The next morning, Yuriko was up just before the sun rose. She had tried to wait for her father to come home but sleep had overtaken her before he arrived. Now, she could hear his loud snoring through the closed door of his bedroom as she walked past.

With Kato in charge of breakfast, Yuriko had time to spare for stretching her taut muscles. Only her thighs were spared from muscle fatigue; her calves, feet, and sides stung. Her Animus reserves were full, however, thanks to having a good night’s sleep.

As far as she knew, the only way to recover Animus was rest. Virgil’s favourite drink, kaf, would help recover Animus by a small margin--nowhere near as effective as eight hours sleep at night.She knew the moon also had something to do with recovery, but how, exactly, she couldn’t remember.

The early morning chill wasn’t as bad as it had been the day before. It took about a week for the previous season to transition completely into the next which meant the first week of the Season of Fire would remain a little cold for a few more days. As her bosom wasn’t as developed as Krystal’s, Yuriko only wore a camisole under her blue tee shirt. Stretchy workout pants and running shoes completed her outfit.

Wincing a bit when she started a slow jog, she let her mind wander while she went down her usual route. She soon found herself in front of the Zorin household facing an empty porch. She shook her head and walked up to the front door. The door opened just as she was about to knock revealing Krystal, bleary-eyed and yawning despite already being in her workout clothing.

“Let’s go!”

“Al-hwaaaa-right,” Krystal yawned.

They started at a slow jog and remained at that pace until they reached the Farmer’s Market. Since Krystal wasn’t saying anything, Yuriko let her thoughts wander. She couldn’t help thinking about Heron and Mikel’s sparring match and dissecting how it all went down.

It was clear to her that neither of them were adept at using Empowered Strike. She reckoned using the technique was much like shooting the Plasma Caster, just that the weapon siphoned her Animus as soon as it touched the jade studs and followed the patterns embedded in the barrel.

Mikel was clearly outmatched. She did admire his courage, though, accepting a challenge from a superior opponent. Unfortunately, it was clear that Heron had inlaid his Facet, giving him an advantage. Using a Facet as opposed to using another Animus technique was completely different.

‘It’s like learning something new and refining it until expertise is acquired versus using something refined by countless people in the past, and that knowledge and methods to use it properly is etched into your mind.’ Yuriko thought, recalling all the lessons she’d had learned at school and at home.

Animus techniques can eventually be refined to such a level, but the effort and the time to do so was staggering--a matter of decades. So it was no surprise at all that Mikel lost. Perhaps if he had inlaid his Facet, he would have had a chance.

“But that’s only if both were equally unskilled,” Yuriko muttered.

“Huh, what’d you say?” Krystal said while gasping for air.

“Hmmm, oh, just thinking out loud.”

“The spar?”

“Yes.”

“Not everyone is as dedicated as you, Yuri,” Krystal grunted, “and, by the way, when was the last time you cracked the books since school term ended?”

“Uh, last term,” Yuriko answered slowly, the heat rising up her cheeks.

“Don’t be such a musclehead. You don’t want to end up like Byrne, do you?” Krystal smirked.

“I’ll have you know that Armsmaster Byrne isn’t an ignoramus,” Yuriko growled.

“Oh, so you appreciate bulging muscles then? Heh heh!”

“Not really,” Yuriko answered drily. She picked up her pace, noting that Krystal was getting used to their slow jog already.

“Hey, no, no, no! Not too fast!”

“Hmm, if you can talk you can run a bit faster!”

“Meanie!”

After their run, Krystal collapsed in a puddle of sweat and tears on the backyard deck. Yuriko cooled down by stretching, though she had to admit that she hadn’t quite pushed herself in the two and a half longstride run.

“Come on, Krys, let’s continue!”

“I only agreed to run!”

“Didn’t you want to join my training? Besides, you need to stretch or you’ll be stiff later.”

“No.”

“Tssk.”

Shrugging to herself, Yuriko did a few sets of bodyweight exercises and she was done about half an hour later. Just before she finished, Virgil walked out to the backyard with a plate of waffles and a cup of kaf.

