"Welcome back, Lady Yuriko," Dominic Hurin bowed in greeting.
"Good to be back," Yuriko replied. She glanced around the oasis and found little to have changed except for a few plots that had been ploughed and were being readied for planting. "They've started already?"
The muscular Adept looked to where she was staring and shrugged. "They have indeed. For the past few days, the Spirit Binders of the Land have readied it to grow fruit."
"I see." Yuriko shook her head. "I must apologise, but by tomorrow we would have to leave."
Hurin was silent for a long moment, then he sighed. "I see."
She noticed his hesitation, of course, and thought that perhaps not all of them wanted to continue following her. She felt a pang of regret, but she wouldn't want to drag people with her who didn't want to bring themselves into danger. When she said as much, Hurin bowed his head.
"You are generous." Hurin sighed again. "Nearly all of the unawakened, former prisoners and guards alike, harbour hope to build a new life here."
"I see," Yuriko murmured.
She paused to ponder things while the rest of her companions spread out into the oasis to find dinner, refresh themselves, and of course, where to dump the prodigious supplies they'd been carrying. Yuriko passed her backpack to Heron so he could bring it to the supplies wagon.
"The day after tomorrow, we will head to the Zarek Valley. If you can tell me tomorrow morning how many wish to stay, or those who wish to leave for a safer, more hospitable place," she shrugged. "This oasis is smack in the middle of two Federation cities, I'm not sure how safe you'll be here, considering the previous inhabitants had been conscripted."
"I will find out." Hurin bowed and left.
Yuriko walked towards one of the hastily made buildings labelled as a bathhouse. The oasis wasn't very big, but one of the things she did before leaving for Uaran a few days ago was to dig up a cistern, protect it from the heat, and fit it with a couple of URen of water. That had been enough to splurge on bathing.
The bathhouse was big enough to house half a dozen people, and she did find Gwendith, Asami, and Desire within. Asami was washing Gwendith's back while Desire was already neck-deep in steaming hot water, with her eyes closed. She opened her eyes and gave Yuriko a beatific smile when she came close.
"Master, let me wash your body!" Desire giggled as she stood up and stepped out of the hot spring.
"Thank you."
Yuriko sighed as she stripped her clothes off and deposited them in a basket near the entrance. She grabbed some soap and shampoo, as well as a basin and bucket. After dousing herself with warm water, Desire lathered her with soap. With her hair tied up in a bun over her head, Yuriko washed her body and just let herself relax.
It was difficult, really, as she'd been used to training every day, fighting, running… And every moment she was here in Federation territory had been one that was full of tension. Fear of being discovered, fear of her mission failing and her friends and family being harmed…
Desire's hands were gentle as she scrubbed all over Yuriko, then once she was done, she washed away the rest of the soap and all four of them settled into the heated springs. No words were exchanged and after half an hour, they got out, got dressed and left for dinner.
The rest of the night, Yuriko spent in meditation. She once again examined the Sorcerous Implement's runescript patterns. At this point, she couldn't figure out what the other words meant, but by studying how the ones she understood were structured, she hoped to improve how she structured her own runescript weavings.
After so many days of study, she was already able to improve the Animus storage weaving in her Anima. Which was to say, she was able to increase the amount it could store without increasing the volume and length of the weaving. It wasn't much, just an extra couple of lumens per strand that used to hold a hundred, but it increased her total reserves by sixteen lumens. Of course, she could increase her reserves by forming more weaves, but that meant taking up more space in her Anima, but doing so compromised her condensed aura.
"That's a new contraction, isn't it?" she muttered to herself as she frowned. "Can I squeeze another lumen there? Hmmm."
She undid one of her runescript weavings and reformed it using the new contraction. She had to adjust when the contraction affected some of the other words, and her change actually regressed her progress by a couple of lumens instead of an additional one.
She fiddled around with the sequence, tested it, shifted it back, fiddled some more, and by the time her allotted training time was done, she was right back to where she started. With a frustrated laugh, she stifled her irritation and shifted to mulling over her Ennoia's lattice.
That part of her evening was even more frustrating. The lattice grew over her core, and she was reasonably sure that progress on her Ennoia meant that the Radiant Essence would eventually merge with Animus core. The lattice grew thicker and more complex, and she assumed the end product would eventually be a solid sphere over her core…well, either that or it will become her core instead? She wasn't sure, and Damien wasn't really helpful. Neither was Fri'Avgi when she asked.
"It could cover, or it could merge. Either way works," Fri'Avgi said with a shrug even while Yuriko resisted the urge to pinch the animating spirit's cheeks. She had to bite her lip to stop herself. So cute! Her wisdom was frustrating though, and it looked like the little girl wanted to hint at something else. Fri'Avgi ultimately didn't say anything else though and Yuriko was left to contemplate what she could do.
At the end of her meditation session, she opened her eyes to see Gwendith staring at her from less than a pace away.
"Uhm, what?" she asked.
"You were doing things with your Anima, weren't you?" Gwendith asked eagerly. "I think…are those runescript lines? I couldn't tell, but every now and then, I saw bursts of light!"
"Uhm…" The runescript weaving within Yuriko's Anima was made from her Anima. Meaning, it shouldn't have been visible at all. Ah, perhaps when she shed excess Animus was when Gwendith saw the sparkles. "I'm surprised you could see that."
"Oh! It is runescript then! What do you use it for?"
