ã€ŠChains of a Time Loopã€‹


 1 - The Day After Break

    In a dimly lit bedroom that overlooked the city, a spectacular view was going to waste. The room¡¯s occupant was in no state to appreciate it, and his nurse sat with her back to the window. She checked her watch now and then, counting down the minutes until the scheduled meal time, alert for any signs of lucidity, or more importantly, any words that might need to be relayed to anyone else. The nurse did not expect it much; it had been over a week since her patient had spoken above an inaudible mumble.

    But today¡ª

    ¡°Ehh¡ª¡±

    The nurse leapt to attention. ¡°Sir.¡±

    ¡°Ehhh¡ªehh¡ª¡± Every gasp sounded like a chore, too much work all for a measly syllable. ¡°How long¡ª¡±

    He turned, barely, to face the nurse, his eyes wide, mouth frozen open.

    ¡°When will it end?¡± he finally croaked. ¡°Whennn¡ª¡±

    And the spell was over.

    An enchanted quill on the desk recorded his words, though the nurse deemed it insignificant to report. The man retreated into his vegetative state, and the quill would record no speech thereafter.

    ¡ô¡ô¡ô¡ô¡ô

    Dreams came in all kinds of different forms. Usually, Myra¡¯s dreams were disjointed nonsense, built on feelings and sentiments, with events that didn¡¯t fit together at all, which slipped away as soon as she woke up and became unable to hold the messy contradiction in her mind. Every once in a while, though, a dream would be unusually coherent, and she would remember it for a great deal longer.

    When Myra woke up on the first day of the winter semester, heart racing, she was sure her dream had been one of those. Events had flowed into each other with logical causality; obstacles had solutions; questions had answers. And someone, or something, had been after her¡­ Intrigued and amused by the story weaved by her unconscious imagination, she quickly pulled herself out of bed and went to write it in her dream journal. She had her quill ready and a blank page open, but as she tried to write, a sharp pain pierced through her mind like a hot knife.

    Nearly collapsing, she clutched her forehead and waited out a spell. When she took a deep breath and tried to return to her task, however, she was struck again. Finally, she put her diary aside and stumbled to her medicine closet for anything to help with headaches. Elixir of clam¡­? No, she wanted something stronger today. She took the distilled saliva of a one-antler horse from the very back. Not what she usually took, but pain like this probably warranted it.

    Deciding that the dream must have been nonsense anyway, merely invoking a feeling of cohesion that didn¡¯t truly exist, she proceeded to her morning shower. By the time she was ready for school, wrapped and warm in her sapphire-blue school robes, staff in hand, the headache had entirely evaporated. On her way out, she worried about her dream as much as she usually worried about dreams¡ªthat is, not at all.

    ¡ô

    That said, Myrabelle Prua-Kent had much else to worry about.

    Her entire autumn break had been marred by the unraveling of her father¡¯s business, and eventually, his arrest, as in the fallout, the imperial authorities had uncovered sweeping fraud upon fraud. Everything had been revealed for a house of cards, the base swept out from under it. The investigation, from collapse to arrest, had taken only six days, just less than half of Myra¡¯s break, but it had felt like months. With no desire to stay alone with her stepmother, she¡¯d hopped on a train, returning early to the Ralkenon University of Magecraft.

    And what she had been looking forward to the most¡ªher apprenticeship at a rune forge based in the city¡ªhad been spoiled as well. As soon as they¡¯d gotten wind that the ¡®Kent¡¯ half of her name was that of Yastmar Kent, the name that every newspaper was proclaiming as the next Cod Counterfeiter or Oliver Smear, they had decided they wanted nothing to do with her.

    Still, she had the university. It was a new semester and new classes.

    Not far along the walkway from her dormitory, a blonde young woman catapulted herself Myra-wards almost without warning. The classmate clasped her arms around her neck and twirled the girl around, a full three hundred and sixty degrees. This was a fairly normal greeting from Cynthia Ruona.

    ¡°How¡¯s your morning?¡± she asked brightly, but she blinked immediately, as if remembering to be a bit somber. ¡°Are you feeling better?¡± She lingered in her embrace.

    ¡°No,¡± Myra said bluntly. ¡°I woke up with an ass headache this morning¡­¡±

    ¡°Oh,¡± she cooed. ¡°Where was it?¡± Cynthia gently placed her hand on Myra¡¯s forehead, straddling her temples. ¡°Here?¡±

    ¡°No¡­¡±

    ¡°Here?¡± She moved to her sinuses.

    ¡°No, it was like¡­ kinda back here?¡± Myra put a hand on the back of her skull. ¡°Or¡­ like, inside, I guess.¡±

    Cynthia nodded, a serious, thoughtful look in her eyes. ¡°Saliva of a one-antler horse,¡± she prescribed.

    ¡°I already took some¡­ the headache¡¯s fine now, really.¡±

    She puffed a cheek out. ¡°You should consult a doctor first!¡±

    ¡°Are you calling yourself a doctor?¡±

    Around this point, Cynthia finally pulled away, sliding to Myra¡¯s side and linking arms to begin the rest of the walk towards the lecture halls. ¡°Well, I might as well be.¡±

    By this, she was probably referring to the fact that her father was a doctor (something entirely different from Cynthia being a doctor). Myra momentarily felt a pang of envy: if Cynthia¡¯s father were found involved in unethical behavior to keep his patients alive, the imperial bigwigs he attended to would probably just pay him more for the top service.

    ¡°Did you get things sorted out with that rune forge?¡±

    ¡°They wouldn¡¯t even see me¡­ but at this point, I can¡¯t imagine it would be a productive apprenticeship, even if they begrudgingly agreed to uphold our original deal out of obligation.¡±

    ¡°Well, it¡¯s their loss. And anyway they were probably going to have you testing alphabet calibration or something, nothing like ¡­ building levitation engines, or typeface design or whatever you had your heart set on.¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡± Although, alphabet calibration (boring as that sounded) would have been a valuable skill for her toolbox, whereas designing a rune typeface as a novice apprentice was probably a bit out of her league. That kind of thing was for people like Iz.

    Speaking of whom, they quickly caught sight of Iz relaxing by a fountain and reading. It was one of her favorite spots, where she basked in the sunlight and the faint mist of the fountain, which was shaped like a cone, intended in the shape of the great Ralkenon Volcano. The volcano itself was barely visible from the same spot, peeking up over some buildings. As soon as Cynthia caught eyes on Iz, she launched herself at the unsuspecting girl, ready to greet her the same as she had Myra.

    Iz (short for Isadora, no last name) was the third member of their tight friend group. Unlike Myra and Cynthia, she came from working-class parents, but she had gotten in purely on a scholarship. And Ralkenon University, frankly, was pretty stingy with its scholarships. That was probably related to how she was able to warp the space around her so effortlessly as to send Cynthia flying past her into the fountain.

    Or something like that. Myra wasn¡¯t quite sure exactly what Iz had done.

    ¡°Hey, what the fuck? I¡¯m happy to see you, too.¡±

    ¡ô

    The three of them shared the first class of the morning, Mastery of Sensing and Manipulations, where they met up with two of their other friends, Nathan and Tazhin. Unfortunately, Myra was also met with a number of not-quite whispers from around the training room, along with some not-subtle glances in the direction of Myra. They cooled down (somewhat) in response to some nasty looks from Cynthia. But the mood was ruined.

    She had hope, though, that the class would help get her mind off of it all. The Mastery series of classes was mandatory for everyone, lasting all four years of their university education. The class taught the fundamentals of using magic to manipulate the world around you¡ªboth objects in the physical world (telekinesis) and objects in Abstract Space (logokinesis). It was a relief to be here because frankly, it was a fun class. Instructor Yam had a knack for picking fun exercises that could sap up your focus for hours, and it tended to involve lots of heavy objects crashing around. Even the non-magical exercises, like juggling, which was meant to build up coordination, were pretty enjoyable. It was a goofy, but rewarding and satisfying class.

    Today, they were manipulating water, shaping it, rotating it, building streams, and so forth. On its own, this was something they had mastered a long time ago. This time, there was a catch, though, which was that they couldn¡¯t rely on any aura of the water element. This made it an order of magnitude harder since the students had to understand the behavior of a liquid at a deep chemical level so they could micromanage it, rather than rely on a more conceptual understanding of water they took for granted through the water elemental. Though it seemed extraordinarily inefficient, it was an important skill for manipulating other liquids, like oil, and it was also a step towards manipulating aura itself ¡°in liquid-like ways.¡±

    Unfortunately, Myra¡¯s good mood wouldn¡¯t last through the class. Iz had been one of the first to get the hang of it, and so she¡¯d quickly been paired up with someone for the more advanced exercises. By the time Myra was ready, she ended up paired with a different classmate, Shera Marcrombie.

    Shera was a person that was hard to miss in a crowd. She had long hair striped black and white, matching her eyes, which were sunk deep into her sockets: her left iris was black like a bottomless void, and her right iris was a cloudy white-gray, barely distinguished from the surrounding eye white.

    She was also insufferable as a work partner.

    Their objective was to create a stream in the shape of a ¡®figure-8¡¯. The difficulty was in handling the intersection of the streams, and of course, there was the coordination where each of them telekinetically handed off water to the control of the other.

    ¡°You-u-u need t-t-to t-tighten up your e-end.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine,¡± Myra insisted.

    ¡°It-it-it¡¯s too wide. It¡¯s t-too wide by-by at least c-cent-t-t-timeter.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s¡ª¡±

    ¡°One p-p-point t-two c-c-centimeters.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s fine. What does it matter, it¡¯s fine. You¡¯re the one who¡¯s wobbling.¡±

    ¡°It-it-it¡¯s wobbling b-because your e-end is t-too wide. The m-molecules have t-t-to s-slow d-d-down and it-t-t-t-t k-kills my f-f-o-o-cus.¡±

    ¡°That doesn¡¯t matter at all! It still connects up fine on your end!¡±

    ¡°If y-y-you aren¡¯t noticing t-the p-problems, you aren¡¯t d-doing it right. S-switch t-t-to f-fire.¡±

    This again. ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter what element I use. Instructor Yam said we could use any element other than water.¡±

    ¡°It m-m-matters if y-you use fire.¡± Shera¡¯s position, since the beginning, had been that fire, being most opposite to water, would ensure the most intense focus for the exercise. Myra insisted that even if that were true, she preferred to get it working in ¡®easy-mode¡¯ first, and thus continued to use the left element. Shera, though, had refused to switch from the fire elemental, and so they were at an impasse. Meanwhile, Shera¡¯s obsession with symmetry and keeping all the cross-sections as perfect circles had been driving Myra up the wall.

    ¡°Instructor!¡± Myra finally called out, flagging Instructor Yam to come help. ¡°This side keeps wobbling. Can you tell us what we¡¯re doing wrong?¡±

    The problem¡ªYam claimed¡ªwas in the boundaries where they handed off water to each other, specifically, they were each trying to control the water with slightly different velocities. Of course, the solution was to control the acceleration instead of the velocity. It was pretty obvious, once he spelled it out, though Shera insisted that she had known this was the problem the whole time, and that she had merely been assuming that doing it the way they¡¯d been trying had been the intent of the assignment.

    Unfortunately, knowing what to do didn¡¯t make the exercise much easier. By the end of the session, it was obvious they would have to pick up where they left off in the next session.

    ¡ô

    For Myra¡¯s next class, her friend group had to split. Cynthia was taking herbological alchemy¡ªmaybe giving a bit more credence to her claims of being kind of a doctor¡ªwhile Iz was taking an elective on elemental composition. Myra was kind of jealous; Iz¡¯s course wasn¡¯t just about basic compositions, like combining the fire element and water element to make a steam element. She would be learning how to build advanced compositions, like the house element or train element¡ªengineered elements, in other words. It was a highly in-demand skill, both for its utility and its technical difficulty.

    Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

    Myra hadn¡¯t mentioned this to her friends, but after her apprenticeship had been canceled, she had quickly sought out an alternative. In particular, she had seen the top university professor on rune crafting, Professor Tio Alzergodin, who maintained an active research lab full of apprentices. Myra had expected some grilling on her experience; maybe some kind of challenge to prove herself. Instead, Professor Alzergodin had told her, bluntly, that she wasn¡¯t seeking any help.

    Now, Myra didn¡¯t know if that was because of her father¡¯s scandal, or because the professor had already formed a low opinion of Myra, or if she really wasn¡¯t seeking help like she said¡­ but that was when Myra had freaked out and shuffled around her classes around, certain that her entire career as a mage was going to dead-end if she didn¡¯t have something to make up for her father¡¯s disgrace. She had tried to sign up for elemental composition, but the registrar had refused because she lacked the prerequisite knowledge. The registrar, of course, had been correct. Thinking about it rationally, there was no way she was ready for elemental composition.

    Instead, she had signed up for Algebraic Topology, a pure mathematics class. It was a far more theoretical class than she usually took, but it was a prerequisite for elemental composition.

    The class was mostly composed of senior students. Not recognizing anyone, she took a seat in a corner. People were whispering and muttering around her, but she tried to tune it out. Surely they weren¡¯t talking about her or anything, they were just talking about break, normal stuff¡­

    Her heart skipped a beat. Someone definitely muttered ¡°con artist¡± while looking her way. What the hell? It was one thing to get nervous stares from the people she¡¯d been in classes with for years. But these senior students¡ªhow did they even know her? She barely recognized anyone. Scanning the crowd, the only person she could even name was Benkoten Talzatta, the class president and older brother of Nathan. He was sitting at the opposite end, joking with some friends.

    ¡°Y-you¡¯re an out-t-t-t-t-cast, n-now.¡±

    Oh, and there was Shera, who had taken a seat next to her. And no, Myra was not an outcast, thank you very much. There were just people talking about her. For some reason.

    Anyway, it would probably blow over. Myra had no idea how to respond to such a blunt comment as Shera¡¯s, so she didn¡¯t.

    The professor, Mio Suzuki, shortly introduced herself. She was a young woman with a thick stack of notes under her arm and a suit covered in chalk dust. She was missing the mature professorial air that most teachers had, and in her introduction, she confirmed that she was, in fact, a new faculty member. She didn¡¯t dwell on her introduction, and she dove into the content immediately.

    Unfortunately, she spent even less time on motivation for her material. Myra followed the first few definitions just fine, expecting some kind of ¡°punch line,¡± a clever theorem or something that explained why they were doing this. But instead, the definitions just kept piling on top of each other.

    Annoyingly, Shera didn¡¯t seem to have any trouble following along. She asked multiple questions throughout the lecture, all of which were well-received by the professor, and which made clear even to Myra that Shera somehow got ¡®the point¡¯ of what they were doing.

    It was baffling to Myra not just that Shera was following along, but that she took such comprehensive notes at the same time. She copied the blackboard contents exactly, rather than scribbling out semi-legible shorthand like you were supposed to, and she interspersed it with her own comments in a different color of ink. She never even used the spell to animate her quill and have it transcribe it automatically (a fairly easy spell which saved a lot of time if you really wanted to take exact notes like she was). How could she do all that while still paying attention to the words being said?

    When the class ended, Myra was sufficiently frustrated that she failed to pay attention to where she was going, and she ended up colliding square into an innocent, moving person. Books and parchment flew everywhere and Myra¡¯s ass hit the floor.

    ¡°Ugh¡­ sorry¡­¡± Myra muttered. Ow.

    ¡°Well, I dare say it was half my fault.¡± The one she¡¯d run into was Benkoten, the class president, who was already telekinetically sorting the mess of papers back into two stacks. ¡°Well, at least a third.¡± He gave a cheeky smile, and he reached out his hand to help Myra up.

    ¡°Thanks¡­¡± She tried to ignore the impatient students they had accidentally blockaded, who were muttering loudly and preparing to take some unconventional routes to the classroom exit.

    They were muttering very loudly.

    It was about her.

    ¡°Are you doing all right? You look unwell.¡±

    ¡°What, you don¡¯t know?¡±

    ¡°Ah¡­ about Kent Arcane?¡± That was the name of her father¡¯s company. ¡°I had heard some rumors that you were related, but I didn¡¯t know if I should give them any stock. Kent is hardly an unusual name, after all.¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s my father.¡±

    ¡°I see. Well, I can¡¯t conceive of what you¡¯re going through by half¡­ if you need absolutely anything, please don¡¯t hesitate to let me know. As the student president, I¡¯ll do anything in my power to keep things smooth for you.¡±

    ¡°Oh! Th-thanks.¡±

    Myra took her books back and quickly checked she had everything. It was all there, and even sorted in logical order.

    ¡°So, what¡¯d you think of the class?¡±

    ¡°I¡ªI didn¡¯t get it at all, honestly.¡± She felt her cheeks burn as she admitted it. ¡°I don¡¯t even think I¡¯d recognize these objects in Abstract Space if I saw one¡­ and if I don¡¯t pass¡ªI mean, if I don¡¯t master this class, I don¡¯t know what I¡¯m gonna do, you know¡ªI wasn¡¯t really preparing to take it in the first place, but Precision Isomorphic canceled my apprenticeship, and I don¡¯t think I have any kind of future in rune forging anymore, I think all the forges lost a lot of money in the scandal and Professor Alzergodin wouldn¡¯t give me the time of day, and I don¡¯t know why my fatherwoulddothishowcouldhedothistome?¡±

    What am I doing???

    Myra didn¡¯t actually know Benkoten that well; she knew him a little, through Nathan, and of course, she knew him as the class president, but that was hardly personal. Ordinarily, Myra wouldn¡¯t have said much at all¡­ but all the whispers were banging around in her head, and even Shera¡¯s insensitive comment¡­ and once she started, she had just¡­ kept going.

    ¡°Um¡­ you know? So. I need to do well in this class.¡±

    He nodded without any judgment. ¡°So you¡¯re worried about the class, and you need help finding an apprenticeship.¡±

    ¡°Y-yeah.¡±

    ¡°Well, that doesn¡¯t sound utterly intractable. I can probably help point you to professors who are looking for apprentices. I could probably spare some time for tutoring as well.¡±

    Myra perked up. ¡°Tutoring, really? You have time for that kind of thing? I assumed you¡¯d be really busy as president¡­¡±

    He chuckled. ¡°Yes, I have time. How about we meet this evening?¡±

    ¡ô

    Myra got lunch with her usual group¡ªCynthia, Iz, Nathan, and Tazhin. It sounded like they¡¯d all had a better break than Myra had.

    Nathan had apparently read up on the financial fallout that was resulting from the collapse of Kent Arcane. (He didn¡¯t say he had a good time, because that would have been really awkward, but Myra could read between the lines. He kinda had a thing for the interactions of complex, interlocking institutions.)

    Tazhin had attended some social events with his family. Cynthia had slept a lot and sat around bored (¡°but in a good way¡±). Iz had baked pies for her parents.

    They were also joined by an older student, who had apparently walked with Iz from her class. This was Aurora Ferara, a student Myra didn¡¯t know at all, except through her¡­ reputation. It was rumored that her family was the same as an assassin clan that worked for the empire, the Blank Cloaks. Her hobby of collecting exotic knives did little to quell this rumor, despite the fact that the Blank Cloaks weren¡¯t particularly known for knives.

    Maybe she¡¯d sympathize with me, Myra wondered.

    It wasn¡¯t clear if Aurora¡¯s presence had been what drove the discussion toward death, but regardless, that was where it had gone.

    ¡°I can¡¯t believe you hadn¡¯t read about it, yet,¡± Nathan proclaimed.

    ¡°I don¡¯t read the news these days,¡± Myra said.

    ¡°I don¡¯t read the news,¡± Cynthia said.

    ¡°It¡¯s a big fucking crater! How could you miss a crater on the news?¡±

    ¡°I mean, if we didn¡¯t check the newspaper in the first place, it doesn¡¯t really matter how many pages it took up¡ª¡±

    ¡°A crater!¡± Nathan repeated. ¡°It¡¯s on that bike trail, the one by the train station, that goes behind that tourist trap area behind the riverbank. A cyclist died. Completely obliterated in the blast.¡±

    ¡°How¡¯d the crater happen?¡±

    ¡°Nobody knows. The article says it was a high-speed projectile, but the projectile wasn¡¯t found. Might have just been speculation, though.¡±

    ¡°Maybe it was an ice cube,¡± Aurora piped in.

    Nathan blinked. ¡°An ice cube?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. If the murder weapon can¡¯t be found, it¡¯s always an ice cube that melted.¡± Generally speaking, Aurora Ferara did very little to dispel any rumors that she came from a family of assassins.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think an ice cube could create a six-meter crater.¡±

    ¡°Do we know it was murder¡­?¡± Myra asked.

    ¡°Who was it that died?¡± Iz asked. ¡°It wasn¡¯t anyone at the school, was it?¡±

    Nathan shrugged. ¡°I read they couldn¡¯t identify him. They recovered his identification papers, but they were fake, apparently.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s pretty suspicious,¡± Cynthia said.

    ¡°That means it was murder,¡± Aurora said. ¡°So many strange crimes this morning¡­¡±

    Nathan tilted his head. ¡°Huh? What other strange crimes happened this morning?¡±

    ¡°Oh, did you not hear about the retired sage in Jewel City? I thought you were going to bring it up next.¡± She smirked, knowing full well she apparently had the best murder gossip.

    ¡°Jewel City? You already got Jewel City news from this morning?¡± Jewel City was the imperial capital.

    ¡°Oh, this was hardly an obscure event,¡± Aurora explained. ¡°You all know of Emmett Massiel, right?¡±

    ¡°Former Sage of Magical Infrastructure,¡± Nathan recalled.

    ¡°Right. He died just after midnight in his home. Of course, Sage Emeritus Massiel had his mansion decked out with the absolute, state-of-the-art home security system. All kinds of alarms, tamper-proof recordings, that kinda thing. There was nothing that pointed to any intruder. And he lived alone.¡±

    ¡°So how did he die?¡± Cynthia asked.

    Aurora held her hand out flat, then struck it against her chest. ¡°Hole burned through the heart. There was no murder weapon at the scene, but of course, the authorities checked the records for any sign of a spell being cast. Coinciding with the estimated time of death, 1:09 A.M., someone cast a spell to burn a laser beam straight into Emmett Massiel¡¯s chest. And that ¡®someone¡¯ was¡­¡± She paused dramatically. ¡°The only one on the premises, of course. Emmett Massiel.¡±

    Nathan looked almost disappointed. ¡°So it was just a suicide, then?¡±

    But Aurora curled the ends of her lips, obviously saving the ¡®punch line¡¯ for the end.

    ¡°That¡¯s what reason suggests, and also what the records confirm. However¡­ Emmett Massiel went to sleep before 9 P.M., and he never woke up.¡±

    ¡°Wait, so you¡¯re saying he¡­¡± Nathan squinted at Aurora, waiting for her to confirm the conclusion.

    ¡°That¡¯s right. He cast the spell that caused his own death, all while sound asleep.¡±

    ¡ô

    Myra only had one class in the afternoon, Biomechanical Systems, which she was taking with Cynthia. Joining on the other side was a girl named Zirphilia, who greeted Myra cheerfully. Zirphilia was a bit of a distant friend¡ªthey had worked together before and got along well, but their social circles didn¡¯t intersect much. She played a lot of sports, and she mostly hung out with other athletes. Today, in fact, it looked like she was coming from a pretty intense workout. Her hair was tied up, and she was coated in sweat, and she was wearing a tank top that clung to her sticky skin, following her curves all the way down her long torso until it stopped short a pleasant centimeter or two above the waist of her athletic pants¡­

    ¡°Miss Kyow, what are you wearing?¡± Professor Bandine snapped. She was an elderly woman, whose own attire was old-fashioned in a way that made it look extremely formal.

    ¡°Um¡­¡± Zirphilia flushed red. ¡°Clothes from, like, practice? Rock-dodging practice is right before this¡­¡±

    ¡°Well, you¡¯ll need to work something out.¡±

    ¡°But¡ª¡±

    ¡°I won¡¯t have you making a distraction with such undignified attire after today.¡±

    ¡°Yes, ma¡¯am.¡± Zirphilia huffed once the professor had turned away.

    ¡­ Damn.

    Professor Bandine was a hard-ass, but her lecture was decent. She gave a high-level overview of the field and announced they would be starting their study with cellular interfaces, a fundamental subject they would need for any deeper study into the field. It looked like it would be a pretty interesting class, and Myra was surprised at the extent it would involve runes.

    Maybe I should see if Professor Bandine is looking for an apprenticeship.

    Even if she¡¯s an enemy of hot girls being hot. Myra would take what she could get, though.

    ¡ô

    Myra was decently happy with this plan, but she decided to see what Benkoten had to say first since he had promised to offer advice. She stopped by his dorm room in the evening like they¡¯d planned. It was the same building as hers, though several floors up.

    ¡°Tea?¡±

    He handed her a steaming cup just as she entered. His room was neat and organized, with lots of desk space they¡¯d need. It was a much nicer room than her own, probably a perk of being student president. ¡°I¡¯d love some. Is this mint?¡±

    ¡°It is! Is that alright? I could brew something else.¡±

    ¡°Oh, no! Mint¡¯s my favorite.¡±

    ¡°Mine too.¡±

    She took a close look at the books on his bookshelf (the best way to get to know anyone) as he prepared the desk space. Hopefully he didn¡¯t mind. Lots of sci-fi, some textbooks like you¡¯d expect. Ooh. a couple of recipe books ¡­ was he a cook? And¡­ ¡°Oh, hey, is the Spy Wyvern series?¡±

    ¡°Ah-hah¡­¡± He chuckled nervously and scratched his neck. ¡°Yeah¡­ y¡¯know I really liked that when I was a kid¡­¡±

    ¡°Oh, I loved it!¡± Guys were always so embarrassed to have anything childish lying around¡­ ¡°It¡¯s cute you held onto it. It¡¯s sad when we lose touch with these things, isn¡¯t it?¡± As expected, this made him turn ever redder. Hehe¡­

    The first item on the agenda was the issue of the apprenticeship. Myra told Benkoten about her thoughts to seek out Professor Bandine as a mentor.

    Benkoten, though, immediately dismissed the idea. ¡°It¡¯s a very intriguing application of rune-carving,¡± he admitted. ¡°But you¡¯re not going to be advancing runecraft itself. Unless I misunderstood what you¡¯re looking for?¡±

    He hadn¡¯t misunderstood, though, so he went on to give his own suggestion, which was to seek out Professor Snailsworth, who worked on aura channeling and distribution. Myra was a little taken aback by the idea¡ªaura channeling was pretty difficult, and she didn¡¯t have experience in it, but Benkoten insisted that an apprenticeship could be that experience.

    ¡°It¡¯s a little outside your comfort zone, sure, but I think you¡¯d stand to learn a lot here. And if you tell Snailsworth I sent you, I¡¯m sure he¡¯ll give you a chance.¡±

    Next on their agenda was algebraic topology. Benkoten suggested¡ªand Myra agreed¡ªthat the best way to get a leg up in the subject would be to feel out some of the concepts in Abstract Space. After all, Myra thought, there was really no better way to study something than to get your (metaphorical) hands on it. After they recapped the definitions of the homotopy groups, Myra prepared to meditate, expanding her mind into Abstract Space, holding the definitions firm. It was a little tough at first, but in a little under half an hour, with Benkoten¡¯s guidance, she was able to feel out the topological structure of the university space in a way she hadn¡¯t before.

    ¡°Woah! This is wild. I think this element here is the loop around that column in the administrative building¡­¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re getting it!¡±

    ¡°Huh¡­ something¡¯s weird,¡± Myra muttered.

    ¡°Oh?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, something¡¯s different over here.¡± After studying it for a while, sufficiently puzzled, she switched to the more familiar geometric perspective. ¡°Hey, Benkoten, ¡­ do you know why the interior of the event hall has vanished?¡±

 2 - A College Party

    Myra decided to check out the event hall, although Benkoten had elected not to join her.

    The event hall was the oldest building in the university, an architectural curiosity that the rest of campus had been built around. It was said over a hundred mages were needed to hold its blueprint, and the mathematical proof of its structural integrity, in their minds as the building had been constructed piece by piece. The building was pentagonal, and it was positioned so that, looking at it from the front, it was framed by the slopes of the Ralkenon Volcano, which sat directly behind it. The building¡¯s metal exterior never rusted, and it shone a blue-ish silver in the broad daylight.

    Despite¡ªor maybe because of¡ªits renown, it didn¡¯t see a whole lot of use. Myra had been inside for end-of-year ceremonies, but that was it.

    It wasn¡¯t, as far as Myra knew, generally restricted for entry. When she approached the building, though, she was quickly stopped by a dark-clothed man in a face mask. The distinctive man was the head of university security, Myra was pretty sure. His name was something like Iwasaki.

    ¡°Sorry, miss, but the event hall is off-limits for the time being.¡± Myra had figured out that much. The front door was visible chained shut.

    ¡°Oh, what for? I just noticed the space here is really odd¡­¡±

    ¡°Yes, you¡¯re not the only one,¡± the security head assured her. ¡°I have just activated the security functions of this building, which includes spatially severing the entire building interior from the outside. Nobody is going to be getting inside for a while.¡±

    So in other words, even if you could somehow break down the building walls, you¡¯d just find a big spatial hole.

    ¡°What for?¡± Myra repeated.

    ¡°It¡¯s confidential, I¡¯m afraid.¡± He sounded apologetic. ¡°There may be an announcement at some point, but I can¡¯t say any more.¡±

    ¡ô

    There wasn¡¯t much else to be learned hanging around the event hall, so Myra turned in for the day. The next morning, she decided to follow Benkoten¡¯s advice and seek out Professor Snailsworth. She had never taken any of his classes, so she was a little unsure how best to approach him. It was especially intimidating because Myra had the impression that Snailsworth was a very important person¡ªthe sort of person so busy giving invited talks and consultations that she didn¡¯t know when the hell he had the time to do the work he was so famous for in the first place.

    His secretary, though, was able to make an appointment on short notice¡­ with one of Snailsworth¡¯s research assistants, a young bespectacled woman named Rose Tara.

    Fortunately, Rose was very nice, and she immediately confirmed that the lab was open to hiring someone with Myra¡¯s background.

    ¡°So to start, why don¡¯t you tell me what you know about aura channels,¡± Rose asked in an encouraging tone.

    ¡°Um¡­ well, I know that it¡¯s responsible for letting us access all the different elements anywhere in the city, and at any time.¡±

    Mages classified the aura elements into two groups: the inner elements and the outer elements. The ¡°inner elements¡± were those found within their own planet, water, ash, leaf, fire, and so on. The ¡°outer elements¡± were those from the celestial sources, Sola, Luna, and Astra, and they included elements like light, gravity, infinity, and vacuum.

    Of course, the inner elements were heavily geography-dependent. Water aura was more prevalent near a lake, leaf near a forest, and so on. Meanwhile, the outer elements were heavily dependent on the time. Sola was the biggest source of light aura, so light was harder to access at night; meanwhile, Astra, though technically accessible, was mostly drowned out by Sola during the day. And the strength of Luna waxed and waned over a month.

    Historically, mages were stuck having to plan around these factors, but today, there was a different solution: aura channels, which were both capable of storing aura and distributing it geographically. As long as Myra was in Ralkenon or any other modern city with a substantial network, she would never lack for any naturally occurring element.

    Rose seemed to be looking for more, though, so Myra continued. ¡°They also power a lot of machinery and infrastructure that runs on aura. Like the trains and libraries, or the barriers keeping the volcano dormant.¡±

    ¡°Sure. What else?¡±

    ¡°Um¡­¡± Distribution for mages and distribution for machinery had been the two major applications she¡¯d learned in primary school. Was there something else¡­?

    ¡°Oh! Um, they absorb and carry away cursed aura, I think?¡± Myra wasn¡¯t entirely sure what they did with cursed aura, but they at least kept it away from humans.

    Rose nodded. ¡°Keep going.¡±

    ¡°Um¡­¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s something else, similar to the last thing you said.¡±

    Myra racked her brains, but she couldn¡¯t come up with anything else.

    Rose finally explained. ¡°The final role is to absorb excess aura, not just cursed aura. Even natural aura can cause problems when it builds up in excess, resulting in spontaneous anomalous phenomena.¡±

    ¡°Oh, like monster genesis?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. Monsters, dungeons, area effects, like the fractal fields or the vortex of death, that kind of thing. It¡¯s really dangerous when they appear close to human settlements, so one of the objectives of aura channeling is to suck up excesses.¡±

    ¡°And that¡¯s what you work on?¡±

    Rose nodded again. ¡°I do. Sort of. Specifically, I try to ensure that our aura channels don¡¯t inadvertently create new excesses. Here, have a look at this.¡± Rose pulled a scroll out of a drawer and handed it to Myra. ¡°Tell me, what¡¯s this do?¡±

    Myra unscrolled it and looked it over. It was a very complex diagram of rune inscriptions. Is she testing me?

    Myra almost grinned. Analyzing runes? She couldn¡¯t have asked for a better test.

    ¡°It¡¯s some kind of measurement device¡­? Like, it¡¯s definitely measuring some kind of aura flow here¡­ and this component is, what¡ª¡± She squinted, making sure she was reading it right. ¡°A time-keeping device?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡±

    ¡°Why do you need a time-keeping device?¡± Myra asked. ¡°I mean, why not use the time from the Common Library?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not accurate enough.¡±

    Myra blinked. ¡°Huh? But its units are, like, 10-120 of the Planck time.¡±

    ¡°I mean, yeah, it gives you a lot of sig figs, but it¡¯s not accurate.¡±

    ¡°Oh. I thought it would have been state-of-the-art? I mean, especially if it¡¯s this easy to make a better one.¡±

    The Common Library was an enormous collection of mathematical definitions and proofs in Abstract Space with a history going back over a millennium. It was the most significant shared endeavor of humanity from every nation and every continent on the planet. In particular, it contained an enormous number of spell templates that anybody could access. Or, well, that had been true for a while, anyway.

