A couple of moments passed with Eli staring at the rainbow-haired woman as she faced slightly away from him, waving her hands and pinching the air in front of her. He cleared his throat, trying to get her attention, but her focused expression didn’t waver as she stared at something unseen. Unsure what to do, he looked around for inspiration but found only the same knee-high grass with the unending ominous blackness overhead.

She made a particularly aggressive flick of one finger that coincided with a frown and finally looked over at him again. “Went for the brute force method on stage one, huh? Do you like getting injured?” One eyebrow quirked above a smirk, making her smile appear slightly crooked. She didn’t bother waiting for a reply but turned, her hands flailing away again.

With her being so rude, Eli triggered Manasight to try and see what she was doing and blinked with surprise. Unlike everyone else he’d examined in the past few weeks, the woman didn’t have a bright core. In fact, he couldn’t see any glowing lights within her. Instead, beautiful shimmering colors surrounded her body in a skin-tight film, slowly swirling in a kaleidoscope of shifting hues. It was like she’d been dipped in liquid rainbows, and he wondered if she didn’t have a core. More likely, she was shielded from him or any other prying eyes.

Her sweeping gestures pulled his attention to the rectangle of blurry colors before her. Like a two-dimensional sheet of reality, the edge disappeared when he stepped around for a better view. It was almost mesmerizing, her fingers leaving small trails in the thickened smoky clouds and her pinches setting off tiny explosions of expanding hues. A broad swipe to the side shoved the colorful maelstrom in new directions. The whole thing looked like a bad acid trip, contained in a rectangular space at arms-length in front of her.

“So, should I call you ‘Rainbow,’ or do you have another name you’d prefer?”

She let out a little snort but didn’t take her eyes away from her work. “My name is Fluxiniplentynaid’gidagagwedd’caryad,” she said almost absently, the sounds rolling fluidly as if she was singing a song.

“Ugh,” she continued, her nose wrinkling in disgust. “And stage two was a mess. Dirty muck, you went for another physical attack with some flames added at the end. Oh my, and look at the damage you suffered again – you really seem to enjoy pain. You do understand how planning and tactics work, right?”

“Uh, sure,” Eli answered, trying to figure out this small package of snark and mystery. “At least I survived, and I’m not going to remember that name. Mind if I call you Flux or Fluxi for short?”

She stopped her hand waving, turning to him with furrowed eyebrows over lips curled in scorn. “I do mind, as my name is integral to my identity. I don’t go around shortening your name Eliakim, so please do me the same courtesy.”

He held in the angry retort that almost popped out but took in a slow breath instead. After another moment, he tried on a smile. “Please, call me Eli.”

Her frown dissolved into widening eyes and tinkling giggles. “You’ve shortened your already absurdly short name?” As if her question was its own answer, her giggles turned into laughter. It took a few more chuckles along with her shaking her head at his apparent decision, but she eventually calmed down, though a hint of her smile remained. “Fine, call me Fluxi. I suppose you’d just mangle my beautiful name every time you tried.” She waved a hand as if tossing something away and turned back to the display, the riot of colors quickly shifting under her direction.

“Nice to meet you Fluxi. Now can you explain what you’re doing here?”

She scrunched up her nose, a bit of disdain coloring her expression. “How do you not understand my role? You completed the Trial. You obviously consented to this entire ordeal. Did you get hit too many times in the head by these testing constructs?”

“I most certainly did not consent to this,” he retorted with equal heat, his own voice rising. “Hell, I simply woke up here with these weird tiles and scary-ass black curtains. Then I’m faced with life-or-death fights that reward random stuff. And in the end, some woman appears and treats me like crap? Lady, you need to work on your people skills, and that’s saying something coming from me!” He was almost yelling at the end, letting out some of the anger he’d been bottling up for hours.

“Pish,” Fluxi snorted, shaking her head like he was crazy. “Games again.” Her eyes returned to her display while she made a fist with one hand, pivoting it around in front of her. She punched the air a few times as a frown formed. More punches and the scowl only deepened.

