“Walk gently.” Izzik whispered, lowering himself to a crouch to fit through a knocked-down tree that had been carved into a small entryway. “Occril will be on the other side, standing vigil. Keep calm until Izzik gives the signal, which is when the Shar will fight off Occril so Izzik can gather enough lights for us three.”

Elach bent down, inspecting the splinter-filled tunnel with trepidation. Shar tapped him on the shoulder as he felt her misty Issi wrap a warm scarf around his neck and ears.

“Are you certain we should still be doing this?” She asked, eyeing Izzik uncomfortably. “We’re already here. Leaving Izzik to Occril could be the correct decision.”

Elach seriously considered Shar’s proposal, considering that she’d just voiced what had been rattling about in his own thoughts for the last leg of the journey, but the unknowns kept him from vehemently agreeing.

“Let’s see what the other bug-people are like first. We don’t want to find out that Izzik was the best of them after we abandoned him to his fate.” He suggested, quietly snapping off a splinter to make room for his shoulder. “Who knows; stealing and killing might be the norm for Lighthome.”

Shar sighed, but didn’t argue. “I wish I could disagree with you, but I’ve had the same festering thoughts myself. If Izzik puts you in danger, though, I will abandon him without a second thought to protect you. The thought of confronting Prisoner without you there…” Shar shuddered. “I am not enjoying imagining it.”

“Thanks for the comforting thought.” Elach laughed, but he actually meant it. Y’talla had really taken to Shar, and Flow wasn’t far behind. Out of the three beings living in his mind, only the landlord wasn’t infatuated.

“Hush.” Izzik chittered, reaching out a hand behind himself. “The barrier comes into view. The Elach and the Shar must scatter their light, so as not to alarm Occril. Any powers that are not rooted in lightblood will draw Occril’s ire, as the countless crushed creatures from outside the barrier bore witness to.”

There was a sort of pliable tension in the air as Izzik pressed through the barrier, a waterfall of brilliant colours that shifted and shimmered with every passing moment. Bright blue diamonds gave way to green flames, then were all lost in a consuming pulse of darkness as Izzik’s shadowed form met the cascade of colour. It was as if Izzik had tainted the deluge, sickly tendrils of deep black spreading from the hole like poison through angry veins after a snakebite.

Elach gingerly stepped through the hole, making certain not to touch the edges of shattered black. Shar followed moments later with her normally hidden mouth set in a thin line.

“It looks exactly the same as the rest of the forest.” She muttered, half to herself and half to Elach. “I can’t feel anything out of the ordinary, even though I know we just passed through a barrier of unknown origins. Can you, Elach?”

He shook his head, looking around in confusion. “Nothing new at all. It feels exactly the same as everywhere else on this floor. Hells, I can’t even feel the barrier around us. But still…”

Elach trailed off, not confident in his own senses. Everything was telling him that this place was no different than the forest he’d just walked, but there was a small voice insisting that something had changed. Like all the colours were somehow less vibrant. He turned to look at the barrier, watching the stain of black being taken over by the colours once more, and then the barrier shimmered and disappeared.

He shared a worried look with Shar, then stepped up to join a frenetic Izzik. “Where’s Occril? I sort of expected him to be here right when we got here.”

“Occril does not need to see Izzik to know Izzik has arrived.” Izzik said quickly, his head snapping from one direction to another as his hands rubbed together nervously. “The grove is a short journey away. Watch for darkness and the blades concealed within.”

After speaking those words, Izzik fell into utter silence as he dashed to the shadows cast by half of an eroded hill. Elach rolled his eyes at Izzik’s comment about blades within darkness, and now wasn’t sure if that was true or if it was just projection on the bug-man’s part. He who hides knives sees blades in everything; that sort of thing. Shar’s snort and quick, humorless laugh let Elach know they were thinking close to the same thing, and as she set off in the dim light, he followed immediately behind her.

As the trees thinned out to a sort of natural path, trampled undergrowth showing just how many of Izzik’s people must walk this way, Shar grew increasingly uncertain. It started with the tapping of a finger on crossed arms as she surveyed the scenery, focusing on the differently coloured fruit trees with a sort of bored interest when she found no new ones to plunder. Then came the occasional murmurs of interest, lifting an arm to touch the plant life that stretched over the semi-beaten path. It looked no different to any of the Issi-less plant life outside the pillar that Elach had seen, but there was a faint buzz of Issi inside of it that he couldn’t quite place. It wasn’t life or growth Issi, but something that didn’t belong in a living, growing being.

Shar seemed to grasp what it was long before he did, but her realization didn’t come with dire portents. Hells, it wasn’t important enough for her to inform Elach of her discovery. He chalked it up to the Issi of the pillar influencing the plants, and was rubbing a waxy green and orange leaf between his fingers when he bumped into Shar.

“Something wrong?” He asked, rubbing his fingers on his pants and craning his neck to see around Shar’s misty form. Which, in hindsight, was a very bad omen. “Why did you stop?”

