Over the next few days, tension rose in the city of Virtalla. The Scions of Virtalla, the political group that the Minister of Commerce belonged to, had lost many of their positions in the city's government after the elections. Yuriko was curious, since they held those positions over the years, why did they suddenly lose them?
Her interest was just a minor diversion, however, as she continued to train, improve, and research the True Connection spell. Her efforts bore little fruit as she still could not connect to Gwendith over whatever kept them from connecting with the spell. The last she heard was that they were leaving the city they wound up in to hunt more efficiently. She knew there was a time dilation between here and the Fount, and perhaps only a little time had passed for them.
She would have worried more if she couldn't sense that their threads were more than healthy. However, her nightmares included scenarios when they suddenly were in danger, and she had no way to reach them. She was already determined to follow their footsteps and head to the Hillside Burrows, but Juliette's and Sofia's words reined her in.
"From what you said, they entered a strange path. It might not appear for you if you head into the Hillside Burrows." Juliette said, "Chaos Founts do not stay the same, I don't know if the path they took was new, a one-time thing, or if it had happened in the past. Why don't we find out first if it has happened in the past then work it out from there."
"We?"
"We'd like to come with you if you would have us," Sofia said with a slight smile. The two of them were seated a bit close to each other ever since the Gala night, huh?
That was honestly cute. She caught both of them hand-holding quite often, but nothing more than that. It wasn't as if she would peep on them at night, but Yuriko could sense the budding relationship between them. Which was rather funny considering Sofia and Juliette's relationship before they became her disciples had been that of rivals. And reluctant friends too, probably.
"I don't mind," Yuriko said. "It'll be a nice change of pace, and both of you can advance your training." She hummed. "Neither of you have filled your inscribed spells, right?"
"Nope," Juliette said at the same time Sofia shook her head.
"We need to keep about five nodes open to use arcane tools anyway." Both of them were at the Apprentice level, so they only had two circles in their Elemental Hearts. But they've been progressing with their refinement formulas so they should be ready to advance by next year.
Ah, both have asked her about her Elemental Heart Refinement Formula, and of course, Yuriko did not have one, since she didn't have an Elemental Heart. Neither did she have any inscribed circles, which essentially cut the casting time of any inscribed spells to a matter of seconds rather than minutes, or even hours. She made do with converting the components to runescript and etching them in her Anima, but it took effort to keep them there, much like the runescript weaving she used to keep in her Anima during her Actualisation…
Runescript weaving was no longer needed since Transformation gave her all the Animus she ever needed…hence she actually had space in her Anima now for inscribed spells, right? But if she did etch them in her outer Anima, she'd be forced to keep her Anima visible and flared…
But she could inscribe them in her inner Anima too, much like how the Magi do.
Yuriko nearly smacked her forehead. She hadn't thought of that. She could etch complex spells into her Anima and would be able to use them at the drop of a hat!
Hmmm, to what purpose though? She thought to herself. Her Anima kinesis was more than enough to handle anything, and fighting was the last thing she needed help with. The only useful thing would be to further her disguise as a Magi rather than an Ancient, she was only doing that because it would be annoying to be pestered about it. Well, there was no need to reveal her true power and what system she used to strengthen her Anima. It wasn't as if she was going to allow anyone to inspect her Animus Core anyway.
Well, if she found any useful spells. Actually, Shape Earth and Shape Stone were useful spells since her Animakinesis tended to contain her Radiant energy if she didn't keep it out. But there was also no need to inscribe the spells since they weren't exactly combat spells.
Well, she could revisit the idea once her Grimoire had more useful spells.
Anyway, after what the two of them said about the Hillside Burrows, she spent some time in Virtalla's Delver Office to get intelligence about the Chaos Fount. Which turned into a general check on Chaos Founts and Elemental Confluxes located in the republic.
Elemental Confluxes and Chaos Founts were similar in the sense that both had a spatial barrier much like a planar Veil around their borders. They were also bigger inside than outside, and the Founts had a bigger ratio than Confluxes. There was also time dilation, but that wasn't too bad, according to the list. A matter of five to ten percent faster or slower in most confluxes, while Chaos Founts had dilation ratios up to fifty percent. But then, the one Gwendith and the others were stuck in had a dilation ratio of one to two, meaning one day passed here while two passed wherever they were.
Was that place an unusually powerful Chaos Fount? Or something else? She needed to read a bit more, and if not for her problem with reading too long, she would have already found the solution just based on the amount of time she spent in the libraries! Urgh!
The morning news pamphlets weren't doing much to ease the tension either.
