None of the three girls would awaken until the next day, not until the morning had almost concluded. Even Riyxia’s spectre made no appearance, simply left to ponder thoughts in an unmoving state.

Riyxia was pretty sure that this is what it felt like to be exhausted spectrally, a feeling and concept that wouldn’t even make sense to anyone else. It was a feeling she wasn’t even familiar with for herself, though she suspected her essence had experienced the same thing in a time before her own memories. It would have thus even then been true of both Sryine and Vwyx, the new versions of them both. However, essences do not transcend memory, so none of that would count. On the same subject though, was their old essences then possibly in a state of sleep too, if they still even existed enough for such a thing? When she personally split her will between her body and essence, it felt like there had to be two beings that drove her working in tandem. She wondered if Sryine or Vwyx ever got the same impression, working and meshing their twin gifts into one. She had been able to watch Sryine in her dramatic escape, from calming down an entire traffic jam to creating a lightning-fast exit, both things they would have to talk about further later.

Talk was ablaze among the hunters about the capture of a serious criminal group that had terrorized the city for ages now, something Riyxia had been able to listen to for a time as well as the three girls had been shuffled off to a medical bed. It seemed Vwyx had been responsible for the entire thing, another topic for future conversation. Somehow, she had managed to not only capture the entire collective, but also ensure the safety of a number of innocents that had still been in their clutches at the time. Riyxia couldn’t even imagine how a feat like that would have been possible with Vwyx’s resources, but it was at around the same time as Sryine had overcome her own limitations. The timing wasn’t even a coincidence either, she could tell they were progressing in the footsteps of an influential role model, herself. She didn’t just return someone else from the claws of death, she had done so long after the jaws of death should have secured their victory. In fact, her hesitation was probably why she felt so drained, the extra delays had only demanded even more from her as a result. The fact she had never done that before probably didn’t help either. The most amazing part remained that what she had achieved had nothing to do with the gift at all, she had brought someone back to life without the gift, she had done so with the astral flame itself. After all, in the light of the gift, her actions would have been impossible. In a society that had never found a power other than the gift, she was effectively doing the impossible every time her essence used its own power.

Riyxia noticed even Ayzherie was up and about, herself having spent the night in a nearby medical bed too. It was probably the greatest relief of the moment, that Ayzherie was indeed going to be fine. Ayzherie on the other hand appeared concerned in reverse, worried that all three girls were still out, most especially Riyxia herself. Being aware that dealing with the medical needs of the three girls relied on tracking the stability of their astral flame traces, she had managed to ensure that there were a few of the instruments left around the room, with readings compared to past records to identify if there were any strange fluctuations. That actually led to even more concern, as such instruments not only clarified that Riyxia’s essence had remained within her body the entire time, but also that related measurements were notably weaker than normal. Records have told that such fluctuations had never happened before, not even in the other two. Ayzherie didn’t need anything else to understand that Riyxia’s current state was a price paid for saving Ayzherie’s life. Being aware of this detail, Ayzherie had thus far spent the morning ensuring the wellbeing of her saviour, to the best of her abilities.

Vwyx was the first to wake up, most of her exhaustion having been due to pushing herself to limits that compared to the capacity of two elves. That, and she had basically spent the entire trip running on foot, something neither of the other elves would have found as easy while simultaneously pumping out their stamina even while augmented. Her landscape manipulation had honestly taken the most out of her, including when she had attempted to form a wide-area defense in the pedway. Even her field-crafting of weaponized instruments had been far easier than she might have expected, leaving her to consider the idea of producing a few extra grenades for herself.. maybe even finding out where Sryine kept her supply of arrows. In that moment, she took notice of her surroundings, finding herself in a medical bed, finding her two friends sleeping in other beds nearby. The most alarming part was seeing Riyxia’s spectre even resting in bed, its shimmer fainter than normal. She also noticed Ayzherie nearby and identified the instrument Ayzherie carried. Vwyx quietly got out of bed and took an opportunity to look over all the medical notes, to catch up on all of the circumstances. Ayzherie had even ensured a breakfast was brought over for Vwyx in the process, though they both held fast to a state of silence for the patients still trying to recover.

Vwyx might have been out of things for a moment, but her proficiency with instruments had led her to a quick awareness of other circumstances, another thing that would be good to consider later. Ayzherie was actually using the instruments present, actually making use of her cell, none of which would have been possible for someone who still lacked access to their own gift. Vwyx had access to medical records present for the current patience in this moment, and even Ayzherie’s file made no note on fluxuations with her gift. She hadn’t just recovered it at that point, she had recovered at some unknown point before. Vwyx recalled some of Ayzherie’s words soon after being revived, that she felt she was out of practice... It thus now implied to her that Ayzherie had tried to defend herself in that moment with her gift, but her gift had still failed her after its lack of use for so long.

