"How are you feeling?" Isaac asked his wife who they both knew was still recovering.

"Better." Lenna replied. "I think I can use my aura safely, as long as I am not too rough with it." She raised her fist and her aura coalesced around the 'weapon'. Black and orange flames, interposed and perfectly overlapping on average yet still separate, formed burning upwards from her wrist and entirely encompassing closed fist.

"Is that…" Isaac began but his voice trailed off as he reached out to touch it.

"Hellfire, more or less." Lenna confirmed. "I wasn't sure if my aura was actually going to look like the crystal or not."

"It's perfect." Isaac whispered. "Whenever I used death flames on you while you used your aura, the black flames dripped while yours rose, they were clearly separate and looked disconnected even if they existed in the same space." Isaac winced in pain and pulled his hand back to look at it. His fingers were blackened and hot. It felt like her flames were trying, and succeeding to a degree, to burn away the life of the cells in his fingers. The pain was raw and sharp and seemed to permeate his fingers almost the entire way through. A wave of death flames murdered the damage that he had taken and his fingers were returned to normal just with a layer of black dust still clinging to them. "Now it looks like you have finally fully incorporated your death affinity into your fire affinity and become both yet neither."

"Affinity?" Lenna wondered.

"The word just felt right." Isaac replied with a shrug. "Is it wrong?"

Lenna shook her head. "No. It was just not in the common magical vocabulary." She explained. "So, now what?" She asked. "What is the next step in cementing the Lady of Hellfire, as an untouchable and incomprehensible power, who stands side by side with the Lord of all that is Dark?"

"The next step." Isaac parroted. "The next step will have to wait a little while. You need to kill something or someone that is powerful enough to give platinum adventurers pause, and you need to kill it in one shot of overwhelming hellfire."

"So I need to recover, get my new sword, and then wait for an opportunity." Lenna surmised.

Isaac nodded in affirmation. "Yes." He confirmed. "Luckily, we aren't in a rush. People are already aware of you and that you are powerful. They just think that you are only at the magnitude of a normal high level paladin. That is good enough for now.

Lenna nodded in understanding. "And what of my Lord of all that is Dark?" She wondered. "Do you have anything crazy planned?"

"Well, Shamesh has been told to leverage everything that he can to fight me like he is trying to kill me. He will still hold back subconsciously, but I have a sneaking suspicion that he will try to Poison Bubble me." Isaac began. "Most people understand that I have more power than is reasonable for any mortal to have, and plenty watched our fight with Judgment or watched me beat Primatia with Jallen, but watching me melt a Reality Bubble with nothing but pure mana output is bound to make an impression."

"Especially considering the fact that plenty of those in the stands watched Reality Walls block magical ballistae fire and Celeste's Heaven's Rage without warping or cracking." Lenna added. "I see. It should also help prove to everyone that you are not as crippled as the rumors would suggest."

"There are rumors?" Isaac wondered. "Who let it slip?"

Lenna gave him a flat look. "Isaac, plenty of high level people knew that we were both pretty messed up after Vespera. We then disappeared for a while and showed back up in Safeharbor. We hardly went out and when we did no one was able to see us until we'd been back for well over a week. It wouldn't have taken a genius to figure out that something was wrong." Lenna pointed out. "Our enemies are probably already moving. Once they hear about the match between you and Shamesh, hopefully they will stop and reconsider, but if they don't, then I hope they wait until I am fully healed as well."

"Speaking of," Isaac began. "how much longer do you think it'll take until you are truly combat ready again?"

"Well, I am no longer in pain while moving around, unless I start trying to push myself. My healing has been slowing down as we approach the new moon but I am no longer crippled. I think by tomorrow I could fight the version of me that led you through the mushroom forest shortcut. By the first of next month I should be able to beat the version of me that lost to Fable. By the following full moon I should be in perfect condition." Lenna explained.

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"Is there any risk of you hurting yourself or pushing your recovery back from regular activities?" Isaac wondered.

"Regular activities for normal people, or for us?" Lenna asked in return.

"For us." Isaac replied.

"I think as long as we don't do anything utterly insane-" Lenna began.

"Like demand a pentagram of deities bring someone back from the dead or have a wish granted?" Isaac cut in.

Lenna looked at him flatly. "Yes, like that." She replied and then sighed. "I should be fine no matter how hard I fight as long as I don't try to keep fighting after I am entirely exhausted. I feel like I might be able to accidentally pull more power from my soul directly if I am out of mana and I've been using my aura for a long time."

"As of now or next month?" Isaac wondered.

"As of now." She replied.

"Good, good." Isaac said. His mind was already working to put a plan for the future together. If Lenna was combat capable, just at a very low level, then he wasn't afraid of bringing her with him on low risk tasks. Escorting caravans or searching for the bandits that had escaped them were both now available tasks to be completed. They both knew that he was more than capable of dealing with anything that they could reasonably come across while generally milling about their local area.

