Chapter 256 – Inhuman Dreams

“You’ve been gone a wh—” Gaius froze mid-sentence. His jaw dropped, but he straightened himself and checked if Zhuan had noticed the changes to Mirian’s soul.

Zhuan was busy examining an object that looked like a poorly made mirror, and the back had erupted with some sort of chemical ichor.

“This is the Viaterrian ship,” Mirian proclaimed as she walked in the room. “I doubt it’s going anywhere.”

The other Prophet looked up. “This? Even intact, it would hardly be seaworthy.”

She hadn’t noticed.

“It didn’t sail the seas. It sailed the stars. Using non-magical technology. Even if the cycle could be stretched out a decade, I don’t think it would be possible to recreate such a marvel. And if Conductor said we can’t use the Gates for such a purpose, then there’s no escape. We save Enteria, or we save no one.”

Zhuan stood quietly, looking at Mirian. Then, with a force spell, she cracked open the thin object she was looking at. The device was in terrible shape, but parts of it still showed elaborate etchings and designs, more intricate than even the most complex modern spell engine.

“Hmm,” she said, tracing a finger across it. Pieces of the device flaked apart, leaving a dark smear of rust. “But then… why?”

Mirian still had questions herself. Why sail across the stars? Why delve into the cosmic unknown in a prison of steel, away from the beauty of the world they had left? Why did the Elder Gods intervene? Were there other people out there, still sailing the void? Or had the Cataclysm wiped them out?

“There will always be more questions,” Mirian said. “What matters now is the path forward. Our priority must be stopping moonfall.”

“Yes, that’s true,” said Zhuan, tracing her finger around the Viaterrian artifact. “But if it is possible to stop the moon, then there are many paths to stopping it. What matters is how.”

Mirian contemplated that.

The Ominian thought to use the burning tree as a symbol. She tapped into the dream focus again, recalling the visual. Some branches look fine and sturdy, but end in fire and death. But even for all the paths that we can explore—how can we know the future after the loop ends? If I’m right about his assigned purpose, the Sixth Prophet must have thought he’d succeeded—but had only delayed the doom we face now.

Another thought drifted through her.

Even the Ominian is unsure. If there were a clear path, They would have shown us. But the branches are tangled, the paths veiled by leaves, the smoke obscuring what we can see.

Mirian had always wanted a good future, where people could live and be happy. For a long time, she’d just assumed that would automatically result from the war and apocalypse being stopped. Now, that seemed ignorant. Social forces, when strong enough, moved like ocean currents and storms. Even a well intentioned, mild-mannered immortal undead like her father was carried along by the tides of history; he had not been able to stop the Unification War. Despite all his power, he hadn’t even been able to win it.

Zhuan Li was right about one thing, that she was sure of. “As soon as I’m done with my prototype regulator, I’ll try it. I’ll try Gabriel’s approach. I’ll try yours. Our opportunity to apply science to history will not be squandered, that much I promise.”

“Good. That’s all I ask,” Zhuan said, nodding. She gestured around at the ship. “Take samples. Some of these materials may be useful in building your grand device. Take note of the form as well. Anything that survives a few thousand years is sturdy enough to warrant notice.”

As they separated to scour the ship, Gaius approached her and cast a zone of silence.

“She may not have noticed, but I did. Naluri, your fifth soul ascension?”

“It is.”

He smiled. “You’ve come a long way from that little girl I taught. You’ll reach a height I never did. That no one has.” He paused, looking grim. “Make a world that Leyun would love.”

The tears came suddenly to Mirian as she thought of her mother, body still lying in a shrine beneath the desert. She wiped them away. “I will,” she promised.

***

They returned with a pile of Viaterrian artifacts, choosing them either for the material they were made from, the intricate structures that made it up, or because it had some faint writing on it the scholars might be able to make sense of. Gaius had done some initial translation work, but some of the phrases found on the ancient objects baffled him.

“As best I can tell, it says, ‘do not eat,’” he said about one of the thin rectangles.

“But it’s not food. Why would you need to put that on something that was obviously not food?”

“Perhaps like ‘ship’ developed multiple meanings over time, ‘eat’ also followed a term. For example, Persaman miners colloquially discuss spell engines saying they ‘eat foss.’ It might be something similar.”

Mirian shrugged. In another lifetime, the questions might be interesting to pursue. In this lifetime, she had enough.

Gabriel and Zhuan seemed not to notice Mirian’s change. Ibrahim did though. When Mirian told him about what she had discovered, he too fell into deep contemplation, finding a rock spire to sit on and meditate atop.

Mirian sent samples of most artifacts through the Gate, directing her professors to begin research efforts. After several beasts snuck through and killed a guard, the Zhighua Gate was lowered back into its pit so more myrvites wouldn’t harass Torrviol.

Zhuan began moving back south to Benansuo, with Gaius acting as an escort—and something of a spy. Gabriel, to Mirian’s surprise, joined her.

“I’m going to try every restaurant in the city,” he said when she asked. Then, more seriously, he said, “And because you can’t read between the lines, that also means visiting and chatting with officials, regular people, and soldiers. Most spy work isn’t the incompetent burglars in Torrviol, it’s just seemingly harmless conversations with the right people. So I’ll learn more about the situation and keep an eye on the Akanans.” Then he paused for dramatic effect and added, “Plus I get to try all sorts of new alcohols. And liver damage doesn’t follow us through the loops!”

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Mirian couldn’t even bring herself to roll her eyes.

Ibrahim, for his part, was still quiet. He hadn’t said much since her return. He’d been practicing with the violet focus and another one he’d picked up from somewhere, and she’d seen him going through his dervish forms and practicing different combat techniques, but he was clearly deep in thought about something.