Chronicles of the Exalted Sun Child

Yuriko preferred dessert wine over the dry variety, and she particularly liked the rosé as opposed to either red or white. The addition of a hint of Glimmer to the drink didn't add much to the flavour, and since she was immune to the effects, pretty pointless. It did add a bitter hint to the taste, one she wasn't appreciative of.

Zachary Russell took a sip from his flute and hummed in appreciation. He turned to ask the waiter, "Do you mind showing us the bottle?"

"Of course, sir," the waiter said gracefully. "One moment." He returned shortly carrying a wine bottle with the label, Springsong.

"Thank you." Zachary then indicated for the man to leave the bottle behind. When the waiter left, he continued, "Must be a good year."

"Or the Glimmer," Yuriko said dryly.

"Glimmer?"

Yuriko pointed at the small platter of tablets that the waiter left along with the bottle. She nodded to other booths, and Zach looked just in time to see the server ostensibly drop a tablet into a wine glass, in full view of the occupants, before adding the wine.

"Oh, that new additive." Zach frowned. "Huh, I shouldn't have taken it."

"It's not addictive," Yuriko said, then once again, covered the two of them with a soundproof barrier, "not this variation anyway. The purer stuff not only has Alteration energy, but is quite addictive."

"Alter…what?" Zach said, alarmed.

Yuriko shrugged. "Something I named for convenience. It's the energy you and other Altered draw…well, breath in is the more accurate term, and consume to power your abilities. Although the latter is conjecture. You certainly don't breathe any of it out. I'm not sure where it comes from, but that's true for any esoteric energy anyway. It's more prevalent in the Interstitial space than anywhere else…hmmm." Perhaps it's the rifts between layers that allow Alteration energy to seep in?

And its presence was only here in Astoria. There were none in Shangria when she checked, with both spell and Anima perception. So it was energy unique to this place, or it was a special blend that doesn't occur in Shangria. But considering that the biomes were special zones, it could also mean that the place filtered out Alteration energy, too. Too bad she couldn't check Dragon Fall City, Bresia, or back home.

No, she would have noticed it in Bresia, right? Or not. If she couldn't perceive it with Anima. And the normal detection spell looked for active use rather than plain presence. Would she be able to make use of the detection spell if she engraved the runescript lines into her Anima? It wasn't anything permanent, and it was easily undone. Or would that energy be consumed by her aura even as she tried to look for it? An annoyance and a blind spot.

"Oh, I'm still not comfortable taking it," Zach grumbled as he pushed aside his glass. He asked for a fresh one and filled it with the rose wine. The two of them spent half an hour in pleasantries and small talk, though every so often, one of the other actors and staff approached their table to hobnob. Yuriko didn't mind as the activity formed strong threads.

Close to ten in the evening, Yuriko excused herself and made her way up to her room. She called Scarlett on the way, exchanged some pleasantries and bid her friend a goodnight.

Desire was elsewhere, not in between the layers of reality but actually out hunting.

"I've got a score to settle with the Unfettered," Yuriko said to her bound Chaos Lord. "See if you can track them down. I only saw and fought a couple of members, or maybe three, but they did brutalise my friend, and killed several members of the school clubs I had fun with. That thrall you saved…I think his former controller is affiliated. I'm not sure, and the information on Capewatchers Online isn't all that reliable."

"As you command, master," Desire said with an eager smile. The girl wrapped her in a hug before she left.

Yuriko had not been able to research the varied powers in Astoria, other than the overt ones. She simply didn't have the time, and the memories Lilibeth left behind filled in the obvious gaps. The Unfettered loved to mess things up in the republic, appearing out of nowhere and disappearing after they had their sick fun. If one of their members was a mind controller, then it stood to reason that they had either backing in the government or they were part of it. A chilling thought, though only to the remnant parts of Lilibeth in her psyche.

It wasn't as if Yuriko hadn't faced hostile nations before. Still, if Astoria unravelled, then her easy source of Ambrosia would dry up. So either she continued what she was doing and did nothing to either help or hinder, or she could escalate to take over. Or destroy, really, but the last one ran counter to her goal.

While she did her evening ablutions, she turned on the television and set the channel to the news. She listened with half an ear and kept the bathroom door open. She used her kinesis to contain the steam from the hot shower within the bathroom, however. One time tripping the fire alarm that way, and the ensuing embarrassment was enough.

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"... Human Registration Act is on its third reading at the senate, is still deadlocked between the voting blocs…"

"...a marked increase in Altered Human crime. Surprisingly, out of every five new capes, only two consider joining the Protectorate, and only one of those actually proceed. The rest either remain neutral or abuse their gods-given powers for their own selfish needs…"

"...those who are blessed with power must use it for the benefit of the unfortunate. There is no other benevolent way to look into it. Those who do not are ultimately selfish, and if taken from another point of view, divisive and evil…"

"...strong words for someone without an Alteration! Sure, it's easy for you to say something like that since you and your supporters will be on the side that benefits…"

Yuriko frowned and switched to a different channel. Opinion pieces were a good way to check the pulse of a community, but she wasn't in the mood for rhetoric.

