“Young mistress, it’s time to wake up.”

A gentle hand shook Yuriko’s shoulders and her eyes popped open. Her Anima flared just enough to encompass Ryoko, who started at the golden light but preened when she felt the weight of Yuriko’s perception.

That, and the perception of the entirety of Ryoko’s body brought to Yuriko’s mind what her future incarnations’ relationship with her attendant was. She felt heat suffuse her cheeks and she wriggled under her blanket as she suddenly felt shame and…desire.

“Oh, Ancestors!” she muttered under her breath.

Throwing off her blankets, she marched towards the bathroom for her morning ablutions. And while Ryoko aided her, Yuriko cast her thoughts on what happened last night.

As she found out, the memories have already faded. The details were already gone and only the vaguest impressions remained. She knew of the three incarnations and what each represented. Shaper, Destroyer, and Fate-Spinner. It sounded strangely familiar, but that wasn’t something she could trust. Lately, Damien’s memories had started to meld with hers. Nothing concrete though. Just impressions and biases.

From the Shaper and Destroyer incarnations, what remained was how to manipulate her Mien. Uplifting morale and terrorizing her enemies felt much more useful than making people attracted to her. She didn’t know how to do that yet, but at least she knew of the possibilities. The lingering memories and sensations from the Fate-Spinner were more troublesome.

Yuriko sighed, even as she felt the echoes of those nightly activities. Her pale skin reddened enough that Ryoko giggled and murmured, “Why are you so shy today, young mistress?”

All while scrubbing her clean. It didn’t help, and every movement echoed those memories and turned the bath into a vicious cycle of embarrassment and desire. Finally, Yuriko had to chase her attendants out of the bathroom while she tried to compose herself.

Did it really feel that good? Argh!

Fighting to push down rebellious thoughts, Yuriko focused on the changes wrought by her Actualisation. Hmm, Damien hadn’t spoken at all. Why was that?

Envisioning her Anima provided the answer. Her Heritage and Facet was gone. The inlaid lines of Animus were bare, and the only thing left was the unlit guide that she etched for her Facet. Oh! Did this mean the Golden Silhouette was gone, too? Wait, wait! The lines were still there, she could still re-inlay if she wanted to! But…not with her Animus.

Damien had been nothing but scornful of the practice, and Yuriko couldn’t help but agree, but only to a certain extent. Perhaps…?

She twisted and condensed her Anima and made it thicken into the lines of the Facet. It wouldn’t limit her maximum Animus reserves, although it would limit the spread of her Anima by a little bit.

But her Anima could flare more than three paces away now! She could cover the entirety of the bathroom and beyond. A little bit of condensed Anima along her Facet lines wouldn’t even translate to an extra inch of flare. After all, every inch farther from her skin involved much more volume than the inch before.

Finally! Damien’s voice called out once she finished her false inlay. Brilliant performance.

Yuriko felt herself preening at the praise and Damien’s laughter was contagious. She managed it so easily, having the best of both systems. She would follow the Ancient’s Way while keeping some of the advantages of the Imperial System.

Feeling rather proud, she rose from the bathing pool and reached for a towel and robe. A long, fluffy towel had been left for her by Ryoko within easy reach, but the robes were hanging by the door. After drying herself, Yuriko, long used to having Ryoko or Saki handing things over, reached for the robe. A moment later, it landed on her hands and she started to put it on. Then she froze. Neither of the two attendants was inside the room and she was at least a couple of paces from where the robe hung.

“Eh? What happened?” she muttered. The towel slipped from her fingers but before she could bend to catch it, her Anima condensed into the shape of a hand and caught it for her.

“Huh,” she murmured as her senses spread out.

First, her Anima flared to its full expanse, a hundred and twenty-one inches away, which meant her total domain as a sphere, well, more ovoid than anything else really, of about seven paces in diameter. The hand-shaped projection shrunk her total from one hundred twenty-one to an even one twenty. After a moment, her Anima shrunk in one-inch intervals and created another hand, until she had ten hands floating around her and her Anima had shrunk down to a hundred and eleven.

She felt she could create more, no, she was sure she could make more, but that would be detrimental to her own body. If she just sat or laid still, she could probably make twenty-four hands. That number was now how many strands of Animus she could control freely, but if she wanted to move and fight while doing so, she had to limit it to ten. Less if she had her sword dances running. So, seven extra hands. Probably.

She used it to scoop water out of the bath and unlike her real hands, the water didn’t slip through the fingers. She could even alter the shape: into spheres, blocks, and even shards, but the force it exerted wasn’t that high. Each hand could only carry about five Jin and could move that weight at a pace per second. Wait! Did that mean she could carry her own bodyweight and fly around?

Ten hands proved not enough to lift her feet off the floor, but about fourteen did. Which meant she weighed seventy Jin now. Huh, last she checked she was fifty Jin, but that was nearly two years ago. Well, she grew six inches taller since her Atavism Ritual.

“Young mistress, are you finished?” Ryoko called out from outside the door.

“Ah, yeah!” Yuriko blurted out.

“Please come out of there. Your clothes are ready.”

By the time she was dressed, breakfast had long been ready. Well, classes were already finished so she didn’t have anything to do other than train. Miya wasn’t at the breakfast table and neither was Reinhardt. Yuriko ate quickly, barely tasting the food though she did eat more than her usual.

Afterwards, she changed into her training clothes and walked into the gymnasium. It was only then that it dawned on her.

