The day after the duel, Yuriko studied the True Connection spell. A ten-circle spell was the most complex one she’d ever tried, and there were more than two hundred nodes to it. Memorising it turned out to be simple enough for her, even though the spell had different nodes from Message or Sending, which pretty much told her that it worked through different methods than the other two.

The Imperial standard of communication was through messenger cranes which had a range of a couple of longstrides or so. It was enough for Faron’s Crossing, especially considering she lived near the centre. In Rumiga City, crane towers extended a messenger crane’s range by recharging the folded paper’s Animus reserves. Each tower was usually a league apart, and they were more like poles than actual towers. Still, it required a special paper and runescript lines for a crane to reach a league.

The Message spell had a similar reach but could be extended by adding more nodes while casting. That was part of the spell’s instruction and didn’t really complicate it much. There was a limit, however, and a Message spell could barely keep together after going past five leagues. Yuriko had not tested the spell’s efficacy in the Chaos Sea, and neither could she test it in one of the planes, but she was sure ambient Chaos would limit the reach of the spell, not without turning it to full-blown Sorcery.

Sending was almost the same as Message except for the fact that the spell’s runescript components allowed it to reach at least a hundred longstrides with a basic cast. Like Message, the range could be extended by adding more components.

True Connection was different in one specific way. It needed a…well, a connection to the target. This was often a prepared spell activation tool that was carried by the other, or perhaps some other metaphysical connection. Since she only learned of the spell recently, it was obvious that Gwendith and Heron did not carry a physical tool to make the spell work, so she could only adapt it to her Mien’s connecting threads.

The metaphysical connections that the Grimoire gave as examples were blood, hair, skin samples, and other materials taken from the subject. It had not been crafted to take advantage of the Mien, or other connections through the Threads of Fate. It was this that gave Yuriko trouble. But it wasn’t as if that would have stopped her. As if were, she worked on it throughout the weekend, and only on Fireday, in the middle of the next week, was she able to tweak it enough to cast.

Ten circles was apparently pushing her limits. It wasn’t so much memorising the nodes, but the fact that she had to hold them in her mind while she cast, along with visualising what she needed to happen. With spells that had fewer circles, it was easy to hold them within the mind, but the more circles there were, the more nodes. The first circle had five nodes, and the second had ten. From there, each circle increased their capacity by another five. Keeping them all within the mind was straining, and this was where her true level showed. She was comparatively an Advanced Magus, so according to their records, eight circle spells were the threshold for them. True Magi could hold thirteen circles, and pushing towards that number was how they improved. Well, among other things. Most Magi were able to touch an Ennoia, and by the time they hit True Magus level, they would have progressed to Colligia.

Eduardo Farran’ir had a Colligia of Momentum, and it had been thrilling to fight him. Just not with swordsmanship.

After the duel, the two of them had spoken, and he apologised for the abrupt challenge. Not that she minded, but apparently, it had been a tradition of the Battle Magus department. They parted ways with Farran’ir inviting her to a gathering of professors and other faculty the next evening, a faculty mixer, was what he called it. She had nothing planned other than training and meditation, but it was easy enough to shift meditation to much later in the evening. As for physical training…

She was in Transformation and her physique was constantly improving at a steady rate even without her intervention. She was truthfully unaware of how strong she was, how much she could lift, or how tough her body was without being supported by her Anima. She just didn’t have a way to test it. She could already lift boulders ten times her size with ease, but she wasn’t able to lift buildings without the support of her kinesis to keep it together, and she wasn’t about to rip the peaks off of mountains and lob them about. She’d seen what a mess that made in Damien’s memories.

She returned her focus on learning True Connection. She could divide her focus by over a hundred strands, which was about double what she could manage while she was in Actualisation. That didn’t mean she could have a hundred different thoughts, but rather, she could focus on a hundred different things without losing effectiveness. She could control a hundred sunblades without relying on the Ennoia of Radiant Flying Swords, though that was completely inefficient. And she could hold a hundred spell nodes easily. She could try for two nodes per strand of consciousness, but that was pushing it. She couldn’t do it for more than a dozen or so strands.

Still, she had to power through it in order to reestablish a connection with Gwendith and Heron. They had not been able to contact her, and they were overdue for a week now.

And, if she was being honest, there was another use for the spell. Perhaps with it, she could contact her parents, too. They were still connected via the Threads in the dreamscape, and while the Chaos Sea would no doubt interfere, the spell gave her clues on how to bypass it.

The dreamscape was another layer of reality, but apparently, it was just the layer that was easiest or closest to the surface. Or perhaps it was the easiest place for her to reach. The runescript descriptors of the spell identified a layer to use as a medium of contact, but it wasn’t named. She wondered if it was the dreamscape, but it probably wasn’t.

