Kiyo sat on her desk early that morning, keeping a careful eye on the skyline visible from her window. The storm had begun to landfall and the skies were momentarily clear. There was quite a bit of time yet before it began and she should seek shelter.
Honestly, it was quite unnecessary for her. She was a Jade Circle Master Sorceress and the increased density of ambient Chaos only made her more comfortable. Even now, she could sense the minute increase which made her Spells all the easier to shape.
That wasn't really what was on her mind at the moment and she stared fitfully at the beginnings of a letter in front of her. She bit her lip, picked up her fountain pen and continued writing.
"Cousin,
Apologies for taking so long to send you a letter. The trip from Realmheart to the outskirts was quite long and draining, not to mention boring. I've taken up the post you suggested, and I've met quite the few promising young seeds.
Most of them are entangled in useless politics but who am I to judge? Ahahaha, I know you despise it, too, but you're buried neck-deep in such things.
I've passed the clan technique to those seeds and quite a few are already starting to sprout. Don't worry, it's only the most basic of the basic knowledge, nothing they can't find out on their own after a while.
I must say the kitten shows much promise but has an opposite temperament. I look forward to polishing gems and bringing out as bright a lustre as I can manage.
I'll see you in a year, I suppose, until then, take care.
K. M. Alfein"
Once she was done, Kiyo folded the paper and inserted it into a crystal packet, for cross planar transport. She sealed it with the appropriate Animus signature such that only her cousin would be able to open it without destroying the contents.
Satisfied, she put the entire thing in a box and glanced out the window, noticing that the storm was well on its way inside. The planar barrier in the absolute east had already cracked and primordial Chaos streamed inside, painting the air with lurid colours.
She could feel the change in ambient Chaos as a tingle of static across her skin and hair. She focused her eyes in the distance, finding nothing but beauty.
"Ah, storms in the outskirts," she murmured, "nothing compares to the rawness of it."
She stretched and loped to the window, slipping outside and quietly latching it close behind her, using a touch of Animus to manipulate the lock from the other side. She leapt up the wall, her hands finding easy purchase amongst the bricks, until she was on the flat roof.
She'd left a box up there a couple of days ago which she opened now. Inside was a folding lounge chair, several metal flasks, and a smaller box. She unfolded her seat, placed it squarely on the concrete roof and held out a hand.
"Melt and meld," she said while her Animus came out in strands from her fingertips. They squirmed and squiggled in the air, bending and twisting, until they formed several runescript words. Ambient Chaos gathered around her Animus and in short order, drove into the roof.
The concrete flowed like mud, encasing the legs of the chair. Kiyo released her Animus and the concrete solidified. Now her seat was secure even if the winds blew with the force of a gale.
"Ah, nothing like a good storm to relax in," she sighed as she plopped down on the chair, retrieved a flask and twisted the cap open. The scent of strong liquor wafted out as she took a gulp. Then she grabbed the box, opened it and popped one of the chocolate truffles in her mouth. If the sun had been out, she would have doffed her clothes and sunbathed, but well, it was a storm after all.
She stared mostly at the skies and the barrier, drinking in the sight of the Chaos particles seeping inside. A strong planar barrier drained away most of the potency of the primordial Chaos, allowing only the meekest energy through. Coupled with the Radiant Sun which took in primordial Chaos, refined it, and then tossed it out into the planes to be used by all creatures who lived there, it was what made life possible.
Well, water and food, too. But without the ambient Chaos and the Sun's rays, it wouldn't be possible.
As a Sorceress, Kiyo's main purpose was to delve into the secrets of the Chaos particles. What made them tick, what made them change, how they held in the potential to be anything. And her Spells were used to actively transform and shape that Chaos to her will.
A few Knights were able to accomplish the same when they were in the Chaos Sea but that was different. There, the Chaos wanted to change. It wanted to be something! On the planes, ambient Chaos was the nearly inert leavings. It didn't want to be anything else and it took an Awakened to breathe it in, refine it in their cores and change it to Animus, that it could be something else.
As a Sorceress, she didn't have to take in the ambient Chaos in to transform it.
In the Chaos Sea, the might of her Will would become tenfold, and the primordial Chaos would bend to her merest whim. But of course, all the Unformed, the Chaos Lords, and the nascent Wyldlings would home in on her to devour her Anima. Part of the reason why no Sorcerer or Sorceress ventured into the Chaos alone.
One had to rest and couldn't remain forever on guard, after all.
The storm grew stronger and the winds buffeted Kiyo, sending her tawny hair whipping about. The spinning maelstrom in the sky shed varied colours and hues, different levels of pressure, and both heat and cold. She revelled in it while going through a couple of flasks of triple-distilled whiskey and lavan berry liquor. And about a dozen truffles.
"Ah, should buy more of these. Too bad the local variety isn't as refined," she sniffed.
Precipitation beat down to the ground, cold rain and hail. Kiyo's Field sprung up to keep her toasty warm and dry, its edges siphoning the ambient Chaos and using it to ward off the rain, all while using a minimum amount of her own Animus.
The ground shuddered and Kiyo frowned. That shouldn't have happened.
