Chapter 104 – Moving Along

As the cycles continued, it was those moments of friendship that Mirian held onto, that helped bolster her when she felt bitter and alone. Telling Beatrice about the roses helped her friend find acceptance in the nature of the cycle, and softened the blow when the end came again.

Progress in the Vaults was arduous and sluggish, though it sped up considerably when Mirian had nailed down exactly when and where each attack would be. They opened up three more rooms in the ‘ecology’ wing of the Vault as Mirian read up on more and more myrvites. Soon enough, she had memorized some hundred species and their associated magichemical and ecological niche, simply by studying them endlessly.

She also figured out that, far from protecting the group from attacks, the force shield spell engines the group was using to block off passages were actually triggering attacks. Mirian theorized the spell engines were making some sort of arcane ‘noise’ that disturbed the labyrinthine horrors and riled them up. When they stopped using them, the attacks decreased.

Eventually, she also got Frostland’s Gate to listen to her about the myrvite stampede that happened on the 19th, and just let them all run right through the middle of town. When everyone got out of the way and just put up a few force walls in front of the greenhouses and the livestock, no one died and the stampede was over in record time. She hadn’t even needed to tell everyone she was a time traveler, just claim an expertise in myrvite studies and then get the Torrviol Expedition to back her up on that.

Beatrice’s research group made a leap in progress when they opened up an entire new wing. The illusions cycling through various three dimensional crystal forms in the first room turned out to be another of the puzzles, and the solution was to project her own illusion in the same space with a four dimensional extrapolation of the shape. She thought of Professor Jei teaching her the mathematics of that, and again was thankful for her old mentor.

She missed her. A lot.

That puzzle in turn led to more puzzles, each with more of a geometric theme. Then, like the magically suppressed agility course death corridor, there was another room that seemed certain death to go into.

This one had two greater labyrinthine horrors, and its own magical suppression field. The horrors wouldn’t leave the room. They simply waited patiently for anything to enter, then rapidly came in for the kill.

Projectiles didn’t seem to work in the room, either. Mirian had them bring down several rifles the second time they visited the room, but a magnetic field activated that stopped the bullets the instant they crossed through the door. Crossbow bolts and thrown spears (metal tipped or not) got stopped by force magic, though a spear could be brought into the room if carried by hand.

That got Mirian wondering if Labyrinth magic was powerful enough to stop an artillery shell, though there was no practical way to test that. There was no artillery in Frostland’s Gate, and even if she helped make a weapon, it wasn’t going to fit in the elevator shaft or through any of the doors.

“How many soldiers would you need to bring those two horrors down without magic?” Mirian asked Grimald at one of their tavern meetings.

“At least twelve. Four with heavy shields, six with specially reinforced spears, and two with machetes for hacking away at those creepy limbs. I still think you’d lose several people. But add too many more, and there’d be no room to maneuver.”

Mirian’s attempt to use soul magic to get around the suppression barriers didn’t work either. She iterated on her soul repository, but no amount of soul energy she could contain in the device seemed to be able to overcome the suppression field. Like the death corridor, whatever glyphs or runes were controlling the field seemed to be on the other side of the room.

Her consolation prize was the stone tablets they brought back from one of the deeper rooms in the vault. One tablet had both regular arcane glyphs and celestial runes.

It was the breakthrough Mirian needed. She spent four cycles getting to the tablet as fast as she could, bringing up special materials and devices from Torrviol, just so she could study it. At the start of another cycle, she brought her hypothesis to Professor Endresen, her old arcane physics professor, who admitted the math was impeccable and then, when realization struck her, got very excited. Mirian was sorry to have to disappear on her the next day.

