“The answer, naturally, varies,” Rafael said.

“Summarize?”

As always, he replied without needing to organize his thoughts. “Three with whereabouts known. Two alive but difficult to contact. One missing. And two, regretfully, have passed away.”

She’d been excited to learn what had happened to her prior guild members, but at that, she stilled.

For all that these people were real now, they’d been NPCs in the game, so she didn’t have close emotional bonds with them. Still, hearing two had died was a jolt to her system.

She was silent for a moment. “What happened?”

“Bram passed in his sleep, surrounded by family. He was in his elderly years even before your disappearance, Lady Vivisari. You know how humans are. Here and gone.” He sighed. “As far as circumstances of death can go, his was how anyone would want it.”

That made her feel somewhat better. “And the other?”

He grimaced. “Rowena. Not nearly as pleasant, I’m afraid. An adventuring incident. She wasn’t the only to turn to that after Vanguard’s disbandment.”

Vivi’s brow furrowed. “Some of them became adventurers? Why?”

“To fill a void? Living under the great shadow cast by Vanguard inspired a need for greatness beyond their craftsman careers? Why does anyone turn to adventuring?” He shrugged. “I cannot fathom. I’ve never once considered that illustrious career.” He snorted, then cleared his throat and straightened out, putting on a serious expression. “That was inappropriate. This happened eight decades ago, and Rowena was a good woman. I grieved her in her time. But this is news to you, so I shouldn’t be flippant.”

Vivi nodded slowly. She didn’t feel grief, exactly, but—she didn’t know what she felt, hearing about their passing.

“Her family was taken care of?”

“She never settled down, but I would have made arrangements had there been a need.” A beat of silence, and Rafael moved to the less depressing news. “Now. Of those still alive, or possibly alive. Eshara has started a guild of her own, though she doesn’t call it such. In many ways, it’s the spiritual successor of Vanguard. She tours the continent with her band of heroes, slaughtering great foes wherever she finds them.” There was a sardonic tinge to Rafael’s tone, and Vivi didn’t know why. “You know how Eshara is. Very…principled. And unyielding. She has picked up your party’s fallen swords and gone to war against all evil. Hmph. She’ll be difficult to contact; I’m not certain of her whereabouts. She often obscures her intentions, even from me. Not all monsters lack intelligence, as you know, and indeed, the ones that wear the faces of men are the most dangerous of all. So we are not on bad terms. She hides herself out of necessity. The Roving Justicar must lurk in the underbrush, a predator’s predator.” He rolled his jaw side to side. “Eshara is likely the most accomplished of us, if considered by sheer merit of levels.”

She digested that. Eshara had been Vanguard’s elvish blacksmith. “She’s Titled, I take it?”

“Indeed. And not freshly minted. In the thirteen hundreds, I believe, she is one of the Kingdoms’ most revered knights.”

“Will she rejoin us?”

He raised an eyebrow. “It is Eshara we are talking about.”

“I…see.” She assumed that meant yes?

She knew the personality of each of her guild’s prior NPCs, since Vivi had definitely been nerdy enough to read their generated backstories. But that only gave her a general idea, and those histories could easily have translated across worlds in strange ways, or simply not have applied.

“Ulden returned to his dwarven enclave in the Western Kingdom,” Rafael continued, “so he’ll be difficult to contact as well, though less so than Eshara. Laelith is missing.”

“Missing?”

He spread his hands. “I wish I could offer more, but I sadly cannot.”

“When?”

“Even that is vague. Within the past decade? She was reclusive before her disappearance. I’ve kept tabs on Vanguard’s craftsmen, but only so many resources can be allocated, and Laelith was deliberately avoiding attention. I would not spy on my allies. I respected her wishes.”

She could hardly fault him for that.

“Now. For those who will be simple to contact. Petra lives in the Eastern Kingdom. She runs a ludicrously successful restaurant that nobles from all over the Kingdoms make the trip for. She is quite satisfied with her life, last I inquired, and I’m unsure how she’ll receive the news that Vanguard has returned.”

“It’s her prerogative,” Vivi said. “I won’t uproot her life. Just extend an invitation to speak. Or maybe I’ll go and see her myself.” Traveling across the Kingdoms would be an annoying chore, but she wanted to spread [Warp Anchors] anyway.

“Malach lives in the Central Kingdom, though not in Meridian. Solace. He runs a thriving trade, naturally, and in a similar vein, I’m unsure how he’ll receive the news.”

Solace would be a short trip. Tracking him down might be annoying, though. Maybe it was better to let Rafael handle the logistics? She had other tasks to worry about in the short term.

“And finally, Miraelle. Like Eshara, she’s spent her time refining her craft and advancing her class. To much less success, admittedly. Orichalcum, not Titled. She’s on an adventuring team these days—The Iron Vipers. Poison specialists.”

Poison? A natural fit, when the team revolved around one of the world’s most skilled alchemists. “Where is she?”

“Away, but returning to Meridian soon, so far as I know. She lives here.”

“Out on business?”