She'd taken to asking for the stuff from the household stuff, but then, they only subscribed to one service, and apparently, there were at least two other newspaper companies in Virtalla. Ryoko picked one out for her, and the news wasn't as neutral, or apathetic as the one Juan Carlos read that morning. This one was practically inciting panic in how it highlighted the Ishodirian training group. Not that Yuriko believed that they weren't up to no good. Nobody mobilises an army without wanting to make use of it. Unless they were expecting Bresia to attack?
According to the history books she'd read, Bresia had never been the aggressor in any war throughout its history, although there were instances before the nation's formation. The four cities had been in alliances and wars with each other so often in the past, that it took the formation of the Ishodir Empire a few hundred years to start the events that eventually formed the republic. It was because of an Archmagus, apparently. Ishodir had one, the ancestor of the current emperor. The four cities had to band together so their Grand Magi could work together and protect themselves from that Archmagus.
Then, there was the Xothan Matriarchy in the southeast. They lived across the Great Erithmus Lake, though they shared the same Elemental Conflux border, the Sodden Plains, and they often raided Virtalla's region back then to gain battle slaves. Yuriko frowned at that and her mind went to the Northern Barbarians. However, those rotters captured women to breed more of their ilk rather than directly capturing people to force them to fight. She wasn't sure which society was worse, and she wasn't going to visit anytime soon.
The Sodden Plains was an interesting place, according to the books. It was a natural offshoot of the Great Lake, and it was a strange mix of actual plains, marshland, and lake. It was a wide area that was covered in water that ranged from an inch deep to about half a pace. It was a warm place, hospitable, and had easy resources to harvest. Fish, practically tame elementals, and lush underwater vegetation, corals, and valuable minerals that could be found in the odd trench or ditch.
The Ishodirian training corp was capturing the fishermen who plied the waters, confiscating their catch, then releasing them back. There have been numerous complaints, and there was a protest in front of the Ishodirian Embassy. Ambassador Cooper was mostly silent on the matter, saying that he needed to communicate back home and had not received any word yet. But he reassures everyone that it must have been a mistake or a miscommunication.
The newly reelected Virtalla Councillor, Adara Yanez, had released several statements to the public, including the fact that she referred the solution to the Republic's military. She practically pushed aside the problem and focused on the upcoming celebrations during the Festival of Joy.
She spent some time floating above the estate, watching the expansive countryside. Her view would have allowed her to see all the way to the border, she thought, if not for the elemental mists that obscured long-distance vision. Even if she used Enhanced Sight, she could only see a league or so away, much like how Da was able to, before. Perhaps it was a matter of technique, afterall, her Enhanced Vision was keyed towards seeing through a plane with ambient Chaos. Here, there was none of that, but elemental energy instead. So she worked on it in her spare time.
As the days rolled by, tensions continued to escalate. The Ishodirians were moving closer to the border and were being a nuisance to the populace. The border forts were getting restless and were clamouring for reinforcements. News leaked that the Ishodirian training corp was nearly a hundred thousand strong, too, but Juan Carlos said that was likely an underestimation.
"The Empire loves using tamed Elemental Beasts, or constructs from elemental cores." He revealed one morning, "It multiplies the force they could bring to bear. What are those idiots in central command doing anyway? Why aren't they sending more soldiers up here?" He went off in a huff muttering about writing stern letters to Bresia City.
Nearly ten days passed in such a vein. Yuriko and Sofia were given a tour of the estate, plus the orchards, the farmlands, and the gardens… each one took a day since the plots of land were at least ten or so longstrides away, and were at least a couple of square longstrides in area.
West of the city, as well as most of the southwest, near the Kerromere Mountain range was the Vitrovin Forest Conflux. It spanned most of the area ten to twenty longstrides from the foothills. It also happened to promote a lot of forest growth even outside of the conflux, and the Abad family also had interests in logging. One such camp was southwest of the city, roughly five leagues away, and one of the places they visited.
It was an interesting operation, mainly because they couldn't log the trees faster than it would regrow. That meant that lumber was pretty inexpensive, but the Abad family didn't deal with cheap produce. They sought out trees that were infused with more Elemental energy than normal, checked if they could be cut safely, then sold those for a premium. Yuriko could easily see the elemental concentration of the trees, and when she pointed it out to the foreman, they practically begged her to work for them. Juliette rebuked him, of course, but it was amusing anyway.
On the 20th Day of Fire, the day before the Festival of Joy, Ambassador Cooper invited her for lunch. She agreed and they met in one of the cafes near the embassy. Not too close, of course, as there were still protesters clogging up the road.
"Have you an answer?" He asked politely after the meal was done.
"No, I'm afraid I cannot give you one just yet." Yuriko said easily, "I'm waiting for my companions to return from their foray since they will want to accompany me."
"I see. I look forward to a positive response anyway," he said diplomatically, but Yuriko detected a flash of belligerence then resignation.
They parted amicably, of course.