After blitzing through an overhaul of the design, Dae’s new reflecting pool formation was nearly complete. With Yoshika’s help, he constructed a full-sized array, with its own room tucked safely within one of Jiaguo’s de facto government buildings. It was actually converted from what was once a dormitory bathroom, but nobody needed to know about that part.

Dense script covered the walls, floor, and ceiling, and a shallow pool of perfectly clear water covered the surface. In theory, Dae thought it would be able to connect to already existing reflecting pools, though it would require a manual adjustment of the internal mana to match the signature of the target.

The crux of his design, however, was a modular component. A small pedestal at the front of the pool could accept a focusing tool. With a regular speaking stone, it would work as a range amplifier, allowing connection across longer distances than normal—though still not nearly the continent-spanning range of a true reflecting pool. With a spiritual jade tablet, it would allow one-way observation of the person connected to it. Jiaguo didn’t have spiritual tablets, and Yoshika wasn’t exactly comfortable with the idea of using it to spy on people, but the capability was there.

The most important function, however, was that it could accept what Dae was calling a spiritually charged mana crystal. The concept was simple—by using something like a speaking stone as a template, Haeun’s yet-unnamed new discipline could focus and refine a more powerful matching mana signature, then imbue it within a neutral mana crystal.

Though the theory was simple, the practice was anything but. First, truly neutral mana crystals were by far the most rare. Mana crystals only formed where the elements were out of balance, with the excess solidifying into a volatile physical medium. Essence cores were essentially the same thing, except they formed within living beings.

Elementals were mana crystals that grew large or dense enough to form their own auras. Truly neutral crystals and cores were almost unheard of in nature, but could be manufactured—albeit with great difficulty.

Dae walked Yoshika through the process, and even with the Sovereign’s Tear to help it took her days just to make a single first-stage crystal. She had to start with a xiantian grade core and painstakingly balance out its elements—an inherently destructive process—all while making sure her own domain didn’t taint the results.

It was absurdly difficult, and each failure was costly, as the xiantian cores would be irreparably destroyed by the introduction of incompatible essences. When Yoshika asked Dae where he’d learned something like that, the answer was not a surprise.

“My master, of course. I always thought it was just a useless bit of trivia. Balanced crystals are undoubtedly useful, but not nearly worth the cost of manufacture.”

Jia sighed and shook her head.

“They’re very weird. It’s like...watered down divine essence.”

“I think that might be the point, actually. Once you’ve made one, it’s possible to grow it like any other crystal or core. And since it’s unaspected, it can power any spell or formation. With enough time and energy, perhaps it could be developed into a divine crystal.”

“Is that a thing?”

Yoshika had never heard of the concept before.

“Only in theory. Nobody has ever seen or created one, but divine essence is still essence—it should be possible.”

Jianmo’s spirit form drifted out of their blade and stretched idly.

“They do exist. They’re highly sought-after in the divine realm. If properly absorbed, a single divine crystal can accelerate any xiantian into a lesser deity—though the ones who take that route usually end up with foundations so shaky that they never advance any further.”

Jia blinked.

“Huh...do you think Dae is right about possibly refining one of these neutral crystals into one?”

“How should I know? I never had much interest in them, and my former master tended to use up the ones he got right away on things like artifacts and grand formations. Like the kid says, they’re very flexible.”

Dae adjusted his glasses and cleared his throat awkwardly.

“In any case, now that we’ve got a neutral crystal to work with, I suppose it’s up to the princess.”

They brought the crystal and the speaking stone to Haeun. Until that point, nobody had known exactly what Yoshika had been trying to achieve with Haeun’s magic. Vaguely, they’d known that it had something to do with a special formation, and some had even extrapolated that it was likely some variation of Yamato’s reflecting pools, but the fact that Rika had been deployed to Yamato was a state secret.

Now, there was no avoiding it. Haeun needed to know exactly what the speaking stone was for, and who it was trying to contact. She was a smart girl, and there was no doubt that she’d piece things together. Yoshika trusted her, though, and without her help it would take months—maybe even years—to finish the project and reestablish contact with Rika.

