Riven punched Viriya. She blocked it, catching his fist that had all the power and aimless precision of a blind bull in her raised palm. If her palm stung at the way his fist slapped her hand, she didn’t show it.

With a growl, Riven swung his other fist. But he was getting tired, whereas Viriya hadn’t broken a single sweat. She danced out of the swinging fist’s path, still keeping the other fist trapped in her palm. Riven tried to get himself into a defensible position, but Viriya shuffled in too close too fast, and he had left himself wide open. And damn it, his other hand was still caught in her implacable grip.

Viriya jabbed a knee into his kidney, and Riven groaned. He stumbled away after she finally deigned to let go of his useless hand.

How many times did this make? A dozen at least. Closer to a score if his counting skills could be counted on. Scions’ mercy, but he had been trying over and over for what felt like hours now and it didn’t seem like he’d made any progress at all. At every altercation, without fail, Viriya trounced him like she was some brilliant mistress of combat—which she was, frankly speaking—and Riven was a dunce who had barely learned to walk on his own without needing to clutch his mother’s skirts.

“You’re getting better,” Viriya noted.

Riven sighed. Pretending he had even a tiny chance of getting one over Viriya was tiring work. “You’re only saying that to make me feel better.”

Viriya answered him with only a flat stare.

“All right, fine. You’d never be the one to give out pointless reassurances like that unless it was true.”

She nearly cracked a smile at that. “Strange isn’t it? Such little difference between the truth and pointless reassurance. You can never tell which it is.”

Riven scowled. It was a clear dig on his abilities and he was too tired to respond in kind. No fair, picking on him while he was down.

They had been going at since morning. Further talks with Nivi had revealed little, but at least they had ensured that the Deathless really were being well taken care of. None of the other researchers or any of the guards or staff appeared to be bothered that they were hosting a Spectre and a Fiend. Though perhaps they weren’t aware that they were doing so in the first place. Nivi hadn’t instructed Arrilme and Franry to recloak themselves, but they hadn’t left the third floor since they had first arrived either.

All for the best, maybe. At least they were safe and relatively happy for the moment, which was something to be thankful about. Though thoughts of the future did give Riven pause.

“Come on,” Viriya said, raring to go. “We need to train your stamina up too. Isn’t this whole thing because Tam flipped you over his head and threw you like a punting ball at a basket?”

Riven should never have been specific when he had admitted why he needed help with physical training. Viriya was never going to let him live that one down. “I do need to rest every once in a while though. We aren’t all machines like you.”

“You’ll find most, if not all, Essentiers are machines, as you so politely put it. Wielding Essence takes a big toll on your body that you may not be prepared for if you’re not physically fit.”

“Yes, yes, I will exercise, eat proper food, and generally take better care of myself. You don’t have to nag me about it.”

“Believe me, you’ve seen nothing of true nagging yet.”

Riven forced himself to his feet. His breaths were steadier than before now. Maybe he had a tiny chance of taking down Viriya’s confidence a notch. “How about we try with Essence this time? I still haven’t been able to figure out its limits. Or… how exactly I might go about finding out what those limits are.”

“What have you found out so far?”

Riven told her the gist of what he’d discovered in the fight with Tam, and how he’d discovered them too. Context seemed important. “Shields. It’s always shields. I realized it can make shields out of anything and  I can control what it makes that shield out of, or where that shield happens.” He grinned at her. “Want to see?”

Viriya eyed him curiously, then beckoned him with a mocking “come hither” of one hand.

Riven closed his eyes. He wasn’t in any serious danger, but he could think he was. With one finger, he pinched the skin on his arm hard, trying to simulated the feeling of impending demise. It was difficult. Random images of danger like fire or insane accidents never worked, so Riven always turned to past experiences. The fight with Tam, with the Fiend that had killed Bartle, trying to survive against that Phantom Nory who had attacked his very apartment.

It worked. The pressure came from depths he had yet to plumb, and Riven grabbed hold of it before it could think of bursting out from him. This was his Essence and it would obey him.

“Impressive,” Viriya commented, looking slightly surprised as though Riven had learned his first words in a new language. “But what does it actually do different?”

Riven grinned at her, and he didn’t bother hiding the nastiness behind it. “Why don’t you come and find out?”

“Don’t mind if I do.”

Viriya shot forward. Riven had already pulled his Essence into that close armour near his skin that he had used against Tam to such success. Viriya drew her hand back and punched him in the face, but he had a skin-tight golden helmet carved from Essence all over his head. Her hands struct the armour of Essence and compressed air, and snapped back.