She had advanced! She was comparable to a Knight now. A giddy grin covered her face. She could feel it in her Anima. She could go through the Chaos Sea without being changed. She could leave Realmheart by herself and reach Rumiga. She didn’t need to take the Chaos Ships or go through the Channels. She could just walk.

That would be troublesome and take a lot of time, but she could do it. She was no longer trapped!

That was quite the weight off her shoulders. But then, something else replaced it. All three of her incarnations harboured regret over Rumiga. And while the future wasn’t set, now she worried for her home.

Ah, she was a Knight now and considered an adult. That was good. But, er, it also meant that if the prince had reached the same stage, they could get married as early as tomorrow. No thanks!

Yup, she was going to run. No way in the Abyss would she marry someone she hasn’t met yet. The worries of her incarnations meant that her first destination was Rumiga instead of wherever she could go.

Ah, where did Mum go? Towards Da, that’s for sure, but where?

A bigger question would be how she would leave the plane. Realmheart’s Veil was much more secure than every other plane’s. She couldn’t just head to the edge and leave. Not only was each section of the Veil guarded, from her lessons, she knew that the Empress had tampered with it too. There was no going through it without leave.

She would have to take a Chaos ship at the start of her journey anyway unless she just ran into the Chaos Channel. Huh, would running from the prince make her a fugitive? Mum did that in her youth but she had joined the Legion Vagaris, so it couldn’t have been that serious, right?

While she planned her escape, she worked on the Four Phases of the Sword by going through each form in order. Glimmers of ice condensed around the edge of her wooden side-sword while she practised Flowing Water. She noticed it immediately but continued to observe through her Anima as she went through the forms. When she switched to Jade Mountain, she felt waves of some kind of repelling force wrap around her weapon. It moved around her limbs, but always on the blocking or parrying movements. When she moved on to Roaring Volcano, the tongues of fire were much larger than before. The fires followed the direction of her strikes at times, but one particular form, the seventh, caused the flames to condense into a tiny ball at the tip of the weapon which exploded with a loud bang when she completed the attack.

Startled, Yuriko’s form slipped and the elemental resonance stopped.

“Interesting,” she muttered.

Mere parlour tricks. Damien scoffed.

‘Well, it just happens,’ Yuriko protested.

Keep working on it. Use your Facet later, I’ll show you how to properly resonate with ambient Chaos.

‘If you say so. Ah, what’s the next step for strengthening my physique?’

You need to continue to amass Radiant Essence. You can normally only harvest those directly from the Radiant Sun, but since you already have one, you can just grow it. The Essence space must be filled with distilled Chaos for now. We’ll add aspected Chaos later, but only after the first Transformation is done.

‘Alright.’

She spent the rest of the day getting used to her new level. Most of the improvements were with her Anima rather than her body. She was slightly stronger and faster than before, but not to an exaggerated extent. A pity, since she was used to having the advantage over others on her level. Then again, her Anima was a powerful advantage. She imagined she could use it easily to gain an advantage. Why, if she condensed it around her body, not only would it provide a powerful defence, but it also doubled up her strength and speed.

That night, she activated her Facet, and sure enough, the Golden Silhouette performed the Four Phases for her. At the same time, the silhouette matched each phase with one of the sword dances, and in doing so, amplified the resonance. It was almost as if the phases and the dances were made to be used together.

The next morning, she returned to Aerule Garden and sought an audience with the clan’s Prima, Miya’s grandmother, Elisha Mishala.

An attendant in Amaryllis Manor led her to the woman’s office, and she was allowed inside after a few minutes’ wait. The Prima’s desk was piled with so much paperwork that she could only see the top of the woman’s hair when she entered.

‘Why not use crystal screens instead of paper?’ she thought idly, but didn’t voice the question. Oh, they were all messenger crane papers, Yuriko realised when Elisha activated one of the reports. It folded itself into a crane then flew off.

“What do you want, child?” Elisha’s voice was cold. “Come to protest the prince’s suit?”

“Er, yes,” Yuriko blurted out. “Ah, and something else.”

“Hmph, you know the clan’s rules. The only one we can’t dismiss out of hand is if the Pia’Vasi’s interested. At least he’s your age.”

“What,” Yuriko swallowed, “what does the engagement entail?”

“Standard marriage contract,” Elisha muttered. “You’ll need to give him an heir, male. Afterwards, you can end the contract, though only after…” The Prima rummaged through the paperwork then said, “Ten years. Neither you nor the prince is at the Knight level so the engagement will only proceed once you’ve reached your eighteenth birthday.”

“Huh,” Yuriko muttered. “I think I don’t want that to happen.”

Elisha glanced up at her with a sharp gaze, then smirked. “Up to you. Well, you have three years left. You want to do what your mother did?”

Yuriko hesitated. She didn’t know what the Prima wanted, but while her Mum was away, this woman was in charge of her. She was also pretty sure that the Prima was as strong as Mum, or near enough that Yuriko’s current strength didn’t match up. Well, she came here to find out about the details.

The thing was, she didn’t find the particulars too onerous, and she probably would be more accepting if she knew the person. But she didn’t, and her World Trial indicated that it would be a mistake to not fight this.

“Thank you for your time,” Yuriko said.

“Sure. Now shoo!”

Yuriko curtsied and left. It occurred to her that there was one more authority in the clan that superseded the Prima, but she was hesitant to go there. After all, she’d never met the Progenitor Matriarch, and it was that woman who set the rules that made her offspring companions for the Empress’ children.

Either way, she should prepare her things.