Chapter 88 — A Future Sealed in Crystal

“Shall we?” Phaelys prompted, motioning toward the waiting carriage.

Ria didn’t have a clue what she had done to make him suddenly jealous (of her!). Her girl’s intuition was signaling he wouldn’t be able to refrain from spilling the reason once they were no longer making a public scene at an academy entrance frequented by prominent nobles. After all, if the slight eagerness hidden in his motion toward the carriage was any indication, he desperately wanted to ask her something and only a childhood instilled with years and years of social discipline was holding him back.

With no reason to refuse or delay, Ria let the less-patient-than-he-seemed noble boy and the page with them assist her into the carriage. Lady Janacythe’s watchful eye was evaluating her performance, and Ria made sure to comport herself with grace and style as would be expected during her debut. This outing would be a good final test to iron out any remaining deficiencies in her manner.

After a polite bow to Lady Janacythe, Ranger joined her, lightly leaping into the carriage and daintily posing himself on a seat as if he were a guardian spirit beast watching over the carriage occupants.

Having seated herself first, Ria made use of the opportunity to observe Lady Janacythe’s manner of boarding the carriage, carefully noting where the lady’s gaze went, every subtle movement and change in posture, and the differences between how she interacted with the servants and Phaelys.

As when Iori had her mother’s carriage sent to pick her up, Phaelys’ carriage was accompanied by a small squad of guards led by a knight, all in Vesali House colors. Seeing the guards reminded Ria of Cassielle’s incredulity at her traveling with only Hulle’s chaperone and guards. Maybe she really should hire a personal knight of her own, even if just to avoid misunderstandings from other nobles observing her outings with Hulle and Phaelys.

As the carriage pulled away from the marble steps of Whitestone Hall’s arched public entry, Phaelys’ couldn’t wait any longer. “Lady Janacythe warned me about the changes to your aura after training with Lady Asara, but I must admit, the effect exceeds even my high expectations! This purity of meaning isn’t something that can be faked!”

He leaned forward, his eyes gleaming with interest even as his face made a complicated expression and he lowered his voice to a whisper barely audible over the clatter of the carriage’s wheels and horses’ hooves. “How it came to be so, I cannot begin to understand, but from your projected aura, it’s clear that our heritages are similar in their divine and royal origins. I can’t help but feel jealous of how much you’ve seen and done—how much you set your own goals and sought your own destiny.”

At first Ria worried that her aura was revealing too much without Hemse’s medallion on, but as she processed the meaning of his words an indignant fury began twisting inside her.

He was jealous of her freedom! That she had the bloodline she did and didn’t have her family around telling her what to do!

Ria had to consciously close her jaw at Phaelys’ admission, but the more she thought about it the angrier she became.

“My parents were taken away by soldiers and killed.” Her blunt reply was almost a growl by the time she finished spitting it out. “I didn’t go on adventures or fight barbarians for fun; I survived.”

A rare, almost panicked, expression rippled across the elite boy’s face, and ill-advised words slipped out, “But… you’re a C-rank adventurer…” He winced as he said it.

She counted three breaths to steady her anger. He already knew what she went through during the Siege. Had she not already explained the brutal reality of being an adventurer?

“I needed—still need— training, strength, and coin if I am ever to avenge my family and village, that’s why I joined the guild and repeatedly took on dangerous jobs. It wasn’t a leisurely lark in the woods, and it certainly wasn’t for thrills! For every bug-stung, sweat-, mud-, and blood-covered success, there were near disasters, like the time I had to swallow down an acid-coated quickslime to keep it from going into my lungs!”

Phaelys gulped at the thought, but she could almost feel the idolizing fervor returning to his gaze as he impassionedly added, “But even things like that-! My family would never let me face such danger. My accomplishments are all hollow—without risk! It’s why I so eagerly agreed to your demand for a duel without the arena’s safety magic. I thought maybe I could feel what it was like to be scared, to face a real chance of injury and still-”

“Your family that you still have!” Ria snapped, having reached the end of her patience. Stirred by his callous persistence, the fury within called to her, and she let the fate devouring aura infuse her eyes, locking his gaze to hers.

Ranger supported her with a judging look of his own directed the boy’s way.

Several seconds passed before a dip in the road allowed Phaelys to tear his gaze away.

He shivered and went silent for a while before bravely raising his gaze back to hers. “I’m sorry, Ria. I was insensitive to your loss and hardship. I apologize.”

