Vinze Hall was the east wing of a much bigger building just north of the Central Reserve. Kato led her through a cobblestone path in the park instead of taking them around the perimeter road. The path was barely wide enough for the two of them to walk side by side and it went around several nooks and sequestered clearings before they wound up back on the perimeter road within a stone’s throw from Agaza’s Main Hall.

Any other time, she would have enjoyed that route; it was a beautiful, scenic path shaded by tall trees and crossing multiple brooks and even passing over a miniature waterfall. Right now, she barely paid it any mind.

The building’s main entrance had a wide staircase. In front of it was a banner with the Empire’s eight-pointed silver sunburst above an oak tree. A bronze statue of a figure covered in articulated plate armour, holding a spear in one hand and a kite shield in the other, stood just beside the banner. Yuriko couldn’t tell if the statue was of a man or a woman. There was a lack of facial hair on the exposed part of the face but the features appeared androgynous.

Dozens of boys and girls her age were slowly climbing up the stairs, some touching the statute’s foot as they passed it.

“For luck in battle,” Kato said when they reached the foot of the stairs. He gave her back a nudge. “Good fortune.”

Yuriko nodded and started climbing. She reached out to touch the foot of the statue, finding it smooth and well-worn. The entry hallway was brightly lit and there was an aide who directed the examinees to the correct hall.

“Vinze hall, 213,” Yuriko said.

“To your right, up one flight,” he answered after a long moment of silence.

“Thank you.”

The stairs up were at the corner of the entry hall. She followed a stream of students heading in the same direction. Most of her fellow examinees were nervously minding their own business but a few were strutting around with supreme confidence including, Yuriko saw with some amusement, that haughty girl she and the twins ran into a few days back.

The hallway was well lit with each room labelled over the door with a bronze plate. 201, 203, 205…213! The room was large and could have fit around fifty seats. Right now, the proctor was seated at the front desk with a pile of papers in front of her. Yuriko approached her after seeing the others do so.

“Davar.”

The proctor, a young-looking woman with her silver hair in a severe bun, muttered, looked at a list, checked beside Yuriko’s name, then handed her a folder. “Begin once you are seated.”

Yuriko headed to the nearest unoccupied chair-desk, opened the folder and fished out a pen from her pocket. She briefly scanned the questions and was relieved to find it contained mainly subjects that had been tackled in her earlier education: Arithmetic, Natural Sciences, Basic Spiritology, Basic Geomancy, and History. It honestly felt more like a refresher course than anything else. At least until she reached the latter half of the exam questionnaire.

“The situation is as follows: You are in a small outpost near the northern border. You are tasked with a long patrol that can last for as long as four to five weeks. Your allocation is twenty militia but you are free to determine their composition. List down your preferred composition of troops and your reasoning. List down your prefered supplies and gear.”

“Ancestors,” she muttered. Northern outpost? What was hostile there? Barbarians? There was a possibility of Wyldlings, too, but there was a greater chance she would encounter the barely human natives. This was more a matter of what she already knew about the territory since the briefing didn’t mention anything specific.

She was more inclined to operate four complete teams, that was four of each role, just to keep her versatility. As for supplies…ration bars, and a lot of spices to make it palatable, otherwise, she would probably face low morale or waste too much time on foraging.

She spent nearly an hour going through a couple of similar scenarios--to which she always preferred a versatile composition of troops over a more focused one--though she hesitated when the scenario presented was of a siege.

There was less need for scouts during that time and she would need more destroyers. She hesitated over swapping the personnel but ultimately decided to remain versatile. She wrote that versatility was often more useful in all situations than being cornered when her specialized formation was stymied by an enemy composition that directly countered hers.

She was just wrapping up her thoughts when the proctor called, “Time’s up! Please bring your papers here.”

“Rotter,” she muttered, writing the last few words in her essay so she didn’t end mid-sentence. Most of the examinees stood up and delivered their papers to the proctor as soon as she announced the end but a couple of others hastily penned conclusions just like Yuriko did.

