The Gemheart under the Watchtower was roughly a pace wide and looked like a blue diamond in a brilliant cut. Four metal prongs held it aloft by the tip, while silvery metal connected around it radiated towards the wall and ceiling. Runescript lines were carved along the metal strip and Kiyo could see denatured Animus flowing into the Gemheart, and slightly aspected Animus flowing out. She could trace the lines of energy flowing into the Watchtower, which supplied Animus to keep the Protective Dome active, as well as the other wards and sensors.

Kiyo had gone straight to the Gemheart chamber as soon as the Silver Tiger landed and she’d been diagnosing the artefact since. She dared not interface with it directly and made use of varied crystal screens and instruments to measure the inflow and outflow, as well as the wards that kept the plane tethered. Those tethers were barely there now, though it kept Rumiga somewhat close to the Delovine plane. However, Kiyo knew that it wouldn’t last. They had a few Seasons before the tethers frayed even further, and the next thing they’d know, Rumiga would be floating alone in the Chaos Sea. If they were lucky, Vagaris or another Legion would find them again and reapply the tethers. Honestly, they needed a new Gemheart to stabilise the plane, but those things could only be made in Realmheart.

While part of her mind was occupied with measurement and comparisons, part of her thoughts lingered over the events of the past fifteen minutes. The chamber had not been deserted and had been occupied by a tawny-haired woman who was just a little bit taller than she was. Pretty too, with hazel eyes and short hair, though her bosom was quite modest.

Kiyo pursed her lips, and said, “Hello,” causing the other to jump and whirl to face her. She noted several spellwoven items latched on the other woman’s belt as well as the varied items secreted around her person. Chaos Sight didn’t exactly show where all of the spellwoven items were, but Kiyo was a Jade Circle Sorceress and she could feel the subtle reality-bending effects through the ambient Chaos. There was a slight interference field around the woman’s torso where she guessed that there were at least half a dozen spellwoven relics hidden underneath the thin coat.

“You surprised me,” the hazel-eyed woman grunted, then started again when she met Kiyo’s eyes. The slit-eyed pupils of Kiyo’s Tell weren’t really visible unless she met another’s eyes. “Are you…no, I don’t think…”

“No, it's not a Chaos change.” Kiyo giggled, “I was born with it. It’s common amongst my Clan.”

“And that would be?”

“Mishala.”

“Yuri’s mum’s clan?” the other woman muttered under her breath, not quite realising that the quiet Gemheart chamber meant her mutters were completely audible.

“You know my niece?” Kiyo asked.

“Yuriko? Yes, she’s my niece as well.”

“From the Davar side, I suppose?” Kiyo stuck out a hand. “Kiyo Mishala Alfein.”

“Layla Grehan Davar…wait, Kiyo Alfein?” Layla’s eyes narrowed cutely.

“Hmm, yes?”

Layla’s finger poked hard into Kiyo’s bosom, making her wince, and oddly aroused.

“You’re the reason she got sucked out into the Chaos Sea back when she was in the Academy!”

“Eh, me?” Kiyo winced, “Uhm, well…”

“You were supposed to watch over her! Oh, she didn’t say as much, but it was painfully obvious!”

“Er…”

“Hmph! You’re a Sorceress, aren’t you? Keep an eye on this thing while I make my report!”

With that, the feisty Spellweaver marched out of the chamber, leaving Kiyo confused, and quite a bit warm.

___________

Yuriko launched herself from the Watchtower’s top level and headed straight north. The land beneath her passed by in a blur as she pushed herself to move as fast as she could. Her Anima reach had progressed steadily every day and she soon passed thirty-one paces to thirty-three. While it seemed to have increased only by a tenth, the actual volume her Anima increased by was closer to forty percent more. It meant that the amount of kinetic force she could apply increased by that much, and the same increase applied to her strength when she boosted herself.

The rate of growth of her Anima reach was increasing. She didn’t know why, since Rumiga was still at Equilibrium, meaning most of the surface had an ambient Chaos density of one iarvesh. But perhaps it was because she evolved her Ennoia into a Colligia, too, and also the fact that her Radiant Anima Refinement was three-fourths on the way to completion. Then, there was the adage that Radiant energy was all about power.

Yuriko hated it but she was not struggling to control her full power. It was easy to fight at the level she was used to before, back when her Anima reach was just a bit less than ten paces, and she was sure she’d made some progress adapting to her increase to thirty paces back in Karcellia, but the rapid increase over the past couple of weeks threatened to destabilise her, especially since she hadn’t been able to fight. Exercise and training in the Silver Tiger’s gymnasium weren’t the same, even when she trained against Heron, Da, and the others. None of them were a match to her physical strength after all.

Training in runescrivening, spellweaving, and Sorcery had been more fruitful considering the Mishala Clan consisted mainly of practitioners. Aunt Kiyo had given her even more books on runescript patterns as well as an updated dictionary. It was even written in Old Imperial which she really appreciated. Her head didn’t hurt, nor did her eyes swim, if she was reading in that language, oddly enough.