“That’s not right,” she whispered. Eli glanced at the swirling colors but didn’t see whatever horror she was witnessing. “It can’t be right. There’s no vow. There’s no actual ceremony, but the system locked the whole section away like it was done! How did you do this?” The last part was full of accusation as she turned to him, pointing at the random colors that only she understood.

Something was threatening about the petite woman’s eyes, or perhaps it was some sixth sense, but alarm bells were going off in his hindbrain. He raised his hands, trying to smile while goosebumps erupted along his scalp. “Fluxi, I don’t know what to say, but I honestly have no idea how I got here.”

With a huff of explosive air, she turned back to her work. “Let’s go back a few days and make sure you belong here.” Her hands almost blurred, her body tense with hunched shoulders and furrowed brows. “Yuck, a sequestered world. Oh, and a nasty time-dilation field too. Slowing this way down. Okay, killed a bunch of Mundanes, though whether it was dumb luck or superior planning is another question. A few more Mundanes.” She nibbled on her bottom lip while her eyes darted over the shades of swirling hues. A pinch, another wave of a hand up, and she abruptly stopped. Her arms moved outwards at a diagonal, and the colored rectangle moved closer to her even as she leaned forward. She turned to him, her eyebrows again popping up to disappear behind her colorful hair.

“What? Is something wrong?”

“Defeating a being a full evolutionary stage higher than you? An ugly red brute of a thing, too.” She brought up a hand and pointed at her face. “This is my ‘impressed’ expression.” She dropped the wide-eyed look, though a tiny smile remained. “Don’t get used to it.”

More waving hands for a moment, her hands briefly swiping through the colors. “Okay, you are definitely qualified, so it looks like we’re stuck together. I’ll have to note the system discrepancy in my logs and have a tech look into it. Moving along.”

Confused by the quickly shifting topics, he simply stood there as she continued creating little ripples in the display.

“Your last stage was filled with more poor decision-making, but how did you survive that explosion?” Her waving hands slowed down, the swirling colors almost coming to a stop. She turned to Eli, her eyes briefly trailing up and down his body. “What have you done to yourself? Are you really some sort of masochist?”

“Huh? What’s wrong now?” he asked, looking down but not seeing anything amiss with his clothes, though he wished again for some shoes. Still, the damp soil and grass were strangely reassuring even as they tickled his bare feet.

Fluxi gestured at the colorful smoke. “You’ve somehow managed to oversaturate over half of your body with mana. Do you have any idea how dangerous that is? How can you be so foolish?”

“Saturate my body? What does that even mean?”

She huffed at him, her eyes narrowing. “Do you really not understand, or are you purposely this ignorant?”

Anger erupted, and he opened his mouth to retort in kind but managed to swallow the first words that tried to escape. Rethinking his tactics, he settled for the truth. “Look, Fluxi, there’s no need to be rude. Just assume that anything to do with magic and mana is new to me. After all, I only learned about it a few weeks ago,” he ground out with an even voice, trying not to grit his teeth as he barely held onto his temper.

“Mana is new to you? You really don’t know what you did?” she asked, the confusion evident with her head tilted to the side as she looked at him. “Then let me explain it to you while I work through your data – hopefully, I can find an explanation for how you got here.”

She turned back to her display, fiddling with the colorful clouds for a moment as she frowned. “Mana oversaturation isn’t precisely correct since it isn’t mana, but it’s the popular term,” she muttered in a half-distracted voice, her eyes still on the shifting clouds. “If you inject this vital energy directly into your tissues, the benefits are obvious: quick healing, fast bursts of energy, increased strength, or any number of special abilities. In small doses, it could mean the difference between life and death. In big doses, like in your case, well…not so good.”

Some pieces fell together, remembering the first time he’d tried duplicating the Mana Candy buff and promptly passing out. “Huh, okay. So don’t use the energy in my core for direct buffs?”

