There was an upside to the Chalice of Withered Plenty that Vivi hadn't considered and which pleasantly surprised her: her training sessions with Saffra were now a guilt-free priority. Vivi might have already decided that she would make time for the girl, but with all the world-ending threats and massively important events occurring, truly making it a focus had been difficult to justify.
Now helping Saffra was the priority, next to studying void effects. When every hunting session allowed Vivi herself to level up, there weren't many better returns on her time. Each bump in power might be the one that let her fend off a swarm of voidgods should they descend through the fresh—and unfortunately permanent—portal above Prismarche.
Floating a few feet off the ground, Vivi watched her apprentice launch [Flash Freeze], a spell the girl could reliably manifest by now. Saffra lowered her staff afterward, not seeming pleased as she eyed the many shards of exploded, ice-encased monster parts.
"That one seemed a bit wobbly," Isabella remarked.
"Your face seems a bit wobbly," Saffra sniped back. "It worked, didn't it?"
"If that's the bar you're trying to clear…"
Saffra didn't rise to the obvious bait, which was rare—for either of them, since the teasing hardly went in one direction. Instead, Saffra rolled her eyes and turned to Vivi.
"I think I need a short break, Lady Vivi. My head is starting to hurt."
"Of course." Vivi would have suggested one soon herself; she could read when her apprentice was beginning to flag.
They picked a spot underneath a tall oak's shade and sat. Vivi had been taking notes on both girls' spell constructions throughout the session, and while she'd given immediate tips after each cast, she had identified trends that needed addressing too. She detailed those thoughts to her respective pupils.
Vivi had brought Isabella along since there hadn't been much opportunity to check in on the girl. She could take solace in the fact that if anything serious happened, Saffra would alert her, but that didn't mean Vivi didn't want to see how the girl was faring herself.
A practical discussion ensued where Vivi doled out her advice. When it wound down, and the quiet had settled for a few moments, she said, "So. How's the Institute treating you, Isabella?"
Isabella pursed her lips at the question. Thankfully, she didn't tense up or seem to raise her guard. "Well," she said slowly. "It's… interesting. I can say that much."
"Interesting in what way?"
"My father summoned the Eighth Cataclysm, I disappeared from classes for more than a week, and then showed back up apprenticed to Archmage Aeris," Isabella said. "All with no public explanations. It's not just my classmates that have no idea what to make of it, but the staff, the instructors, everyone." She huffed. "I've never been stared at so much in my life."
Vivi hadn't expected a 'fine and dandy' response, and appreciated the honesty, but she couldn't help but frown. "No one's giving you trouble, though?"
Isabella blinked in surprise, then snorted loudly—something she clearly thought unacceptable given how her hand shot up to cover her mouth. "Trouble? No, Lady Vivisari," she said, shaking her head. "The opposite. I don't think I've had so many sycophants chasing me in my life. And it's not like people trying to curry favor with a duke's daughter were rare before this."
Ah. Yes, that was Vivi's fault. She had announced during the High King's reception that she would be grateful if everyone looked out for Isabella—a heavy-handed request given who she was and who she'd been addressing.
While that might be a smothering experience, Vivi didn't regret her actions. Even if everyone's goal was just to cozy up to the Sorceress, so many people watching over Isabella was something Vivi appreciated. It gave her peace of mind.
"Though that's just one reaction," Isabella said a moment later. "Some suck up to me, but not all. Lots are avoiding me. Some are curious. Some glare. Everyone has an opinion, is the point. It's kind of exhausting."
Vivi asked, "Some are glaring?"
Isabella paused, then looked down at her hands and clenched them. "My father got a lot of people killed, Lady Vivisari. Some were family members of students or staff."
That statement lingered, Vivi not knowing how to respond.
"You didn't do anything," Saffra pointed out. "You helped stop it."
"It doesn't need to be logical, Saffra. People they cared about died. It… is what it is."
Saffra crossed her arms and seemed annoyed, though she didn't push. Vivi got the impression the two girls had already talked about this.
She probably shouldn't have asked. She wanted to look out for Isabella, but if one of her classmate's uncles had died during the invasion… then what was Vivi going to do about that? Track the teenager down and tell him to stop glaring at Isabella?
"Just let me know if you need anything," Vivi said, lamely, several seconds too late. She shifted the conversation to a less thorny subject. "How's your apprenticeship going? How's Aeris?"
