The Orb of Authority sat on Yuriko’s lap while she was in a seated meditation pose on top of her bed. The return to the residential block had been lengthy but uneventful, and it was only when they arrived that she realised that the trial had taken more time than she thought. It could not have been more than a couple of hours in the Chaos lake, but when they returned, three days had already passed.

Her Mum had returned triumphantly, carrying a large cuboid that turned out to be the Chaos Converter. When Yuriko looked inside the chassis, it reminded her of a Chaos ship’s Animus Engine. From the runescript weaving etched on the inside, it was supposed to take in any form of energy, from Animus, Ennoia energies, elemental energies, and ambient Chaos, into a liquified Chaos fluid that served both as a kind of fuel and lubricant for the Colossus. When they tested its operation inside Eli’Theria, she actually heard the animating spirit sighing in satisfaction.

As for the Orb of Authority…binding it wasn’t as easy as she expected at all. She honestly expected the process to be similar to binding Fri’Avgi, but the difference was, the greatsword had an animating spirit, the Orb of Authority didn’t. It was simply a relic used as the key to activate and pilot the Colossus.

Actually…

‘Depending on how well you bind the Orb, you’ll be able to use it to pilot any Colossus.’ Eli’Theria said to her when she asked the Colossus spirit after she couldn’t get the binding done. ‘It’s very simple to use. You have to thread your Animus into the mechanism inside and synchronise with the outer lock. But! You have to enter the third level interlock in order to pilot my body.’

The outer mechanism was simple enough. She only had to thread her Animus through the pattern without touching the sides. The pattern was less than a thousandth of an inch wide, but Yuriko could narrow her threads to less than that easily enough. And even though the pattern was small enough that it was difficult to see with an unenhanced eye, her Anima perception as well as Enhanced Sight allowed her to see well enough. It took her only a few minutes to get through the outer lock, not because she made mistakes, at least not past the first one which reset the entire pattern and changed it up, but because it was long and complex. She estimated that if she stretched out the uninterrupted Animus thread she put it, it would be roughly a league long.

No, the trouble began with the first layer of the interior lock. It wasn’t a simple pattern, but an ever-changing puzzle. She had to solve the first part within a few seconds, otherwise, the puzzle would change again. And then she had to keep up the pace else, everything would reset and she’d have to do it all over again. Worst of all, the entire thing, including the outer lock would reset and shift!

It took her several hours to get it right and reach the end of the interior lock’s first layer, where she toggled a switch to allow her to lock in her progress. But her face paled when she saw the instructions on proceeding to the next layer. Everything would reset if she failed. If she locked in, she could use the Orb of Authority at its first layer, which would allow her to pilot any Siderious-born Colossus at the Certus level, as well as gain control of Warforged troops. Well, a company of them, which was an Athrodius commander and forty mixed unit Drones.

As for the puzzle, it was a lightning-quick alteration pattern and the goal was to touch and lock in the indicated pattern while it shifted about. That was the first. The second forced her to find which runescript pattern would allow her to bridge the gap of the given runescript line. Each one after that was a different task, each of the same complexity. But since she needed to get to the third layer, she had to proceed. And she failed, of course.

It took her another two days of continuously trying to succeed at solving the second layer, which only allowed ten seconds per puzzle, for a total of eighty-one puzzles. And the third layer gave her five seconds per puzzle, for a total of seven hundred twenty-nine puzzles.

That one took her two weeks. She had to take breaks every so often otherwise her built-up frustrations would have undone her. She trained and sparred with her friends, her Da, as well as the other members of Da’s team. Even with Mum, once, but that had been rather embarrassing. Mum wasn’t much of a technical fighter but overwhelmed her foes with her Mien, her Sorcery, and her Luminous-level Domain. The first time all Sadeen had to do was tell her to sleep, and that was that.

“When you reach a comparable level, my Mien will no longer affect you,” Sadeen said consolingly when Yuriko woke up. “Not without advanced techniques on my part anyway. But even those can be countered. Unfortunately, the tyranny of the Mishala Mien means that if you’re at a lower Anima strength than I, there’s little you can do to resist.”

There is, actually, but it will involve isolating your Anima from the exterior world. Damien said. There are other methods to triumph, but they involve directly attacking and killing your relatives, heh. Or dominating their Mien, which would involve a rather…hrmm, intimate process.

Either way, Yuriko and her Mum practised with Sorcery instead. Here, Yuriko learned that her Implement was rather, well, primitive compared to other Sorcerers, but that was fine.

“You’ve done so well on your own, there’s no need to hobble you with inferior implements. There are only so many that your Anima can take on.”

What they did mostly was to practice the speed at which she could cast. Normally, it took her a minute of uninterrupted focus to cast Radiant Lance, and longer still if she was in melee or actively fighting.

