“Well, you can trust me.” Sechen said with a smile.

Paui returned the smile. “Yeah. I can, can’t I.”

Then Runfree’s body exploded.

Shards of ‘bone’ and gallons of ‘blood’ shot straight up, hiding Paui from Sechen’s sight for a moment, before clearing away to reveal a very surprised woman staring directly into her eyes.

“Oh, thank the eternals.” Thana said, crushing Paui into a hug as she appeared. “I couldn’t see or do anything. The trial completely locked me out.”

Paui hugged back, but her eyes were still locked on Sechen. Worry and fear for her family were at the forefront now. “Runfree… Runfree is a traitor, Thana. They’re working with someone other than Hoalt.”

Thana pulled away and held Paui at arms’ length, tears in the corners of her eyes. “I saw what you two saw. And I know this program better than anyone. It isn’t safe here for you two anymore. And only the eternals know if it’s safe for Wix and I. I’m taking you two back to the pillar.”

Sechen cleared her throat, both of the Runfree practitioners swiveling their heads to meet her eyes with uncanny speed. She’d have to get used to that. “We have one thing we need to do first, don’t we, Paui?”

Paui nodded, then turned back to Thana. “I need to see the prairie.”

Thana didn’t ask a single question. She escorted Paui and Sechen up to the room with too many keyholes, inserted a key that looked exactly like Wix’s, and showed her true colours. A black so dark it devoured all light that touched it, and a brilliant gold that diminished Runfree’s Issi into mere accents. She twisted the key and beckoned for Paui and Sechen to follow her in, scanning the hallway before she closed the door behind her.

“So why…” Sechen started, then bit her tongue. Two of the monoliths overflowed with Issi, alighted with light and life far beyond anything she’d seen with Wix. “Wow.”

Thana stepped beside Sechen, watching as Paui made her way to the center of the three monoliths. She didn’t say a word, but the grim expression she wore spoke volumes to her recognition of this phenomena.

When Paui reached the middle of the monoliths, the speed and fluidity carvings flared with Issi, bathing her in a combination of light that seemed to stick to her skin. Paui glowed from the inside out, the mark on her neck an obvious dark spot in the luminescent display. Sechen felt insignificant in comparison, reaching out for Naught’s presence as a sort of confirmation that she wasn’t weak.

“I was warned that I would attract the presence of others.” Naught whispered, but there was an undertone of amusement to their words. “Though I expected them to be enemies, not allies.”

Sechen couldn’t piece together the meaning behind Naught’s words, but she didn’t need to. Paui turned to look at her, a content smile on her face, her eyes now filled with scatterings of blue and yellow Issi. Like someone spilled pigments on a table and mixed them with their hands. Paui raised a beckoning hand, and Thana took a step back. Sechen looked over at her to see pride written on Thana’s face, but absolutely no desire to accept Paui’s invitation. That was for Sechen, and Sechen alone.

The grass bent under her feet as Sechen stepped up to take Paui’s hand, feeling something else settling on her as Paui’s hand slid into her own. It almost reminded her of Naught, but instead of elation at finding a partner, it was relief. Utter and absolute relief, like being released from a long imprisonment to finally see the sunlight once more.

“That’s actually a fairly apt comparison.” Naught whispered. Sechen ignored them.

Paui pulled Sechen in close, and Sechen felt the overflowing Issi pressing against her skin. Paui’s eyes glimmered with elation, and she seemed to be overwhelmed with whatever she’d just witnessed. “I wanted you to be here for this. Just to have someone to talk to so I know I didn’t lose my mind in that bonding.”

The hand Paui held between them began gathering Issi, grains of colour spilling out from nowhere like sand in the wind. They formed together into a tight coil, then dispersed and reformed into a trail that flowed like silk through Paui’s fingers. And finally, they became one; a tight spiral of silk that felt both flowing and tightly wound at the same time. The colours intertwined without fully mixing, dancing in perfect harmony at their elation of being together and yet separate. Blue and yellow. Never mixing to become…

Sechen turned to look at the final monolith, which didn’t so much as glow with Issi. It was completely dead. She raised an eyebrow in question and Paui nodded in answer. How did fluidity and speed come together to make force Issi? Paui wielded both, and Sechen had seen her do things that she might call force Issi-like, but as far as she remembered, Runfree’s force Issi didn’t give any of the advantages of their other Issi types.

