Izzik crunched his feet in shame to Lighthome, the loss of everything sticking like a thorn between the plates of his chitin. His swarm was gone, lost to the uncaring winds of the sweet forest and the blades of a rival swarm. Ever since the dark-bringer came, there was no unity. Talks failed. Living light became the most valuable currency, with the large lights ruling like kings or running like thieves. No inbetween.

The kings had come for Izzik. Because he always brought back the most living lights. Because he wasn’t as strong as the others. Because his swarm could be bought. Because his carapace had holes that were perfect fits for blades. Many reasons. No answers for Izzik, so he wondered. Wondered as his legs splintered under him, gushes of life draining into the flowers below as the gateweaver came into view.

“Izzik.” The gateweaver rumbled, their eight eyes half-focused on him. “What light has Izzik brought?”

Izzik lowered his head in shame. “None, gateweaver.”

“None?” The gateweaver wheezed, shifting their massive weight to stare down at Izzik with predatory interest. “Izzik of many-lights, returned with none? Izzik makes a mockery of Izzik’s name, young spawn. Lighthome spares no mockeries.”

The gateweaver skittered out of their hut, massive legs following them as they left their web. Izzik fluttered back, trying to make room as he held his many hands up in plea. “Izzik was betrayed, gateweaver! Many dead lights, skittering back to Lighthome for safety!”

“Izzik of many-lights was weak.” The gateweaver rumbled, then as they were free of their web, lunged at Izzik and pinned his neck between knife-like mandibles. “Izzik of many lights must leave.” They whispered in warning. “Dark-spawn come from sunrise and home-shadow with tales of beings from beyond the sweet-forest. If they are like the Prisoner…”

Izzik nodded. “Izzik will do what Izzik can. For the gleam of Lightome.”

“For the gleam of Lighthome.” The gatekeeper echoed, shoving Issik to the ground and skittering back to their web.

“I think we’ve found our in.” Elach said, watching the crippled bug-person slowly flying out of the flowered clearing. “Izzik of many-lights. If he doesn’t know where we need to go, then I’ll eat half a sickfruit tree.”

Shar nodded, processing everything Elach had relayed as it was going on. “Prisoner made an impact on these people, though we don’t know if it was widely accepted as positive or negative. Best we keep your relationship with him secret until we can pry more out of this Izzik.”

“Agreed. Let’s follow him into the forest and hope that he can understand us somehow, like I can understand him.” Elach suggested, calling Flow down from their tree with an ear-piercing whistle. “I didn’t know I could do that.”

“And you shouldn’t while we’re trying to hide ourselves.” Shar hissed, pulling him down behind a bush while the lights near Lighthome focused themselves where Elach had been moments ago. “I know you two can communicate through your bond, so please keep it to that.”

Elach nodded sheepishly. “Sorry.” He said, waiting for the Issi of the light to pass them over. It felt strangely powerful for a simple spotlight, almost like there was something else to it. Then there was a rustling near him, and the unveiling of previously hidden Issi. “Oh. because it’s seeing through the bush.”

Flow ducked their head into Elach’s armpit as he pulled them into his headspace, grabbing Shar by the shoulders and chaining himself as close to Izzik as he could. Which was close enough to startle the bug-man, and confirm that he was indeed shrouded in shadows like all the others. But it took a little more Issi than he was expecting to move Shar along with him, and he felt his pathways run dry from the unexpected exertion.

“I’m dry for a few seconds.” He warned. Shar’s Issi curled around the two of them in response, gently prodding him towards the surprised but not terrified Izzik. “Izzik of many-lights. We could use your help, and I think you could use ours.”

Elach extended a hand while Shar turned to fight off the Issi stains that were chasing them. Izzik looked between Elach’s face and his outstretched hand twice before extending one of his own. Izzik’s hand was cool and smooth, with small interlocking plates pressing against Elach’s skin as Izzik moved his hand up and down in a sign of acceptance.

The bug-man’s clicking and buzzing noises came clear as words to Elach, even though there were none to understand. “Izzik of many-lights will aid the strangers in any way if the strangers heal and protect Izzik.”

“Did he accept?” Shar asked, swatting aside a stinger-spear that came from a thin-waisted wasp-person. She retaliated with a blow to the bug’s arm, a gush of bright green spilling out from the jagged ends as the limb tumbled off into the flowers. “Should we run now?”

“We should.” Elach replied.

Shar’s Issi burst out like wildfire, pushing the wasp-shadows back with a click and screech of alarm as they scrambled to avoid the wave of destruction. She jumped the distance and came up next to Elach, pulling one of his arms around her shoulders as he pulled Izzik into an awkward hug.

“This is strange.” Izzik buzzed. “Such camaraderie on first meeting.”

Elach chuckled as he reinforced his pathways with even more Issi than he thought he’d need. “I can’t take you two along with me unless one of us has a firm hold on the other. Even then, it takes a whole lot more Issi than moving myself.”

“He also seems to enjoy hugs far more than the average person.” Shar added.

