“Ah!” Yuriko yelped as her condensed Anima buckled and cracked.

As the empowered chains penetrated, she saw her outer Animus reserves start to dwindle. She watched speechlessly for a moment as the metal sucked her Animus into itself and then discarded it away from her body.

Fortunately, it was still within her perception range so she was able to recapture it with a little effort. The chainman leered at her, grinning bloody as he swiped at the corner of his mouth.

“I’ll turn you into a husk,” he growled at her, eyes bright.

Yuriko pushed against the chains, this time with her hands. The links moved slightly, but she couldn’t get enough leverage. She used her kinesis and that seemed to work. But all the while he was draining her.

She drew Radiant energy from her Essence, intending to form a Radiant Lance. She hoped her Anima could hold long enough to complete it. Gritting her teeth, she opened her hand and channelled Radiant energy to it, as well as Animus. She reached out to the surrounding ambient Chaos and ignited those with the potential.

“Eh?” she muttered as her Radiant energy touched the chains, and stuck to them. The chains tried to absorb her Radiant energy, and in truth, they managed it easily enough, however, she could still feel it, and more importantly, control it.

Reflexively, she pushed against the chains, using all of her considerable strength to escape. The thing was, the chains gave way just enough that they couldn’t burst, yet as soon as she stopped pushing to try to slip out, it constricted her immediately. Using her kinesis against it gave her a better chance, as she could apply pressure from different angles, yet the chainman could see her efforts and adjusted accordingly. She was down a quarter of her outer reserves.

She took a step towards the chainman, but then, he anchored the ends into the ground. All the while, she slowly fed her Radiant energy into the chains, and they grew progressively hotter.

She didn’t possess enough Radiant energy within her Essence and core to melt the chains, considering how long it took for it to change colour with heat. So, she channelled the Radiant energy she converted from the ambient Chaos into the chains too. Sparkles of light burst from around her, looking much like fireflies that could be found in Shillogu Woods.

“What are you doing?” the chainman asked, voice suddenly smooth and smug. “Whatever it is, my chains of suppression will control it.” He paused and grinned, staring straight into Yuriko’s eyes. His were a metallic grey, cold and impersonal at some points, but suddenly vicious at other angles. “You still haven’t answered me. You…” he frowned. “You seem familiar.” The chains moved up and flicked Yuriko’s hood off her face, and the man startled. “Oh…”

His eyes grew a little vague, but just as quickly he recovered his composure.

“My, my.” Then he licked his lips. “You little seductress. Were I to have so little control I would have succumbed to your wiles.”

“What are you blabbering about?” Yuriko grunted though she had only kept half a mind to his rambling. The Radiant energy infused into his chains accumulated until the links next to her were practically orange. Her own glow masked the colour, however, and to prevent him from feeling it, she let a trickle of Animus drain.

“You’ll give me the answers soon enough,” He licked his lips again. “Once you’re dry of Animus, you won’t be able to resist the chains…” He frowned. “Strange, your Animus is too thin to be at that level,” he muttered. “No matter, I’ll find out what you’re hiding soon. Resist all you want, it will make your defeat that much sweeter. Hurr hurr hurrr.”

His weird laugh and his ambiguous words only served to annoy Yuriko, so she ignored him. The Radiant energy, once it penetrated deeper into the steel, grew a bit more unruly. It wanted to vent its heat, to turn the metal molten, and to purify it. But no, doing so now wouldn’t harm the other. While her reserves and Will diminished, if she didn’t strike back, she would be on the losing end of the duel.

With her perception at its widest point, she immediately saw when her team and new allies attacked. Heron’s charge, Orrin and Braden’s twisty lightning. Kassy’s sharp claw preceded by a quick rush, the familiar wolf beastkin man who swiped at chainman’s hamstrings, and a third wolfkin, a girl who looked younger than Kassy, bore down using a…was that a wagon wheel?

The wagon wheel slammed into chainman’s head, followed by the new girl’s scream, “That’s what you get, you foul rotter!”

Chainman, for his part, staggered. The beastkins’ attacks hurt him, but her allies' efforts were barely fruitful. At least until Saki suddenly materialised out of the shadows and stabbed him in the back. Her dagger penetrated a fraction of an inch, but a wave of darkness spread over the metallic skin, and he stiffened ever so slightly.

But, he was a Master Binder. A Knight Captain equivalent, and he wasn’t easy to bring down.

Some of the metal around his biceps unfurled and became new chains. They stabbed out, each beastkin hit with a couple of chains.

“Aiyih!” Kassy’s pained scream filled the air, while the wolves whimpered as they staggered back. Yuriko met Kassy’s eyes, and in them, she saw regret and guilt. They made to move back, but the chainman now divided some of his focus on them. Foolish choice.

With his attention divided, less of his Will was in the chains surrounding Yuriko. Perhaps he thought it wouldn’t matter and that he was draining her quickly enough. Yuriko smirked as she flooded the chains wrapped around her with Radiant energy. And then…

At first, she intended to melt the rotting things off, but she suddenly felt…control. Enough Radiant energy filled the chain links that there was more of it there than actual steel. And anything that had Radiant energy, especially one that was imprinted by her Will, was hers to command.

The chains unravelled from her body and turned completely gold. The colour spread towards the chainman, and he looked at them with mounting horror.

“What have you done?!” he gasped.

