Elach wrenched on the symbol for what felt like hours, crushing his Issi down further and further until it was a third of the size it had originally been. His muscles ached and it felt like his blood was going to burst out of his strained vessels, a nasty headache pulsing behind his eyes and making everything infinitely harder than it should have been. As the symbol found no more ground to take something snapped in Elach’s mind, and suddenly no muscles below his neck would respond to his pleas to continue. A voice called at him through a haze of pain and effort, and Elach painfully opened his eyes to a too-bright sky and Sentence standing over him with a giddy smile that told him all he needed to know.

“And now you know why Issi compression is done little by little.” Sentence said, touching a fingertip to Elach’s sternum and pressing down hard. Feeling returned in a wave starting from Elach’s heart, though all the fatigue and pain he’d felt just seconds ago had vanished. “Know that when you compress your Issi outside of my realm, your progress will be much slower.”

“You sped this up too?” Elach croaked, sitting up and rolling his shoulder. He felt like it should hurt, but it didn’t.

“Something like that.” Sentence said. “I gave you access to all of the Issi in this area to put into your compression. You picked this clearing to the bone.” He chuckled. “You will only have access to whatever Issi you have stored in your container or that you have purified, but not yet brought into your container.”

“Use the same Issi I’m supposed to be compressing to do the compression? Isn’t that dangerous?” Elach asked, tapping the toe of his shoe on the stone beneath him. His calves suddenly felt like he’d run for half a day straight, took a ten minute rest and then ran for the other half.

“Only if you try to do what you just did.” Sentence said. “What you just did is something no practitioner, or at least one who follows a constant path of self improvement, would ever have to do. If you are constantly compressing your Issi and expanding your container, by the point you reach the bounds of your physical form your Issi will not be anywhere near as far behind the growth of your container as yours would have been if you hadn’t found a technique to compress your Issi.”

“Because we only have four days, right?” Elach asked, scratching at his forearms. It felt like they were sunburned and covered in bug bites; stinging, burning, and itching at the same time. His nail ran into something hard near his wrist, but when he looked down he saw nothing.

“One and a half now.” Sentence said with a nod, as if he hadn’t just contradicted Elach. “Are you feeling well enough to move on to compressing your container, or do you need a few minutes to rest?”

“I feel surprisingly good. Except for my forearms and calves.” Elach took in a long breath, trying to clear his mind of the itches and aches he felt. “Maybe working will take my mind off of it.”

Sentence’s expression dropped as he looked at Elach’s wrists, but Elach was too busy fending off the pain to notice. By the time he returned his gaze, Sentence had plastered on a placid smile that didn’t reach his eyes.

“Compressing your container is very similar to what you have to do to compress your Issi, but applied to the entirety of your container instead of just the Issi inside of it. And you already have something that will help you along.” Sentence said, gesturing at Flow’s fountain. “The black nectar creates a protective shell around your container, so that any hiccups you encounter will not hobble you.”

“How long will this take?” Elach asked. “Not right now, but for future reference.”

“The process takes longer and longer each time you compress your container. A simple metric is to take the area of your headspace and set aside one hour of time per meter cubed, assuming the practitioner hasn’t grown in power since their last compression.” Sentence explained. “Practitioners normally seek an area with ample ambient Issi that they can absorb and purify without much effort, so that they can use it in place of food and water for maintaining their bodily functions.”

“And for those of us who don’t know how large our headspace is in meters cubed?” Elach asked.

“Assume you’ll quintuple the area of your headspace between each container compression. So however long this takes you, multiply that by five for the next time, another five for the time after that, and so on.” Sentence replied. “Your container was close to the smallest I’ve ever seen, and combining that with my aid you shouldn’t take longer than three hours for this compression.”

“And how long would that be outside?” Elach asked. “For future reference.”

Sentence tapped his bearded chin with two fingers. “Between seven and nine hours.”

“I’ll say eight.” Elach sighed. “Which means my next one would take a whole forty hours.”

“Forty hours if you stay as you are.” Sentence corrected. “If you were to grow twice as strong as you currently are, it would only take around twenty hours.”

“So if I got ten times stronger, then it would only take four hours, right?” Elach asked.