With a mighty tug that stole Issi from his pathways in massive gulps, Elach chained their group to the edge of the field of flowers in the way he’d seen Izzik coming from. He stumbled as his Issi failed him just a moment from his planned end point, but Shar was an immovable rock and stopped any momentum he might have had.

He nodded thanks, and she returned the gesture. “We need to get into Lighthome, Izzik. Do you think you can help us with that?”

Izzik twitched when Elach spoke ‘Lighthome’, his twin sets of bright yellow eyes going dark for a long moment. Elach worried that he might have gone a little too far for just meeting the bug-person, but he was working with limited time. Six days left to clear whatever the condition for this floor asked of him, if there even was a condition. He shot Shar a worried look, but she didn’t seem perturbed in the slightest.

He and Shar shared the burden of carrying Izzik to safety, and two minutes of silence followed. Shar still seemed content to wait for Izzik, but Elach’s worry only intensified. Now for Izzik’s health over their own progress. He hadn’t moved a muscle the entire time he’d been carried. He hadn’t reacted in the slightest when his body was bent at an awkward angle so Elach could duck under a mass of veiny vines that pulsed with an inner orange light, nor when Shar stumbled over a buried mass of flexible root needles that pumped out bright white mist.

Finally, Elach probed at Izzik’s Issi. It was there, but it felt stilled. Dormant, but alive. Like an animal hibernating for the winter. “Did his body go into shock?” He asked Shar, shifting Izzik’s plated arms around his neck to stop them from digging into his collarbones.

“I think it’s a defense mechanism of his Issi. It has stilled its flow around his body, keeping whatever has invaded him from furthering its conquest.” She theorized. “I can’t get a good feel for it, as whatever is enshrouding these people makes their Issi feel the exact same, no matter the type, save for their colour.”

So the spider’s, hornet’s, and Izzik’s Issi weren’t the exact same. They just felt that way because of whatever was making them all shadow-y. “But it isn’t the wolf Hoalt’s power that’s doing this, right?”

“It isn’t, and I thank the eternals for that. If it were, there is a very good chance we would both have fallen to the initial scouting hornets.” Shar chuckled darkly. “You would have, at the very least, as my Issi isn’t even remotely suited for protection.”

Elach shivered at the thought of the stinger that had pierced his shoulder finding purchase somewhere else. “I really hope you’re right. And assuming that you are, then there’s gotta be a reason that neither of us can get a solid reading on these people’s Issi. More you than me, since I’m so much weaker than you.”

“Maybe in strength, but from what I’ve seen, your Issi senses are somehow on par with mine.” Shar ran a finger over the yellow blood that was spilling out of Izzik’s legs, her tongue shooting out to taste it for a brief moment. “I can’t make out a word Izzik is saying, but you could pierce the veil of Issi that coated everything they spoke. I can’t get a sense of what makes up this Issi aside from its absolute base form, but maybe you could?”

She scraped her finger along her shoulder and offered Elach the blood. “It’s a mixture of Issi and blood. From what I can gather, these creatures only have the mixture, not a separation like practitioners do or only Issi as a manifestation does. A true mutant. Maybe that will give you the bump you need to make sense of this.”

“Do I have…” Elach started, leaning away from Shar’s bloody finger.

“No, you don’t have to eat it.” Shar chuckled. “That was for my own tastes. Probe it with your Issi senses, and see if you find anything that could be of any help to us.”

With a glance down at Izzik’s immobile form, Elach held out his hand for Shar to wipe Izzik’s blood. The bright yellow substance fizzled like carbonated water when it touched his skin, reminding him of the first time he saw Issi with the help of something his parents had prepared. It felt like Issi before it had been hammered into another form, or before someone’s influence had shaped it. The raw Issi he didn’t notice he’d barely seen since he found the glacier, and had seen exactly none of while he was in the Gilded Night nor the pillar.

Yellow seeped into his pathways. He watched in fascination as several small tendrils, like an ant’s antenna, grasped towards the sky as little bubbles rose and popped through the liquid. As if entranced by something, all the antenna instantly pointed in the direction Elach had been running. They trembled and shook, but held their direction as he held his gaze.

Elach pivoted, making sure the antennae stayed pointing in the same direction, then pointed along with them. “His blood’s telling me to go that way.”

“I… I can see that.” Shar gawked, fixated on the small puddle in Elach’s hand. “How did you do that?”

“I have no idea.” Elach admitted. “They popped up after I took in a little bit of the Issi. Maybe that activated it somehow?”

Shar shook her head in disbelief. “You took a perfectly entwined substance, so perfect that there was not a single mote of separation, and turned it into a single substance. What you have in your hand is… well… I’m not quite sure what I would call it, but it is an Issi type all of its own.”

The tendrils never waned, the Issi seeping deeper into his pathways before he cut off his absorption. But in those moments, he felt something calling out to him. Countless antennae humming a tone for deaf ears in perfect harmony, resonating with that which he held in his hand and urging him to follow their direction. He looked down at Izzik, at the oozing wounds from his shattered legs, and felt the source of the harmony.

And within that harmony, of that urging, Elach felt relief. Relief that he was being understood, that the man looking down on him could feel the resonance. Could feel the unity that made up the one called Izzik of many-lights.