“I’m not sure. Routine adventuring? Again, I’ve merely kept tabs on them. I don’t track their every movement. They are allies.”

She nodded. “For completing the Quest, then. Who’s our best choice?”

“Ease of contact? Malach or Miraelle. Undoubted loyalty? Eshara.”

“We’ll want to speak with each of them, eventually.” She was quiet for a moment, thoughts churning. “What do you think of the Quest, anyway? And what’s the best way to restore Vanguard?”

He considered the question carefully, for once not responding without so much as a breath to bridge his words. “It depends,” he said finally, “on what you mean by restore.”

She tilted her head in silent question.

“You seek to rebuild the Party of Heroes? Or merely collect craftsmen to the guild? What will Vanguard’s purpose be? Will you tour the continent, seeking out threats as Eshara does? Or shall Vanguard grow in a different manner—more politically involved, perhaps? Do you wish to be more than a band of elites held up by craftsmen, as you once were?”

Those were great questions. She thought about it, brow furrowed. “I…want to reach out to our previous members, of course. But I don’t think it’s possible to restore my previous party, so Vanguard can’t be as it was.”

“No,” Rafael said with a snort. “The confluence of five once-in-a-millennium, once-in-ten-millennia talent. That will not happen again.”

Vivi looked down at her lap, mulling the topic over. “We should open Vanguard’s doors, shouldn’t we? To the public. Bring it to prominence, and use what influence and resources we have for good.”

“Oh?” Rafael said mildly, though she heard excitement in his voice. “The choice is yours, my lady. I am simply your steward. I carry out the tasks set upon me, whatever they may be.”

“There’s a lot we can do with Vanguard. Especially its treasures. I won’t hoard those like a dragon.”

“Even from a mercenary standpoint, assets are best leveraged, not locked away.” He drummed his fingers on his desk before sitting up abruptly. “So. You wish for Vanguard to, like a phoenix, rise from its ashes. To spread its influence far and wide and reclaim its glory, if not in the same manner as before. To become a shining beacon of virtue the world over, a proper Guild, as Eshara always imagined. She’ll be pleased.”

“You dramatize,” she replied, “but yes, fundamentally, that’s what I want.”

“Then shall we discuss the Eighth Cataclysm?”

She frowned at him. “I already told you, there’s nothing suggesting the dimensional anomaly is any such thing.”

“That’s not what I’m referring to.”

“Then what?”

“You, Lady Vivisari.”

A pregnant silence filled the air. Vivi stared at him, stunned. Where had that come from?

“You think I might be the Eighth Cataclysm?”

Or become it?

“Of course not,” Rafael dismissed. “I know you, Lady Vivisari. But will the leaders of the modern world perceive the strongest known mortal, returned after nigh a hundred years, a danger on that scale? Yes. Especially the Sorceress. You were always the most elusive of your party, my lady, and thus the least known and most feared. Even in Meridian, your figure is so poorly known that many invent the details of your appearance.”

…Vivisari had been a shut-in too?

That was hilarious, if somewhat depressing. It explained the statues being so wildly off, despite her gargantuan levels of fame. Vivisari had hardly ever been seen in public.

That at least confirmed she and Vivisari were truly two sides of the same coin.

Embarrassed, she ignored that revelation. “Which makes me even more of a threat, in their eyes. My private nature.”

“There is nothing so terrifying as the unknown,” he agreed.

“I have no intentions of setting myself up as ruler of the world.”

“But you could. You are a level eighteen hundred. You could duel every other human Titled at once, and come out the victor.”

Vivi paused.

Eighteen hundred?

It sparked a sudden realization.

“What level was the Ashen Hierophant, Rafael?”

The question caught the man off guard for once. “You ask rhetorically?”

She realized she still hadn’t explained the ‘memory issues’. She grimaced. “My time away left me with an unreliable memory.”

“As frolicking through an alternate reality might,” he said carefully, interest glinting in his eyes. “Hm. The Seventh and Final Cataclysm, the Monarch among Monarchs, was power incarnate. He had attained that which could not be surpassed, fundamentally. The pinnacle of the Grand System. Level two thousand.”

The answer was what Vivi had been afraid of. She closed her eyes.

“I see.”

Rafael was quiet as he considered her. “Your reaction is difficult to interpret.”

She didn’t respond.

She had, for some reason, assumed the world knew of Vivisari as her character had existed at the end of her play-through. Not as it had been when she and her friends had taken down the Ashen Hierophant for the first time, on regular difficulty. They’d been around level eighteen hundred, then. A difficult fight, considering the level disadvantage, but they’d had best-in-slot gear and maxed-out consumables, and the encounter had been five against one.

She’d arrived in her maxed-out character, though. She was three hundred levels higher than the world-renowned Sorceress of that time. Two hundred levels generally represented a tier’s worth of power, worth separating as an entirely different classification. Three hundred levels, thus, meant the current Vivisari dwarfed the Sorceress the world knew like a low-mithril might a high-silver. They operated on a totally different playing field.

And this world was terrified of the weak Vivisari.