But a moment later, she felt him reasserting his Will. The chains were his anyway, and he had the greater claim. She could feel her Radiant energy bleeding out, and the golden colour slowly lightened, as he slowly regained control. Except…she was now free.

Fri’Avgi dropped into her hand, and the chainman barely had time to blink before the artefact’s blade, enhanced with the fused dances slammed onto his shoulder. The Animus edge cut into the metallic body, carved downwards into the centre of his torso before catching. With a grunt, Yuriko stepped closer and applied more leverage, then added all of the force her kinesis could muster, and with a great heave, cut him in twain.

As his two halves fell apart, it quickly became apparent that many of his internal organs and skeletal system had been turned into chains. Tiny, tiny chains, but the links were visible should she focus. Blood, metallic grey and red combined, polled out under him, soaked by the loose sand. He still had enough of his vitality to look Yuriko in the eye, his face a mask of resentment and denial. He tried to speak, but couldn’t draw breath. Instead, it was his Anima that vibrated and allowed him to speak, one last time.

“Golden…Terror. I…will not…go… without…” But before he could say anything else, his Anima faded away.

Yuriko snorted and spun Fri’Avgi in the air.

“Halt!” she yelled, and a ripple spread throughout the camp. Warriors on all sides froze. “The Master Binder is dead. Put down your weapons and surrender.”

The Haveenians and Kadracki warriors, awakened and unawakened alike, with fear painting their faces, all dropped to their knees and removed their weapons. The freed prisoners were stunned at first, but a ragged cheer rolled off their tongues.

“Free! We’re free! Sky spirits and Land gods! Thank you!”

Yuriko felt a smile tug at her lips, but she sighed. They celebrated now, but their troubles were far from over. It had been a short but brutal skirmish, with dozens dead and more wounded. The freed captives weren’t in any shape to move quickly either, and she was sure the reinforcements from Kadrac would come soon. She had conducted this rescue with the idea to free Izna and run, but…

These people…they looked at her with awe and adoration. Tears dripped down their faces, joy radiating from their eyes. Could she…?

“What now?” Heron stood next to her, his face a portrait of concern. Gwendith jumped down from the wagon roof she used to snipe at the guards and walked up next to her. Desire hadn’t stopped singing, but now it was her hymn of healing.

“I…”

Yuriko looked at the people hugging each other and crying. Even the beastkin, Kassy and the two wolf sibs, as well as a dozen other younger-looking beastkin, were looking around in awe. Half of those gazes were directed at her, and actually, those gazes multiplied and lasted longer and longer.

“Your hood,” Gwendith giggled.

“Oh.” Yuriko sighed and reached up to pull it over her head, but stopped when she heard a collective gasp of protest. Shrugging, she let the hood fall back. The secret was out anyway. And besides…her braid unravelled and she used her kinesis to pull her hair into a high ponytail. Feels much better.

“Reinforcements could come soon,” Heron said. “If we’re leaving, we should go now.”

“Yuri, we can’t just leave them,” Gwendith said slowly. “They’ll be recaptured and nothing will change.”

They stopped as Izna hobbled towards them. His cheeks were sunken and he had dark circles under his eyes. He also had a worried smile on his face.

“Braden, Orrin.” He nodded to the twins. “Miss Davar. I thank you. We thank you. But I must ask, and I know this is presumptuous and ungrateful, but will you help us escape?”

“Yes.” Yuriko said firmly, decision made. “We have to go as soon as we can. Away from Kadrac. Head towards…”

Here she hesitated, looking at east, west, and south. West led to the Chaos Sea, where only she could survive if they breached the Veil. South led to Uaran, and the Rumiga Ocean. Except they had wagons instead of barges, so…

East led to the Zarek Mountains. There was a chance to negotiate with the Avos, or if not, there was a lot of wilderness between the mountains and the city-states. They were also at the edge of a desert. Normally, heading deeper into it without sufficient supplies would be a suicide run, but she could easily gather the distilled Chaos to transform to water, and she was sure there was more than enough sources of food underneath, hiding from heat.

“East,” Yuriko decided. “We’ll head towards the Zarek and see if we can find safe passage. Or even just a safe haven.”

As for their mission, well, stopping the flow of prisoners headed to Uaran would work, too.

“What about these?” Braden asked coldly as he gestured towards the former guards, “Do we…?”

A burst of panic washed over the guards. The others had gathered them all here, and Yuriko could see there were a bit more than fifty of them, just a bit higher than the former prisoners.

“What?” Yuriko asked Braden.

“Do you want to set them free? Or silence them?” He asked rhetorically. They couldn’t just release the guards, and she wasn’t sure if her Mien could handle all of them. She looked at them for a long moment.

“Please, mistress,” one of the young men on his knees said fervently, “let us serve you.”

Yuriko blinked in surprise and looked at the others. The unawakened all had that look behind their eyes, and the awakened, the Intermediate Binders, were the same. Even the single Adept Binder who lived was gazing at her with a fervent light.

“All of you…?”

Gwendith hugged Yuriko and chuckled, “I guess that solves a few problems.”

“I don’t want slaves!” Yuriko protested vehemently.

“Then let them go once we’re out of immediate danger. Though I doubt they’d want to go.”

Yuriko sighed. She could unbind them later. “Help the others. I want us out of here in five minutes.”

“Yes, mistress!” came the enthusiastic cry, and Yuriko just sighed.