Oasis? Elach squinted to get a better look as the man walked past, noting that the scabbards were a little too thick and round to contain swords. And they were capped on one end with leaves bound with silver thread. They weren’t scabbards, they were really long canteens. There must have been a better word for that, but Elach couldn’t think of it. So canteens they were.

Revel read and wrote for a good ten minutes, during which the waxen Issi beast finished their application and was replaced by what was obviously the manifestation of a forest. Vines writhed around them like snakes, diamond thorns growing out of them scraping along the glass below making a horrible, horrible sound that grated Elach down to the soul. It didn’t seem to be affecting the others in the same way it was affecting him, and Elach grit his teeth and balled his fists to try and resist the soul rending noise that was coming from his left.

“Thank you, Miss Revelation.” the heavily made-up man said as Revel handed him the filled out form. Elach barely heard anything through the incessant scraping, but he made out the important bits.

“I see you’re offering… the same incentives as last year.” The made-up man said, his tone disappointed. “You must be banking on impressing the practitioners at the showing. If you reject all of the lower ranking contestants like last year, you won’t get any new disciples. Again.”

“I know.” Revel whispered.

The made-up man sighed. “You know better than anyone how dangerous a situation you’re in. Good luck.”

Revel nodded to the man and stood up, walking out in a different direction than they’d come in. Elach walked mechanically for a little bit as the noise faded into the distance, Revel and Sechen deadly quiet as they strode on ahead and alongside him. Elach let his questions die on his tongue, for this wasn’t the time. He didn’t know these people, and getting involved in their struggles would just make it harder to achieve his goals. Whatever those were. But it hurt to stay quiet while Revel was obviously suffering, so he looked to Sechen for any kind of indication as to how to continue.

She was a ball of incandescent rage, her fists clenched hard enough that if her nails were any longer they would have cut into the flesh of her palms. She obviously wanted to speak, grinding her teeth between a tightly clenched jaw, but she was giving Revel her space. She had said this was going on her fourth year, so this must not be the first time she’s walked these hallways with Revel. And that left Elach with a question; who was Sechen’s rage directed towards? The disciples that browsed over Revel, or Revel herself?

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

His question was answered the moment the hotel room door slammed shut. The rest of the walk down the glassy main street had been accompanied by an uncomfortable silence, with Sechen shooting looks in Revel’s direction that the manifestation shied away from.

“You know you’re not good enough.” Sechen spat as Revel’s fingers left the handle. “You can’t outshine any of the other patrons, nevermind people like Glasrime or Oasis. You told me you would work on the incentives, but you just put the same things from last year! What do you expect to happen, people have a magical change of heart and suddenly everyone wants to bond with the exact same wisp manifestation they passed over last year!?”

“All I can do is put my best foot forward.” Revel said quietly. “If they don’t want me, then they don’t want me. Maybe it's better if I become some powerful kids’ wisp.”

This didn’t feel like the start of a new argument, but the continuation of one that always bubbled under the surface of those two’s entire relationship. Elach held his breath as what was spoken escalated, but the tones in which they were said didn’t match the hurt that was flung. Sechen was on the aggressive, angry that Revel hadn’t kept countless promises. Whereas Revel was sitting there, on the verge of tears, demeaning not only herself but Sechen as well. The insult that stuck with Elach was when Revel had, through deep sobs, blamed her inability to attract apprentices to the fact that she kept the company of a sickly monster like Sechen.

Elach slowly backed out of the room as tensions skyrocketed. Flow chittered a sad tune in the back of his mind, and Elach agreed with the sentiment. If this was the norm for these two, and they’d just put on an act to try and get him to be Revel’s apprentice, then he wanted nothing to do with them. Revel seemed desperate enough, and yet the made-up man had commented about her denying the lower ranking contestants' desires to bond with her. What they were competing at, Elach didn’t know. But it seemed to be for the attention of the patrons gathered here, like Oasis, Revel, and the wax unicorn-lizard from before.

Pushing the door shut and grimacing as it squeaked on its hinges, Elach held the knob for a few moments to make sure that Revel and Sechen hadn’t stopped their argument when they heard him leave. He still heard shouting and whimpering from inside, so Elach let go and walked to the stairs of the hotel Revel had rented a room in. He walked past what he’d learned was called an elevator and shuddered, memories of Resthollow’s trial coming back to him as he opened the door to the stairwell and made his descent. Something had caught his eye when they checked in, and he wanted to see it for himself.

Twin glass doors opened to a small park, but it was inside of the hotel. Rooms on the inside of the lower floors had balconies that overhung the park, but none of them seemed to be occupied right now. No, most of them were in the park, apprentices and patrons alike, though it looked like the apprentices outnumbered the patrons at least five to one. And each patron had a crowd of no less than three apprentices around them, some with Issi manifestations that matched the patron, and others with them that had nothing in common with them. Those must be the people hoping to form new bonds mixed in with the patrons' own apprentices.

