167 – Home
Caught by surprise, Vivi took a few seconds longer to respond than she should have. She could see past Embralyne onto the streets of the Adventurer’s District, and there were a number of passersby not so covertly staring at them. For an organization of Vanguard’s importance, even something as mundane as a stranger showing up at its doorstep would start all kinds of rumors before the day’s end.
“Yes, of course,” Vivi finally said, nudging the door open. “Please come in.”
Without an ounce of hesitation or timidity, Embralyne strode past and into Vanguard’s common room. Hand resting on her sword’s pommel, she swept her gaze across the cozy space as she appeared to scrutinize the building’s layout and furnishings.
“It’s smaller than I thought.”
The words weren’t meant as an insult, but Vivi still found the lack of tact amusing. Not all princesses were pictures of diplomatic grace. “It was only meant to host five, and some craftsmen. We’ll be expanding soon.”
Embralyne nodded, then turned her attention to the newcomer. Eshara had emerged, presumably having heard Embralyne’s arrival. By the soot and grime covering the elf, she had been in the middle of a project. She wore a furrowed brow as she took in the sight of the intruder.
“Who is this, Lady Vivisari?” Eshara asked.
Vivi opened her mouth, but then paused, wondering how to reply. Embralyne was wearing her human disguise, but did that mean she intended to keep her identity secret? As a rule, Vivi tried to hold the confidence of her allies, yet she was also bad at subtlety. Not a good combination.
Thankfully, she didn’t need to debate for long. Embralyne answered on her own behalf. The magic sustaining her as a human melted away, and she puffed out her chest, now proudly bearing horns and wings.
“Greetings, elf. You stand in the presence of Princess Embralyne de Caldaros. It is our mutual honor to become acquainted.”
Vivi’s lips twitched. She had started to miss the strange mix of arrogance and earnest magnanimity that Embralyne displayed at all times.
Also, she took note of how Embralyne had used the title ‘princess.’ In the worst-case scenario, Vivi had feared the woman would be stripped of that birthright. Disowned. But had she even been banished? Had Cinereus gone easier on his daughter than Rafael had predicted?
Eshara looked bemused by the introduction. Her eyebrows had crawled up to her hairline. “I am indeed honored.” Silence lingered for a moment. “Pardon my surprise, I didn’t expect to meet another dragon so soon. It’s an… interesting turn of fate.”
Vivi blinked, and Embralyne seemed twice as startled.
Also, scandalized. “I’m not your first?” the princess demanded. Then she cleared her throat and reined herself in. “I-I mean, my people are not permitted in the mortal realms! You’ve met one before? That cannot be right.”
Vivi was curious too. It made sense that a celebrated Titled like the Roving Justicar would have gotten herself into all kinds of crazy situations, but she’d met a dragon? And recently, from the sounds of it.
A longer pause. “It’s somewhat of a story.” Clearly not wanting to elaborate—at least to Embralyne, which was perhaps wise, given that she would have to report to her father about it—Eshara changed topics by walking up and offering her hand. “Eshara. Vanguard’s blacksmith, and more lately, adventurer.”
Embralyne pursed her lips. Though with a delay, she reached out and took the woman’s hand, reluctantly allowing the mention of another dragon to pass unchallenged. “Indeed, I knew you by reputation and description already, Eshara of Vanguard. Even among my kind, Legendary-rank craftsmen are a great rarity.”
Eshara didn’t grow bashful at the compliment; she merely nodded. Her gaze drifted down to inspect the princess’s jewel-adorned chest plate. “That’s fine armor you’re wearing.”
The dragon seemed pleased by the praise. “As is only proper for having the privilege to grace my body.” She patted her sword’s pommel. “The true masterpiece is my blade, however. Perhaps you would be interested in appraising it.”
A look of genuine shock appeared on Eshara’s face, though she smoothed it out quickly. “That’s a generous offer, Your Highness. It’s a rare knight willing to part with her weapon, even among allies. I would know.”
“The Sorceress has done a great deal for my family, and so those she trusts, I shall too. Though again, your reputation precedes you. Were it any other…” She hummed and left the rest unspoken. “As I said, I am pleased to make your acquaintance, but I have business with your guildmaster.” She faced Vivi. “Is there somewhere private we could speak?”
Vivi considered. She glanced over at Saffra to check on her, but the girl had stayed seated at the counter near the kitchen entrance. Her plate was in one hand, a fork in the other, and she wore the casually intrigued expression of someone enjoying dinner with a show.
