158 - Before the Ball

Minutes later, Vittoria watched Arielle stiffly embrace her family for the last time, and felt a pang in her chest.

A part of her wanted to give them more time. After all, their extended presence only posed a small risk, but given what she’d read in Yseult’s journal, she couldn't allow even the smallest risk to endanger Arielle or her family.

The journal didn’t really have much information on Yseult’s plans. However, what it did have was useful information about who he intended to blackmail and why. Yseult knew a lot of secrets, and using that, they could narrow down how many people were potentially involved in this grand conspiracy by seeing how many stood to benefit from it.

The problem of quotas had been a long-standing dispute in the council, and several assembly members were aggressively campaigning for a separation between higher adepts and lower adepts, with increased quotas for the higher adepts and lowering quotas for everyone below that.

In practice, it made Ascendant society more insular and made it harder for outsiders, particularly the poorer ones who could not afford batteries and those who were not from a prominent family, to become full-fledged mages. People like Arielle, for example.

It was still an ongoing issue; the bill was still being drafted, but coin had exchanged hands for votes, and several deeds done to gain those votes were shameful, bordering on illegal.

The more fanatic proponents of this bill were the highest on Vittoria's suspicion list. They might have thought to use the demon invasion to prove a point or to use it to strong-arm opponents and get rid of rivals.

Vittoria had further spotlighted any assembly members with family who'd had any involvement with demons before, and those who had shown that they didn't mind people getting hurt to win the bigger war.

It was going to be a bloodbath in the assembly very soon, and they wouldn’t be expecting it. Yseult was still under watch and had no way of contacting anyone to tell them they had been compromised. Also, Yseult was unlikely to be directly involved with many of the other demon-accomplices.

A lot of them probably made deals with the demons on their own, borne of pure, unadulterated greed.

But before she went to the council with what she knew, she first wanted to use the information to catch the demon that was after Arielle.

Demons could only access the human world through rifts or human rituals, and there were only so many rituals that Yseult and the demonic sect could perform. This recent attack hadn’t been from Yseult and the demonic sect. It could have been from one of the people Vittoria had already suspected, but somehow she doubted any of them had the power for such a thing. Somehow, she just knew that the most recent attack of demons was by someone else who had a council seat.

She had a list and was trimming it down. Once she found out who it was, she would use them to draw the demon back into Earth and kill them.

Or she would hunt them down in the demonic realm. Whichever one was easier.

“Take care of yourself, okay?" Arielle's sister told her as she stepped back from the hug.

"Okay," Arielle responded.

The girl also gave Vittoria a scanning glance before a harmless smile.

“Take care of my sister,” she said. It was said in a soft, almost beseeching tone, but there was a sharpness in her eyes that made it clear that it was an order. Vittoria hid her smile. Though they didn’t know who she was, the very fact that she was an ascendant usually had mere mundanes trembling or, at the very least, treating her with deference born of fear and awe.

But this girl had the gall to order her around and damn near threaten her because of her sister.

Vittoria could only respect it.

After that, Ari's father and mother also came over, and her brother, who was staring at a sleeping Sir Spendulon. The dragon had rolled over onto his back, baring his stomach, tongue hanging out of his mouth. Clearly, it didn't view the current company as any sort of threat.

“It was nice to meet you, Tori," Thessa said. “Thank you for allowing us to meet our daughter again.”

“You’re very welcome,” she said. The woman reminded her of her own mother in some ways. Fierce. Overprotective. But that was where the resemblance ended. Vittoria's mother had used her authority to try and control her life, explicitly and implicitly. And she was so good at it. There was a reason why Vittoria now hid out in the desert and had concocted so many shields to keep her away.

At least, Arielle's mother was giving her space to grow and come into her own person on her own. She was scared, but she did not allow that fear to control her.

After a protracted goodbye, Elric took them home and Vittoria finally approached Arielle.

“Are you alright?”

She nodded, although she looked at the closing portal a little forlornly. “Thank you for allowing me to meet them.”

