Chapter 162 – Speedrunning the Loop, Solem 1

On the 163rd cycle, Mirian awoke, threw off the covers, and was out of bed before the first drop of water from the ceiling hit her. She scrambled to dress.

“Mirian?” came the voice of her groggy roommate. “Did the alarm candle not—what time is—?”

“Sorry, gotta run. Don’t worry about me. Love you roomie!” Mirian said as she burst out the door.

She ran over to the next building and used raw magic to open the lock on the door, then again to break into the room of a pair of 6th year students whose names she hadn’t bothered to learn. His spellbook contained a few key spells, including an incendiary beam, illusionary disguise, slice metal, manipulate glass, and magnetic lift. Both of the roommates were still asleep. She swiped the book, gently closed the door, then hurried out to the dining hall.

The next part she’d done so many times it might as well have been from the script of a play.

“I’d like three plates of the baduka boar, a large bowl of fish stew, and a plate of the vegetable curry. And three slices of apple pie. Please. Here’s the silver, plus a bit extra for your trouble,” she said as she moved through the dining hall. This early, it was all but deserted.

The chef gave her a look. “The baduka boar is for the dinner tonight.”

“Yes, but I’m very hungry and you should count how much silver I just gave you.”

The chef gave her another suspicious glare but then noted the extra silver drachms. Two would pay for what she just ordered; seven was too much. “The boar will take a few extra minutes to cook.”

“I’ll take the fish stew while I wait,” she said, knowing it was already simmering in the pot.

The chef gave her a look, but sighed and got her a bowl. When he returned with the vegetable curry, he gave her a slightly shocked look. The fish stew was already gone. Mirian looked at him pleasantly.

“Right, you are hungry. Auric overdrain?”

“Something like that,” she said. Already, she could feel movement churning in her body as it worked to consume everything it could find to bring about the physical changes to muscles and endurance that were imprinted in her soul. Alongside it, she could feel her auric mana swelling.

She devoured all three boar steaks in record time, then the pies, then left, quickly walking to Bainrose. Once inside, she ran to the staircase, magnetically lifted the metal switch on the hidden door in the second basement level, then ran through the maze of the catacombs. She knew exactly where the bog lion would be, and cast incendiary beam right on it, nabbed the levitation wand from the ash pile, then hurried back out of the library.

Then, clutching her satchel so it wouldn’t bounce, she broke into a dead sprint, running directly to the hidden trap door out in the field, used magnetic lift to open it, levitated down, and summoned Eclipse to slit Specter’s throat. She jammed Adria’s Praetorian uniform into her satchel, cut off Specter’s ankle so she could get the focus off quicker, slipped off the signet ring, then burned the body into unrecognizability. She retrieved a pile of incriminating documents, then swept the incendiary beam around the study, then her bedroom, then levitated back out the hidden door and slammed it shut.

Nicolus was stuck in Alchemistry 402 for another hour, so after Mirian wrote out several letters with instructions to her allies, she moved to the crafting center to start producing components of her tri-bonded myrvite detector. As she rapidly moved between tools and stations, Grandmaster Ingrid started staring at her.

Then, she moved into position. First, she intercepted the second spy’s route to the Myrvite Studies building and cut his throat in the alley he was moving down with a precise force blade. She left immediately so she was just outside Professor Seneca’s classroom as the class let out.

“Hi Nicolus,” she said, taking her place beside him. “You’re going to skip the next class because we need to talk. We might as well head back to your apartment, because Sire Nurea will want to be looped in.”

He gave her the usual funny look. “Mirian, right? I—”

“Shh. You were obsessed with cows as a kid, your dad’s always been a jerk to you, Uncle Alexus is in Akana Praediar trying to make the family relevant again, and none of it matters because the leylines are going to destabilize near the end of the month. This way, please, we’ll cut through the alley. Now, I know what you’re thinking about saying. One, how does she know this? Because it turns out I’m a Prophet and their foresight was derived from living their lives multiple times. Two, is she going to kiss me? No, not this time. Three, wow, it’s really weird she would know all this stuff, but is there anything she could show me as proof?”