Vivi suppressed a sigh. That her apprentice remained so blasé despite the intrusion of a draconic princess suggested that maybe she had been exposed to too many strange situations in recent weeks.
She cast a forlorn look at her own meal, but she knew asking Embralyne to wait would be rude. And though she could guess what the dragon had come to say, there was always the chance that the news was more important than she expected.
“The common room will be fine. I’ll put up a barrier.” Vivi dipped her head at Eshara, and the blacksmith took her cue—she nodded back and walked off down the hall.
A moment later, Vivi was seated across from Embralyne in Vanguard’s lounge.
“Have things gone well at the Sky-Pillar Range?” Vivi opened. “No lasting damage, following the incident?”
“No, no. Father has quieted the dissenters and opportunists,” came the almost absent reply.
Vivi winced and tried not to imagine what those words meant. The Dragon King probably didn’t show mercy to ‘dissenters and opportunists.’ It had been a bloody affair.
“There was never a threat to his rule,” Embralyne continued, “but indeed, any delusions that others may have harbored otherwise were squashed. That is not why I’m here.”
“And why are you?”
A grimace. She looked away. “There is still the matter of my… various misjudgments… while trekking through the mortal lands.”
“I don’t believe you made any misjudgments.”
Not in the way you mean, at least, she mentally amended. She wouldn’t pretend the princess was some bastion of sensibility.
The princess’s lips tightened. “Well, I expressed the same sentiment, and my father and I discussed the topic at length. However, his logic is undeniable, and even if it were not, the king’s opinion is the one that matters.”
Vivi chose to tap into her limited wellspring of discretion and not comment. As Rafael had advised, one should not challenge the Dragon King's authority lightly. Especially when that authority came from being both ruler and father. “What did he decide?” she asked mildly.
Embralyne mustered up her dignity, straightening her back and lifting her chin. “There is one thing we did agree on—no matter your insistence otherwise, there remains a debt between the de Caldaros family and the Sorceress, and I am here to reconcile that obligation.”
The draconic princess deflated, and her eyes slid sideways.
“…also, I am not to return to my homeland until such atonement has been met.”
Despite having expected and prepared for such an outcome, Vivi felt her temper flare. So. Banished, as predicted. And for what? Saving thousands of lives? Fighting off a mad ritualist? For all anyone knew, Embralyne’s challenging of the Fell Apostate might have weakened the lunatic enough for him to be torn apart while traversing the dimensional boundary, thus saving the Sky-Pillar Range from a massive threat too. Not that Vivi would allow herself to be that optimistic.
She tried to have sympathy for Cinereus. He was in a tough position. Did being a king come first, or a father? Though she had to wonder whether he even saw a divide between those roles in his treatment of Embralyne. Vivi and he had spoken only briefly, but from that exchange, it seemed like he did approve of Embralyne intervening to save Prismarche, yet he couldn’t allow her to so brazenly break his laws. Vivi hoped she would never be in a similar situation.
Taking a calming breath, she reminded herself not to criticize Cinereus’s decisions in front of his daughter. It would accomplish nothing, except to offend her. “I’ll set aside the fact that there’s no need for ‘atonement,’ and ask instead what the terms of your banishment are. When can you return?”
“Once I have finished aiding the Sorceress with containing the threat to the world,” Embralyne began, initially boosting Vivi’s spirits—because the void problem wouldn’t take that long to clean up. Then the princess continued: “Or two decades, whichever comes later.”
“Twenty years!”
Embralyne’s cheeks colored, and she looked away, clearly ashamed. “Yes, I know. Such blatant favoritism is unbefitting of the King of Dragons. An exile of such short length barely qualifies as a slap on the wrist, and it will weaken his image in the eyes of his nobility.” Her lip pulled back in distaste. “Not that their opinions are worth much.”
In another body, Vivi’s mouth would be hanging open. Favoritism? Exiling your own daughter for twenty years is favoritism?
…to demons and elves, two decades isn’t long at all. They can live for millennia. And dragons are to elves as elves are to humans.
Still.
Her incredulity must have bled through such that even Embralyne could pick up on it, because the woman tilted her head. “What is it?” she asked.
Vivi stamped down on her emotions. Honestly, a two-decade banishment was a more lenient punishment than Cinereus could have imposed. A favorable result, all things considered. She just didn’t like how Embralyne had not only accepted her sentence but was concerned with how it made him seem.
To avoid venting her displeasure, she focused on the practical elements. “Well, I’d be happy to have you on our side. Will you be keeping up your disguise while you’re here?”
