61. Anthills

Chapter 061
Anthills

When Zorian woke up, he was back in Cirin, being subjected to Kirielle’s usual morning antics. That was a relief. When the red light illuminated everything at the end of the previous restart, he had been afraid there would be lasting consequences. There was a primordial involved, after all, and he felt they were not something that should be taken lightly. There was a precedent about them being able to affect souls, considering the role of primordial essence in the creation of shifters.

After chasing Kirielle out of his room, he sat down and performed a quick checkup of his mind and soul for any non-obvious damage they might have received. Only once his self-diagnosis came up empty did he relax.

He wondered what the red light signified. The cultists had obviously lost control over the ritual and it failed in a lethal manner, killing everyone in the area… but he wondered what the nature of that failure was and how extensive the damage had been. It might be that stopping the ritual mid-way was almost as dangerous for the city as letting it run its course.

Well, no matter – they would just have to find a way to foil it before it even started.

As a bonus, stopping the ritual early meant that Nochka and the other shifter children wouldn’t get horrifically murdered to power up the ritual. Previously, Zorian had been running on adrenaline, and had more pressing concerns to worry about, such as hostile mages trying to kill him… as such, he had been able to push the emotional impact of those sights aside and not think too deeply about them. Now, however, there were no such distractions present… and Zorian had a very vivid memory, especially after going through all those aranean memory magic training methods.

Damn it. Those memories would bother him for months to come, he just knew it. Especially the part about Nochka. It wasn’t like the suffering of the rest of the children left him cold or anything, but they were essentially strangers. He saw all kinds of awful things happen to strangers during the invasion, and was somewhat numb to it by now. But Nochka… he knew her. Even before he had gotten pulled into the time loop and she became his little sister’s friend, he had known her – albeit only as ‘that girl whose bicycle he pulled out of the river’. It made it hard for him to just shove the memories aside in favor of focusing on something else.

Thankfully, he didn’t have to look far for a suitable distraction. Zach showed up at the door to his home again, just like he had in the previous restart, giving him someone to talk to. Soon, the two of them found themselves sitting alone in a train compartment, departing from Cirin.

“No Kirielle this time, huh?” Zach said, humming thoughtfully. “I guess this isn’t going to be another vacation restart, then?”

“Another?” Zorian scoffed. “Some vacation the previous restart turned out to be.”

“Frankly, a lot of that is your own fault,” Zach told him. “If you really wanted to relax, you shouldn’t have poked around serious matters so damn much. Hell, if you ask me, a proper vacation would involve leaving Cyoria entirely. We can still do that now, if you want. I know this really gorgeous beach in Tetra, way down in the south of the continent…”

“No, I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Zorian said, waving him off. “Don’t get me wrong, I do need a small vacation… but I won’t be able to relax with all this bothering me in the background. Let’s take a couple of restarts to investigate all this new information and then we can relax.”

“Oh?” Zach perked up, leaning forward on his seat. “So you found out something from that mage you memory probed?”

“Lots of things,” Zorian nodded happily. The attack on the hole had been a very risky maneuver, even for a pair of time travelers like them, but the payoff was just as great as Zorian hoped it would be. It seemed that even inside the time loop, the old adage about big gain only coming with big risks was true. “Do you want everything or just the highlights?”

“Give me the highlights for now,” Zach said. “We can go into details later.”

“Alright,” Zorian nodded. He expected as much. “First of all, did you notice what those mages behind the shield were wearing?”

“Red robes,” Zach nodded. “Kind of like the one the third time traveler was wearing.”

“They’re not ‘like’ the one Red Robe was wearing, they’re completely identical,” Zorian said. “I’m sure of it. And that is interesting, since those robes are not something you can buy on the open market. They are made specifically for the inner circle members of the Esoteric Order of the Celestial Dragon. No one except them should have one.”

“Red Robe could have simply stolen it,” Zach pointed out. “Though admittedly, I don’t have any idea why he would go out of his way to steal that robe specifically.”

“Those robes are supposed to be a marvel of magical engineering,” Zorian said. “They are made from very rare and impressive materials – specifically, scarletite threads and crimson sea silk – and densely embedded with powerful defensive magics and privacy wards. If they are as impressive as the mage I memory probed thought they were, I’m not surprised that Red Robe would want one. I want one too, now. We’re definitely stealing one in this restart so I can take it apart.”

“Hell, if they’re that good, we’re stealing them all,” Zach said. “If they’re made from crimson sea silk, we can sell them for huge amounts of money based on materials alone. It’s a bit unfortunate, though, since now we can’t know if Red Robe is just being practical by wearing those robes or if he really is a cultist.”

“I think there is a good chance he might be a cultist,” Zorian said. “He showed up pretty early in the restart when he went after us, and he was wearing the robes when he did. That implies he has one within easy reach of himself. The time he tried to kill you when you were barely out of bed is especially telling – it sounds like he came rushing at you as fast as he could, with minimal preparations, yet he still had it on.”

