Yuriko didn't say anything about her revelation to her friends. Not for the rest of the night, and not when she wasn't really sure. The insight did prompt her to ask the others what they could sense.
"Shadow essence," Saki said softly. "I thought I was hallucinating, dreaming, or otherwise impaired." Her handmaiden took a deep breath. "I…the lack of ambient Chaos, even though I've already felt it before, it's still disconcerting."
"I agree," Yuriko said, even though she really wasn't affected by it now. She could use Radiant energy, both the one she produced and those she could draw from the atmosphere, and convert it to endless Animus. "How much do you see?"
Saki gave her a rueful smile. "It's shadow essence. Where there's shadow, there's its essence."
"Ah." Yuriko nodded, then reminded Saki of her stealth ability's weakness.
"I know, young mistress," Saki said. "I noticed. I…I'm not sure what to do other than refine my control over my Shadow energy."
"Something to work on, I suppose. Perhaps you'll reach Colligia?"
"I can dream," Saki laughed.
"You can do it."
"If you say so."
The next morning, as they continued on their way to the outpost, Yuriko asked Heron what he saw.
"Green," he said softly, "and light bluish motes. Wind elemental energy, I suppose."
"Can you take control of it?"
"Easily," he scoffed, "it is my Ennoia." Heron nodded towards the birdkin flying above. "He's controlling Wind elemental energy, too. As well as some of the others. It's fairly obvious if one could see it."
Gwendith joined the conversation by saying, "Fire and Water elemental energy. About half of the soldiers have that."
"You can see both?" Heron asked.
"Vaguely. Both are adjacent to my Ennoia. I think I'm only seeing parts of the elemental energy since my Ennoia touches on all of them. The four elements anyway. There are others, too, but I can only see the merest fragment, so it's hard to distinguish them from each other. Except for Fire and Water, anyway," Gwendith concluded.
Ryoko wasn't anywhere close to touching an Ennoia, and the two Chaos Lords were something else entirely.
"What strange place have we found ourselves in this time?" Gwendith said softly, then giggled after a moment. "At least I am with you."
Yuriko gave her lover a soft smile. "Indeed."
Gwendith snuggled up to her, and Yuriko didn't miss the glint of envy from Heron's eyes. He noticed her watching, so he flushed and ducked his head. Yuriko's throaty chuckle made him look up then roll his eyes at her teasing expression.
"I'll give the two of you some privacy," he said a bit stiffly, then moved towards the bow. Yuriko remained by the helm, and Gwendith, after kissing her cheek, headed back into the cabins.
The rest of the day couldn't be said to be smooth sailing. They were attacked at least once every hour, and by the time afternoon came along, the soldiers had collected more than three hundred beast cores. From the happy expression on Coinoch's face, that was far above what they expected to collect.
The wasteland didn't look all that desolate the closer they came to the border, and after moving close to forty leagues from the Chaos Sea, there was more than enough greenery to cover the barren hills. There was only a minuscule amount of ambient Chaos now, less than a thousandth of an iarvesh. Practically undetectable. Except for the motes Desire and Devotee shed naturally.
Seeing how skittish the soldiers were about it, Yuriko wondered if they were like the people in Irvalla. Absent of an Animus core, they'd have no way of dealing with excess Chaos…
Huh. that was it, wasn't it? The way these Bresians strengthened themselves was different because they had no way to harness Chaos to their Will. Instead, the presence of so much Ennoia energies was what directed their progress.
Yuriko smiled at the thought. She was intrigued by the varied ways people walked their paths. She'd love to see them in action, loved to see if their paths had enough commonalities with hers to give her insight. Without Damien to guide her, she worried that she'd be stuck in her current Stage, or more likely, the next. Manifestation required an entirely different way to strengthen herself and there was no doubt that reaching the next one required another set of things to train.
She also never really got a good look at the Imperial Path. Each Knight was only shown the way to advance to the next level by the Church of Everlasting Order, and while she had been given that particular piece of knowledge, it was practically worthless.
All she needed to do, if she were on the Imperial Path, to reach Knight Commander, was to have an Ennoia, and to condense her Animus to the consistency and density of mud. That was an incredibly difficult endeavour that took her Da decades.
And it was something she had no need to do. Compressing Animus to that extent really served no purpose unless she was planning to directly clash Animus to Animus with her foes. It was the same sort of tactic and bashing each others' heads to determine the winner. Might be useful at times, but most times, not. However, that Animus density and the relative ease of advancement was why the Imperial Path dominated against their neighbours.
How would the Imperial Path match up against what the locals have, she wondered. It might not be possible under normal circumstances as neither path was likely able to exist against each other's environment.
So what could she glean from this? Hmmm, probably a better, more efficient way to advance her Ennoia? That was a worthwhile goal as one constant to the Ancient's Way was just that.
Huh. Perhaps this wasn't an unlucky thing after all.
Yuriko's wanderlust and sense of adventure flared, and she was looking forward to actually seeing and experiencing what this place had to offer.
About an hour before dusk, they finally arrived. Duskfoot Guard. It wasn't quite what Yuriko expected. Instead of a fortified camp, or a small fortress, Duskfoot looked like a farming village, with a fortified keep at the border side.
