204 – Education

Saffra’s eyes stayed narrowed in deep concentration as she strained to maintain her hold on the glowing ball of mana she’d manifested. She’d seen real improvement under Lady Vivi’s tutelage, but for anyone who wasn’t the Sorceress, controlling mana once it left the body was an outrageously difficult task. That became more true when sending it off any notable distance. Say, across the room, to float, spin, and somersault in front of Isabella Caldimore.

The blonde was trying to steadfastly ignore the glowing sphere, her gaze cast downward as she scratched away with quick, precise strokes of her quill. A wash of white light illuminated one side of her face, then the other, and back again. Saffra did a loop-de-loop. Then zigzags. Then—

“Saffra,” Isabella sighed. “What are you doing?”

“Mana control exercises. What does it look like?”

Isabella’s eye twitched. “Can you do them somewhere that isn’t right in front of my face?”

Saffra tilted her head innocently. “Oh, sorry. Was I distracting you?”

“You are, of course, welcome inside my room,” Isabella said, attempting that calm and measured tone that never failed to annoy Saffra, that made her want to pull the prissy noble down into the mud with her. “But I said quietly. Some of us still have deadlines.”

“Hah. No more math homework. Another reason to say thank you for getting me kicked out.”

Saffra tensed as she realized what she’d said, but Isabella only rolled her eyes. For a while, Saffra had needed to walk on eggshells about that topic, because the idiot had continued believing she was somehow at fault. It seemed Isabella was finally getting it through her thick skull that she was blameless in that series of events.

“You really shouldn’t be ignoring your own education,” Isabella said. “Even if you don’t have assignments, you can still study on your own.”

“I’m not trying to be a scholar,” Saffra replied dismissively.

“Knowledge is useful for whatever you decide to do. Including adventuring.”

“Not true. There’s like a million Titled who grew up in the wilderness. Some were raised by wolves, literally. What matters is being strong.”

“You know what I mean.”

“If Lady Vivi doesn’t think I need to, I don’t see what the big issue is.”

Isabella pursed her lips. “I wouldn’t ever pretend I know better than the Sorceress,” she said slowly, picking her words with deliberation, “but I think we both know that that’s probably not an active decision on her part.”

Yeah… Saffra knew the argument was hot air. The wording Lady Vivi had used way back when had been ‘half an apprenticeship’—the woman clearly hadn’t gone into their arrangement with a plan. Honestly, Lady Vivi was paying more attention than Saffra had assumed she’d get, with the woman being the Sorceress and everything. It wasn’t more than a few days ago that Lady Vivi had even taken an entire night to design a foundational void spell for Saffra to start learning within twenty-four hours of the idea being floated.

But that attention was focused on magical training, not a general education as most masters would insist on—if with varying degrees of breadth and intensity.

A broader curriculum had definitely just slipped Lady Vivi’s mind. Or otherwise, her thoughts were so consumed with magic she’d never really considered the ‘other stuff’ and only believed magic to be worth learning.

“If you tell her to start assigning me math textbooks, we won’t be friends anymore,” Saffra told Isabella firmly. “I’m not kidding.”

“You’re ridiculous.”

“I know my numbers, how to read, the stuff that matters. I went eight months not needing to know all of that,” she said, waving at the books splayed on Isabella’s desk, whatever they might be. “What I did need to get better at when I was out in the world and actually doing things was magic. That’s how I was useful. Or useless. So I’m learning what I should, right now.”

Isabella scrubbed the side of her head. “I can’t say you’re wrong, because you aren’t. But as the Sorceress’s apprentice, I doubt you’re going to have a ‘normal career.’ You’ll regret not having a well-rounded education. Science and math, definitely, but even the political topics in our curriculum too. Whether you like it or not, you’re political by nature, now.”

Saffra shivered. “Don’t say such terrifying things.” She flopped backward onto Isabella’s bed. “It hasn’t been that long since she made me her apprentice. I’m sure she’ll start torturing me with general stuff too, sooner or later.”

“Or you could take the initiative.”

“I’d rather die.”

