Chapter 23: Favors Across Time

As much as Suria wanted to stay and see what would happen with Convocation Hall, she recognized that the only logical choice was to go with the other loopers. Anything she tried to change would be erased in under a month, whereas her first impression on everyone else trapped within the loop would be permanent. It was like her admission interview all over again, except this time she wouldn’t get a second chance.

When they headed toward the west side of campus, Suria found herself irrationally nervous: she had spent so much time on the eastern side that the west was unfamiliar territory. The Earth Society Building was the furthest west she’d gone, and even Oculon Hall was unfamiliar to her. She really should have taken her time to familiarize herself with the entire campus.

Past the central region, Darkmoon’s campus stretched further than she expected. She could see the ancient combat arena, which she’d avoided so far, near the forest, and far in the distance the Eaves Laboratory building curved along the side of the university. In between there was a large stretch of grass without much of anything except a few trees, which was a little unusual. She did see that the strange twisting stairway over campus touched down on one side, but they didn’t seem to be heading toward it.

Then, without warning, the world disappeared and Suria was surrounded by the color blue. The grass itself had become blue and there were blue-leafed trees ahead, but the worrisome part was that Darkmoon campus seemed to have disappeared.

“Welcome to the Blue,” Jeilin said with a grand wave. “You really haven’t been?”

“I… mostly focused on my classes,” Suria said breathlessly, as if this was normal to her. “This is part of campus?”

“I don’t understand the details, but it’s a sub-dimension connected to the campus, or something like that. It’s an entirely open secret, so you must have heard of it. The important thing is that it’s magically separated from the rest of the school, so it makes a nice place to meet.”

“At least until the term starts,” Qinq put in, “and couples come here to kiss. Come on, the others are waiting.”

It seemed like, during the time of their conversation, the other loopers had gathered in the Blue. There was a group ahead, gathering around the base of the largest of the blue trees, and they already had a fire going. As Suria approached, the whole thing seemed much less like an interview: the other loopers were laughing, eating, and drinking.

When she arrived, at first no one seemed to pay much attention to her, so Suria took the opportunity to get a good look at the group. There were students from every nation in the world, it seemed like, though they were all within a few years of her age. Many were wearing Darkmoon robes, but she also saw a wide variety of other clothing, similar only in looking very expensive.

She recognized one of them: Wynchard Odinel looked as commanding as before, standing with his hand on the hilt of his sword. There was a lean woman beside him, tanned skin and slitted blue eyes marking her as from the Shantic States. She wore a body-fitting uniform and a sour expression, and she was the first to notice Suria with a piercing gaze.

Pretending not to notice, Suria looked on. There was a man who looked local, with the same grayish skin and hair as Rije, but he could hardly have looked more different otherwise: the man wore three different layers of elaborate gold robes and had carefully shaped his hair. It also seemed like he was drunk, which was impressive given how little time it had been since the loop began.

Once Suria got over her initial shock at the group, she realized that most of the others were standing or sitting in clusters. There was a group that, though their appearances were diverse, all wore the sashes of the Republic of Junn. Across from them, half a dozen clustered together and, based on their hats and other accessories, she guessed they were from the Akrashic Union. She also spotted a man who looked similar to Maut-mai, with the same eye makeup even though his wrap bared a far more muscular frame.

Not everyone was grouped in national factions: for example, there was a lean Shantic man on the opposite side of the group from the woman. An absolutely huge man with necklaces of beads towered over everyone on the far side. A woman with silver hair sat near the local man, laughing and apparently matching him drink for drink. And there was a thin man actually crouched in the trees watching everyone else suspiciously.

“Hey, there she is!” The local-looking man waved a bottle of alcohol at Suria. “I thought we’d found all of us, but the loop has surprises for us yet!”

That triggered a shift: anyone who wasn’t looking at her before definitely was now. She hated the weight of their eyes, some of them predatory, others cheerful, and the worst filled with intense purpose. Maybe she should have analyzed them all then, or stared back, but Suria shrank back from the group.

“No need for that,” the drunk man said. He slouched to his feet with surprising coordination and came over to pat her on the shoulder. “I’m Gerial Negnan, pleased to make your acquaintance.”

“Sur…” Her introduction choked itself out, but she gathered herself and turned to face the group. “Suria Northbrook. I was trapped in Convocation Hall until last loop.”

“Exactly what is going on in there?” the Shantic woman demanded.

“Easy now.” Gerial waved her question away and entirely ignored her glare to focus on Suria. “Listen, half of these people are going to tell you that we’re here for some great purpose, but we’re definitely not. No matter what we do, the loop doesn’t stop. So when you decide to relax and start having fun… I can arrange just about anything you want.”

“Like what?” Suria asked, despite her better judgment.

“My estate has the finest wine collection in the city, and if you want something harder, I’m sure I can arrange a deal from the leyline docks. I’ve been getting to know the drug dealers there and I’ve only gotten stabbed once or twice! Anyway, I host the best gatherings in the city.”

“Bullshit!” the woman with silver hair called. “Don’t listen to him, Suria. Once I get set up this loop, mine will be much better. Just ask for Nastoora.”

“She’s sadly delusional.” Gerial said as he slung an arm around Suria’s shoulders. “The best part of being in a loop is when you can predict the ending time. You can drink yourself into oblivion and skip the hangover.”

Suria frowned, immediately thinking about how her exhaustion had carried over between the early cycles. “Is that true?” she asked, directing her question toward Wynchard. “It seems to me that some of our state carries over.”

“Gerial is trying to pull a prank,” Wynchard told her solemnly, ignoring boos from Gerial, Nastoora, and a few others. “Physical conditions like death or injuries reset, but anything that affects your mind will persist. We haven’t found the exact boundaries.”

“You’re no fun.” Gerial sighed and pulled away from Suria, to her relief. “I have to say, however, that as an expert in hangovers I do think you get over them faster. But in all seriousness, don’t be too reckless, because the loop sometimes extends itself for no reason. A few cycles back, I absolutely wrecked my reputation and then had to live with it for days.”

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“This is a waste of time,” the Shantic woman snapped, and Wynchard put a hand on her shoulder.

“We should introduce you,” he told Suria. “This is Adwyrma, and you’ve already met Gerial, so let’s go around the circle…”

Wynchard threw a dizzying list of names at her and Suria scrabbled to memorize as many as possible. She confirmed, both from the names and the way the group came together, that there seemed to be several major factions. The group from the Akrashic Union seemed to be united, while the Republic of Junn loopers mostly stuck together, except Jeilin who stood at a distance. There were a few others who didn’t seem to be part of a faction, like Qinq and the man who looked like he was from Febek-Rai. The huge man was named Moiunun and the one in the trees was called Tabimu, though he didn’t introduce himself.

If the group had leaders, they were Wynchard, Adwyrma, and Gerial. Each of them behaved like they could stand alone, in any case, and Suria thought she saw how the currents of the factions flowed around them.

“There are also three loopers from Endelyth,” Wynchard concluded. “They don’t usually cooperate with us and they spend most of their time in the city.”

“They’re figuring out how to work the criminal groups,” Adwyrma said with a sour expression. “We can’t underestimate them.”

“We shouldn’t assume they’re enemies, either. They just have their own objectives and beliefs about all of this. I was able to work with them when we made an attempt at the Sequential Library and they seemed nice enough.”

“You think you’re working with everyone.”

All of this was more than Suria wanted to deal with, so she took a deep breath and tried to focus on the important things despite everyone looking at her. What mattered most was understanding why the loop existed, and even if the others seemed uncertain, they knew a lot more than she did.