Herrera City didn’t have walls, not in the conventional sense. From what Yuriko read, the Prime Clan controlled twelve oases and built the city around it. Unlike Boata Port, the houses, while still blocky, were covered in whitewash or paint. There was also an abundance of trees that stuck out above most of the residences, except for their palace, which rose above everything and made the city look like its front lawn.

The caravan was headed into one of the open spaces. Yuriko didn’t see any roads, but they were covered in sand, at least on the outskirts. The city was brightly lit with Arcana Woven lights, though she noticed that the colours were uniform in each section. The one they were heading into had light purple, but against her expectations, the caravan didn’t actually enter the city.

They waited a little while, but when Yuriko saw people streaming away from the caravan, she figured this must be the norm. They’d already paid tickets, but it didn’t look like the city restricted access or asked for entry tariffs.

So they walked into the Purple Light district, but Yuriko had no intention of staying longer than it took to get to the Portal Gate, in the White Light District, all the way up north. Yup, twelve oases and twelve different colours, even if they pushed beyond the boundaries of the rainbow.

The purple lanterns were just bright enough to ruin night vision but they weren’t enough to eliminate shadows. Just enough to create the illusion of brightness, but it also created illusory movement out of every little thing. If not for her perception aura, she would have been incredibly annoyed. The other travellers didn’t seem to mind, especially when the sun finally set. Ah, they had to go north a couple of outer districts, then southeast into the White Light Inner Oasis.

The walk north was about a longstride. The Purple Light District was a weird mix of commercial and hospitality establishments, Yuriko noticed, and most of the dwellings weren’t warded against divination. The few residential ones anyway. Unlike Boata, there weren’t many street kids running around, but there were also a ton of street signs. Most of them, the sign boards, were nearly a pace high and were littered with names and directions. Most of the names sounded like brothels and almost all of them were near the oasis at the centre of the district. There were a few that sounded like inns, but…

Oh, it was getting late and maybe the inns would be full considering a caravan just arrived. All the more reason to head over to a new district, yes?

The one north had blue lights as lanterns, and most of them looked like shopfronts. Most of them were closed too, except for the taverns and eateries.

“Let’s go find an inn.” Gwendith grumbled, “I feel sand where I shouldn’t feel it.”

Yuriko arched an eyebrow. “You didn’t block it?”

“They stick to my Anima,” Gwendith complained.

“Mine too, actually,” Heron grunted.

“Eh? They don’t stick on mine,” Yuriko admitted.

“Honey, your control is on another level,” Gwendith grumbled.

“Oh. Practise?”

“With everything else we do, I’m not getting all that much time,” Gwendith admitted. “And since we’re being low-key, can’t really vary the intensity of my Animakinesis.”

“Yeah. It’s hard for me to use kinesis.” Heron said, “It’s easier to train with body enhancement.”

“Oh.” Yuriko nodded. “You both know how to condense your Anima right? You naturally allow air to pass so you can breathe, and you stop anything coming at you fast enough. If you focus, you can exclude sand, water, and any other thing you don’t want to go through.”

“Yeah, you’ve told us that,” Gwendith said blandly. “Except you always forget to mention that it takes a certain amount of focus to do that. If my attention slips, then it’s back to what it was before.”

“Eh? Just practise until it becomes a habit.” Yuriko insisted.

“Still not that simple, Honey.” Gwendith said with a soft smile, “You’re a natural at this, Heron and I were converted from a different path. We’re still adjusting. Even now when it’s been years.”

“Oh.”

Gwendith gave her a soft smile and nudged her with her shoulder, “Let’s look for a place to sleep. It’s too late to look at the Portal Gate and it’s probably closed anyway.”

“Alright.”

Ryoko spotted an inn, and soon enough, they managed to secure a couple of rooms. They wouldn’t allow Fluffington upstairs and wanted to leave the pupper in the stables, but Yuriko didn’t want that. Gwendith winked at her and said, through their mental connection, ‘Just bring him upstairs through your kinesis.’

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So that’s what she did. The rooms didn’t cost more than five silvers, but there was barely enough space for all of them. The big wolf pup barely fit through the window either, but they managed.

Dinner was…spicy. It nearly set Yuriko’s tongue aflame, but it was still tasty. Since it was so crowded, Yuriko and Gwendith didn’t have a chance for some stress relief, though cuddling was good enough. She noticed Heron looking a bit forlorn before they went to bed so she gave him a hug, then teased him a bit by pinching his bottom. She felt his emotions surge directly to lust and need, but she just giggled and left it at that. She did catch the breathy promise of vengeance right before she closed the door to the girls’ room, as well as a mental image of what made her breathless and practically helpless. Her giggles only grew louder, but there was more than an undertone of challenge that she sent back: Do your worst. Or best, really. She liked it, either way.

