165 - The Early Guests (Patreon)

“So.” Wulfric propped his foot on the window’s ledge. “You’re saying that all the manalings vanished from the compound and somehow our guest has something to do with it?”

Edward didn’t respond at first. He was gradually pacing at the other end of his study, and then he stopped to look out the window, where he had an unfettered view of the glittering lake with a hint of waterfalls in the distance.

Wulfric often told Edward how jealous he was that his study had a much better view than his. Then again, Wulfric never actually used his own study, so Edward didn't know why the view should matter to him at all.

“I’m not saying she had something to do with it.” Edward spoke finally. “I’m just saying it’s extremely strange that she pointed it out in the first place. She knew the direction of the leydrift and which way the wastage pipes ran. Almost like she could see it.”

“That’s impossible.”

“I know,” he said. “I know it’s impossible. I’m just saying that it’s a strange coincidence for us not to have manalings today, of all days.” After all the work that had been done to make this place ready for their guests, all the magic that had been used, there should be more manalings, if anything.

“Hmm,” Wulfric murmured, taking another bite of the apple he'd snagged from the kitchen. “Saul didn’t seem bothered.” The groundskeeper appeared almost gleeful announcing the absence of manalings. 

“You know him. Happy for every excuse not to do his job. He did state that it had never happened before and that he wasn’t sure why it happened now, but he wasn't complaining."

Wulfric grunted his amusement while Edward contemplated the odd timing of Arielle's visit to the lake, which happened to be right before Saul was set to work.

“You don’t think she’s actually consorting with demons, do you?”

“Of course not,” Wulfric said. “That was just a rumor.”

“Yes, but we both know that rumors tend to have some basis in truth,” he said. “There’s just something about her that doesn’t seem quite…human.”

"Mmm, you’re right. Clearly, she’s a hideous, horned beast then.”

Edward watched his brother, who continued munching on the apple. He didn't seem as concerned as he should be about everything Edward had just told him. Then again, Wulfric was carefree by nature, and seemed in a much better mood this afternoon than he had in the morning.

He vaguely wondered if Arielle Blacksoil had cast some love spell on his brother, but that was less likely even with Wulfric's bizarre behaviour, because Arielle didn't seem to want him smitten with her at all.  

Edward himself hadn’t paid much attention to the rumors about her, but he was fairly observant, and he knew that Arielle often had inexplicable behavior patterns. The fight with Anne Earthbinder, for one. There was also her visits to the North Base cave and her discovery of that creature.

Not to mention the day that the nulloid terrorized the school, Arielle was the only one who had not been in the courtyard with the rest of the students. He'd heard that she had been roaming around that night, and she had not been in her room at all when the alarm went off.

Edward had a lot of trust in his superiors. The dean wasn’t stupid, and he wouldn’t allow a demon-infested student to remain on campus. So maybe it wasn't demons. Maybe it was something else.  

“We should remain on alert while she’s here,” he said. “Don’t you think?”

Wulfric made a noncommittal noise. “I think you’re probably overreacting, but whatever. Are you going to tell father about this?”

“No, but I suspect Montfort will. He has to, just in case there’s another source of the problem.”

“Strange that not having any manalings polluting our compound is seen as a problem now.”

“Because it might indicate more serious structural damage. Or a spell that is no longer working as it used to.”

“Speaking of spells that aren’t working…” Wulfric put his leg down and straightened. “I took Arielle to the treasure room today, and she heard the whine of our security system. She said she knew someone who could fix it.”

Edward stopped and raised an eyebrow. “She heard it?”

“Yeah,” Wulfric said, with a smirk. “Maybe her demonic affiliation gave her extra-sensitive hearing.”

Edward frowned. His brother could keep taking this as a joke, but this was precisely the sort of thing that made Edward suspicious.  

Arielle Blacksoil should not have heard that whine. Edward himself had trouble hearing it until it was pointed out to him, and even then, he had to pay close attention. Most strangers who they took up to the treasure room had never heard the whine either.

“Did you warn her about it beforehand?”

“No,” he said. “She noticed it first, and called our security system inefficient and old.”

“And she could tell all that from a whine?”

Wulfric shrugged, but there was a string of doubt in his face now. Both boys descended into silence for a handful of seconds.

“I don’t think she’s consorting with the demons,” Wulfric spoke up finally.

“Then what do you think is going on?”

“Maybe she was just born ridiculously talented. There are mages like that. Or maybe she has a bloodline trait that makes her super aware of her surroundings.”

Edward paused to consider the explanation. It made sense, but for some reason it wasn’t entirely settling in his mind. “Maybe.”

“Yeah.” Edward's capitulation seemed to embolden his brother, and he gestured with his half-eaten apple. “She’s indirectly an Earthbinder, isn't she? Or from a fringe family at least?”

