The pinks came soon after. Thin rods with points on both ends clustered together in groups of two to five, a single line of pink light shining through each one with a calm intensity that never wavered. Neither of these were the fireflies that Elach had seen any of the bugs carrying, which had been small dots of yellow, but they felt mostly the same. Their general makeup was the same, but the colour and shape differed.

Y’talla stirred as the third colour skulked down from wherever it was hiding. Deep black pooled under his hand, resting comfortably in the shadow he was casting. They were small diamonds, but all had chunks removed as if they had been bitten once and tossed aside. He reached out to feel if this was the same shadow that had taken over Izzik and all the other bugs, but it felt nothing alike. The black under his hand was almost warm, tender even; like a bear cub snuggled into the fur of its monstrous mother. Dangerous, yes, but not due to what it is.

“Don’t let them run away.” Y’talla whispered through the bond. “I’ll be out as soon as I can.”

Nodding absentmindedly, Elach focused on the three different lights that had joined him. If they were wisps, he would have expected to feel something like nature Issi from the green ones, shadow Issi from the black ones, and some sort of seraphic Issi from the pink ones. But he felt nothing. Just the barest amount of Issi, and for some reason, what each of them wanted from him.

What he’d falsely called white lights snuck up on him in the moments Y’talla took up his thoughts. They keened in a frequency that tickled his ears, perfectly clear cubes that spun lazily along random axes while they orbited through and around Elach’s fingers. They seemed to light up the area around them, but they didn’t produce any light that Elach could make out.

After a long stretch of inactivity, the red lights suddenly appeared around Elach’s wrist. A long string of spheres connected by the thinnest thread of red light, slowly grinding around his skin as it snaked up his arm. It was long enough to reach up to his shoulder and back down to his wrist, the tail and head of the string becoming connected when they finally met once more.

Looking around, Elach noticed that the yellow lights had vanished from the edge of his mind into that faraway void that the other lights that hadn’t taken to his technique occupied. Orange, purple, and blue were still out there, but they needed a different sort of pull that Izzik’s technique didn’t offer. He let out a long breath and moved his other hand up, holding it palm down, and let Izzik’s technique fade away. It should have attracted the yellow wisps, but he must have done something wrong if he’d already driven them away.

Or his Issi just didn’t work the same as Izzik’s lightblood. He tipped his hand to the side and let the single link of chain fall to the ground, gathering additional links as it fell, barely tapping the ground when a full chain connected itself to the bangle around Elach’s wrist. The black lights approached the chain cautiously, tapping it curiously with parts of themselves. When they saw it meant no harm they returned to their lazing around, and Elach let the chain dangle soundlessly for a moment.

Pushing Issi out as he slowly began moving the chain, Elach let the ringing of his chain call out to the remaining lights. It was an open invitation to come closer, no force and no insistence whatsoever behind his intentions. The three remaining lights stirred in response, but made no signs of moving. But that was just fine, as Elach was more than content to wait for Y’talla and whatever she wanted these lights for.

“Occril’s on his way.” Shar warned without looking over her shoulder. She trailed something off in the distance, and as Elach reached out to feel, he saw it too. A massive black stain of Issi thundering towards them. “Stay behind me and be ready to move. I’m not holding back any more, but if Occril decides to attack you, there’s a small chance I won’t be able to stop him. Be ready for that small chance.”

“I will be.” Elach said with a sharp nod. He hastened his Issi through his pathways, washing away Izzik’s technique and replacing it with readiness. Images of chains etched in his mind, Elach focused on the black stain that was barreling towards the grotto.

Occril splintered a multitude of trees to announce his arrival, dripping with the slick and pungent juices that came along with the act. But he didn’t utter a single sound. A silent projectile fired straight at Shar, bands of violet light wrapped around all four of his wrists crackling with power. A power that Elach couldn’t feel in his Issi sight, as it was swallowed up by the black stain that was Occril.

Dead black eyes quickly shifted between Shar and Elach, locking onto the lights swarming around Elach for the briefest of moments before Occril focused on Shar. His voice scraped and chittered for a long moment, as if it hadn’t been used in millennia, black flecks falling from Occril’s mouth as he struggled to speak.

“Leave.” He finally managed to rasp, walking towards Shar with all of his arms spread. “The light-thief dies, but the warrior does not have to.”

Shar didn’t dignify Occril’s offer with a response, charging forward with one hand enveloped in thick red mist. She slammed into Occril’s light-plate with a mighty burst of Issi, filling the air itself with countless sharp edges, and Occril screeched in pain. But he did not falter. Violet light left his shadowed form in a violent torrent, pushing back Shar’s one-handed offensive with what looked like a great effort.

“Visage of red!” Occril hissed, his back bursting apart to reveal wings of dripping sludge. Patterns like gnarled fangs cut into the sickly material, emanating a feeling of great hunger that could never be sated. He flapped them once, scattering a cloud of black particles that devoured the light in the grotto, leaving Elach completely blind moments later.