It was situated within a wide and shallow valley, and the soldiers and the Wind Darter entered southwest. The valley floor was probably a couple of longstrides at its widest, with a meandering river right in the middle. The outpost was located about a longstride from the entrance and also right where the valley turned towards the east. The hillsides weren't that tall, maybe a hundred paces at its highest, with most of it no higher than twenty paces. On the western side were a couple of cliff faces and in the east, the hills had gentler slopes. Not something that could be climbed effortlessly though.
Aside from the keep, there were roughly a couple of dozen buildings. Most of the valley floor surrounding the river was cultivated farmland, though it being the tag end of the Season of Water meant the fields were empty. The river wasn't frozen over, but there were blocks of ice. The climate had turned half a day back, turning from an arid wasteland to a countryside with some snow. The trees were mostly evergreens, but some hardy grass poked out of the snow blanket anyway. Also, there were pocket areas that exhibited a different climate, too, with some being completely arid, and some with a rainforest consistency. The group had avoided those areas, and when they came too close, Twisted Beasts came out to attack.
Personally, Yuriko would have cleaned out the spaces if there were resources to use there, but she let Lieutenant Coinoch set the pace and the path.
At this point, the iarvesh levels were nil. Yuriko watched her Chaos Lords and was relieved to find that they hadn't been siphoned of Chaos at all, nor was there a need to put up a Protective Field other than to guard against attacks. They still breathed out ambient Chaos, but it was no more than before.
Lieutenant Coinoch called out to Heron who was at the bow. "Please stop the ship here. The Chaos elementals should not enter the valley unless they have the restriction cuffs on."
"Alright," Heron acknowledged. He looked at Yuriko with an arched eyebrow, wordlessly asking her opinion. Since she didn't want to antagonise the outpost, she stopped pushing the sloop and allowed the levitation runescript weaving to power off. She did make sure that they weren't blocking the road and parked just beside it.
"Heron, Gwen, come with me, please. Saki, stay with Ryoko, Desire, and Devotee here. We'll be back with the cuffs and whatever else we need," Yuriko announced. She heard each one assent; Ryoko and Devotee were inside but she could communicate with her perceptive aura.
As soon as they alighted, Lieutenant Coinoch offered, "If you prefer, Lady Davar, to sit astride my Steeld?" He gestured to his mount, though there was ample space behind the saddle. Still, she didn't imagine it would be comfortable riding a horse, even if it was a construct in the shape of one.
"No, thank you."
He glanced at Heron and Gwendith, who also demurred. The walk wasn't all that far, and all three of them were fast enough to keep up with the mounts with little trouble. In less than five minutes they were close enough to the outpost that the denizens took notice. Ah, there was a lookout tower, and another birdkin flying circles above them, so there was little chance of surprise.
The birdkin swooped down in front of Coinoch, and blabbered, "Lieutenant! I've done what you asked!"
The lieutenant, for his part, waved the boy down and said, "As you can see, Private Rivera, we've made peaceful contact. Thank you for your service." The young birdkin's head bobbed quickly.
Comparing this young man to the first birdkin she met, Adan Ortiz was more muscular, and his plumage was neater. This boy's plumage was a dirty charcoal black with blue highlights. He also had a nervous air about him. His beady eyes immediately zeroed in on her and the other two, and he flapped away, looking startled.
Coinoch looked at her and helplessly shrugged, "Protocol, ma'am. I hope you are not offended?"
"No," Yuriko said.
"Apologies, nonetheless."
"Alright. What now?"
"Hmm, Private, is the captain ready?"
"She received your sending spell, sir."
Yuriko barely kept from reacting. When did he send it? She didn't notice at all. Tsk. She exchanged a glance with Gwendith, then Heron. Both simply shrugged.
"Captain Aeyra will meet with the foreign magi after they refresh themselves," Private Rivera continued.
They circled around the keep. There was a ditch surrounding it, though there was nothing within. It was about five paces deep and around eight paces wide. The ditch only protected the keep, while the rest of the village only had a short berm to keep their animals contained. She saw a small herd of brown cows, some goats, and pigs, in separate pens. Their stench wasn't so bad, but maybe it was because of the cold breeze that constantly blew across the village.
The keep didn't have a drawbridge and the ditch simply left a five-pace wide path between the village and the fort. The walls were roughly ten paces high and had a wide enough walkway to allow three men to walk abreast. The building itself was roughly fifty by fifty paces and had three storeys within. There were several rooms, and nearly thirty soldiers garrisoned within. Some of the rooms were warded with some kind of runescript weaving so she couldn't see through it, but the rest was pretty open to her perception.
The chamber they were led to was surprisingly warm and cosy, with soft white light coming from panels installed in the ceiling. The table and chairs were of beautifully carved redwood, and there was an attendant who already placed a few platters of finger foods and a pot of fragrant tea.
The rest of Coinoch's company had peeled off towards a different area, where she saw several dozen of the iron mounts. Steelds. Coinoch himself went to one of the chambers, presumably the captain's office.
The food and tea were wonderful, and after half an hour, the attendant returned and said, "Captain Aeyra can meet you now."
The three of them followed, and inside the office, Coinoch was standing stiffly while the captain, a pretty Sha'ledras woman with her dark hair in a bun, sat with an equally stiff expression behind her desk.
Yuriko couldn't help but stare. Not because the woman's long pointy ears were quivering, but because there were two kinds of elemental energies connected to her, Earth, and another that she didn't recognise.