At first, Zorian hadn’t even noticed him. That was noteworthy by itself, as Zach wasn’t an easy person to overlook. The boy loved attention and seed to have trouble staying still and quiet, sothing that remained consistent even after Zach suddenly turned into so kind of a weirdo ti traveler. Today, however, the normally loud and exuberant boy remained eerily silent. He also eschewed his typical tactic of sitting in the back of the classroom to occupy a seat near the front. If his out of character behavior hadn’t caused people to glance at him a bit too often, Zorian would have probably overlooked him.
He was so shocked to see the boy finally present in class that he montarily halted in his tracks, standing like an idiot in the middle of the classroom. Then, after a mont’s thought, he set off towards the likely cause of his predicant.
His first instinct was to imdiately march up to the boy and drag him away into so forgotten corner to clear everything up, but Zach’s subdued appearance gave him pause. Zach’s skin was pale and bloodless, and he was breathing a little too quickly and shallowly for a healthy person. He looked sick. Thinking about it a little more carefully, approaching the boy so directly would be a reckless and possibly dangerous course of action. His loss to the lich aside, Zach was vastly more powerful than Zorian, and Zorian had no idea how the other boy would react if he knew there was another person tagging along in his ti traveling adventure. He’d need to confront him sooner or later, though, so he fully intended to make at least tentative contact with the boy. He scanned the front of the classroom, looking for a free seat near Zach that would allow him to study the boy during the lecture.
He didn’t have to look hard – Zach was sitting very close to Briam, and every seat around Briam was empty. The cause was easy to divine: people were reluctant to get close to the angry-looking fire drake he was holding. As soone with future knowledge, Zorian knew their fears were well founded. While the young fire drake didn’t torch anyone (and sotis Zorian wondered how much of that was thanks to the drake’s youth and lack of ability, as opposed to having self-restraint) it didn’t hesitate to bite and scratch, and it was hard to tell what would set it off. Fortunately, it seed to tolerate Zorian better than most people, so he simply plopped down into the seat next to Briam, silencing the lizard’s hissing with an annoyed glare. He stared at the fire drake’s slitted yellow eyes until the reptile turned its head and left him alone.
“Wow, you shut him down in an instant,” remarked Briam. “I wish I could control him that easily.”
The fire drake snapped its jaws at the air in front of Briam’s face, causing the boy to flinch back. Briam huffed in annoyance and apparently let the matter drop. Not for the first ti, Zorian wondered just how smart that creature really was.
Then, doing his best to appear natural, Zorian turned to Zach sitting a bit further away from him.
“You look like hell,” Zorian remarked.
Zach groaned and buried his face into his hands. “I feel like hell,” he moaned. “What did that pile of bones do to ?”
Zorian’s heart quickened. Zach no doubt expected his comnt to be disregarded as a weird taphor, but to Zorian it was definite confirmation that Zach was also a ti traveler. No points for guessing who or what the mysterious ‘pile of bones’ was.
Now… how could he get Zach to talk more without revealing that he knew more than he should?
“Pile of bones?” Zorian asked, his voice curious.
Zach opened his mouth to respond but Ilsa chose that exact mont to walk into the classroom and Zach dropped the issue.
Zorian had to restrain himself from glaring at Ilsa as she smiled at him. Couldn’t she have waited a few more minutes?
Ignorant and uncaring of Zorian’s internal grumbling, Ilsa accepted the list of present students from Akoja and began introducing herself and her class. It wasn’t anything that Zorian hadn’t heard eight tis already, so he mostly ignored her in favor of keeping an eye on Zach and plotting how to extract ti travel related information out of him.
Suddenly he realized that Ilsa had stopped talking and was looking in his direction. After a few monts he realized she was looking at Zach.
“Mr. Noveda, you look quite ill. Please tell you didn’t co to my class with a hangover.”
The class erupted into laughter and Zach winced, either because loud noises bothered him in the state he was in or because he noticed the undercurrent of agitation in Ilsa’s question. Either way he recovered quickly.
“It’s not a hangover,” protested Zach. “I just woke up like this, I swear.”
“And you thought that coming to class like this was a good idea… why?” Ilsa prodded.
“Err… I honestly didn’t think it would last this long. I figured it would pass in an hour or two,” said Zach sheepishly.