Isabella relaxed. "Brilliant, which everyone already knows. But also kind, and… surprisingly scatterbrained?" She snickered, quickly masking it as a cough. "Though I say that in confidence, Lady Vivisari."
"I'm glad you can trust me," Vivi replied with amusement. She'd never noticed anything she would call scatterbrained from Aeris, but then again, she imagined everyone acted differently in more casual settings. "He's probably a much better teacher than me," she commented idly. "You're learning a lot?"
Isabella hesitated. With an overly polite tone, she insisted, "Yes, and from you too, Lady Vivisari. You're also an excellent instructor."
Vivi almost rolled her eyes. "He's been apprenticing students for centuries. It's a given that he knows what he's doing, definitely more than I do."
Isabella hesitated, even longer this time. "I'm eternally grateful for what you've done for me, Lady Vivisari. I assure you, you're both excellent teachers."
Vivi's lips twitched, entertained by the girl's insistence on something she knew simply wasn't true. "I'm glad you think so," she allowed. She would hardly force Isabella to agree. It had been a passing comment. "What spell are you working on with him?"
The conversation drifted on from there, unhurried, until it thinned into a comfortable silence.
"Did everything with Prismarche go all right, by the way?" Saffra asked.
Vivi paused. Her eyes flicked to Isabella. Were those topics appropriate with the girl around, so far as sensitive information went?
But Isabella was the only person in the world to know that the Sorceress had broken the alleged level cap. Isabella had been present for Vivi's conversation with Remian Voss's echo, and so far as Vivi could tell, the girl hadn't spoken a whisper about anything she'd heard. Not even to Saffra, and those two were joined at the hip whenever they didn't have other duties. Isabella could obviously be trusted.
For that matter, how much did Saffra herself share when it came to her and Vivi's adventures? She hoped Saffra wasn't tiptoeing around her friend unnecessarily. The only true secret was the Chalice, and mostly because of Rafael's insistence. She should probably talk with Saffra and make those boundaries clear.
"The enchantments are holding, but it was a rushed first draft. Definitely need to polish them and reapply." Dryly, she said, "It's better than having to recast [Void Barrier] every few hours, but I'll be checking that often anyway. Maybe it was a waste of effort."
"Hopefully once you see it's doing fine, you'll stop worrying?" Saffra suggested.
"We'll see." It was hard not to be cautious bordering on paranoid when a city's worth of people were huddled beneath that hell-portal. "As for healing everyone—that's still in the works. Rafael and I are torn. I won't take too long to decide, since even if soul damage isn't immediately dangerous, it's hardly enjoyable. Princess Embralyne… I need to go and talk to her soon." Likely later today, as 'the strange potential dragon' and not the Sorceress. Vivi's real identity would end in a fight.
"Princess Embralyne?" Isabella interjected cautiously, glancing between Saffra and Vivi.
Saffra hesitated and looked at Vivi in turn, which told Vivi that her earlier theory was right—Saffra was being careful about what she said, even to Isabella. She no doubt talked about some of what happened around Vivi, but erred on the side of caution. Like when it came to the Dragon King's daughter showing up in Prismarche.
Vivi didn't consider that top-secret material. She turned to Isabella and caught her up—though only on the original fiasco and mistaken identities, not Embralyne's involvement with the defense of Prismarche. Even if the Princess herself planned to march up to the Dragon King and explain herself, Vivi would keep the woman's confidence on that matter.
Isabella hadn't reached the level of exposure therapy that Saffra had, so she appeared stunned by the short, bizarre story Vivi detailed. Saffra watched her friend's reaction with a smug expression.
"What did happen between you and the Dragon King, anyway?" Saffra asked. After a second, she clarified, "Assuming you want to talk about it?" The last word tipped upward, tentative.
Vivi mentally cringed. "It's a long story." She sighed. "No, it's not. And I guess I stand by what we did, I'm not ashamed. It's just… a complicated situation."
When both girls leaned forward in interest, Vivi could tell she had no choice but to explain. "The Dragon King doesn't let many visitors in," she started. "So it was a favor to begin with, making that exception for us. He was a gracious host too. Congratulated us on our victories over the first five Cataclysms, and while he wasn't willing to help fight them directly, he allowed us into the Sky-Pillar Range to hunt there. Gather materials, level up against strong monsters." She winced. "We repaid him by breaking into his treasury, fighting his eldest son, and destroying a third of the palace in the process."