The land of the plane should not have been moved by mere Chaos wind, not unless the barrier had been torn down completely and the Avos of the plane, dead. That would mean Rumiga's dissolution.
The barrier was pretty much still solid, despite the cracks that were closing even as new ones formed.
"Must be nothing." She shrugged.
A couple of hours later, she wasn't sure of the exact time as she had a rather comfortable buzz going, a glowing white small humanoid form shot out from somewhere on the grounds.
Well, there were dozens, Kiyo thought.
One of them came up to her and hovered just out of reach.
"Faithful Messenger," Kiyo noted. It was a Jade Circle Spell by one of the few Sorcerers in Legion Agminis. She recognized the sigil on its torso. "Speak."
"All personnel, warriors, Knights and higher. Rumiga City is under assault. A contingent of Asheron nobles has broken through the barricades. Assemble at Bellton Hold."
"Asheron? Those bloody-minded fools!" Kiyo growled, bouncing to her feet, though she staggered when a wave of nausea hit her. "Urk! Focus, focus!"
She channelled her Animus into a strand, formed it into a simple runescript denoting 'purify', and ran it along her bloodstream. After a couple of cycles, her blood alcohol level had dropped to a manageable level.
"Whew! Bellton Hold wasn't it?"
The easiest way to get there was to head overland and dive down from the crevasse. She'd have to fly, of course, but flying shuttles would short out and crash after about a minute's exposure to the winds.
"Cirrus Skiff Dancing on the Breeze," she muttered, flushing out Animus and took control of a grand quantity of ambient Chaos around her. "Shape and form."
A whirlwind formed around her feet, and she felt herself starting to float. Vapour coalesced and formed a small cloud just a pace across.
"Let's go!" she yelled.
The next moment, she and the cloud zoomed across campus, the winds battering her Field but it was ultimately powerless to hamper her. Within the next couple of minutes, she was near the crevasse. Focusing on where she needed to be, she zoomed vertically down the cliff face and into the darkness.
Bellton Hold encompassed both the surface and the underground. There was no Arkship in the channel currently and the barricade wall near the end of it, a slab of solid granite that opened and closed on command, was shut. Or it should have been.
A cloud of dust, and streaming Chaos winds blew across the channel, making her flight somewhat erratic. Bursts of flame, brilliant bolts of light and lightning, shards of ice, and iron bullets, flew across the gap. Thunderous roaring, and shuddering earth.
As she approached, a mandala of light formed near the human side. It rotated and glimmered, glowing powerfully, and then, a bolt of lightning from the sky, from beyond the sky and coming from the Chaos streams, lanced down and struck the flood of brown carapaced Wyldlings.
A silvery Field arrested the leftover power, keeping the major players on the other side safe. Kiyo's eyes narrowed as she focused on the enemy. The one she could see was a large figure, as big as an Antid Wanderer, though it had a human shape. Bulging muscles, seven horns around its crown, burning blue eyes, a jagged nose, and no mouth.
It waved a hand and a powerful gust of Chaos wind blew, warping the air and any projectile shot at it. The plasma bolts lost cohesion and the superheated projectiles washed back to the human side, only to be thwarted by hastily erected shields.
Kiyo's sharp eyes spotted another Chaos Lord, with orange flames for hair as she threw wheels of flame at the defenders.
Someone must have spotted her on the opposite side as globs of acid shot her way. The cloud dropped from under her feet, bringing her stomach to her throat and avoiding the fusillade entirely.
"Charlene!" she yelled when she saw one of her colleagues shooting lances of light at the creatures. "What's the situation?"
"Kiyo," Charlene Antiga nodded. "I just got here. Agminis sent a broad summons to all Knight level and above."
They were behind makeshift barricades while the enemy sent in hundreds. Other than the two Chaos Lords, she could see no other credible threat. The two Asheron nobles were more than enough though.
"Instructors." A legionnaire came up to them, keeping her head low while she hurried up to Kiyo and Charlene. "Tribunus Kaspar is in command. She needs you to occupy the Asheron while we pull back. The Hold's carronades will fire in five minutes."
"Anvil?" Charlene asked.
"Only the nobles. The fodder doesn't matter."
"Is this the only breach?" Kiyo asked.
The legionnaire shook her head. "We're not sure. Some Wyldlings got into the tunnels through the secondary fissures, I assume."
"The non-combatants are in the shelter," Charlene said, anxiety clear on her face.
"Yes," the legionnaire nodded. "We've sent several squads in support already. But for now, we have to stem the tide here."
As she spoke, Kiyo prepared herself.
"Indomitable Iron Body, Aspect of the Beast."
Kiyo shed half of her reserves and activated her favourite Spells, using her Facet to meld them together. Runescript formed around her, some from strands of her Animus, others from sympathetic Chaos particles. It gathered so much ambient Chaos that a small vortex formed above her before it drove into her body, changing her skin, muscles, and bones. Her fingers were suddenly tipped with sharp claws and her feet cracked the granite beneath her, and her tailbone stretched and elongated, creating a long thick wiry appendage tipped with a razor-sharp barb.
"We'll keep them pinned," she growled.
"You Sorcerers are cheats," Charlene muttered.
"It's just a different path," Kiyo laughed. "Now, let's play."