201 – Aid

Vivi emerged into reality with a sensation not unlike bursting through the surface of the ocean, and she immediately began gulping down sweet air. Though she’d spent barely any time at all inside that other realm, the sheer vividness of the sky, the glaring white of the clouds, and the luscious colors painting the town below were shocking to her senses.

Then there was the matter of feeling coherently whole again. With other issues occupying her mind, and maybe thanks to how she’d visited the void once before, she hadn’t consciously registered the sense of incorporeality that came from swimming around in a metaphysical world. With her feet planted on solid ground… or solid air, since she was flying?… the uneasy emotions swirling around cleared away in a jarring rush.

It took a moment to steady her thoughts, and when she did, she found Ember floating in front of her. The dragon was studying her with a curious expression.

“I assume you haven’t been sitting here for weeks, waiting,” Vivi said, shaking off the last of her disorientation. “How long was I gone?”

“Not two minutes.”

Vivi jolted. “That little? Really?” She had assured both Saffra and Ember that the trip might be short, but she still found herself shocked.

“Approximately, yes. How long was it on your side?”

She tried to tally up the events in her head. “More than two minutes, definitely. At least five? No more than ten.” While intense, the void-nuke had happened and been contained within seconds. Investigating the Concept had taken longer but had still been fast, relatively speaking.

“So the time warping works both ways, like you suggested it might,” Ember said. “Interesting.”

“It’s interesting,” she agreed, “but also a headache.” A frown pulled at her lips. “It means I have absolutely no way of knowing how long the Fell Apostate has been roaming around inside there, free to research or do whatever he wants.”

“You have proof he survived the trip at all?”

While reasonable, the question almost made her laugh. “Yes. I do. He trapped the exit point.” She guessed that was an unforeseen benefit of the failed assault—had the Fell Apostate not left evidence behind, she might not have known for certain he’d made it through in one piece.

“A trap?” Ember seemed doubly intrigued now. “Of what sort?”

“Explosion. A ritual, using void energy. Wasn’t a bad attempt, but obviously it wasn’t enough to hurt me.”

The Fell Apostate wasn’t omniscient—he knew she was the Sorceress and, thanks to the events at Meridian, that she was stronger than the version of herself from a hundred years ago. But he didn’t understand the full absurd extent of her powers, that she had the Codex to boost herself further, or that she had tacked on even more levels in recent weeks due to the Chalice. He wouldn’t have returned to the portal and risked getting caught if he hadn’t thought the ritual might take her out, and against basically anyone else, even the old her, it probably would have.

“I can tell you more about all that later, though,” Vivi said. “Not to be rude and cut off early, sorry. I’m going to go grab Lysander.”

“I’ll be here.”

“Thanks.”

Vivi cast [Greater Warp] and hurled herself across the world. Despite saying she was headed for Lysander, she targeted the manor first. She’d promised to catch Saffra up at the earliest opportunity, and the swiftness of the first expedition changed nothing about that commitment.

Now at the estate, she searched around, but she couldn’t identify the beacon she had put on Saffra. Only after widening her net did she find the girl perhaps a mile into the city, her path pointed toward the Institute.

Oh. I probably should’ve dropped her off at Isabella’s room. That’s where she usually goes when she has downtime.

An [Illusion] and a [Blink] later, she materialized behind Saffra on a busy street. With a few quick strides, she caught up.

Despite Vivi trying not to startle the girl, Saffra still jumped when Vivi’s voice came from beside her.

“First trip went well.”

Saffra spun and backpedaled, bumping into someone who gave her an annoyed look before continuing forward. She glared at Vivi for a second with her hand pressed against her chest, then started blinking rapidly.

“Lady Vivi! You’re back already?”

“Sometimes things work out, even when I’m doubting they will.” The lack of pandemonium during the Dragon King’s party came to mind. Fate liked conspiring against her, but it didn’t stab her in the back at literally every turn. Just more often than was natural. “Want me to take you to the Institute? I’m assuming that’s where you’re going, and I’m headed that way too.”

