It took several weeks sailing in the Void Ocean to cross districts and quadrants. The resource planet Yuriko and the others protected was in the Draconian sector and crossing that vast distance alone would take a couple of weeks or more. The Rascal wasn't the fastest of Voidships, so they expected it would take another two to three weeks more to travel. Thankfully, there was one area that was central to everything, and that was where they were headed.

Shangria. Sector, district, station, planet… She read it described as such. It was all of it, apparently, though it was the planet that she needed to go to so they could delve to the next level. However, the conflicting information had her confused.

From one source, it was said that Shangria was roughly ten thousand longstrides wide, and from another, that it was closer to five thousand than ten. Some said it was leagues rather than longstrides, and that the actual planet was uninhabitable. Some call Shangria a construct made by people to hover over the Bore, and others that it was a ring around a ball of iron.

Some say that the Bore could be opened by a Key forged from ten mythical metals or substances and that as long as one is on hand, one can enter at any time. Others say that the Bore opens on a schedule, once every year or maybe two years. It was more complex than that, but there was a formula that was used to calculate the instances.

There was actually more information on the latter, more anecdotes and reports, than any other theory which prompted Yuriko to believe it. The Ancient Circle she fought a few weeks ago, Wyllan and the others from the Conclave of Conquest, enlightened her on quite a few things. Chief of which was the way to get to the next level, though they warned her that Actualised Ancients typically didn't delve beyond the first level. At least, not those who didn't have solid backing.

Either way, Yuriko put the information she received from the Ancients back into her memory palace and sealed it up to preserve it. She made a written account of what they said, of course, but hearing and seeing the way they said it could reveal far more than what was in the open. Sealing those memories in the palace preserved them, though every time she opened it up, there was always a little bit of degradation.

Hmmm, she should work on that. If she wanted something preserved it should stay that way. The question was, how could she prevent memory degradation? Should she enhance it while unlocked? No, that might change the flavour of it all. Hmmm, perhaps a way to observe memories while still preserved in the palace? That was the weakness of the technique, or maybe advantage, come to think of it. Anything within the palace was removed from her consciousness. It helped her keep her sanity and personality when Damien dumped his entire set of memories back when he dispersed after all.

Should she develop a new technique? The memory palace came from Damien's memories anyway, and though it had instructions on how to set it up, the underlying foundations and methods had not been expounded on. Did she need to touch an Ennoia about it? She would have to wait until she was near the limit of Transformation since she already had her hands full with upgrading her Colligia and combining her two Sword Ennoias into a greater whole. Diverting her focus might not be in her best interest, though maybe she could alternate when she grew tired of the first ones.

But her training was pretty balanced by now, and she shifted between facets at the optimum time. Fitting a new one into the mix involved another bout of juggling, though considering she had two brains to work on, there was likely no better time for it.

Travel on the Rascal was tedious and boring, something she hadn't quite realised back when she first captured the Voidship. Actually, the entire Void Ocean was tedious and boring! It was a big empty space that didn't seem to have an end. She wasn't even sure if there were more resource points, stations, and planets farther away than what the maps showed, and she honestly didn't care to explore. Not when it took several days to even get to one point or another. There might be a better way to travel, and she was sure portals were distributed across vast distances. That she didn't have access to such portals, and the popular way to travel was through Voidships, was a travesty. So much time wasted!

She couldn't exactly train physically on the ship. She'd likely break through the hull with a careless punch or kick. Heron and Gwendith could still do it, but they had to watch their power output. Fighting those other Ancients lit a fire within them and if they weren't accompanying her, they were training or meditating. At this point in their lives, advancing or expanding their Truths was the most optimal way to gain strength. Anima reach expansion continued unabated, but it was slow going for both of them, and Yuriko thought they might reach their personal limits soon.

If there was one thing of value she learned from the Ancients of Conquest it was that people apparently had Anima reach limits that prevented them from reaching the optimal state for advancement. So instead of continuing to push for more reach, they opted to increase density through the use of Anima Ignition, Anaflexio. While she understood the advantages of higher density, which was essentially an increase in the ultimate volume of Anima, Anaflexio sacrificed current reach to achieve an increase in density. The sacrificed reach was regained after a bit of training and actually allowed someone to push past their original limits, but the process was mind-numbingly slow. Well, she supposed they were called Ancients for a reason, huh?

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Anyway, she thought that Gwendith and Heron's limits were about half of the ideal at fifty paces, give or take a couple of paces. That was honestly fine, though it meant that if they were not her Squires, they would probably be stymied at Transformation. Whether that was better than what they had if they remained as Imperial Knights, she couldn't know. Anyway, once she reached Manifestation, she would pull their limits closer to hers, which was why Squirehood existed in the first place.

