Elach closed his eyes, and he felt Flow shift on his shoulder. He felt that intangible space near his stomach, far too large for his body yet contained completely, that held everything Sentence had given him. He felt the cold inside straining against the insulating layer he’d made, unable to take even the smallest bit of ground. There was a small dot of an anomaly floating in the middle of his container, which he assumed was prisoner’s coin, but other than that it was about half filled with location Issi from his bond with Sentence. And with a flash of realization, Elach felt that same pressure pushing out on his container pressing down on him from outside. It was like a great untapped lake, yet he was sitting in a dinghy with a half-empty bucket. Like he should be able to scoop up the water around him and drink it deep, but something in the back of his mind warned him away.

He relayed as much to Sentence, who let out a curious hum at Elach’s description.

“In the terms of your comparison, it is because that water may be dangerous to drink the way it is now; though it can be purified to become safe for consumption.” Sentence said, and Elach nodded blindly. “But translating that to Issi, it is because the outside Issi does not have the unique mark your being leaves on everything that is yours. That is to protect you, since the Issi outside would be bloating you beyond the point of harm if it flowed uninhibited.”

“How do you know all of this?” Elach asked.

“A lifetime of fighting, followed by a lifetime of teaching, followed by yet another of fighting. And now one of uselessness.” Sentence sighed. “With long stints of being the Sentence I described to you during your last visit in between.”

Elach didn’t know how to respond to that.

Sentence just continued on. “Now that you can feel the Issi around you, you will need to develop a technique to bring it into yourself, but not inside of your container, so that you can safely remove all of the impurities and transfer it into your container. Most use their headspace as an intermediary, but with Flow and the fountain inside of yours that would be ill-advised. Use anywhere else instead. Your pathways will sort out the rest.”

“Any pointers?”

“Most people simply opened themselves to the world, then slammed themselves closed once they reached their desired Issi intake. Some did it through breathing, others through tensing certain muscles, and others by their thoughts alone. I call it a technique, but it is far less than anything else you would ever develop through a focus.” Sentence explained. “It is closer to a martial arts meditation technique than an Issi one.”

Elach took in a deep breath, held it for a few seconds, then exhaled. On the next breath he tried to imagine the Issi around him joining the air rushing into his lungs, and though he felt a little trickle, it was nowhere near what he expected he should be taking in. He tried a few more breaths to make sure it wouldn’t steadily ramp up in Issi intake, and by the last one it somehow felt like he was getting less than before. So that wouldn’t work. He could hear Flow breathing deep next to his ear, mimicking his timing exactly. It was almost unnerving.

Nothing else he tried even came close to the breathing’s intake, and not in a good way. No amount of muscle tensing brought in Issi, and his thoughts all felt like they had to traverse his headspace to even try to bring in Issi, so that wasn’t possible. He tried moving the Issi in his container like a cyclone to try and pull the Issi outside inwards, physically grasping the Issi with his hands, and concentrating it inside of his body like he’d done with Flow to make a focus. Nothing worked.

As Elach was about to admit he was out of ideas, Flow poked his ear with their beak to get his attention. He could feel that their eyes were still closed somehow, and he felt a song welling up in their chest. It was wordless and had a scant few notes, like the background noise to all existence. A soft, low hum reverberated effortlessly out of his throat, joining in Flow’s warm and long notes that somehow reminded him of the taste and feel of the amber nectar sliding over his tongue, coating his throat in syrupy, floral sweetness.

And the Issi flowed like water. The space left in him by the song was swiftly filled with Issi, and he felt the same thing happening to Flow, who stuttered for a short second as they were accosted by the foreign sensation. But they recovered quickly, and after what felt like half an hour Elach felt comfortably full. Flow felt the same in his mind, and they chirped with a voice that didn’t sound like it had just sung for so long straight.

“I think we’re full.” Elach said, his voice scratchy and raw. He tried to clear his throat, but it was as dry as a rain barrel in a drought. He reached down to drink some of the nectar, but Sentence held a hand out to stop him.

“It’s unwise to add more Issi to your system while you’re as glutted as you are.” Sentence said, offering Elach a large bottle of water. “And you have kept the Issi out of your container and headspace, correct?”

Elach gave Sentence a thumbs up as he drank deep from the bottle. Flow shifted themselves to catch the droplets that dripped down Elach’s chin, so he filled his hand with a little water and held it up to Flow.

As Flow drank from Elach’s hand, Sentence continued his lesson. “Now you must take that Issi and remove any impurities it may hold. This Issi is close to your own, so you should be able to reap a ninety five percent return from it.”

