Yuriko twirled the festival mask around her fingers before she put it on her face. Her hair was back in its usual high ponytail, though she never bothered to use ribbons or string to keep it that way. It only took a little bit of focus to use her Animakinesis to keep her hairstyle neat after all, and ribbons had a distressing tendency to snap, burn, or melt whenever she got serious.
She was wearing the sundress Ryoko left for her in the bathroom, a sky-blue affair that had a square neckline and flowy sleeves that fell to her elbows. She used the same pair of shoes she wore to the gala since they were nice and comfy. The question was, should she go to the city by herself or simply stay in the estate?
Sofia and Juliette had decided to go to the city, but Yuriko didn't want to get in between the couple's blossoming relationship. It was also rather clear that Juliette didn't exactly want her new relationship to be known to her family, but it was impossible to be sneaky around Yuriko. Well, it didn't look like any of the butlers and maids knew anything, after all, the two wouldn't have done any canoodling that wasn't behind locked doors.
"We're headed to Hafton Court," Juliette said just before leaving breakfast. She had looked expectantly at Yuriko but her refusal to go had both girls curious.
"I'll explore the festival by myself," Yuriko said. "Then, I'll probably return here."
"Oh, what time will you come back?" Sofia asked. "We'll return by then."
"No, no, that defeats the purpose of going separately." Yuriko smiled. "Enjoy the day by yourselves." She grinned at them knowingly, and both girls blushed.
The mask had been given to her by a maid when she exited the main estate, and Yuriko didn't wait for the carriage and flew towards the city, hovering just a hundred paces above the ground. She followed the road, ignored those who gawked at her and landed just outside the city walls. She put on the mask and entered the city.
The Radiant Sun had only been up for an hour but the festivities were already in full swing. There were colourful triangular strips of paper hanging down from lines strung across the street, and the sizzling smell of grilling meat made her nose twitch and her tummy grumble. She followed her nose and bought a couple of meat skewers from a roadside stall. The woman manning it happily exchanged a ten-copper coin for each one, and there were more than a few varieties. Still, Yuriko had dozens, perhaps hundreds of food stalls to sample from so she refrained from buying too much from one.
"Hmmm, yummy…" she murmured as she nibbled the meat. Little squares of vegetables were alternated between the thin meat strips on the wooden skewer, and the aromatic scent only made her hungrier. The grilled meat was savoury, actually a bit spicy, while the veggies were crisp and…actually tastier than the meat! How could that be? Yuriko stared at the skwer in consternation, investigated the thing with her Anima perception, and found out that the veggies, onions and bell peppers, had been seasoned quite thoroughly while the meat chunks and strips had cooked a bit unevenly. It was a bit early, she supposed, so the grill might not have cooked through. Oh well.
She moved on to a stall that was selling honey-dipped fruit and parted with a couple of coppers to taste a chunk. The sweetness burst into her palate, and she forked out another dozen coppers and got a generous cup filled with the treat along with a couple of tiny wooden skewers to eat off them with.
As the sun crawled up the sky, she wandered into a fountain square just in time to see a performing troupe begin their act. There were half a dozen of them, clad in a colourful costume. They might be sweltering in those full-body outfits since she could see that the cloth was now stained in sweat. Whatever pungent odours they might have given out were buried under the general stench of sweat, charcoal smoke, and the flower garlands that hung practically everywhere. The 21st of Fire was more than a bit warm, even compared to the climate back in Faron's Crossing.
And as the sun crept closer and closer to the zenith, people began to wear less and less clothing. Except for the masks, of course, but sleeves began to get rolled up, or simply done away with shirts and blouses were tied up and exposed sweat-slicked tummies, and skirts and dresses got shorter and shorter, exposing a woman's legs above her knees and halfway up their thighs. Yuriko wasn't sure if this was proper, considering that the Bresians were about as conservative as Karcellians, but everyone was doing it now.
The troupe began their act, juggling colourful balls, nearly two dozen at once between three people. The other three began tapping on some drums, the rhythm slow to build up, but increasing in pace. The jugglers moved in time with the beat, and as the drumming rose to a crescendo, the middle juggler threw a small sphere into the pavement in front of if. There was a bright flash of light, a plume of white smoke, then a moment later, the balls were gone, and in their place were a dozen knives, the blades shimmering against the bright sunlight. The crowd oohed and aahed, and Yuriko leaned back against her own Animakinesis since she was too far from a wall or a stall. She liked the performance, especially the intense look of concentration on the jugglers' faces. After a while, they switched to swords, axes, and then a few different sharp weapons. There was a close call when one juggler nearly dropped an axe on his foot, but instead of slicing off his toes, he managed to catch it and fling it back into orbit. Yuriko wasn't sure if that was on purpose or not but he made a good showing anyway.
