Chronicles of the Exalted Sun Child

The swish of the longsword was met with an easy parry. The blades were bound, and Yuriko gracefully slid to the side, raised the blade and casually twisted a cut around her opponent's blade by swiftly crossing her wrists, fast enough to strike at his face. The actor playing the enemy staggered back with exaggerated motions and a rather unrealistic portrayal of despair as she moved on to the next position indicated by the choreography. The actor playing that foe was waiting for the first one to get away, and only moved to engage once that one was clear. Considering that the scene was set in a hallway that was wide enough to allow more than three men abreast, such a stunning lack of battlefield tactics was foolish at best.

Still, they weren't in a real fight but one meant to be a visual feast. Yuriko slid forward and struck at the actor's hands, in a move that wasn't actually part of the choreography, but he shouldn't have exposed himself that way. Try as she might, her instincts with the sword and battle were too well honed to prevent her from taking advantage, even if she had slowed her speed, agility, and strength to mortal levels. A rather fit mortal, considering her looks, but mortal nonetheless, this was also one of the few times she ever wielded the longsword, as she preferred a one-handed weapon, an arming sword, a sideblade, or even a sabre over the longer blade. Well, either those or a massive blade like her Fri'Avgi, the likes of which didn't have a mortal equivalent.

The actor flinched, and his weapon jerked out of position. She smoothly pivoted and sidestepped while the point of her weapon slid past his guard and grazed his neck, right where the jugular was. When she noticed that he wasn't reacting properly to the hit, she stepped in and pressed a bit harder with the blade resting on his shoulder. Thankfully, she reacted to that and stumbled away, his hand darted up to clutch at his neck. By her understanding, blood effects could be added during post-production. Given that the director didn't yell 'Cut!', she continued the choreography and faced the next mook, who charged in from behind.

According to the plan, she was supposed to let the man get the jump on her. Foolishly, instead of stabbing her in the back, he was to grab her instead, in an attempt at capture. He was a bit slow, but that was considering her standards for mortals. She supposed, for an actor, he was quick enough. He lunged, bypassing the actors who were playing as her allies and managed to wrap his arms around her, though with a bit of flailing. Inexplicably, or perhaps it was actually on purpose, his palms landed on her bosom. It was over a leather jerkin, so she wasn't sure if he could even feel her through it. It was cut to expose a bit of cleavage, though, quite impractical for protection. Well, his hands reflexively squeezed, and she certainly felt that. With a sigh, she dipped down, jabbed an elbow into his ribs, then flipped him over her hips. When he landed on his back, she jabbed the point at his neck, grazing it slightly before the tip jammed into the stone flooring. She didn't hurt him, but the metal sparked unpleasantly, which landed on his neck. He flinched, but didn't cry out. Good for him.

She stepped over the actor, or was he a stuntman? None of the other actors really participated in action scenes except to recite a couple of lines or so. The hallway was full of enemy soldiers, so she continued to plough into them. Even if she didn't have several strands of consciousness, it wasn't as if what she was doing was difficult. Besides, she also had a strand of consciousness focused on the script using her Anima perception. Ah, she was supposed to say a line here.

She was supposed to say: Keep going! The end is in sight. That's a bit too long to say in the middle of a fight, isn't it? She was still in another melee with two assailants this time, and for the mortal woman she was playing, stopping to talk would not only be foolhardy, but plain ridiculous. But it would look wonderful on the silver screen as long as it was edited and augmented properly, she supposed. Besides, the take had been running without being cut for long enough that she was somewhat loath to break it. She said the line, but didn't stay still while delivering it. She flourished her blade and made sure she was facing the camera. She didn't change her expression much, except to put on a determined look. The director must have liked it well enough since he didn't scream anything.

The rest of the scene continued without much deviation, and it ended when she and her allies managed to push towards the end of the hallway.

"Cut! Good!"

Yuriko absently noted the praise, checked that she wasn't addressed after a few words and headed towards a break room. While the scene didn't make her sweat, she allowed some droplets to form on her brow anyway, as it would look too unusual if there was no evidence of her exertion.

It had been a week since the raid at the warehouse. Glimmer, both variations, were fascinating and infuriating. It turned out that using Invisible Edge to cut the capsules didn't cause melting, but it didn't change the fact that whatever esoteric energy within the capsule evaporated within a split second of exposure to air. And cutting the thing at the precise centre also caused the capsule to flare up.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

She was convinced that each side of the capsule had different contents, for variation B anyway. Variation A was homogenous as far as she could see, and it had the same double-sized sphere filled with Alteration causing energy, she assumed. The same energy that still evaded her Anima perception, but was ironically clearly visible when she kludged up a spell to detect energy.

