Yuriko slept late that night, reading the ‘Treatise’ in her room. She got halfway through the first chapter which was essentially Amafi rambling about his thoughts, his childhood, and his time growing up, while avoiding any mention of the subject of Animus and ambient Chaos. Still, she was up early before dawn for her morning training.

She wasn’t alone while running around the circumferential road, of course. Just a moment ago she ran past a large group of boys while they jogged in lockstep. She could hear them chanting to keep time but she quickly pulled away and rounded the curve.

She took a bath and got dressed before heading down for breakfast at the cafeteria where she found her friends already at a table. Ishika, Millie, Danika, and Maryn were at the long table with Krystal, having already started on their meal. She had a leather bag with a long strap over her shoulder, carrying the leather bound book inside.

“Yuri!” Krystal called out and waved. “Come on, sit here!”

Yuriko brought her tray and sat down beside Krystal and across Millie.

“Good morning!” she smiled.

“Morning! How was your day in the elite yesterday?”

“Our adviser gave us a thick book to read.” Yuriko shook her head. “I got a headache just trying to wade through the first part!”

“Well, reading books isn’t exactly your strong suit,” Maryn pointed out.

“Yeah,” the other four girls nodded their heads.

“What do you mean by that?” Yuriko said huffily.

“Exactly what she said,” Millie grinned. “You just barely read the books during our prep school days, only enough to get by.”

“I listen to our teachers!” Yuriko protested. “I got through the boring classes that way.”

“Which doesn’t refute the original statement,” Maryn pointed out,

“Well, this book’s a bit different.” Yuriko continued, “It’s, well, hard to read. And I do mean that literally. I had to stop every couple of paragraphs because it made my head swim. I don’t have that kind of trouble with other books!”

“If you say so.”

“Anyway, how about you girls?”

Ishika and Maryn wore the same uniform as Yuriko did except without the elite pin, while Millie had Lunette’s black and red. Krystal and Danika wore the red and gold of Agaza.

“Bored, mostly,” Ishika complained. “We went through the class schedule and it was mostly a continuation of general education subjects, arithmetic, history, natural sciences, communication, stuff like that. The only new one for us was Animus Manipulation Theory.”

“Good times for me!” Millie laughed. “My class headed to Mama Blu’s and we observed how they made their famous pasta.”

“Eh, what did you major in?” Yuriko asked.

“Culinary Arts.” Millie shrugged. “Whaaat? My family owns a chain of cafes and I like cooking.”

“Oh, I thought you wanted to be a scout?” Yuriko asked.

“That’s just the role I was assigned, and well, my Facet lends itself to scouting, yes, but also to cooking.”

Yuriko nodded and started eating. Today’s breakfast was some kind of pastry with ham and cheese baked inside. It was quite tasty though the flakiness of the crust made her spill a lot of crumbs. She licked the crumbs off her lips and finished the tea. Despite starting late, she finished eating at the same time the others did and they brought their dirty dishes and utensils to the bussing area and left for their respective Academies.

When they came through the lounge, Heron, Orrin, Braden, Zeyn, and Mikel were waiting for them there.

“Isn’t coming here a bit out of your way?” Yuriko asked them.

Heron shrugged. “I haven’t seen you at all for a couple of days. Besides, a little solidarity is good.”

“Oh, why?”

“Nothing.” He coughed. “Besides, I heard you were having trouble with people pestering you on your way to class.”

“Who told you that?” Yuriko asked with a raised eyebrow. “Besides, I can handle myself.”

“Maybe so,” Braden piped in, “but not all problems should be solved by confrontation.”

“If you say so.” Yuriko shrugged. “Well, let’s go then.”

Yuriko walked next to Krystal and Mikel, while Heron and the twins walked behind them. Millie and Ishika were chatting quietly behind while Zeyn engaged Maryn in conversation.

A chill wind blew across the road and cut right through her coat and made her skirt flutter above her knees. Her tights kept her legs warm though. The sun felt nice against her face and she suddenly found herself wanting to remove her coat and from past events, probably her shirt too. She clicked her tongue and firmly clasped her hands behind her back.

