The sight of the elf woman almost triggered my fight-or-flight instinct. I was still on edge from the Dungeon, but more than that, she looked so similar to Pride that I thought I was about to be roped into something awful again. She was just as tall, had the same long, curly, blond hair, and the same blinding smile. But she was also different.
Her features were sharper, and her expression softer. Her smile reached her eyes, which were gold like her father’s, and her posture exuded warmth and friendliness instead of arrogance and condescension.
“Come on in!” she said, grabbing my arm.
I allowed myself to be dragged inside. The interior of the bookstore was a few degrees warmer than I was used to, but it was not uncomfortable. Or, it would not have been uncomfortable if I was still human. As a vampire, only the dangerous extremes of temperature have any effect on me.
“Lucy,” said Anatoly from behind his desk. “Did you have a productive trip?”
I hesitated. “Yes.”
“Good.” He nodded. “She’s already introduced herself, but in case you needed confirmation, that lovely young woman next to you is indeed my daughter Natalya.”
“Nice to meet you.”
“I never thought I’d get to see a vampire again. Welcome back to the land of the living.”
“Thanks.”
“Now, I’ve heard you’re a no-nonsense kinda gal. I like that. So I’ll get straight to the point. I’d like you to be my apprentice.”
“Huh? Sorry?”
“Dad says you could use all six elements within days of learning how to control mana. That kind of talent doesn’t come around often. Or ever. If it was anyone but Dad saying it, I would have called bullshit, but here he is, and here you are.
“I don’t mean to brag, but I am one of, if not the best mage in the world right now. The only others around my level are other elves, and unlike them, I take students. Not only do I have millenia of knowledge and experience, I have access to just about every Dungeon in existence, and if I think you’re ready, I may also let you tag along on my missions from the Church. With my teaching and resources, even an infant could become an archmage within a decade. For you, if it took more than two years, I would be shocked and disappointed.”
“Why?”
“Why would I give up an opportunity to teach what might be the most talented mage of the last thousand years? Especially during a time when the world could use all the talent it can get. The Demon Kings are tricky this time. It’s already been a month, and we’ve only gotten one, and only identified two more. You could be a great help, if you learned under me.”
Whether intentional or not, she had set a wonderful trap for me. There was no good reason for me to reject, and even if it didn’t confirm anything, turning down the offer after she explained its importance in the fight against the Demon Kings would make her suspicious of me, if she wasn’t already. Either that, or she would think me a coward. Neither were acceptable.
“Alright,” I said. “I’ll do it.”
“Really?” she asked.
“Yes? Why wouldn’t I?”
“Dad said that you didn’t like accepting things for free.”
“This is apprenticeship. It’s different.”
“I offered you apprenticeship,” chimed Anatoly.
“Ten minutes after meeting me for the first time,” I countered. “It was suspicious.”
“Well I met you three minutes ago,” said Natalya.
“Well that’s also different. Anatoly already told me a lot about you, and he’s told you a lot about me, and I’ve been around long enough to-” I stopped when I realized that both elves were holding back laughter. “You get the point.”
“Well, I’m glad that was easy,” said Natalya, chuckling. “We can start tomorrow. I’ll take you into the local Dungeon to see firsthand how you operate. Until then, why don’t you tell me a bit about yourself?”
“Hasn’t Anatoly already told you enough?”
“As much as I trust him, secondhand accounts are never as reliable as firsthand. So let’s start with something simple: What’s your favorite color?”
“Purple.”
“Like your eyes?”
“No. Darker. How did you know what color they were?”
“I made that pendant you’re wearing.” She held out a hand and a sphere of pure dark purple appeared above it. “So, something more like this?”
“Not that dark.”
“This then?” The sphere turned a few shades lighter.
“Yes.”
“Cool. This is mine, by the way.” The purple was replaced by a soft, sunset orange. “Dad says you’re knowledgeable about music. Do you play an instrument?”
“Piano.”
“Are you good?”
“Yes.”
“...You know, you’re not giving me much to work with here.”
“I’m answering all your questions.”
“Yes, but you’re so unenthusiastic. We’re going to spend the next few years together. Don’t you want to take a chance to build at least a bit of a relationship before then? You might change your mind about the apprenticeship once you get to know me a bit more.”
“How are we supposed to build a relationship by knowing each other's favorite colors?”
“How would we build a relationship without knowing our favorite colors? Don’t underestimate the importance of the little things like that. It’s what relationships are built on.”
“Okay.”
