Saki left the next morning, after a brief, yet poignant goodbye to Yuriko. Her Shadow Guard had actually spent that time clinging to her while sniffling, all the while commiserating that her young mistress wouldn’t have protection and had spilt a hundred and one worries, most of which included mundane matters such as her privacy while bathing, finding the right tea for breakfast, and other such things.

Yuriko humoured the older woman, patting her on the back and returning the hugs. Saki’s expression had returned to normal by the time she left, however, with little evidence of tears and snot except for what stained Yuriko’s poncho. Those were easy enough to clean, so she wasn’t all that bothered.

While the caravan readied to leave, Yuriko’s thoughts whirled around the previous battle, and an idea solidified in her mind. The ex-guards were a bit too weak for her taste, even Adept Dominic Hurin, according to what Saki reported earlier, hadn’t been that much more effective against the nameless than Heron or Gwendith, despite being an entire Anima level above them.

She…didn’t she train some of the warriors in the Frozen Camp? Their improvement was slight, but it was better than nothing. An hour or two spent training, especially if they knew Recovery, would do wonders to make them stronger. Maybe the edge would allow them to survive the next battle.

A fight was inevitable, she knew. If not the Federation, then the forces from the Chaos Fortress, Baratrum. Wielder spoke about that place, and what she revealed made it more imperative that it must be closed. She included that in her letter to Finan. He could send word to Rumiga City, even go there if he had to. The Ducal Houses there should follow his lead. He was an Imperial Prince after all.

Mind made up, she walked to the middle of the camp and cleared her throat. The sudden silence and immediate attention somewhat threw her off a bit, considering she hadn’t been all that loud. There was an awkward few seconds of silence when she just stared at them, but the attention never wavered, and there was no sign of impatience on their faces.

“I will train those who want to be stronger…”

That was as far as she got before all of them, beastkin included, gasped then came closer, babbling all the while.

“...want to get stronger. I don’t want to be helpless again.”

“..don’t want to kill…”

“...will follow whatever she wants…”

There were less than a hundred of them now. A dozen had died in the battle, and Saki just left. Eighty-five people. Forty-three were unawakened. Aside from her own team, only Hurin was an Adept. Half of the remaining ex-guards had been Apprentice level, Beginner by their own classification, she amended her thoughts. Well, most of the casualties were the Beginners, and there were roughly four of them left in the guards. Twenty with the civilians. There were seventeen Intermediate level binders across both groups. Ah, she hadn’t counted the beastkin in those numbers.

She trained unawakened children back in Faron’s Crossing. She trained Apprentice and Journeyman level warriors in the Frozen Camp. She watched them grow in skill and power, even with the brief time she spent. If she could do so for this group, it would increase their chances of surviving another attack.

The brief thought of leaving them crossed her mind. No deaths if there are no victims in sight. But no, it would be more dangerous for them to go back to Federation-controlled land. Besides, this was an argument she’d played in her head before and none of the recent events had changed anything.

Make sure you keep the unawakened within your light when they train. Damien said.

‘Yup, yup! You might get a surprise!’ Fri’Avgi echoed.

‘What?’ Yuriko thought to both of them.

‘Just do it! Heehee!’ the artefact spirit giggled.

Rolling her eyes, Yuriko swept her gaze around the clearing. “For an hour every morning, we will train with weapons. For an hour after setting camp in the evening, we will train the body.” She looked at her friends. “I will teach you Imperial techniques…” she shook her head. “Hmm, no, I will teach you my personal techniques of Recovery and a general version of Strengthen Physique. I don’t want more of us to die in battle.”

The murmuring reached a fevered pitch, and Izna Weyr, the very person who was the reason Yuriko and the others came after the caravan in the first place, stepped up. “Are you sure, Miss…Lady Yuriko? Those are the secrets of your nation.”

Yuriko smiled. “They are not. What I will teach you is different and something only I can teach you…” She tilted her head. “Well, maybe something you can learn from Synkrasia…” she trailed off in a low voice.

Izna chuckled and bowed. “We would be eternally grateful.”

“You probably won’t after you go through it,” Braden said ruefully, just loud enough for those around him to hear. And Izna, of course.

“Why?” the young man asked, puzzled.

Braden grinned. “I wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise.”

“Enough chatter,” Yuriko said. “Pick up your weapons.”

For the next ten minutes, she demonstrated the Four Phases of the Sword, the spear variation, as well as the one for a glaive. Well, the other weapon was a halberd rather than a glaive, but it shouldn’t be that much different, right?

Frowning to herself, she borrowed an ex-guard’s halberd, a young man named Ferwin who was just a little bit shorter than she was, but had toned muscles. His middle had a bit of a paunch, especially considering he was about twenty years old or so. Too much ale, Yuriko thought, but the physical training should firm up his core soon enough.