Isabella shook her head and turned back to the paper she was working on. The girl had accidentally achieved her goal of peace, since Saffra was now staring up at the ceiling, lost in thought.

A knock at the door broke Saffra out of her reverie. She sat up, crawled across the blanket and sheets, and peeked around the edge of the bedroom doorway, barely able to catch sight of Isabella’s White Glove pulling the door open.

Long white hair and red eyes gave away the identity of their visitor. Saffra couldn’t help the wave of relief that washed through her. It was probably stupid to be worried about the Sorceress’s wellbeing, but what would be even stupider was thinking nothing bad ever happened—even to strong people. Saffra’s life might have taken a general upswing, but that didn’t mean she’d become some kind of optimist. The hells would freeze over first.

“Lady Vivi’s here,” she announced for Isabella’s sake. The girl had twisted around in her chair to also look, though she couldn’t see anything since her desk was tucked against the wall.

Saffra slid off the bed and padded across the room and into the hallway. Just checking in again, or is she finished? The first update had come weirdly fast, but it’d been around two hours since then. With the time shenanigans that Lady Vivi mentioned, that might have been days for her, or at least enough time to complete whatever she’d set out to do.

The White Glove curtsied and moved aside as Saffra appeared.

“Going well?” Saffra asked tentatively.

“Yes and no,” Lady Vivi replied as she stepped inside and closed the door. “I’ve gotten both more and less out of it than I wanted. Some new problems, but also new ideas. I’ll catch you up—I was thinking I’d show you the void, and we could have a quick hunting expedition.”

Behind Saffra, Isabella’s breath caught, prompting both of them to look at her.

“You’re taking her there?” Isabella asked.

Lady Vivi paused. “It’s… safe, of course. I made sure of it.”

Saffra felt a few different things at the exchange. Surprise, for one. She hadn’t expected to head to that strange realm herself. She obviously didn’t fear the mysterious place—or, if she did, it was the mundane sort of apprehension that she’d dealt with a million times before. That all adventurers felt, except the thrill-chasing loons.

There was also a flicker of annoyance at being treated with kid gloves, the assurance that ‘of course Lady Vivi had made sure it was safe first.’ But that frustration was immediately dwarfed by irritation toward herself, because what else would she expect? Or prefer? That Lady Vivi bring her into dangerous situations, and thus turn her into dead weight, a liability? That was something she hated even more than being treated like a kid.

And then finally, a twinge of concern went through her for Isabella’s sake. Venturing into the void didn’t have remotely the same implications for the blonde as for most people. Isabella had been thrown into that other world under distressing circumstances. No wonder she’d had a knee-jerk reaction.

“O-of course,” Isabella said, looking away and chewing on her lip. “I didn’t mean to imply otherwise. It’s just…” She trailed off.

Lady Vivi didn’t seem to know what to say.

Saffra walked up and poked Isabella on her shoulder. “I’ll be fine. Don’t be a worrywart.” Unfortunately, she couldn’t come up with anything better.

“Yes, well… just be careful.”

“I’ll come back with a souvenir for you. A scoop of void dirt, or something.”

Isabella gave her a weird look at the odd form of reassurance, which had been the point. Then her brow furrowed in contemplation. “Can you take stuff back from there?”

Saffra tilted her head, then looked at Lady Vivi with a question in her eyes.

“You know,” the Sorceress said, “somehow I didn’t think of trying. You probably can’t, since none of it is actually physical, but you can harvest voidbeasts. So, maybe? Those creatures are likely the exception.”

“I’ll bring you back a scoop of void dirt,” Saffra confirmed for Isabella.

Isabella rolled her eyes, her previous anxiety having faded. Sometimes it wasn’t about finding the perfect thing to say; anything would do. She made a shooing motion. “At least I’ll have peace and quiet to work on my essay. Good luck.”

A minute later, Saffra was floating over Prismarche with Lady Ember and Lady Vivi. It really was strange how fast things moved when distance stopped being a barrier. She glanced down at the city beneath her, all the tiny people milling about between miniature buildings, and thanked the heavens yet again that she didn’t have a fear of heights.