    About half the spells Myra used on a daily basis were spells from the Common Library, spells that would be way too complicated to cast from scratch, like automatic quill writing. Time-checking, like they were discussing, was another one. Myra used it frequently when she was too lazy to turn her head and check the clock.

    To Myra¡¯s question, Rose just shrugged. ¡°Well, let this be your first lesson in runic engineering. Any project that needs a clock is going to use a variant of that component you¡¯re looking at now.¡±

    Rose went on to discuss the measurement device with Myra. Apparently, it wasn¡¯t just looking for an excess of aura in absolute terms, but it was also looking for high-frequency fluctuations, which apparently could also be harmful. The device was also incomplete, and Myra gathered that it was what she would be working on if she was hired.

    If this had been a test, Myra seemed to have passed. At the end of the hour, Rose even took Myra to meet Professor Snailsworth, an austere-looking old guy with thick glasses, a forehead of wrinkles at angles so weird that Myra likened them in her head to a runic inscription, and incredibly old-fashioned robes. He didn¡¯t say very much, merely approving Rose¡¯s plan and telling his secretary to arrange the paperwork.

    So, Snailsworth had been kind of disappointing. Still, it looked like Rose would be easy to work with, and the project was definitely going to involve runes. She¡¯d have to thank Benkoten¡ªhis advice had been dead on.

    ¡ô

    Over the next few weeks, Myra began to work on the device under Rose¡¯s direction, and she continued seeking tutelage from Benkoten on Algebraic Topology. That subject continued to push her limits, as every time she felt like she understood something, the material suddenly accelerated in a new direction. She got a little help from Iz, as well. She plodded along in Biomechanical Systems and her final pick of the semester, Material Science II.

    She got a letter from her father, postmarked from the high-security prison where he was kept. She looked at the envelope for a while, then shoved it in a drawer without opening it.

    Her stepmother, of course, never bothered to contact her.

    She tried to ignore all this and relax and have fun with her friends. That meant shopping with Cynthia; the library with Iz; hopstones (a strategy board game) in the park with Tazhin; skipping rocks at the pond with Nathan; the library (romance section) with Cynthia; and cooking dinner with everyone. Slowly, Myra got back into her rhythm.

    With regards to the major event whose security the university had spared no expense for, the rumor mill has equally spared no expense in its conjuring of explanations. The headmaster was retiring. A new faculty member of great renown was being hired. The Outer Explorations Guild would announce life on the moon. The university would be hosting a high-stakes death game. A new fruit would be announced.

    One rumor had suggested that Mirkas-Ballam Pharmaceutical would be holding some kind of symposium. Apparently, this rumor took hold because of a leaked statement suggesting they would be completing something soon, but nobody could actually connect it to the university event.

    Once the rumor mill got away from the Mirkas-Ballam idea, the class finally started to converge on something that was both plausible, high-profile enough to warrant intense security, and actually backed by evidence. The first time Myra heard it, it was from Nathan.

    ¡°Right, so I heard it from Carsten, who heard it from Melaney I think¡­ who heard it from Freia, who got it from her boyfriend, what¡¯s-his-name¡­ the guy with that hat... Anyway, he got it from Benkoten. And of course, he knows what¡¯s going on because he¡¯s the class president.¡±

    ¡°Do you actually talk to your brother yourself?¡± Cynthia asked.

    ¡°A bunch of imperial heads are holding some talks with Unkmire. The subject¡¯s going to be resolving the trade embargo.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ve got to be kidding me.¡± Cynthia rolled her eyes. ¡°That¡¯s the lamest answer I could have imagined.¡±

    ¡°No, look, think about it!¡± Nathan hushed his voice to conspiratorial tones, not for any particular benefit. ¡°Doesn¡¯t this sound like a pretense to discuss Unkmire joining the empire?¡±

    ¡°I mean, sure, it¡¯ll make history, and whatever, but it might as well happen at any old place with a fancy meeting hall, for all we¡¯re concerned. I thought this was gonna be some fun school event! It¡¯s not something we¡¯ll be participating in.¡±

    ¡°I mean, it won¡¯t just be the¡ªlook, the imperial prince is here! We have actual, eye-witness confirmation that he¡¯s staying at the Hotel Caldera as we speak.¡± That was Ralkenon¡¯s fancy upscale hotel. ¡°And his daughter¡¯s there, Princess Mala.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, that doesn¡¯t change the fact that we won¡¯t be discussing international treaties with them.¡±

    ¡°I mean¡­ maybe he¡¯ll give a speech, or something.¡±

    ¡°Are you trying to make me unexcited?¡±

    Myra didn¡¯t say much throughout the conversation. Though she didn¡¯t want to be so dismissive about the significance of the event¡ªif true¡ªit was ultimately yet another inevitable step in the Raine Empire¡¯s quest to control the entire continent. And if there were any peripheral events to participate in, they would probably be dreadful, jingoistic affairs. Myra glanced across the table to Iz, whose sullen look told Myra she probably felt the same.

    ¡ô

    Eventually, it was confirmed by the university administration that the event would be taking place on the upcoming eve of the full moon. The student body was instructed to be on ¡°the best behavior.¡± As Nathan had predicted, there would also be a short address from Prince Humperton. There would also be some ¡°handshake events,¡± but nothing Myra was invited to.

    There was some talk that Melaney Barlow was trying to organize a student party that would somehow attract the imperial princess¡¯ attention. That seemed like a long shot to Myra, but Melaney was also substantially more popular than her, so she probably knew more about this kind of thing. Myra tried to tune the whole thing out, so she could focus on keeping up in topology and her other classes, and on making progress with the aura frequency analyzer.

    When the address did come around, it was about as Myra expected. There was a lot of pomp, a needlessly long introduction for Imperial Prince Humperton William Raine, son of Emperor Kurtwell Raine, first in line to the Imperial Throne. Prince Humperton was a beefy man with thick red hair and imposing sideburns, with a sharp, dark suit decorated by a prominent bloodstone brooch.

    The prince spoke of how his father, the emperor, had been aghast to discover the Common Library, unprotected and vulnerable, and how he had taken on the burden to keep it safe. He spoke loftily of the collaboration that had gone into its curation and development under the empire, and the untold leaps in living conditions that had resulted. He had lots of grand words to say about Ralkenon University¡¯s role in the same. He spoke of the continued need for unity in order to persevere through the obstacles facing the four continents. He was kind of vague on what the obstacles were, but he had mentioned ¡°chaos across many business sectors,¡± and Myra had a feeling she knew what event that was referring to.

    At least it was over pretty quickly. Despite the lengthy introduction, the imperial prince turned out to be an efficient speaker.

    ¡ô

    ¡°How many faculty did Melaney sleep with to get this thing approved?¡±

    Though Myra wouldn¡¯t have put it like that, it was a good question. Melaney¡¯s party was situated in a field between two of the dorms, spanning indoors and outdoors. She had acquired the most important elements, beer and music, and it was looking like it would be a pretty rowdy event. Of course, there was the obvious answer, she was going for forgiveness rather than approval. Or she was banking on the princess actually showing up and having a good time.

    ¡°And what was she thinking having it now?¡± Cynthia continued. ¡°That fucking trade talk thing is in like four hours! Does she really think the princess is going to show up and get wasted right before some huge imperial function?¡±

    ¡°Well, it rained yesterday¡ªWait, their talks start at midnight?¡±

    ¡°Whatever, we¡¯ve had indoor parties before. And yeah, anyway, the royals just exist on a different timetable than the rest of us.¡±

    Myra, personally, did not want the princess to show up in any case. Everything she had read about the girl suggested she was, well, a spoiled brat. Myra certainly didn¡¯t understand the obsession that everybody else seemed to have; she couldn¡¯t prove it, but she had a strange feeling that the subset of the student body who really wanted to meet a princess somehow overlapped the group that otherwise claimed to oppose imperial expansion.

    ¡°Let¡¯s just enjoy the party,¡± she said, taking Cynthia¡¯s arm. It was organized by Melaney after all, so it was probably going to be good. The night air was already lit up by dozens of levitating lanterns, a group of bards was setting up at one end, and a row of kegs was at the other. Some of the dorm walls had been made incorporeal, to better connect the indoor and outdoor spaces, and the games and activities were well in motion. Some couches had been turned sideways, presumably in preparation for a game of couch wars, and another group was bouncing around a water ball.

    In one corner, rocks hung in the air going several stories up. A climbing ring with everybody drunk as hell¡­ that couldn¡¯t go badly. At least there was a cushion.

    Myra scanned the crowd for familiar faces. Zirphilia was deep into the water ball game. Aurora was chatting with a guy¡­ she was twirling her hair and smiling, so it was probably going well. Shera was standing alone by a column, fidgeting with her hands and looking uncomfortable. Benkoten was eyeing the climbing ring, probably planning out a route. Iz, Nathan, and Tazhin were laughing in a circle.

    Myra and Cynthia made a beeline for the alcohol, then, drinks in hand, navigated their way through the crowd towards their three friends.

    ¡°Are you guys gonna do couch wars?¡± Tazhin asked.

    ¡°Hell yeah!¡± Cynthia said. ¡°Let me get shit-faced first. I don¡¯t play couch wars sober.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯d rather play to win,¡± said Nathan.

    ¡°Then get drunk, it¡¯s the key. The biggest obstacle in couch wars is your own self-doubt.¡±

    ¡°Mm¡­¡± Myra considered the activities. ¡°I wanna try the climbing¡ª¡±

    She was cut off by a ripple through the crowd, a silence growing out, having caught on and reinforcing itself. Oh. It really happened.

    On the opposite side of the lawn, a very conspicuous person had entered. She was a young woman with striking pink hair tied back in a wrap-around braid, wearing a heavy black dress adorned with golden thread placed so as to accentuate her features, and a bloodstone pendant around her neck. Her head was slightly upturned, and her expression was bored, aloof. She was, no doubt, Princess Malazhonerra Emerald Raine.

    She was followed by two others. One was a maidservant, with an exasperated look on her face. On her other side, and standing much closer to her than the maid, was another woman of around the same age. She was wearing a similar, albeit more humble, dress, and had a pixie cut of blueish-green hair. She wore teal-tinted glasses, had a smattering of freckles, and wore a bored expression matching that of the princess.

    The players who had been responsible for holding the water ball together lost their focus, and it fell to the ground with a splash. (That would cost them a point.)

    The princess continued unperturbed into the crowd, which sort of instinctively parted for her. Then something seemed to catch her attention.

    ¡°Hey, I know you.¡±

    For an absurd moment, Myra actually thought the princess was talking to her until she remembered that despite all that happened in her family, it wasn¡¯t like she had become known or had her picture plastered over every newspaper in the empire.

    No, the princess was talking to Iz.

    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m sure,¡± the princess continued. ¡°You¡¯re that genius commoner. You won that contest.¡±

    Iz clutched at Myra¡¯s arm. ¡°Ah¡ª¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s your name again?¡±

    ¡°Isadora, your highness.¡±

    ¡°Isadora! That¡¯s right.¡± The princess snapped her fingers.

    Myra chanced to interject. ¡°Iz, have you¡­ met¡­?¡± She¡¯d known Iz had won an important contest in Jewel City, but she had never heard of the princess participating, or of Iz meeting her.

    ¡°Ah, her highness was the adjudicator¡­¡±

    The Princess cut back in. ¡°How about we have a go?¡±

    ¡°Pardon¡­?¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s face off. A proper mage¡¯s duel. Genius commoner versus princess of royalty. Who shall triumph? Birthright, or hard work and talent?¡± She smirked, then teleported a meter forward, startling Iz as she appeared just in front of her, leaving her elaborate black dress in its place. It fluttered to the ground behind her. The princess now was wearing just an elastic sports bra and tight shorts, and the only accessories she had kept were her bloodstone pendant and a golden wristwatch. She was barefoot.

    Her handmaiden looked extremely distressed, though she didn¡¯t say anything.

    ¡°Um, I¡¯m not really a duelist¡­¡± Iz said.

    ¡°Just name a prize, whatever you want. C¡¯mon. I won¡¯t even ask you to put anything on the line in return.¡±

    Iz shifted uncomfortably. She was telling the truth, of course; she had never been much of a dueler. Whatever contest she¡¯d won, it hadn¡¯t been a dueling contest.

    ¡°Seriously, what d¡¯you want to fight for? A mansion? A job? Just, like, money? A husband?¡± Suddenly, Iz took a step forward, finding some kind of resolve. ¡°Oh? Really? A hus¡ª¡±

    ¡°Your pendant.¡±

    The princess¡¯s smirk faltered for a moment. ¡°What, you want a bloodstone? I could getcha¡ª¡±

    ¡°No, I want your pendant.¡± Despite the conviction that now coursed through her words, she was visibly shaking.

    ¡°That¡¯s a really fucking personal thing to demand.¡±

    ¡°You said I could name whatever I want.¡±

    The princess clutched at the object of consideration, holding it dearly. ¡°This is a keepsake from my mother. It¡¯s what I remember her by¡ª¡±

    ¡°My grandmother was killed in the famine that resulted when the emperor cut off Miirun from the Common Library,¡± Iz said. ¡°It was her life, and I¡¯m only asking for your memory¡­ it sounds fair to me.¡±

    Everyone started muttering. The princess gaped at her for what felt like an eternity, until she finally came to a decision. ¡°Very well.¡±

    With a wave of her hand, she sliced a circular arena into the dirt. Everybody scrambled to get out of the way as she took her place on one end. ¡°Vi, you¡¯re officiating.¡± She pulled off the pendant and tossed it to her freckled pixie-cut friend, who caught it without question. The princess summoned her staff to her hand, which appeared out of thin air.

    Iz took her place opposite the princess. Her neck was drenched in sweat.

    ¡°Iz!¡± Cynthia called out. ¡°You don¡¯t have to¡ª¡±

    Iz looked back, but then she held up a hand and returned her attention to the princess, resolve intact. Cynthia looked at Myra, uneasy. From the terms of the duel, though, the worst that could happen was that Iz would lose. Right?

    The friend¡ªVi¡ªclapped her hands and took command of attention. ¡°All right! We are gathered for the duel between Isadora and Princess Malazhonerra Emerald Raine. At stake by Princess Malazhonerra is her honor, and her mother¡¯s bloodstone pendant. At stake by Isadora is her honor. We shall use the Prerarian Code of Duels.¡±

    Myra breathed a sigh of relief, and she heard Cynthia do the same beside her. The Prerarian Code was a sensible and safe one.

    ¡°Are there any objections to the terms?¡±

    ¡°I have no objections,¡± said the princess, popping her knuckles.

    ¡°I have no objections,¡± said Iz.

    ¡°Then let us enjoy a fair fight, and may the best mage win. 3¡­ 2¡­ 1¡­ Begin.¡±

    Before Iz could cast, she was knocked into the air several meters back, while blood sprayed from several gashes that appeared instantaneously across her stomach. She hit the ground with a thud, and she screamed, though it came out in a bit of a gurgle, as she coughed up blood.

    Everybody screamed, and Myra, Cynthia, Nathan, and several others rushed to Iz. Over the clamoring, Myra only barely heard Vi announcing Princess Malazhonerra as victorious.

    ¡°Iz! Iz!¡± Myra screamed. Her friend¡¯s face was streaked with tears, and she clutched at Myra¡¯s robe. Myra took her hand while Cynthia immediately began casting a spell to stop blood loss.

    There were a handful of voices clamoring, but the one that got through the clearest was Benkoten¡¯s. ¡°What the bloody hell was that? That wasn¡¯t the fucking Prerarian Code, your highness.¡±

    Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    ¡°She was knocked back before she got cut.¡± the princess snarled. ¡°And the duel ended when the first spell hit. Damn crybabies, it¡¯s not like she¡¯s gonna fucking die.¡± She picked up her dress, which was still where she left it on the ground earlier. ¡°Vi, let¡¯s get out of here.¡±

    Vi followed after, sparing only a kinda-apologetic look back at the group. It was hard to give her any benefit of the doubt, though, when she had proudly proclaimed Malazhonerra as the victor only a moment ago.

    ¡°Cynthia, get her to the infirmary,¡± Myra muttered.

    ¡°O-okay.¡± She looked at Myra in confusion as Myra stood up, wiping a tear from her eye.

    Myra, usually, did not think of herself as a particularly selfless person. If you had asked her earlier, if would she stand up to imperial royalty for no reason other than for the sake of her friend¡¯s honor, she probably would have said no.

    But¡­

    When Iz had started at Ralkenon University, she had taken a lot of shit. A ¡®commoner¡¯ made for an easy target, and people didn¡¯t like being outshone by one. Her first few weeks had been hell. Then Myra, in a moment of unusual moral clarity, had invited Iz to eat lunch with her and Cynthia. Whenever Myra started to feel bad about herself, she often thought back to that moment. At least I had the common decency to do that much, she could think.

    If she did nothing here¡­ Myra didn¡¯t think she could be proud of that anymore. That¡¯s why she acted.

    Or maybe it was the alcohol.

    ¡°Hey, your highest cunt,¡± she shouted at the princess. ¡°You think you can pull this shit and not face me afterward?¡±

    The princess turned around.

    ¡°And who the fuck are you?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m¡­ I¡¯m Isadora¡¯s second!¡± Myra invented.

    The princess cocked her head. ¡°Well, do you dispute my victory?¡±

    ¡°Abso-fucking-lutely, I do.¡±

    The princess snickered. If there was an actual protocol that Myra was butchering, she had no idea.

    Myra took a deep breath and continued. ¡°Forget slashing up her stomach. I know what you pulled to knock her back like that.¡±

    Her eyes went dark. ¡°Are you accusing me of something?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m¡ªI¡¯m not accusing you of anything,¡± Myra backed off. ¡°I¡¯m just disputing your victory.¡±

    ¡°Mm. So then what do you propose?¡±

    ¡°Duel me. Prerarian Code, your fucked up version of it, and if I win, you have to apologize to Iz. Forget the pendant; you just have to apologize to Iz. Beg for her forgiveness.¡±

    ¡°And if I win?¡±

    ¡°Didn¡¯t you hear me? You get to cut me up or whatever you want to do.¡±

    She chuckled to herself. Something had returned to her eyes, a thirst for asserting her dominance, perhaps, and Myra was sure for a moment she was going to accept. Before she spoke, though, Vi put a hand on her shoulder.

    ¡°Mal. C¡¯mon, we should go.¡± The princess frowned, but she paid attention to her friend. ¡°This already spiraled out of control. If you win again, it¡¯ll just make it all worse. We should leave it here.¡±

    The princess looked at her friend for a bit and finally exhaled. ¡°Fine. You¡¯re right.¡±

    Seriously? You¡¯re going to say that like this isn¡¯t 100% your fault? As if you¡¯re somehow being forced into escalating the situation?

    They turned to leave ¡­

    Then they were interrupted again.

    This time, it was Benkoten. ¡°Hold on a moment.¡±

    ¡°Oh, what is it now?¡±

    ¡°My name is Benkoten Talzatta.¡± Standing upright, with a bag over his shoulder, he held out his hand, as if greeting someone at a networking event. ¡°I¡¯m the student body president here at Ralkenon University. I¡¯m afraid I have to speak up here, as standing up for the students here is my elected obligation.¡± He eventually put his unshaken hand down, right at the boundary of it becoming awkward.

    ¡°And?¡±

    ¡°I can¡¯t say I abide by you leaving things this way, acting as though you are taking the high road by leaving things at this, ignoring the option to simply do the right thing and apologize. All while refusing to acknowledge your own blame in the situation.¡±

    Yes! He¡¯d put into words exactly how frustrated Myra was.

    ¡°So what do you propose, then?¡±

    ¡°Exactly what I said. You apologize. If not, then I will duel you for it. On the honor of¡­ the Ralkenon student body whose social event had been spoiled.¡±

    The princess rolled her eyes¡ªno, her whole head. ¡°You all are making all this up¡­ Vi, what do you think?¡±

    The bespectacled woman looked a little bewildered at this turn of events. She blinked a few times, then seemed to compose herself. She waffled, ¡°Ehh. Sure. I guess he¡¯s got a point? Duel if you really want to. Why not?¡±

    The maidservant buried her face in her hands.

    ¡ô

    How had they all ended up here, exactly¡­?

    I was supposed to be her second! part of Myra thought indignantly, while every other part was relieved and appreciative at not having to fight or endanger her stomach.

    ¡°We are gathered for the duel between Student Body President Benkoten Talzatta and Princess Malazhonerra Emerald Raine. At stake by Princess Malazhonerra is her honor, and an apology. At stake by President Benkoten is his honor, and by proxy, the honor of the student body. We shall use the¡­ Prerarian Code of Duels. Are there any objections to the terms?¡±

    ¡°I have no objections,¡± said the princess. She stood at the ready, but her eyes lacked the same fury as they had earlier.

    ¡°I have no objections,¡± said Benkoten. He had set his shoulder bag to the side of the field, though he was still wearing his stiff, formal student council robes.

    ¡°Then let us enjoy a fair fight, and may the best mage win. 3¡­ 2¡­ 1¡­ Begin.¡±

    Benkoten started instantly with a barrier all around his body. Malazhonerra, however, didn¡¯t try the same trick as last time. Instead, she conjured lightning from her hands, assaulting Benkoten¡¯s barrier, leaving smoke behind but ultimately failing to break through. Meanwhile, Benkoten swept her legs from behind with a strong gust of wind. I was gonna start with that too¡­

    As she fell backward in mid-air, she teleported and appeared standing at Benkoten¡¯s back. Teleporting while changing pose was pretty advanced, but not unexpected for someone of her status. As soon as she appeared, though, she yelped and leaped back. She nearly landed out of the arena, but she telekinetically adjusted the border, crudely drawn in the dirt, before she hit the ground.

    There was a lot of confused clamoring from the audience, and more cries that the princess had abused the terms. Myra knew, though, that manipulating the border was, in fact, allowed in some circumstances. As for why she had jumped back, Myra could only guess that Benkoten had anticipated the teleport and superheated the air around him without her noticing. It was a pretty good trick.

    Unfortunately, Ben seemed to have blown his advantage by not accounting for the possibility of the moved border. Already telekinetically attuned to the dirt on the ground, she lifted massive chunks into the air and flung them at Benkoten. His barrier finally broke from the barrage, and it took all his attention to halt the projectiles with focused dispels. As a result, he nearly missed the rocks flying at him from a different direction, which the princess had pulled from the climbing ring.

    He just barely dodged, and one of the rocks almost hit Shera, still standing by herself on the opposite side of the field. She stumbled backwards and fell, tripping over Benkoten¡¯s shoulder bag. She scrambled to her feet, looking terribly alarmed. Vi grimaced at the entire situation, though she didn¡¯t do anything about the tactics that were again starting to veer on fairly questionable.

    She tried the lightning bolt again, but Benkoten dispelled it with split-second reflexes. The princess tried a few more times just to meet the same result, and she grimaced, clearly frustrated. She switched to producing wind, but Benkoten dispelled it, again almost instantly. The princess snarled in frustration, and Benkoten smirked. Damn, his reflexes are nothing to sneeze at.

    It looked like he was gaining the upper hand again, but though he was finally able to instigate his own volley of dirt projectiles, the princess dodged all of them. In fact, they seemed to just miss her; Myra suspected she was warping space like Iz did sometimes. It looked like one was going to slip past and hit her, but at the last second, she teleported it. Ben¡¯s eyes went wide, and he leaped to his right, presumably guessing that the rock was now aimed at him from behind.

    But he guessed wrong.

    The rock had appeared to his side, traversing the field horizontally. The projectile struck his arm with enough force to count as a victory.

    ¡ô

    Not much happened after this. The princess shortly left with her party, and people generally seemed¡­ mollified that the princess had now won¡­ ¡®by the book.¡¯ Well, the rock thing was still kind of iffy.

    Anyway, Myra didn¡¯t hang around anymore. She went to check on Iz, whom Cynthia had taken to the infirmary. She was going to be fine, although she was pretty shaken by the events and unwilling to talk much about it. Myra and Cynthia stayed with her for a while, and Tazhin and Nathan stopped by as well. This created quite the crowd, though, which pissed off the nurse a bit. It wasn¡¯t long before Iz was ready to sleep and the group was ejected.

    The four of them widely agreed they didn¡¯t want to go back to the party, except Nathan, who had framed it as a mission to gather intel on what the rest of campus was thinking. Cynthia and Tazhin headed back to the dorms, while Myra decided to take a walk and clear her head.

    Why couldn¡¯t I fight?

    Myra was annoyed that she hadn¡¯t fought harder to be the duelist, especially now that she had seen the princess had been more¡­ restrained in the second duel. Not that it should have mattered. She should have stood up to defend her friend, shouldn¡¯t she have? Not stood up and then backed down as soon as it was convenient.

    Coward.

    She stopped as she noticed a crowd down the walkway. Of course. Had she gone this way on purpose? Maybe she had.

    It was the crowd getting ready to enter the event hall for the peace talks or trade talks or whatever they were. She recognized the looming figure of Prince Humperton, and Princess Malazhonerra was there beside him. She was in her black dress again, and she was looking vaguely pissed off. She was absent her two companions¡ªincidentally, Myra had learned from Nathan that ¡°Vi¡± was likely Violet Penrilla, the daughter of Duke Henrick Penrilla. It made sense enough to Myra. Violet Penrilla would be in the right social caste to be a personal friend of the imperial princess.

    Also in the group was the King of Unkmire, whom Myra could pick out simply based on his dress, accompanied by three staff members whose roles Myra couldn¡¯t guess. There were half a dozen imperial sages in their own distinguished garb. Of those, she thought she recognized the Imperial Sage of Magical Infrastructure, Hazel Ornobis, though it was only because her predecessor¡¯s death had recently been in the news that she had any space in Myra¡¯s head at all.

    And finally, there was one man she was surprised to also recognize: Justice Philium Krasus. The man was quite hard to miss, with the distinctive attire of a judge, with long robes and a curly wig. Presumably, he was here to adjudicate fair negotiations, though the idea of an imperial judge serving as a neutral party was laughable. Myra recognized him because he had been the judge on her father¡¯s case, the one who had blown through the evidence with ruthless efficiency, settling matters in less than a week from start to finish. He was a bit shorter than Myra had been imagining, as the only picture she had seen was of him sitting down at her father¡¯s trial, though he was no less intimidating for it. Myra¡¯s mind went back to the letter from her father, which she still hadn¡¯t found the will to open.

    The group eventually started to enter the building. It looked like they were teleporting in with the assistance of Iwasaki, the security head Myra had met outside the building before. Before long, only Iwasaki remained outside.

    The talks are in session, I guess.

    In the end, Cynthia had been right. This really was a bunch of nothing, as far as any of the students were concerned.

    Myra kept walking, but she was startled all of a sudden to run into Benkoten.

    ¡°Sorry, sorry, didn¡¯t mean to frighten you¡ª¡±

    ¡°Oh, no problem, it¡¯s just a little dark out, you know¡­¡±

    ¡°I was actually looking for you, Myra.¡±

    ¡°Oh, is this about the duels?¡±

    Benkoten nodded. ¡°Yeah, I wanted to thank you, actually, for standing up.¡±

    ¡°Oh, it¡¯s¡ªit¡¯s nothing. I didn¡¯t do anything in the end.¡±

    ¡°But you did!¡± Benkoten insisted. ¡°If you hadn¡¯t said anything, I wouldn¡¯t have stood up either. The fact is, I was content to let it blow over. It was only when you confronted the princess that I was reminded of my duty as student president.¡±

    ¡°Eh, heh heh.¡± Myra scratched the back of her neck. ¡°I mean, I probably should have insisted¡­¡±

    ¡°Nonsense! If you all can¡¯t rely on me to stand up to your defense, I don¡¯t deserve my title as student president. Given my dreadful showing, I¡¯m not sure I deserve it anyway.¡±

    Myra didn¡¯t know where Benkoten was getting his ideas of a student president¡¯s duties, but his words made her chest glow all the same. I inspired someone with my courage¡­?

    ¡°I¡¯m sure you deserve it,¡± Myra reassured him. ¡°And thank you, for your kind words.¡±

    ¡°Anyway, have the talks started yet? I noticed you watching the event hall.¡±

    ¡°Yes, they¡¯re all inside now, I think.¡±

    ¡°Ah, a shame. I would have liked to see it¡­ I suppose it wasn¡¯t much to see, though. Hey, uh¡ª¡± He scratched at his neck. ¡°There was actually something else I wanted to ask you. Would you come to my room for a sec? Ah, I mean, I have a gift for you, there.¡±

    Myra couldn¡¯t recall Benkoten acting so nervous before. Oh¡­

    Myra had started to have suspicions from the last few tutoring sessions, as Benkoten had become more familiar and warmer. And she was at least open to it¡­ but tonight? This wasn¡¯t the time¡­

    Well¡­

    Well, Myra would hear him out, at least. He had stood up for Iz, after all. ¡°Sure, let¡¯s go.¡±

    ¡ô

    The gift was a bundle of flowers.

    It was a very nice bundle of flowers, too. It really was very sweet.

    ¡°Myrabelle,¡± Benkoten started in the cute overly formal tone that came naturally to him. ¡°I, uh, I, I wanted to make a proposition, would you like to be my girlfriend?¡±

    ¡°Ah¡­ maybe we should go out a few times, first? I mean, I¡¯m interested¡­¡± It¡¯s just, ¡®girlfriend¡¯ is a bit much to commit to right now¡­

    He grimaced, fidgeted, and seemed to choose his words carefully. ¡°I was hoping for a more definitive answer. Like, I don¡¯t want to put you on the spot or anything. It¡¯s just, I don¡¯t want to be strung along, you know.¡±

    You are putting me on the spot, though¡­

    ¡°I don¡¯t want to string you along!¡± Myra protested. ¡°I mean it, I am interested. Maybe, I mean. I mean, it¡¯s just, a lot happened tonight, you know? I need some time to think about it. And if you¡¯re worried about being strung along, we just make a deadline? Like, I can give you an answer a week from now. For sure.¡±

    ¡°Next week is¡­¡± He fidgeted again. ¡°It¡¯s hard to explain, but I¡¯d quite prefer an answer tonight.¡±

    Myra didn¡¯t know how to respond to this level of pushiness. ¡°Um¡­¡±

    ¡°Hold on, your tea¡¯s almost ready.¡±

    ¡°Oh, sure.¡±

    He scuttled into his room¡¯s mini-kitchen to pull the kettle off. It was now an established habit to make mint tea whenever Myra came over. He poured a cup and handed it to her, a sad look in his eyes. What did he expect? I¡¯m being totally reasonable, aren¡¯t I?

    Would it be rude to turn down the tea? I kind of want to go¡­ This was turning awkward.

    ¡°Did I do something wrong?¡± he asked.

    ¡°Yeah, you¡¯re being kind of¡­ impatient?¡± She went ahead and sipped her tea.

    ¡°No, I mean before that like. Is there anything I could have done that would have made your answer an enthusiastic ¡®yes¡¯?¡± After cleaning up some of the dishes in the kitchen, he had moved to his bag, which he had unzipped and was rummaging through for something. ¡°I¡¯m looking for genuine feedback here.¡±

    What the fuck? Why has he gotten so weird? I didn¡¯t even say ¡®no¡¯! I just said I needed a few days and now he¡¯s shooting himself in the fucking foot!

    ¡°Sorry¡­ I¡­ don¡¯t have anything to say.¡±

    Benkoten didn¡¯t respond though, as his attention had gone more intensely to his bag. He was rummaging through it pretty aggressively now, tossing out all kinds of school supplies, looking increasingly exasperated.

    ¡°Um¡ª¡±

    ¡°Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.¡± He was looking in all the other compartments now. ¡°FUCK.¡± He ran his hands through his hair. ¡°Sorry, I¡ªI seem to have lost something really important.¡±

    ¡°Do you want me to help search your room?¡±

    ¡°No, it¡ªit must have fallen out¡ª¡± He was flustered and distracted, and he started ticking off his fingers like he was thinking through the day. ¡°What the hell! Myra, can you¡ªsorry, can you stay here a sec? I won¡¯t be long, I just need¡ªsorry, look, I know I¡¯ve been¡ªjust¡ª¡±

    ¡°Ben¡ª¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll apologize more properly when I get back.¡± He ran out of the room, leaving Myra alone with her mint tea.

    I have to wait for him?!

    She held her face in her hands and let out a brief cry of frustration. The barrage of crap was starting to overwhelm her, and her head started to thump. Ugh¡­

    She walked out into the hall, but he was already out of sight.

    How long would he be? Would he really just be a minute? Maybe he knows long-range teleporting? It was restricted within the building, of course, but he could have gone outside. Long-range teleporting was quite advanced, though, much more difficult than just moving a couple of meters.

    Tiredness started to overwhelm her. Yeah, I don¡¯t think I¡¯m going to wait.

    Myra scribbled a note apologizing and left for the stairwell. I¡¯m right, aren¡¯t I? He was acting weird, it wasn¡¯t just my imagination? Did I misread something?

    If he hadn¡¯t run out, we might¡¯ve been able to clear something up¡­

    Myra wondered what could have been so important, anyway, or why he¡¯d even been looking for it.