“Shh.” Shar hissed, her mist wrapping tightly around Elach’s mouth to keep him quiet. She leaned out around a corner, the newfound silence parting to reveal a quiet crunching. And equally quiet breaths.

Elach stepped up next to Shar, peeking around the wall of dirt to see the back of a massive scorpion-like member of Izzik’s species hunched over a pool of bright pink liquid. A loud crack and a cut-off scream accompanied a spurt of pink, shards of black chitin splashing into the growing puddle as the scorpion devoured its prey.

“It isn’t glowing at all.” Shar whispered. “Just as Izzik said Occril wouldn’t. Whatever happened to Occril happened to this one as well.”

“Another guardian claimed by the grove?” Elach wondered, grimacing as a large shard of black chitin was lodged into the dirt wall. “Wait. What’s happening to the dead one?”

The shards of chitin shuddered and shook, harmonizing with an unheard rhythm of Issi until the darkness began to flake away. It rose like flakes of ash on a fire’s updraft, spiraling gently upwards as it broke apart into smaller and smaller pieces until there was nothing left. Elach blinked and shook his head, looking back down at the piece of chitin that was a few feet away from him now. It was a dull green-brown, like grass-stained dirt, but perfectly cut like the sharpest stone. What it was no longer mattered, and Elach felt the edge of the chitin beginning to cut into the Issi of the forest around him.

“It’s creating edge Issi.” He breathed, unbelieving of what he saw. “How… how is that possible?”

Shar let out a quiet eep as Elach wrapped a chain around the shard and pulled, the chitin falling into his palm like the softest throw. He felt the lingering effects of the shadow clinging to the shard as he held it up to the dregs of light, but they were quickly scraped away by the unbelievable sharpness and folded in on themselves until all that remained was a memory of life and the edge of death.

Elach looked between the chitin and Shar, who was looking at him with a worried expression. Somehow, she’d known he was going to do something stupid before he did. “What idea just popped into your mind, Elach? And why do I have the awful feeling that I’m going to suffer for it?”

He held out the chitin for Shar to hold, and she cautiously accepted it. “You said that manifestations don’t have Focuses, right? That Y’talla and Flow don’t grow the same way I do?”

“Yes, I did.” Shar warily agreed.

The shard of chitin was warm in Shar’s hand, where it was nearly lifeless in Elach’s. He pressed down on it gently. “I don’t know why, but I see you in this hunk of dead bug. Not exactly your Issi, but that it could somehow become a part of it.”

“Because you’ve never felt slaughter Issi before, I’d assume.” Shar sighed. But she didn’t toss the chitin immediately aside, studying it with a neutral expression for a long moment. “I… I don’t know why I’m even considering this. I would never do something so harebrained, so risky, just for a small gulp of the great lake of power.”

“Considering what?” Elach asked as Shar carefully wrapped the shard in mist. And when the mist dispersed, it brought the shard with it. “I didn’t know you could do that too.”

Shar shook her head. “It’s dissolved in my mist, and I can only do that because it’s producing some slaughter Issi. The moment I disperse my mist, the shard will reappear; I can’t store anything like you or Prisoner can.”

“But you didn’t throw it away.” Elach pointed out.

“I did not.” Shar sighed. “We can talk about it later. When every spoken word doesn’t put the both of us in danger. Follow me.”

Poking her head around the corner one more time to confirm the scorpion was still preoccupied with its meal, Shar motioned for Elach to follow. She stepped gingerly on hard-packed dirt, her gaze locked on the scorpion as she went. When nothing attacked her, Elach wiped his hands on his pants and followed her lead, stealing a single glance at the scorpion before looking ahead. Izzik’s glowing eyes were a beacon forward, waiting at the edge of the heavy underbrush at a crossroads of four paths. Five if he counted the one they’d just come from.

“The four paths all lead deeper into the groves, but are home to different little lights.” Izzik explained in hushed tones, pointing one arm in each direction. “Occril watches over all groves, but cannot be in two places at once. The Shar and The Elach will go down either of those paths,” Izzik gestured at the two furthest paths, “while Izzik explores Izzik’s own path. The Shar will draw Occril’s ire, and Izzik will gather enough lights to blind even Lighthome.”

“Split evenly among the Shar, the Elach, and Izzik, of course.” Izzik hastily added. “While anything the Shar and the Elach find will not be split with Izzik. Izzik’s payment for protection, so to speak.”

A moment to relay Izzik’s plan to Shar, and Elach could already tell she didn’t like it. But as the moments stretched on, she seemed to come to a realization and put on a thin smile.

“Of course.” She said, her words dripping with sweetness. “Elach and I will deal with this monster here, then make for one of the other groves. On one condition.”

Izzik nodded eagerly. “What does the Shar wish?”

Shar looked over to Elach for confirmation, and he nodded. “You have to teach us how you gather these lights before we leave you to your own devices.”