Elach woke instantly when a claw tapped his shoulder, a spark of Issi running through his mind like wildfire. “That is thirty minutes, Elach. Have you made your decision?”
“I have.” Elach winced as he rubbed his shoulder. “That hurt a lot.”
“Your mental defences are absurdly well developed. Anything less would, and did, not get through.” Hoalt explained. “Your decision?”
“Thanks, I guess? And I’ll take the quality and control packages.”
Elach looked up at Hoalt, hoping he hadn’t read the tyrant’s intentions wrong. It had been Y’talla’s idea to ask for two, but Elach had had to find the justification in the tyrant’s words alone. He’d found it in the sword-breaker dagger.
Hoalt put on an expression that Elach assumed was supposed to look put out, but a fanged grin ruined it. “Greed… the deal…” Hoalt laughed and shook his head. “Why bother with the facade? Take your payment, Elach. One bundle and the canister for ousting Glasrime and Lavassil’s invaders, and another bundle for delivering the dagger. All I ask is that you don’t begin trying to use the materials until you’ve found a safe haven in the pillar, and are absolutely certain you will have at least the time marked on the instructions to work through them. Can you promise me that, Elach?”
“Easily.” Elach replied smoothly. “Where do I go to get the stuff for exploring the pillar?”
“I’ll have everything set up for you at the entrance to the pillar, and a practitioner to guide you there the moment you set foot outside of my home. If you leave today, I’ll throw in a purse of coins to help you along.” Hoalt offered.
Elach raised an eyebrow, then nodded slowly. He saw something in Hoalt’s face and body language he’d seen one too many times in the kids he guided through the spring. Desperation.
“Show me the door and I’ll be gone.”
----------------------------------------
Hoalt’s guide nodded at Elach as she hurried towards the pillar ahead of him. It was imposing from a distance, but now that he was directly under it, it was almost too nondescript to be intimidating. No decorations, no windows, hells, no curved lines on perfect black stone. He couldn’t even see the entrance until the guide dipped down below street level, after which he still couldn’t see the entrance but could assume it was underground.
“Let’s see if this works.” Elach said to himself, looking inwards without actually delving into his headspace. He reached for Flow, who accepted the pull almost immediately, a weight settling on his shoulder and a welcoming note entering his right ear. He felt Y’talla brimming with excitement, extended the same invitation to her, and felt a blockage. As if his headspace didn’t want to give Y’talla up.
Flow sang a questioning tune as Elach grimaced. “It doesn’t want to let her out. Give me a hand, buddy?”
Elach felt Flow’s presence settle in next to his, singing an encouraging song as their Issi added to his strength. Y’talla blinked in surprise as Elach wrenched open his headspace, chains straining to keep it from breaking entirely, and pulled her through. His head burned with the worst headache he’d ever felt, but Y’talla’s presence was slowly filtering into reality. He felt her utter joy at the prospect of being outside with him and Flow, and that was all Elach needed to push through the pain. His Issi screamed defiance against whatever force was trying to keep Y’talla in, the pocket of transcended Issi emptying itself as Elach latched his chains between Y’talla and himself and gave one last titanic pull.
He couldn’t quite describe what happened next. It was as if the entire city’s Issi swirled into one point, shedding anything that tainted it until all that was left was the raw potential that was Issi. And then Y’talla was there, but it wasn’t quite her. She looked healthier. Stronger. Just a little bit more confident in herself, and beyond ecstatic as she launched into a hug that warmed Elach’s heart and brought a grin to his face.
“It worked!” She laughed happily. “It worked, it worked, it worked! I’m actually here!” Y’talla looked around. “The outside’s a lot more black and gold than I expected.”
“The Gilded Night does have a colour palette, doesn’t it?” Elach agreed. “You see a lot of other colours down below, but up here it’s all black and gold. If you two ever meet Hoalt, you’ll see why.”
Flow perked up and started looking around. They batted Elach on the side of the head to get his attention, then sang a song of warning.
“I guess a display like that would attract some attention. Let’s get out of here before we get sent back to Hoalt.”
Y’talla skipped happily along in front of Elach and Flow, her hair billowing out behind her like willows caught in the wind. She’d changed her clothes and was now wearing long pants and a sweater with sandals, making her almost completely green except for her face, hands, and feet. Her skin’s glow was more distinct in the shadow of the pillar, and it looked cleaner than before. Less sickly and more vibrant.
“Wow, that’s one big lizard.” Y’talla looked up at a gecko clinging to the pillar, its skin a patchwork of green and red geometric patterns, and gasped as the pillar opened up and the gecko shuffled inside. “It’s got lizard doors! Can we go in the lizard doors?!”
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“We have to start at floor one, so probably not.” Elach said, walking down the stairs that led to a small waiting area where two armored figures stood on either side of a small square of black glass. They looked up at him and stopped their conversation short, putting on a serious air as one of them stepped towards Elach. “Hoalt said he’d be calling ahead for me. I’m Elach.”
“He also said you’d be alone.” The guard said, and Elach saw eyes narrowing under their helmet. “The bird and the girl are with you?”
“We are.” Y’talla interjected. “My name’s Y’talla! What’s yours?”