Sryine was the next one to wake up, quickly catching on to circumstances much as Vwyx had before her. Sryine had drained her stamina dramatically by making wide-area uses in frequent occasions, but she had also gotten excessively exhausted by keeping her sense of time manipulated for an extended period by her own perspective, as if she had in turn stayed up very late into the day. Without being adjusted to such shifts in perspective, it had made her experience extra exhausting. That certainly was not to say that it wasn’t fun, she knew she had to absolutely get better at doing something like that in the future. However, at present, she had other things to remain worried about, such as the state Riyxia remained in. A faint shimmer, as if Riyxia’s essence was depleted. As she took some of the food offered for her, Sryine contemplated if there was anyway to provide nutritional substance for an essence. There was an almost nightmarish idea of feeding her the essence of fallen beasts, but that sounded horrifying. The Astral Flame might be destructive, but she certainly hoped it wouldn’t come to such a thing. In all accounts she herself had the same flame within her, just one which she suspected wasn’t especially capable of wringing power out of as directly as Riyxia. She still technically did so, every time she called upon her own augmentation, that advantage came from somewhere. With that perspective, every time she pressed her augmentation hard, what exactly did she do for herself to restore her own spent resources?

With everyone lost in their own speculations, no one noticed Riyxia awakening quietly and getting out of bed. She had been aware of all of their activities so far, but her own spectre still felt reclusive and exhausted, it was only her physical self that was recovered at this point. Not wanting to interrupt everyone’s research, Riyxia quietly stepped out from the room and started looking around, a feeling she was used to experiencing at this point far more often but had then been denied in the circumstances of her spectre. Just outside, she found some of the guys waiting with varied levels of patience for those recovering inside. Dhyinze looked up from his cell, putting it away in the same motion. Jwyexzn perked up right away from an otherwise look of boredom. Eqriuxzl was still going over his instruments and as of yet had not even noticed. Riyxia motioned for everyone’s silence, pointing back inside in explanation, so Dhyinze and Jwyexzn sat back down quietly. Riyxia went over to Eqriuxzl and recovered one of the astral flame instruments he had set aside with much of his other stuff, observing for herself her own difference in readings as compared to Sryine or Vwyx. No wonder people were so alarmed, also explains why she still felt a bit off. Still, if they were going to look up answers, people would find it way more productive to actually step out of the one room. She quietly got Eqriuxzl’s attention and dragged him away, taking him back to the place where he had compiled all of his notes on the astral flame.

“So, everyone is wondering why my flame seems weak right now, especially alarming because I’m pretty sure it’s what’s keeping me alive. You’re the one here with all the notes on the subject, what can you figure out?” “I’m not actually all that certain, considering past records have all been about how to snuff the flame out instead of to keep it burning.” “What about reversing that plan then, what would that do?” “That would imply exposing you to the source again. I’m not exactly sure how smart that might be.” “Ah, yeah, that wouldn’t be good either, I’m not even sure if I would endure an exposure to the source myself, my body at least wouldn’t. You know, it really doesn’t help that all of our records just try to say that the flame is just corrupt and bad.. its source is too much, certainly, but that’s just like how a person needs water to live, but can still drown. If we knew more about it, we could find a way I could drink from such a fountain of flame, without myself drowning.” Riyxia started to pace, aware that Eqriuxzl might not have the answers. He was actually trying really hard too, having only not noticed Riyxia initially because he was half asleep after committing the entire night to research. He was assigned to this project to become the leading expert in the field, and yet in that moment of desperation he had no answer to speak of. He was really feeling like he had let Riyxia down in his neglect for answers, that his pride in other areas of study had clouded his progress in the most challenging field he had ever confronted. Of course, with no one having answers, this research would require far more investment than anything he had faced in his life, and there were lives depending on his answers. That was why he needed to find such an answer now, Riyxia was counting on him for it.

