The steam over the hot springs was pleasantly warm, even if the water itself wasn’t as hot as Yuriko expected. Oh, no doubt if it went any hotter, people would boil in it, but her tolerance for extreme temperatures was just that much higher. Actually, if she just let her Anima loose within the springs, it would not doubt climb to a temperature that was pleasant, though it would probably boil the water away. And then the people in the inn would throw a fuss and that would defeat the purpose of her leisure time.

So she sighed and picked up the saucer of clear liquor that Desire had presented to her when she entered the springs. Unlike other wines, liquors, or beers she’d partaken in, this one was pleasantly sweet. It warmed her insides wonderfully, too, and gave her a heady feeling. She returned the saucer to the floating tray, leaned back against the rocks, and just sighed as the hot water slowly made her muscles feel squishy.

Splosh.

Desire waded into the springs next to her, and pressed against her naked body. She had another tray with her, filled with snacks, mostly dried berries, and vegetable sticks. The Chaos Lord didn’t let Yuriko pick off the food but hand-fed her instead.

After all of the finger food was eaten, Yuriko sighed happily and drank another saucer of sweet liquor. Desire just pressed up against her as both of them stared up at the Chaos Fount’s skies. It was evening already, and the skies mirrored the outside. The twinkling lights that replaced the Chaos Flows were pretty, though not as much as the former. There were a few streaks of multi-hued lights, but they were narrow and only occupied a fraction of the vistas.

“I’m close,” Desire said, “to advancing.”

Yuriko hummed. “But something’s holding you back?”

“Yes.” Desire sighed. “My fundamental nature as a Chaos Lord,” she paused meaningfully, “it has changed.”

“Because of me?”

“Who else?” she chortled. “Who else deserves my devotion?” Her lips pressed against Yuriko’s cheek. “But my nature has changed, so I cannot advance the same way.”

“How then?” Yuriko asked.

“I must change myself. My Anima, my body. My Chaos Well.”

“Is it…dangerous?”

“If I do it without you.”

“Oh. What do you need?”

Desire smiled. “A part of you.”

“Uh…”

Yuriko’s flustered face elicited a few giggles. “Probably not what your recently tainted mind is thinking. But I don’t mind if you want that.”

Yuriko shook her head, “I don’t mind either, but…” She sighed, too. “I don’t feel it is the right thing to do. Not now.”

Desire nodded. “After my metamorphosis then.”

“Sure,” Yuriko nodded. “But what exactly do you need?”

“Probably the same thing those academics want from you.” She leaned closer. “A bit of your Radiance. Tamed and weakened, or I will be the one to wither. Let me…be the Luminous Moon to your Radiant Sun.”

“I’ve no idea how to do that,” Yuriko admitted.

“It’s alright. There’s no rushing this.” Desire smiled brightly, “Let me continue to serve you…”

The two of them left the hot springs after a couple of hours. Yuriko would have gone back home, but the atmosphere at the inn suited her mood so much that she opted to stay for her evening meditations. Desire booked a room for her at the inn, so she clad herself in a robe and sat on top of a boulder in the garden.

The week had been quite hectic. Most of her afternoon hours had been devoted to mentoring students, and a few of the faculty too. Most asked her about runescript conversion, and as she found out earlier, her instinct for it was quite good. All of her mentees were rather satisfied with her help. The most notable ones were Sofia Garcia and Juliette Abad who managed to wrangle a couple more tokens each. They were enthusiastic about learning the Four Phases of the Sword, and in the process of teaching, Yuriko found her knowledge deepening.

It wasn’t just the Four Elements that resonated with her blade now. She realised that the other elements did so as well. It was only a matter of codifying the stances and the style, she thought. Then afterwards, she could work to incorporate everything she learned into her Ennoia of Radiant Flying Swords. And with its breadth growing, she saw a glimmer of the path to advance.

It was quite fortuitous, the way she and the others arrived here. A brand new method of power that just so happened to complement her current needs…though she wondered if it was the Threads of Fate moving her…or maybe…it was what Damien warned her of. The moment before the vortices appeared in the Chaos, she remembered thinking about Damien, and those shards with the rest of his memories. Was one nearby? She didn’t know. And if it was near, she didn’t know if it remained sealed, or if his shard already found a new host.

She was still hesitant on what to do. She couldn’t just leave them be. She knew Damien. She knew his voracious appetite. He, if given the chance, he would take over the host, and he would probably seek to unify his existence. Meaning, one way or another, in the future, he would come for her.

The glimmer of enlightenment flashed within her mind. She had diverged from his path, but that didn’t mean she would be safe. If anything, he might use her path as a counterpoint to bring him farther along his path.

But…

At the same time, if he managed to imprint himself on a different host or if that host followed his path…then she could use that as the counterpoint and further along her progress.

Ambitious.

But if she didn’t, then she was doomed to be the prey, and would be devoured.