They didn’t have that kind of time.

Within the reflecting pool chamber, Haeun took the speaking stone in one hand and the crystal in the other, closing her eyes to meditate.

The mana around her stirred slowly, at first, gathering little by little at a steady pace. Yoshika watched carefully, trying to learn what she could from the mysterious process. At the beginning, it was just as slow as when Yoshika tried doing it herself—which made sense, since the type of mana they wanted was so narrow. But as it built, the mana around them began to churn and roil, drawing in essence faster and faster with Haeun at its center.

The more power Haeun summoned, the faster it built as more and more of the mana in the air started matching the essence of the speaking stone. Yoshika didn’t know how she was doing it. Some kind of sympathetic effect? Soul resonance?

She’d have to go over the theory with Dae later. In the meantime, once Haeun’s summoned pseudo-spirit was large enough, Jia stopped her.

“That should be good—try imbuing the crystal now.”

Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

If it got too powerful, the crystal wouldn’t be able to contain it, but if it wasn’t strong enough then it would exhaust its power before they were able to reach Rika.

With a nod, Haeun channeled the gathered essence into the mana crystal. The crystal shifted in her hand, glowing with a soft white light that radiated a sense of purpose that reminded Yoshika of spirit vessels like the Ashen Flower that housed Heian’s progenitor.

But though the purpose and power were there, it lacked the emotional context or intelligence of true spirits. Perhaps, Yoshika surmised, this was what a tsukumogami like the master blacksmith Murayoshi’s Forge looked like before she awakened. Or Jianmo.

“Good work, Haeun. Dae, what do you think? Will this work?”

Dae scratched his head and chuckled.

“Only one way to find out!”

He took the crystal from Haeun and placed it gently on the pedestal. For the first test, the plan was to attempt to power the formation with only environmental mana. That would put a lot of strain on the focus, but if it worked, it would represent a huge upgrade to the actual reflecting pools the formation was based on—as they required enormous supplies of external mana, usually in the form of crystals.

Dae fed the formation just enough mana to trigger it, and they watched with trepidation as the magic worked its way through the formation. Tiny ripples began forming on the surface of the pool, but the power within the crystal rapidly plummeted.

In theory, once the connection was established, the formation would be self-sustaining, but Yoshika was very worried about exhausting the focus crystal. Unlike natural crystals, the focus would be much easier to recharge than to replace, but if they exhausted it entirely then it would break.

When nearly ninety percent of the crystal’s mana was used up, Yoshika was about to put a stop to the experiment, but just before she could shut it down the formation stabilized, and the surface of the pool went unnaturally still.

No image formed in the pool, but they heard Rika’s voice, the pool forming ripples in time to the sound.

“Hm? Hold on a second, my speaking stone just activated.”

Another voice responded—an older male Yoshika didn’t recognize.

“You brought a communication artifact here? Takeda, your granddaughter is clearly a spy.”

Another old man responded—this time Yoshika recognized Takeda Keiji—Rika’s grandfather.

“Peace, Lord Toma. A spy would not tell us they were listening.”

Rika chuckled awkwardly.

“Yoshika, is that you? I’m not sure if your timing is the best, or the worst.”

Jia winced.

“Sorry about that. We’ve managed to get our prototype reflecting pool working. Is this a bad time?”

“No, like I said, it might just be perfect.”

Takeda Keiji’s voice quickly followed.

“Indeed. Lady Yoshika, how long can your artifact maintain this connection? I believe we have much to discuss.”

“Uh...”

She checked the formation, ensuring that the mana was still stable.

“Indefinitely. But we can only establish the connection from our end. Once it stops, Rika won’t be able to contact us and we’ll need some time to prepare the resources necessary to activate it again.”

Jia kept things vague—they were allies in theory, but she didn’t want to give away all of their secrets. She’d probably already said too much.

“That’s fine. Ideally we would do this with Lord Ienaga present, but we can get some preliminary talks out of the way first. In the interest of good faith, who else is privy to this conversation?”