Both girls gawked at her.
Saffra recovered first. "But you obviously did that for a reason!"
The dubiousness—even if it was just a hint—was rather condemning.
"Yes, of course. We were after The Fourflame Amulet, the most powerful enchantment-breaking artifact in the world. I doubt even something I could make would hold up against it." Well, maybe. She was rather strong these days. But Vivi had noted earlier that while the Codex and Chalice were unimaginably powerful, they were shocking mostly for how easily she had acquired them, and how few limitations they had. Not because they were truly in a tier of their own. Other artifacts existed that could be considered Divine Treasures, and the Dragon King owned several. "Back then, I couldn't break through the Shattered Oracle's wards myself. We needed to get into his workshop, and the Fourflame Amulet was the only way."
A quest item, in short.
Saffra digested the explanation, and didn't take long to respond. She crossed her arms and said flatly, "You were trying to kill a Cataclysm. The Dragon King should've given it to you. It's his own fault."
Isabella had adopted a thoughtful expression, and while she didn't contradict Saffra, Vivi got the impression the girl disagreed.
"The Shattered Oracle needed to die," Vivi said, "and we saved a lot of lives by making that happen. But we were still guests of a foreign monarch, violated his hospitality, attacked his son, and robbed him. That he didn't fly down to exact revenge—on us or otherwise—is… gracious. Especially considering the kind of man he is."
"You returned the amulet afterward?" Isabella asked curiously.
"We did."
"I suppose that helped."
"Somewhat," Vivi said. "Especially since we succeeded. He refused to help, but he hardly wanted the Cataclysms alive. Yet he still made it clear what he would do if he ever saw us again."
Isabella winced. "It's, as you said, a complicated situation," she offered diplomatically.
Saffra sniffed, obviously disagreeing with the sentiment.
Vivi would act the same again, but—knowing that these were real events, not quests in a game—she felt guilty. Breaking hospitality, assaulting a man's son, and outright theft were awful actions, no matter the context.
A few moments of quiet passed. "What does it look like?" Saffra asked. "The amulet."
Vivi paused at the unexpected question. "Gold, with four gems. Red, yellow, blue, green. It needs to be charged before use, through various… naturally occurring energies." Energies only found in certain locations throughout the mortal lands. It had been part of the quest sequence to travel around and fill the amulet before fighting the Shattered Oracle.
"Gold?" Saffra asked. "The chain too?"
"The chain is white, I think?" It'd been an important quest, but Vivi didn't have a perfect memory.
"Wasn't Princess Embralyne wearing a white chain?"
Vivi opened her mouth, then closed it. She racked her brain, suddenly alert. "Not that I saw," she said. "But I wasn't paying attention." The woman had been covered in plate armor. If she had been wearing an amulet, it wouldn't have been obvious.
"Oh. Huh."
"You saw a white chain?"
Saffra shrugged. "I mean, I think so? There's no way though. Right?"
Vivi stared at the girl, thoughts sprinting forward. The Dragon King's daughter did surely have a reason for coming to investigate a rogue dragon—that didn't seem like a task the royal family normally handled themselves. And so she had a reason for entering the mortal lands… like perhaps to charge a Divine Treasure.
Lacking better ideas, Vivi had assumed Embralyne had ventured from her homeland out of curiosity, but that was a flimsy excuse to defy her father. Even if just in spirit, unlike her recent, more direct defiance.
"That's worth looking into," Vivi said at last. "Even if you're not sure."
Then again, even if Vivi assumed the Princess was worried about some disaster worthy of charging a Divine Treasure for, Vivi had no way to offer help. The dragon would refuse it.
Maybe I'll have to be subtle about it? Her thoughts drifted to a certain cat-rescue mission during her first day at Prismarche. Also, does Cinereus know that his daughter has one of his most valuable artifacts with her?
Vivi shook her head. She would deal with that later—soon later—but it wasn't a drop-everything revelation.
"You're rested?" she asked Saffra, standing and dusting herself off. "Let's keep going, if you are."
No matter what was going on, Vivi's tentative plans to speak with Embralyne had jumped several places in priority. Award