    She heard someone running behind her. Was he back already¡­?

    It wasn¡¯t Benkoten. It was Shera, looking panicked.

    ¡°My-Myra!¡±

    ¡°Huuuh?¡± It came out in a bit of a drawl, unintentionally.

    ¡°I-I-I-I-I heard y-you went-t-t-t off with Ben-Ben-Benko-t-t-ten¡ª¡± She was waving her arms frantically and was even harder to understand than usual, her agitation compounding on top of her speech impediment. ¡°He-he-he had¡ªat-t-t the match¡ªI s-s-s-saw in his b-bag he set d-d-downnn¡ª¡± Huh. That had happened, hadn¡¯t it? She had tripped over it?

    Wait, was that why he was missing something?

    ¡°Sherrra¡ª¡± She started to say. Oh fuck, what the hell was wrong with her? She clutched at her head. ¡°What¡¯d youu sseee¡ª¡±

    ¡°In the b-bag, he, he had da-da-da-date-date r-rape drugs¡ª¡±

    Oh. Myra swayed. ¡°The teaaa¡ª¡± That explains¡­ a lot¡­

    Wait, no it doesn¡¯t! He already drugged me, so what was missing from his fucking bag?

    ¡°¡ªand, and th-these sy-syringes, I-I f-freaked out and I-I t-took ev-everything¡ª¡± She pulled two syringes out of her pocket, one with a bright red drug, almost pink, and the other a deep blue and showed Myra.

    ¡°Sherrra, he¡ª¡±

    ¡°Hold on, hold on, I-I brought a-a¡ª¡± Her hands scrambled around her pockets while she awkwardly held the syringes in her hand. ¡°a-a-here¡ª¡± She pulled out a small walnut-sized gel that Myra quickly recognized as an antidote. Oh thank fuck¡ª

    ¡°Oh, you¡¯re the one who took my serums.¡±

    Benkoten had appeared from the stairwell. Myra¡¯s mouth went dry.

    ¡°Y-you¡ª¡± Shera only got the single word out. There was a pop and crunch, and a shimmer in her vision of a small projectile that was too fast to see, and a small streak of red from Shera¡¯s head. She crumpled to the ground.

    I took Myra a second to process what she¡¯d seen. Benkoten carelessly bent down to recover the chemicals from Shera¡¯s hand. The antidote gel went rolling away, either unnoticed by or unimportant to Benkoten.

    What the¡ª

    What the fuck?

    Shera was¡ª

    Myra ran. Or she tried to run. The effects of the drug were now severe, and she was completely defenseless, barely able to attune to an elemental or reach into Abstract Space. So she tried to run, but she couldn¡¯t very well do that either. She didn¡¯t get very far before Benkoten yanked her up by the collar and dragged her.

    ¡°You, youu murrrderrred¡ª¡±

    ¡°No, I didn¡¯t,¡± he spat. ¡°Well, not really. It¡¯s not something I¡¯m going to explain. God, what a clusterfuck she made this into.¡± He tossed Myra roughly onto his bed. ¡°And of course, she shows up with my stolen property after I go through the trouble to get a replacement¡­¡±

    Cast something, idiot, fuck, what can you cast¡ªignoring the fact that she was being crushed by the weight of her own skull, her staff had fallen in the hallway with the antidote gel, and she had almost no options. In this state, there was no spell she could initiate, maybe she could modify something, if there was something around¡ª

    ¡°You murrrderring raaap¡ª¡± She helplessly tried to move to the edge of the bed, but he simply pushed her back, meeting

    She was going to die, wasn¡¯t she? She had witnessed him kill Shera in cold blood¡ªshe would have to go.

    It still doesn¡¯t make any sense, though! There was no way he¡¯ll fool the murder investigation! What the fuck is he thinking?

    What did murderers ever think, though? Did they just, not think?

    ¡°I¡¯m not a rapist, Myra,¡± he growled, running one hand along her hair. ¡°I¡¯m going to figure out how to impress you and win your heart properly. I¡¯ll get it right eventually.¡±

    ¡°Wh¡ªthe fuuckk¡ª¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it.¡± He loomed over her with the red syringe in hand. Myra remembered something.

    She reached out with her mind, several stories until she found the enchantment on the wall, the one that had been made incorporeal as part of the party setup. She wasn¡¯t sure if she¡¯d be able to find it, but with the topological senses she¡¯d modestly honed over the last month, the unexpected hole in the building was easier to find than she expected. She latched onto the enchantment and pulled it up to the bed she was lying on, and to the floor below it.

    Myra fell through while Benkoten cried out in shock, and she dispelled the enchantment on the floor immediately, making it solid again before Benkoten could fall through. He had been leaning over her, so her aim was for him to fall and pin him under the bed. Well, it wasn¡¯t like the bed would trap him or anything, but maybe it would cost him like three seconds.

    Probably the first lucky thing for Myra was that she landed on a bed. She¡¯d honestly had no idea what was going to be below her; with Benkoten¡¯s bedroom being a different layout, she¡¯d had no way to know if the beds in the adjacent floor plans would line up. Anyway, she did land on a bed. And she also didn¡¯t land on a person. The room was empty.

    At this point, she could only make half the effort she needed to walk. And she could only make half the effort she needed to do meaningful magic. But she could combine those two things. With her legs barely supported by the little magical strength she had, she walked over someone¡¯s dirty laundry to reach the door. Relief washed over her as she looked into the hall to see that her plan had worked. She had used one final piece of incorporeality to have her staff and the antidote gel fall down from the floor above.

    She popped the gel in her mouth. It was like the sensation when you hold your breath and finally breathe in. The gel worked instantly, the fog lifting off her senses and her motor control returning to normal. He grabbed her staff, and¡ª

    Benkoten appeared.

    Myra boggled. He can subvert the dorm anti-teleport field? It wasn¡¯t like the dorm¡¯s security was the best in the empire, or anything, but it was still pretty good. Myra didn¡¯t even know the theory behind such a thing, or where she could learn.

    There was one place Myra knew the wards would let her teleport: her room. Of course, if she vanished, Benkoten would know she had gone there. Still, she didn¡¯t have time to think about it. She teleported to her room¡ªa trivial feat, with her regained magical senses and her staff in hand¡ªshe just had to activate a spell in Abstract Space that the dorm made available to her only.

    Myra didn¡¯t know how to long-range teleport. Instead, she grabbed an enchanted stick from a cup on her desk, which she had been saving for a day she was late to class. She didn¡¯t know if the stick would work in the building or not, so she hopped out her window and snapped the stick in half. In an instant, she appeared across campus at the main academic building.

    She would be safe here¡­ probably. In principle, he might be able to guess where she¡¯d gone, so she immediately set off again.

    What the fuck just happened?

    Benkoten could evade expert-level disruption fields. He could teleport into anybody¡¯s dorm room¡­ did he use that to peep? How much of a creep was he?

    And what the fuck was going on with the drugs? There had been two drugs, right? There was the ¡®date-rape drug¡¯ that had paralyzed her, which had probably been in her tea¡ªshe hadn¡¯t seen Benkoten spike it, but there were a handful of ways it could be done. Then there were the drugs in the syringes¡­ which Benkoten had planned to inject into her after she had already been drugged¡­?

    And there had also been a date-rape drug in the bag that Shera had taken, right? She¡¯d taken it in addition to the syringes? It¡¯d been hard to understand her, but Myra was pretty sure that¡¯s what she¡¯d been saying¡ª

    Oh, Shera.

    Fuck.

    She was dead. No matter what Benkoten¡¯s ravings had implied, she was definitely dead¡ªshe¡¯d died helping Myra. Without Shera, I would have been a victim for sure. He would have kept the upper hand the whole time, and there wouldn¡¯t have been any antidote for me.

    Myra felt like throwing up. I can¡¯t believe it¡­ I¡¯d never gotten along with her, but she may have saved my life for all I know¡­ It felt like her stomach was full of hot iron.

    She slapped her cheeks to force herself to focus. All this, figuring out what the fuck was going on, grieving, it could happen after she had dealt with Benkoten. She reached into Abstract Space and searched for the campus alarm trigger. She didn¡¯t know where it was immediately because she was a complete idiot. She didn¡¯t know where the alarm was, she didn¡¯t carry emergency teleport sticks. It was pure luck she¡¯d had one lying around her room at all ¡­

    While she was searching for it, Abstract Space went dark.

    What¡­?

    This experience was so baffling it didn¡¯t even bother Myra at first. Her entire mind was convinced she was misunderstanding something simple. But after a minute or so, it became obvious something was deeply wrong.

    Where the fuck is the Common Library?

    She could access Abstract Space. She could even find some of her own personal scratchwork that she¡¯d left untethered to anything. But the Common Library was¡­ gone.

    It¡¯s¡­ the drug is still in me, right? It wasn¡¯t just a date-rape drug, it was a cut-you-off-from-the-Common-Library-ten-minutes-later drug. That was immune to antidotes. This is a completely plausible scenario.

    The Common Library can¡¯t be gone!

    Then the ground rumbled. Though it startled Myra, it was a pretty weak quake.

    The next one, a moment later, almost knocked her off her feet.

    ¡°Shit!¡± she cried, against all common sense when someone was possibly hunting her. ¡°Fuck, will this day ever end?!¡± It was probable that nobody heard her because she was drowned out by the loud crash of roofs collapsing all around her and a loud, screeching alarm she¡¯d never heard before. What the shit? The buildings shouldn¡¯t be that poorly built!

    The city had tested its emergency alarm system before. It had been nothing like this, though, and it had also provided some instructions telepathically, while this one was not.

    Myra ran. She just ran, she hardly cared where. She was sure the infirmary was one of the buildings to fall. Iz had to be dead. What about Cynthia? Nathan? Tazhin?

    Finally, she came upon an authority figure. Iwasaki, the head of security, was standing outside the event hall, working frantically on some enchantment with an orb the size of his head.

    ¡°Sir!¡± He looked up at her. ¡°Sir! Benkoten, the class president, he killed Shera Marcrombie, he tried to rape me¡ª¡±

    ¡°I feel awful to say this,¡± Iwasaki said quickly, ¡°but I need to deal with the emergency right now. I will handle your situation, I promise. Please, stay here in the meantime.¡±

    ¡°O-okay.¡±

    Iwasaki returned to whatever he was doing with the orb. Myra presumed it was the interface to the event hall¡¯s security system.

    ¡°You¡¯re getting them out?¡±

    ¡°No, we¡¯re going to be going in,¡± he explained. This is the safest place on campus. Actually, would you send up a flair, so people know to come here? This alarm does not have the capability to provide instructions.¡±

    ¡°Um, yeah, of course.¡± Myra did as he instructed, sending up a flare into the sky. She had to think carefully about how to do it because she could not access the usual spell in the Common Library. She had to cast from scratch. ¡°So what is this alarm, anyway?¡±

    ¡°It is a back-up alarm, for if the main one with the telepathic capabilities fails. I presume it failed because it relies on functionality from the Common Library.¡±

    ¡°So the Common Library really is gone¡ªum, or I mean, inaccessible?¡±

    Iwasaki didn¡¯t answer. However, he seemed to finish what he was doing, and Myra felt it, too. The interior space had been reconnected. Finally, Iwasaki unlocked the chains in the front of the building, a surprisingly quick bit of telekinesis.

    They entered together, Myra behind Iwasaki, as she didn¡¯t want to be the one to interrupt the important trade summit.

    However, that worry turned out to be the wrong one.

    ¡ô

    The sight consisted of the following.

    A large, circular table was in the center of the room, overlooked by three decorative suits of armor, and surrounded by a mural that covered the walls and ceiling, depicting the founding events of the nation of Casire.

    Around the table were thirteen chairs. Eleven of these chairs were occupied by the following people: Imperial Prince Humperton William Raine, six imperial sages, the King of Unkmire, and three other individuals from Unkmire.

    These people were all dead, drenched in the spray of their own blood. Their throats had been slit.

    Of the remaining chairs, one was empty, and angled a bit away from the table, and the other¡ªthe most decorative chair in the room¡ªhad been knocked over. By its design, it was clearly intended for the arbiter, Justice Philium Krasus. The judge also lay on the floor, belly-up, with his arms and legs sprawled outwards. His wig had fallen off, and there was a dent on his forehead, the source of a pool of blood. His throat had also been slit. Nearby on the floor was a decorative mace, which looked like it went with one of the armor statues.

    Finally, the thirteenth person, Imperial Princess Malazhonerra Emerald Raine, was on the surface of the table. She was in six parts: a torso, two legs, two arms, and a head. These were separated, each by about half a meter from the torso, as if she had just been pulled apart. Her torso had two deep gashes horizontally through the stomach. A bloodstone pendant was between the torso and her head, sitting on top of her pink hair, which stretched the length between her head and the stump of her neck. A golden wristwatch remained on her left arm, identical to one worn by her father.

    Hachirou Iwasaki, the man responsible for the safety of these thirteen individuals, was speechless.

    Myrabelle Prua-Kent, no longer caring whether the inside or outside was ¡°safer,¡± decided to leave. Regardless, an answer came soon enough, arriving with the loudest noise Myra had heard in her life.

    She had partly expected it since the first earthquakes, and from her understanding that the protective barriers relied on the aura channels which relied on the Common Library. In the end, nowhere was safe.

    The cap of the Ralkenon Volcano burst into ash and smoke and lava, descending on the campus¡ªno, the city¡ªto wipe clean the fallout of a series of insane and incomprehensible events. Myra died in agony, smothered by the inferno.

 3 - The Place of the Stars

    Myra woke up in her bed.

    Wha¡ª?

    This was definitely her bed. In her dorm room. That had been¡ª

    No. There was no way that was a dream, Myra didn¡¯t consider it for a moment. She had been consumed by molten lava, she had felt her skin burn away. That had happened. And here she was, safe and cozy in her blankets, listening to the chirps of the morning birds. Had she been rescued? Healed, magically, then put back in her room, skipping a hospital stay, all while unconscious? That didn¡¯t make any sense¡­ magic healing wasn¡¯t even that good, let alone the rest of it.

    Was this building not destroyed? Even if it hadn¡¯t collapsed, it should have been buried in the eruption.

    How did I get into my pajamas?

    She was pretty sure stuff had moved around the room, too. Her laundry, her textbooks, ¡­

    Why is this teleport stick still here? I used it!

    Increasingly uneasy, Myra hastily changed and went to check out the status outside. The status turned out to be¡­ a campus that had not been destroyed by earthquakes or a volcano. It was a bright morning, and it was a bit chilly.

    She wandered around in a bit of a daze, watching carefree classmates heading towards the school. Class is on, I guess.

    She checked Abstract Space. The Common Library had been restored, though some of Myra¡¯s miscellaneous abstract objects had disappeared. She was pretty sure the ones missing were all objects she¡¯d made in the last month while experimenting with topology.

    Myra¡¯s heart spiked when she heard footsteps running at her from behind. She whipped around and almost put her guard up before she saw one of her favorite faces on the planet barreling towards her. Cynthia twirled around her and pulled her into a hug.

    ¡°How¡¯s¡ªoh.¡± Cynthia¡¯s grin evaporated as she looked intently at Myra. ¡°Myra, you look awful¡ªah!¡± She yelped as Myra pulled her friend in tightly and buried her face in her shoulder. ¡°I know, I know, things are going to be okay¡­¡±

    ¡°Cynthia. Uh¡­¡± What do I even say? ¡°I have an¡­ odd question.¡±

    ¡°Yeah?¡±

    ¡°What, uh, day is it?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s Monday. That¡¯s not an odd question.¡±

    ¡°But like, which Monday?¡±

    ¡°Um¡­ it¡¯s November¡­ like the fifth? Sixth? Myra, I don¡¯t really keep track of the date.¡±

    That doesn¡¯t make any sense¡­

    I was expecting it somehow, though, wasn¡¯t it? That¡¯s why I asked.

    If she¡¯s right, it¡¯s the first day after break.

    ¡°Come on, let¡¯s go sit down. Do you need to take the day off?¡±

    As much as Myra wanted to go crawl back into bed and pretend nothing had happened, figuring out what was going on had to take priority. Cynthia took Myra to the fountain where Iz was reading, itself a familiar sight, and sat her down next to the running water. The university fountains were all infused with a particular aura composition that was supposed to be relaxing, so Myra tried to soak it in.

    Iz didn¡¯t say much, but she seemed to catch that the vibe was ¡®comforting a shaken Myra.¡¯

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry¡­¡± Cynthia whispered. ¡°I thought you were doing okay last night. Did anything else happen?¡±

    Myra tried to remember what ¡®last night¡¯ had been, since it had now been a month ago from Myra¡¯s perspective. The night before classes had started, she had gotten dinner with Cynthia, who had just arrived in the city (Myra had been back for several days). Myra certainly hadn¡¯t been ¡®okay¡¯ during that meal, but she had intentionally been avoiding any subject related to her father¡¯s trial. Of course, that was what Cynthia and Iz were fixated on now.

    ¡°What would you all say if I said I¡¯d gone back in time?¡±

    ¡°Um¡­¡± Cynthia turned her head. ¡°I dunno.¡±

    Iz frowned. ¡°Myra¡ª¡±

    ¡°Sorry, never mind, I¡¯m getting all mixed up and confused.¡± Myra didn¡¯t want her own friends to think she was crazy. How do you convince someone of a blatant impossibility?

    As much as she loved Cynthia and Iz, if they had tried to convince her they had gone back in time, she would absolutely think they had lost it.

    ¡°Myra,¡± Iz said again.

    Change the subject. ¡°Have you ever met the imperial princess? Malazhonerra Raine?¡±

    Iz blinked, surprised.

    ¡°Um¡­ no¡­¡± She cocked her head in confusion.

    ¡°Oh, it¡¯s just¡ª¡± Myra took a bit of a stab in the dark. ¡°I heard she wanted to face off with you, after you won that contest? In Jewel City?¡±

    ¡°Oh! No, that wasn¡¯t it¡­ There was a bit of a scandal where she wanted to compete, and she entered the contest under a false name. She got caught really quickly, and her father was pissed about it¡­ it¡¯s just what I heard. I don¡¯t think I ever spoke to her.¡±

    Hm. That might go a little ways to explaining the princess¡¯s actions.

    ¡°I think she judged some parts of the contest, as well. Why do you ask?¡±

    ¡°Oh, nothing. Sorry, it¡¯s just. Trying to think of things other than my¡­ situation. What was the contest, anyway?¡±

    ¡°It was a puzzle contest. We had to escape a labyrinth.¡±

    ¡°Oh! I also wanted to ask¡­ have you ever met someone named¡ª¡± Oh, what was her name? ¡°¡ªViolet Penrilla?¡±

    ¡°Huh? I¡¯ve never heard of her.¡±

    ¡°Penrilla?¡± Cynthia asked. ¡°Isn¡¯t that guy a duke? No, I don¡¯t think his name is Violet¡­¡±

    ¡°Sorry, just, never mind.¡±

    ¡°Myra, what is going on?¡± Iz asked, much more forcefully this time.

    Myra might have answered, but someone else grabbed her attention that she barely even heard Iz¡¯s question. Walking down the walkway was a girl with unmissable black-and-white eyes, walking absentmindedly, her attention blank and her eyes on the trees around.

    ¡°Shera!¡±

    Shera was startled to reality as Myra bounded to her, leaving her friends confused by the fountain.

    ¡°Shera, you¡¯re alive!¡± She didn¡¯t care how manic she sounded right now. She almost hugged her.

    The young woman took a step back, her eyes wide with fear, like she was distancing herself from a predator. After quivering for a moment and a few false starts with her mouth, she just said, ¡°Hi. Myra.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s¡­ it¡¯s good to see you¡¯re¡­ okay.¡± Common sense started to catch up with her and she began to care about the appearance of her actions again.

    ¡°Okay.¡± Shera nodded and stepped nervously around her, headed to class. Cynthia and Iz rejoined her.

    ¡°Myra¡ª¡±

    ¡°Come on,¡± Myra said. ¡°Let¡¯s go to class.¡±

    ¡ô

    In all honesty, there were probably better things to do than just going to class, though Myra needed time to figure out what those were. And anyway, it was kind of hard to go against ingrained habits when the world moved along so normally.

    As before, they started the class with the water exercises. Myra mastered the exercise quickly enough that she got paired with Iz this time. This was a bit of a relief since Iz was much easier to work with than Shera, and working with Shera would have been extremely awkward after their morning interaction.

    ¡°Uh, Instructor!¡± Myra called out. Instructor Yam had walked by, giving only an approving nod to the lovely figure-8 stream that Myra and Iz had built together. ¡°Um, I was wondering¡­ can we use these techniques to manipulate lava?¡±

    ¡°Hrm.¡± Instructor Yam stroked his goatee. ¡°Are you thinking of going diving in the volcano?¡±

    ¡°I was just wondering.¡±

    ¡°Lava is a difficult substance for a lot of reasons. Attempting to touch lava telekinetically can be as painful as touching it with your skin if you don¡¯t do it right. It¡¯s quite viscous, its exterior hardens quickly, and compositions can vary a lot. And if we¡¯re talking about a volcanic eruption, it moves very fast, and there is a lot of it. Of course, you shouldn¡¯t have to worry about that.¡±

    ¡°Could you, uh, teach us, anyway?¡±

    The instructor looked thoughtful for a moment, then said, ¡°I don¡¯t see why not. I will need to make sure you can do it safely, though. There¡¯s some exercises you will need to master first.¡±

    ¡ô

    Myra had to deal with Benkoten.

    She spent most of the telekinesis lesson thinking this through. Dealing with Benkoten was somewhat more complicated than dealing with anyone else, not just because of what he¡¯d done, but because Myra was pretty sure that Benkoten was aware of the time reset. In retrospect, a lot of the cryptic things he¡¯d said had indicated this¡ªthings she had dismissed as ravings actually made more sense if he had known time was about to reset. In fact, it seemed like it had happened before, and that he had become accustomed to it. He was trying to ¡°get something right eventually,¡± and he had probably known Shera was going to come back to life when he murdered her.

    Knowing that he hadn¡¯t tried to permanently kill Shera was a nice thought, but she wasn¡¯t sure what he was actually doing was much better. Whatever he had been attempting to do, it had clearly involved¡­ trying to seduce her and pump her full of drugs. There was a good chance he was going to try this all again, but with memories of how it had gone wrong the last time.

    Luckily, she was aware of the reset this time, too, so she could get a big advantage if she kept him from realizing the fact. The big worry would be if he already knew it¡ªif he knew something about how the whole thing worked, then he might have a way to know that she¡¯d become aware. Since Myra herself didn¡¯t have a clue how that had happened, it was impossible to know if Benkoten was aware of it.

    Did I touch some weird artifact in his room?

    No, I don¡¯t think so.

    The weirdest thing I did was go into the event hall. Was there something in there?

    It was troubling that she didn¡¯t know, especially since she couldn¡¯t know if she was going to retain awareness if it happened again.

    When Myra entered the topology lecture hall, she acted as naturally as possible to avoid tipping Benkoten off. Of course, trying to act natural always made everything worse, and she ended up in decision paralysis trying to remember which seat she¡¯d taken the first day. Right¡­ it was next to Shera.

    Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

    In the end, it didn¡¯t matter, because Benkoten Talzatta didn¡¯t show up, which was both a relief and a worry for a variety of different reasons. It was a relief that she didn¡¯t have to deal with him now, but it was also a worry about what he was planning. It also removed the option of confronting him directly for answers; this had not been her favorite option anyway, but it had been something she was considering.

    Shera sat next to her again, though she didn¡¯t say anything. Wait, nobody¡¯s whispering about me much, either. That was odd, hadn¡¯t there been a lot of stares last time? Had it just been her imagination? In the Mastery class earlier, there hadn¡¯t been much difference between the current loop and the previous loop. Here, though, she was certain people were paying her less attention, even in spite of her flubbed entrance.

    Little of note happened during the lecture, which had been the same as last time. She definitely had a better grasp on things (though she still thought Professor Suzuki was a poor lecturer, and that even a theoretical class should start with a bit of actual logokinesis).

    At lunch, she asked Nathan if he¡¯d seen his brother.

    ¡°Wait, why?¡± He seemed a little shocked at the inquiry. ¡°Do you know anything?¡±

    It turned out that nobody had seen Benkoten. He had been expected at a student council meeting that morning, but he had been absent. Someone had sought out Nathan after their first class to see if he knew anything, and Nathan had checked Ben¡¯s room, to no avail. This was sufficiently unlike Benkoten, a generally punctual and studious person, that Nathan had begun to worry immediately. He had notified campus security, who had ways to perform quick searches, but they were unable to locate him on campus.

    Of course, Nathan was now extremely curious why Myra had been inquiring about him, despite being otherwise unconnected to any of the prior events. Of course, Myra had no way to answer that meaningfully, so she deflected the question, despite Nathan¡¯s insistence, and the lunch became increasingly awkward. Aurora had joined as she had the first time around, but the lunch discussion never moved to the strange murders.

    After lunch, Myra was extremely tempted to speak to campus security about Benkoten. She had barely considered this course of action until now, simply because she had no actual proof that he¡¯d done anything to her. Now, though, if they were already aware that he was missing, she thought they might be more receptive if she reported him acting suspiciously. She also wanted to see if they could do something about the dorm¡¯s teleporter disruption field.

    In the end, though, she didn¡¯t want to take any actions that could tip off Benkoten that she remembered the previous timeline, so she decided to keep quiet. Instead, she decided the best thing she could do for her personal security was to buy some emergency teleport sticks and watch her back.

    With that done, Myra decided her next course of action was to be a delinquent student, skip her biomechanical systems class, and head to the library.

    It was time to investigate time.

    ¡ô

    Time magic did not exist.

    Well, that wasn¡¯t quite true. There had been some spontaneous anomalous phenomena that involved slowing or speeding up time, but even those were pretty rare, and they had been limited to small areas. And there was nothing that could reverse time.

    Of course, the thing with spontaneous anomalous phenomena (SAPs) was that you never knew what you¡¯d get next. Myra could maybe accept the answer that a novel SAP was responsible for her situation, though it wasn¡¯t an explanation that helped her at all. Also, SAPs resulted from aura build-ups, and there was no such thing as a ¡®time¡¯ element.

    Space magic was another possibility Myra looked into. Since space was tightly tied to time according to general relativity, affecting space could potentially affect time¡­ but the effect seemed to be too small to be useful outside black holes. There was a theoretical concept of ¡°closed timelike curves,¡± but those had never been proved to exist, and Myra was also pretty sure they resulted in self-consistent loops, which were not the sort of time travel she¡¯d experienced.

    Regardless, thinking about space had given her an idea of something to investigate.

    This is so stupid, Myra thought as she lugged her equipment up to the astronomy tower. Why am I even bothering? If the stars moved by a whole month, people would be fucking talking about it.

    She had hoped she would be alone, so she could check the stars against her reference book like an idiot in peace. Instead, she found Shera already with her eye pressed against a telescope. The girl looked at her briefly as she approached, then returned to her scope.

    ¡°Shera, you¡¯re up late,¡± Myra said, awkwardly making small talk.

    ¡°Yeah.¡±

    No shit, people don¡¯t go to the astronomy tower in the middle of the day, Myra.

    ¡°I d-d-don¡¯t really s-sleep.¡±

    Huh. Okay¡­

    Myra set herself up and got to work, but her efforts were slow. She wasn¡¯t an expert in astronomy, so she was a bit caught off guard by the level of precision she would need to work with. Maybe she should start with the nearby planets?

    After half an hour of screwing up calculations, she finally swallowed her pride. ¡°Hey, Shera.¡±

    ¡°Y-yeah?¡±

    ¡°Do you look at stars a lot?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, ev-every n-night.¡±

    ¡°Are they, uh, in the right place?¡±

    ¡°The st-stars are a-always in th-the right p-p-place.¡±

    ¡°Oh.¡± Yep, this was stupid.

    ¡°That¡¯s why I-I-I like them so m-much. They¡¯re never w-wrong. E-even if you th-think they should b-be somewhere else, y-you¡¯re th-the one th-that¡¯s wrong. Never the stars.¡±

    I feel like that could apply to anything else, too. ¡°So, uh, did that happen? Like, did you come up here and say, ¡®Wow, the stars were off by a full month from where I expected! I guess I, personally, was wrong¡¯?¡±

    ¡°No.¡±

    ¡°I see.¡±

    Myra tried to return to her own scratchwork.

    ¡°W-what-t w-was it-it-it about, earlier? Th-this m-morning?¡±

    ¡°Oh, that. Don¡¯t worry about it. I was confused.¡±

    ¡°I just th-thought you looked happy t-t-to see m-me.¡± She blinked a couple of times, then deflated suddenly. ¡°Oh. B-because y-you were c-confused.¡± Her face turned red and jammed her eye into her scope.

    ¡°No, no, that¡¯s not what I mean. Shera, I was happy to see you. I actually thought something terrible had happened to you, and I was genuinely relieved to see you alive. It¡¯s just, I realized you wouldn¡¯t know any of the context behind my misunderstanding, and I figured that I was just bothering you.¡±

    ¡°Oh. O-okay.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I had to stop myself before I accidentally hugged you or something. Heh.¡±

    ¡°Oh.¡±

    She remained steadfastly glued to her scope. Myra was sure the star she was looking at was fascinating.

    ¡°I see. This sh-shared ex-experience I f-forgot about must have been p-pretty b-big.¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t say you forgot anything.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s-it¡¯s what I in-inferred.¡±

    Myra sighed. ¡°Fine, I won¡¯t deny that you¡­ forgot something. You¡¯re pretty perceptive, aren¡¯t you?¡±

    She didn¡¯t react to the compliment. ¡°I d-don¡¯t understand, though. I d-died, and I f-forgot, and now you¡¯re t-trying to measure the s-stars, like you¡ªlike you¡ª¡± She shuddered.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t say you died. I said I thought you died.¡±

    ¡°Can you¡ªcan you j-just t-tell me what¡¯s g-going on?¡± Still, she hadn¡¯t moved from where she sat, and hadn¡¯t looked up at Myra at all, but it was for that reason Myra could see she was breathing harder. Her slightest movement was noticeable simply from the way her body was pressed against the telescope. ¡°If I forgot something, I-I have a right t-to know.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I suppose you do. You have a guess, right? You all but spelled it out. You¡¯re just embarrassed to say it because it¡¯s so ridiculous.¡±

    She didn¡¯t respond to this, so Myra decided to go ahead.

    ¡°I time-traveled, or¡­ something.¡± There. She¡¯d said it. ¡°This morning, when I woke up, I found myself a full moon cycle in the past. I already lived through the next month. Also, you helped me out significantly the first time around. And you, kinda, uh, came to great harm, maybe died, as a result.¡±

    ¡°Thanks for t-telling me. I suppose you were trying to see if the stars went back in time, t-too?¡±

    ¡°Yeah¡­ or if it was just our planet being reverted, or something.¡±

    ¡°D-do you want me to help? I can check some of the faster stars if y-you want.¡±

    She¡¯s humoring me, but of course she¡¯d rather do astronomy than listen to my nonsense.

    Of course, Myra really did need some help checking the stars. ¡°If you can, it¡¯d be really helpful,¡± she said. ¡°I was, ahh, just now realizing how precise you need to be.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, we¡¯re gonna need arcsecond precision for this!¡± She perked up suddenly, sounding almost giddy about the concept of arcsecond precision.

    Myra let her go ahead, and so Shera zoomed her telescope around the sky for a bit, checking back and forth between Myra¡¯s reference book and the heavens.

    ¡°Yeah, everything is exactly where it should be on today¡¯s date,¡± she finally said. She was still stuttering, despite loosening up, but Myra herself was noticing it less and less as she got comfortable with the conversation. ¡°I checked a few of the fastest stars, all the planets in our system, and a couple of exoplanets.¡±

    That was a disappointing result, since it gave no clues as to how the time reset could possibly have worked. It also meant she had no proof, and Shera probably wouldn¡¯t believe it. Oh, well.

    ¡°So, you really like astronomy, huh? Do you¡­ come here every night?¡± And do you really not sleep?

    ¡°Yeah. I¡¯ve been into it since I was a kid,¡± she explained. ¡°I found an old telescope someone had thrown out and became obsessed. The first very night I looked through it, I saw a supernova.¡±

    ¡°Wow, that¡¯s really lucky.¡±

    ¡°Yeah! But the telescope fell apart after a few weeks. I was devastated, and for years I had to make do just looking at star charts at the library and performing calculations by hand.¡±

    ¡°Er, but you don¡¯t need a telescope to just look up at the night sky¡­?¡±

    ¡°Oh, I liked doing the calculations.¡±

    ¡°Wait, also¡ª¡± Hold on, was Myra misremembering something? Shera wasn¡¯t from a poor background, was she? ¡°Isn¡¯t your dad a count? I thought you¡¯d have access to a nice telescope.¡± If Shera was just an unrelated person named Marcrombie, it was going to be a bit embarrassing. And insensitive.

