Isabelle POV
Bella stood dozens of meters away staring intently at a small grey-blue sphere in her hands. She hadn’t moved for over 30 minutes which in and of itself was a bit of a miracle. The ball she was so focused on was a form of mana training for newly awakened mages. It helped them to direct and manipulate their mana flows, which could overwhelm many new young mages. Bella was on the third tier, which means the orb actively resisted any and all mana being directed into it and required the user to bend their mana in a very specific way to get it to enter the orb.
It’s only been a couple weeks since it happened. I know Bella is using this training to ignore everything that has changed, but I couldn’t blame her. As I looked at the hundreds of pastries crammed into pans around me, I knew I was doing the very same thing.
Despite that, I had to admit that she was a bit of a prodigy, like her father was. The third tier orb was something you’d be given around a year after your first awakened while it had only taken her two weeks.
I couldn’t help the smile that creeped across my face while watching her, though it always faded quickly after.
He’d be so proud of you, Bella.
The events after the Victoriad had been little more than a blur. Within an hour of running through the private portal, with an unconscious Bella in my arms, help arrived. Someone I had only met a few times but knew instantly as an old mentor and older sister of sorts for Cadell. She helped me pack what we needed and took us to an underground bunker where we have been living since.
Bella awoke a day later and to say we had been a mess would be an understatement. Tears flowed from dawn to dusk for the first couple days, then periodic bursts every few hours since. As soon as I brought out the first tier orb Bella was hooked, a fire I had never seen before lit in her eyes and she dove in, committing herself to the practice.
Her awakening was special. An unbestowed awakening caused by her own insights. I didn’t fully understand the concept but apparently at that moment Bella had ‘understood’ something and that something had led to her getting an emblem for what seemed like some sort of ‘internal lightning’. It was a very rare rune and my knowledge on the subject wasn’t anything to write home about. There was also her instantaneous vritra blood awakening as soon as she got her rune. Now that I knew was unheard of. It took years and specific training to awaken vritra blood in their descendants, even Cadell had taken a few years.
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The woman helping us was as shocked as I was about the whole thing, especially when Bella had returned the first tier sphere the very first day. She had just laughed and gave her the second tier without any other comments. Speaking of the one helping us, she was arriving now. Her spiky blue hair and thick ridged horns were hard to miss, even from this distance.
“Ulrike,” I bowed in greeting.
“I told you there's no need for that,” She sighed. “So, how are you holding up?”
I looked at Bella for a long moment before answering.
“Bella is pushing ahead at a frankly unbelievable pace. She has this new level of focus and determination I’d never imagined seeing in that bubbly and free girl from even a month ago…”
“That’s great, but I didn’t ask about Bella.” She said as she placed a hand on my shoulder.
My face cracked and tears fell. “I’m… I don’t even know. I know what Cadell had done and I knew it was possible. I just never actually believed it could happen. He was always so above every issue he ever had. Especially this one… After everything Cadell had done for him, he refused to reveal any of it. Or maybe he didn’t feel he needed to? I had seen Arthur back in Maerin town, perhaps if I had gone to him then and explained everything, it wouldn’t have come to this? Should I have? Did my passivity lead to my husband’s-”
Ulrike pressed her forehead to mine, careful not to impale me with her horns.
“You did nothing wrong and you didn’t cause any of this. Just as Cadell did, Arthur, I believe his name was, made his own choices for himself. ‘What ifs’ can’t change the past, they only cause more pain in the present.”
We both stayed like that for a while until I had calmed down. She pet my head making me smile, reminding me of my own interactions with Bella.
“Isabelle, between us, in a few days I will be sent to a military outpost in Vechor. My squad of Wraiths has been tasked with the capture or execution of this ‘Arthur’. We will be directly confronting him while a few thousand soldiers and Viessa and Melzri will be retaking Vildorial.”
I met her eyes and saw pure ice and fury deep within. I simply nodded in reply. She smiled and walked off towards Bella.
Conflictions clouded my heart. Before all this I would immediately answer that I wasn’t one for retribution, only forgiveness, but now? Was I really okay with revenge?
~~~~~~
A few days later I stood, dumbstruck as the projection replayed for the fifteenth time. My mind blank as I stared at the scorched and leveled stretch of land, nothing remained, not even a speck of ash.
Survivors of Vechor massacre claim violet flames erased-
…no signs of life found within-
-everything destroyed…
-mile wide.. Absolutely wiped from existence-
Assumed Asura assault…
Lord High Sovereign is outrag-