Azir lay still for a long while, staring straight up. His eyes, once a vibrant amethyst, were almost entirely white. The only exception, his pupils, retained a slight greyish tint. When he finally stood up and looked around, he was completely disoriented. Above him, the sky still looked like sky, just muted. Around him though, the landscape had been transformed. A mountain vista surrounded by stormy skies was replaced by muted outlines blurred by flickering beams and dancing particles. The disorientation grew heavier, his dark skin paled, and he wobbled on his feet. Closing his eyes yielded no change. Even holding his hands up to his face did little, the faint outline of a hand barely breaking up the mind bending view. Overcome, Azir collapsed once more to the ground.

"What on earth was that? That's not supposed to happen in Willfighting!" Felix burst out. Before immediately looking away and rubbing his head. "Uhhh, never mind." Mico laughed at the sudden switch, "I don't mind talking about it. As far as we can tell, my Lifelight has some kind of defense response. So, if I start to lose during a Will fight and Cutter draws deep enough to pull from my Lifelight, it lashes out. If I focus really hard on it, I can kind of contain the burst but that's pretty difficult while I'm busy keeping him out. Cutter say's managing both is good practice so once we've worked out a system where he draws for 10 seconds once he's past my defence and I have to contain my life light response. Ideally I'd also push him back but... I've got a way to go before that's likely." Cutter's mouth tightened at Mico's willingness to share, though he didn't say anything. Mico didn't even notice, excited to talk about it with someone other than Cutter.

Felix looked even more confused by the explanation, "That sounds like channelling though. How old are you? Are you already 14?" Cutter spoke up, "It's not channelling. He's only 12. Your turn now." Ignoring Felix's hesitation, Cutter strode back to the spot he'd been sitting in before and assumed the same position. Mico hopped back and forth in excitement, "Come on! I've wanted to watch someone else Willfight for ages! Don't worry, Cutter's gentle about it." Felix tentatively stepped forward and, instead of sitting down, squatted in front of Cutter. Feet slightly apart and weight balanced, he raised his right palm, left arm resting on his knees. Cutter's eyebrows raised, though he once again said nothing. After a short pause to confirm Felix was ready, he made contact. Almost a minute later, Cutter finally drew back. "Strong will you have there." Felix just nodded. Mico however was less subdued in his response, "Wow! I've never held out for that long against Cutter. You must be strong." After a short break, Felix indicated that he wanted to go again and Cutter complied. They fought four more times, each round shorter than the last. Finally, Felix burst out "I want to fight Mico now, your will is ridiculous!" Impassive, Cutter said "That's not a good idea, even if you do win, Mico won't be able to avoid lashing out, you might get injured. Besides, you've likely overexerted yourself already. You need to take it easy." Felix tried to protest but, on standing up, his face paled suddenly. As he was heading inside to rest he paused, turning to Mico, "Are you going down to the coast again at all today?" Mico looked surprised, "I was going to run there again this afternoon, why?" Felix hesitated, glancing at Cutter "Can I come?" Mico also looked at Cutter, who still didn't react. "Uh, sure why not."

That afternoon, the two boys made their way down to the coast. Their pace was significantly slower, but Mico didn't really mind having an excuse to go slower for once. As they reached the coast, Mico immediately spotted the Morphwhale offshore. He glanced at Felix, who looked relieved. "Uh, how do I get down to the coastline?" Mico led him down the gully and out onto the sand. As they got to the water Felix immediately waded into the ocean and started swimming out. The whale, already in quite close to shore, quickly headed in closer. As Mico watched, the Morphwhale rose up out of the water under Felix and they were lifted into a riding position. Felix flopped down, arms wrapped around the huge animal. Mico could hear laughter from the shoreline. After a few minutes, Felix hopped off and swam ashore. As he arrived onshore Mico was unable to contain his excitement "I knew it! You've tamed a Morphwhale! How did you do it? How do you communicate with it? That's how you got all the way down the coast right? Wait, can I ride it too?" It took Mico a second to notice that Felix was pale and shivering, struggling to out of the water. "Oh, are you ok?" Felix looked up and, for the first time, Mico saw them smiling. "Yeah, just tired." As Felix smiled, their face transformed. Looking at their slim figure and small face, something clicked in Mico's mind and his cheeks flushed red. "Wait, you're a girl!"

