Gwendith sat on the chair, her legs in a duchess slant even though she wasn’t wearing a skirt. It was a habit formed over a lifetime, particularly enforced by her mother. She was of the nobility, and her grandfather held the title of Earl, even if she was unlikely to win such a title herself in the near future.

The nobility titles of the Empire were largely determined by merit rather than anything else. However, while it was true that titles weren’t hereditary, children of nobles were more likely to win the titles anyway. Personal Anima strength was a factor, of course, but the other factors were a degree from Aneurin Academy, several years of service in the Imperial Bureaucracy, and enough connections to make things stick. After all, the children of city rulers and administrators, as long as they were competent, would be the ones with the most chance to win merits.

And, of course, she was distracting herself instead of focusing.

An abysmal and terrifying week of training and when she was finally at the threshold, she found that she could not even take the first step.

She did not enjoy the process, no, not at all. She did enjoy the focused attention from Yuriko, but she also didn’t think she’d survive another such week. Even if she felt stronger than ever, she was mentally exhausted.

Ah, she did enjoy the cuddles at night. And she definitely liked bathing together… She felt heat suffuse her cheeks, her neck, and her bosom when she dwelt on her memories. The first time she’d been practically unconscious, but she had been very much awake after that. The sight of Yuriko’s wonderfully sculpted body was a treat.

How did she do it, though? Her skin looked and felt so soft, yet was so resilient. Her limbs weren’t bulging with enlarged muscles but were toned and athletic. She also didn’t need to put a razor to her skin as aside from her head, Yuriko’s body hair was nearly nonexistent. Gwendith giggled to herself when she recalled how those fingers scrubbed at every part of her…

“Ahihihihi…”

Boom!

“Eh?” Gwendith jumped at the sound. She looked out of her window, but the narrow aperture didn’t really give her a good view. She rushed out to the hallway instead.

The heating runescript lines barely had any power left. Her breath came out in cloudy streams out in the hallway. With the lights dimmed, the barracks looked more like a prison than anything else.

Boom!

It must be the barbarian forces and it sounded like they were throwing boulders again. The courtyard was a mess. There were crates and bags scattered around, next to parked troop transports. Groups of militia and legionnaires strapped gear on the haulers while the rest protected the walls.

Gwendith glared towards the north, up the mountain that contained Ouera Bo and the plateau from where those creatures, behemoths, lobbed their large projectiles at them.

The outpost’s Protective Dome shimmered into existence and blocked the attacks. One. Two. Three?

No, just two at a time. Gwendith sighed in relief. Yuriko’s team managed to cut down enough behemoths that the reinforcements wouldn’t be able to drain the outpost’s Animus engine faster than it could replenish itself.

They were only a day, less than really, about twenty hours? They would leave in the middle of the night, closer to dawn than midnight, to avoid the barbarians’ and Chaos Lords’ eyes.

Shaking her head, she returned to her quarters and packed the rest of her gear. There wasn’t much of it left, just her day clothes and a fresh set she wanted when they left.

“Gwen,” Yuriko called out as Gwendith entered the lobby.

“Yuri!” Gwendith smiled. “You were looking for me? Ah,” her shoulders slumped, “I’m sorry, I still can’t activate the technique.”

“Oh, uhm, it turned out you wouldn’t have been able to,” Yuriko said sheepishly.

“Oh?” Watching the other girl squirm with embarrassment sent up a guilty thrill of pleasure up her spine.

“Yes, the pattern I gave you was for my own use. Since we have different physiques and talents, it wouldn’t work.”

“You figured it out so quickly?”

“Eh, uhm, I suppose. Anyway, I’ve managed a workaround. Here.” Yuriko handed her a strange bulbous thing that looked like amber. Gwendith frowned as she raised the thing up to her face. It was about half as wide as her palm, and it was translucent gold. There were runescript lines within it, but she couldn’t make out their meaning or purpose.

“You need to, uh, swallow it, and assimilate it within your Anima,” Yuriko said.

“Swallow?” Gwendith gulped. How? The thing would barely fit in her mouth.

“It will allow you to form your own version of Body Forging,” Yuriko muttered. “Are you willing?”

Gwendith stared at the amber and back at Yuriko. She sighed, “Yeah.”

The two of them headed towards Gwendith’s room and she sat on her bed. Well, she first wanted to change into her travel clothes but Yuriko stopped her.

“You’re just going to soil them. Uh, unless you want to ruin your underwear, you're better off without them. Hmmm, come to think of it, let’s go to my suite instead. Once you complete the technique, you’ll shed some black gunk from your skin, and uhm, your bowels will need to be voided.”

“Oh. Thanks for the warning,” Gwendith laughed. She got all of her things which fit in a modest backpack, and they moved upstairs. Once they were secluded in Yuriko’s bathroom, Gwendith shed the rest of her clothes and preened under Yuriko’s gaze.

The goddess coughed and told her to proceed.

Staring at the amber with some trepidation, Gwendith pushed it into her mouth. The strange thing was that as soon as it touched her tongue, the fairly solid thing softened like it was pudding and slid into her mouth and down her throat with little fuss. She exchanged startled stares with Yuriko.

“Huh, I didn’t think it would do that.”

“You mean you didn’t even know?” Gwendith spluttered.

“Shh. Focus.”

Rolling her eyes, Gwendith sank into a seated meditation pose and envisioned her Anima. She found the amber, the seed, and saw the runescript lines light up with Animus. She felt her Will enter the thing, and she was suddenly inundated with strange images and odd voices speaking in a foreign tongue. No, it wasn’t foreign! It was Old Imperial.

She didn’t really understand the ancient tongue, but she felt her own Animus move to mimic the flow of the lines.