“That’s a good point,” Zach said, frowning. “Well, if that’s true, then he should be easy to find. Just how many members of the inner circle does the cult have, anyway?”

“Fifteen,” Zorian said.

“You got them all from that mage?” Zach asked in surprise.

“Not all, no,” Zorian shook his head. “I only managed to find the identities of five of them before the restart ended. But I know how many of them in total exist, and it shouldn’t be hard to track down the rest with the information I do have. Especially since I know the identity of the person leading the cult.”

“Man, I’m really starting to get jealous of your mind magic,” Zach said. “Whenever I tried to investigate the cult, I never really went anywhere with it. Forget about tracking down the leader, I couldn’t even identify high-ranking members. Not even truth potions helped.”

“Probably because all members of the inner circle, as well as anyone else in important positions, swore a geas to keep the names and identities of their fellow inner circle members a secret,” said Zorian. “Mind magic does not care about any of that, of course.”

“Yeah, yeah, rub it in,” Zach grumbled for a second. “Well, what are you waiting for? Are you going to tell me who the head crazy is, or what?”

“Vatimah Tinc, the head of the local branch of the Mage Guild,” Zorian told him.

There was a brief pause as Zach digested this.

“Well shit,” Zach finally said. “No wonder the invaders could set up bases beneath Cyoria and operate there unchallenged for more than a month. The man is in perfect position to block and sabotage any kind of investigation around Cyoria he doesn’t like.”

Zorian nodded wordlessly. Although Eldemar had several institutions dedicated to countering criminal activity and investigating suspicious incidents, the Mage Guild was the first line of defense in that regard. With them subverted, nothing else would work correctly.

“Talk about the fox running the henhouse,” Zach said. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, since it was obvious for years that someone pretty high up was helping the invasion… but this kind of thing still catches me off guard. What the hell does someone like that hope to gain by helping the invaders, anyway?”

“Oh, that’s an excellent question. Thanks for reminding me,” Zorian said. “You see, I found out more about what the inner circle of the cult is planning with their ritual, and I can tell you it’s not what their regular members and their Ibasan allies are thinking.”

“They’re not trying to let a primordial run amok through the city in an attempt to appease their world dragon god that hates all humanity?” Zach asked curiously.

“No,” Zorian shook his head. “That’s what the regular members of the cult think. The inner circle know that while the ritual involved releasing the primordial into the world, the goal is not to let it do whatever it wants. The goal is to enslave it and get their very own living superweapon and bound wish genie. The imprisoned primordial is supposed to be Panaxeth, He Of The Flowing Flesh, and the inner circle of the cult thinks he can grant them everlasting youth and remake their bodies into something… better.”

“Better?” Zach asked, arching his eyebrow. “Is this the kind of better where you end up faster and stronger but covered in eyeballs and tentacles?”

“Well, in the case of that mage I memory probed, it mostly involves him being 21 and healthy again,” Zorian said. “And having a bigger penis.”

Zach snorted in amusement.

“Panaxeth is supposed to be a fleshwarper, rather than a shapeshifter in the modern sense,” Zorian continued. “In theory, it should be possible for it to cure diseases, regress people’s age and remake their bodies into some superior form. It’s just a question of whether they can control it well enough.”

“Can they?” Zach asked curiously. “Control it, I mean.”

“No way to know, really,” Zorian admitted. “But I doubt it. The idea is to restrain Panaxeth with a binding spell keyed-in to his essence and then subjugate his mind. Even the cultists admit that Panaxeth’s ever-changing nature means the binding spell won’t stay effective for long. Meaning they have to enslave it within fifteen minutes or less.”

“You don’t think they can work that fast,” Zach surmised.

“I think it might be impossible even if they had all the time in the world to work their magic,” Zorian said. “Let me put it this way. When I invaded the mind of that mage at the end, I encountered powerful and sophisticated mental defenses on him. Better than I had ever seen before on a human mage. It took me mere minutes to dismantle them and start rooting through his memories. At the time, I thought the protections were there to compensate for the known weakness of the shield that protected the ritual ground. But that was just a secondary concern – their real purpose was to ward off any mental counterattack from the primordial while they tried to bend it to their will.”

“Ah, I get it,” Zach said. “You’re thinking that if you can get through the shields in a few minutes, the primordial could as well.”

“Yeah,” Zorian admitted. “It’s possible, I suppose, that I’m overselling Panaxeth and that he has no way to strike back at the minds of cultists trying to enslave him. But primordials are supposed to be these ancient beings that gave even gods pause, and Panaxeth’s powers revolve around manipulating living flesh, including the nervous system. At the very least, I expect Panaxeth to have incredible mental defenses at his disposal. I bet he could weather mental attacks from anything other than a master telepath with effortless ease.”

Zach and Zorian continued talking for another half an hour, discussing the various facts and secrets Zorian had discovered with his memory probe at the end of the previous restart. Eventually, though, the conversation started to wind down.

