At dawn on the next day, Yuriko and Saki stood next to the river banks. Yuriko’s aura curled around her body protectively while Saki’s shadows concealed everything but her face.

“I will follow along the banks, young mistress,” Saki preempted, “they cannot find me.”

“Alright,” Yuriko agreed easily. The Caradec’s current was swift this time of the year, and it was nearly unbearably cold. She was clad in her usual traveller’s gear: stretchy pants, white button-down shirt, and overcoat. She carried only her arming sword and had left the Plasma Lancet back home. Getting that weapon wet wouldn’t harm it, but the cold and damp would make generating superheated plasma more costly. The weapon was really nothing more than a comfort item for her at this point, as it was something she’d carried throughout her travels in the Chaos Sea.

“Armsmaster Byrne and Mr. Davar will begin their distraction an hour from now,” Saki reminded Yuriko, jolting her out of her musing.

“Yes, I remember.”

She took a deep breath, then launched herself into the river. The Caradec’s width was roughly a hundred paces, though it narrowed or widened by at least half at some points along its course. The middle wasn’t too deep, just ten paces at most. Between the two sides of the town, the river had been dredged and contained with stone and concrete. It still followed a rather meandering path though. She entered near the northern part since she didn’t want to be observed by the Federation.

Sound became muted once she was completely submerged. During her travels in the Chaos Sea, she had crossed several Fysalli that were underwater. It took less than a blink of an eye to shape her Anima into fins and a flipper. She pushed herself to the deepest part of the river and followed it along, letting the current push her. It was only a league away, though following the Caradec meant the journey would be nearly half again as long.

________

Saki Mishala speechlessly watched as her young mistress dove into the river. Golden light covered her body and formed limbs and flippers. The water was murky and the day was overcast, and by all rights, it would have been impossible to see too deeply into the river.

Except her young mistress’ light was impossible to hide. She could clearly track Yuriko’s progress under the water because there was a clear blob of golden light in the depths.

Saki sighed. Hopefully, the Haveenians would be too distracted to notice.

______

Marron Mishala Davar had been up bright and early, despite the fact that he’d gotten less than eight hours’ sleep the night before. Niamh murmured uneasily underneath her blankets but had settled back into fitful sleep a few minutes after he slipped out of bed. His sweetheart was a hard worker and she had been chosen as one of the controllers of the Dome chamber. Despite that, she also spent the rest of her day refilling jade cartridges and engraving runescript talismans.

He had a set of them with him now. Each one was an inch wide and three long, made of paper, and inked with runescript weaving that stemmed bleeding and mimicked the weaker portion of the Recovery technique. All he needed to do was prime the thing with a couple of lumens Animus and then stick it to his skin, or anyone wounded really. It had the effect of stabilising the person long enough to get them to the healers’ building.

The technique was an adaptation of Spellweaver Merill’s healing cubes, and Niamh had innovated it by combining the strange Strengthen Physique that was forced on them in Synkrasia and with Merill’s own techniques. Only Niamh managed to do it, not that there were many runescribes in town, anyway. It also took her an hour to ink one up, and the better part of her Animus reserves. It was also the reason why they’ve only had a couple of fatalities in the fighting so far.

Leaving his love—the label still made him giddy with joy—to her sleep, he hurried out of the Davar Household and rushed towards the staging area. He heard Yuriko leaving a few minutes before he did, so there was cause to hurry. Knowing her impatient nature, Yuriko would probably attack even if they haven’t started fighting yet.

Armsmaster Trevor Byrne was waiting for him near the observation tower, along with a couple of squads of volunteers.

He nodded to them in greeting, and absently stroked his Plasma Caster. Armsmaster Byrne held a glaive and a tower shield. The polearm looked heavy and tough, and was probably strong enough to cleave the Federation infantry’s tower shields in twain even without Animus reinforcement. About half the volunteers were Warders, carrying resonating bucklers and collapsible spears, while the other half sported Plasma Casters.

They marched towards the gate, and formed up there. If the pattern held, one of the Federation commanders would issue a challenge this morning, but if they didn’t do so in an hour, the other plan was simply to begin sniping at the camp. For that to work, he needed to be on the walls.

Armsmaster Byrne remained with the volunteers. The two of them decided that only Journeymen should accompany them, as Apprentices would need to be protected. The only Novices in town were the freshly awakened last Season of Fire, and all of them had been relegated to staying with the other school children.

When he arrived up on the walls, it was to the sight of a small platoon of Federation warriors forming up to issue their challenge. It looked like there would be little deviation from the plan then.

__________

Yuriko swam leisurely under the river, letting the current dictate her pace. She didn’t surface for air. Her aura captured enough for her to breathe, and it was easy enough to refresh it through the water. She didn’t need to create air out of distilled Chaos, although she had an ample stock of it within her Anima. It was just an hour-long swim, after all.

It didn’t take her that long to reach the approximate distance. She wasn’t exactly sure if she was near the bunker, and she dared not surface right now… or maybe she should. Huh. She had a few more minutes to wait though, so she just floated against the current.

The river fish had initially fled from her when she dove in the Caradec river, but after a while, a school of curious silver dartlings flitted around her hair. The fish were merely a couple of inches long, but were quite tasty when battered and fried. Nothing bigger bothered her, but she saw a couple of turtles, some freshwater crabs, and a small river lizard or two. That one growled at her, displaying a mouthful of jagged teeth, but a pulse from her aura drove it away.

