“Knight Marron, good to see you.”

Yuriko looked towards the familiar voice finding Armsmaster Trevor Byrne making his way towards her brother. He nodded at her in greeting but kept duty at the forefront. Yuriko eyed the prisoners, finding most of them in the midst of a regenerative trance. Aside from Malise, none of the others was gravely wounded, a testament to how the battle had progressed before her interference.

Small wonder, really. Not only were Krystal and the others outnumbered, but these Federation warriors were also of higher Anima strength. However, the fact was that Yuriko had rarely participated in a battle where she was clearly outmatched, the one time was in the Purelands right after Mum’s ship arrived. Come to think of it, she hadn’t fought there at all. So, no, she’d never actually fought a battle where there was little hope of victory.

What would she do in that case? Would she offer battle no matter how hopeless? Or would she pull back and retreat, fight another day? What if she couldn’t retreat and had little choice but to fight? When retreating would present her consequences that were too grim to bear? What if her brothers’ lives were on the line? Would she leave them to their fate and save herself?

Uncomfortable thoughts and ones she had little answer to. Instead, she resolved never to find herself in such circumstances, and in those cases, she could ask Damien for help. That thought also made her squirm. Relinquishing control of her body wasn’t something she should just allow willy-nilly.

And of course, it really boiled down to personal strength.

Her friends had been saved because she was strong enough to turn the tide of the skirmish almost by herself. As long as her personal power continued to grow, she should be able to keep them safe.

Well, that or she helped them acquire the power to keep themselves safe. Her friends, Kato, and Rami. She should convince them to walk the Ancient’s Way with her. She still had four-fifths of the Ambrosia canister filled. It should be enough to create proper seeds for Body Forging.

Well, convincing them was the key.

Anyway, the wait was over so Yuriko got up in a smooth motion, having adjusted well enough to her resistance training, and headed to where the Armsmaster and Marron were talking. Her old instructor had gotten his arm back though Yuriko noticed that it wasn’t quite as muscled as the other one. The regeneration must have been fairly recent.

“...I’m surprised to find you here Marron. Weren’t you at the Frozen North? Ah, but of course, you’ve already rescued your sister.” Armsmaster nodded towards her.

“Ahahah, no, not at all.” Marron shrugged. “It turned out that she wasn’t even there. Or rather, she hadn’t been there until nearly a Season ago. She wound up in Realmheart after a lengthy adventure but here she is now. You’ll have to ask her about it on your own, however.”

Armsmaster Byrne turned and nodded. “Miss Davar, I…” He trailed off with a frown. “There’s something strange about you…”

Yuriko offered a grin and shrugged. “Good to see you, sir.”

The man had been shorter than she was even two years ago, and now she was taller than him by a head. Of course, he was more than twice as broad, especially across the shoulders.

“Huh, you must tell me why you aren’t at the Academy.”

“Another time, perhaps.” Yuriko nodded towards Malise. “That one’s a Knight and I’m glad you’re here to escort her back?”

“We were informed, yes.” His gaze swept from the woman to her and Yuriko could practically see the gears turning in his head. “You subdued the enemy Knight. But that means…”

“Yes,” Yuriko said simply.

“Huh. Congratulations.”

“Thank you.” She tilted her head questioningly. “So what happens now?”

“We bring them back to the Watchtower.” Byrne gestured towards the dozen Flying Shuttles, “The Federation Adept, and the heavily wounded cadets. The rest will travel back via troop transport. What about you?” He gave her a head-to-toe look then glanced at Marron. “You aren’t in uniform.“

“I’m not in any service.” Yuriko shrugged. “What will happen to the spies afterwards?”

“They aren’t spies, child.” Byrne chuckled. “Oh, my apologies, Miss Davar. You’re no longer a child. Hard to get rid of habits, so please excuse me.” He grinned. “They’re enemy scouts.”

“Is there a difference?” Krystal, who’d followed behind Yuriko asked.

“Spies aren’t in uniform and are treated differently from prisoners of war.” Byrne shrugged. “They’re either executed as soon as discovered or executed right after an interrogation. Or imprisoned. If they were caught wearing militia or legion uniforms, then immediate execution is more likely. Scouts such as these warrant healing aid, and will either be ransomed back after the war or freed under parole.”

“Why…” Yuriko swallowed. “Why start a war to begin with? Weren’t Haveena and Kadrac trading partners?”

“Who knows?” Byrne shrugged. “I’m not in any command position. I’ll leave it to Stuart to figure out.” He looked at Desire who was sitting primly on a low rock. “That is…Ashley Gin? No.” He glared. “A Chaos Lord.”

“She is bound to me.”

Byrne’s gaze shifted from Desire to Yuriko and his eyes narrowed. “How?”

“I encountered her in the Chaos Sea, in combat. I recognised her, though she says she doesn’t have her memories. Then she submitted herself to me.”

“Just like that?”

“Of course. She is my master,” Desire cut in. The girl had inched herself towards Yuriko as soon as she stopped moving.

“I see,” Byrne said evenly. “A word, please. In private.” He jerked his head towards the Flying Shuttles.

“Alright.”

Once they were suitably secluded, Byrne continued. “While bound Chaos Lords aren’t that unusual, at least for the Stable and Core Planes, don’t forget to register it.”

“I was just with the battle group from the Frozen Camp and the camp commander and her aides know about the relationship,” Yuriko said. “Decanus Dumont assured me they will file the appropriate paperwork.”