Zorian frowned. If the sickness was a consequence of the spell the lich had targeted them with that evening (and Zach certainly seed to think so, if his previous comnt was any indication), that would an Zach had been suffering its effects for the past 8 months or so, as Zach had been absent for that long. Why would Zach expect a condition that serious to pass ‘in an hour or two’?
Why couldn’t there be any simple answers in all this?
“Well it didn’t,” Ilsa concluded. “While I appreciate your dedication to your studies,” Zorian distinctly heard Ako snorting derisively in the background, “I must insist you go ho or, better yet, visit a healer. You look like you’re going to collapse any mont.”
Before Zach could say anything, Zorian rose from his seat.
“I’ll get him ho, teacher,” he said. Zach gave him a surprised look, but Ilsa just nodded and shooed them away.
Zorian picked up his bag and left with Zach in tow, very pleased with himself. He got a legitimate excuse to talk to Zach in private and a permission to skip a class he had already attended 8 tis by now. Could a victory be more complete?
“You didn’t have to do that, you know?” Zach remarked, trailing behind him. “I can get back ho on my own. I don’t feel that sick.”
“But if I hadn’t done that, I would’ve had to sit through 2 hours of boring review,” countered Zorian.
Zach laughed, but his laughter quickly collapsed into a painful sounding cough.
“Damn,” he wheezed. “He really did a number on .”
“Who is this soone you keep ntioning?” prodded Zorian.
“It’s not important,” Zach mumbled. He took a deep breath and fixed Zorian with a speculative look. “Hey. Want to go to the cafeteria and grab sothing to eat?”
“You think your stomach can handle it?” Zorian asked.
“You bet,” Zach nodded. “I’m starving!”
Zorian shrugged and gestured for Zach to lead the way.
That was how Zorian found himself sharing a table with the cause of his ti traveling problems, trying to think of a good opening for a conversation he wanted to have with the boy. Or should he wait for a few days to make Zach get used to his presence? Hmm…
“You know, I find this whole situation very amusing,” Zach said between mouthfuls, shoveling noodles into his mouth and attempting to talk at the sa ti. Now that was very amusing. His mother always insisted he should aspire to behave ‘like a noble’. She would have a heart attack if he ever adopted Zach’s eating manners. “A good little student like you, skipping class to have lunch with a class delinquent… what is the world coming to? What would your mother say if she saw you now?”
“First of all, I’m not skipping class – I’m escorting you ho,” Zorian pointed out, ignoring a snort from Zach. “We just stopped for a al so you wouldn’t collapse from starvation before we get there.” Another snort. “And my mother would go all sparkly-eyed at who I’m having lunch with and promptly forget I’m supposed to be in class.”
“Ah. A social climber,” Zach said, a sour expression on his face. “Say no more. At least you’re male so she wouldn’t try to pair us.”
“Well, I do have a 9-year-old sister…”
“Don’t go there,” Zach warned.
“Fine,” agreed Zorian. He didn’t particularly want to continue in that avenue, anyway. “So are you going to tell who roughed you up or what?”
“You’re a lot nosier than I rember,” Zach huffed. “What makes you think soone roughed up?”
“Your offhand comnts aren’t as oblique as you imagine them to be,” Zorian said.
“Whatever,” Zach scoffed. “I just breathed in so weird fus while I was ssing with my alchemy set yesterday, that all.”
Ah, the trusty ‘alchemical accident’ excuse. So cliché, yet so effective. Zorian had used it quite a few tis himself. In any case, he wasn’t willing to let go so easily. He decided to risk it and try to provoke a reaction from the boy.
“Must have been so really weird fus – the aftereffects almost look like soul magic exposure,” Zorian speculated loudly.
Zorian had expected so kind of reaction from Zach, but what he got was quite a bit stronger than what he had imagined. Zach imdiately sat straighter in his seat, eyes wide in realization. “Of course! That’s why I’m still suffering the effects, even after the revert! The son of a bitch targeted the very thing that gets sent back – my soul!”
There was an eerie silence in the cafeteria as everyone stared at the crazy boy shouting nonsense in a crowded dining hall. Zach slowly lowered his hands (he had been gesticulating wildly during his little speech) and mumbled an apology that was too quiet for anyone but Zorian to hear. Scattered laughter rippled through the gathered students for a few monts before everything finally returned to normal.
“Err…” started Zach. “Maybe we should continue this at the fountain, yeah?”
