“You’re enjoying this way too much.” Elach grumbled, and Shar’s grin widening was his answer. He reached up and pulled down his shirt, exposing his mouth. That was his mistake. “Fine. Just don't…”

Shar shoved the small piece of fruit in his mouth between words, and Elach instinctively chewed. Watery juice coated his mouth as the vile fruit was crushed between his teeth, sending a flavour like rotten meat and the scent of rusted iron through all his taste receptors. He felt his eyes roll back and he doubled over, but when he tried to spit the fruit out, Shar clamped his jaw shut. He looked up at her with pleading, watery eyes, and she just shook her head.

“You have to eat it.” Her smile never dulled as she prolonged Elach’s suffering. “Because I had to eat it.”

He wanted to point out that she’d eaten the fruit of her own volition, but his thoughts were currently consumed by the absolute disgust in his mouth. At least it felt like a particularly watery fruit, the flesh tender yet paradoxically crisp. He vomited a little in his mouth and almost sighed in relief as the flavour of the fruit was dulled, but moments later they mingled and created something that had a place in the torturer’s arsenal. What felt like minutes later he finally managed to get everything down, but the taste still lingered. And the memories would stay with him for the rest of his life.

“The aftertaste is just as heinous as the taste itself.” Shar said, letting go of Elach’s face. He massaged his muscles that were sore from clenching as she stepped back towards the tree. “If we want to grow another of these outside the pillar, we’ll have to find the seed pods within the flesh. Which shouldn’t be too hard, as we can see through the fruit itself.”

“I hate you.” Elach groaned.

Shar turned her head as he trudged up beside her. “If that’s all it takes for you to hate me, then you’re going to have a tough time walking the path of the practitioner. Now help me find these seeds.”

Ten minutes later, with his whole upper body coated in the disgusting juices of the sickfruit, Elach had to admit that Shar was right. The noxious smell had completely dissipated. The aftertaste still lingered, however, and he felt himself becoming more and more disgusting as the sickfruit seeped into his skin. There wouldn’t be enough baths on the world piece to get this scent out, and anyone he met wouldn’t have the pleasure of eating a little piece of the hells to get away from him.

Elach’s hand curled around a hard spot in the fruit. He squinted down to try and get a good look at whatever he was holding, but it was just as translucent as the rest of the fruit. With a grunt of effort he pulled the anomaly free with a wet pop and a spray of juice, causing a faraway Flow to squawk in dismay and retreat even further.

In his hand Elach held what looked like a giant almond, except he could see his hand through it. It was rock hard and had the texture of dense wood, responding with a hollow reverberation when he knocked on it, and a rattling when he shook it. If this wasn’t the seed pod, or whatever it was exactly that Shar was looking for, he’d have to reevaluate his instincts.

“I found something here.” Elach called to the other side of the sickfruit tree. Shar popped up in a deluge of juice a second later, and he held up the seed pod for her to see. “Is this what we’re looking for?”

Shar hopped over and studied the see-through pod, then smashed it over her knee with a grunt of exertion. The insides of the pod were somehow opaque, and filled with small misshapen seeds that had lines of translucent goop shooting through them.

She nodded happily and popped one of the seeds into her mouth. “This is exactly what we were looking for. The seeds actually taste rather pleasant, in comparison to the fully grown fruit.” She offered Elach the broken half of the seed pod. “Would you like to try one?”

“No, thank you.” He said as he pushed the jagged pod back to Shar. “I thought you wanted to grow one of these, not snack on the seeds.”

“I can do both.” Shar said defensively. She wiped down her arm and reached down into her pack, pulling out a small black tin with a golden hinge and clasp. She emptied the pod into the box and scratched ‘sickfruit’ onto the lid.

Elach nodded down at the stack of tins. “It’s a good thing you brought a lot of those. Because you know absolutely nothing about this floor. And didn’t want us to bring back any of the other trees.” He accused with droning sarcasm. “It’s almost like you were lying to me. Again.”

“I might have gotten a few hints from someone who came here before.” Shar admitted. “And I might have stopped listening to them after they began telling me about all the delicious specialties that exist only on this floor. And how they are utterly illegal to remove from the premises without clearance level ten.”

“Which you are now going to tell me you have.” Elach guessed. “Which means you have the same damned clearance as Hoalt.”

Shar shook her head. “No, I only have level nine. But when the people who enforce the rules are your friends, you can get them to look the other way for a few infractions here and there. Especially if they don’t hurt anyone.”