Working up that spell wasn't technically difficult, but ever since she left Bresia, she hadn't exactly kept up with her Magi studies. Her grimoire was with her true body, and she didn't have much difficulty studying while in the midst of delving. It wasn't as if monsters in the 2nd layer were that much stronger than 1st layer foes. The shards were a bit bigger and probably a bit denser now that she had a chance to examine them. About ten percent more? It actually fluctuated between seven and thirteen percent, but a perfect ten percent above 1st layer average was more common.

Either way, Detect Magic was the common Magi spell, and it didn't so much as highlight the Elemental energies as draw her attention to spells, ongoing effects, or enchanted gear. When she cast the same in Astoria, she didn't see anything, of course, not even the use of Altered Human powers, which sort of proved they weren't innate spells or anything of the sort. They sure seemed like it, though. But then again, she'd had exposure to several Anima strengthening methods of disciplines, and the end results were somewhat the same anyway.

A Geist user's, a Spirit Binder's, and a Magi's empowered strike all had the same end effect, which was to make an attack more effective, but the ways they got there were all different. It was the same with Altered Humans, except she couldn't figure out how they did it.

It was only after she modified the spell to allow her to detect all energies, and when she cross-referenced it with her normal Chaos Sight and Anima perception, did she notice the difference. Mostly by seeing the missing esoteric energy that was far more prevalent in the underlayers of reality as opposed to the surface. Altered energy seemed a good enough name for it, and she was sure that was the missing piece because she observed Scarlett and her co-star, Zachary Russell, drawing it in. Well, about one in four people did that by simply breathing, and she suspected those were the ones who were Altered, though none she saw had any visible tells.

Interesting.

Either way, with Detect Altered Energy, she still wasn't able to see it through the capsule, though when she cut them open, the flare-up was particularly bright. The point that was several fold brighter was the double-sized spheres.

Was it enough Altered energy to induce human Alteration? Probably. At least for variation A. Variation B had a lot less energy by volume than the first. So what was variation B's purpose?

The thing still didn't do anything for her, and she couldn't, in good conscience, feed it to anyone else. She somewhat regretted not going for a better look when the villains used the things, but the past was the past. Now, a week later, she was out of samples, some answers, and a whole lot more questions, chief of which was: Who made Glimmer and for what purpose? The drug was relatively new, the recreational variant, vC probably made the rounds in the public. Mostly for parties, nightclubs, and all that. There were some she noticed in fraternity houses on campus when she actually stayed in school late, and of course, during the cast and crew's after parties.

There would be one later, actually, and she was sure the drug would make the rounds tonight.

Sure enough, since it was the sixth day of the week, and the weekend tomorrow, there was a gathering after the shoot. It was just about dinner time and the entire cast was to loosen up in a hotel, The Regal Vale, which was an upscale, luxury place. She wondered how much the production budgeted for cast and crew morale, considering they hosted something like this every week or so. Not as expensive as the Regal Vale's Grand Ballroom, but apparently, today marked an important milestone in prod. She wasn't sure why, though.

"Great job, Lily," Zachary said as the two of them settled at their assigned table. It was a sit-down dinner as opposed to a buffet, and while she would have expected some kind of entertainment, it was mostly canned music instead of a live band. After dinner, the crew would be able to head to different rooms or sections to partake of whatever they wanted. There was a bar and club downstairs, a casino on another level, or she could simply head up to her booked room. The shoot had occurred a few dozen leagues from Neo Prism City, though they returned to Winderfield for the party.

"Thanks, you weren't bad yourself," Yuriko smirked.

"Yeah, yeah," Zach grumbled. "So I can't do my own stunts, hmph!"

Yuriko lowered her voice and used her subtler perception aura to contain the sound around the two of them, "Your Altered power would be better served if you actually learned to fight."

"I try, but…it's just not as easy compared to studying for a role," Zach admitted. "And when I put on the Glass Mask, all the skills and knowledge of the role become mine. And at the same time, the face behind the mask is…diminished."

"That may be true, but you can always get your body into a better state. That way, when you take on a role, it'll be easier."

"I know, thanks," he said easily.

Yuriko shrugged. She'd said as much earlier, and she had spent effort to train the man. He was about the only one amongst the Lunites who stuck around anyway. The rest grew too busy with their own schedules and troubles.

Sure enough, by the time dinner ended and the real party began, Glimmer spiked drinks made the rounds in the bar and club. The space had been secured for the cast and crew, but they were also allowed to invite guests.

This was the best chance to really observe what happened when someone imbibed variation C, and while she couldn't be affected, the sweet cocktails were still quite tasty. And best of all, the company sponsors were the ones to pick up the tab.