Paui watched Sechen try to puzzle it together for a few moments, then interjected to end her wondering. “I didn’t bond Runfree. I bonded what was here long, long before them.”

Sechen was about to comment that that wasn’t possible, but Naught scratching at the back of her thoughts gave her pause. “What was here before them?” She asked, now more curious than anything about the ‘ally’ Naught had mentioned.

Paui paused as if listening to a voice Sechen couldn’t hear. Was that what she did when Naught spoke? She’d have to work on fixing that.

“I can’t tell you her name, for reasons she won’t tell me, but I can tell you that she was the manifestation of this land long before Runfree was.” Paui licked her lips and paused, obviously listening to her new bond’s story. “It wasn’t a prairie back then, it was a… land lake? I don’t know what that means. No, we don’t ‘have them everywhere’. Can’t you just explain it instead of arguing with me?” Paui huffed and crossed her arms, letting go of Sechen’s hand. “A land lake is a lake made of land instead of water. Gee, thanks for that vivid description. You should be a painter.”

Sechen smirked as she watched Paui struggle with the new voice inside her head, and said a silent thanks that Naught wasn’t a noisy stowaway. They didn’t answer, but Sechen could swear she felt the edge of pride in the nothing Naught gave off.

“Well, long story short, she gave me grace Issi. Not speed, not fluidity, and certainly not force. She spat when she said force, so I don’t think she likes it all that much.” Paui said, then paused. “She just called it a demoting merger, which I don’t really understand, but I think it only took the parts of speed and fluidity that worked perfectly together and threw away the rest. Oh, she said I got that right. Neat.”

Paui sarcastically rolled her eyes before continuing. “Grace Issi is apparently what it used to be before Runfree broke it down into speed and fluidity Issi. But Runfree manifested from… alright, she’s sighing at me. Apparently… holy shit. Runfree’s a tyrant.” Paui shot an unbelieving look at Thana, who was nodding solemnly when Sechen turned to see. “Damn. Okay, that complicates things a little. No, wait, it doesn’t; things are so complicated that knowing they’re a tyrant doesn’t do anything.”

“So you have grace Issi now? Are you bound to the same colour things that Thana and Wix are?” Sechen asked. “I know it’s unique to Runfree practitioners, but did it come from whoever you’ve got in your head now?”

“She says no, that it was a by-product of Runfree messing with the Issi of this place.” Paui relayed. “But she also said that she would prefer if my Issi did that, so I didn’t have to bond with any other manifestations. Aaaand she just made it so my Issi would do that. Wonderful.” Paui shook her head and sighed. “You just had to ask, didn’t you?”

Sechen reached out and patted Paui’s cheek. “You know you love me.”

Paui mumbled something under her breath while looking down at the grass. Her blush was absolutely adorable. “But she’s warning me that we need to leave as fast as we can, Sechen. That Runfree won’t be happy she still exists, and especially not that she managed to bond someone.”

“Back to the pillar?” Sechen asked. “We’ve still got to do that thing for Hoalt, and I’m not abandoning any of the others.”

“Runfree shouldn’t be able to find us there, so yeah, I think that’s the best place for us to go.” Paui said with a nod. “Just give me a few minutes to let her absorb all the Issi from these monoliths. Thana can take us back to the pillar once I’m done. Yes, she’s one of the ones that helped you start feeling again. No, she’s the girl. Yes, the speed half.”

As Paui talked with her new headspace-mate, Sechen walked back to Thana. She raised her eyebrows, but Thana shook her head and put a finger over her mouth for silence. Sechen shrugged and leaned against the door, watching Paui pace in the space between the monoliths while gesturing along with her words.