The proctor gave her a measured look when Yuriko came up. She could only smile and shrug apologetically. Once all of the papers were with the proctor, she addressed them again.

“Please wait here for the individual assessment and interview. Fergus Adrian, please come with me.”

The boy jumped in surprise, blushed, and hastily followed the woman. Yuriko shrugged and walked back to her seat, intending to meditate and regain her mental balance. Before she could take a couple of steps though, a couple of examinees made an obvious beeline towards her. One was a tall boy, even taller than she was, bulky, and with neatly braided black hair.

“Hello, I don’t recall seeing you in Rumiga City’s preparatory school,” he started with a smile. “Few from outside the City attempt the elite trials. I’m Danazzo Aralka.”

Yuriko nodded. “Yuriko Davar. I’m from Faron’s Crossing.”

“Across the mountain?” Another examinee, a girl with straight red hair cut to her chin, asked.

“Yes.”

“Oh, you’ve come a long way,” Danazzo said. “Anyway, this afternoon’s practicals will involve teams so I’m just scouting for possible members.”

“Uhuh, and the fact that you headed for the prettiest girl here doesn’t mean anything?” The other girl’s red eyes flared. “Ignore him, this guy’s a sleazebag.”

“I protest that Ifra, what have I ever done to you?”

“You want me to pull out my list?”

“Uh, haha, no. I think I’m up next.”

Sure enough, an aide stuck his head in the room and called out Danazzo’s name.

Ifra nodded with great satisfaction as Danazzo scurried away. She turned to Yuriko with narrowed eyes.

“You look like a bumpkin--don’t take it the wrong way,” she said hastily, “I don’t mean any offence. Just be careful you don’t get pulled into anything you’d regret.”

With a bemused look, Yuriko watched Ifra walk back to her seat. What did she mean by “prettiest girl” anyway? Not that it mattered much. She sighed and started worrying over her answers. She was confident of the first part but the second, well, she hadn’t studied any such thing and could only go with her instincts, which she was sure she couldn’t trust.

“I hope I do better with the practicals.”

Yuriko sighed and closed her eyes while leaning back. She envisioned her Anima, zeroing in on her Heritage. The pattern at the centre of her Facet had changed, she thought. The inlaid part had expanded beyond the pommel, tracing a line along the hilt. It was slight, a fraction of a percent, but it was there. How? She certainly didn’t do it.

Perhaps it improved with time? She wasn’t clear on how one advanced their Anima strength but it had something to do with having enough Animus capacity and either an improvement to the Facet or a new one was inlaid.

“Yuriko Davar!”

She opened her eyes to find the aide back at the door. She raised her hand, “Here!” and scrambled out of her seat.

The aide led her to a chamber much like the one in the Temple back home, the one that measured her capacity. The proctor was there, along with a couple of others.

“Master Antiga!” Yuriko exclaimed. The red-haired instructor nodded to her without bothering to look, keeping her eyes on what Yuriko recognized as her paper.

“Sit in the middle please,” the other instructor, a stocky balding man who had a physique that even Armsmaster Byrne would have envied, said.

Yuriko did so, taking her seated meditation pose.

“Exude your Animus.” At Yuriko’s blank look, he sighed. “Bring out your Animus outside of your body.”

For what purpose? Yuriko wondered, but at the man’s irritated look she simply did as asked. She closed her eyes and envisioned her Anima and her Animus core. She drew out a couple of strands and coaxed them out, moving them inside her Anima and transitioned them to her physical body once they were at her hands. From there, she simply had them seep out of her skin. Her hands started glowing gold.

“Expand your Animus an inch past your skin.”

Easy enough to do, Yuriko thought. She simply told it to move and it did.

“Do not impart an Intent in your Animus.”