“Of course. And you’ll see them again once this is all over.”

“I hope so.”

“I know so.” Vittoria put her hand on her shoulder. “Have a little faith.”

“Okay,” was her response. “Where’s Inara?”

“She’s in another part of the home.”

“There’s another part?"

“There’s plenty about this cottage that you don’t know,” she said. “She and I hung out there while you were here.”

"Hung out doing what?"

“Talking mostly.” It reminded Vittoria of the day after Inara arrived, when they’d had their first lengthy talk. First and foremost, she'd wanted to figure out who Inara was and what she wanted, and if she would ever pose a risk to them.

Once Vittoria decided the girl was safe, she then told Inara that if she were to stay there, she would need to follow Vittoria's orders, and she would essentially be giving up her freedom because she couldn't leave as she pleased and she could never return to the demonic sect.

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Vittoria wanted to give her time to think about it, but Inara agreed to the terms without even a moment's thought. In fact, she was overly eager to give up her ancestral home, which made sense considering everything she'd been through. In hindsight, Vittoria should not have been so heavy-handed in that initial meeting, especially when telling Inara that she needed to follow her orders. Perhaps that was what made Inara so anxious to obey and on edge all the time.

On the other hand, it might be better for her to be too careful than not careful enough. Eventually, when this was over, they would work on extracting her from her family entirely and undoing some of the things their abuse had taught her, so she could have more freedom to move as she wanted. Be who she wanted.

That was a problem for another day.

Today the conversation she had with Inara had been on a lighter note. Inara had asked about Arielle’s family, and Vittoria had answered in a general sense that would make it hard to identify them if they ever met outside of here. Nevertheless, Inara hung on to every word, every description, and seemed ecstatic that Arielle got to see them.

“Do you ever want to see yours?” Vittoria asked Inara. She knew that Inara had been abused by the sect, but perhaps there was someone, at least one person she was close to.

But Inara shook her head. “No.”

“There isn’t one person you want to see?”

That fear that always lingered somewhere behind her gaze came to the forefront again. "Please don’t send me back.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Vittoria said. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to let you go. It’s just that I know that it must be difficult to stay here as long as you have without ever leaving. I thought maybe there are people you want to talk to every now and then."

Inara shook her head firmly. “No. There’s no one.”

She said it matter-of-factly, but that didn’t stop a profound sense of sadness from arising in Vittoria.

“Well, at least you have us now,” she said, nudging Inara lightly in the shoulder.

Inara dropped her gaze shyly. Vittoria thought perhaps Inara might feel a bit insecure about Arielle's family's visit, but she seemed to take it well, expressing only good feelings all around.

And now that Ari's family was gone, Vittoria brought Inara to them with a snap of the hand.

Inara blinked, and Arielle smiled. "You're back."

"Yes," Inara said, glancing at the sleeping Sir Spendulon, who started to stir and sniff the air at her appearance. "I'm glad you got to meet your family."

“Thank you. I wish you could have met them too.”

Inara blushed and seemed pleased. “I would have been honored."

***

Between the dean and Vittoria, Arielle learned a lot about the people attending the ball, at least the ones worth noting. Most of them were aristocrats and dignitaries from various nations, and Vittoria started with the most important one.

"Otto Dietrich, the head of state for Ritersaal."

“Ritersaal city is where the main branch of the ministry is, right?”

"Yes. It’s the branch that hosts our general meetings that the ascendant attends. The Dietrichs are a staple at Wesley’s gathering, and while they only have one Master in their ranks, they hold influence through the early financial investments they make in the most powerful mages, who are then indebted to them. They will be interested in you, either in sponsoring you in some way or attaching you to their family. Wesley might try to keep you from them for that reason, and it might be a tug of war, as they are the only ones on the entire continent capable of matching Lord Wesley’s financial prominence.”

Arielle wrote down the name and notable things about Otto Dietrich’s appearance.

