“This way, demon,” Embralyne demanded, sticking her chin up and spinning on a heel. She stomped off toward the training yard curtain with all the haughty arrogance of… well, a dragon. Not a doubt in her mind that she would be followed, even if only two explanations remained: that Vivi was either a rogue immortal or the Sorceress herself.
“Are you sure you know what you’re doing, Lady Vivi?” Saffra whispered as they trailed behind.
“Yes.” Vivi paused and chose to be more honest with her apprentice. “And no. But mostly yes.”
The response didn’t seem to inspire confidence. “She’s even more worked up than I thought she would be.”
Yeah, she was. The fact that Embralyne’s bad mood had been stoked because soone had called Vivi short felt almost offensively absurd. Vivi already had to deal with funny looks and too many assumptions thanks to her stature, and now she was facing a more tangible consequence?
She suppressed a sigh. “It’s basically impossible for this whole sequence to not blow up sohow,” she told Saffra. “But I have an end goal, and reaching it shouldn’t be hard. It’s not even ti to have the final conversation—that can only happen once the Amulet’s full. So this’ll be quick.”
“She’s not gonna want it to be quick. She’ll want answers.”
“And as much as I owe her for helping Prismarche, I’m afraid I can’t give them yet. So this won’t last long.”
Slipping through the curtain, they erged into the expansive training yard. Vivi’s eyes flicked around the shaded area scattered with dummies, weapon racks, and an array of standard equipnt, before settling on the draconic princess. Embralyne had her arms crossed and was tapping a foot impatiently. The dragon had stalked over to the opposite side of the yard, the farthest she could get from the three other adventurers.
Vivi braced herself and walked up. She was preempted from casting her own sound barrier when Embralyne conjured one. Vivi briefly wished that the dragon hadn’t. She trusted her own magic more than Embralyne’s. She wondered whether she should overwrite the spell, but decided the minuscule risk of being caught wasn’t worth the extra layer of security. Too blatant an insult to an already agitated woman.
“I see you made it in ti,” Vivi opened.
“Across all the human kingdoms in a day,” Embralyne said flatly. “Indeed. A breakneck pace, by any standard.”
“I suppose. Did you… happen to make a detour?”
Embralyne’s eyes narrowed. “I know precisely what ga you’re playing, for the record.”
Considering the ridiculous farce they were both keeping up—at least, Vivi hoped it was both of them—she had no idea what Embralyne ant by ‘ga.’ As in, specifically which aspect of the charade the woman was referencing.
“You’ll need to be more clear,” Vivi hedged.
A sniff. “I find your shaless opportunism detestable, and the insult to my intelligence is twice as unforgivable. As if I would fall for such a ruse. You, the Sorceress? Of course you are not—you rely capitalize on her reappearance to mask your true nature. All you’ve actually done with this mockery is provide the evidence that I’ve needed. Try as you might, you will be taken in to stand trial for breaking the King’s Law.”
Vivi stared at her. Is it… part of the act? she thought dubiously. Was Embralyne rely voicing aloud how she had rationalized the situation? Vivi knew that the princess needed to pretend her suspect was a dragon to stay in the mortal lands, but she spoke her accusations so arrogantly that Vivi couldn’t tell whether they were real or not.
It might be genuine self-delusion. Her head started to hurt as she mulled over both possibilities, and she wished she could rub at her temples to ease the ache. Whatever. This conversation doesn’t matter. Only the last one does, and I can’t decide if that’s going to be easier or harder.
Rather than addressing the woman’s threat, Vivi said, “I really do apologize for any disrespect I’ve shown, but I have my reasons, as you do for everything you’ve done. So, did you make that detour?”
“You apologize for the disrespect, yet imdiately offer more. We can at least dispense with the notion that you don’t know who I am, so tell : would the Princess of the Caldaros family be an inefficient woman? Hm? Is that the assumption you make?”
She paused. So… she has gone to Stormspine, then? She considered pushing for a less ambiguous answer, but she doubted Embralyne would give one. Responding to a supposed enemy’s questions directly would be too much of a blow to the dragon’s pride.
“No, Princess Embralyne,” Vivi finally said. The dragon harrumphed before Vivi continued, “But does that also an you’ve found the Heart of the Wastes?”
She got her answer by how the woman crossed her arms and frowned, rather than launching into another indignant outburst.
So, she hadn’t.
“Tell ,” Embralyne said. “How did you know that I carry the Fourfla Amulet? And why are you leading to its nexus points? Not that I need leading, mind you.”
