“Where have you two been?” Gwendith asked sternly with her fists on her hips. She stood just outside the cottage’s front door. Yuriko and Heron only reached Fordja a couple of hours after dawn. Gwendith’s gaze shifted between the two of them and her eyes narrowed when neither of them met each other’s eyes and Yuriko’s cheeks were still tinted pink.

Yuriko cleared her throat, turned to Heron and said, “Thanks for accompanying me. I’ll see you later.”

The young man nodded solemnly. “A pleasure.” The corner of his lips twitched upwards and Yuriko rolled her eyes, then waved goodbye.

She then trudged past Gwendith into the room, while her friend followed her inside with a huff. “Suspicious,” Gwendith said, leaning towards Yuriko’s shoulder then inhaled. “Hmmm, really suspicious.”

“What?” Flustered at Gwendith’s actions, she backed away while the other girl stalked closer.

“Hmmm, something happened between the two of you.” She grinned. “Hmm-hmm- hmmm! So, what happened? You’re blushing a charming pink right there.” She poked Yuriko’s cheek.

“Nothing much,” Yuriko explained. “We found one of the Progeny masquerading as the First Archon, found several secrets of this plane, and I absorbed something important that forced me into meditation.” She gulped. “And er, I, uh, sleep-kissed Heron.”

Gwendith blinked. “Alright. Kiss me, too.”

“Eh?”

“Kiss me too!” Gwendith lunged into an embrace and locked her lips on Yuriko’s and the two of them nearly fell on the sofa. Only her Anima bracing against the ground and the furniture allowed her to keep her balance. Gwendith’s lips were softer than Heron’s, but Yuriko couldn’t decide which kisser she liked better.

“Ehehehe.” Gwendith giggled as they pulled away from each other. “So?”

“Erm, what?”

“How is it?”

“Er, fine?”

“Really?”

“Yeah.” Yuriko sighed. “But enough tomfoolery, I’ve found our way home.”

“Oh!”

“Yes. Well, it happened yesterday actually, but what I’ve sensed that I needed to get, well, I’ve got it. So now, all we need to do is go back to the original portal. I’ll use Fri’Avgi there and we can go back to Rumiga. Or to the Siderious, actually.” Yuriko frowned.

Gwendith let go of her embrace and gestured to the sofa. “We need to call the others.”

“Yeah, but…” Yuriko yawned, barely covering her mouth with her hand, “I need to sleep. Been up all night.”

“Alright, I’ll schedule the meeting. Two hours after noon?”

“Sure.”

“Shoo to your bed then,” Gwendith smirked.

“Well, g’night.” Yuriko yawned again and stumbled to her bedroom. She shucked off most of her clothes, leaving her in her panties, then collapsed on the bed. She wrapped herself in her blankets and was asleep the next moment.

However, when she woke up near lunch, she found herself entangled on the suddenly crowded bed, with both Gwendith and Desire, and only the Chaos Lord was actually sleeping. Gwendith was snuggling up to her and giggling to herself.

“I’m up,” Yuriko murmured and slithered out of the tangle. The weather was cool, thankfully, so she hadn’t been smothered in sweat.

“Wanna have lunch?” Gwendith asked.

“Yeah, I’m starving,” Yuriko muttered.

She went through her ablutions and wandered out of the house, expanding her Anima in the process. She froze as soon as she reached the maximum stretch. Thirty paces, give or take a couple of inches. The edges were still attenuating, probably from the thin ambient Chaos. She pulled her aura back and condensed it into as thick an armour as she could. Afterwards, she went through a few Animakinesis exercises, finding her control had slipped and her tendrils felt clumsy. The added heft to her Anima was such that even her thinner threads pushed harder than she intended.

“That’s a huge increase,” Gwendith noted.

“Yeah,” Yuriko muttered. “It will take a while…several days probably…until I’ve got the hang of this." She could simply thin her aura so that it wouldn’t be too bright, but the increase in perception volume was making her head ache. She pulled back to her previous ten paces and used the rest as a restriction, only to find out that she couldn’t even move with all of her Anima pressing down on her.

She couldn’t keep all of it under her skin either, as it leaked out. Full flare was too ostentatious, perception mode was too overwhelming, and restriction or physique enhancement was too much. Perhaps if she balanced physique enhancement and restriction so that they cancelled each other out, that could work. But the annoying thing would be that most of the new power would essentially be tasked to do nothing.

She found the balance where the restriction was just enough so that she’d get a workout, and stuck with that for the moment. Her memories of the dream were a weight on her mind, and there were dozens of techniques Damien revealed that she could try to learn, but right now, she needed to brief her group.

After eating a simple lunch, she held a council with Sheamus, Rolland, Kassy, Horace, and Seran. Heron and the twins, as well as Asami and Gwendith were also there, though they sat behind her.

“I’ve found a way back,” Yuriko said without preamble, to which the others cheered.

“How?” Sheamus asked after the others settled down.

“Back to the very same portal. I’ve awakened my artefact after nearly a Season’s effort and her abilities are needed to reopen the passage.”

“Even if the portal mechanism had melted down?” Sheamus asked doubtfully.

“Yes,” Yuriko said. On the way back this morning, she spoke with Fri’Avgi about the very same thing, and the artefact spirit said that even though the portal machinery had broken, the pathway was still there. Fri’Avgi can follow that path back to Rumiga, or better yet, to the Siderious. ‘If Fri’Avgi had not been asleep when we entered the portal, this would not have happened,’ Yuriko sighed to herself. “Fri’Avgi can follow the path back. All we need to do is secure the site. It…might take a while to open a passage though.”

“A path back indeed,” Rolland snorted, “right smack in the middle of a hostile nation. Shall we carve a bloody path through their armies?” He grinned, showing off his sharp canines.