There were quite a few senior boys waiting by the side of the road to the Central Reserve, most of them gave her and the others a sharp glance. When they reached the Central Reserve, they went their separate ways, Orrin, Maryn, and Ishika joined Yuriko on the way to Sharom, Millie and Braden heading west towards Lunette and Aneurin, while the rest headed to Agaza.

The four of them parted ways once they reached the main building, with Yuriko heading to the north wing, while the other three headed further east. She wasn’t the first inside Jade 101; that honour belonged to Ella-Mai who was sitting primly with the ‘Treatise’ open on the desk in front of her.

“Good morning,” Yuriko said.

“Oh, hello,” the other girl said without looking.

The furniture in the room had been changed from individual desks and chairs to five tables that could fit two people. “Do you mind if I sit next to you?” Yuriko asked.

“Not at all.”

“Thank you.”

She was about half an hour early and she didn’t feel like reading, so Yuriko decided to practice her self taught Animus manipulation exercises. She held her palms over the table, about two inches apart and pulling Animus strands from her core. She made sure to keep any Intent from the strands, simply using them to practice her out of body control.

She moved a strand from her core, up to her right shoulder and down to her hand. She made it leap from the center of her right palm to her left, focusing to make sure that it didn’t dissipate in the air. It was easy enough with just a strand but she ran it a couple of times before she added a second to jump after the first.

Then she pulled a third strand and made it run the opposite way, jumping from her left to her right, sequenced between the first two strands. From an outsider’s perspective, it appeared as though she were bouncing a single strand thrice between her palms with a few seconds pause in the interval. She kept it up, adding another strand after every minute until she was at seven strands, the maximum she could control without adding in her Intent, though she could only comfortably control five. Then she made them go in spirals while jumping between her palms.

After a few more minutes, she pulled all the strands back and returned them to her Animus core.

“Excellent work, Miss Davar.”

Yuriko jumped in surprise. Master Alfein was standing just a few paces away. Everyone was in class actually, and the other nine students were staring at her hands. The boys’ eyes were quite bright, though the other two girls, Diya and Anika, were glaring daggers at her.

“Oh, my apologies,” Yuriko blushed. She had been so focused that she didn’t even realize that everyone had arrived.

“No worries, as I’ve said, excellent work, although the pattern is quite simplistic, such fine control is why you’re here in Sharom instead of Agaza.”

Perhaps Yuriko was mistaken but was there a mocking glint in Master Alfein’s eyes?

“Now,” she said after walking back to the instructor's desk, “I have here your individual class schedules. The first week is mostly orientation for various classes, unless you happen to have cross academy classes, in that case it depends on the Academy how it goes. Miss Davar, here.”

Yuriko got up and took the folder from Master Alfein.

“Miss Esras.”

“Mr. Esras.”

“Miss Finley.”

Master Alfein called each of them to receive their schedules, and since she had been called first, Yuriko had already opened it to check. The list detailed her weekly schedule starting from the first day of the week to the sixth. The seventh had always been a day of rest. Her eyes skipped to the schedule for this afternoon and it was personal guidance. Her designated mentor was Master Alfein. The schedule was only for a few minutes, then the next couple of hours was free. The last subject for the day was for History class, which they would take with the rest of the regular class in the First Lecture Hall.

This morning was a continuation of yesterday’s Animus Manipulation Theory, though looking at Firstday’s schedule, it should actually have been Arithmetic and Communication. Mornings on the first of the week was assembly and Class Guidance.

Oh! Tomorrow she would be at Agaza for Martial Sciences the entire afternoon. Her morning would be the same as today’s Animus Manipulation Theory. The day after tomorrow, her morning class was Natural Sciences. That one would actually be at Lunette’s campus. The afternoon only had Social Sciences in the Aneurin campus. On the Fifthdays, she would take Geography in the mornings, here in Sharom, and the entire afternoon would be Specialties Class. Sixthdays started early, at dawn, for the reserve officers training that all students needed to take. It would go on the entire morning but they were free for the entire afternoon.

She glanced at Ella-Mai’s schedule beside her, finding it nearly identical except for Personal Guidance, which was with another instructor, Master Ethan Dinia.

“It seems we have Martial Sciences together,” Yuriko commented while she tilted her schedule to show the other girl.

“Indeed, I don’t doubt it,” Ella-Mai nodded solemnly. “I remember your performance in the practicals.”

