New Life As A Max Level Archmage
25 – Delays

The world lurched. With a sensation like she’d been grabbed and hurled across the continent by a titan, Vivi materialized in Prismarche’s town square.

The space bustled with activity. The Peace Day festival carried on in full swing, though there wasn’t quite the same level of fervent celebration underway. Excitement at that pitch couldn’t last a full week, not to mention how it was only afternoon. By evening, she had no doubt the city’s raucous revelry would return.

Since she found it unlikely that Lord Caldimore and his goons would try anything with Saffra, she was in no rush. But she had also picked up on the fact that Fate, if it existed, liked playing games, so she didn’t intend to dawdle.

She made her way across the city and into the Adventurer’s Guild. Inside was much the same as outside: a spirit of excitement filled the air. A man was slumped against one wall, passed out from the prior night. It seemed like he’d had a little too much fun. She doubted he was the only one.

About two seconds after walking in, a hush started to fall over the gathered adventurers. All eyes slowly gathered on her. A building's worth of people stopped what they were doing and turned in their seats, looking at her with plain interest. Vivi nearly crawled out of her skin.

Her reputation preceded her. Seeing how she had arrived in Prismarche yesterday, she officially chalked up her mission of ‘lying low’ to a catastrophic failure.

Feeling eyes digging into her back, she walked to the receptionist’s desk. Funny enough, the brown-haired woman seemed less hungover than yesterday.

Her eyes, like everyone else’s, glimmered with curiosity. What had she been told? Had the Guildmaster or Guard Captain been spreading compromising information? Even if not, she’d been teleporting around in plain sight. She had herself to blame for this.

She needed to wash her hands of Prismarche as soon as possible. Unfortunately, that wouldn’t be happening with the giant dimensional anomaly hanging in the sky. She couldn’t bury her head in the sand when people’s lives might be at stake; she would be here often over the following weeks.

At least the receptionist stayed professional. “How can I help, miss?”

“I’m looking for a necklace,” Vivi said without preamble. “Saffra’s, if you know her. Red hair, cat beastkin. She thinks she left it in her room.”

“Let me see if anything was dropped off.” She disappeared under the counter. A moment later, she rose with a wooden container in her hand. After rummaging around, she pulled out a handkerchief and unfolded it. “Would this be it?”

Vivi blinked at Saffra’s silver necklace lying nestled in the cloth. Huh. The ridiculousness of yesterday and this morning had conditioned her to expect every task to somehow turn into a quest. She hadn’t even needed to use a divining spell.

“Yes, I believe so. Thank you.”

She took the offered item. It was a simple silver locket. She almost popped it open to see what was inside, but stopped herself. Supremely powerful mage she might be, that didn’t give her permission to go sticking her nose where it didn’t belong. While her curiosity urged her to take a peek, she wouldn’t violate Saffra’s privacy.

She tucked the item into her inventory for safekeeping.

“That’s all I needed. Have a nice rest of your day.”

“You as well, miss.”

Turning, she saw a blond knight waiting a polite distance away. He smiled when their eyes met, then started to approach with a confident stride, hand resting casually on his sword’s pommel.

No, definitely not.

“[Blink].”

Space warped around her, and she appeared in the alleyway to the side of the Guild. Having deftly avoided what had surely been another side quest, she nodded to herself in satisfaction. She might have heard the man out if he’d looked worried or desperate, but he hadn’t.

Next up was the City Guard. Specifically the two prisoners. The tracking spells she’d dropped on them told her they were where they were supposed to be, but she wanted to put eyes on them. It was becoming a nervous habit, like constantly checking for her purse and phone whenever she left her apartment. She paused at the absurd comparison, and snorted.

Every minute she wasted in Prismarche was another [Blink] spell to catch up with the train hurtling across the continent, so she set a brisk pace.

After a discussion at the guard house, a guard escorted her to the holding cells, and another ran off to undoubtedly make a report to the Captain. Internally, she sighed. She would probably have to speak with him as well. Seeing how she’d been gone all of a few hours, she doubted much could have developed on the dimensional anomaly front.

