82. Ancient Circles

Chapter 082
Ancient Circles

Aranhal, the unfortunate nation that had lost its airship prototype to Zach and Zorian, had been affected deeply by the theft. It was a huge blow to their prestige to lose their prized creation in such a dramatic manner, possibly more so than a mere technical failure would have been. If the design itself was flawed or the builders had assembled the vessel incorrectly and it crashed during its maiden flight, that would have been kind of embarrassing… but mostly for the project itself and the factions that supported it. Having a bunch of thieves break into the construction site and steal it away, though? That reflected badly on the whole country. It didn’t help that Aranhal couldn’t suppress the information that they had engaged the thieves in an airship battle and lost. The airship they had lost in the ensuing battle couldn’t be simply swept under the rug, after all. Many people ended up losing their positions over this scandal, information gathering groups in the entire region were going crazy trying to figure out which group was responsible for the feat and rumors were flying that a massive audit of Aranhal’s government agencies and armed forces was in the works…

Zach and Zorian, the causes of the entire furor, were only dimly aware of all this. They kept an eye on the news and reports coming from the region, but it didn’t seem like Aranhal was getting any closer to tracking them down, so they gradually lost interest. Zorian did find it kind of interesting how many otherwise obscure groups and individuals were roused into action as a result of their theft, though. Perhaps it would be a good idea to stir up some similarly great outrage back in Altazia, just to see if something particularly interesting would show itself in its wake…

That was a thought for some other time, though. At the moment, Zach and Zorian were simply relaxing on their new airship as it flew over the empty, sun-scorched desert. They weren’t going anywhere in particular – they were just meandering from one random place to another, testing the ship’s flight systems and enjoying the view. As an added bonus, aimlessly flying around the Xlotic desert was a pretty good way of foiling any attempt to eavesdrop on them. No matter what kind of exotic methods of tracking them down and spying on them Quatach-Ichl had at his disposal, they probably couldn’t reach across continents and reach them here.

“Wow, the view from here is amazing! And look, those four tower-like rock formations over there? Those are Retam’s Fangs, where the prince of Ixam and the rebel queen Hanfa swore an alliance to unite their forces and repel the Ikosian forces encroaching upon their land. Even though they failed in the end, I always thought their story of forbidden lovers fighting a doomed battle against insurmountable odds was so romantic…”

Zorian glanced to his side, where Neolu was leaning over the airship railing and animatedly babbling about anything that caught her eye. Bringing her along with them when they boarded the airship kind of interfered with the idea of maximum security, but Quatach-Ichl already had plenty of people to choose from if he wanted to kidnap someone to question about Zach and Zorian, so whatever. He was more amazed that she was willing to go along with them, to be honest. A couple of acquaintances come up to you one day and tell you that they’re time travelers and want you to join them for a joyride in their stolen airship and you just… accept the offer?

“I’m hardly an expert on ancient Ikosian history, but wasn’t that alliance a matter of pure pragmatism? And didn’t the prince of Ixam have his father’s permission to broker a deal with the rebels?” Zorian asked curiously. “What exactly makes this a case of ‘forbidden love’?”

Neolu gave him an unamused look.

“Err, never mind,” Zorian said quickly. He didn’t want to start an argument about a silly topic like that. “Forbidden love it is.”

Neolu’s expression brightened immediately, and she clapped her hands happily.

“We should come down and look around!” she said enthusiastically. “I hear nobody has been here for nearly a decade, since it’s so deep in the desert now. I want to take a souvenir or two. Ooh, my sisters will be so jealous when I show them…”

Zorian really didn’t understand her. She readily accepted their claims about the existence of the time loop – although she was indeed more wary of the story when it was both Zach and Zorian talking to her about it rather than just Zach – but the way she spoke and behaved made Zorian wonder how much she really believed them. She didn’t seem to care at all about the impending end of the month that would rob her of everything she achieved here.

In any case, they had no reason to refuse her request. It wasn’t like they were pressed for time, or even going anywhere in particular, so stopping by for some sightseeing and to pick up some pretty rocks was okay. Besides, Zorian believed that once Neolu experienced the scorching heat of the desert outside the airship, she would quickly decide to cut their visit short.