“I look forward to that class,” Yuriko sighed. “I’d probably struggle for the others.”

“You can’t be that bad? I observed what you did earlier, it was amazing!”

“Oh, well that’s just something I did to pass the time,” Yuriko chuckled.

“Let us continue with our discussion from yesterday.” Master Alfein started. She waited until all the murmuring had stopped then continued, “I trust you’ve started reading the ‘Treatise’ and if you haven’t gotten to the part where we stopped last time, don’t worry we won’t go into it yet. Let us discuss how the Eternal Empire discovered the uses of Animus and how the Empress spread the knowledge of the Atavism ritual, thereby ensuring peace and prosperity for the nation…”

Even a woman as skilled as Master Alfein, whose voice drew in her attention no matter how much she tried to shift it, couldn’t make such a dry topic interesting. Yuriko felt eyes glazing but everytime her mind started drifting away, to daydreams or just into a plain stupor, she felt herself being jolted awake. Still, Master Alfein’s lecture wasn’t really something new, at least not to her. Elder Ramus used to ramble on and on about the history of the Empire as part of his sermon, and she’d been forced enough times during prep school to listen to him that the knowledge had been imprinted in her mind.

“... of course you should realize that this happened thousands of years ago, and the only ones still alive from back then are the Empress, a few of her children, and an odd Clan leader or two. Do you know what that means?” She looked at them expectantly until Emyr Kinnock raised his hand. “Go on.”

“It means that the Empress is all powerful and immortal?”

“That’s not quite true. Let me clarify that immortality does not mean undying, and since the Empress is the oldest living being and non Chaos dweller in our nation, we don’t really know if her life span is infinite. After all, infinity hasn’t come yet.” Master Alfein smiled, “We do know that the Empress’ looks hadn’t changed. And there is the well known phenomenon that anyone with at least Journeyman level of Anima strength slows down their aging and lives at least twice as long as a Novice.” She cleared her throat. “No, the point I wish to make is that there being only a few witnesses to the fact meant that ascertaining the truth of the matter much more abstruse.”

Diya Esras said in a scandalised voice, she didn’t even raise her hand or wait to be called, “Are you accusing the Empress of lying?”

Master Alfein smirked. “Ah, yes, the most common reaction when I give that statement, but forgive me for being blunt but what I said was that it’s hard to know if it's really the truth. Please think as critically as a student of Sharom is expected to be, otherwise you might as well go to Agaza instead.”

“But, but..” Diya protested, “I…”

“Think about what I said first before you react,” Master Alfein said in a kind tone. “Now then, I said yesterday that I will teach the meditation technique that will allow you to resonate your Animus with ambient Chaos. Let us begin with the basics. I trust you’ve realized by now that there is a stark difference between Animus laced with your Intent and Animus that isn’t. The latter being much harder to control and not at all that useful in a battle. Pure Animus, what the academia has named it, is necessary for both Spellweaving and Sorcery. Anyway, let’s begin. Exude Pure Animus above your palms in a spherical shape, as far away from the skin as possible to remain stable. You may try to keep it between your palms and slowly pull your hands away until you can see it start to unravel. Try to have at least three inches between your skin and the sphere. There’s no special trick to doing this, simple practice will do. Though this may take some time. Here.”

Master Alfein held out a hand and in the blink of an eye, a ball of green light hovered above her palm. It was small, less than the size of Yuriko’s fingernail.

“Go ahead and try it out.”

Yuriko focused on her core and brought out strands of Animus. Making sure to keep it as pure as possible. Alas, her limit was about two inches off her skin. The strands started to unravel when it moved beyond. She kept trying until she noticed that her reserves had fallen by more than a tenth. With a sigh, she pulled back the strands.

“A good first effort. Simply keep trying until you achieve the minimum standards. Now, that’s it for our class. Make sure you follow your schedules for the rest of the week. Remember also that when you are taking classes in the other Academies, that you represent Sharom. Ms. Davar, I understand you’re first in line for Personal Guidance. Meet me over at the Cognizance Laboratory after your lunch hour and we will proceed from there.”

Master Alfein gathered her things and left the room afterwards, leaving Yuriko to wonder why they were to meet there instead of the regular counselling room.