“You’re the Warbreaker’s kid?” Armsmaster thought the girl looked slightly familiar, but she wasn’t quite expecting this.

Alex Anders.

Tamaya Hesting.

Roland Hesting.

And Ariel Endmarch.

Armsmaster knew the names, of course. It wasn’t unheard of for mages to gather enough prestige or infamy for her to hear of them.

The Armoury was a picky little bitch at times, so it took far longer than she’d prefer to choose a Claimant, but that just meant she had the freedom to catch up with old friends whenever she liked.

Two of those were the Magister and the Golem.

Magister was the Guide of Rodrick Henderson, current Headmaster at Cardinal Academy at the impressively young age of 74. It just so happened that Rodrick and Ariel were in the same year, due to his Aspect manifesting six years late, which in itself was almost a record.

Golem on the other hand…

“How do you know she’s my Mom?” There was a vulnerability to Valerie’s eyes when she asked that question.

Armsmaster decided to take a moment to formulate the answer. It was obvious to her that Valerie was still not completely over her earlier breakdown, and from the sound of it Ariel was near the heart of it. This required delicacy.

She wasn’t the best at that, but she’d had a long time to practice.

“I mentioned earlier that the Golem is an old friend of mine. You wouldn’t have known this, given you didn’t even know about Guides at all, but he was your father’s Guide.”

Valerie’s face withdrew slightly, like she wasn’t quite expecting to hear that.

“I only found out he was my father this morning, and now this?” she muttered, “What else is she hiding from me?”

Armsmaster suppressed a flinch. It was clear Valerie hadn’t intended to speak out loud, but that answered a few questions she had about the girl’s reaction when she arrived.

She knew the Warbreaker had been exiled to Earth for what she did after Roland’s death, and there were a few rumours that she was showing signs of pregnancy at the time. That, combined with what Golem had shared with her and Valerie’s surname had led her to the conclusion that the girl and Ariel Endmarch were related.

It wasn’t a complete surprise that Ariel hadn’t told Valerie about the Steelwoven Massacre. After all, how does one go about telling their daughter that they systematically hunted down every last member of the three noble families that would have wanted her and her lover dead?

If that gossip Huntsman was telling the truth, the kingdom of Heron had still yet to recover from the events of that month.

Even in her despondent state, Valerie was surprisingly perceptive, as she still noticed Armsmaster’s carefully controlled expression.

“What?” she demanded, “You know something, what is it?”

Armsmaster sighed. It was good the girl felt comfortable enough to make demands like that, but now wasn’t the best time.

“It’s not my place to say, kid,” she replied, and Valerie’s face fell. Clearly she was going to latch on to anything she could get about either of her parents. “Look, best I can tell is she really did not take losing your father well. At all. And she did some things because of it that I’m guessing she now regrets, which is likely why she’s been keeping as much as she has from you.”

Valerie groaned. “I’m so sick of people keeping things from me. Is a little openness really so much to ask?”

“I get it, Val, I do, but unfortunately this is just how things have to work. You’ll find out everything eventually, I promise but for now, I’m afraid you’ll just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other. Things will get better.”

She shot Armsmaster a distinctly unpleasant look. “And how do you know that?”

“Experience. Simple as that. I’ve seen people in much worse situations than you rise far higher than you’d ever expect, so this is not a lost cause. Besides, I’m your Guide. You’ll quite literally always have me in your corner.”

Valerie seemed to be a little surprised at that small gesture of support, but also took it for what it was.

The two sat in quiet contemplation for a bit, Armsmaster thinking on Valerie’s future, and Valerie still stuck in the past.

“Armsmaster?” the girl asked.

“Hmm?”

“What exactly makes Mom so much stronger than other mages? She never said.”

Armsmaster looked at her in confusion for a moment before realising what she meant.

“Oh. She isn’t,” she replied matter of factly.

“What?”

“According to Golem, she’s only a mid A Grade. In fact, of the four, only Tamaya was even remotely close to S, and she’s a healer, so few would know that.”

Valerie looked back at Armsmaster, puzzled and mildly astonished.

“Then how-”

“You’re making the same mistake lots of mages your age do, in thinking that strength is the be all and end all of everything. Someone with a higher Grade Affinity is not necessarily guaranteed to win against someone of lower Grade. Fact is, all too often brash, overconfident young Ss get their asses handed to them by older, more experienced Ds and Cs. So get rid of the idea of coasting on your S Grade Stellar Affinity, ‘cause I will beat it out of you when training starts.”