Ah, it was time. She stomped down on the riverbed and burst out of the water. She landed on the banks lightly and looked around.

“Young mistress,” Saki said as she materialised out of the shadows, “the nearest bunker is towards there.” She pointed southwest.

“I didn’t go far enough?” Yuriko muttered.

“It’s alright, my lady. We have ample time. Er, if you would retract your brilliance?”

“Oh. Yes.” Yuriko condensed her Anima into its usual protective density and left a thin perceptive aura out to four paces. She followed Saki up the banks and onto the fallow fields. Saki went into an irrigation canal. It was only a pace deep and just a bit more than a pace wide. It was dry, but only in the sense that water wasn’t flowing on it. The bottom was several inches of mud, but by spreading her Anima by her feet, she could walk on it with little issue. As for Saki, shadowy tendrils covered her shoes which also allowed her to walk across the mud without leaving a single print.

The ditch wasn’t deep enough to conceal them while they travelled, but that was fine, Yuriko thought. All she needed to do was kneel and use her kinesis to move herself while Saki cloaked herself in shadow. She followed the ditch south until Saki’s concealed hand on her shoulder led down a different path.

The hills were gentle here, and there were several groves of fruiting trees. Most of the farmers that lived near Faron’s Crossing had their fields east and north of town rather than south, which meant the terrain was rather overgrown. Aside from the fields, the hills were used as pastureland. There weren’t any cows, sheep, or goats roaming now though. The Federation would have taken them if the owners haven’t driven them away.

After a few minutes, Saki materialised and pointed out the bunker. It was next to a low hill, behind it if she had come directly from Faron’s Crossing. The structure was a square building and the roof was sloped to the south. She could see the tips of the Steam Cannons' muzzles from where she was. More importantly, she didn’t see any guards. There was a bit of wood smoke though, and the scent of roasting meat that made her tummy gurgle.

“Wait here, please,” Saki whispered as she skulked towards the bunker.

Yuriko knelt behind some bushes and began the process of using her Radiant Lance. She could see the muzzles which meant all she had to do was leap up and get to an angle where she could throw the lance into the cannon.

She didn’t begin Shaping yet as the process was incredibly obvious. However, she sunk herself into envisioning her Anima and observed the Implement.

It revolved around her core, a golden lance etched with runescript patterns. She could understand all of the passages which described the process of gathering ambient Chaos, aspecting it to Radiant, and giving it form. Towards the lance tip, the patterns described what would happen when it hit something. In essence, it would collapse the lance into a singular point and then unleash all of the Radiant energy it contained into a blast. She could actually define how it would explode by altering which runescript lines her Animus and Will would channel through. The options were a simple explosion, and the other when all of the kinetic force and heat would be channelled into a forward blast.

Hmmm, if she used the basic explosion, it was sure to melt the barrel, but if she made it into a shaped blast, it would likely punch a hole into where she hit. Basic explosion then.

Her brother must have succeeded and keeping the army occupied since she didn’t hear any patrols. A few minutes later, Saki returned and nodded the all-clear.

“Radiant Sun’s Lance,” Yuriko intoned while holding out her hand. All at once, the ambient Chaos around her was caught in a vortex as they all rushed towards her hand. An orb of golden light appeared on her palm, and slowly shaped itself into a spear. She had to keep her focus on the spell, but it didn’t mean she couldn’t move.

As she had feared, the spell’s ruckus didn’t go unnoticed. The bunker’s door sprang open and a heavyset man charged out. Yuriko and Saki were about a hundred paces away, behind some bushes, but the golden light shone through the leaves and the man saw it clearly. He yelled something too garbled for Yuriko to make out and charged back inside the bunker.

The next moment, he came back out carrying a short spear and a round shield, followed by nine other men and women.

“Young mistress, go! I’ll hold them back!” Saki said.

Yuriko couldn’t spare the attention to grunt. The orb of golden light elongated and turned into a lance, and the weight pressing against her mind eased up. When she looked up, she saw Saki stabbing someone in the back, while three others were on the ground. The first heavyset man was merely a dozen paces away from her and even as she looked, flung his spear at her.

Her Animakinesis flicked the projectile away. She crouched down, then jumped. Her aura spread out into wings, with little hooks that allowed her to hang still in thin air. Her jump drove her ten paces up, and she was still ascending. Twelve paces was more than enough though, so she stopped, twisted, her waist, then flung the lance. It went straight down the barrel.

A flash of golden light, followed by a wave of incredible heat. A moment later, an arrow slammed into her side, and since her kinesis was focused on keeping her aloft, it didn’t block the projectile. Her Animus Armour saved her from being punctured, but it knocked her back.

The barrel she shot the lance at melted like butter on a hot pan.

More arrows, laden with Animus, flew in the air, and she twisted and turned to avoid them. Still, a couple struck her side and her leg, both stopped by the Animus Armour. She could feel the relic’s reserve dwindle to near nothing. She condensed her Anima and dropped like a rock. She landed on her feet. Before her lay an entire platoon of archers, and a volley of arrows mere paces away from turning her into a pincushion.