“I don’t know,” remarked Zorian carefully. “If you intend to be this loud, I don’t think it will do much.”
“Oh ha ha,” grumbled Zach. “So I got a little excited... not everyone is an ice cube like you Zorian.”
“Ice cube?” asked Zorian, an undercurrent of warning in his voice.
But Zach was already packing, and Zorian could do nothing but huff in annoyance and follow after him. Still, Zach’s little outburst answered a few of his questions. So it wasn’t his mories, or even his mind that got sent back – it was his soul. That would certainly explain why his spellwork and shaping skills didn’t disappear every ti he started over. It was common knowledge that magic was heavily connected to the soul, even if no one really knew the exact chanism of their interaction.
When they finally reached the fountain, Zach seed to be in a contemplative mood so Zorian took a mont to study the schools of colourful fish swimming in the basin of the fountain. He actually pitied the poor things, since they were unlikely to last long. For years the fountain had been in disrepair, and it was only due to the grander-than-usual sumr festival that it was renovated. How likely was it that the Academy would continue to maintain it after the occasion passed? Not very. And it was even less likely it would be kept in a good enough condition for the fish to survive. Their days were numbered.
“Zorian…” Zach prodded.
“Hm?”
“Tell … what do you know about ti travel?”
Zorian blinked. Well. That was direct.
“Ti travel?” Zorian asked with as much confusion as he could fake. “Not much, I guess. What’s that got to do with anything?”
“Ugh, well…” Zach fumbled with words, scratching his chin nervously. “You’ll probably think I’m insane, but I’m a ti traveler of sorts.”
Wow, Zach really didn’t have a subtle bone in his body, did he?
“You don’t look very old,” Zorian remarked. “If you co from the future it must not be a very far one.”
“No, no, it’s more like… the whole world resets itself on the night of the sumr festival, and I’m the only one who rembers what happened.”
That was an interesting way of explaining it, though the idea of a spell affecting the whole world was even more ridiculous than the idea of working ti travel magic.
“I’ve lived through this month… god, at least 200 tis by now,” continued Zach. “Honestly, I’m starting to lose count.”
“Wait, you’re talking about it like you can’t stop it,” said Zorian, unable to keep a tiny bit of alarm out of his voice. Luckily, Zach appeared to be too agitated to notice.
“That’s just it, I don’t know if I can stop it!” Zach shouted, before he realized what he was doing and quieted down so as to not attract unneeded attention. “I was hit by this spell in the previous revert, and its effects didn’t completely go away when I reverted into the past.”
Zorian frowned. ‘Previous revert’? What about the other 7? Did Zach sohow skip those or did he simply not rember them? It occurred to Zorian that the after effects of the lich’s spell could have been even more serious than what he was currently looking at – what if Zach had spent the past 7 restarts in a coma? Though that begged the question of why his guardian had reported him as missing instead of bringing a healer.
“I guess it really was a soul magic spell like you said,” continued Zach. “I need to watch out for those from now on. Anyway, at first I thought it’s just so nasty sickness that’ll pass, and to a degree I was right. I already feel a lot better than I did this morning. It’s just that it wasn’t only my body that was affected – my mind has been a little spotty ever since I woke up.”
Oh no…
“I don’t rember how I started this ti loop,” concluded Zach, confirming Zorian’s fears. “Or whether it was who started it in the first place. My mory is full of blanks like that at the mont. I’m hoping it will all co back to but…”
Zorian stared at the other boy, stony faced. Basically, they were both in deep shit.
Zach seed to interpret Zorian’s serious look a little differently, though.
“You don’t believe ,” he concluded.
“It’s pretty far-fetched,” Zorian said. If he hadn’t lived through it, he wouldn’t have believed him, no. “But I’m a pretty open-minded guy. Let’s pretend you’re right for the mont. What’s that got to do with ?”
Zach arched an eyebrow at him, apparently incredulous about sothing.
“Huh,” he said. “You’re really different from your other self.”
“My other self?” Zorian asked curiously.
“Yeah,” Zach nodded. “My mory may be spotty about so things, but I definitely rember you. Mostly because you kept dying at the start of the attack…”
Zach mumbled the last sentence in a quiet voice that probably wasn’t ant to carry but did. Zorian pretended he didn’t hear it.
“You’re different than you used to be,” Zach said. “You were more irritable, and always busy with sothing or other. You never believed when I tried to tell you about the whole ti travel thing – you thought I was trying to make fun of you.”
