Boom! Booom! Booom!

Flames blossomed near the ceiling, igniting the rafters and showering the theatre floor with embers. Screams filled the air, as well as panicked squeals and pained screeches. Yuriko’s mandala prevented the flames from touching her, but the heat was rolling in. The cloth covering the seats caught on fire, too.

“Gwen!” Yuriko yelled, but her friend had already expanded her Anima and was diverting the heat from the nearby flames.

Most of the follow-up bombs struck the roof, but another one fell inside the theatre, this time, at the side opposite of where they were. There were still hundreds of people inside, and the first bomb had killed or incapacitated dozens. The rest squeezed towards the exits, while the ones in the middle huddled while in shock.

Her intentions flowed into her friends, through the connection of her Mien. They rushed towards the wounded and dragged them away from the flames, while Yuriko guarded against more bombs.

Douglas was hyperventilating, while Darren was on her knees, cowering. Both were muttering prayers under their breaths. Soon enough, Gwedith and the others had smothered the flames. Heron, and the twins, carried the wounded, and Yuriko helped them along. The bombs had stopped falling near them, but she could hear the dreadful whistles in the distance.

Way too late, the air raid siren was wailing. Yuriko and the others made it out of the Oldoran Theatre, carrying the wounded with them. The citizens outside were in a panicked frenzy, and she could see several buildings on fire even on the same street. The night skies hid the enemy aircraft, but with her Enhanced Sight, she could see the silhouettes making their way across the city. There were dozens, but it looked like their supply of bombs had been dropped, which left this part of Lindorn in flames.

For a long moment, Yuriko waffled between going after the bombers or helping to put out the fires. A moment later, one of the buildings next to the theatre burst out in flames, which decided it for her.

“Go for the survivors. Bring them out,” she said.

Heron and the twins nodded, while Gwendith hurried up next to the flames. Her Anima pulled the heat, which she then spread into the cobblestones around her. They started to glow and melt at the edges, but then, Yuriko circulated her Animus into the Flowing Water pattern. While the ambient Chaos didn’t turn into elemental water, some of the heat was pulled out and dispersed.

At the same time, she used her Animakinesis to help the boys pull out people. She blocked burning beams from falling into the floors, supported the roof and prevented it from collapsing, and at the same time, spun Flowing Water into her movement, which cooled the air inside. She couldn’t put out the fire itself, but Heron smothered the open flames with his rudimentary control over wind.

It took ten minutes to clear the building, and she pulled everyone still living out. For the rest of the night, she and the others helped put out fires, and rescued survivors trapped in collapsed buildings. She leapt up and floated in the air for a long moment, to observe what was happening beyond what she could see. For several blocks around, fires raged, and a district in the distance was nothing but smoke and open flame. It was far too much. She could only help those in the vicinity.

Hours passed as she and the others did what they could. The survivors were thankful, but were mostly in shock. They didn’t even blink at her glowing Anima.

In the wee hours of the morning, it was all over. Large swaths of Lindorn had burned to the ground, and the eight of them trudged back towards Fordja, in search of food and rest. Dawn found her slumped in bed. She wasn’t exhausted physically, but her mind felt slow. Her Ennoia was Radiant light. But that did little for mundane flames and heat. Not for the first time, she found her powers wanting. But controlling anything else other than Radiant energy was something she couldn’t do yet, and the lacking ambient Chaos didn’t allow her to Free Shape…or rather, in the heat of the moment, it hadn’t occurred to her to try.

Cursing herself for a fool, she buried herself in her pillows. Even after going through that ordeal, her body was still pristine. So why did she feel as if soot had seeped deep into her Anima?

____________

There was an uproar the next day, of course. The morning gazette practically screaming murder at the Confederate’s heinous attack.

For Yuriko though, it was a late day. She had slept at dawn and had awakened past noon, with her eyes blurry and a foul taste in her mouth. She went through her ablutions, but her morning’s schedule was ruined, and she realised she hadn’t made any arrangements or excuses to her students. Thankfully, Sheamus had not been with them that evening, and he had been able to take over.

She found him at his cabin partaking in a simple lunch.

“I heard what happened. Don’t worry about class,” he grinned. “In fact, they’re quite happy for the break.”

Yuriko frowned. Was her tutelage that bad? Granted, they trained every day for hours, and that was simple and easy enough. Da never allowed her to slack…

“Thanks.”

“No problem.”

The rest of the day was spent in her personal training as well as reading and researching in the library. Some time ago, she realised that if she used her Anima perception and honed it enough, she could actually decipher the inked words on a book. The difficult part was that the ink on both sides somewhat blended together, which resulted in a different headache, but at least she could continue studying while her eyes rested. It wasn’t much faster compared to using her eyes, but at least that headache was easier to bear. And she hoped practice would eventually alleviate the pain.

The next few days continued in a similar vein. The morning papers were filled with reports of the war. She read that the Confederates had not meant to bomb Lindorn, and that the attack had been a mistake, but another report said that the enemy had not made any such claims.

The constant practice and training had allowed her students to grow thinner and build up muscle. The meditation that followed should have allowed most of them to feel ambient Chaos by then. Yuriko had been dispersing distilled Chaos within her Anima light while the students practised within, so the condition of enough ambient Chaos should be fulfilled. None of them managed to form a core, even if a couple, Douglas and Darren, had managed to take ambient Chaos within, and somehow convert it to Animus. The lumens were unstable, however, and soon dissipated.

