Chapter 14: 14 - Rift

Vivi hadn’t intended to pick up an apprentice. The buzz of alcohol wasn’t even to blame for her quick decision, like with [Grand Fireworks].

Speaking of that—the spell had been spectacular. She had certainly accomplished her goal of putting on a show. Too much so. The resulting explosion had shocked even her. At least she hadn’t hurt anyone. As far as semi-drunken mistakes went, things could have gone worse.

She told Saffra to enjoy the festival and meet up with her in the Adventurer’s Guild in the morning. The prospect of apprenticeship warranted a longer conversation, but only after Vivi had her wits about her and time to think. Saffra seemed shell-shocked that Vivi had accepted, and had obeyed with surprisingly little protest. She’d asked no further questions, just shuffled off, too stunned to speak.

Vivi wasn’t sure whether she’d made the right decision. Her logic was sound: Having a pseudo-apprentice to answer questions while getting her bearings would be useful.

But more importantly, Saffra hadn’t had the easiest life. Anyone could see that. The presumable lack of parents, the attitude, how she was a fully-fledged adventurer despite being somewhere around thirteen. And most relevantly of all, how she’d seen through those two monsters despite no one else in the Adventurer’s Guild having a clue.

Despite her past, though, Saffra was constantly looking to help people. First Allen, then Daisy. Of course Vivi would agree to teaching her a few things. She had made it clear she might not be a suitable teacher, and that this might not be a ‘full apprenticeship’ like what she expected, but if Vivi could help the girl, she would.

She normally did her best to avoid responsibilities, but this was an extenuating circumstance. Saffra needed someone to look after her. Make sure she didn’t run into another disaster like what had happened earlier today. Somehow, Vivi intuited it wasn’t the first horrible thing she’d seen, or the second. She had bounced back too quickly, and been too quick to recognize the truth of what Lailah and her partner were.

Maybe there was one more reason she had agreed. Vivi, too, had been on her own from an early age. Maybe she empathized with the girl’s situation.

She returned to the celebrations, though much of the revelry had drained from her, and having determined not to drink any more, she found herself slinking away to more private locations: namely a rooftop near where a band was playing, the noises booming off in all directions, magically amplified.

She was lying, tapping her foot with her eyes closed as she enjoyed the festival from the more comfortable safety of her secluded hiding spot, when she discovered that the night had one more surprise in store.

Crack.

Something broke. Eyes snapping open, she scrambled to her feet. It invoked that kind of dawning horror a person might feel seeing a friend slip off a ledge and hear something of theirs go crunch.

Something bad had happened. Something terrible. Ruinous.

Above, the starlit night sky had shattered like a hammer striking a pane of glass. Black and violet fractures spread out like spiderwebs in all directions.

Vivi’s staff was already summoned and outstretched. She braced herself for what might happen, but…

That was it.

The festivities continued. Peace Day didn’t come to a burning, screeching halt. No one cried out or screamed. Indeed, she alone seemed to recognize what had happened.

It was magical in origin. The festival-goers couldn’t see the starry night shattered into a million pieces. Could other mages? Surely the higher-tier ones. There was no way what had happened had flown completely under the radar.

When she was certain the phenomenon was just the ice cracking, but not the entire lake she was standing on about to collapse, she relaxed and studied the disaster’s mana signature.

It was…dimensional in origin, she realized. If there was one branch of magic that even Vivisari was a beginner in—and yes, she meant Vivisari, not her, Vivienne—it was dimensional magic. She had more experience even with meddling with time, and only thanks to the campaigns involving the Shattered Oracle.

In fact, it was those memories that the image above reminded her of. The Shattered Oracle’s experiments that had driven him mad and turned him into a Cataclysm millennia ago. His tinkering with magics best left alone.

Except on a grander scale. The shattering spanned the entirety of Prismarche. What in God’s name had happened here?

When she was certain reality wasn’t about to collapse, she released a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding.

It looked like the festival was over. For her, at least. The revelry continued below with no signs of stopping.