Valerie looked mildly shocked at that. “I’m an S?”

“Hey! What did I just say? Your Grade isn’t everything, understand?”

Chastened, Valerie replied, “Sorry, I understand.”

“Good. Now then, I wasn’t intending to start by teaching you magic theory, but whatever. Pay attention. The only thing your Grade signifies, is the amount of force you can impart into your magic, and your mana capacity, though there are extremely rare exceptions. Far more important, in my opinion, is control and finesse, and that only comes from practice, experience, and skill. Control, or mana control, is a nuanced topic, and I’ll largely leave explaining the nuances of it to your future teachers at Cardinal, as they’re better suited for it, but what it ultimately boils down to is your ability to minimise mana loss with every spell. The less you waste your mana, the longer you’ll last in a fight. Finesse, on the other hand, is a little more tricky, and something a lot of people overlook. Essentially, the better you time your spells, and the better you choose to cast, means the fight is over quicker and you have, once again, spent less mana, which is absolutely vital in times when you aren’t sure if you’ll be able to catch a break. Make sense?”

“Yeah,” Valerie nodded. She seemed a bit grateful for the mildly technical topic, possibly because it forced her out of her own head. A strangely common problem for Armsmaster’s students. She still planned to look into that someday.

“Okay. As for your Mom, she has been as successful as she has because she and her team were told the same thing early on, and unlike the other idiots in their classes, they listened. Because of this, they had something of a head start on their skills by the time their classmates came to the same realization. In addition, after they graduated from Cardinal, they continued to experiment and broaden their skill sets, furthering their development to the point where they could continually outperform S Grades who had been active as long as them.”

Valerie was intently focused on Armsmaster’s words, a fact she was glad for given the girl’s previous state.

“Nowadays, your Mom and her team are used as examples for why people shouldn’t put as much stock in their Grade as they used to, though some of the noble families still cling to the impression that a higher Grade guarantees them a win. Most people however? They have begun to pay more attention to their control and finesse as I call it, and they start at a fairly young age too. So, you have some catching up to do. Fortunately, we have a full week before you return to your body, so let’s make the best use of our time, shall we?”

Valerie started to nod in agreement, then her mind seemed to catch on something. She looked at Armsmaster with something akin to mild horror. “A week? What do you mean a week? Mom never said anything about that!”

Armsmaster winced. “Shit. Sorry, that’s my bad, she wouldn’t have known. I meant to tell you about this shortly after you first walked in, but, well. You know. Anyway, this is a forced Awakening, which means that it puts a little more strain on you than a regular one, but takes a good bit less time. Under normal circumstances, you’d be out for a day, sometimes three if you were very unlucky. However, due to the Armoury’s… peculiarities, you need the full week to ensure nothing goes wrong. It needs the additional support structures in place because of the extra soul shenanigans involved.”

Valerie contemplated that for a bit, then said, “I guess there’s no way to hurry that along.”

“Not without putting you at too much risk, no. And to be honest, you really need the extra time. It doesn’t exactly take an expert to tell you haven’t been in a fight once in your life.”

“Alright then. Just going easy on me to start, okay?”

“Don’t worry, we’ll start light.”

**********************

“Thank you for your concern, Lord Harper, I’ll be sure to look into it. Have a good night.”

After Rodrick Henderson showed the older man out of his office, he sat back down in his sinfully comfortable chair and said, “Arrogant prick.”

“You have to admit his concerns have merit,” said the voice of an old friend.

Rodrick grunted meaningfully. With a twist of will and spent mana, he manifested the Magister in his preferred place by the window.

He appeared as a young man with short black hair in black scholar’s robes trimmed in gold, with simple glasses and a look in his eye that belied his keen intellect.

“Albert Harper making noise about the security for the lower tunnels doesn’t make him any less of a prick, Magister.”

“Hmm. I suppose,” he replied. He continued to look out the window, searching for something that both knew wasn’t yet there. “It’s almost time.”

Rodrick glanced at the Magister, and used a basic bit of magic to pull a bottle from the liquor cabinet with a glass. “Almost, yes. I’m curious what Ariel’s doing a whole world away that could cause a response this absolute.”