“Karcellia is on the back foot,” Sheamus said grimly. “I’ve seen the Confederates massing across the Karcellian Channel. An invasion force hundreds of thousands strong.”

Yuriko frowned, then said, “Then the invasion must be repulsed and a counter-invasion must be done.”

“You wish to take an active hand in the coming battles?” Kassy asked doubtfully. “This would be filled with nothing but slaughter. None of the warriors of this plane come even close to matching us.”

“Indeed,” Horace said. “While there is some progress with adapting Animatech to their guns, it is still not enough. Ah, but we are still limited by our Animus, aren’t we?” He frowned. “We’ve only the jade cartridges we brought, and even though all of it is filled, thanks to you, Lady Davar, that’s hardly enough.”

“Have you not practised with their guns?” Yuriko asked.

“We have.” Horace said slowly, “Despite how they look, guns handle differently from Plasma Casters or Lancets.”

“How so?”

“Pulling the trigger, there’s a bit of a recoil. It was quite a surprise, and the first time I used one, it almost flew out of my hands.” Horace admitted.

Yuriko nodded. While they had captured guns from the Richmond Confederates, she hadn’t played with them much. She did notice the recoil, but it was slight enough that it didn’t really register. “What else?”

“Ah, the bullets don’t fly straight,” Horace grumbled. “They fall to the ground. Long-range shooting requires a bit of an adjustment.”

“That makes sense. You’re using metal arrows after all,” Heron said. “It’s not as if plasma bolts don’t deviate.”

“Yes, but the deviation is more than ten times,” Horace noted.

“Were you able to infuse the bullets with Animus?” Yuriko asked curiously.

“Not unless we do it before loading the cartridge. Etching runescript lines to modify existing weapons proved destructive to the weapon. It interfered with the barrel and the ignition systems. I suspect the guns must be redesigned to allow easy Animus investment. Also, infusion of the cartridges take some time too, and the investment doesn’t last too long.”

“I see.” Yuriko nodded.

While she could probably impart her Animus to the bullets even while they were loaded into the gun due to her Anima, no one other than Heron and Gwendith would be able to do so. The Field technique, even though it looked like condensed Anima to an observer, only had a protective purpose. Either way, that still meant that they could use the Karcellian guns to fight mortals, and save their Animus when fighting daemons.

“According to the First Archon, the Confederacy’s territory is practically overrun with daemons, those creatures we encountered in the portal site. Expect the need to fight them when we cross back.”

“So shall we inform the Archons of our decision?” Sheamus asked.

“Please,” Yuriko nodded. “Though I need to speak with Casper Nichols again.”

“If he has the courage to face you again,” Heron scoffed.

Yuriko chuckled. “He should. It’s not as if we really fought.”

“Eh? Why, what happened?” Gwendith asked.

“It’s like this…” Yuriko recounted yesterday's events, with Heron chiming in now and then.

“So the low ambient Chaos in Irvalla is deliberate and artificial?” Gwendith groused, “But you destroyed the crystal?”

“Absorbed it, actually. My Anima reach has tripled,” Yuriko said.

“Congratulations, young mistress!” Saki said as she materialised a few paces from their council, “For your progress, and…” Saki’s smile turned into a knowing smirk, “other things.”

Yuriko snorted but couldn’t help colouring faintly, “Never mind that. The crystal broke, and I absorbed it. Truthfully, within it was the thing that had been calling to me since we came here. I’m not sure if it will reform again, but the mechanisms in that place were not damaged.”

They spoke for a couple more hours, had afternoon tea, then dispersed. Sheamus and Horace would be responsible for coordinating with the Second and Third Archons, while Yuriko headed back to the Karcellian Mages’ Society’s headquarters, this time, with Heron, Gwendith, and Saki in tow.

But when she arrived there to look for Casper, the receptionist told them that the First Archon wasn’t there, and had left for an important trip. They weren’t allowed into the sanctum, of course, so they had little choice but to head back to Fordja.

___________

That evening, Gwendith dragged the rest of them into a pub. Being an academic town, Fordja had a surprising amount of pubs, and the one that they visited regularly was called the Dancing Ox. The painting on the wooden sign was faded, but that had been done deliberately to make the place look older.

The barkeep also had mixed drinks so Yuriko happily indulged. Gwendith stuck to mead, while the boys drank dark ale.

“How can you drink that bitter stuff?” Yuriko complained.

Heron grinned. “You’ve got a sweet tooth, my dear.”

“Oh, since when do you call Yuri, dear?” Gwendith teased. She was inebriated, considering that the glass in front of her was already her seventh.

“I have! A few times in the past,” he answered easily, then winked at Yuriko, who looked down and felt her cheeks heat up. Ah, it might be the liquor, eh? She still remembered the taste of his lips though…Ancestors, Damien, why?

With no answer forthcoming, she simply drank and nibbled at the snacks. Tomorrow, she planned to meet with the other two Archons and demand to know where the First went, but if they didn’t have it, then she’d proceed with her plan. If need be, she’d cross the channel herself and decimate the Confederate’s ships.

She was on her tenth glass when the air raid sirens blasted into the pub. A brief flare of her Anima burnt away the alcohol, and she tapped a sleeping Gwendith on her cheeks to wake her up. Heron, Orrin, and Braden were having coffee outside, and they rushed back into the bar, only to get bogged down by the people inside rushing out.

Once she was outside, Yuriko used Enhanced Sight to look for the aircraft, frowning when she saw hundreds of them. And they weren’t just the bomber variants. A few minutes later, she saw dozens of silhouettes falling from the sky, though mainly towards the east coast.

“What do we do?” Heron asked.

“Call the others,” Yuriko said, “It seems we’re going to fight soon.