It was late afternoon by the time Riyxia finally returned to her home with the hunters. Just moments before her arrival, Sryine had just arrived too, so none of them had found any opportunity to discuss what each other had been doing.

“Finally, you two make it back here. That was downright cruel, you know. Both of you know this research and development thing way more than I do, yet both of you left all this for me to take care of.” “Sorry, it was kinda unexpected, I just…” “Yes, I heard you went on a lunch date with Jwyexzn. Hopefully things went well for you in the city with your arm like that.” Vwyx was being partly sarcastic with Sryine due to her mood. Vwyx fully expected a snide remark in return, some kind of turn around to her calling it a lunch date, but Sryine only blushed silently in response. “Wait, you went into the city, Sryine? I’m not sure…” “You… I have absolutely no idea where you went. I don’t even think you’re in any position to complain about what Sryine was doing when you didn’t even leave word about what you would be doing. You’re supposed to be in charge here, right? That means if someone needs you, they need to know where you are. Leaving no clues to what you’re doing was actually irresponsible. If anything, the three of us are seriously in a tight spot, I’ve even heard you’ve talked about how serious things are with Ayzherie, so not letting any of us know was really inconsiderate.” Riyxia suddenly went quiet too, uncertain of any decent reply for Vwyx. Vwyx wasn’t even typically this expressive, but circumstances had increased tension for her. She picked up the second black crystal sitting beside the shield, again a totally random occurrence to spite her frustration as she rushed faster than she paid attention. She might have been lashing out at the others, but she was mostly upset at just herself and her inability to figure this out.

“Oh wow, that’s very pure. Have you been working on instruments, or does that have to do with the whole star flight project?” “Neither, actually, though I guess this would be really good for either. I never actually thought about the value for the whole star flight thing, but bringing that up, I do recall that our biggest problem right now was in gift insufficiency. Hells, that just makes things worse…” “What’s wrong?” Sryine pressed Vwyx for information as to the research involving the shield and its relation to crystals. Eqriuxzl was present to add additional details in the process, leaving Sryine and Riyxia aware how upset Vwyx would be at not knowing what material was involved in this key step. Riyxia considered the whole concept, fire having a reaction to something that caused a reaction. Every stone Vwyx tried failed, but stone as an element typically cared very little about elemental flame. Dark didn’t like it, as flame was very supportive of light, but a flame without light was nothing for darkness. Sky was much like Light, the two could blend well enough, were practically friends, but being without form wouldn’t allow it to leave a form. Ice and Water she had already gone over, both would fight to the end against flame. Wood.. actually hates fire about as much as fire hates water, for much of the same reasons.

Riyxia jumped at that realization, and motioned that she would be right back. She went looking for something appropriate, finding a table nearby. A table was typically wooden, though some were metallic or other stone element constructs. However, most tables were made from cheap wood, she had learned that from Vwyx. Something about being powdered wood melded with an aquatic sap and some other random stuff that gave it a balance and form with much less material. She remembered the table the shield had originally incinerated, leaving behind nothing but dust that quickly scattered in the wind, not even burning like firewood. Ah, but there was supposed to be firewood not far from the second bedroom she had occasionally slept in. She went into that room and found some pure chips of wood. Taking a handful of the pieces, she returned back to the others. Finding a spot suitable enough to call a firepit, she scattered the wooden shards around. It was time for another test. She took out the two vials again, dripping the regular blood on one of the pieces, staining it slightly but doing nothing more. The dead wood almost seemed to like the offering of moisture, being so dry at this point. She then tried the other vial, which sparked instantly on contact and singed the wood to a carbon black in a small area. That made sense too, that’s what burned wood became. She picked up one of the other chips and brought it over to Vwyx, for another shield test. The two girls got to witness the entire process this time, and the engulfed wood instantly turned into a dense black shard, shining in what remained of the day’s sun.

