Skreeee!

The screech echoed into their corridor and Yuriko glanced back. Of course, the only thing she saw was the far wall, but it wasn’t hard to imagine that another rift had formed from the siphoned Animus. She wasn’t actually sure if the only exit to that chamber was the corridor they were using, so she figured she’d have to go back and make sure that whatever had come out of the rift would be dealt with.

“Go without me. I’ll return soon.”

“But…!” Gwendith raised a protest, but Yuriko had already rushed towards the turn. When she reached it and looked down the far end, she saw pale purple lights. And before she could reach that turn, something else did.

It was a lizard. Something akin to a house lizard but about the size of a land raptor, and with six legs. Its big eyes were a mesmerizing mix of different hues, while its skin was a blend of bluish-green. It flicked its tongue out, and a sound, not unlike the susurration to crackling leaves, hissed out. The lizard stared at her for a long moment, then the crackling leaves sound changed.

Crackle! Pop!

Like burning grass and twigs. Dark smoke drifted out from its skin and covered it in its entirety. Yuriko’s sunshards circled around her protectively, and she dared not take the risk to glance away. The moment it moved, she struck.

The sunshards penetrated through the cloud of inky darkness, but they cut through without hitting anything. The crackling sounds were still there, and she backed away warily until she felt something enter her sphere of perception.

A hasty sidestep saved her from the projectile, which splashed into the ground behind her.

Hissss!

A sizzling sound and an acrid stench. The stone floor pitted as the liquid corroded it away.

Whoosh!

Another shot. She sidestepped it too and traced it back to its source. It came not from the cloud, but a couple of paces beyond it. She blasted it with sunshards, and a crackling hiss and shriek, along with bright blue-green blood, rewarded her efforts.

Thump! Thump!

Once the cloud cleared, all that remained was a fleshy bit of tail that twitched and writhed. Exactly like a house lizard.

But then, the flesh sloughed off the tail, exposing tail bones…

Hzzzrtt!

Which then burst into fragments and shrapnel.

“Ugh!” Yuriko grunted as the fragments impacted her condensed Anima.

The spread covered the entire hallway, and a dozen paces too. She pulled back, and glared, waiting for the lizard to reappear, but after several minutes, nothing else came. The coloured lights beyond the turn disappeared too, and she hoped that the rifts had closed. She cautiously moved towards the chamber, but before she could take more than a couple of steps…

“Yuri!” Gwendith hissed at her.

“Eh?”

“Come on! We found the way out!”

“Oh! Alright.” With a last glance towards the portal chamber, she followed behind Gwendith.

“You got it?” Gwendith asked after they rounded the turn.

“No, it disappeared and left a trap,” Yuriko said sourly.

“Oh. You think it might cause trouble later?”

“Probably,” Yuriko agreed. “The night watch will have to be wary. Or we should move away…”

“Yeah…”

Gwendith fidgetted. She opened her mouth a couple of times but ultimately didn’t say anything. As they rounded another corner, Yuriko saw a spiralling stairway. The steps were chipped and uneven, not to mention parts of it were covered in slippery moss. The stairs turned towards the right as they ascended and were narrow and uncomfortable to climb. Yuriko unconsciously counted the steps, and there were thirty-three before they finally arrived at the top. Which turned out to be another room, but from the mottled light, they were at least on the surface. She could see a door at the far end, and there were vines and leaves hanging down from the top. The others were already outside, and the two of them emerged into a hillside, in the midst of tumbled stones, and broken wood.

There was a stone wall twenty paces away which was broken at several places. More than a few trees grew in the courtyard, and one had even grown through the building they came out of. Across the gaps in the wall, Yuriko could see even more trees.

The skies were blue, with thin wispy clouds. It was a beautiful morning, with the Radiant Sun just visible behind the woods. Except…the sunlight that fell on her skin felt…strange.

The others were recovering from the ordeal of battle on top of the nauseating portal journey, underneath the shade of the trees. A few kept watch while the others meditated, or just sat down to rest. Yuriko frowned at the sight. She’d just fought off a…colour shifting, acid-spitting, lizard and they were just sitting there?

But then, from their pale faces, and traces of more vomit, they weren’t exactly at their best shape.

“Do you feel strange?” Gwendith muttered. “I can’t help but feel it. Something’s…different.”

“I do,” Yuriko answered slowly.

She couldn’t quite put her finger on the feeling. The warmth of the Radiant Sun should have been comforting, especially after several weeks underground, where the only time she saw the Radiant Sun and the Luminous Moon, as well as the Chaos flows, was what was reflected on the faux skies of Synkrasia and its satellite cities. The sun she felt now, felt just as thin. As though the skies were still a reflection of the real one. Were they still underground?

When she said as much, Gwendith looked thoughtful but then shook her head. “Can you feel the winds? What can you smell?”

Yuriko took a deep breath. There was the dew and the scent of crushed leaves. Of flowers in bloom. She didn’t recognise the floral tones, however, and even the wildflowers growing in the courtyard looked different.

Well, they were on a different plane, she supposed. She was pretty sure that Siderious was not in Rumiga. Damien?