    ¡°Yes, Count Marcrombie is my father. But, um, his wife isn¡¯t my mother, see.¡±

    Ah. ¡°Sorry, I-I didn¡¯t mean to pry.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s okay. I¡¯ve never met my father, actually. I grew up with my mother. When I was fifteen, she died, and I wrote to my father, begging him to take me in. He didn¡¯t respond for six months¡­ When he did, he said he had enrolled me here, and that I should take his name. That¡¯s all I¡¯ve ever heard from him. I don¡¯t really know what he was thinking.¡±

    ¡°Oh.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, um¡­ oh! Do you want to see it?¡± Despite giving her personal revelations so freely, she seemed desperate to change the subject. ¡°The¡ªthe star, I mean. That I saw go nova. It¡¯s a neutron star, now.¡±

    She excitedly swung her scope to another part of the sky and adjusted a runic dial near the base of the scope, probably adjusting it to help see something outside the optical frequency range. ¡°Look! Look!¡±

    Myra looked. It was a very bright star.

    ¡°I check on it every night. I feel like it¡¯s my star, you know.¡± She scratched her neck. ¡°Sorry, you think this is weird and sentimental¡­¡±

    ¡°No, not at all!¡± Myra didn¡¯t personally see the appeal of looking at it every night, but Shera¡¯s enthusiasm, at least, was delightful.

    ¡°So,¡± Shera said. ¡°Can you¡­ go ahead with it?¡±

    Myra blinked. ¡°Ahead with what¡­?¡±

    Shera tilted her head. ¡°You know. The full story. What happened the last time you lived through this month.¡±

    ¡ô

    Shera listened patiently as Myra explained everything she had experienced in her previous experience of the month. Before Shera entered the story, though, they decided to take a break from some for some tea, since Myra had needed something to pep her up. Shera had offered to make it, and her dormitory was closer, so they headed there.

    ¡°Sorry, it¡¯s a bit of a mess¡­¡±

    Myra expected this to be an overstatement, knowing neat-freak Shera, but it was more of a mess than she expected. Clothes were on the floor. Her school supplies were organized very neatly on her desk, but they were next to some dirty cups. The mirror was cracked, nearly shattered. The nicest thing about the room was her bed, which was neatly made.

    The color drained from Shera¡¯s face as she saw Myra appraising her room. ¡°Is-is it too much?¡±

    ¡°No, of course not.¡± It really wasn¡¯t bad by dorm standards. It just wasn¡¯t what Myra had expected from Shera. ¡°Maybe get the mirror replaced, though.¡±

    ¡°Oh, I actually broke it on purpose.¡±

    ¡°Eh, what?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I don¡¯t like looking in the mirror. I¡¯m so asymmetrical.¡±

    ¡°Oh, right.¡± What the fuck? Why not just take it down? ¡°But you can still look into it¡­?¡± Myra pointed out. It was cracked, but she could make out her own image just fine.

    ¡°I don¡¯t look in it, though. ¡®Cause it¡¯s cracked, right?¡±

    ¡°... Right.¡±

    ¡°Also, could you not look in it? It¡¯s weird to look in a cracked mirror.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I suppose it is.¡±

    Myra looked away from the cracked mirror in order to put Shera at ease.

    ¡°Hold on, let me clean up.¡± She grabbed the dirty cups from the desk and washed them in the sink. ¡°There we go. Right. Tea.¡±

    Myra decided to check out her bookshelf. It was¡­ mostly astronomy and a couple of other science texts. She had the same astronomy reference book as Myra, though it was gathering dust. Near the bottom were a few magic self-teaching books. Makes sense¡­ that was probably all she had access to growing up.

    Myra flipped through her astronomy book as she waited for the tea to be ready. She found the section on neutron stars, hoping for something to make small talk. ¡°Hey, which one is your star?¡± Myra asked. ¡°Like, its official name.¡±

    ¡°ZK-1034. It¡¯s in the swampbear constellation. Right ascension, 11h, declination, plus 63 degrees.¡±

    Myra had only needed the name to look it up, though the coordinates were exactly what she said when she found it.

    Except¡­

    ¡°You sure that¡¯s it?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, ZK-1034. I told you, it¡¯s my star, how could I forget?¡±

    ¡­

    ¡­

    It¡¯s nothing¡­

    ¡°Shera, how old are you?¡±

    ¡°Eh? I¡¯m 19.¡± That was young for a third year, though not unreasonable. Myra herself was 20. ¡°The star went nova¡­ 11 years ago. When I was 8. Why?¡±

    She moved to look at Myra¡¯s book.

    ¡°Wait, no¡ª¡± Shera looked at the book, then scrunched her eyes in confusion.

    Shit, I shouldn¡¯t have said anything¡ª

    She¡¯s going to be devastated.

    ZK-1034 had gone supernova, rebirthing itself as a neutron star, 23 years ago.

 4 - 3rd Year Telekinesis Training

    ¡°The st-stars are w-wrong, the st-stars are w-wrong, the st-stars are w-wrong¡ª¡±

    Shera was curled into a ball on the corner of her bed, rocking back and forth, muttering the refrain again and again. She had been doing this for several minutes while Myra desperately flipped around for another neutron star that could be the one Shera was thinking of.

    Why did I have to open my big mouth¡­?

    This discrepancy was not, of course, any kind of hint to the time reset. It wasn¡¯t like they had worked backward from the current state of ZK-1034 and calculated when it must have gone nova. Myra was looking at information written in a book published four years ago.

    Myra double-checked that she wasn¡¯t just getting confused over the speed of light. Indeed, she wasn¡¯t. The ZK-1034 supernova had occurred over a century ago, and it had taken nearly that long for its light to reach their planet. According to the book¡¯s figures, the supernova was visible 23 years ago, whereas Shera had claimed her supernova was visible 11 years ago.

    ¡°How¡¯d you determine it was ZK-1034?¡± Myra asked.

    ¡°I checked a star chart. Long time ago, just after my first telescope broke.¡±

    ¡°The star chart wouldn¡¯t have listed your star as a neutron star at that point.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, it didn¡¯t. I got the right star.¡±

    ¡°You never checked a book after that?¡±

    ¡°Why would I? I always remembered where it was.¡±

    Myra closed the book. ¡°The tea should be ready. Are you happy with mint? I know you chose it because it was my preference.¡±

    ¡°Mint¡¯s okay.¡± It wasn¡¯t a very enthusiastic ¡®okay.¡¯

    ¡°What¡¯s your preference?¡±

    ¡°Black.¡±

    Myra prepared some black tea in silence. When everything was ready, she sat next to Shera on her bed. ¡°You know, it could just be a misprint.¡±

    ¡°It must be. Nothing else makes sense.¡± It didn¡¯t move her out of her funk, and she remained as shaken as ever.

    ¡°Is there anything else I can do?¡±

    ¡°Um¡­ you should probably just finish your story.¡±

    Myra felt bad leaving it at this, but she didn¡¯t know what to do other than get on with their conversation and hope it provided a distraction. She proceeded through the recounting: the encounter with Benkoten, the earthquakes, the disappearance of the Common Library, and the massacre at the event hall. To Myra¡¯s surprise, Shera didn¡¯t respond much to her own appearance in the story.

    ¡°Sooo, I guess you see now why I acted the way I did,¡± Myra concluded, hoping to provoke more of a reaction.

    ¡°You¡¯re talking about this morning, when you ran to me because you saw I was alive?¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡±

    ¡°Oh, yeah, about th-that. Um¡­ Earlier, y-you said¡­¡± She twitched, then froze up.

    Myra tilted her head, waiting for her to say what was on her mind. What did I say?

    ¡°Never mind.¡±

    Okay¡­

    ¡°So, after the earthquakes¡ª¡± Shera then launched herself into questions and clarifications about Myra¡¯s story. They continued for several hours until Shera announced she would need to meditate on everything.

    Myra had about hit her limit at that point, so she was quite ready to turn in herself. Back in her dorm room, the last thought before she hit the pillow was: What the fuck was this day? Did I really befriend Shera Marcrombie?

    ¡ô

    The next morning, Myra decided she needed to talk about Benkoten.

    Nathan wasn¡¯t at any of his usual hang-out spots, and he didn¡¯t join for lunch. Since it was around a month ago from Myra¡¯s perspective, she couldn¡¯t remember what Nathan had been up to on this particular day the last time around. It didn¡¯t really matter. Ben had failed to appear the previous night and Nathan was now entirely out of sorts, so obviously his behavior would be different. According to Tazhin, he hadn¡¯t left the dorm building all day.

    Myra found him in his room. He had bags under his eyes and was barely dressed, and he all but recoiled when he recognized Myra at his door.

    ¡°What do you want.¡±

    He¡¯s still irritated about lunch yesterday.

    ¡°Have you eaten today?¡± It was an excuse to drag him out, though Myra was genuinely concerned.

    ¡°Yeah, I ate.¡±

    ¡°Well, you should eat again. I¡¯m going to the food stands.¡±

    ¡°By the pond?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. Also I wanted to ask a couple of things about Ben.¡±

    ¡°All right. Let me get ready.¡±

    Nathan didn¡¯t bother putting on his full uniform, just the minimal amount to go outside decent: a loose shirt, trousers, and his rock-skipping gloves. Myra accompanied him to the food stands, where Nathan bought an unusually large sandwich. He¡¯s probably hungrier than he let on. Myra bought a spicy lettuce wrap.

    ¡°Are there¡­ any leads?¡±

    ¡°We found one student who said they saw him early this morning. Just after 6 AM, he was grabbing a breakfast bar from the dorm pantry, ¡®looking unkempt,¡¯ whatever that means. Then he went out to the roof and teleported. That¡¯s pretty much all we know.¡± He chucked a rock into the pond and got four hops. ¡°That¡¯s pretty weird on its own. He usually cooks breakfast for himself.¡±

    6 A.M. Myra had woken up at 8 A.M., two hours later. ¡°That¡¯s pretty early. Is that normal for him?¡±

    ¡°Oh, yeah, he probably sets his alarm around then. He always makes breakfast and then goes for a jog. And then he needs time to clean up before class¡­¡±

    ¡°So he got up at his usual time, and then rushed off somewhere.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I guess. Unless he got up even earlier.¡± He chucked another rock. Five hops.

    Ordinarily, Myra would spin up a few vortices at the opposite end of the pond: a five-point goal, a ten-point goal, and so on. But right now probably wasn¡¯t a good time for tense competition.

    ¡°Is that all you wanted to ask?¡±

    ¡°No¡­ I wanted to ask¡ªwell, first I wanted to apologize for being evasive yesterday.¡±

    He grunted something she couldn¡¯t make out.

    ¡°I, uh, I wasn¡¯t quite sure how to bring this up¡­¡± Myra still wasn¡¯t sure how to bring it up, exactly. Myra really didn¡¯t have a clue how Nathan would react to this kind of revelation, or if he¡¯d even believe her, but she needed to throw out at least a morsel of truth if she wanted to get information out of him. ¡°Sorry, can I ask you to keep this between us?¡±

    Nathan squinted at her, but he didn¡¯t immediately answer.

    ¡°Sorry, I¡¯m probably making this out like a bigger deal than it is. I don¡¯t think this is a clue to what happened to him or anything.¡± Nathan nodded for her to go on. ¡°He like, asked me out? Kind of out of nowhere. He was a bit weird about it, too.¡±

    Nathan blinked in bewilderment. ¡°He asked¡ªhuh? Wait, when was this?¡±

    ¡°Oh, it¡ª¡± Shit. How do I answer this? Myra had absolutely no idea where Benkoten had been the day before the first day of class. For all she knew, he could have been with Nathan all day. She didn¡¯t even know when Ben had arrived in the city post-break. As a result, there weren¡¯t very many times Myra could give that she could be sure Nathan wouldn¡¯t directly contradict. ¡°It was in the middle of the night, the morning he disappeared. Maybe 2-3 A.M.? I was having trouble sleeping, so I went for a walk and ran into him.¡±

    ¡°... Really.¡± He sounded skeptical, maybe because Myra was a shit liar who couldn¡¯t keep a straight face. But it would be hard to call her out on this given the existing accounts that he¡¯d been acting oddly. ¡°You didn¡¯t think him being up in the middle of the night could be important?¡±

    Whoops!

    ¡°Fuck, sorry. You¡¯re right. I-I should have said something. Um¡­¡± It was time to plow ahead and ask the question she really wanted to ask. ¡°Has he been, like, crushing on me for a while or anything?¡±

    ¡°No¡­ he likes this other girl his year,¡± Nathan said. ¡°Katerina Lensi. She¡¯s on the student council with him, so he¡¯s been all stressed out over if it¡¯s appropriate to ask her on a date.¡± Nathan shrugged. ¡°She likes him back, though, she was always pretty obvious about it. She was the first person I asked after he went missing. Did he seem like he was in his right mind when he talked to you? Uh, no offense¡ªbut I can¡¯t remember him ever showing any interest in you.¡±

    Of course, Nathan was unaware of the large chunk of time where Ben¡¯s feelings could have evolved. But how had that happened? What would make a girl like her appealing to someone living a month over and over?

    ¡°Did he ask you to go with him or anything? Like on a trip with him?¡± Of course that was a natural question for Nathan to ask given Myra¡¯s obfuscations (lies), though it was completely the wrong direction.

    ¡°Ah, no, nothing like that. Perhaps he was just addled over¡­ something.¡± She tried to dismiss the whole thing. ¡°Hey, by the way, if he comes¡ªI mean, when he comes back¡ª¡± Way to go, Myra. Great job. ¡°¡ªcan you not mention this to him? Just, if he¡¯s been dealing with some kinda crap, I don¡¯t want to cause him more embarrassment over this or anything.¡± Does that sound reasonable? No, it totally sounds like I¡¯m hiding something, fuck. ¡°I¡¯ll talk to him about it if I need to, it¡¯s just, I don¡¯t want him to know I blabbed about this confession when he wasn¡¯t in his right mind¡ª¡±

    Nathan just nodded, though. ¡°Yeah, I can leave it to you if¡ªoh, shit!¡± While skipping rocks, Nathan lost track of what he was holding and accidentally chucked his sandwich, which splintered into its constituent ingredients. Myra reached out telekinetically and stopped the food before it hit the water, and slowly pulled the parts back to where they were sitting.

    ¡°Thanks.¡±

    ¡°Sorry, I wasn¡¯t able to get the pickles.¡±

    ¡°Eh, don¡¯t worry about it. Thanks for telling me about this, anyway.¡±

    ¡ô

    The conversation with Nathan ended amicably, though Myra felt terrible about the deceit, and she could scarcely believe she¡¯d gotten through it without getting caught in something. Myra made it a point to mention to the others that they should keep an eye on his well-being. Meanwhile, she had investigations to continue.

    First, Myra tried to follow up on the potential lead in the form of Katerina Lensi. As a member of the student council, Katerina wasn¡¯t that hard to track down. Myra¡¯s pretense for seeking her out was that she was concerned for Ben as Nathan¡¯s friend and that Katerina (being on the student council) might know something. Myra didn¡¯t say anything about a crush.

    The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

    Unfortunately, it wasn¡¯t very fruitful. Katerina only told her that she¡¯d already talked to Nathan, and she didn¡¯t let much show in the way of personal feelings, so it was hard to tell how upset she was. She said she hadn¡¯t seen any indications of Benkoten acting oddly, but that was to be expected since she had only interacted with him before the semester had started.

    In the end, what could she conclude?

    Shera had agreed with Myra¡¯s initial assessment, that it sounded like Benkoten had been iterating on getting into her pants. The serendipitous stuff, bumping into her in the lecture hall, liking mint tea, knowing the best way to tutor her, knowing which apprenticeship she would click with¡­ as far as she knew, all that stuff had been optimized for winning her over. He had probably iterated on the duel, too.

    But what the hell was he doing with all those drugs? Based on his state of mind, Myra was inclined to believe he hadn¡¯t been intentionally lying, at least not after his mask had come off. At that time, he¡¯d stated that the drugs weren¡¯t, actually, for the sake of forcing himself on her. He had been trying to romance her ¡°the right way,¡± for as much as his idea of what that meant was messed up. But if that was the case, what were the drugs for? She had already been near-paralyzed, but he had been about to inject her with some pink chemical. What could it possibly accomplish when a volcano was about to destroy their city?

    And why had Benkoten acted differently this time? Instead of attempting to meet Myra in the topology class, Benkoten had left campus abruptly, and it wasn¡¯t clear if that decision had anything to do with Myra. It might have been an indication that he knew Myra remembered the previous timeline, and as a result, he wanted to avoid having anything to do with her. If that was the case, he had obviously made this decision before Myra had awoken and thus before he had any chance to observe her acting differently. That could be a pretty big clue as to how Benkoten knows what he knows.

    But Myra couldn¡¯t jump to conclusions here. It was still possible that Ben simply had an entirely different objective this iteration, one that was time-sensitive and which forced him to rush off.

    So what were his objectives, overall? Surely he would be focused on investigating and preventing the catastrophe. It¡¯s what Myra would do.

    ¡­ Wouldn¡¯t she?

    ¡­ Or would she start to develop ¡°side projects¡±?

    Was that what Myra was? A side project? Maybe Ben was off right now, pursuing his real goals, while the previous loop had been a ¡°break¡± for him? A fun little dating side quest?

    ¡°God! This pisses me off!¡± Myra slammed a fish against the wall. Shera jumped. ¡°How many loops has he been fucking with me?¡± Fuck, it felt good to speak freely.

    ¡°Do you think he would have succeeded eventually? At charming you, I mean?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s what pisses me off! He was so close! Seriously, all he needed to do at this point was figure out the right way to comfort me after watching Iz get brutalized. Then I would have melted into the palm of his hand! It would have been over!¡±

    Myra paced back and forth while Shera watched her, her face pale. She had been following Myra¡¯s footsteps intently, fidgeting in response to each motion like she was afraid Myra would step too hard or pace in the wrong direction.

    ¡°And how many girls has he done this to? I¡¯ve been thinking about it, Shera, and there¡¯s nothing special about me, you know? He probably got bored of Katerina Lensi and decided to branch out. Probably made his way through the whole senior class, then started working his way down! He might have gone after Cynthia, or Iz¡­ Shera, he might have gone after you!¡±

    ¡°I d-don¡¯t think anyone would¡­¡± She bit her thumbnail, then looked horrified at it for a second before going to grab her nail clippers and undo whatever damage she perceived.

    ¡°Sorry, I shouldn¡¯t have¡­ speculated like that.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s okay.¡±

    Myra didn¡¯t think it was okay, but it was hard to make headway with Shera when she clammed up like that. So she moved on to other things.

    ¡ô

    Instructor Yam seemed to be making good on his word to teach the class to manipulate lava as the curriculum went in a completely different direction than it had the first time around. How far in advance does plan his lessons? Apparently, he planned this direction entirely from my request.

    As nice as that was, Myra was worried the class wouldn¡¯t advance far enough before the eve of the full moon. Instructor Yam was¡ªquite reasonably¡ªspending a lot of time on prerequisites first, probably stuff he would have taught them eventually anyway. Today, they were learning to manipulate boiling water.

    ¡°You need the telekinetic equivalent of oven mitts,¡± Instructor Yam explained. ¡°Otherwise you¡¯ll burn out your own aura terminals. Now, what do you all think is the best element to use to cushion yourself?¡±

    Someone suggested ice. Myra couldn¡¯t fault him. The obvious answer was right sometimes. It was worth a try.

    Iz volunteered the correct answer. ¡°Vacuum?¡±

    ¡°Exactly. I¡¯m sure you all know that heat can¡¯t be conducted through a vacuum. This remains true in aura space. Now, there are two ways to go about this. First, you can create a vacuum pocket in the physical world and ¡®push¡¯ the liquid around with the vacuum. In other words, you control where the liquid is by determining where it isn¡¯t. The second way is to do the same in aura space, pushing around the liquid with vacuum aura, without actually creating a vacuum in the physical world. The second is a lot more efficient, though the first one has the advantage that the vacuum can protect your physical body as well.¡±

    Yes. That one, Myra thought. Protecting my physical body sounds swell. She still remembered how it felt to cook alive.

    ¡°Since it¡¯s safer and easier, we¡¯re going to start with the first method.¡±

    The instructor gave some more detailed instructions and then had them get to practicing. Myra got the hang of this particular exercise pretty quickly¡ªmaybe it was easier than usual, or maybe she just had a lot of motivation for it. Iz was a natural as usual, so it left the two of them with little to do towards the end of class.

    ¡°Iz, I¡¯ve been meaning to ask you something.¡±

    ¡°Yeah?¡±

    ¡°You were in Miirun when it lost access to the Common Library, right?¡±

    Iz tensed up a bit. ¡°Yeah, why?¡±

    ¡°What exactly was that like?¡±

    She crossed her arms and looked down. ¡°It was the worst year of my life. My parents worked at our city¡¯s underground cart service, which broke down immediately. So we didn¡¯t have any income¡­ just about everything broke down, we couldn¡¯t get a reliable source of water for weeks. Every week, the story from the capital changed. One week, we were close to working out a deal with the empire. The next week, the government was determined to replace everything without the Common Library, retrain all its mages and replace all its infrastructure. But they kept flip-flopping so that work never got done¡­ Why are you asking about it now?¡±

    ¡°Actually, um, I just meant, like, what did it feel like in Abstract Space? Like, if you tried to access the Common Library yourself, was it just gone, or what?¡±

    One of the most terrifying things about that night, maybe even more terrifying than the volcano, had been the disappearance of the Common Library. It was like Iz said¡ªfar too much crucial infrastructure relied on the Common Library, and magecraft wouldn¡¯t be a tenth what it was without it. Its disappearance would be a catastrophe.

    The Raine Empire had the ability to selectively restrict the Common Library, which it did primarily on a geographic basis, thus enabling it to exert power over its subordinate states. It could also restrict access on a person-by-person basis, supposedly, though Myra understood they didn¡¯t do this very much, only to the absolute worst criminals. Her father hadn¡¯t been cut off, for instance. Exactly why they did it this way was unclear to Myra.

    At any rate, she very much hoped this was what had happened on the day of the peace talks, that the empire had cut off Casire for some reason, or at least the city of Ralkenon. The alternative¡­

    ¡°No, it wasn¡¯t gone,¡± Iz said. ¡°We could still feel it, even read some of it. But it was impossible to activate the functionality. There were some efforts to just copy some of it, make a new version we could use. I tried to help, that was actually how I got started learning logokinesis¡­ Those efforts didn¡¯t get very far, though. So many important constructions are expressed in enormously general terms, then specialized¡­ so you need an ocean of theory to do even simple things.¡±

    Shit.

    That wasn¡¯t what I experienced at all. The Common Library hadn¡¯t just been rendered inaccessible, it had been completely gone. Abstract Space had gone dark.

    How could that have happened?

    ¡ô

    ¡°Maybe Iz¡¯s account doesn¡¯t mean anything,¡± Shera suggested. ¡°Maybe the empire just¡­ changed the way it works?¡±

    ¡°Do you really think that¡¯s it?¡±

    Shera didn¡¯t say anything, just bit her lip, which answered the question enough for Myra.

    ¡°I mean, it already doesn¡¯t make much sense, does it? Why would the empire disable the Common Library in Ralkenon? When the prince and princess are here? It makes way more sense if this was an attack on the empire. I mean, we already know there was an attack on the empire, anyway.¡±

    ¡°Actually, about that,¡± Shera cut in. ¡°The prince and princess were both murdered around the time the Common Library went out, right?¡±

    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t know what time they died.¡±

    ¡°But it could have been around the right time?¡±

    ¡°What, you think it¡¯s some kind of dead man¡¯s switch? The death of imperial royalty triggering the Common Library to disappear? I guess I could see them being vindictive enough to create a dead man¡¯s switch. Though I think it¡¯d be attached to the emperor, not his son, yeah? Like¡­ I don¡¯t think the emperor would want to live in a world without the Common Library, even if his family were all dead.¡±

    ¡°Maybe the emperor was assassinated, too?¡±

    ¡°Then this whole speculation is completely baseless. And anyway, suppose they implemented a dead man¡¯s switch like this. Wouldn¡¯t they tell everybody about it? You know, to deter people from assassinating them?¡±

    ¡°Maybe they just told certain people? Maybe since the Unkmire talks were happening, they warned to Unkmire government if anything happened to them¡ªwait no¡ª¡±

    ¡°No, if it¡¯s meant as a threat against Unkmire¡ª¡±

    ¡°They¡¯d disable it in Unkmire, not in Casire. Right.¡± Shera huffed, frustrated that this direction seemed to be going nowhere. ¡°It¡¯s just that the empire is the most obvious entity to have this kind of capability.¡± She snapped a finger. ¡°Maybe they were forced into using it?¡±

    Hm. That theory had some merit, Myra thought. ¡°Well, it did rather look like the princess had been tortured.¡±

    ¡°Maybe she gave up a diagram that led to the Common Library controls.¡±

    Even if they had speculated their way to something halfway plausible, that didn¡¯t make their conclusions any less, well, speculative. The idea that the disappearance of the Common Library was connected to the event hall massacre was already an assumption, as was the idea that either of those things was connected to the time reset.

    The event hall needed to be investigated. Myra was on the fence about leaving some kind of anonymous tip to campus security (or even the Ralkenon police force) about a planned massacre, but they were already going above and beyond for security, right? Exactly how the culprit had gotten in and out of that event hall was a mystery unto itself, though it wasn¡¯t one worth speculating on without knowing more about the spatial severance process or the hall¡¯s other security functions.

    Shera had been interested in something that Myra had almost forgotten was a mystery: the large number of buildings that had collapsed during the earthquake.

    Campus buildings were all reinforced with stabilization enchantments, which had surely all failed when the Common Library had disappeared. But then what? It wasn¡¯t like the buildings ought to be structurally unsound without the enchantments. Forget about ¡®the Common Library disappearing.¡¯ The buildings had to be more robust to much more common scenarios like failures in aura distribution. Hell, most of the campus buildings were pretty old, save the new astronomy tower, so they probably predated the enchantments. That meant they would definitely have been designed to be robust to earthquakes. Right?

    Well, there wasn¡¯t any need to speculate. This was something that could be researched. Sure, it was a little odd to go around asking about building safety specifications, but Myra figured they could come up with an excuse if they had to. Shera volunteered to say that ¡°her father was worried about building safety¡± or something.

    They didn¡¯t need to do anything like that. The administrative office had a copy of the campus safety certifications, and apparently, they were just prepared to show them to anyone who wanted them, no questions asked. Maybe viewing these documents was just a thing people did sometimes. Anyway, the most recent evaluation had been five years ago, which among other things determined that all buildings on campus, even absent the stabilization enchantments, should be able to withstand up to an 8.0 magnitude earthquake. Myra was confident the tremors she felt were nothing close to an 8.0.

    ¡°It¡¯s got to be sabotage, right?¡±

    To Myra, this conclusion was obvious. Shera, naturally, was taking her word on most of this, but she didn¡¯t disagree. That someone was willing to do such a thing, or that they had the capability, was a terrifying thought. But it was also one of the few leads they had. Whereas the disappearance of the Common Library had been all but impossible to speculate on, this remained a situation where they could seek out concrete evidence.

    ¡°So what do you think, they just bombed the buildings?¡± Shera asked.

    ¡°I suppose they must¡¯ve. I didn¡¯t see any fire, though. The buildings just kinda¡­ collapsed. Like, the roofs caved in.¡±

    ¡°That could probably happen if they set it up right.¡± Shera didn¡¯t sound sure, though. Myra doubted she was an expert in controlled demolitions. ¡°But it doesn¡¯t have to be set up in advance. Mages might just come and cast in person. After all, that¡¯s probably easier once all of campus security goes down.¡±

    As the month marched on, the pair began investigating the buildings for signs of anything off. This was easier than it sounded¡ªmost of the maintenance areas weren¡¯t very well guarded (which admittedly might be part of the reason they were in this mess). To an outsider, the main obstacle would just be getting into the buildings, but Myra and Shera were students, so this wasn¡¯t an issue for them. Also, it really did seem like Shera either slept very little or not at all, and she spent a substantial number of hours prowling around at night, sensing for explosives.

    Unfortunately, they didn¡¯t find anything. This didn¡¯t deter Myra, though, who felt that evidence was more likely to show up towards the end of the month.

    ¡ô

    Time marched on with few surprises. Benkoten Talzatta remained missing, and the imperial events on campus proceeded much as Myra expected. Melaney Barlow planned her party. The prince gave a speech. As the eve of the full moon approached, Myra and Shera began devising their plans for the most eventful night of the month.

    And finally, on the last possible day, Instructor Yam brought to class a tub of burning red molten lava.

 5 - Desperation

    Instructor Yam always prioritized safety above all else. For the first lesson, they weren¡¯t allowed to work with a volume of lava larger than a marble. Yam¡¯s vacuum trick protected them in the aura plane, but it did nothing about radiated heat, which remained a problem in the physical plane. Lava could reach up to around 1500 Kelvin, and radiated energy was proportional to the fourth power of temperature, so it was very much a problem indeed, and as a result, they needed to start very small.

    Normally, a small drop of lava would cool to solid rock pretty quickly, but Instructor Yam had enchanted the lava so it would stay heated. That sounded really dangerous to Myra, but it would have been impossible to practice otherwise, she supposed.

    By the end of the class, Myra had her marble zooming around the training room. I don¡¯t know if I can protect myself when Ralkenon blows its top, Myra thought.

    But¡­

    ¡ô

    Of all the theories for how she¡¯d gotten involved in this time mess, her favorite was still the idea that she¡¯d accidentally touched some kind of artifact in Ben¡¯s room. She¡¯d been hanging out with a time-traveler, and then she had time-traveled. That couldn¡¯t be a coincidence; there had to be a causal connection there.

    And if that was the case¡­ she needed to find the artifact and touch it again.

    It was easy for her to break into Ben¡¯s room now that she knew of a glaring security hole: ceilings and walls could be made incorporeal without any issue. She wasn¡¯t sure if she would get caught by some kind of sensor, though, so she waited until the day of the eruption to enter.

    She brought Shera along, of course. The pair turned his bedroom upside-down, but they didn¡¯t find anything remotely of interest. Everything was pretty much where she¡¯d expected it to be based on the first time she¡¯d been in here. Even the Spy Wyvern series was there on his bookshelf. (Myra had half-expected to find that was something he didn¡¯t usually have around, and that he¡¯d only added it to attract her attention.)

    Shera carefully investigated the vents and the hole at the top of his window that the cord for the window blinds came out of. Myra searched his drawers and picked through his recent mail. Come on, where¡¯s his Invitation to the Super Secret League of Time-Travelers or whatever?

    ¡°Ugh, nothing,¡± Myra muttered. ¡°This was worthless to begin with. Even if the artifact was there last time, it probably wasn¡¯t here at the beginning of the month. And on the off chance it was, he probably took it with him!¡±

    ¡°We had to t-try anyway.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I know, I know. Is there anywhere we didn¡¯t look?¡±

    ¡°Actually, I wanted to check his mattress. You said you fell through it, right?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. When I made the bed incorporeal¡­ Oh! You think there could have been something hidden in the mattress, and I touched it when I fell through?¡±

    ¡°I mean. It¡¯s a good place to hide something, and if you really think you touched something without noticing, somehow¡­¡±

    ¡°Yeah, yeah! That¡¯s a great idea!¡±

    Myra yanked the sheets off, looked under the mattress, and finally opened it up to look it. There was nothing of interest. She was out of fucks to give, so she shredded the whole bed frame down in search of any kind of hidden compartment.

    Still, nothing.

    ¡°Well,¡± Myra said, trying to find a bright side. ¡°Even if the artifact theory is right, it¡¯s possible I don¡¯t actually need to touch it again. I mean, I¡¯m sure Ben will reset time again, right?¡± And if I don¡¯t come back with him, the fate of the city is in his hands.

    Shera leaned back against the desk, her eyes downcast from within their deep sockets. She heaved a heavy sigh.

    ¡°You okay?¡±

    ¡°Whatever happens, it looks like I¡¯m not going to enter.¡±

    ¡°Did you¡­ want to?¡± Shera didn¡¯t say anything. ¡°I mean, surely you don¡¯t envy my position.¡± She tried to speak casually, scratching the back of her neck. ¡°I mean, who knows how long this is going to go on.¡±

    ¡°I-I don¡¯t want to forget all this,¡± she finally said. ¡°Well¡­ I-I kind of want to forget about Z-Z-ZK-1034. But I don¡¯t want to forget about y-you. These are the only nice m-memories I have of y-you.¡±

    That kind of stung, but it was true. And the reverse was true as well. These were the only nice memories she had of Shera.

    ¡°Well, I¡¯ll recruit you again, and we can make more nice memories.¡±

    ¡°When y-you looked at me like y-you were¡­ happy to see me¡­¡± She twitched, then started speaking really quickly, her stutter worsening by several degrees. ¡°It was a n-nice memory. And then y-y-you s-said y-you al-almost h-hugged me. Y-you never d-d-did though.¡±

    Myra blinked. ¡°A hug? You want a hug?¡±

    She opened her mouth but no sound came out. Still, the answer was pretty clear. Myra wrapped her arms around the frail girl and pulled her in. She squeaked out a high-pitched ¡°eep.¡±

    ¡°Shera, this month would have been unbearable if I hadn¡¯t been able to talk to you. Thank you.¡±

    Shera melted into it, so Myra decided to stand with her for a while. Had Shera been hoping for a hug all month, or something? Myra vaguely remembered joking about almost hugging her back when she was trying to dodge the subject of time travel.

    To be honest, she¡¯d sort of thought Shera might have some kind of OCD thing against hugs, but then again, it was always sort of hard to guess what would set off her neuroses.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry we weren¡¯t able to find a way for you to get into the loop,¡± Myra said. ¡°I didn¡¯t realize it was important to you.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s okay. I-I didn¡¯t really expect us to find anything.¡±

    ¡°Well, I¡¯m going to figure out what the fuck¡¯s going on, and when I do, I¡¯ll help you get in on this time travel.¡±

    Assuming I even loop back again.