Vwyx was transfixed, wood.. that made too much sense. She was originally a wood crafter, of course she would subconsciously keep defaulting back to wood. Wood itself was alive too, right, so of course it could help process the gift much like any blood, and mixing the two was at an even greater advantage. But that implied that blood and fire was also receptive to… Wait, she knew that for a fact, her own blood was infused with fire and thus her gift was magnified. Riyxia was also considering the implications. Blood was itself of water affinity, at least normally. The wood meanwhile was its counter, opposite of water. When the flame is left to blaze upon wood, its wood element is destroyed, reversing it to provide more of an edge for water. However, the fire leaves no room for water either, leaving nothing but a void, a space hungry for any element. It is then the careful construction of a void that presents the strongest conditions to augment the gift, and there is nothing better at creating a void than the astral flame itself, the great destroyer.

Sryine was also considering these implications, but doing so much more practically. Unlike the others, she had been spending her time exploring her feelings rather than her nature. More so, she had been putting effort into clouding her nature, so that she could relax in peace. It had required some pretty impressive illusions, considering that she was already very famous in the city even before any complications with her arm. Finally walking around without such illusions, her attention returned to her arm, still glowing with the flame. She sighed for a moment, realizing her idea was trending way too close to Vwyx’s darker trends. She really didn’t like pain at all, but once again she found a blade to slice open her arm a little, going to the shards of wood Riyxia had brought, and dropped a couple of her own drops of blood onto one of the pieces. A purple flame roared to life over the wood, leaving behind a very black crystal once the flame ended. The flame was actually enough to roast some of the other pieces nearby too in the process, leaving them in a very similar state. Of course, her flame wasn’t so easy to control, she knew that already. However, she picked up the piece that had been exposed to the direct might of her flame and brought it back to the others. Everyone had been staring at her in shock after the sudden purple blaze, no longer distracted by their own thoughts. Sryine brought the black crystal to the others for inspection, waiting for their own review.

Vwyx beat the others at picking up the little crystal, checking it for its purity. She had never in her life seen or even heard of anything this pure. Even the other three creations on the table paled in comparison to this. This was a flame that was imbued by Celese’s flame, the only way they could possibly beat it would be to maybe imbue it with a pure flame from the source itself. As things stood, their own traces came from the source, they were part of the way to such a marvel.. but their flame had weakened having lost access to the source. Celese’s flame was the only flame that remained to them, and it could do something this wondrous. Riyxia was following much of the same ideas, with one notable exception. She was considering everything from Khyzae’s perspective.. or specifically how it would appeal to Liyuzhe’s goals. The purity of the void was exactly what Liyuzhe was looking for, and she already had access to any Celesi flame she might need to make such a thing happen. However, that wasn’t all, Liyuzhe also had all of the equipment Khyzae had used to open a gate to the source, the purest of all flames. The source was not beyond her reach, she could thus use it to create the most perfect of antimatter crystals. That temptation would be consuming for her, she would crave it. Such a temptation would really truly consume her too, it would destroy her completely.. along with a lot else if things went really poorly. This really truly was a repeat of the same mistake that had originally taken Khyzae’s life, just now for a different goal and with Liyuzhe at the helm. It was far too obvious that even Khyzae’s worst had rubbed off on her friends.

“If we consider the potential of the flame in everything.. we might actually have what we need to make this star flight thing work. It works because we can bring the flame with us, because we are of the flame. The fragment.. that’s going to be important in the process as well. Oh wow, everything's coming together so perfectly it’s…” “It’s not just us. This brings Liyuzhe too close to seeing the fruit of her plans as well. The whole star thing is going to have to wait, Liyuzhe has to come first. If she wants to make these void crystals, she needs the flame and she needs a lot of wood. There is one place I know that perfectly offers both of those at once, so I’m certain she’s currently not far from the village, probably somewhere she can work in peace while having the largest quantity of both.” “That would be probably somewhere near Schorlwood lake, depending on exactly where the flame is venting from.” “Wait, Schorlwood has a lake? By the divine, that’s perfect!” Sryine listened to the elemental conjecture that Riyxia had come up with previously, how they could make use of water to mitigate some of the threat of the flame. The whole insight into elements really was something none of them had originally considered.. and somehow hearing such a lesson felt so much like their original lesson from Khyzae that lifetime ago. Somehow, Riyxia had started really seeming a lot like Khyzae, and accepting that the second half of her was just bringing to yield the full capacity of this strength.