“We have visitors, just so you’re aware, Lady Adventurer,” the middle-aged guard said, sounding nervous to address her. Which weirded Vivi out. Tiptoeing around her with respect, seeming concerned about how she might reply? Being scared of her? She was some stick-thin shut-in girl whose head barely came up to most people’s chests—including this man’s. Way too strange of an experience.

“Visitors?”

“From the Enchanter’s Guild.”

Her brow furrowed.

Ah. No doubt related to how she’d fixed up the cell’s wards. But she hadn’t done anything crazy, had she? The enchantments had been simple.

…to her. She braced herself to discover another fresh way her perspective was skewed.

The guard unlocked the iron door and let her in.

The sight that met her nearly made her laugh with resigned exasperation. Sure enough, a gaggle of robed enchanters were inside. Seven in total, five in their waning years, two young. All had a book in hand, or multiple, and were discussing fervently amongst themselves, or muttering. Their eyes flicked from book to wall repeatedly, and they wore expressions of incredulity, amazement, and in one case, greed.

Two were arguing so heatedly their voices carried above the rest. An older man and an older woman, giving the impression of the two eldest—in both manners of speaking—members of the local branch of the Enchanter’s Guild.

“—utterly ridiculous suggestion! Kaltaz clearly flows into Mylna, suggesting a rerouting of external forces into the internal. For a sufficient—”

The woman wasn’t listening; her voice vied with his in volume. “—the buffoonery to even suggest this design is following modern enchanting patterns when even a first year could identify a classical pre-Turning—!”

The creak of the iron door succeeded in drawing the attention of everyone present. Once more, all eyes fell on Vivi.

Ugh. For her own sake, she might start taking her secret identity more seriously. She hated this.

The orichalcum-rank warrior seated on a wooden chair nodded at her, the only person to react in a nonchalant manner. She nodded back. The man didn’t look happy to be watching over the mithril-rank prisoners with such a raucous crowd of enchanters crowding the thin hallway.

“You’re her,” one of the robed individuals said dumbly.

She surveyed the men and women, internally cringing. “I’m here to check on the prisoners.” Her voice was flat and unaffected, and she hoped it would dissuade them from pestering her.

It didn’t. “Aha!” the male of the two bickering elders crowed. “We can put your inanity to rest, Sylvia.” He swept his robes aside and strutted forward with a peacock’s confidence. Arriving a few steps away, he bowed, with a flourish, at the waist. “Mistress Enchanter, if you would do us the honor, I have a few questions about the work you’ve done here.”

Vivi almost wished she’d developed a reputation for having a bad temper and generally being dangerous to speak to, because people were much too comfortable walking up to her. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to help people—she did, what else would she use this power for?—but rather that she wasn’t great at saying no even if she had places to be.

“…What is it?” she asked, resigned to her fate.

He shot Sylvia a gloating look, as if he’d secured a great victory by requisitioning a moment of Vivi’s time. “I hope you don’t mind our intrusion—these enchantments you’ve worked are truly fascinating.” He gestured at the runes written to both sides of the two cells. “It’s been some time since I’ve been in the presence of a Grandmaster of Enchanting, which surely you must be?”

The flattery didn’t do much for Vivi, especially because she didn’t have a frame of reference for what a ‘Grandmaster of Enchanting’ even was. An internal hierarchy within the guild, probably?

“No. I am not.”

He seemed taken aback, then nodded to himself. “Or the demonic equivalent, of course, I’m afraid I’m not familiar,” he said, making his own assumptions. “Regardless! This here.” He walked over and gestured at an arrangement of runes.

Vivi looked at the alert faces of the enchanters clearly hanging on whatever she was about to say, and she repressed another sigh.

She stepped inside, holding up a hand to temporarily cut off further questions, first wanting to confirm that Lailah and Dominic were in their cells. Dominic was asleep on his cot, or at least pretending to be. Lailah sat against a wall—she had been gagged. Vivi paused seeing that, then felt vindictive entertainment at the sight. She wondered what the woman had said to warrant the treatment. She could imagine. The woman glared at Vivi, as always, and she ignored her, also as always.