“Yes.” According to his father, Arielle's background was murky, and there were really not that many people left alive to corroborate it, except for one man who claimed to have lived near her real mother when she was pregnant. Her mother had apparently become like a nomad towards the tail end of her life, and not many people knew her.

In any case, Lord Wesley had decided not to dig too deeply. He said it was because he trusted Elric, but Edward suspected that his father didn’t truly care how pure Arielle's bloodline was, because her talent more than made up for it.

“So maybe that’s why," Wulfric concluded, looking triumphant. "It's because she's an Earthbinder."

“The Earthbinders don’t have anyone with her skill, though," Edward pointed out. 

The Earthbinders were an ancient clan descended from Krenn, the man who was said to have discovered the Massa essence in the old world. They had been directly involved in proliferating Massa-dominant spells and reinforcing boundaries, and while they’d had several skilled mages in their line, none of them had been all that influential until the Albert Earthbinder. 

The current Patriarch of the clan had many children and grandchildren, most of whom were reportedly estranged from him. Very few of them had much talent for magic. In fact, quite a few of them were born distinctly without talent and did not have much in the way of cores to suppress. 

There were several theories about why a great patriarch like Albert Earthbinder seemed unable to replicate his talent. Some said that it was because he’d spread himself too thin and spread that talent across too many seeds. Others said it was because he was hoarding all the power meant to be shared across generations, and that was why he was constantly meditating.

But then there was also the argument that Lord Earthbinder was never supposed to be a Legendary Mage in the first place. He was a warlord, one who was sent to different realms to battle creatures before they could invade Earth. The bastard son of a farmer and an Earthbinder merchant–whose magic skills were middling at best–Earthbinder only had average magical skill and above-average strength. But he was a perfect soldier in that he feared nothing, had very few emotional attachments, and was willing to throw himself into the bowels of hell to defend his world.

Then suddenly, he began to level up faster than anyone could anticipate. They assumed it was because of all the fighting, but he'd gone from Adept to Archmage in just a hundred years, and then became a legend in another hundred.

No one could tell exactly how he did it, probably because no one had the boldness to ask. He was not known to be a friendly man. But regardless, most of his children turned out to be just as average as he used to be, and the rest of the Earthbinder clan seemed to produce fewer and fewer notable mages every generation.

In the most recent generation, apart from Elric, there was really no one interesting to speak of. There was no evidence that was where Arielle’s oddities came from.

Perhaps there had been a ritual performed on her as a child to imbue her with such talent. Or maybe Earthbinders had some kind of latent gene where the rapid development kicked in only after certain criteria were met.

“Don’t think too hard, brother.” Wulfric slapped him on the shoulder. “You’ll hurt your brain.

“You’re speaking from personal experience?” Edward quipped, and Wulfric wrinkled his nose at him. “Speaking of which, what were you and Arielle doing at the treasure room?"

"Just talking." He tried to look casual about it, but didn't quite make it. "We ran into each other by coincidence by the statue–oh that’s right, I forgot to ask. What is that statue for?”

“Which one?”

“The one that looks like a child by the wellness center.”

It took a second for him to realize which one his brother was talking about. “We call it The Waiting Boy. Uncle Theo was enamored with it and had it brought here. Apparently it reminded him of a school friend."

"Oh," he said. "Does it serve any other function?"

"Not that I know of. Why?"

Wulfric opened his mouth, appeared to think about it, and said, “No reason.”

***

Arielle was waiting in her room, reading and counting down the hours until it was time for her to get ready for the ball.

She had tried to contact Vittoria but was unable to, which meant that she was probably in the demon realm already.

Arielle couldn't help but be worried.

Yes, Vittoria was strong, but during that last battle with the demons, she'd had the advantage of the desert and had taken the demon lords by surprise. Now she was going to their world, where the environment played more by their rules, and they had access to essences that she didn't.

Worst of all, she was going alone.

Ari sighed and lay back on the bed, unable to relax.

Perhaps she was just being paranoid. Vittoria had been a war commander long before they met, and she knew exactly what she was getting into. She hadn't seemed worried when she left this morning, so perhaps Arielle was simply doing what she had done last time and worrying without truly understanding what was happening.

She needed to redirect her focus to tonight. It was almost time for the ball, and her nerves were getting worse. She didn't know if she was ready for all the spectacle that would come, but at least she wouldn't be doing it alone. Elric would be arriving soon, and Lyra later. Not to mention Maus who she would be going with.  

She glanced at the sun that had just begun its descent. Only a couple of hours to go.

There was a knock on the door, and she went to open it. 

It was Maus, accompanied by a footman who quickly bowed and retreated.

“Hey,” Maus said, “I wanted to see if you were okay."