Sentence chuckled. “It would, but if you manage to get ten times stronger before you compress your container again, you would be a monster this world hasn’t seen the likes of for millennia. And that’s something you’re far, far away from achieving. Now start compressing your container. We only have eight hours left before you need to recharge again.”

Elach walked over to the fountain and drank a handful of the space-like nectar before delving back to his container. It was wrapped in a tight, freezing layer of the nectar that was already pressing down. He felt Flow’s empowered presence join him once more, their bond stronger than ever, and Elach carved his symbol into the cold covering his Issi, giving it a tentative squeeze.

His container shuddered under the pressure like rotten wood, but the protective layer of nectar kept it from deforming outwards and the insulating layer on the inside kept it from deforming inwards. He knew that if he went too fast, ignoring all the warning signs, he would cause damage that would burst through his protective layers. Elach let out a breath and toned down his grip, letting the pressure die down to next to nothing. He spent the next few hours gradually compressing his container down further and further, going a hair under what he felt he could handle to be safe.

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

Elach finished compressing his container without any fanfare. He reached a point where whenever he tried to press it down further it was like there was an invisible force pushing back at him, and when he tried to soldier on through, it suddenly felt like all of his organs were being squeezed. Flow cawed in surprise at the same time, and he took that as either the end of his compression or a roadblock he needed to crash through. Either way, checking in with Sentence was the safe bet.

“No, you were right to stop.” Sentence said. “You reached the point where your Issi and your container are compressed to the same degree, and that is the best stopping point.”

“There are other stopping points?” Elach asked

“You could stop before you have fully compressed your container, but in the same vein as compressing your container without expanding it to its maximum first you are cannibalizing future progress for quicker and easier power in the moment.” Sentence explained. “And you could push a little bit further, but without medical professionals on hand to cure the side effects it poses a far greater risk to your health than the rewards you would reap.”

“I think I’ll stick with just right.” Elach said. Flow hopped off his shoulder and landed on the table, their new sharper talons scraping along the rock as they turned to face Elach and Sentence.

“I meant to ask, but what happened to Flow?” Sentence inquired. “I haven’t seen a wisp evolve as they have while they were bonded to someone.”

Elach shrugged. “I don’t really know how to explain it, but I think our bond got deeper? It felt like my body was being remodeled to better fit Flow, and I’m assuming the same thing happened to them.”

Flow cawed in agreement.

“Another unique aspect to your bond, I suppose.” Sentence chuckled. “Did you feel your focus at all while you were working on your container?”

“Let me check.” Elach said, closing his eyes. “It feels more complete, but not there yet. How didn’t it get crushed while I compressed everything?”

“Because though the coin resides in your container, its powers truly manifest in your headspace. And, like your headspace, it remains the same even if your container or Issi need to be compressed.” Sentence explained. “Though if you’re asking how the headspace and focus are dissociated yet connected to your container, I cannot explain that. You would have to ask an Issi scholar, if any of them remain.”

“Guess I’ll have to do that.” Elach said, trying to stand but his body felt… wrong. Dissociated from where he was sitting, as another image superimposed itself on his vision and he felt two distinct sensations vying to take hold of his nerves.

“It seems your rest is being interrupted.” Sentence said, his voice cutting through all of the noise that was coming through the superimposition. “We luckily managed to get through all of the important lessons, so we will have to pick up where we left off when you return. Store up at least three hours of time before using the ring again, Elach.”

Elach nodded, calling Flow back to his shoulder without a word. Flow sang five quick notes and Elach felt their fountain return to his headspace. “Before I go, can you tell me what’s so important that you sent me here? What am I supposed to be doing?”

“Take part in the celebrations.” Sentence answered, taking Elach’s hand and helping him stand. “Make connections you feel comfortable bringing with you to slay an eternal. And find out what incentives the patrons are offering. The little I can see of the outside world has led me to believe there is something, or someone, there that will immensely help you and whoever you choose to fight alongside you.”

“And how am I supposed to do that?” Elach asked.

Sentence shrugged. “Ask Rainshear and her apprentice. They know far more of how Glasrime rules his glacier than I do.”

“Alright.” Elach said, his vision of Sentence’s headspace colliding more and more with Rainshear’s home. “I’ll see you soon.”

“Goodbye for now, Elach.” Sentence said with a somber smile, pulling him into a quick hug before letting everything but his hand go. “Make the most of the time you have.”