166 – Knock
After wrapping the training session up, Vivi [Blinked] over to Isabella’s room to await the two girls’ return. In the meantime, she cracked open her notebook and began musing over various ideas the lesson had sparked. Theophania in particular had been gushing with theories, almost drowning Vivi in questions and suppositions.
Which she had found interesting, though Lysander’s more reserved temperament was probably what she preferred. The Headmaster only relayed the most useful and concrete observations from his research, and each tended to be salient and applicable to her own. He truly was a brilliant man, gifted in ways that nearly nobody else she had met was.
Thinking back on the lesson, she shivered. Teaching a classroom of mages hadn’t been the most uncomfortable responsibility she had ever suffered through, but it sat in the higher reaches. She would rather not repeat the experience.
Unfortunately, she might have to. She’d only covered the basics, and just for what tentative understanding they had. Over the following weeks, there would be a number of breakthroughs, particularly when she went to speak with the Dragon King.
Maybe I’ll teach Lysander, and he can teach everyone else. She didn’t have to be the one delivering all the information, right? Lysander was a smart man; he could handle it.
The only reason she hadn’t shriveled up and died was thanks to her amazing new body. Her unflappability more than made up for losing a few inches she hadn’t had to spare.
Truly a blessing.
Saffra and Isabella returned half an hour later—longer than Vivi had expected, though with how she’d gotten lost in her notes, she only realized that they were late once the noise of the door swinging open wrenched her attention back. She wondered what had caused the delay.
“Did something happen?” Vivi asked.
“Hm?” It took a second for Saffra to realize what Vivi meant. “Oh, no, not really. The Headmaster was giving…” A pause, then her lips quirked up. “A safety brief.”
“A safety brief?”
The girl’s amusement grew. “On which kinds of magical methodology only the Sorceress should dabble in, and what secrets belong to the Kingdom and will result in treason charges if shared without permission.”
Vivi digested that answer. “I… I see.” Hastily moving past the topic of her possibly too-careless candor, she closed her notebook and stood. “Is there anything you have to do, or are you ready to go?” She nodded at Isabella. “Sorry to steal her away so quickly.”
Isabella gave a half curtsy. “I don’t believe there’s anything to apologize for, Lady Vivisari.”
Both girls more or less treated her normally by now, which pleased Vivi, but Isabella remained overly polite in most situations—because that was the young noble’s normal. When interacting with anyone that wasn’t Saffra, at least.
“Yeah, I’m ready,” Saffra said.
They said their proper goodbyes to Isabella, then departed. With a spell, Vivi towed her apprentice through the spatial fabric and materialized with a pop inside Vanguard’s guildhall. The common room was empty; it frequently was at this time of day. The whole guild kept busy schedules, not just her and Rafael.
“You’re hungry?” Vivi asked. It was a bit early for lunch, but not especially so. Heavy magic use built up an appetite, and though she hadn’t strained herself, Saffra had been practicing all morning.
Indeed, cat ears perked up at the suggestion. “I could eat,” the girl said, feigning nonchalance.
Vivi refrained from rolling her eyes, not that her body would have cooperated.
Vanguard had picked up the once-apprentice of a world-class cook, so naturally they headed his way. He was in the kitchen as usual; she wouldn’t be surprised if he hadn’t left since his recruitment. There really were no crafters so spoiled as Vanguard’s. If even their prior members like Mae and Eshara were starry-eyed for having their old supplies and equipment back, then a newcomer like Shel was probably pinching himself every time he walked into the kitchen.
Upon hearing their requests, he set to preparing two meals, despite already juggling what seemed like half a dozen experimental dishes. He’d likely multitasked far worse in his old job. Vanguard would be filling out their ranks for a while yet, so he wasn’t nearly as busy as he would be in the future.
She thanked him, and he gave only a nod in return. Shel had a resting impassivity to rival even hers and Ulden’s.
Once they'd settled into seats at the counter, Saffra said, “Did Xavier’s question really give you a theory?”
It took a second to place what Saffra meant. “About voidbeasts storing consumed energy like fat?”
“Yeah. You just kinda… wandered off as soon as he asked it.”
‘Just wandered off’? She recalled with some embarrassment that she had, in fact, dropped their discussion and pivoted on her heel the moment her interest had been sparked.
That had perhaps been impolite. Or odd-looking, at the very least.
“Maybe nothing so concrete as a theory,” Vivi hedged, “but it was an intriguing way to frame the problem. It made me look at it in a different light. We’re getting close to solving it, I’m certain about that.”
Though it’s taking longer than I expected, she thought. Duke Caldimore spent decades colluding with who knows how many people, but I’m still surprised it’s this tough of a nut.
She had started to fear, earlier, that his arrogant claims of being indispensable would turn out to be true—not that she would’ve allowed him to trade information to prevent his fate. Thankfully, those concerns were fading the more she personally attended to the problem.
“Voidbeasts and their bodies have some fascinating properties,” she elaborated to more fully answer Saffra’s question. “They’re made of the same material throughout, but they’re actually toughest on the outside. As they eat and grow more powerful, I believe they build up layers of stronger and stronger voidglass, like strata of stone.”
She hadn’t observed a voidbeast’s lifecycle as it grew, obviously, but it seemed like a safe assumption.
