“Congratulations.” Sentence said with a smile, clapping his hands twice. “You two have succeeded at creating your first focus.”

“And not a moment too soon.” Elach grunted, rolling his stiff shoulder as Flow took off. They hovered in the sky above him for a moment before taking off, landing in a tree with silver leaves and disappearing into the foliage. “They’ll be fine, right?”

“Flow needs to rest.” Sentence said, watching the leaves rustle in the tree Flow had taken to. “Wisps are much more in tune with Issi, but Flow is still young. Their body is not yet used to the unique blend of Issi you feed through them. You should repeat this exercise nightly to try and strengthen your bond. Without actually making a focus, of course.”

“I’ll try to remember that.” Elach said with a nod. “So what will my focus do?”

“Give you access to a technique outside of your base Issi function.” Sentence said. “But I suppose you’re asking for the specifics, not the broad. It will be at least tangentially related to your base abilities, but other than that I have no idea. The coin Prisoner gave you was unique, and Flow is a wisp who has a much greater influence over your Issi than the average wisp has over their practitioner. You will just have to wait and see.”

Elach rubbed his hands together to bring some feeling back into them. “What now, then?”

“Now you show me what you have figured out on your own. We will touch up on areas I find you lacking in.” Sentence said. “You just learned to use your Issi for things other than techniques, so that does not need to be tested, so we’ll start with taking in the Issi of the world and shaping it to your needs.”

“Alright.” Elach said, concentrating on his container. He felt the basest trickle of Issi coming into it now that all the amber had been used, trying to highlight it so that Sentence could somehow see it.

After a short pause, Sentence cleared his throat. “Are you going to begin?” He asked, his voice full of patience.

“I’m already doing it. My intake is really slow, but I can refill with the amber nectar from my fountain instead.” Elach explained.

“You are, quite literally, doing nothing. You aren’t even attempting to draw Issi into yourself.” Sentence motioned at the ground between him and Elach. “Manifest your fountain. I need to see this for myself.”

Elach closed his eyes and reached into his headspace, as he had done with Flow the last time he was in Sentence’s realm, and felt his palm close over the lip of the fountain. Being that it was an inanimate object it was far simpler to bring over, but it required more concentration and a greater pull than it had before. By the time he yanked it out he was sweating profusely, his muscles straining against his skin as he gasped for breath. Matter over mind, in this case.

“I didn’t realize it was this… grandiose.” Sentence chuckled. “I apologize. I would have asked instead for you to bring a cup of amber nectar if I had known it would have been this difficult.”

Elach waved Sentence’s concerns off as he leaned on the edge of the fountain, scooping a handful of the thick nectar to his mouth and drinking deep. It was sweeter and more floral than the last time he’d drank it, but there were also some warm spices in it he couldn’t quite place. It was thick like honey, but went down like water; coating his throat in a sticky residue that made him cough in surprise. Sentence seemed transfixed by the fountain, torn between doing as Elach had and simply staring at it until it gave him what he was looking for.

“Do you have a cup or something?” Elach asked. Sentence nodded and produced two cups that looked quite familiar to Elach; one red and the other blue. He handed them to Elach, who swiftly filled one cup with amber nectar and the other with the minty space-looking nectar. He’d have to come up with better names for those eventually.

He offered both cups back to Sentence, who took them with relief. “Why the hesitation?”

“I didn’t wish to be impolite.” Sentence said. “You might have a great attachment to the liquids.”

“They’re literally endless.” Elach said with a snort. “Probably eating at my Issi or something to refill themselves.”

“You’re closer to the truth than you realize.” Sentence said, dipping a finger in the amber nectar and sniffing it. He then licked it, and the explosion of Issi that resulted left Elach seeing spots.

Sentence blinked in disbelief before breaking into a great guffaw. “Well, that was unexpected.” He said with a lingering smile on his face, dusting off his already reforming sweater. “It’s been a long while since a wisp has pushed me away from the contents of their container. I suppose I should have asked for permission first.”

Before Elach could get a question in, what with his ears ringing and his vision spotty and all, Sentence looked directly at the tree Flow had taken to and spoke. “May I have your permission to sample the nectars of your container, Flow?”

Flow peeked their head out of the silver leaves at Sentence’s call, singing an elaborate song before gliding down to the edge of the fountain. They looked between Elach and Sentence before letting out a grudging chirp directed at Sentence, then jumped in the thick amber nectar.

Sentence watched Flow splash about for a moment before his gaze wandered to the cup. “Have you been drinking bird water, Elach?”

“I think the proper term would be ‘Wisp Nectar’, actually.” Elach shakily said, blinking away the spots in his eyes from the violent explosion. “Why did your Issi explode like that when you tasted the nectar? And did you call the fountain Flow’s container?”

“Yes, the fountain is Flow’s container. It is also Flow themselves. And as for the reaction, that is normal for someone attempting to consume another living being’s Issi. Unless you have their express permission, either through trust, domination, or a bond, Issi that belongs to another living being will react violently when you attempt to bring it into yourself.” Sentence explained. “Some Issi, like consumption or control, have built-in defenses against this phenomena, though even that depends on how powerful their Issi is.”

