Emma

Emma

First appearance: Retribution, chapter 3
Last appearance: Retribution, chapter 28
Appears in: Retribution

Latest status

Alive — reconciled with Riley after making amends for her betrayal

Emma is a light mage traveling with a group of university friends toward Vaerwald, wary of Riley’s arrival and increasingly possessive as her boyfriend Lucas begins looking to Riley for guidance instead of her. Her jealousy curdles into resentment and, eventually, a serious betrayal of the group she travels with, driven by insecurity rather than malice. Given a chance to make amends, she rebuilds trust through steady, humble effort and honest healing support, closing her arc with genuine remorse and reconciliation rather than lingering grievance.

Abilities

• Damage-enhancement buff spell — Book 2.5
• Group healing spell — Book 2.5
• Anti-evil aura (weakens evil-aligned creatures) — Book 2.5

Book 2.5: Retribution

Emma is a light mage from a UK university group traveling with Ethan and her boyfriend Lucas toward Vaerwald for magical training when Riley, hiding her true strength, joins them at Twilight Throne. Emma is initially wary of the newcomer, worried Riley’s low apparent level will endanger the group during the journey. When undead deserters ambush the party, Riley’s decisive intervention saves them, but her cold execution of a surrendering prisoner disturbs Emma; rather than confront the implications, Emma withdraws from the moral question, later dismissing the suffering of enslaved undead at a Sibald slave auction as none of the group’s business.

As the group nears Vaerwald, Emma’s attention shifts to guarding her relationship with Lucas, whose training struggles contrast with her own steady advancement in light magic; she grows possessive as Lucas begins looking to Riley for guidance, and starts treating Riley as a rival for his attention rather than a teammate. Inside the city, her resentment widens into open contempt for Riley’s inexperience with Vaerwald’s customs and for the fire guild’s brutal training culture, and she repeatedly argues for pursuing the fire guild as the source of the group’s investigation, a position the evidence increasingly contradicts. When Ethan is subjected to the earth guild’s torturous advancement trial, her hostility briefly turns to genuine alarm: she accuses Riley of responsibility for his suffering and stays by his side through the aftermath, revealing a capacity for care beneath her irritation.

Emma’s resentment resurfaces once the investigation strands her further from her comfort zone and her fire-guild theory is dismissed. Isolated within the party and increasingly bitter over Riley’s leadership, she secretly tips off bounty hunters to the group’s location. The betrayal nearly gets Lucas killed in the resulting attack. Confronted afterward, Emma breaks down, admitting she acted out of jealousy without considering the real consequences of contacting the hunters; she begs to remain with the group and submits without protest to whatever judgment the others impose.

Placed on probation, Emma spends the following chapters proving herself through consistent healing support, working through injury and danger while deliberately keeping a low profile. During the final assault on the Great Library, she is struck down early in the battle against the Mana Abomination while trying to keep the party alive with her healing. She and Riley later reconcile: Emma offers a direct, unqualified apology for the betrayal, and Riley accepts it, closing out her arc in the book on genuine remorse rather than resentment.

Status: Alive — wary and territorial toward Riley within the group → Alive — reconciled with Riley after making amends for her betrayal

Riley: Wariness curdles into jealousy and open hostility over Riley’s leadership and closeness with Lucas, culminating in Emma betraying the group’s location to bounty hunters, then giving way to genuine remorse and reconciliation.

Lucas: Their romantic relationship grows possessive as Emma tries to keep him from Riley’s influence, then is badly strained after her betrayal leads to him nearly being killed.

Ethan: Their pragmatic alliance briefly deepens into genuine protectiveness when Emma is horrified by his suffering during the earth guild’s trial.

Key quote: “I didn’t think about what this would mean. Or what it would look like to watch you bleed out in my arms…”

Appears in

• Retribution — 21 chapters