Isaac sent a message through his connection to Shamesh requesting his retainer's presence and less than a minute later Shamesh walked out onto the front balcony where the pair were sitting. "How may I be of assistance?" Shamesh asked upon his arrival.

"The list of gear from Lenny, Alexander, and Clayton." Isaac got straight to the point. "The edited list, not the original."

Shamesh nodded and withdrew a notebook from inside of his suit pocket. He was wearing his old V'Nova Wexler house servant's attire, which though quite handsome, was nothing compared to his suit of ribbons. One thing that it did have that the suit of ribbons did not was pockets. The suit of ribbons only had two pockets on the pants while his servant's attire had nine in total.

A few days prior, Shamesh had finally heard back from all three of the item carriers in question with lists of magic items that the three had easy access to. Certain items, like bows, spears, suits of armor, Bottomless Bags, potions, and everything related to mounts were already crossed out by Isaac and Shamesh from when they had briefly skimmed the lists right after they had received them. They knew that those items would be entirely worthless to the duo and Shamesh but if for some reason they needed those kinds of items then they could always just make a special request for them.

Shamesh handed the note book to Isaac, already open to the correct page, and Isaac started looking them over. "What do we even need at this point?" Isaac wondered. "There is a limit to how stacked someone's kit can be, isn't there?"

"There is and isn't." Lenna replied. "It is generally understood that you can only have as many items attuned to you as your level plus one. Some items take up more than one of that limit but it is very rare that anyone can even go up against that maximum. I think it really just comes down to your soul being strong enough for the new items to be able to find it through the cloud of other attuned items."

"What is to stop me from having a ring for every occasion on at all times?" Isaac asked with a raised eyebrow.

Lenna smirked slightly. "Let's buy nine generic rings, the ones that are just metal bands, and I want you to wear them all at once and try to keep a good grip on your sword while sparring." She shook her head. "Excessive accessories get in the way, are gaudy, and are uncomfortable. That is why everyone always tries for quality over quantity."

"What about a bunch of one time use attunement items, like Jallen's medals? I know that we can't actually get a bunch of those medals, but what about something operating on a similar premise?" Isaac wondered. Lenna held out her hand for the notebook and Isaac handed it to her.

"Anything healing related is out of the picture." Lenna thought aloud while she looked through the listed items. They had both heard how much trouble Walter had been forced to go through just to get one such item.

"And extra lives as well." Isaac added to their list of things that they couldn't get. "What about teleportation? That mage who was pretending to be the Thronsen girl used one. It would have to have a preset destination and we would have to stay within range or it would be useless, but it could work."

"These." Lenna said with certainty and turned the notebook around to show Isaac and Shamesh.

"Bracer of the Shieldless Guardian: Creates an eighteen inch radius circular Reality Shield attached to the arm. One second activation and deactivation time. Can store up to ten minutes of shield use at a time. Recharges at a speed of one second for every minute of downtime." Isaac read the description as well while nodding. "That could definitely be useful. Your armor is more or less indestructible though, is that even worth it?"

Lenna blinked at him owlishly. "For you, Isaac, it's for you." She told him like he had just walked into a closed door. She shook her head and turned the notebook around so she could keep looking for items. A moment later she found another. "Here." She said and then just decided to read the description out loud for him. "Boots of the Mountaineer: Pair of cleat bottomed boots with enhanced traction on all surfaces. Does not allow one to walk on vertical or upside down surfaces but does guarantee traction on anything up to a seventy degree incline. The friction enhancement ability extends to the local area around the bottoms of the boots to help keep loose stones and sand from shifting underfoot." She then looked up from the page and into Isaac's eyes. "These should help with your floaty problem when fighting while boosted. They won't fix it, but they'll help."

"Those would be perfect. I'll probably forget to use the shield, but we can get it if it would make you happy." Isaac told her. "Those boots though are a must."

Lenna nodded in agreement and went back to looking. "Gravity Belt: Users can set personal gravity to half or double for ten minutes, a third or triple for five minutes, or a quarter or quadruple for one minute. Recharge time is twenty five hours." She read off the page. "This would finish fixing your floaty problem. Combined it might not feel like you are just throwing yourself around while you fight."

Isaac nodded. "Agreed. Anything else?" That was how Isaac and Lenna spent the day before the exhibition match. They picked out the items mentioned and a few others, ordered them from their respective places and people, and trained Shamesh for a little while. They wouldn't try out any of the new gear yet, even the gear that was already in Safeharbor, because they knew that neither Isaac nor Shamesh would be competent with new items by the following day. They had to make a good impression on the crowd the next afternoon after all.

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