Chương 92: 159 - Scrape

Vivi materialized inside Vanguard's entryway and idly walked forward, her thoughts preoccupied not with the consequences of fighting a court of dragons and whatever Cinereus might have to deal with to get his people in line, but instead, with those white flames the monarch had wielded. She obviously couldn't reconstruct that magic in its proper form, but a pale imitation of something that monstrous would have devastating combat potential.

As good as if not better than anything in her kit, possibly better than a proper integration of void energies. And she had gleaned something by laying her eyes on the Fires of Creation. Enough to conjure up a replica? Not now, but in time, yes, she thought so. It would take experimentation, and not a small amount. Her plate was already full. Maybe I can sneak in a few hours somewhere? It's way too fascinating. Besides, I might have to fight a voidgod eventually, if not an army of them.

No harm in building the best arsenal possible. Distracted as she was, she didn't bother scanning the common room before striding in. Three people were present, and none were a surprise: Mae, Eshara, and conveniently, Rafael. All three turned to face her. Vivi opened her mouth to greet them, but paused at their reactions. Eshara's eyes went round, hand shooting to her sword's hilt. Mae gasped and slapped both of her hands to her mouth.

Even Rafael's eyebrows rose in surprise—which was of course the most astounding part by far, considering his unflappability. Vivi's stomach dropped. She looked around in concern.

"What? What is it?"

"Lady Vivisari?" Mae cried.

"You're hurt!" It took a second for Vivi's utter bafflement to clear away. Then she glanced at her left shoulder, or rather, all the blood covering her robes.

"Oh. I forgot to clean that up. I'm not hurt, don't worry." Rafael's head tilted.

"Your attempt at diplomacy went poorly, my lady?"

"Not in the way you're thinking," she hastily assured.

"I mean, yes, technically I fought Cinereus, but not really." She received three blank stares. She wondered if Eshara and Mae had even known that their guildmaster had flown off to confront the Dragon King.

"There was a Cataclysm there, a stronger one," she explained, more to Rafael than the other two.

"It's called—well, was called—the Faceless Legion. It mind-controlled the entire palace, and I had to intervene. Everything worked out in the end, so don't worry about it." A short silence filled the room.

"Don't worry about it," Mae echoed. Eshara cleared her throat.

"By the whole palace, Lady Vivisari, you mean…?"

"Dragons, at the Sky-Pillar Range. There were only around thirty of them." She waved a hand to brush the topic aside, embarrassed.

"Like I said, it was taken care of. I'd give you all the details, but I think Cinereus would rather that I didn't?" Maybe she had said too much already, not that she didn't trust Mae and Eshara. He hadn't sworn Vivi to secrecy, but she would be considerate where she could.

"There are a few things I need to talk to Rafael about. Were you three busy?"

"Not pressingly," Rafael said, having recovered—not that raising two eyebrows meant he needed to recover. His had been the most subdued reaction of the three. Still, he'd seemed genuinely startled for a moment. Weirdly, she took offense at that. She'd been trying to catch him off guard since they'd met and that was what did it? So much drama because of a little blood on her robes?

"I can wait, if you need to finish."

"This obviously takes priority, my lady," Mae said.

"It wasn't anything urgent."

"Mine isn't either." Mae stared.

"You just got done fighting a palace full of dragons! Including their king!"

"Well, yes, but it wasn't that big of a deal." Mae turned an incredulous look to Eshara, but the knight only seemed stoically entertained.

"Come now, Mae. Let us leave the Guildmaster and the Steward to their business." The alchemist reluctantly allowed herself to be tugged away.

"Not a big deal!" the elf hiss-whispered to her friend.

"What does that make anything we do, then?" Vivi felt an imaginary heat growing on her cheeks. Nobody got seriously hurt, and there weren't any long-lasting consequences. Well, bad ones. It really wasn't that big of a deal. Rafael seemed a little too amused for Vivi's liking, but he didn't comment and instead prompted her, "To my office?"

"Yes, please." Vivi cast [Tidy] on her robes as they went, which she should have done earlier. A short walk later, she and Rafael were seated in their usual spots. These discussions didn't normally last long, but they'd had enough of them that she'd grown comfortable lounging on the other end of her steward's desk.