"I'm fine," Arielle said. "Just worried."

"About the ball?"

She nodded and backed away so that Maus could enter her room. She closed the door behind him. "I keep thinking I'm going to say the wrong thing."

"Don't worry," Maus said as he walked in, glancing around her room. "You won't."

"But I always do, and I never know until I've actually said it." She took a deep breath. She didn't want to burden Maus with her worries, especially since he wouldn't have much advice for her. That was more so Lyra's forte. "It's okay. I've trained for this."

"For the ball?"

"Yes. I even learned how to waltz. Do you want to see?"

Maus's face turned red. "Erm...no, that's alright." He scratched his head. "The dress...do you like it? My mother would want to know."

"Oh." She hadn't even checked. She slowly started towards the wardrobe–which could have been a room on its own–where a bathrobe hung with slippers next to the garment bag. She unzipped the latter to reveal a glittering dark silver dress that looked almost like stars in a stormy night sky.

"It's beautiful," she said. The fabric was undoubtedly precious, and would soft to touch. There were frills at the neckline and the hem, but luckily they were over the sleeves so they would not irritate her skin. The rest of it was a smooth cloudweave, draping all the way to the floor. On her, it would land somewhere around her ankle, which was good so she wouldn't trip. She didn’t know much about style but the dress looked classic and understated, except for the  intricate stitching on the hems and the waistline, which had to have taken some time to do. 

"Thank you," she told Maus, reaching out to touch it. “This must have taken a lot of effort to make.”

"Sure but she wanted to make it. My mother would be happy to know that you like it."

"I do."

There was another knock on her door, and she went to open it, finding Montfort at the doorway.

He bowed. "Good afternoon, young miss. Lord Wesley wanted to know if you would like to greet a guest who arrived early and is eager to meet you.”

“No,” Arielle said instantly.

Montfort blinked. “No?”

Montfort's reaction made Arielle think that perhaps that was the wrong answer. It probably was. The dean had said that she had to be careful saying no so directly to nobles, as they could easily take offense. Then again, she wasn't supposed to go out of her way to talk to people either.

"You don't have to," Montfort said, likely seeing her internal struggle. "It's just that the Lord Wesley thought you might want to meet them, as they are scholars and those involved in high-level research. Mr. Bane is there too."

“Bane? As in the founder of the essence exploration lab?” Valeria had mentioned him to Arielle. He owned not just the essence exploration lab but several other research facilities across the continents. He also funded several groundbreaking discoveries.

“Yes,” Montfort responded. “He’s the one.”

"I see." Arielle considered her options. They needed the essence exploration lab to adequately practice abyssal spells, but there was a significant line to get access. Valeria had already sent letters and had said that she planned on talking to him today so they could move up the line, but maybe Arielle ought to help with that. Though she didn’t know how much help she would be. She had done a good job this morning of getting through breakfast, but socializing was still difficult for her. At the very least, she didn’t want to offend him but she might inadvertently do that if she rejected Lord Wesley's invitation.

Though, her involvement in Valeria’s research was supposed to be hidden, so it might not matter anyway.

Arielle battled with it for a few seconds then decided the chance was simply too good to pass up. It would be good for her to make an association with him, so maybe she could introduce him to Valeria later. That was how the dean said things of that nature worked, anyway. Nobles liked to associate with people that were associated with other people they knew. So if Arielle became associated with him through Lord Wesley, then Valeria could become associated with him through Arielle. 

 Or maybe she could just evaluate him for now, and see what type of research he had conducted. She just had to make sure not to say anything too revealing. 

“Okay, I will come for a short time,” she said. "Do I need to wear my ballgown first?"

"No. The ball won't start for another few hours. It's just a casual tea. What you're wearing right now is more than adequate."

"Okay." She turned back to Maus, who was standing where she left him. “Do you want to come with me?”

He looked like he was about to shake his head, but he hesitated. "Do you want me to?”

She thought about it and nodded. Maus being there might help her know when she was saying the wrong thing.

"Okay, then I guess I will."

They let Montfort lead them down the stairs and across the courtyard to the main building.

On the way, she spotted Lord Wesley on a high balcony with a few men, but could not see any of their faces.

Once inside, they took the side stairs up to the third floor, and down the hallway.

As Montfort knocked on the door, she heard laughter and tendrils of conversation.

“Amazing, I tell you. Just a wonder. And I don’t think–Oh, hold on, here she comes. Come in, Montfort."

Before Montfort could open the door, it opened on its own.

Or rather, it was pulled open by an unexpected guest.

Arielle froze as she looked at the glittering blue eyes of a man with a pleasant smile, a symmetrical face, and long waves of hair so light it was nearly white.

Giovanni Li. 

“Hello, dear,” he said. “It’s so nice to meet you again.”