I decide to try starting with an explanation.
"I'm a Trialgoer like you are," I say.
She narrows her eyes at . "Likely story."
Like before, a dagger made of Firmant materializes in her hand, and she flicks it toward in a near-invisible movent. I don't bother reaching out to catch it this ti—instead, I let it glance off my cheek and dissipate into harmless Firmant.
[Firmant saturation: 89%]
Mostly harmless Firmant. I wince as I watch the counter go up—turns out her skills count toward the limit on the Sewers as well.
Unfortunately, she doesn't just let it go at that. The mont she sees that her skill doesn't have an effect on , she leaps backward, crossing that invisible boundary once more.
And once more, the Tear resets.
"What are you doing here?" she asks coldly. I don't bother responding this ti. Instead, I reach for Temporal Link, intent on using the connection inherent to the skill to explain my presence.
[Firmant saturation: 90%]
Unfortunately, the mont she senses that I'm using a skill, she dodges back and out of range. I grimace.
At least she didn't get one of her own skills off that ti.
"What are you doing here?" she asks coldly. I sigh, trying to figure out if there's a safe way to introduce myself. She seems intent on seeing as an enemy.
I suppose, considering the circumstances, she has a reason to. I don't know how she's visiting what's clearly a past mont in her own life, but any unexpected presence in a mont like this probably feels like a violation in and of itself.
"Answer the question," she demands, but instead of answering, I look around. There's a pretty clear boundary around the body, now that I'm paying attention—if I had to guess, we're inside so sort of illusory skill. That might explain the resets. For whatever reason, the Tear considers the skill's dissolution as a sort of failure condition.
"What kind of skill are we in?" I ask. "It feels like an illusion."
She flinches at my words, which I take as confirmation.
Then she pulls out the dagger, and I sigh.
[Firmant saturation: 91%]
"What are you doing here?" she asks coldly.
"We're in so kind of illusion," I say, ignoring her. Instead, I move to examine the boundary of the skill, reaching out with my Firmant sense and testing its edges. It's a fairly solid skill, and it doesn't seem to be coming from the other Trialgoer.
Soone else must be using it. One of Hestia's Trialgoers, then? I haven't seen any of them use illusory skills like this, though. "Can't be Whisper," I mutter to myself. "Can't be Naru, Teluwat, Versa, or Soul of Trade."
The harpy snorts. "You sound confused," she says, her tone still wary. She hasn't attacked yet, though. Who would've thought just ignoring her was the key?
"Not every day I end up in the middle of soone's illusion," I say dryly. "Which Trialgoer did this?"
A mont of hesitation. "Ascint."
My brow furrows. I think Guard's told about him, but not in great detail—he mostly keeps to himself, apparently. A Trialgoer that fancies himself a master of death, sothing like a necromancer...
I eye the body on the ground and make the connection.
Yeah, that makes sense.
"What's your na?" I ask, glancing up.
The harpy stares at for a long mont. "Lilia," she says eventually.
"And what did Ascint promise you?"
"I think you're asking a few too many questions." Her eyes narrow, evidently suspicious again; I hold back a sigh. "And you never answered mine. Why are you here?"
"Would you believe if I said I'm trapped in a ti loop and need you to stop trying to kill ?"
"The fact that you said trying tells all I need to know." Lilia scowls at . Apparently, the idea that she might fail to kill is unbelievable to her. She manifests yet another dagger in her hand, then tosses it at .
I catch it. "Trying, yes," I say evenly. She takes a step back, but before she can cross the illusory boundary, I tap into Force Construct and create a barrier behind her. "If you leave, you're going to reset the loop again."
Lilia glares at . "You think that's going to stop ?" she demands. "I'm the one trapped in a loop, not you."
"We're both—" I start, but before I can say anything else, she pushes Firmant into so sort of construct at her throat. There's a sharp contraction of space, a brief flash—
"What are you doing here?" Lilia asks coldly.
I glance at the Interface. Firmant saturation is sitting at 93%, which ans that whatever trick she used with her necklace thankfully wasn't a skill; only the dagger and my Force Construct counted. The number is definitely higher than I'm comfortable with, though.
More importantly...
"Did you just blow yourself up?" I demand. "What are you, allergic to conversation?"
Lilia stares at . "What are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about your necklace!" I gesture at the imbuent stone she wears. There's a string looped carefully through its center in a way that's ant to intentionally disrupt the skill inside the stone. A clever design, in all honesty, though I'm not quite in a mood to appreciate it at the mont.
"You know about my necklace?" Lilia looks disgruntled. "Do you... are you saying you rember the loops?"