Vivi hesitated at how direct the question was, but after a mont, she realized that particular aspect of the farce didn’t matter. The only thing that really needed to remain in limbo for the sake of Embralyne’s mission was the two possibilities of Vivi’s identity.
So she said honestly, “A draconic princess wouldn’t co hunting a rogue elent without so additional reason for being in the mortal lands.” She used her withered sense of social judgnt to avoid tacking on, ‘especially you, Princess Embralyne.’ “And since I consider the Caldaros family principled, any dire mission of theirs is one I intend to help with.”
“You consider us in such an appropriate regard, and yet you nevertheless behave as you have?”
Vivi gave the woman credit: the phrasing perfectly allowed two interpretations. ‘Behave as you have.’ Either a rogue dragon disobeying the King’s law, or Vivi’s actual, historical conduct toward Embralyne’s family.
She chose her words carefully. “Sotis, necessity gets in the way of acting within the law. Or even with the respect that one wishes they could have given.”
Embralyne pursed her lips. Having recently disobeyed her father by defending Prismarche, she could hardly miss Vivi’s aning. The Princess knew the story behind why the Sorceress had raided her family’s vault and stolen the Fourfla Amulet. She wondered what Embralyne thought of that whole event—beyond the blustering facade she was forced to put up.
Though it might not be much of a facade. To so degree, dragons were simply like this.
“But that ans you haven’t found the Heart of the Wastes?” Vivi prompted. “It’s trickier to track down than you’d think. There’s a set of warding enchantnts on the entire area. A pretty subtle one. I’m sure you’d see through it”—Vivi avoided adding ‘eventually’—“but it’d use up ti that we don’t necessarily have. So I can take you there.”
“Who is this ‘we’ you speak of?” Embralyne demanded. “As if we are allies. And you will take nowhere. I will take you where I am headed.” She squinted at Vivi. “You seem remarkably unconcerned by the fact that, with evidence of your identity, rogue, I am compelled to apprehend you.” Her hand dropped to the hilt of her sword. “I am bound by both honor and the King’s Law. So tell : will you submit, or do you demand unnecessary violence?”
Vivi hesitated. Once more, she found herself second-guessing whether Embralyne was acting a part, or whether she truly believed Vivi a dragon who had flagrantly disobeyed their kind’s laws.
Ah, whatever. It doesn’t matter in the end.
“I’m not submitting. But neither of us want to fight where soone might get hurt. So.” She nodded at the corner of the building. “Let’s step out of view and take this elsewhere?”
Embralyne bristled, but she also studied Vivi carefully. “You’ve already shown you’re capable of long-range warping. I would be negligent to give a known criminal a chance to escape.”
Vivi almost told Embralyne that she wouldn’t try to escape, but decided to skirt the truth a little more cleanly than that. “I’ll only [Blink] sowhere private, where we can continue. More than within your ability to track. You have my word on that.”
Embralyne had said she was weak with magic, but dragons could cast spells like fish could swim; she would be able to track short-range spatial spells with ease, and perhaps even longer-range ones. When it ca to the princess’s declarations about her lack of talent in the arcane, she was likely just comparing herself against her father and eldest brother. Solfirus could smack around even the likes of Osmian as if he were a fresh apprentice, and Cinereus was… well, a nascent Cataclysm, in the sa way many people considered the Sorceress.
When Embralyne only frowned at her, Vivi said, “Whatever your thoughts about , my word can be trusted.”
“Can it?”
Vivi was surprised that she took genuine offense at the curt response. But then she reminded herself that in another life, she had assaulted and robbed this woman’s family while one of their guests. Breaking hospitality was a grave insult, made worse by exactly how she had broken it.
“We can also walk out of the town’s limits,” Vivi said. “I would just rather save us the ti. My word can be trusted.”
Embralyne took longer to decide than Vivi would’ve preferred. “Fine.” She turned and headed for the edge of the building, where they could [Blink] away in peace. “Leave the girl.”
The demanding tone was beginning to grate on her, but Vivi faced Saffra. The girl didn’t seem bothered; she shrugged easily. Vivi might’ve even caught a hint of relief.
“This won’t be long,” Vivi told her.
Embralyne shot a suspicious glance over her shoulder. “Indeed, it won’t.” She disappeared around the building’s corner.
Vivi pursued. Once past the sandstone edge, a look-around confird that nobody had line of sight on them.
“Follow ,” Vivi told Embralyne.
Then she [Blinked] away.
