Marron was sweating profusely despite the cool air inside the Watchtower. The conference chamber was filled with men and women so far above him in rank that should they sneeze, he was expected to present them with a kerchief, a cup of warm tea, and a woollen sweater.

Vice-Commander Theo Rani Stuart sat in the middle of the long table with the leadership of the Legion Vagaris on the opposite side. Vice-Comm had a stoic look on his face but Marron noticed the man tapping his foot at random intervals.

Tap, tap, tap.

He would freeze once he realised it then after a few minutes, Vice-Comm would do it again. Several Company Leaders and Squad Leaders were in attendance, many of them present only to take minutes or to verbalise written reports they’d already given several days past.

Tap, tap, tap.

“...from the analysis, most of the errant swarmlings have been neutralised. Three hundred eighty-five Jin of Chaos dust has been gathered,” a young woman in the Legion Vagaris’ red uniform reported.

“How much exactly?” Vice-Comm asked.

The woman looked at a report. “Three hundred eighty-five thousand five hundred twenty-one GiJin..”

“That barely covers the usage of Chaos shards,” Vice-Comm muttered.

Marron’s eyes crossed as he did arithmetic in his mind. ‘That’s one Chaos shard an hour used to power the drain lamps and about three to power the exclusion shields. The siege lasted about a week?’ Marron shook his head. Those were the figures for Faron’s Crossing’s usage and didn’t include the Watchtower’s. Firing one of the Plasma Carronades consumed ten GiJins of dust. Brewing a single dust tonic that allowed a militiaman to recover about half their Animus reserves in minutes instead of hours used up twelve GiJins of dust along with other valuable reagents.

Marron didn’t know how much the defence against the Wyldling Wave cost, not to mention the value in human lives lost. Still, if the Chaos dust collected was enough to cover the costs of defence and the blood price for those who died, then the shards collected from the Wanderers and Hunters was profit.

There were hundreds of the Wanderers in the first attack alone and the Watchtower faced dozens of such assaults. The value earned would be more than enough to pay for the town’s and the Watchtower’s operations for years.

Marron’s hand clenched and he gritted his teeth. Coins aside, his father was still out in the Tidelands and now that the Wave was officially over, he could finally arrange to look for him.

The meeting continued for an hour more with the succeeding talks seemed more like an emporium’s profit board meeting than a Legion’s command staff conference. When they were finally done, Marron filed out of the conference room with the other junior officers but he waited in the hallway. Niamh, a young woman of the same age as he was and a member of Marron’s team, lounged against a wall outside.

“Oh, finally done?” she asked cheerily.

“This time anyway.” Marron took a deep breath. “The Wave is officially over.”

Niamh tilted her head sideways. “Isn’t that a good thing?”

“Ah, yes. It’s time to head to the Tidelands.”

Niamh bounced off the wall and sidled up next to Marron. “You’ve made the request? Didn’t Vice-Comm reject it?”

“He did but that was during the Wave.” Marron shrugged. “Besides, I intend to ask the Legion for aid. Three of the members of that team retired from Vagaris after all.”

“Oh. I’ll come with you.”

Marron looked at her out of the corner of his eyes, “Come with me where? To see the legionnaires?”

“That and to the Tidelands.”

“Huh, but you aren't suited for the field.”

“Hmmp! Yes I am!” Niamh poked her finger into his side, pinched and started twisting.

“Ow, ow. Stop!” Marron threw her off. “Bad enough when Yuri does that to me,” he muttered.

“So, are you waiting for the Legate and the Tribunus?”

“Well, yes.”

“It might be for a while yet.”

The Vice-Comm and the Legion leadership were still in the conference room, along with some of the legion’s junior officers.

‘I wonder what they’re discussing?’ Marron thought.

He leaned against the wall beside Niamh and waited. He hadn’t had much time to himself for the past couple of weeks. The fighting had been continuous, breaking only when they killed the current batch besieging the tower too quickly while the next wave hadn't yet left the Tidelands.

He’d spent most of that time sleeping on the battlements to recover his Animus as naturally as it could. While the presence of Wyldlings and the subsequent Chaos they brought with them accelerated the recovery of everyone’s reserves, a little bit of the Wyld Chaos stained their cores. Excising that little bit was easy enough but if the stain were to build up then it would become harder and harder to get rid of it. Eventually, it would result in what was often called Chaos poisoning.

