Barnabei Rill had swollen from the constant rainfall. The river ford was barely passable with the middle being deep enough to go over someone’s head. The current was fast enough that the waters were muddy brown and frothy. Even at its narrowest point, the Rill was roughly forty paces wide.

“Is this too far for all of you to jump across?” Yuriko asked quietly.

“Uhm, yeah,” the people her age muttered while she saw Sheamus rolling his eyes. He reached into his pack and pulled out a coil of rope. He secured it on a nearby tree and handed the other end to Yuriko.

“You can walk over the water, right?”

“Yeah,” Yuriko nodded as she took the rope, and without preamble, stepped on the rushing waters. Her Animakinesis formed a broad disc below her boot soles and she gracefully walked across, bobbing up and down with the current and the waves.

Once she was across, she pulled the rope taut and secured it on a tree trunk, took another coil from her backpack and secured that one before she crossed back. She handed the free coil to Heron, who tied it around his waist. He took a deep breath and leapt on top of the rope, arms windmilling to keep his balance. Once he was secure, he walked across the tightrope.

Yuriko paced alongside him in case he fell. He didn’t and once he was across, he handed the guard rope back with a confident smile.

“Not bad,” she said and his grin widened.

She went back with the guard rope and handed it to Braden. Unlike Heron, he made no attempt to walk on the tightrope. Instead, he hung upside down upon it and dragged himself across. Orrin did the same thing, with his arms and knees shaking all the while.

Gwendith crossed on top of the rope, as did Asami, though the latter almost fell off midway. She caught the rope on her way down and clung to it while Yuriko helped steady her. Then, she dragged herself underneath it. Sheamus did as the twins did, while Saki, then Desire, nimbly made their way across the top. After everyone was across, Yuriko undid the tightrope from the Imperial side and walked back across. Crossing the border took less than an hour, and just like that, they were in Federation territory.

__________

The fortified Waypoint’s Veil shuddered and shook. Ripples crossed its surface and bubbles of whatever was inside rose to the surface and popped, releasing thick clouds of the Fysalli’s ambient Chaos that mixed in with the Chaos Sea’s particles. Sparks of light as energy drained and moved before the clouds settled into a lower activity level.

The Green Swan, the Silent Jade Falcon, and the Fortuitous Stone plunged into the weakened Fysalli, with the capital ship’s weapons primed and ready to unleash voluminous superheated plasma bolts or blast arcs of black lightning.

Legate Jiro Segawa paced on the bridge, too worked up to settle on his command station. Tribunus Maruko Manuela sat on the pilot’s console, interfaced with the ship’s guiding spirit, and carefully controlled the Chaos ship as they entered.

Soon enough the battlefield below was revealed, though only corpses and detritus remained.

“Casualty reports sit at forty-five wounded, three dead,” Tribunus Manuela reported, “All wounded personnel will be retrieved on the Jade Falcon in three minutes. Proceed to the next layer?”

“Whenever ready,” Jiro answered.

He expanded his Domain and encompassed their immediate vicinity. He limited his reach to within a longstride to maintain his Domain’s strength, watching coldly as the wounded legionnaires were brought aboard. As for the dead, they were retrieved last, to be placed inside the morgue where preservation runescript lines would keep their bodies from putrefying. They would be buried when the fleet returned home, or go down with the Chaos ship should the worst happen, but at least they would be with their brothers and sisters.

The fleet punched through the weakening inner Veil. Once they moved out of the outer parts of the interior, a new cohort would be sent out to wipe out the defences and open up the path. They’d already spent a couple of days in this endeavour yet time dragged on his weary mind.

Time. They’ve lost so much of it that it was troubling. What was happening back in their home port? Would there be one to return to?

The flagship punctured the Veil and pushed the fleet onwards. The view screens blanked out with the Chaos Streams and then…

A powerful wrench pulled at Jiro’s stomach and he felt the Waypoint around him churn. He exercised his control over the surrounding Chaos space, seeking to stabilise their protective bubble. Streaks of light crossed the view screens, and he felt a powerful Will take hold of them.

“Who dares!” he roared as he rallied his powerful Will against the foreign power. He pushed against it, finding its strength equal to his own. But the foreign Will pulled back before he could lock it down, and started fiddling with the passageway.

Jiro shot spears of absolute frost at the enemy, but even as his attacks struck, and the Will shivered, it didn’t stop. Seconds later, it pulled entirely away, but it was too late by then. The fleet continued down the passage and soon popped out into the Chaos Sea rather than the interior Waypoints.

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The Green Swan shook as they exited. Jiro levitated himself back into his chair and strapped himself in while the turbulent Chaos Flows rattled everyone. Maruko Manuela’s face was tight and withdrawn as she struggled to smooth the Animus flows of the Swan’s Protective Sphere and kept it aligned with the Jade Falcon and the Stone.

It took a few minutes for the turbulence to subside, and they had the wherewithal to check their surroundings. Jiro saw a Fysalli in the distance. A large sphere with four distinct colours and zones. The largest portion was grey, and the next band was coloured green. The third largest was red, and the smallest band was blue.

“Rotter,” Jiro muttered. He recognised the Fysalli, of course. It was one of the Chaos Courts. The Solamnus Court’s Garden of All Seasons.

____________

“You’re too clean,” Asami said one morning as they trod down the dirt path.

