The Songstress of Heartfelt Desire hummed happily as she snuggled up next to her master. Yuriko had finally allowed it, after that other girl, Gwendith Sharine, weaselled her way to the master’s bed. Sure, she was sore and tired from an entire day of training, torture, really, if Desire didn’t know any better.

Gwendith desired power, however, and that was something Desire could respect. In her short life as a Chaos Lord, personal power was the only thing that was valued. At least in the Asheron Court. In the Telurian, the Duke played his games, and the pieces moved to his Will, whether they wanted to or not. In fact, even if they resisted, in the end, they would find out that their resistance had been part of the plan, and also expected. It was still punished, of course.

But ever since Desire had bound herself to Yuriko, she felt the faint stirrings of something else. She didn’t remember her past life as a human, but then again, her Anima was composed not just of that girl, but also of tiny fragments of a dozen or so more. Those fragments released bits of memories and dreams, but they had been distorted so much that they might as well be nightmares. Of that girl, no memories came. Instead, when she meditated to delve her mind, she found something else. A barrier. It was made of multihued flames and it encompassed a portion of her Anima, the central part where her core was.

Her Chaos Well was just outside of it, and bits of aspected Chaos dribbled into it. Of course, the plane’s negative iarvesh pressure would drain her dry had she not kept her Protective Field up. Ah, if not for the master feeding her, she would only last a day. A bit longer, sometimes, but certainly no longer than thirty hours.

She sometimes hoped that Yuriko would feed her through a kiss again, instead of through her fingers. Desire could take more than Yuriko expected that way. Not that she wanted to harm her master, oh no, far from it. That first feeding came with motes of Radiant energy, which had thankfully been contained by the Pure Animus. Otherwise, Desire would have been hurt badly.

Instead, thanks to that combination, she had managed to implant the energy within her Chaos Well, where it slowly assimilated the aspected Chaos. The Transformation wouldn’t be easy, or quick. She would need more of the Radiant to truly progress it, but such purity was dangerous.

While her master and the other girl slept, Desire fell into a restorative trance. And while they dreamed, she plotted how to get to her master’s lips again.

_______

From paradise to the depths of the Abyss, Gwendith didn’t know where she currently stood. Snuggling with Yuriko all night, even with the inclusion of the Chaos Lord on the narrow bed, was, well, bliss.

It was when morning came that she experienced the depths of despair in the Abyss, pressed down upon by the weight of her own desires and the other girl’s expectations. Oh, and the excessive training. Ancestors help her! Why did she ask Yuriko, of all people, to help her get stronger?

She’d heard rumours of her back in the Academy, of course. Of how she spent her mornings and afternoons training. Every day without fail. Of the extent that she went to. She even heard that Yuriko used to carry heavy loads while running. Of the dumbbells and barbells she used as a matter of course. She heard that the weights were even heavier than she was.

Well, now she knew. The rumours understated what really happened. Yesterday, she’d spent hours running. Today was weight training.

Yuriko had her bench press nearly a hundred Jin of weight. Then squats. Then a few other exercises that targeted muscles she never even knew she had before and had certainly never used. Afterwards, she went through a long cycle of Yuriko’s Recovery. It was rotting painful but was faster than the normal version.

And even worse, as she kept using Recovery after every painful ordeal, she slowly got used to the pain. And then…she expected it, wanted it even! She would feel pain when she used the technique, but at least she wasn’t being tortured with impossibly difficult exercises!

“Do you want to stop?” Yuriko always asked whenever Gwendith faltered. Her face was a false mask of empathy. But Gwendith could read Yuriko’s underlying emotion.

Was this it? Would she give up her quest for power simply because of this piddling thing? No! She wouldn’t! She would walk the same path Yuriko did, and she would grow stronger for it! She couldn’t quit now.

“I can go on,” Gwendith would say.

Yuriko would give her a beatific smile, and then make her do something more difficult, more painful, and would nearly make her quit. But she pushed on. She couldn’t give up. Never.

She didn’t know how many days she suffered under Yuriko’s hands, but one morning, the golden-haired goddess said, “You’re ready for Body Forging.”

“Oh, thank the Ancestor!” Gwendith yelled loudly enough that every militiaman and legionnaire turned to look at them with concern. She couldn’t even muster any shame. She just didn’t care anymore.

“Alright, Gwen. You’ll have to use this pattern next.” Yuriko created glowing streams of Animus around her body and moved them in a pattern. It was strange and complicated, involving having to put certain Intents into Animus strands while circulating the opposite Intent along a different path.

Gwendith tried and tried, but…she just couldn’t get it to work.

Yuriko hugged her tight. “I’ll find a way. Just rest for now.”

Exhausted beyond belief, Gwendith trod to her room, one she hadn’t used in five days, fell into her bed and was asleep even before her head hit the pillow.

_________

“Why didn’t it work?” Yuriko muttered as she went through her Four Phases and the combined sword dances. She thought to spend her excess energy and her frustrations in training, something she hadn’t had the chance to indulge in since leaving Realmheart.