After a moment’s consideration, she went to find the Guard Captain. That seemed like a logical first step. She had no idea how to go about evacuation if it were necessary, or what the standard procedure for a ‘nascent calamity’ was.

The guards at the nearest gatehouse were happy to point her his way. While she’d been under scrutiny earlier, she had captured two of the worst sorts of criminals, so she had the City Guard’s respect. Even if it was a wary sort.

The Guard Captain was in his office. He was too high up the hierarchy to be doing anything as mundane as patrolling, yet, ironically, not low enough he could be excused to enjoy the festival on a night as important as this.

He was already on his feet when a guard escorted her in. “Lady Adventurer,” he said smoothly, but with obvious concern for her unexpected presence. “I’m afraid the supply requisition is still underway, but we should—”

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“You haven’t gotten a report?”

His brow furrowed. “For…the fireworks spell, I presume?”

She stared at him, then cleared her throat. “Not that. Who’s the highest level mage in the city right now?”

He studied her for a moment, then his attention seemed to sharpen. He could sense that something was off. This was a man not unused to taking action, so while most people would have needed time to adjust to the scenario, he replied seamlessly, “There is an orichalcum rank, but we have no means of contacting him quickly, if this is urgent.”

She grimaced—mentally, at least. Her face remained serene as always. “Who can you contact, of a reasonable level?”

“The guard keeps a magical consultant on standby for major events such as today. Marcus Caldwick. Over level seven hundred, and Institute educated, if that matters.”

“Seven hundred? That’s it?”

His eyebrows shot to his hairline, and she dismissed the incoming exchange with a flick of her wrist. Yes, yes, her perspective was skewed.

“Never mind. Lead me to him. Hopefully that’s high enough.”

“For what, might I ask?”

Vivi looked up at the ceiling, through the layers of stone and toward the enormous mana currents lingering in the air. The anomaly was stable. There didn’t seem to be a need for urgency, but neither was she going to dawdle considering the scale of what they were dealing with.

The Guard Captain followed her gaze, seeming confused.

“There’s an anomaly. I’m the only one who can see it from what I can tell. I want another mage of reasonably high level to confirm.”

The Guard Captain opened his mouth, probably to seek further clarification, but when Vivi glanced at the ceiling again, he closed it. He nodded. “Please, follow me.”

A few minutes later, they were in a different office. Marcus stood at the unexpected intrusion of the Guard Captain.

“Ah,” the dark-haired boy said, seeming highly interested when he saw Vivi come in. “You must be the visiting mage Captain Soren mentioned. It’s nice to—”

“Can I teleport you?” she interrupted.

“Er,” Marcus said, glancing at the Guard Captain.

“Yes,” the Guard Captain answered for him, and that was enough permission for Vivi.

A moment later, the fabric of space spat them out on a nearby section of the city’s wall.

“Was that—a multi-person [Blink]?” Marcus asked incredulously. “Where was the spell circle? The invocation?” The dark-haired man was spinning around, more than a little disoriented.

“Focus, Marcus,” the Guard Captain said. “Questions later. Something’s happened.”

Marcus wasn’t nearly as much of a soldier as Soren, because he took a few moments to sort himself out. Eventually, he shook his head to clear it and asked, “What is it?”

She pointed at the sky.

Marcus followed her finger and squinted into the distance. A few seconds passed. “What, pray, am I looking for?”

She had hoped he would just see it. To her refined senses, the starry night had shattered like a pane of glass. Was this high enough tier magic only she would be able to sense it? That would complicate things.

“It looks like this,” Vivi said, drawing Marcus’s attention.

She extruded mana into the air and manipulated it, imitating the currents she could see above—the echo of the lingering spell signature, or what part of it she could make out. She sucked the mana back into herself when she finished demonstrating.

He seemed fascinated by the display. “That’s an incredible level of control,” he told her. “And a very interesting pattern, I’ve never seen anything like it. So dense. How many simultaneous flows were you manipulating? And is there really something…like that…up there…?”

He trailed off, having studied the sky with Vivi’s rough model as a hint.

