Chapter 37 — An Answer, A Report, and the Daily Shadow

“Greetings, Ria,” Phaelys began. “I have come with good news from my parents.”

Mind stuttering to a halt at what his words probably meant, Ria couldn’t stop herself from curtsying in response even though they were at the academy and wearing robes. “Ah, greetings, Phaelys. Does that mean…?”

“Indeed, it does.” As he handed over the sealed letter, he gave her a pleasant but practiced smile, and Ria wasn’t sure how genuine it was.

“Um, thank you for the confections. I really enjoyed them,” Ria mumbled, fiddling with her robe’s trim. “I planted the Shadowbloom flowers and have been using them to assist with my meditation.”

“I’m glad to hear it. Your aura does feel denser than last we met.” Phaelys gave her a slight approving nod. “Which of the confections was your favorite?”

“The pink and yellow ones with a taste of fresh radish and beetroot,” Ria hesitantly admitted, worried that her preference would highlight her common origins—the taste reminding her of the traditional spring sweets her mom would make was a large part of her reason for liking them.

“Ah, Green Shoots and Red Roots After Dawn.” The princely boy nodded deeper than last time. “Arguably one of Chef Asliryni’s best from his series of confections inspired by traditional sweets. I expect you’ll also like Golden Gords Of Life’s Blessings and Black Roots Among The Sun-touched Fruits.”

“Thank you, Phaelys. I’ll have to try those,” Ria replied with honest appreciation for the suggestion.

Phaelys thought deeply about something for a while, which led to an awkward silence where Ophesia looked like she’d swallowed something bitter and Nielle was growing more irritated by the moment.

The situation was terribly intimidating, and Ria didn’t dare look around at the crowd making hushed mutters around her, but there was still something she needed to tell Phaelys, so she hurriedly spoke up before missing her chance, “Um, Phaelys? Lady Asara wants me to bring my debut escort to this Divinesday’s tea party…”

“You… you…” The disbelieving sputtering from Nielle made Ria cringe at the thought of having just made another social blunder. Was that something better asked in a letter? Was she being rude asking him in public with such short notice? A quick glance in Orlisi’s direction received a disturbingly proud grin and thumbs up from the elf girl who seemed to be enjoying the spectacle immensely.

Phaelys held up a hand to stop his cousins from exploding. He didn’t appear offended. “Ria, is Administrator Asara sponsoring your debut?”

Ria nodded. “She is.”

“In that case, such would indeed be expected,” Phaelys said. “Shall I pick you up for the event?”

At the upset grumble from Nielle and annoyed huff from Ophesia, Ria hedged, “If it pleases you, but I’m fine with meeting at Lady Asara’s manor if it’s inconvenient?”

“I doubt there will be a problem. Is there anything else?” he asked, his gaze as placid as that day at the arena.

Ria shook her head vigorously which drew snickers from the gathered spectators.

“Then I shall leave any remaining arrangements to correspondence. I look forward to meeting again on Divinesday,” Phaelys told her and raised his gaze to her taller companion. “Orlisi, if you don’t mind walking with me for a ways, there are some matters you may be able to assist me with.”

“Oh, oh. I don’t mind at all! This promises to be further amusing, indeed,” Orlisi readily agreed, and Ria wanted to groan.

“You knew, didn’t you?” Ria grumbled at her friend as she moved aside to no longer be blocking Phaelys from leaving. The accusation was met with a smirk, a pat on the back, and a mouthed ‘Good luck!’.

The spectating students cleared a path for Phaelys and Orlisi as they left, and once the academy prince and elf girl were swallowed by the crowd, Nielle growled, “Meddling elves!”

Ophesia gave Ria a warning glare. “Just because Cousin Phaelys has chosen to take pity on you, don’t delude yourself with unreasonable expectations. You’d better learn proper etiquette and not do anything further to embarrass House Vesali.”

Ria blinked. Was that an attempt at a concession? Not wanting to jeopardize her sudden and surprising victory and hoping to mollify them, she quickly lowered her head to the purple-haired pair. “Thank you, Ophesia. I’ll do my best not to be an embarrassment.”

“As if that’s even possible,” Nielle scoffed.

With everything she had gone through these last few days, Ria thought she'd be more angry at Ophesia and Nielle about the attack by their followers than she was. The fury she had felt in the washroom afterward was still there, but there was no immediate desire to act on it. Maybe the soul cultivation or Lu Xi’s calming technique had helped? Or maybe she was still too stunned and drained by navigating the unthinkable turn of events?

Looking dissatisfied but not entirely disapproving of Ria’s attempt to diffuse their ire, the older of the two Vesali girls humphed. “Let’s go, Nielle. Our presence is keeping others from getting to class.”

Nielle gave Ria a final glare before following after with a swish of flower-scented curls and an upturned nose.