There were a few people who seemed to want nothing to do with the patrons, apprentices who were sparring or isolating themselves in meditation. Elach walked over to the bank of a small stream that cut off about a quarter of the park, a single bridge connecting the two pieces of land. He sat down in the dirt with crossed legs, listening to the chatter of small animals, bird songs, the rush of the river, and the clash of Issi from a group of practitioners on the other side of the river. It wasn’t anywhere close to the peace he’d felt in the wisp garden, but it was as close as he was going to get in this glass monstrosity.

“Hey.”

A voice snapped Elach out of his meditation, and he turned to see Arvay, Brynn, and who he assumed was Hugil sitting on the bank with him. Well, Arvay and Hugil sat with him. Brynn stood a few feet back watching over them like a hawk. “Hey.” He said back. “Haven’t seen you three since you tried to kill me.”

“Yeah, sorry about that.” Arvay apologized from Elach’s left. “Someone shows up randomly, with crazy powerful Issi nobody can place? You assume the worst.”

“Because anything less will get you killed.” Hugil added.

“Exactly.” Arvay agreed. “Still can’t place your Issi, but if Revel vouches for you I guess you’re fine.”

“Or she knows Glasrime would destroy you if you stepped out of line.” Brynn said.

“That too.” Arvay sighed. “What happened with the existential bleed, anyways? Revel forced us out before we could hear the full story.”

Elach shrugged. “My master gave it to me the last time I saw them. And that’s really it. I woke up on top of the glacier after that, found my way in, and then you know the rest.”

“That we do.” Arvay said with a chuckle. “It scared the hells outta us when you showed up, you know.”

“Yeah, I know.” Elach grumbled, rubbing at his multitude of clotted cuts. He wasn’t used to having textured arms.

Brynn grimaced while her friends shot her looks that lasted a fraction of a second, just barely enough for Elach to notice. So Brynn was the one that had summoned the giant. Which meant Arvay was the one who’d encased him in Ice, unless Brynn had two Issi seeds. Which was possible, he supposed, but unlikely.

He decided changing the subject was better than asking. “So how long have all of you been bonded to Glasrime?”

“Three years for me.” Arvay said. “They were my second bond, but we removed the first one to make room for them.”

“Same here.” Hugil piped in. “Not the three years part, I’ve been bonded for four and a half, but the bond swapping part. I wasn’t lucky enough to be born when there was some bigshot looking for new blood, so I bonded with one of the surrogate patrons.”

“Surrogate patrons?” Elach asked. “Like a patron in place of a patron?”

“Exactly.” Arvay confirmed with a nod. “They give you a bond and just barely enough Issi to resist the eternals’ power. My original bond wasn’t a surrogate, but they weren’t exactly the best thing to be bonded to.” Arvay grimaced. “Disgusting old toad. He was nice enough to me, but seeing how he treated the others was just….”

“Disgusting?” Elach offered.

“I was trying to think of a better word, but yeah.” Arvay laughed. She shook her head and leaned back, watching the ceiling as she remembered. “Came all the way down here from Lavassil’s volcanic tunnels to try and find a new bond, and after I did alright in the games and announced I was getting rid of my old bond when I got my new one, Glasrime offered me a bond. And I wasn’t going to say no to that kind of power.”

“Glas picked me from the Issi-less part of the games. I did alright, but I was one of the only people without some other kind of connection.” Hugil explained. “Seems like they’re only looking for people they can be the first bond for.”

“Unless they’re absurdly powerful.” Arvay agreed. “Brynn, you want to tell your story?”

“No.” Brynn said, turning to watch the practitioners sparring with a disdainful sneer. “I will not expose my secrets to a dangerous outsider.”

“You heard her. So, now that we all know the basics of how we got here, you want to get some exercise?” Arvay pointed at the portion of the park cut off by the river, a shimmering barrier coming into view as a lightning bolt struck it. Sound made it through, albeit severely muted, letting the rest of the park have a relatively quiet time while anyone who needed a place to spar could have one.

“I’m warning you, I’m pretty terrible.” Elach said as he stood, bushing dirt from the seat of his pants. “I wasn’t with my master for a very long time, and I don’t even have a focus.”

“Oh, really?” Brynn lazily turned and eyed Elach, but it was as if she was looking right through him. “How is that possible?”

Elach shrugged. So far, he didn’t have the best opinion of Brynn as a friend. But he also couldn’t fault her one bit for her cautiousness. “I don’t know what to tell you except that it’s the truth.”

The wooden bridge creaked under Elach’s feet as Brynn muttered to herself, feeling Issi slide against his skin as he walked through the barrier. The sounds of battle instantly grew louder and more pronounced, thunderclaps and clashing metal ringing through the air. Elach took in a long breath, the smell of ozone and embers polluting the air as people sparred around him, and Flow made a disgusted noise in the back of his mind. Elach smiled at Flow’s distaste, glad that he wasn’t the only one who wasn’t excited by the sounds or smells of battle.