Gathering a few apprentices and moving them to Luxita for a better life could only be considered a stopgap measure. Oten and Quaint did not leave cracks in the system so much, as they lacked a system entirely, broadly relying on the existing system of schools and academies under Vindica’s name. Even focusing on potential girl mages and fighters, too many would have to remain within Riveta, already poached by other noble and merchant families.

Bast removed both of them from their positions, which made neither of them particularly happy, but gave them adventurer jobs. Hopefully, that would placate them. If they always loved to fight, why not give them monsters to fight with?

Not the worst consideration, however, that meant Sylvarent was now in Riveta for the next good while. Most of her patients could be looked after by Bast, which may be problematic. Not a question of skill, but of reputation and trust built over the decades. Bast would be able to easily substitute her position, but the latter bit was different to build, especially now that she could not leave Riveta to vouch for him.

All of this made something clear: Sylvarent needed some teammates. Not just Bast, since they both juggled enough things already. Someone to help her get through the day-to-day things. Perhaps she could choose some of the more disconnected mages and fighters to help her out? Even a little help would go a long way.

Two knocks on the door. “Amelia, reporting to vice-principal.”

“Come in.” Sylvarent said, shifting some of the papers around on her desk, pulling the relevant paperwork. Amelia, twenty-two, medium wind and water affinity, first circle mage. Excellent work for a child.

The girl’s white hair was unkempt, how odd, given that she normally spent no small effort setting up elaborate braids, buns and curls. Did something bad happen, Sylvarent thought, activating her mage sight. It allowed Sylvarent to see the flow of life around the little girl, which while seemed greater than anticipated, moved in disconcerting ways. Not enough to cause Amelia panic however. Some family troubles?

Amelia walked up to the chair, waiting to be seated, with her hands behind her back. She could not still her anxiety however, which was ridden on her face. “By all means, take a seat, Amelia. You are not in trouble or anything the like.”

“What am I here for, then?” Amelia asked, still distrustful.

“Recruitment, simply.” Sylvarent handed a few pieces of paper to Amelia. “Based on your talents and elements, I believe you are well suited to become an alchemist, if you so choose. It may require you going to a new school, but would provide better education and career opportunities.”

Amelia considered it for a moment, asking, “Will Hefra be joining too?”

“Hefra?” Sylvarent asked, looking through the some of the other profiles. The name sounded familiar. “Your housemate? She definitely could, if she wants to. Fire goes hand in hand with alchemy.”

Amelia heaved a sigh of relief.

“I’m just feeling the atmosphere at the moment, so the actual program will not start until the second half of the year.” Sylvarent said. A bit of shame given those three months could be better spent. “Why don’t I give you two a week to consider the matter before you give a response?”

“Is there anything else I can do for you?” Amelia asked, standing up.

“There is one thing. I noticed your brother, Louis, failed to show up for his last testing. Normally that would be fine, but I got a good feeling that he might have awoken some magical affinities.” Sylvarent said. Amelia made a confused, embarrassed face. So Sylvarent continued. “Six of the seven children in your household have awakened at least one, I feel that an elemental seed is at play. This might have been able to awakened his affinity as well. Could you bring him in one day for him to swing by?”

Amelia shook her head. “He was hopeful that he had some affinity before, but has given up now. Doesn’t want to raise his expectations, only to be disappointed once again.”

True, there were people like that, more than she hoped. Actual elemental affinity would be much higher if the test considered all Divine Magics, but things like Divination were difficult to test, so only the typical six were tested. For what most people knew, only seven Divine Magics worked within Efrye.

Sylvarent sighed. It would be a pity not to try, but would be understandable. Perhaps she could try again after the two joined her alchemy program. “Well, if he ever has a change of heart, my door will always be open.”

Amelia bowed before leaving.

That could have been better, but ultimately rather successful. Amelia had been the tenth child she had asked to join the alchemy class and a few of them did immediately agree. There still were a three other mage schools for her to ask about, so she should be able to scrounge up a full class between the four.