"I'm looping," I say, forcing myself to calm down. "Or we both are, I suppose, but right now my loop is external to yours. Except you keep attacking without letting explain myself."
Lilia takes a mont to absorb this. She narrows her eyes at , a dagger manifesting in her hands; I sigh, preparing to try again—
—but to my surprise, this ti, she doesn't attack. She just tosses it into the air and catches it, repeating the motion a few tis. I'm almost inclined to think it's a threat, but there's a small flicker in her expression that tells she might actually just be nervous.
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From her perspective, if I'm telling the truth, then I'm stronger than her. Strong enough her past self felt the need to use her necklace instead of fight.
Sure enough, that's what she asks about next.
"That explains how you know about the necklace," she says. "But not why I used it."
"This mont gets reset every ti you step outside the boundary of the illusion we're in," I say, gesturing toward it. "I tried to stop you by creating a barrier."
"And I used my necklace." Lilia nods, apparently satisfied by this explanation. "I see. A sensible choice."
"Not sure if sensible is the word I'd use," I mutter. "Does that an you're willing to talk to now?"
"Not until you explain why you're here."
"I've been trying!"
"Fair point." Lilia pauses, giving a once-over as if to evaluate . "Well, if you're telling the truth, and the loop happens to be reset again..."
"That makes feel like you're planning sothing."
"...then just tell my sister's na when your loop begins," Lilia says, nodding toward the body on the ground.
"And what was her na?" I ask warily.
"It was Mirrie." Lilia gives a sad smile. "Now, if you'll forgive , I'd like to make sure you're telling the truth."
She tosses the dagger at , nods to herself when it clatters harmlessly off my skin, then sets off her necklace.
—
Lilia doesn't even get a chance to speak when the loop resets. I glare at her hard enough that the words falter before they leave her mouth. "I would've just let you step outside! You didn't need to blow yourself up!"
Lilia blinks at . "What?" she asks, for once at a complete loss. I gesture toward her in frustration.
"I told you we're in a loop," I say. "And you decided to test if I was telling the truth, I guess, which would've been fine if you didn't decide to reset the loop by setting off your necklace. You could have just stepped outside! Did you think I wouldn't let you?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Lilia says, looking faintly perturbed. "But I suppose your knowledge of my necklace is sufficient proof to start with. For to believe you, however—"
"You want to tell you your sister's na. I know." I force myself to calm down again. It's mostly the shock that has reacting so strongly—it's not like I haven't done the sa in my own loops. Ahkelios is usually the one to trigger it for , though.
The problem is mostly that the reset doesn't happen instantly. Both tis she's chosen to reset via necklace explosion, I've had to watch the process in gory detail. It's... unpleasant.
"You told her na was Mirrie," I say after a mont, my voice softening. The illusion is a morbid one—every gory detail of her sister's death is on display. I take a careful step away from it to move to a more respectful distance, then kneel beside it. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry for your loss."
Lilia stares at for a long mont, then gives a tight nod. "So am I," she says quietly. "Why are you here?"
"It's complicated," I answer. "The easiest way to show you is with a skill. May I?"
Lilia hesitates, but nods. I reach out with a flicker of Temporal Link, bringing the total saturation up to 95%, which... could be a lot worse, I suppose.
[Your Mastery of Temporal Link has increased!]
That, on the other hand, was unexpected. I put it out of mind for the mont, watching Lilia instead; she stills as the Link forms between us, and then her expression goes carefully blank.
It's an expression I know all too well.
She moves to sit beside , eyes lingering on the corpse of her older sister. "I shouldn't be surprised, I suppose," she says. "I was planning on this being my last loop. Bargained with Ascint for it and everything."
That seems to be a trend amongst all these newer Tears. Or maybe just the ones in the Sewers. They recreate the monts before a Trialgoer chooses to end their loops.
"What was the bargain?" I ask.
"I just wanted to see her one last ti." Lilia looks away. "You'll forgive for being... aggressive, I hope. This is a very personal mory. I probably wasn't very happy that a stranger was intruding on it."
"You weren't," I say dryly, but I shake my head and sigh. "I don't think I can bla you, though, now that I have context. I guess this was ant to be sothing like a goodbye—and here I thought you wanted Ascint to bring her back to life or sothing."
Lilia scowled. "His constructs are hardly alive," she says. "They are abominations, the lot of them. But his skills allow him to bring to life any mory of any death, and that was what I needed."
"I guess that explains why we're in this mory." I glance back down toward the body.
Lilia nods tiredly. "It's morbid, but it's all I have."
"Do you mind if I ask what happened?"