“Impressive,” she said, shaking the hand she had hit Riven with.

“Of course it is.” It was too hard to keep the smugness out of his voice so he didn’t bother. “As a shield, it’s perfect. Best thing is, I can use it to attack now too.”

“Hmm.”

Viriya frowned, then walked backwards. Riven frowned back. She wasn’t getting ready to attack or even thinking of doing so, going by her loose expression and her lackadaisical gait. What was she doing? They weren’t done with their little exercise yet. She couldn’t just leave—

His shield broke. In the daylight, it was harder to notice the golden light his Essence offered, and its disappearance always took Riven a few moments to realize. By the time he understood what was going on—Viriya had paused in her backwards stride with a small look of satisfaction—it was too late. He looked down. His golden armour was gone.

Riven cursed. “What in the world?”

“Survival,” Viriya said, still keeping her distance so that she had to raise her voice a little. “Wasn’t that how your Essence worked? Without the need to survive, your Essence has no purpose, therefore, it’s gone.”

“Damn it to the Chasm.”

Riven slumped to the ground, suddenly more exhausted than ever before. Viriya was right. His Essence was entirely situational. If he wasn’t in a life-or-death moment, his Essence could basically be considered non-existent, and he might as well be any regular person.

Didn’t matter if he could summon it by some trick or lie at the moment he needed it if his opponents could trick it away too.

“You want to take a break?” Viriya asked quietly, handing him a canteen of water.

Riven took a long draught. The sight of water was what alerted him to the fact that his throat was parched worse than rocks in a desert. “I want to figure out how to use my ridiculously fickle Essence.”

“Maybe knowing mine might help.”

Riven looked up sharply. “Knowing your what?”

“Limits. Of my Essence, not me specifically.”

“Oh! Well, I’m all ears.”

Viriya sat down next to him, crossing her arms and closing her eyes as she thought. Riven sat up straighter. It was a little surprising she was letting him know. Limits were a sign of weakness. A sign of vulnerability. Of trust.

“My first limit is spatial,” Viriya said, meeting his eyes. Unlike normal, she used her hands to speak, waving them as though demonstrating a concept that couldn’t be left to just words. “I can only Lock things and have them interact if they’re close enough, which normally amounts to around a couple hundred yards or so, though I can raise this by applying more Essence. Very long distances are currently impossible. I can’t send something from here to Providence, for instance.”

Riven nodded, a little smile working its way on his face. He hadn’t expected her to be so open about it, had thought that perhaps as with everything else, she’d be cagey. Maybe this was different. It was something perhaps, that he had to know, and thus Viriya had relented and torn down her walls for once. He realized his smile had turned stupid, and hastily put it away.

“So the bullet that pulled back the Infernal was because you applied a lot more Essence than normal?” If Riven remembered correctly, the Infernal Anvarroh back at Coral Fort had been torn from the tree after Viriya had shot an Essence-infused Sept bullet and Locked the demon to it with her Essence. It must have shot past that limit of her two hundred yards but the time she’d hit the Infernal with her Essence. “The more Essence thing makes sense since my shield was once broken by a demon. I was using up the last of the Sept I had, and it got weak. So Sept itself is a limit.”

“Well, yes, but do you have a spatial one? Is there a distance you can’t make it work anymore?”

“It always works in near vicinity to me, so I don’t think so…” Riven remembered how he’d had it overtake and cover Tam. “Though, that’s something to note. I can make it form around others, but I don’t know how far.”

“All right,” Viriya said, words clipping off like she was noting it down like Nivi. “Note to self, find how far Riven can use his shield. We’ve already determined that the intensity of your shield is dependent on the amount of Essence used, just like what I can use my Locking on depends on how much Essen I use. The larger the object, the more Essence required. Next thing on the agenda—what you can use your Essence on.”

“Ah right. Now that I think on it, my Essence works on basically everything.”

“Everything? You sure? My Essence can’t affect anything that’s not graspable like fluids. Though again, that depends on the density of the fluid in question, and the higher the density, the easier it is to Lock it something.”

“Oh hmm. I’ve used air with no problem and a variety of other things. But might be another thing we need to test to figure out.”

“Noted. Next, do you know the exact cost? How much Sept it consumes in a given period of time.”

“I can guess, but I can’t tell you exactly. I remember it ran out against that demon in Rattles, after a drawn-out fight that lasted…” It was hard to recall. Anything about Rattles made his head go fuzzy and he had a hard time focusing. All he saw Bartle dying, entrusting Riven with his dying wish to see his daughter safe. And what had Riven done? “Half an hour at most, maybe? I’m not really sure.”

