“Your accuracy and precision with the forms have reached an acceptable state.” Swordmaster Demina Kinohara said as Yuriko performed the fifty-two forms across the Phases, in order from first to thirteenth, Flowing Water, Jade Mountain, Roaring Volcano, and Sweeping Gale.

The two of them were in the Mishala clan’s city estate, in a training room that had tall windows, and a wall that was covered in floor to ceiling mirrors.

“Thank you,” Yuriko said quietly.

It had been three days since the Colossus Core training and she had done her best to refocus on her basic training. Losing herself in the sword forms was her new favourite method of training now, especially since the Golden Silhouette of her Facet had finally performed it.

To her surprise, the silhouette didn't change anything. Sure, there were minute adjustments compared to the forms performed by the swordmaster, but they were only made to accommodate the differences in Yuriko’s physique. The rhythm of the movement, the angle of the blade at a specific beat, and the positioning of her body, were all the same.

The first time the forms were performed in front of her, Yuriko thought that they looked a bit odd and forced. It was a significant diversion from how she used the sword now. If not for the swordmaster’s insistence on following the exact movements, she would not have bothered. But now…well, if the Golden Silhouette didn’t change anything, then there must be more to this than the surface.

“You’re close to mastering it, but you might get stuck on this for a long time,” Kinohara mused.

Yuriko continued with her practice, this time mixing the flow of the stances and forms between phases. Unfortunately, she botched the transition between the fifth forms of Flowing Water and Roaring Volcano. She grunted as she returned to a neutral stance while Kinohara chuckled.

“Well, I was planning to have you assist in some Martial Science classes. Teaching the first-year students or sparring with them.”

“Eh? You want me to teach?” Yuriko rounded on Armsmaster Kinohara in surprise.

“Assist teaching,” the shorter woman replied with a grin. “Maybe seeing how others train and practice will help you, too.”

Yuriko shrugged. “I don’t know…my schedule is pretty packed.”

“We can move our one on one training to Agaza,” Kinohara offered. “You can spar with the other masters afterwards.” She chuckled.“Fighting the same person over and over will just lead to getting used to each other’s habits.”

“Oh, alright,” Yuriko murmured as she began her forms again.

“Great! See you tomorrow then. The first hour after lunch in Acadia Arena, the first-floor training room.”

“Alright.”

________

In Sharom’s Song Building, where Yuriko took her Runescribing and Spellweaving class, Master Ruminos made an announcement.

“Good news kids,” he started with a loud guffaw. “Come Firstday, we’ll be allowed to enter Ysserys Workshop to view how Colossi and Chaos Ships are made. We’ll see the Empire’s Animatech in action! Colossi, Chaos Ships, and of course, the mighty legions, are how we gain and retain control over a hundred planes. We of Sharom are an integral part in the creation of two of these things and this excursion will give you valuable experience in controlling more than your own Animus…”

Yuriko looked up from the practice woodplate where she had been etching a complex set of runescript lines. The lines created a seeker effect, which tracked the object or person that she provided the imprint of. She was tired of getting lost and, hopefully, this set of lines would remedy that problem.

If she could get it to work, anyway.

While Master Ruminos nattered on, the lines fizzled and burned the wood as the ambient Chaos failed to convert to denatured Animus. With a sigh, she cross-referenced from the Apprentice Runescribe’s Guide.

While reading for too long, ten minutes at most, she would often get headaches, but when the text was runescript lines, she didn’t seem to have the same issue. She could look, and read, the lines for hours and nothing would happen. It was strange because when she first studied runescribing, she would still get headaches. But now that she knew what the lines meant, and she didn’t spend so much time translating it to Verdanian, she no longer suffered.

It was when she stopped translating that it happened, she realised. Well, direct translations weren’t accurate anyway, as sometimes, the meaning of the lines changed depending on the preceding or succeeding lines. Actually, that’s what happens most of the time. Compare that to Verdanian words which had a direct meaning no matter the placement and what words came with it.

Ah, and of course, runescript was three dimensional, sometimes even four, compared to two. The depth of the etching mattered, and that had been a lesson that took a while to sink in.

As for Spellweaving, well, she was still far from accomplishing it without runescript support. It was easy enough to anchor Intent into runescript lines, but without the guideline, the Spellweaving failed after she stopped concentrating on it.

Once Master Ruminos completed his announcement and subsequent storytelling, he went around each of the students to check on their work. Yuriko had been included in the normal class for the remainder of the semester rather than the Elite.

“What have we here?” Master Ruminos asked when he arrived at Yuriko’s side. “Hunter seeker?”

“Yes, sir.” Yuriko sighed. “I can’t get the third line right.”

“Hmmm.” He leaned over for a closer look. “This line and that one, they need to be a hair deeper and thicker. You need a bit more space between the Radiant directional and the fifth line. It edged your third line a fraction to the right, and here…” He pointed out a dozen minor adjustments she could make. Each of the errors wasn’t enough to make the pattern fail, but a cascade of errors was another beast entirely. “It’s probably easier to start over than rewrite this but sometimes you won’t have that luxury.”

Recalling the work she did on the hull of the Ebon Horizon, Yuriko nodded in agreement. Still, the class didn’t have enough time left to finish her work. She corrected as much as she could until the end of class, then packed up her things and headed out for lunch.