For the past week, the only thing Rodrick’s Foresight Aspect would tell him if he looked further out than a day was a vision of a cloak of steel feathers, and silver stars. The first was obvious to him. Very few people had managed to replicate Ariel’s unorthodox use of Metal magic to the same degree as her, and fewer still cared enough to try after the Steelwoven Massacre, so Ariel’s favoured weapon was an obvious allusion to her. The limited information he could get out of the vision was another of her hallmarks, as few thrived in the throes of chaos quite like she did, and that was reflected in the way she was constantly reviewing and discarding plans of attack, which threw off Fate magic something fierce.

But silver stars? He didn’t have enough to go off of that would help make sense of that.

Fortunately, his Foresight told him he was about to receive a letter that should clear things up nicely.

His Foresight twitched.

“Enter,” he called.

In walked his secretary Louise, a modest woman whose administrative skill was to the point that half the time it felt like she was the one running things at Cardinal. She was holding a letter with an unusual level of care. Unsurprising, given who he believed was the source.

“I don’t know if I’ll get used to you doing that, Headmaster. Part of me wants to at least get one knock in before you call,” she said.

Rodrick chuckled. “That would put you in a very small group of people indeed, Louise, if you manage it. I see you have a letter for me?”

“Of course, sir. Here you are.” She gingerly handed over the letter “Will there be anything else?”

Rodrick absentmindedly examined the letter in his hands. The paper was of a finer make than he was used to, likely made on Earth. The things they managed without magic fascinated him at times. “No, Louise, that will be all.”

“Very well, sir,” she bowed slightly, and turned to leave, but just before she reached the door, Rodrick called out, “Actually, Louise, there is one thing.”

She stopped and turned back to him, waiting.

“I think you should take the rest of the night off.There shouldn’t be anything too pressing, and you’ve been keeping long hours of late, I imagine your husband is getting concerned.”

Louise relaxed a little, likely relieved at the thought of an early return home.

“Then I’ll see you tomorrow, Headmaster. Good night,” she said, and left the room.

“Good night,” Rodrick called behind her, just as the door shut.

He returned to examining the letter, in his hands. The wax seal seemed to be juxtaposed against the paper, like the two weren’t quite meant to go together.

“She is a recent hire, yes?” the Magister noted, still looking out the window, “Where did you find her again?”

“The Fisherman’s Union, in the South Quarter, believe it or not,” Rodrick replied absently, “Our usual supplier had gone silent, everyone else was busy, and I had some free time on my hands, so I thought why not. I’m glad I did, though. Once I saw how organised they had become, I just had to have the person responsible.”

He glanced at the Magister. “I believe you were off visiting that friend of yours. The one you still won’t tell me about.”

“Can’t. Not won’t. Though something tells me that’s going to change soon.”

“Really? Over fifty years, and now is when you begin to open up about them? What changed?”

The Magister finally looked back at Rodrick. His gaze was mildly troubled, but still focused.

“Stop stalling Rodrick,” He turned back to the window. “We both know it’s not helping.”

Rodrick sighed. “I know, old friend. I know. I just can’t shake the feeling that this is going to be big.”

He finally poured a small portion of whiskey into the glass he had got out earlier and took a sip.

“Right. Here goes nothing.”

He unceremoniously ripped off the seal and opened the envelope.

Rodrick.

I won’t waste time on idle pleasantries, as you never liked them and I lack the patience to bother.

Valerie has manifested an Aspect.

When she told me of her Awakening dreams, I must admit to panicking some. The resulting discussion has likely left her with far too many questions for either of our liking, but what’s done is done.

I had her checked with an Identifier as well, as fool I am I never did when she was younger.

She has an S Grade Stellar Affinity, Rodrick.

Not the most impressive of Affinities, I know, but I hold out hope her Aspect will balance that scale.

As I’m writing this, she is going through a forced Awakening, so should hopefully be done tomorrow or the day after, and by that time I will hopefully have moved in with Tamaya if she’ll have me. My letters with her claim she has been staying in Hortell. I do not believe she will have given up her post at Cardinal, but you never know. In the event of the unexpected, I have abused the signet you gave me to ensure my letter to her arrives before I do.

I would ask for your forgiveness, but I think in this case you will understand.

I know this doesn’t give you much time to prepare, and how much you dislike being caught off guard as this likely does, but I would rather Valerie have as much time to adapt as possible, as opposed to just tossing her at the school and walking away. A lot has changed for her already, and more is yet to come. I suspect she’s been hiding how it’s already affected her.

I think we both knew my ‘retirement’ would be a temporary thing, old friend.

Regards,

Ariel Endmarch.

Rodrick stared blankly at the letter.

“Fuck.”