Even with the arrival of the morning sun, Sryine and Vwyx were left with Riyxia’s sleeping body, waiting. Riyxia’s spectre had yet to return, and the two of them were starting to worry.

What had not helped at all was the feeling of Riyxia’s body growing far too cold, like the sleep she was currently enduring was a state in fact far worse than simple slumber. Being deprived of a heat such as the flame, of course her body would get colder.. but this still seemed to be worse than even a normal person. It was Sryine who was the first to figure it out, that the distance of the spectre.. of the essence.. would leave the body in a state that the essence could no longer influence. A person devoid of their body was then in a state of death. Sryine had started to panic at the idea, but Vwyx wasn’t just going to give up, even knowing that. Riyxia’s spectre had demonstrated its ability to defy death already before, Vwyx was certain that even a brush with death wasn’t going to be enough to stop Riyxia. However, that would in turn leave her body as a lifeless husk that would need to be somehow still kept ready for the return of her essence. Vwyx applied her own gift to ensure the body left to them kept going, artificially tending to her body by effectively constantly crafting it into normal operation. It’s blood needed to circulate, to remain fresh, while its lungs had to move.. to keep air circulating. The ingredients for life were the harmony of the elements.

Watching Vwyx work with such determination, the most challenging craft ever presented to her set before her, Sryine couldn’t help but be motivated to lend a hand. Vwyx had the material elements in her control, she was the best at making use of the energy elements. Tending Riyxia with consideration for the quality of air, the quality of water.. and especially the quality of flame. Riyxia was growing cold, but warmth was one thing the flame was really good at. Sryine however was surprised, even before she could find a way to slice her arm again for another good sample of the flame to work with, Vwyx was instead holding out her own, already cut and bleeding by a blade of her own crafting. The blood dripped from Vwyx, a known offering for Sryine to work with, it didn’t even resist her gift in the process. Sryine smiled wryly, having been too slow this time to act. Then again, she had done this plenty of times already, Vwyx was simply taking her own turn this time, making use of her own ability to resist pain productively. Sryine made use of such an offering, applying it with the flame from the fragment she still carried, sowing warmth into the otherwise lifeless husk. Exactly as Riyxia had expected, her body was being tended by her closest of friends, successfully keeping it in a state prepared to return to life once again.

However, simulating the process of life demanded everything either girl had, a fact which denied them the attention to notice the flow of shimmers from the tiny exit of the vent. The vent itself had gone quiet and still once again as well, at peace and relaxed. Neither girl even noticed the water become slightly brighter, the wash of purple already being obscured by the purple glow they were already emitting. What caught their attention was the realization that tending to Riyxia’s fallen form was becoming suddenly easier and easier, improving by itself within the span of moments. Still not completely understanding, both girls were suddenly surprised when Riyxia herself started coughing, her own will taking command over her body once again. Riyxia however was still trying to take accounts of what had even happened, the lack of her thoughts and memory making everything sort of obscure. Her mind felt like a haze too, Sryine not even having realized that her actions had been attempting to sustain Riyxia’s mind in the process, an inspiration of processing caused by subtle illusions. This left Riyxia feeling like she had suddenly woken up from a dream, which was also an experience she had no memory of ever having.. making it really hard to understand. The thoughts of such vague illusions remained fleeting for her, she couldn’t recall any of the details at all, but they did still serve to cloud her thoughts further.

Looking around, Riyxia recognized the terms of her location. This was just outside the vent below the lake, Sryine having sustained their air supply the entire time in addition to everything else that had been going on. She then recalled why they were here, because Liyuzhe had descended into the vent.. and things had gone really wrong. She then remembered going after them.. but her memories ended with that. Had she succeeded, was everything fine? Her mind was filled with unanswered questions.. and yet she felt relaxed. In fact, she felt as if everything was done, all without records within her memory. She took a deep breath, closing her eyes, searching herself for answers her mind had no record of. From that came a subtle certainty of resolve, feelings that tried to answer beyond the logical scape of the mind. Things.. really were done, the threat was gone. The great flame from beyond had been exiled once again, though the remnants of it had been collected by.. herself? She looked down at herself once again, her body glowing with a purple like it had before.. but this flame was way beyond what she had contained before. This was no Celesi flame, this was embers from the source itself, a flame of incredible intensity. Her glow was less than either of the others, but the strength of her flame had exceeded well beyond what either would be capable of. This sort of flame would not simply be used up and vanish over days.. it instead might take her entire lifetime.