Yuriko hesitated just as she was about to tell her friend. Damien didn't tell her how to increase her Animus reserves, and perhaps she shouldn't either? But what harm could that do? However, when she was about to answer, she felt a pulse of unease deep within. Her instincts were usually accurate, so…
"I can't quite say," Yuriko hemmed.
She remembered Damien showing off the runescript patterns in his Anima back in her first dream of him, and even though it took her that long, she did manage to figure it out. However, the same method might not work with Gwendith, and Yuriko didn't want to stifle her friend's progress. What if Gwendith blindly copied Yuriko and failed? The last time she tried to teach Gwendith a technique directly, it didn't work, and she had to adjust it. Oh, perhaps she could give a general answer without going into specifics? She didn't feel bothered by that.
"Er, the most I can say is that it allows me to increase my Animus storage."
"Oh! Can you teach me how?"
Yuriko shook her head. "Not really, it might not work with you. Remember your Body Forging method?"
"Oh."
"But, uhm," Yuriko bit her lip, and then noticed Gwendith turned red and glanced away for a moment. What was that about? Shaking her head, she wrenched her thoughts back to their original tracks and said, "I can show you my patterns, but don't copy them completely. You'll need to derive your own."
"Er, I'm, uhm," Gwendith's face turned completely red and she muttered softly, "I'm not that knowledgeable with runescript."
"Oh, uh…yeah." Yuriko chuckled. "Better not show you then. Uhm, study them later? I don't have any books with me, but Orrin had one, and he's a full fledged Neophyte Scribe. Er, at least. Not sure where he's at now."
Gwendith chuckled. "Well look at you, asking someone to study, hee hee!"
Yuriko blushed and rolled her eyes. "Go to sleep!"
"Alright!" Except Gwendith jumped over, pushed Yuriko down and snuggled up to her side. A moment later, Yuriko felt Gwendith's lips on her cheek and murmured, "Thank you for telling me."
Gwendith's lips were cool to the touch, an expression of her Ennoia, probably. Definitely much cooler than Yuriko's cheek, and so, the imprint was clear and nearly impossible to ignore. She heard her friend giggling, before her breath evened out into sleep.
Yuriko stayed awake for several minutes afterwards, alternating between flushed and thoughtful in quick succession. Then, she felt Desire climb into her bedroll on her other side. It wasn't really meant for three people, Yuriko thought idly, as the Chaos Lord squeezed inside. It felt pleasant though, and soon enough, she was fast asleep.
The next morning, she woke up before dawn, and after her morning ablutions, she left the dwelling and began her morning training. A few minutes later, the early risers of their small community got out of bed, saw her, then promptly assembled in the training field. In response, she expanded and unleashed her Anima to encompass them fully with the Intent to aid.
The twenty-two unawakened, about fifteen of them from the civilians, and the rest were ex-guards, and ten beginner level Spirit Binders, went through their physical training sequences. Yuriko nudged and fixed their forms, prevented them from overstraining, and spotted those who were weight training. After half an hour, she moved to weapons, and the rest followed.
By that time, their number had doubled, leaving only those who had been on the night guard. Her team had joined near the end of the weapons training, with most of them bleary eyed. Yuriko stared hard at the twins, who were slacking, and she giggled when Braden and Orrin shivered and redoubled their efforts.
Afterwards, they began sparring.
Well, the others did. Yuriko merely watched pensively as none of them, even Kassy and Roland, would really provide a challenge. Unless she heavily restricted herself. While she had done that before, she wasn't feeling up to it right now. That feeling was rather jarring as she would have never turned down a chance to train. She offered half-hearted support to the duelists, again correcting the weapon forms they used, and nudging them to more efficient movements. If she repeated it enough, the proper forms should be ingrained into them.
She must have been out of it too much since she didn't realise Heron was next to her until he tapped her shoulder. Well, she did see him through her perception but paid no mind.
"Yuri?"
"Ah…uhm, yes?"
"You alright?"
"I…I guess."
"You don't sound it. Do you wanna talk about it?"
Yuriko nodded slowly. "Later, after training."
"Alright. Do you mind giving me some pointers?"
"I guess not."
The two of them mostly focused on Anima compression and how fluidly Heron could shift it. Yuriko noted that he was a bit better at it than she was back when she was still in the Second Growth stage, though not by much. At that point, the only thing she could do was condense her Anima around herself evenly…er, that's still what she normally did.
Heron could change focus. He could increase the density of his Anima around his spearhead, or his fist, or shield, or any other part of his body, really, by ten percent. The density was taken from everywhere else though, so if he focused on attack, his defenses would be relatively weaker. He could also use it for stronger defenses too, but only if he thickened the correct part.
Come to think of it, she could do that too, right? Well, practice for another time.
"Yuri…I think you're spreading yourself too thin," Heron said at the end of their session.
"Oh?"
"You're training your body, your Anima, Animus, and your skills, and I don't know what else." He took her hand. "I haven't seen you relax in a long time."
Yuriko squeezed his hand gently, and was appreciative of the concern. "Thanks Heron, but now isn't the time to slack…"
"Please don't put living your life off," he said gently. "It isn't always about fighting and training."
She gave him a soft smile and chuckled. "We'll see. Not now though."
He nodded reluctantly. "I guess not."
It looked like he wanted to chat a bit more, but over his shoulder, she saw Dominic Hurin approach, face expressionless and intense.
It looked like he already had his answer.