Still, expanding her knowledge of the Empire’s known runescript patterns was quite…enjoyable. When she cross-referenced her Implement with new knowledge, she found more than a few inefficiencies that could be addressed by changing an entire descriptive sentence to the new word she learned. Adjusting the Implement took time, however, and she had to construct a mirrored image to work on her improvements before swapping it in. She was about halfway done, and it would see her Radiant Lance gather in less than a minute while giving out the same result. Or she could make the Lance stronger? Did she need more power?

Considering the enemies she expected to face, then the answer was yes. Linking the Trinity to the Radiant Lance would also increase its destructive potential severalfold, but she wasn’t sure if she wanted it permanently improved that way. Then again, when she used the Lance, it was only when she needed drastic results. Creating variations was also an option, though she hadn’t learned how to do that with a single Implement. Creating multiple Implements that do the same thing was impossible, after all.

While her thoughts raced, she finally reached the border of Shillogu Woods. She dropped down towards the road and retracted most of her aura, leaving only the thinnest amount she could manage to serve as her perception. She didn’t want to frighten her prey away.

As she entered the woods at a quick jog, she contemplated taking the arboreal highway, only to shake her head as she recalled the mission briefing.

“There is damage to geomantic nexuses all around the Watchtower,” Aunt Layla said. “And they are still being damaged. I’ve been working on stabilising relics. It won’t fix the damage, but it will stop it from getting worse. There are two points in the north, seven in the east, and three in the south.” She fiddled with the map table to expand the projection. The details weren’t as crisp, but it gave a better overview.

The two points north were in the middle of Shillogu Woods, though only one was on the surface. Yuriko realised it was near the lake where she’d first fought against the Seeker of Delights. The other point was underground, but the map couldn’t project how deep it was.

The east points were actually scattered from northeast to southeast and were in a dispersed cone with the narrow side towards the mountains. The mountain one was underneath the Imperial Pass. The rest were scattered around villages and underground. The southern points were near to Haveena and were almost untouchable to their current means.

“There are four surface points. We need to stabilise at least five to hold off the Watchtowers imminent collapse.”

“I’ll go north,” Yuriko said. “I can dig through to the underground point relatively quickly.”

“Don’t,” Aunt Layla said sharply. “You’ll just make the damage worse. There must be a path, so you just have to find it.”

“Alright.”

“Cousin, you and your team to the east?”

“Sure,” Virgil answered easily. “Duchess, if you’ll help my Lady wife with setting up the beacon?”

Duchess Lucille Kinnock shook her head. “I’m not a Spellweaver or Sorceress. I’ll be better off not interfering.”

“As you wish. Cousin?”

“I will help,” Aunt Layla said, “but the stability…”

“The ritual won’t work without that anyway,” Mum interjected. “I’ll come with you to the Gemheart. There are some things I can do to delay the collapse.”

The meeting broke up after that and Yuriko hurried to the roof, though not without a quick goodbye hug to her parents and Heron. Her fingers unconsciously rose up to her cheek where Heron had kissed her for good luck.

She really should do something about those three…no, not right now. Not until after this mess is done with. But then, how sure was she to succeed?

With Mum, the other two Knights Domini and Eli’Theria, they should be a match for a Chaos Duke, even if he manages to partially Ascend. That would be when he should be most vulnerable. But first, the rest of the fleet had to arrive and to do that, she needed to do her part.

Mum was busy etching the runescript lines around the Watchtower, and Da will look into finding out where the core was. She had an inkling it was probably near Synkrasia, but with Avos Zarek dead, she didn’t know how to reach there. Well, that was why she had the Warforged look for a path. The lead Athrodius said it would take a few days to do so, or failing that, about a Season to actually excavate a tunnel from the surface. She didn’t know how long it would take for the Chaos Duke to finish what he was doing, but time was steadily flowing away.

She paused once she reached a familiar landmark, the twin falls where she and her team back during the training camp had stopped. The problem was that there were no longer two waterfalls, but a single one now. The upper falls had dried up, and when she jumped to the top of the cliff, she saw a dry streambed. From the cracked mud, this had happened a long time ago, and she could see that a hundred paces away, a collapsed overhang had created a natural dam. The stream had diverted east and flowed down the gentler slope, carving a new river in the process.

Or rather, it followed the new riverbed that had been dug for it. Her Anima perception detected telltale signs of manmade reinforcement along the bank. Who did this and why though? And did it really matter?

Chaos Sight. Damien whispered.

Yuriko blinked, then activated the technique. She didn’t know what to look for and only when she spread Chaos Sight’s effects to her Anima perception that she noticed something. Ambient Chaos didn’t just linger in the air. They had eddies and currents. When she examined the lower falls, she noticed the ambient Chaos was a tiny bit thicker above the water, and on the pond. The same with the diverted stream. But somewhere along the way, the thicker flow disappeared into the ground, just as the stream rejoined the one after the plunge pool.

Her Anima perception penetrated the dirt and rock, but there was nothing there. Strange.

Shaking her head, she continued towards the headwaters and the lake next to the abandoned village. She couldn’t tell what had changed from before, simply because she didn’t have Chaos Sight four years ago.

And now that there were much higher stakes to this, she found herself eyeing each and every stream, grove, and cliffside if only to find out where the geomantic sabotage was. She doubted that a few diverted streams were enough to put the Watchtower in jeopardy, but too much grain on a wagon could break an axle. And a more chilling thought was how long this had been going on without any Imperial noticing.