While Ag and Whistle ran to Zackaria about their new Jane Doe, Vanity had her own chance encounter with one of the royal family.
"Oh, excuse me! Lady Vanity!" Prince Garam called out as he caught her from behind in the halls. She turned to look and saw the young half-elf prince jogging up to her holding several scrolls and books; he was barely holding onto them.
Vanity feigned a curtsy as the hip-slit skirt of her homeland didn't allow for a proper royal address without flashing her nethers to the young prince. "Greeting, Prince. What might you need of me?"
The prince stopped in his tracks. This was the first time he had met her face to face. He blushed from the sudden awe of the demonic beauty infront of him. "Uhh, oh, umm, it's just... I saw what you did in that fight with that monster. Everyone else was running but I stayed and watched."
Vanity crossed her arms. "Other than being incredibly irresponsible... What did you think?"
"The whole team was amazing! But especially you, Lady Vanity. And I have a favor to ask of you."
Vanity felt reluctant at first, but the flattery and awestruck look on the young prince's face pulled at her strings. "If it's in my capability, sure."
"Oh it very much is!" Garam said excited. "I saw how you summoned that set of armor during the battle, the one covered in sigils to make it function. Do you think you could teach me?"
Vanity pondered for a moment. The idea of an apprentice was a new one for her, but a good one. If not for one problem. "Aren't you already Zackaria's apprentice? I don't want to overstep me bounds."
Garam let out a solitary laugh. "Zackaria is my teacher, but his specialty isn't in sigilcraft or artificery. I'm fact, right now we are having a competition on making pocket dimensions. Would you like to show me a few things? Think of it as being a supplement to my current teachings. "
"I think that would be lovely."
Before Vanity could leave with the prince, she was stopped by a servant informing her that Zackaria wanted for the team to meet in the war room.
XXXXX
The team sat around the large table with Zackaria standing at his usual position at the end. His fingers rhythmically tapped against the table in tune with the clock ticking in the room.
"Today..." He breathed a sigh. "Today has been an interesting day." A deep breath. "It was supposed to be a simple training day... and now there's a little girl in our dungeon, a potential prophet just stumbled into Ag's hands, a monster appeared in our yard, and worst of all the adventure's guild has made some demands."
There was a brief silence before Bounty busted out in a short but hysterical laughter. "The worst part is the adventure's guild?"
Zackaria let out a disgruntled sigh. "Yes the adventure's guild. There's a lot of politics that go into your existence, and keeping it under raps. Part of that is your affiliation with the guild and the obligations you must perform. They figured out quickly who and what you all are."
"So we're being blackmailed." Dian scoffed. "Typical."
"Let's just call it an excuse to get to know the land and it's people." Ag reassured.
"Well said." Zackaria cracked a brief smile. "And you all will be getting you know the land and the people in pairs. There's a total of five tasks to be done. 5 tasks. 10 people."
Whistle let out his own chuckle. "I think we can all do the math..." He glanced over to Yoona trying to count with her fingers. "...most of us."
"Your academic capabilities are of little concern to me as long as you all can cooperate. Firstly is the suspected prophet I mentioned from earlier. Ag, go ahead."
Ag stood to his feet and cleared his throat. "After the incident with the monster, a woman was brought to me per a favor I owed. She's stuck in a daze and mumbles incoherently, but from what we can understand, she may know something that can help us. I will need someone to assist me in decoding her speech or curing her affliction."
Mordeki raised his hand. "I would like to --"
"Actually Mordeki, I was hoping Ave could assist me with this." Ag said with a tone to his voice, one that gave subtle hint to his need to watch over Ave rather than need his assistance. Mordeki quickly understood the hint. "Understood."
"So be it..." Ave hissed.
"Onto the next..." Zackaria started again. "Some foreign ambassadors will be here soon, and they quickly caught word of the events of today and are asking for extra security from the guild. So two of you will be not only guarding them, but working with a few members of the guild."
Vanity raised her hand. "As the resident royal, I believe I am the best suited to deal with both parties." Vanity admitted, but truthfully she wanted a chance to work with the prince on his project.
Bounty also raised his hand. "Yeah, I'm in on this one too."
"Excuse me?" Vanity questioned.
"What? You handle the foreigners, I got the adventurers. I've worked with these kinds before."
Vanity huffed. "Fine."
Reggie joined in after. "If we're just talking about handling other adventurers, then I can cover this as well."
"Nope, sorry mate. Already called dibs."
"You can't just called dibs!"
"Actually, Reggie..." Zackaria interrupted. "I think you'll be more inclined for the next task; a noble has reported a potential haunting."
Reggie's eyes lit up. "Dibs!" Which caused a cocky chuckle from Bounty. It was possibly the most excited Reggie had been since he got here.
