Chapter 202: Isabella Ashford [2]

Isabella’s eyes moved around the room trying to make sense of the space.

"Where am I?"

"Relax. I brought you to Apothesis." He leaned back slightly. "And I don’t think you should move around too much just yet. Otherwise you might—"

He abruptly looked away.

Isabella blinked. ’Why did he stop?’

She looked down at herself.

"EEEEEEEK?!"

Her face went from pale to crimson in about one second. She grabbed the nearest cloth and pulled it around herself clutching it tight against her chest.

"W-WHY AM I NAKED?!" She spun her head toward him. "YOU PERVERTED TRAINER!"

Without thinking she reached for her water magic.

No water appeared. Green aura surged from her fingers instead.

Thick roots tore up through the floor and vines shot toward Ulvakor and wrapped around his body before he could react.

"Whoa whoa! Easy there!"

He raised both hands in surrender as the vines locked tighter around him.

"Don’t kill me! I’m innocent!"

Isabella stared at the green energy around her hand. "W-What is this?! Why isn’t my water magic working?!" She looked from her hand to the vines holding her trainer in place. "Why am I using... plants?"

"Could you perhaps release me before asking questions?"

"No!"

"That’s rather cruel."

"YOU’RE THE ONE WHO TURNED ME NAKED, DIDN’T YOU?!"

"Technically you were already—"

"SHUT UP!"

Ulvakor wisely chose not to finish that sentence.

He cleared his throat. "All I did was restore your Core. You were pretty much dead when I found you."

Isabella’s anger stumbled. "...What?"

The memory came back all at once. Nivara. The fight. The final punch. The sensation of something fundamental inside her giving way.

"Wait." Her voice had gone quiet. "My Core was destroyed." She looked at her hand again. "But I can use magic. And I’m alive even though..."

"How?"

Ulvakor exhaled. He gathered the Rai in his hands and snapped the vines apart like dry thread. Then he snapped his fingers and a Spire’s uniform appeared around Isabella, replacing the cloth she had been clutching.

She looked down immediately.

"Ah..."

She let herself breathe again.

Then she looked back at him. "What did you do."

"Simple." He said it the way someone says something that is not even slightly simple. "I used the Florion Core."

Isabella went still. "The Florion Core?!"

"It’s one of the Five Cores. It holds authority over flora. Plants. Greenery. Its power surpasses anything within its domain that ordinary abilities can reach." He shrugged. "Your original Core was destroyed so I replaced it with Florion. Then I adjusted it so that you control its power rather than the Core influencing you."

He tilted his head. "Easy, isn’t it?"

Isabella stared at him.

He had replaced her destroyed Core with one of the legendary five Cores.

"W-Wait. You how did you find the Florion Core?"

"Yeah. That part was a pain." He scratched the back of his head. "I had to travel through human territory and search for it myself. Even with my Rai mastery it took almost an entire day." A small sigh. "Honestly finding it was more troublesome than the actual procedure."

Isabella couldn’t speak.

He had searched for it travelling through human territory spending an entire day finding it and bought it back to Apothesis using it to replace what had been taken from her.

All of that. For her.

"Y-You did that... for me?"

Her voice came out uneven.

She couldn’t understand it. Ulvakor was a Primordial. The son of a Supreme Lord. There were a hundred things he could have spent that day doing that would have mattered more to someone of his position. Reinforcing borders. Training his pupils. Anything.

"B-But why?" She lowered her gaze. "I don’t understand... You’re a Primordial, you have responsibilities. I’m just a human."

For a moment he said nothing.

Then he stood up.

He crossed to where she sat and placed one hand gently around her waist and drew her a step closer. Then he reached up and brushed a strand of hair behind her ear.

Isabella went completely still.

"It’s simple." His voice was quiet. "Because I don’t want to lose you."

The heat that hit her cheeks was immediate. Her heart was doing something she didn’t have a framework for.

Ulvakor’s expression was calm. Steady.

"Remember this, Isabel." He looked directly into her eyes. "No matter where you go or what happens to you, I’ll always be watching over you."

A small pause.

"Always."

That was how everything had started.

The day her original Core broke. The day he saved her life and put something extraordinary in its place. The day she got a second chance at being the person she had set out to become.

From that moment she had worked relentlessly. She learned the Florion Core from the ground up. She refined it and pushed past every limit she had previously believed was fixed. Years of effort had built her into what she was now. One of humanity’s strongest. A Spire people believed in without question.

And she had never once forgotten who made that possible.

_____

Back in the present Isabella looked down at Nivara from above.

For just a second her expression went somewhere private.

’I hope you’re still watching over me, Ulvakor.’

"Isabella!"

Luna’s voice pulled her back. The golden threads of her Anchor flickered as she moved into position beside her.

"Let me help you this time."

Isabella raised a hand immediately to stop her.

Luna clenched her teeth. "Don’t lose your cool Isabella! You’ll make the same mistake as last time!" She looked at Nivara then back at Isabella. "Please. Let me help you."

"Don’t worry Luna. I’ve got this. Just—"

Isabella turned toward her.

And stopped.

She actually looked at her. Not the glance that passes between people mid-battle. A real look.

Purple hair. Purple eyes. A face full of something that was genuinely concerned. Luna had been there beside her through all of it for years and Isabella had rarely slowed down long enough to notice that properly.

And something in that face pulled up a memory from ten years ago.