“Huh?” Yuriko blinked at the green-haired girl. Although Asami and Gwendith were cousins, the two of them didn’t share many features in common. For one thing, Asami was almost as tall as Yuriko, quite a few inches taller than Gwendith. Her hair was green and fell in waves down her back, although they were contained in a tight bun now. Her eyes were midnight black too. Ah, both girls shared the same dusting of light freckles across their noses though, which were quite cute.

Asami gestured at Yuriko’s trousers and boots. “You’re too clean. There’s no mud on your boots and pants.” She held out a shapely leg and pointed at the encrusted mud near the bottoms. Then she twisted her boot to show the dirt-encrusted sole. “We’re posing as refugees, not elite warriors or Spellweavers.”

“Oh!” Yuriko blushed, “You’re right.”

Asami nodded curtly then slowed her pace to fall back with the others. Yuriko frowned as she withdrew her kinesis from protecting her body from the weather and the mud. The patter of raindrops against her poncho immediately irritated her and she fought the urge to return her protection. With a sigh, she held herself back and continued trudging.

Some part of her already knew that what she was doing would draw attention. Subconsciously, she thought that just by removing the glow around her, she would be fine. Well, she could keep her protection under her clothes, and directly on her skin, which was the minimum she could tolerate. Blending in was the goal, but she felt not at the cost of self-defence.

The poncho and her trousers were treated to be waterproof, so she should trust that. The rain was letting up anyway, weakening from a steady downpour to a constant drizzle. The path was muddy, but underneath it was a bed of gravel and hard-packed earth. They left bootprints behind them…er, except for her. She’d been walking while using her kinesis to stop herself from sinking in the mud, so there were only seven distinct trails. Saki didn’t leave any trails either but she was normally hidden in the shadows.

Squish!

The mud squirted out from under her heels. “Ick.”

“Hie hie!”

Snickers from behind. She knew it came from Gwendith and when she turned to look, she gave an innocent smile. The twinkle behind her eyes betrayed her though.

They found the dirt road a couple of longstrides south of the river ford, and they decided to follow it. Yuriko had never been to Haveena City, and the twins obviously went by the main road.

“We did go farther south than the city, and we visited several provinces, but not the ones that are near the border,” Orrin said. “We can just follow this road, and we’ll eventually reach their main highway. Eventually.”

“Think we should go through the main thoroughfares?” Gwendith asked, “We might get exposed more easily that way.”

“But if we skulk around the back ways, we’ll be suspicious,” Asami protested. The boys, and even Sheamus, just nodded along and Yuriko gave them an irritated look, that they all returned with confusion.

“Help decide.”

“You ladies got it already,” Heron answered while keeping a straight face. He couldn’t hide the micro twitches of amusement on his face from her though. “We’ll do as you command. You’re the lead, after all.”

“Sheamus is supposed to act as the leader,” Yuriko grumbled.

“Of course, my lady. But only once we’ve mingled with the Federation populace. We’re still very much alone,” Sheamus said with equanimity.

“So? Which way would you rather go through?” Yuriko asked.

Sheamus shrugged. “Makes little difference to me.”

Orrin and Braden hummed and said, “Either way is fine.”

“Heron?”

“Ah. Haha, whichever way you wanna go?”

Yuriko exchanged glances with the other two girls, exasperation clear on all of their faces. Ultimately, it fell to her as the leader of the expeditionary force, but she didn’t want to make any hasty decisions. She figured that she should see what she could of the countryside and decide once they actually reached the highway.

The rain steadily dwindled until only a few droplets fell from the skies every minute or so. The dark clouds had thinned and fingers of golden light pierced through them, streaking towards the ground. Yuriko pushed her hood back and basked in the Radiance, but…

“Put your hood back on!” Gwendith hissed. “You never know who might be looking.”

Yuriko sighed and complied. Still, the sun’s rays warmed her upturned face. Her hair stored Radiant energy, though only a tiny fraction compared to her Essence. She willfully directed the pure Radiant energy there in case that was what Damien needed to function.

Towards the afternoon, the rain had stopped. All nine of them stared up at the sky in consternation, then glanced back north. Those skies were still dark, and Yuriko could see the darkness of the rain falling.

“Does it seem like it's only raining near Faron’s Crossing?” Heron asked.

Yuriko shook her head. She hoped the Knight’s Council really sent an emissary to Avos Shillogu.

A few minutes later, she spotted a group of houses in the distance and the road cut right through them. There looked to be a dozen or so dwellings. A farming hamlet.

“Don’t speak out too much when we get there,” Sheamus reminded her. “Your Wojan is heavily accented.”

“Ah. Ehehehe,” Yuriko reached into her hood and scratched the back of her neck. “I guess I should practice.”

“Say that again in Wojan.” Sheamus answered with a smile.

She did so and he nodded, repeated her words and emphasised where she diverged. The impromptu language lesson lasted for a couple of minutes until they came close enough to the farming hamlet.

It was deserted.

Yuriko spread her invisible perceptive aura as she walked up to a house. Her reach was wide enough that it encompassed the entire thing. There was nobody inside, and no signs of struggle. However, the belongings were strewn about, with old clothes on the floors and furniture scattered about.

“Check the rest of the houses,” she instructed, and the others spread out and entered the open doors.