Jia frowned, turning to Haeun. She gave her star disciple an apologetic smile and gestured for her to leave. Haeun bowed with her hands in front of her and silently left the room.

“It’s just me and my top magical advisor, Hyeong Daesung—though I guess ‘me’ needs a bit more clarification.”

Takeda Keiji chuckled.

“So I’ve heard, Lady Yoshika. Go on.”

“We are Lee Jia, An Eui, Li Meili—who is not someone you’ll have heard of or need to concern yourself with—and Hayakawa Kaede.”

Though she couldn’t see their reactions, she heard stirring from the other side.

“The Qin name is concerning, but rather overshadowed by that last name. I’ll ask you to explain, but first allow me to introduce my side of the conversation.

“You know me already, but I am General Takeda Keiji, serving under Lord Ienaga. Joining me is the local provincial ruler, Lord Toma Shigeru, and of course my granddaughters Takeda Rika and Takeda Chiyo.”

“A pleasure to meet you, Lord Toma.”

The previously unknown old man returned her greeting with a barely audible grumble.

“Now, with introductions out of the way, Lady Yoshika, could you please explain what you meant when you said you were Lady Hayakawa Kaede?”

----------------------------------------

It took some time for them to fill in the missing pieces of each other’s stories. The fact that Hayakawa Kaede was, in fact, alive and well—which she proved to the best of her ability by personally joining the conversation—came as a surprise to Ienaga’s generals. Likewise, the fact that Ienaga Yumi and her returning army had never made it home came as a surprise to Yoshika.

“What I don’t understand is why she’s still in their custody.”

Kaede scowled as she paced before the reflecting pool.

“If my father executed her soldiers, then he no longer has any leverage keeping her bound. She could have escaped at any moment, but hasn’t.”

Takede Keiji grunted his acknowledgement.

“At the very least, we know she’s still alive. But there’s much we don’t understand. Shogun Hayakawa is known for swift and decisive action, yet he’s spent the last year sitting on his laurels and gathering forces.”

Rika sighed.

“Any army needs time to prepare, but Hayakawa’s been planning this for way longer than we realized. He’s been controlling information in and out of Ienaga’s territory since before we even made it to Goryeo. This is years in the making.”

Kaede clicked her tongue and huffed irritably.

“What is he waiting for?”

Takeda Keiji sighed.

“I don’t know, but it’s clear that you need to speak to Lord Ienaga as soon as possible. How long will it take you to gather enough ki crystals for your reflecting pool?”

Jia bit her lip. It had taken three days to manufacture the focus crystal, and while she might be able to do it faster the second time, that wasn’t a guarantee. Recharging it would be cheaper, but take much longer since it had to be done naturally.

“Three days, minimum.”

“Given the urgency, I believe I can convince Lord Ienaga to authorize the expenditure of ki crystals to activate his own reflecting pool by tomorrow. Would that work with your new artifact?”

Yoshika looked to Dae, who scratched his cheek and chuckled nervously.

“Uh, possibly. You would need a mage capable of attuning the reflecting pool to the mana signature of Miss Takeda’s speaking stone.”

Rika laughed.

“Yeah, not me, sorry. I’m no slouch with formations, but that’s a little over my head.”

Takeda Keiji snorted.

“Not to worry. I’m sure that our onmyouji can work with that.”

A flash of recognition sparked through Yoshika, Jia and Kaede’s heads jerking upwards at the same time. Yoshika spoke with both voices—a habit she had mostly forgotten.

“General Takeda, have you ever heard of a man named Hattori Koji?”

“Hattori? That’s a clan of priests closely affiliated with Ienaga, but I don’t know this Koji fellow myself.”

Kaede took over, tapping her foot anxiously as she spoke.

“We met in Noguchi’s lands, and he traveled with us to Goryeo and back. I’d almost completely forgotten about him. We parted not long after our return to Yamato.”

“Do you think he may have been a spy?”

“I’m not sure I’d go that far, but I’d be very interested to find out where he is now.”