Thick curtains shrouded the room, their colours danced the rainbow. Dyeing the light where it failed to slip through cracks in the overlapping drapes. Radiant beams to the room’s colourful gloom.

It matched he supposed. Rhevier sat on a pristine table covered with notes on his latest pet project and the essence distiller. The pages neatly stacked. The polished contraption gleamed, in the dark. He sat in the room’s only clean couch.

Everything else was covered in dust.

The walls the floors, the rows upon rows of ingredients and tools that stood by the walls. Vials and burner, jars of varied liquid and suspend tissues. Those were only what a layperson might recognize. Far more eccentric treasures hid in sealed cupboards and containers of opaque glass.

All covered in dust, their grandeur smothered. The similarities weren’t lost on him. Not even with his attention consumed by divining paths forward from the notes and their disparate observations. When was the last time he bothered to polish his horns before Lancet’s latest intervention?

He sighed and jotted something down on a new piece of paper. He drew back from his work. He gazed vacantly at the papers. Soon he’d be done. Then the dust would settle again. Till he matched the motes in the air,

The door behind him burst open. Throwing wind and musty clouds into being. His musing turned into reality in between the blink of an eye.

He blinked as the clouds settled and glared at his little sister. She jumped onto a couch with a puff. Yet she was entirely unscathed.

She smiled brightly at him. A ray of light forged the motes into a shining halo, that kissed her light brown skin. No doubt the spirits of light spiting him for spurning them.

He shook his head, raining a shower of dust on his ruined desk. Yet a shower drizzle rained from his lashes with every blink.

“Lancet.” He began.

The woman ran over him. “You’re up early normally I have to send someone to wake you for your lessons.” She rambled with a cheeky smile, her haze fell on his dust laden notes she gasped. “Don’t tell me you’ve taken such a liking to your student that you working on an off day.”

Rhevier let not an ounce of annoyance onto his face. That would just rile her to greater heights of bothersome. “I will admit I’ve been enjoying this pet project.” He empathized. “I’ve never had the chance to work on a live tainted subject.”

“Oh, Rhevier no need to be coy. I can get you a teaching position if you want I can make that a whole school. Think of it, sponsored by the Terras headed by one of their elusive sons. The commoner will love, we can even let some of the better ones join.” Off Lancet went again, spinning an idea from noting. Her passion so frothing he couldn’t tell where the line between scheme joke and plan to cheer him was.

He smiled but the expression died as soon as he noticed. From the twinkle in her eyes he could tell she noticed. How annoying.

He knew what she was doing, she knew he did, and he knew she knew. On it went, since they were children and for however many years he had left. Though back then their games were much lighter.

“I don’t want to cheer up Lancet.”

“And since when have I concerned myself with what other people want.” She matched his glare. Her blue eyes shone with the passion of lightning. Her antlers sat like a crown atop her brow. Her essence poured into her aura and suffused the world with an intangible weight So bold, so stubborn.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

He was proud. He was ashamed. What realm would she have reached if not for him? She shouldn’t be out here attending to the feelings of her lessers. If not for him, she could be so much more. He swallowed the words. He wouldn’t insult her effort with them.

He continued their game. “So you want to do all that paperwork.”

Her tension melted like morning dew “Of course, why else would I if not for my love of reading.” She proclaimed, with an affronted tone.

Rhevier quirked a brow and raised his thick stack of papers. “Truly, I had a summary of our project planned, but if you’d rather.” He trailed off. The papers held out like a humble offering.

She winced, the expression passed within a moment. Replaced by a generous grin. She pushed it away with a single raised finger, “I’d love to, but I don’t want your effort to be wasted.”

He let the deflection pass, but only because they both knew who won. “Where would you like me to begin.”

Lancet reclined. Her expression smoothed into an approximation of seriousness. “What are her chances of success.”

“Success at what.”

She shot him a dirty look, “What else, cultivation,”

He met her frustration with his own before settling down. “It is complicated. Her odds of surviving the Labyrinths trial and beginning Internalization are not wonderful, nor are they atrocious. She has shown tremendous resilience and drive even after I altered her solution to increase the affects of her taint.”

“Tremendous resilience, high praise.”

He sighed, “Lancet,”

“One more question the I’ll let you continue.”

“Fine,” he grumbled. At least his ‘student’ didn’t interruptions.

“Have you found out what essence is tainted.”

“No Lancet, not since the last time you ask,” she’d been asking from the first day he met the girl.

“You must have some insights.”

He mused on the first batch of vials and the notes two had taken. They were meticulous to the point of near uselessness. Important details had drowned under the wight of pointless observations. It had been a challenge to make use of the mess. At least inattention wasn’t one of her flaws.

He began tentatively “I have some theories, given the likely origin of her taint and her personal notes.”

Those words enough to light a fire in Lancets eyes and distract her from girls proclamation on the girls dubious odds.

“I believe it is related to Depression and disassociation.”

“Strange essences,”

“Yes but I believe we’ve dallied enough. Further explanations can come later.”

Two waved him off, he didn’t let it bother him.

“As it related to cultivation more generally? She almost certainly doomed.”

Lancet jolted, her mouth flew open. To be shut by a firm glance.

“Her selected essence is Loneliness. A manageable if difficult path on its own. She operates well under the essence’s pressure. She pushes herself to a manic degree. It’s what she needs to outpace the taint and I’m inclined to believe it’s at least in part spurred by an intersection with her taint. However its unattainable. She may pass the first phase, she may even breach the second cycle if the ancestors smile upon her. She will be a hollow thing by then if she doesn’t succumb to a deviation by then.”

In the quiet that followed his words, Lancet’s eyes grew distant. He wondered what thoughts weighed on his rambunctious sister. Perhaps the girl’s senses could provide a hint. As he was, only the churning energies she released hinted at anything.

She sighed and the unused tumult faded. “How certain are you.”

“There are always intricacies beyond. Perhaps the angel you’ve pinned on will do something. Perhaps she’ll find enlightenment on her path.”

She mulled his words in silence. Rhevier couldn’t stand to see her like this. He didn’t know what to do. She was the one who comforted. Nonetheless, he needed to try. In as gentle a tone he could. He spoke “What’s wrong Lancet, I didn’t expect this to bother you.”

“It’s just, It’s just I wanted everything to go perfectly this time. She got real cheek to her she was real fun to mess with” her voice fell to a whisper. “She reminds me a bit of you. All the drive to walk barefoot up a mountain if that’s what it takes. Before you,” she didn’t finish, Shame pricked his thoughts. “Now I’m pushing her onto a crooked path.”

Old instincts drew him forth. He found himself on his knees by her side. He had clasped in his “Sister, the academy is the best place to straighten crooked paths. You gave her a choice, one she is determined to make. All we can do is prepare her for it.” He pulled her into a hug, and after a moment of stiff surprise she returned it.

“Well its least I could do for shaking some dust of my dearest brother.” He puled back and shared in her wry smile.

“Indeed it is.”