Ria’s brows raised at the sudden and sincere apology, and she let her eyes return to normal. Honestly, she wasn’t being very understanding of his circumstances, either. The strength of her own feelings surprised her. Wasn’t she proud of her accomplishments? Proud that she survived and became strong? There was just something in the way he… trivialized her suffering? Was that why? “…fine. I mean, it’s not fine. But, I won’t hold it against you… much.”

Lady Janacythe snorted. Behind a fan. Like a lady.

The tension resolved, Ranger returned to his efforts at impressing Lady Janacyth by pretending to be a guardian statue.

Still feeling moody and a little embarrassed at being petty after Phaelys apologized, Ria turned to look out the carriage at the shops passing by. She let out a sigh. Why was she being so prickly with him? Shouldn’t she be trying to avoid offending this noble heir and House Vesali?

Was it a side effect of using the shadow aura together with the pearl? Ria performed the Soulkeeper calming technique and reviewed the state of her internal energy, reviewed how it was interacting with the idea-filled layer of shadow energy she was wrapped in.

Sure enough, the meaning in the aura had shifted slightly to include some of her indignation. That didn’t explain her sudden mood change but was probably why Phaelys realized his mistake and apologized. His ability to detect minute changes in a person’s aura really was exceptional.

She focused on the pearl and used the custom glyphs to help restore the purity of the ideas her aura was supposed to be projecting.

Wendra and Mina hadn’t just been flattering or consoling her earlier. Even she could readily see the change in quality and control the enchanted pearl and its custom fate, devouring, and shadow glyphs gave to her shadow aura projection. It was to the extent that the focus tool had turned out to be the missing piece Ria needed to achieve subtlety with her fake aura and was the deciding reason she chose to risk practicing the aura during the afternoon outing.

A tool to aid her shadow aura and custom glyphs for fate, devouring, and shadow weren’t the only things gained from the morning’s impromptu and rushed project either. An insight had come to her. When modifying the fate glyph, Ria felt an inkling of a possible Divine Judgement glyph teasing her awareness.

That her Truth would form a glyph—or rather, existed as a glyph—was a shock. Afterward, she felt a little silly for being so surprised. If glyphs were a language that described natural truths, would it be natural for her Truth to have a glyph representation? What realizing the glyph would mean to her strength and to imposing her Truth on the world… she was almost certain it would be significant, maybe as much as realizing the seed itself.

Another task for the future.

Having completed the meditation, her thoughts returned to the present, and it was painfully clear that neither the pearl nor the shadow aura nor her pride were causing her unstable emotions. She was nervous. And, it was different from the way Hulle’s teasing could make her heart seize.

She snuck a glance. The usually implacable noble boy wasn’t looking at anything in particular and seemed also lost in thought.

It wasn’t just spending the afternoon with Phaelys and the role the boy might play in her future that she was nervous about, she was also anxious and excited to see the outfit Lady Vienne had crafted for her. She would be making her debut wearing the work of such a famous artisan, after all!

Or stated another way: she would be wearing the work of such a famous artisan in front of the country’s most influential and powerful people. Wearing a dress by Lady Vienne would be one thing, but a priestess’ regalia? What would be the consequences?

She would need Phaelys’ help to navigate the politics. She couldn’t leave this awkward mood between them.

With the day being Goldday and the roads congested with other nobles in carriages and throngs of shoppers on foot, she still had time to fix things before they arrived at Lady Vienne’s workshop.

“I… I should also apologize, Young Lord Phaelys. My circumstances are… causing me stress and worry, and I shouldn’t have taken that out on you.”

Phaelys nodded and made a gentle gesture with his hand. “Perhaps there is another topic to pass the time with that would be more pleasant?”

Ria hesitated. Was this an opportunity to ask about that?

“There is one… that I would ask about, but if it is something protected by secrecy, it’s not my intent to put the young lord in an awkward position…”

The way she prefaced the potential topic had both Phaelys and Lady Janacythe’s attention, and the intrigued boy gestured for her to continue.

Wanting to increase the likelihood of a positive response, Ria chose to give up a secret as she introduced the topic and her request, “I learned that my affinity has ‘crystal’ as one of its properties, and I’ve begun learning about crystal magic. I’m still a bit stuck at properly grasping the energy transformation. Do you have any advice?”