Viriya muttered to herself, counting off the number of bullets he was likely to have had at the time. “Another note, figure out the rate of Essence cost. I think that’s it for now. Power, reach or ability, affect, and cost. Those are all you need to know about your Essence at first, and from that base, any other relevant things can be figured out.” She stood up. “You want to try now? Or too exhausted?”

There was a challenge in her voice, and Riven wasn’t going to let it slide. “I’m ready. We’re going to figure out the limits, right?”

“That’s right.”

Viriya walked away. Nivi had kindly granted them a secluded courtyard to use for practising their Essence, and they had been duly grateful. Riven in particular was enchanted.

There were actual trees here without the need for a greenhouse, tall cedars lining two walls and stands of poplars lining two others, all shaded by transparent glass. Like the rest of the area, they bore the scars of the recent Septstorm. Their trunks were shredded, lower branches having been ripped off entirely, and the glass protecting them above had been pitted and cracked, though the shatter-resistant build had allowed them to still remain in position.

“Ready?” Viriya was pointing her gun at him.

Riven’s skipped a beat. “Er… you’re going to shoot at me?”

“I asked if you’re ready.”

There was no mercy in Viriya’s eyes. Riven swallowed. She looked ready all right, ready to kill.

“Fine.” Riven took a deep breath, and concentrated, lowering the profile of his body as though it’d help with anything. “I’m ready.”

“Let’s go.”

Viriya fired.

Riven let the pressure come out of his just as fast, concentrating on holding the Essence close to his body. The golden lines erupted out faster than thought, compressing the air and wrapping it in an auric sheen to form that armour he had used against Tam. Just in time. Viriya’s bullet cracked into it with the sound and force of a lightning bolt. It lodged there, glowing bright green. A ring off cracks spread from the point of impact, similar to the cracks on the trees’ glass shading.

Then Riven flew forward. He shrieked as he lifted off, shooting straight for Viriya and the brilliant viridian star in her right fist.

“Don’t bother fighting back,” she yelled over his shouts to stop the madness.

The madness, of course, didn’t stop. Too fast to even think of doing anything to defend himself, much less pretend to fight back somehow, he reached Viriya. Or specifically, her fist.

She punched him. Riven had jerked his arms in front of his face for protection, but she had aimed for his guts right where her bullet had lodged. As ever, Riven didn’t feel the impact. But that didn’t take away the force of her blow, the pure power driving it. He was thrown back, tumbling and rolling on the ground and scuffing up dust.

“Huh, interesting,” Viriya said.

Waving away the dust—not enough of it got through his Essence shield to bother his breathing, but it was still a pain to see through—Riven stood up. He checked the spot where he’d been hit. The cracks had grown larger and more numerous so that the area was more white than golden, tiny flakes falling off at every little motion.

“That good enough for you?” Riven asked. He held back from calling her some unflattering names too. Really, how hard could it have been to give some proper warnings?

Viriya raised her gun again. “Not even close.”

Riven’s heart started thudding unnaturally fast. “Now wait a second. At least tell me—”

She fired again, but not at him this time. Her aim was to the side, angled a little towards the sky instead of straight, and Riven’s head turned after the bullet to see its path. His eyes widened. Her golden-green bullet flew over the walls of the courtyard and out into the wastes.

Shit.

Riven followed.

He screamed in fear and frustration as he was lifted off his feet again, heading straight for the outside with no control over his movements. Riven shot like he was ejected from a cannon, hurtling through the air as the courtyard and everything in it receded in his view. Everything but Viriya. And that accursed half-smirk at the corner of her mouth.

Riven crashed into the ground and this time his shield shattered. He groaned at the impact, which had at least been dulled thanks to his Essence shield but he still heard the lodged bullet clattering to the ground. All right, it was confirmed. Viriya was trying to kill him, and stupid Riven could do nothing about it. He ought to lie down and simply accept it as fact. It wasn’t like he had any more of a chance than an ant against a glacier.

“Ready yourself!” Viriya was standing at the top of the courtyard wall, several yards high. Probably used her Essence to get there. Show off.

Riven raised his arms and spread them out as though he was readying to embrace the whole world. “I’m ready to accept my death.”

“No idiot. I’m going to shoot at you and you’re going to see how far you can go while still being able to form your shield around me.”

Riven blinked. “Damn, that’s brilliant.”

“Ready!” Viriya barked.