Mirian conjured Eclipse and then rammed it tip-first into the pavement. The cobblestone cracked, and the sword wedged into the ground. Nicolus jumped back, startled, and looked about. But no one would be coming down the alleyway.

“Four, I know you want to touch the sword. Inadvisable, because it’s connected to my soul and will both burn you and disrupt your auric mana slightly, but I’ll be able to heal the burn so go ahead.”

Nicolus looked at her, then the sword, then back at her. He reached for the hilt, grabbed it, and winced. “Ow,” he said. “Well five hells. So… why now?”

“The First Prophet’s time loop lasted decades. I have a month,” she said, using a thimble of her own soul energy to soothe the burn on his hand. “The loop just reset today. And we’re on a deadline.” She looked at him, waiting, but there was no anticipation. She already knew the answer. She was just going through the motions again.

When he said yes, she gave her usual reply. Soon enough, they were back in his apartment, and she was laying out exactly what she needed him to do while Nurea watched on:

“…and then you’ll tell Calisto you found an investor who created a novel long-range myrvite detector, one who has the kind of money that can save the Ennecus Guild. That House Sacristar is already investing in the detector and you can vouch for it; in fact, I’ll have it to you at noon, and you’ll take it with you. Give her one of those trademark smiles of yours, and she’ll feel too many butterflies to question you. Nurea, you’re suspicious right now because you still think I’m trying to steal money, so let me reiterate that I will cover all finances of this, including the twenty thousand doubloons. The key point is this: you and Calisto Ennecus need to meet me at Xylatarvia’s Hearth between the Port Market and First Cairn at noon on the 5th of Solem. Travel together with her, and leave no later than the 3rd.” So that Troytin can’t interfere.

She slid a piece of paper toward them.

Nicolus made a face. “Calisto? Really? You sure there’s not a bog lion I can wrestle instead?”

“There’s several, north of town, actually. But I’ve been dismembered by Akanan soldiers and eaten alive by myrvites. You can talk to your ex-girlfriend.”

Her old classmate opened his mouth, closed it, opened it, then closed it again. “Point taken. I guess you’ve already heard all my smarmy jokes, haven’t you? Actually, you probably knew I was going to say that, too.”

“I get it. It sucks on both sides of the coin,” she said, but was thinking, yup. No meaningful deviation yet. “While you’re in Cairnmouth, go to Sound and Sea Trading Headquarters and put in three orders of fossilized myrvite, shipped out of Alkazaria, expedited orders. Tonnage requirements, destinations, and shipping companies are also on that piece of paper. Sire Nurea, use illusions and false identities where you see fit. There is an interested party watching you, but mostly, he’s looking for me. Feel free to use your Syndicate contacts to help cover your movements.”

Nurea glanced at Nicolus, who said, “Don’t look at me!”

The bell tower started chiming.

“I know you have questions, but I also trust you both, and that’s my cue to leave. Remember, when this is all over, I’ll remember House Sacristar. Ominian watch over you.”

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Mirian opened up the balcony door. While Nicolus said, “Wait, that’s not the—” she leapt off, using her levitation wand to catch her fall. Mirian didn’t look back, but she knew he was leaning over the railing, gaping at her.

She ran through the alleys, then cut through the plaza, running past Bertrus as he guarded the front entrance to Bainrose, then around the side. She levitated straight up the old latrine shaft, bursting open the cover with a raw blast of force. Mirian quickly ran through the door to the second floor walkways. The quickest way to the tower she needed was a leap straight across the gap between two of the walkways, a leap she could now do with ease thanks to Rostal’s training.

That then brought her to a door to the tower’s spiral staircase. She opened up the stolen spellbook and cast detect silver. She immediately sensed the purses of all the nearby people, including one coming up the staircase. Ten seconds too early, she thought, and counted down, ignoring the second year student who’d seen her leap across the gap and was now staring at her.