Phaelys’ eyes widened a bit, and his earlier eagerness returned, “Was that what caused the explosion in front of Shining Sun Hall?”

Ugh.

Of course, he’d be excited about getting into a fight and blowing something up! She gripped her skirt. This was too important. She wouldn’t get mad. She wasn’t going to get mad.

Wait. Ria’s eyebrows rose, and she asked, almost incredulously, “Does crystal magic cause explosions?”

Phaelys laughed. “It can. Using crystal magic to counter an energy draining formation is an advanced technique requiring experience and skilled control. The crystals can become unstable if there’s a resonance due to properties of the absorbed energies, the environment, or any number of unpredictable factors. If either the spell creating the crystal formation fails or the spell creating the draining formation is disrupted by the resonance, then…”

He shrugged after tailing off meaningfully.

Dumbfounded at the possibilities of using crystal magic in such a way, Ria wordlessly blinked for a few clattering clackity-clacks of metal striking cobblestone. Eventually, she indicated a denial with her hand, “No, it wasn’t anything so grand. When I could no longer resist the shadow magic with my aura, I shot a voidstone arrow through the third-year girl’s spell matrix.”

It was Phaelys’ turn to blink. “Ah…”

Lady Janacythe rubbed her forehead for some reason. “House Vesali would appreciate if a certain prospective marriage or consort candidate didn’t engage in suicidal behavior.”

Ria blushed with embarrassment and pretended to take an interest in the warehouses and workshops they were passing as they left the main streets for the artisan district.

Huh? Consort candidate? Did that mean if she failed to win the competition for Phaelys, that they expected her to… with some old guy who was already married? Ugh. Could she end up something like Nielle’s less-favored step-mom? Her brain stuttered to a halt at the attempt to imagine such a scenario. Awkwardness and possible unpleasantness aside, she was doubtful that sort of limited position with the House would give her the influence she desired. She would be better off pursuing options with another Greater House in that case.

“You said you were having difficulty with the energy transformation…”

Her attention was brought back to the boy she should really probably be doing her best to win over.

“If the House doesn’t mind, I could gift you the focus tool I first learned with.” Phaelys looked to Lady Janacythe, and receiving a nod, he handed over an amethyst wand wrapped with a well-worn gold handle. “It was a birthday gift from my father.”

Ria stared blankly as she held the wand in her hand and felt Phaelys’ energy still stored inside. Her fingers settled easily into the places where the handle’s ornate engraving had been smoothed out through countless hours of use. Could the wand have been passed down through generations from father to son, or had Phaelys put in so much practice that he wore the gold handle smooth on his own?

Her excitement at having a real Vesali focus tool filled with their special crystal energy warred with her reluctance to accept an item with that extent of personal importance. What did it mean that Phaelys so readily offered it to her? Did he no longer treasure it? Was he not on good terms with his father? Was she overthinking things?

“Can you teach me how to properly use it?” Ria asked, failing to hide her excitement even with the trouble such a gift might bring.

He nodded, demonstrating the magic using a ring he was wearing, a large amethyst forming in his hand. While demonstrating the magic, he explained the process, repeating the explanations of the old Vesali text almost word-for-word.

Ria’s earlier irritation was quickly forgotten as she greedily used Mage Sight to drink in every example he showed her, and did her best to learn the Vesali’s signature magic. When she finally succeeded at crystal creation using a blend of Phaelys’ energy and her own, the created amethyst was spiderwebbed with light-absorbing veins of crystalized orichalcum, but she was ecstatic! Not to mention, that If he was teaching her from the same book, she should be able to ask her questions without raising suspicion! He also didn’t seem to mind teaching her…

A thought about why that might be caused her to freeze up for a moment, mid cast.

Between the wand and him being allowed to teach her crystal magic, was it because the decision to make her Vesali had already been made? Had she just sealed her fate?

“You’re a quick learner, Ria,” Phaelys congratulated her as the eerie crystal fell to her cupped hand. “The energy density of the crystal is surprisingly high. I don’t think I’ve ever seen its like before.”

Lady Janacythe was also staring at the pebble-sized crystal, her eyebrows disappearing into her hairline. “I had some hope, but to actually see a metal affinity also capable of manifesting crystal…”

Ria gulped. She’d taken the risk to learn crystal magic from Phaelys—in front of his chaperone—and now it was too late to take it back.