"What do you mean you're not sure?" Marron asked. "Please elaborate."

 

Yuriko scratched the back of her head sheepishly. "I was asleep when the inlay completed. The Facet didn't give me information on what it is or how to use it. I haven't tried channelling Animus into it yet."

 

"And you shouldn't, not by yourself anyway." Marron rubbed his clean-shaven chin. "Let's go test it then."

 

“Wait, you fell asleep during your inlay and you succeeded?” Niamh blurted out incredulously. “That’s unusual.” she closed her eyes for a moment, frowning in thought. “Ah, but not unheard of. What’s strange is that you didn’t receive the methodology. Hmmm.”

 

“You have something?’ Marron asked.

 

“I think…huh, it might be that.”

 

“Please tell me,” Yuriko asked somewhat anxiously.

 

“Perhaps your initial Facet is a multi-tiered one…hm, no, no, if it were, you’d still receive the methodologies. Well, maybe it's…”

 

“Nevermind,” Marron interrupted. “If she doesn’t know then we can only experience it and deduce from there.”

 

“You’re right. Well, let’s head to a practice hall.” 

 

“Yuri, you think your Facet is an explosive power?” Marron looked at her.

 

“I don’t think so,” Yuriko said dubiously.

 

“Better outdoors then.” 

 

The three of them hurried down the tower and into the courtyard. It was almost noon but Yuriko wasn’t particularly hungry. Once they were outside, Marron pointed at a relatively empty plot of land where only weeds grew.

 

“You can channel your Animus into your Facet when we give you the go-ahead.”

 

“Sure.”

 

Marron and Niamh walked about twenty paces away from her before Marron said, “Go!”

 

Taking a deep breath, Yuriko pulled about a twentieth of her Animus from her core and fed it into her facet. The stylized sun pattern had been glowing softly in her mind the entire time but when it was fed Animus, it brightened so much that she felt as if it had shown through her Anima and into the physical world. 

 

The world turned dark and the only thing she could see was the sun. The pattern converged upon itself and suddenly formed a golden silhouette. It was a masculine figure, tall and broad-shouldered. His eyes, which were a deeper shade of gold, stared at her intently then it seemed to shrug. The figure shrunk to her size and suddenly wielded two swords. After another moment, the silhouette turned transparent but she could see a blazing ball of light at its core. 

 

The silhouette started moving, swords twirling in a martial dance. She suddenly remembered her dream the night before, though she was sure the sword dance was different--similar but not identical. What’s more, from the core, streams of light moved around the silhouette’s body, moving in tandem with the sword dance. The figure only did a few forms before it suddenly paused and faded away. The Animus she sent up to her Facet had been used up. 

 

When she came to, she found herself being supported by her brother.

 

“Thank the Ancestors. You just suddenly went limp and if I were further away, you would have fallen flat on the ground,” Marron said breathlessly. 

 

“How…how long was I…?”

 

“Half a minute,” Niamh said. “What happened?”

 

“I, uh…I saw the shadow of a man which turned into a shadow of myself.” Yuriko shook Marron off her and stood unsteadily. “Do you have practice blades?” she asked abruptly. 

 

“Not right now,” Marron said with a slight grin.

“Let me borrow your side-blade then. Please. Yours too, Miss Niamh.”

 

“Just call me Niamh.” the woman answered while she drew her side-blade and handed it hilt-first to Yuriko. Marron frowned but did the same.

 

They gave her some room while Yuriko envisioned the movements, both of the body and the Animus. The strands that the silhouette used didn’t leave the body, much less enter the weapons. There were two distinct strands and she matched its movements with the sword form she executed. 

 

The first attempt was clumsy; the movement of her Animus didn’t match the movement of her body and weapons. She returned to the ready position and attempted the form again. As she continued to practice, she felt the purpose of the form. It was to force an opponent to commit a defence against a lightning-quick attack while the other weapon struck to take advantage of any openings. There was no set method to use, just an Intent and how to achieve the result desired. It would be useful against enemies who had varied shapes and styles. 

 

When she finally got the movements of her body and Animus synchronized, she knew it immediately as a sense of rightness filled her. A glimmer of golden light danced on the edge of her blades on her final repetition. She lowered the weapons while deep in thought. Her Animus returned to her core, while the areas they passed through tingled.

 

“What was tha--” 

 

“That was amazing!” Niamh squealed, “and you looked so mesmerizing at the end. Wow!” She skipped towards Yuriko while clapping her hands gleefully.

 

“Hrmm, yes, that was nice.” Marron coughed. “So where did you learn that?”

 

Yuriko breathed heavily before she answered. While the exertion of the form wasn’t much, the effort of matching the movement of her Animus took more of her concentration than she expected.

 

“From the golden shadow.” She returned their weapons to each of them.

 

Marron’s eyebrows rose straight into his hairline. “Really now. Huh. I hope it wasn’t just that one?”

 

“No,” she shook her head, “there’s more but I didn’t spend enough Animus to see it.” 

 

“I don’t know how useful of a Facet that is,” Marron grumbled. “Right now it won’t increase your safety though, in the long run, it would make you a better sword wielder. I’m sorry it isn’t what you wanted.”

 

Yuriko blinked in surprise. It didn’t occur to her until Marron mentioned it, but it was true. That it was not immediately useful but it had the potential. Furthermore, it didn’t look like they realised that her Animus moved in sync with the sword dance. At this point, it had nothing to do with being a marksman. She felt a pang of disappointment that she quickly pushed away.

 

“I will use what Fate has given me,” she stated softly.

