“Are we supposed to go to Qin, or are they coming here?”
Rika’s question forced Ja Yun to take a momentary break from actively panicking about the news of Empress Yoshika’s engagement to explain the very reason for her panic.
“Uh, both? We’re going to link Purewater Peak and Jiaguo City via formation so that people can attend in either location.”
“You can do that?”
Yun giggled hysterically and looked up from a small mountain of mostly discarded notes and failed designs.
“Of course! Just as soon as I invent the formation!”
“What, by yourself?! Just casually making a long distance portal from scratch?”
“Illusion, not portal, and not from scratch—I can iterate on our reflecting pool...probably. I can cut a few corners by relying on Yoshika’s domain if I—”
Rika put her hands on her hips and stared down at Yun with vague disapproval, sighing.
“Yun, honey, why are you doing this by yourself when you’ve got an entire think tank of the greatest minds in the empire just down the street?”
“They’re busy working on the mana amplifier problem.”
“And you aren’t? Yun, you’re the treasurer.”
Ja Yun paused, blinking up at Rika.
“What? And?”
Rika rolled her eyes.
“Did it occur to you, maybe, that they entrusted you with this task not because you’re an incredibly smart, talented, and beautiful magical genius—”
“Wh—that—I-I’m not—”
She ignored her wife’s adorable blushing and stuttering—there’d be time enough to play with that later.
“Shush! Yun, they gave you this job because you’re the one in charge of the budgets. Allocate some funds, put together a team, and relax. I’d be happy to help you with that last part, incidentally.”
Yun turned even redder at Rika’s suggestive tone, but nodded after a moment.
“You’re right. I got too caught up in it, I guess. It wouldn’t be the first time they’ve asked me to do something like that.”
“Well, what’s the point of having the resources of multiple nations if we don’t take advantage of them?”
“Good point. I’ll do that, then. Sorry, I guess everything’s just happening so fast that I got caught up in it.”
Rika gave Yun a hand and lifted her little lioness to her feet, stealing a quick kiss in the process.
“Good girl! Now, I don’t suppose our fearless leader actually remembered to mention what, if anything, our role in the ceremony is going to be?”
Yun blinked at her, then started panicking all over again.
“Oh, ancestors! I forgot about that! Wh-what are we supposed to do? Does that make us imperial consorts—wait, were we already imperial consorts?! Which Yoshika is Lady Yan getting married to?”
“Shh, calm down. It’s fine, you’re overthinking it. Yue is one of the only people who really looks at Yoshika...holistically. There’s people who see her as one person, and people who think of the name more as a title that groups together a loose conglomeration of rulers, but Yue knows better.”
“Like you do?”
She booped Yun on the nose and grinned.
“Who do you think named her? I’ve known them since the beginning, and I’ve felt first-hand what it’s like to be Yoshika. So yeah, I get it. Yue’s getting married to all of her. Not any or even each of her, but all. As for us...well, we’ve got our Eun-eun, and it’s probably better not to stir up any more confusion.
“Anyway, why don’t you head down to the office and work things out with Tae In-Su, and I’ll go find a Yoshika to get some more details about the ceremony.”
Yun nodded, more calm now that she had a more reasonable directive to focus on.
“Eui should still be at the testing grounds. If you’re headed there, say hi to our little dewdrop for me?”
“Will do!”
Rika gave her wife a farewell kiss and headed to the academy. It wasn’t hard to find the formation testing grounds—all she had to do was follow the maniacal cackling.
“Ahahaha! It’s working! It’s finally working!”
She paused before entering to make sure nothing exploded, because those were not reassuring words to hear in that part of the academy. Once she was confident there was no immediate danger, she crossed the gateway into a heavily warded courtyard filled with the best formations experts Yoshika could gather.
Rika tried not to react when a cold, viscous fluid dropped from above and dripped down her back before resolving into the form of her daughter, hugging her from behind.
“Gah! Do you make yourself that cold on purpose?”
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“Yes. You’re the only one who doesn’t flinch. Spoilsport.”
Iseul’s playful demeanor was always at odds with her stoic expression and tone. Rika was pretty sure the young elemental played it up on purpose, but it was hard to say. Between her rivalry with Heian, her time in the academy, and just general proximity to the sort of weirdos that flocked around Yoshika, Iseul had a lot of strange influences in her life.
“Your mother sends her regards, by the way. I know you’re busy, but we’d appreciate the occasional visit.”
“Which mother, mother?”
Rika rolled her eyes.
“Don’t be coy.”
“But mother, I have three mothers. Since mother is here, I know the mother mother is referring to is not mother, but that leaves two more mothers to choose from, mother. How am I to return mother’s greeting properly if mother is ambiguous about which mother mother is referring to?”
She pinched the bridge of her nose and grimaced.
“Stop! The word is starting to sound weird when you keep saying it like that.”
“It’s a phenomenon called semantic satiation—”
“I know! You’ve been doing it for weeks, Iseul. Find another thing to be silly about, please.”
Iseul pouted and shifted around in front of Rika, tossing her carefully constructed liquid ‘hair’ over her shoulder in an impressive display of control.
“Hmph! This is why I don’t visit.”
“How unfilial of you. So, what’s all the cackling about today?”
“Mm, breakthroughs in the mana condenser. We’ve pretty much solved the essence bandwidth issue.”
Rika’s eyes widened at that. She wasn’t a formations expert, but she had a working knowledge and picked things up from her wife and daughter.