After a few more minutes, she pushed away from the crowd as the performers had finished their routine and bowed to applause and the clink of coins. She surreptitiously dropped a couple of silvers in the proffered hat as she left.
When she made it to one of the arterial roads, she found the pavement packed with onlookers and she heard music and stomping feet. She expanded her Anima perception and found a parade of children, not even Atavism age, marching down the arterial road, blowing on wind instruments or banging on drums. The onlookers clapped and nodded along with the rhythm. Yuriko watched the parade pass by, then pushed her way towards a less crowded alley.
She wandered around, enjoying her stroll when she popped out into another square where a bunch of cages were set on wagon beds. Inside the cages were weak Elemental Beasts. Yuriko pursed her lips at the sight, not quite sure if she should feel pity, anger, or resignation. The crowd were gawking at the pitiful creatures, who were chained to the cages. The metal bars, the floor, and the ceiling had runescript formations on them, and upon closer examination, Yuriko determined them to be a Containment spell enchanted into the material. It kept elemental energy from entering the enclosed space but also pulled out what was already inside. It was a complex spell, roughly twelve circles and well out of her capabilities to cast quickly. Not that the particular spell was often cast in battle, anyway. She was also sure that a copy of the spell was in one of the books in Niria so she didn't have to decipher them here. She blinked and took careful note of the spell, snipped it off into a fragment of Anima and wove it into her memory palace.
'Hmmm, what was she doing here?'
She blinked and looked at the cage, noted the intricate spell forms, and pursed her lips. The Containment spell was at least twelve circles and there should be a copy in Niria, but she should make a note. She closed her eyes, but before she could do anything, a portion of her Anima drew her attention. She frowned and focused on that, then cursed to herself. She'd already made a note, but her clumsiness had excised the memory from her mind completely. Oh, well, nothing for it but practice, and as long as she unravelled the memory fragment, the moment in time would return to her. She could also examine it just like she did with Damien's memories. In fact, that was the better option so that the reminder would remain in her mind. She read it quickly, noted nothing untoward, then left it. The amount of Anima reach the memory fragment needed to maintain its existence was a tiny fraction of an inch, and she could probably make a hundred to a thousand such fragments before it needed an inch of reach to maintain it. She had a few more memory fragments in her mind, but the problem was that she forgot they were there most of the time…
Hmmm, maybe she should start a habit of reviewing her reminders every morning. She would include it in her morning ablutions.
The elemental beasts were either apathetic or miserable, and Yuriko didn't know what to do about them. Was captivity better than being harvested for their cores? Was life like that even worth living? But it wasn't as if she could do anything about it other than kill the imprisoned beasts, and that certainly would disappoint the gawking kids. Her thoughts briefly touched on Fluffington, who was probably lazing about in the estate's garden. She spent a couple of hours every day training with him, and then the wolf pup spent the night curled up next to her bed, training his Anima control. It had not expanded over the weeks she had him, but perhaps it was because there was not enough ambient Chaos to fuel its growth. Or perhaps it needs something else? She wasn't all that sure. The threads binding them had not changed, but she felt a minuscule bit of Radiant energy seep through his thread and assimilate into his Anima. It was slow going and most of it actually just bled off, but some of it stayed long enough inside that it began to influence his core.
She walked away from the menagerie square and wandered around the rest of the city. She left the southwest petal and found herself in the government central, and then went towards the palace square where the incumbent city councillor would make her inaugural speech.
The square was packed full of people, and there weren't any stalls or vendors in it. They were in the streets and alleys surrounding the square, however. Instead, there were lines of guardsmen in ornate, dress uniforms carrying their guns across the shoulders. They were in an alert stance across the square, where lines separated the onlookers from the palace. The ceremony was supposed to start at noon, and the clock tower's face showed that it was only ten minutes until that time. Yuriko stared up at the sky, beholding the Radiant Sun's magnificence. Today was the longest day of the year, according to the locals, and was one of the things they were celebrating.
She wasn't all that keen on listening to another political speech, so she turned around and began walking out of the packed square. As soon as she left it, the streets were suddenly deserted. Since she was in the central district, the roads were quite wide and the buildings were large, impersonal offices that were currently deserted. There were a few guardsmen posted on the street corners but most of them were peering down the arterial road anyway.
The first indication that something was wrong was when a rat the size of a large cat scampered out of a storm drain that led directly to the sewer. It burst out and ran across the road, body stiff with terror. A moment later, dozens of rats did the same, squeaking loudly in panic.
Afterwards, a dark orange sludge-y thing burst out from the same place, bubbled up as more of itself left the sewers, and condensed into a roughly humanoid form. It had a manic grin on its androgynous face, and then every storm drain burst out with one of each slime-person-thing.
Then the screams started.