Yuriko had a scant few days to inlay her Facet before the beginning of training camp and she intended to make the most of it. Like Mikel, the pattern she had to inlay to access her Facet was a big unknown and navigating the bewildering maze inside her head would take time.

The very first order of business was to split and control two strands of Animus at the same time, a feat that most Novices, those fresh from the Atavism Ritual, have trouble doing. For Yuriko, it was incredibly simple. She drew out a tongue of flame and split it into two equally sized flames. She was ambidextrous; consequently, the process translated easily.

She directed a strand to each of her hands, pulled them back, made them dance in a circuit around her source, one to her head while and the other went down to her left foot. She drew them back and had one perform a spiralling dance while the other bobbed up and down rhythmically. She pulled them back near her core.

“I hope this works.”

She chose two of the entry terminus points that were next to each other and slowly fed in her Animus into them. Previously, when she tried this one terminus at a time, the line accepted it for about a second before the pattern flushed her Animus out. This time, it did the same thing, except it didn’t even wait for a second.

“Well, at least that was different.” Yuriko buckled down and focused. The strands were spent as soon as the pattern rejected her touch so she drew out another two flames from her centre and fed them to another two different lines.

Same thing.

Furrowing her brows and gritting her teeth, she repeated the action but for a different pair. No change.

On her sixth and last attempt, there was no difference either, and she collapsed on her bed with a frustrated groan. She had nearly emptied her reserves and she only had less than a tenth in her tank. If she used it up, she was likely to pass out. Granted, it was almost time for her to sleep anyway.

She couldn’t let it go at that. She had to try. There were twelve terminus points and if she had to try every combination, it would take her sixty more attempts to do so. That would be at least ten days, five if she did nothing else with her Animus.

She rolled off her bed and headed to her bathroom to do her evening ablutions and changed into her sleep clothes; for the hot weather, a cami vest and shorts. She decided to make a final attempt for the night and, since she’d pass out afterwards, then she might as well be ready for bed.

Half an hour later, she cuddled a body pillow while she lay on her side. Trying to inlay two lines simultaneously and her failure meant that she either didn’t have the correct combination or she was doing the process wrong. Since she had failed six times in a row, she decided to try something else.

She began by splitting and controlling two strands of Animus. She chose a random terminus point and started to feed a strand into it. It seeped in but that wouldn’t last long. Before the pattern could reject her, she fed another strand into the terminus point next to the first.

Time seemed to stand still. She waited with bated breath for what would happen. A second passed and the strand in the first terminus progressed past where she had been stalled before while the second strand smoothly entered its line.

Another second later and she felt it. Resistance. It was as if the first line had hit a wall and no amount of force would breach it. The second line was blocked soon after. She wasn’t ejected from the pattern just yet but she could not progress.

‘What do I do?’ she thought desperately. One of the other terminus points seemed to beckon to her. “Another split?”

She struggled to keep the two strands already inside in place while she reached out to her source, pulling a little bit of the flame into another strand. Her mind felt thick and slow, the pressure was starting to build in the pattern and any moment now, she would be expelled and her Animus spent.

The third strand managed to reach the point that called out to her and when it entered the line, the wall blocking the first and second lines seemed to thin. But it was still there and another terminus point beckoned.

Trembling with the strain, she pulled at her source to create more strands. Except when she did, the earlier strands seemed slick and harder to hold in place. The flame in her core flickered and shrank until it looked like a banked fireplace instead of the bonfire she was used to. The pattern trembled and pulsed in time with her heart then her strands of Animus flickered and disappeared. Then her consciousness faded away.

She woke up when the sun shone through her windows, hitting her straight in the eye. Her head throbbed and her throat was parched.

“Hrrk.” She coughed. She pushed herself upright and wiped away the sweat beading on her forehead. Her clothes were damp, she realised, the fabric clinging to her skin uncomfortably. She basked in the sun for a long minute before she staggered to the bathroom and washed her face.

“I’m not doing that again,” she grumbled.

Toc-tok.

Something tapped on her window and when she looked, it was a paper crane knocking its beak on the glass. She let it in after a moment and it landed on her desk. Curious, she tapped its head to open, and she was greeted with a letter penned in a neat cursive.

“After Founding 2997

11th Day of Fire

Ms. Yuriko Mishala Davar

21 West Avenue, Central District

Faron’s Crossing

Dear Ms. Davar,

May we cordially invite you to attend a theatrical play, The Fall of Annise Delovine, by the Mighty Art Players of Haveena City, this coming 13th Day of Fire? We had seen this theatre troupe perform a year ago in Haveena and we greatly enjoyed their performance of Liryca’s Troubles.

There is an afternoon show as well as an evening performance. Please let us know which time you would prefer if you do grace us with your charming presence.

Our greatest regards,

Braden and Orrin Foster”

She read the letter twice over before it completely registered. She placed it back on her desk, not quite sure what to make of it.

