The fields of floor eleven through sixteen fell under Elach’s power. Well, under Shar’s power, but he held a few Issi beasts in place while she systematically dismembered each and every one of them. And he scouted out all the areas before Shar charged in without listening to a thing he said, leaving a trail of destruction that made Flow cackle with delight and come away with an overfilled stomach.

He watched as she ripped a beast that looked like a cross between a camel and a deer in two lengthwise, horned humps spilling out a vibrant green liquid that buzzed like a hive of angry bees as it seeped into the sands below. Flow took one look at it and backed away, chattering a warning for Elach to stay as far away from it as he could. He smiled and nodded affirmation, after which Flow jumped into the liquid and splashed around as if it was a birdbath.

“Was that a real warning, or did you just not want to share?” He asked, resting his cheek on an open palm as he waited for Shar to deal with the rest of the herd of green-filled deer-camels.

Flow let out a laughing song, and Elach couldn’t help but chuckle along. Flow hadn’t necessarily grown more powerful during their time with Shar and Y’talla, but they were a whole lot more social. Maybe they were just growing up, though. And speaking of Y’talla…

Elach dangled a chain of communication down to her, but didn’t get anything in return. She’d been cooped up in his headspace for two days now, trying to put a few of Shar’s teachings to good use. Nothing else she’d tried had had much success, but she was confident that this time she’d found her path forward. Just like all the other times.

“Sorry to hurry you, but we’ve got to get moving.” Shar apologized as she returned from her dirty work. “The emissary from two days ago was insistent that we deal with the threat as soon as physically possible.”

Elach sighed and looked up at the manifestation, feeling a bizarre sense of longing at the violence he wasn’t partaking in. “I know. It just feels wrong to let you do all the work. The entire purpose of the pillar is to test people, and having you do everything feels like letting my professor take an exam for me.”

“I know, but sometimes there are extenuating circumstances that require a little rule-bending. Such as when one of the Gilded Night’s sworn enemies sends in apprentices to kidnap someone who was supposed to be under our protection.” Shar said. She put her hand on her hip and sighed, looking over her shoulder towards the stretch of land that they still had to cross. “I should be able to clear the seventeenth floor by nightfall, but we’ll have to make camp for the night.”

Elach didn’t miss how Shar specifically said ‘our’ protection. Nor had he missed the simple fact that he’d never seen the emissary Hoalt had supposedly sent, and never felt a single Issi signature out of line for the past week. Shar was either lying to him or hiding something from him. And until he could figure out which, and why, he was sleeping with one eye open and a technique at his fingertips.

Flow chimed in through their link, and Elach reluctantly agreed. He wouldn’t be sleeping at all.

“Wait. Why are we sleeping at all?” Elach asked as realization hit him. “We worked through last night, and I’ve got more than enough Issi to stay awake for a few more hours.”

Shar nodded absentmindedly as she moved to snap off the camel-deer’s hump horns. More of the green liquid oozed out from the jagged snap point, and she threw it over to Flow. “These floors reset themselves once every week, and we have the terrible timing of being here for it. We’ll be safe here, but we won’t get credit for clearing anything while it’s in the process of resetting.”

Ah, yes. Of course. The intricacies of the pillar that he had absolutely no idea about, as Shar vehemently refused to explain them to him. Just another thing that made her suspicious. If that spine finally cemented itself as a focus, he’d feel a little more confident, but it was still in the same unmade state that it had been since he put it there to begin with. Elach fiddled with a link of chain between his fingers, then flicked it away to dissolve in the wind. It was time to make a decision he’d been putting off for far too long.

Reaching into his pack, he pulled out one of the two progression kits Hoalt had given him. He couldn’t remember what Hoalt had explained them as, and since they hadn’t been labeled, he had no idea what they contained. He’d had a week to get started on them, but something had stopped him. It just didn’t feel… right, somehow. Like if he used these, he’d owe all of his power to Hoalt. He wouldn’t have earned any of it. And if he hadn’t earned it, how would he be able to control it? He’d seen enough teenagers go power crazy with mere droplets, so how would he react with a river of power? Or, if the feeling he got from the packages was correct, a lake?

