My. How luxurious.

‘Huh?’ Yuriko sent back, jolted out of her daze. She was neck-deep in the bathtub, the hot water steamed and obscured the rest of the room. It was already dark outside and the soft light from the light panels didn’t give much illumination. It was relaxing though. The panels had been scribed by Orrin, and Yuriko noted the neatness of his hand in the lines. It was finer than what she normally used, and while it didn’t reach the mastery of the runescript lines back in the Mishala Clan’s palace in Aerule Garden, well, those were probably made by grandmaster crafters.

The chocolate truffle. There was a hundredth of a drop of Ambrosia in its core, and the entire thing was set to give pleasure. You’re still under its effects.

‘I am?’ Yuriko mumbled. Eating that single truffle had been incredibly heady. It affected her even more than wine or mead, and even now, she still felt a lingering warmth. In fact, her skin seemed a bit sensitive right now, and the sloshing water against her bosom gave her tingles and made her shiver. ‘Ambrosia? But, isn’t that incredibly expensive, and wasteful just for chocolate?’

You’d think that, but no. Damien chuckled. Every use of Ambrosia will benefit you in some way. The feeling you’re having now…well, the next time you imbibe something similar to it, you’ll be more resistant, and more aware so that you can better control yourself. Then he snorted. I don’t know why your fiance has that, but maybe his mom gave it to him. It’s way too luxurious for his station.

‘If you say so,’ Yuriko sent back languidly. She was lost in the sensations of the water stroking her skin, and her body felt really hot too. Not feverish, at least. So she simply soaked in the tub, using her Radiant energy to keep it comfortably hot, until most of the sensitivity ebbed away.

Afterwards, she had her dinner and went to bed. The next morning, however, just before she got to the breakfast line, Gwendith pounced on her, followed by Desire. Heron waved at her and approached with a wide smile.

“Happy birthday!”

“Oh.” Yuriko blinked in surprise. It was the 20th Day of Earth already? Huh. “Uhm, thanks.”

The others who heard the three of them exclaim called out greetings. Yuriko couldn’t help but smile. The past three years since her Atavism Ritual had been eventful. Her three birthdays couldn’t have been more diverse. One year, she’d been lost in a wild plane, the next, she celebrated in Realmheart, feasted and entertained by the Mishala Clan’s exotic affairs. And now, out in the wilderness of Rumiga, amid friends, but no family.

“You aren’t going out today,” Gwendith declared. “We’re celebrating!”

“Eh, but…”

“No! We’re taking a break. You’ve been pushing too much.” Gwendith whispered, “Please.”

“Oh. Alright.”

There wasn’t much to celebrate with. Certainly no foods, sweets, or wine. Well, the supplies lifted from the caravan included a few barrels of ale, but those had been drained long since. Instead, they swapped stories, reminisced, and joked all morning. After lunch, somebody broke out a flute and played a merry melody, prompting people to listen. Someone drummed on the water barrels, and soon enough, they were dancing.

Heron, Orrin, and Braden whirled her into dance. Simple patterns for couples. At least for the first few songs. Gwendith demanded to dance, too, and it was only Yuriko’s incredible agility that prevented her from staggering or stepping on the other’s toes since she had been forced to lead. It was a funny experience and something she hadn’t encountered before. Desire asked to dance as well even if she’d been the one singing and humming.

Afterwards, the group dances began and Yuriko was treated to the patterns the Haveenians and Kadracki used. She and the others from Faron’s Crossing taught the harvest festival round, being the only one she knew. Heron wasn’t really much of a dancer either. She enjoyed it when they were paired up though, ironically since he was now taller than she and made dancing the pattern easier.

She was flattered, really, since the entire caravan stopped everything to celebrate. But there was still that little feeling that she was wasting time. A day of rest wasn’t so bad, and the chance to unwind did wonders for her mind. When she meditated that evening, it was with a light heart and clear mind.

The next day, she began to push ahead with scouting, opting to continue with the path she already explored. The others followed behind her, marking the easier paths for the horses and people. The wagons were being dismantled, and most of the wood boards were left behind. The undercarriage parts were the ones that were saved, since those were the more intricate works, and were made out of steel. Carving a new wagon bed was easy enough with the prevalence of wood anyway.

Anyway, the major challenges so far were the canyon, and then the cliff face. For the canyon, a bridge could be made, or they could just jump over, with Yuriko and the other Knights carrying the others. Her Anima reach could cover three-fourths of the distance if she was on one side, and if she suspended herself in the middle, she could actually bridge the distance by herself. Then she could use her Animakinesis to ferry people and horses over with little trouble.

The cliff was a mystery since she hadn’t explored the area above it yet. The side areas were a bust, with the south ending in a cul-de-sac and the north leading to an even taller cliff. She reached her previous stopping point in a few minutes and she headed towards where the cliff was shorter. It was still fifty paces straight up though.

