✴

“Do you happen to know Japanese sign language?” you sign to her through the glass wall.

She looks off into the distance for a minute and then responds in rough, slow signs, “It’s in my language database. I will figure it out.”

“Yeah, I’ve been there,” you sign, keeping it slow and deliberate for her. “So it seems we are separated just as soon as we decided to stay together. Part of the exam?”

“We can only assume. These barriers block everything but vision, I can’t even reach you with a message.” She seems to pick up the language much faster than you did.

“It turns out it’s us who find ourself in an imprisoning prism. I didn’t expect it to be so literal...” you sign.

“Then there are two prisms. But that means...two...two...” Struggling to find an adequate sign and tries to spell it out in Japanese phonology, “...daikuromatiku prism, two makes a...”

“I know the infodump is tempting but the details aren’t important. What are yu getting at?” you sign.

“Two of that kind of prisms splits light into three colors, so--”

The æthereal echo of a loud crash hits you. The iridescent glow vanishes from your avatar and your surroundings. Standing in shadow, you turn your perception toward the auditory hallucination.

A construct towers over you, as tall as the glass ceiling above. A bright red aura surrounds its avatar--a bestial form, standing on four strong legs and covered in white fur that glows at the touch of the light passing through the prismatic walls. And four huge horns curve from the sides of its head to face you point-on.

“You mean there’s a third familiar!” you say.

The white beast takes an aggressive looking stance and stares at you with fiery red eyes.