Jame cleared his throat, and Sechen ripped her eyes from the gold to look at him. It was harder than she expected. “Because you would be our test subject. Vee wants to create a material that will allow her practitioners to fashion their own weapons in the way that one of the various metal practitioners would.”

“And how does that lead to me making it into a focus?” Sechen asked. “I’m not exactly a gold practitioner.”

“If I had gold Issi, I wouldn't have to do this.” Vault said, palming the chunk of gold and offering it to Sechen. “My Issi types are protection, greed, and mystery. The greed manifests as the golden stuff you see around here,” She gestured down then up at Jame’s golden rectangles, “and my protection manifests as the liquid metal I’ve got for hair. Mystery’s a strange sucker, one that I’ve only given out to two people, and both of them ended up dead way before they should’ve. Or maybe they aren’t, and they’re scheming to kill me for some reason. Mystery’s mysterious like that. So yeah, I need something to help my greed practitioners fight.”

“That still doesn’t explain why I’m making this into a focus. Couldn’t you just, I don’t know, get Jame to try making it into a weapon? He’s right here, right now, and he actually has the Issi type you’re trying to make this for.” Sechen’s words came out a little harsher than she’d meant them, but Vault didn’t seem to take any offence. Instead, she nodded and sighed as if she’d already considered exactly that.

Vault tossed the gold to Jame, who caught it gingerly and held it at arms’ length. “You mind showing her why, babe?”

Jame let out a nervous grumble as Sechen watched his Issi slowly leech out of his body and into the chunk of gold. She stared deep into the sparkling surface of the bright mineral, flashes of white shooting over the surface as it gobbled up Jame’s Issi. Then Jame stopped pouring Issi into the gold, and the flashes stopped along with it. He placed it down on the table and rubbed his hands together, shuddering as if all the warmth had been sapped from him. And yet the gold felt… empty. Like it wanted infinitely more, even though it already felt more powerful than any base ingredient Sechen had ever laid eyes on. More powerful than most complete projects.

“It’s like a bottomless pit.” She murmured, reaching out and feeling the cool surface of the crystallized greed. “You put too much Issi into it, and now it always wants more.”

“She has a keen eye.” Jame said through chattering teeth.

“Yup. And that’s the problem; I have a whole section of me specifically for this stuff, and I need to see if it’s worth anything as anything else. Because I’m not letting this stuff go to find out that it’s being used to torture people a decade down the line.” Vault jabbed a finger at Sechen’s chest, then raised it to the base of her neck. “If you can use it as a focus, it means all my practitioners can use it as a focus. That’s the trade; you get an absurdly powerful piece of Issi-infused rock as a focus, but you’re taking all the risks that come with making it into one.”

Sechen felt the gold between her fingers. She wanted it. She wanted it badly. She wanted to open her container to it and let it devour all of her Issi, but she knew that wouldn’t be enough to satisfy it. No, it needed something else. Greed was endless. It could never be sated. But maybe…

Everything faded into a murky blur as Sechen connected her three halos, which all popped into existence around her right arm. She felt the tingle of Issi rushing over her skin, and the pull of the greedy gold nipping at it but not reaching out to take a bite. It wanted everything, but now she felt something else inside of it. It didn’t want to take. It only wanted what was given, and if Issi was offered for free, it would gladly accept. She knew that was an extremely important distinction, but she couldn’t place how she understood it. She just… did.

She tapped a finger to the gold, and it sunk in deep, as if it was nothing but wet clay. It didn’t give a single ounce of resistance as she pulled and shaped it, her hands moving almost by themselves as she stared down at the putty-like mineral that was slowly taking shape. She worked for minutes as she felt her halos growing dry, putting the finishing touches on her work as the tendrils of Issi that connected her shriveled back to her container. She breathed in deeply, feeling something scratching at the back of her mind, screaming at her that this was foolish and terribly dangerous, but that voice didn’t know her Issi like she did. She poured the rest of her Issi into a halo, and as she slowly let out her breath, she placed it around her hastily-made sculpture. Or rather, she completed it.

With steady hands, Sechen lowered her figure to the table. Her ring of black with murky light shining through fit perfectly into the indents she’d sculpted with her thumbs, resting between four grasping claws that held it up like some sort of crown jewel. She backed away, her heart beating quietly in the background, and felt the murky blur dissolve back into the room around her.

“How did you do that?” Vault whispered in amazement, keeping her distance but straining her neck to get the best look she could. “It was like putty in your hands, but I couldn’t get it to move with all my power.”

“It’s not like that at all. It doesn’t want to change whatsoever, so you have to make it work for your Issi. If you give it everything freely, without any stipulations, then why would it ever do anything for you? But when you keep it at arm's length, tantalizingly close to the Issi it craves, and tell it that the only way it’s eating is if it transforms into what you want? That’s how you get it to work.” Sechen looked up at Vault, cracking her knuckle and dismissing her halo. The sculpture held its shape. “Treat it like a contract, and you’ll be fine. If I had the right Issi type, I don’t think I’d need my hands for this.”