    ¡ô

    What would even happen if Ben looped back again but she didn¡¯t? Which version of Myra would he even find, the original Myra or the Myra that remembered a previous loop? She hadn¡¯t really considered it until now, but it was possible that this wasn¡¯t actually the loop after the one she remembered. Maybe Ben had looped hundreds of times since then, each time with Myra carrying out some investigations that she would only forget at the end of the loop.

    It wasn¡¯t good to dwell on these possibilities.

    Instead, it was time to straighten out what the rest of her friends would be doing for the night. Hopefully, they would not be going to the party where she expected Iz to get hurt. Hopefully, they would agree to a night out in town instead, specifically, the part of the town at the very far, opposite end from the Ralkanon Volcano. Myra would have to find a way to sneak away since she did have plans to be on campus when everything went down, but she would cross that bridge when she came to it.

    ¡°You too?¡± That was Cynthia¡¯s response when Myra suggested they skip.

    ¡°What do you mean ¡®me too¡¯?¡± Myra asked. ¡°Who else is skipping?¡±

    ¡°Nathan¡¯s skipping out,¡± Tazhin explained. ¡°Cynthia spent all day badgering him about it.¡±

    ¡°It was too much,¡± Iz said. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t be in the mood for a party either if someone close to me had been missing all month.¡±

    ¡°Y¡¯all are acting like I don¡¯t know what he¡¯s going through!¡± Cynthia protested. ¡°I thought an event could get his mind off things. Socialization would do him some good!¡±

    ¡°Yeah, but who knows how crazy this party is gonna get?¡±

    Myra took this chance to jump back in. ¡°And that¡¯s why we should go for a more low-key night out on the town!¡±

    Cynthia grimaced. ¡°I mean, we can try to do that tomorrow. I do want to go to the party. We all do, right?¡±

    Tazhin and Iz both nodded along. ¡°Yes, I want to go, too¡­¡± Iz sounded a bit ashamed of it, though. She probably worried she was being selfish.

    ¡°Do you all really want to see the princess that badly? I mean, c¡¯mon, she¡¯s probably an entitled b¡ªperson.¡±

    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t want to see her because I¡¯m a fan of hers, or anything,¡± Iz said. ¡°But I am kind of curious.¡±

    ¡°She probably ain¡¯t gonna show up, anyway,¡± Cynthia said. ¡°I just want to go to the party. I hope they have a trampoline like last time.¡± She propped a finger against her cheek and smirked at Myra. ¡°Remember that rule, after midnight?¡±

    Myra had no idea if they would have the trampoline with the midnight rule (which was that you had to be topless). There hadn¡¯t been a trampoline last time, but the fact was, the entire month had seemed to be subject to a ripple effect. Social events especially seemed to be all shuffled around, and not just in her friend group. She was also pretty sure people were sitting in different places during class. So it was impossible for Myra to say what was going to be at the party. At the moment, all she knew was that it was at the same time and place as she expected.

    ¡°Yeah, I remember.¡± At the last party with the trampoline, the one Cynthia was referring to, Myra had almost participated but had gotten cold feet at the last minute. For a bunch of reasons, this was not what she wanted to think about right now, and she intended to be gone from the party by midnight anyway. ¡°I don¡¯t think there¡¯s gonna be a trampoline this time.¡±

    ¡°Oh? And what do you know about it?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s just a feeling. Besides, I found a burger place with a limited-time sushi burger special.¡±

    ¡°That does sound kind of good,¡± Tazhin said. ¡°Maybe we could tomorrow.¡±

    Cynthia nodded. ¡°Sorry, Myra¡­ I really wanna go to the party.¡± Her tone was final.

    ¡°All right, fine. You all still have those teleport sticks I gave you, right?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, yeah, we have ¡®em.¡± Cynthia rolled her eyes, humoring Myra. Iz quietly frowned at her, her expression worried.

    ¡ô

    The party, actually, was set up pretty much exactly as Myra remembered it. Maybe that¡¯s not so surprising. Melaney might have been planning her next party in her head for some time now. There was a rock climbing ring just as before. Maybe she¡¯d get a chance to try it this time.

    Now that I think about it, Ben had been inspecting it last time, too. Oh, was that just because he knew there was a chance I¡¯d come try it out before the show started?

    Actually, the rocks also played a role in the duel between Ben and Princess Mala. Was he preparing for the duel somehow? If I were him, and I had known that Mala was going to use them in the duel, I¡¯d sabotage them.

    There wasn¡¯t any indication he¡¯d done anything like that, though.

    How many times had he actually iterated on that duel?

    Myra didn¡¯t have long for her musings. It was only a few minutes before their main guest arrived.

    It all went just about as it had before. Princess Mala strutted into the field, with her maid and Violet Penrilla in tow. She singled out Iz before anyone else could approach her. She challenged Iz, Iz demanded the pendant, and Vi was chosen to adjudicate.

    ¡°Are there any objections to the terms?¡±

    ¡°I have no objections,¡± said the princess, popping her knuckles.

    ¡°I have no objections,¡± said Iz.

    Myra watched closely.

    The most important thing to understand in mages¡¯ duels, or in any situations where magic would be used against another person, was the concept of the ¡°personal domain.¡±

    The personal domain was a region of space that extended about half a meter off one¡¯s person. Activating the personal domain was always the first thing any mage trainee learned to do, and even most non-mages learned how to do it since it was such an important protection. Myra had been taught to do it at the age of nine, years before she¡¯d learned a single spell, and it had been enabled continuously since that point, even while she slept.

    It was impossible for a mage to initiate any spell within another person¡¯s personal domain. The protection was absolute: the greatest mage in the world couldn¡¯t break through the personal domain of the weakest mage. A personal domain could also terminate existing enchantments on objects that moved into its space, though it was usually selective about this, generally acting in a way as to benefit its owner. Mages were taught to imagine that the owner ¡°unconsciously¡± makes a choice, though this wasn¡¯t strictly correct.

    Anyway, this was why duels tended to center around projectiles. A personal domain protected against magic, but it did nothing against an object with momentum. Still, there were other ways around it if you really needed to do magic directly against somebody. If two people stood close together, their personal domains would ¡°squish¡± against each other and shrink down. (This made it possible to perform most healing spells, for example.)

    Princess Mala stood about six meters from Iz in the dueling ring, so there was no squishing in effect. On the surface of it, it should be impossible for Princess Mala to psychically knock Iz back or cut directly into her skin. Not without some kind of nasty trick.

    The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    Myra watched the Princess¡¯s hands closely.

    ¡°Then let us enjoy a fair fight, and may the best mage win. 3¡­ 2¡­ 1¡­ Begin.¡±

    Just as she remembered, Iz was struck backward while blood sprayed out and two gashes appeared in her stomach.

    Fuck! What the hell? I didn¡¯t catch anything!

    The most well-known trick for getting into a foreign personal domain was something usually called ¡®tunneling,¡¯ although the legal term was some overly verbose descriptor like ¡®domain override by noncontiguous body element¡¯ if Myra remembered correctly. The idea was to break something off your body, usually a fingernail, and send it into the personal domain of your opponent. You could emanate your own personal domain through the detached body part.

    Two things about this. First, it was supposed to be really hard. Actually learning to project your personal domain through a detached body part wasn¡¯t a skill that came naturally. Secondly, it was illegal. Not, like, disallowed in the Prerarian Code of Duels or anything. It was just completely illegal.

    Last time, Myra was certain that the princess had used a tunneler. This time¡­ she scrutinized her hands; from where she stood, it looked like her fingernails were all intact.

    Huh¡­

    The crowd erupted the way she remembered it. Cynthia rushed in to administer first aid. The princess grabbed her dress clothes and marched off with her companions. Last time, this was the point when Myra had confronted her and vaguely threatened her about the tunneling. This time, she wanted to keep a low profile so she could tail them. She wanted to see where they went after the party.

    She felt bad about leaving Iz, but the princess walked very quickly, and she had to leave before she lost them. Trailing a good distance behind, she followed them as they made their way towards the center of campus. Vi seemed to be the navigator. Every now and then, they would stop at some intersection, and Vi would hurry on in some direction while the others were still getting their bearings.

    Unfortunately, Myra was too far back to hear their conversation. Is there some kind of trick to tailing people? How am I supposed to close the distance between us without them hearing my footsteps?

    Although¡­ I have every right to walk this way. And I didn¡¯t stand out at the party, either. Would they even pay me mind if I walked close to them?

    Eventually, the group¡¯s breakneck pace came to a halt near the main intersection, where they found a little spot secluded by some trees for the princess to change back into her dress. Myra finally managed to find a spot around the corner where she could eavesdrop on them, out of sight.

    ¡°When are they going to invent a way to teleport into a dress?¡± the princess grumbled. ¡°It can¡¯t be that hard. You just need a spell to hold it up in the right shape so you can teleport in.¡±

    The maid muttered something. Myra couldn¡¯t make it out, and maybe the princess couldn¡¯t either.

    ¡°What was that?¡± the princess snapped.

    ¡°This whole detour was unnecessary and irresponsible,¡± the maid said, louder this time.

    ¡°What are you going on about? I¡¯m going to get cleaned up and go to the summit as planned. What is irresponsible about that? Vi, what do you think?¡±

    ¡°About your responsibility or lack thereof?¡±

    ¡°No, about the fucking teleporting.¡±

    ¡°Language,¡± said the maid.

    ¡°Well, there¡¯s definitely spells for that,¡± Vi said. ¡°Fabric shape manipulation is a whole field. It¡¯s used in performances all the time, like when actors need to change really quickly.¡±

    Come on¡­ talk about the duel or something!

    ¡°It¡¯s how all this works, too.¡±

    ¡°There,¡± the maid said. ¡°We should go back to the changing room so I can fix your hair.¡±

    Wait, ¡®all this¡¯? What was Violet referring to? What did I miss there?

    ¡°I¡¯m going to teleport back to the hotel,¡± Violet said. ¡°I don¡¯t want to hang around this place any more than I have to.¡±

    ¡°Oh. I ruined your night, didn¡¯t I?¡± the princess asked.

    ¡°What, you thought tonight was about me?¡±

    ¡°I thought coming here¡ª¡±

    ¡°No.¡± Vi cut her off decisively. ¡°I¡¯m going to get going, though.¡±

    So the group split, with the princess and her maid heading into a nearby building. Myra wanted to catch Vi and see if she could strike up a conversation without the princess around, but she was already gone. She hadn¡¯t wasted any time in teleporting out, apparently.

    She¡¯s pretty skilled, too. The rumor was that they were staying at Hotel Caldera, a swanky upscale hotel on the far side of town. If that was true, she was teleporting quite a distance.

    ¡ô

    Myra was annoyed that she hadn¡¯t managed to catch Vi. On the whole, following the princess¡¯s group had been a thorough waste of time, so Myra set her sights on the next steps. She was supposed to meet with Shera soon to observe the collapsing of the buildings, but first, she wanted to check on Iz.

    What she didn¡¯t account for was running into Nathan outside the infirmary.

    He looked by far the worst she had ever seen him. Thick shadows adorned his bloodshot eyes, and his lanky arms dragged his shoulders down in a slouch that shaped him like a triangle.

    ¡°Oh, Nathan. I heard you were staying in. Did you come to visit Iz?¡±

    He shook his head. ¡°I was looking for you, actually. I looked at the party first, and learned about what happened, so I thought I¡¯d check out the infirmary. Why weren¡¯t you here?¡± His voice was icy, accusatory.

    ¡°What do you mean? I just got here.¡±

    ¡°By the way,¡± he cut her off abruptly, not really interested in his own question. ¡°I was talking to Kristof.¡±

    ¡°Kristof? Kristof¡­¡± Myra tried to recall the name, but she came up blank.

    ¡°Kristof Armendel. He¡¯s the one who saw Ben rushing out of the building that morning.¡±

    ¡°Oh, right.¡± He must have been someone in Ben¡¯s year.

    ¡°Yeah. Him. Anyway, you said you saw Ben earlier that night, so I thought I¡¯d ask him about it.¡±

    Myra tensed up. Nathan seemed to notice, and his eyes narrowed. It had been a whole month since they¡¯d had this discussion, and Myra wasn¡¯t expecting it to come up again. Why now of all times?

    ¡°Apparently, he was up all night and never saw him. Strange, huh?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not that strange.¡± Myra tried to sound casual. ¡°He could have missed him.¡±

    ¡°No, the dorm kitchen is right by Ben¡¯s room. Kristof says he was there all night.¡±

    ¡°I mean, it was a month ago. Maybe he forgot. Or maybe I got confused about what day it was.¡±

    ¡°How could you get confused? When we talked, it was only a couple of nights before.¡±

    I don¡¯t know, people get confused about things all the time! ¡°Well, maybe Kristof forgot,¡± Myra pointed out again.

    ¡°Myra.¡± Nathan took several steps towards her.

    ¡°I mean, when did you ask him? Just now?¡±

    ¡°Myra, If Kristof had seen Ben in the middle of the night, he would have noted it a month ago, when I first spoke to him.¡± He took a few more steps. Myra took a small step back.

    ¡°Maybe Ben took a strange way out of his room? Uh¡ª¡± As Nathan¡¯s inexorable advance neared its completion, she felt she had to say something. ¡°Maybe he teleported out? I dunno how he does it, but he can break through the dorm¡¯s disruption scheme.¡±

    Nathan lunged out and grabbed Myra¡¯s shoulder. ¡°What do you mean, he can break the fucking disruption scheme? How the fuck would he do that? How do you know that?¡±

    ¡°I, I don¡¯t¡ª¡±

    ¡°Why didn¡¯t you mention something like this before? What the fuck are you hiding, Myra? Is any of your story true?¡±

    ¡°I swear to God, he really can break the dorm¡¯s disruption scheme! I saw him do it when he¡ªhe¡ª¡±

    ¡°He what? What did Ben do?¡±

    Myra jerked back, pulling out of his grasp. ¡°It¡¯s, I can¡¯t explain¡ª¡±

    He socked her. A balled fist slammed into her jaw, propelled by a month of pent-up worry, helplessness, and confusion. She careened backward, lost her footing, and crashed her backside into the cobblestone pavement.

    She tried to speak, but only bile and a guttural sound came out. Nathan looked shocked at what he¡¯d done, gaping at his own fist in bewilderment as if it had moved on its own. She pushed herself back to her feet, using a bit of magic to give herself a nudge up. Nathan didn¡¯t move to stop or help her. She took a couple of deep breaths to steady herself.

    ¡°Nathan¡ª¡±

    He ran.

    ¡°Nathan! Wait, fuck, Nathan! Do you have that¡ª¡± Nathan vanished. ¡°¡ªemergency teleport¡­ stick?¡± Damn. She¡¯d given him one, the same as she¡¯d given Iz and Cynthia earlier, but he vanished from thin air before she could get the question out, probably executing a normal, short-range teleport. Damn it.

    Seems like everyone is teleporting away from me these days.

    She rubbed at her throbbing jaw and felt a tender, bloody spot on her lip. Guy knows how to punch.

    In a bit of a daze, she continued on to the infirmary. Iz was in a different room this time. That was mildly interesting.

    Iz was sitting up in her bed. Cynthia was crammed in by her side, cradling her shoulders in her arms. They almost gasped when they saw her. She hadn¡¯t checked a mirror, so she didn¡¯t know how bad she actually looked.

    ¡°Myra, what the fuck happened?¡±

    ¡°What, this? I just fell.¡±

    ¡°Myra¡ª¡±

    ¡°Really, it¡¯s nothing.¡± Her voice was dry and dull, so it probably wasn¡¯t very convincing.

    She sat down at the foot of the bed where there was room. ¡°You guys been watching over Nathan all month?¡±

    ¡°Cynthia has,¡± Iz said.

    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ve been staying over at his room.¡±

    Myra blinked. ¡°Oh, you have?¡±

    ¡°I mean, not like that.¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t imply it was like anything.¡±

    ¡°I mean, he has a futon, right?¡± She thought for a moment. ¡°Right, yeah. He¡¯s got a futon. Anyway, after Ben went missing, like the third or fourth day, the day Ben was in the paper, it really hit Nathan that it wasn¡¯t some weird misunderstanding, and Ben was, like, capital-M missing. I helped him cry himself to sleep¡ªum, wait, don¡¯t tell him I told you that.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry.¡±

    How close had Nathan and his brother been, really?

    Was that how normal people reacted when it came to their family? Was that how she was supposed to react? To the idea that she¡¯d never speak to her father without a small, barred window between them? She loved her father. Didn¡¯t she? She thought she did. Yet it hadn¡¯t occurred to her to cry at all. It hadn¡¯t occurred to her to feel anything other than frustration at her own inconveniences.

    ¡°Myra¡­ are you sure you¡¯re ok?¡± Iz asked.

    ¡°Really, don¡¯t worry about it. I should be asking you.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m fine. The cuts aren¡¯t as deep as they looked.¡±

    ¡°No, they actually are pretty deep,¡± Cynthia said.

    ¡°Why¡¯d you agree to it?¡± Myra asked. ¡°The duel?¡±

    Iz took a while to answer.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. How often will I get a chance to face someone from the imperial family? Even if I didn¡¯t think I¡¯d win¡­ I was sure I¡¯d regret it if I didn¡¯t face her.¡±

    ¡°You know what Iz has been through.¡± Cynthia glared at Myra as if it had been insensitive to ask the question.

    ¡°It¡¯s okay,¡± Iz said. ¡°I don¡¯t mind talking about it.¡±

    ¡°Why¡¯d you ask for the pendant?¡±

    She shrugged. ¡°Thought it might get under her skin.¡±

    ¡°Did you know what it meant to her?¡±

    ¡°It was a shot in the dark. It wasn¡¯t much of a stretch to think it was something personal, was it? And it was one of the only things she kept on when she teleported out of that dress. You know, I was worried I was being too nasty, demanding something like that.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re a sweet girl, Izzy,¡± Cynthia cooed, running a gentle hand down her curly brown hair. ¡°Don¡¯t say that about yourself.¡± She kissed Iz gently on her temple.

    ¡°She could have just said no, anyway,¡± Myra added. ¡°You didn¡¯t force her into anything. She accepted your proposal because she wanted to teach you a lesson.¡±

    ¡°Myra,¡± Iz said suddenly. ¡°You knew something like this was going to happen, didn¡¯t you?¡±

    ¡°Huh¡ª? How did you¡ª?¡±

    Cynthia looked between the two of them in confusion. ¡°What? How¡¯d Myra know something?¡±

    ¡°The first day of class, remember? Myra asked if I knew the princess, if I had any kinda conflict with her. And that girl who was with her, Vi. You mentioned her too. She¡¯s Violet Penrilla, right?¡±

    ¡°Oh. Yeah, I asked you about her.¡±

    ¡°And you¡¯ve been acting so oddly all month, giving us these teleport sticks, and you didn¡¯t want us to show up at the party, which was so unlike you. It¡¯s like you have some kind of foreknowledge. Oh, and you knew there wouldn¡¯t be a trampoline at the party.¡±

    ¡°Yeah¡­ that¡¯s right.¡±

    ¡°And on the first day of class¡­ you said something about time travel, too.¡±

    ¡°Time travel?¡± Cynthia cried.

    ¡°So I want to know exactly what you¡¯re so afraid of that you gave us all emergency teleport sticks.¡±

    Myra let out a long, long sigh. ¡°Yeah. I lived through this month before, starting the first day of class. Sorry, I¡ªI really gotta go soon, and I don¡¯t have time to explain the whole thing. I think time is repeating over and over, though I don¡¯t really know how it works or why it¡¯s happening. I only experienced it once, and I only have circumstantial evidence it¡¯s a repeated thing¡ª¡±

    Despite Cynthia¡¯s incredulous expression, Iz took in Myra¡¯s explanation stoically.

    ¡°Anyway, the volcano is going to erupt, and I didn¡¯t think you¡¯d believe me, so I gave you the emergency sticks. But this building is probably going to collapse, so you need to get out as soon as you hear rumbling.¡±

    ¡°Why the fuck didn¡¯t you tell us?¡± Cynthia snapped. ¡°Why the fuck would you handle this on your own?¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t know how to get you to believe me! And I haven¡¯t been alone.¡±

    ¡°So that¡¯s why you¡¯ve been hanging out with Shera Marcrombie,¡± Iz realized, observant as ever. ¡°And she¡¯s right, Cynthia, we wouldn¡¯t have believed her at the start of the month.¡±

    ¡°I would have!¡±

    ¡°No, you wouldn¡¯t have,¡± Iz said sternly.

    Cynthia deflated, then slowly let go of Iz and buried her face in her hands. ¡°I¡¯m a bad friend.¡±

    ¡°Cynthia, you¡¯re not a bad friend,¡± Myra said. ¡°I just¡­ need to figure out the trick to convincing you all earlier.¡±

    ¡°Okay, well what can we do now?¡± Cynthia asked.

    ¡°Well¡­ it would be nice to get more help looking for some saboteur bringing down the buildings,¡± Myra admitted. ¡°But I¡¯d rather know you two are safe.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not in any shape to help,¡± Iz said quietly.

    ¡°And it¡¯s probably best Cynthia stay with you.¡±

    ¡°Sorry,¡± Iz apologized, though it wasn¡¯t necessary.

    ¡°Do you know when time is going to reset?¡± Iz asked.

    ¡°I have no idea. The last time it happened, I, um, died. The only one who might know more is, um, Benkoten. but I haven¡¯t seen him at all this time around.¡±

    Iz blinked. ¡°Ben. Okay.¡± She turned to Cynthia. ¡°We should probably get going. It sounds like Myra has something she wants to do.¡± Cynthia started scrambling around in her pockets for her emergency teleport sticks. ¡°Oh¡ªand Myra.¡±

    ¡°Yeah?¡±

    ¡°Um¡­ I know you were trying to protect me when you were trying to get us to skip out on the party. I mean, you were trying to keep this from happening, right?¡± She patted her stomach.

    ¡°Of course.¡±

    ¡°Well, I just want you to know¡­ the decisions I made today were all mine. And I¡¯d make them again.¡±

    ¡°What, you¡­ want me to watch you get hurt again and again?¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t have to watch.¡± Her voice was resolute and firm.

    I don¡¯t understand you sometimes¡­

    ¡°If you really want to help me¡­¡± She almost smirked. ¡°Help me win.¡±

    ¡°Of course.¡±

    Cynthia got the sticks ready, holding onto Iz so she would come along with her.

    ¡°Oh, actually, one last thing,¡± Myra said quickly. ¡°Do you have any idea how she got past your domain?¡±

    ¡°Oh, that? She used a tunneler.¡±

    ¡°I thought it was something like that, but I didn¡¯t catch it.¡±

    ¡°Oh, um, I think she snuck it through the grass so nobody would notice. Maybe it was her toenail.¡±

    Her toenail? Oh, right, she¡¯d been barefoot. It would be pretty difficult to catch her in the act if that was the case.

    With that, they said quick goodbyes, and Cynthia snapped her stick, and the two of them vanished.

    Once Myra was faced with looking upon the vacant bed where her friends had been sitting, something heavy welled up in her chest. She almost choked. Having them believe her, with so little time left¡­ It was bittersweet.

    She collected herself and left the infirmary.

    According to her watch, it was now a bit after midnight. The peace talks should have already started. Last time, the Common Library had disappeared around half past midnight, though one of her plans for tonight was to get a more exact time.

    She had missed the time she was supposed to meet Shera. They were supposed to do their final circuit looking for any saboteurs or hidden bombs, but she wasn¡¯t at the meeting place outside the infirmary. Time was tight, so she might have decided to go ahead and meet up with Myra later at the event hall.

    But not for the first time that night, Myra ran into someone unexpected. The incoming person appeared right in front of her, accompanied by the usual light bit of wind that resulted from the displaced air of a teleport. His eyes caught immediately on Myra, and his face lit up as if he¡¯d been looking for her.

    Standing with his shoulder bag, clean-shaven and hair combed, looking entirely presentable like he was heading to a student council meeting, was Benkoten.

 6 - Diagrams

    ¡°Myrabelle.¡± Gone was the cheery and pompous tone that the student council president usually sported. He was tense, guarded.

    He knows. This was obvious to Myra. Or he suspects, at least. Maybe he¡¯s trying to feel me out?

    ¡°Ben! You¡¯re¡ªyou¡¯re alive. And you¡¯re okay.¡±

    ¡°Hm? Of course, I¡¯m alive.¡±

    ¡°Where the fuck have you been? We were all worried sick about you!¡±

    ¡°Well, I¡¯m very well not going to spend every month going to the same classes again, am I? I was training in the Ptolkeran Mountains this time.¡±

    ¡°What the hell were you doing in the¡ªwhat the fuck are you talking about? What do you mean ¡®the same classes again¡¯?¡±

    He rolled his eyes and huffed with impatience. ¡°Please, Myrabelle. If you¡¯re trying to play dumb, it isn¡¯t going to work.¡±

    She decked him in the jaw. ¡°That¡¯s from your younger brother, you asshole!¡±

    She didn¡¯t know martial arts, and she certainly didn¡¯t know how to punch. It was kind of embarrassing, really. He stumbled back a few steps, seemingly knowing how to roll with a punch.

    In fact, he seemed more confused by her words than her attempt at violence. ¡°My brother¡ªNathan? What about him?¡±

    ¡°Your brother has been worried sick, you fuckwit! What the fuck is wrong with you, running off to the fucking Ptolkeran Mountains without saying a word to him?¡± She decked him again, in the stomach this time, a bit more appropriate to her height, and putting some magical force behind her swing. He doubled up, clutching his gut.

    ¡°I confess¡ª¡± He gasped. ¡°I didn¡¯t much think about Nathan at all. It will be wiped away in an hour anyway, but you have probably guessed this already.¡±

    ¡°How could I have guessed something like¡ªI¡ªI mean¡ª¡± Shit shit shit play dumb Myra. ¡°I mean, what the fuck are you talking about?¡±

    ¡°Once again, you¡¯re quite bad at this. But I understand. You must have died in the eruption, before the reset time, is that right?¡±

    This was information. Good information, but she had forgotten to react as cluelessly as she should have. God, this was stupid.

    ¡°Fine, you got me. I didn¡¯t know if you knew, so I played dumb.¡±

    He smirked, having won the opening of the conversation. ¡°I confess, I¡¯m a little curious what you think of this situation. Did you figure out anything?¡±

    ¡°How would I figure out anything? Any clues were erased and you ran off! How did you know I reset like you? Did you get me involved on purpose?¡±

    He laughed to himself, seeming to find the notion funny. ¡°What do you think? You think I would run off like that if I got you involved on purpose?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. I can¡¯t make heads or tails of what your aim is! And stop dodging the important questions! You¡¯ve been resetting for much longer than me, I¡¯m sure of that much. So why¡¯d I suddenly reset? And do I need to do whatever it was again?¡±

    He made a series of complicated expressions as Myra spoke, though each was unreadable as the last. ¡°Do what again?¡±

    ¡°Whatever I did to enter the loop.¡±

    ¡°To do what?¡ªOh.¡± A gear seemed to shift in his head to get what Myra was going for. I was on a track he didn¡¯t expect¡­? ¡°I didn¡¯t think through your perspective. But you¡¯re al¡ª¡± He cut himself off suddenly, then clamped down his jaw hard.

    ¡°But I¡¯m what?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve probably said too much, I should¡ªactually, no, I do need to ask this question.¡± He plowed straight ahead, ignoring Myra¡¯s protests. ¡°I assume you would have mentioned it already, but I want to make sure.¡±

    ¡°Why would I answer if you just said you won¡¯t tell me anything else?¡±

    ¡°Did you attract anyone¡¯s attention?¡±

    Well, she certainly didn¡¯t want him to find out about Shera. ¡°I kept it all to myself if that¡¯s what you mean.¡± Wait, should I have bluffed? Did I protest too much there? God, lying is hard.

    ¡°No, I mean¡ª¡± He paused and glanced around, not at anything particular, just the way you do when you¡¯re nervous. He dropped his voice. ¡°¡ªwere you confronted? Like, by anyone odd? Probably anonymous, maybe wearing a mask?¡±

    ¡°A mask? Like a medical mask? Or a ninja mask?¡±

    ¡°Anything to obscure their identity.¡± He took Myra¡¯s blank stare as an answer. ¡°I suppose not, then.¡± He made a phew sound, nearly inaudible.

    ¡°Who would have confronted me wearing a mask? And why?¡±

    ¡°To be honest, I don¡¯t know. I thought maybe if they had, I could learn more about them.¡±

    ¡°This is someone you ran into before? What did they do?¡±

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter. That really was all I wanted to ask.¡±

    Maybe Myra, despite everything, had been too optimistic. Maybe a part of her had thought that once she opened up, once she cast off the paranoia and lies, the two of them would begrudgingly make up and work together to stop whatever was going on. Now that Ben had a potential companion in the loop, didn¡¯t it make sense to change his plans, whatever they had been?

    Ben reached into his shoulder bag and pulled out a vial of clear liquid. Behind it, she caught sight of a bright pink syringe.

    ¡°Oh, fuck off, you¡ª¡±

    A burst of wind pushed her back, and she fell to the ground for the second time that evening. Bright orange leaves slammed into her face, and she could barely see Benkoten approaching her.

    ¡°¡ªfucking¡ª¡± She spat out a leaf. ¡°¡ªscumbag!¡±

    She pushed back with her own wind, superheating it at the same time. It didn¡¯t seem to bother him, either because he didn¡¯t mind the heat or he cooled it down somehow. It didn¡¯t matter. It was camouflage for something much hotter.

    Without a hint of shame or hesitation, and no compunctions about doing this outdoors, Ben kneeled over top of her and readied the vial. That must be the drug to paralyze me.

    It hadn¡¯t exactly been easy to carry around a small lava-marble wherever she went. Instructor Yam had been pretty lax, and it was easy enough to swipe it out of the training room, but a small sphere of literal lava would have stood out if she kept it floating around at her back. Instead, she¡¯d been navigating it through the sewers all day.

    It was impossible to miss, a bright, red hot marble in the dark of the night, floating up to the surface through a sewer grate. She compelled it with all the momentum she could give it, pointed straight at Benkoten¡¯s back.

    Ben noticed it just in time, and he reached out with his own telepathic hand.

    ¡°AAUGGH!¡± He screeched, spraying Myra in spit, his face twisting in agony. ¡°FUCK!¡± The wind, the leaves, everything he was controlling just stopped. Myra took the chance to knock him off of her, and his legs gave out. He fell to the ground, writhing in pain.

    ¡°Fuck!¡± he yelled again. ¡°What the fuck was that?¡±

    It was exactly like Instructor Yam had said. If you tried to touch something like lava telekinetically, you¡¯d burn out your aura terminals.

    ¡°Aauhhh¡­¡±

    Myra didn¡¯t waste any time before rooting through his handbag. Besides the drugs she¡¯d already seen¡ªthe vial (presumably the paralysis drug) and the pink syringe (purpose unknown)¡ªthere was also the blue syringe. Just like last time.

    There was no mysterious artifact.

    ¡°Where the hell is it?¡± she demanded, pressing a foot on his chest. ¡°There¡¯s an artifact I have to touch, isn¡¯t there? Something like that? Where is it? How do I go back in time?¡±

    ¡°Y-you¡­ don¡¯t¡ª¡± He had trouble speaking under her foot. ¡°¡ªunderstand what¡¯s going on. You got it¡­ backward¡­¡±

    ¡°What the fuck does that mean?¡± She pressed harder, and he started choking.

    ¡°I¡¯ve said¡­ too¡­¡± He didn¡¯t finish. He teleported, and her foot pressed down through empty space.

    She twirled around. Backward? What was backward? Is he just spouting nonsense? She didn¡¯t see him anywhere. Damn it! Did he give up?

    She collected his things, which had all been left behind. She stashed all the drugs in his bag. She thought about taking his staff, but it would be awkward to carry around two and not particularly useful, so she snapped it in half.

    She looked through the bag again in case she missed something. There was a wool cap that was probably appropriate for the Ptolkeran Mountains, and there were a handful of aura crystals that were probably useful if he was away from the rich aura distribution channels of the city. For that matter, they might be useful after the Common Library shuts down, which incidentally happened just as Myra was thinking about it.

    She checked her watch. 12:39 A.M.

    I should get going.

    It was time to check out the event hall.

    ¡ô

    The last time she¡¯d been here, Myra had been too shell-shocked to react to anything. She had walked outside in a daze, barely processing the crime scene. This time, Myra had had plenty of time to mentally steel herself.

    That didn¡¯t make it easy.

    The putrid stench of blood and guts oppressed the room, the streaks of blood smeared over the table painted a picture of barbarity, and the frozen expression of the princess, eyes wide and mouth locked open, revealed her final moments as anguish.

    When not otherwise specified, the apparent cause of death is a slit throat. (Apparent cause of death is based on Myrabelle¡¯s non-expert visual inspection.)

