The next day, after doing her morning ablutions and training, Yuriko headed towards the other side of town. Waiting for the Circuit Tram was a bother, so she simply walked. Well, she actually glided along the street, her boots not quite touching the cobblestones while every step crossed five paces or so. As a result, she zoomed across town while looking like she was on a stroll.

Her Mien flared every now and then, but it did not result in hordes of beguiled men and women following her with their eyes. Instead, those she passed sighed as if it was the first breeze of the Season of Earth. Warmth radiated from her body and refreshed the passersby. When she strolled passed the waiting Circuit Tram, the pilot, who had a careworn face and deep frown lines, closed his eyes and his tensions eased.

Tranquility.

Over the past two dozen weeks of Yuriko’s melancholy, her Mien had shifted to adapt, both by itself, and through some of her unconscious wishes. Peace. She didn’t want excitement at that time, only to be left alone and in peace. Time to mourn her losses, and ponder upon her life thus far.

An overarching goal over the past years had been accomplished, even if it had not been without failures. Time for contemplation and recovery.

So instead of her Mien riling everyone around her, whether through attraction, inspiration, or courage, it instead soothed those who saw her. Calm. Peace.

That part of her Mien was heavily dependent on her mood, though, and she didn’t have a finer control over it yet. Then again, the other modes were that way too. It was just that for the other modes, she could somewhat force them regardless of how she was feeling at that time. Well, Charm was always the default, and any other mood that didn’t fit the trigger for Inspiration or Courage made it more difficult to shift out of Charm.

Tranquility was the best she felt the townspeople needed. Maybe they had lost friends and family, especially those living across the River Caradec.

The town’s bridges had been rebuilt almost on the same day as the final battle ended. Earthmelders shaped stone to build an arch across water. The river was now frozen over, Yuriko was somewhat surprised to see, but the ice was only an inch or so thick. She could perceive the powerful current running underneath, and sometimes it broke the surface ice, pushed into downstream, then the cold froze over a new layer, creating a jagged surface all throughout.

The arched bridge rose higher than the previous one by a few paces, almost making the top level with the third story of most buildings arrayed near the embankment. The Eastern District had been leveled over the course of the war and the reconstruction was less than halfway done. In fact, the refugee nobles were building grander structures and expanded the town’s old borders. Faron’s Crossing was well on its way to becoming a city.

She paused at the top of the arch and glanced back. East and west. The west remained quaint and cozy, while the east was slowly turning into a busy, bustling town. She wasn’t sure she liked it, but it really wasn’t up to her.

She continued on her way, her Tranquility aura easing the hurried pace of people who saw her. From the architectural plans she saw, the eastern district would be divided into four quadrants, which were the artisan’s district, the quay along the riverbank, the merchant’s area, and the residentials. Well, the quay and the merchant’s area only had a few buildings with most of the spaces flattened out. The need for either was low considering that Rumiga’s connection back to the rest of the Empire was still unstable. That and there were no other nations left in their small floating island adrift in the Chaos Sea.

She headed towards the artisan’s district that was between the quay and the residentials. The streets were arrayed in a grid pattern though they still followed the lay of the land, which did make for oddly shaped blocks. The shop she was heading for was just beyond the edge of the district, a couple of streets over. It was a three-storey building and sported a sign above the entrance, Foster Runescript Services.

The door was ajar despite the cold, and when she entered, there was a blast of hot air that separated the cold outside from the warmth within. The door opened directly to the shop space and Orrin Foster was hard at work tinkering with several heater plates. His Chaos touched antennae flickered above his forehead, moved close to the runescript lines, then wiggled around. His gaze never wavered from his work, even when a chime sounded at her entrance. He merely said, “Be with you in a moment!”

Yuriko smiled and walked close to his workspace, though she kept her distance. Her perceptive aura enfolded the young man and observed his work, noting the deftness of his Animus control. Already, his runescript work had evolved from merely copying existing formulas to adding his own tweaks and efficiencies. Despite the gap in their Anima levels, he was already better at it than she was, at least in terms of creativity and style.

Well, most of her runescript knowledge came from Fri’Avgi, Damien, and Eli’Theria, aside from books that Orrin lent her. The ones that she discovered for herself, such as the Trinity Cycle, were crude beyond belief. She had perused Damien’s memories of runescript, and committed as much of it to her memories as she could. She didn’t absorb them directly since doing so without exploring runescrivening on her own meant that she would be stuck at whatever level Damien had been.

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Once she had a better working knowledge, then she might absorb the memories, or simply discard everything but the dictionaries and patterns.

“Oh, Yuri!” Orrin exclaimed when he looked up, bringing her out of her reverie. “Thanks for coming to help!”

“I don’t mind.” She smiled and he beamed at her happily. “The work hours seem to pass by quickly with your help.”

Yuriko grinned and teased, “Oh, you mean it feels fast because you don’t want my company that long?”

