A short walk turned long as Elach and Y’talla circled the wall of rocks, with Flow coming back around when they were about a quarter of the way around by their estimate. It had still taken close to an hour, and though the gazebos had died, there were still plenty of practitioners and their chaperones practicing in the fields and doing… whatever it was new practitioners did when they got normal, proper training. Certainly not teleporting halfway across the world piece, getting caught up in something they still didn’t understand, and dying. That was very much abnormal and improper.

“So this place is a big, safe place for new practitioners to train.” Elach nodded as Flow recounted what they’d seen and overheard. “About what we figured, but still good to have confirmation. Anything on how we can get to the next floor?”

Flow chittered and strained their neck upwards, gesturing with a wing at the tower of rock that stretched far, far upwards. Unless the pillar was a whole ten floors, there had to be spatial manipulation at play.

“Just climb to the top? That’s easy.” Y’talla grabbed Elach’s arm and pointed upwards. “You can take us there in five minutes.”

“You’re sure, buddy? This feels too easy.”

Flow shrugged and made it known that they’d heard that repeated over and over by the instructors to their students.

“Alright.” Elach reluctantly agreed. “You want a ride, buddy?”

Flow hopped on Elach’s head and gestured upwards with a triumphant note.

“Upwards, loyal steed!” Y’talla giggled, joining Flow in pointing towards the enclosed sky. “To the unknown, uh, stuff at the top of the rock pile!”

“A rousing speech, your highness.” Elach smirked, gathering his Issi around his hand as he focused higher and higher for the limit. His Issi felt solid in his mind’s eye, and as he found his upper limit he called on his chains and pulled.

The first floor of the pillar was a safe haven for anyone who wasn’t confident in their abilities to gain confidence in themselves. A no-judgment zone where a fourteen year old who bonded a little bit too early and had to learn how to control their new powers could mingle with a fifty year old who finally found the time or courage to ask for help in bettering themselves. What it wasn’t was a place for the newly bonded to witness absurd shows of power and get big heads or deflated egos.

When the first group showed up, two of them had the Issi of fairly new practitioners. Maybe a year or two into their training if they were struggling. Teacher Goji had turned them aside, as he did to all the new entries, to let them get a feel for the pillar’s Issi concentration for a day or two before they attempted to climb. He’d been as pleasant as he could, under the most powerful man’s constant questioning in an accent and way of speaking that seemed perfectly suited to getting on a person’s nerves. His smile had almost eroded away when the second most powerful, a woman with so many manifestations that she could have been an Issi beast borrowing a person’s body chimed in and added on to the tirade of questions. She’d thrown in a few insults as well, as the member of their group that bore the emperor’s insignia looked on with a mixture of horror and embarrassment.

He’d questioned her judgment multiple times in those few minutes, and countless times more as he replayed that conversation in his mind in the hours afterwards. But when he felt the floor’s Issi shiver and give way to a monstrous display of power, held completely in the distracted palm of the annoying man, he felt sympathy for that poor woman. There was absolutely no possible way she could have any modicum of control over beings that powerful.

As he leaned over one of his less fortunate students, Goji grimaced at the aftermath that had been left in the boy’s heart. This one was almost nineteen, and had had an extremely difficult time grasping any sort of control over his own Issi. Just as the boy had begun to grasp the basics, that man’s Issi sheared any sort of progress from the boy’s mind. But not in a dejected way. He now idolized the annoying man, attempting to copy his nonchalant usage of techniques to moderate success. Nowhere near where he’d been days before the annoying man had shown up, though, and with his refusal to change go back to normal Goji had been forced to adapt.

Now he was attempting to show the boy how to properly snap his fingers while expelling enough Issi to form a technique. It was mind-bogglingly infuriating. But he was a teacher, and this boy needed his help. So he kept his mouth shut and did what needed to be done to help him. It was at that moment another display of Issi prowess unlike anything this floor had ever seen emerged from nothing, only to fade away seconds later, as if nothing had happened at all. For the second time that week.

The floor’s Issi didn’t so much as tremble as something absurdly dense came into being near the climbing rocks; white and green chains that felt nothing like anything even Goji had ever experienced. He grimaced and locked onto them with his own analysis Issi technique, only to find that they held a tint he didn’t recognize. It felt powerful and old, stirring something in his stomach that was akin to hunger and fear. The two most ancient emotions.

In a heartbeat the chains mostly disappeared, replaced with a man, a bird, and what looked like a young manifestation. Wrapped around his arm was a dense cloud of Issi that he absorbed far too quickly, then reached out with his opposite hand. More chains flashed into being for a moment, and the man was suddenly at the location the new chains had ended.

Goji dismissed his technique as he shook his head in disbelief. If he’d only been able to see that under the influence of his Issi, that man must have been moving so quickly that he’d be near teleporting to the naked eye. That man’s Issi was nowhere near powerful enough to justify what he’d done. It was a level of control some practitioners trained thirty years for.