Riyxia’s next thoughts turned to Liyuzhe and the others, people she understood to be friends still even beyond their misunderstandings. At that consideration, a tear blazed down her cheeks, a feeling of failure filled her. She might have saved the world, but she wasn’t able to save those three too. It might have been irrational to expect everything, but she was really hoping that there wouldn’t have been more deaths to the flame she could feel responsible for. First the flame had killed three girls, not even that far from here about half a year ago.. and now the flame had struck again to take another three dreamers who were only trying to make their dreams come true. Riyxia had been imparted Khyzae’s dream, simply by being passed on portions of Khyzae’s nature.. but now it seemed she would be the successor of another dream as well. Liyuzhe had died trying to make her dream happen, foolishly died.. but still died. The ways Liyuzhe had tried to make her dream come true were wrong, but that wasn’t to say that the dream itself wasn’t valid. The gift had its limits, its boundaries, and she for one was seeing that the future could only be found by shattering the boundaries before them. Unlike those whose lives were lost before her, before all three of them.. she needed to find a way to make this happen. For the sake of the original essences within their bodies, for the sake of the three friends her original essence had lost in the process, she needed to make a change, to make dreams happen.

“Thank you both for your hard work and support, I knew I could count on you both to help make everything happen. Even so, there are still things that need to be done, so maybe we should actually get out of this stupid lake. Sryine’s wind here has been plenty of help, but normal air would probably make everything way easier.” “Riyxia! You had us so worried, you know that, right? Please don’t ever do that again, ever! Anyway, I can get us out of here, but where are we going next? Where did Ieqyisa go too, actually?” “The three of them.. didn’t make it. All three of them have been taken by the source before the gate could be closed.” “Oh… That sucks, actually. I mean, they had been a pain for a while, but I still don’t think they deserved such a thing. Being determined and all was a good thing, even their ambitions were actually really impressive.. their only real problem was being blind to something they didn’t want to understand. Ieqyisa worked so hard to improve herself, made her gift go miles simply by her own determination. My gift has grown to something absolutely insane, but most of it was simply a strength just given to me. I still remember how much I had tried to make my illusions into something cool, I can totally understand her trying to strive for her own better future.” Riyxia understood that the deaths here didn’t just impact her, Sryine was making that all too clear. Ieqyisa had spent a lot of time with Sryine.. and if things with Jwyexzn worked out, Ieqyisa would actually become a sort of late sister for Sryine too. Sryine would have to pick things up for Ieqyisa, look after Ieqyisa’s brother in the process as well.

Vwyx was so obviously silently reflecting something similar. Fhyernx was a guy she had known for a long time, the guy who handled the trade her family needed to survive. Sure, that deal had fallen flat.. but with his death, the deal’s end was actually even more inevitable. Fhyernx was even the one who gave her some of her earliest introductions into instrumentation, something that had since become a vital part of her lifestyle.. something that apparently was also ingrained in his own. Knowing he had simply died.. it was a harsh thing to consider, even after some of the ways he had started treating her in the end. It wasn’t as if she had been treating him much better either, not while their goals conflicted.

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With such deaths, the three girls were filled with feelings of sadness and regrets as they left the lake with the most direct path out, straight up. Left upon a surface of the water, Sryine obviously getting tired of having them float on air, Vwyx started crafting a sheet of ice for them to walk upon instead, going from one struggle to another. Riyxia slipped and fell all too immediately, the ice being too much for her to handle. Vwyx and Sryine were both at her side right away, helping her up together, Vwyx having a wry smile at Riyxia’s fall. Of course, Riyxia understood she couldn’t underestimate the cold, the stuff was about as annoying as water was, actually. In fact, she could definitely see such frost bringing even more possible problems in the future, a concern she really didn’t want to even consider.

Slowly adjusting to the ice, the three made their way back to the lakeside, finding themselves at the beach once again. By impulse, Riyxia walked towards the fallen fortress, still left abandoned there. Everything of Liyuzhe’s was effectively abandoned at this point, she was gone. It was a shame too, so much of Liyuzhe’s equipment was top-notch quality, things that could be really useful to work with in the future. In fact, if she was going to consider making Liyuzhe’s dream come true, she would have to make use of what Liyuzhe had in the process that was actually useful. The whole beast thing, not useful, and obviously the ambitions for controlling the flame were absolutely futile. But there were a lot of other resources Liyuzhe’s trio had available to them, stuff she would need to repurpose for her own plans. Oh, of course, Khyzae had actually been the fourth of their group too, so in a way this progression of resources felt almost.. planned before her. Khyzae really wasn’t gone, she had been an influence through the entire journey, and would remain a part of Riyxia for the rest of her life.

“Lets go check out that fortress, we might as well figure out what uses we can find for it. Can’t just let things go to waste, right? .. especially her dream.” “Wait, you want to go back inside that.. that.. horror? You do know that place is haunted, right?” “You mean, like with ghosts? Silly Sryine, that just makes the place feel even more like home for us living dead, you know that? Think about it, I’m practically a ghost myself, after all. But on that matter, I seem to remember the place being filled with a lot of other walking dead that I’m supposed to keep as my own companions, and father would be outright distraught if I didn’t come back with at least a few of them. There was even one of them I had really felt comfortable with, a certain black haired ersatz that had seemed as if it was such a great second home for my spectre. Except for her hair, I was noticing just how similar she was to the doll Vwyx had made.. which was what had originally caught my eye. You two still need healing too, we really can’t just return to the village with you two looking so horribly injured.. don't you know how many people that would worry? Instead, we should just rest here for a while, try to get both of you healed the entire way, maybe even come up with some plans for the future.” Riyxia led the way towards the fortress, despite Sryine’s continued protests. Vwyx didn’t even bother wasting the effort, simply bracing herself for the terror they were going to throw themselves into once again. Vwyx found it at least comforting that even the terror-resistant Sryine found such a place scary, that itself proved to validate her own fears as someone without such protection.