Two hours later, he realized he may have underestimated Neolu somewhat. Being a Xlotic native, she seemed to possess a much higher comfort threshold for hot, dry climates than he or Zach did. She was also far more athletic than he had given her credit for, because she was jumping about and maneuvering herself across the rock landscape with far more grace than he would have expected from a teenage girl wearing a dress.

Maybe it was some kind of a bloodline? House Iljatir, like many magical Houses, was rather secretive about its family magic and special abilities, but they probably had them.

“Hey, Zach,” Zorian called out. His fellow time traveler, who was just in the process of carving ‘Zach was here’ into one of the stone formations, turned to him with a questioning look. “What is House Iljatir’s special thing?”

“I don’t know,” said Zach. “Something divination-based. Neolu got all apologetic when I asked and said she wasn’t allowed to tell me and I didn’t push. I didn’t think it mattered.”

“Something divination-based, huh?” Zorian mused thoughtfully. Hmm. Depending on what exactly that represented, maybe she had an actual reason for trusting them so easily…

“Yeah,” confirmed Zach, either not realizing or not caring that Zorian was mostly talking to himself when he repeated his words. “Those three blue circles she has imprinted on her cheeks and forehead? They’re supposed to represent eyes.”

“Oh. I was kind of wondering about that,” Zorian said.

“You could have just asked her,” Zach said, shaking his head and turning back to finish his inscription. “She’s a really easy person to talk to, you know? Even if you ask something she can’t tell you, she probably won’t get mad at you.”

After mulling it over for a few seconds, Zorian decided to do just that. He approached the cheery girl that joined them on this trip and waved at her to get her attention. She seemed to be in the process of trying to capture one of the small blue lizards that made their home in this place, though, and was so focused on her task that she did not notice him. The little creatures were totally harmless, but very fast after soaking in the sun for hours on end and quite tricky to catch.

“Neolu?” he asked.

She jumped a little in surprise at his sudden interruption, before refocusing on him. Her eyes, blue like the markings on her cheeks and forehead, stared at him uncomprehendingly for a second before an idea seemed to occur to her.

“Catch one for me!” she commanded, pointing at one of the distant blue lizards with her finger. The lizard instantly reacted to her sudden move, darting so fast into a nearby crevice that it looked like it teleported.

Zorian raised his eyes at her, his mouth stretching into an amused smile.

“Err, please?” she added with a nervous smile of her own.

“Fine,” Zorian sighed. After a second of consideration, he decided to go for the simplest option – he reached into the mind of the nearest lizard and manipulated it into coming over on its own. Once it approached close enough, he simply scooped it up and handed it to the girl next to him, who immediately started to coo and fawn over it. Didn’t girls usually find reptiles creepy and disgusting?

“Look at you, so gorgeously blue and gloriously spiky,” Neolu said, turning the lizard over so she could see him from all sides. The lizard looked decidedly unamused with her manhandling, and would have started biting her fingers by now had Zorian not been constantly calming it down. Neolu gave him a curious look. “How did you do that?”

“Mind magic,” he answered honestly. Using mind magic against animals was not illegal, and didn’t typically scare people.

“Oh. That’s kind of cheating,” she frowned. She stared at the little lizard in her hand for a few seconds before sighing dramatically. “I kind of want to keep it, but… no, that would be wrong. I don’t have anywhere to keep it, I don’t know what it eats, and it would probably be lonely without its fellows.”

She lowered the lizard back to the ground and Zorian released his mental hold on it. Surprisingly, the little lizard didn’t immediately run away after that. Instead, it opted to give them confused looks and it shuffled in place uncertainly.

“Go along little guy, you can go home now,” Neolu said. “Don’t forget me, okay?”

The lizard blinked at her in confusion, probably wondering why the big creature didn’t eat it when it when it had the chance, before turning around and darting away into the distance.

“Sorry about that. I get a little weird sometimes,” Neolu said, turning back towards him. “I guess you wanted to tell me something? Is it time to leave?”

“No, I was actually just going to ask you about something,” Zorian said. “You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to, but I’m kind of curious… how come you accepted our story so easily?”

“Shouldn’t you already know the answer for this?” she said curiously. “You’re the ancient time traveler who has seen it all, right?”

