192 - Serve (Patreon)

Catriona finally succeeded in her quest to get Vittoria to visit another healer.

It wasn’t easy. As far as Arielle could tell, it took a lot of talking from both Elric and Catriona, and finally it was Catriona’s threat to call Vittoria’s mother that got her to oblige.

Vittoria didn't do it happily and grumbled as much as she could. She also made sure to fix some of the other traps around the shack before she teleported away with Cat, leaving Elric behind to guard the girls. 

Cat and Vittoria weren’t back in time for dinner, so they had dinner with Elric instead, and he told them stories about his very first missions after he graduated, and how his master-tier partner at the time got him into one sticky situation after another, forcing him to level up faster than the rest of his peers.  

Both girls were fascinated by the stories and eager to ask questions. Arielle mostly wanted to know about the places he went to and the spells he cast, and Inara wanted to know about the things he'd done. She seemed fascinated by the specific details of his heroism, despite not being a mage herself, and she clapped every time they got to a climax of Elric saving someone's life.

While observing, Arielle had a thought about what Inara's present could be. Perhaps a magical tool that she could learn to wield, to protect herself. That and maybe some new clothes, but then again, Vittoria had bought Inara clothes too, and she never wore them, simply kept them neatly folded in their original boxes.

She always said they were too 'nice', so maybe she simply wasn't comfortable wearing those types of materials. Perhaps Arielle could take her shopping, as she did with Lyra, and just see what Inara gravitated towards.

Arielle hadn't yet told Vittoria that she wanted Inara to accompany them for this trip they were planning. There hadn't been much time to discuss much of anything actually before Catriona stewarded her away.

Ari also remembered one very important thing she had forgotten to tell them: about the real reason why Yseult was back, and about how the demon attack was really orchestrated by Cornelius in order to save his brother's life.

Now that he had achieved his goal, would he continue, or would he back off from helping the demons? If he backed off, what would happen to Yseult? It was probably in his best interest to stretch this out as long as humanly possible and maybe even escalate such that Yseult was more needed and was perhaps granted more freedom. Would he only stop if Yseult was put back in his former position?

Arielle scratched her neck, worry clouding her thoughts.

Cornelius was working in the shadows, and as far as she knew, he was utilizing techniques she'd never even heard of before. Even scarier, as long as Yseult was alive, he would keep going.

The demons were just a tool he was using, so the key to solving this might not lie with the demons at all, or at least not solely with them. She needed to somehow get into the abyss and defeat Cornelius.

However, how would she do that? Cornelius was backed by the Drift, and she knew almost nothing about him or his powers. She also knew very little about abyssal spells in general.

Perhaps she could get Gio to teach her. 

Or maybe she needed to visit more Vacu temples, and temples for the other Primordials too. Since the essences balanced each other out, perhaps the Primordials as a force were meant to balance each other too, with Luxa being the balance for Vacu. Perhaps the Truthsinger would hold the key to defeating them.

“Arielle."

She glanced up at the mention of her name, noting that both Elric, Inara, and Sir Spendulon were staring at her now.

“I guess you didn’t find my joke very funny," Elric said.

“I didn’t hear it,” she admitted. “I was thinking about something else.”

“Which is?”

She bit her lip, hesitating.

Elric still didn’t know much about the Drift and Cornelius, and she wasn’t sure she could tell him much about it now. Nothing had happened to Vittoria yet, so that was a good thing. Well, nothing except being poisoned with a flesh-eating parasite, but that was just because she'd been fighting demons. It wasn't unusually unlucky.

Regardless, she didn’t want to risk Elric. Not yet. 

She would tell Vittoria, though, when she got back, and maybe together they could figure out a way to solve the problem. Perhaps there would be a way to neutralize Cornelius through Yseult, and break his spells.

For now, though, she thought about a way to deflect.

“Are we truly killing all the demonic leadership?” she asked Elric instead.

Inara’s smile dropped. Elric sighed. 

“I don’t know, he said. “That’s definitely what most of the council are leaning toward, and some probably want to take it much farther than that."

“What do you think?"

