“Realmheart?”

The Captain and her officer were already on their way to the stern, towards the ship’s command center, she thought. Before she could follow, she was distracted by the crewmembers climbing back up the ladder while carrying packs, bedrolls, and other gear.

Yuriko intercepted the sailor holding her stuff and retrieved it from him.

“Thank you,” she said quickly.

The man blushed and averted his eyes, mumbling something incoherent. His reaction reminded her of what Layla said, though she honestly didn’t know what she was talking about. Perhaps Damien did.

‘Is there any truth to what aunt Layla said?’ She projected the thought towards the innermost part of her mind, where she figured her Ancestor stayed.

Probably, though in your case it is different. By strengthening your Anima, you also amplify all of your abilities, conscious or not. From what I can see, your Mishala blood has the ability to manipulate others’ impressions. I was quite the ladykiller back when I was alive, too, you know. Heh, though sometimes, it was more the killer part than anything else. His mental voice grew pensive.

‘So I assumed,’ Yuriko thought primly, recalling the memories she saw during her coma.

“Miss Davar, let me show you to your quarters.” A young man--well, a boy close to her age, though maybe he only looked young because of his chubby cheeks--said.

“Oh, thank you.”

He led her towards an opening in the middle of the deck that led down into the hull. The staircase was steep, nearly sixty degrees. The boy turned around to face her and climbed down the stairs like a ladder, his careful demeanor solidified Yuriko’s impression that he was a cadet of some sort.

“Please follow,” his voice came up. The general dimness of the interior meant that without enhancing her sight, she couldn’t make out any details.

Shrugging to herself, Yuriko went down the steep stairs without bothering to turn around. Her feet easily found the steps and it wasn’t difficult to keep her balance, though she had to shift her pack around so it wouldn’t catch on the steps.

The corridor inside was barely wide enough for two people to squeeze past each other. Out of the bright sunlight, the soft illumination below deck was quite soothing to the eye, though Yuriko preferred the other. The boy led her down the corridor, left at the intersection, and into the second door to her right. He fumbled with a key, an actual iron key rather than an Runescript pad to read Animus signatures, unlocked and pushed the door open.

“Please,” he said with a short bow.

“Thank you. Er, I didn’t catch your name.”

“Cadet officer Tiernan Hersal,” he said with another small bow.

“Nice to meet you, Cadet Officer Hersal,” Yuriko said with a slight smile. “I guess you know my name, but anyway, Yuriko Mishala Davar.”

“Nice to meet you, ma’am.” He then stood fidgeting while he kept the door open.

With a small chuckle, Yuriko went into the room. It wasn’t spacious, by any means, but there was only one bunk, and barely enough space to spread her arms wide without touching the walls. Just barely. The bunk took up half the room! But, in a small ship, she supposed this was a luxury.

“You can unfold this over here so you can have a writing desk, or dining space if you’d rather not go to the mess hall.” Tiernan reached to the wall across the bunk and unlatched something. The entire thing fell open, though it meant she’d only have enough space to sit on the bunk. “Closet and safety box are by the foot of the bed,” he continued, pointing at another concealed latch. “Your key will open the safety box and the door.”

He presented it to her, and when her fingers brushed against his hand as she took it, his cheeks turned pinkish.

“Thank you,” Yuriko nodded. “I’d like to talk to the captain before anything else.”

“Ah, alright,” Tiernan said. “I’ll bring you to the bridge first before I complete the tour. Feel free to leave your baggage here first.”

He stepped outside discreetly and closed the door on her.

The room didn’t have a window, Yuriko realised quite suddenly. The light came from a panel at the top, and the wall above the bunk was covered in a thin curtain that revealed lacquered wood when she brushed it aside. Air flow came from a couple of grills next to the light panel. It should have felt claustrophobic but the soothing warmth of the runescript light seemed to tamp down that kind of feeling. She pushed against it with her Anima and the relaxing feel dropped away.

She opened the closet and dumped her backpack inside. The ambrosia canisters remained inside the pack, though she put her pouch of coins inside the safety box. While she returned a hundred thousand Denari, she still had thousands more from her sale of the Ivory and that pouch represented more wealth than she had in her account at the Imperial Bank. She’d lose some when she changes it to Sovereigns though.

Satisfied, she exited and locked the door behind her. Tiernan led her back the way they came, and up on the deck. When they emerged outside, Yuriko was flabbergasted to realise that they were already above the clouds and were moving northwest at speed. She didn’t even feel the Chaos ship rising, much less move forward.

“The inertial dampeners block out any sensation of movement,” he answered when she asked, “though it only works best in a plane.” For a moment, his cheeks turned green before he shook himself.

“I see. Where are my cousins?”

“You mean the other Davars? Either at their stations or at the bridge,” Tiernan guessed.

Yuriko couldn’t help herself. She walked towards the side railings and looked down.They were high enough that the clouds seemed within easy reach. The land stretched out underneath. Enhanced Sight activated, almost unbidden, and she could see the forest, the swamp, even the two forts, Vizugmon’s and Lucenti’s, being left behind. A moment later, they disappeared from sight.

The entirety of the Bella plane was filled with primal wildlands. The people lived in tree houses, on trees that were just as tall and wide as the Watchtower, and there was barely any farmland. Not the kind she knew anyway. Instead of golden wheat fields, there were emerald paddies filled with pregnant rice stalks. The land grew barren further north, rocky hillsides covered with snow.

A minute later, the Chaos ship reached the level of the sky where the clouds lay. They didn’t go into the fluffy things and she so wanted to touch them!

“Miss Davar?”

“Oh,” Yuriko looked away from the magnificent view.

A quick memory of being carried by that rude Skybeast across the desert flashed in her mind, only to be quickly chased away. Nausea. She felt suddenly dizzy.