Perplexing about water made Sryine suddenly curious, calling forth water really was something she hadn’t put much consideration into. Sure, she had drenched herself in the stuff while she was burning, an idea even Riyxia had forgotten to account for, but she hadn’t really handled pure elemental water for anything substantial before, and she had really been careful to keep water usage down to an absolute minimum even then.. Rain, that was about the closest she had gotten, and even that was more just a background residue of water rather than pure elemental force, especially while their flame had remained so quiet back then. Creating a hydrosphere, now that would be a massive concentration of water elemental, especially if it was really big. She walked over to the bridge, almost in a trance, shaking subtly. Wait, was she afraid? Why was she so instinctually terrified? Of course, it was like Riyxia was saying, they were by nature of an affinity to fire, commanding raw elemental water was simply standing before death.. like most people feel when facing a fire.. like she used to feel about facing a fire. When she used to be more of water, her wood-like nature made the flame an invitation to be consumed. Now, with her flame-like nature, it was water that represented the same thing for her. Sure, it was irrational, her skin still protected her from such water.. but if she let herself become overpowered by such water, it would consume her, snuff out her life completely.

Even this feeling of fear was novel, Syrine could remember always being out in the woods, often visiting the lake even, carrying books to read. Among trees, carrying paper, flame was a much bigger concern, there she felt nothing but peace. She had been fighting at the coast, facing the ocean even.. but never left to calmly contemplate it, every visit to the ocean had been filled with other fears and worries, not once leaving her relaxed. She got the impression at the moment.. she might find an ocean view to be much less relaxing than she would have expected, and even a visit back to the lake would be nowhere near as serene for her. Staring at the river below though was still.. mesmerizing. Of course, people normally like the soft warmth of a campfire, a small fire that they handle carefully, taking the greatest care as to not get burned. It.. felt so similar to the same idea. Well, it wasn’t to say that she couldn’t get burned, she just then recalled suffering burns when she awoke the first time to her augmentation, and there was the addition of some burns Riyxia had somehow obtained earlier.. but that was just like how normal people could still drown, right?

Her curiosity and wonder spiked, she knew she had to test her resolve, to experiment with some water. This place was safe for such a thing, right, she would only be dropping water into the river. She created a small sphere floating in the air, a bubble of water about a Uyn long. Yup, it was nothing to her. She added more to the same bubble, shaping it so that it was three times her own height. Now that was actually fearsome, she stumbled backwards, but still held control of the sphere, even feeling her desperation to stay in control of it. The flame generally hated control, it was usually herself who had to demand control, but here control was expected of her. She increased the bubble so that it was as long as the bridge, and she could feel herself trembling. It was comical, she had even swam in the lake before, this water was nothing, especially because she had created it with her own gift. However, even if she honestly thought this should be funny, she wasn’t at all laughing. She then drove herself further, resorting to illusions instead. In this case, she tore open a gap in the air before her, revealing what would be perceived as a passage to a source.. if that source was actually something more like astral water, with the pressure on the other side rampantly pressing its barriers, eager to rush forth and consume all existence in a torrent of water. She screamed, her fear spiked far greater than she had ever experienced before, and fainted in shock. The illusion rapidly vanished, while the conjured water dropped into the river below harmlessly to join its journey.