Tolerance to this poison depended on how strong a person’s Anima was. Unawakened children had almost no tolerance and any amount of Chaos poisoning would either kill them directly or worse, change them. Some changes were beneficial but that was a one in a million shot. Most changes resulted in death simply because their bodies couldn’t withstand the trauma or they lost the ability to breathe. A smaller percentage became monsters even worse than Wyldlings.

When his sister came back unconscious from the training camp, Marron took a good long look at her Anima. There were minor signs of previous Chaos poisoning that had since been cleared up but there were parts of her Anima that felt strange to Marron. Nobody who didn’t live in close proximity to Yuriko for the past years would have noticed the subtle changes.

He was sure Kato noticed something, too, but his younger brother didn’t mention anything. If only Virgil were around, or even their Mum. Despite any discomfort she brought, she would have known what the problem was and what to do about it.

When she woke up she no longer seemed strange to him; Marron took it as a good sign. Perhaps the changes in her Anima had more to do with her unknown Heritage than Chaos poisoning.

The door to the conference room opened and a junior legion officer came out, her eyes zeroed in on Marron almost immediately.

“Ah, you’re here, Leader Davar. Please come inside.”

Marron straightened up and snapped a salute, right fist over the heart. Niamh did the same and tried to follow Marron into the room, staring challengingly at the legionnaire. Marron, and to a lesser extent, Niamh, towered over the junior officer, a Decanus from the insignia on her shoulder. She was about Yuriko’s height but she looked up at his eyes as if they were of the same stature. Being a Decanus put them at the same rank, technically, but being of the legion meant she was half a step higher on the unofficial social ladder.

Still, the Decanus didn’t stop Niamh from entering the room. Marron snapped another salute to the Vice-Comm, Legate Segawa, and Tribunus Manuella. Marron felt a chill run down his back at their gazes. There was no hostility there, in fact, the Legate had a bored look on his face; rather, it was Marron feeling the weight brought about by the huge gap between his and the other two’s Anima strength.

“Leader Davar,” The Tribunus started, “a team will be sent out to search for traces of Imperial Inquisitor Gorlyn and the team she assembled. As you have expressed interest in forming such a team, we are giving you notice and the option to join.”

For a moment, Marron thought that he was dreaming, but a quick nudge from Niamh’s elbow jolted him out of his surprise. “Of--of course. Thank you for this. I will join the mission and if possible, my teammate will as well.”

Legate Segawa nodded. “Decanus Killane here will lead the team, her Heritage is suitable for this kind of work. I’ll leave it to the Decanus and you to arrange your logistics. You have the rest of the day to make your preparations. Enter the Tidelands by dawn tomorrow.”

“Yes, sir.”

“That was easier than I expected,” Niamh said once they left the conference room.

“I know, and that somewhat worries me,” Marron grunted. “Anyway, I’ll head home to Faron’s Crossing today and come back at around midnight. Can I rely on you to make the preparations?”

“Leave it to me, hehe,” Niamh grinned and skipped down the hallway. Marron rubbed his chin while deep in thought. He shook his head once he realised that he had been standing in the hallway for the past few minutes. He headed straight to the flying shuttle docks, intending to be home by the next hour. He had a lot of things to prepare.

-----

“I wonder what this is about?” Yuriko muttered while holding on to the messenger crane.

“What, what?” Krystal danced around Yuriko, trying to get a glimpse of the message. With a sigh, she handed the paper over to her friend. The others huddled around Krystal and the paper.

“Communications department,” Heron hummed. “That could only mean a letter from Rumiga City or maybe from beyond.”

“Are you expecting a letter from your mum?” Krystal pointed out quickly.

Yuriko shrugged. “I think Da sent a letter just after Ritual day.”

“Well, let’s go to the hall then,” Krystal said impatiently.

“Wait, wait. I don’t want to bring Fri’Avgi there. Let’s drop by home first.”

“Oh, uhm, do you mind us going with you?” Braden asked.

“You should go back to Homestead Inn to rest instead,” Heron said bluntly. “You’re not even at half your strength and you’ll only get in the way.”

