Sylvarent scrapped the alchemy slab from the bottom of the cauldron. Most of the water had left it, finally, but she still needed a few more steps before it was completely ready. She folded the slab once, then twice so it became almost an inch thick and only slightly bigger than her palm.

“En Movita,” Sylvarent said, gripping the slab tightly. A bit of life separated from her and imbued the alchemical slab. Hopefully, it would be enough – her alchemy had improved, but she was still uncertain whether she could create medium tier medicines without supplementing them with a bit of lifeblood. Vindica usually helped her with creating these, but he had been busy of late and Bast recently lost his arm.

No, stop thinking like that, Sylvarent thought. ‘En Movita’ always made her feel tired, just like after a long day at work, which only was worsen when she used it after working all day. More recently, however, she was beginning to notice its more insidious parts – plagues of doubt, fear and pain riddled her thoughts when she did. The weariness only facilitated it.

Think simple, Sylvarent told herself. Break the slab into six parts, roll them up into a small balls. Think nothing else and everything will be fine.

Thankfully, the door knocks drew her from her thoughts. “Come in.”

Gigantic could only be the word to describe Bast, ever since he was a kid. At six feet four, and two hundred twenty pounds carved from solid muscle. He had black hair – not the common Darkness element variant, but of space instead – and blue eyes, blessed by water and space.

“Dearest Sylvarent, it’s past dinner. Yet, here you are still here working.” Bast said, dropping a cloth bag onto the table with his one good hand. “Have mercy upon yourself and take a break.”

“I just finished.” Sylvarent said, throwing him a bag filled of the pills.

Bast caught the bag, lifting one pill up to his mouth with an ‘En Aether’. He thoroughly chomped through the pill before lifting his stub of a right arm. ‘Cal Movita’ numbed his pain while a single ‘Zet Aether’ created a blade of wind to slice the stub on his right elbow clean off. Blood began to flow once more. With a ‘Zet Imaru’, his elbow began to bubble and crackle as a new arm began to form.

“That’s grotesque.” Sylvarent said, unable to remove her eyes from it.

“At least, it only needed to happen once this time around.” Bast said, wiggling his new fingers. “Now that’s taken care of, would you like to go to Riveta for a couple day vacation? Vindica is out of the country, so if you could cover for him in Riveta, it would be great. Plus it is about time to get some apprentices to help your territory.”

“I still got my patients.” Sylvarent said, then added, “Oten and Quaint may hate it if we pillaged their apprentice candidates – “

“All of them have been attended today already and I can cover the rest that come over the next few days.” Bast said waving his hand. “Oten and Quaint are never satisfied, even as they let countless apprentices fall to the wayside.” He got on his knees so they were eye level with each other, then held her hands. “Please, help them. They are just little kids slighted by stronger, old ones.”

Yet, the doubts still swelled in her chest – she had difficulty helping and teaching the apprentices she already had, as the second generation of disciples had been teaching them in her place. How could she accept more? Oten and Quaint could not really treat them that bad, right?

No, they could, Sylvarent thought, taking a deep breath. These doubts have only appeared from ‘En Movita’. Even in her most sympthatic moments, she could not attribute their harms to anything less than incompetence, if not simply malice. The two had fallen on hard times and they wanted to destroy everything around them to claw their way out. If a few children suffered, especially indirectly, the two would be able to rest well. Easily.

“Fine.” Sylvarent said, “but I doubt I can teach them much before we leave.”

“Vindica didn’t tell you?” Bast asked, raising an eyebrow. “Guess not, if you’re asking but there has been a lot of changes in the past week. Vindica might have forgotten after the Divine Magics Bryn and Flugur stopped working. He was rushing out of the country.”

“What do you mean no longer work?” Sylvarent asked. Divine Magics were called such since everyone could use them, because they were reliable tools given by Gods. How could they stop working?

“If you cast the two Divine Magics, all it does is sears your soul.” Bast said. “Tried to do it with teleportation, and almost killed myself in the process. That’s not the only news though – the Flower of Resurrection in the royal treasury has been stolen on the same day the government signs a ceasefire with Malan, stopping the war out of the blue; and a second adventuring guild hall is being formed in Celenita. Overall, a great start to the new year.”

Those were words, Sylvarent thought. Each individual word seemed real but strung together, they made no sense. “How much longer are we staying in the Borderlands then?”

“A decade or two, perhaps? We need a base in these changing times, so we aren’t moving anymore.” Bast said, holding out his hand.

“Alright, I’ll get more apprentices and teach them well.” Sylvarent promised.

“Wonderful.” Bast said, grabbing hold of her hand. “Cal Meng.” The world around them distorted around them before turning into a mansion. “I’ll be back in a couple of days to pick you up. Have fun and remember you outrank the two buffoons.” Then he said ‘Cal Meng’ and disappeared to who-knew-where.

She swung by the kitchen to find a few servants, all of whom were surprised to see her, but who quickly gave her something to eat before she disappeared into her room, the only one with a personal bath. She took a quick shower before casting ‘Vyt: En Imaru x En Xandra’ and slipped into the bath, letting the warm water seep into her and abate her exhaustion.

‘En Aether’ created a small desk of air for her to put the stack of papers on. Recruitment week just started today but she had a few years of students to review. Taking all of them was unlikely to be successful, even against Oten and Quaint, as despite her rank, they still had city official obligations. Trying to take anyone with high elemental affinity would likely encounter similar, if not, problems unless they were found specifically within Vindica’s schools, unlikely due to being in poorer areas. This could have all been avoided if either Oten or Quaint started their own territory, but their first attempt was abysmal and they had yet to try since. Frustrating.

Best to focus on recruiting as many girls to her side – who knew how the two would abuse their tiny bit of authority. Unfortunately, half of the girls with talent were already contracted with the other local noble and merchant families – mainly through marriage. Any family looking to climb the sociopolitical family needed a secure bloodline, one only achievable if the mother had good elemental affinity. Sylvarent had to make a move before another family did.