Well… that kind of story sounded exactly like sothing his brothers would try to fool him with. And Zach did have a great many things in common with those two already.
“You’ve changed,” Zach concluded. “You’re a lot calr. More laid-back, I guess.”
Zorian frowned. He didn’t think he changed that much in personality, but he supposed it would be hard to not change when going through sothing like this. To say nothing of the fact that more than 8 months had passed since the restarts started for Zorian.
“So, wait… why did I change then?” Zorian asked. “Didn’t you say the whole world resets itself?”
“Don’t know,” Zach shrugged, then gave him a speculative look. “Co to think of it, you were there too, weren’t you?”
Zorian gave him a confused look. He wasn’t going to get baited that easily.
“No, of course you don’t rember,” Zach sighed. “Do you at least feel a little different lately or sothing?”
“Co to think of it… yes,” confird Zorian. “I chose different electives than I intended to, for no good reason really, and I did a bunch of other strange things ever since I ca to Cyoria.”
Zorian’s motivation for saying that was two-fold. First of all, he wanted to see how Zach would react to the idea of another person going through the ti loop with him. Secondly, he wanted to lay the groundwork for an explanation why he’d be acting differently in every restart, in case he decided not to tell Zach about himself.
He was surprised that Zach was so willing to believe him, though. Apparently even after all this ti (nearly 17 years, if the other boy was to be believed), Zach still haven’t developed an ability to effectively read people. That, or Zorian really was that good of an actor.
“Strange,” was all Zach said.
“Yeah,” Zorian agreed. “So… any advice a ti traveler can tell a mortal like ? A secret spell of awesoness, maybe?”
“To be honest, most of the spells I know are combat ones,” Zach admitted. “I’m really good at combat magic, which is good because I need to be good at it. There is… sothing I’m trying to stop.”
“Sothing involving the mysterious adversary that ssed you up?” tried Zorian. He really wanted to work the invasion into the conversation but didn’t know how to justify knowing anything about it. “Do you rember how that happened, at least?”
“Ugh,” grunted Zach. “Mostly. I distinctly rember you being there, but you probably died right at the start of the battle – no offense Zorian, but you aren’t much of a fighter – and then I stupidly charged in, thinking myself invulnerable.”
“Why would you ever think that?” Zorian asked, honestly confused. “That you’re invulnerable, I an. Doesn’t it strike you as dangerously arrogant to perceive yourself as invincible?”
“Do you know how many tis I’ve died in these reverts?” protested Zach. “My mory is failing again, but it was a lot. You tend not to take it too seriously after a while. And it’s not like I was too far off – I just have to watch out for necromancy next ti, right?”
“Not just necromancy,” Zorian replied with a heavy sigh. “There is also mind magic to worry about. Aside from the obvious possibility of ending up as a mind thrall, you could also end up with more than a few gaps in your mory – you could have your whole mind blanked out. Then there is a possibility of having a geas forced upon you if you’re too careless, which also bind to the soul as far as I know. So creatures, such as wraiths, eat souls – that’s another thing to worry about. And there are a couple of thods of sealing away a mage’s ability to do magic, which might very well stay with you when you… ‘revert’.”
Zach was silent, but Zorian could have sworn he had gotten even paler as he listened to Zorian speak.
“And that’s just a couple of points off the top of my head,” finished Zorian. “I’m only an academy student, and I don’t know anything. It’s obvious w- err, you are not invulnerable. Okay?”
Zorian swallowed heavily. That was close. It was fortunate that Zach was so oblivious, because had the situation been reverse, he would have called Zach out on it ages ago.
“Wow, you almost sound like you care,” Zach finally said with a nervous chuckle. “You really do believe I’m a ti traveler now, huh?”
Zorian shrugged. “I’m not completely convinced, but it’s not sothing that’s worth fighting over in my opinion. If you say you’re a ti traveler, then we’ll pretend you’re a ti traveler.”
Yes. Until he got a better feel for Zach’s character and understood what the deal was with the ti loop, he would pretend.
* * *
When Zorian finally returned to school, having missed both the remainder of essential invocations and the following lecture about magical law, he was beset by curious classmates and Ako. Ako was easy to deal with, since she only wanted to scold him for taking too long and warn him she recorded his absence in the attendance record. Zorian was pretty sure the only person, teachers included, who cared about what was written on that list was Akoja. The ones that wanted to know what’s wrong with Zach were also easy. It was an alchemical accident.