Then the dean chimed in with another person she had to take note of.

“Gaius," he told her. “He’s the dean of Basilica, which is the direct rival of Erynwall. He will likely be attending with whatever his best student of the year is, hoping to ingratiate him into the society and earn a sponsorship from either Wesley or Dietrich. He’s something of a rival, although I consider us more friends than anything. He will want to speak to you, to analyze whether the rumors about you spreading through his school are true."

Arielle froze. "Wait, there are rumors about me at other schools?"

“Of course,” he said. "You don’t think someone like you would just exist unnoticed, did you? The campuses might not be close in terms of physical distance, but we are connected. Typically, our students have siblings or family or friends in other schools. They may not know what you look like, but a lot of them have heard the name Arielle Blacksoil.”

"Oh," she frowned. She was fairly unsettled by that.

"It should make the interschool tournament more interesting," the dean quipped.

“Is that in the upcoming semester?” Vittoria asked.

“Yes. Don't feel any pressure to participate if you don't want to, Arielle, but first years are required to observe, and it's always a fun time."

"Oh. Okay." Ari wrote that down too.

"Back to the discussion at hand. Of course you know the Earthbinders will be there. Not the Patriarch, most probably, but some of his children, or prominent elders in his family. They will ask questions about you, but I believe Elric should handle that."

"Elric will give you a refresher on your ancestry," Vittoria said. "But you should probably avoid conversation with them if you can."

Arielle put their name down in the 'avoid' section. Speaking of avoid…

“Will anyone from the demonic sect be in attendance?” she asked.

“I already inquired, and no,” she said. “Neither Lady Ishtar nor her brother is supposed to be in attendance. They have effectively been shunned from polite society and will slowly have to rebuild back into the good graces if they ever do.”

Arielle nodded. That was good.

"Gio Li will be there," Vittoria mentioned. "That might get complicated, but Elric will try to keep him away from you as much as possible. Just avoid him. If you see him coming, move in the opposite direction while Elric runs interference. If he does end up in a conversation with you, stick to short answers and say, 'I'm not sure,’ where relevant.”

"Okay." Arielle jotted that down too.

There were more families that she had to learn about, until she had several scrolls filled with names of their guest list, with each person's specific character quirks, interests, and all that attached to it. Part of her homework was to prepare suitable topics for conversation with all these people.

Then they practiced how to divert any conversation when she didn’t want to outright lie.

To rehearse, the dean pretended to be the Duke of Hanit and even altered his voice to a higher pitch when he said, "So, little girl, how exactly are you so skilled considering you have a very mundane upbringing? Did you have some practice before the academy?"

"Only a little with my cousin," Arielle answered. "I suppose I'm lucky. Just like you were at last year's Fringe hunt."

"Okay, that's good, Arielle, but not so flat in your tone, and also maybe add a smile so it doesn't sound so...mocking."

Arielle tried it with a smile the next time, and Vittoria snorted.

"Yeah, no smile."

They worked at length on her facial expressions, and achieving the perfect degree of pleasantness took about two hours of constant critique.

Finally, after the dean was gone, they discussed Vittoria picking up the dress that Arielle would wear from the ball from Maus' mother and how she would meet Maus at the Wesley estate. Arielle would be going there the morning of the ball, and would likely spend the entire day there.

“I’ll go hunting that demon on that day,” Vittoria told her.

“Why?” Arielle asked.

“Because that will be when you’re most protected without me,” she said. “I couldn't do it before because I didn't want to leave you here alone. But while you'll be in the Wesley estate surrounded by all manner of powerful mages, the demons wouldn't dare attack there. It's the perfect opportunity for me to go."

"So, you won't attend the ball?"

"I might, depending on how long my thing takes, but I won't go with you. The less we're seen together, the better."

"Okay," Arielle said and took a deep breath. "Do you think I'll do well?"

Vittoria smiled weakly and got to her feet. "I think you'll do your best. Now get up. Let me teach you how to waltz."