Chapter 7: Finding A New Path

Suria couldn’t help it: she screamed and pulled back.

Whatever the professor had done, it had somehow killed Lirngelf across time. She desperately clung to the logic to avoid panicking: for a time loop to function, something had to go back in time, and if that something could change, it stood to reason that it could be targeted for negative changes. The professors hadn’t disbelieved everything Lirngelf had been saying; they just hadn’t been impressed.

Maut-mai noticed her scream and came over immediately, then gasped. Rije burst in not long after, investigating and then urging them back. Shuguja emerged from her office last, irritable at first and soon trying to take charge.

While Lirngelf’s body was removed, Rije guided Suria over to a bench and tried to soothe her. His words reached her as if through a fog and she only registered that there didn’t seem to be any suspicion falling on her. Of course there wasn’t: how could a mere prospective student have killed someone completely imperceptibly? She wasn’t sure what their investigations would find, but since the cause of death had traveled back from another timeline, hopefully the body didn’t reveal anything.

No logic was comforting to Suria, who was still trying to force herself to take deep breaths. She hadn’t survived because she was wiser or stronger than Lirngelf, she was just paranoid and mistrustful of authority. Escaping that room should have been a relief, yet now she could only think that she was trapped in the building with a bunch of ruthless killers.

Well, some killers and some professors who were presumably more benevolent. It was very difficult to tell exactly what had happened in the battle and she couldn’t jump to conclusions. Suria fumbled with the papers in her satchel and pulled one out to begin a list.

Yes, a list would help her calm down. Before her memories faded – if they ever faded – she recorded details about each of the professors she had seen. Other than Frunah Gwaslos, who had departed early, they had been unfamiliar to her. But if she looked them up, she could begin to uncover exactly what was going on in Darkmoon University.

To what end? Was she ever going to march into that room with anything like confidence? No, it was premature to think about ultimate goals. Suria set those thoughts aside and tried to focus on what little she could control.

It occurred to her that she shouldn’t be writing these facts too obviously. Not that anyone was likely to read a panicked young woman’s notes, but she needed to be especially careful now that she had a better idea of the threats she faced. Letting anyone know that she was in a time loop could easily be lethal, because even a random guard like Rije might pass information along to the professors.

Everyone had left her alone now, so Suria made her list in peace. She wrote down the obstacles she was facing and the assets she had available, disguising them all as supplies that a student might need to buy. The connections were illogical and specific to her, so no one else could possibly decode it. Just breaking down the unknowns into concrete pieces did a great deal to calm her.

She didn’t need to confront the professors in the basement – her plan to escape Convocation Hall was probably still viable. In order to do that, she needed several things: sufficient runic capacity, an unlocking inscription, and the knowledge to use it.

In her favor: she had vastly increased her knowledge of magic, with a greater understanding of runic forms and access to multiple new inscriptions. She had all the styluses and plates she needed to make essentially endless talismans. She could, if she timed things right and didn’t attract attention, get access to two potions that would increase her runic capacity.

…and there was the fact that she was in a time loop, of course. So long as she didn’t make a fatal error, she could keep trying.

Once she had finished her list, Suria took a long, slow breath and found it wasn’t as shaky. There were still people rushing around about after Lirngelf’s death, and it seemed like they had gotten even more panicked. She was able to deduce why almost immediately: someone must have gone for help and discovered that the building had been locked down.

What she wanted was to retreat from everything, and she might have gotten away with it because they treated her as in shock. Well, no, what she wanted was to walk out of Darkmoon University and keep walking until she felt safe. But neither option was available to her. She had already disrupted this cycle and she needed to be active in it or things might go in a strange direction.

Currently Rije and Shuguja were talking by the office, with Maut-mai hovering nearby and complaining. Suria padded closer and listened to their conversation.

“-murderer could still be among us,” Shuguja was saying.

“We don’t know when the wards came down,” Rije argued. “This isn’t a frozen palace mystery.”

“I don’t see why you can’t open the doors,” Maut-mai said. “What’s the point of wards if you can’t even control them?”

“Does…” Suria’s first word was drowned out so she had to raise her voice. “Does anyone have an unlocking inscription?”

“Of course not,” Shuguja snapped. “We’re not thieves.”

“What about combining a locking inscription with inversion augments?”

Her suggestion got immediate varied reactions: Shuguja looked disconcerted, Rije tapped his gauntlet thoughtfully, and Maut-mai frowned in confusion. They all started to talk at once, but soon Shuguja turned away dismissively. Maut-mai followed her, which left Rije to step closer.

“That’s not a bad idea,” he said, “but I don’t know any appropriate inscriptions.”

“Would Shuguja have them?” Suria asked, as if it was just occurring to her.

“Possibly. I’ll ask her about it later.” Rije leaned closer, offering her a smile. “I’m sorry your first day is so rough. Darkmoon University isn’t usually like this, I promise.”