Oh. She pulled her Animus back into her Anima and returned it to her core, pulling out a fresh strand. She only exuded her Animus above her left palm this time. It took her longer to get it to spread out from her skin without giving it instruction. She managed to do it after a couple of minutes simply by adding more Animus strands and limiting the area it could stay in. The volume pushed it away from her skin. Once it was an inch away from her skin it started to attenuate, flickering as if it were a candle flame and there was a breeze. Frowning in concentration, Yuriko suddenly remembered her dream as the Golden Silhouette.

In his meditations, he exuded his Animus outside of his body and had it form runescript. He then pulled it back to his body where it dispersed into his body, doing who knew what. Something like Strengthen Physique, she thought.

She tried to exert more control over her Animus but without an Intent to guide it, the bits further away from her withered and dispersed into the air, turning into motes of green light.

“That’s enough.”

Yuriko pulled back what Animus she had remaining with a sigh of relief. The chamber’s jade studs were glowing.

“Impressive control for your age,” Master Antiga remarked. “Your Animus Capacity is quite large at one hundred fifteen.” She tapped a jade tablet. “Your recorded initial cap was at one hundred five lumens and during the events of the Wave, you’ve grown your capacity by ten lumens; impressive luck.”

“Thank you, Master.”

“Hmm, not a compliment, “ Antiga said drily.

Yuriko felt her cheeks heat up.

“Anyway, it states here in your file that you do not know the name of your Heritage and that your Facet is decidedly non-combat-oriented.” She leaned forward. “You are aware that this is a grave disadvantage for a career in the armed forces. At least for the role you have stated you want.”

“I believe the techniques imparted by my Facet can make up for it.”

“Ah, yes. Of course you’d believe that. Anyway, we’ll find out later at the practicals if that is true.” Master Antiga nodded. “In either case, since you didn’t receive the Davar Heritage as your brothers did, you will have to train up your ranged weapon techniques if you want to fulfil a ranged Striker role. The elite class is not for those just starting their mastery, please take note. Same if you work as a melee striker, since you do not have a melee weapon based Facet. Frankly,” she put the jade tablet down, “you're going to have to spend a lot of time bringing yourself up to speed compared to others who have a suitable Facet. Have you considered you might be better off taking a path that matched?”

Yuriko clenched her jaw and fists. Her nails dug into her palm painfully, though she stared at Master Antiga’s grey eyes without blinking. Out of the corner of her eyes, she could see the proctor and the other instructor giving Antiga the side-eye.

“It is my dream, and my goal to enter the Legion Vagaris, and become a ranged striker, a sharpshooter like my Da.”

“Hmmph,” Antiga snorted. “You’re only going to waste your limited time by splitting your focus like that. From what I saw during the trip, you’re better off as a melee Striker or a Warder, but even so, you will always be a step behind.”

“Even so, that is my goal.”

Antiga met her eyes with a cool stare. “Very well. You may go. The practicals will begin one hour after noon. Make sure you are in Room 213 before that time.”

Yuriko got to her feet, bowed her head and said, “Yes. Thank you, I will be there.”

She might have closed the door harder than she should have when she left the chamber since it slammed shut with a bang. For a moment, she felt a thrill of satisfaction before realising that she would be called out for that. If they still find her here.

She dashed out down the hallway and turned around the corner in moments, heaving a sigh of relief once she was down the stairs. From the position of the sun, Yuriko could tell that it was an hour before noon, enough time for her to have a light lunch. She didn’t want her tummy to be heavy with food during the practicals.

There was a food stall outside the building, near the Great Reserve, doing brisk business with examinees and staff. She got a grilled meat skewer from there and washed it down with some water from a drinking fountain.

That cooled her head enough to think objectively about what Master Antiga said. While she was quite harsh and blunt, Yuriko couldn’t help but think that she was right. On some level anyway.

No, Master Antiga was wrong. Her Facet may not be directly combat-related but the techniques the Golden Silhouette taught her more than made up for it. She just had to prove it. Which made the practicals far more important than she thought.

And now her stomach felt like it was full of lead from the worries that the realisation gave her.