By this time, Krystal had recovered and was sitting on a lounge chair. Virgil sat across her, setting down the plate.

“Help yourself.” He gestured towards the waffles.

“Thank you, uncle.”

Yuriko finished her workout just after Krystal finished a waffle. “Why’d you even come to my backyard if you aren’t training with me?” She rolled her eyes but grabbed a waffle off the plate.

“Oh, nothing,” Krystal replied, “Just wanted to see how you tortured yourself.” She sniffed, “I ended up being the one tortured.”

“Considering your Heritage,” Virgil mused, “you’d think endurance training was something you’d focus on.”

“That wasn’t the Facet I got,” Krystal shrugged.

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“Hmm.” He looked at his daughter. “That was too light. You can either double your sets or use the weights. You should join her.”

“Ehhh?” Krystal moaned.

“Go on.”

Yuriko just grinned and grabbed a set of weights from the shed. By the end of it all, her shirt stuck to her sweat-soaked skin, and Krystal had quit midway.

“I’ll help you home,” Yuriko offered.

“I’ll wait for you in the living room,” Virgil said as he returned inside.

“Water!” Krystal gasped. “I’m never going to train with you again!”

“Sure you won’t.”

When she returned home, she took a quick bath before eating breakfast. Now in much more comfortable clothes, she sought out her father. She checked the living room first, Virgil having said he would wait there. Rami sat there alone, though, looking through his books of horticultural cultivation.

She found Virgil when she saw a paper crane fly out of the little cubby hole he called his den. He was writing on another piece of paper with a fountain pen, his ever-present mug of kaf by his side. When he was done, he imbued the message paper with Animus, and it folded itself into a crane before flying out the door. Virgil looked up at Yuriko and beckoned at her to enter and sit on a chair.

“I heard you went to the training hall yesterday, did Trevor give you a hard time?’

“Not at all, he was quite considerate.”

Virgil snorted, “What did he try to teach you?”

“Empowered Strike.”

“What are your observations?”

“I didn’t see much. We arrived at the tail end of the lecture. Heron and Mikel sparred with spears, though. It was a bit, uhm, disappointing to watch.”

“Why?”

“Using Animus in melee combat is hard. The two boys barely managed to use it in that long sparring session.”

“That’s true only if you haven’t set the pattern.”

“Like with a Facet?” she asked curiously and with a bit of trepidation. She couldn’t even inlay her Facet after all.

“Yes, though to a much lesser extent. Relying on your Facet for everything will eventually get you killed when you encounter something it wasn’t built to handle.”

A bit of the heaviness and dread in Yuriko’s heart lifted. She’d been having trouble with her Facet and it weighed on her since the Ritual. The burden felt more bearable; her Facet wasn’t everything after all.

“Well, don’t discount your Facet because that’s how you can become stronger overall,” Virgil said with a smile as if reading her thoughts. Yuriko nodded solemnly. “Well, continue your training. You can attend Trevor’s classes.”

“I thought you will oversee my training, Da?”

“I would have, yes, but,” Virgil took a deep breath, “there may be trouble.”

Her heart leapt up her throat. “What trouble?”

“I can’t be sure yet. I have to look into it. It could be nothing, but better be sure.” Virgil kept his small smile, “In any case, there’s no reason for you to worry. And remember, you shouldn’t spend your entire day training. You’ll get the opposite effect if you don’t rest.”

“Other than eat sweets with Krystal, or study, what else can we do in this small town?”

“Well, you can attend Celebrant Ramus’ sermons.”

“No, thank you.”

“It’s always good to remember history, Yuri, lest we repeat it.”

“So you always say. I’ve heard Elder Ramus’ sermons often enough to know them by heart. He only has five stories and even the way he tells them doesn’t change.”

“True.” Laughing, Virgil tapped the table with his fingers. “Anyway, there’s a wandering theatre troupe from Haveena due to arrive in town next week, why don’t you watch their show?”

“I’ll think about it.” Yuriko got up and kissed her father on the cheek, “See you later, Da!”