What? It’s the excuse Zach used!
Unfortunately, many people also wanted to know why he had suddenly volunteered to take him ho, or what had taken him so long. Nosy, nosy people. And they were persistent too, refusing to leave him alone for the rest of the day. When Zorian finally reached his room he imdiately locked his door and breathed a sigh of relief. He finally had enough ti to think about what he found out today.
Zach was confident he would be fine by tomorrow, and that his mory would co back to him. Zorian was not nearly as confident. That Zach had a 7-month gap in his mory (and possibly existence) suggested sothing very serious had been done to him. Why hadn’t Zorian suffered anything of the sort? Well… maybe he had. He had felt uncharacteristically tired in his first restart, but had written it off as ntal stress. Maybe he had only been caught at the very edge of the spell and thus only suffered minor damage, or maybe his ‘first restart’ was only the first one he had mory of.
It was a disturbing possibility, but there was not much point in dwelling on it much.
It really wasn’t that unexpected, when you really thought about it. The strange ti travel effect he and Zach were under had essentially turned them into soul entities. A lich was, at its core, also a soul entity. They were mages that ritually killed themselves and tethered their souls to an object – their phylactery – before it could move on into the afterlife. If the form they currently inhabited ever got destroyed, they’d snap back to their phylactery, and simply possess soone. It would make sense for a lich to know how to fight another lich. And a thod that worked against a lich would work just as well against him and Zach.
And Zach had stupidly said as much to the lich at the end of their battle! ‘It’s not like I’ll be dead for good,’ indeed! The lich may not have known what Zach was exactly, but a statent like that strongly suggested he was either a lich himself or so kind of a possessor entity, and from a practical standpoint it wasn’t that far off.
But that was all neither here nor there. The real question was: what was he going to do now? Even if Zach regained his mories (doubtful), he would no doubt want to keep the ti loop going until he found a way to defeat the lich. If the boy’s previous altercation with the undead mage was of any indication, that could take a while. And that was assuming Zach was the originator of the spell in the first place. If it happened once, it could have happened twice. He had a sneaking suspicion that Zach might be as much of a stowaway as Zorian was. Was there a third looping person running around?
Suddenly, he didn’t feel as desperate to get out of this thing as he was at the start of it. Getting out might not necessarily an going back to normal. The invasion was clearly more than a random terrorist attack, and Zorian sohow doubted that stopping it would be the end of it. Sothing very big was happening, and Zorian was a very small fish. A roach, as Taiven would charmingly say. Inside the ti loop, he had a chance to secure his future. Outside of it, he was just another victim.
Besides, if Zach was to be believed, ‘normal’ for Zorian ant getting killed at the start of the invasion. He didn’t care much for that kind of ‘normal’. In fact, the more he thought about it the more it seed to him this whole thing was a giant opportunity rather than an annoyance. Once upon a ti, when Zorian was younger, he dreamt of being a great mage. The sort that legends were made of, the kind that revolutionized whole fields of magic all by themselves. In ti this dream died as it beca clear he didn’t have the talent, the work ethic, or the right connections to make that happen. He was just a slightly above average civilian-born student with no special advantages to his na. But now? He had all the ti he needed to build up an advantage over his peers and beco truly great. Greater than Dain.
He shook his head, abandoning that train of thought. He was getting ahead of himself. He needed sothing more concrete than a fuzzy notion of greatness to guide him – a clear set of goals to achieve, and courses of action to pursue. Right now, the only thing he could think of was harassing Zach for so tips, raiding the library for more spells, and leveraging his curious monetary situation to improve his alchemical skills.
He was leery about relying on Zach for help. Even if the boy would be cooperative, there was only so much he could learn from the other ti traveler without revealing that he too retained his mories each ti they reverted to the past.
The library was full of spells, of course, but anything ‘serious’ (that is, that could be used for combat, cri, or spying) was restricted, and he knew from talking to older students that teachers were really stingy with permission slips. Not even Fortov succeeded in getting one, and he could charm a troll into not eating him.
Honing his alchemy skills was definitely an option. The only reason he focused more heavily on invocation thus far was because he had to buy any ingredients he wished to work with, and he was trying to save money. Any serious study of alchemy required a lot of funds – alchemical ingredients were expensive. With his saving account spontaneously refilling after each restart, however, monetary concerns didn’t limit him as much as they did before.