“That took a little longer than I expected, sorry.” Paui apologized as the door to the Runfree plains shut behind her, the lock clicking as Thana twisted her key once more. “Let’s get our stuff and get out. I don’t want to be here any longer than I have to.”

Sechen nodded, then paused as Thana and Paui walked in front of her. She felt like she was forgetting something.

“Right!” She exclaimed, clapping her hands. Thana and Paui were looking at her before Sechen saw their heads turn. “I forgot Vault and Hoalt gave us stuff! And told me to wait until you were here with us to open them, Thana.”

“Then you should open them quickly.” Thana said, grabbing Sechen’s left hand. Her Issi overtook her, and then she was standing in Paui’s room. Paui showed up moments later, coils of Issi disintegrating into sand as she stopped. “Do you remember where you put them, Sechen?”

“In that chest over there.” Sechen motioned at the box at the foot of Paui’s bed, and suddenly Thana was standing before her with packages in both of her hands. “That was fast. The one in your left hand’s for Paui, and the one in your right for me.”

Paui had her package open and was inspecting the contents with a discerning eye before Sechen touched hers. “Who gave this to you?” She asked. “Because this is perfect for me.”

Sechen took in the coil of dark metal, dots of sapphire blue shining with potential lining the entire length. “Hoalt gave you that, I’m pretty sure.”

“Well, apparently he knows more about the Runfree thing than I do.” Paui muttered. She bent the coil into one long strip, then smacked it against her forearm. It curled up into the shape of a bracer, the sapphires glimmering to take on the colours of Paui’s Issi. “This is the perfect armor for grace Issi.”

“Ah, yes. Armor.” Sechen snickered, tapping Paui on the shoulder. “Your one forearm will be invincible.”

“You know it won’t work like that.” Paui sighed. “...Even if I don’t know how it’ll work.” Paui shied away from Sechen’s smug look, coughing as she tried to change the subject. “So what did you get?”

“More gold.” Sechen said, not having to look in the box to see what Vault had offered her. “Just like what I used on my arm. Maybe I can make this new stuff into a weapon like Vault wanted her practitioners to do. Or maybe I’ll put it into the next part of me that manifests.” Sechen shrugged. “It is nice to have a little more left over, since I used pretty much all of the first batch.”

“I will take it, if you don’t have an immediate use for it.” Naught spoke, amplifying a feeling of desire through their voice. “There may be uses for it beyond simple weaponry or manifestation amplification. If you’ll allow it, of course.”

“Go nuts.” Sechen spoke in her mind. “Once I find out how to get it to you, it’s yours.”

Sechen got an image of a blank space nodding thanks. “Thank you. I guarantee you will not regret your investment.”

Reaching down to touch the gold, Sechen felt it squish like wet clay under her fingertips. She pulled it out of the box, and with a thought, let out her golden claws. They drank deep of the new material, consuming it in seconds, leaving her with an empty hand and a full, satisfied Naught.

“That was quick.” Paui said with surprise, putting her hand over Sechen’s as if to check if the gold had somehow become invisible. “...I guess that means we’re done here, right?”

Sechen nodded. “Yeah. Thana, we’re… wait, where’d she go?”

Thana was nowhere to be found, and she hadn’t left anything informing them where she’d gone. Sechen shot Paui a look and got a shrug in return, leaving her with absolutely no idea what happened to Thana. Until she appeared again, moments later.

Thana noticed the stares from Paui and Sechen, to which she offered an explanation. “There was a knock at the door. I didn’t expect the two of you to finish so quickly, and I didn’t wish to interrupt.” She held out a glass bottle with a single sphere bouncing around in it that Sechen recognized immediately; the pill she’d ‘helped’ Jame create. “Jame dropped this off for you, along with the message that Vault’s stores of crystallized greed are always open should you need more.”

Sechen accepted the bottle with a nod, and Thana grabbed her wrist the moment she had a firm grasp on it. She looked to Paui with a nod, who returned it and started spooling up her Issi.

“Looks like I’m leaving this place again.” Paui mused, looking around her room one last time. “Goodbye and good riddance, Runfree.”