“Elach!” Shar yelled in warning, the sounds of her clash with Occril fading away into nothing. Which meant he was coming for Elach now.

The stain that secluded Occril had spread to the entire grove, and trying to feel Occril through it was like trying to find a specific grain of sand on the beach. Elach let his prepared technique falter and pushed out a different one, creating a dome of chains five feet away from him in all directions.

Weight behind him, quickly pressing the chains in towards Elach. He spun around and welled up his chaining technique on the mass that he assumed was Occril, pressing down on it from all angles to try and relent the relentless. His chains shattered as he created them, barely managing to hold Occril in place for a few seconds as his container was quickly relieved of the remainder of its contents. He tried to call out to Shar, but the moment he opened his mouth, the shadows forced themselves into his throat and stilled any words he would have spoken.

“Shit!” Elach grimaced, his words swallowed up by Occril’s bizarre technique. His chains were falling quicker than he could replenish them now, and Occril began creaking forward like a collapsing house. Elach let his chaining technique fall and pulled himself as far away as he could, slamming shoulder first into a dirt wall with an impact that rattled his bones.

Looking down at his hands, Elach finally noticed that none of the lights had abandoned him. And that he could still see them through the unnatural cover of shadow. He couldn’t see his hands beyond them, and couldn’t hear if Occril was charging once more, but the fact that he had time to sit and gawk at the lights made him think that something had stopped Occril in his tracks. If Shar had noticed the lights, then it was probably her coming to his aid. But he wouldn’t know when Occril evaded her grasp once more.

“I’m coming out.” Y’talla announced, pushing at the inside of Elach’s headspace with insistence.

“It’s not safe at all.” Elach sent through their bond, but he felt it become muddled before it reached her. Occril’s technique was also staining his thoughts. “Don’t leave!” He tried once more, to the same result.

Y’talla’s insistence became an inevitability, and she appeared directly in front of Elach wrapped in the chain cocoon that always accompanied her movements. At least that’s what Elach’s mind told him, but in reality he saw no change in his surroundings. The stain existed everywhere around him, and now Y’talla had been swallowed by it.

“Elach?” Y’talla asked, her tone not worried in the slightest. “Why are you leaning against that wall? And why is SHAR FIGHTING A GIANT BUG?”

Elach chuckled to himself. There was the panic he was expecting. “It’s a long story.” He tried to say, even though he knew it was hopeless.

“And you can’t talk!? What’s going on here!?” Y’talla whispered at the top of her lungs, her footsteps crunching loudly as she walked around to Elach’s right. Was she immune to Occril’s technique because she wasn’t here when it was used? “Give me the wisplings. I’ll send them to the protection of the spring.”

Wisplings? Elach reassessed the beads of red lazily coiling around his arm, and felt the term resonate with him somehow. These weren’t fireflies, shards of light, or anything else he could come up with. They were very, very young wisps. Maybe even fragments of wisps. But something was wrong with them. He turned and presented his arm towards Y’talla’s voice, watching as the wisps slowly and carefully moved of their own volition to a new invisible arm.

“I’ll make sure they live long enough to have a good life. Just like you did for Flow, Hollow, and Gilt.” Y’talla said with conviction, her green and dirty white Issi forming itself into a birdcage. The reds were locked in the cage, and Elach felt a request for entry to his headspace. He accepted it gladly, and the reds suddenly only sat in his mind, not the reality in front of him.

“This fake spring is horrible for the wisps. They can barely start to take their own shapes, sitting around in this sad state until something comes along and snatches them up. The big jerks.” She sneered, the malice in her tone not matching her juvenile choice of words.

“Fake spring?” Elach asked.

Of course, Y’talla didn’t hear him. “There are three more wispling groups waiting for you to deal with this big bug, Elach. I can feel them, and I know you can feel them too. How can I help yo-EEP!”

Y’talla’s surprised yelp coincided with her slamming her shoulder into Elach’s chin, another much heavier weight pressing her even further into his neck. He let out a pained gurgle in the moment before everything zipped away, the darkness replaced by a brilliant view of a grove absolutely filled with yellow fireflies.

“What in the hells?” Elach laughed incredulously, rubbing his neck as Y’talls sheepishly removed her elbow. “Can you hear me now?”

“I can.” Y’talla confirmed, looking over her shoulder at the massive bug that was bent over in an apologetic bow. “Who’s that?” She asked, pointing a finger at the very-much not shrouded in shadow Occril.

“This one is Occril the escort.” Occril said, his tone somber and dejected. A shiver ran up Elach’s spine, a horror he saw mirrored on Y’talla’s face. “Occril was overtaken by the dark spawn, and used against Occril’s will. Will you experience Occril’s story, bringer of blessed sleep?”