Her perception kept an eye on the others while they drilled, and occasionally she adjusted their forms and postures using her kinesis. They baulked at staying under her light, which she had returned to its usual golden glow, but when she explained that with it, she could more easily help, they agreed. Her Anima reach was at eight and a half paces from her skin, and with a diameter of just a bit more than seventeen paces wide, she could keep nearly fifty of them covered, though it was a bit crowded. Effectively, she could guide and train thirty at a time comfortably.

She’d work out a better schedule with Gwendith later, but the need to act had burned within her too much for her to delay this.

The halberd was a very different beast compared to a glaive, she soon realised. The axe head, the spearpoint, and the spike hook meant that there were more ways to strike with it than the glaive or the spear. She worked out the kinks after a few minutes. While she hadn’t used one before, she had trained with similar polearms. By the time it was time to go, the weapon allowed her to express the Four Phases properly.

More of them sat in the wagons now rather than walking. She taught Recovery to those capable of it. Mainly the awakened. That was frustrating. More than half of her students couldn’t use the most important part of what she could teach. So instead she had them stretch and relax during the day. As for the awakened, it took until midafternoon before they got the rudiments of the technique down.

The unawakened did their part to set up camp while she forced the others into physical training. And by the end of it, she was sure that whatever hold her Mien had on them had worn off, considering the resentful glares they were giving her. She had the unawakened do a less extreme form of training.

It was a rather satisfying day, and they were probably just a couple of days away from the next oasis town. However, she was sure that the unawakened wouldn’t be in any condition to train tomorrow, and they would have to rest in the wagons for the next couple of days. That was fine, she’d get them into proper shape, and as for the others, she’d have them become as good as the militia back home, at least.

_________

Iola Brygos held the needle of Nyctferrum carefully with her Domain. The tiny spot of corruption left within the Gemheart’s core sizzled as she pressed the needle’s tip, the metal corroding into acrid smoke. The taint receded ever so slightly and she frowned at the results. Too much Nyctferrum was being consumed now, and she worried that she didn’t have enough of it to finish the purification.

The core trembled at her actions, and she grinned. It should be soon now.

She pulled her consciousness from the core and returned to her body. When she opened her eyes it was as dark as the grave. On purpose, of course, as she had filled the chamber with her crystals. She felt no intrusion, but her attention was immediately riveted to a small box set on the tunnel floor just outside.

“Well done, Agatha,” she murmured. The box wasn’t even as long as her arm, but inside were several freshly-made Nyctferrum needles. Just enough to finish off the taint. It would take a few more weeks, but it would be done.

She rubbed her eyes wearily. She hadn’t slept for more than a couple of hours at a time since the attack happened. How many weeks has it been? Hours and days blurred together already.

“Hmm?”

She stumbled and her eyes widened in shock. She, who was a Knight Dominus, one of three hundred in the entire Empire, stumbled? What was…?

The chamber trembled, the earth shook. But where was it coming from? Her senses expanded as far as they could go, but even out to a longstride, she only felt the direction of the shaking. West. Towards the Zarek Mountains.

“Nothing to do with me,” Iola murmured as she pulled the Nyctferrum needles to her side and returned to the Gemheart Chamber. But as she readied herself to reenter the Gemheart core…

Tchiiiiink!

To her horror, the outer portion, the shell of the Gemheart shattered. Instead of the smooth bluish-green surface, it was instead covered with the very same taint that she had been trying to purge. The fog in her mind suddenly cleared.

“Burning Moon!”

What had she been seeing in the matrix core? The outer shell showed that the artefact was almost overcome. And with a quick check with her Domain, she realised that only the surface layer of the interior was still pure. How did she not see this? The Watcher!

Rage made her blood boil. No, the Gemheart! It…no, it is lost.

Rage melted away and fear, terror took over. The Gemheart…there was no way to purify this! She had to face reality. Why did the Watcher reveal this now instead of allowing her to wallow in her delusions? But, no, something must have happened. Why would he reveal his deception, after all?

In fact, as she watched the taint, it began to boil away. Little droplets pushed away from the artefact’s surface as it tried to cleanse itself. She could still help and cleanse it! Without hesitating, she controlled the Nyctferrum needles and jabbed them into the surface. Black smoke curled away from the points even as the layer of taint writhed.

“That’s right, suffer,” she gurgled angrily. “You rotter, may the Abyss devour your Anima!”

But it wasn’t enough. Days later, the taint’s surface had regained its calm, and all she had to show for nearly a dozen needles was an inch-wide circle.

The purified area was just as small on the inside of the matrix core. The two circles matched up, each one was moved when she created it, and it gave her the opportunity to get a glimpse of the inner working.

It was all black sludge. There were a few points that were still bluish-green, but they were isolated and slowly being corroded. And at the rate it was going, the Gemheart wouldn’t last to the end of the Season of Earth.

There was no other choice. She had to destroy the Gemheart.