“If you wanted the help of someone so heavily invested in the subject, why then did you leave me behind back there? Seriously, if all you wanted was a quick drink, I could have gotten you something.” “Sryine, I couldn’t.. I wouldn’t…” “Oh hells, not me you moron! I mean Celese’s core. Wait, in all of our excitement, we never did get to talk about the book you brought me, didn’t we? Well, in that book, it’s told that a world that supports life does so because its core burns with the might of the astral flame, a gigantic trace of the flame in its own right. Actually, thinking about that, it makes sense how you were able to use the flame to encourage life, the flame then perpetuates both life and death in equal measure. Anyway, even in that regard, I would seriously caution you about just diving into such a trace, even if it isn’t as mighty as the source, a planetary trace would still be enough to consume you without any problems. But yeah, the Celesi Veil separates the world’s core from the source, so that the source would be unable to consume our world in much the same way. Celese itself then has another layer to its veil, keeping the core of its trace separate from the world as a whole. However, the world still needs a way to vent, to allow the passage of essences that leave and return to its core. That's why we’re normally fine after making use of our own flames after just waiting for a while, our exposure to even the regular air includes a blur of tiny particles from the flame that are racing around to control the lifecycle of the planet. If you needed something more though, we would only need to get closer to one of the more massive vents the world has to offer, something we’ve actually witnessed before.” Sryine had actually found these details of the book Riyxia had left in her care to be really interesting originally, though it wasn’t like such details were really all that important at the time. All that was proven by the book was that the astral flame wasn’t as simple as they might have thought it to be, the world itself depended on making sure the same flame kept burning within it as well.

“Wait, are you talking about that place on the other side of the mountains, where our readings of the astral flame were very high?” “Actually, I think I know another possible major vent, one we’ve worked with even more, though I wouldn’t know its exact location. The village probably holds the second vent.. somewhere in the area near it at least. There certainly could be other vents, but I’m not exactly certain where they might be.” This gave Riyxia two options of interest, beyond the generic idea of simply waiting for herself to recover slowly from natural exposure. While the village was a very interesting alternative, the sandy fields across the mountain would result in a far quicker search. Having arrived at her decision for a solution, Riyxia went towards the door, opening it to find additional familiar faces waiting for her, also appearing slightly disgruntled at her previous disappearance.

“So I guess we’re preparing for another journey, I’ll make sure to start getting things organized. Don’t skimp on your own preparations, wouldn’t want you taken captive again in your moment of weakness.” “Wait, you make it sound like you’re coming this time. Last time you managed to hold on, but right after the recent near death experience.. I don’t feel comfortable into bringing you into danger yourself where you would only be vulnerable.” Ayzherie didn’t even appear to be listening to Riyxia, both of them were determined to thus keep the other safe. “Ayzherie actually isn’t as helpless as you might think, though I seem to be the only one who has noticed. I get the idea she’s feeling so driven to help, she would almost be willing to single-handedly fly us there.” “But she can’t fly us there, she doesn’t have her.. wait, you can’t be serious. She’s recovered from that too? Actually, I think you’re both missing the big picture here. I was there, I can see the ambitions behind Sryine’s intent, she has no interest in taking us there by windcraft, it would be far too slow after all. Ayzherie might be right then, we’re going to need to prepare for such a voyage, one way or another. I mean, I might have been sleeping for the past while, but it's not like I wasn’t paying attention. Sryine, all of the stuff you did yesterday had worn you out, but I can see you want to do some of it all over again. If you want us to count on your ability, perfect it, you’re going to need to do a lot to make something like that reliable. Vwyx, I heard the news, you probably have your own stories to share, something we’re all going to need to hear before we go, but almost certainly you figured out something new for yourself. Just like Sryine, you’re going to want to be fully prepared to make the most of it before we go anywhere. We should probably cancel any other scheduled arrangement in the interim, I know I’m certainly not in the state to go and face such a public again anytime soon, not after an incident like that.”

“Riyxia, having just endured my own period of vulnerability in my own position of leadership, please understand that I know generally how it feels. That helpless powerlessness is haunting, but it’s when the power of your leadership matters most of all. There are people ready to stand behind you, ready to take your command and achieve the things you alone could not. In that, understand that the hunters are behind you 100% of the way. You already know about our existing obligations with the beasts, but by now we’re pretty much completely invested into all matters of the astral flame as well, a field you have absolute dominion over. In fact, in matters involving any beast threats, the hunters have observed your unparalleled ability to deal with any potential threat in that subject as well. In recognition for your dominion of both matters, I would like to formally present the service of the hunters in whole to you and your cause. I told you, a field completely out of my own league, you’ve surpassed us all, and so we stand at your command, ready to move at your will. Oh, and best of all, as you’ve actually.. technically already secured our financing.. we won’t require any additional payment for our services.” Ayzherie laughed at the three stares she got in return, interrupting her informal salute. Sryine was certain that last comment was to spite her, but she was in too much shock to comment upon it. Riyxia was being given authority over all of the hunters? Was Ayzherie even allowed to do that? Not even Riyxia was aware that Ayzherie had been making all the arrangements ever since waking up, getting approval after approval without any difficulties. The hunters as a whole had mutually agreed to this in advance, giving Ayzherie the opportunity to make such a formal declaration.

The announcement of Riyxia’s dramatic climb within the hunters came soon after, with a formal ceremony scheduled that afternoon. Following the ceremony, the hunters began preparations for a formal deployment in an expedition far across the mountains, all following Riyxia’s strict guidance.