“I think…there are no simple solutions left,” he said. “This isn’t the first wide-scale demon war we've fought. It's not even the tenth. Mages like Vittoria have fought them for centuries at this point, far longer than any other creatures who has ever tried to invade us. We’ve tried treaties before. We’ve tried negotiations and oaths and contracts. We’ve tried establishing extremely strict teleportation restrictions and utilizing complex detectors and just about everything else to keep them out of our realm. And yet every few decades something like this happens, sometimes on a smaller scale, other times on a larger one. I understand why some of the council are looking for the more extreme and seemingly permanent solution. And demons, at least most of them, seem wired to hate humans and cause us pain.”

Arielle nodded as she thought back to the imp demon who had been in their basement. He’d also hated humans, but it also sounded like he was envious of them. Humans had protectors. They had a planet even after they destroyed their own. He didn't think they deserved it and was angry as a result...that was envy, wasn’t it?

Did other demons feel the same? She wasn't sure. Leviathan had been arrogant and thought humans were little more than animals he could experiment with. His brother had had no qualms about torturing Elric and attempting to tag Arielle. Arielle had never met a pleasant or even harmless demon before.

Yet, there was a part of her that was still resistant to the idea of killing all of them.

It felt...wrong. It felt like such a massive waste.

It was one thing killing them when they were actively attacking her or people she cared about. But going into their territory and wiping out of existence even those who had done nothing to her...It made her stomach feel a little leaden to even think about. 

Elric gave her a regretful look, and Inara looked between the two of them. They completed the rest of their meal in silence.

After dinner, Elric helped Inara clear the table despite her fervent protests. He did it with magic so it was simple and straightforward. Then they settled on a comfortable bed that Elric summoned for them while he continued his stories far into the night.

Arielle fell asleep at some point and woke up to find that her head was on his arm, and Inara was curled against his back, with Sir Spenduoon shoved between them.

Arielle was the first to wake up, and she went to the privy to get ready. By the time she returned, Elric and Inara were also awake and moving. As they got ready for the morning, Vittoria and Catriona returned, with Vittoria's wounds looking significantly better.

Arielle managed to catch Vittoria alone when she went to her room to wash up.

Ari followed her in, closed the door and said, “I need to talk to you about something. About Yseult.”Vittoria glanced at the door, cast a sealing and soundproofing spell then said, “What is it about?”Ari told her everything. About meeting Cornelius in the abyss, about what she had seen there, the large spell that controlled the demon’s movement through the abyss, and about how she broke it. 

She spoke as fast as she could, hearing Elric and Catriona conversing in the living area. Vittoria was silent for all of it, her expression growing more and more concerned with everything that Arielle said. 

“So,” she said. “All this is Yseult’s fault, and he and the Drift are the reason why the demons could get past all our defenses on Earth?”Arielle nodded.

She ran her fingers through her hair, annoyance on her face. “I don’t understand. I thought the disciples were supposed to help us, not our enemies. Of course, I’ve never believed that the primordials were these saintly figures looking out for us, but I didn’t think they would go out of their way to harm us either.”

Arielle shrugged. It also didn’t make sense why the Drift was doing it. Nothing about this made sense at all. 

“Cornelius did seem apologetic,” Arielle said. “And maybe he allowed me to find that complex so that I could break it and prevent more casualties.” Her and Gio had found it within the abyss with relative ease. Surely, Cornelius could have done more to stop them maybe?

"When the time comes, I will not hinder you. But I will not help you either."“That doesn’t absolve him,” Vittoria pressed her lips. “And it all ties back to Yseult doesn’t it?”“Yes.”

She nodded decisively. “Okay. I’ll take care of it.”“Are you going to tell the council?”“I’ll figure something out,” she said. “What’s even more worrisome, and the council is probably freaking out about right now, is the fact that if demon overlords can come here anytime they want through to abyss and turn off our teleportation, there’s just no predicting the kind of havoc they can wreak. It’s now worsened by knowing that they’re actually working with a creature in the abyss. That means that not only can they stop us from teleporting, they might be able to alter our teleports and trap us within the abyss.”Arielle’s breath caught. She hadn’t even considered that. When the demons and Cornelius had corrupted the portals in the Wesley estate, it had simply meant that people could not escape through there and it would spit them out in another part of the estate. However, now that she thought about it, if teleportation essentially meant a short movement through the upper abyss, then that meant that they could have trapped them in there.

“They haven’t done it yet,” Vittoria said. ”Which is a good sign. It might mean they don’t know how to do it yet, or maybe they can’t for some reason. Still, we should all be on alert, and try to resolve this situation as quickly as possible. Maybe find another way to teleport in the meantime. I’ll bring it up at the council.”

