“Practitioner Elach, would you please step away from the gate.” The first overseer’s voice ordered. “There is an issue with the umbral beasts that we must resolve.”

Elach stared up at where the voice had come from and frowned. “An issue with an Issi beast? How is that possible?”

“As you know, these trials are designed for fresh practitioners; having someone come in and fearlessly face the beats is something they don’t see all the time.” The deeper voice answered. “They’ve learned that any practitioner who comes in here with your kind of confidence isn’t someone they can win against. Even if they’re used to fighting groups of practitioners, and you’re alone.”

“They’re scared of me?” Elach laughed in disbelief. “An Issi beast is scared of me?”

“A moderately weak Issi beast is scared of you.” The monotone voice corrected. “Unfortunately, the only beasts we can produce here are of the weaker variety. You will have to slaughter your way through our menagerie like any other, though we won’t be able to properly gauge your power from the grisly aftermath.”

“I don’t know. Killing helpless Issi beasts that don’t want to kill and or eat me doesn’t sit right with me.” Elach said, staring at the cowering umbral beast behind bars. “If you know I’ll slaughter all of them, can’t you just let me through?”

“If we let you through this trial without effort, then we might as well let you through all of them.” The monotone voice sighed. “Then what would you learn? That you can use your strength to bypass all challenges that lie before you? No; we will not give you safe passage.”

“Give me that.”

“What? No. You weren’t supposed to talk to the practitioners at all.”

“Oh, c’mon, you know this guy isn’t going to struggle through this at all. Hoalt sent him here personally.”

“You just want to pick his brain.”

“Oh, and you don’t?”

“We could have another practitioner come up at any moment!”

The monotone voice and the deep voice argued for a good few minutes while Elach stood there in confusion as their words echoed through the room. He wondered if he was meant to hear this bickering, as if it was somehow another part of the test he had to pass.

“Marveiio, you forgot to press the button.” The deep voice said.

“Oh dear.” Was the last Elach heard out of the monotone voice as their conversation was cut off.

“We weren’t supposed to hear that.” Y’talla giggled, joining Elach in looking through the bars. “I wonder if it gets boring watching practitioners do this all the time. I’m already bored and I haven’t even watched one whole trial.”

“I think they’re supposed to make sure the kids come out of this alive.” Elach grimaced. “Like I was supposed to.”

“So making sure people are safe makes this less boring? I guess if you really care about the practitioners, then maybe. But the scale isn’t right here for you.” Y’talla stepped up to the gate and rattled the bars. The beast inside flinched away from the motion and tried to crush itself even further against the back wall. “This is pointless for us. You fought all those Issi beasts while taking care of those kids without Issi of your own, then you beat all those weird practitioners while we were in your headspace. And the Issi beasts there were way scarier than this kitty.”

Y’talla turned away from the cage after giving the beast one last pitying look. “You’re scarily good with your Issi for someone who hasn’t been a practitioner for that long. Issi flows through you like you were a manifestation, and you use it with barely a thought. Even if you’re not that strong yet, and you don’t have a huge container full of Issi, you aren’t weak.”

Elach felt this was going somewhere, so he leaned back and let Y’talla bring it home. He did remind her that Flow’s Issi and status as Elach’s wisp were off-limits to say out loud, though.

“Elach, when you meet back up with your friends, you’re going to be way stronger than you were. Waaaay stronger. Your bond partially switched over to me,” Y’talla thumped a fist on her chest for emphasis, “and I’m like a guiding flame. Compressing and expanding your container is easier while I’m near you. You take in Issi way quicker, and you barely have to purify it because I radiate the Issi you use. I might not be able to help you with practicing your techniques, or making new ones, but the… uh… other part of your bond will be able to help you with that.”

Elach flexed his fingers. “And I’ve still got that rainbow stuff running through me. I can feel it sometimes.”

“No, you don’t.” Y’talla shook her head. “That stuff is poison to you now. Completely unsafe to drink, use, and I’d say keep in your headspace. You should give all of it to Prisoner the moment you see him.”

“Really? Hmm.” Elach thought for a moment, then slowly nodded. “Because my bond isn’t technically location Issi anymore, and I don’t have much of that person’s Issi in me, right?”

“You got it.” Y’talla nodded seriously. “Whatever it changed into while you were out did something to your body I don’t understand at all. You should ask your old bond to take a look the next time you see him, or maybe Prisoner will be able to tell you.”

“I’ll ask him next time.”

“Good. Uh, where was I… right.” Y’talla stood up straighter and tried to put on a serious expression. It would have worked if Elach didn’t know her so well. “You used your Issi day in and day out for over a month in your headspace, expanding your container and compressing your Issi every night. You pretty much need another container compression after what you did to those scrap raptors, which is something Metea/Irric or Sechen would probably kill for. That isn’t natural, Elach, and they’ll ask questions. Questions none of us have the answers to.”