The boy who’d been emulating the annoying man’s technique stared in confusion at what he hadn’t fully seen, and Goji held in a sigh of relief. At least that practitioner had the decency not to put on a show and influence the youth.

Elach pressed his forehead up to the cold, slick surface at the top of the pile of rocks. It was like a stone pulled from a river, yet see-through and pulsing with power. Just beyond the barrier a staircase spiraled upwards for a good twenty feet, then disappeared into a cloud of cloudy white mist.

Y’talla put Elach’s thoughts into words. “How do any of the kids get through this?”

Flow returned from their scouting operation, hopping onto Elach’s shoulder and shaking their head.

“It’s solid all the way. Great.” Elach sighed, shifting which hand was holding his chains as his fingers grew tired. “Maybe one of the teachers has to open this for us. No, Prisoner wouldn’t have gotten through if that was the case. So there’s got to be another way.”

“Try pushing Issi into the barrier.” Y’talla said, feeling the slick surface with her fingertips. “I think this is just a huge mass of Issi. Disrupting it should make a hole big enough for us to fit through.”

“Alright.” Elach’s free hand pressed up against the barrier. He didn’t exactly know how to do this, but it couldn’t be that difficult. All he had to do was start a technique and not let it take form. Simple. Like swallowing a mouthful of air instead of breathing it in.

Issi slowly crept from his container towards his arm, travelling through his chest and shoulder like a series of minor static shocks. It wanted to become a chain, to anchor Elach to the point just at his fingertips, but he didn’t let it. So it scoured along through what Elach first thought were his veins, but the involuntary clenching of his muscles and contracting of his blood vessels put a stop to that thought. Now it was as if his Issi was travelling through something completely different in his body; a sort of pathway only it could use.

When his Issi reached his fingertips, Elach envisioned it leaving in a slow trickle. It didn’t follow his thoughts. Instead, it circled around from his fingertips and began travelling back towards his container. Complete failure. Though as his Issi made it’s return trip, his arm stopped tingling and just felt… powerful. He pulled back and wiggled his fingers, unsure what he could do with this newfound ability, but excited to find out.

“You couldn’t do it?” Y’talla asked. “Can I try?”

“Go ahead.” Elach replied. “I might be able to figure it out eventually, but I don’t want to waste too much time here.”

Y’talla nodded seriously, raised her hands, and exploded the barrier with a deluge of Issi. “Got it!” She said happily.

“How did I forget you could do that?” Elach said as he pulled himself through the massive hole Y’talla made and onto the staircase. As Y’talla let go and dropped down to the stairs, she shrugged and made a non-committal noise.

“I wasn’t sure I could do this outside of your headspace.” She smiled wide enough to show all her teeth. “I guess I can do it better now.”

“Nice.” Elach said as he climbed the stairs, slowing his pace as Y’talla jogged to keep up. “Any idea what you can actually do with your Issi now? Instead of just pushing it outside of your body?”

Y’talla shook her head. “Nuh-uh. I didn’t get any new ideas when you manifested me.”

“I manifested you?” Elach raised an eyebrow. “What does that mean?”

“You pulled me from your headspace and gave me a real body. If that isn’t manifesting, I don’t know what is.” Y’talla said as she skipped a step in one long stride. “Flow was a real wisp, so they didn’t have to manifest, but I was just a memory. A memory with all my memories, feelings, and personality, but still just a memory.”

“I think you have more Issi than I do, so how was it possible I manifested you?”

“Oh, I’m not a manifestation of you.” Y’talla giggled. “I would look a whole lot different if I did. Maybe I’d even have a scraggly beard like you do.”

Elach reflexively touched his chin. “Scraggly?”

“Scraggly.” Y’talla confirmed with a nod. “No, the Issi mostly came from the Gilded Night. Some of it came from somewhere else, but it wasn’t enough to make an impact. I think it was whatever manifested my original body, but I don’t remember what that was. I didn’t remember back in your headspace, either, so it’s not something I just forgot.”

“Hmm. We’ll have to go look for that some time.” Elach reached up and pressed on a trap door just above them, shoving it open as light beamed down from above. “That was one easy first floor.”

Flow chirped in agreement, then let out a low warning.

“I won’t get cocky just because one floor was easy. I’m not that self-confident.” Elach laughed. “Besides, if these are the beginner floors, then they’re bound to be easier than the upper floors.”

Elach boosted Y’talla up as Flow flew upwards, then jumped and hauled himself over the edge without using his Issi. Just in case this floor messed with it somehow. He’d expected something like the previous floor; wide open green space with some sort of challenge in the middle. What he saw was the interior of a gaudy mansion with kids milling about with numbered pieces of paper stuck to their backs.