    ~~ ¡°Neutral¡± mediator (who are they kidding, exactly?) ~~

    <ol>

    <li style="font-weight: 400"> Judge Philium Krasus (Apparent cause of death: bashed in the head)</li>

    </ol>

    ~~ Imperial faction ~~

    <ol start="2">

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Prince Humperton Raine</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Princess Malazhonerra Raine (Apparent cause of death: see diagram)</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Imperial Sage of Economy - Elwyn Senserenasia</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Imperial Sage of Magical Infrastructure - Hazel Ornobis</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Imperial Sage of Magical Practice - Aiko Ueno</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Imperial Sage of Engineering - Theodore Kettle</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Imperial Sage of Forestry - Marcus Bora</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Imperial Sage of Seafaring - Linda Zeawak</li>

    </ol>

    ~~ Unkmire faction ~~

    <ol start="10">

    <li style="font-weight: 400">King Niwal</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Unkmire royal staff member</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Unkmire royal staff member</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Unkmire royal staff member</li>

    </ol>

    ~~ Decorative armor statues ~~

    <ol type="A">

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Usually carries a sword, found on the table (A¡¯)</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Usually carries a mace, found on the floor (B¡¯)</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Carries a shield</li>

    </ol>

    <hr>

    Myra broke out of her shock before Iwasaki did. Trying to avoid breathing in through her nose¡ªNote to self: buy a face mask for next time, assuming there¡¯s a next time¡ªshe took a close look at the state of the princess.

    Her arms had been sliced off near the shoulders, and the legs at the thighs. All four limbs were wrapped tightly in gauze bandages at the end. So the culprit kept her alive for a while¡­ That answers one of my questions: Was arranging the body for our sake, the sake of those who would discover the scene, or was it to torture the princess? It must have been the second, if not both.

    It was grotesque to imagine. Myra had her beef with the princess, but nobody deserved this. And happening again and again¡­ At least she wouldn¡¯t remember after the time reset.

    There were footprints all over the table. They went all over the place, and clearly whoever had left them had no compunctions about walking through blood, despite¡ªfrom the look of the prints¡ªbeing barefoot. Strangely, there were no footprints on the floor, except what probably came from the entrance of the 13 individuals.

    The princess¡¯s pendant was in the middle of the table, between the head and neck, soaked in blood. Myra took the pendant and examined it. Should have brought gloves, too¡­

    ¡°What are you doing?¡± Iwasaki demanded, snapping out of his trance suddenly.

    ¡°I¡¯m inspecting the scene.¡± God, she probably looked like a psychopath.

    The pendant seemed to just be a normal pendant. It opened up to show a small portrait of a teenage Malazhonerra together with her mother, Princess Consort Madelyn Raine, who had died of a rare type of brain cancer six years ago. Myra remembered the event: it was considered particularly tragic because a treatment for the disease was suddenly developed just less than a year later. Myra had been annoyed at the newspapers because Mirkas-Ballam had made a huge breakthrough, curing a disease thought incurable, but all anyone would say was that it had been ¡°too late.¡±

    Anyway, the princess had indicated this pendant was some kind of keepsake for her mother, so that checked out.

    ¡°You-you shouldn¡¯t disturb the crime scene,¡± Iwasaki urged. ¡°You don¡¯t want to get in trouble with the authorities on something as¡ªas high-profile as this.¡±

    ¡°High profile.¡± That¡¯s a bit of an understatement¡­ Honestly, I think you should be a lot more worried than I am.

    Myra wanted to take a look at the wristwatch, though it would be annoying to do that with Iwasaki hovering around.

    ¡°How is it possible someone could get in here?¡± Myra asked.

    ¡°It¡¯s not possible.¡±

    ¡°So one of these thirteen must be our culprit, and they committed suicide. Who do you think it is?¡±

    Iwasaki was speechless.

    Myra bent down to get a good look at everyone¡¯s feet. ¡°Everybody¡¯s wearing shoes.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry?¡±

    She gestured to the footprints on the table. ¡°The culprit was barefoot.¡± Nobody was wearing shoes that looked like they could be taken off easily. The only exception was the princess, wearing heels that could slip on and off. But it would have been hard for the princess to walk around in her own blood, right?

    ¡°Oh. I see.¡± That was all Iwasaki said.

    The next thing she wanted to inspect was the weapons, starting with the sword at the edge of the table. ¡°Does this go with one of those armor statues?¡±

    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    ¡°Yes, it goes with the middle one, here. It¡¯s only decorative, though. It can¡¯t cut.¡±

    ¡°Oh.¡± Myra had assumed it had been used to cut the Princess into pieces. It was, after all, drenched in blood¡ªwait. ¡°Um, sir, this blade is definitely sharp.¡±

    ¡°What?¡± he snapped. ¡°Let me see that.¡±

    ¡°This edge here.¡±

    ¡°This has been sharpened,¡± he insisted. ¡°I¡¯m certain this is the same sword. Look, this sharp bit doesn¡¯t even run down the whole length.¡± He pointed to the base of the sword, near the hilt. Indeed, it seemed to dull out at the end. ¡°And look at the table. See these little metal specks?¡±

    He was right. Now that she looked closely, the table was covered in ground-up bits of metal.

    ¡°Is there a spell that can shave up metal like this?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sure it¡¯s not hard. It¡¯s probably the easiest way to make a blade out of anything in this room.¡±

    Hm. Myra¡¯s eyes were drawn back to the stumps that terminated the princess¡¯s arms and legs. ¡°What about the gauze? Could they have gotten gauze from inside this room?¡±

    ¡°Gauze, like first aid?¡±

    ¡°Like on her stumps.¡±

    ¡°No, there wouldn¡¯t have been anything like that in here.¡±

    ¡°So the culprit brought the bandages, which means this was all premeditated. But they didn¡¯t bring their own blade? Or, like, a bone saw or whatever you use to cut off limbs? Were the participants able to bring weapons in here?¡±

    ¡°That would have been up to them. It was not up to me to search them or otherwise enforce what they could bring in here. I was only responsible for the building.¡±

    Regardless of the policy, it¡¯s pretty reasonable that one of the participants would avoid carrying in a knife. If the culprit was some intruder who snuck in, though, they¡¯d have no reason to not bring their own flesh-cutting instrument. Does that confirm the culprit is one of the thirteen?

    ¡­ And that they committed suicide afterward?

    She planned to move on to inspect the judge, but at that moment, someone else burst into the event hall. Shera, covered in dust and nearly out of breath, had finally arrived.

    She gave the scene a once-over and took a moment to get through her shock.

    ¡°Shera!¡± Myra pulled the girl into another hug. ¡°I was worried about you.¡±

    ¡°I-I was worried about you. You didn¡¯t show up¡ª¡±

    ¡°Uh, stuff happened.¡± Actually, Myra was late even before she ran into Ben, but she didn¡¯t mention that bit.

    ¡°Buildings collapsing is-is a lot more intense than I ever expected.¡± She wiped some of the dust off her. ¡°I thought I was going to suffocate.¡± She shoved a piece of paper into Myra¡¯s hand. ¡°Here, these are all the buildings that collapsed.¡±

    Shera¡¯s campus map was marked with Xs over some of the buildings. Interestingly, they were all on the east side of campus, though a few of the buildings on that side still stood, like the astronomy tower. Myra quickly tried to memorize it.

    ¡°Let me see that,¡± Iwasaki said. He looked at the map for a second, though he didn¡¯t comment on it in the end. ¡°Where is everybody else? Are they making their way here?¡±

    ¡°Most everyone by the dorms evacuated in a different direction,¡± Shera explained. ¡°They would have had to get through all this debris to get here, anyway. I didn¡¯t see anyone outside near this part of campus.¡± Unspoken was the fact that anyone inside near this part of campus had probably been crushed by a caved-in roof.

    Iwasaki breathed a small sigh of relief, though if that was because of the students¡¯ apparent safety, or because it meant nobody else would come upon this scene was unclear. Myra didn¡¯t care about this much because they were going to be drowning in lava in a matter of minutes anyway.

    ¡°Did you find any, uh¡ª?¡± Myra wanted to ask about saboteurs, but it was awkward with Iwasaki.

    Shera shook her head. ¡°I did see Ben, though.¡±

    ¡°I had a run-in with him. What was he doing?¡±

    ¡°He, uh, committed suicide, I think. I just saw him appear three floors in the air, fall impassively to the ground, and crack his skull open.¡±

    ¡°Okay¡­ that kind of makes sense.¡± He had been in a lot of pain, and he had probably been incapable of using substantial magic with his aura terminals burnt out. That he had teleported at all was pretty impressive.

    ¡°What happened with him, exactly?¡±

    How do I even explain succinctly¡­? ¡°If he¡¯s to be believed, the time resets is at a specific time, which is soon. He seemed pretty confused by the idea that I needed to ¡®do something¡¯ to continue looping without losing my memories, but he seemed to regret giving this away, and he was really determined to not say anything about how I entered the loop in the first place. His main objective was to drug me again, and I think the only reason he talked to me at all was he wanted to find out if someone suspicious and disguising their identity had approached me. Uh, then we fought and I won, basically.¡±

    ¡°A student drugged you?¡± Iwasaki asked, hanging by a finger onto the only comprehensible element of their mad conversation.

    ¡°Uh, he tried.¡±

    Shera and Iwasaki both wanted to inspect the drugs. Shera quickly identified the vial¡¯s chemical as leaftac extract, a common date-rape paralysis drug, based on its smell. Iwasaki, who looked like he wanted to do anything other than look at the crime scene, did some kind of inspection spell and confirmed it was a simple organic molecule, but he couldn¡¯t make heads or tails of the red drug or the blue drug. Iwasaki wasn¡¯t an alchemist, though, and Myra was pretty sure his analysis spell was supposed to be paired with a data lookup into the Common Library. That meant his analysis was incomplete.

    ¡°You¡¯re sure there¡¯s nothing else in the leaftac?¡± Shera asked. ¡°No unknown substance?¡±

    ¡°It had a concentration of 3%,¡± Iwasaki clarified. ¡°The rest was water.¡±

    Shera frowned. Myra could guess what she was thinking. Last loop, Ben had got her with a paralysis drug, but she had escaped before he could inject the weird unknown drugs. So if any of the drugs were responsible for putting her in the time loop, it would be the one she took¡ªbut it was just leaftac. Or at least, the one Ben had today was just leaftac, but it was probably the same one he used last time. And anyway, all signs still pointed to her looping being not intended by Ben, which ruled out the drugs as the source of the time loop, unless he had really screwed up.

    Shera looked sad, though. She was still hoping they¡¯d figure it out.

    ¡°Here, Shera.¡± Myra tossed her the shoulder bag. ¡°Touch everything in this bag, just in case.¡± Shera complied, even though they both knew this was almost certainly useless. Inexplicably, she put the wool cap on her head.

    ¡°Did you learn anything about the¡ªthe massacre?¡±

    ¡°Not a whole lot. I was about to examine the judge.¡±

    Shera followed Myra behind the table, where the judge was dead on the ground. Shera spent a moment taking it in: the chair on the floor, the judge sprawled out on his back, his wig, the mace from the hand of the nearest suit of armor, the blood pooling from his forehead.

    ¡°Wh-what the fuck?¡± Shera asked. ¡°How did he get like this?¡±

    ¡°The position does seem really unnatural. He was hit by the mace, right?¡± Myra asked.

    ¡°I¡¯d guess so,¡± Shera muttered. ¡°But how did he get here? It looks like he fell over in his chair, I-I mean, look where the wig landed, right? So¡ª¡±

    ¡°¡ªHow the hell did he get all the way over to the side like this?¡± Myra finished the thought.

    ¡°Perhaps the blow did not kill him immediately,¡± Iwasaki suggested.

    ¡°Okay, so he stood up again,¡± Shera said, humoring the idea. ¡°Then what? How did he fall and end up in this position?¡± She raised her arms out, mimicking the way the judge was sprawled out. ¡°Look h-how s-symmetrical his pose is. I mean, I¡¯m happy for him, but that¡¯s w-weird, right?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I don¡¯t know,¡± Myra said. ¡°I mean, someone could have moved him.¡±

    ¡°Move him and arrange him perfectly symmetrically? Even I wouldn¡¯t do that just for the sake of symmetry.¡± Myra suspected it wasn¡¯t ¡®just for the sake of symmetry,¡¯ but she was at a loss for other explanations. ¡°I¡¯m going to look for more bruises,¡± Shera announced.

    ¡°Hey, don¡¯t disrupt¡ª¡± He moved to stop Shera, grabbing her shoulder.

    ¡°Ah-Ah-¡± Shera wiggled under his grasp. ¡°D-don¡¯t t-touch-m-me-I-I-I-¡±

    Thrown off by her intense reaction, Iwasaki let go, but he continued to insist. ¡°You cannot interfere with the scene.¡±

    ¡°We d-d-don¡¯t know when the au-authorities will get here¡ª¡±

    ¡°Any important clues will still be here later. Let¡¯s go back out¡ª¡±

    ¡°Y-you said it was safer in here!¡± Shera protested.

    ¡°¡ªout into the outer hall¡ª¡±

    ¡°We don¡¯t know that clues will be here!¡± Myra interrupted. ¡°Someone already got in and out when it should have been impossible! We can vouch for the state of the room, but not if you usher us out!¡±

    ¡°We-we need to f-figure out why he¡¯s s-symmetrical,¡± Shera said.

    ¡°We need to find a clue as to who did this and how,¡± Myra said, trying to find something a little more persuasive. ¡°Otherwise, we¡¯ll have to conclude¡ª¡± She waved her hands around. She didn¡¯t want to state it outright, the obvious suspect in this ¡®impossible security¡¯ situation. ¡°¡ªI dunno!¡±

    ¡°They¡¯d c-c-conclude campus security sabotaged the hall,¡± Shera said. ¡°It¡¯s-it¡¯s the obvious an-answer.¡± From the casual way she spoke, you wouldn¡¯t have even known Iwasaki was in the room. It was the oblivious tactlessness that had always driven Myra up the wall in the past, but the bluntness may have been what they needed.

    ¡°Th-that¡¯s ridiculous, of course.¡± He didn¡¯t sound remotely convinced. ¡°I understand how it looks, but I will take responsibility¡ª¡± He gulped suddenly, his adam¡¯s apple bobbing prominently. ¡°I will¡ª¡±

    ¡°Sir?¡±

    His neck was drenched in sweat now. Oh God, it¡¯s hitting him, isn¡¯t it?

    Because it doesn¡¯t really matter if he¡¯s guilty or not. A prince, a princess, and a king are dead under his watch.

    Someone is going to have his head.

    ¡°I w-won¡¯t touch him,¡± Shera said calmly. ¡°But I¡¯m going to use my e-e-extra-senses.¡±

    ¡°Very well,¡± he said reluctantly. Shera kneeled down to psychically search the corpse. Iwasaki watched her like a hawk, tapping his foot anxiously. Myra actually felt pretty bad for the old security head¡ªthis probably wasn¡¯t his fault, but they were on a time limit, and she needed to get a move on.

    You¡¯ve only looped once, Myra, and already you think you know better than everyone else, huh?

    This thought didn¡¯t stop her from taking advantage of the situation. While Iwasaki was distracted, Myra stealthily took a look at the wristwatch off the princess¡¯s arm, as disgusting as that was.

    The watch had a gold frame, and the wristband was woven of golden chain links, like chainmail. It was pretty soft. It also wasn¡¯t that heavy, so it probably wasn¡¯t actually solid gold, but it certainly looked very nice. Its two hands showed the current time, 12:54.

    And when she looked at the back, it very obviously had a secret compartment. Myra popped it open and faced a surface with a runic engraving.

    The circle around the edges was difficult to read because it was so small¡ªMyra added ¡®magnifying glass¡¯ to her list of things to bring¡ªbut it was not very complex. It didn¡¯t do much but help the owner connect to a certain object in the Common Library. The definition of the object was given as the limit of a diagram in the center of the circle. This was, in some sense, the ¡°address¡± of the object, and this was where most of the engraving¡¯s information lay. Of course, it was totally useless with the Common Library gone. And because the diagram was so dense, there was no way for her to memorize it and check the object out herself after the reset.

    ¡°Wha¡­¡± Shera muttered to herself back from behind the table.

    ¡°What¡¯s up?¡±

    ¡°Give me a sec.¡± She started rummaging around more furiously.

    Myra obliged and moved on to the prince¡¯s wristwatch. It seemed to be the same, with a compartment you could open from the back. Again, there was a very complex diagram inside. She compared the two, trying to see if they were the same. They did appear to be, though she certainly didn¡¯t check the whole thing. As far as she knew, there were five symbols out of ten thousand that were personalized.

    ¡°Okay, come look at this,¡± Shera finally said. ¡°First, he¡¯s got a couple of bruises on his legs right here. I-I think. It would be easier if we could physically look under his clothes.¡± She gestured to his shins. ¡°But that¡¯s not what¡¯s w-weird.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s weird?¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s got braces in his clothes.¡±

    ¡°Braces?¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s this wire mesh thing! Feel for yourself!¡±

    Myra reached out with her extra-senses and felt the shape of his body, felt his clothes¡­ and it was like there was another skeleton in there. Thin wires, up and down his arms and legs and torso. She gently nudged it, hoping nobody would notice, and found that it was completely stiff.

    ¡°Wait,¡± she said, ¡°so he¡¯s making this pose because his clothes have a wire mesh that¡¯s locking his arms and legs into this position?¡±

    ¡°Yes! Though it¡¯s still not clear how he ended up all the way over here.¡±

    ¡°What the fuck? We need to open his clothes up and see what''s going on with this thing¡ª¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Iwasaki said.

    ¡°But¡ª¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve humored this enough.¡± He seemed to be regaining his sense of authority. ¡°I said you can look, and now you¡¯ve looked. Let¡¯s¡ª¡±

    There was a bang, and the ground trembled.

    ¡°Oh, shit, that¡¯s it! That¡¯s the volcano!¡±

    ¡°The volcano? No¡ªnot now¡ª¡± His confusion gave rise to panic. ¡°It can¡¯t¡ªthe¡ªthe¡ªbarriers are all down!¡±

    ¡°Vacuum, now!¡± Myra shouted.

    Shera was prepared, of course, and Iwasaki didn¡¯t need much prompting. In class, they had never manipulated lava larger than a marble, but they at least had an obvious way to defend against it. They spewed aura out around the edges of the building. It was night, so they had plenty of access to the vacuum element from the astral aura channel.

    ¡°Oh, fuck, this is draining,¡± Myra muttered. She barely remembered to check the time. 1:01 A.M.

    ¡°Can the building withstand a volcanic eruption?¡±

    ¡°Not of this magnitude,¡± Iwasaki said quickly. ¡°We need to get out of here.¡±

    ¡°What if you re-enable the security?¡± Myra asked.

    ¡°That would take hours! And no, the building¡¯s barriers were disrupted when the Common Library disappeared.¡±

    ¡°Wait, so the security isn¡¯t airtight after all?¡± You said nobody could get in! But the Common Library disappeared several minutes before we entered the hall!

    ¡°If you mean the isolation, that has remained intact. Nobody could have entered the building.¡± He seemed to know exactly what Myra was thinking. ¡°However, it will fail if the entire building and its runestones are drowned in lava.¡± He¡¯s can¡¯t possibly be lying about this, right? He¡¯s just incriminating himself the more he says this is impossible.

    Myra almost faltered in the vacuum she was supposed to be upholding. ¡°I¡¯ve got emergency teleports,¡± she said. Despite the abundance of the vacuum element at night, telekinesis could still wear you out. And the air was heating up dramatically, for obvious reasons, making the situation quite miserable.

    ¡°I want to check inside the suits,¡± Shera said.

    ¡°What, you think the culprit might be hiding there?¡± Myra asked. Oh, that¡¯s a pretty good theory, actually.

    She held out while Shera opened up the helmets of each one in turn. Unfortunately¡ªor maybe fortunately, since Myra was in no state to confront the culprit¡ªnobody was inside the first two.

    When she got to the third¡ª

    ¡°Wait,¡± Iwasaki said. ¡°I just noticed. That visor has been moved.¡±

    ¡°Huh? On this one?¡±

    ¡°Hurry up,¡± Myra said through gritted teeth. She nearly faltered again.

    Shera opened up the visor to check inside, but again, they didn¡¯t see anything, at least not on the inside of the helmet. ¡°Let me¡ª¡± She struggled to detach the entire helmet, but finally got it with the help of Iwasaki, now eager to help.

    ¡°There¡¯s all this junk down there,¡± he said, a light from his palm shining down into the suit¡¯s neck. ¡°Wait, is that¡ª¡±

    ¡°W-w-w-w-what¡ª¡± Shera cried, aghast at whatever it was.

    ¡°What is it?¡±

    Shera pulled the objects up to her hand with telekinesis. Two syringes, both empty, but their surfaces tinted faintly red and blue, betraying the colors of the liquids that had once been inside them.

    Myra faltered, maybe not from exhaustion, but from shock.

    Shera and Iwasaki couldn¡¯t hold out the lava on their own. Just before the burning avalanche crashed down on their heads, she grabbed the two of them and snapped her teleport stick.

    ¡ô

    Myra had ordered her emergency teleport sticks by mail from a mage supplier company outside the empire. This was necessary to get something that would actually work once the Common Library had disappeared since it turned out most of the sticks you could buy in Ralkenon just activated a routine from the Common Library that took you to some ¡®safe point¡¯ predetermined by the city. The plus side was that the stick let you configure your own destination point. Myra had chosen a spot on a hill outside the city.

    Her plan was to watch the city and observe how far the eruption reached.

    That didn¡¯t work so well.

    When the trio appeared, they immediately saw they were surrounded by a large number of uniformed individuals marching into the city. At first, she thought it was the imperial army, arriving to support the catastrophe.

    But the uniforms were utterly unfamiliar. Then she noticed the insignia each worse on their chest, a color-inverted portrait of a frog, the symbol of the murk bogs, a mercenary group mostly operating out of Unkmire and Briktone.

    The soldiers didn¡¯t blink when Myra, Shera, and Iwasaki appeared out of nowhere. They did, however, with no hesitation, lift their guns and shoot them.

    ¡ô

    Myra awoke in her bed at 8 A.M.

    Well, here I am again.

    The relief that she did in fact loop again was muted by her shock at the sudden way she¡¯d died.

    Mercenaries¡­ really? I can¡¯t even guess who their allegiance is to. She¡¯d have to research the murk bogs later, but as far as she knew, they weren¡¯t picky. They followed the money.

    She showered and tried to reassure herself and focus on the positives. After all that worrying, she had looped again. She¡¯d spent the month gathering information, and that had been the right call. She was frustrated that she¡¯d died before the reset time, but she¡¯d got the time for the Common Library¡¯s disappearance and the volcano. And she had learned that there was a fixed reset time.

    Once she was dressed, she quickly wrote down everything she remembered, and she marked up a campus map with all the buildings that would collapse.

    She met up with Cynthia and Iz in the usual spots. Iz tricked Cynthia into falling into the fountain again, and Myra laughed with them about it. She sat with them for a while as they waited for class, and she waved cheerfully to Shera when she walked by. Shera waved back, looking a bit confused, but seeming a tad bit brighter when she walked on.

    She went to class as usual. She really did need to figure out what to do about classes, either switch up her classes or start working ahead or just skip them entirely. Ben, again, wasn¡¯t in class, and she assumed he must have quickly run off again.

    She decided to confront a chilling thought. Why does he not ambush me before I wake up? She knew he got up at 6 A.M., a full two hours before she did. Without understanding his objective with her, it was impossible to know why he did the things he did, but it was pretty worrisome that the two-hour window existed. Who knew when things would change? If he decided to capture her before 8 A.M., she would be completely fucked.

    She needed to see if she could wake up earlier. She decided that would be one of her goals this time around.

    Also¡ªshe would handle the situation with Nathan better. She wouldn¡¯t let it end up the way it did last time.

    Yeah. I¡¯ll be honest this time. That¡¯s what she told herself as she approached the usual lunch spot to meet the group. Maybe he knows something important, and we can learn something if we put the facts together.

    ¡°Hey, Nathan, have you seen your brother around?¡±

    ¡°Hm? He actually darted off this morning.¡±

    Myra blinked. ¡°He what?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, he got some really sudden apprenticeship in Zaru, so he¡¯s taking leave for the semester. He just dropped by this morning to tell me about it. It sounds like a really great opportunity, though.¡±

    Oh. Guess Ben felt bad about leaving his brother in the dark after all.

    He told a lie, but still.

    ¡°Heh, he¡¯s probably leaving the student council in chaos.¡± Nathan laughed. It was a welcome sound. Yeah, this is great. ¡°Anyway, did you all hear about that crater by the bike trail?¡±

 7 - Splinters, scrapes, and sharp things

    To keep things from getting too stale, Myra decided to switch up her course schedule. She couldn¡¯t switch out of the Mastery class since it was a hard requirement. She also chose not to switch out of her math class because she really wanted to master all the technical prerequisites for advanced elemental manipulation. She would still need to find a way to work ahead or something, but that would be easier if she was at least in the class. Also, it would give her more opportunities to interact with Shera.

    However, there was no reason to repeat Biomechanical Systems or Material Science.

    It took her a bit longer to get it all sorted out than she expected¡ªthe registrar was visibly annoyed at the last-minute shuffling, and it took Myra a minute to remember she had just been in here ¡®yesterday¡¯ switching her classes around. There was nothing that could be done about that at this point, of course, but it was annoying that she¡¯d have to deal with it every month.

    The new classes she picked were Practical Self-Defense and Arcane Origami. The first was for obvious reasons, and the second was a bit of a whim.

    Arcane Origami was also early in the afternoon, so she had to hurry to class from the registrar¡¯s building. It was held in a roomy lecture hall in the applied art building, taught by Professor Maeda, a short, plump guy with braided hair and a wide grin plastered on his face. Myra felt at ease with him before he even began speaking.

    For the first class, he led the students to fold up a paper seagull out of a specially crafted runesheet. If done right, it resulted in runes spelled out across its wingspan, but as the wings moved around, it adjusted the script slightly. The result was a bird that flapped back and forth as it flew in set patterns that could be adjusted by writing on it appropriately.

    To be honest, Myra had not expected Arcane Origami to be a particularly useful class. The sorts of problems they would tackle were more akin to puzzles. Knowing how to make a paper seagull, or knowing that the computational problem of finding the minimum number of paper folds to create a syntactically valid rune script over an arbitrary grammar was NP-hard, just didn¡¯t seem extremely important. That¡¯s why she had moved out of this class the first time she shuffled her classes. But right now, she didn¡¯t care.

    Because when she got the seagull flying around her desk, she felt lighter than she had the whole previous two months.

    And even if it was all a bit silly¡­ it did remind her of her earliest adventures with runecrafting.

    ¡°Papa! Papa!¡± Myra pulled at the hem of her father¡¯s coat. ¡°Give me a gold coin!¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s this, now?¡± He ruffled Myra¡¯s hair.

    ¡°I¡¯ll turn it into two coins! Just like you!¡±

    Papa raised an eyebrow, but the businessman acquiesced and allowed Myra to drag him out to the back patio to see what she had cooked up. What Myra had waiting for him was two cups upside-down over a tablecloth. Each was surrounded by a ring of pebbles, the two rings intersecting to form a ¡®Venn diagram¡¯ shape.

    ¡°Put the coin under here!¡± She lifted the cups up so he could see they were empty (except for the obvious rune inscriptions on the inside) and allowed him to deposit the bill underneath one of the cups. She set both down.

    ¡°See, now there¡¯s two!¡± She lifted up the other cup, revealing a coin that hadn¡¯t been there before.

    ¡°Ah, but that¡¯s the same coin,¡± her father observed. ¡°You moved it from one cup to the other, somehow.¡±

    ¡°No! Look!¡± She put the cup down and picked the first one up again. ¡°It¡¯s still here, see! Try it! Try it.¡±

    Papa tried it himself, lifting one, then the other. ¡°What if we lift both at the same time?¡± he said, smiling through his bushy beard.

    ¡°No!¡± Myra cried, slamming her hands down on both cups to stop him. ¡°That¡¯s cheating!¡±

    Father obeyed. He was a good sport about it, but in fact, he was too good of a sport. Myra was waiting for him to point out that the cups were prank cups. Maybe he didn¡¯t want to ruin Myra¡¯s trick¡ªhe didn¡¯t know she hadn¡¯t completed the trick yet.

    ¡°You know what these cups are!¡± Myra finally exclaimed, getting impatient. She held one up to him, making sure he could see the rune inscription.

    ¡°Of course. These are the cups your uncle gave you that teleport their contents. The coin teleports between the two until you lift one of them. But what are the stones for?¡±

    Myra puffed out her cheeks. ¡°What do you think?¡±

    ¡°He stroked his chin. Well, the cup might send its contents in any direction. The stones block all the directions you don¡¯t want.¡±

    ¡°But the cups don¡¯t work!¡± Myra cried out. ¡°I blocked the rune inscription, see?¡± She held up the cup to his face so he could see the damaged rune inscriptions inside.¡± For the time first, papa looked genuinely confused, not faux-surprised. ¡°Put a coin in!¡±

    He did so, flabbergasted when the coin rattled at the bottom, not moving anywhere.

    ¡°Papa¡¯s theory is wrong!¡± She stuck her tongue out. ¡°Papa¡¯s theory is wrong!¡±

    As far as illusions went, it wasn¡¯t exactly destined for the big stage, though it had really gotten him good for a few minutes, and as an eight-year-old, she¡¯d thought it was the height of cleverness. It was also the moment she understood how truly versatile runes could be. In this case, she had noticed that the ¡®money¡¯ symbol on an imperial coin looked exactly like part of one of the runes near the rim of the cup. She had modified the rune inscription inside the cup so it would only be ¡°completed¡± if a coin was placed in exactly the right position, which had been the case when the cup was face down on the table.

    Of course, professional rune scripting was usually not about cleverly arranging dynamic rune scripts based on clever physical placement. Usually, you just wrote whatever conditional you cared about into the rune script itself. Maybe that¡¯s why the origami seagull appealed to her so much.

    I should be two months into an apprenticeship at a rune forge right now, Myra lamented.

    ¡°Are you all right, Myrabelle?¡± Professor Maeda asked.

    Myra snapped to attention. ¡°Yes, sorry, sir. I was just lost in thought.¡±

    He laughed a deep and hearty laugh. ¡°You¡¯ve nothing to worry about. Your seagull looks fantastic.¡±

    ¡°Thank you, professor.¡±

    ¡°I was disappointed when I saw that you had switched out of the class. Your previous teachers spoke about your enthusiasm for runes.¡± Myra blinked in surprise. I have a reputation¡­? ¡°I¡¯m glad you decided to join us after all.¡±

    ¡°Ah, I¡¯m honored, professor.¡±

    He laughed again. ¡°If you need anything, don¡¯t hesitate to see me.¡± He balled his fist in an encouraging manner, then moved on to the next student.

    ¡ô

    Myra was floating when she left class, and she hoped that nobody saw her slump by several centimeters down when it was time for her to face the situation again.

    Time to do¡­ stuff¡­

    Myra¡¯s first stop was the security office. She half-expected that, when she went to campus security to inform them that someone had assaulted her and subverted the disruptor field in her dormitory building, Iwasaki would say something like, ¡®No, that¡¯s impossible.¡¯ It would have made things simple. It would have meant that Iwasaki¡¯s assessment of what was impossible couldn¡¯t be trusted in the slightest and that his opinion of the event hall security could be dismissed.

    Iwasaki didn¡¯t say that, though. He seemed to think that subverting dorm security was entirely plausible for a malicious, advanced mage. There had been similar incidents before, even, so evidently it was a skill that could be learned. Of course, he didn¡¯t give Myra any clues as to how that might be done. Maybe she could try asking Instructor Yam about advanced teleportation? Making a request had worked out really well last time.

    ¡ô

    Myra was nervous as she climbed the astronomy tower where she expected to find Shera. It was an arduous climb, a spiral staircase spanning several stories around a tall chamber containing a beautiful orrery of the solar system. At the center of the orrery was their planet, Zyarth, surrounded by concentric rings that included the moon, the sun, and the planets. Each body was a colored glass orb, gently reflecting the moonlight through a glass roof at the top.

    What if I can¡¯t convince her about the loop again?

    Initially, the task sounded easy¡ªafter all, why couldn¡¯t she just do what she did last time? But there were a few problems: for one, she couldn¡¯t remember exactly how it went, and also, everything had been somewhat the product of Shera¡¯s curiosity due to the way Myra had interacted with Shera that same morning. But Myra had already screwed that up, reacting in a far more understated manner than she did in the previous loop. Also, their conversation last time had been spurred by Myra¡¯s pitiable attempts to measure the date based on star movements, and she didn¡¯t really need to do that again. If she went and did it anyway, it would just confuse Shera because she would have to explain she¡¯d already done it, or try to obfuscate it and act clueless¡­

    Well, she had an ace up her sleeve.

    ¡°Shera!¡±

    ¡°A-ah?¡± The girl was startled from her telescope.

    ¡°I heard you¡¯re a big fan of the ZK-1034 neutron star!¡±

    ¡°W-w-wha¡ª? How d-d-do you know something like th-that? I-I-I-I¡¯ve never told anybody about that.¡±

    Perfect! Now she has to believe me.

    ¡°I¡¯m actually a time traveler,¡± Myra said. ¡°I know that because you told me before I went back in time.¡±

    ¡°O-oh. I guess I must have told someone, and they f-forgot. But why would they t-tell you¡­?¡±

    ¡°Wait, Shera, I¡¯m being serious.¡±

    ¡°Oh.¡±

    Myra launched into her full story, while Shera listened impassively. It got increasingly awkward as she recounted their adventures only to meet no reaction at all.

    When she finished, Shera inquired about what was apparently the most detail to her.