Saffra was still visibly caught off guard by Vivi’s presence. She had probably braced for Vivi to be gone for days, or worse. “If you don’t mind, I guess?”

Vivi brought her apprentice to just outside Isabella’s room. “Same deal, though,” she told Saffra. “I have a few more trips, and apparently the temporal aspect is unstable or random in some way, like I feared it might be. So there’s still a risk I vanish for a bit. It’s much lower now, since I verified—” She paused. “Well, I’ll give the full story on all of it later.”

“All right. Good luck, again?” said the disoriented catgirl.

Vivi waved goodbye, dispelled the [Illusion] she had used to avoid attention on the street, and then [Blinked] to the Headmaster’s office. The older woman sitting at the desk did a double take at seeing the Sorceress, but thankfully that was as dramatic as the reaction got: they shared a short, polite exchange, then the woman went and checked on Lysander, and finally returned to tell Vivi that he was available.

Inside Lysander’s personal office, she found the man looking much the same as before: wearing a serious expression, gray eyes prideful, bordering on arrogant.

“First trip went smoothly,” she told him. “Area’s been cleared. If you’re not busy, I can take you with me now.”

She’d discussed the prospect of him studying the void firsthand earlier, so he’d known to expect her—they just hadn’t been able to schedule a precise appointment thanks to the uncertain timing inherent to the mission.

He adjusted to the announcement with no outward sign of surprise. “Very well.” He strode out of his office and talked with his receptionist, presumably organizing his affairs. The conversation was brief, and Lysander turned to her and held out his hand when he was done.

“Hopefully Aeris is in his office too,” Vivi said before [Blinking] them both away. Aeris wasn’t a full-time researcher like Lysander, but he was higher-level, which came with advantages arguably more important than intelligence or inherent talent. Regardless, two perspectives were better than one.

They appeared outside the old man’s office, and she walked up and knocked. The door opened after a short delay, but it wasn’t Aeris or Tatiana who stood at the threshold. Instead, a young man with shaggy blond hair and bags under his eyes stared at them.

Vivi tilted her head. Is this Aeris’s other apprentice? she wondered.The archmage had mentioned having two: Tatiana and a seventh-year. She was blanking on the young man’s name, even though she knew she’d been told it at some point.

He continued staring at her before turning to Lysander, then back to Vivi.

“Stop gawking, boy,” Lysander admonished from over Vivi’s shoulder. “Invite us in.”

The apprentice flinched, and he cleared his throat, his cheeks coloring. “Of course. Lady Vivisari, Headmaster, please come in. I’ll go and fetch Master Aeris.”

Vivi briefly debated telling Lysander there was no need to be mean, but she didn’t think that would go over well, and she guessed it’d be a light scolding anyway.

A short moment later, Aeris hobbled around the corner to meet them at the entry. “Already?” he asked with an arched eyebrow. “I’ll assume it a fortuitous sign you’ve come so early.” He nodded at Lysander in greeting, and the other archmage returned the acknowledgment.

“There were complications, but fast ones,” Vivi replied.

The old man chuckled, finding the statement amusing for some reason. He seemed to do that a lot around Vivi, even more than other people did. “A fast pain is always preferable to a slow one, the heavens know that’s true!” He stroked his beard thoughtfully for a second, then faced his apprentice. “You have my apologies for cutting the lesson off halfway, Quinn, but I’m needed elsewhere.”

Right. Quinn, she thought. That’d been the name she couldn’t remember.

“I’ll have stabilized the array by the time you’re back, Master,” the young man replied.

Aeris seemed ready to leave without delay, so less than a minute later, Vivi and company popped into existence above Prismarche. Ember had kept her post, so another polite exchange ensued—neither of the archmages knew Vanguard’s newest recruit except by reputation.

After that, Vivi wrapped both men in defensive spells, and the three of them floated up to the void breach.

“How dangerous do you expect this will be?” Lysander asked, surveying the otherworldly gateway with a stony expression.

Vivi didn’t get the impression he was asking out of fear; he seemed like a man who preferred knowing what was going on around him. “Safe. Isabella made it through fine even before I improved my defenses. Still, keep your eyes closed, and brace yourselves. Ready?”