Riyxia and Vwyx had been watching the proceedings quietly, only to suddenly get alarmed at the sudden illusion and its result. Riyxia rushed over to Sryine, making sure she was alright and uninjured. Other than having terrified herself completely and a small bump by suddenly collapsing on the stone, she was fine. The injury was easy enough to heal, but Sryine wasn’t yet ready to wake up. Vwyx however wasn’t in the mood for such foolishness. Taking from Sryine’s own example, Vwyx formed a small stone bowl and encouraged the ground itself to fill it from the river below. The bowl returned to her, she splashed the contents over Sryine, who jumped awake with a start and a glare. Vwyx returned the glare while also returning the bowl to the ground as Riyxia simply sighed, still recalling herself how it felt to be woken up in that way. Sryine being crazy, Vwyx not exactly caring.. that’s technically in both of their natures in the worst situations. Riyxia wasn’t exactly perfect herself either, but she had really hoped to return to find both of her friends a lot more relaxed than.. this. Quite clearly, she would have to think of something to deal with this next, so that they would be ready for what was to come.

“So what in the hells were you doing? I might be mistaken, but it honestly felt like you were actually trying to terrify yourself instead of actually practicing with water.” “Uh, maybe? Sorry, it still feels.. strange, being scared of water. I feel like I shouldn’t be scared, like it doesn’t make sense to be scared, like it’s only the flame that is scared. I know, I am the flame, and that’s why it’s scary too.. but it was my fear that had originally robbed me of my control, a fear of the flame.. and now I find out about this other fear of water.. and it just feels.. empowering.. like I have something that fear itself is afraid of. The control I felt with that fear.. it was amazing, the flame was so terrified that I would lose control that it immersed me in a feeling of absolute control. I’ve never had such an immersion of my augmentation, never had felt such a serious degree of clarity, it was surreal.” Vwyx started to calm down a bit hearing this perspective from Sryine. All three of them could very well understand how this almost dream-like quality of control over their augmentation really sounded like something that could quickly get addictive, considering how much their augmentation fought to deprive them of their full control. Riyxia could see Vwyx starting to contemplate the subject.. she herself had passing thoughts about what could achieve such results with optimum efficiency. However, the simple temptation was also raising some notable alarms for Riyxia at the same time.

“I can understand why you might have been compelled to do such a thing, but you have to keep in mind that all parts of this are still part of who you are. Fighting to wrest control over yourself is only another way to basically lose control over yourself from another angle. In that way, think of what you had just basically done to yourself by throwing yourself into such a deep nightmare where you had to give up so completely that you fainted. It might seem impressive, but it really isn’t fair to that side of yourself to be so cruel to it, much like how that side throwing you into nightmares of your own isn’t fair either. It’s important to keep yourself in balance, to respect all aspects of yourself and work as a whole person. It’s for that same reason that I’ve decided that I can’t keep fighting against the idea that Khyzae is actually a part of who I am either. I can’t favour any particular parts of myself, I have to accept myself as a whole…” Riyxia trailed off, going over the same thought again in her head. She would really have to accept this idea, and the first step in that process was to probably admit it before her friends. Sryine and Vwyx both caught on to how rough that acceptance would have been for someone as divided as Riyxia, leaving them a bit uncertain in how to reply. Sryine however could also see the entire point too, she knew how rough it was to deal with fears, invoking such fears then wasn’t exactly fair either. Certainly, she could be very willing to compromise, to help with adjusting to any watery fears, as long as she was treated with equal respect in turn.

“Actually, all this talk of teamwork and balance reminds me.. this stupid shield. This is a huge problem that we’re really having a problem working around, and we need to figure out a way to make this easier to deal with. We all know, someone has to deal with this thing, if there is no one around to drink from its flame, its flame just spreads wildly. This is actually exactly why I was hoping someone would have been around here in the first place to work things out with me. I put some careful thought into it, and one of the first things that could fix a lot of problems would be to not make it a shield anymore. No one here does the shield thing, it’s balance is stupid. If we’re not going to make it a shield, then what sort of shape should contain it? I was really working hard on that idea, but coming up with nothing.. then suddenly all the distractions with crystals and things spiralling from there. It’s getting late in the day, sleeping with a shield is going to make arrangements to be hells, and I would really like to have this problem solved now instead of later.” Vwyx placed the shield again before them, still attached to her own arm. It really was a problem, especially considering the size of the fragment.. even the shape of it. The shield was actually really good at dealing with both problems.. but retained the problem of being difficult for all of them to work with. Riyxia actually had the worst of it, both because her fighting style involved empty hands as well as the fact she was the smallest of them all. Almost any solution would set her partly off balance in some way. Hands, arms, even legs, nothing would work. Sryine even took a moment to consider some really fancy arm guards, but that was a perfect example of ruining Riyxia’s balance. Riyxia knew the most balanced location would be as a necklace.. but the fragment was far too big for an idea like that. Eqriuxzl silently interrupted, having been present yet ignored through most of the entire process, setting his backpack of instruments down abruptly against the stone with a sudden noise.