"I suppose..." Lilia hesitates. "I suppose I do not."
I'm not sure how long we end up talking, but I think it's longer than either of us expected. It becos very quickly clear that Lilia has never had anyone to talk to about what happened—she's more or less isolated herself in the loops, unwilling to let herself get close to anyone.
She's been that way ever since her sister died, it turns out.
Lilia is from one of very few planets, I think, where the Integration was a blessing. She considered it one, at least. She describes a life of hiding from those that would hunt her and her siblings for their wings—a life of running from place to place, doing everything they could to hide the fact that they had feathers.
Her older sister was only the first of the siblings she lost, but it's the mory that sticks most firmly in her mind. She rembers the desperate plea, the way her sister threw herself to their would-be poachers to give her siblings immunity, even if it would only be temporary. Until they were adults and their wings were large and resplendent.
The Integration happened just as Lilia beca of age, and when she first realized what it ant, she was... driven. Delighted, really, by the possibility of power and revenge.
And then the loops just kept going.
Long enough that she knew the people she wanted revenge on were most likely dead. Long enough she knew she, herself, would likely never escape.
Long enough for her to miss her big sister again.
At the end of it all, Lilia asks a question, though she asks it so quietly I'm not sure she intended for to hear. "Do you think there's a skill sowhere in the Interface that would let see her again?"
"It wouldn't let you change anything," I say quietly. "But... yes. Sowhere in there, I bet there is."
I know there is, in fact. The Road Not Taken would allow exactly that. But that specific skill would be a painful road to go down, and the amount of Firmant it would take to reach so many years into the past isn't sothing even I have.
But just knowing the skill exists tells there will be variants that can do exactly what she wants.
"I might try to live for a few more loops," Lilia says eventually. "I think Mirrie would want that."
"From what you've told , I'm sure she would." I offer Lilia a small smile, and to my surprise, she smiles back.
"Thank you," she says, slowly pulling herself to her feet. "Hey, uh... You think I could get a hug?"
I chuckle and open my arms, giving her a quick hug. The Tear is beginning to fade, so there's no doubt I've done what I needed to here. "Good luck, Lilia."
"You too, Ethan."
There's not much fanfare when the Tear seals itself. I head toward the center of the chamber and turn the valve, watching as the Interface updates.
[Align the Sewers: 2/3
Firmant Saturation: 92%]
Fortunately, the talk I had with Lilia was enough for the Tear's saturation to drop, though only slightly. I consider the situation for a mont, then shake my head. "Let's try to get to the last one and get this over with," I suggest. "We can wait outside the Tear if we need to, but I don't want to deal with another attack without being in position."
"We're pretty tired of the Sewers," Adeya agrees. Gheraa nods quickly, and the rest of the scirix seem equally eager to get out.
"The next chamber isn't too far," I say. I open up the Interface and its map to make sure—it isn't able to map out the Sewers, but it turns out that Hotspot Tracker ability still works. Much better than using Temporal Link to identify the Tear's location all the ti. At the very least, it can give us an approximate direction.
I'm more than ready to get this over with.
Which, of course, is probably why the first ti I die and find myself back in Hestia, I realize I might need to delay things just slightly. I grimace. Adeya isn't going to be happy.
But Hestia feels strange. Temporal Link tugs firmly in my mind, as if the planet herself is a half-step out of focus. Like ti is holding its breath.
It feels the way it felt when I first t Ahkelios. I've felt this several tis since, I think, but never with this degree of clarity—the new level of Mastery in Temporal Link must have made quite the difference. It was easy enough to dismiss as discomfort before, but now...
[Mastery: Temporal Link | 1 of 2]
Increase possible number of active Links to 3. Removes Interface-related Link tampering. Increases active range of all Links. Increases attunent to the tistream and natural sense for temporal events. Amplifies the effect of all ti-related skills.
I almost whistle at that. I hadn't even been aware that increasing Mastery of Temporal Link was possible, but those are good bonuses.
It confirms so of my other suspicions, too. I'm on my 37th loop. It's a pri number, and it matches the pattern. I'm not sure if it's the increased attunent talking, but I'm pretty sure that ans this is one of the loops where I have a chance of crossing over with the final loop of another forr Trialgoer. My brow furrows in thought as I consider this—
—but before I can do anything else, a certain spider-like Trialgoer crashes into the ground in front of , groaning in pain. I blink as she drags herself to her feet.
"Ethan Hill," Versa says. "You are an incredibly hard man to find."
She pauses, then frowns, staring at the pulsating tumor of a Tear that contains Ahkelios and Gheraa. "...What in the blasted Undergrowths is that?"
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