“I’m not that ancient, actually,” Zorian said, shaking his head. “I spent about seven years in this time loop, not counting the time dilation rooms.”

“Time dilation rooms?” Neolu asked curiously. “What are those?”

“It’s a long story. Ask me some other time, okay?” Zorian said. “The point is that I have not seen it all – not even close. Truthfully, this is the first time I’ve had any significant interaction with you.”

“Boo! Am I so boring?” she pouted.

“Not at all,” Zorian said hastily. “It’s just…”

“It’s fine, it’s fine…” said laughed. “I’m just teasing. Well, mostly. You say I accepted your story really easily, so that means you tried to convince many other people thus far. Depending on how far down the list I am, I might actually be offended…”

“It was mostly Zach who tried to convince all our classmates and anyone who would listen, so that statement is based mostly around what he told me of his experiences,” Zorian said. “He said most people reacted really badly to his claim of being trapped in an ever-repeating month. Especially in the beginning, before he honed his skills to downright implausible levels and memorized which secret and prediction this or that person found convincing. You though… you always accepted his story very easily. Even in this restart, where you know we stole an airship and both of us approached you instead of just Zach–”

“Why would it matter that you both approached me about this?” Neolu asked with a frown.

“Err…” Zorian fumbled.

“Oh. Oh! I get it,” Neolu giggled. “I guess I can see it, he can be kind of cute…” She suddenly stopped and gave Zorian a panicked look. “I mean, not that you’re not, but you’re a bit too quiet and passive for my taste and– gods, I should have just pretended to be scandalized about this, shouldn’t I? Okay, okay, shutting up now…”

“You know, you still haven’t answered my question,” Zorian pointed out, amused.

“What? Oh, about me being easy to convince…” Neolu said, giving him a short, nervous laugh. “Right, I don’t really have an answer to that. I guess you’re expecting some big mystery here but there isn’t any. I’m just kind of foolish, I guess. We know each other, I could tell that you had no malicious intentions towards me and you provided all the proof I asked of you… even if you were delusional or lying, I probably wouldn’t have been in any harm.”

Zorian gave her a speculative look. The way she phrased her statement gave the impression she trusted a mere hunch about their good character to keep her safe, but the surety in her voice made Zorian think there was something a lot more concrete involved there. Perhaps something… divination-based?

“And if I asked you how you were so sure we had no malicious intentions towards you?” he asked curiously.

“Woman’s intuition,” she said cheerfully, her voice sounding like she had been just waiting for a chance to use that response.

“Well, regardless of the reason, I thank you for your trust,” Zorian said.

“No problem!” Neolu said, giving him an appreciative look for not pushing her on the issue. “Was there anything else you wanted to ask?”

“Yes, actually,” Zorian said. “This may be too personal, but why did a girl from Xlotic decide to go all the way to Cyoria to attend a magic academy? It’s a somewhat curious thing to do, you know?”

“Ah…” Neolu sighed, her good mood suddenly deflating somewhat. But only somewhat. “That. Well, my mother is actually from Eldemar. She used to tell me stories of her homeland when I was little, and I always wanted to visit the place. So I begged my father to let me come and he couldn’t say no to me. That’s the reason I usually tell people when they ask me that question. And, I mean, it’s kind of true! I really did want to visit. And Cyoria is really interesting and I’m not really sorry for being there…”

“But?” Zorian prompted.

“But if it was for that, I probably wouldn’t have gone so far as to sign up for school here,” Neolu said. “I would have simply visited for a few months. The truth is my father has made some pretty serious enemies back in Nelentar, and there were concerns they would go after his family to get to him. Especially after me, because… um, father doesn’t really trust my judgment much.”

How… very surprising. Then again, most people would say that Zorian’s parents were in the right and that Zorian was being unreasonable when he clashed with them, so maybe he should be more open-minded about Neolu’s reasons for acting the way she did.

“In the end, it was decided I would be sent to Eldemar,” Neolu continued. “That way I would be out of danger, I get to fulfill my long-time wish to visit my mother’s homeland and the whole thing can be explained back home as my father spoiling his daughter a little too much. Three birds with one stone, no?”