Arielle nodded. They needed to solve that before the demons or the Drift decided to take advantage of it, if in fact they could. But could there be another teleportation method, one that didn’t utilize the abyss?

Hmmm. 

After the discussion, they all had breakfast together, most of the conversation dominated by Vittoria and Catriona's bickering, with Elric interjecting comments here and there. 

Afterward, Vittoria escorted Arielle outside while Inara and Catriona remained indoors playing with Sir Spendulon.

They walked a distance away before Arielle finally dropped her disguise.

"When we travel, am I going to meet people as Tamsy Lous or Arielle?" she asked Vittoria.

"Tamsy to start with," Vittoria said. "For your safety and because we don't know yet who we can trust. Although, depending on who we meet and what relationships form, we may let them in on the secret."

"What about Inara?"

"We can let her in on it too," Vittoria said. "She already knows enough anyway, and she won't betray you."

"I want her to come with us," Arielle said.

"That will be difficult, seeing how attached Sir Spendulon is to her."

"He can come too," Arielle said. "It's not illegal to travel with a dragon, is it?"

"No. It will just raise a lot of questions." 

"I think our presence alone already raises a lot of questions."

Vittoria snorted. "Fair point." They finally stopped, and Vittoria said, "Elric, I think this will be the perfect time for Arielle to try out her teleportation.”

Excitement jolted Arielle straight, although it was dimmed by what Vittoria had said earlier. We should all be on alert.

Ari glanced at Vittoria who gave her a comforting nod. The good news was that there were no demons here, and if they truly could trap her with teleportation they would have done so already. After all, she’d teleported several times back and forth with Elric, with no problem whatsoever. What was one more time? 

Elric grinned at her enthusiasm. “Well you probably don’t need us to teach you do you.”She shook her head. 

Arielle had seen teleportation circles a bunch of times, enough to know how to form them. There was first a Luxa lattice, which handled the anchors. It was a curved star decahedron, surrounded by a dodecahedron, double and triple bonds holding the shape together. The complexity of the structure was tied in with the complex intent in reading and analyzing a destination. 

Then there was a Vacu complex surrounding it, and one had to use as much Vacu as they could stabilize to generate and enable them to move smoothly through to the other side. Of course, this overall structure was stabilized with another Massa layer and the build-up of negative charge was one of the things that made the structure difficult to hold. 

“A lot of people add an outer circle of Calor just to make it easier,” Elric said. “But you have to be careful because if the Calor combines with this base spell form, then that's a whole other spell entirely. Which is why we use runes. Also too little Vacu and you won't make it to the other side and might get stuck in the portal."

"Yeah, we don't want that, do we?" Vittoria said, giving Arielle an amused look. 

Ari held out her hand, and within a second, she formed the exact structure she remembered Elric had used to take them to the Wesley estate. The Vacu floated to her easily, and she held it firmly as she pictured where she had to go. She ensured the shape matched his perfectly, and it generated a swirling portal.

When she looked back at Elric, he was giving her a smile that seemed partially pained.

"I don't know if I'm jealous or proud," he said.

"You can be both," Vittoria said. "Alright, I'll see you two when you get back. We'll continue our discussions then."

"Bye," Arielle said, and she and Elric held hands and walked through the abyss.

It felt different, perhaps because it was her own portal, or maybe because she now had intimate experience of spending a lot of time and moving around within the abyss. Or maybe because of her paranoia from what Vittoria said to her earlier. 

But it felt familiar to her now, and more apparent.

They appeared on the Wesley estate, around the same spot where they had arrived last time.

They began walking to the gate, but this time the gate opened before they even reached it.

On the other side stood  Montfort, next to another woman that Arielle didn't know, who was wearing a short gown. Behind them were rows and rows of footmen and servants, all in uniforms, standing there.

When Ari and Elric got close, they all bowed.

It made the pair stop, stare at each other, and then at the small crowd.

"Well," Elric commented. "This is new."

“We bid you the warmest welcome back to the Wesley estate, my Lord and Lady," Montfort said, still bowing. "And we wanted to extend our deepest gratitude to you, Archmage, for saving our lives.”

“No problem,” Elric said, scratching the back of his head. "Don't speak of it at all. I was just doing my duty.”

“You put our lives ahead of yours," Montfort continued. “Extending yourself for lowly servants like us. That is beyond your duty, sir.”

