A handful of minutes later, Wix emerged from the kitchen with a platter of tri-color cakes. He looked around, his face a mask against whatever was rolling about in his mind. “Where have Runfree and Paui gone?”

Sechen nodded thanks as Wix set the platter on the table, hissing as she touched a scalding hot cake. How did these people stomach things that hot? “Upstairs somewhere. Paui said she needed to talk in ‘the room’, wherever that is. Runfree got weirdly serious at that, so I’m guessing it’s important?”

“Very.” Wix said with a nod, reaching down for a cake of his own. He didn’t even flinch at the heat. “The room is where Runfree finalizes all of his important business. Contracts, bonds, and the like.”

“Huh.” Sechen said, pulling crumbs off a cake that was still too hot to eat. The silence stretched on as Wix didn’t attempt to say anything else, daintily sipping away at his own mug of tea and munching on the molten cake. “So, you’re Paui’s dad, huh.”

“I am.”

“Neat.” Sechen drummed her fingers on her legs, looking around awkwardly. “Neat.”

“Are you here because my daughter couldn’t take my intervention on her behalf any longer?” Wix asked in the same tone someone would use to comment on uninteresting weather. “She hasn’t returned since she joined the Emperor’s daughter’s regiment, and made it explicitly clear to me why she left.”

“Mmhm.” Sechen said, unsure of what else she could say. “So… what’s the story behind that? I’m guessing it isn’t good, and that Runfree doesn’t have a clue since he was happy to see Paui?”

“There isn’t much of a story. Paui didn’t make the cut, and her mother and I made sure it seemed as though she did.” Wix shrugged. “That year was disappointing in more ways than one, and it took barely any convincing to make Fleche change her selection. A short conversation and a mug of tea, to be precise.”

“So Paui didn’t make the cut in a group of idiots?” Sechen asked.

Wix winced at that, the most emotion Sechen’d seen out of the man so far. Then he wore a mask once more. “My daughter wasn’t ready. My wife and I pushed her far too hard because we didn’t wish for her to be one of the only ones in her class without a bond. If we’d waited a year, or maybe two, and properly trained her, she would have passed with flying colours I’m sure.”

“But she didn’t.” Sechen pointed out. “And now she’s up there confessing to Runfree, since her Issi doesn’t work right thanks to all the guilt and self-worth Issues she’s got.”

“Is she?” Wix asked plainly, brushing the exactly zero crumbs off his suit as he looked upwards. “I suppose I should be there. Paui will explain as if everything was her fault, though it couldn’t be more the opposite. It was good meeting you, miss Revelation.”

“My name’s Sechen.” Sechen muttered as Wix went for the exact same rope Paui had, disappearing over the loft’s edge in a fifth of the time it had taken her. “I’m gonna stop telling people my bond name.”

Five minutes later, Sechen had picked away at her cake enough that she’d gotten to a core of molten fruit filling. The sticky substance burned at her fingertip when she probed it, the next five minutes spent with said finger in her mouth to try and take away from the burning. Another five minutes after that, Sechen knew she was going to be alone for a while. She pushed the cake, still somehow too hot to eat, to the center of the table and wandered over to the front door, pushing it open to explore the supposed obstacle course that was Runfree’s yard.

Looking at it from this angle, the obstacle course was far more obvious. Clear electric blue markings on stone grey walls and towers, handholds and platforms built into the tops of trees, and more than a few dangerous looking jumps and pitfalls. She walked over to the nearest tree that had planks nailed to it, splotches of electric blue paint splattered over them as some sort of marking, and swiped a finger through the stuff. It came away as if it had been freshly applied, sticking to her finger as she cursed at the pain that shot through her.

“Don’t use the same damn finger, dumbass.” She hissed, the Issi in the paint stinging her burn like a swarm of tiny wasps. She jumped up and grabbed a golden leaf from the tree, plucking it with a burst of gold dust and wiping away the Issi. “Hells, that hurt. Do none of these people feel pain?”

“Fast Issi screws with a lot of your senses.”

Sechen looked up at the source of the voice. A teenager with a bad case of acne stared down at her, goggles carved with Issi inscriptions covering their eyes.

“That explains a whole lot, actually. How does it do that?” She asked, stepping away from the splatter of blue Issi. “Mine doesn’t, that’s for sure.”

“No clue, sorry.” The teenager said with a shrug. “That’s just what Runfree tells the fast practitioners. I still have to watch out for the Issi they use to mark all the easy paths.”

“You’ve got fluidity Issi, then?”