“Alright,” Vivi said, satisfied nothing had changed. “What was your question?”

“This arrangement of runes.” He gestured excitedly at the clumping. “There’s been a professional disagreement as to their purpose. See, Kaltaz, flowing into Mylna surely represents a redirection from external into internal. Considering the context,” he trailed off, blinking owlishly at the surrounding runes, “which is admittedly abstruse even to me…I’ve put forth the postulation that the intent is a rebounding effect of sorts—to catch and return spells originating inside the cell and targeted outward.”

She considered. For all that the man didn’t have the most endearing attitude, he clearly knew what he was talking about. It was a great guess. Deciphering magical runes could give even high-level mages a headache. Of course, Vivisari could read the designs as if they were written in plain English, but not everyone could be borrowing the experienced mind of the world’s eminent archmage.

“That’s partially correct. It’s only targeting a specific subbranch of magical phenomena. Spatial manipulations. It’s a spatial lock.”

The man went silent, his briefly gloating look at the words ‘partially correct’ fading into a dumbstruck expression.

“A spatial lock?”

Vivi nodded.

It was a crude implementation, seeing how she’d needed to work with the supplies the City Guard had given her, but it ought to suffice for anything below level fourteen hundred.

“I…see.” The man pulled out a notebook and a pen appeared from nowhere. He began scribbling furiously. “If you would be so kind, could you elaborate on that idea?” He jabbed the butt of his pen at the wall and circled the air to indicate another clumping of runes. “This would be the definition array, then, for the local effect zone?”

With dawning dread, Vivi realized it might be some time before she could escape. She needed to learn to say no to people…but today wasn’t that day.

When she reached Meridian, she was definitely going to do a better job of keeping to herself.

***

Guard Captain Soren found her a half hour later surrounded by an unwanted group of seven bright-eyed pupils. To her immense relief, he gave her an excuse to flee.

The Guard Captain’s eyes twinkled. He clearly could tell she wanted to be free of their clutches—deciphering that wasn’t hard with how quickly she ran away. He was too much of a professional to comment though.

“Prismarche thanks you again for sharing your wisdom, Lady Adventurer,” he said instead. “I must admit I was surprised when I received a report that you were visiting again.”

“Just ensuring those two haven’t escaped, somehow. And checking on the anomaly.” Her eyes flicked up and to the right, finding the mana currents through the layers of stone.

“Indeed. Though, I was under the impression you were departing the city. I was told you were seen boarding the Convoy. Yet here you are. Did something happen?”

Ah, that was why he’d come. The Guard Captain was surely a busy man. Even for a strange individual such as herself, he shouldn’t be showing up every time she did.

Also, she couldn’t be annoyed the City Guard was keeping tabs, even if she didn’t like the idea that her movements were being tracked.

“I did leave. And will return soon. I needed to retrieve something that was left behind.”

He blinked. “I…see.” He shook his head as if to dismiss his curiosity. “I’m pleased there’s nothing to concern myself over. However, and I extend my apologies in advance for this request, the Institute has questions regarding the anomaly that Marcus simply cannot answer. They have a team on the way, but would like as much information as possible, as quickly as possible. If you could help him formulate his response, Prismarche would be even further in your debt.”

He bowed deeply.

Ugh. She hated this man. He was way too polite and even-tempered to refuse.

She’d known she would get sidetracked in Prismarche, so she had given her estimate to Saffra with that in mind.

“Every minute I spend here the Convoy gets further away,” Vivi sighed. “But yes—I will spare a minute. Only that, though.”

“You…plan to catch up,” Captain Soren said. “To the Convoy. The same one you boarded two hours ago.”

“Yes.”

He stared at her, then nodded. “Of course. Without further delays, then. I shall escort you.”

Vivi followed behind the Guard Captain as he turned crisply on his heel and walked away.

After this, she promised herself: no more delays. She had a Convoy to catch.