"You were gone for a few hours, Vivisari, and apparently fought not just the Dragon King, but several clans under his banner too. I fear what news I might receive if you venture off for a full day, or, I shudder to imagine, an entire week."

"Oh, shush. You're all making a mountain out of a molehill." He only grew more entertained at that.

"You were wounded, nevertheless." His gaze drifted to her shoulder, despite the blood having been cleaned up. How hot could her cheeks burn, mentally, before this body's demeanor gave up?

"I'm fine, and it was my fault, I just didn't take things as seriously as I should have."

"Against a Cataclysm, the King of Dragons, and two dozen other immortals?" The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"I've already scolded myself. No need to pile on," she said with a sigh. He inclined his head. She didn't sense any disapproval radiating from him, but any emotion he didn't want her to see, she wouldn't. At that thought, she experienced a rare sensation of unease about the man. Rafael's loyalty was beyond question, and they were even becoming something like friends, but being around someone who outclassed her by such a margin was unnerving, in a way. And that's probably a healthy feeling to have.

That's how most of the world feels about me, she realized. At least Rafael can't squash a city at a moment's notice with his smooth talking.

"A lot happened, and some pretty important stuff, but as I said, no need to panic. In fact, I honestly can't imagine how things could have turned out better. We got lucky today."

"Lucky? Through a Cataclysm infesting the King of Dragons?" He laughed.

"Yes, I can see how: you indebted him by rescuing him and his people. The idea is amusing nevertheless." He took a more serious tone.

"If you don't mind, my lady, a proper accounting would ground me." She'd gotten decent at working through descriptions of her latest exploits, since while she didn't consider herself the wisest person, she was wise enough to check in with Rafael whenever something big happened. She relayed the details as accurately as she could. In particular, she focused on her conversations with Cinereus, repeating them word for word in case she'd missed anything. As she told the story, a particular worry-point emerged.

"He'll go easy on Embralyne, right? She deserves a medal, not being… I don't know. Thrown in dragon-jail for a century?" While the princess could be a bit much in some of their interactions… okay, most of them… she had saved the entirety of Prismarche and proved her character several times besides that. Vivi wasn't shallow enough to dismiss the princess simply because of a haughty attitude. Rafael's expression turned considering, which Vivi knew meant he'd formed a theory.

"What is it?" she asked. After a moment, he shook his head.

"Simple musings—never mind them."

"You know what he's going to do with her?"

"I didn't say that."

"You have an idea, though. Out with it." He pursed his lips.

"Predictions of a man I've never met are especially unreliable, so I emphasize that this is speculation. And speculation formed on the assumption that he thinks and acts as I might. But there is a particular punishment the Dragon King could impose on his daughter, one that serves many useful purposes at once." Vivi tilted her head in curiosity. She honestly didn't know where he was leading. Should she have?

"Banishment." She leaned back, shocked, then outraged.

"Banishment?"

"Not indefinite, but a lengthy one, perhaps. A properly harsh sentence for a wayward child who broke the King's law, yet also saved not just his kingdom but the lives of many clans. There are comfortable mitigating factors for her situation. Yet Cinereus cannot entirely overlook that his kin strayed in such a way. In deciding on this course of action, too, he might choose to relinquish his heir into the hands of an organization that has sudden, immense importance.

One that even dragons cannot ignore, as he has recently discovered. Punishing his daughter, while also repaying a perceived debt… or so will be the guise." It took Vivi a second to understand.

"Wait. He's going to turn Embralyne over to Vanguard?"

"He would probably expect that you would feel obliged to shelter her, if he punted her to our doorstep." Rafael's lips had quirked in amusement.

"To be frank, according to what you relayed, your concern for the princess was very heavy-handed. Even as you brushed aside all other matters, including a debt that should have been far more important, you mentioned her several times. He will take advantage of that weakness. It is exceedingly clear that this man is more shrewd than he is kind. He said as much himself."

"I was that obvious? I tried to be subtle."

