the sparkwillows, unable to tear his eyes away for a single moment to give any other wisps a chance. If there weren’t any of those specific wisps near the primal spring, he’d have to try and find some other fire or plant related for Grej to bond with. Or Grej could try his luck right now.

Elach walked over to Grej and tapped him on the shoulder, breaking him out of his trance with a start. “As long as you don’t have to chase it down, you can bring any wisp from out here down to the primal spring to bond with. But remember that bonding is a two way street even with a thoughtless Issi creature like a wisp. Forcing it to come with you is just delaying your disappointment.”

Grej nodded eagerly and stepped closer to one of the ashen trees, the long wisps swaying to get out of his way as he did. Elach turned his back to Grej and looked out at the rest of the group that had overheard his conversation. “That goes for all of you as well. As long as a wisp comes willingly, feel free to try your luck at anything that interests you. But don’t get your hopes up; the effects of the primal spring might be making these wisps more docile, but the ones that have a craving for Issi are further in. I’ll walk a little bit slower so you all have a chance to look around a bit more, but I won’t stop and wait for anyone.”

Elach started walking again, albeit far slower this time, falling into his usual guide routine at the same point he always did. There was always a kid who got infatuated with one wisp or another, and that was the perfect opportunity to make his job a little bit easier. Continuing to catalogue the kids’ interests, Elach noted that most of the kids seemed to go straight for one or two styles of wisps and shot parting glances at most of the others, like seeing something you want at the market but making a full loop anyways just in case you see something better. But there were a few outliers that Elach would have to take special care of.

The first was a boy wearing the colours of Freshetfall, pretending to be interested in the droplet-like wisps that gathered in place of dew on some of the larger plants’ leaves while sneaking glances at a cloud of wisps that tumbled through the air like throwing daggers. Elach marked him down as one of the problem children because he would try and fail to bond a fair number of water or ice-like wisps before Elach could convince him to try a bladelike wisp that he’d end up bonding without any issues whatsoever.

The second and third were the twins who’d spoken out against Elach earlier. He recognized their interested-yet-underwhelmed looks as that of someone who’d had tutors preparing them for this moment, likely filling their minds with fairy tales of unique wisps and chosen ones and tainting them for reality. There was a reason he and Kayvee called some of the wisps the Old Ones, and he was certain that he’d have to find something at least uncommon to get these girls to bond at all.

The final girl who’d require extra attention already wore the full steel grey and white colours of a Resthollow vassal. She walked along the top of a wall with her arms outstretched, completely ignoring the wisps around her and simply enjoying the experience. She would be difficult because she wouldn’t care what kind of wisp she got, she’d be happy with anything. And even though that seemed like the ideal situation, wisps tended not to bond with people who didn’t have any preferences for some unknown reason. He’d have to pull her aside and force her to whittle down her choices rather than present a single perfect wisp, and it would be difficult to do that while also working with the other kids.

Elach flipped the cover back over his notepad as he felt a warm shiver run through him, the sensation not unlike downing a hot drink after a winter day’s wracking cold. They’d passed through the second threshold, but the wisps thinned out instead of becoming more dense. The silence created by their absence was ethereal, like they’d mistakenly stepped through space and ended up somewhere else on the world piece.

“What happened to all the wisps?” A voice asked from the crowd, starting a worried murmuring that spread like wildfire. “Is something wrong?” “Are we going to be alright?” and even a single “Eternals help us.” spoken in whispers bordering on tears made Elach curse silently. He’d forgotten to warn the kids about the airlock.

Elach clapped his hands to get the group’s attention. “Everything’s still going as planned. For the next fifteen minutes or so we will be walking through what I call the airlock, the space with the most medium amount of Issi from the primal spring. For some reason I can’t explain, the wisps either want a little Issi or a whole lot of it; they either migrate to the primal spring itself or to the outer parts of the wisp gardens. That’s why the wisps back there shied away from you when you tried to get close; they aren’t gorging on Issi and looking to bond with you.”

Grej smiled wide as his sparkwillow wisp curled around his arm, and Elach cleared his throat to correct himself. “That’s why most of the wisps shied away from you, I mean. Now let’s get moving; time we waste here is time that could be spent bonding.”

His explanation didn’t seem to dissuade all of the group’s worries, since everyone sped up a notch and worried whispers were constantly murmured for the entirety of the trek through the airlock. But when they got close to the primal spring, all the group’s worries evaporated. They saw and heard the gathering of wisps before they felt the change in atmosphere, a sensation like heartburn that went as quickly as it came when they passed into the heart of the wisp gardens.

Wisps lazily mulled about in the treetops, floating through the air, riding downstream, and just laying on the path making Elach and the group watch their steps as they went. “Alright, this is the heart of the gardens. About a kilometer from here is the primal spring in all its glory, and that is as far as you are allowed to go. Everyone take one of these.” Elach pulled a sack of black marbles out of his bag and tapped each of them to a piece of obsidian he held in his right hand, causing a bright red arrow to appear on the marble pointing directly at the lodestone. “Do not try to bond with a wisp on your own. Follow your guidestone back here once you’ve found one to bond so I can help out if any of you have trouble. The first round of bonding starts in half an hour and lasts for another half hour, then we’ll repeat that cycle two more times before we have to leave. Dismissed!”

Most of the group scattered the moment they were free to go, but Grej just stood there watching his wisp squirm up and down his arm with a goofy smile on his face. Elach told Grej to stay put and watch over the lodestone while he went to find wisps for the other kids, and to try and enjoy himself for a little bit until he bonds with his wisp. Grej nodded and held out his arm like a branch, his wisp uncurling itself and draping off his arm like it had done on the sparkwillow.

Now he needed to find something for the twins. Elach sighed as he left the clearing Grej stood in, trying to recall where the more bizarre and ornate wisps liked to gather in the spring. His first thought was a puzzle box, a wisp made of nine different coloured cubes that rearranged themselves at random. That might do for one of them, but he had a feeling that they wouldn’t both want the same wisp. And there was a chance the puzzle box might not be rare enough for either of them. But the puzzle box hung out near some ruins with the tattered arrowheads, silver wisps that looked like arrowheads trailing ribbons of white silk as they sped through the sky. On any other day they would be impossible to get close to, never mind catch, but the solstice made them predictable enough that Elach could catch one. He’d done it once before and cut his hands up real bad, but he’d started carrying chainmail gloves for that exact reason.