Both men returned affirmatives, and Vivi floated in first.

One psychedelic trip later, she had arrived back in the void, with Aeris and Lysander appearing the next instant.

She’d kept her guard up, but only minutes had passed, time dilation or not—the faded city below was the same as she’d left it, and no new traps had inexplicably materialized.

“Oh, my,” Aeris remarked with a light tone that nevertheless held a disturbed undercurrent. “This is quite the interesting sensation.” He opened and closed his hand in front of himself, then pinched his own forearm.

“You get used to it,” Vivi said. The more jarring effect was the transition back home, the weight of reality abruptly slapping one in the face.

Lysander had floated forward, his posture straight and his hands clasped behind his back. “It’s as you described,” he said coolly as his gaze swept out across Prismarche and the surrounding terrain. A [Greater Voidbeast]—level 1830—caught his attention in the distance, and his roaming eyes locked on the monster and stayed there. Aeris’s did the same.

Vivi herself was inured to the sight of the ridiculously high-level creatures, but the two other archmages weren’t. It was probably unnerving to suddenly be surrounded by foes their strongest spells couldn’t scratch. Maybe especially because of their usual power, they found the experience unsettling.

“Hmph.” Lysander broke his gaze first. He pulled out a notebook and quill and began scribbling. “I question how much insight I’ll be able to offer about this realm, but I thank you for the opportunity regardless, Lady Sorceress.”

“I’ll admit our presence here feels more or less like token support,” Aeris chuckled in agreement, stating the idea more bluntly and drawing an annoyed look from Lysander for it. “You seem to be making far more headway than we are, despite my best efforts.”

Well, it was somewhat true that most of her progress was coming solo. Neither Lysander nor Aeris had revolutionized anything in regard to her current research topics. Her collaboration with Solfirus had been the real leap forward, but comparing two mortal archmages with a millennia-old draconic prince was simply unfair.

Vivi would have invited Solfirus to join this expedition too, but she got the impression that the de Caldaros family would rather keep away from her, no matter how their relations had improved. Jumping over to the Sky-Pillar Range to chat about every new magical topic probably wouldn’t go over well. She didn’t want to push anything; she intended to save contacting Cinereus and his family for the most pressing matters.

Besides, she trusted Lysander and Aeris more. Dragons weren’t her enemy, but they weren’t allies, either. Not like the Thaumaturgical Institute’s archmages were.

“I’ve looked over your notes. Both help,” Vivi responded, not having to lie to reassure him. Just because the two men weren’t as knowledgeable as Solfirus didn’t mean they hadn’t contributed. Why else would she have brought them along?

Lysander ignored the previous exchange and said, “This is a shallow layer of the void, I believe you said. The shore. Have you learned how to go deeper?”

The question surprised her, but she could see its relevance.

She’d viewed this grayed-out landscape more as ‘the outer atmosphere’ than ‘shore’—a boundary layer where they were still ‘in outer space,’ but where a hint of gravity remained, a ghost of their world’s influence imprinted into the area around them.

Presumably, one could venture deeper, out into the true void. How else would voidlings be moving between worlds to find new prey? But she didn’t know whether her consciousness would be compatible with traveling into such a place, so it might be risky to attempt.

“No, but I have theories,” Vivi finally answered. She could make theories for anything. “It’s not high priority right now.”

“It may be where the enemy is gathering, rather than here,” Aeris commented.

Vivi wrinkled her nose at the idea. “It could be. Going deeper also might draw unwanted attention. Or kill me outright, no matter how many precautions I take.”

“Sound reasoning.” Lysander turned his attention toward her, notebook and quill still in hand. “You know this place better than we do. Where should we begin?”

Her thoughts went to the Concept she’d taken prisoner. Initially, she’d intended to have Lysander and Aeris study the void as an environment, and the voidbeasts, since direct experience always helped with developing magical understanding. But the Fell Apostate’s meddling and corruption of Concepts was maybe the higher-priority issue now.

After a moment of deliberation, she faced the watchtower. “Follow me,” she said, flying off. “Tell me what you think of this.”