“Core? What is that? Do you mean your quintessence? Never mind, your time is already running short for this first step. The good news is that you’ve probably already suffered the consequences of your poor decisions, and your upcoming evolution will correct the issue. What a dangerous way to temper your body,” she finished with a head shake as if confirming his idiocy.

He blinked for a few seconds working through her words. “So my body is okay?”

She gave a little snort accompanied by the same throwaway gesture. “Right now, no. In an hour? You’ll be better than new,” she finished with a slight grin.

Her eyes twinkled in a way that made him nervous, as if there was some joke he wasn’t in on. Still, with his body feeling fine and time slipping away, he pushed those thoughts aside to focus on the bigger picture. “Now that I’m qualified, can you explain what you’re doing here?”

“You don’t have time for a long answer.” Her expression cleared as she pulled her shoulders back, almost standing at attention with her head high. “But the short answer is I’m your counselor, or advisor if you prefer, on the Infinite Path. I am here to help you during the steps and stages of your evolution into a greater being.”

He opened his mouth to ask a question, but she waved her hand at him again. “No time,” Fluxi reminded him. “Save any questions for the next step. With how little you understand, listen carefully; maybe my words will keep you alive for a bit longer. However you stumbled upon this trial, I’ll be sure we get to the bottom of it.” She stepped up to him, lifting a finger right under his nose. “If I find out you’ve been lying to me, only the Greater System could save you!”

“Uh-huh. And do I get an apology once you’ve confirmed my innocence?” Eli asked, amusement seeping into his words.

“Sure, whatever,” she replied, making the same tossing away gesture before turning back to her display. “Let me finish pulling up your stats. Maybe there’s some data point…,” Fluxi’s words trailed off, her eyebrows perking up in surprise. “Anomaly? Are you an Anomaly? Huh, that might explain some of the issues with your background. Why didn’t you say so?” She turned to him with a blooming smile filled with perfectly straight white teeth. “I’ve never assisted an Anomaly. How fun!”

Wearing a little smirk, she returned her attention to the floating clouds, her hands making the colors swirl again. “So sequestered world, but who runs it,” she murmured as if to herself. She made a few more gestures before her happy expression faded. “Oh. That’s too bad.” She turned back to him with eyes full of compassion. “You seem like a nice enough human, and I was really looking forward to helping an Anomaly,” she finished with a sad shake of her head.

“Wait, what do you mean? Why are you acting like I’m dying?” Eli stepped around again, first peering at the weird colors before looking back at her.

Fluxi gestured at her display, her shoulders sagging. “You’re about to evolve to Initiate in a sequestered world owned by the Associates. They’re nasty soil-munchers willing to sell their own family for a little strength. Someone like you, a brand new Initiate Anomaly, bursting with secrets? You probably won’t last more than a day or two.”

“People would really capture me to get stronger?” he asked with horror, a feeling of nausea settling in his gut.

“You can’t be as dumb as you appear, or you wouldn’t have survived this long. Wake up and smell the damp earth! There are ancient beings within the Greater Infinite that would do anything to take even the most incremental step forward in their path to Ascendance – you’d be nothing more than a footnote to them. The moment you step foot on Lurra again, you’ll be within their sights. Even as incompetent as those Associate fools are, I’d be shocked if you lived for another week!”

“Oh, well, shit,” Eli said with some disgust. The idea that he’d come all this way and survived so many crazy situations, only to be hunted over his strange anomaly status, pissed him off. He paused, processing what she’d just said, reminded of his previous mystery reward.

The silver cube appeared in his hand. “Would this help? I got it after the second stage, but I haven’t figured out what it does.”

Fluxi stared at the cube for a few seconds, her smile suddenly lighting up again just before her giggles erupted like wind chimes in a breeze. “Ha! Is this what working with an Anomaly is like? Your karma must be insanely high! But no time,” she continued with a quick shake of her head. “Rub a little blood on one side to unseal the inert case and then put on the ring. While you do that, I’ll explain a few basics.”