“Clovis.” The guard answered, looking between Elach and his two companions then back at his partner. They shrugged and thumbed at the black slate. “You vouch for these two, Elach?”
“I do.”
“Then as long as they register with the pillar, there’s no problem. Hoalt trusts you, and questioning his judgment is way above my pay grade.” Clovis gestured at the slate. “Press your hand to it and let it feel your Issi. You’ll be in the system after that, so you won’t have to start back at floor one each time you come here.”
“Will do.” Elach said with a nod. Y’talla had already run ahead, and her hand was planted on the black square before Elach could say ‘wait for us’. She opened her mouth to say something, but disappeared in a swirl of Issi. “There’s only one entry point on the first floor, right?” Elach asked worriedly.
“Only one.” The nameless guard confirmed. “You’ll see your manifestation the moment you’re taken in. Good luck on your mission, Elach. The Gilded Night is counting on you.”
With a deep breath and a smile in thanks, Elach pressed his hand to the square. A voice chimed through his mind, clear and loud, like a city bell on a quiet day.
“Creating profile; Elach Follow. Bonded wisp; travelling lotus, violet variation. Issi bonds; unknown Issi from Y’talla, depreciated location Issi bond from unknown. Entry request denied. Denial overwritten by Emperor Hoalt.” The voice paused for a moment, then Hoalt spoke in its place. “I was not aware your patron was in the city. I have given them access that is locked in stride with yours. Welcome to the pillar.”
Elach reached up and felt Flow still planted on his shoulder as the inside of the pillar built itself up in a whirlwind of diamond shaped panels. He’d expected something like the inkskipper’s room during Resthollow’s trial, but found himself pleasantly surprised at the cozy atmosphere he found himself in. People were bustling about with platters of food and drink, running off to gazebos where others dressed in all white were cooking up a plethora of meats and vegetables. The only thing that clashed with the picnic-like atmosphere was the tall white mass of rocks that cut through the green field like a mountain plucked from its range.
Y’talla walked up to Elach with an armful of food and a full-mouth grin. “They’re just giving all this food away! You think we need to eat a whole bunch to get to the next floor?”
“Probably not.” Elach said, leaning over to wipe the corner of Y’talla’s mouth with his sleeve. She grumbled, but leaned into it. “Is it tasty?”
“Nope! It tastes exactly like it smells.”
Raising an eyebrow, Elach inhaled deeply. The smell of freshly cut grass and burning wood met his nose, but nothing resembling food at all. He leaned closer to Y’talla’s haul and sniffed again, the juicy meats and charred vegetables producing no scents whatsoever.
“That is weird.” Elach muttered. Flow hopped over to Y’talla’s shoulder and picked at a chunk of charred white pepper with pink seeds, then tried to musically describe the taste they experienced. A texture followed by silence, and insistence that Elach partake. “No thanks, buddy, I’m good. Let’s try and find how we’re supposed to get up to the next floor.”
“Okay. Let me finish this first.” Y’talla said, taking in a deep breath as the air around her got thick with Issi. The food shattered into countless tiny particles, fluttering around Y’talla as her Issi whisked them around. An exhale brought Y’talla’s Issi back to her in a heartbeat, taking all the vaporized food along with it. “I’m ready!”
Elach waved a hand through where the food had been. “How did you do that?”
“I don’t know.” Y’talla shrugged. “I just did it.”
He stared down at her, and she stared back with innocent eyes. “...alright. Let’s go ask for directions. Someone here’s gotta know how to get higher up.”
As it would turn out, near everyone on the floor had an idea on how to ascend the pillar. Yet none of them would spill their secrets. Elach rolled his eyes and moved on whenever someone chuckled knowingly, or got that gleam in their eye that said they knew something he didn’t, but Y’talla grew increasingly annoyed as the group was rebuffed again and again until she was muttering under her breath and gesturing madly at every new person.
“Why are they all kids? And all the adults are either looking over the kids or cooking that tasteless food with a superior look on their faces!” Y’talla crossed her arms and glared daggers at the man in white who was running off with an empty platter. “Useless cooks.”
“Kids?” Elach asked, then scanned the greens with adjusted eyes. Much to his surprise, Y’talla was right. Almost everyone here had the Issi of a new practitioner, and looked to be between fifteen and seventeen years old. With the vast majority on the lower side of that age range. And the adults were either the white-clad combination server-cooks or were adorned in gold and black, bearing Hoalt’s sigil on their chest and overlooking individual groups of kids. Like teachers.
The truth hit elach like a glazed bee in a windstorm. “This is the kindergarten floor.”
“Kindergarten?” Y’talla asked, and Flow echoed her question. “Isn’t that for little kids, not teenagers?”
“Not actually kindergarten, but the Issi equivalent. The beginners’ floor. So there has to be a really simple solution that we’re just not seeing.” Elach said, his vision drawn to the rocky wall.
“Like the rocks we’ve been ignoring?” Y’talla suggested.
“Yes, exactly.” Elach sighed. “Let’s do a lap around them first. See if there’s anything obvious on the other side we missed.”
Flow puffed their chest up and cawed before taking off.
“Right. You’re a bird.” Elach shook his head. “Let’s follow them.”