“Yup. I…” A rustle from the trees made the teenage practitioner look behind herself, then look down at Sechen. “Fuck.” She said with a grin that said she never got to use that word. “I need to keep moving. Good luck with whatever you want from Runfree; he doesn’t give anything away for free!”

With a mighty leap and an accompanying burst of Issi, the girl soared through the air and over the path, grabbing an errant tree branch with one hand and maneuvering herself so she went feet-first through a small hole in a tower a few feet away from the tree. Two more teenagers burst out of the foliage moments later, pushing and shoving each other as they sailed towards the single small opening.

“Gah! You dick!” A short boy yelled moments before he smacked into the tower wall, bouncing off and landing on the stone path below. “She’s going to beat us again because you couldn’t let me do better for once!”

“Sorry!” A lanky girl called back without an ounce of regret in her voice, slipping into the tower as the boy dusted himself off, only then noticing Sechen staring at him.

“What are you looking at?” He said, trying to sound intimidating while simultaneously flushing red at the fact that he’d been caught messing up. “I didn’t lose there, she just pushed me.”

“Of course she did. And she’s going to beat you even worse if you don’t follow her.” Sechen pointed out, gesturing at the hole in the tower both girls had gone through.

The boy looked between Sechen and the tower a few times before cursing under his breath, then cursing over his breath when Sechen didn’t react, taking a run up at the wall as Issi puffed out from under his shoes. One mighty leap and two gravity-defying steps later, he vanished into the hole to follow his fellow apprentices.

Sechen smirked and shook her head, looking out towards the gate before she went back inside. Her eyes lingered on three figures posted up on the other side of the bars, two of which stood behind and just far enough away from the one in the middle to give Sechen an early hint at who she was seeing.

Eternals damn it all. She wasn’t ready for this.

A colossus of glass spun into existence before Sechen could react, a slash in reality opening next to Hugil that he dove into without a moment’s hesitation. That was extremely bad. He could pop out of almost anywhere now, and with that carving Issi of his, one good hit would be a death sentence. Arvay didn’t seem to do anything yet, but that was just as terrifying as anything else she could have done. A seemingly inactive support was just as dangerous as the knife flying at your face.

Sechen reached into her container and pulled on her Issi, feeling a tendril of murky light connect to one of her inner halos. It burst into being around her neck, almost perfectly mirroring where Revel’s circlet used to sit, and Sechen felt her body simmering with Issi. It wasn’t even close to what her old halos felt like, and a look down at her hand confirmed the change. The halo didn’t so much cast a shadow as envelop her hand and forearm in shadows, scars of murky light barely shining through with her Issi. She didn’t know what her newly unrestrained Issi could do, but she had a bad feeling she would find out or die trying.

The colossus took the initiative. With the sound of a massive window shattering a hand suddenly shot towards Sechen, detached from the colossus and trailing glass shards like a swarm of angry bees trying to chase off a bear. It opened massive fingers, sharpening into spearpoints as Sechen reached for her Issi. Trails of murky light drifted off her fingers, and she painted her will onto the world.

A wall of her Issi bubbled to life before her, shifting like flames without any of the heat. It was as if her light had become something solid; something tangible and powerful. She painted a circle with her enshadowed hand, the scars of light blazing as she pushed Issi through, a bubbling halo of Issi marking itself under her feet. She had no idea what it would do, but it felt like the right choice for now.

Glass shattered against her Issi, shards soaring above the shifting wall only to gather themselves into a smaller creature moments later. This one looked like a regular person-sized knight, complete with frosted glass armor, an ornate shield with Glasrime’s insignia carved into it, and an icicle-like lance that emerged from the knight’s right arm where it’s hand should have been. Elongated glass hexagons sprung free from the knight’s shoulders, images of Sechen reflecting in each and every one. It fell to the ground with a mighty impact, glass dust whirling around its feet, and it pointed its lance directly at Sechen’s chest. A challenge from Brynn, a facade of honour that Sechen knew would be broken the moment it looked like Brynn struggled. Sechen didn’t return the motion, backing up a step towards the cabin, the circle under her feet moving with her.

With a disappointed shake of its head, the knight shattered into a storm of shards, storming forward faster than Sechen had expected. A coalescence of Issi to her right barely warned her of the lance driving towards her, but her circle had her covered. A splash of murk-covered light jabbed upwards to intersect the lance, slowing its momentum just enough so that it paused an inch from Sechen’s skin. She gasped in surprise and recoiled, the murky light sloshing along with her circle as the lance trembled in her grasp. It shattered into shards when it became clear it wasn’t wriggling free and joined the swarm, which spread out around Sechen like a deadly fog.

“Shit.” Sechen muttered as the shards formed into smaller lances, surrounding her with deadly needles. “How is this fair?”