It was times like these she wished she knew how to teleport. Even though it was merely a second level Divine Magic, Divine Magic Meng was notoriously difficult to learn and she simply did not have the spare lifeblood to brute force it. Bast was already running double duty finding all the life crystals to continue her survival and healing. Asking him to do more would simply be too much.

Besides, with a creative use of ‘Vyt: En Imaru x En Aether’ she could fly faster than normal wind specialized mages, with a smaller mana cost. It gave her time to think about her next move and a precious few moments to relax. Bast would be proud.

҉҉҉

Except for the teachers at Western Mage Academy, Sylvarent was able to gather a few mages from the mage academies to either teach or ally with her. Not enough, given just how badly her new network needed people but it was a start. She would need to look at non-mages.

As she flew to the Adventurer District, stopping well outside its airspace. They were a picky group. Technically all civil servants to the crown, but that really only could be applied to the main Adventuring Guild in the Efrye Capital as well as a few key cities. Riveta's was not one and its guild hall showed it, being made of earth like most of the buildings, constructed almost a decade ago. Most would have chosen wood or stone, at least for the guild hall. Then again, most guild masters would have also chosen to incorporate some Faith of Six mosaic windows near the front door, but that was missing, replaced by a statue of Bryn, an old witch, by the front door. They probably would not have taken the fall of Divine Magic Bryn particularly well.

The front door was open, so Sylvarent slipped in. None too soon, for Oten was lying against the desk, his shirt torn from the front. A series of hastily healed scars covered his chest, but his breathing was shallow. Oten looked uninjured but his aura looked weak, especially around his chest. Pale, breathing quickly, and his skin was cool to the touch. He had a deep wound on his chest, one he did heal, but quickly and inaccurately. Quaint was arguing with the attendant.

Sylvarent pressed multiple parts of Oten’s torso, but he winced and groaned ever single one of them, a few spots more than others. “Vyt: Zet Imaru x En Movita.” Sylvarent said. The main injuries were healed, but Sylvarent hardly had much more lifeblood to spare. Instead, she grabbed a few blood replenishing pills, a few soldier pills and a few other lifesaving pills from her first-aid pill bag and gave it to Oten. Oten began to look much better, stabilized at least. After a few minutes, he used ‘Vyt: Zet Imaru x En Movita’. Hopefully his skills had yet to decay – he did not treat life-threatening injuries much, preferring treating lesser wounds.

“Just what happened? Where is the rest of your team?” Sylvarent asked.

“I don’t want to talk about it here.” Oten said, frowning. He closed his eyes, but Sylvarent immediately woke him up, and shoved a couple more pills down his throat. Falling asleep now could be deadly.

Quaint grabbed Oten and said, “Cal Meng.”

Sylvarent sincerely hoped they went home and began flying back to the mansion immediately. She grabbed a speaking stone from her bag. “Bast. You there?”

“What’s wrong?” Bast said. Shouting, explosions and falling objects could be heard in the background.

“Oten is gravely injured.” Sylvarent said, meekly. Hopefully she wasn’t taking too much of his attention.

“I realize. I’m saving the rest of them then I’m coming. Injuries are bad. See you at home in ten? Grab the secret compartment of life crystals when you get home.”

Then the line cut. Not the most calming of news. Sylvarent poured a bit more mana into her flying, to make it go faster, but it wasn’t a skill she practiced – in multiple ways, her balance was unsteady, her mana depleted much quicker than normal, the Divine Magics threatened to break. The annoying thing about combined magics was that altering even one of them a tiny bit disrupted the balance completely – not necessarily a bad thing but difficult to deal with in a hurry.