A half-mad giggle escaped Suria’s lips, because he had no idea. She got herself under control and looked away before speaking. “Are you sure? It has such a reputation…”

“It’s true that the university is less safe than it should be, but there aren’t that many students dying. And most of them are doing something stupid, like blowing themselves up with an experiment or running off into the mountains on some fool challenge. Despite all the warnings, we still had someone die in the Madman’s Tomb a few years ago.”

“I think I heard about that,” Suria said, even though she had no idea what that was. She was curious, but it was too good of an opportunity to ask about something that had been bothering her. “You have so many ancient ruins around here; I’m not sure what to make of it.”

“Well, the original city was built by a mad sorcerer king,” Rije explained, gently guiding her toward a bench. She knew he was trying to distract and comfort her, but she let it work. “That’s why it’s out in the middle of nowhere, relatively. But when modern leyline travel was discovered, the location proved more valuable than anyone expected.”

“And that’s why there are so many unexplored places?”

“Exactly, but don’t take that the wrong way. It isn’t as if there’s a dragon sleeping just next door or anything like that – the professors have been very thorough. Dangerous areas have been marked off and warded. The problem is that students like to ignore rules. Some think that nothing bad will really happen to them, no matter how many risks they take.”

“I’m not likely to do that,” Suria said. “I can’t even keep track of all these names. Earlier someone was talking about Hrakik the Irredeemable like he was an important person and I felt like a provincial fool, because I’d never even heard the name before.”

“Huh, that’s a strange one.”

Rije paused, his smile dimming a little. Suria kept her head down, eyes shielded by her hair, and hoped that she hadn’t somehow made a mistake. In this cycle they’d started on good terms, however, and Rije was trying to comfort her, so he seemed to sweep the doubt aside and smiled again.

“Hrakik the Irredeemable was a tyrant who lived in the remnants of the Glyphic Imperium,” he explained, “something like four hundred years ago. The thing that was unique about him was that he supposedly had mastery over time magic, trapping everyone in his kingdom in a ring of time. There are all sorts of stories about the terrible things he did, torturing and reviving his… sorry, I shouldn’t be talking about that now.”

Suria had gone pale as she understood and he’d reached the wrong conclusion, but that worked in her favor. She quickly shook her head and forced a smile. “That’s okay, I know there have been lots of atrocities in the past. I haven’t even heard about this one before, though.”

“Well, there are two main reasons he might come up. The first is that Hrakik the Irredeemable is one of the main reasons that so much time magic is forbidden. I’m sure the professors here could recommend you books about it, but I don’t know the names. Anyway, the second reason his name comes up is that, despite being apparently unstoppable, he was assassinated in the end. So it’s one of those tales of hubris, you know?”

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“Sure.” Suria nodded and, after a moment’s thought, decided not to press further. She wanted to know more about what Hrakik the Irredeemable had done and especially how he had been defeated, but the topic seemed to be fundamentally suspicious. Now that she had confirmed the basics, she could look up more information later.

If she ever got out of the building, anyway.

“I’m feeling better now,” Suria said, and it wasn’t even a lie, so she smiled at Rije. “Do you think my plan would work? Unlocking the wards, I mean.”

“Sure, it might,” Rije said. His eyes shifted to the side and he lowered his voice. “It wouldn’t be appropriate for someone like me to know unlocking spells, since it’s unnecessary for my work. Mages aren’t hired for certain jobs because of the risk, you understand?”

“I understand.”

“But any student could tell you the basics. The building is protected by a single layer of defensive wards, and provided you can get direct access to the wards, you can manipulate them. Access is easy because we’re on the inside and they’re oriented to defend the exterior. But we’d need to be able to see the wards in order to find a locking glyph that could be canceled out by an unlocking spell.”

“And how do we do that?” Suria asked. She’d been seeking more information because she’d been afraid there would be such complications.

“Well, advanced enough mages have ways to see runes directly, but I’m not that strong.” Rije looked toward the offices thoughtfully. “Most of us need runic glasses, which will reveal most glyphs. I should ask Shuguja – she might have some.”

They talked for a little while longer, but now that Suria seemed calm, Rije was focused on his duties again. When she had searched the offices earlier, Suria hadn’t seen any glasses, though she could have missed them. For now, she had another theory she needed to check.

As soon as she was alone, she slipped out of the waiting room. Maut-mai was gone, apparently leaving her bag behind. Suria picked it up, as if to take it to her, and left the room. Once in the corridors she reached into the bag, taking the mana potion and also checking more carefully for anything that might be of use.

It seemed that Maut-mai was carrying a family seal, a stylus with a blockier haft than the university’s version, several hair combs, some makeup, and ten times more money than Suria had ever held in her life. None of it was any use to her in the present situation, however, so Suria only took the mana potion.

What she needed to check was whether the old woman’s glasses were the type they needed: she had been a mage but hadn’t been using the glasses to read, so it seemed possible. Suria headed to the northeastern rooms, hoping that her changes to the flow of events hadn’t messed things up. The room was still open, but she heard faint sobbing within.