All at once, Gwendith felt heat suffuse her veins, followed by a wave of bone-tingling cold. One side of her shivered, while the other side burst out in sweat. Her right side was completely drenched while her left had turned blue with cold. Her Facet… How can it not control her internal temperature?

She tried to move her Animus to her Facet but it didn’t respond to her call. Then, the sides switched and now it was her left side that was dripping so much sweat. Pain lanced through her nerves when she tried to move, even the widening of her eyes caused her to flinch, which in turn fed into a loop of pain, reaction, and even more pain. She gritted her teeth and tried not to scream.

Yuriko’s light spread out and encompassed her body, but it did little to soothe her aches. In fact, the Anima was unbearably hot, and she screamed. Something must have told the other that she was hurt, and the golden light retreated.

She saw Yuriko’s lips move, but the thundering of her pulse in her ears drowned out whatever she said.

Focus. She must focus!

Her Animus circulated around her body in varying patterns, as if it couldn’t decide which one to use. There was something else there too. A drop of golden-green light settled around her core. It pulled at her attention, seeking something from her.

The heat was unbearable! The cold, not so much. It wasn’t a surprise since that was the basis of the Sharine Heritage. She longed for it. The comfort of the cold, the peace a blizzard brought over the land as it shrouded everything in a clean blanket of snow.

The golden-green light changed. It warped and shifted, turning into an assortment of polygons. Then, one shape eventually repeated over enough times that she could finally make it out. It was hexagonal but had fractal patterns that changed every moment she looked at it. It spun and twirled around her core, a condensed spherical snowstorm. The spinning winds slowed, and the hexagon, the snowflake, moved towards its centre. Then the storm continued, hurling its winds twice as fast as before.

The heat receded, moving outwards from her centre to her skin, and all of a sudden, dark reddish sludge oozed out of her every pore and smelled of rotten fish guts, mud, and the remnants of a latrine. Her body paralysis lifted, and the very first thing she did was vomit. And then she soiled herself from both of her lower orifices, and even blood from her menses that weren’t due for another week or so stained the inside of her thighs.

“Oh, Ancestors!” she croaked in mortification.

Then, all at once, Yuriko’s light covered her body again. She felt a gentle force scrape the filth out of every corner of her body and sluice it down the toilet and the drains. The shower head sprayed warm water which bent to the other girl’s will and washed Gwendith’s body. Soap and shampoo lathered against her skin and hair, followed by cleansing water. Gwendith never felt so warm and protected.

Her stomach growled loudly, but she was too exhausted to do anything about it. She fell asleep just as Yuriko towelled her dry.

_____________

Yuriko gently laid Gwendith on her bed. The poor girl was exhausted and hungry at the same time. The technique was a success. She could tell with how her Anima covered every inch of the other girl. Her muscles were firmer, her skin more resilient. But it wasn’t to the extent that Yuriko’s strength had increased though.

Everyone’s different. Damien offered. It looks like her Animus manipulation as well as her Chaos resonance were the bits of her that got boosted.

‘If you say so.’

Yuriko shook her head and left Gwendith in her bedroom while she finished packing. Saki and Desire were in the living area, sitting on the dining table playing a game of Shatran. The board game hadn’t been available here, of course. Yuriko and Desire had carved a set a while back.

She honestly enjoyed playing the game, and she somewhat missed playing against Finan. Gwendith had been too tired to play her in the afternoon, and both Saki and Desire were complete amateurs. They were improving though, and maybe Yuriko could play against her level after a few weeks or a Season.

She’d also commanded Saki to present herself to the commander. There was no reason to keep her a secret and if she hadn’t been included in the resource allocation the attendant would have to steal food.

Just a bit past the dinner hour, Gwendith woke up.

“Am I…ready to walk the Ancient’s Way?” she croaked.

“You’ve taken a step, but not quite. You have to repeat the Body Forging a couple more times, but not until at least two to three weeks have passed each time.”

“Oh. What do I have to do?”

“Continue training.” Yuriko shrugged. “Here.” She extended a hand and grabbed Gwendith’s. The other girl’s cheeks coloured faintly. “Squeeze my hand as hard as you can.”

Gwendith nodded and did as Yuriko asked.

“Just a bit of improvement,” Yuriko grunted. “I guess you really aren’t the same as me.”

“I suppose not,” Gwendith muttered. “Oh, what am I dawdling here for. We have to get ready!”

“Right. And I’m hungry so get dressed.”

The canteen had already been shut down. The tables and chairs and other furniture were left behind. They were easily replaced by earthmelding, and there was simply no room for it in the transports.

Instead, a few of the carriers and haulers had been designated as the supply centre and the staff there handed out plain ration bars. Yuriko ate hers quickly, but Gwendith devoured nearly a dozen of the stuff.

“The hunger should pass,” Yuriko muttered to the other girl.

The caravan would leave in a few hours, but there weren't enough troop transports to accommodate the entirety of the outpost’s population. They could carry a fourth of them at most. The rest had to walk. That, and the fact that the earthmelders and the Builder Corps would have to create roads and destroy them behind the caravan meant that it would be slow going. How long before they got out of range of the boulders though?

“Yuri.” Marron walked up to her, face serious for a change. “I need your help.”

Yuriko’s eyebrows disappeared into her hairline in surprise. Marron asking her for help? Was Rumiga about to shatter?

“Yuri?”

“Uh, what is it Maru…Marron!”

“We need to recover the Protective Dome but we can’t dismantle the equipment in less than a few hours. The commander asked for volunteers to protect the Runeers remaining behind. They’ll dismantle and transport the equipment under bombardment. Veran told me that you’re unexpectedly strong, and I’d rather have you by my side while we’re in danger.”

A warm feeling welled up inside her and suffused her entirety. Yuriko grinned and glomped her elder brother, despite his protests.

“I’ll help you, of course!”