“Wha-what?” Braden spluttered.

“He’s kind of right.” Orrin sighed. “Well, let us know?” he asked Yuriko.

“Oh, sure,” Yuriko blinked. “Though I’m not sure why you’d want to know about this.”

“We’re just concerned,” Orrin smiled.

“Ah, sure.”

“Perhaps we can chat over tea this afternoon?” Braden smiled.

“Hmm, I don’t know.”

“I’ll send a messenger crane,” Krystal grinned. “You can treat us to parfaits in the Sweet Shoppe.”

“Glutton.” Yuriko poked Krystal.

“Huh, who was the one eating more than all of us in the forest, hrm?”

Yuriko rolled her eyes.

“Well, see you boys later, or tomorrow,” Krystal smirked.

“I’ll go with you to the hall,” Mikel said.

“Training tomorrow?” Heron asked hopefully.

“No.” Krystal said flatly, “I’m not going to torture myself following Yuri’s pace.”

“I want to…” Braden started to say before Heron cut him off.

“Only if you want to cripple yourself.”

Yuriko sighed. “You’re all welcome to join me in my morning run but don’t expect me to wait for you.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow at dawn then.” Heron waved goodbye and left. The twins followed suit, catching one of the Circuit Trams that would drop them off at the Foreign District.

Yuriko and the other two took a different Circuit Tram that dropped them off West Avenue. A five-minute walk later and they were at Yuriko’s house. She went in, dropped off Fri'Avgi in her room and came back out. The trio walked to town square easily and made their way to the Town Hall.

It was a rather unassuming building, especially compared to the rather ostentatious Temple. The hall was a rectangular building, a couple of storeys tall with open windows and green curtains. The main entrance was wide open.

Crossing the threshold, Yuriko felt a blast of cold wind from the runescript that glowed with a pale blue light around the door frames. The antechamber had a scattering of people, lined up before a central concierge. Yuriko lined up while Krystal and Mikel waited at the side.

“The communications department, please.” She said when she came up front. The young man there nodded and handed her a tag.

“Take the left hallway there and a right on the second intersection. You can’t miss it.”

“Thank you.”

When she arrived there with Krystal and Mikel, she was ushered into a small chamber with a small circular table while the other two were told to wait outside. A minute later, an attendant carrying a box arrived and placed what he was carrying onto the table. The box was made out of black wood with silver runescript etched along the borders.

The attendant bowed to Yuriko. “This is a letter addressed to you. It arrived with a messenger from Rumiga City just this morning, along with letters addressed to your father, and to the town council. Please press your palm on the pattern and channel a bit of your Animus.”

Frowning, Yuriko extended her right hand over the cover. The pattern the attendant indicated was a circle made of runescript. She pulled on her core, the dancing flames that was in the middle of her Anima, and channelled her golden coloured Animus through her palm. The runescript lit up with a pale green colour which then spread to the silver runescript at the borders. They glowed for a moment, before disappearing. The box then opened and folded into itself, revealing a reddish crystalline sheet the size of an unfolded messenger crane.

Yuriko touched the sheet and words started appearing on it.

“After Founding 2997

14th Day of Fire

Yuriko Mishala Davar

Faron’s Crossing

Imperial Frontier, Rumiga

My dearest daughter,

I am gladdened that you have awakened to your Heritage, though it may not be your father’s; it is definitely of the Mishala Lineage. Virgil may not have informed you of what must happen should such come to pass.

The Mishala Clan is stringent in its rules. I dearly wish to be with you and my sons, but duty shackles me here. When I received Virgil’s letter, I knew then that you had inherited this duty as well. You’ve spoken to me about your desires and dreams and I must tell you now, in no uncertain terms, that you must put aside your childish dreams along with your childhood.

I have written to the town council, and also to the governors of the Imperial Academies. I’ve arranged a proper course for your studies and once you have taken them, I will arrange for you to come to Realmheart, and from there, develop your full potential as a daughter of Mishala.

I wish dearly to lay my eyes on you, and know that I have always loved you despite my continued absence.

Your everloving mother,

Sadeen Kierra Mishala”

The crystalline sheet fell from Yuriko’s numbed hands, bouncing off the table with a loud clink.

“Burning Moon and Fallen Sun…”