134 – Hospitality

There was an upside to the Chalice of Withered Plenty that Vivi hadn’t considered and which pleasantly surprised her: her training sessions with Saffra were now a guilt-free priority. Vivi might have already decided that she would make time for the girl, but with all the world-ending threats and massively important events occurring, truly making it a focus had been difficult to justify.

Now helping Saffra was the priority, next to studying void effects. When every hunting session allowed Vivi herself to level up, there weren’t many better returns on her time. Each bump in power might be the one that let her fend off a swarm of voidgods should they descend through the fresh—and unfortunately permanent—portal above Prismarche.

Floating a few feet off the ground, Vivi watched her apprentice launch [Flash Freeze], a spell the girl could reliably manifest by now. Saffra lowered her staff afterward, not seeming pleased as she eyed the many shards of exploded, ice-encased monster parts.

“That one seemed a bit wobbly,” Isabella remarked.

“Your face seems a bit wobbly,” Saffra sniped back. “It worked, didn’t it?”

“If that’s the bar you’re trying to clear…”

Saffra didn’t rise to the obvious bait, which was rare—for either of them, since the teasing hardly went in one direction. Instead, Saffra rolled her eyes and turned to Vivi.

“I think I need a short break, Lady Vivi. My head is starting to hurt.”

“Of course.” Vivi would have suggested one soon herself; she could read when her apprentice was beginning to flag.

They picked a spot underneath a tall oak’s shade and sat. Vivi had been taking notes on both girls’ spell constructions throughout the session, and while she’d given immediate tips after each cast, she had identified trends that needed addressing too. She detailed those thoughts to her respective pupils.

Vivi had brought Isabella along since there hadn’t been much opportunity to check in on the girl. She could take solace in the fact that if anything serious happened, Saffra would alert her, but that didn’t mean Vivi didn’t want to see how the girl was faring herself.

A practical discussion ensued where Vivi doled out her advice. When it wound down, and the quiet had settled for a few moments, she said, “So. How’s the Institute treating you, Isabella?”

Isabella pursed her lips at the question. Thankfully, she didn’t tense up or seem to raise her guard. “Well,” she said slowly. “It’s… interesting. I can say that much.”

“Interesting in what way?”

“My father summoned the Eighth Cataclysm, I disappeared from classes for more than a week, and then showed back up apprenticed to Archmage Aeris,” Isabella said. “All with no public explanations. It’s not just my classmates that have no idea what to make of it, but the staff, the instructors, everyone.” She huffed. “I’ve never been stared at so much in my life.”

Vivi hadn’t expected a ‘fine and dandy’ response, and appreciated the honesty, but she couldn’t help but frown. “No one’s giving you trouble, though?”

Isabella blinked in surprise, then snorted loudly—something she clearly thought unacceptable given how her hand shot up to cover her mouth. “Trouble? No, Lady Vivisari,” she said, shaking her head. “The opposite. I don’t think I’ve had so many sycophants chasing me in my life. And it’s not like people trying to curry favor with a duke’s daughter were rare before this.”

Ah. Yes, that was Vivi’s fault. She had announced during the High King’s reception that she would be grateful if everyone looked out for Isabella—a heavy-handed request given who she was and who she’d been addressing.

While that might be a smothering experience, Vivi didn’t regret her actions. Even if everyone’s goal was just to cozy up to the Sorceress, so many people watching over Isabella was something Vivi appreciated. It gave her peace of mind.

“Though that’s just one reaction,” Isabella said a moment later. “Some suck up to me, but not all. Lots are avoiding me. Some are curious. Some glare. Everyone has an opinion, is the point. It’s kind of exhausting.”

Vivi asked, “Some are glaring?”

Isabella paused, then looked down at her hands and clenched them. “My father got a lot of people killed, Lady Vivisari. Some were family members of students or staff.”

That statement lingered, Vivi not knowing how to respond.

“You didn’t do anything,” Saffra pointed out. “You helped stop it.”

“It doesn’t need to be logical, Saffra. People they cared about died. It… is what it is.”

Saffra crossed her arms and seemed annoyed, though she didn’t push. Vivi got the impression the two girls had already talked about this.

She probably shouldn’t have asked. She wanted to look out for Isabella, but if one of her classmate’s uncles had died during the invasion… then what was Vivi going to do about that? Track the teenager down and tell him to stop glaring at Isabella?

“Just let me know if you need anything,” Vivi said, lamely, several seconds too late. She shifted the conversation to a less thorny subject. “How’s your apprenticeship going? How’s Aeris?”

Isabella relaxed. “Brilliant, which everyone already knows. But also kind, and… surprisingly scatterbrained?” She snickered, quickly masking it as a cough. “Though I say that in confidence, Lady Vivisari.”

“I’m glad you can trust me,” Vivi replied with amusement. She’d never noticed anything she would call scatterbrained from Aeris, but then again, she imagined everyone acted differently in more casual settings. “He’s probably a much better teacher than me,” she commented idly. “You’re learning a lot?”

Isabella hesitated. With an overly polite tone, she insisted, “Yes, and from you too, Lady Vivisari. You’re also an excellent instructor.”

Vivi almost rolled her eyes. “He’s been apprenticing students for centuries. It’s a given that he knows what he’s doing, definitely more than I do.”

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Isabella hesitated, even longer this time. “I’m eternally grateful for what you’ve done for me, Lady Vivisari. I assure you, you’re both excellent teachers.”

Vivi’s lips twitched, entertained by the girl’s insistence on something she knew simply wasn’t true. “I’m glad you think so,” she allowed. She would hardly force Isabella to agree. It had been a passing comment. “What spell are you working on with him?”

The conversation drifted on from there, unhurried, until it thinned into a comfortable silence.

“Did everything with Prismarche go all right, by the way?” Saffra asked.

Vivi paused. Her eyes flicked to Isabella. Were those topics appropriate with the girl around, so far as sensitive information went?

But Isabella was the only person in the world to know that the Sorceress had broken the alleged level cap. Isabella had been present for Vivi’s conversation with Remian Voss’s echo, and so far as Vivi could tell, the girl hadn’t spoken a whisper about anything she’d heard. Not even to Saffra, and those two were joined at the hip whenever they didn’t have other duties. Isabella could obviously be trusted.

For that matter, how much did Saffra herself share when it came to her and Vivi’s adventures? She hoped Saffra wasn’t tiptoeing around her friend unnecessarily. The only true secret was the Chalice, and mostly because of Rafael’s insistence. She should probably talk with Saffra and make those boundaries clear.

“The enchantments are holding, but it was a rushed first draft. Definitely need to polish them and reapply.” Dryly, she said, “It’s better than having to recast [Void Barrier] every few hours, but I’ll be checking that often anyway. Maybe it was a waste of effort.”