“Eh, no, no! I mean…” He broke off with a glare, before chuckling, “You know I didn’t mean that. Meanie!”

Yuriko just smirked and walked around the counter. Aside from the pile of heater plates, there was another of blanks. She took one with her Animakinesis, glanced at his pattern, and flawlessly etched it using an etching pen she materialised with Animus and Radiant energy. She moved the pen with her Animakinesis while simultaneously keeping the heat as focused as possible. She was done a couple of minutes later and placed it next to his completed pile, then grabbed another blank to continue.

She spent a couple of hours etching heater plates, and churned out a hundred identical pieces. Or, well, as identical as she could make them. The blanks were made out of steel, roughly three inches by two inches, and as thick as her finger. But even though they looked to have been made out of the same mold, or stamped, or whatever it was that the blacksmiths used to process it, the plates were hardly identical, especially with how their insides were arrayed. She didn’t adjust the runescript pattern to match the grains or internal lattices since it hardly mattered for this product, but because of that, they weren’t quite as efficient or effective as they could be.

She pouted in annoyance at that, but Orrin just giggled. He’d said before that it wasn’t necessarily, and nobody was paying for perfection anyway.

A couple of customers came inside the shop while she was working. She didn’t look up, but she watched them with her perception aura. With her there, Orrin was able to attend to them and he sold several plates for a silver mark each. Each customer bought at least thirty plates, and since the blanks only cost half that much, Orrin was making a good enough profit. Not really the best margin, according to Braden, but the twins were after the goodwill of the easterners over anything else.

After she was done, Orrin handed her a silver crown for her work. He wanted to pay her half of the margin but she didn’t accept it. Braden insisted on paying her something anyway, so they settled on a silver penny per plate. She saw the pride in both of their eyes, and she knew that they wouldn’t accept her help otherwise.

She helped out twice a week in the shop, so two hundred Sovereigns wasn’t too bad. She did make sure that the stock she made was sold by sweeping their inventory with her perception. Well, they were making brisk business so she was happy.

Runescript training was tedious for her, so she thought she might as well earn some coin for it. The Fosters were trying to set down roots, and considering how their family betrayed the Empire, they faced significant resistance from the west. With what happened to Finan, they had also lost a patron. And she couldn’t change their Imperial Path to the Ancient’s Way since she was practically out of Ambrosia.

Ah, she wasn’t sure if they would accept anyway, since when she brought it up, Orrin said, “If Fate Wills it.” Which was really another way of saying no.

Hmm, she thought they would have accepted. Oh well.

Braden entered the shop right after Orrin paid her. Yuriko waved a greeting at the boy who was looking quite a bit more fit than before, which accentuated their differences. She never had trouble distinguishing either twin from each other, but now, there would be no mistaking them from each other, Orrin’s antennae notwithstanding.

“Yuri! Hello!” Braden said brightly as he removed his coat, and rolled up the sleeves of his sweater. His shoulders were broader and his back and arms had more defined muscle. She could see it through his clothes, though she carefully kept her attention above his waist. Hmm, he lost a bit of his cuteness from it, but she couldn’t quite say she didn’t like it.

“Which site did you work on today?” She asked.

“Block 15, lot 10 residential,” he said easily. “It’s one of the townhouses. But I wish they’d build a different model. I’ve worked on three identical ones already.”

Yuriko raised a questioning eyebrow, “But wouldn’t similar models make building them faster?”

“There’s that,” he muttered.

“Well, I have to go.” Yuriko said. She hugged Orrin then Braden. “I’ll see you in three days!”

“Bye!” Orrin said.

“What’s next on your schedule?” Braden asked curiously.

Yuriko glanced at them and just grinned. Braden snorted in annoyance and stomped towards the stairs.

Waving goodbye, Yuriko left the store and walked back towards the western district. The midday bustle filled the streets with workers heading out to lunch. There was another runescribe shop, and they had more customers than the Fosters did. Still, everyone needed heater plates for the Season of Water, so there was more than enough work to go around. She didn’t know what they’d sell after the Season, but she trusted the boys to have a plan.

Her tummy gurgled with hunger, though not as badly as it did years ago when she was working on her physique. An enticing scent wafted from one of the street side stalls and she found her attention drawn to the sizzling food. The woman vendor was pan searing several skewers filled with meat chunks, peppers, and onions, and Yuriko had a silver crown burning a hole in her pocket.

She floated over to line up, and patiently waited for a couple of minutes for the woman to take her order.

“Five, please,” Yuriko said.

“Ten Sovies!”

She tossed the silver crown and got nine silver marks back. A minute later, she was handed the skewers. She nibbled on it while walking, then gobbled them up despite the fact that they were hot enough to burn someone else’s tongue. She tossed the wooden sticks in a trash can and hurried home.

When she got there, Heron was already waiting in the living room.