Once Vivi was sure that the crisis at Crestwood had come to an end and that she and the other Titled were no longer needed, she set off with Eshara and Hollis. With her flight and acceleration spells, she trivialized a trip that would’ve taken the two adventurers most of the day. Even Titled couldn’t ignore the obstacles that distance posed—not so easily as Vivi, in any case. A skill that she was growing increasingly grateful for.

  Afterward, she followed the pair as they met up with their team… and was soon subjected to yet another uncomfortable set of interactions in which Eshara introduced Vivi by name and title. Corvan woke from his natural slumber shortly after that and, to everyone’s great relief, showed no signs of long-lasting injury. Only confusion and disorientation.

  Vivi politely excused herself when she could, letting Eshara speak with her team privately. Those men and women had a lot to discuss, seeing how Vivi’s arrival meant the party’s intended future had drifted off predicted course rather drastically… or at least Eshara’s had. Vivi spent those idle moments doing what she typically did: studying her notes and mulling over the voidglass and dimensional problems, which remained ever-elusive yet as important as always.

  And I still have that lesson I’m supposed to give the Institute, she thought with a grimace. Need to talk with Lysander about the arm, too. See what he’s figured out about voidglass.

  She made a mental note to drop by the mages’ academy, though she wouldn’t be surprised if she forgot—or just put it off for later. Not a top-priority task, though certainly not something to delay for long.

  An hour or so later, Eshara had hammered out her and her team’s affairs and returned to speak with Vivi. The knight had stripped off most of her armor by that point. She wore practical garments underneath, though they nevertheless identified her as an adventurer at first glance. She had a more muscular build than most elves, though remained lithe and graceful by human standards. Elves couldn’t help be anything but.

  “So, with all that said,” Eshara told Vivi, wrapping up her debrief, “I’m ready whenever you are.”

  Vivi closed her notebook and dropped the item into her inventory. She stood and held a hand out. “To Vanguard, then.”

  As Rafael had suggested, the fact that Eshara would rejoin had been a given, and also unsurprisingly, her team hadn’t protested the idea of joining with her. Why wouldn’t they want to count themself as one of Vanguard’s? In many ways, Eshara’s squad had already been the guild’s spiritual successor.

  “Is anyone else coming with, or just you?”

  “Just me for now, Lady Vivisari.” She laid her hand into Vivi’s.

  Vivi pulled, and the two of them dropped into that dark nowhere-realm hidden within the folds of space. They hurtled across the Human Kingdoms and, in the blink of an eye, materialized thousands of miles north at the entryway to Vanguard’s common room.

  In a coincidence that Vivi couldn’t decide was fortunate or unfortunate, near enough Vanguard’s entire roster was present inside the small room. Mae, Jasper, and Derrick—their first full adventuring team—then Zael and Sarielle Keresi too, the not-yet-official recruits. All five had clearly been in conversation.

  Even Ulden was there, to Vivi’s surprise, though the dwarven jewelcrafter sat on a stool in the corner of the room, etching designs into a band of silver. Maybe showing up at all is his way of being social, she thought, amused.

  The burst of mana announcing her arrival ended whatever conversation might have been taking place. Zael’s voice cut off mid-sentence, and all heads besides one pivoted to Vivi—only Sarielle responded with a delay, her senses unrefined compared to her company.

  Rather than Vivi having to break what she perceived as a suddenly awkward silence, Mae did on her behalf. The elf jumped out of her seat and slapped her hands over her mouth to muffle a gasp. She held that pose for only a second before she squealed, and, stumbling over herself, rushed forward.

  “Eshara! You’re back!”

  Vivi remembered meeting Mae for the first time—the elf had needed to visibly restrain herself from reaching out to touch her, and Vivi very much didn't radiate a desire for that to happen. So the way the elf ran forward to crash into Eshara only caught Vivi somewhat off guard; she already knew Mae was a tactile woman. What surprised her more was how Eshara's serious expression melted into a smile, and how the knight caught Mae and reciprocated the embrace.

