Ariel Endmarch was on the warpath.

Tamaya knew the signs well.

Her first warning was a message from Louise, that frighteningly organised woman, saying she should make her way to the Academy entrance, without explanation.

Her second warning was the sound as Ariel approached the gates.

She’d heard it described once as the marching cadence of an army, and she couldn’t think of more apt phrasing for the sound Ariel’s cloak made as she walked.

Her third warning was Ariel herself.

Her face was tranquil, almost peaceful. But Tamaya knew better. The only thing she could think of as her friend drew near was a coming storm. Inevitable. Inescapable.

Behind her, Roderick hurried along, face red with exertion as he tried to match Ariel’s furious pace.

“Dammit, Ariel!” he called, “You said you’d stay calm!”

“I am calm.” Ariel replied, voice as cold as ice. Tamaya could hear her from the other end of the path to the gates, something Ariel only managed when she was like this. “I am calmly going to get Tamaya to my daughter. Then once I am assured she will recover, I am calmly going to find the people responsible for this. And if I’m unsatisfied with their punishment, then I will very, very calmly flay them alive.”

Her voice never rose above normal speaking level, but it thundered in Tamaya’s ears. The last time she’d heard Ariel talk like that was the Steelwoven Massacre. Her wounds from that month had been reopened by her return to Aldor, and while she’d made great strides towards recovery, it had still only been two weeks.

Tamaya could put the pieces together herself. Valerie had been hurt while on her errand, the first time she’d been let out of Ariel’s sight since they arrived.

It was the worst possible timing.

As Ariel drew close to Tamaya, she said. “What happened?”

In a clipped voice, Ariel relayed what she’d learned, and Tamaya’s face went grave.

Valerie and Sophie had been assaulted by a group of thugs in an alleyway. They’d taken out four, one had run away, and the final three had fled the scene as the guard approached. Sophie had only mild injuries, but Valerie was in critical condition and had yet to wake up.

“The market’s guard post is too far. We’ll take the direct route,” she finished.

Roderick looked confused, “Direct route? What are you talking…”

He trailed off as Ariel’s cloak fell apart. Each individual feather had long been made pliable to her magic, so each danced to her every whim. They flew through the air, and latched onto the three of them at specific points. The thighs, waist, and chest, as well as under the arms and feet.

Long used to this method of transport, though it had been a while, Tamaya said nothing as she raised her heels to give the feathers there easier access. Roderick had to be lifted slightly, impatient as Ariel was.

“Now hang on, I really must stay here- oh no no no no!”

Without a word, Ariel lifted the three of them with her magic, and pulled them across the city.

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Tamaya couldn’t help but enjoy the feeling of flight, even if not under her own power. Not every mage was capable of it, as some Affinities simply couldn’t manage facilitating it. It was exhilarating.

All throughout, Ariel was a silent, brooding statue.

Within minutes, they’re set down just across from the guard post in the market district. The crowd had spotted their arrival, it would’ve been hard not to, and cleared the area to make room. It’s not unheard of for mages to make ostentatious displays, but most do it in places of greater significance. Cardinal itself, for example, or the home of someone important. Not the market guard post.

If the crowd was confused by their arrival, they were stunned into silence when Ariel returned her feathers to the cloak.

They may have forgotten the Warbreaker’s face, but the cloak of steel feathers stuck in the memory.

The crowd parted as Ariel approached, her cloak rustling the only noise she made.

Tamaya rushes to keep up, long used to matching Ariel’s longer stride. Roderick followed behind, still bewildered from the rushed journey.

Once they stepped within, they came to a small receptionist’s desk. There was a door leading to the back, typically forbidden to the public, and behind the desk was a young man with brown hair, wearing the robes of an apprentice scribe.

There were two members of the guard as well, likely in case anyone got rowdy, but one look at Ariel caused them to pale and back away.

The young man behind the desk trembled at Ariel’s approach.