Up in her room, she sat cross-legged on her bed. She would head to the training hall a couple of hours after lunch. She settled into a meditative trance and once again sought to start the inlay on her Facet.

About an hour later, she let out a frustrated sigh. No luck. She worked on the technique Virgil taught her instead, spreading the Animus all over her body. Once again, she felt pins and needles running through her muscles, causing them to spasm, and her bones felt like they were on fire. She had some weird cramping in her belly, too, but that wasn’t the worst of it. The heat from the entire process caused her to break out in a sweat, soaking her clothes. Now she needed another bath. No doubt after the training hall, she’d need another one so she could have refrained, except...she stunk. The stench of her perspiration made her gag and as soon as her body stopped twitching involuntarily, she rushed to her bathroom for a shower where she scrubbed and scrubbed until the stench was gone.

‘Ancestors, what was that?’ she thought, feeling another little stab of pain. Shaking her head, she dressed in another set of exercise clothing, another camisole, stretchy black leggings, a violet blouse with short sleeves, and went down for lunch.

*-*-*

That afternoon at the training hall, Yuriko stood in a line with a few of the other kids. Krystal and Mikel were notably missing and so was Millie, for that matter, but those who were in attendance stood at attention in front of Armsmaster Byrne.

On her right was Heron and on her left, Maryn. They all had a training spear held point down in one hand.

“For those who weren’t here yesterday, I will repeat the instructions on how to use Empowered Strike. For those who wish to refresh themselves, you may listen in. For the others, five successful invocations of the technique then rest.” Armsmaster Byrne paced in front of them while talking then shooed the others off.

Ishika and Yuriko joined those who needed instruction while the other five kids went to the wall with tall mirrors to practice their form. Heron and Zeyn were already using the technique well enough that every third or fourth thrust included an Animus glow.

“Reach into your centre, draw in your Animus, impart in it the will to pierce through whatever barrier it encounters, and move it to the tip of your weapon just before you strike.”

He demonstrated the technique using his training spear, doing a small thrust. A green glow ran from his hand and down the shaft, coalescing as a very thin veneer that gave the illusion of the spearhead extending by a hair.

“That’s it?” Ishika asked bewildered.

“That’s it. Simple and easy to do, but it will take a lifetime to master it. There are endless variations but the foundation is the same.”

It was easier said than done, just as the Armsmaster implied. Drawing Animus from their centre, their source, alone, was no easy thing to do. For Yuriko, her advantage was that she had been practicing using the Plasma Caster. The only difference between the two, now that she thought of it, was the impartation of Intent. With the rifle, the weapon handled that aspect and all she had to do was direct her Animus to the jade studs.

She closed her eyes, as she took a ready stance, with both hands on the shaft.

“Don’t close your eyes.” Byrne tapped her shoulder, wrenching her out of her focus. “That’s a bad habit in close quarters combat.”

Blushing, Yuriko nodded while she tried to feel her source. It was much more difficult with all the visual distractions and she struggled for several minutes, sweat dripping down her back all the while. Eventually, she settled with closing one eye with the resolve to work herself out of the habit. Once she touched her source, the flames responded to her easily and she found that she could keep her eyes open afterwards with little difficulty.

Pulling at the flames until a few motes separated from the bonfire, she found she now only needed to whisper her Intent--“Pierce”--as she drew her Animus up to her hands and onto the spear shaft. It was here that she encountered trouble.

Between the moment she focused on moving her Animus through the spear shaft and the moment she began the thrusting motion, it seemed to lose whatever Intent she had put in it. The spearhead blazed with the golden glow of her Animus but it came out an amorphous blob that extended more than a handspan from the tip. Worse, as soon as she completed the thrust, the glow faded away, scattering into the air ineffectually.

“Not as easy as I thought,” Yuriko muttered, mentally apologizing to the two boys that she disparaged earlier. Still, now that she had actually performed the technique, the only thing left was to practice until she got it right.

She reset her stance and did all the steps slowly, focusing on each movement and trying to find out what she was doing wrong, and doing her utmost to do it right.