His quest display showed about eight minutes on the timer. With no better ideas, he followed Fluxi’s directions and pulled out the same dull knife he’d used to bind Bash weeks ago. It took a little work, but he managed to get the metal to cut him. He smeared a tiny bit of blood on one side of the cube, which immediately dissolved in his hand. In only moments, a thick silver ring formed.

“Put it on and never, ever, take it off.” There was no humor in her expression or voice. She pointed at the ring in his palm. “That is your best chance at survival until you’ve reached Prime.”

“Prime?” he asked in return, sliding the ring on his right index finger. He gasped when the metal band shifted colors and shrank until flush with his skin, nearly disappearing to his eyes.

“You don’t know evolutions? Well, mud-whistling-turnips, did you grow up in the Barrens or something?” She held up a hand imperiously when Eli opened his mouth. “Don’t answer that – there’s no time. Just know that you’re a Mundane right now, the lowest within the Mortal Sphere. You’re about to evolve to Initiate, the next stage in your Infinite Path. If you get incredibly fortunate or suddenly far more competent, the last stage in the sphere is Prime. Each stage is broken down into four steps, which you should consider as markers of your growing strength and competency. Now most important for our interaction, you’ll only visit when you reach each step.”

Trying to follow all the new concepts she was throwing at him, Eli’s mind needed a moment to catch up to her words. The four steps, combined with Mundane, reminded him of something he’d been confused about for weeks. He pulled up his status, and it floated in the air off to the side, next to the quest display. He reread the evolution line. “Is this the low, mid, high, and peak descriptors?”

“How do you know about the steps without understanding evolution?” she exclaimed while waving both hands around explosively.

“My display is showing it.” He hooked a thumb at his own floating sign without looking, his eyes already back on his newest magical doodad. A little humor tugged at his lips while he turned his hand around, impressed with how well the ring stayed hidden.

“Show me,” Fluxi said with heat while she looked at where he had gestured.

“Uh, how?” he responded, pulling his eyes away from the almost invisible band on his finger while looking at his status screen. He’d wanted to show the sign to Dara, but he hadn’t figured out how to do it.

“Just imagine showing it to me and will it into reality. Mudskippers, I don’t know who trained you, but you should ask for your money back!” She waved her hands again, gesturing off-center from where his sign floated.

“Okay, Fluxi. Chill out. Give me a second here,” Eli said while he visualized her seeing his status. Heck, she should be able to anyway, especially with his permission. He wasn’t sure what he had to do but stopped at her wide eyes and sagging mouth fixated on where his display floated.

“A user-generated manifestation,” she exclaimed with shock while stepping around the floating sign. She waved both hands under it and eventually through it without causing any change to the display. “Not user-agnostic, but locked. How can this be here unless….”

Her eyes returned to him, brows furrowed before she suddenly glanced up and around at the air over their heads. Fluxi looked back at Eli and visibly gulped a couple of times. Another glance around her, and she hunched her head into her shoulders as if expecting a blow.

“I see we only have a little time left, so I’ll bank that for your next step,” she said, her voice pitched higher and full of false cheer.

“Wait, what?” he said, trying to interrupt, but his quest timer froze with a little more than two minutes left.

Her eyes continued to look around as if for something about to pounce. “With the limitless choices for advisors within your journey along the Infinite Path, I thank you for selecting me. I hope I’ve met your needs, and you’ll continue to use my services for all of your Greater Systems support. Until our next meeting, Eliakim Tal, may you grow powerful and wise on your journey to Ascendence!”

“Wait, did I do something wrong?” Eli asked plaintively, confused by her sudden sales pitch.

She clapped her hands once, the sound echoing strangely with a resounding boom. There was a weird tugging sensation in his stomach, and he looked down to see the grass tickling his toes, his feet dangling a couple of centimeters above the ground.

Fluxi’s eyes finally came back up, making eye contact again. She bit her lip before pointing at his right hand. “Don’t take that off, and try to stay alive. Until next time.”

He felt an abrupt jerk backward while some force turned him around to see a shimmering yellow portal rapidly approaching. “What the f-.”