It wasn’t much, to be honest. He needed a better plan. With another sigh, Zorian pulled out his trusty notebook and began to plot and write.
* * *
“Sothing I can do for you, sonny?” asked Kyron. “The class has been dismissed, in case you didn’t notice.”
“Err, I noticed. I just wanted to talk to you about sothing,” Zorian said. Kyron gestured him to keep talking. “I hope you don’t find it insulting, but your stated program seems a bit… easy. Practicing magic missile for a whole month seems rather pointless to , since I already have a pretty good grasp on it.”
Kyron stared at him for a few seconds. Zorian suppressed the instinct to shuffle nervously in place and returned the man’s stare. Kyron seed like a sort of person who would be impressed by that.
“I hope you don’t find it insulting, sonny, but you just don’t have enough power to be a proper battle mage,” Kyron finally said. “Your shaping skills are rather impressive for your age, but you tire after only 10 shots from the rod. And that just won’t do in any serious combat.”
“Well, I kind of know that,” admitted Zorian. His reserves had increased slightly from what they were when he first tackled this class, so 10 shots was actually an improvent. “Incidentally, is there anything I can do about that?”
“Nothing I would recomnd,” Kyron said, shaking his head. “Your mana reserves will grow as your proficiency in magic grows, of course, but so will everyone else’s. You will always be at a disadvantage against naturally powerful opponents, which would be most of the professional battle mages. Of course, I cannot forbid you from pursuing a career as a battle mage, but I definitely advise you against it. There are plenty of magical disciplines where great shaping skills are an asset, but combat magic is mostly about power.”
“I see,” said Zorian. He didn’t intend to beco a battle mage, but he had a feeling he was going to need so combat magic, whether he liked it or not. At the very least he wanted to be able to deal with any stray winter wolves or trolls he might encounter during the invasion. “Though my point still stands. Since I can already do the spell well enough, and that’s the only thing you intend to instruct us in for the foreseeable future, I can see little point in attending the class for the foreseeable future.”
“Hmph,” Kyron snorted. “Trying blackmail on , sonny?”
“Er…”
“It’s fine, I don’t mind. And I do understand your point of view here…” Kyron rubbed his chin for a second, mulling sothing over in his head. “Wait here.”
15 minutes later Kyron returned with another spell rod, a small booklet, and four ceramic plates. He threw the plates towards Zorian, who hastily caught them before they shattered upon the ground.
“Good reflexes,” Kyron complinted. “They’re actually reinforced, so you don’t have to worry about dropping them too much.” He took one of the spell rods they used in class and grasped it firmly in his hand. “Let demonstrate sothing to you. Throw one of the plates to my left.”
Zorian imdiately complied, and Kyron wordlessly pointed the rod in the plate’s general direction and fired. He was wide of the mark, but the bolt of force actually hod in on the plate anyway, curving through the air to intercept it. The plate shattered into dust and sharp fragnts.
“Again,” Kyron snapped.
Zorian threw another plate, and another bolt of force sped towards it. This one was different, however – it was longer and thinner, like an oversized needle. It hit the plate, but instead of smashing it to pieces it went right through it, punching a hole through the center before dissipating.
“Throw the last two together,” Kyron instructed.
Two plates flew into the air, and Kyron once again pointed the rod in their general direction. Zorian waited for the bolt of force, but none was forthcoming. Instead, both plates were suddenly cut in half by so unseen blades.
Kyron lowered his hand and began to speak.
“The reason I’ll be spending so much ti on magic missile is because it’s a very versatile spell,” Kyron spoke. “In its simplest form, it takes the form of a shining bolt of force that travels in a straight line, delivering concussive blasts of force to whatever it impacts. This variant is often called the smasher, and it is a very simple and effective spell. A skilled mage can do so much more with it, however. You can use animation magic to make it ho in on a target. You can sharpen it into a point that will pierce things instead of batter them, or a line to cut them – the piercer and cutter, respectively. You can fire multiple missiles instead of one – a swarm, even, if you have the reserves and skill to pull it off. And, of course, you can make the projectile invisible.”
“Invisible?” asked Zorian.