Professor Varko had directed her to some resource books, and she had read them, even though it was a literal pain to do so. Aside from the dreamscape, there was apparently someplace called the Realm of Thought, where ideals were quantified and made real. At least for that layer. She had no idea how to access it, except for the obtuse runescript patterns in the spell. About fifty percent of True Connection’s spell nodes made little sense to her, but the beauty of Arcana Weaving was that she didn’t have to understand what it meant to cast it. It was both an advantage and a disadvantage at the same time.

“It’s like the Imperial Path,” she thought out loud. Easy to reach a certain level, and faster, but harder to progress upwards after.

But the Imperial Path was created by the Empress. Vietlanna. So the question was…who created Arcana Weaving and the Magus Advancement System?

She only had the vaguest idea how they progressed amongst their ranks. Definitely, it was not completely through touching Ennoias, nor was it about strengthening their Animus cores, or Elemental Hearts. Hmmm, actually, it was very much about strengthening their Elemental Hearts, but the methods they employed varied almost as much as the person with the Heart. For one thing, most Animus Cores were practically identical across practitioners. It varied in looks and effects, but all started out the same way. A place to contain Animus, which was basically ambient Chaos refined and imprinted with someone’s Intent.

Elemental Hearts were differentiated by their particular element, and she found out that progression also depended on how the Magus wanted to. In the library, she noticed that the books most of the younger students read were about something called Elemental Heart Refinement Methods, and when she checked the index, there were no less than one hundred unique books on the subject, each named differently, and divided amongst the Elements.

It wasn’t something she could use, of course. She didn’t have an Elemental Heart. But she should probably study them to properly guide her students. While she was already teaching the upper grades, that didn’t mean that she wouldn’t have to teach the lower ones eventually.

Hmmm, but only if she intended to continue teaching.

Then again, until she found a way to return home without taking a century of travel, she might as well stay nearby. Besides, with the True Connection spell…perhaps she could find a way to adapt it to being able to create and target a portal to get back to the Empire.

She had no luck in casting the spell by the end of the day, but she felt she was close. Instead, Ryoko presented her with an evening dress to wear for the mixer. The venue was not on campus, but at a celebration hall in the city, a place called Blossoming Vines.

Yuriko stared at the dress which her handmaiden happily presented to her. With Gwendith on her adventure, the purse strings were controlled by Ryoko, and aside from food, most of what she bought were clothes. This particular specimen was long enough to reach Yuriko's ankles, made of silk, and glittered like the night sky. It also had a decolletage deep enough to reach her belly button, exposed the outer curves of her bosom, and was held around her neck by strings. Well, it came with a diaphanous shawl that covered her shoulders and arms, but that was about it.

"Really?"

"This style is in fashion," Ryoko insisted, though her lips were twitching.

"Hmmm." Well, it wasn't as if she was ashamed of her figure or afraid of showing her skin. And really, as long as she kept her Mien in Tranquility, it shouldn't cause problems. Besides, it was a pretty dress. "Alright."

Ryoko's grin grew almost to her ears. She helped dress her up, added a few bits of jewellery to accentuate the dress and had her put on a pair of high-heeled shoes, which were of the same colour and shimmer as the dress.

Ryoko accompanied her, of course. Even though Yuriko was already a Knight-Captain, and had recently passed her eighteenth birthday, notwithstanding the fact that subjectively, she had turned eighteen half a year ago because of Irvalla's time dilation, Ryoko still insisted on being her chaperone. She was going unaccompanied otherwise.

A Steeld-driven carriage had been contracted to bring them there, though they had to board at the campus entrance rather than from their residence. She flew down the mountain and carried Ryoko with her so she didn't have to take the cable carriage.

The ride only took a quarter of an hour, and they arrived precisely at seven o'clock in the evening.

Pleasant music flowed out of the large hall, and when they entered Blossoming Vines, it reminded Yuriko of nothing so much as a ballroom crossed with a tavern. She didn't recognise most of the faculty, but it seemed Blanca Ferron had been waiting for her. The Khuni tribeswoman met her just past the antechamber and led her deeper inside.

There was a long table piled high with food near the walls, and a line of diners ten deep. Blanca directed Ryoko to find a booth for them, and the two joined the line for dinner.

"Glad you could join us," Blanca said happily while entwining her hands with Yuriko's.

"Hmmm, yeah," she answered distractedly.

Blanca was flirting with her rather blatantly, right? She didn't quite know what to do. If it had been Damien, there would have been no question. The two of them would have tumbled into bed before dinner and would have probably spent the night and the next day in debauchery.

She was saved from answering—or maybe it was Blanca who had been saved?—when Vice-Dean Biera came up to them with another woman in tow.

"Professor Davar," the Vice-Dean said, "this is Monica Coinoch. I apologise for intruding on your evening, but it is a matter of some urgency…"

"My Cillian disappeared," Monica Coinoch said abruptly. "Escorting you was his last mission. I need your help to look for him."