“This way please,” Tiernan said slowly.

“Yes.”

He led her to the stern, into a door, and through a corridor. This one was much wider than the one below deck, and was only five paces long. The walls on either side were decorated with abstract patterned tapestries. At the other end was a staircase that turned back on itself, so that once they were on the top, they were facing the front of the ship.

Tiernan knocked on the doorframe and opened the door when he heard someone inside yell, “Enter!”

“Captain, Miss Davar wishes to speak with you,” he said in a rush.

Yuriko peeked inside and found Layla and the captain speaking in hushed tones. The bridge had a commanding view of the rest of the ship, and was filled with instrumentation, dials, and gauges. The same man, the first officer that had been with the captain on deck, was seated and had his hands on a couple of spheres floating above the armrest. His Animus enfolded the spheres and Yuriko intuited that they controlled the ship somehow. Well, that and he was focused on the instruments and didn’t shift his focus even when they entered.

“Miss Davar.”

“Yuriko.”

“Good day,” Yuriko answered. “I’d like a word, Captain.”

“Lauretta Mitchell. Captain of the Ebon Horizon, a property of the Honeydew Company of Realmheart. I apologize for the brevity earlier.” The captain glanced at Layla, who shrugged, “Anyway, I planned to speak with you over lunch, but since you’re already here, how may I help you. Oh, Chief Runeer Davar, Second Runeer Sandmeier reported leakage in the primary condenser.”

“Oh, what did that oaf do now!” Layla exclaimed. “You couldn’t have said that first?”

“If I did then you would have run off immediately,” Mitchell said dryly.

“Urg, well, I’ve got to go. See you later, Yuriko.”

Yuriko nodded but kept her gaze at the captain. The woman moved to sit at the central command chair, where she faced the viewports. This left Yuriko to either speak to the back of her head or to move to the front. There were no other seats.

With a sigh, Yuriko trod around the command chair and stood just to the side. She wasn’t a subordinate and would not act like it. Her Anima briefly flared from her irritation but she quickly got it under control, though it did not go unnoticed by the captain or the pilot.

Captain Mitchell steepled her fingers and waited for Yuriko to speak.

“You mentioned on deck that you’re headed to Realmheart. I would rather return to Rumiga,” Yuriko said flat out.

The captain seemed taken aback, if the way her eyebrows lifted had anything to do with it.

“You do realise that you are the subject of a rather generous bounty?”

“Yes, my aunt told me that my mother’s clan set it.” Yuriko hesitated. “I’m not quite sure how to feel about that, to be honest.”

“What, as though you’re baggage that must be claimed?”

“Er, I wouldn’t put it that way,” Yuriko muttered. “Anyway, I was flung from Rumiga by accident and my family, my immediate family, will be worried about me. And, I’ve already missed two terms from the Academy…” Yuriko paused.

“Well,” Captain Mitchell interrupted. “There are honestly only two ways to go about it. One, I bring you to Realmheart where the bounty instructs us to do so, or you pay the bounty yourself and set wherever you want to go.” She grinned toothily. “I don’t think you have ten million Sovereigns on you, right now?”

“Well, no…” Yuriko said, before she narrowed her eyes. “Are you telling me that you will bring me to Realmheart no matter what?”

“Yes.”

“Does that make me your…prisoner?”

Yuriko’s Anima seeped out of her skin and created a bonfire of golden light. She felt rage coursing through her veins. Why? Why force her in this way? She wanted to return back home, and not be brought to another plane entirely!

“I will not stand to be forced,” Yuriko said quietly. “I’ve allowed it to happen too much already.”

Suddenly, she wasn’t on the Ebon Horizon’s bridge. She was in front of the panel for the Academy’s Elite Trials. She was in that little mining camp in the midst of the Zarek Mountains, and in front of her had been Master Antiga, who had just finished lambasting her for her weakness.

She was in front of the Seeker of Delights, cruelly taunting her. She was locking blades with that barbarian boy, whose filthy eyes made her feel soiled. She was back in Shillogu Woods, facing down the Seeker for the very first time, with her friends wounded and trapped.

All of those events forced her from her path. And every time, she had turned. She knew to pick her battles on things that she had a chance of winning, but maybe…maybe, she had stopped trying when it became too hard? Was she letting others take advantage of her? Steer her to a course that benefited them and only made things harder for herself?

“...please…!”

Yuriko snapped out of her daze when the Ebon Horizon shook.

The captain was pressed against her chair, face pale and eyes wide with something akin to terror. The first officer, the pilot, had his hands pressed down on the control spheres and his Animus had been disrupted. The Chaos ship shuddered from the lack of control!

Her Anima had expanded to fill the space around her and she felt it weigh down on the two people. The ones who were only trying to help bring her back to the Empire…

“Ancestors! I’m sorry!” Yuriko gasped as she drew her Anima back into herself.

The captain’s brow was slick with sweat, and from the stench wafting from the side, the pilot had probably wet himself.

“Who…what are you?” Captain Mitchell shuddered.

“I’m…Yuriko Mishala Davar. A student of Sharom Academy in Rumiga.”

The woman shook her head, and for a moment, Yuriko thought the captain would draw the Plasma Lancet holstered on her hip. The moment passed, and then she wiped the sweat off her brow.

“I must still bring you to Realmheart,” the captain said. “Trying to get to Rumiga from here would take longer and would be more dangerous. I apologise for my jest earlier.”

Yuriko shook her head.

“No, I’m sorry. I was out of line. I can only say that the past few weeks have been too wearying on my spirit. But, what do you mean by that?”

“The plane of Bella is untethered to the Empire, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t tethered to another power. We’re too near the Belrath Xylarchy’s territory, and getting to Rumiga means we’ll have to enter that space, and we…wouldn’t survive that.”