A normal-difficulty Ashen Hierophant, she could probably kill with her eyes closed. And he’d terrorized the world and scoured with flame entire sections of the continent, nobody capable of challenging him for millennia. Even the Dragon King had nearly died merely turning him away.

This felt like something she should keep under very, very careful wraps.

“Never mind that,” Vivi finally said. “What were you saying?”

Rafael studied her for several long moments, but in the end, he didn’t press. “That you will need to tread carefully, my lady, if you don’t want the mortal kingdoms uniting against a perceived world-ending threat. An Eighth Cataclysm, as they might present it.”

Maybe he’d made some accurate assumptions, despite Vivi not explaining herself. This man was scarily perceptive. “I agree. I have no intentions of flagrantly ignoring laws and doing whatever I please. I just want to restore Vanguard and do what good I can.”

“And the world is blessed for it. But there are political considerations.”

“That’s where you come in.”

He seemed pleased by the response. “Indeed, my lady. But keep in mind that as one of the most—if not the most—powerful existences in the world, every action you take has consequences. You cannot act with impunity and disregard for such things.”

He clearly didn’t think she had the best judgment, or at least the best impulse control. She remembered her visit to the manor, and reluctantly admitted he was undoubtedly correct.

She should be more discerning with tier-twenty and higher magic.

That rule would surely survive the week, right?

“Should I even announce my return?” Vivi asked. “Maybe it’s best if I don’t.”

Rafael, to her embarrassment, barked out a laugh, then cleared his throat and forced a serious expression. It hadn’t been intentional. “Have you maintained a reasonable cover thus far, and are you capable of indefinite believable subterfuge?”

“…maybe.”

He waited patiently.

“People will probably figure it out,” she muttered.

“Then it’s best your reemergence is handled with grace, not left to spread like wildfire through rumor and supposition. And regardless, the reestablishment of Vanguard will signal the return of its final surviving officer.”

“That’s true.” She’d just been thinking about how dangerous her reputation was. Plus, she didn’t like how people treated her when she wore her true face. But it was something she would have to deal with.

“As for actually finding new members. How do you wish to proceed?” He added after a moment, “I expect future Quests will involve membership beyond enrolling craftsmen, but adventurers too. Logically speaking. But perhaps logic can’t be applied here.”

“Do you have any ideas?” Some names came to mind from the game’s plot who had seemed like genuinely virtuous people, but who knew how they’d changed after a century, whether they were actually good people, and whether they’d be interested?

Rafael considered briefly, then shook his head. “I will think on it. Answering hastily is in neither of our interests.”

“Okay. My immediate goal is contact with the Institute anyway, then the craftsmen.” The first stage of the Quest in particular, considering how easy it should be to complete. “We’ll decide on other members after that. And the rest of Vanguard’s future.”

“I agree. This is nothing to rush.”

Vivi nodded. “There’s one more thing I need your help with, then. I’ve taken an apprentice.”

Rafael digested that announcement, folding his hands onto his desk. “You have, have you? They must be an impressive talent indeed to have drawn the Sorceress’s gaze.”

“She’s silver rank, and talented, but not especially. Or so she says. I can’t tell the difference, to be honest.”

He found that remark amusing, which was fair. “Indeed.” Though he’d made an incorrect first assumption, he was quick to make an accurate second. “A particularly deserving disciple, I take it?”

“Yes. I’m bringing it up because I want to arrange gear for her. The best I can find. Or, rather, make. Handcrafted will be better than anything I can buy.”

“So you need arrangements made with local craftsmen.”

“Something sturdier than cloth. So a leatherworker, not a tailor. A woodworker for her staff. And a jewelcrafter. I’ll be adding enchantments into each item, and co-crafting with them.”

Rafael leaned back in his seat, amused. “You’re the type to spoil an apprentice? I can’t say I’m surprised.”

She shrugged. “She gets into trouble a lot. I’ll be giving her more significant resources than gear, should she need to draw on them. Items from my personal vault.”

He raised both eyebrows. “You are being judicious with your scrolls, I hope? Sixteenth tier offensive magic is dangerous to simply…hand out.”

“I know that.” She totally hadn’t considered giving portable nuclear weapons to a thirteen-year-old girl. “Defensive spells only.”

He almost seemed like he would press that topic, but perhaps decided he would be overstepping. So he nodded and forced himself to relax. “I’ll make those arrangements as quickly as I can.”

“Also, I need my bank account unlocked. Apparently they did something to it.”

His eye twitched. “You tried to access your bank account? And you suggested earlier you wanted to ‘keep quiet’ about your return?”

“How would I know it’d be locked?” she asked defensively. “The teller I spoke to said I’d need to contact the Chief Banker. Can you organize that too?”

“In all matters, I am Vanguard’s loyal steward. It will be handled at once, Lady Vivisari.”

Coin wasn’t a big problem, but having healthy spending money was always useful.

“Before I visit the Institute—” which would probably wait until tomorrow, since the day was growing late, “—you should catch me up on anything else I might need to know. Especially Archmage Aeris. Is he the same man I remember?”