The next morning, Yuriko woke up before dawn and snuck out of the room through the windows. Saki was already up, but Fluffington wasn’t. She carefully carried the pupper with her Animakinesis and laid him down next to Saki who waited near the stables.

After ten days of not training her body extensively, Yuriko felt a bit twitchy. Sure, she devoted more than a hundred and fifty paces of Anima reach to restrict her body to normal humanoid levels, but just didn’t feel the same. Honestly, she had not pushed her body as much as she could have, certainly not as much as what she did right after her Atavism Ritual. Still, full body restriction all day and night had the effect of strengthening her body just as much as running, weight training, and callisthenics did. Not much flexibility; she honestly already reached the peak of that. She could already contract her body any way she wanted, something both of her lovers enjoyed, so unless she wanted to bend over backwards, slip her torso and head between her legs until she was upright again, then practise the Four Phases of the Sword…there was little need for that.

Ah, maybe she should call it Five Phases now? She had built the foundation of the Fifth Phase, resonating on the Element of Metal, but she was uncertain about how she would proceed. Metal as an Element shared some characteristics on how she resonated with the other four. It could flow like Water, be explosively violent as Fire, cut as well as Wind, and be steady and hard as Earth. But she felt that Metal was more than a copycat of the other four styles, and there was something missing that she couldn’t quite put her finger on. Resonating with the Element sometimes gave her ideas on what she could do with it, and with Metal…there was something missing. Not in her perception, but in the Element itself.

It was as if she wasn’t in a place where it could express itself more than what it already could. She felt potential there, and she could feel the local ambient Elemental energy looking for it. As of the concept already existed but wasn’t here.

Yeah…that was it. A key part was missing, and there was nothing she could do to connect with it.

But Metal resonated with Yuriko. More than the other four originally did. She was well connected with the Four Elements now, though. She hummed as she moved her Anima in conjunction with the Metal Resonance. She felt a web of connections, though they were frail threads compared to what her Mien supplied her. She followed that Resonant thread, and opened her eyes, surprised to see she was actually looking at someone.

No, not a person. A gun that was strapped to a guard's hip. The Metal Element danced around the weapon, as it did with any metallic weapon. A sword, an axe, a pistol, and a rifle. Interesting, wasn’t it? If she didn’t have her Anima perception active, she could have used the ability to sense where weapons were. Hmm, she still could, come to think of it. Metal Resonance didn’t rely on her Anima blanketing the area, which meant it would not be felt. She could thin the density of her Anima as much as she could, but it didn’t change the fact that she was basically spreading herself out and touching everything around her. As proven by some of her battles in the past, her Anima perception could be blocked or discovered.

But would she only use Metal Sword as just that? A method to detect weapons?

Well, it could be…it could be. And if she integrated that bit into her overall sword style, then it would elevate her Sword.

Er, maybe name the style something other than Metal Sword? Well, it would earn its title when she developed it, huh?

Dawn came soon enough, and it was time to move on. Heron gave her a bland stare as he walked past her to the bathroom, but he stiffened when she used her Anima to pinch his bottom again. He snorted and walked past, exaggeratedly swinging his hips and making her giggle. Ah, it’s been a while since they’ve been intimate, and she was missing his warmth.

They walked out of the inn and headed north to the next district. The lanterns were coloured green though with the rising sun, they were soon snuffed. The bustle on the streets slowly grew until the crowds pressed against Yuriko despite her subtle push with kinesis. Oh, pickpockets!

She discreetly intercepted the small hands from reaching for her coin purse, though she did little else. After the third attempt, the would-be thief stamped her foot and left to look for easier prey.

Aside from the coloured lanterns, nothing much distinguished this district from the others. But as they moved northeast, Yuriko could see taller structures rising above the tree line. Soon enough, they found the crossing to the Portal Gate’s district, the White Light District.

Each district was separated by a low fence built on the sands. Yuriko spotted runescript enchantment etched on the metal frame, and while it would not block people from crossing, she knew it would mark all those who tried. Unless someone flew several dozen paces above it, anyway. She spotted a few Magi flying overhead, but each one drew eyes by the hundreds.

They made their way to the crossing gate, and it was easy enough to go through. She did note that the gate had enchantments that took an image of the people crossing, but wherever those images were sent, she couldn’t tell. Not unless she followed the runescript tracings.

The White Light district was much less crowded even if it was one of the two central districts. Yuriko noted a large, oval building right off the main road. The sign said it was the Arena of Challengers, but underneath that line, there was an arrow that pointed the opposite way that said: Portal Gate.

So of course they went that way. Contrary to Bresia City, the portal rings were in the middle of a large square, and it was currently active. They watched as a small group of richly clad Sha’ledras entered the portal. A moment later, the rings stopped spinning around the main Gate, and settled down.

“At least we’re sure it works,” Heron said.