"... Grizzlehof the Bear attacked a group of hikers yesterday. The famous bear uncharacteristically became hostile when twelve hikers came across him along the hiking trail. Two were injured, but thankfully, none were killed. According to witnesses, Grizzlehof rose up in a threatening display, but midway, changed his mind and charged. The normally friendly bowled over the hikers and dove into the bushes, leaving broken bones and bruises behind…"

"...the cargo ship, Flourishing Banquet, ran aground due to unexpected shallows off the coast of southern Astoria Republic. …suspected Altered Human action…"

"... Vice Mayor Hamilton had this to say about…"

By the time Yuriko finished her bath, she'd gone through several news channels and a rather distressing snapshot of the state of the nation. She spent several hours in meditation before she turned in.

She got up before dawn the next morning and began her training. Meditation and visualisation took up most of her time as there was little space for sword forms in the suite. Of course, she could do it on the hotel's gymnasium floor, but she'd feel like getting stared at by every sweaty guy there pretending to work out but was really there to ogle people.

She actually didn't do much physical training nowadays, considering she could just as easily sculpt her own body because of her Radiant Physique. Her incarnation body may only have the same level of power as when she was in Actualisation, but the knowledge was there, and she could use it. A little bit of elementalisation, then some adjustments, and when that bit returned to physical matter, the changes stuck. She was already at her ideal physique anyway, and it took no effort to stay there. Or rather, her incarnation body didn't improve by physical exercise the way her true body did, since it was essentially a reflection of the latter. So her true body still worked out and improved incrementally, and the improvement trickled down, so to speak.

No, what consumed her visualisation and meditation was the same thing that was consuming her true body's consciousness strands: the Cyclic Sword. Or perhaps some other name. She wasn't firm on that yet. And because of that, she knew she was quite far from solidifying the new Ennoia she hoped would bridge Bladeless Sword and Radiant Flying Sword. Her true body's battle with the giant metal auroch and how it cycled through different Elemental energies had been a breakthrough, but it wasn't quite enough. It wasn't enlightenment, but a bit of inspiration. Now, she just had to work through her ideas until she could enlighten herself. By using both bodies, she was actually progressing at an impressive rate, considering she was already working on a third derivative of the Ennoia of the Sword. Every additional one from the first grew harder and harder to grasp, and if Damien's memories could be trusted, a fourth or fifth derivative could take decades or centuries to coalesce. Hopefully, this third one would provide the impetus to merge the derivatives, and she'd be back to working from a relatively clean slate afterwards.

Working through independent trains of thought led to some interesting results, but cross-referencing her ideas sort of forced a limitation on her work. She wondered if she should work on the Ennoia separately…actually, her incarnation body should focus on Bladeless Sword while her true body on the new Truth. Radiant Flying Swords was practically complete, needing only the final push to turn into a Colligia, which would also preclude it from merging with the other Ennoias. Perhaps it was also because it was so far along that it made Bladeless Sword harder to integrate. Would having two relatively fresh Ennoias work better? Maybe.

It was also the seventh day of their delve into the second layer, and so far, it wasn't that much more interesting or difficult than the first layer. They couldn't cross as many biomes as on the first, but each region was correspondingly larger. The only way to cross the maximum number of biomes a day was to spend most of the time travelling instead of hunting.

Gwendith was humming happily while she collected the shards. The current biome was a desert wasteland. Rocky and hilly, with several ravines and gullies that contained most of the monsters. Yuriko let her companions hunt without her help. Her lover had insisted on her company, however, so she walked next to her and just watched.

The monsters of the day were a strange mashing of biological lifeforms married with metal body parts. It wasn't something like Chronian Gear, but more as if the limbs or senses had been replaced with iron and steel. They ran the gamut from wolves to large cats to rodents. There were bugs, too, and those were the more frightening foes, considering their exoskeletons were completely metal. And they numbered in the thousands, at least. A swarm of iron beetles emerged from a hole in one of the ravines, scented the disintegrating dust and the shards. They rushed towards the shards Gwendith was collecting.

"Oh, wow. Jackpot!" Her lover squealed happily as she extended her hands towards the swarm, her fingers spread while her thumbs touched. The gesture shouldn't have been needed to use her Ennoia energies, but it helped by making the shaping reflexive.

A blast of cold air preceded actual snowflakes. The drop in temperature was concentrated and contained in front of Gwendith and washed over the vanguard. The beetles' carapaces were covered in frost. A moment later, Gwen reversed the temperature and turned the area of effect blazingly hot.

Clink! Clink! Clink!

The carapace shattered or melted, which effectively killed the swarm. A few moments later, the corpses were replaced by a thick layer of disintegration dust, which swirled towards the centre of the former swarm before dissipating into a crystalline shard. Shangria considered the beetles to be one entity and only dropped a 2nd layer shard instead of multitudes of tiny ones.

Whistling happily, Gwendith pulled the shard to her hands and grinned at her.

Back in Astoria, someone knocked on the door, and she hadn't been expecting anyone at all this morning.