Still, that was more success than anyone else had, so Douglas and Darren were understandably proud and redoubled their efforts.

Two weeks after the night bombing, they finally succeeded. Which then prompted the whole class to throw a party in one of the local taverns, and of course, Yuriko and the others were invited.

The students and her entire group, the beastkin, the marines, her friends, and the two Haveenians, Izna, and Arman, joined the impromptu celebration. All forty of them barely fit inside the tavern however, so the proprietor set up some tables outside. It was a clear night, with the moon bright, and the skies clear. Yuriko was still startled when she didn’t see Chaos flows above, and instead, the tiny pinprick Chaos lights dotted the skies above.

They drank ale and beer until the tavern ran dry, and there were drunk games, dancing, and tomfoolery all around. Yuriko sat at a corner table, nursing her drink. It was a concoction that the bartender had given her. He asked her how she liked her beer, and she answered that she didn’t really like the bitterness.

“I’ve got the thing for you then.” He said brightly. He then mixed a drink for her, which contained some kind of liquor, a citrus fruit juice, sugary syrup, some leaves, and a berry. “Here, try this.”

When she took a sip, she smiled and said, “I like it!”

“Heh, I’ll make as much as you want!”

And so, she’d been drinking glass after glass as the evening progressed, while her skin heated up from the liquor and her face grew steadily redder. Her physique neutralised most of the alcohol, but in the quantities she drank, it would have been enough to reduce anyone to a stupor. The pleasant buzz was nice though, but she could only retain it if she kept drinking every few minutes.

Someone started playing a stringed instrument a while back, and another pounded on some drums, prompting the drunken students and marines to gyrate in the middle of the tavern floor. Gwendith was snoring beside her, murmuring sleepily while drool dribbled out of the corner of her mouth. Orrin was bouncing around the dance floor, with his antennae flailing about, while Braden laughed uproariously a couple of tables away. He was in the midst of a card game, and had a pile of coins in front of him.

Heron was beside her, drinking slowly from a mug and nibbling on beer-battered and fried fish. He glanced at her every now and then, and made small talk. Most of what he said was of what he did during the day, what he saw, and the beautiful gardens in the city that were now burnt to ashes.

Yuriko grinned at him while his cheeks coloured.

“Uhm, aren’t you…?”

“Hmmm, whaaaaaat?” Yuriko slurred.

“How many of those have you had?” He muttered, as she waved at the barkeep and upended her glass, showing it was empty. The man nodded and approached with a fresh drink.

“Not enough, hie hie!” Yuriko giggled. “This is tasty.”

“You’re drunk.”

“Hmmm, yeah, I think I am.”

“Aren’t you going to stop?”

“Nope! Heh.”

“Yuri…”

She stared at him with narrowed eyes. “You’re not my… hic… Da, Heron. Even if you’re as tall as he is…hie hie!” She reached up and ruffled his hair.

He sighed and pushed his mug away.

“Not gonna drink anymore?”

“No. Someone has to remain sober.”

“Oh, pish posh,” Yuriko muttered. “I can go sober anytime I want. I just have to stop drinking for a minute or two.”

“Yeah, but you’re not stopping.”

Yuriko leaned and pushed her face close to his. “I can do that anytime. I can use Radiant to burn it away, too!”

He sighed, and pushed her back. “No doubt.”

“Hmph!” Yuriko snorted, and continued drinking. She very clearly did not dwell on the fact that they’d been here nearly a Season already and they still didn’t know how to get back home. But there was a ray of hope. Her natural Radiant reserves were almost at the level she could use to awaken Damien.

The next morning, she woke up early. However, she wasn’t alone in bed. Gwendith was tangled up in the sheets, and was hugging her like a pillow. She wriggled out of her friend’s grasp and did her morning ablutions. She didn’t continue to do her morning training, and instead, settled into a trance outside, soaking in the morning sun. Her natural Radiant reserves filled, and soon, she had enough.

She took a deep breath, and focused. She mustn’t be hasty. The amount of natural Radiant energy was only enough for Damien to speak for a few seconds. She focused on what she needed to ask. A way out. Where were they? What was it her Anima was craving here?

She focused on those questions and pushed the first one as the highest priority for the man to answer. And then, she force-fed the Radiant energy into the part of her mind where Damien dwelled.

It was like a flower blossoming with the dawn. Damien woke up, but he was groggy and confused. But that didn’t matter, because something else happened.

A sensation she hadn’t noticed suddenly came to the forefront. A blurry feeling. As though a thick blanket covered her and muffled every sense. The ambient Chaos… it was so thin that it couldn’t possibly have supported life…

But then, the Chaos was still there. Focused and crystallised. She could feel it. The massive rivers of ambient Chaos deep under the ground, and where they surfaced…

Fool girl. All you had to do was use Fri’Avgi to rip the Veil apart…

Wait.

What’s this?

Go! Go there! Get it! I…we! We need it!

And with that, Damien fell back to sleep. But then, the thing that had been calling to her…it…they grew clear. And there was one just a couple of dozen longstrides away.