She brought a packed lunch today, which consisted of half a dozen assorted sandwiches, and a canister of lavan berry juice. She headed to the picnic tables in the Central Reserve and found Finan Conail Agalmar, a boy her age though studying in Aneurin instead of Sharom, already there with a Shatran Board. His two friends, Draknon Filus Garderon and Aerda Noel Leon, were there too.

“Miss Mishala!” Finan waved happily as she approached. “Ready for our game?”

Yuriko gave him a demure smile. “Yes.”

After weeks of constant playing, she finally managed to beat him at Shatran half of the time. Of course, that was when he decided to get serious and edged the record back to his side. Still, she enjoyed matching wits with him across the game board.

Her cousin, Miya Mishala, was also nearby, sitting at another table and surrounded by a gaggle of boys. Yuriko recognised Jonarius Abrigo, who had been the host of the party she attended her first evening in the Capital, and Claude Synka who she sparred with, and defeated during her placement exams. Claude was also the Youth Commander of Agaza’s Reserve Officers.

She half wondered if he was related to Heron, since his mother’s family name was Synka. She didn’t ask Claude as he was unlikely to know Heron or his branch of the family, but there was a slight resemblance which only made her miss Rumiga all the more.

Miya waved a greeting at her but otherwise kept her attention on the boys, who were regaling her with stories. A few were even trying to entertain her by freeform dance.

“I hope you don’t mind if I eat while we play?” Yuriko asked. “I also can’t stay for more than an hour. Armsmaster Kinohara wants me to assist her class this afternoon.”

“Oh, sure, I don’t mind,” Finan said.

“It’s not like that would make much difference.” Draknon smirked.

Yuriko sniffed as she gave the stocky boy a sidelong glance. She noted with some displeasure that Drak’s eyes had a slight glaze when he looked at her.

That was a sign of Aspiration, according to Miya, the initial effect of the Mishala Mien. It meant that the boy wouldn’t be able to ignore her, and would consider her requests with greater weight than he normally would. Aerda had the same symptoms.

Finan’s eyes were clear, so at least he had the Will to resist. But…honestly it wasn’t that the other two boys were weak, or that it was their fault. It was entirely hers. She still couldn’t control her Mien.

So far, none of the meditations, the techniques, and the mental callisthenics that Miya, and later her Mum, had her do had any effect other than the initial slight reduction. Using Animus wouldn’t work either, since the Mien would be transmitted through her Animus patterns, too. The way most people resisted mental encroachment was usually to coat their Anima in an impervious layer of Animus. The effort took a toll of course, and it took heavy focus to only exclude the effects of the Mien rather than everything at once.

And even so, the Mishala Mien was more than capable of eroding such barriers given time or an increase in strength. There were active ways to use the Mien as well but since she couldn’t even restrain it, those techniques were useless.

“You can’t fully restrain the Mien,” Mum explained. “You can only control it so that it affects others as little as possible. Even so, continued exposure to you will still affect them.”

Yuriko wasn’t convinced though and Damien concurred.

Just by believing they can’t completely shut it off means that they really wouldn’t be able to. Damien had said. But of course, I’ve never encountered an aura technique that’s inherent. Aura techniques are usually trained. Oh, if only my memories don’t have holes the size of the Radiant Sun in them…

Yuriko’s pick revealed red so she started the game first. She nibbled on her sandwich while she arranged her board pieces to her liking. This time, instead of focusing heavily on offence or defence, she positioned her pieces to bait Finan’s pieces into vulnerable positions. She would have to sacrifice about half of her legionnaires and half of her officers, but afterwards, she hoped to succeed.

She had finished her lunch by the time the first game drew to a close, and the match was still very much undecided. Both of them took their time to plan their moves, but Yuriko fudged her last moves when she became anxious about the time. Ah, she needed to get to Acadia Arena soon.

With a sigh, she forfeited the game. She was losing anyway, and her initial strategy had backfired. Oh well. Perhaps she really should focus on defence. But then again, she had always been like that. Victory could be grasped through defending if it caused her opponent to waste resources trying to break through, but it was much more fun to attack now. Well, it wasn’t as if her life was on the line while playing.

“Mister Agalmar, I’ve been looking for you.”

The pleased voice came from a young woman as she made her way across the picnic tables. Yuriko recognised the girl from last Sixthday’s foray in the Proving Grounds. Helene Orgilles, if she remembered correctly.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Yuriko said as she stood.

“Of course, I look forward to it,” Finan said with a smile.

“Mister Agalmar!” Helene cajoled as she arrived, causing Finan to frown as he looked towards her. He glanced at Yuriko, who shrugged as she picked up her things.

She waved goodbye to Miya, who gave an absentminded wave. Yuriko hurried along the path as she was due in a couple of minutes. She glanced back at her cousin and Finan, and nearly stumbled when she caught Orgilles’ flat gaze. The older girl took a seat across Finan, giggled, and started speaking. The boy had a long-suffering look, but he was polite enough not to just brush off the upperclassman.

Yuriko arrived in Acadia Arena just slightly late. Swordmaster Kinohara didn’t appreciate tardiness though, so she joined the first-year students in their physical workout. It wasn’t so bad, and she enjoyed moving her body.

Oh, nearly all of the class got that glazed look. Maybe she shouldn’t do this after all.