As for what was happening in Astoria…

Yuriko, after a tumultuous night with Scarlett, who'd finally overcome whatever mental barriers she had over being in love with Yuriko, had settled back down to a routine. The deaths of the HAMA Club and Fencing Club members weighed on her Anima for a while, but everyone who survived had, over the next few weeks, been given appointments with a therapist. Yuriko had gone to hers, not really expecting much, but her appointment with the therapist named Doctor Jane Clasper had been quite fruitful. They didn't talk about the event all that much, and just casually chatted. Afterwards, the good doctor gave her a clean bill of mental health and said that although she didn't mind more appointments, it was not strictly necessary.

If anything, it was Scarlett who needed the therapy. The two of them had cooled off after that night, and Yuriko, through their connecting threads, felt guilt, confusion, and shame rolling off Scarlett's mind. So she had to back off, and she respected her friend's need for space. She didn't know what Scarlett and the therapist talked about, though she did notice the discomfort died down a bit. They hadn't done anything again afterwards and regrettably, Scarlett tried to act as if nothing happened, but there was inner turmoil.

Yuriko didn't know what to do. Such complex emotions and self-made hangups clouded Scarlett's mind! Ah, well. Yuriko didn't even think of using her Mien to press. That would turn her friend into nothing more than a slave to her passions. Still, she harboured some hope of things eventually working out.

The end of the Season, and the year, soon came to pass. The last two weeks of the Season of Air, as well as the first week of the Season of Water, was the school break. The day between the years was called the Day of Reflection here, and it was the culminating point of those last two weeks when Astorians were expected to celebrate life, death, and family. Well, harvest, too, but she had the feeling that the concept was basically lost to modern Astorians, though probably only for the city folk who were distant from their agricultural roots.

For Yuriko, those two weeks weren't a break, but the beginning of her work cycle. The movie, The Last Warrior, began its pre-production schedule, and Yuriko was whisked away for table readings, fittings, and training plans. Since she was in perfect shape, all she had to do was maintain her figure, something that wasn't an issue at all. There was also the full script to read and review, although they were given the caveat that changes might happen mid-production.

Her co-lead also happened to be someone she knew quite well, Zachary Russell, who was her co-star in Luvblooms and a fellow Lunite. She was pleasantly surprised to see him in the production, and he greeted her with an excited smile. Her schedule and general indifference had led to her connection with the Lunites to wane, but she was happy enough to reconnect during work. Zach had honed his Alteration well, and with its source dependent on his movie and other roles, he was determined to improve his craft.

"How comfortable are you to shoot, er, exotic scenes?" the movie producer, Marc Alia, asked Yuriko after the first table reading. He'd asked for a private meeting and had sprung the question as soon as they entered the meeting room.

"What kind of exotic scene?" Yuriko asked sensibly.

"Nudity, intimate scenes, and the like. The Last Warrior is slated either an R-16 rating or R-18, though it will depend on the upcoming test audience screenings and the reception." Marc spoke quickly, but then again, Yuriko noticed early on that he always had that frenetic energy.

"I see. Well, I don't mind if it improves the movie," Yuriko said, then grinned, "but beware the consequences."

"Huh, what consequences?" He shook his head. "Ah, don't worry, the most we'll allow would probably be rear or just upper body shots, but there's that, er, violent conflict in the early part of the script. It's all historical data, after all, and while we're not going to follow history closely, accuracy might be useful…"

He continued to blather on, until Yuriko cut him off, "As interesting as what you're saying is, I must move on to my next schedule," Yuriko said firmly. "I give my tentative approval, but I reserve the right to change my mind."

"Oh, well alright." And that was that.

Yuriko knew how much the Astorians appreciated a fine body, and she made sure not to expose too much. Not because of modesty, but because if she did, it was more than likely to turn people into Thralls. Her third incarnation in her World Trials made that clear, and she didn't want to ruin people's lives that way. Having them admire her and maybe worship her, was fine. Ambrosia was a valuable resource after all, but not at the cost of ruin.

During the second to the last week of the year, she attended the funeral for those who died to the Unfettered attack. She also found out that all of her club mates had Altered, and all in one specific way. Each of them gained enhanced self-healing as well as increased aggression. The former was great, but the latter had already produced trouble. They didn't seem to notice the aggressiveness of their attitudes and actions, and since each of them trained with potentially deadly weapons, well, if things got out of hand, then even more tragedy would occur.

So she had little choice but to take their training a bit more seriously, and that meant passing down the Phases of the Sword.

By the end of the first week of the Season of Water, the Rascal finally arrived at Shangria system, and the first thing Yuriko saw was a grey planet surrounded by an orbital ring.

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