“You still haven’t used either of them?” Shar asked, separating the deer-camel’s pelt with a wet slice of her finger. “They would give you great power, and you wouldn’t fall victim to any side effects. I recognize the markings on the packages as the work of one of the Emperor’s top pharmasmiths, and their works are invaluable. Invaluable, and utterly safe.”

Ah, yes, Shar recognized the markings on a completely unmarked package. How completely normal of her. “I went without Issi for twenty-two years. I can stand being weaker for a little longer without the help of more accelerants.”

“You’re referencing the existential bleed, right?”

Elach dropped the package to the ground, and Shar watched it fall with disinterest. Another mark in the untrustworthy category. “That’s the one.”

“An accelerant is not the same as a supplement, but I know that you know that. Don’t throw away potential because it doesn’t sit well with you. You don’t know when you’ll wish you were just that little bit stronger, faster, or smarter.” Shar hefted the skinned half-carcass up onto her shoulders, turning to Elach with a nightmare-like visage as blood, green liquid, and viscera cascaded over her. “Don’t let your present hold ups bring you regrets in the future. If you feel like it's undeserved, then tuck those feelings away until you’re fighting for your life, or ask the blade plunged in your stomach if it cares that you didn’t deserve the power you turned away. And as the light fades from your eyes, you can die knowing that you held to your principles.”

“A little grim, don’t you think?” Elach laughed humorlessly. Shar didn’t know he’d already had that conversation with a blade, and the answer was that it didn’t matter whatsoever. Even with the bleed pumping through his pathways and searing his veins, he’d died. A lake of power wasn’t enough when he’d already taken in…

He paused and tapped his chin in thought. “Shar? What’s bigger than a lake?”

“For bodies of water? A great lake.” Shar answered immediately. “Unless you’re asking in general?”

“No, that was what I was looking for. Thanks.”

Compared to the packages Hoalt had given him, the existential bleed was a great lake. And if that didn’t give him enough power to take out someone that wasn’t even close to Hoalt’s strength, what was the point? So he could beat someone one or two rungs higher than him when he still had an entire mountain left to climb? It wasn’t anywhere near enough to sacrifice what little control he had over his Issi.

Elach reached down and ripped open the package, digging through it to try and get a sense of what he’d be working with. Vials of pills, bottles of liquids, and three syringes filled with liquid gold. Perfectly tailored for a practitioner with an Issi type he didn’t have. He flicked the side of one of the syringes and jumped as a long metal needle extended from the tip.

“Am I supposed to inject this? Into my… arm, I guess?” Elach mumbled, flicking the syringe again to retract the needle. “No thanks, no way.”

Shar spoke without turning her head, never having seen what Elach was dealing with. “I didn’t know you were scared of needles. I could probably find some way to get the infusion into your system without an injection.”

Elach shook his head. “No, thank you. Maybe we can find someone on the next floor group who would trade for these packages. They’ve gotta be worth quite a bit, right? Since they were made by one of Hoalt’s top people?”

“Yes, they would fetch a tight sum, but it would be nothing compared to the power you would gain from using them.” Shar turned to look Elach in the eyes. “Is there nothing I could do to change your mind?”

“You could tell me why you trust someone who locked you on that floor for decades.” Elach prodded. “Maybe that’d get me to trust Hoalt a little more.”

Shar’s look told Elach that she had something to say, so he waited. But her words never came, her posture deflating as she exhaled and returned to cleaning the other half of the deer-camel. He would have come up with a better name for it if he could have discerned anything of the beast’s Issi, or its abilities, but all he could sense from it was an overwhelming aura of the colour green. And all he’d seen of it in action was how quickly and messily Shar dispatched them.