“Indeed,” Zorian agreed. Though he personally found it sad that Neolu’s father sent his daughter to Cyoria to keep her safe, only to have the city invaded by Ibasans in the end. That didn’t exactly go according to plan…

“Anyway! I actually think the whole thing turned out really well in the end, so I have no regrets. You don’t have to feel sorry about me,” Neolu said. “Though to be honest, I’ll probably be glad when I’m done with the academy and can come back home. I… kind of miss my family. You probably don’t understand, being able to see yours any time you want and all.”

“Err, yeah… you’re probably right about that,” Zorian said slowly. He didn’t bother clarifying that it was not quite for the reasons she was thinking of.

They wandered the rocky landscape for a while after that, after which all three of them returned to the airship and continued their aimless wandering through the desert. Neolu somehow talked him into helping her take away a large green rock from the site, even though it was pretty much worthless as far as Zorian could tell, and he couldn’t possibly fathom what she intended to do with it, and she was inordinately happy about that. She spent about half an hour humming to herself and inspecting the rock in great detail before eventually seeking him out again.

“Zorian, can I ask you something?” she asked him, then immediately continued with her follow-up question without waiting for his answer. “This time loop of yours… it’s going to end someday, right?”

“Yes?” Zorian said, unsure what she was getting at.

“So one day, this month will run its course as it always does… and I will live on and remember instead of endlessly forgetting?” she prompted further. “And you will remember this day and act accordingly?”

“I… that’s the idea,” Zorian said, faltering slightly. They never told her that there was a good chance they would be destroyed in the end, having failed to leave the time loop before it collapsed. He didn’t really want to tell her about that if he didn’t have to, either.

“What do you intend to do when that happens?” she asked, biting her lip. “About me, I mean.”

“About you?” Zorian asked, caught a little off-guard by the direction this was going in. “Well, it depends on what you want us to do, I guess.”

“I don’t know what I want,” she admitted. “I just know I had fun today and I don’t want to forget it all.”

Ah… and here he thought the realization she would lose everything at the end of the month hadn’t affected her in the slightest. Maybe the implications of the time loop just hadn’t hit her up until now? Unfortunately, there was very little he could do to comfort her in regards to that. Aside from lying, of course.

“But,” she continued, “since that is not possible, I have a somewhat selfish request out of you and Zach: when we meet again at the end, don’t pretend this never happened. You don’t have to tell me about the time loop, but don’t be a stranger. I know I’m probably not the most exciting person you’ve met over the years, but you’re not allowed to forget me, okay?”

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Zorian gave her a strange look.

“Well… okay,” he said slowly.

“Yay! New friends!” she exclaimed, causing Zorian to sigh a little. She really reminded him of a little kid in some respects. Or Novelty.

He really missed that silly little spider sometimes…

“I hope you realize we won’t be stealing this airship in the final version of this month,” Zorian said. “So this particular memory is… probably never going to be recreated.”

Neolu seemed to give it a serious thought.

“That’s probably for the best,” she eventually decided. “From what the papers are saying, you killed a lot of people when you destroyed that pursuing airship. That wasn’t very nice.”

“I… really don’t understand you,” Zorian admitted, shaking his head. “You know that, but you’re still here. And you want to be friends with us.”

“All those people will be alive when time resets again, so it’s fine,” Neolu said with small shrug. “But hey! Even without the airship, you can still open doors between continents, no? That’s how we reached your airship in the first place. So you can take me to see all these places anyway!”

Zorian opened his mouth to point out that revealing they could perform intercontinental travel spells was still a huge deal, but in the end he just shut his mouth and remained quiet. Considering Neolu’s peculiar personality, she was probably one of the few people who could handle such a revelation without totally freaking out.

“I guess you’re right,” he eventually conceded.

Besides, what was incredible cosmic power for if not for taking a girl out on a casual vacation into uninhabited desert filled with crumbling ruins and bloodthirsty monsters?

Maybe Zach was becoming a bad influence on him…

– break –

In the end, it was not hard at all to talk Neolu into helping them find the translators and contacts they needed to operate more freely in the Xlotic region. Most of these were going to be in her home country of Nelentar, since that was where she could wield her family influence the most and where her knowledge of local knowledge and customs was most pronounced, but that was still plenty useful. With such a solid starting point, it wouldn’t be hard to extend their net wider throughout the region.