Jame and Vault shared a look, a nod, and finally a sigh of relief.

“You don’t know how much of a relief this is.” Vault laughed as she shook her head. “So all my work wasn’t for nothing, I was just looking at this the wrong way. You can keep the crystallized greed if you still want to make it into a focus, or I can find something else to pay you for your help.”

Sechen tapped a finger to the tip of one of the claws, feeling the ready nipping of the golden greed at the Issi that always empowered her. She knew there was potential here, and it was far beyond a simple weapon. Beyond a focus. And this time, there was no voice telling her this. It was pure instinct. She smiled and let the gold wrap itself around her hand, sliding along the murky lines of her manifestation, and digging in like a parasite.

“Some parasites benefit the host.” She whispered, her Issi flaring for the briefest second before settling down. The gold had worked its way into her arm, wrapping itself around the parts that had manifested and cradling them in thin lines of golden filigree. It invoked images of fangs, hooks, and claws; of digging in and never letting go, of an influence so deep it was carved into the flesh and bone of existence. A deep desire to be remembered. But no; she shook her head and clicked her tongue. That wasn’t quite right. It wasn’t to be remembered.

It was to be impossible to forget.

Sechen licked her teeth and grinned. “I think I’ll keep this.”

“It looks good on you.” Jame said, studying Sechen’s manifested arm with great interest. “I would love to study whatever side effects you end up displaying, but we don’t have the time. Ten minutes are up, and we need to continue making your pill.”

Sechen tentatively flexed her fingers to make sure they still worked just fine. They did. “Sure. What’s next; the horn or the sand?”

“I’m going to leave you two alone for now.” Vault said giddily, scooping the pyramid shell up under her arm and bounding towards the door. “I have presents to wrap and invitations to write. See you later, babe! Oh, and good luck with dad, Sechen. Tell him that I like you; maybe he’ll be a little more generous that way.”

“Thanks for the tip.” Sechen smirked, waving goodbye as Vault did the same, ducking out of the door and slamming it shut behind her. “She seems excited. Was this really such a big deal?”

Jame’s face was bright with joy as he reached for the shelf where he’d placed the bowl. “Bigger than you can imagine. Vee’s struggled with this for years now, both in creating the crystallized greed and in finding a use for it, and you just brought daylight to a tunnel she thought was endlessly dark. If you’re ever in need of any medicine, or you need someone to work rare ingredients you find into something amazing, don’t hesitate to ask. I haven’t seen her that excited for…” Jame tapped his chin, then smiled and shook his head. “Actually, the last time I remember her being that happy was our wedding. Which was over a decade ago, now.”

“Well, glad I could help. And get something for myself in return.” Sechen ran her fingers over her right hand, feeling the golden accents over her Issi. “So; next step?”

“Ah. Right.” Jame cleared his throat, sliding the bowl over to Sechen along with the box of horn. “As I said before we paused, the horn is the next step. I’ll hand you a knife in a second, where you will take off the tiniest slivers of horn; one for each gelatinous cube, and you will impale each of them with the sliver of horn. You must do this very quickly, as the horn and cube will react violently and begin breaking down into a liquid within seconds. I recommend shaving the horn beforehand unless you have a speed Issi bond.”

Sechen nodded thanks as Jame handed her a simple, silvery knife. The edge gleamed in the light, and the Issi etchings guaranteed it’s sharpness. She gripped the horn between her palm and the fingers of her left hand, adjusting so she wouldn’t risk nicking her skin while she carved it. “How big should the pieces be?”

“As long as the horn is, and as thin as you can make it. I have a scale here to ensure you’re perfectly precise, so don’t be too worried.” Jame instructed, placing a black slate next to the bowl with eight golden zeroes etched near the top. “The horn is deceptively dense, so the size you’re looking for weighs exactly four point two-three grams. Our acceptable margin of error is plus/minus point zero two grams, so any slivers from four point two-one to four point two-five grams will do.”

Sechen nodded and slid the knife down the horn as if she was peeling a fruit, her thumb pressed against one face of the knife as the shaving curled against her skin. She adjusted her thumb and let the shaving fall on the scale, which buzzed with Issi for a moment before the golden numbers shifted to dull purple. “Four point four-five.” She read. “Can I take a little piece off, or do I need a clean sliver?”

“You can always take away, but you can’t add. It interferes with the reaction for reasons I haven’t been able to explain.” Jame said. “Cut away little by little until you get a feeling for how much point zero one grams is, then aim for the proper weight.”

“Mmh.” Sechen hummed, taking the horn shaving and cutting away the tail end of it. The scale now read four point four-three, and she kept taking away until her sliver was in the right range. “Now I just do this again… one, two, three, four…” Sechen mumbled to herself as she counted the cubes. “Eight… no, seven times since I already cut one. I need to do this seven more times?”

“Yes.”