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Felix just laughed again, high and clear. Mico looked at her, "Felix isn't a girls name!" She smiled at him. "Who says? Either way, I didn't like the name my father gave me so I'm Felix now." Mico's mind caught on her phrasing, usually both parent's would choose a name, but he decided not to ask. After all, Cutter had chosen his name and Mico knew he wasn't even his father. Cutter refused to talk about exactly who he was to Mico, and why he looked after Mico by himself, but he had always insisted that Mico not call him father. Felix interrupted his musing, "Sorry, I'm not trying to be secretive exactly, I just don't like talking about my family. I can, however, tell you more about Lily." Mico looked confused "Lily?" Felix gestured to the ocean and Mico's eyes lit up. "Oh! It, she, has a name? So you can talk to them! That's amazing." Felix nodded, "Yes. Like I said, I'll tell you all about it. In return though..." Felix looked away, "...could you help me back up the cliff?" Mico facepalmed. "You overdid it. Oh man, carrying you up once already was pretty rough." He took a deep breath. "Alright, but no vomiting on me this time." Felix's head jerked back to look at him, mouth open. Stammering a bit, she said "O-ok, maybe I can manage." Mico shook his head, "It's fine, it was mostly water anyway." He turned around and gestured for her to climb on his back. "Come on, this time you can at least hold on to me." Taking a deep breath, Felix climbed on, and Mico started trudging back towards the forest. "Wait, can I tell Cutter about this?" Felix let out a light chuckle, "You can tell him what you want. Though, I'm pretty sure he already knows." On reflection, Mico realised she was probably right. He'd certainly never managed to get anything past Cutter.

Over an hour and a half later, as it was getting dark, they arrived back at the hut. Both of them looked exhausted. In the end, Mico had carried Felix for most of the way. As tiring as it was for him, she was reasonably light and could barely stand, let alone walk for long. Cutter had a hot meal on the table as they arrived, the fire in the corner pumping out heat. He sat and watched as Mico struggled through the door and let Felix down at one of the chairs. She almost fell, grabbing onto the table for support. "You'll never get better if you keep overdoing it like this." She nodded, looking sheepish. Mico sat down, relieved that Cutter didn't say anything to him about being late for dinner. As he took a bite of the hot food he had a realisation. "Wait, how is the food hot? Did you know how long we'd be?" Cutter didn't look up from his food, "Of course, I was trailing you most of the time. I went ahead once I was sure you'd make it back." Mico stared at him, mouth agape. "Wait, why did I carry Felix the whole way back here by myself then?" Cutter looked at him sharply, "Who was it that said they would take Felix to the coast? You need to learn to take responsibility for your choices. Believe me when I say that carrying someone as light as Felix, for as small a distance as that, is a very gentle way for me to help you do so." Mico, thoroughly chastised, ducked his head and kept eating.

After the meal was done, Mico tidied up, waving Felix off when she offered to help. After finishing up, he was heading to his room when Felix spoke up. "Wait! I wanted to ask you both something. This is going to sound really crazy, but just hear me out." She took a deep breath. "So, you have obviously worked out that I ran away from home." She looked at Cutter. "You probably think I'm just being a stupid kid but I had good reasons." Cutter just grunted and she frowned. "I did! My home was not a safe place." Cutter waved her on and she took a breath. "It's also really far and, even if I wanted to go back, I'm not sure I'd survive the journey again. I'd say I was really lucky on the way here, and you saw how that ended." She said, glancing at Mico. "To get to the point, I was wondering if maybe I could live here?" She rushed ahead, "I really don't have anywhere else to go, and you saw how well I did trying to head out on my own, and..." Mico cut in "Fine by me!" She turned to Cutter, her face falling at his harsh expression and tears forming in her eyes. Cutter immediately looked awkward. "Argh, as long as you stop crying." Chopping his hand at Mico, who'd started celebrating already. "As long as you stop crying, you can stay here for a bit. I'm not saying you can live here, mind." He grumped. "But I'm certainly not going to be the one taking you all the way home."