“Huh,” said Zach thoughtfully. “And here I thought the reason Quatach-Ichl didn’t follow us was because Alanic kept him too busy to do so.”

“In a way, that’s true,” Zorian said. “If Quatach-Ichl had left the battle to follow after us, his soldiers would have surely perished without his support… and I have a feeling he cares far more about Ibasan mages than he does for Cyorian cultists. In that way, Alanic and the rest of the mages that came with us did keep him busy. Still, if Quatach-Ichl thought there was a good chance the ritual would collapse without his support, he probably would have went after us anyway. Fortunately for us, the cooperation between him and the cult’s leadership isn’t exactly rosy. The leaders of the cult never told him they would be practically defenseless once the ritual starts, which gave him a skewed image of what kind of forces they had arrayed against us. He had no idea that the seven most powerful mages on that platform had no way to contribute to its defense.”

“They were afraid Quatach-Ichl would take advantage of their weakness to off them,” Zach surmised.

“Yes, exactly,” Zorian nodded. “Especially since they weren’t completely sure whether or not Quatach-Ichl was aware of what the true goal of the ritual is. He shouldn’t have been, but old, powerful archmages like him are hard to fool and keep in the dark about things. And if he knew they were trying to take control of the primordial, it wouldn’t be particularly strange for him to try and sabotage them once they release it from its prison.”

For about a minute, both of them were silent. Zorian because he no longer had anything notable to say, and Zach because he seemed to be considering something.

“You know, I’ve been thinking,” Zach said, looking around their compartment. “Why are we still on this train? You didn’t bring Kirielle along with you and we’re well away from Cirin at this point. Can’t we just teleport directly to Cyoria already?”

“Well, yes,” Zorian said. “I just figured the train compartment is as good a place to talk as any, you know? Although I’d like to make a detour before we go to Cyoria, if that’s okay with you.”

“Sure,” Zach shrugged. “Where are we going?”

“Eldemar.”

“The capital city?” Zach asked. Zorian nodded. “Why?”

“To see if we can find another Key there,” Zorian answered. “I’ve been thinking about the Keys, and how they’re apparently treasures of the first Ikosian emperor, and I think there is a chance the royal treasury has one or more of them. I mean, the crown of Eldemar has been trying to acquire the legacy of Ikosian Emperors pretty aggressively. Even if the treasury doesn’t contain a piece of the Key, it would be a good idea to break into their archives. They might know where the keys could be, even if they don’t actually have them. At the very least, their records and secret documents would be a good place to start in regards to our search for the Keys.”

“You… want to break into the royal treasury?” Zach asked. After a second of silence, he shook his head and laughed lightly. “Actually, yeah, that sounds like a good idea. We should check out the treasuries of Sulamnon and a couple of other large Splinter Nations too – Eldemar isn’t the only country trying to collect imperial artefacts, you know.”

“I know, but Eldemar is the closest and I’m guessing they already know about similar initiatives of other nations and how successful they are,” Zorian said.

“The only problem is that breaking into the royal treasury is no simple matter,” Zach told him seriously. “There is no way we can do it this morning, with no preparations whatsoever. And even with all our skills, I doubt we can do it without being discovered in the process. You wouldn’t believe how upset the royals get when an intruder successfully gets into the palace. It’s like kicking over an anthill – they would be after us for an entire month, and they’re actually pretty capable. It might be best to delay that kind of excursion till the end of the restart.”

“Fine,” Zorian said. It wasn’t like he expected he could just walk into the royal treasury and check thing up at his leisure. “But I still want to check out the defenses so I know what I’m dealing with. I assume from your words that you have already broken in there, so you can tell me the details from your perspective as we walk.”

“I never actually managed to break into the treasury,” Zach said. “Admittedly, I didn’t try very hard. I did it for a laugh, really, to see if I could do it. Well, it turned out to be harder than I thought. From the way the Ibasans managed to assemble their secret invasion, you might think the royals and their forces are incompetent… but you’d be wrong. They guard their treasures very, very well. If only they valued their loyal subjects as much as they do their possessions…”

The last part was mumbled under his breath, but Zorian heard it anyway.

“I knew this could bring a lot of unwelcome attention to us,” Zorian said. “That’s why I didn’t bring Kirielle with me this time. One of the big reasons why I decided not to tangle with House Boranova too much in the previous restart is because that had the potential to get everyone around us in trouble. I guess in the grand scheme of things it doesn’t really matter if Kirielle, Imaya and the others suffer due to our actions, since everything will be wiped clean at the end of the month anyway, but I just can’t let myself think in such a way.”

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“No worries,” Zach said, waving his hand dismissively. “I actually appreciate that kind of attitude. I was kind of worried before that you’d try to make me do some awful stuff in the name of practicality, but you’re an okay guy.”

Zorian found it a bit amusing how trying to rob Eldemar’s royal family doesn’t qualify as ‘awful stuff’ in Zach’s eyes. It wasn’t unexpected, of course, considering how the royal family stood back and watched as House Noveda was looted by Zach’s caretaker.