Fragmentary visions assaulted Yuriko’s mind. Snippets of lives, conversations, emotions…and then bursts of light, swirls of Chaos, and then…a strange gestalt.

Everything was in balance so that nothing moved. Each constituent part was evenly matched…but not in strength, in weakness. One should have been ascendant. One should have devoured the rest and made it part of its new whole. But now, they could only struggle. Each one tugged in a different direction, occasionally tipping the scales one way, only for them to lose what they gained when it swung back.

Deeper. Yuriko dove into the fragments. Where? What made them like this? She needed to know.

The memory fragments shattered into tinier and tinier bits as her mind pawed at them. Frustration made her clumsier and soon, the fragments had dissolved into their constituent parts. At that point, Fri’Avgi slurped up the remnants and converted them to distilled Chaos.

Sighing in annoyance, Yuriko moved on to the next captured Anima and the next. Her bumbling slowly turned to finesse, but she ran out of nameless Anima before she got what she needed. She did gain a little bump of intuition though. It was definite that what she sought wasn’t on this plane.

When Yuriko returned her focus to the material plane, she was suddenly aware that she’d been in a meditative pose for hours. The sun was already past its zenith and her tummy grumbled in complaint. She took a loaf of Wayfarer’s bread and nommed it up. Sweet, even if the thing was hard enough to break teeth.

Desire stood next to her, eyes wandering around the countryside. “Master. Fruitful search?”

“Yes, though I’ve only incomplete information. I would ask that you keep your senses open for more nameless.”

“By your command,” Desire smiled.

Their camp was in the southwest of Kadrac City. and from the looks of it, it would be more efficient to go through the city rather than circle around it. Though if she wanted to avoid attention she should do the latter instead. It didn’t look like Kadrac had walls, or at least not one tall enough to be a hindrance. There wasn’t even the semblance of a gate and she observed that travellers simply entered the outer ring of tents. Guess she and Desire will go through. It would save them an hour’s walk.

Besides, she saw a group of riders, on land raptors not horses, patrolling the city’s periphery, and they would be exposed to them longer if they skirted around the city. She said as much to Desire and the girl nodded and didn’t express any dissent. Unfortunately, Yuriko knew that Desire had the tendency to follow Yuriko’s lead no matter what, even if saying otherwise would be better.

It took a quarter of an hour before they reached the edge of the tent city, and Yuriko couldn’t help but goggle at the sight. The tents were tall, not quite like the ones she and the others took during their training camp. They were tall, had straight walls, and from the glimpses she saw, were carpeted on the inside. Although the placement looked haphazard from afar, up close, she could see that there were lanes and grouping between each tent. The people wandering about were also dressed in varied fashions.

For one thing, the poncho and loose clothes common in Haveena weren’t as dominant here. Men and women alike wore close-fitting leather pants and jackets over their softer underthings, and very few women wore skirts. Those that did had them in dark leather and barely covered the knees. Open-toed sandals were commonly used, and no stockings of any kind.

And the stench of horses, cattle, and dung, clung to every fabric, every tent, and every person. Yuriko’s eyes watered and she tugged her poncho’s hood over her eyes to conceal her look of disgust.

But what really widened her eyes in surprise was when she and Desire were nearly a hundred paces within the tent city, and the other denizens showed up. Beastkin. She thought she saw Masa, the Kutin clan girl she last saw before she left Bella with her cousins, but no, this cat-kin girl had a different hair pattern. Right next to her was a wolf-kin man, of all things. The catgirl was mostly human in appearance but had a tail, retractable claws, and feline ears sticking out of the side of her head, while the wolf-kin looked nothing more than an upright, bipedal wolf. His grey fur covered every inch of his body, and he only wore a leather kilt for his modesty. Facial features looked lupine, though with a broader head, and shorter snout. The ears were upright above his head and flicked and twitched.

He paused as Yuriko stared at him, his snout twitching. Then he looked at her, and growled, “What are you looking at?” in Wojan.

Yurio waved her hand and looked away, muttering a quick sorry, but she overheard the catgirl admonishing the wolfboy. “It’s ‘cause you’re in your war form!”

“Can’t help it, my clothes are dirty!” he whined.

“Ugh, what’s there to conceal? You’ve got a nice body, you should expose it more.”

“I don't mind in this form, not in my human form!”

The two of them bickered until they were out of sight. Yuriko exchanged glances with Dee, who just shrugged and said, “There are stranger things.”

Nodding in agreement, the two of them followed the meandering lanes, aiming to exit on the city’s western side. Along the way, she saw more beastkin: feline, canine, and ursine. There were no reptilian or avian variants, however. She didn’t know if they were locals or visitors from another plane, but from the number of them, and the variety of clothing styles and attitudes, she thought they were local. Southern Rumiga was truly wide.

As they went deeper into Kadrac’s tent city, more than just dwellings appeared. In one particular block, Yuriko blushed completely red. Barely dressed men and women postured and flexed, throwing inviting looks and gestures at the passersby. With her face concealed, Yuriko was spared the usual attention she usually took, but still, more than enough was lavished on her, and Desire. Well, most of them were nice to look at, with oiled skin taut against defined muscle. But what she blushed about was when someone answered an invitation and the couple entered a tent. Her perception pierced right through the cloth and veil, revealing the full extent of what they were doing inside. She couldn’t retract her aura fast enough.