It was obvious when he saw what she wanted him to. Confusion flickered on his expression first, head tilting. And then he really saw what the problem was, and he blanched. He stumbled backward, arms raising reflexively as if to defend himself.

“What is it?” the Guard Captain asked.

“What the hell is that?” Marcus stammered. “I—I can’t even—”

“What is it?” the Guard Captain demanded, all of his usual friendliness evaporated. It was an order from a superior to a soldier.

Marcus’s spine straightened by the sheer command in the Captain’s voice, and he faced Soren. He opened his mouth, about to answer—then closed it.

“I don’t know,” he said plainly. He looked at Vivi as if for help, almost pleadingly.

“Dimensional anomaly. I felt it the moment it happened. It was like the sky cracked.” Or reality itself. That was why she had panicked, why a sense of wrongness had jolted through her. “It’s been ten minutes or so.”

Weirdly, Marcus’s panic disappeared. He gave her an enormously dubious look. “Dimensional? That other dimensions exist is an extremely unlikely supposition, with no supporting evidence. Much less that magic as a fundamental force is even capable of interacting with such boundaries.”

She stared at him. He shifted, growing embarrassed, but he didn’t back down.

“That is nothing less than what most Grand Magi at the Institute would say.” He looked up at the sky again, and went pale immediately, his head hunching down and shoulders dropping in a flinch. “That said. If there were such a thing as a dimensional anomaly…my professional opinion is that its residual signature might look like that.”

The Guard Captain wasn’t interested in the theory. “How much danger is the city in?”

“I have no idea, sir.”

“That isn’t a helpful response, Marcus.”

“It’s stable,” Vivi interjected. “I’m fairly certain it’s repairing itself.”

They both turned to her.

“How can you even begin deciphering that mess?” Marcus asked. “It’s blinding.”

Vivi paused. Blinding? How so? “It’s definitely stable, and I can confirm that the cracks are healing.”

“How much danger is the city in?” the Guard Captain repeated, but at her, this time. “If you would be so kind as to help, Lady Adventurer.”

She hesitated, and didn’t quite answer. “I think someone tried to open a gateway.”

“A gateway?”

“Someone or something tried to punch a hole through. They failed. All of that,” she gestured at the sky, “is someone trying to throw a rock through a window, but there wasn’t enough force. In fact, I think it would have taken an order of magnitude more.” She glanced at the center of the fracture. “It’s definitely repairing. But slowly. It’ll linger for months. Dimensional boundaries are stable and self-regulating? Interesting.”

The Guard Captain didn’t seem ‘interested’ in the event, and what insights Vivi was gleaning about this unusual branch of magic. “The city is in no danger?” he asked to confirm.

“It’s impossible to say. And also impossible to say what would happen if a gate did form.” She shrugged. “I’m growing more certain by the moment that there’s no active threat though.”

“That’s more than just about any mage in the kingdom could give,” Marcus said, “assuming you haven’t invented everything you’ve said to sound intelligent.”

“Marcus,” the Guard Captain reprimanded, surprised.

“I don’t think she did, for the record,” Marcus said. “It’s just a bit unbelievable. Who are you? With all due respect, Lady Adventurer.”

Vivi eyed him and didn’t answer. She turned to the Guard Captain. “I only came to make you aware of the situation. Do you have means of contacting Meridian?”

“Meridian?”

“The Institute. You’ll probably want to get the mages there to study it.” She flicked her eyes up, attention lingering briefly. It really was fascinating, no matter how much it had panicked her at the start. “I’ll get in contact myself, once I arrive in person.”

“We have a scrying mirror,” the Guard Captain said. “You’re leaving the city soon?”

“Tomorrow morning.”

The Guard Captain seemed to have mixed emotions on that revelation, but he didn’t voice them. “I see. Could you help form the preliminary report with Marcus, for the Institute’s perusal? You’ve done our city a great service for a second time, Lady Adventurer.” He bowed deeply, catching her off guard.

She found herself miffed. It wasn’t like she could say no, after being asked so politely.

What a headache, though. She had just wanted to enjoy the festival.