“It’s also possible that the substance structurally holds that energy in a manner much like we do with fat. I was previously viewing it like their body was a single, conglomerate mana core, and that they drew energy out rather than alchemized it in real time. And while those are similar concepts, they’re also different in crucial ways. The reframing opens up interesting new experimental avenues. It’ll be difficult to find out which is true, of course, and honestly, it’s more likely that it’s a mix of both. Or that neither is quite right. These are creatures from an entirely different plane of reality.”
“Huh,” Saffra said. Not out of a sense of disinterest, but instead blinking as she tried to digest everything she’d been told.
Vivi waved her hand. “As far as practical concerns go, it won’t be long. The dragons already knew about the dimensional boundary, so they also likely knew about voidlings. Possibly even how to harness that energy… though maybe not. They probably would have used it in some way.”
She considered the validity of that statement, then shook her head.
“We’re close to solving it by ourselves, so it’ll be shocking if a conversation with Cinereus doesn’t give us the final insight. I just hope he’s not having us reinvent the wheel for no reason. This really might be old news for his people.” Which would be annoying. I’ve put a lot of time into it. “Though, I suppose we’ll have taken different approaches, so it won’t be effort wasted. We’ll have gained a deeper understanding from the experience.”
Saffra hummed as she thought about what she’d been told. “You seem to be enjoying yourself, if nothing else.”
Vivi tilted her head, caught by surprise. She’d been viewing her research into the void as a responsibility. Certainly, she was investigating it more hours per day than she would have if left to her own whims. But did that mean she found the process of studying a novel source of energy tedious or unpleasant? It wasn’t magic, not classically, yet it was clearly something adjacent. And she liked all things magic.
“I guess you’re right,” she eventually said.
Shel arrived with two plates of steaming food, ensnaring both their attention immediately. Pan-seared salmon for Saffra and braised lamb for Vivi, each plated with roasted vegetables and a rich sauce. As always, the cuisine both looked and smelled divine, and Vivi knew from experience it would taste so too. Petra hadn’t led Vanguard wrong with her recommendation, and not just because Shel was Master-rank and thus suited to cooking even for Titled.
Vivi had been spoiled in more ways than one since somehow waking up in this world and being granted magical powers, but being able to dine on savory meals prepared by world-class chefs was one of the more understated privileges.
Certainly beats all the cups of noodles, she thought wryly, picking up her fork. Then she paused. Well… there is something to be said for food that takes years off your life with each serving.
They thanked Shel, and the man gave a slight bow and disappeared back into the kitchen. A few minutes passed as Vivi and Saffra’s focus was entirely occupied with their meals before they leaned back, satisfied, and resumed the conversation.
“You’re still building the arena, right?” Saffra asked.
“It’s nearly done, we’re ahead of schedule,” she confirmed. “Rafael isn’t the kind of person to overpromise.”
Vivi had made a mental note earlier about how the construction of the Dragon King’s Palace could only have been possible through the use of extremely powerful magic, and her recent contributions had shown that she might have overestimated how difficult such an estate would be to create.
“When you can pull up stone walls any size you want and shape them with a thought, large construction projects can go pretty fast,” Vivi added dryly.
It pleased her that Rafael had asked for help. She had worried that he wouldn’t bother her out of a sense of duty, despite how with a wave of the staff she could erase a significant portion of the project’s work in minutes. And even after that aid, the labor that went into building a stadium capable of hosting the largest tournament in history remained… substantial.
As it happened, Meridian already had a huge arena they could have used. Society revolved around power and fighting; of course they had made a sport of it as well. But Rafael had wanted something grander. ‘Vanguard has a reputation to uphold’ was his response whenever she commented on the excessiveness of it all.
It was being built outside the city walls. They would hardly bulldoze half a district to make room.
“Have you decided whether you’ll be joining?” Saffra asked.
A small sigh escaped her. “No,” she said after a long moment. “I haven’t made up my mind.”
…which was a lie. But it was too embarrassing to admit that she intended to partake without something approaching a practical reason. Motivation a hair more solid than merely scouting for talent, which she could do by simply watching.
Which was why she needed to crack void energy. Once she had access to that power, and perhaps even learned to mix it in with spells, then she would have all the excuse in the world to be dueling a variety of combatants. She would be able to see how it behaved and interacted with different spells, skills, and items.
Honestly, she would be obligated to. For the sake of saving the world, et cetera.
The amused glance Saffra shot at her told Vivi that maybe her apprentice was starting to understand her a little too well. She didn’t think the girl had been fooled.
A loud knocking from over their shoulders interrupted their mealtime chat. Both of them paused, then slowly turned their heads in the direction of the sound.
The noise came again.
They stared. Knocking at a door wouldn’t be the most unusual thing in the world, but they were in Vanguard’s guildhall. Vivi had dropped the illusions hiding their entrance from the public, seeing how they had announced their return, but people still left Vanguard alone as a rule. As awkward as she found the idea, it was basically a holy place.
Knock knock knock. The pounding got louder. It sounded impatient.
Vivi and Saffra shared a look. With a sigh, Vivi slipped off her seat and reluctantly left behind her half-finished meal. Summoning her staff was probably an overreaction, but she did so by reflex.
She gripped the handle of the door and pulled. Sunlight flooded in.
And so did the image of a six-foot-tall human woman with dark gray hair and elegant plate armor. Orange eyes smoldered with their usual haughtiness, and upon her gaze dropping substantially to meet Vivi’s, a regal chin lifted half an inch.
“Sorceress,” Embralyne de Caldaros said, in disguise as Lady Ember Caldwell. “I’m glad to find you in good health. Might we speak?”
Vivi blinked.
Ah. This is happening sooner than I thought.