Chapter 119 – Declaration

The world ended, and Mirian woke in her bed, feeling the water drip down her face, and sighed.

Loop one hundred, she thought.

Mirian planned to create a stir in Palendurio, so she tried a new variable: killing a half-dozen of the spies and tipping off both the Magistrate and Archmage as to Sulvorath and Specter. She worked with Jei on a plan to vanish for several days. For good measure, she also set up a trap in the spies’ safehouse.

Enjoy cleaning that up, she thought as she levitated her way out of town and landed on the departing train’s caboose.

***

Mirian first worked on translating the ancient Adamic writing she’d recovered, making friends with one of the language experts who worked in the Great Library. Her memory had been far from perfect, so several words hadn’t quite turned out right. She was able to correct it when she got lucky with her dreams and found herself in the Mausoleum again.

She also read up on the history of the Luminate Order, and more of the lives of the Prophets. She actually found that several of the historians had a wonderful way of telling the past through narrative, and the books were downright tolerable. As she read, she tried to fill in the gaps. Whenever someone like the Third Prophet was said to have instantly made friends with a king or led a perfect battle, she could imagine that was where their own trials in the time loops had come into play.

She had instructed her contacts in Torrviol to send her a message early if someone managed to kill Sulvorath or Specter.

It turned out to be a winning combination of initial conditions.

The message she got was on the 10th of Solem, and it was from Professor Jei.

Her letter was absolutely full of details, including an exchange she’d recorded and transcribed using divination magic:

Recorded 8th Solem, 15th hour, in basement of 3rd house on Dockside Street

Translated from Eskinar

 

(Door opens. Footsteps)

Man (Sulvorath?): What’s the status of the hunt?

Woman (Specter?): I told you I’d update you if there was progress.

Man: Why are your damn agents always so incompetent? How hard is it to find one fucking girl?

Woman: Why is she even going to Cairnmouth? We work better when we understand the motives of our quarry.

Man: How the hells should I know?

Woman: You claimed to have watched her for months. Surely you mapped out a psychological pro—

Man: I did! And the plan worked perfectly. But somehow, your damned curse didn’t incapacitate—why am I bothering to tell you this again? She was obsessed with the Monument. Now she’s just abandoned it. But she can’t win as long as I have it.

(Long pause. Papers rustling).

Woman: The most likely places are near the Port Market, in the Temple of the Four, or in Fort Aegrimere. Doubtful it’s the Fort. There’s a lot of divination holes in the port district. Lot of paranoid people there. Or she’s not there at all.

Man: So you keep saying.

Woman: It’s standard operational procedure.

(Pause)

Man: The charges are in place?

Woman: Of course. And veiled. Including the undetectable magic.

Man (muttering): Wish that made sense to me.

Woman: Some people are born with the capacity, and some are not.

Man: Just frustrating. At least I know she can’t use it either. Operation Zenith is proceeding as planned?

Woman: Minus the problem in the south.

Man: We’ll remove him from the equation after her. Once they’re gone, the variables they introduce won’t matter. Then we’ll hunt down the others. Then we’ll win.

(Pause. Sound of papers rustling.)

Man: Good. More dossiers. And more blackmail. Our network is spreading nicely. Just wish it was easier to bring the Sacristars in line.

(Pause. More papers rustling.)

Man: What are your communiques to Vadriach University for? This is a recent addition in these cycles. You didn’t do this before. Why?

Woman: A research project on divination. The loop can be exploited to run short experiments on new spells or devices. I was going to wait to tell you until we got the results.

Man: Hmm. And progress on the airship engines?

Woman: Yes, Arborholm is continuing their work. The limitation you ask for is… difficult.

Man: Well, I need to get to Torrviol quicker. That’ll help with all this garbage. The Archmage…?

Woman: No longer trusts me. The skeleton is… difficult to explain away. And I am already busy fending off inquiries from my superiors on the state of operations here. You need to work on explanations that can be used in each contingency.

Man: It’s a stupid waste. When we get her—

Woman: But we have to get her first.

(Pause)

Man: Fine. I’ll work on a letter to Arturus. We can pull a lot of resources from the Palendurio operation. Wish the fucking Corrmiers weren’t so intransigent. Finances are secure on my end, so we should have a dozen more falcons coming in tomorrow. Don’t be late.

(Door slams)

Woman (hissing): Why did God choose an idiot? If I were in his place…

 

End of transcript

Mirian wished Jei were right there so she could hug her. The recording was a huge victory for her. It told her things she’d been dying to know—literally. Jei’s notes also detailed the divination spell that Specter had failed to ward against, as well as the surprise attack they launched on the house the next day. Both of them had been killed. With four professors and the Archmage, it hadn’t been a particularly close fight.

And, it sounded like Sulvorath was keeping the Divine Monument trapped, in case she tried to sneak back into Torrviol. What does he know that I don’t? Though, as she pondered what he’d said, she thought the question ought to be, What does he think he knows? It was interesting that Specter was misinforming him, deliberately, it seemed. And it seems I can leverage Nicolas to interfere with his plans better. Sending an early zephyr falcon down to his dad could prevent the Sacristar family from ever joining the conspiracy. Then she thought, Well, if his dad listens to him. Nicolas doesn’t really like to talk about him all that much, but I know their relationship isn’t that great.

She reread the transcript several times to help commit it to memory. But what did he mean by ‘hunt down the others’? Does he mean he’s found more time travelers?

She’d speculated on the possibility. It seemed caution was still in order, especially in any new areas. But if Sulvorath had found them, and already had made them enemies, maybe she could make them allies. A project for another time, though. I have enough in front of me as it is.

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It was otherwise fantastic news. It meant she could go ahead with her plan, without worrying about the attention it would otherwise draw to her. She dismissed the bindings on her soul so that she would have her true body, and continued her preparations.