“I will say this once,” she said in that terrifying calm, “Where is my daughter?”

The young man, a boy really, began to stutter and stammer. “I-I-I do- I-I don-.”

The door to the back opened, and out walked an older man in the uniform of a guard captain.

“It’s alright, Sigmund. I’ll handle it from here,” he said.

The boy almost fainted from relief, and Tamaya swore she could faintly smell urine.

The captain turned to Ariel. “When the beastkin said the girl was yours, I’ll admit to being skeptical. But now? Come along, I’ll take you to her.”

He turned without waiting for a response and walked back through the door. Ariel followed wordlessly.

As they walked, the captain spoke. “We’ve got her in one of the rooms we keep for the men on the night shift. We’ve had a physician take a look at her, but he’s no mage, and with how poorly potions work on burns there wasn’t much he could do. She’s not in good shape, Lady Endmarch.”

Ariel doesn’t react, but Tamaya could feel the storm grow closer.

They passed a passage leading down, to the cells, and while Ariel doesn’t stop her gaze shifts to look down it.

“Her assailants?” she asked.

“Contained for now. All three of them have been charged with robbery and attempted murder, and I’d say given the beating they took the one guy who's awake is already regretting it. From the wolf’s testimony, it was largely your girl who took them down, and I have to say she’s one hell of a fighter. Two of them are mages, and even though we’ve got them sedated I wouldn’t be surprised to find they stayed out for a day or two. There was another, a fourth, but he's dead. Face caved in.”

“Good.” Tamaya could hear the cold smile in Ariel’s voice.

“We’ve also put out a bounty for the three who ran, but it’s not been all that long yet. It’ll be a few days before we get any bites. And here we are.”

They arrived at a door similar to the others they passed on the way there. Sitting in a chair set against the other wall, eyes red from tears, was Sophie. She had a few bruises and scrapes visible, mainly on the arms, though there was an ugly one forming on chin. She looked up and saw Tamaya, Ariel and Roderick following the captain.

Her face was wracked with guilt, and the instant her gaze met Ariel’s she flinched and looked away.

Ariel marched towards the door the captain pointed out, but before she reached it Tamaya stepped in front.

“What are you doing?”

“There is no way I’m letting you in there until I’ve had a chance to tend her wounds.”

“What?”

Tamaya stepped up close to Ariel and said quietly, “You can lie to yourself as much as you please, lie to Roderick as well, but you will not lie to me. You are not calm.”

Ariel stared at Tamaya, rage simmering behind a tranquil facade.

“You are like a wounded animal, Ariel, and you’ve only just begun to heal properly. Seeing her like this will not help in any way.”

Tamaya gestured to Sophie. “Look at her. She’s blaming herself for this, and you storming in like you have hasn’t helped. You need to step back, and really calm down, and she needs to know this isn’t her fault. I’ll let you know when you can come in.”

With that, she opened the door and stepped into the room, closing it quickly enough to stop Ariel from seeing.

Immediately, her nose was assaulted with the smell of burned hair and skin.

Valerie laid in the bed, only the faint, juddering movement of her breathing showing she’s still alive.

The entire left side of her body was a mess of savage burns, blistered and blackened in places. Her shoulder, where the worst of the burns originated, was heavily charred. Valerie’s hair was largely burned away as well, only a portion on the right side of her head remaining, even the eyebrows singed off.

“Oh, you poor girl. Don’t worry, I’ll have you fixed up soon.”

Tamaya laid a hand on Valerie’s unburnt shoulder, and began to work.

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

“This isn’t your fault.”

Sophie looked up at Ariel, who was standing next to her, the cloak of steel feathers she was known for over her shoulders.

“How would you know?”

Ariel sighed. The invisible tension she had been under had begun slowly leaking away, once Tamaya stepped into the room where Valerie was.

Ariel’s cloak shifted, and Sophie flinched, expecting an attack that never came. Instead, the feathers gathered into the shape of a chair, metal bending and locking together to make it up.