    ¡°Did you get the times? I must have insisted we collect the timings for the events.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, yeah, I got them.¡±

    ¡°What were they?¡±

    ¡°Does it matter right now?¡± Shera didn¡¯t answer. ¡°Well, the Common Library disappeared at 12:39. The volcano was at 1:01. I died before the reset, so¡ª¡±

    ¡°W-what do you mean, 12:39? On the d-d-dot?¡±

    ¡°Uh, no.¡±

    ¡°Then what?¡±

    ¡°You mean like how many seconds?¡±

    ¡°S-surely y-you could measure it finer than s-s-seconds.¡±

    ¡°Okay, well, the best I got was 12:39.¡±

    ¡°I d-don¡¯t believe y-you really had my help with this.¡±

    ¡°Well, I was in charge of the time-keeping. You were busy with this¡ª¡± Myra handed her map to Shera, though the girl didn¡¯t look at it. ¡°You probably just, I don¡¯t know, assumed I¡¯d do it right.¡± She was getting exasperated, and she probably wasn¡¯t hiding it well enough. The critical, nitpicking Shera she knew so well was back. Had the friendly, helpful Shera from the last month just been a fleeting aberration?

    ¡°G-guess I-I-I assumed w-wrong.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I guess you did,¡± Myra said flatly.

    Shera had a distant look about her, as if recalling all the times they¡¯d had to work together on something and Shera had admonished her shoddy, haphazard spell construction. Please tell me she isn¡¯t about to doubt my story because the Shera in the previous loop wasn¡¯t overbearing enough about my timekeeping¡ª

    ¡°O-okay,¡± she finally said.

    Myra breathed a loud sigh at the girl¡¯s hesitant acceptance.

    ¡°So what do you think?¡±

    ¡°Of what? The event hall massacre?¡±

    ¡°Well, anything you have thoughts on, really.¡±

    ¡°Hachirou Iwasaki seems kind of suspicious.¡±

    ¡°Why?¡±

    ¡°Um¡ª¡± She looked at Myra incredulously. All right, that¡¯s fair.

    ¡°Okay, yeah, we only have his word that the security was ¡®impossible¡¯ to bypass,¡± Myra said. ¡°And you told him as much¡ª¡± Shera looked at her blankly. Right, she doesn¡¯t remember that. ¡°But I dunno, like, if he was responsible, I feel like it would have been¡­ I dunno, less self-incriminating. And there¡¯s too much weird shit for such a simple explanation.¡±

    ¡°It sounds like he was really nervous.¡±

    ¡°Well, he¡¯d just gotten a prince, a princess, and a king killed. He was going to be at the center of an international incident. If anything, he held up pretty well.¡±

    ¡°What about the fact that he opened the event hall back up in the first place?¡±

    ¡°There was a campus emergency. I dunno, it seemed reasonable in the moment.¡±

    ¡°But disabling the security would have exposed all those heads of state to the emergency. Shouldn¡¯t he have left them safe inside?¡±

    ¡°It¡­ uh¡­ sounded like most of the security had been disrupted anyway? I don¡¯t know how the whole spatial severance thing works, but maybe it was like¡­ dangerous to leave that running without the rest of the failsafes?¡± Myra didn¡¯t even find her own words very convincing. ¡°Okay, fine, we should investigate Iwasaki.¡±

    ¡°I was actually going to say that seems pretty plausible. Spatial severance is pretty complicated.¡±

    Myra let out a chuckle, but it was a tired one. ¡°Okay, so we also need to learn everything we can about the event hall security.¡± Myra didn¡¯t even know where to start with that one. She couldn¡¯t imagine the security office would take kindly to her asking overly specific questions about it. Iwasaki had proved to be reasonably forthcoming after the incident, but information from Iwasaki had its own potential reliability issue; see above.

    ¡°Maybe he was bribed,¡± Shera added.

    ¡°Maybe,¡± Myra agreed. ¡°It would maybe explain his lack of composure, at the very least.¡± Though I¡¯m still not entirely sure that needs explaining. ¡°So, do you have any thoughts on the buildings?¡±

    ¡°I-I don¡¯t know what thoughts you¡¯d expect me to have that I didn¡¯t the last t-time.¡±

    ¡°Well, um, we¡¯ve got this list of collapsed buildings now. We didn¡¯t have that last time.¡±

    Shera finally looked at Myra¡¯s map, which she was still holding. ¡°Oh, that¡¯s what this is.¡± She spent some time looking over the map. She was dead silent for what felt like it must have been three or four minutes before she finally announced the results of her analysis.

    ¡°It¡¯s all buildings on the east side.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I noticed that. Maybe the, uh, saboteurs found it easier to operate on that side.¡±

    ¡°And they form this ¡®L¡¯ shape.¡± Shera traced it out on the map. ¡°It¡¯s such a regular geometric shape.¡± Myra wondered if Shera was going to go on a rant about why someone would make a perfect ¡®L¡¯ shape. ¡°The astronomy tower isn¡¯t marked.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, it didn¡¯t fall. It¡¯s so new, though, I thought maybe it¡¯s just¡­ built better?¡±

    ¡°Or there¡¯s some other irregularity¡­¡± Shera muttered under her breath. ¡°What¡¯s up here? This shed didn¡¯t fall.¡± She pointed to a small wooden shed by the sports field that held some sports equipment. Myra didn¡¯t even know why they¡¯d bothered putting something so inconsequential on the map.

    ¡°Oh, that? I mean¡­ it might have fallen. I mean, you didn¡¯t mark it or anything, but maybe you skipped that one ¡®cause it¡¯s just a tiny shed?¡±

    ¡°W-what?¡± Shera looked dumbfounded, almost offended. ¡°Why would I skip one?¡±

    ¡°Or¡­ maybe it really didn¡¯t fall down, then.¡± Even though that old shed looks like it would fall down if I kicked it too hard.

    ¡°The rock-slinger fell down.¡± She pointed to a contraption on the other side of the same sports field. ¡°That¡¯s barely even a building. It¡¯s hard to believe these targets were hand-selected.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, terrorists probably wouldn¡¯t target a rock-slinger used in intramural sports.¡±

    Shera nodded to herself, seeming to come to a resolution. ¡°We have a lot of concrete data here. We should be able to figure out the pattern. Let¡¯s go.¡± She started to put away her telescope.

    ¡°Where? Do we have something to investigate?¡±

    ¡°The shed. We need to know why it didn¡¯t fall down.¡±

    ¡°...Right.¡±

    They made their way into the tower interior, onto the stairway with the orrery.

    ¡°You said y-you saw the safety ratings on all the b-buildings, right? Was the astronomy t-t-tower rated higher?¡±

    ¡°You know, I actually think the astronomy tower wasn¡¯t in there at all. The report I read was from around five years ago, I think. So the tower wasn¡¯t complete yet.¡±

    Shera nodded absentmindedly, mouthing the words ¡®five years¡¯ to herself. ¡°That makes sense.¡±

    She didn¡¯t say anything after that. For a while, the only sounds were the footsteps as they made their way down, circumnavigating the room.

    ¡°What¡¯d you mean?¡± Myra asked. ¡°What makes sense?¡±

    ¡°I just meant, that would have been right after that¡ªthat g-gas explosion. That¡¯s p-p-probably why they d-did the whole s-safety e-evaluation.¡±

    ¡°The what? Some kind of accident?¡±

    Shera stopped and rested her hands on the handrail, looking inwards to the orrery. ¡°Y-yeah, you didn¡¯t know about it? A bunch of researchers died¡­ I think a kid died too. The university doesn¡¯t talk about it much, I guess.¡±

    ¡°I¡­ might have heard a mention of it once.¡±

    ¡°It was all over the news. Oh!¡± Something clicked in her head. ¡°I guess I didn¡¯t tell you I grew up in the city here. It was local news for me.¡±

    ¡°Oh, that must have been a big deal, then.¡±

    ¡°Ah!¡± She held her hand to her as if she had spoken something awful. ¡°Of course, I probably told you that on the last loop.¡±

    ¡°Actually, no, you didn¡¯t.¡±

    ¡°Oh, I see. The whole month, y-you never asked what c-c-city I was from.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, we were, um, pretty occupied.¡± Shera didn¡¯t seem to react, though. Myra wasn¡¯t sure she really believed how invested she¡¯d been in the last loop. Or at least, she hadn¡¯t internalized it.

    ¡°Anyway,¡± she said, finally turning back down the stairway. ¡°This building replaced the old one. The one that was wrecked in the explosion, I mean. This orrery is supposed to be a memorial.¡±

    ¡°Okay, speaking of the orrery, this is driving me nuts, Shera.¡±

    ¡°E-eh?¡±

    ¡°Why¡¯s it have everything orbiting Zyarth instead of orbiting the sun?¡±

    ¡°Oh, it¡¯s just offbeat astronomer humor.¡±

    They made their way out of the tower and to the sports field. They passed the rock-slinger, the one that was marked as having collapsed. It looked perfectly normal. The shed was far at the other end, hard to make out in the dead of night against the backdrop of the dense woods behind it. They approached, and it was just as dilapidated as Myra remembered, with a splintery wooden exterior and flaking paint. She once again started to doubt that Shera had actually bothered to note whether the shed had fallen down, but she didn¡¯t voice her reservations.

    ¡°Do they still use this old thing, anyway?¡± Myra wondered as she opened the shed, its hinged creaking. ¡°I hope there¡¯s no serial killer lurking in here.¡±

    ¡°Is-is there a light?¡± She fumbled around the wall for a second, looking for a light switch. ¡°Ow¡ª!¡±

    ¡°You okay?¡±

    ¡°Ow-ow-ow-ow-splinter-ow¡ª¡±

    ¡°Hold on.¡± Myra swept her hand around the wall to find the gaslamp she was pretty sure was around there.

    ¡°Be c-careful.¡±

    ¡°Here! It¡¯s¡ªow, shit¡ª¡± She managed to get the lamp on, but she managed to give herself a splinter of her own in the process.

    ¡°Ow-ow¡ª¡±

    ¡°Ow-fuck¡ªdamn¡ª¡± Myra inspected the puncture on her palm carefully. She focused on the sharp piece of wood lodged inside her and cautiously pulled it out with her own telekinesis. ¡°God, this place is a death trap. Here, give me your hand.¡±

    Shera¡¯s hand was frail and bony, with cracked nails and joints at awkward angles, and it twitched as Myra tried to gently hold it. Her splinter was in the fleshy part bridging the thumb and index finger. Oof. She held her thumb over it to get past Shera¡¯s natural domain defenses and pulled it out.

    ¡°Thanks,¡± Shera said, taking the small piece of wood and pocketing it. ¡°I-I¡¯m no g-g-good without my staff.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s okay. It¡¯s not easy.¡±

    ¡°Y-you seem adept at it.¡±

    Myra shrugged. ¡°I¡¯m okay at smaller things.¡±

    Myra shook her hand to try to relieve the lingering sensations, and she finally scanned the shed. To be blunt, it was all junk. There was a box of deflated footballs, a pile of jerseys belonging to someone nicknamed Big Wumbo, a bunch of rune tablets scripted to help arrange the field for various different sports, worryingly many rusty nails sticking out of the walls everywhere, and a tornado-grade kite that actually looked in decent shape, decorated with some ribbon awards.

    ¡°Soo¡­¡± Myra started. ¡°You, uh, see anything out of place?¡±

    Shera nodded. ¡°Yeah. I think I see how this fits together.¡± Shere flipped the light off and immediately headed out.

    ¡°Wait, where are you going?¡± She¡¯s gotta be fucking with me, right? ¡°What did you find?¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s find the campus blueprints, and I¡¯ll confirm it.¡±

    ¡ô

    It seemed they would have to wait until morning before they could get the blueprints from the administrative office. Shera got really out of sorts at the idea of telling Myra whatever she¡¯d thought of before she could confirm it, so Myra decided to let it go and wait a bit.

    The next morning was her self-defense class. Myra had taken a dueling class before, but the self-defense class was supposed to be about practical self-defense, what to do if a mage is trying to do you harm. The first day was mostly about barriers. Myra had thought she had a decent grasp of barriers; by the end of the day, she knew that she sucked ass at barriers. Technically, it was progress, though it left her discouraged.

    After class, she finally met Shera to get the campus blueprints from the administrative building.

    ¡°Ta-d-d-da.¡± Shera attempted to sing the notes. They came out the same way her words usually did.

    The blueprint she had found was of the aura distribution grid, the one that supplied campus buildings with aura for their functions. She set it side-by-side with Myra¡¯s map, the one with the buildings X¡¯ed off. Laid out like this, it was obvious.

    ¡°It¡¯s exactly the buildings in Sector L-4. All these buildings are part of the same distribution line going back to the city.¡±

    ¡°Damn,¡± Myra said. ¡°It was the distribution lines after all¡­? I mean, the distribution lines are supplying the stabilization fields with aura¡­ but I thought all the lines shut down.¡±

    ¡°The shed isn¡¯t connected to any distribution line,¡± Shera pointed out.

    ¡°That¡¯s why you wanted to check it out? You just wanted to see it had a gaslamp instead of a modern aura-powered light¡ª¡±

    ¡°Y-yeah, exactly. The shed doesn¡¯t have a stabilization field at all. But it didn¡¯t fall down.¡±

    ¡°So the distribution line must have been the sabotage vector or something.¡± Myra took a closer look. ¡°Hold on, the astronomy tower is in L-4, too.¡±

    ¡°O-oh. Yeah. I th-thought maybe the circumstances of its construction would put it on a d-different one or something.¡±

    ¡°Well, this is great.¡± She patted Shera gently on the shoulder and thought about her next steps.

    If she wanted to get to the bottom of this, it was obvious that she would need to pick up her apprenticeship in Snailworth¡¯s lab again.

    Myra hadn¡¯t even considered doing her apprenticeship the second time around. Building the aura frequency detector for Rose Tara had been a fun little mathematical exercise, but she had no desire to do it again. In fact, she was even starting to be a little doubtful of the way Ben had pushed her into that particular apprenticeship; his reasoning had been very specific: working in aura channeling would give her opportunities to work in runecrafting fundamentals. That might be true, but in the one month she¡¯d worked with Rose Tara, she hadn¡¯t done anything other than pretty basic applied runecrafting. She was now suspecting that Ben had chosen that selling point only because it was convincing, and because it resulted in Myra being happy and grateful for at least a month, without any care as to whether it was true.

    Ben¡¯s thoughts didn¡¯t really matter. She needed to make contacts in aura distribution so she could get to the bottom of whatever was wrong with the distribution line. This turned out to be a little more difficult than the first time because, apparently, Ben¡¯s ability to put in a good word for her had actually meant something. Luckily, she could speak semi-intelligibly about aura channels from her previous experience, and she was able to get her foot in the door again, though it took a full week. Unfortunately, she was tasked with building the frequency detector again, something she didn¡¯t really want to do.

    Maybe if she finished it really quickly¡ªwhich she was sure she could do, since she¡¯d already done it once and worked out the hard parts¡ªshe could get some credibility and then report a problem or request access to the distribution grid or something like that. It did mean she would have to devote a lot of time to the project, though.

    Cynthia, of course, wasn¡¯t happy with Myra withdrawing herself and spending so much time on her work, so she tried to keep her company. The result was Cynthia kicking back on Myra¡¯s bed, reading a bodice ripper, and gasping occasionally while Myra slogged through trigonometric integrals. Eventually, she decided it might be a good idea to avoid her own room as much as possible, just to make herself a bit harder for Ben to find, so she started working and sleeping in Cynthia¡¯s room instead. Cynthia didn¡¯t mind, of course. Despite what she¡¯d said in the last loop, she was a good friend.

    ¡ô

    There was more to do than just investigate the collapsed buildings. One of those items was to investigate Iwasaki.

    How did you go about digging up someone¡¯s background? Myra had never had to do anything like that before, and she started considering options ranging from hiring a private investigator to breaking into the employee records room at the university office. But she didn¡¯t have the money for a private investigator, and she didn¡¯t have the skills to break into an office.

    A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    Or did she? Maybe the incorporeal walls trick would work again? Maybe it would be something to try at the end of the month.

    Meanwhile, she did learn at least a bit from Nathan, who apparently just knew how to ask around about this kind of thing and found an old article about him. Hachirou Iwasaki had been a member of the imperial navy in the anti-piracy division. He eventually retired with honors and took up the post at Ralkenon University, a less intense job where he could still use the skills he¡¯d used to protect ships from invasion. He¡¯d been at the university for twelve years.

    At the very least, his navy background explained why Hachirou was considered trustworthy for this role. Incidentally, Myra also learned that there was precedent for using the event hall for international summits and the like, so there wasn¡¯t anything strange in the whole setup. Perhaps the oddest thing was the fact that Iwasaki had presumably been in many life-or-death situations before, which made his lack of composure stand out a little more.

    Myra was pretty sure that getting information on the event hall security was more important, but she lacked ideas on where to even start with it. At the very least, she could observe the event hall on the night of the summit, though it was a good bet that Ben would be searching her out again that night, which would be a lot of trouble if she didn¡¯t have a plan to defend herself.

    The big problem was that beating Ben twice had already taken a lot of luck, and it quite was likely he would shift to a more aggressive tactic. If Myra were in his position, she¡¯d show up with a teleportation disruption field and a tranquilizer gun. Maybe she should work on her teleportation skills?

    ¡°Instructor Yam,¡± Myra started as she approached the man after class. Making a request had gone so well last time, she decided to give it another try. ¡°Could you teach us how to teleport long-distance?¡± That wasn¡¯t quite the skill she wanted, but it was still a useful one, and it would probably force her to improve her fundamentals.

    The instructor looked thoughtful and scratched his goatee. ¡°Long-distance teleportation is part of the fourth-year curriculum,¡± he said. ¡°We¡¯ll cover it next year.¡±

    Well, that was a bust, then. The instructor¡¯s position was pretty reasonable though. Myra knew enough about the theory behind long-range teleportation, and there were a lot of parts. The way teleportation worked, in general, was that you created something in auraspace called a spatial link, consisting of two endpoints connected by a tether. These were pretty easy to make as long as you had enough space aura to dump into the construction, so short-range teleportation was always taught early in a mage¡¯s education.

    The problem with long-range teleportation was that you had to move one of the endpoints to your destination, which by definition would be really far away. It was sort of like asking someone to throw a ball multiple kilometers. You couldn¡¯t just do something like that with brute strength, but you could engineer a contraption to help: a trebuchet or a rocket or something like that. It was the same way in auraspace. You had to fabricate a fairly elaborate aura construct that would move your second endpoint to your destination (ideally very, very fast).

    Unfortunately, Instructor Yam¡¯s rejection left Benkoten as a looming threat.

    She took her new self-defense class seriously, and she even invited Iz to join her with the hopes that it might prepare her for the duel with the princess. (It was pretty easy to convince Iz to sign up for classes since she didn¡¯t conceptualize course loads as burdens the way most students did.) Unfortunately, she was feeling that her self-defense class wasn¡¯t going to help her that much in a month. The class wasn¡¯t bad or anything, but a month just wasn¡¯t that much time for a class that only met a couple times a week.

    She decided to pursue the skill from a different angle.

    ¡ô

    ¡°Hey, Zirphilia!¡± Myra knew how to track down the athletic girl near the lecture hall for Biomechanical Systems, even though she wasn¡¯t taking the class herself this time.

    ¡°Yo! Myra!¡± Zirphilia waved cheerfully and slowed down for Myra to catch up to her. ¡°It¡¯s been a while, hasn¡¯t it?¡±

    ¡°Yeah¡­ not since that staff-design project. Hey, you¡¯re on the rock-dodging team, right?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m the assistant captain.¡± She grinned proudly, pointing a thumb at her chest. ¡°Why, you wanna join? It¡¯s a bit late, but¡ª¡±

    Myra shook her head. ¡°No, I don¡¯t¡ªI don¡¯t think I can make a commitment like that. I am interested in the sport though. Could you¡­ show me how to get started, maybe? Sorry, I know you¡¯re busy enough¡ª¡±

    ¡°Mm¡­ I could spare a couple evenings, I guess. Is this why you were out at the athletic field so late?¡±

    ¡°Huh?¡± Myra had to shift a gear to figure out what she was talking about. ¡°Oh, you saw us out there?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I was making sure all the equipment was in order¡­ you gave me a bit of a fright, actually, I didn¡¯t expect to run into anyone. I kinda stayed outta the way.¡±

    ¡°Oh, sorry, I guess we were being kinda¡­ sketchy. But no, that was a, uh, scavenger hunt puzzle thing.¡±

    ¡°Ah, yeah, I can see the two of yinz doing something brainy like that. So when do you want to meet?¡±

    ¡ô

    Their practice session started with a short warm-up of Zirphilia leading Myra through stretches. That is, Zirphilia, in her tight athletic clothes, showed Myra how to warp her body into complex, pathologically curved positions¡­

    Come on, Myra, it¡¯s creepy to stare¡ª

    No, it¡¯s not! I need to watch her so I know what stretches to do!

    The stretching session wasn¡¯t long. ¡°All right! Let¡¯s get started.¡± Zirphilia went to activate the rock-slinger. It made a loud rumbling sound, and after a few moments, began to unleash its barrage. Rocks of all shapes and sizes, of varying velocities and trajectories, shot across the field.

    Myra gulped. ¡°Is there some kinda padding we wear, or¡­?¡±

    ¡°Nah, there¡¯s a safety spell,¡± Zirphilia reassured her. ¡°They won¡¯t hit your head.¡±

    ¡°Oh, good¡ªwait, what about the rest of me?¡±

    Zirphilia didn¡¯t answer, instead proceeding to her first demonstration. She stood next to the barrages, aligned orthogonally with her back facing the rock stream. She closed her eyes, bent her knees, and waited. Then, when she judged the timing right, she launched her entire body backward, perfectly avoiding every rock aimed at her through a series of flawless backflips that brought her to the other side.

    What the fuck??

    ¡°God, um, I think this sport might be out of my league,¡± she said weakly as Zirphila approached her, crossing the stream back to Myra¡¯s side in much the same way. ¡°There¡¯s no way I can look that good doing this.¡±

    Zirphilia giggled. ¡°You¡¯ll look great, silly.¡±

    Wait, look? Myra realized what she¡¯d said. ¡°Wait, wait, I-I meant like, jump that good! There¡¯s no way I can jump that good doing this!¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t have to jump like that. You can use whatever strategy you like. Some people prefer to take it one step at a time, it¡¯s legit.¡± She gently pushed Myra to the starting position. ¡°Rock-dodging isn¡¯t about being flashy. It¡¯s about sensing, projecting, and planning.¡±

    ¡°Okay. Okay.¡± Myra closed her eyes and extended her extrasenses. She tried not to think about the hundreds of heavy, sharp rocks that would be hurtling toward her so she could focus on the skill she had come to learn. The skill to sense an approaching projectile or some other attack. The skill to know where it was, to know where it would be, and most of all, to not be there.

    Feeling out the rocks wasn¡¯t that difficult. Rocks were ample in nature and one of the simplest kinds of objects to sense or manipulate. But ¡®projecting¡¯ their locations to feel where they¡¯d be in a few seconds when she was going to be crossing, that was much harder. There were too many rocks to keep track of at once.

    ¡°Come on, don¡¯t overthink it!¡±

    ¡°Hey, uh, so about that shield, you said it didn¡¯t apply below the head¡ª¡±

    ¡°Doesn¡¯t matter, just go! You won¡¯t learn anything if you don¡¯t face the rocks!¡±

    Myra took a deep breath and stepped into the barrage. Face the rocks. Immediately she was socked in the stomach by something that was either a large rock or a small boulder. Now, the thing about magically moving small boulders was that they don¡¯t stop just because they hit someone. Myra was forced back several steps before she was able to get out of its way. She immediately stepped into a volley of small pebbles and then a shin-height rock that knocked her leg out from under her. She fell to the ground in a manner reminiscent of one of those balls slowly falling down through a grid of pins.

    ¡°Ow¡­¡±

    ¡°That was a good try!¡± Zirphilia cheered her on. She helped Myra crawl out from under the barrage.

    ¡°I prefer skipping rocks,¡± Myra muttered. ¡°Humans are meant to dominate rocks, not the other way around.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ll get accustomed to it. Let¡¯s go again!¡±

    ¡ô

    The practice session was not, in fact, a sadistic hazing ritual after the first ten minutes. Zirphilia did eventually show Myra how to better predict the opportunities in the rock stream by sensing via certain coordinate transforms. It also turned out that Zirphilia wasn¡¯t perfect herself, and there was plenty of schadenfreude to be had in watching her get walloped every once in a while. Shera even showed up to watch from the sidelines, though she didn¡¯t join in.

    ¡°Good job,¡± Zirphilia finally said when they were done. She plopped to the ground, panting. Despite her role as the coach, she had shown off through increasingly elaborate paths through the rocks, and she had worked up quite a sweat as a result. She had obviously been made the assistant captain of the team for a reason.

    ¡°Time for the best part,¡± she said. She stripped off her tank top.

    ¡°Wha-?¡±

    ¡°We fix each other up. Come on.¡±

    ¡°R-right.¡± Myra took off her own shirt. She had, frankly, come out far worse than Zirphilia. Small bruises and scrapes adorned her stomach and sides, matching the throbbing and stinging that was all over. Zirphilia reached her arm out to touch Myra¡¯s skin and gently performed a simple disinfecting and pain-relieving spell. She did this all around her torso and arms, and then Myra did the same for Zirphilia (she got to touch Zirphilia¡¯s abs), and then they finished with back rubs.

    ¡°So you¡¯ve been hanging out with Shera Marcrombie, huh?¡± Zirphilia asked from behind her.

    ¡°Yeah¡ªo-oh! You¡¯re friends with her, right?¡± Though Shera didn¡¯t seem to have a whole lot of friends, Myra did recall occasionally seeing her hanging out with Zirphilia. She had no idea what their relationship was like¡ªshe hadn¡¯t seen them together since the loop business had started, and they were the most opposite people imaginable.

    ¡°Yeah, our freshman dorms were next to each other. I guess she kinda imprinted on me for a while.¡± Bit of an odd way to put it¡­ ¡°But she just had no interest in most of the activities I wanted to do¡­ so we kinda drifted apart. I mean, she¡¯s great, don¡¯t get me wrong.¡± She dug her thumb in deep near Myra¡¯s shoulder blade. Ooooh. ¡°She has such an interesting way of looking at the world sometimes.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I guess she does.¡±

    ¡°Anyway! I¡¯m glad you¡¯ve gotten to be friends with her. I kinda worry about her sometimes.¡±

    Myra didn¡¯t really know what to say to that. Were they friends? There seemed to be a gap between them that there wasn¡¯t last time. She didn¡¯t know how to bridge it. She could try doing things the same way she had last time, but after a certain point, that would amount to telling a lot of lies, if she had to act like she was more confused and bewildered than she really was. Most of all, she didn¡¯t want to emotionally manipulate Shera. Things had gone so badly with Nathan when she had lied to him¡­

    ¡°Well,¡± Myra finally said. ¡°As long as I¡¯m around, you won¡¯t have to worry¡ªoh, yeah, there.¡± Zirphilia had put pressure on another spot that sorely needed it, and as a result of Myra¡¯s encouragement, began kneading it harder. God, I like this tradition¡­

    After finishing up, they cleaned the field and parted ways. As Myra left, she caught Shera, who was still sitting by the sidelines.

    ¡°How¡¯d it g-go?¡±

    ¡°Oh, it was great!¡± Myra¡¯s memory was selective. ¡°I can¡¯t wait to do this again.¡±

    ¡°Oh, g-g-good-good.¡± Her stutter was flaring up again, and she was looking away nervously. ¡°Would it b-be-be a g-g-good idea if I t-tr-trained t-t-too?¡±

    ¡°I guess it can¡¯t hurt,¡± Myra said. ¡°Though Ben doesn¡¯t know you¡¯re helping me, I think. And anyway, anything you learn will be reset at the end of this iteration.¡±

    ¡°Oh, r-right. I¡¯d just g-get in the way of your t-t-training, wouldn¡¯t I?¡±

    ¡°Well, technically, yeah,¡± Myra said. She remembered she was carrying her shirt and started to put it back on. ¡°I mean, you can join if you really want.¡± It could be an opportunity to bridge our gap¡­ But Zirphilia did say Shera¡¯s not really into sports¡­ ¡°You don¡¯t have to join just for my sake,¡± she clarified.

    ¡°O-okay, I-I¡¯ll leave you to it.¡±

    ¡ô

    In the second loop, Myra had not paid much attention to the student body or its opinion on the upcoming major event. First, she¡¯d been rather occupied with other things, and second, Nathan hadn¡¯t been himself, and he was Myra¡¯s main lifeline into the student rumor mill. In this loop, however, now that Ben had decided to do the bare minimum necessary for not being the world¡¯s shittiest older brother, the second reason no longer applied. And as the rumor mill came back into her life, Myra was reminded of something that had gone clear out of her mind. Namely, before the specifics of the imperial event had crystallized, there had been another, totally unrelated and totally wrong theory about the event.

    ¡°Sebastian thinks it¡¯s some kind of symposium with Mirkas-Ballam.¡± He referred to Casire¡¯s prominent pharmaceutical company, which was headquartered in Ralkenon.

    ¡°Ooh,¡± Cynthia said.

    ¡°Wait, where the hell¡¯s this coming from?¡± Myra asked, suddenly interested. ¡°Like, it¡¯s just speculation, right? What¡¯s the basis?¡±

    ¡°Dunno, they¡¯ve been working on something big, apparently.¡±

    ¡°What ties that to the idea of a symposium?¡±

    ¡°Yeahhh, it¡¯s probably just speculation.¡± Nathan shrugged.

    ¡°What¡¯s this big thing they¡¯re working on?¡± Cynthia asked. ¡°Is it like, ¡®curing a disease¡¯ big or, like, ¡®umami-flavored pills¡¯ big?¡± She sounded hopeful for the latter, beyond all conceivable reason.

    ¡°Well, Sebastian knew about it because of his links to Precision Isomorphic. They¡¯ve got some big contract with Mirkas-Ballam.¡±

    Myra flinched at the name of the rune forge that had canceled her apprenticeship. ¡°Say what? What link¡¯s Sebastian got with Precision?¡±

    ¡°Oh, he got an apprenticeship there.¡±

    Myra seethed.

    ¡°What¡¯s a pharmaceutical company need fancy runes for?¡± Cynthia asked.

    Nathan shrugged again. ¡°I dunno. Surely there¡¯s all kinds of rune-driven processes in drug production?¡±

    ¡°I mean, yeah, but a company like Mirkas would have its own in-house expertise, right? Drug production is their whole thing. I thought Precision Isomorphic just does weird experimental stuff.¡±

    ¡°They do cutting-edge experimental stuff,¡± Myra cut in. ¡°And there¡¯s all kinds of applications they could be doing! Mages have been trying to embed runes into proteins for decades. Something like that, anything with 3D runes¡ª¡±

    ¡°What, you think they made progress on that?¡± Cynthia asked, dubious. ¡°Protein folding ran smack into a brick wall ages ago. Nobody knows how to do shit.¡±

    ¡°I mean, it doesn¡¯t have to be that. It could be some other biological molecule¡ª¡±

    Before anybody could stop her, Myra launched into a long overview of the challenges of molecular runecrafting. First, the runes had to be three-dimensional. Then, they had to be crisp enough to work at nanoscale. And in order to be arranged as part of a contiguous molecule, they needed to be scribed in a cursive typeface. Alone, these problems were challenging enough. Altogether, it was an enormous number of constraints¡ªand on top of that, you needed to get an actual physical molecule into whatever shape you decided on. Proteins were a tempting substrate for rendering these shapes since they came with a natural manufacturing process, but as Cynthia had pointed out, finding proteins that fold a certain way, or even predicting the way a given protein would fold, was a seriously challenging problem.

    ¡°¡ªSo one of the most promising approaches was what they called recursive rune shaping. Basically, you would have short rune scripts that would themselves influence the way the protein folds, rather than leaving the folding entirely to quantum mechanics. Supposedly, this would make it easier to predict and engineer the protein shapes, but it required these complex rune scripts that recursively contained smaller rune scripts that set up their own shape. There was a lot of work on this, and they identified all these mathematical problems that needed to be solved. But then Kyanizev and Prikata proved an impossibility result, though I don¡¯t really understand it at all, and that kind of led to the ¡®runic protein winter¡¯¡ª¡±

    Iz eventually pointed out that, if this runic protein technology ever existed, the empire would probably use it to genetically engineer a master race of mages or something, so the conversation fizzled out on a bit of a downer note. In the end, nobody had any idea what Mirkas-Ballam was making or what this contract was.

    But she couldn¡¯t help but wonder about Ben¡¯s strange drugs.

    Was it just a coincidence?

    ¡ô

    Unfortunately, Myra¡¯s ability to investigate such things took a steep dive in the back half of the month as she began to run her important experiment. After the loop, she intended to wake up earlier than 8 A.M. Her plan was twofold:

    <ol>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">By the end of the loop, she would adjust her sleep schedule so she would be awake in the middle of the night and asleep during the day.</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Just before the reset, she would take a shitton of stimulants.</li>

    </ol>

    It was not at all a given that either of these alterations to her body chemistry would carry over after the time reset. After all, the time loop had fixed far more severe ¡°alterations¡± that she¡¯d undergone.

    But it hadn¡¯t reverted her brain-state. So surely there was a chance that whatever alterations she made now would stick around.

    Maybe one of these plans would work.