“Hard work, a bond to you, and an anomaly in my headspace that let me train instead of being catatonic.” Elach held out a finger as he listed each point. “I think that explains things pretty neatly.”

“It won’t. Prisoner knows way more than he let on, Metea/Irric has that thing that she told you about, and Sechen… well, you might be able to fool Sechen. Even if you throw out the ‘wisp garden chaperone’ thing, they won’t believe you for a second.”

Elach shook his head. “Honestly, I don’t understand what the problem is. I’m pretty sure Prisoner wants me to get stronger, and I knew Metea/Irric and Sechen for all of two days. I don’t really care what they think. Why are you worrying about this so much?”

“Why am I worrying about this!?” Y’talla paused, tapping a finger to her lip as she scrunched her eyebrows together. “Why am I worrying about this? They won’t care if you’re a little stronger, and you can blame everything you went through on that stuff you drank. So why do I have this awful feeling about what’s going to happen?”

Y’talla fell into her own inner world as she mumbled to herself, pacing in a circle as she did. Elach didn’t know what to say about her misgivings, but he knew there was more to Y’talla than she could show. If she felt something was off, he’d have to be stupid to ignore her warnings.

“I don’t know what I can do, but we’ll think of something to tell them.” He said, putting a hand on Y’talla’s head to stop her from wandering. “I trust your instincts, and I don’t want you to start doubting yourself.”

“Okay.” Y’talla said absentmindedly. “I’m going to go talk to Flow. Maybe they figured something out while we were stuck in that part of your headspace.”

She went to do exactly that, crouching over next to Flow and starting up a conversation with a bird neck-deep in carrion as if it were the most natural thing in the world. From what Elach could see from the other room, Flow answered questions in the breaths they took between burying themselves in the dark meat once more. He watched the grisly spectacle with a grim curiosity for a long while before the room’s voices came back.

“Practitioner Elach, are you still there? We haven’t been able to hear anything you’ve said since my associate cut our connection.”

That was convenient. “Yes, we’re still here. Waiting on you two.”

“We’ve modified the beasts’ minds ever so slightly so that they will see you the same way they would see any other newly minted practitioner. The gate you’ve chosen will open the moment you are ready.”

“Sounds good.” Elach nodded, sending the information over to Flow and Y’talla in case they hadn’t overheard, along with a request for Y’talla to come over and take his pack to safety. “Thanks.”

“No problem. Flow’s almost done with their meal, so they’ll be good to help you butcher the other beasts in a minute.” Y’talla said as she slung the bag over her shoulder. “They asked me to ask you to try and restrain everything else like you did to the wolf. Apparently there’s some delicate things in there that you can destroy pretty easily.”

“I’ll use a delicate touch.” Elach replied with a smile, shifting his gaze to the rising bars of the predator’s gate. “As delicate as I can.”

The trial of combat provided Elach with a single difficult encounter, and that was at the end. An encounter that he was informed was supposed to be the point where all fresh practitioners got their first taste of danger and defeat. A single strangler ape. That was what was supposed to defeat an entire group of fledgling practitioners. Elach had sneered down at the restrained beast, struggling it’s freakishly mobile joints against his chains. Flow jumped on its back and pecked a single hole in its neck, and the struggling stopped. They butchered the ape just like they had the rest.

“I might’ve had a chance against this thing without my Issi.” Elach said, a sharpness in his words he couldn’t quite explain. Something about this entire thing bothered him. “How can a group of people with Issi lose against one greater Issi beast? A manifested one I could understand, but a greater beast?”

Flow agreed through the link, and Y’talla nodded along. “A lesser beast can’t really do anything with their Issi. Go invisible or make itself sticky, but nothing like what a greater beast could do. Maybe you and Kayvee were the exceptions, Elach, since you had to fight Issi beasts without a bond for so long.”

“Could be.” Elach sighed. “It just doesn’t feel right. Practitioners should be at least as strong as… this.” Elach gestured at the strangler ape’s corpse with a grimace. “A greater Issi beast can use techniques, but it’s got the strength of an animal. And the intelligence of one. Outsmarting an Issi beast isn’t hard. Trapping one isn’t hard. Driving it into a corner so you can slit its throat after it killed one of the kids you were supposed to be protecting isn’t hard.”

“...Do you think this thing has killed practitioners?” Y’talla asked quietly.

“I don’t know.” Elach looked up, trying to get a read on the overseer’s location. “If the overseers let it, then yes. Definitely. But I really hope they didn’t let that happen.”

“Congratulations, practitioner Elach.” The deep voice said as the room shattered into twinkling black squares. “You’ve cleared the trial of combat. Take a moment to gather your thoughts before moving on to your next challenge.”