“Yes,” Kyron agreed. “A perfectly cast force spell is completely transparent. The lightshow you usually see is magical leakage resulting from an imperfect spell boundary. The speed with which combat magic is cast virtually guarantees that so mistakes in constructing the spell boundary will be made, and even if no mistakes are made the large amounts of mana pumped into the constructs can easily distort or unravel so of the pieces.”
“So I’m ssing the spell up?” summarized Zorian, thinking of the brightly shining projectiles he always got when he used the rod. “Wait, your missiles normally shine too. Is that-“
Kyron chuckled. “Like I said at the start – there are plenty of magical disciplines where great shaping skills are an asset, but combat magic is mostly about power. Most battle mages can’t even make a simple magic missile transparent, much less one of the higher level force spells. It doesn’t hold them back any. Even I usually don’t bother, since the benefits are so marginal. You, on the other hand, need every advantage you can get.”
Kyron pushed the spell rod and the accompanying booklet into Zorian’s hands.
“You are right that you won’t learn much in class in the next month or so. The smasher may be simple, but more than half of your classmates are having trouble with it as it is, and you’re the only one that truly has a good grasp on it. So read the booklet, find so targets to practice on, and make sure there is a friend nearby while you practice to get help if you screw up big. Oh, and don’t hurt anyone with the rod I’m loaning you or I’ll be mad. Co back to in two weeks so I can see how you’re progressing.”
“Right,” agreed Zorian enthusiastically. This went a lot better than he thought it would.
“Now get lost,” Kyron gestured towards the door. “You’ve wasted my entire coffee break already.”
* * *
Zorian dropped the stack of books on a nearby table and surveyed the shelves. He had decided to try his luck as a library employee again, hoping he would find a way to get around spell restrictions as an employee. Zach had been absent from class for a couple of days at this point, probably still suffering from the aftereffects of the soul spell, so he couldn’t simply trick the answer out of his fellow ti traveler. And besides, he wanted to learn those book divinations he was promised before being brutally murdered, and all.
He wasn’t in a hurry to get Kirithishli to teach him those divination spells, though – the magic missile variations Kyron gave him to practice were giving him enough problems as it was. Like Kyron had said at the beginning of the lecture, the problem was that shaping had to be done in an instant and involved shoving a great deal of his mana reserves into a hastily constructed spell boundary. That was easy enough when you just wanted a bolt that traveled in a straight line and smashed things, but trying to weave, say, a homing function into the spell was a chore to do in a fraction of a second. To say nothing of trying to eliminate all the little imperfections and make the bolt transparent.
Which is not to say he made no progress! He could make the bolt curve towards a target even if his aim was a little off, and he managed to make a flawless piercer yesterday. Progress!
“You’re pretty good at this stuff,” Ibery remarked beside him, putting a book on the shelf. “I’m surprised. Usually it takes a while for people to really understand the system we use here. I guess you worked in a library before, huh?”
“Uh, yeah,” agreed Zorian. It was technically true. “It was… surprisingly similar to this one in organization.”
“It’s not really surprising,” Kirithishli said behind him, causing him to jump in surprise. “All state libraries use the sa organizing system. It’s a standard enforced by the Society of Librarians. Hell, even the systems of other Splinter Nations are pretty similar.”
“Because they all used to be part the sa country?” guessed Zorian.
“It is debatable whether or not the Old Alliance could be considered a unified state,” Kirithishli said. “The na says it all, really – it was an alliance more than anything. Arguably it was the attempt to turn it into a state that led to the Splinter Wars. But yes, being once part of the Old Alliance, the Splinter Nations inherited much of its administrative legacy, including library organization.”
Zorian was starting to understand why Kirithishli had such strained relations with the current headmaster. He knew very little about the man, but what he did suggested he was very politically involved and… well, patriotic. And the country they were living in made its official position clear – there was no ‘Old Alliance’, because the Alliance of Eldemar never ended. It simply shrank. That this was a completely ridiculous claim was self-evident to citizens dostic and foreigner alike, but most found it easier to humor the politicians. Kirithishli apparently went a step further and denied there was a predecessor state to be an inheritor of in the first place. A fiery, opinionated woman that she was, she probably said sothing of the sort within the headmaster’s earshot. That must have been a fun conversation.
“Hey!” called a familiar voice. “Is Zorian here? I heard-“
“Don’t shout in the library, Zach,” Zorian sighed. “Since you’re back to your usual exuberance, I’m guessing you’re alright now?”