Riyxia quickly located the ersatz she was considering, the same one with the crescent hairpin that now held black hair. Vwyx noticed that it was also in need of some repairs.. and it would probably not be the only one that needed repairs. A thousand ersatz, each with various degrees of significant damage.. she was going to be busy for a while, wasn’t she? Because Vwyx was putting in so much effort, Riyxia decided to first try to ensure Vwyx was healed, while Sryine just relaxed in a place of her choosing. Sryine in turn noticed that the water cooling system had stopped, the water was completely drained from the otherwise cool room. In a corner of the room, she even found a blossom, looking much like the one she had lost before.

Sryine toyed with it as she had earlier.. but the thing was completely unresponsive, fluttering nowhere at all. Well, if it had no direction, she would provide it with one, carrying it up the ladder and setting it free through the halls, carried upon the direction of her own wind. She didn’t need such a silly thing to tell her where she was going next, she already knew. They were heading for the stars, nothing else left in their way, it was only a matter of time now. Using void crystals of their own making, they could achieve a purity that would dramatically improve the performance of their gift, a world-shifting potential that even the boundaries of the world wouldn’t be able to stop. Sure, there were concerns about what would happen once they were beyond the reach of the world providing them with such a gift.. but it wasn’t as if the elements they put in motion would just stop, all of those elements already existed anyway.

Sryine froze, a moment of revelation passing over her. The gift came from somewhere.. sure, everyone understood it as the gift came from the world, but even the world had to get such influence from something. The elements that brought life to the world also remain its source of power, and such elements are the composition of all creation. They had always been working to simply harness the elements with the aid of the world, but if they instead bypassed that process and found ways to directly shape the elements on their own, they would effectively create a gift for themselves. In fact, there wasn’t anyone more qualified to do such a thing then the three of them, their individual gifts forming the complete harmony over the elements to shape such a process.. and the presence of their flame being a submersion of elemental aptitude ever eager to begin taking full control over the elements within its own reach. This was something she would have to simply discuss with Riyxia later, to devise a plan to enable a way for them.. actually possibly everyone.. to bypass the restrictions of their gifts and instead take control over the elements around them directly.

Flame appeared to be the most useful element in this process, being the greatest controlling authority over all of the other elements.. maybe Vwyx could then make instruments that focused upon the elements to draw strength from them directly.. rather than a person’s gift. This was remarkable, not only did this mean that the path to the stars was opening for them.. but Liyuzhe’s dream would come true too. Sryine just hoped that Ieqyisa didn’t mind that she herself would be taking over such a research and distribution project, she could just see the profits available from such a world-changing innovation. She would need Riyxia’s guidance and Vwyx’s potential with instrumentation.. that was simply obvious, they were a team after all. She giggled softly from the platform she was relaxing upon, imagining exactly what kind of career boost this sort of news would provide for Jwyexzn. This was seriously going to be awesome.

Sryine reflected too, there would be more need for records of what was going on than simply news reports. She had always enjoyed tales of legends that shaped the world, but now she was going to be a part of one herself. Actually, in all consideration, their whole journey had been something that could itself become legend, to add to the incredible collection of stories from the Terran Mythos. Sure, her tale was actually real.. but she did recall what Jwyexzn had said, that history tends to shape legends based upon what is interesting more than what is accurate, her tale might be altered in just the same way. That was fine, let the future write their story in whatever way it needs to find its own inspiration.. such tales had empowered her to get this far, after all.

They would simply need to compile all of the facts, to make accurate records of what had transpired, and depend upon the future to see the facts in whatever fiction that was left to them. Jwyexzn would be really good at this too, he was a professional in this very field. In fact, many of their friends could help with each of their own contributions too. However, of everyone she could trust to provide complete insight into an understanding of the facts that had occured, she could think of no better person to turn to than Riyxia herself, the woman who had a natural talent for simply remaining aware of her situation and accounting for.. everything.. when planning for the future. More than even Jwyexzn, if she wanted an accurate record to leave for the future, she would need Riyxia’s help. It was actually ironic, in its own way, the woman with the least memories of her past would in turn be the one with the best memories to work with. This was a really good thing, the three of them had gone through a lot of struggles, dealt with so many different things, and all things considered, it might not be good if all of the details their lives had left would instead suddenly go to waste.

Hearing an account of all this, Riyxia was left to agree with the entire assessment, all things she would still need to devote her attention towards. Having at least finished what they needed in the fortress, the three girls stepped back outside to witness the midday sun burning brightly at the peak of yet another busy day.