“It’ll be a little disorienting, but not that much worse than spatial warping,” Lady Vivi told her. “Keep your eyes closed, and don’t try to understand what you’re feeling.”

Lady Vivi obviously hadn’t intended for the words to be ominous, but Saffra shivered at the prospect of ‘feeling’ dimensional travel. Normal mages found mysterious magic terrifying, not interesting. Or at the very least, both. History had made it clear that straying off the beaten path came with nine-tenths odds of madness or worse. Only the Sorceress could treat obscure phenomena so casually, and it wasn’t a habit that Saffra would adopt just because Lady Vivi was her teacher.

“Ready?”

Saffra didn’t hesitate. “Ready.”

One sensory-smearing, mind-bending trip later, Saffra was finally laying eyes on the realm she’d heard so much about. It was spookier than she’d expected. Seeing the city of Prismarche with its colors drained into a muted imitation made her shift around in unease. Only she, Lady Vivi, and the numerous voidbeasts slithering through the sky and along the streets felt like they were real to her senses.

“Neat,” Saffra murmured, the word slipping out of its own accord.

“Eerie, but also neat,” Lady Vivi agreed. Her lips didn’t twitch and her face kept its stony composure, but Saffra could somehow read a hint of amusement.

“So what happened?” Saffra asked.

Lady Vivi launched into a tale of a ritual rigged to explode with void energy, a corrupted Concept, and explorations with two other archmages. Saffra didn’t blink at any of it. It had become routine, being treated to Lady Vivi’s calm explanations of whatever ridiculous things she’d gotten up to recently. After the woman’s misadventure at the Dragon King’s palace, it would take a lot to drop Saffra’s jaw.

If there isn’t a dead Cataclysm or two at the end of it, was it even an adventure?

Saffra paused.

What in the world am I saying? My life has gotten way too weird.

“So, I went and asked High Prince Adrian for this,” Lady Vivi said as she was wrapping up her summarization of the whole affair. A long, ornate, silver blade with a golden guard appeared in her hand. It looked familiar, though Saffra couldn’t place why. “The sword of High King Alistair.”

Yep, that explains it. She’d probably seen a depiction in a textbook. It was only one of the most famous relics in existence. The High Prince just handed it over?

…what, is he going to say no to the Sorceress?

“With luck, it’ll link to Alistair’s Concept,” Vivi said. “But I doubt it’ll work with standard divination formulas, so I’m going to have to do some tinkering. In the meantime, I thought I’d let you hunt voidlings in their natural habitat. I can’t imagine a better way to start reinforcing a specialty.”

“All right,” Saffra said slowly. It was a lot to take in, even if it didn’t set her head spinning like it might have once. “I’ll do my best.” Her hand went down to her belt, where she fiddled with the edge of the Chalice.

“We’ll do it in Meridian, since that’s where the Echo should be.” Lady Vivi proffered a hand.

Saffra accepted, stuffed down a tinge of spatial dizziness after the warp, then flew across the expanse of ghost-Meridian alongside Lady Vivi until they were outside the city’s walls.

“I’ll obviously be keeping you safe, but I’ll have to split my attention while I mess with the divination spell,” Lady Vivi said. “I expect it’s going to take a few tries to start getting results.”

Idly, she pointed her staff and began vaporizing all of the [Greater Voidbeasts] within several miles’ range, presumably getting rid of anything that was a ‘real threat.’ Saffra blinked the brilliant lilac colors out of her eyes, stunned by whatever beam-like spell the woman had used.

Saffra tried not to break out into a cold sweat. The utter casualness behind the tier-20 spells was almost the most unnerving part… almost. Even Lady Vivi could only mute magic of that tier so much, and the deeper, embedded parts of Saffra’s consciousness understood very well the terrifying, obliterating power she’d just seen.

“Go ahead and lead,” Lady Vivi said, giving Saffra what was probably an encouraging nod, unaware of the spectacle she'd just made.

Saffra swallowed, then began scanning for targets.