As the Issi lazily drifted through all of him, Elach knew he didn’t need an explanation for this part. The Issi wanted to break into his container on its own, so all he had to do was break it down to its usable parts. He peeked at the Issi within his container, using it as a reference to break down the rest of the Issi inside of him so that it was a perfect mirror of his own. And then, once the last mote had been scoured clear of any impurities, he let the torrent do as it wished.

His container bloated just a little bit under the heavy flow of newfound Issi, the image of his container slowly straining to accept the new heavier load flashing into his mind for a split second. He smiled and breathed out a relieved breath, and Flow did the same. But as he breathed out, he felt something other than breath slip between his teeth and escape his open mouth.

He opened his eyes to see a miasma of clashing colours and sensations escaping through his mouth and nose, flowing outwards like breath on a cold winter morning. It felt like everything that was different in the Issi around him was leaking out, reabsorbing into the essence of everything to be repurposed for someone, or something, else.

“And that is how you complete one full cycle of absorption, purification, and consumption.” Sentence said with a smile full of pride. “It will be far more difficult when you find yourself surrounded by Issi that is less compatible with your own, but we will deal with that once you find yourself with an empty container.”

“I can absorb other kinds of Issi?” Elach raised an eyebrow. “But I only have location Issi.”

“You can, but the way it works is slightly different. Location Issi can be directly infused into your container, as you just did, but other types of Issi need to be distilled further down and then used to stimulate your own Issi production. That is why most people carry something with them that produces Issi of their own type to recharge with.”

Elach ran a hand through the Issi in the air. “Can I use this Issi without bringing it into my body? Is that possible?”

“It is, but that is a lesson for another time. If you had a common type like water or air I would put a higher priority on it, but location Issi is quite rare despite what you might think.” Sentence said, stepping up to Elach and pointing a finger at his chest. “Right now you need to use up all that Issi so we can move onto absorbing a slightly more discordant Issi type. I think you can find a way to do that while also experimenting with your base Issi function.”

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

Elach collapsed into the fluffy bed in the guest room Sentence had given him for the next few days. He’d spent the last sixteen hours progressively working down the ladder of Issi types, and had just ended a few minutes ago with Issi that held next to nothing in common with location; stagnation Issi. He couldn’t quite understand why they were such polar opposites; a city didn’t move, so stagnation should have held at least something in common with location Issi. Sentence had explained that location Issi wasn’t actually about things like cities and forests, and was more akin to the ability to roam freely or tie things down, but that just made the comparison with stagnation Issi make less sense to Elach.

Eventually Sentence had given up with a shrug, stating that some things clashed for no real reason. That made more sense to Elach than trying to explain some greater concept he hadn’t learned about in school, and then Sentence had dismissed him to his room with the order to get some rest. Even though he wasn’t tired Elach let himself be led down the hall and into a room through a door that had been hidden by picture frames.

And now here he was. He took in a deep breath and hummed his Issi gathering tune, cutting it short so he could get the barest amount of Issi to work with. It was a bizarre feeling, having this intangible substance saturate his blood and his organs, yet it did not provide him an advantage nor a disadvantage. It was simply there, ripped from the materials and thoughts that had created it and moved inside of him without any fight. Even the discordant Issi types came with the same amount of effort, it was in purifying them the difficulty showed.

Elach released the Issi without purifying it, hearing Flow do the same inside of his headspace. They’d gotten tired far quicker than he had, and had retired two hours prior. That was when Elach had found out that he could take in Issi on his own while Flow was in his headspace by remembering the song they had sang, playing it out inside his headspace while he hummed along. It took around three times as long to do, but it was good to know he would be able to do this when he went back to the real world where Flow was constrained to his headspace. And maybe if they sang along in there instead of Elach’s memories, he could take in Issi faster. Not as fast as if they were with him, but faster than the one-third speed he was currently humming.

He turned to the side and coughed into his arm as the Issi left him. He’d worked his throat beyond raw today, and Sentence had claimed that a good eight hours of sleep would be more than enough for him to replenish his Issi reserves and heal his throat. Something about how he would absorb more Issi in his sleep now that he could do it while awake, combined with Sentence’s headspace having some kind of rejuvenating effects on resting bodies. Elach wasn’t going to complain about a break, but the thought of losing a full third of his time with Sentence to rest didn’t sit well with him.

“Doesn’t matter anyways.” Elach croaked, his scant few words sending him into a fit of dry coughs. It was time to rest, even if it was costing him valuable training time. Elach threw his clothes save for his undergarments into a pile on the floor and shimmied under the fluffy covers, a heavy feeling coming over him the second he was covered from the neck down.

The blankets must be enchanted, Elach thought hazily in the few moments before Issi gently lulled him into a deep, rejuvenating sleep.