Ariel sat down next to Sophie, and said, “Because I know my daughter. You have not known Valerie long, so you have not seen her when she decides to put her foot down. If she didn’t want to fight, then she wouldn’t have fought.”

Sophie looked away. She didn’t understand. How could she? She wasn’t there.

Ariel’s gaze shifted to the door. “You don’t believe me. That’s fine. But when Valerie tells you the same thing will you say she’s wrong as well? Will you devalue the decision she made?”

She grit her teeth. “We could have run. We’re fast, the both of us, we’d have made it. I even considered it for a moment.”

“So? I wouldn’t be surprised to learn it never even occurred to her.”

Sophie’s head spun back. “What? That can’t be right.”

“She’s been cautious like she has because everything is so new to her, so you won’t have seen it, but Valerie hates running from her problems. She makes that a bit literal at times.”

She looked at Ariel, uncomprehendingly. “I don’t understand.”

Ariel shrugged slightly. “The evidence is there if you know to look. Haven’t you noticed how willing she is to take a risk if she thinks it will score her a win?”

Sophie thought on that. The first time she and Valerie had sparred, she baited out an attack to set up her victory, which could have ended with her loss if it went wrong. The other times, Valerie had attempted similar methods, to less desirable results.

Then there was today.

Sophie didn’t remember much of Valerie’s side of things. She was preoccupied with fending off the three thugs, so she hadn’t seen everything. But she had seen Valerie step between her and the fire mage, and she’d heard her scream in pain at the same time she struck him.

“I guess I never thought about that. It's just… it feels like the whole reason she was hurt was because I was there. If I wasn’t, she would have known she’d had no chance against them. If I wasn’t there, she wouldn’t have been burned.”

Ariel placed a hand on Sophie’s shoulder. “It was her decision to fight. It was her decision to help you. And it was her decision to take the risk that she did. Don’t demean that.”

Sophie nodded.

“Besides, once Tamaya’s done with her, it’ll be like she was never even there. Then once she's fully recovered, I’ll be going over what you both did wrong and what you did right. If either of you find yourselves in a situation like this again, you’ll know what to do.”

The man that walked in behind Ariel and Aunt Tamaya stepped up. Sophie had noticed him earlier, but hadn’t paid him any mind.

“On a related note, Ariel, I have a proposal.”

She turned to him. “Yes, Roderick?”

Roderick? As in the Headmaster of Cardinal? What was he doing here?

“Well, I’m in need of a new Tactics Teacher, and you would obviously like the peace of mind from being able to reach Valerie as you need. Parents aren’t typically allowed on school grounds outside of select times, but if you were a member of staff…”

Sophie was starting to feel a bit out of place.

“What?” Ariel said, stunned. “Roderick, surely you aren’t implying-”

“That you come teach at Cardinal? Ariel, I’ve been wanting someone of your calibre on staff for years now. If it means I can help a friend at the same time, then all the better.”

“I… I’ll need time to consider.”

He smiled patiently, “Of course. I will need a few days to smooth things over, but I’m confident you’ll fit in fine.”

The door opened, and Aunt Tamaya leaned out. “Roderick, dear, once you’re done poaching my friend, could you go to an alchemist and pick up some hair growth ointment? There’s been some loss, and my magic doesn’t help there.”

“Certainly. I’ll be back soon.”

Once Roderick had left, Aunt Tamaya turned to Ariel and Sophie. “I’ve managed to heal most of her wounds, but the damage was extensive. There is some scarring, but nothing that anyone will see without looking for it once the new skin has seen some sun.”

“Thank you, Tamaya,” Ariel said, and stood up. The chair she was sitting on returned to the shape of her cloak, and with a flash of blue light, it disappeared into her ring. “Is she awake?”

Aunt Tamaya shook her head. “Not yet, but she will be soon. You might want to be there when she does.”

With that, she stepped aside and let Ariel into the room, Sophie hot on her heels.