"Oh!" Gala piped up. "Can I call dibs too?"
"Do you even have an experience with ghosts or spirits?"
"No. I just think it'll be cool." Gala said, but really just wanted a chance to see Lady again.
"Anyone else?" Reggie asked the unassigned members... to zero reply. "Fine, Gala, you can come with." She made a giddy clap.
"And lastly, there's a farmer who claims there are unidentified monsters harassing his livestock, as well as a spree of kidnappings linked to a tribe of lepidoptera."
Whistle nearly spit out his drink. "Lepi-what-era?"
"They're insectfolk." Stated Dian with an annoyed tone. "Moths and butterflies the size of men. I'll be taking the weird unidentified monsters as that's more my forte."
"Well that's fine by me. Never seen giant talking insects before, but I'm sure it'll be a piece of cake." Whistle replied slightly cocky at the end before looking over to Mordeki. "Can I count on you having my back on this one."
"Hmmm, I studied a few of the insectfolk races during my time as a professor. I'd gladly assist in this one, but that does just leave Yoona with Dian."
"Wait, wait, wait. You are not leaving me with Yoona." Dian detested.
"Yoona is good at magic! Yoona can help Dian with monsters!" Yoona growled.
"You know what, I don't care anymore, but if you're coming with me, we are getting one thing straight, pooch..." Dian glared. Yoona glared back. "...You absolutely will not eat any livestock."
"Yoona doesn't even know what those are." She replied defiantly.
"Well if that's settled!..." Zackaria quickly interjected trying to defuse the mood. "For those of you heading out, you'll be leaving tomorrow morning. Everyone make your preparations. I have a meeting with the king, so I will be unavailable for the next few hours."
While most everyone dismissed themselves without a care to Zackaria's evening plans, Vanity figured this would be the perfect moment to escape to the young prince, and give him a little of her own expertise.
XXXXX
A knock to the Wizard's tower door. Vanity patiently waited for an answer that came quick and eager. The door swung open to a disheveled prince brimming with eccentric creative fervor. "Good, you're here! Come in!"
Vanity expected a more formal greeting, but let it slide. She knows when someone of more mental inclination get to this point that it's best to let it be. She knows she has had her moments.
The tower was even more disheveled than Garam. Chains of scrolls pinned together, sprawled across walls and floor. Large books and ancient tomes turned to random pages or stacked in precarious towers. Boxes and bowls of catalyst material creating an apothecary's minefield across the floor. All of which centered around a single door frame.
"Is the tower always like this, or is this the exception to the rule?" Vanity asked, the organized chaos giving her fond memories of when she was learning magic.
"Oh very much the exception." Garam laughed. "Master Zackaria never lets it get this messy, but he's been so busy with everything happening today he hasn't got a chance to reorganize and stifle my process."
"Good thing for us that he's going to be busy with your father for a while. So show me what you've gotten so far."
"I think you'll like it." Garam crouched down next to his door frame. "After some trial and error, i was able to make the frame out of a iron-myth wood alloy. It gave it much more stability, physically and magically."
Vanity moved close to inspect the wood and some of the sigils along the edge. She read the magical programming of the portal. She noticed quickly an error in the Prince's methods. "Do you know about combining sigils?"
Garam looked up surprised. "They can be combined?"
"If they have the same elemental runic base, yes. Look at this section here. You have three water runes and four earth runes. Think of this like a math equation. 3 + 4 = 7, but you wrote it as 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 and so on. It's viable if you're doing something hyper specific, but if these control the parameters that I think they do then they should be combined..."
Vanity continued her small lecture for a few minutes going over rune theory and fundamental sigilcraft. Information Garam readily consumed and stockpiled, but with the demeanor of the room calming, so did the prince. He became more aware of his surroundings, and more specifically what kind of situation he was in.
He, an age-appropriate man... alone... in a room... with an age-appropriate woman... one who isn't too old... one who is extremely attractive even with her exotic features... one who's cultural garments expose the top of her ample chest, and the near entirety of her legs...
He suddenly snapped out of his extracurricular thinking when he heard Vanity use a word he didn't expect. "...Sorry, could you repeat that?"
Vanity paused and backtracked her thoughts. "What I was saying was, you should try incorporating Sancta runes."
Garam made a confused gesture. "Wouldn't that require the help of a god?"
Vanity smiles as she had just found something new she could teach the young prince. "It's a common misconception that Sancta runes require the assistance of gods, but they can be helped by spirits too. There are hundreds of lost souls and forces of will and nature that would be willing to help. A beacon of purpose in their purgatory, so to speak. We just need to use the right runes."
Garam got a sudden realization. "...So with the assistance of spirits we could better regulate and control the magic stability and capacity of the pocket!"
"Now you've got it." Vanity said proud of the young prince.