“Lucy, are you feeling alright?” asked Anatoly with a frown. “Did something happen down in the Dungeon?”
“I’m fine. Just tired.”
“Well, then don’t let us keep you. Your room is still yours, if you need to rest.”
“I’ll be in the basement.”
I left without another word. I’m sure they started talking about me as soon as I was out of earshot. I wouldn’t be surprised if Anatoly had been spying on me and already knew exactly what had happened in the Dungeon, and that his question before was just pretense. He was probably trying to give me some space to ‘process’ or something. I didn’t need it, but I appreciated it, as it allowed me to get away from his daughter, whose profession was finding and executing people like me.
I spent the next two hours practicing my earth magic, specifically with metal. If I had been better at it, the incident in the Dungeon would never have happened. I would have had more control over the sword, and would have been able to stop it from hitting me, or at the very least deflected it. I was so engrossed in it that I didn’t even notice when Natalya came down the stairs.
“Impressive control for someone who’s only been practicing for two months.”
I jumped, and the knife in front of me clattered to the ground.
“Thanks.”
“You can be a bit more efficient with it though. No need to manipulate the entire blade. Just focus on the center of mass. It’ll use less mana.”
I did as she suggested, taking the mana I had been using to surround the blade to move it and instead concentrating it around the hilt, where I thought the center of mass would be. It took a few seconds to find it, but when I did, I immediately saw what she was talking about. Holding it in place wasn’t any more efficient, but when I needed to rotate it, it was a fraction the cost, since all I needed to do was give it a light nudge, and it would rotate about its center.
“Good,” she said, nodding. “You learn fast.”
“Thank you,” I said with as much sincerity as I could muster.
“It’s my job as your teacher,” she said shrugging. “But before we get too deep into that, I need to make a few things clear.” Nothing about her posture or tone changed, but there was a sudden pressure in the room that hadn’t been there before, and I felt myself tense up. “Once we are done in the Dungeon here, we are leaving my father and Bizet behind. You’ll be allowed to visit him, and he will definitely visit us from time to time, but you will not be living under the same roof as him anymore.”
“What?” That was not what I had expected her to say at all.
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“2000 years ago, when I was just under 200, my mother died. Usually, elves mate for life, and when one spouse dies, the other stays a widow or widower until their own end. However, it’s not unheard-of for them to remarry after a couple millenia. It has certainly been long enough for my father to move on… but I don’t trust you.”
“Wait, hold on,” I said. “What kind of relationship do you think we have?”
“Oh, I’m sure it’s just a simple employer-employee relationship right now,” she replied. “But we are immortal; he may yet spend a century courting you.”
“Courting? What? For marriage?”
“Eventually. Interested?”
“No!”
“Good. As I said, I don’t trust you. You appeared out of nowhere at the same time as Emissaries and the Demon Kings, and with a skill that completely negates your racial weakness.”
“It’s a class skill for being the last vampire.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, you must see how suspicious that is. And on top of that, you just happen to run into my father and convince him to give you far more assistance than he’s given anyone in the past century.”
“I didn’t convince him to do anything!”
“Do you know what he told me when he was describing you to me? He said you reminded him of my mother.”
“Well I-! How is that my fault?”
“It’s not. But I hope you can start to see how things look from my point of view. Having met you, I can see you’re no seductress preying on my father’s loneliness, nor are you a monster bent on destroying the world. Nevertheless, your origins are suspicious, and I don’t want him getting too attached to you without clearing you first. So, you’ll spend some time with me for a while, and keep contact with him to a minimum until I say so.
“I’ll make it worth your while, at the least. I wasn’t lying about wanting to take you in as an apprentice. I am very excited to see what you can do with proper training. I just wish our relationship could start on better terms.”
“I do too. I have no interest in Anatoly that way, and I never will. And now that I know how he feels, I think that I would leave, regardless of whether I was your apprentice or not. I would not use his feelings to leverage my position.”
She nodded in approval. “We will start tomorrow morning at dawn. I know you don’t sleep, but don’t overdo it tonight. I want your mind as fresh as possible.”
“Okay.”
As promised, the next morning at dawn, Natalya returned, and she was back to the cheery version of herself that I had first met. Anatoly was still in bed, but he sent a sleepy illusion of himself downstairs to wish us luck before falling back asleep. We walked down the near-empty streets toward the west gate, but instead of staying on the road and going straight to the Dungeon, she took a sharp turn into the Guild building. I should have expected it, but for some reason, I didn’t, so I was not prepared for what awaited inside.