Once the Vesali girls were out of the way, Ria found herself pushed and pulled into the classroom by a gaggle of her overexcited and squealing commoner classmates. She could only faintly smile and nod and give brief answers and embarrassed denials, overwhelmed by the girls wanting to congratulate her, wish her well on her debut, and ask how she got Phaelys and the Vesali family to agree. Wild ideas such as meeting in secret and exchanging messages in the gifts were suggested, and Ria wasn’t sure if denying them was worse than letting the girls’ imaginations run wild.

Eventually, she negotiated an escape and took her seat next to Faris and Yentis who had snuck in through the room’s other door to avoid the commotion. Neither looked particularly pleased at the attention she brought their way. Not many of the noble girls were pleased with the outcome, and at least one of the girls who ambushed her with those wands of Oberford’s Stenchtastic Sludge of Permanent Staining was from this class.

Ria looked around the room to find the girl. It took Ria two passes of her fellow students to spot the girl sitting off by herself in a back corner, out of sight and looking miserable. The girl’s hair was arranged much more conservatively. Had Ophesia and Nielle disciplined her?

The thought had Ria wondering if some sort of workable middleground could be achieved with Phaelys’ cousins. Even just a non-adversarial relationship would be an improvement after the animosity engendered by her actions since entering the academy.

Zena showed up about then, looking pleased with herself as she caught Ria’s gaze and sauntered over.

“Keira said you all had an afternoon commitment, so I got us signed up for a morning slot in this week's Newcomer’s Exhibition Matches,” Zena reported with a huge grin while taking the seat next to Ria.

Ria slowly nodded. It wasn’t unexpected, but with her Grand Games practice after classes, that only left tomorrow to practice with Zena and the others in preparation. Of course, she wasn’t being idle in her own preparations, regardless. Since agreeing to participate, Ria had thought of some methods to maximize her performance within the rules Hulle had set for her—whether he would see it as a loophole against the intent of his restrictions… it was probably fine.

“Hey, what’s with all the new talk of you and Phaelys?” Zena asked after overhearing some of the excited conversations still going on around the room.

Ria grimaced. “Phaelys came by and delivered… his agreement to be my escort.” Thankfully she managed to avoid mentioning the letter which was now securely in Jeni’s pouch. If Zena had heard about the letter, there was no way the girl wouldn’t make Ria open it in front of her.

Zena groaned and looked pained. “You’re saying I missed seeing Phaelys coming in person to accept your ridiculous demand in front of the whole class?”

Ria nodded.

“How’d it go?” she demanded, eager eyes searching Ria’s face for tells.

“It went… well? I guess?” Ria offered. “He agreed to attend Lady Asara’s tea party with me this Divinesday.”

After staring for a full minute, Zena scooted up on the shared desk of the row behind them and slid over to plop down in the seat behind Faris and Yentis. “Alright, boys. Spill it. I want details.”

The boys objected that they hadn’t seen anything, but Zena wasn’t buying it and continued to grill them.

Ria huffed and rolled her eyes at Zena’s efforts, and while the girl was busy, she looked around the room again to distract herself and noticed some of Ophesia and Nielle’s followers hunched together and trying to keep their voices quiet. Curious, Ria risked a discreet casting of Listening Winds.

(“…Murriel was attacked and her cloak was stolen. That wasn’t all. You all saw the Daily Shadow’s story about Elaine’s father being a regular client of various brothels…”)

Ah… so that was why the girl was sitting off by herself. Desi must have already discovered the identity of the leader girl—Elaine apparently—and found something embarrassing about the girl’s family. The idea that the deal with Desi may have done lasting harm to Elaine’s family made Ria uncomfortable. It was one thing to exact revenge in a duel. But this…

No. Ria hardened her resolve. They would have surely done the same to her if they could, and without severe consequences to people who acted against her, the acts would escalate.

And if she did small things to help Elaine later, then that would further distance her from suspicions of having been involved in commissioning the Daily Shadow stories as retaliation.

Ria continued to listen until the instructor showed up, jotting down each of the names she heard. Desi would surely find them useful.

“Come on, Orlisi! You were there!” Zena complained.

Ria tried to make herself as inconspicuous as possible at their usual lunchtime reading table and pretended to read to avoid Keira and Arthur’s disbelieving gazes as Zena was demanding details about the missed Phaelys encounter from a surprisingly close-lipped Orlisi.

“Psst. Ria!” a somewhat familiar voice stage-whispered at her from beside a nearby bookshelf.

Why was Atresia acting all secretive?

Ah! It had been a week since they last talked.

Realizing what the matter was probably about, Ria told her friends she’d be back in a bit and, doing her best to ignore the raised eyebrows, hurried off to follow Atresia back to the sealed testing room.