With his fingers mired in so many different scents that his nose was begging to be put out of its misery, Elach laid down by the firelight and sighed. Shar had run him ragged over the last fourteen hours, digging through all the different varieties of fruit trees for their own unique seed pods. Of which a grand total of three had been truly delicious, with the rest ranging from somewhere between sickfruit and blackapple. Useful in medicines, Issi creations, and maybe baking, but close to inedible on their own. Unless someone adored the bitter saltiness of blackapple, which Elach did not.

Shar bit into the extremely deep purple flesh of a blackapple with a contented sigh. “Thank you for helping me today, Elach. From what I have gathered, we managed to harvest close to three quarters of the unique species of trees today. Once we seek out the other quarter tomorrow, we’ll begin searching for whatever the true purpose of this floor is.”

“I’m starting to think there isn’t even a purpose to this floor.” Elach said. “Or maybe us leaving without taking anything is the purpose. Sort of a ‘the rules are in place for a reason’ kind of thing.”

Shar looked truly troubled by that thought, silently staring down at the fruit in her hand as she warred with her own thoughts. “I really hope that isn’t the case.” She eventually said. “I’m going to settle into my nightly Issi compression now, so don’t feel the need to stay out here instead of returning to your headspace with Flow and Y’talla. She should be close to a breakthrough, and I know she would love to have you there for it.”

“I’m not sure she’s that close, but thanks for the permission.” Elach rolled his eyes and turned over on his sleeping mat. The forest was warm enough that he wasn’t worried about getting cold, and he didn’t want to infuse the tent with the myriad of scents he was soaked in. “Night.”

“Goodnight.” Shar echoed with a crunching slurp.

Elach closed his eyes, and reopened them to his headspace. It hadn’t changed much since the battle with the straware construct, save for the blurry space above Flow’s fountain where it would eventually manifest. The space might have grown a little, but Elach couldn’t tell, seeing as the walls were only marked with symbols and the floor was completely transparent. He stepped up to the fountain and dipped his finger in the amber nectar, feeling the power of the sickfruit pale in comparison to Flow’s container’s gift.

It was honestly a relief. Now there was no reason he’d ever need to set foot near that disgusting fruit again. He licked his finger and regretted it immediately, the mixed flavours combining into something indescribably horrible.

“Are you in here Flow, or are you with Y’talla?” Elach spoke aloud, and only got a response through his bond. “In there with her, gotcha. Shar thinks she’s close to a breakthrough, so call me over if she’s getting there, okay?”

Confirmation from Flow, so Elach sat cross-legged with his back to the fountain. He’d settled into a nightly rhythm while staying with Shar, and he wasn’t going to let this haze of scents he found himself in break that streak. His breathing slowed to a crawl while he envisioned his container, the broken sphere held together by countless chains, yet somehow keeping all of his Issi in. He prodded at the shattered shell to feel how strained it was, confirming that he was still a ways away from needing another container compression, feeling the chain connecting it to a ball of links in the center sway in response.

Compressing his Issi had become a chore, but in exchange it’d become far easier to expand. Though he hadn’t compressed it again, he assumed that would be easier as well. His grip on his Issi slipped through his fingers as he worked his mind into place, humming to himself to try and concentrate as he could before. His Issi didn’t feel anything like when he’d learned how to first compress it, but somehow that technique still worked, Flow’s dirge echoing in the back of his mind as he slowly but surely crushed his Issi down.

Elach rolled his shoulder as he pulled himself up with his other arm, standing at the fountain before he dipped his hands down into the amber nectar and drank deep. He needed to replenish his Issi before he did his nightly container expansion, and he still had to call Flow in here to transfer them their portion of the gains he’d made. The fountain shuddered under him, flickering between a single object and two overlapping translucent copies and back. Just like Y’talla, Flow was on the verge of a breakthrough. Consuming all those Issi beasts must have done wonders for them, and whatever wisdom Shar had given them in secret couldn’t have hurt. Wisdom that Flow kept secret from Elach, and that Shar obviously wouldn’t speak a word of. But if Flow thought it needed to be kept secret, he’d have to live with that. He trusted them, even if he didn’t fully trust Shar.

The nectar filled the empty space in his container until he was glutted, pushing at his boundaries until it felt like his container was pulling at its seams. He let out a breath and sent a warning down the link to Y’talla and Flow to prepare for rumblings, waiting for the both of them to reply before he went ahead with the small expansion.