Thankfully, it was just that one block of tents. But the next ones were no less crowded. Tables with games of chance, cards, dice, and a few with strange devices she’d never seen before, were set behind a cordoned-off area. People wagered, screamed in joy and loss, with coins exchanging hands every moment. She saw more than a few beastkin, humans, and other Chaos touched, indulging in a gambling vice. She could see a section where gamblers exchanged their Shekels with a different kind of coin, larger, thicker, and much more colourful. She noticed that they used that coin to gamble with. There was a signboard near the kiosk written in Wojan, and as far as she could tell, it was the exchange rate, featuring drawings of different chips and their value in Shekels. She felt drawn to the kiosk though, and to the gambling den, but she shook her head and moved on.

They managed to pass through the rest of the city without issue. It was strange how open Kadrac was, yet they were one of the fiercest warriors she’d had the pleasure to battle with. Fearless, and willing to do anything to win. She shuddered at the memory, but it was exciting, she said to herself. And she wondered what a Kadracki elite warrior was like. The one who was up north didn’t deign to clash with her.

Exiting the tent city proved no more trouble than entering it. Most of the Kadracki wore tight leather clothing as opposed to the Haveenian style but there were enough foreigners that she and Desire didn’t really stand out. They hurried back towards camp but took care to go at a circuitous route. It was well past mid-afternoon, coming close to dusk.

Gwendith spotted her from atop a rise and waved at her. If not for that, Yuriko wouldn’t have seen her since she had camouflaged herself with her poncho, dirt, and sand.

“What news?” she asked as soon as she came close enough to Gwendith without having to raise her voice.

“Nothing much,” Gwendith shrugged as she tucked her corkscrew curls behind her ears. “They let the prisoners out again for an afternoon walk, but nothing.” She frowned, then said, “There were some patrols, but they mostly stuck to the road towards Kadrac. They can’t keep those people locked up that long without sacrificing health.”

Yuriko nodded thoughtfully. “I don’t think that matters to them as long as they remain alive.”

Gwendith’s eyes brightened. “You succeeded?”

“Partially. I’ll need to fight more nameless.”

Gwendith nodded then gestured towards the camp but remained on her post by lying on her belly. The sand around her shifted as Gwendith’s pale blue and pink Anima controlled the grains and painstakingly recreated her cover.

Nodding in approval, Yuriko and Desire headed to the camp. She saw Heron topless doing pushups, with Asami sitting in a meditative pose on his back. His muscular arms bulged as he did his exercise, and from the puddle of sweat underneath him, he’d been at this for a while now. Perhaps because of what she saw on the way here, Yuriko couldn’t help but stare at his toned physique.

Braden and Orrin were seated opposite of each other, three paces or so apart, with dozens of pebbles bouncing between them. Electrical arcs bounced from each of them and pushed or pulled the pebbles around. If she remembered correctly, Breaden was the one able to attract or pull things towards himself, and Orrin the opposite, but the way they exercised their Facets, it looked like they were able to do both now.

Sheamus was performing a kata involving a dagger in one hand. His movements were fluid but also had bursts of speed. It reminded her of the dagger Adept she fought against, the one who could move faster than she could see, though only in short bursts. Huh. Maybe she should spar with Sheamus every now and then. She rarely encountered anyone within her same Anima strength who was as quick or faster than she was.

She didn’t see where Saki was, but she assumed her attendant was keeping a close eye on the fortified camp.

Heron and Sheamus saw her as she entered the camp, but didn’t do anything other than nod in greeting. The others were too preoccupied with their training. She settled down near the campfire and sighed, then, remembering that Damien had finally spoken to her after weeks of sporadic contact, she poked at him.

Yes?

‘Where were you?’ She thought at him crossly.

I…I don’t know. I think I fell asleep. Did something happen?

Yuriko grimaced then described what happened to her during the True Refraction, pointing out that she also saw her Progenitor and the Eyeball thingy.

Misha? Huh. True Refraction… Strange, I recall no such thing. She could imagine him glaring. It must be after…

‘The Shattering?’

Yes.

A thought bubbled up from deep within her, something she asked herself before, but couldn’t voice the thought.

‘Did you cause the Shattering?’

I don’t know. I don’t remember. But the Breakers…yes, I remember them. Then, in an amused tone, he continued, In truth, you shouldn’t be bothered by them unless you do something. You’re way too young and weak.

‘Thanks a lot,’ Yuriko thought to him sarcastically.

You’re welcome. What are we doing here now?

After she explained and reminded him of his earlier advice, he grunted.

Corruption and contamination. Whoever is doing this is a fool. Those things that come from that process are ultimately weaker, and will never become strong. But, I suppose they make excellent throwaway troops.

Feeling sick to her tummy, Yuriko also told him of what she saw from the memory fragments and his reply had been a derisive snort and a reminder that some things can only be done in the Chaos Sea, while others, only in the planes.

But this thing–he referred to the pin each nameless carried–is indeed the reason why they can exist here in the plane without being thrown out. Finding out about this is far more important.

‘Yeah, but I’ve no idea how,’ Yuriko responded.

That was the end of their conversation and she felt Damien go back to sleep. The neutral Radiant energy she had collected had been drained and it would probably take a few hours of sunbathing to gather up enough for his use. She shucked out of her poncho and unbraided her hair.

Nothing much happened past dinner. She took the first watch, then meditated the rest of the night away. Mostly, she spent that time playing with her Radiant Ennoia and fumbling with the ambient Chaos. Practice made perfect and there was little more she could do to accelerate her growth. Her Radiant Body Refinement had slowed down, not just because she didn’t spend most of her time training, but also because after hitting 50%, the rest of it was much more difficult and time-consuming. Her Anima reach had grown a couple of inches, but that was only an incremental increase. Maybe she’d reach and exceed ten paces by the end of the Season of Earth.

Maybe.

The next morning, they watched as a couple of prison wagons entered the camp. The drivers and guards conferred with those on the first convoy, and a few hours later, the full convoy of seven wagons left the camp and headed south-southeast.

Finally.