The Silver Tiger’s training rooms did include a space to work on Yuriko’s Sorcery. It was a reinforced chamber that funnelled the outside Chaos into it, allowing for easier Shaping, while also keeping the area close to planar stability. After all, Sorcery became Shaping in the Chaos Sea, and the differences were painfully obvious. For one thing, ambient Chaos within a plane was remarkably inert, though only in comparison to Tidelands, Chaos Channels, and the Sea.

Out here, the Chaos responds so easily to errant thoughts that just a slight inattention could bring disaster. Shaping was easier than Sorcery, without need for runescript reinforcement and boundaries. All it took was focus, Intent, and Will.

Sorcery, on the other hand, forced ambient Chaos to act like Chaos outside of planes, uncontrolled by the phases of the Luminous Moon. Infusing Animus, which was the bearer of the Sorceress’ Will and Intent, was a necessary step that simply wasn’t that needed with Shaping.

The rest of it was a matter of knowledge and discipline.

At the moment, Yuriko was dissecting the Flight of the Burning Falcon spell from Aunt Kiyo’s spell book. She also cross-referenced Mum’s Calling the Azure Carriage, but the two spells didn’t have many things in common. She thought Burning Falcon would have been easy to learn since it was an attack spell like her Radiant Lance, but nothing was farther from the truth.

Radiant Lance was her original spell. Making it had been the fruit of her efforts and her Ennoia. It had formed instinctively, while Burning Falcon was a spell created millennia ago, and had been in Sharom Academy’s grimoires for most of that time. The thought processes to make it, as well as the shaping pattern at the fourth step of Sorcery felt just a bit off.

Mentally reviewing the six steps of Sorcery, Yuriko enumerated them in her mind, while parts of her consciousness traced the patterns amongst both spell books.

Sense, Gather, Alter, Shape, Bound, Release.

Comparing Radiant Lance with Burning Falcon, even the second step of gathering ambient Chaos was already different. The latter spell required gathering ambient Chaos with fire elemental properties in ascendance. But not too much fire, either. Wind elemental energies, as well as an esoteric component called mind? Either way, it was the particle in Chaos that could turn into sentient life. That particular one wasn’t too rare but was also rather base. Part of the spell mandala involved refining and condensing the mind aspect so as to impart into the Burning Falcon the capability to know where she wanted it to go, which enemy it must target, and how to get there without detonating prematurely.

That part of the mandala changed depending on the circumstances. Not just regarding the targets, but also depending on where it was cast, what its orientation was, as well as if it was cast during the day or night. And it also depends on which phase the Luminous Moon was at.

The spell book had the pattern variations and it was really only a matter of memorizing the patterns, but if Yuriko wanted to merge it with her Radiant Lance, she’d have to learn how exactly it worked. And that part of the mandala, once she got a closer look, had more complex, headache-inducing arithmetic than she’d ever seen.

With a sigh, she gave up on fiddling with the spell and settled down to learn to Shape it manually instead. She can’t quite cast the full spell here, and to properly include it in her Implement, the full-powered spell must be cast. Instead, she could just prime it so that it’ll be easier to do once she’s back in Rumiga.

She spent the rest of the morning memorising Flight of the Burning Falcon before she tried her Mum’s spell. That one left her scratching her head in annoyance. She could actually feel her Radiant Lance Implement actively resist the spell. When she tried to alter the ambient Chaos into the prescribed attributes, the Implement almost forcibly changed it to Radiant. She struggled fruitlessly with the spell until the call of her tummy broke her out of it.

Frustrated beyond belief, she trudged to the cafeteria and ate a mountain of food, half of which were parfaits, before her dark mood eased.

Tapping her lips with her fingertip, Yuriko abruptly realised that she hadn’t seen her friends, aside from Desire and Gwendith, in over a week. The Silver Tiger was much bigger on the inside than she expected, so there was ample room to get lost in. She wondered if cousin Miya found what she was looking for. Granted, she wasn’t eager to walk into the older girl while she was riding someone again, but she was the only female relative that was close to her age.

The crew eating in the cafeteria studiously kept the focus on their meal, though she caught surreptitious glances her way that she caught with her perception. Nothing to be done about that, but she also noticed that her Mien threads had spread out into the ship, too. It intersected with other golden threads, but the ones she identified from Miya and her Mum avoided hers. Curious. Mum had been busy enough that she hadn’t actually managed to give her that lesson about controlling her Mien.

Instead, it was Aunt Kiyo who debriefed her on her Mien usage a few days earlier.

“Death command already?” Kiyo gasped. “That’s one of the most difficult things you can do with your Mien?”

“Er, I was infuriated at the time.” Yuriko shuddered. “And it was on a battlefield, against daemons. Weak daemons…” Yuriko began only to hesitate when she realised that what was weak to her was rather formidable on its own. “Well, daemons that were roughly the strength of a Journeyman, I think.”

