From the edge of the Shangria System, it took nearly a couple of days to actually approach close enough to make out what the planet looked like. Yuriko had been mistaken. It wasn't an orbital ring around the planet, but five rings, each just offset from each other that from afar, it looked like one giant ring. They also weren't offset on the same axis, but in a weird, jumbled way that there were multiple intersection points where two or more rings crossed each other. Upon a closer look, those intersection nodes were either encased by another space station or had one floating just above or below it.

The planet was metallic grey and looked completely smooth. Yuriko thought it was an illusion brought about by distance, but no, it was really smooth. No light reflected off the surface and she thought that maybe the metallic grey surface was actually the outer part of Shangria's Veil. Yes, that was likely. This was the only time she saw an opaque Veil, however, that looked solid.

There were also multiple pillars that connected the orbital rings to the surface. Each of those pillars were focused on a node, she noticed, though not all nodes had a pillar.

As they came closer, she also noticed that the rings weren't all the same distance from the planet either. Well, not all the time, or in its entirety. Each ring was also roughly a longstride in height and width. There were hundreds of Voidships docked around nodes or hovering some distance from the rings. The Voidships were of varied make and design, with the only common factor being that they were sailing in the Void Ocean. The most common designs were long, spindly cylindrical shapes that had main thrusters on one end, just like the Rascal.

Some of the more esoteric ones looked like floating islands with energy shields holding the atmosphere inside, and the ones that looked achingly familiar looked like old-time sailing ships that were fitted with energy-gathering sails, main thrusters, and manoeuvring jets. They looked like they were built to descend on water, too, and in short, looked like Chaos ships from back home. Thankfully, they were about the third most numerous kind of Voidship and she had no doubt she'd encounter it while waiting in the rings for the scheduled opening of the Bore.

Watching through the viewports for hours on end was one of the things she did to waste time on. She also meditated and pondered her Truths, as well as how to bridge, and hopefully fuse her two Sword Ennoias.

In her ignorance, she had mistaken the entirety of the Ennoia of the Sword to be simply a matter of breadth, but she was coming to think that there was no Ennoia of the Sword, or rather, there was no all-encompassing Ennoia of the Sword, just broader and narrower Truths. After all, how can one Ennoia encompass something that wasn't complete? Surely, someone, somewhere, invented a new way to use a sword or perhaps iterated on a new kind of sword. Would the supposed Ennoia of the Sword automatically expand to hold the new thing? Probably not, though perhaps it would eventually incorporate it. Were there only so many ways to wield a sword? Probably not since not even two people, with identical physiques would be able to wield a sword in exactly the same way.

Or was there an Ennoia that basically contained all the fundamentals which everything was derived from?

An interesting and mind-numbing thought, and something she wasn't sure was actually an Ennoia, and not one of its higher, advanced levels.

Perhaps when she was satisfied enough with her Ennoia of the Sword—Flying Radiant Swords and Bladeless Sword—and advanced with both, the Colligia, Reperta, and the next couple of levels would broaden the Truth. Hmm, or perhaps the next steps would give her the option to either generalise or specialise?

The Sword was annoyingly complex…and she loved it. Her Ennoia of Radiance was already as simple as it could get, and she had the feeling that the next steps on its advancement only involved handling more and more quantities of it, until at the peak, all Radiance would be under her sway. And would that not be a grand thing? Radiance was ever present.

Perhaps it was the difference in the layer of Truths. Radiance, defined by the Bresians and other Magi, was a Primordial Element, while the rest were divided into Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Truths, and depended on how close they were to nature. If anything, Swordsmanship was a Tertiary Truth, while Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Wood, Metal, and others like it were Primary. Secondaries were those that mixed natural and artificial Truths into an Affinity, but she rarely encountered that during her time in the Academy.

In the same vein, shouldn't Tertiary Truths keep evolving as people improve them? While Primary Truths remained static. After all, those Elements hadn't changed since the beginning. Or what she thought at the beginning.

Before her mind could go into tangents and before she could question how everything came to be, the Rascal finally arrived within a dozen leagues of the orbital rings. The bridge was hailed and the comms officer answered. They were directed into docking bay 626, and a set of rules and general guidelines were transmitted.

Mazoga, the ship's captain, looked quite excited to be here. "First time actually docking on the rings instead of the outer stations," She said gruffly. The large, Sylvanite woman eyed Yuriko fitfully, and looked like she wanted to say something delicate.

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"Let's speak once we're settled down," Yuriko said, and Mazoga agreed.

That was how, a couple of hours later, she found herself with the large Sylvanite inside the captain's quarters. The Rascal's interior was sized for the grey-skinned humanoids and as such, everything was a bit too big. Yuriko's feet would dangle a few inches over the floor if she sat down so instead of sitting on the chair normally, she sat cross-legged and propped her elbow on her knee while cupping her chin.

"Master, what are your plans?" Mazoga asked carefully.

"I plan to delve to the next level, as I've said before."