  “Miraelle. It's been a few years, that’s certainly true.”

  “Way too many!” Mae complained. “You keep saying you’ll visit more often, then don’t. You disappear for too long.”

  “Duty calls,” Eshara said seriously, with only a hint of an apology. “It’s a long trip to Meridian, and I can rarely find an excuse.”

  “I know, I know.” Mae sighed. “But still.” Releasing the hug, she pulled back and beamed at the other elf. Her eyes flicked up to Eshara’s short hair and lingered there, lips slowly pursing. “Still not used to that, by the way.” She reached up to ruffle the glossy tufts of silver that were messy in a somehow artful way. “It was so pretty before. Not that it isn’t now, of course, but…”

  Vivi hadn’t made much note of Eshara’s new hairstyle, mostly because there’d been more important things to worry about upon first finding the woman. But now that Mae mentioned it, it was a striking choice. Vivi didn’t think she’d seen a female elf with hair as short as Eshara’s, not to the point it could be considered ‘boyish.’ Even male elves tended to wear their hair to their mid-back, if not lower.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Eshara rolled her eyes. “Too much work putting it up each morning, just so I can stuff it into a helmet. It’s fine as it is. It’s just hair.”

  Mae gave the woman a scandalized look. “You’re lucky we’re in human territory,” she said in a tone that was only half joking. “Say that back home and they’ll come hunting you.”

  “They need not worry,” Eshara said dryly, “as they clearly already recruited you as their hound.”

  Mae blushed. “W-well, never mind that. I’m just saying it looks good long! But also like that. Welcome back.” She dipped forward to squeeze another hug around Eshara before pulling away and facing Vivi. “And you as well, of course, Lady Vivisari.”

  Vivi returned the sentiment, though Eshara had slipped past Mae, and Vivi’s attention had naturally followed. She envied once again how little some people made of meeting new faces or reuniting with old friends, because Eshara strode up and, with no hesitation, clasped arms with Derrick and gave the man a warm, if less familiar than her and Mae’s, greeting. After that, she walked up to Jasper. She stopped just short of him, crossed her arms, and frowned at the man.

  Jasper held a hand out, and Eshara ignored it. Just kept frowning.

  “Does this mean you want a hug?” he asked, scratching his cheek. “I’ll need to back up for a running start.”

  Eshara sighed. She reluctantly held her hand out, and Jasper grinned and took it.

  “Welcome back, guildmate,” he said cheerfully.

  Vivi caught a wince flashing across Jasper’s features as Eshara presumably tightened her grip, but she snorted, released, and walked away while shaking her head.

  Vivi didn’t have to strain her imagination to invent a few possibilities for why the serious knight would disapprove of Jasper, but at least there didn’t seem to be genuine animosity. Mild dislike at worst… though Vivi was no social butterfly to be certain. She never had perfect reads on situations like this.

  She was glad she’d warned Eshara about Vanguard’s current status during the flight north, else the woman might have responded to Jasper’s presence—and recruitment—very differently.

  The knight continued her rounds by walking up to the two demon siblings next. Zael had already been standing straight, but he seemed to pull his posture even more rigid, shoulders squared and chest puffed out. And he did strike an intimidating figure. He was tall, broad-shouldered, and better muscled than even Derrick. The military-like uniforms demon nobility wore as their fine dress accentuated that build further. Vivi couldn’t imagine anyone taking one glance at the man and not assuming a lifelong, hard-working warrior.

  Eshara stopped short of him, looked him up and down, then narrowed her eyes.

  “Roving Justicar,” the demon graveled when the appraising silence stretched too long. “Zael of House Keresi greets you.”

  “Keresi. I fought one of your cousins, I’m fairly certain.”

  Zael paused, clearly not having expected that statement. “Not… a cousin,” he said slowly. “My older brother.”

  A silver eyebrow rose. “Is that so? I’ve made it further into this conversation than I did with him. He challenged me to a duel by the second sentence, from what I remember.”