The precise movements of the Phases would clash with the free-flowing Intent-based swordsmanship of the dances, and it took focus, skill, and experience to meld the two disciplines. She knew that merging the Phases and the dances would do wonders for her swordsmanship, perhaps she would even reach an Ennoia state. She was far from that point, however, as she only had a couple of Stances that she vaguely understood.

Jade Mountain’s 2nd Stance involved blocking and directing an attack’s force downwards into the ground. That Phase normally required using a shield, but there were variations for using different weapon sets. Her side-blade-shaped sunblade fulfilled one of the variations, the single blade form.

There were no dual blade stances in Jade Mountain, but there were in Flowing Water and Sweeping Gale.

Hmmm, for that matter, she usually only conjured one sunblade at a time due to how much Radiant energy it took to make one, but she wasn’t so limited at this point, wasn’t she? She conjured two matching sunblades to replace her training blade.

“Tsk.” She clicked her tongue. Adapting Jade Mountain to double weapon fighting wasn’t easy. Ah! There was a variation for sword and parrying dagger, wasn’t there? She could try that. She shortened one of the sunblades and made the crossguard wider. She thickened the base of the dagger, too.

When she practised with the variations, she could feel some resonance with the surrounding ambient Chaos, which told her that this one worked. Huh.

Going back to her original problem was that Gwendith couldn’t seem to make Body Forging work. Was it a problem with how she taught the other girl?

What did Body Forging entail? What did it do to her own body? At the Novice level, it had nearly doubled her strength at her peak. It did the same during Apprentice and Journeyman too. How though? She had simply let the Animus run its course within her Anima and body, the pattern having been provided by the Golden Silhouette. Which had been altered to match her own physique.

Was that it? The technique didn’t work because Gwendith’s body was different from hers? There must be some common factors, right?

She reviewed the patterns, staring at the arcane symbolism and runescript lines. Eh? The entire thing formed a runescript word, didn’t it? A single giant word encompassing the entirety of her body made up of lines that spun out different meanings and Intents. The lines near her bones involved toughness, resilience and the proper production of blood? Along her muscles, the lines meant to compress and condense the fibres. It meant to split each one as many times as it could. It also threaded compressed lines, Animus or Chaos, she wasn’t quite sure what, which supported and toughened her body too. The lines under her skin were as complex as everywhere else, and aside from the general toughness runescript line, she wasn’t quite able to identify the others.

More importantly, as she looked at each of the runescript lines, the Intent and meaning became clearer and clearer. There were a dozen layered Intents, each visible once she saw groups of lines together. One grouping would spell out how her body extracted nutrients from whatever she ate and used it to reinforce whatever was there. With a different grouping, she saw how it instructed her body to take in ambient Chaos and use it as a replacement for food. If she looked at both groupings, she saw that her appetite tapered whenever the ambient Chaos around her rose above three iarvesh.

The Body Forging technique was far more complex and thorough than she initially thought. Layers upon layers of varied meanings, each one complementing each other such that the sum of its parts was far greater.

Ah, she could read the entire word. And like the others, it also meant many things. The entirety of it was simply her name. Yuriko. Then, from other angles, it read Radiant. Then Sun. And finally, Child.

Yuriko chewed on her lower lip. No wonder it didn’t work for Gwendith. The Body Forging pattern would only work for her.

How could she help her friend? She would need to replace the meanings and Intents, change how the lines interacted, and how each defined every part of her. It was an undertaking that would take years, if not decades of study. She couldn’t very well ask Gwendith to stagnate for that long. And, the technique was specific to her age. Child, it said. The technique would not work on someone whose body had already achieved its prime. There was only one thing to do.

‘Damien, help!’

About time you asked, he grumbled. You don’t need to map the technique, all you need is a skill seed.

‘How do I give her one, then?’

You make one, silly. It won’t be as extensive or as powerful as yours since Gwendith doesn’t have a Radiant energy affinity. Hmmm, based on her proto-Ennoia, she has a thermodynamic affinity.

‘A what now? Not cold?’

Thermodynamic. Meaning heat and cold. The basic concept of heat transfer, and the concept of primordial cold.

‘Alright…’

Create the seed, have her practice it, and eventually, it will blossom into the proper Body Forging technique suitable for her talents. If you’re feeling generous, upon her first practice, bestow upon her a drop of Ambrosia. The seed will guide it into creating the proper proto-Essence.

‘Alright. I've got hundreds of drops left anyway.’

Very well. Materialise your Anima and Animus into this pattern. I will guide you. Follow closely.

What followed was a painstaking process that took a few hours. They created a literal seed of Animus, laden with strengthening Intent. Damien added a few twists that Yuriko couldn’t understand, but she was certain it was benign. After all, it was still her Animus. She left an opening near the top, and once the seed was almost complete, she added the droplet of Ambrosia, taking care to keep the liquid separate from her Anima.

By the time the sun set, the seed was ready. Grinning to herself, she got off the roof and looked for Gwendith.

Boom!

A boulder crashed into the northern wall. Yuriko jumped in surprise, but she kept the technique seed safe. More boulders were coming. By the time the fourth boulder had crashed into the courtyard, the Protective Dome finally materialised.

Yuriko swallowed bitterly. They had been so close to leaving, and this meant that they wouldn’t be able to take the Dome with them as they left.