The mansion was a mess by the time Sylvarent got there. Bast had already returned with the three remaining members of Oten’s and Quaint’s party, who were reasonably upset at being abandoned. Bast had once again lost both of his arms, but was still trying to stop a shouting match between the two groups from escalating. The three members of the party were now only lightly injured, possibly because the amount of lifeblood all around was running low.

Sylvarent ran to Vindica’s room. The life crystals were a seemingly innocent part of the floor, searchable only by ‘Cal Myr’, something which Oten and Quaint did not bother to learn. The repository of life crystals were had dwindled over the years, but there were about twenty, thirty pieces left, so Sylvarent grabbed them all. Hopefully they would be enough.

“Aren’t you a sight to see for weary eyes and hearts.” Bast said, grinning. “Could you grab some regrowth pills from my bag?”

Sylvarent only found a single pill left. It had only been three days since she last saw him. “Where are the other four?”

“Gave them away to people who needed it more.” Bast said, shrugging. He regrew his right arm with the pill and ‘Zet Imaru’ but it evidently took a toll on him. Though that did not stop him from throwing the other five people in the room around. Everyone else seemed too exhausted to hurl any Divine Magics around.

Sylvarent tended the lighter wounds, using pills where she could, life crystals when she could not. Still three people required two each, Bast needed five. She gave Oten and Quaint five each, but Bast took two from each of them. “Three is good enough for them.” He ate the four.

There were only four left. A pitiful sum. And she had run out of pills.

“Eat them.” Bast said, but that wasn’t something Sylvarent would listen to. She wasn’t injured. So he simply grabbed them, then her arm. “En Movita.” A warmth filled her arm, patching a few injuries along the way, but most of the warmth deposited itself as lifeblood in her life core.

“That’s a waste.” Sylvarent grimaced. There were five other people in the room who could use it.

Bast scoffed, looking around the room. “You guys can fight and die, but settle your differences and keep the servants out of it.” Then he grabbed her arm and said, “Cal Meng.” The world distorted for a moment before they landed upon a garden servants were watering.

“We’re in Etavia? Why?” Sylvarent asked.

“Because you failed to take a proper vacation.” Bast said. “You’re eyes are greying, a little more and there’s no going back.” He turned to the servants. “You know the drill.” Then he dragged her into the study.

“Zet Meng.” Bast said, waving his arm.

A black, scaly beast fell onto the coffee table, its legs creaked under its weight. Even while dead, its corpse radiated life. It had wings too small to allow it to fly, but four strong legs and the faintest nub of a horn poking from its head.

“A baby dragon?” Sylvarent asked, gasping.

“No, some type of beast in the middle of a slow transition.” Bast said. “Oten and Quaint thought to capitalize on it, but it was much stronger than they assumed. Of course, their party members thought it got away, but I did manage to kill it. Hurry up and use ‘Zet Movita’ on it.”

“They should get at least some of the spoils. They lost twelve members.” Sylvarent said. And on this point, she wouldn’t budge.

“They would have lost seventeen if one of them didn’t have the foresight to call upon me. And, they failed to capture the bugger.” Bast said, but seeing it fail to convince her, he continued. “I will repay them adequately. A couple dozen platinum coins for each of them, if that pleases you. Plus a couple of life crystals, even to Oten and Quaint. But please, use ‘Zet Movita’ on it. You’ll soon die otherwise.”

Sylvarent eventually did. She knew she needed it and doubted the baby pseudo-dragon could completely heal her wounds. It just didn’t seem right to use it when the corpses of those who found it had yet to even cool. The dust of the beast hardly remained and Sylvarent felt her life core patch a good bit and finally full once more.

Bast had left by that point and she was stranded in the mansion for a few days. Nothing more, for Bast knew she would try to fly to Luxita if he left her alone for too long. What a mess. Vindica was only gone for a week and half of the fourth generation disciples were already dead.

Just when will she be strong enough so that she wouldn’t have to see her loved ones die before her? Not anytime soon. Things were only going to get worse, but until the end took her, it was time for her to make some more regrowth pills.