‘I suppose watching that troupe would be a good break,’ she thought, remembering that Virgil told her about the theatre group coming this week. Well, the invitation is in a couple of days so she didn’t have to answer right now.

When she arrived downstairs, Rami and Kato were already at the table with a stack of pancakes between them.

“You’re late today, bis sis,” Rami said around a spoonful.

“You look happy,” Kato observed. “First time since the Ritual.”

Yuriko smiled and shrugged, “I figured out how to start the inlay. I drained my Animus last night.”

“That's wonderful.” Kato grinned as he got up and hugged her. “But you shouldn’t have emptied yourself,” he flicked her nose.

“Ow!” She looked up at him, eyes wide and pouting.

“Hmmph!” Kato snorted. “There could have been a storm, you know.”

“It’s almost the Dark Moon,” Yuriko muttered, “Chaos storms are unlikely to happen then. Besides, it's the Season of Fire!”

“There have been exceptions, you know.”

“Fine,” she sulked.

“Come and eat, I know you’re eager to continue with your day, but maybe you should take a rest today. You haven’t had a break since the start of Season.”

“I’m fine. I’ll take a break in a few days.”

“The training camp is an intensive four-week course, Yuri,” Kato pointed out, “you won’t really get any rest there.”

“Well, I’ll see the play on the 13th, and spend the 14th packing. I should have enough of a break then.”

“Ah, the Haveenian troupe? I think I’ll go see it too with...er... Anyway. What about you Rami, what’s your plan on the 13th?”

“Oh, I’ll go play with Finlay and Aronas, I suppose. I’ll go have dinner with them if neither of you will be here.”

“Thanks, Rami,” Yuriko said. The 13th was her turn to cook dinner.

“You’re breakfast and lunch the day after.”

“Fine,” Yuriko smiled.

She grabbed half a dozen pancakes, spread butter and honey over them, and ate quickly. Her headache had subsided by the time she finished breakfast. She was about to go upstairs to change when someone knocked on the main door. Since she was near anyway, she was the one to answer.

“Hi, Yuri--” Krystal swallowed her words when she saw Yuriko who abruptly realized she was still in her sleep clothes.

Mikel was there as well, and both were dressed in their exercise outfits, loose pants, trainers, and tees.

“Slept in?” Krystal asked, then she leaned forward and hissed, “you look positively indecent!”

Mikel had averted his eyes and there was a flush on his cheeks.

“Rough night,” Yuriko shrugged. “Come in, both of you, I’ll just change my clothes.” She left the door and ran up the stairs.

She changed to her casual workout gear: a white tee and stretchy pants. Underneath, she wore a thin camisole. She intended to continue her workout routine though she’d skip the morning run. She’d just do callisthenics for warm-up instead.

The other two were already in the backyard when she went down. Mikel was attempting a pull-up on the bars but he wasn’t quite ready for it. He was grunting and swearing, barely able to get halfway up.

“You can do it! Go!” Krystal shouted from behind.

“Hey, Krys, Miki,” Yuriko said when she came close. “What did I miss?”

Krystal smirked. “You left a trio of boys disappointed when you didn’t run this morning.”

“Oh, who?”

“I’m sure you know. So anyway, what did you do last night?”

“I’ve made some progress.” She could barely hold back a squeal.

“Oh. OH!” Krystal exclaimed. “How?”

“Well, that’s the thing.” Yuriko sighed. She started stretching. “I figured out why it wasn’t working earlier, but the solution isn’t easy either.”

“Well, progress is progress.”

“Mikel, you don’t have the back muscles to do that right,” Yuriko said after she finished warming up. He had dropped to his knees and gasped for air. “Here, I’ll show you some progression exercises. You do this too, Krys.”

“Fine, fine. Though tell me what you discovered.”

“It’s simple enough,” Yuriko said, “It was just a matter of changing how I think.”

The rest of the morning was spent in sweat and tears, mostly from Mikel and Krystal. In the afternoon, they attended the training class. Training the Field technique was mostly a matter of getting it up and out as quickly as possible but once she got the basics right, it only needed practice.

Sparring was strange, she felt. Heron didn’t ask to partner with her. Instead, he and one of the twins faced off with training spears. As the match progressed, Heron kept being pushed or pulled off balance by something she couldn’t see or feel, though his opponent’s eyes glowed with Animus whenever it happened. Despite that, his usage of his Facet was such that even if he fell on his back, his opponent couldn’t get past his hexagonal solid air shield. Heron’s thrusts were being deflected when it came close to striking the other boy though.

It wasn’t until the end of the day, when Yuriko was meditating and working on her Facet’s inlay, that she felt a sudden disquiet. It only lasted for an instant and what was worse was that it struck her just as she was attempting to inject the fourth strand of her Animus into the pattern. It ejected her Animus when she faltered and the strands were lost.

The feeling lasted only for an instant, and she was left wondering what that was about. After a minute where nothing happened, she resumed her meditations until she ran low enough on Animus to go to sleep.