Only a few people noticed when I entered, but the ones who did stopped what they were doing and stared, causing a chain reaction that ended with nearly the entire lobby focused on me. It was quieter than I had ever heard it, and I did not know what to do. No one was talking directly to me, but I could hear them whispering to each other, talking about how I had sabotaged my last Dungeon raid, and how it was my fault Christine had died. It was utterly ridiculous, of course, but with the events so fresh in my mind, I couldn’t help but be a little affected.
I turned to Natalya for guidance, only to find that she had disappeared. I had a moment of internal panic until I heard her voice in my ear, and realized that she had only turned invisible.
“Up the stairs. We need to see my granddaughter.”
She did not sound bothered at all by the whispers. Perhaps she hadn’t noticed. Perhaps she was just trying to get me moving. If that was the case, it worked. Her words were enough to spur me through the lobby toward the stairs. I could feel the other Adventurers’ gazes on the back of my neck until I was out of sight.
When we got to the top floor and stood outside of Alyona’s office, Natalya had become visible again. She knocked loudly on the door, but, as had been the case the first time I tried meeting Alyona in the morning, there was no response. The smell of alcohol was strong, even in the hallway. Rather than knocking a second time, Natalya put her hand on the door knob, unlocked it magically, and threw the door open.
From behind her, I saw Alyona shoot to her feet, completely nude, as her sword flew to her hand. For a few seconds, she stood in place, staring at us in incredulity.
“Grandma?!”
“‘Yona!” said Natalya. “It’s been so long! I’ve missed you!”
“What are you doing here? And you!” She locked eyes with me. “Why are you with her?”
“She’s my apprentice,” explained Natalya. “What are you doing, sleeping during business hours without any clothes?”
“This is my office! What are you doing, just barging in like that?”
She moved to grab a pair of pants off the floor as she talked. When she bent down, I noticed that she had a small scar on her side where my knife had grazed her.
“Don’t you dare put those on,” said Natalya. “Who knows the last time you washed them? Here.”
She took a pair of pants and shirt from her inventory and tossed them at Alyona. The one-armed woman dropped her stained, once-white shirt to catch the new clothes and set to putting them on while Natalya performed some cleaning magic. She summoned all the dust to the center of Alyona’s desk and formed a small sculpture of a cat while an almost imperceptibly thin layer of fire spread about the room, incinerating the remaining dead skin, cobwebs, and mold. The empty bottles disappeared, as did the dirty clothes, and the full bottles floated up to the shelf while a few more new sets of clothes appeared, folded neatly on the desk.
“How are you living like this?” asked Natalya. “You need to take better care of yourself, or you won’t even live to 100.”
“I’m fine, Grandma.”
“You’re clearly not. Look at yourself. You’re living in your office, asleep, hungover, and nude when you’re supposed to be working. You haven’t cleaned in months. Do you need some help?”
“I said I’m fine. What are you doing here?”
“Why don’t you go back to your brother. Alexei misses you.”
Alyona scoffed. “Did he say that?”
“You know he wouldn’t, but he does. And he could really use you right now. He’s going through a rough time. It’s been years, isn’t it about time to make up with him?”
“I will if he comes to me. But you know he won’t, so just drop it. Why are you here?”
“I’m here to see my granddaughter!”
“And?”
“And also to let you know that I will be taking Lucy down to the fifth floor to test her.”
“Well, you have my permission, not that you needed it. But are you sure you should be taking her in right now?”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m fine,” I said quickly. Too quickly.
Natalya turned to me. “Lucy, what happened?”
----------------------------------------
Lucy's current stat sheet:
Name
Lucille Montague
Age
22
Sex
F
Race
Vampire
Class
[Sole Survivor] lvl 38
Level
38
Max HP
7620
Max MP
8220
Max AP
7920
Skills
Passive
[Darkvision] lvl MAX
[Enhanced Senses] lvl MAX
[Perseverance] lvl MAX
[Pride] lvl MAX
[Vampiric Superiority] lvl MAX
[Vampiric Weakness (curse)] lvl MAX
[Detection] lvl 19
[Rapid Regeneration] lvl 23
Active
[Enthrall] lvl 16
[Sprint] lvl 21
[Spells]
Stats
Available Free Points
0
Base
System Base
System Bonus
System Total
Agility
17
311
311
622
Dexterity
15
311
311
622
Strength
12
311
311
622
Vitality
14
311
311
622
Charisma
17
311
311
622
Intelligence
19
311
311
622
Perception
32
311
622
933
Willpower
20
311
311
622