“Yup!” Zach said happily, thumping his chest a few tis. “Healthy like an oak. Got an hour to grab sothing to eat?”
“In case you haven’t noticed, I’m working at the mont,” Zorian protested.
“It’s not an issue, Zorian, we’re mostly done for the day,” Kirithishli pointed out. Then she leaned towards him and whispered into his ear. “Unless you wanted to get rid of him and I’m interfering?”
Zorian waved her concerns away and followed Zach outside. As amusing as it would be to see what Kirithishli would say to Zach to get rid of him, he actually wanted to talk to the boy.
“So how co you sought out?” Zorian asked. He thought he’d have to hound the boy to get more information, but it seed Zach had taken a liking to him. He didn’t know whether to be pleased or annoyed by that. It was convenient, but it increased the chances that he’d realize sothing was off with Zorian.
“You’re the most interesting person I know of at the mont, and the only other person who believes about ti travel except Neolu,” Zach said.
“Neolu?” asked Zorian incredulously.
“She’s an avid reader of speculative fiction and mysteries and is very imaginative and open-minded,” said Zach. “A naïve drear, her father would say. It was surprisingly easy to convince her I’m really a ti traveler. I guess she wants to believe it’s true.”
“Ah,” said Zorian. He supposed that he knew now why Zach involved Neolu so much the first ti he went through this month. He still didn’t know who the other girl was, though, and didn’t know how he might work her into the conversation. “How many people did you try to convince, anyway?” asked Zorian.
“All of our classmates and teachers, the headmaster, and the heads of every police departnt in the city. A couple of nobles and other influential people.”
How… persistent.
“Not very successful, I imagine,” Zorian guessed.
“That’s putting it mildly,” Zach sighed.
Zorian frowned, suddenly realized sothing. Why did Zach try to convince all those people he was a ti traveler? That didn’t sound like sothing a ti traveler that ca specifically to stop the invasion would do. It sounded more like sothing Zorian briefly considered when he realized how utterly over the head he was, but ultimately decided to scrap the idea because he expected the results to be more or less identical to what Zach got.
“Zach,” began Zorian carefully, “what about those gaps in your mory? Are they…”
“They’re still there,” Zach scowled. “I’m pretty sure they’re not increasing anymore though, thank the gods.”
“Hmm,” agreed Zorian. “So you don’t know how you achieved this ti travel magic, then? I looked it up, and it’s supposed to be impossible, you know? As impossible as drawing a square triangle, in fact.”
“Well it’s clearly not that impossible, is it?” Zach countered. “But no, I have no idea how I did that. If I did that.”
“If you did that,” agreed Zorian. “From your comnts I’m getting a feeling you started these reverts as a common academy student. And I an no offense, but the Zach I rember wasn’t really the kind of person capable of inventing any spell, much less sothing as concept-breaking as ti travel.”
“Eh heh…” Zach chuckled nervously. “You’re probably right. I used to be really bad at this whole mage business, didn’t I? But enough of such depressing topics, because I’ve got good news for you!”
“Oh?” Zorian asked curiously.
“Yes,” Zach confird. “I heard you’ve been trying to learn combat magic.”
“Eh!? Where did you hear that?” protested Zorian.
“Kyron told the rest of the teachers, the teachers told the administrative staff, the administrative staff told the janitors and other low paying workers, they told the students, and the students told ,” finished Zach. “What does it matter? What matters is that I’m very good at combat magic thanks to the reverts, and that I’ve decided to teach you. Think of it as a reward for believing .”
Zorian gave Zach an incredulous look. He was going to help him out on his own free will? Just like that? No need for any plotting or subtle maneuvering?
Almost disappointing.
“What?” Zach protested. “It’s true, I really am good at combat magic! In fact, that’s the field I’m most talented at!”
Oh, now that’s a wonderful opening…
“Not that I don’t believe you, but how exactly did you get so good at combat magic?” asked Zorian. “I an, mages are really stingy about sharing combat magic. Even with these… reverts… why would they share them with an academy student like you? Especially since you’re… uh…”
“Known to be irresponsible,” Zach finished for him. “To be honest, I didn’t get the spells I know legally. I wouldn’t recomnd my thods of acquiring combat magic to anyone who isn’t a ti traveler. You tend to die a lot.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah. But you have , so there’s that.”
Quietly wondering what he was getting himself into, Zorian followed after him.
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