“Maybe I’m the weird one here, but with all of the running around I keep doing and all of the supplies I keep packing, I really have found nothing has worked better than a backpack. I mean, if you want balance and you have to worry about size, there really isn’t anything better. I guess that might still make for some pretty ugly sleeping challenges, but there has been more than one occasion where I’ve had to sleep in a sitting position because of long nights, and a soft backpack can make such situations rather comfortable. Better than a solid rock, at the very least. Sure, there is also some challenge in making things soft, durable, and flame resistant, but couldn’t that just be solved with the right kind of sheet-metal? Something flexible, shock absorbant even, but with a lot of durability. Such a metal wouldn’t actually burn, but it can also transfer fire very easily, which might be useful if you actually need to feed from it while it’s on your back. That might not prevent it from unleashing its flame from neglect, but even the shield seems perfectly capable of that feat, I don’t think you’re going to be able to avoid that unless you put it in a giant stone vault or something, much like the sort of place you had found it originally.” Eqriuxzl shrugged, having spent his entire idea. Vwyx went slack-jawed, having been working with the guy for a while now, and not once getting such a simple answer from him.

She set to work right away making the idea a reality, and quickly created a backpack that formed all of the expressed traits, with an interior that was mostly made of additional soft protective padding. The entire pack wasn’t actually anything close in size to the bag Eqriuxzl had either, it was much smaller.. being only a Uyn deep total.. and almost seeming like a back-strapped pillow in design.. This had the effect of leaving the entire thing also looking somehow rather cute, a goal that wouldn’t have been understood by someone such as Eqriuxzl. Something comfortable to sleep on, Vwyx took special care to make sure to include that in her considerations. For colors though, she still kept the entire design black, as she suspected any design she tried to give it otherwise would probably fade quickly in the presence of the flame. Trying the entire thing on, she discovered it to be rather comfortable.. but a little cold. In consideration, that most likely would be a problem she could easily ignore, there was plenty of flame involved to heat things up.. and the cold had never bothered her anyway.

“So, with everything in order, who thinks we should find a good place to treat ourselves to a good dinner. We’ve had plenty of good successes, I would think we’re worth it.” “Oh, uh, but I’m not really very hungry. It was only just recently that I had some lunch.” “Right, you haven’t shared any stories about that yet. Was it some new business project you’re planning to put together.” “Uh, well, actually yes. Let’s just go with that. Hmm, you might say it’s a bit of a surprise, so I would rather wait on any details until the time is right.. if that’s fine with everyone. I mean, we’re probably going to be heading off to the village right away, shouldn’t allow such side distractions to get in our way or anything, right?” “Right away? Well, wouldn’t it be a couple days.. time for your arm to recover.. a bit of rest and recovery for everyone. We still need to also…” “I really don’t think there is any reason to wait, tonight would be better. Sure, I guess we should put food first, but with everyone this uncomfortable around us, we’re better off spending the night in the wild than around here.” “Sryine, the village is a long way away, we still need to figure out the best way to get there. It’s not like Fhyernx is just going to give us a lift again, right?” “A car ride would take a day, but my acceleration could get us there in an instant. We’re probably on our own for this anyway, involving anyone else is just going to make things even more complicated at the village, so our choices are acceleration or walking. Sure, for me, they both feel one and the same, but saving time really works in our best interest. Delaying for my arm probably isn’t important either, it only takes a simple illusion and no one would be any wiser to how it actually looks. It worked well in the city at least.” Riyxia paused, realizing that Sryine had far too much a point. She was still really worried about how everyone was feeling, how everyone was doing, but Sryine’s idea was far more efficient than her own concerns. A glance at Vwyx showed that Riyxia was even outnumbered here.. and even the simple fact that she was seeing the efficiency was climbing the odds even worse, with her Khyzae side in full agreement.