Embralyne seemed mildly suspicious of Vivi’s earlier reaction, but she answered without voicing whatever thoughts she had. “I am to go to all reasonable lengths to avoid revealing my true identity to the public, yes,” she confirmed. “However, spending decades in the mortal realms will make total obscurity difficult if not outright impossible. You may ask of me missions that meet or exceed my capabilities, and that is not compatible with hiding my heritage. Thus, I will not be further punished for transforming or using my dragonfire so long as the circumstances warrant it. I am also, as you saw with your blacksmith, permitted to reveal myself to those I choose to trust. A relationship founded on deception rarely makes for a good alliance.”
If that’s true, then we’re not off to a great start ourselves, Vivi thought with a mental snort. Her and Embralyne’s initial association had been formed on perhaps the most convoluted chain of pretenses possible.“That’s good. I’ll do my best to help you keep things under wraps too. But it’s nice knowing that it’s not the end of the world if something goes wrong.”
She had, after all, seen what Embralyne’s attempts at subterfuge looked like. From the impression Vivi had gotten at Prismarche, half the guard and Adventurer’s Guild had figured out that Lady Ember Caldwell wasn’t who she said she was.
On that note, she should probably start thinking of Embralyne as Ember. She herself might be the one to slip up otherwise. It was what the dragon’s brothers called their sister, anyway.
Ember had seemed tense at the start, but had slowly been relaxing. “I’m pleased that you’re accepting my service so easily. I feared it would take”—a questionable pause—“convincing.”
Vivi briefly considered what the dragon meant by that, then shivered and chose not to venture down such terrifying paths of thought. “The world could always use more defenders. There’s a reason we’re recruiting. Do you want to join officially?”
The dragon stared. A long enough silence passed that Vivi almost squirmed in her seat.
“What?” Ember finally asked.
“If you’ll be with us for a long time, then being registered as an official member would help. No?”
“You’re inviting me to Vanguard.”
“Did you think I wouldn’t? You meet our recruitment criteria, obviously, and then some. I’m not sure even Eshara has fought off the Selrath-Kyn before, nor saved entire cities from soul-death.”
At first, Ember seemed embarrassed at the blunt praise—even as she preened—then her eyes narrowed with skepticism. “My father thought you would be accommodating, but to invite me to your guild with no hesitation?”
“As a rule of thumb, I’m not someone who schemes, Princess.”
Not with any skill, at least, she thought. That’s Rafael’s job. Also, I had advance warning from him, so it wasn’t a snap judgment.
The wariness slowly faded. “I suppose when you can brawl with not just my father, but the entirety of his court, underhanded plotting is indeed redundant.”
Vivi wasn’t sure how to respond.
Ember stood and offered a bow. “I didn’t expect to make a decision of such magnitude today, but I thank you for the offer. I will give my answer by tomorrow.”
“Take all the time you need,” Vivi replied with a shrug. “And please stop bowing. Treat me normally.”
Ember sat back down.
“You’re going to be here for a while, it sounds like,” Vivi added, “so I want you to have a place to call home.”
The dragon hesitated, then looked down with the first hint of sadness touching her expression. It was only present for a moment before she wiped it away and squared her shoulders again, but the image made Vivi seriously reconsider warping back to the Sky-Pillar Range and delivering her strongly worded opinions to Cinereus.
No, Ember was not happy that she wouldn’t see her father or brothers for twenty years. Dragons might live longer and perceive time differently, but that was still a considerable stretch to go without visiting family.
“You continue to be gracious,” Ember said with a haughty sniff. The confident attitude seemed feigned, for once. “I look forward to lending you my sword where I can, Lady Sorceress.”
Vivi wished she could muster up a more earnest smile—the one she tried to give only lifted her lips slightly. She wondered if it looked weird. A lack of expressiveness didn’t purely come with benefits. “There’s still a lot for you to explore in the human kingdoms. Maybe it’s best to view this as an opportunity to see what the mortal realms have to offer.”
She’d gotten the impression that Embralyne had enjoyed her time mingling at Prismarche, and her tour had been prematurely cut off once Vivi had begun helping her with the Amulet.
An idea struck her. She knew how much dragons loved fighting. Though, to be fair, that applied to nearly all cultures here.
“In particular,” Vivi said, “we are hosting a tournament.”
Ember’s eyes lit up, and her spine straightened in interest. She hastily tried to moderate her reaction. “I may have heard something of that sort,” she hedged with forced neutrality. “Open to all comers, is it?”