Seeing Ranger’s change and the change in Ria’s eyes, Atresia immediately suggested they retest both her affinity and attunements. Ria thought the changes might be dramatic, but the only differences were a slightly larger blob and a new spike reaching almost all the way to the symbol for earth element.

When Ria was disappointed at the paucity of the change, Atresia was quick to rebuke her, “Any change is a huge thing! Sure, gaining an earth affinity from your familiar isn’t unusual, but to actually grow your bloodline affinity! It’s every mage’s dream! It means that your power will continue to grow the more you unlock your bloodline...”

By the end of her impassioned tirade, Atresia was gushing at the possibilities, saying that Ria could become the greatest mage since the last time of trials!

The Oracle didn’t disagree. But that made Ria worry even more. With the scale of things… crushing Revant might only be a stepping stone on the path of what was required of her.

Seeking to change the subject, Ria prompted, “Did you finish the research? Is that what you wanted to tell me about?”

“Finished… Well, no. There’s always more to find, but I did tell you to give me a week, so I wanted to at least report on what I’d found,” Atresia hedged, and at Ria’s raised eyebrow, the older girl continued, “Let’s just say, that what I didn’t find might be as interesting as what I did. Specifically, I wasn’t able to find records of anyone with the same affinity as yours, which is surprising. It means that either your affinity is one of the hidden affinities where information is actively sought out and removed, or… it’s a new god-given affinity.”

Ugh. Either of those was trouble. Ria met the researcher girl’s eyes. “But you did find something?”

Atresia nodded. “I was able to discover that precious and magical metal affinities aren’t unusual among deep dwarves, particularly their royalty. Though whether that is because they were royalty or became royalty because of their bloodline isn’t clear. The history of a certain Drelfgar Dragonfriend with an adamantite affinity was fascinating reading, and I do admit to getting a bit distracted by it.”

Dwarven royalty?

Ria pushed the idea aside for a moment. There was something else she was curious about because of the newcomer attunement tests at her Order, and Atresia might know the answer. “Was Luventi also a metal affinity mage?”

Atresia’s face lit up at the question. “There were rumors that he was a mithril affinity mage, but authors attesting such are almost universally dismissed as fancifully and unserious. According to accounts of his many battles and tournament victories, it does seem true that, when pressed, Luventi was thought to have used magic that summoned temporary shields and walls seeming to be mithril. The critics argue that if such a bloodline existed, surely it would have been seen in others by now. However, Luventi was adopted, and it’s unknown whether he had any children.”

Ria squashed any burgeoning notions that she might be descended from Luventi. After all, judging by Luventi’s newcomer attunements, his affinity leaned more toward light.

Dwarven on the other hand… she was a bit short. Ria tried to think back about whether either of her parents had been shorter or stockier than the average. They had both seemed tall to her, but her dad was shorter than Jarrel maybe… and her mom was about the same?

She tried to picture them more clearly, but just as had happened when she attempted the soul cultivation, she still couldn’t remember them clearly. A wave of negative emotions again knotted her stomach. Ria berated herself for not having drawn portraits to remember them by. Now it was too late.

Wait, that might not be true. With her brothers still alive, she might still be able to divine their likeness via the world’s akashic memory… and Jarrel! Maybe he could help her draw them even without magic.

“Something wrong?” Atresia asked.

After a calming breath, Ria blinked back the tears and shook her head. “No, you mentioned Dwarven kings. Were there any with orichalcum affinities?”

“Orachalcum, huh,” Atresia repeated and the third-year’s eyes drifted to Ria’s wrist with the black bracer. “Not that I found records of… but the dwarven cultures tend to be secretive about such things, so I’m not sure we can draw any conclusions one way or the other without better sources to reference.”

“Thanks for your hard work, Ezzie.”

“Sure. It’s fun,” Atresia stated and gave Ria the smile of a craftswoman deep into enjoying her craft. “I’ll keep searching. There’s bound to be something.”

“So you’re from Revant, huh?” Phoebe asked as they awaited Researcher Vimlov to begin class.

“Yup,” Ria answered easily, her interest more on the book she had borrowed from the Grand Library—an enchanting book about precious metals with an in-depth section on the properties of orichalcum.

“And you used fire magic to cook a grillot alive while crossing the wilds, huh?”

Ria glanced at the smiling girl sitting next to her and tilted her head. Why did Phoebe know about that?

The curly-haired girl chuckled. “You haven’t heard?”

“No?”

Orlisi snickered then pretended to look innocent when Ria shot a glance in the elf’s direction.

When Ria returned her attention to her human diviner friend, Pheobe handed over a large, folded page that caused Ria’s eyebrows to raise upon sight of the most prominent title: The fascinating background of the foreign first-year who dueled Phaelys Vesali.