“Well, I didn’t plan on eating anyone else’s Issi, but now I definitely won’t.” Elach said. “But how does Flow have a container? I thought they technically were my container.”

“The wisp only becomes the container when a practitioner devours them during the bonding process.” Sentence said, a small scowl etching itself onto his face. “All the Issi the wisp had gathered is put directly into the formation of a container and the connected headspace, so a practitioner who devours their wisp will be stronger than one that did not. And their growth will be faster, since there is no wisp to share their Issi with. The only downside, compared to the traditional method of bonding a wisp, is that neither their container nor headspace will ever truly evolve. They are bound to the Issi seeds they have been given, and will follow a path that has been carved out for them without deviation.”

“And then there is what you have done with Flow.” Sentence gestured at the splashes in the amber nectar. “It was a rarity even back then, since wisps that gained a greater sense of self rarely trusted someone enough to bond utterly and completely with them. A true symbiotic partnership, where all Issi taken in is divided between the two based on what they need. What I call a wisp’s container is more commonly called their equivalent, something out of place in the headspace of a practitioner that bonds a wisp with a mind of their own.”

“Not that I would ever trade what I have, but it sounds like devouring a wisp gives you more power than trying to actually bond with them.” Elach said with disgust. “There has to be a better reason than altruism to not kill off your wisp.”

Sentence took a long drink of the amber nectar, wiping his mouth on his sweater’s sleeve. “There is, of course. But they are completely different. If all you wish for is power, and to gather as much of it as quickly as possible, there is no reason not to devour your wisp. But your power will be simple and one-dimensional, and you level countless inner mountains that could have lead to greater heights. But with a wisp aiding you, you will gain a better understanding of your own Issi and what you can do with it, have a simpler time adapting to new environments, and take in far more Issi than someone with a devoured wisp could. But you lose thirty to fifty percent of that to your wisp, so you end up weaker than you would be. And then there’s the wisp’s container, which can provide anywhere from a minuscule advantage to an insurmountable one.”

“This is a large advantage.” Sentence said, holding up the empty red cup. “A common comparison would be an Issi restoration pill or elixir at craftsman level. And from what I can see of your container, you seem to be able to store it in yourself for immediate use.”

“Yup.”

“Can you control if you use it or not?” Sentence asked.

Elach shook his head. “Not right now.”

“When you can better control your Issi, you will be able to.” Sentence assured Elach. “How much can you take in before you become glutted?”

Elach thought back to when he first tried the nectar. He held up a hand with all his fingers extended. “Five handfuls, then nothing more will go down. And I could see a timer for around five hours after I filled up.”

“As Flow grows more powerful, your glutted limit will rise and the timer will fall.” Sentence said. “The other nectars will grow more powerful as well, not simply the amber nectar.”

The red cup disappeared and Sentence brought the blue one to his lips, shivering at the unexpected coolness of the space-mint nectar as he drank.

“That is…” Sentence coughed twice, pounding his chest with his fist. “Refreshing!”

“They caught me off guard the first time I tried drinking them too.” Elach said.

“And I can feel something different in this one. How was this created?” Sentence asked.

“I dumped existential bleed into the fountain, then it separated into two halves." Elach gestured at the blue cup that Sentence had just drank from. "That one came from the half with the existential bleed.”

“Hmm. I am drinking myself. I can feel it attempting to crush my Issi into nothing.” Sentence mused. “Interesting. Does drinking this bring you any pain?”

Elach shook his head. “No. It gathers outside of my container and presses on it, but it doesn’t hurt.”

“Good. I’m glad to see that Flow didn’t create something that would harm their partner.” Sentence said, and Flow cawed defensively, looking a little slighted. “This should help you concentrate your Issi, but it also might end up having other permanent effects I can’t even begin to speculate on. If you feel off while this nectar works, stop taking it until you can come visit me again.”

“Stop drinking the mint stuff when it bites back.” Elach said with a small smile. “I’ll remember that.”

Sentence nodded. “After testing the nectars you claim replace your ability to take in Issi from the world, I can confidently say that you have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“What do you mean?” Elach frowned. He was certain that the amber nectar was replenishing his Issi.

“I mean that you do not know how to pull Issi into yourself, not that you cannot.” Sentence said. “Which is peculiar, to be told. It is something that usually comes naturally to people once they have received their first Issi seed.”

“Oh. Maybe it’s because I bonded with Flow?”

“That was my assumption as well. Flow, would you mind coming up here for a minute?”

Flow let out a chirp of affirmation, hopping onto the edge of the fountain and shaking themselves off before flapping up to Elach’s shoulder.

“Thank you. I am going to saturate the air around you with location Issi, which should be the simplest for you to integrate into your container.” Sentence said, clapping his hands. Issi sprung into existence, coating the entire clearing in what felt almost exactly like the Issi inside Elach’s container. “We will go over what to do with it later. But for now, try and focus on how the Issi outside of your container is the same as that inside your container. That feeling is key to absorbing the ambient Issi of the world.”