Chapter 22: Atemporal Death Traps

Immediately Suria flushed with shame at her reaction. Frustrating as it was, she couldn’t afford to be so uncontrolled. She knew with absolute certainty that she was trapped in a time loop now, which meant she could be targeted if anyone discovered her. Strange behavior without warning would draw attention to herself and create suspicion in anyone who suspected that time magic was in play.

Fortunately – tragically – this version of Maut-mai wasn’t particularly interested in Suria and soon looked away. For all that they’d grown closer during the previous loop, Maut-mai hadn’t shared much about what her concerns had been on that first day. Suddenly losing a woman who had been becoming a friend was too much for Suria and she had to get out.

To shed attention, Suria sat quietly and recreated several essential talismans. After days of working with the Darkmoon stylus, her old wedge felt clumsy, but she hadn’t lost any of the skill she’d built up, so she easily produced a simple flame spell, her mana shield, and the unlocking inscription. Once Maut-mai was no longer paying any attention, Suria got up and walked by Lirngelf’s body, this time picking up his mana potion. The temporary boost wouldn’t be much compared to her long term growth, but it would be a useful tool in the challenges that she now knew would face her during the term. Then she turned sharply and headed out before Shuguja could emerge from her office.

Along the way she saw Rije, alive and well. She wanted to hug him, but that would be bizarre in this timeline. Maybe she could fix things this time, so she gave him a broad smile as she passed.

What she needed to do was collect herself and think. As soon as she reached a dark hallway, she leaned back against one of the cold marble walls and closed her eyes.

Suria was fairly confident that nothing had killed her this time – the loop had just come to an end for no apparent reason. While it was technically possible that the stomach pain had reflected something lethal, she still felt the fading tension as the loop completed its reset.

She hadn’t learned anything about the fundamentals of time magic, but her research on Hrakik the Irredeemable and other looping tyrants had established some ground rules. None of them had been able to travel through time at will: there had always been a cycle. Some of the history books implied that the length of the cycle was correlated to the strength of the ritual that had created it, which meant the most parsimonious explanation was that she’d reached the natural end of the loop.

That didn’t get her closer to answers about why the loop existed at all, or how it related to the conspiracy between professors, but it completely transformed how she needed to make decisions. What she did in this loop would probably be wiped away, so all that mattered was whether those actions brought her closer to her ultimate goals.

Based on what she had learned, Rije would probably die in an hour when the professors started fighting. She could try to create a spell to knock him out, but that would only save him this loop and might draw a lot of unwanted attention. Having him alive was still preferable, if she could find a good way to do it, but she needed a method to save him permanently. That could come in the form of spells, or knowledge, or maybe even a solution to the loop itself.

In any case, she had already spent far too much time in Convocation Hall. Suria opened her eyes and marched toward the western exit.

When she reached the door, Suria took a deep breath and cast the spell against the exact point where she remembered the locking glyph. The wards parted easily, now that she was using the right tool for the job instead of an inverted inscription.

Just in case, to avoid consequences to everyone in the building if something distracted her, Suria took a mana lantern off the wall and set it against the door jamb. The wards didn’t do anything to force the door closed, so it would be propped open when they figured out the problem and went looking for solutions. Until she established her broader objectives, that was a good enough method. She would need to decide on a new plan for this second chance at her first term…

As soon as she stepped outside, Suria realized that those plans weren’t going to happen.

There were three people waiting for her, all wearing university robes. Foremost was a tall young man with broad shoulders, sandy blond hair, and an Akrashic hat. A woman about Suria’s age had the skin and eyes of someone from Nau Qin Nau, but unlike the professor, she wore her hair loose and looked nervous. Finally there was a slender man with neatly combed dark hair and a thin pair of glasses much nicer than hers – based on the sash he wore over his robes, he must be from the Republic of Junn.

What could she say? Suria didn’t plan to blurt out any information, but she had a terrible feeling that there was absolutely no point trying to play ignorant with this trio. She kept a hand in her satchel, holding her combat talismans, even though they seemed experienced and she doubted she could beat them.

“How many times have you been through the loop?” the man with glasses asked.

“I don’t…” Suria did her best to give a puzzled look. “I’m not sure what y-“

“Don’t even try,” the taller man said, forcefully but not unkindly. “We’ve lived through this ten times before you suddenly show up. At first we thought you might be a student who just got lucky this time, but this time you got out faster, didn’t you?”

“We aren’t hunting for you,” the young woman said more softly. “We’re all in the same boat here.”

Since she’d already met Lirngelf, Suria wasn’t surprised that there were other loopers, and truthfully she’d been trying to ignore the knowledge ever since the krashorb tournament. She still hesitated before she responded to the assault of their questions. Since they had been waiting for her like this, they clearly had the advantage, so they could have done worse.

“Is it safe to talk about it here?” Suria asked. “Won’t the laws of Hrakik the Irredeemable…?”

“It’s safe so long as you don’t take excessive risks,” the blond man said, then abruptly grinned and put a hand to his chest in the Akrashic greeting. “I’m Wynchard Odinel. Pleasure to meet another student in the same trial.”

“This is… a trial?”

“That’s just a hypothesis,” the man with glasses said. “Wynchard is convinced that we were placed in this loop to test our character, or train us for some great purpose. But the truth is that we don’t actually know. We’re hoping we might be able to find out, especially if you have any new information for us.”

“I see,” Suria said quietly. “And you are?”

“Jeilin Pavnn,” he introduced himself. “I’m a second year student at Darkmoon. So far every single person trapped in the time magic has been a young student.”

“Usually second years or new students who were on campus early,” the woman said, then smiled and gestured to herself. “I’m Qinq, by the way.”

Suria thought that people from Nau Qin Nau usually had three names, but then again she knew next to nothing about that nation other than that one of the department thrones was from there. These three didn’t seem so hostile after all, and her name was no secret, so Suria gave them all a polite curtsy.

“I’m Suria Northbrook,” she told them. “This is my first day at Darkmoon Academy and I very much hope it isn’t always like this.”

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Jeilin and Qinq just smiled, while Wynchard laughed freely and stepped closer. “Pleased to meet you, Suria!” he said, loudly enough to make her nervous. “I want to ask you about just what’s been going on inside Convocation Hall, but I should wait until everyone is here.”

“Wait, how many of us are there?”

“Wish I knew the exact number. We’re just the three who were close enough to greet you, because a lot of people start on the other end of campus, or in their own estates.” Wynchard frowned and seemed about to ask another question, but Suria saw that he could easily end up bowling over her objections.

“What’s been going on outside?” Suria asked. “Until last time, I’ve always died within an hour.”

“That’s getting into bigger issues.” Wynchard stepped back and nodded to the other two. “Listen, I’m going to gather everyone up for another meeting. Suria doesn’t seem as foolish as some of the others, but get her up to speed on all the obvious mistakes, alright?”

The other two murmured agreement before he strode off, leaving Suria to try to analyze their relationship. They were from different nations and didn’t stand like friends, so she guessed that they had no formal relationship before the time loop began. Most likely Wynchard acted as leader by force of personality, and possibly strength, since she thought he was an older student and he had a ranked seal on his lapel.

“Let’s sit somewhere more private,” Qinq said, gesturing north. As they walked, Suria nervously watched Jeilin pull out a talisman before she realized that he was casting some sort of silence or privacy spell around them. The sounds of the outside world seemed to become quieter and more distant.