 

“That’s a good attitude.” Marron ruffled her hair hard enough to undo her ponytail.

 

She batted his hand away. “Maru, no, no!”

 

His smirk stiffened before he pinched her cheek and pulled. “What did I tell you?”

 

“Ow, owie! Le’ go!”

 

“What. Did. I. Tell. You?’

 

“Why don’t you like that nickname anyway?” Niamh butted in.

 

“‘Cause his first cr…umph!” Marron clamped his hand over Yuriko’s mouth.

 

“What, what?”

 

“Nothing. Go have lunch.” Marron frog-marched her to the tower and hissed, “Another word and I’ll tell the mess and food hall not to serve you any sweets.”

 

“Nooo!” Yuriko wailed. “Fine.”

 

“Now, go!” Marron said with a push.

 

Yuriko left but not before sticking her tongue out at him. 

 

As she made her way back to the food hall, she couldn’t help but reflect on the strangeness of her Facet. It was so unlike what she expected, though the fact that it wasn’t either of her parent’s direct Heritage precluded any sense of expectation. She felt that the more Animus she spent on her Facet the more the silhouette would show her…something. 

 

The sword dance was anything but usual. None of the instructors taught that Animus could move that way. Learn to use an Animus technique then learn how to apply it to her weapons or martial arts. Not even Da taught her that way. 

 

Virgil had mostly focused on teaching her on how to strengthen her body, how to move, how to strike, how to defend. Apply the Empowered Strike when attacking, use Empowered Strike to protect against an attack that used Animus because no ordinary defence would work then. 

 

She felt anxious to learn what the golden silhouette taught her as that was the only way she would become stronger. 

 

It was already past the lunch hour but the food hall was still crowded, mostly with the older trainees instead of the fresh cadets. She only recognized a couple of them from prep school, but as for the rest, she recognised few to none. They could have been from the other villages or even Rumiga City. The Empire’s territory in Rumiga wasn’t that large, she remembered. 

 

The City was beyond the Zarek Mountains but on both sides of the mountain range, and even on the range, were several mining towns and villages. 

 

The line to the counter was fast. Yuriko chose roast beef with mashed potatoes and buttered vegetables, mostly for the honey cake that came with the set. There were no empty tables in the hall but there were a few empty seats at a couple of tables. She walked up to the closest one.

 

“Excuse me, is this seat taken?” she asked the brown-skinned young man with silver hair who was sitting next to the empty seat. 

 

He looked at her with a slightly dazed look before he smiled and said, “No, go ahead.”

 

“Thank you.”

 

She sat down and started eating. Though she wanted to savour the meal, her thoughts kept returning to her Facet. She wondered if the golden silhouette would only show sword techniques or if there were others she could learn. 

 

“I haven’t seen you around before, are you a new trainee?” The boy beside her jolted her out of her musings. “I’m Kale, by the way, Kale Oona Kinnock.”

 

“Yuriko Mishala Davar,” she answered. “Yes, I’m a cadet attending the training camp not a militia trainee though.”

 

“Oh, uhm, Davar? Are you related to the Watchtower’s Commander?” 

 

“My father.” 

 

“Ah, I see. I’m from Rumiga City myself. On internship for a couple of months.”

 

“Really? Which Academy?” He looked older than her, though he wasn’t much taller. 

 

“Agaza.” 

 

Yuriko nodded and continued eating, returning to her thoughts. Kale didn’t seem further inclined to talk and when she finished her lunch, she nodded at him, and at the others seated at the table then left. 

 

She returned to the dorm room with the intent to continue activating her Facet. She planned to practice a few more of the forms afterwards, perhaps spar with Heron or Zeyn afterwards. The dorm room was empty so she settled on an armchair and pulled out half of her remaining Animus and channelled it up to her Facet. 

 

Darkness claimed her and again, the golden silhouette appeared. It was back to its original masculine shape with the burnished golden eyes boring down into hers. With more of her Animus fed into the pattern, the silhouette seemed more…potent. More real, too, as if it were on the verge of solidifying. The gaze pressed down on her as if it was squeezing her Anima. She endured it until the silhouette morphed into a feminine shape. 

 

Again, the golden shadow demonstrated dual sword forms but it only showed three distinct intents that Yuriko could identify. The first was for striking a weak point, the second was for deflecting an attack using one or both weapons. The third was for breaking past an opponent’s guard with sheer power. 

 

The shadow repeated each of the forms thrice before it stopped, assumed a seated meditating position and started to move its Animus in a pattern around its body. The strange thing was that the Animus seemed to drain away into the ‘flesh’ with every completed pattern. After the third completed pattern, the silhouette stood up, looked at her, and then faded away.

 

‘The Animus didn’t return to the core that last time,’ Yuriko thought, ‘it did the meditation using the same strands utilized in the forms.’

 

There was nothing for her to do but to copy what was being shown to her. She headed to a training room, used a couple of wooden swords and tried her best to get the forms done correctly. Afterwards, she sat cross-legged on the floor and used the circulation pattern. 

 

From her hands, she moved both strands to her chest, then split each of them in two so that she controlled four strands in total. Then she directed it into spiralling, circular, angular, and straight lines all around her body. The full pattern took her ten minutes, give or take, and when she completed it by returning the strands to her core, she felt that she had used up a minuscule amount of Animus, probably a lumen worth. 

 

She felt refreshed afterwards as if she had practised Recovery and then had a full night’s sleep afterwards. She repeated the pattern, but she noticed that the Animus wasn’t consumed this time. 

 

Shrugging to herself, she practised the forms for the rest of the day, until she felt like she could finally use it in a spar, or even a real fight.