“Fine then, how about this. We will still need to worry about dinner first, some of us are much hungrier than Sryine right now. We’ll find a simple place to enjoy a quick dinner while Sryine goes to pick up some extra supplies. Sryine, you will also need to take that opportunity to research how to get from here to the village, probably from your cell. We should then find a good place to stop on route to the village, a place where we could sleep for the night. We really can’t expect to find a bed in the village, even from families, that’s going to just complicate everything. By morning, we will enjoy a hearty breakfast to start off what is going to become a really busy day.. that’s one reason why we will need some supplies. After eating, we will progress the remainder of the distance back to the village and then arrive early in the morning. The second reason we need supplies is that we’re going to find people expecting us to bring things back for them, wasn’t that related to why both of you had said you would be leaving the village in the first place. If we return empty handed, that will cause too many side problems that would distract us from what we would really need to get done. As is, I expect all of us would need to spend time at least confronting the family we had left behind, and I really expect that’s going to take a while. This will however be complicated, because I’m not sure how easy it will be to visit my own family. Their mansion is probably being watched by Liyuzhe.. the observatory almost certainly is. We will need to meet up at a neutral location to share notes and determine how to proceed from there.” Riyxia was still worried about exactly what the best way to confront Liyuzhe was going to be. This confrontation was going to be a challenge, she was certain about that, so she wanted to make sure they were ready for it.

“I see where you’re going, and mostly you’ve got the right idea, but I would have thought you would have used some more specifics. Somehow, I get the feeling that even though you seem worried about us being tense.. you might actually be the most stressed one here, this isn’t like you. The mall is still open, we can hit the place and all pick up supplies together. Riyxia, you should focus on the food, as there is no concern about you returning empty handed. Once packed to go, we can trace back the same route we took here in the first place. If we stop first at that restaurant out of town, we can get a fairly decent meal while Sryine devotes the time into making sure she’s got the rest of the trip planned before we lose use of our cells. That clearing we stopped in otherwise, that would be a perfect place to sleep for the night. I mean, you were talking about the value of water earlier, and I seem to recall there was a small pond there beside a tiny hill. After a night of rest, we can have this breakfast you planned and then make our way into the village, though Riyxia will have to take the shield.. fragment bag thing.. whatever. It will be your turn at that point, and that will give me the freedom of not having to explain a strange backpack on top of everything else. We should also arrive probably exactly where Fhyernx used to park his vehicle, that’s a really remote part of the village not far from my own home.. or well my family’s home.. suddenly appearing there wouldn’t alarm anyone. That’s probably the neutral place you were considering earlier, anything else would be too deep into the village to properly hide. Riyxia should probably stay there too, Sryine could simply use her illusions to confront her family without drawing any extra attention from anyone else. When she’s done, she would meet up with us and we could then sneak into the mansion as a group, no other distractions to worry about. It’s probably the safest way too, mitigating as much of the risk Liyuzhe would present as possible.” Vwyx’s idea was actually perfect, filling out all of the finer details of the plan. Riyxia was worried Vwyx was also right about something else, being this slow really wasn’t like her. It proved the case that she really shouldn’t be so worried about her friends right now and instead focus on simply making sure she took care of herself. Neglecting herself would only serve to let everyone else down, after all. Most likely, while everyone slept, that would have to be the focus of her spectral hours overnight.

Having their plan prepared, the three of them set off to spread word of their departure to the other hunters. They would be gone a while this time, it would only be proper to ensure the hunters knew what was going on too.