Embralyne materialized near instantly in the empty dip of desert thousands of feet away. Tracking a target so swiftly through a spatial displacent was a task only a handful of mortal mages could accomplish, and yet a young—by her people’s standards—woman who had described herself as ‘not skilled with magic’ had managed it with ease.
There’s a reason I want to make contact with the dragons.
“I’m afraid I can’t be totally candid until we et at the First Grove,” Vivi said. The fourth and final nexus of energies the Fourfla Amulet needed to feed on. Life essence—the green gem. “I’m genuinely sorry for how I’ve treated you, especially after what happened at Prismarche. But since I don’t think you’re going to ask to take you where you need to go, I’ll take liberties.”
“Liberties?”
Vivi [Blinked] deeper into the desert. Embralyne popped into existence a fraction of a second later, sputtering.
“I did not permit a second—”
Vivi folded herself into space and appeared another half-mile away.
The dragon pursued. “How dare you! After I—”
Vivi [Blinked].
“Complete insolence!”
[Blink].
“My patience wears—!”
[Blink].
[Blink].
[Blink].
Not half a minute later, Vivi arrived at a familiar landscape. The skeleton of a great beast lood overhead, and at the center of the sandstone platform sat an altar inlaid with smoldering rubies. The heat radiating from the squat structure pierced even [Aura of the Winter Elk], though her natural resistances weren’t so frail as to make sweat begin beading at her forehead. She doubted a dragon would mind either.
Embralyne appeared with a longer delay than with any of the spatial leaps so far. The enchantnts hiding the altar had probably thrown her off, though between how Vivi had led her in a straight line, the dragon’s own talents, and Embralyne’s vague awareness of the hidden location to start with, the nexus’s defenses hadn’t stood a chance.
Embralyne opened her mouth to voice her next outraged protests, but she paused as she surveyed their new environnt. Her eyes flicked around, taking in the creature’s skeleton. While not the barest sliver of the Colossus’s enormity, the sight still evoked a sense of unease. Regular monsters didn’t grow that big. If alive, it would have dwarfed even Embralyne’s father.
The dragon studied the altar next, and then, having drawn her sword during the chase, pointed the weapon at Vivi. “Cease now.”
“You can gather as much mana as you need here. Once we see each other at the First Grove, we can talk about how to move forward.”
A wall of dragonfire slamd into Vivi’s shields, which she found rather dramatic.
“You will not leave! I do not allow it!”
Vivi cleared her throat. “Really, I’m sorry about all of this. Genuinely.” She pointed her staff at Embralyne. “[Spatial Lock].”
Spectral black chains wrapped around the dragon’s limbs, pausing only an instant as they broke through whatever defenses she had in place. Gray and orange fire engulfed Embralyne as she tried to burn the spell away, but Vivi had reinforced the restraints.
“So, um. I’ll see you there,” Vivi said apologetically.
She [Blinked], one more ti, away from the dragon. This ti, Embralyne couldn’t follow.
A series of spells later, and with a [Farsight] verification, Vivi arrived back at the edge of the Adventurer’s Guild where she had first departed. She turned the corner and found Saffra waiting for her. The girl jolted upon seeing Vivi appear.
“Oh, wow. You really ant it wouldn’t take long.”
Vivi nodded.
“How did it, uh, go?”
“I spatially locked her next to the altar. Technically, she could fly back to hunt down, but there’s no reason she would think she could catch , or that I’d still be in Shimr. So she should stay and charge the Amulet.”
Saffra t the explanation with a blank look. “I thought you had a plan.”
“I did. She’s at the altar, ready to charge the Amulet without wasting ti, and can’t follow us. Everything’s as it needs to be.”
“She’s going to actually try to murder you the next ti you et.”
“She already did try.”
Well, that wall of dragonfire probably didn’t count. Even if Vivi had rely been another dragon, she wouldn’t have been more than singed by the magic. It’d been the woman venting frustration, not a true attack.
“By definition,” Vivi said, “there’s no way to make her happy, besides maybe pretending to be her prisoner, and that’s not an option. She wouldn’t have a good reason to go to the First Grove if I faked turning myself in. So this is how it has to be.”
“Is it?”
“You try dealing with an arrogant dragon princess while giving her an excuse to charge a legendary artifact. I’m not drowning in options here.”
Saffra still seed dubious.
“Anyway. Let’s go find that quest for you.” Vivi headed for the curtain leading into the Adventurer’s Guild. “We’ll likely fill the Chalice enough for another level.” She felt her interest spark. “Since it’s a five-level milestone, I’ll probably get a skill. I wonder what it’ll be.”
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