"Indeed, many scorched landscapes sing the praises of the Sorceress's subtlety." Vivi wasn't someone who pouted, but she felt the urge to. She didn't need the sass, and was still digesting the possibility he'd described.

"You really think that's going to happen?"

"Politics are similar no matter where you go. Demons or elves or humans, it is people interacting with people, power interacting with power." He steepled his fingers.

"You intend to accept her if this conjecture—and it is conjecture —comes to pass?"

"Well… of course." She barely had to consider the question. Her brow furrowed as she tried to analyze the situation more deeply. She could ask Rafael to lay everything out, but letting her sense for these matters atrophy would make her worse at politics than she already was.

"We owe her that much, assuming she gets banished. But I don't want that to begin with." A sigh.

"I'll have to talk him out of it." Rafael shifted in his seat. She could recognize the gentle rejection before it came.

"He has been tolerant, as he ought to be given what you've done for him, but I would not press the King of Dragons too far, my lady. I would avoid telling him what to do and how to do it whenever possible. Especially when it comes to what might ostensibly be described as… parenting methods." He seemed to find the phrase strange. Then Vivi remembered they were talking about a nigh-mythical immortal, so the word parenting probably seemed odd to use in that context.

She'd had the privilege of meeting and speaking with the dragon, so he felt less like a legend and more like a person, but even Rafael's logical mind might fail to fully close that emotional gap.

"I don't want Embralyne banished," she said stubbornly.

"She's done nothing wrong." She could at least be more blunt with her steward than she had been with Cinereus. Rafael drummed his fingers on his desk.

"And you're obviously implying she would be a spy in our ranks," she pointed out.

"Dramatic phrasing," he said with a flick of his wrist.

"She is clearly too honorable to act in an underhanded way. It is not as if we are drowning in dark secrets besides. More realistically, he wants to bind his daughter to the first mortal that can toss dragons around the way they themselves toss around our Titled." She hesitated.

"And it is necessary that he take action," he added.

"His politics are simpler than our own, but they exist. The princess was not subtle in Prismarche. Cinereus behaves according to his own code, and though he may be willing to bend when required, a show of punishment is the least of what he should do. Such a ploy would align with many useful purposes, as I said, and he seems like an intelligent ruler, so I would not be surprised if he takes that path. Perhaps he even intends for her to act as a middleman between us, to avoid a deeper entanglement of Fate?

He clearly believes in that concept intensely and wishes to minimize interaction. But if his daughter serves as an emissary to Vanguard, then perhaps he sees the arrangement as a workaround…?" He shook his head.

"I am talking myself into my own theory. Again: conjecture, my lady. A loose hypothesis at best. He may respond in any number of ways. It was an extraordinary situation, many extraordinary situations combined, and that allows for a great variety of responses. I am no great oracle to say how a man I've never met will without a doubt behave."

"Point taken." She stared down at her lap for a short time. Rafael didn't fill the silence.

"That's not something to worry about right away," she decided.

"Is there anything else we need to discuss, about all that?" He'd made comments throughout her descriptions of the day's events, but when she'd finished, they'd launched straight into a conversation about the princess's fate.

"The guild was invited to visit. That is certainly something I will have to think on. Give me time. But I should note that you were correct: I am surprised by how beneficial this disaster ended up being. We were fortunate." She nodded, pleased. At least her evaluation in that regard hadn't been off.

"I have no idea how I would've made up with Cinereus. I kind of figured my trip to the Sky-Pillar Range would take longer." Meaning a long attempt at a negotiation that would ultimately fail, possibly resulting in a brawl before a more forcible half-reconciliation could have been reached. It wasn't even dark out. Less than a full day to repair her ties to the immortal lands? That was a bargain.

"We'll figure out what's going on with Embralyne later, and how much the dragons want to help us," she said.

"That particular emergency is over, though. So what's our top priority now? I know you've been doing a lot behind the scenes. There's still the whole Sorceress-and-Vanguard returning publicly thing." It would happen soon. Within the week. It had been put off for long enough, and the next Quest would almost certainly be recruitment-related. Real expansions would begin. Better to get ahead of that mess.

"So yes, catch me up, please," she said.

"Where are we with Vanguard?"