"This really changes things, doesn't it?" Myriam asked as they walked through one of Vanguard's market areas.

"It does," Schirach said quietly. She kept checking herself, but she was fine. She was absolutely fine, even with her finger vacant of the ring she'd worn for so long.

Everything had changed, mostly because she was in another world where everyone's powers were muted to some degree or other. She was free to be herself, or the self she had once dreamed of being.

Myriam had taken it all as a personal challenge, apparently.

And there, in Vanguard, they weren't backing down.