Swallowing down his trepidation, Riven focused. Survival from Viriya’s insanity. He’d need his Essence to live through this. It came, the pressure like boiling water damped down by a lid. Het let it out slow to reform the armour that Viriya had so blatantly broken.

Viriya fired as soon as the golden glow went up around him.

Riven held back from taking a hesitant step behind him as the bullet lodged itself in the armour right above his chest. More cracks spread from the point of impact, and this time, he heard the air seeping out over the hammering of his heart.

He looked up where Viriya was reloading her gun. How much Sept did he have left? She shouldn’t have been to break his Essence down so easily when he had used it against a Scions-damned Cataclysm.

Maybe it had been all the Sept he’d had then. All he had now were his measly bullets after all, just as he’d had with the demon in Rattles.

Viriya didn’t ask if he was ready this time. Instead, she fired again. Riven jumped back, but the bullet still hit him in the knee. Damn, if he hadn’t had his shield, he’d be crippled for good.

No, he had to focus. On Viriya specifically. She was the source of danger itself, so survival meant taking her out of the equation for good. Riven charged forward. It caught Viriya by surprise, her next shot sailing well over his shoulder and landing somewhere behind him with a loud crack.

Riven forced himself to focus on her, on the air around her, aware of the pressure still building up beneath his skin. It wanted to be loose. To be set free and perform its job. He released it.

Golden lines shot out from his shield, fast as the very bullets Viriya kept shooting. Riven’s heart tried to keep running on without him as he paused, partly to see what was going on properly and partly because the pressure shooting out of him made it difficult to control his own movements—it was much like he had a grown more muscles, ligaments, and bones that he didn’t have the time to learn to control.

Viriya had no time to react. Riven’s Essence shot at her, and enveloped her in an orb, the lines weaving a closed sphere of gold around just as they had done with Tam. Could he control what the Essence used to make the shield that far too? It seemed a wild chance, one that he could perhaps try, but it was too late now.

The shield didn’t last long. One loud thump, then the first crack appeared, bleeding glowing green light. Another, and it shattered into a thousand golden sprinkles, the trapped air escaping with a loud whoosh.

There was a panicked look on Viriya’s face, but she damped it down too quickly for Riven to be even sure if it had really been there or not. “Go back, Riven. Try it from further back.”

Riven didn’t have to comply. Or rather, Viriya didn’t wait for him to do so. She looked behind him, and Riven went airborne again, pulled behind by the inescapable force of Viriya’s Essence-infused bullets. He was ready this time, able to shut down his scream despite it bubbling in his gullet.

Nevertheless, he still fell and had to struggle to stand again. Damn bullet had burrowed into the ground and it took some effort to resist the tugging sensation.

“You could have let me walk backwards,” Riven shouted.

Viriya’s answer was another bullet shot straight at him. It got caught in the shoulder of his armour, a corona of cracks spreading outwards.

He focused, repeating the process of forming a shield around Viriya. It worked. He was at least thirty yards farther away, but it was no harder to create a shield in the distance. Viriya broke through it with no more difficulty, but no more ease either, than the last one. Riven didn’t wait and went back even more and repeated the process from sixty yards or so away. Once again, he was able to create his golden shield, which Viriya promptly tore through. It was the next time he tried, when he was about ninety yards away, that Riven couldn’t make it work.

“So it’s between sixty and ninety yards?” Viriya shouted. “Try closer.”

Riven didn’t feel like shouting back, so he nodded. No way to tell if she saw it though. Didn’t matter. He bent to the task of figuring the exact distance it became impossible to create a distant shield with his Essence, focusing on the distant speck of Viriya. With each step, he tried to let the pressure loose and aim it at his target.

It took nearly a half-hour’s worth of work, but Riven finally got a grip on the hard numbers about his Essence.

“What did you find?” Viriya asked, jumping down from the two-men high wall with nary any trouble as Riven returned.

“Around seventy yards is the limit for making the shield without any trouble,” Riven said. “Beyond that, I need to focus more the farther I get. I can do it at ninety yards too, just had to focus a lot, and that takes up too long.”

“So seventy yards as the optimum range, and ninety yards, give or take, for maximum range. Correct?”

“Right.”

“All right then, we’ve got reach down.” Viriya punched one fist into the other palm. There was a hard look on her face, the hint of a harder grin dancing on her lips. “Time to figure out ability and power.”

Riven baulked. “Wait, can’t I rest for a bit? We can pick it up again after lunch.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Riven. You’re either going to defend yourself, or get the crap beaten out of you. Which is it going to be?”

Riven sighed. All he knew was that he was screwed either way.