The cafe Metea/Irric lead Elach to was, by all accounts, very beautiful. Pots with algae-like vines hung from the ceiling, the wet plants stretching down almost to the floor, flowering in a large variety of bright colours with bizarre shapes. One of them looked like three perfect squares of paper stacked on top of each other with a hole punched through the middle, a dark orange pollen coated three-pronged stalk poking through.

“You’re back already, Metea/Irric? Was the line that short?” A woman asked from behind the desk said as she turned around, raising her eyebrows as she saw Elach. “Aren’t you the guy who was with Revel and Sechen?”

She raised a hand to the counter and pushed aside a bowl of what looked like flower petals, and Elach saw a chain made of rain wrapped around her arm. This was the woman who’d looked at Revel with barely restrained lust back when Revel had signed that form.

“I am.” Elach said with a nod. “And you’re Metea/Irric’s patron?”

“Technically.” The rain woman said with a laugh. “So, where’s my delivery?”

“Oh, right!” Metea/Irric said with a snap that didn’t come from her fingers. Elach flinched away reflexively as he caught a flash of lightning out of the corner of his eye. “I’ll be right back!”

Metea/Irric bolted through the door, flipping a sign in the window so that the side that read ‘open’ was facing inwards towards Elach, leaving him alone with this woman. He’d initially assumed she was a manifestation of a mythic weapon, what with the chain of solid rain that ran down her arm to finish in a blade with an edge of thunder, and the fact that she still had it wrapped around her arm even while working cemented that assumption.

“So what brings you here?” The woman asked, stepping out from behind the counter and motioning at a thick wooden table with four chairs. “I thought Revel would be working you and Sechen to the bone for the trials.”

Elach winced. “Stuff happened. Revel went somewhere and Sechen needed some….. Time alone.”

“Another argument, huh?” The woman smiled sadly. “It’ll take some time to get used to, but that’s just how they are. Two strong personalities clashing off each other. And they don’t even make up, just carry on like nothing happened.” She chuckled and shook her head, the rattling of her chain like falling raindrops. “Don’t know how they haven’t ripped each other’s throats out.”

“How do you know all that?” Elach asked. This woman hadn’t wished Revel the same luck that Oasis had, and now she was speaking like the three of them were lifelong friends.

“I’ve been here a long time.” She said, standing and walking back behind the counter. “Even though they only come by for the equinox, they don’t really try to hide how they work. You want something to drink? I’ve got tea, coffee, juice and water.”

“Nothing for me, thanks.” Elach said.

“Suit yourself.”

“I’m back!” Metea/Irric called as she kicked the door open. “They had your package at the front desk!”

“Stop kicking the door!” The woman yelled from behind the counter.

“When you grease the hinges I will!” Metea/Irric called, carrying a large package over to the counter and setting it down with a thud. “Elach needed help and I just kinda got sidetracked. Sorry.”

“Stop kicking the door and all is forgiven.” The rain woman grumbled, taking the box and setting it down somewhere behind the counter. “You want something to drink? The water’s already boiling.”

“My usual, please.” Metea/Irric said. “And get Elach whatever he wants. I’ll pay.”

“Already offered. He didn’t want anything.”

“Really?” Metea/Irric turned to look at Elach. “Are you sure you don’t want anything? Rainshear makes the best drinks I’ve ever had. And some of the best pastries too.”

“Some of the best?” Rainshear said with a pout.

Metea/Irric rolled her eyes dramatically and turned back to Rainshear. “You remember those donuts we had that one year those Lavassil vassals came for the equinox.”

“And YOU should remember that I stole their recipe.” Rainshear laughed. “So yes, I make the best pastries on the world piece.”

“Fine. Would you like one of the best pastries on the world piece, Elach?”

Elach politely shook his head to decline. “I’m going out to supper in about fifteen minutes, so no thanks.”

“Oh, you are?” Metea/Irric raised an eyebrow. “With who?”

Elach held up three fingers. “Three of Glasrime’s apprentices. They got mobbed by a bunch of people back at the hotel, then I went back to my room and well… you know the rest.”

“I don’t.” Rainshear said, lowering herself to her elbows on the counter. “Did something happen to Revel?”