“No matter, hmm.” Kiyo fiddled with her crystal screen, recording what Yuriko told her. “Your deviation from the standard is only in how your Mien expresses itself.” Kiyo grinned, “You’re very possessive and you block other mental influences from affecting those already tied to you. As for your earlier problem with the exercises, well, I’ve prepared a set of alternate methods to increase your control. You’re a very instinctive user and things get away from you, but you’ll find that the more you accept it as part of yourself, and the more you use it, the easier it is to control…”

Most of the things included in the training manual were to actually experience as many things as she could. Things she found pleasure in, circumstances she wouldn’t want to find herself in, and other extreme methods, including indulging in pleasures of the flesh. There was even a handbook on how to ensure that her fertility control was not disrupted…

Shaking her head, it was only the fact that her incarnations back then had spent most of their lives in carnal pleasures that prevented her face from busting aflame.

The other method was turning into an ascetic but that process had a warning. If she did that, abstaining from everything, there was a chance that if she broke down, her temperament would go wild and she’d seek out everything she avoided. However, if she stuck to the discipline, she’d find out that her Mien would be as obedient as a puppy thereafter.

Sounded boring, risky, and a pain. Yuriko hummed to herself. She found herself thinking of Heron and the inadvertent moment they shared underneath the oak tree, and here she flushed. While her incarnations had experienced many things, she did not. Shaking her head, she wondered if she should invite him, or Gwendith to…er…never mind. Maybe after the Chaos Duke was dealt with.

Hmm, or maybe now was the time to let loose? After all, who knew if they would emerge triumphant?

Slapping her cheeks with both hands, she muttered to herself, “Defeat is in the mind. If I think I will lose before I even fight, then I’ve done half the work for my foe.” She wouldn’t act as if she would die. No, she believed herself to emerge victorious no matter the odds.

She felt her mood lift and confidence flowed into her veins. She floated the dirty plates and glasses into the bussing area and was about to return to the training room when an orderly hurried up to her.

“Lady Yuriko, the captain and Lady Sadeen request your presence at the bridge,” the young woman said solemnly.

“Alright, lead the way.”

“Yes, young mistress.”

When they arrived at the bridge, it wasn’t just the captain and her Mum who were there. Da, Saki, the leader of the marines, Horace Greenfield, as well as the rest of Da’s team, were gathered around one of the view screens.

“Mum?” Yuriko asked, though her perception was already examining the screen. The Silver Tiger was travelling through the edges of Fysallis, effectively bypassing the one-day travel time through each Waypoint. It was a technique that Yuriko was eager to learn but was told it had less to do with technique and more with power. The Tiger’s Animus engines’ output was nearly a million lumens of photonic Animus every minute, so…

“There’s trouble,” Mum said when she noticed Yuriko arrive. She dismissed the orderly and beckoned for her to approach.

“What kind?” Yuriko couldn’t help but sigh. Nothing was ever easy. She also had people she had to retrieve from Synkasia, come to think of it. But then, her power practically tripled after their trip to Irvalla, so she wasn’t sure if it was really a waste of time.

“Look.”

While her perception could detect the screen, what was in it was a bit harder to actually see. When she finally got a glimpse, she grunted as if someone had kicked her.

The view was that of the area in front of the Tiger’s bow. She could see Rumiga in the distance, as well as the intervening Fysallis. Unfortunately, every single Waypoint in between was fortified and under siege.

They were still a couple of Waypoints away from the action, and they were only able to see that far because of the ship’s advanced Animatech. That and there were a couple of scout ships in front of the Tiger that was relaying information back to them.

Her eyes roamed across the fleet formations, finding many of them from the Imperial navy. The opposing ships were clearly Chaos dwellers. There was a uniformity that she didn’t expect, however, in the dwellers’ ships. They all looked like squids. Humongous squids that rivalled the size of each opposing Chaos ship.

The uniformity of the Chaos dweller’s vessels was also accentuated by the fact that the Imperial Chaos ships weren’t made of homogeneous elements. Many looked like merchant ships like the Ebon Horizon, with only the core ships looking like the sleek metal look of the Tiger, which was more a work of art than a practical shape. What advanced Imperial ships there looked like arrowheads, with cannon emplacements at the bow.

The Imperials were blasting a fusillade of plasma while the squidships agilely avoided it. But the attacks were so thick that there was no way to avoid every blow. Even so, the squids moved back as soon as they were wounded and were covered by their fellows. And new squids came out to replace them.

One of the Imperial ships, a greenish affair that looked somewhat familiar, appeared to have noticed them. A shuttle was sent out towards them.

“That’s the Green Swan,” Virgil observed. “Vagaris’ flagship.”

“The old legion.” Balliol observed, “I guess we shouldn’t be surprised.”

“What now?” Yuriko asked, and the adults looked at her and smiled.

“It looks like we won’t be heading into Rumiga anytime soon,” Virgil said. “And we will probably be called to battle. It’s been decades since I fought at old man Segawa’s side. I wonder if he’s any closer to Imperius since last time.”

“Unlikely,” Inquisitor Gorlyn said. “The two Knights Imperius won’t see any new peers soon.”

“You’re rather proud,” Mum rebuked. “Anyway, the shuttles coming within hailing distance.” She smirked, “If it were any other time, the Mishala clan would refuse, but since Rumiga is our goal…”

She turned to Yuriko. “Looks like we’ll put Eli’Theria through her paces soon.”