She tilted her head, waiting for a response, but none came. She snorted in annoyance. Where was his annoying voice now? She closed her eyes for a long moment and cast around her mind. She noticed his presence almost immediately, but soon realised that he was in deep slumber.

‘Damien!’

She called out, but he didn’t stir. Huh. She checked her Radiant energy reserves and found them to be full. But then…her Animus reserve!

During the battle, she’d crafted several sunshards, ran her fused sword dances, and boosted her physique with the aid of her Anima. She’d spent roughly four hundred lumens or so, with each sunshard costing ten to create. With the Animus gathering runescript patterns in her Anima, she recovered one lumen every three seconds. It’s been more than twenty minutes since the end of the fight, and her reserves should have been full!

Instead, she’d recovered a grand total of…four lumens. She froze at the realisation.

Animus recovery for her had been mostly automatic ever since she created her Animus reserve and regeneration runescript weaving. Before then, Animus recovered completely after a full night’s sleep, or about an eighth of one’s full reserve every hour. That time was cut in half when awake, but resting, and by another half with light activity. Full activity meant no recovery at all. Ah, the fraction of recovery was derived from the Animus contained within the body’s reserves, and not from what she could store in her Anima. Not that it mattered by that point since her weaving allowed her to recover Animus no matter what she was doing.

But why was her runescript weaving failing now?

She looked at Gwendith’s face, which was pale and covered in cold sweat. She looked at the others who were in the midst of their own meditative trances. Meditation allowed one to recover Animus at a rate between rest and sleep, but with the time they’ve spent so far, they wouldn’t have recovered enough Animus to be noticeable.

Out of a hunch, she activated Chaos Sight.

Where was the ambient Chaos?

“You noticed it too?” Gwendith touched Yuriko’s arm. “There’s barely any ambient Chaos. I…thought I was hallucinating.”

“You asked the others?”

“Not yet. But I’ll do it now.” Gwendith marched towards Heron and the twins. The larger boy was cleaning his gear, while Orrin and Braden were in a seated meditation pose.

Yuriko headed towards the tree growing out of the building. It was quite tall and she thought its crown rose above the woodland canopy. She leapt up to the lowest branch and saw Saki a couple of branches higher. Her handmaiden and Shadow Guard had a stiff expression and normally, she would be cloaked by the shadows. That she wasn’t now was disconcerting.

Yuriko met her gaze, and being Saki’s yellow eyes, she saw deep concern. Maybe even fear.

“It’s hard to control my Animus,” Saki said as soon as Yuriko climbed up to her branch. “Look.”

She coated the bottom of her feet with it and pressed it against the trunk. With a look of concentration, she stepped up, sticking to the vertical trunk easily. But then, the Animus glow attenuated and Saki wobbled, and ended up leaping off, and backflipping back onto the branch.

“The slightest distraction and…”

The Animus dissipated into the air and faded away. Yuriko had activated Chaos Sight and watched the lumens denature into ambient Chaos. But then, the motes drifted away into the wind and dispersed quickly. “I’ve never been to a plane with so little ambient Chaos. I think the iarvesh level isn’t even at 0.1.”

“Siderious is in the Firmament?” Yuriko asked.

“It seems so,” Saki said. “I don’t know how those Warforged were able to function here. They drew ambient Chaos out of the air to power themselves.” The two of them continued to climb until they reached the treetop. A casual survey turned into intense scrutiny.

To the south were tall, snowcapped mountains. To the east were more hills and woods, but only for a couple of leagues or so. Afterwards, the land looked to have been cultivated, though it lay fallow now. Strange, it was still the Season of Earth. Planting and growing Season.

To the west were more plains, with small hills and ridges. Muddy hills and plains. And to the northeast, perhaps five or so leagues away, they could see what looked like the roofs of several buildings. Strange.

She almost activated Enhanced Sight but stopped herself at the last moment. She…shouldn’t be wasting her Animus like that…

Saki’s eyes glowed with Animus, however, and when Yuriko pointed out her troubles, her Shadow Guard said, “Intelligence gathering is never a waste of Animus.”

Well, Saki acted as a scout more often than not, so it made sense why she thought like that. Anyway, Yuriko stared at the distant town, noting white plumes of smoke. Either cook fires or chimneys, she thought. Saki shuddered lightly when the breeze blew, so Yuriko supposed that the weather was a bit nippy.

There was a road, dirt and muddy, mostly, that ran from the town towards where they were. Well, to the base of the hill, she presumed, since the road split and went towards the east and west about a couple of longstrides from the bottom of the hill.

Booom! Booom!

Both of them snapped their eyes towards the west. The sound rolled across the hills, but Yuriko wasn’t sure what caused it. There was a small black cloud over there, but definitely no thunder. The booming sounds continued for a long while, but when nothing else happened, she climbed back down to the courtyard. It looked as though Gwendith had finished speaking with the others, and from the distressed looks, they only noticed the thin, practically nonexistent ambient Chaos.

Yuriko swallowed and looked at Desire. Her Chaos Lord was looking even more pale, but at least she wasn’t losing too much of her aspected Chaos. And it just occurred to Yuriko…

Without ambient Chaos, how was she to create distilled Chaos? And that problem she had to find a solution for, otherwise, Desire might starve to death.