“Any good Sorceress can divide their minds to weave spells,” Sadeen said, “but there’s an optimal number of consciousness threads to use when casting. It also depends on the Implement too. Yours is a destructive purpose, and, hmmm, we can’t etch any new spells unless they’re also destructive.”

“But anything less than Radiant Lance is pretty pointless,” Yuriko said.

“Exactly. Creating a new Implement is how one advances as a Sorceress. Being given one also works, but then, you’re beholden to the maker.” Sadeen answered many of Yuriko’s questions about sorcery. “I would have guided you into forming an Implement once you reach Knight level, but you were still Journeyman when I left Realmheart.” Mum tapped her lips, “Ah, I know, I’ll write you a guidebook. All you have to do is Shape the spell without aid to form a new Implement, though it’ll be harder after you make your first one. You’ll find that while crafting another, the first will interfere… What manner of spell do you need? Defence? Movement?”

“How about one for moving a group quickly through long distances?” Yuriko asked hopefully.

“Not until you reach Luminous, my dear.” Sadeen chuckled. “That’ll require you to craft five Implements. Ah, maybe the Chariot spell since you can already fly on your own…”

They left it at that since Sadeen had to write the spell book.

That would apparently take several days or weeks since it wasn’t as if she was actually writing it on paper. Rather, it was etched into a slab of jade, written in runescript and filled with Sadeen’s Intent.

She was actually able to finish unlocking the Orb of Authority to the third layer before Sadeen was halfway done. And at that point, she marched up to the Colossi hanger and presented the Orb to Eli’Theria.

The animating spirit emerged out of the Colossus, solemnly accepted the Orb, then took it within herself. The animating spirit returned to the Colossus body, leaving Yuriko, and the rest of the group, staring mutely at it. She glanced at her Mum, who was by her side.

Sadeen shrugged, and whispered, “I haven’t really piloted Colossi much back home, much less the self-aware kind here.”

“Do we just wait?” Yuriko muttered.

There was an air of impatient tension amongst the people in the hangar. Hers were eager for things to happen, while Da’s were eager to know if they could finally return home. Although…it occurred to her that since the main reason they hadn’t left was because of the Whisperer, there was nothing really barring them from leaving. Well, they didn’t find out until she and the others went to the command centre anyway.

Oh, and they weren’t about to leave without the Vasi Colossus that should help them against the Chaos Duke.

A few minutes of waiting later, Eli’Theria finally stirred. The Colossus got up from her throne, revealing that her back had been connected to the backrest through a series of cables, chains, and tubes. With a loud hiss and several clanks, all of the restraints were released. And all of a sudden, Yuriko felt a connection to the Colossus through her Anima.

The…Eli’Theria wasn’t going to meld into her Anima right? Her Anima reach was more than enough to encompass the entire thing, but the metal construct was five paces tall, and the idea that it could fit inside her smaller body was ludicrous.

Instead, parts of the Colossus’ thigh plates retracted, revealing a plethora of golden armour plates controlled by the chords. They moved towards Yuriko while the opposite thigh armour opened up and revealed a similar outfit.

“Put the Control Armour on.” Eli’Theria’s voice came from the Colossus’ head, louder and more robust than Yuriko expected.

Yuriko’s perception examined the armour plates, finding runescript lines etched on the inside, as well as intuiting that even the structure of the metal formed more runescript lines. She found the control pattern and activated it, which moved the plates around her body. They were stopped by her condensed aura for a moment before she allowed the things to attach to her body. But then, they pulled back again, and she looked up at the Colossus in confusion.

Then she noticed her Mum removing her outer robes and figured that her traveller’s outfit got in the way. A screen of light gave them some privacy from the rest of the gawkers, notwithstanding the fact that Mum didn’t seem to care for her modesty.

Her overcoat went to her backpack, but that was the extent she was willing to strip. Underneath her shirt, she only wore a chemise and her brassiere, and under her pants were just her underwear and socks. The armour prodded at the bracelets around her wrists as well as the anklet and the pendant that consisted of her Animus Armour set.

“Ah.” Well, she supposed the thing would interfere with the connections. She removed those as well, and soon enough, she was encased in the control armour. She didn’t need a mirror to observe herself, using her Anima perception instead. The helm opened up to allow her hair to come out, but otherwise, it was completely sealed. The plates then shifted so that it was practically hugging every curve of her body.

Once the armour was on, she suddenly found that she could move it into her Anima whenever she wanted to, much like Fri’Avgi. It was bound to her, and she noticed that the Orb of Authority was embedded into the breastplate.

Eli’Theria knelt down, with her knuckle pressed on the ground. A hatch on the upper back opened, and the Colossus froze. Yuriko felt her Mum place her hand on the shoulder plate, and oddly enough, she actually felt through the armour as though it were skin or at most, a light cloth.

Wordlessly, both of them flew up the Colossus’ back and Yuriko went down the hatch, followed quickly by Sadeen.