Chapter 5: Ways Out

At first Suria froze, her mind racing as her body stood stock still. Lirngelf was moving directly toward her with certainty in his eyes. She could try to play dumb, because any woman would be alarmed to be approached like that, but she doubted it would work. They hadn’t interacted much, but based on the fact that he’d been watching at the very start of the loop, Lirngelf had probably seen enough to be sure.

“Not here,” Suria said, so quietly she could barely hear herself.

“Why not?” Lirngelf glanced at Maut-mai, who looked baffled, and then snorted. “It won’t matter in an hour or two anyway.”

There was no way for Suria to explain that she still didn’t want trouble, and that wasting a loop made her feel bad even though she had no idea whether they were finite. Well, there might have been a way, but Suria didn’t have it in her to voice it. Fortunately, Lirngelf didn’t seem to care, he just rolled his eyes, muttered an apology to Maut-mai, and stalked into the hallway.

Suria followed more slowly, considering her strategy. She wouldn’t pretend to be oblivious, since she wasn’t a very good actor and doubted it would be believable. At the same time, she wouldn’t offer information when she didn’t have any idea what Lirngelf wanted or what he already knew. There was no guarantee they were having exactly the same experiences and she didn’t want to reveal anything to someone so reckless.

“So we’re stuck in a time loop, right?” Lirngelf said bluntly as soon as they were in the hallway. “And this is the fourth loop?”

Or he could just throw everything out there.

“I… I think so.” Suria looked around nervously, hoping they weren’t overheard. “The doors are locked as soon as it starts, so the wards are probably activated by the time spell that caused the loop. Then the professors start fighting at the end, and we die.”

“You have no idea how glad I am to be sure there’s somebody else here.” Lirngelf gripped her shoulder with alarming familiarity. “I harassed that Maut-mai for a while, but I’m sure she doesn’t know anything. Everyone else doesn’t have a clue. So what have you been trying?”

“To get out. We can’t break the wards, but we might be able to trick them.”

“You just want to escape?” Lirngelf stared at her as if he couldn’t believe what he’d heard. “No way. Whatever’s going on, we have to confront it head on. When I realized we couldn’t get out, I figured it had to be fate. We’re involved with this, whether we like it or not.”

“But… what is ‘this’?” Suria asked. “Are the professors fighting? Would they use time magic?”

The young man snorted derisively. “It’s not a question of ‘would’, I’m just impressed they were able to pull it off. I didn’t think loops were possible, not unless you’re Hrakik the Irredeemable or something.”

“But isn’t this kind of time magic forbidden?”

“How naive are you? All kinds of things are forbidden, but mages still practice necromancy and human sacrifice and all of that, don’t they? And murder is illegal everywhere, but you think that stops people? No, forget all that, we just need to find the professors and stop them before they start fighting.”

Part of Suria stung at his reprimand, but she had to admit that as reckless as Lirngelf seemed, he was following a logical plan: preventing a fight before it started was much easier than stopping a bunch of archmages in the middle of a battle.

“Anyway, there’s some kind of spatial barrier.” Lirngelf kept going, apparently not needing input from her. “I keep throwing myself at it from different angles and I can’t get to the basement. But there’s this secretary who goes to join the meeting, I’m pretty sure. If I can just figure out a way…”

“Is it an older man?” Suria asked, gesturing at the rough height she remembered. “Older than us, I mean.”

“Yeah, he’s faculty secretary. I can’t remember his name. He caught me a couple times and I got thrown into a room for later discipline. As if that matters, when it all gets reset. But I can take advantage of the time he enters, if I can just get the jump on him, and I need you for that. Come on, you gotta help me or we’ll keep dying forever.”

“Wait. The professor who showed up in front of us the first time… have you seen him again?”

“Huh.” Lirngelf’s eyes widened as if he hadn’t thought about that before. “I guess not. The first loop was different, and the spells were different, too. But after that the loops have been identical, except for the two of us changing things.”

That resolved a tension that Suria hadn’t known was still lurking inside her: part of her had been afraid that the professor had instead gone to meet Lirngelf, or that his absence meant something even worse. This… she didn’t actually know what this meant. It seemed possible that the first time hadn’t actually been in a loop, just the start of it, but she knew too little about time magic to be sure. Regardless, it definitely didn’t seem like Lirngelf cared to follow that line of thought.

“Alright,” he said, “let’s get moving. If we get into position, we can ambush him. Do you have any offensive spells? I can’t handle him on my own, but most mages are vulnerable to being taken off guard. Now if we…”

“…wait…” Suria first said it very softly, then cleared her throat and forced herself before she got swept up in the forceful personality. “Wait.”

“What? If we work together we double our chances.”

“Why are you so sure that telling the professors is a good idea? Even if they’re willing to break the law, why would they be glad that random students know about it?”

“They’ll see us as assets: everyone is watching the professors, but not students. Believe me, this is my ticket into the circles of real power.” He paused as if thinking about her for the first time. “And I’m saying that coming from a noble family. This is an even bigger opportunity for you. Think about how much you can learn in the time loop.”

“You’re making a lot of assumptions.” Suria took a deep breath, unable to catalog all of them, and settled on the most important one. “We don’t know that the professors are the ones who made the time loop, not unless you have information I don’t. It could be an enemy attacking Darkmoon University, in which case we’ll just look like threats.”

“In that case, we’re subverting the enemy’s weapon. Even better for us.” Lirngelf frowned at her as if she was being ridiculous. “Look, even if I’m wrong, we can always just try something different in the next loop. But we’ll learn a lot more going to the source of the problem than sitting around here.”

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In that, at least, he might be right. Suria didn’t think she could afford to ignore the only other person she knew for certain was in the time loop; even if he didn’t help, he could unquestionably hurt her cause if he decided to. Lirngelf seemed like a stubborn man and she didn’t want him to start thinking about mutually assured destruction: he could threaten to get them both imprisoned or killed every cycle until she started playing along.

Could she do the same? In theory she had the option, but Suria didn’t think she had it in her, especially against someone more powerful than she was. And he would definitely conclude the same if he started thinking about it. In that case…

“I’ll help you,” she said, “but it has to be a fair exchange. I still think the best option is to leave the building before the fighting starts. If I help you get closer to the professors, you have to help me get out.”

“If we convince them,” Lirngelf said, “you will get out. I’m telling you-“

Suria shook her head, sending her hair shaking from side to side. “No. I need a way to leave on my own.”

“In case you haven’t noticed, I tried to break out at first and I couldn’t manage it. You think I’m just hiding a key in my back pocket? Hell, I didn’t even bring my runebook today.”