"No, I mean, about our life debts?"

Yuriko hummed. In truth, she'd only given it a little thought. She had no desire to keep anyone indentured and the only reason she accepted Mazoga and her people's service was because it was their culture. "If you don't wish to follow me to the next delve, then I will free you from your service."

"I see." Mazoga frowned. "It is dishonour, normally, to be freed because of cowardice."

Yuriko tilted her head, then nodded. They swore an oath and would keep their word. It wasn't as if she hadn't formed other bonds with the rambunctious Sylvanites. After the initial awkwardness of meeting new people, especially those who were placed on a higher point in the hierarchy, Yuriko took the time to train their combat style. It was a mixture of body reinforcement and strengthening. The Sylvanites, and those like them, Martial Artists, developed their Anima to support their physiques. Almost similar to the Imperial Path, they restricted their Anima from leaving the boundary of their skin, and instead, wove every tendril to support muscle, bone, and sinew. Nerves and brain too. Being so large, Sylvanites were natural Martial Artists, but she was told that other races practised it, too. She recalled a group of beastkin in her travels, mercenaries who joined her during the battles on Rumiga, who were similar.

Anyway, Martial Arts wasn't better than what she already did, and some principles crossed easily enough. There was no one on the Rascal who'd touched upon an Ennoia, although Mazoga and her male counterpart, Gujo, seemed close. Well, they were closer to touching a tertiary one after Yuriko's training.

From what she heard from the Ancients of Conquest, the second delve involved dangers that needed one to be well-versed in their Truths to navigate properly. Just going through the Bore, and into the trials needed to be overcome, required that power. Mazoga and her crew were Voidship sailors. Well, the male Sylvanites were marines. Their arsenal involved being able to strike through armour, but it wasn't really anything other than projecting their Anima outside the body temporarily.

Hmm, by keeping the Anima locked in, it created a sort of pressure that allowed it to reach incredible velocities and force once unleashed, but she preferred the versatility of being able to constantly manipulate her surroundings over a quickly expended power boost.

"You and the others can stay in service if you wish," Yuriko decided on a whim. "Create and hold a place for me here, in Shangria. I don't know when I will return after going into the Bore, but we still have a good while to wait before it opens anyway."

"That is more acceptable, master," Mazoga said pleasantly, "I will ask for volunteers to accompany you if you wish it."

"We shall see," Yuriko said.

The Rascal trembled slightly as the docking arms locked the Voidship in place. Normally, the captain should have remained on the bridge to oversee, but Gwendith, Heron, and the rest of Yuriko's companions were there to make sure nothing untoward happened. Besides, Yuriko's perceptive aura covered the entire ship and about a longstride more. Her reach had already exceeded five hundred paces at this point and the amount of data she sensed was ridiculously massive. She always had to dedicate a couple of strands of consciousness to monitoring, and even so, she discarded most of the stimuli she received.

At the moment, she was exploring the docks. 626 was located on a node, and this particular one was a detached Voidspace station that was shaped like a wheel. It connected to the orbital ring via a pillar where she suspected a lift or perhaps a metrorail transported people and cargo. The pillar was a bit too far for her to sense. The docks that held the Rascal were only a couple of hundred paces long and half again as wide. The docking arms secured the ship while another arm attached to the exterior personnel hatch. They hadn't indicated the need to move cargo, though Yuriko suspected Mazoga would do so once Yuriko and the others left the ship. Most of the cargo space was filled with scavenged gear and raw ore. They also carried several pallets of compressed grain courtesy of the resource planet they left. Well, "appropriated" would be the more proper term.

Gwendith, Heron, Saki, Ryoko, Devotee, and Ilvara Erdmann were waiting near the airlock. The connector arm was cycling through and a few moments after Yuriko and Fluffington, in his miniature form, arrived, the docking process was completed and the airlock hatch opened. She took the lead in walking down the ramp while her Anima perception probed. There wasn't a welcoming committee, but that was fine. Instead, there was a machine that recorded their presence. It beeped and lifted the barricade to let them through.

The technology looked like a cross between Dragon Fall City's and Astoria's. It was a bit chunkier than the Astorian counterpart, but she felt it had better…specs?...than that. Closer to Dragon Fall, but she also didn't sense any kind of connection to REI-space, something she was sure only existed in that place. The machine's connections ran into the wall, and she could feel a fair bit of electricity coursing through wires and cables. So better, but clunkier Astorian tech then.

They walked down the hallway and reached the pillar she suspected led to the actual node. She wondered if those Ancients were already here in Shangria, and thought it was likely considering she'd left weeks after they did. Still, their intelligence gave her a couple of possible paths to reach the Bore, and the first one needed them to be in the Martial Ring. She ignored the lingering gazes from the loiterers, though perhaps they were staring at Fluffington's head sticking out of her backpack. There was a lift that led to the node, well, one of many. They entered one and after a couple of moments, the doors closed and they were brought towards the next leg of the journey.

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