  Zael opened his mouth, then closed it. Eshara waited.

  “There is no virtue greater than the pursuit of strength,” he tried in defense of his apparently shameless brother.

  It was a poorly chosen response, though, because a frown tugged on Eshara’s lips.

  Before Eshara herself could reply, Sarielle seamlessly interjected from her brother’s side, “For it permits all other virtues to shine brighter. The weak are powerless to correct the injustices of the world.”

  Eshara’s gaze slid to the tall demonic woman. She measured Sarielle with calm eyes, the frown slowly disappearing. Sarielle returned an unflustered, neutral smile, not nearly as awkward as when Vivi had met her. Though the Roving Justicar’s reputation fell short of the Sorceress’s, Vivi supposed. Especially to a demon.

  “A more complete creed,” Eshara agreed, “and I’m certain it’s what he meant in spirit. But the pursuit of strength is not a virtue in and of itself.” She waved a hand to dismiss the topic. “I’m not here to argue philosophy. All peoples have their doctrines.”

  A small smirk pulled at her lips even as Zael’s expression morphed into a frown of his own, clearly not liking that his people’s views were being disregarded.

  “He fought well,” Eshara told him.

  Zael blinked, and the statement broke the tension. He grinned. “Heard the story more times than I could stomach. Never thought I’d get the chance to duel you myself, Lady Justicar.”

  “If and whenever the request can be accommodated,” Sarielle said pleasantly.

  “Well, yes,” Zael said. He shifted in place. “Whenever you have the chance, naturally.”

  “Meeting demons can be rather tedious, I’ve found, Zael of House Keresi,” she said dryly. “I always end up with half a dozen duels scheduled.” The words weren’t disapproving, and Zael laughed and clasped his arm to Eshara’s when she offered. The elf repeated the action with Sarielle.

  Finally, Eshara turned to the last person in the room, seated in the corner and not having spoken a word. Vivi wouldn’t be surprised if the jewelcrafter hadn’t so much as lifted his gaze from his engraving yet.

  “Hail, Ulden,” the elf called.

  “Hail, Eshara,” came a grunted response.

  And that was that. Eshara smiled and, rather than taking offense at the terse hello, seemed fondly amused.

  The tension in her shoulders looked like it had lessened after the round of greetings. Vivi hadn’t brought Eshara back to Vanguard with the intent of lightening her spirits, but meeting a few old friends appeared to have done so. And Vivi was more than a bit happy—and relieved—because of that. Eshara had suffered through an unpleasant day to say the very least.

  With the interaction finished, Eshara faced Vivi, telling her it was time to move on to the business half of why they’d come to Vanguard.

  The problem was, the one person she needed wasn’t present. “Does anyone know where Rafael is?” Vivi asked the room.

  “Probably the Guild?” Mae supplied with a question in her voice when no one answered. “But no, I don’t think anyone knows for sure.” She looked around and received head shakes in response.

  “I’ll go and find him, then.” Vivi told Eshara, “You can look through your forge in the meantime, if you want.”

  Every other crafter had visibly been itching to do so—if they hadn’t outright beelined for their respective workshop—but for whatever reason, Eshara winced at the offer.

  “Or not?” Vivi said.

  “No, there’s no problem, Guildmaster. I’m just remembering how much work I put into forging my current tools, only for them all to be made irrelevant.”

  Mae laughed. “The entitlement. I think any other blacksmith would murder you for those words. ‘Oh no, I have access to Vanguard’s forge again.’” She walked up to Eshara and grabbed her by the wrist. “Come on, let’s go check it out. I know you’re dying to, no matter what you say.”

  Seeing the two craftsmen—who were clearly closer friends than Vivi had known about—walk away, she searched through the room with a sweeping gaze, saw nobody trying to get her attention, and raised her staff as she pulled together a [Blink].

  One steward to fetch, and then the discussions on Vanguard’s future would begin in earnest.