Chapter 41 – Seeker

Mirian jerked up from her bed with a very short scream, then quietly muttered curses to herself while holding her head in her hands. Seeing that she’d woken Lily, she said, “Sorry, nightmare. Also, just remembered I have to do something, be right back.” As if to punctuate her sentence, a drop of water plopped on her forehead.

She had tried not to shout, it was just that getting shot was painful. Even though the wound was gone by the time she woke, the primitive part of her brain didn’t understand, it just understood lots of pain, must act.

When she came back downstairs, Lily said, “Mirian, why is there a hole in the ceiling, and how is there a hole in the ceiling, and did I see it going up to the roof before you covered it?”

“I don’t know, I don’t know, and yes, but don’t worry I’ll fix it after classes. Exams today, gotta go. You’re the best though,” she said, and quickly changed and left.

The month had started again, and Mirian continued to act as if this was going to be a long term thing. There was no other way to act—the Gods damned moon was going to come down, so planning for any other future was pointless. What was up with that, anyways? It all seemed far too big to even think about that part. She had to focus on the little things she could control.

The acceptance that she was in this loop for good had given her an idea. After stealing the scroll satchel from the first spy and meeting Nicolus again, Mirian skipped ecology so that she could go buy a pocket watch and stand at the base of the Myrvite Studies staircase and wait for spy two to make an appearance. She already knew he’d be taking the stairs because she’d heard him come up them.

Sure enough, she saw dark cloak number two approaching through the gardens east of the building. She mentally marked the part of the walkway where she’d first seen him and the time. She’d stand there next time. He approached with his cowl down so it was hard to get a look at his features.

“Hey,” she said in Eskanar (which was one of the few words she now knew) as he walked by her into the building. That caused him to start and look up, and she got a good look at his face, though he quickly lowered his head again and rushed by her without speaking. Mirian sketched down what she had seen in her journal as best she could, making notes about the shade of blue his eyes were, a few of the freckles on his pale face, and the way his hair was styled under the hood.

She finished her exam early in Enchantments again, enjoying the baffled look of Professor Eld once again as she did. This gave her a few minutes to improve on her absolutely awful artifice project just before her presentation. Gods, what an embarrassing piece of work. She wondered how many more times she’d need to present it. Passing Artifice Design was required for three of the classes she still wanted to take next quarter, though. After that, she told Torres the story about the leak and absconded to go visit the scrap piles by the crafting stations and open her bank account again. She stocked up on supplies, then found a quiet place to start copying down the designs of the glyphkeys. The glyphs they used were incredibly tiny and made using specialized equipment that wasn’t sold in public markets, but eventually, she might find a way to copy them. She also risked getting out the seeker-stone so she could quickly copy down the glyphs it was using.

It turned out ‘quickly copy down the glyphs’ wasn’t going to work. Some of the glyphs were inside the device; she’d need to spend more time with it later. Examining the stone, she wondered how the spies had gotten them. They obviously hadn’t made them. These would require the same kind of specialized equipment as the glyphkeys. Was there a supplier she could track down? Torrviol made a lot of magical items for its small size, but she was pretty sure it was illegal to make anything like this. Maybe she could track down these ‘syndicates’ that everyone kept yammering on about. Mirian had been embarrassingly old when she’d finally learned the ‘black market’ was not a physical place where thieves hung out to sell things, and had no idea how to do this.

In math, she took notes again. She had started drawing little diagrams for herself that represented the true path of different mana conduits. She thought she might be able to start applying the new theories to some of her designs. Actually, now that she knew that Torres and Jei were working together, they were almost certainly doing just that. Mirian resolved to talk to Torres about the design implications for artifice when she got a chance.

After meeting with Nicolus, she finished repairs on the hole, chatted with Lily, then told Lily she was going for a walk, which was sort of true. She implied to her she was going to the Mage’s Grove, but instead, she wandered Torrviol looking for any other spy activity. She walked quietly, cloak on and hood up, sticking to the side of the streets where she was less obvious at a quick glance. Plenty of people moved about at this hour, but she was on the lookout for any more of the break-ins to the academic buildings. She turned up nothing, but the misting rain and peaceful streets gave her time to clear her head.

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