Vivi took an instinctive step back as Embralyne jolted to her feet. The dragon spun around while orienting herself, then froze and slowly turned toward the miles of smoldering landscape in the distance. The stretch of terrain had been all but liquefied under the rainfall of a thousand cascading stars—an image that Vivi couldn't imagine even most dragons were used to seeing.
Embralyne stared for a long moment, then jerkily faced Vivi.
"Was that sufficient proof?" Vivi asked.
Embralyne's mouth worked silently for a second. "My father can cast magic like that too."
Vivi was unable to stop an eyebrow from rising. The Dragon King was extremely powerful and, more importantly, had thousands of years of experience and who-knew-how-many tricks up his sleeve. But in matters of raw magical strength, no, she didn't think he could cast [Celestial Barrage].
It had rendered even Embralyne unconscious. She might not be the apex of her race, but she was well above average, and that meant [Celestial Barrage] could immobilize an entire draconic army at once, should it need to. Reasonably, a spell like that cost an appreciable amount of mana even by Vivi's standards and was something the king of dragons himself couldn't weave together on a whim.
But she tactfully didn't contradict Embralyne. Vivi was here on a diplomatic mission, and in that light, dropping a storm of star-meteors on royalty had probably been ill-advised, no matter how much the princess in question had been demanding that Vivi do so.
"Your family is formidable, particularly in sorcery, I agree." Vivi's attempt at overt flattery worked better on her second try—Embralyne hesitated briefly before nodding in satisfaction. "But since any potential doubt has been cleared up, can we finish our discussions from before?"
Embralyne considered her for a moment, then lifted her chin. "I will bring you to the Sky-Pillar Range to meet with my father."
Vivi was so surprised she actually blinked. Twice. Wait, what? Just like that? Using Embralyne as a punching bag seemed to have somehow put her in a better mood. All traces of the woman's previous hostility had vanished. She had enjoyed being battered around?
This whole world is full of crazy people.
"I appreciate your generosity, Princess Embralyne," Vivi forced herself to say. "Then, can I ask why you brought the Fourflame Amulet to the human kingdoms?"
"You may not." Embralyne sniffed. "I have the matter well in hand myself."
Vivi stared blankly at the dragon. Not that blank expressions were unusual for her. But Embralyne had all but admitted not ten minutes earlier that she might not have the situation under control. That she was considering Vivi's request more given that possibility than anything else. Despite issues which Vivi herself considered far more pressing, like the void invasion.
It seemed Embralyne's spurt of honesty had been born from the heat of the moment. This woman is such a headache, she thought, refraining from massaging her temples.
Either way, Vivi had a clear path into the lands of the immortals now. A victory no matter how she looked at it.
"Though transporting you may pose some problems," Embralyne muttered, rubbing her chin while looking down at the ground, deep in thought. "I believe my father will see the logic in permitting an audience, but I'm also certain he would rather I didn't parade the Sorceress about. Even if you've been gone a hundred years and even if you hide your tattoos, you'll be easily recognized. I might've only been a child when I saw you, but others weren't—my people have long memories."
Vivi perked up, not that she showed it outwardly. "I have a disguise, if it's needed."
Embralyne paused and looked up. "A disguise?"
Rather than explaining, Vivi demonstrated. With a wave of her staff, she cast [Transmogrification] and morphed into the halfdragon form she had prepared in advance. She found herself pleased that the effort of crafting the appearance hadn't been wasted after all.
For some reason, the draconic princess adopted a horrified expression. "What do you think you're doing, demon?!"
"You said you didn't want the Sorceress appearing publicly."
"I was assuming you would cast an invisibility shroud!"
Vivi considered briefly, then shook her head. "That's far easier to detect, and would complicate everything besides. I don't know how your teleportation platform works, but surely the operators or safeguards would sense two individuals coming through rather than one. A physical form is the cleaner solution."
"Be that as it may," Embralyne sputtered, "don't you think it's rather presumptuous?"
"You pretended to be a human. Is there any difference when it's just for practicality's sake?"
"Of course there is!"
"How so?"
"It's… it's simply different!"
"You'll need to elaborate."
A strangled noise escaped Embralyne, but she at least had the tact not to insist that dragons were inherently more noble than humans and thus a dragon's appearance shouldn't be imitated. Even if near enough every reaction of hers made that viewpoint obvious anyway, she possessed some level of restraint. A low bar to clear, but one nevertheless.
Finally, she crossed her arms and glared. "Well, I suppose circumstances are dire." Her eyes narrowed in distaste. She spent a moment flicking her attention across Vivi, gaze lingering on wings and horns in particular before settling back onto her face. Her expression soured further. "But, pray tell, why am I looking up at you?"
Vivi hadn't expected the dragon to state her reason for annoyance so plainly. She had to keep the amusement from showing in her voice. "The point of a disguise is to be inconspicuous." She was pretty sure she'd said that to Saffra verbatim.
"And what does that mean?"
Vivi met the dragon's gaze steadily.
Embralyne's cheeks colored, and she turned away with a huff. "Never mind." A second later, she muttered, "Traitor."
"What was that?"
"We should get moving. It's two hours' flight from here."
Vivi stuffed down her mirth and focused on the situation at large. "I could speed us up, but you need to finish refining the Amulet's life gem, I take it."
"I do."
"Will two hours be enough?"