“It’s not a different type of magical field,” Mirian finally concluded one evening, while she and Beatrice ate dinner atop a hill overlooking town. Beatrice had brought lagers for both of them, but Mirian had decided she hated the taste of the stuff. “It’s the same field on a different part of the spectrum. Like, we can only see visible light normally, because we’re human, but we know that light can be infrared light or ultraviolet, each with its own properties. Arcane magic is like the infrared part of the spectrum; humans need a special tool, the catalyst, to interact with it. Celestial magic is like ultraviolet. You need a different tool, the celestial focus, to interact with it. Your own soul is like visible light. As it expands out, it changes frequency to the arcane equivalent of infrared, which is why auric mana’s frequency matches the arcane catalyst. So if soul energy can be brought down into rapid decay, it can be used in arcane spells. Maybe that’s what I’m doing subconsciously. Maybe that’s what archmages like Luspire are doing, but not even realizing it. Does that make sense?”

Beatrice, who was drunk as Mirian explained this to her, said, “That’s so beautiful,” only slurring her words slightly. “That would get you published in the Journal of Arcane Physics, you know. Very prestigious. I still can’t believe the holy Luminate Order is covering up that they do necromancy. Or whatever.” She gave a loud sigh, then said, “The sunsets here are so pretty.”

Mirian continued her speculation. “Myrvites like bog lions and glaciavores can probably interact with soul magic in the same way I can with orichalcum. They’ve got to be attuning some sort of substance with a resonance field to gain spell resistance. But what substance?”

“Can’t believe the Arcane Praetorians have been hiding a super-metal from researchers this whole time,” Beatrice mumbled.

“And any myrvite that can cast a natural spell is able to access arcane magic naturally. Is it required to have different biomagical substances that can do this, or is it possible to get a single catalyst that can access both ends of the spectrum? Would that allow a more deliberate shift of energy? And what does that imply about how a soul can be strengthened?”

Beatrice had no idea. By now, Mirian’s hypotheses were well outside her expertise. Even Elsadorra had no idea, and her only thought for testing Mirian’s spell resistance involved capturing a live glaciavore to vivisect, which was completely out of the question.

Mirian found that she did some of her best thinking on the road to Frostland’s Gate. It helped her mull over her new theories and how to test them, sometimes consciously, sometimes unconsciously. Even when she wasn’t focused on a problem, some part of her brain was working on it, and sometimes inspiration would strike.

This time, as she made yet another trip north, she realized she needed to change tactics again. She could still make incremental progress, perhaps opening another room, or narrowing down the function of another new glyph, but it would be slow and time consuming, and wouldn’t lead to much gain.

Mirian decided there were a few things she needed to do.

The first was to investigate Palendurio. She still needed to learn more about how the conspiracy played out there. She was also very interested in investigating the Grand Sanctum and its artifacts of the Prophets, as well as learning more about how orichalcum and the other special materials were manufactured. Both places might open up new theoretical ground for her to cover.

Two was to start monitoring Sulvorath, and see if he was still fixated on finding her, and which of her disruptions were most effective. She had a few ideas on how to accomplish that in relative safety.

Lastly, she wanted to find a way to get to Vadriach. Going into Akana Praediar itself might be risky, and she’d initially dismissed the idea, but the university there was leading the way in arcane physics research. Plus, she never had figured out how the Akanan dreadnought airship’s engines worked. And if she could keep an eye on Sulvorath without him knowing, she could make sure she was countering his methods to find her before she even encountered them. Besides, if he was moving into Torrviol each cycle, perhaps it was best to strike him in the place he’d just vacated. General Hanaran would approve of this kind of strategic thinking, she thought.

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She spent one more cycle wrapping up her research and formulating how she might use more advanced equipment to explore some of the unanswered questions, then said her goodbyes.

“I know you won’t remember it, but I’ll miss you,” she told Beatrice.

Beatrice gave her a big hug. “Be good to yourself out there,” she said. “And tell my little sister I said ‘hi.’ You know. When the time is right.”

“I will,” Mirian said.

The world ended again.

***

Mirian saved Arenthia again the next cycle so that she could consult with the Cult of Zomalator again and run her new ideas about soul magic past them.

Lecne and Arenthia were very impressed by her research, and said it made a lot of sense, and also, that they had absolutely no idea how to help her. She was breaching new ground in magical research. At least, new ground in unclassified magical research. She was sure that there were people in the Praetorians or the Deeps or their Akanan equivalents who had already made progress in those areas.