Did she have a time limit? How long would Damien take to regain power? How long would it take for a new host to reach her level and surpass it? If they were male, then there would be no need to carve a new path. All they had to do was follow his path, and they would reach his height. Whereas she had to pioneer hers…

Still, the fact that she was different from Damien was what saved her from being possessed, so she couldn’t really complain.

Sorting through those thoughts soured her mood. She pursed her lips and wondered why Gwendith and Heron hadn’t sent a message to her yet. They might still be in the Chaos Fount, and in that case, no message spell would get through to them. But a whole week now?

Worried, she nibbled on her lower lip. There was another way to check, but she wasn’t sure if their connection was enough to actually send a coherent message through. There were connections between the three of them, accessed through the dreamscape.

She closed her eyes and focused on it. When she opened her eyes, she jumped in surprise. She was not sitting in the mists of the dream. The golden threads that spun around her dream body, and she focused on the larger two, ignoring her surroundings after taking a careful look. She touched Gwendith’s thread, and felt through it. There was a sense of calm, of control. It didn’t seem as if her lover was in any kind of trouble, or in distress. There was a sense of focus, too.

When she touched Heron’s thread, she felt a bit of annoyance, but nothing that would indicate anything more than a response to teasing. He was fun to tease, after all. But nothing to indicate distress.

She frowned when she realised she could not detect where or how distant they were from her, but that might be because she was in a Chaos Fount, and so were they. She thought of Founts as something akin to Fysalli, only that they were locked within the plane instead of bubbles in the Chaos Sea. Distance and time flowed through Fysallis differently from outside of it. Perhaps it was that.

Satisfied, she turned her attention to her surroundings.

She was sitting on top of a boulder and a few paces away were the hot springs. Indeed, the dreamscape looked no different from reality. Only, there were no other people here. She moved around, checked the pools and found them to be delightfully the same as in the material.

The Chaos Fount was perfectly reflected in the dream. Including the monsters.

However, the creatures did not seem to notice her. And if she squinted, she could see threads coming out from the back of their heads. They led deeper into the Chaos Fount, probably to the innermost region where she, and any visitor or student, were not allowed into. Considering that she had accidentally destroyed a Chaos Fount when she spread her sunblades…

Well, that had been an accident, and she had read a bit of research about Chaos Founts in the library. Painstaking research, really, but she had been curious.

The Chaos Fount’s paths and chambers were akin to pathways in the body for Animus to flow. Or perhaps a better comparison was of the body’s veins and arteries, and blood. By piercing the tunnels and the chambers with her Radiant energy, it had been the same as if she had poked holes into someone’s veins. The blood, which in this metaphor was akin to Elemental energy and ambient Chaos, had spilled out of the veins, and pooled into places where they shouldn’t have been into. Plus, there was the fact that her Radiant energy was inimical to Chaos.

Anywho, as long as she didn’t spray Radiant energy about, as long as she kept it carefully contained within her Anima, and as long as she kept her aura retracted, she should be fine.

She followed the connecting lines and found herself deeper into the Chaos Fount. Eventually, she reached the bottom most layer. Well, she could tell why it was restricted from most people. It was near the volcano’s lava chamber. The heat was pleasant to her, actually, but the stench was annoying.

But the thing that stood out the most was a dark crack in the middle of the chamber, hanging a pace off the cavern floor. It was slowly leaking ambient Chaos into the chamber, which merged with reddish light orbs that flashed into existence every few minutes. When the Chaos touched the lights, it turned into a Reptok, or a Redscale Drake.

The fabric of reality was warped here. She looked at the crack, then at its surroundings. Where did the Chaos come from? Why did the crack look like what Fri’Avgi broke through when she had her in Ignition mode? She blinked and looked away. Prying into the mysteries of the world made her heart race, in excitement, and a little bit of fear. She had a gut feeling that if she persisted in prying, something terrible would happen.

Shaking her head, she pulled away from the vision and then returned to her physical body. Her timesense told her that only a couple of hours had passed. Well, she learned what she had to, and now it was time to rest. She went back into the inn, sought out her room, and collapsed on the mattress. She woke up briefly in the night to find Desire snuggled up next to her. She turned over and hugged the smaller Chaos Lord, who murmured happily in her sleep.

________

“He’s not for sale,” Gwendith said acerbically. Then, she paused, and asked, “But out of curiosity, what were you offering?”

The Shadow Element blue robe pushed back her hood to reveal a silver-haired woman with dark brown skin. Her eyes were pale pink, and there was a teardrop tattoo, in green ink, on her left cheek, just underneath her eye. “A thousand golds.”

Gwendith looked at Heron, who looked back with a put upon expression on his face. Gwendith smirked, but then shook her head. “I see, but even if he were mine to sell, he would not go for that low a price.”

The blue-robed woman nodded in understanding.

“Well, unless you wish to continue fighting, farewell,” Gwendith said.

Gwendith and Heron, followed by an invisible Saki, left. She kept her head turned to keep an eye on the slavers, and all the while, she kept a firm grip on her emotions. Otherwise, she would have slaughtered them already.