"I wouldn't call you lowly," Elric said. "And it is exactly my duty, for which it’s a pleasure to serve. But I appreciate the thanks anyway. Please, rise and let’s not speak of it again."

The servants straightened in unison, although with not as much disconcerting coordination as the priests of the system center. They also pivoted a few centimeters and met Arielle’s gaze briefly before she looked away.

She looked back in shock when they suddenly bowed to her.

“And you, my lady,” Montfort continued. “We heard that you were the one who advocated for saving us in the middle of the chaos. It is humbling that you thought of lowly servants like us, even while in danger yourself."

Arielle blushed and made a few protesting sounds that didn't form into actual words. Mostly because she wasn’t sure what to say. 

She glanced at Elric, not knowing how to handle this, and he smiled at her.

"Arielle was also instrumental in defeating the demons," he said. "I don't know if you heard. Without her, we wouldn't have known how they operated."

There was a thick silence, and if anything, they somehow bowed deeper.

Arielle frowned at Erlric. He’d made it worse.

"Thank you, my lady," the woman said, and her voice sounded a little watery, like she was crying. "Thank you so much."

“Erm...it's okay,” she said, feeling even more awkward as she gestured. “I mean... you’re welcome. You can rise now. Please."

They did, and she thought she caught a few people smiling at her, but she didn't stare long enough to know for sure.

"If you would please stay with us for lunch," Montfort said. "The cooking staff would also like to prepare a meal to extend their gratitude."

Arielle glanced at Elric, and he shrugged. "We don't really have anywhere else we need to be anytime soon."

Ari nodded. "Okay. We can stay."

Afterward, the crowd parted, and Montfort led them in. He mentioned that a few of the guests remained in the estate, although Lyra and her father had already gone home, which meant that Ari would have to visit them there. Maus was still on the premises, though, and she wanted to see him before she left. If possible, she would also like to visit Riorke and Lacey and Professor Valeria.

On her way in, she immediately saw Lord Wesley in the garden walking with Maus.

She paused and grinned with relief. "Maus!"

He glanced over, and the moment he spotted her, a smile split across his face.

He hurried towards them, extending his arms in a hug, but seemed to catch himself right before he made contact and stuck his hands down.

Arielle decided to hug him anyway. It was awkward and brief, but she was happy she did it.

"I'm glad you're okay," Maus said, his face red. "I was so worried about you, even though Lord Wesley said you were fine."

"I was worried about you too,” Elric had told her that her friends were fine, but that was different from seeing them in person. Maus didn’t look any worse for the wear. She was pleased. 

His eyes scanned her, and she noticed that there was a crest on his chest now. 

“What’s that?”

He blushed. “It’s...”

“It’s the Wesley crest,” Lord Wesley completed as he approached them. “We’re officially sponsoring Maus."

“Really?”

“Yes. He showed exceptional bravery during the attack and even saved my life. I think he would be a fine addition to our family. We were just discussing any plans he might have for the coming semester.”

"Wow," Elric said. "Congratulations, Maus."'

"Yeah, congratulations,” Ari said.  

He blushed even more and said, "Thank you." He cleared his throat. "It's just sad that Lyra isn't here anymore. She really wanted to see you, Ari.”

"She'll be returning," Wesley said. "I told her you would be here today and invited her and anyone who wants to accompany her for lunch. They accepted;"

Arielle grinned. She was even more pleased and even more excited that she would be staying for lunch.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Wulfric and Edward strolling out of the second building, which housed the wellness center. She turned and almost waved, but then Lord Wesley said, "Thank you, Arielle."

Her head snapped back to him, and she said, "For what?"

Elric had told her that Lord Wesley knew she was the masked woman who had pretended to be Vittoria. Perhaps that was why there was a powerful intensity in his eyes.

"For your aid during the attack," he said. "I don't think I can properly express my gratitude to you or repay you for what you've done. Typically I would use gifts, but you're an exceptionally difficult person to gift.” He smiled softly. “So I simply wanted to state it outright, so there was no confusion of my intent. Thank you, Arielle."

This time, it was Arielle who felt her cheeks redden. Despite the awkwardness of the moment, a pleasant warmth unfurled at Lord Wesley's sincere words, especially since Elric was giving her that proud look again and Maus was also smiling.

She toyed with the fabric of her skirt, her eyes moving over Maus' crest again.

"It's okay," she said. "It's a pleasure to serve."