At least this wasn’t a sheer climb but was slightly more forgiving. There were enough handholds and if they drove pitons and secured rope, it would be an easy climb even for the remaining unawakened. Again, it was the horses that would present an issue, but her Animakinesis was strong enough to carry them anyway. However, she’d end up doing everything if things continued as they were. Did she mind though?

Hmmm, not really.

The top of the cliff opened up into a gentler slope that curved around a mountain peak. That one towered nearly a longstride above her, but the lower slopes could be walked on. Heading due east, she followed the valleys that twisted and turned, until she’d penetrated another league into the mountain range and once again encountered a near impassable barrier.

A deep gorge cut across the valley, which continued on beyond it. The gorge was roughly a hundred paces across, at least from where she stood now. The valley behind her was only sporadically forested, with enough clear and continuous spaces that they could rebuild the wagons to travel, although the gorge put a stop to that idea. She had left markers behind her, of course, cutting branches from the trees and carved runescript patterns on the tip to draw in ambient Chaos and then to emit soft Animus light. She estimated it would take a couple of days or so for the caravan to get to this point. It was beginning to get dark though, so she turned back to return.

By the time she got back to camp, the wagons had been cannibalized and everyone was ready to move the next day. On the 22nd Day of Earth, they moved towards the small canyon and spent the next few hours ferrying people over.

As Yuriko expected, she’d been the one to bridge the gap, instead of building an actual bridge, which would have taken more time. The horses, at first, didn’t even want to come close to the edge, but once she spread her light over them, they turned quite passive and allowed her to move them over the gap.

Once they were all across, Yuriko sped ahead to continue her scouting while the others made their way to the cliff face. Heron and the other boys, along with Sheamus, went with her to the cliff, and they began securing the pitons and rope to help with the ascent. The others trekked across the valley woods, following the game trails rather than cutting their own path.

The other scouts had marked the way since Yuriko used the arboreal highway. If only the horses could fly…but might as well wish for the Radiant Sun in a pendant.

She reached the wider gorge by midafternoon and explored southwards to see if it would narrow enough so she could repeat the same bridge technique, but even by the time the sun set, the gorge only grew wider, albeit shallower. It was still hundreds of paces down, however, and the bottom was also filled with white water rapids. The sound of the river echoed up the gorge and nearly drowned out everything within a dozen paces of the gorge too.

By the time evening came along, Yuriko was left with a choice to either camp out here, or return to the cliff. If she went back, she could help with the horses tomorrow, but if she pressed on, she wouldn’t waste time backtracking. Of course, she didn’t know how the others would carry the horses up the cliff. But then, maybe she should just trust in the others’ abilities? Well, she had to go look anyway, and she needed to explore the other side, too.

She ate a ration bar on the way back. One good thing about being away from the desert was that there was enough game to be hunted and they didn’t need to rely on the Wayfarer’s bread for sustenance. The horses ate the bread too since grass or hay was in rather short supply. The dozen nags had actually regained the weight they lost during the desert crossing.

The next day, she watched as most of her caravan climbed up the cliff with little issue. She told Dominic Hurin she wanted to continue scouting ahead and asked if he could find a way to carry the horses up the cliff without her help.

“Of course, my lady. We have devised a way without needing your efforts. You aren’t a workhorse, my lady, and it shamed me that you had to carry us across the canyon before.”

Yuriko waved it off and chuckled, though she felt uncomfortable at his fawning tone. “No matter. I will help if it would take too long otherwise. How do you intend to do it?"

“Well, the horses will be put to sleep and carried up using harnesses.”

Which was exactly what they did. One of the ex-guards had a suppression technique which forced paralysis actually, rather than sleep. But one of the farmers, Ruby Foley, was used to controlling livestock, and as long as the animal couldn’t go out of her immediate range, she could sedate them with her technique.

Sure enough, they managed to bring all one dozen horses up the cliff with little trouble, except for the fact that it took them more than an hour to regain mobility. The wide gorge would probably take them a couple of days to get to, so she had ample time to explore. They were a fifth of the way to the centre of the Zarek Mountains, and hopefully, it shouldn’t take more than two or three weeks to get there, even if she wasn’t exactly sure if the centre was fifty longstrides or leagues from the outer foothills.

Going northwards along the canyon, she eventually found a narrow enough spot to easily cross. Afterwards, she continued scouting out the valley. They proceeded for the next two weeks, with nothing really noteworthy happening.

Looking back westward, she realised that they had been steadily climbing higher and higher. The clouds suddenly seemed within easy reach, and it got colder and colder until they finally reached the snow line. However, less than a couple of leagues later, the path they followed suddenly began to descend. And finally, on the 34th Day of Earth, she climbed one final ridge and found a wide valley laid out beneath.

It was covered in thick forests, but quite a few things stood out. Fog lingered across the landscape, making the distant mountain wall nothing more than shadow. But it didn’t fully conceal a tall obsidian tower to the south of her perch, and maybe a few other similar structures scattered across the ten-league-wide valley.