"You forget who you're speaking to. Any task is within my capability."
This woman continued to threaten Vivi's stoic demeanor, because she almost rolled her eyes. "Please lead, then, Your Highness. But I do have one more favor to ask."
"What is it?"
"I don't want to leave the mortal lands undefended, no matter how briefly. As my steward put it, Fate seems to love interfering at the worst possible time. It feels like if I don't set up a precaution, the next breach is nothing short of guaranteed to happen while I'm gone."
She wasn't sure whether Fate was truly a guiding force like that. In all likelihood, anxiety drove the impulse more than logic. But when entire cities could be wiped off the map, caution seemed worth indulging.
"Where are you going with this?" Embralyne asked.
"We've arranged an emergency system of contact. A magical flare. It's how I responded to Prismarche. I'm asking that you allow Meridian to link to a scrying pool at your palace." Vivi dipped at the waist, gaze locked toward the ground. "Feel free to destroy the connection once I leave."
She felt Embralyne frowning at her for an uncomfortably long time, but eventually, the dragon grunted. "Very well."
Vivi was once more caught off guard. "Thank you, Princess."
"It's a small ask. I understand the situation your people are in. The current crisis is unprecedented, so I believe my father would agree with my assessment." Embralyne said almost everything with total confidence, so the hesitance in her words—unremarkable on anyone else—was glaringly conspicuous.
Vivi suspected the dragon was making yet another concession. For all Embralyne might be ridiculous at best and agitating at worst, Vivi's opinion of her kept rising.
"Let us be off," Embralyne said, crouching, then launching into the air with a plume of dust. A reactivation of [Fly] later, Vivi pursued.
They didn't converse further over the next two hours, and not out of any coldness on Embralyne's part, but because the dragon had a task to see to: completing the energy refinement of the Fourflame Amulet so that the artifact would be functional when they arrived at the Sky-Pillar Range.
Traveling didn't consume any of the dragon's attention; flight was wholly natural to her kind, and likely easier than walking for a human, with no bumps in the road to trip over. Just a great empty expanse. Easy to zone out and focus on other things.
Which Vivi herself did. She used the time to organize her thoughts. She hadn't expected things to go so smoothly. But maybe calling everything that's happened 'smooth' just means I have low standards. She had dropped a nuclear-equivalent spell on draconic royalty after being deliberately goaded into doing so. Probably not a total win on the whole 'tact and diplomacy' front.
Embralyne finished cramming the last bits of life mana into the Amulet right as they arrived at the gateway. The circular stone platform with an obelisk at the center was a single artifact—a means of facilitating [Greater Warp] at an immensely reduced cost—and it was the only way in and out of the immortal lands that Vivi knew of.
She didn't know how she would build something of the platform's ilk, and thus she found herself rapidly growing distracted as she studied it. Her gaze roamed across the crumbling structure.
How old even is it? It's been enchanted against aging, and yet somehow it still looks ancient.
She had a feeling the gateway's age would be measured in millennia, not centuries, and not in the lower digits of that range. Older than any individual mortal lineage, and, much like the Selrath-Kyn Embralyne had spoken of, predating entire races on the continent. The Primogenitor himself had likely been born later than this relatively plain-looking platform.
It was hard to contextualize, but the word immortal carried weight.
"Since you wish to masquerade as one of my kind, and I was sent to capture a rogue, it's best if you wear these," Embralyne said, producing a pair of manacles. They were made of pale-red metal and engraved with runes so dense Vivi found herself lost in fascination yet again. "A magic-sealing artifact, one of the greatest ever created. Capable of restraining even my eldest brother should it need to. Will you put them on, or do we change our approach?" The words came out half as a challenge, half as simple curiosity.
Vivi held her wrists out. Embralyne seemed taken aback. The expression didn't last long; the dragon snorted.
"I suspect it's not trust in me so much as that you believe you could break free."
"No, it's both."
The dragon blinked at the honesty. "Oh. I, uh. I see." The confidence returned in short order. "The faith could be placed in no nobler family, so I am not surprised."
Embralyne stepped up and secured the manacles around Vivi's wrists. Vivi waited with interest, a small part of her wondering if she was being too trusting. A relic from the dragons would be formidable, and one designed specifically to restrict mana would ostensibly be the perfect counter against her.
The reason she had so casually gone along with the request anyway was obvious. Not only that she truly did trust Embralyne, but also that she couldn't imagine anything in this world absorbing her full mana pool without exploding—and erasing a kingdom with it.
Indeed, she felt a tugging at her magical core as the restraints worked against her. Only half a second passed before the pale-red metal began to glow a brilliant orange. Embralyne's eyes widened in horror. Vivi hurriedly clamped down on the natural flow of mana inside herself.
Embralyne's gaze flicked between the glowing manacles—which were fading in color—and Vivi's face, which remained placid, as if nothing had happened. The dragon chose not to comment, only cleared her throat and faced forward.
"Let's continue," Embralyne said, not quite as self-assured as before.
The gray-haired princess strode into the center of the platform and rested a hand against the obelisk. She closed her eyes and concentrated. Vivi couldn't sense any flow of magic, not while she kept herself suppressed—apparently one real disadvantage of wearing these shackles. But she could break them whenever she needed to.
A moment later, a spell swallowed the two of them up, and they were whisked away to the lands of the immortals.