“Not Revel, Sechen.” Metea/Irric clarified. “Her manifestation came in, and it was a doozy.”

Elach shot Metea/Irric a look, and she blushed furiously. “Alright, maybe I shouldn’t have said that. It was a private matter. I’m sorry.”

“Is Sechen doing alright?” Rainshear asked, her voice tinged with worry. “I was always worried that Revel’s uniqueness could create some pretty harsh manifestations.”

“Harsh is an understatement.” Elach muttered. “Makes me terrified of what’ll happen to me when mine comes in.”

“And that’s something I wanted to ask you earlier today, but didn’t get the chance.” Rainshear said. “You aren’t bonded to Revel yet, right? But you do have a bond?”

If Rainshear could sense the Issi he held, there was no point trying to lie to her. “Yes and yes. And my bond is fairly new, so I wouldn’t be able to bond with Revel even if I wanted to.”

“Yeah, and you don’t even have a focus.” Metea/Irric added. “Rainshear helped me make my first one the day after we bonded, so what happened with your patron?”

“Nothing, I guess.” Elach shrugged. “We didn’t have much time together, so we just kind of skipped the focus-making.”

“What do you mean you didn’t have much time together?” Metea/Irric confusedly asked. “It takes a while to cement a bond, so how long did you stay with them?”

“A day?” Elach guessed. “Maybe less?”

“Oh.” Metea/Irric said, going quiet afterwards.

“That’s not enough time for anything.” Rainshear said. “Are you sure your bond is properly formed?”

“I am.” Elach said, turning his attention to the clock in the corner of the cafe. “I should get going. Don’t want to keep Arvay and Hugil waiting.”

“Oh. Alright.” Metea/Irric said.

“Our doors are open to you no matter the time, Elach.” Rainshear said with a smile. “Any friend of Revel is a friend of ours.”

Elach smiled a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Thank you. I’ll remember that.”

Pulling on the door, then pulling with all his strength as it stuck fast, Elach waved goodbye to Rainshear and Metea/Irric as he stepped out into the street. The sounds of passersby seemed eerily muted as they strolled along, parents with children and patrons with apprentices out walking like this was the happiest time of the year. Like the solstice would have been back home.

Elach watched a group of young adults walk by, all of them carrying manifestations that connected them to one patron or another and talking excitedly amongst each other. The most common words he overheard were equinox and trials, with the names of the patrons they’d hoped to woo with their Issi prowess being thrown around like juggling balls. One of them threw out a name, then the others gave their thoughts on that patron, followed by a likelihood of attracting that patron’s attention.

Glasrime was by far the most desired, but also the least likely. It seems what the three apprentices had said was true; Glasrime had a particular taste when it came to apprentices. He listened closely, hoping to hear their opinion on anyone else he’d met, but every second patron they talked about was Glasrime. They were utterly infatuated with them. Which was probably why they were here, instead of anywhere else these celebrations might be happening. The solstice celebrations happened anywhere there was a primal spring; Elach’s old hometown, Pyreheld, and right here at Freshetfall. And… that was it. Three primal springs for the entire world.

The thought sparked something in the back of Elach’s mind. His parents had told him that the primal spring near their town wasn’t there when they first moved in. It had appeared over the course of a few years, first as an anomalous concentration of Issi, then evolving over time into the garden where wisps gathered en masse. It coudn’t be a coincidence that Glasrime’s glacier was above Freshetfall, a living city near a primal spring. And Arvay had said there was another Glasrime-like being under Pyreheld that had a city of eternal unbound people just like this one. Which left the living city close-ish to the final primal spring; Resthollow. Sentence had said Cavress was devoured by time and the eternals, but what if it wasn’t? Prisoner had said it was a mining town, so what if the mines had become the town?

Elach sighed; just another thing he might never get to find the answer to. Though this one screamed at him just a little louder than the others he was keeping in the back of his mind. Something was different here, but he just couldn’t puzzle it out. Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Elach looked both ways before crossing the street and walking a quarter block to get to the hotel. Maybe one of the Glasrime apprentices knew something about Resthollow that he didn’t.