“I see. In that case, follow up when you can. What do you intend to do with her?”

“Uhm, I think I’ll bring her back to her family…”

“I would suggest not,” Byrne cut in. “I was at the funeral when they declared Ashley missing and dead. She is no longer human, and despite how she looks, she is no longer the Ashley you knew. Don’t reopen scabbed wounds.”

“I…” Yuriko shook her head. “That’s what I said to Desire. I think I’d feel worse if I didn’t bring her to her family.”

“You’d feel worse…” Byrne chuckled. “That’s you. Oh, well, don’t say I didn’t warn you. By the way, make sure that your contract with her is iron-clad. Any damage she does will be blamed on you.”

“Contract?”

“You’re an adult now, so you have responsibilities,” Byrne said gruffly. “So do I, for that matter. And I believe we’re ready to depart.”

“I see. Thank you.”

“Visit the Watchtower when you can. We’ll talk more then.” He gave her a short bow then shooed her away.

Soon enough, the convoy of shuttle lifted off and slowly made their way towards the Watchtower. About half of the squad, including Zeyn and Danika, had been brought along. The two militia additions were there, and Yuriko heard Heron arguing against being brought along. He apparently had some heavy bruising and gashes, but they were well enough after his Recovery meditation that he wasn’t in danger.

The Federation Knight, or Adept, looked relieved to be brought along. Her hands were manacled and her weapon had been left behind to be picked up by the transport. A weakness of the spirit binding method, Yuriko contemplated, was that they needed to be within a certain distance of their bound items. She didn’t know if they could pinpoint the items’ location, but none of them demonstrated the ability to either call them to their side or sheath them in their Animas.

“It’s really a pity we weren’t able to retrieve their field raptors,” Krystal mused once they settled down to wait for the next couple of hours.

“Eh?”

“Yeah, they were using them as mounts, but well,” Krystal grunted. “After we got trounced there was no way to go after the birds. I couldn’t even see where they were stashed. And I sure ain’t gonna go look for their campsite.”

“We don’t even know how to handle those things,” Mikel said, “They’ll either turn up in some farmer’s fields or they'll head all the way south.”

“Are they dangerous?” Yuriko asked worriedly.

“I don’t know. They’re omnivorous, I think.” Krystal addressed one of the prisoners in broken Wojan, “Oi, raptors kill people?”

“No. Trained,” the man answered.

“Well, that’s that. Little use for the things anyway,” Krystal continued.

The prisoner seemed offended by the statement, even though Krystal spoke in Verdanian.

Then he went back to staring at Yuriko.

With a small sigh, she looked away from the prisoners, all of whom had the beginnings of Aspiration behind their eyes. Trying to contain her Mien wasn’t doing much when they were the ones to want the connection. If she used her Facet and appeared in the dreamscape, she was sure to find little golden threads worming towards her from beyond her Anima. Well, not much she could do about it, and it did seem to keep them placid.

With her resistance training underway, and at least two hours to wait, Yuriko started walking the perimeter of their makeshift camp. She felt her body strain against itself and she knew she would be sore tomorrow if she didn’t use Recovery.

The way she was supposed to train now was to keep Recovery technique active throughout the day while using Radiant energy instead of Animus. She wasn’t quite good enough to do it while occupied with something else so she settled for the next best thing which was to rest and meditate every ten minutes or so. With the resistance set as high as she could reasonably tolerate, it didn’t take long before her face was covered in a light sheen of sweat.

Krystal and Mikel stared at her strangely when she settled down.

“What was that?” Krystal asked. “You, sweating from just a light walk? Unbelievable.”

“New training method,” she grunted back. “I use my Animakinesis to restrict myself.”

“Animakinesis?”

“Oh, something I learned. Uhm, we can talk about it later, Krys. Not here.”

“Back home?”

“Yes,” Yuriko nodded.

“Alright.” Krystal settled down with little protest.

Desire sidled up next to Yuriko while she meditated, and Gwendith soon followed. Krystal and Mikel eyed the three of them oddly then, her best friend smirked.

The rumbling of the troop transport’s wheels against the road was audible nearly ten minutes before it came into view. The pilot wasn’t someone Yuriko had met before, but Marron chatted the guy up while the rest of them went into the back compartment. The prisoners were in the inner portion with their weapons left to the cadet squad. It didn’t take more than five minutes for them to be back on their way. The road wasn’t quite wide enough for a smooth u-turn, so it had to go off-road for a bit. The large wheels left deep tracks in the mud.

“Hey, Desire,” Yuriko said once they were on the way. “Armsmaster Byrne told me something and I’d like to confirm it with you.”

“Yes, master?”

“What are the restrictions to our bond?”

“Restrictions?” Desire tilted her head. “There are none. I gave myself to you.” Then she leaned close and whispered to Yuriko’s ear with a sultry voice, “All of myself.”

Yuriko nudged her back and sighed while she pondered the implications. Did that mean that Desire had to obey Yuriko’s every whim? If so, that was very distressing. She didn’t want to hold that kind of power over someone else.

“Can we change that?”

“ I don’t know. And I don’t want to,” Desire said firmly.

They spent the rest of the ride to Faron’s Crossing arguing over the fact. Yuriko didn’t want Desire to cater to her every whim, but Desire was adamant that she didn’t mind. They were no closer to a resolution by the time the transport crested a hill and she saw Faron’s Crossing spread out along the river valley.

It was both familiar yet not. Many things had changed around her hometown, and she wasn’t sure she liked what it implied.