“Isn’t that a pretty big deal? With the Sovereign’s Tear as a power source, you’d effectively remove essence requirements as a design constraint for formations.”
“Sure, if we want to destroy the world.”
Eui approached from where she’d been meditating in a quiet corner of the courtyard. She’d been overseeing the project since it began, and acting as a liaison whenever the researchers needed access to the Tear for their experiments.
“It’s rare to see you in this part of the academy, Rika.”
“And it’s rare to see you without your other half. What’s this about destroying the world? Because of the essence massed against the seal?”
“Eh, not just that, no.”
She cast a glance back at the scholars, as if worried one of them would jump in to explain, but they were too busy celebrating their breakthrough to notice. Eui sighed and scratched the back of her head.
“That usually works. Well, the gist of it is that if the essence pooling against the seal is like a bubble slowly expanding until it bursts, then that would be...Iseul?”
The mud elemental nodded and held up one hand, turning it into a transparent bubble.
“Right now, we’re like this—”
Iseul filled the bubble with air until it popped with a wet splash. Rika wiped the slimy fluid from her face and gave Iseul a flat look, which she ignored.
“Using the mana condenser to amplify output from the Sovereign’s Tear without limits would be like this—”
She formed another bubble, but barely allowed it to begin expanding before she pointed at it with her other hand and fired a fine beam of high pressure water straight through it. The bubble, Iseul’s hand, and a chunk of ground across the courtyard were all annihilated in an instant, causing a startled mage to jump in surprise and shout something about checking targets.
Eui waved and bowed apologetically before turning back to Rika with a rueful smile.
“Yeah, that. It’s actually why we’ve started referring to the formation as a ‘condenser’ instead.”
“Huh. Well, I’m glad you’re being careful with it, then. Doesn’t that still mean that the only remaining obstacle is reversing the Tear’s flow?”
Iseul shook her head.
“Scale is still a problem. Though Yoshika says the void has no space, so maybe it isn’t? But then we need to figure out how to draw a formation on nothing.”
Rika looked between them and scratched her head.
“Well, I think we’ve probably gone past my understanding, but congratulations on the progress. I’m here to ask about the plans for this wedding. I honestly can’t believe it took you so long.”
Eui gave her an arch look.
“As far as we knew, until very recently Yue wasn’t interested in other women.”
“That’s...”
Rika suppressed a sigh and shook her head. Ten years later and the experience of five women combined, and Yoshika still found new ways to be astoundingly bad at romance. It was almost endearing, in a way—though that reminded her.
“Where’s Dae, anyway? I thought he’d be right in the middle of celebrating a new breakthrough.”
“Having dinner with Kaede.”
“Oh! Really? Is that going to be a thing too?”
Eui shrugged.
“I don’t know. We’re entertaining it—getting to know each other again after drifting apart over the years. Obviously I’m not particularly invested in it, but if it makes Kaede happy, it’s worth a try at least.”
Well, maybe they were getting a bit better after all. Yoshika’s approach to relationships was a complicated tangle that Rika didn’t envy in the slightest, but at least they seemed to be taking it seriously.
“Well good for you! But seriously, how is this marriage ceremony going to work? I heard from Yun you’re trying to host it in two cities at once?”
“Yeah, to make sure neither side seems favored—actually, where is Ja Yun, anyway? I expected her to be here by now making budget proposals.”
“She was trying to solve the entire problem by herself because she forgot she has a staff. Again.”
Eui buried her face in a palm and groaned.
“Ancestors, I should have known better. I take it you got her sorted out, then?”
“Yep! I imagine she’ll be here with those proposals soon enough, but even once you’ve got the formation, how is all of that going to work?”
“Like the grand tournament that was hosted here back when we were students. We’ll link up the actual venue with a more holistic illusion for the most important people—family and such—so that it will be like we’re all in the same physical location, then project a grand illusion for the rest of the cities to watch while they enjoy their own festivities.”
She didn’t seem too enthusiastic about sharing her wedding with thousands of people from across the world. Rika had already heard rumors that people in Yamato and Goryeo were rushing to make a pilgrimage to Jiaguo City in order to participate in the event, but knowing Yoshika, she would have been happier to have the wedding as a private gathering with fewer than a hundred people.
“That sounds like a pretty big task. Are you sure it’s worth all the effort?”
Eui nodded.
“It matters. People need to see. To feel like they’re part of it, rather than just getting caught up in events beyond their concern.”
“Sounds like Yue talking.”
“Not this time. As much as it pains me, this has to be big. Bigger than just Yue and us, than Qin and Jiaguo. We’re marrying Yue because we love her, but the ceremony has a bigger purpose.”
Before Rika could comment on that, they were interrupted by Do Hye of all people, grinning widely and rubbing his hands together like the slimiest merchant they’d ever seen.
“Ohoho! That’s my kind of talk! Physically linking two locations together, plus a grand illusion synchronized across hundreds of miles? This may be an excellent excuse to trial the new formation—once we get some proper limiters on it, of course!”
Eui crossed her arms and grimaced at the old snake.
“What’s ‘your kind of talk’? The grand formations, or using our wedding ceremony for political gain—because depending on your answer, I might have to seriously reconsider.”
“Hah! Both of course! Now, let’s talk about the details! What sort of impression are we trying to make? How closely will the citizens be allowed to observe?”
Rika decided at that point to politely take her leave, smiling awkwardly as she retreated from the enthusiastic old schemer. She could ask Kaede or Meili about her role in the ceremony.
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