    It turned out, though, that sleeping during the day and waking up at night kind of sucked. The human body responded deeply to the sunlight and to the shifts in the outer aura channels, and going against her instincts was extremely unpleasant. It wasn¡¯t enough to just stay up all night feeling tired; she needed to trick her body so she really felt like she should be awake. Cynthia (as baffled as she was about the whole thing) let her know that there were some elixirs that could help with this¡ªpeople who worked night shifts could get medicine for it, and there were also some known disorders for people who had a hard time with the distribution grid¡¯s artificial adjustment of the ambient elemental composition¡ªand she was able to help Myra get her hands on some.

    Even with the elixir, it still sucked. She couldn¡¯t spend time with her friends, she couldn¡¯t go to her classes, and she couldn¡¯t eat at restaurants that ran normal daylight hours. The only thing she could do was spend time with Shera, who, true to her word, really did seem to not ever sleep.

    And Shera¡­ Despite the massive help she continued to be, she remained a little aloof. It was hard to tell if it was Myra¡¯s imagination or not, since of course their relationship was going to backslide as a result of Shera, well, forgetting everything¡­ but Myra had the feeling it wasn¡¯t progressing as quickly as last time, in spite of the nights they spent together. Shera obviously had a lot of familiarity with the nocturnal Ralkenon, and she took Myra to see many of the nice nooks she knew of, but they usually ended up in awkward silence. In one of their ¡®adventures,¡¯ Shera brought her to her favorite bar, where she made an incredibly idiosyncratic drink order, drank exactly half of it, and left immediately.

    It seemed like they ought to have a lot more to talk about, but speculation about the time loop quickly became one-sided.

    One of the few times she offered something up, it had to do with Ben.

    ¡°Y-you know¡ª¡±

    ¡°Yeah?¡±

    They were in the astronomy tower again, Myra keeping Shera company while she quietly enjoyed the stars.

    ¡°I was thinking about what you said Ben said. That you were thinking about something backward?¡±

    ¡°He did say that.¡±

    ¡°Well, it makes some sense, right? Because it doesn¡¯t make any sense.¡±

    ¡°Umm.¡±

    ¡°So if it doesn¡¯t make sense, it makes sense that you¡¯re thinking about it wrong. You ended up looping along with Ben, yet there¡¯s nothing that points to the reason why.¡±

    ¡°Right¡­¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s only reasonable that you have some deeply wrong assumption.¡±

    ¡°But what?¡±

    Shera bit her lip. ¡°I d-don¡¯t know. Sorry. It¡¯s like something is on the t-tip of my t-tongue.¡±

    Myra wasn¡¯t annoyed at her unhelpfulness. She knew the feeling she was talking about¡ªdespite all the questions, it felt like they had a lot of circumstantial information. Still, the answer eluded her.

    ¡ô

    When Myra completed her frequency detector and showed it to Rose Tara, she finally asked if she could gain access to the aura distribution tunnels.

    ¡°I¡¯ve just been fascinated by aura distribution since I was a kid,¡± she tried to explain. So I always wanted to see the actual channels¡ª¡±

    ¡°Really? You cared about aura channels as a kid?¡±

    ¡°Y-yeah?¡± No, she hadn¡¯t, but it wasn¡¯t as if it would be weird if she did.

    ¡°Right¡­ Well, normally I wouldn¡¯t have a problem with it. I think my contact with the city might give you a hard time right now, though. There was a big contamination in one of the sectors, so he¡¯s got security locked tight¡ª¡±

    ¡°A contamination? Wait, which sector?¡±

    ¡°Mm, I think it¡¯s over on the east side of campus?¡±

    God, I¡¯m such an idiot.

    ¡°Sector L-4?¡± Myra asked.

    ¡°Yeahhh, that sounds right.¡± Rose seemed a little thrown off that Myra knew anything about the sector numbering system, but she didn¡¯t press on it.

    ¡°So what¡¯s the impact of this¡­ contamination? What is it exactly?¡±

    ¡°Some kind of fungus growing in the pipes. And the impact¡­ nothing, really. There are a large number of guards and failsafes that prevent corrupted aura from leaking.¡±

    And I bet those guards rely on the Common Library.

    ¡°Is there someone I could talk to for more information about this?¡±

    ¡ô

    Rose hesitantly gave Myra the address of a city maintenance office, and said she could ask for a mage named Frederick Penman. The journey downtown was really unappealing given how exhausted she was from fucking around with her sleep, but she managed to make it there anyway. Frederick was happy to help after she told him she was ¡°in Snailworth¡¯s lab¡± and ¡°worked on aura corruption detection.¡±

    According to Frederick, the fungus had been identified by a safety sensor on the morning of Nov. 12, which was about a week after the loop started. Like Rose, he didn¡¯t expect any problems on account of the ¡°failsafes.¡± However, it would apparently take over a month to clean out the system. They didn¡¯t know what the fungus was or how it got there.

    And to Myra¡¯s surprise, Frederick was perfectly happy to arrange for her to see the fungus herself.

    The distribution channels were underground, in a series of large tunnels accessed by a secure hatch from one of the city maintenance buildings. The channels themselves were large glass pipes, glowing bright green and purple from the super-dense aura inside. Frederick led her to the problem area in Sector L-4, where the issue was self-evident. Growing on the inside along the entire tube was a greenish-grey mushroom.

    ¡°Why¡¯s it so hard to clean?¡± Myra asked. She had to speak loudly to be heard over the large fans that were responsible for pushing the aura-infused air through the tubes.

    ¡°Cleaning it might be impossible,¡± he said, likewise speaking at a volume. ¡°We¡¯re going to replace the pipes wholesale. I¡¯m sure you know that takes a while to arrange.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, of course.¡±

    Myra leaned up close to the glass. The mushrooms were swaying, almost like they were breathing.

    ¡°What exactly is it, though? What would it do if its spores leaked out into the buildings that are relying on these channels?¡±

    ¡°We don¡¯t know, exactly,¡± Frederick said. ¡°We think it¡¯s some kind of novel SAP, but there¡¯s no reason it should spawn here. Aura levels are all normal, so there shouldn¡¯t be any spontaneous phenomena. Some of us are worried this was put here as an act of sabotage, but we can¡¯t imagine the reason. It¡¯s only an inconvenience.¡±

    ¡°What if the failsafes were to, uh, fail?¡± Myra asked. ¡°The ones keeping the corruption from reaching the buildings? Why don¡¯t you just cut this area off entirely?¡±

    ¡°There are a lot of failsafes,¡± Frederick said. Myra waited expectantly for an answer to her question, and he eventually continued, a little less confident. ¡°Well, it¡¯s hard to say exactly until we get more analysis on it.¡±

    ¡°But could it be bad?¡±

    ¡°It could be¡­¡± He grimaced and held out his hand in a so-so gesture. ¡°... pretty bad.¡± He seemed hasty to change the subject. ¡°So there was something about the aura levels you wanted to analyze?¡±

    ¡°Oh, uh!¡± Right. She had said something like that to get access. ¡°Actually, sorry, this setup isn¡¯t quite what I was expecting. Um, I don¡¯t think what I had in mind is going to work.¡±

    Frederick looked at her oddly, and Myra had to evade a few more questions, but he eventually dropped it and led Myra back out.

    ¡°Hey, actually, I have one more question about the aura levels.¡±

    ¡°Of course.¡±

    ¡°You were skeptical it¡¯s a spontaneous anomalous phenomenon, yeah?¡±

    ¡°We were skeptical that it originated here. Like I said, the aura levels were normal¡ª¡±

    ¡°When were they measured though? Wouldn¡¯t the appearance of a SAP in an oversaturated aura environment, uh, re-equilibrate everything and result in normal measurements¡ª¡±

    ¡°Ah¡­¡± he nodded. ¡°It¡¯s theoretically possible, I suppose. The main issue is just how unlikely it would be. The tunnels are kept well-isolated to begin, and there¡¯s no sign of a leak that would allow such a thing. Fungal SAPs would be really common out in the forest, where the nature elements are more abundant¡ª¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I get it.¡± Myra didn¡¯t really need much convincing¡ªshe was already ready to believe this was a direct sabotage. She just wanted to rule out that it was some kind of weird coincidental accident.

    ¡°This is what you came to analyze, right?¡± Frederick asked.

    ¡°Yeah, yeah, of course. Wait¡ªthe areas are well-isolated from aura leaks?¡±

    ¡°Ah, yes? Is there something wrong?¡±

    ¡°No, sorry, I was thinking out loud about something else. Got my wires crossed for a sec.¡± She evaded some more questions just as well as she¡¯d evaded the rocks earlier in the month, and finally left, her mind whirring with thoughts about aura isolation.

    If the event hall is as isolated as it¡¯s claimed, that cuts off all the aura access as well. Anyone in the spatially severed building would be cut off from the ambient aura they¡¯d usually use.

    That might not be a big deal¡­ if the culprit plans ahead, they could bring aura crystals with them to power their spells.

    But, no, it is a big deal! The area is so small and keeps the aura enclosed, so if I could measure the elemental makeup of the ambient aura as soon as the room opens up, I could get an idea of what was cast¡ªor at least, what elements were used while the room was isolated.

    That¡¯s not something I can do by the end of the month, though.

    On the last day, Myra received a sternly worded note from Rose Tara asking her to meet immediately. Just in time for Myra to ignore it.

    ¡ô

    Myra was too jittery, and her heart was pounding so hard she was worried she was starting to worry she would go into cardiac arrest before the end of the loop. This was all the result of the massive quantity of stimulants she had ingested as part of the try-to-wake-up-early-in-the-morning-after-the-reset plan. It was a great plan. Really. She couldn¡¯t hold her binoculars straight in her shaking hands.

    Myra had gone through the motions of the final day. She had shown up to the party, watched Iz get cut up (she looked for the princess¡¯s toenail tunneler, but as Iz suggested, it must have been hidden in the grass), comforted her at the hospital, convinced her to teleport out, and then made for the event hall.

    There, she teleported around continuously, having identified three spy-worthy locations, partially so that she could get a full view around the event hall, and partially so that it would be harder for Ben to track her down. Meanwhile, she kept her barriers up and had her extrasenses fully extended around her. Unfortunately, it was impossible to actually sense another human per se because of their domain defenses, but there were still things that could be felt. Projectiles. The fluctuations in the air when someone teleports in. Vibrations in the floor. She tried to apply what she¡¯d learned from rock-dodging to the task while she watched.

    Right now, the summit attendees were congregating outside the hall, just as they had last time. Prince Humperton was having a somewhat tense conversation with the princess¡¯s handmaid that Myra couldn¡¯t follow from where she was. She made a note to find a way to listen in on that next time. Eventually, the maid left, leaving just the attendees along with Iwasaki. The prince, the princess, the judge, a bunch of imperial sages whose names Myra had looked up the previous loop but who all kind of blurred together, and the Unkmire faction, most of whom she still hadn¡¯t identified.

    Eventually, they all entered the building with Iwasaki¡¯s help, leaving only Iwasaki.

    Then nothing happened.

    Come on, when is some suspicious guy in a cloak gonna walk up and greet Iwasaki like an old friend? Make it easy for me.

    Well, that didn¡¯t happen. In fact, Iwasaki looked rather bored.

    Myra felt a prickle of hairs on her neck as she felt an out-of-place gust behind her. ¡°There you¡ª¡±

    Myra teleported to the front of the event hall. Iwasaki nearly jumped at her sudden appearance.

    ¡°Help, sir! Some weirdo is after me!¡± She ran behind him, putting herself between Iwasaki and the wall. She sensed the place where she had just stood, the roof of a nearby administrative building that would fall any minute now. Shit, I was right that he¡¯d bring an anti-teleportation field. It seemed that¡¯d gotten out just barely in time; a disruption field had gone up just after she had teleported away. Fuck.

    She cowered behind Iwasaki while he questioned her.

    ¡°A weirdo? Hang on, you¡¯re the one who reported an assailant at the beginning of the month.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s¡ªit¡¯s him! Up there!¡± Ben had approached the edge of the roof to look down at them. He looked pissed. As soon as he saw Iwasaki looking back up at him, he teleported away.

    She didn¡¯t let her guard down, though she hoped that meant that would be it for the evening. Iwasaki apologized that he couldn¡¯t go after the intruder, but he reported it to someone over his radio.

    The usual sequence of events went off without too much of a surprise, though for the first time, she got to see Iwasaki¡¯s reaction when the Common Library fell and the blaring alarm went off. He immediately went to check something through a control closet on the side of the building. He sucked in his breath as he examined it, then hastily began making changes, though Iwasaki was blocking the view into the panel, so Myra couldn¡¯t see what he was doing. After the buildings started to fall and dust filled the atmosphere, he announced he was ¡°opening up the hall.¡± He removed an orb from the closet that Myra had seen him messing with in previous loops.

    Shera appeared while Iwasaki busied himself shutting things down. Her role had been to gather the timings of the events and observe the astronomy tower. Evidently, it had shaken dramatically, but it hadn¡¯t fallen, so maybe it was just a matter of being a more structurally sound building after all. Also, the building had been empty of people.

    ¡°You ready?¡± Myra muttered under her breath.

    Shera nodded. There was something they wanted to check, as soon as the event hall opened up, but it meant they would need to rush in and probably displease Iwasaki significantly. But it had to be done.

    As soon as Iwasaki said he was done, the two girls plowed past him into the event hall while he shouted after them. They entered and telekinetically popped the helmets off the armor suits. The theory was that the culprit may have hidden inside the suits, then teleported out as soon as they got the hall open, so they needed to check as quickly as possible. Again, since humans couldn¡¯t be detected through extrasenses, they couldn¡¯t know if someone was in the armor unless they checked with their own eyes.

    ¡°What in the blazes are you all do¡ª¡± Iwasaki rushed in after them, probably ready to tear them apart for assaulting an international summit. He had to stop when the state of the room.

    ¡°We saw that everybody had been massacred, and the building was isolated, so we immediately realized that the only place the culprit could have been was hiding in the suits. It seems we missed them, though.¡±

    It took Iwasaki a minute to process that everybody in the room was dead, let alone the logic behind Myra¡¯s bold statement.

    ¡°I-I see¡­ that must be how they got in as well.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s possible? I thought it was impossible to get in?¡±

    ¡°Where did you hear that?¡± Iwasaki snapped. ¡°It¡¯s impossible to get in after the room was spatially severed. But they could have hid in the statue from the beginning.¡±

    ¡°You didn¡¯t check the state was empty before closing the room?¡±

    ¡°Well¡­¡± He tapped his foot. ¡°I don¡¯t remember, but I don¡¯t think I checked the statue, specifically, no. To be clear, there are a number of security mechanisms that would detect any human presence in the room.¡±

    ¡°Are they impossible to subvert?¡±

    ¡°... No. But the room was closed off a month ago before the subject of the event was even announced.¡±

    But¡­

    No, wait. If the culprit is looping, there¡¯s no fucking way they¡¯d spend the entire fucking month in this building.

    Is there?

    I mean, maybe, if they really, really hate these people.

    She looked at the princess, in pieces on the table.

    While Iwasaki processed the condition of the occupants, and Shera was mesmerized by Judge Krasus¡¯s overly symmetric death pose, Myra finally took a look inside the armor suits, especially the one with the shield, where Shera had found the syringes last time.

    ¡°Uh, there¡¯s some stuff in here,¡± Myra said. There were the syringes, red and blue like she¡¯d seen last time, but that wasn¡¯t all. The two syringes were floating in a pile of dark green sludge.

    ¡°Oh! It¡¯s g-green g-goop,¡± Shera said.

    ¡°I can see that,¡± Myra said.

    ¡°N-no, I mean, that¡¯s what it¡¯s usually called.¡±

    ¡°Oh!¡± She hadn¡¯t seen the chemical before, but from the name, the right neuron fired in Myra¡¯s memory. ¡®Green goop¡¯ was a chemical that was really easy to transmute stuff into, and it was also really dense (low volume) and inert, so it was often a good choice for disposing of garbage, especially in industrial settings. Most so-called ¡°vanishing spells¡± just transmuted matter into this chemical since true vanishing was impossible (it violated conservation of mass).

    ¡°What could they possibly want to hide so badly that they¡¯d bother transmuting it, when they left the fucking syringes in here?¡±

    ¡°Whatever it is, it¡¯s about 4.6 kilograms,¡± Shera said, doing some kind of simple analysis spell. ¡°There¡¯s something else in here.¡±

    ¡°What the hell are you all doing?¡± Iwasaki finally came to check. ¡°What on¡ª¡±

    Shera pulled out the last object. It was a small disc, about the same radius as her bicep, only a centimeter thick, and it looked very rough.

    ¡°Is that diamond?¡± Myra asked. ¡°Can we get a single clue that makes sense here¡ª¡±

    ¡°No, I know what this is for,¡± Shera said. ¡°The culprit used this to sharpen the sword.¡±

    Myra blinked. ¡°Oh.¡±

    ¡°I was thinking, after you mentioned the aura isolation, a good sharpening spell is really aura intensive. This method makes more sense.¡±

    ¡°They filed it by hand? With this dinky thing?¡± Myra didn¡¯t buy it. ¡°Look, the sword didn¡¯t just need to get a little sharpened¡ª¡± She grabbed it off the table. It was completely dulled, it was supposed to be decorative¡ª¡±

    ¡°What the fuck are the two of you doing?¡± Iwasaki demanded. He knocked the sword out of Myra¡¯s hand with a spell, and he grabbed both of them by the shoulder. He wasn¡¯t annoyed, peeved, or baffled.

    He was angry.

    ¡°How did you know this was going to happen?¡±

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°How did you know the sword¡¯s been sharpened?¡± Shit. ¡°How did you know this was going to happen? How¡ª¡±

    Myra grabbed Shera and snapped her teleport stick, careful to exclude Iwasaki.

    ¡ô

    They arrived in a secluded, forested area that Myra had picked out.

    ¡°Sorry, I got careless,¡± Shera said. ¡°We spoke too freely.¡±

    ¡°I was too. I blame these damn stimulants. I can¡¯t think straight.¡±

    She sat down, back against a tree, and pulled out her watch. Shera had marked the times earlier, but for the last one, Myra was the only one who could get it.

    ¡°We need to find a consistent way to handle him,¡± Myra muttered. She had really wanted to look over that whole wire mesh in Judge Krasus¡¯s clothes, but that would demand a lot of uninterrupted time.

    ¡°I was about to say,¡± Shera went on, ¡°they could have sharpened that sword down by spinning the diamond sharpener thing really fast.¡±

    ¡°With telekinesis, you mean.¡±

    ¡°Y-yeah. It¡¯s hard, but it¡¯d be a lot more aura-efficient than a dedicated sharpening spell.¡±

    Myra nodded. ¡°Okay. But why didn¡¯t they just bring their own damn blade? Going through the trouble of bringing a diamond plate and sharpening the sword after they enter the room, why?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t kn-know.¡±

    Myra glued her eyes to her watch until the reset.

    ¡ô

    Myra woke up at 8 A.M., feeling perfectly normal. 8 A.M. felt like the right time to wake up. She wasn¡¯t jittery from taking too many stimulants.

    So: that whole plan hadn¡¯t worked.

    But she had gotten all those times that Shera wanted. The numbers on the clock were still seared in her mind. She moved to write them down as soon as possible.

    Guess I need to apologize to Shera.

    Common Library disappears - 12:39:22

    First earthquake - 12:42:53

    Volcano erupts  - 1:01:07

    Time reset   -  1:09:22

    The time reset was half an hour after the disappearance of the Common Library - down to the second.

 8 - Learning Stuff on Accident

    ¡°Shera, Shera, you were right!¡± Myra ambushed the girl on her way to class in the usual spot, taking her hands in hers. ¡°Measuring down to the second was a good idea!¡±

    ¡°Ah-uh¡ª¡± The girl sputtered. For a second, Myra was worried she had broken the poor girl.

    ¡°I¡¯ll tell you later. I¡¯ll meet you in the astronomy tower, okay?¡± She waved and ran off, leaving the girl dumbstruck.

    Ordinarily, it would be time for the Mastery course with Shera and the rest of her friends, but there was something else Myra needed to do early in the day. Specifically, she needed to do something in the event hall, which would be locked up by the end of the day. She wasn¡¯t entirely sure when her window of opportunity would close, so she had to act as quickly as possible.

    She grabbed the supplies she needed¡ªsome tape and a spool of thread¡ªand headed right to the event hall. Luckily, the building was open when she got there, and thankfully it was empty of people. It was quite a bit different than it was during the peace talks: the table hadn¡¯t been brought in yet; instead, there was a podium that was sometimes used for assemblies. The suits of armor were in the same place as always.

    The suits were what she was here for. She carefully got the helmets off¡ªthey were empty, no surprises there. Myra¡¯s objective was to make sure that if anybody hid in one of these suits, they would leave some kind of trace. To do this, she cut up her thread and taped it into the interior of the suits, having it cross through the torso, the arms, and the legs. It would be impossible for anybody to hide in one of these without interfering with her handiwork.

    If the culprit was using the hiding spots to get in or out, she would know.

    ¡ô

    She finished in time for the math class, where she sat next to Shera as usual. Shera, it turned out, was far more anxious to hear what Myra had to say this loop.

    ¡°I was thinking,¡± she said without any greeting or small talk, ¡°y-you said measuring to the second was a good idea, but I th-think measuring to the¡ª¡±

    ¡°Yeah, yeah, measuring to the millisecond is even better.¡± Shera nodded. ¡°That¡¯s actually really hard to do.¡±

    ¡°Why?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll give you all the context later.¡±

    Shera didn¡¯t seem content with this, though. As the class began, she passed Myra a scrap of paper out of her notebook. The top was labeled, in Shera¡¯s usual perfect handwriting:

    Explain here:

    There was a box for Myra¡¯s explanation.

    Faced with Shera¡¯s unexpected enthusiasm and the prospect of a lecture she¡¯d be sitting through for the fourth time, she grabbed Shera¡¯s arm and dragged her out of the room. Shera let out an ¡®eep,¡¯ which was awkward because class was starting and it made Myra look like some kind of kidnapper. In the end, though, the classroom was too enthralled by the definition of a homotopy group that was burgeoning on the blackboard, and nobody interrupted them.

    Compared to the last loop, it was night and day. As Myra explained all the circumstances, Shera didn¡¯t listen indifferently, but she kept interrupting with questions, and when Myra finished her story and explained about the half-hour time difference, Shera began speculating right away.

    ¡°So the disappearance of the Common Library and the time loop are connected in some way,¡± she said. ¡°The standardization of an hour as 1/24th of the mean solar day is only about 60 years old, so that helps us constrain when this mechanism was invented.¡±

    ¡°Oh, uh, I guess that¡¯s true!¡±

    ¡°But what¡¯s the connection? Maybe the time loop is some emergency mechanism that is activated by the disappearance of the Library? But why does the timing also line up with the volcano? Was the loop started to avert the destruction of the city?¡±

    It was a good question. Why was the loop started? Truthfully, Myra probably needed to speculate more on the subject. The loop coinciding with the natural disasters was suggestive, and Myra also thought it was unlikely that the original intent of the loop was for Benkoten Talzatta to get into her skirt. Myra wanted to believe in a benevolent intent. The loop might have been started to avert the natural disasters or the destruction of the Common Library.

    But¡­

    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Myra admitted. ¡°If I have an ally in this loop, I haven¡¯t met them, and anyway, the natural disasters happened after the Library disappeared. If the loop is caused by the disappearance, then that can¡¯t have anything to do with the volcano¡­¡±

    ¡°But the Common Library disappearing is what causes the barriers around the volcano to fail, right?¡±

    ¡°Yes, by causing the aura distribution channels powering the volcano barriers to fail.¡±

    ¡°Right¡­ so if we assume a malicious party wants to destroy the city, and they know the volcano is going to erupt at a certain time, they could destroy the Common Library in order to disrupt the barriers and cause a catastrophe. Unbeknownst to them, this triggers a time loop through some emergency mechanism. How does that sound?¡±

    ¡°Maybe. But how would this hypothetical group know what time the volcano was going to erupt?¡± Myra asked.

    ¡°The¡­ time loop? Oh¡ª¡±

    ¡°Then it doesn¡¯t explain how the time loop started in the first place.¡±

    ¡°Oh¡­ yeah.¡±

    ¡ô

    Once the hour let out, they went back to the lecture hall to get their bags and escaped before anybody could question them on skipping out of class. Myra went to rearrange her schedule again, dealing with the annoyed registrar administrator, and then she went to lunch. She got lunch with her usual group plus Aurora, same as in the previous loops, though for the first time, she invited Shera along as well.

    At lunch, Myra zoned out through most of a conversation that she had now heard twice. Nathan talked about the weird crater of unknown cause that killed a cyclist on the other side of town, and Aurora brought up a death that had happened in Jewel City.

    ¡°You all know of Emmett Massiel, right?¡± Aurora asked.

    ¡°Former Sage of Magical Infrastructure,¡± Nathan said.

    ¡°Right. He died just after midnight in his home. Of course, Sage Emeritus Massiel had his mansion decked out with the absolute, state-of-the-art home security system. All kinds of alarms, tamper-proof recordings, that kinda thing. There was nothing that pointed to any intruder. And he lived alone.¡±

    ¡°So how did he die?¡± Cynthia asked.

    ¡°Hole burned through the heart. There was no murder weapon at the scene, but of course, the authorities checked the records for any sign of a spell being cast. Coinciding with the estimated time of death, 1:09 A.M., someone cast a spell to burn a laser beam straight into Emmett Massiel¡¯s chest. And that¡ª¡±

    ¡°Wait!¡± One word had caught Myra¡¯s attention, snapping her out of her trance. She stood up and slammed her hands on the table. ¡°What time did you say?¡±

    ¡°Huh? It was 1:09 A.M. Something wrong?¡±

    ¡°N-no, no, sorry. Uh¡ª¡± She made eye contact with Shera who had, of course, caught the same thing she had. Everybody else was just looking at her oddly, so she uncomfortably sat back down. ¡°Go on.¡±

    ¡°Right¡­¡± Aurora went on just as Myra had heard before, explaining that Emmett Massiel had apparently lasered his own chest in his sleep. Myra tuned out of the conversation again, her mind whirring while she wolfed down her lunch.

    If the time reset occurs at 1:09, it¡¯s not too much of a stretch to guess that the loop start might be at 1:09 as well, making the duration of the loop exactly 28 days. Which means that the retired sage committed suicide at what is probably exactly the loop start?

    And Massiel isn¡¯t just any retired sage, but the retired sage of magical infrastructure, the most important person in the empire¡¯s development of the Common Library¡­

    That can¡¯t be a coincidence, can it?

    No, there¡¯s no way. But what¡¯s the real meaning behind his strange somnial suicide?

    Myra reviewed what she knew about the man and his death from past loops. He had been a hugely important sage, influential in the early days of the empire. He had retired four years ago, succeeded by Hazel Ornobis, who would die in the event hall at the end of the month. Massiels¡¯s death would be followed by a barrage of canned, probably pre-written obituaries.

    However, despite the large coverage, there would be very little on the specifics of his death, only a short note that amounted to what the same things Aurora had told them. Weirdly, the news wouldn¡¯t break in Casire until the next day, even though Aurora already knew about it somehow.

    How¡¯d she get her information?

    Myra was only mildly curious about it, but when she finally got a chance to talk to Shera later, this was the point she wanted to start.

    ¡°You want me to follow up with Aurora and ask about her inside source?¡±

    ¡°Where else would you start? We could go to Jewel City and try to break into his house¡­¡±

    ¡°The house with the state-of-the-art security system?¡±

    ¡°Or we could ask Aurora.¡±

    ¡°But I mean¡­ Aurora¡¯s ¡®inside source¡¯ is probably, you know, her family business.¡± That business being the Blank Cloaks, the assassin clan specializing in untraceable crime.

    ¡°That¡¯s just a rumor.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s a pretty persistent rumor, once which is supported by Aurora having an inside source on weird death news.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re in a time loop,¡± Shera reminded her. ¡°If there¡¯s any time to look into th-the¡ªto their p-personal b-b-business, it¡¯s now.¡± Shera, too, was hesitant to say ¡®Blank Cloaks¡¯ out loud.

    ¡°All right, all right.¡± Myra massaged her forehead, adding this to her to-do list, along with visiting Jewel City at some point. ¡°I dunno what her afternoon schedule is, but her dorm¡¯s in Cynthia¡¯s building. I¡¯ll track her down tonight.¡±

    ¡°What do you think of the other case?¡± Shera asked. ¡°The inexplicable crater that killed a bicycler?¡±

    ¡°I dunno. That one never gets solved either. I don¡¯t have a reason to believe it¡¯s related to the loop, though, other than just being¡­ weird.¡±

    ¡°And that it occurs on the first morning.¡±

    ¡°Fine. That too.¡±

    ¡°I think we should look into it for its own s-sake, anyway. When¡¯s it take place?¡±

    ¡°Early in the morning, I think it was 5 A.M.? It¡¯s too early for me to go witness it. It¡¯s just across town, though, do you want to go look at it?¡±

    Shera nodded. ¡°We should go before they clean it up.¡±

    ¡ô

    Myra found a newspaper to figure out where they were going, and the two of them took the subway across town. The location, as Nathan had faithfully relayed, was a bike trail by the river bank. The trail was part of a park, a shaded wooded area.

    ¡°It¡¯s a very pleasant spot,¡± Myra mused, ¡°but isn¡¯t it kind of odd to be here at 5 in the morning? In the cold autumn weather?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯s that weird,¡± Shera said. ¡°It¡¯s easy to imagine someone commuting along this path. But we already established the victim¡¯s kind of suspicious, didn¡¯t we?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right. The article said he had a fake I.D.¡±

    It wasn¡¯t hard to find the crater. It really was exactly as advertised, a giant bowl carved out of the ground, about six or seven meters in diameter, charred and with chunks of pavement and dirt strewn everywhere. There was blood spattered about, and even a dent that looked like it was where the cyclist might have been slammed into the ground, though the body and the bike had both been moved already.

    The entire area was taped off by a police perimeter, and there were a couple of men in the shining golden robes of the Ralkenon police force. The robes were reflective and very bright in the sunlight, making it difficult to look directly at them.

    Myra could barely observe one officer giving them strange looks, especially Shera. In the last loop, Myra had gotten accustomed to the weird stares the girl gathered while walking around town. Her striped hair and especially her mismatched, monochrome eyes tended to catch attention.

    ¡°Can I help you lassies?¡±

    ¡°What happened here?¡±

    ¡°Can¡¯t you see?¡± He gestured his arm at the crater. ¡°Crater.¡±

    ¡°I mean, how did it happen? Was there a meteorite? And has the victim been identified yet?¡±

    ¡°We don¡¯t know who he is.¡± He walked away.

    ¡°But what caused it, then?¡± Myra called out. ¡°And which direction was the cyclist going?¡±

    The police officer didn¡¯t even turn around or acknowledge that she¡¯d asked additional questions. They tried the other one, but they similarly got a cold shoulder.

    ¡°I guess we¡¯re on our own.¡± She closed her eyes and sensed around for anything she might have missed with her eyes, but nothing caught her attention. ¡°Anything stand out to you, Shera?¡±

    ¡°The trees.¡± She pointed them out. ¡°These are Billowing Elms. It¡¯s the national tree of Casire.¡±

    ¡°Is that important?¡±

    ¡°Billowing Elms are one of the few plants to emanate a substantial domain like human mages do. So if the projectile was enchanted, and it passed right by one of these trees¡ª¡± She traced her finger along a hypothetical path, illustrating. ¡°¡ªThen it would break the enchantment.¡±

    ¡°Huh.¡± Myra had been vaguely aware of animals that had domains, especially wolves and llamas, but never plants. ¡°So those work like human domains?¡±

    ¡°Sort of. They do allow some enchantments, usually ones the plants are evolved to rely on. I took a botany class, and we studied flowers that allow magical bees to pollinate them, but which knock out wasps on contact. So it¡¯s similar to humans, in that they¡¯re selective to allow enchantments that help and kill enchantments that hurt, but they¡¯re a lot less complex. Oh! Also, I think Billowing Elm bark is used in those teleportation disruption fields you were talking about.¡±

    Oh, huh. That could be an important clue for how to subvert them.

    ¡°Okay,¡± Myra said, ¡°but a magic projectile would have helped explain its disappearance from the scene. If it¡¯s unenchanted, that doesn¡¯t help anything.¡±

    Shera shrugged. ¡°We need information about this crater.¡±

    ¡°Are you an expert in, uh, crater impact analysis? Is that a field of study?¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s ask that guy with the slide rule.¡±

    There was, indeed, a guy with a slide rule on his belt. He was an older guy in his fifties or sixties, kneeling and inspecting the ground, scribbling away at a notepad.

    ¡°Hey, excuse me, sir!¡± Myra called out to him from behind the police tape, kind of shouting but speaking quietly enough to not catch the attention of the officers. ¡°D¡¯you know what made this crater?¡±

    ¡°Hoo-boy,¡± the old guy responded. ¡°You and everyone¡¯s cat¡¯d like to know that.¡± He stood up and brushed the dust off his pants.

    ¡°It¡¯s not just a meteorite?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯da think, wouldn¡¯t ya? But there ain¡¯t any meteorite here.¡±

    ¡°Did it¡­ disintegrate on impact?¡±

    ¡°Well, we checked the composition of all this debris¡ªIt¡¯s all rocks and dirt that¡¯d be ¡®round this park.¡±

    ¡°Could it have just been¡­ a magic pressure wave?¡±

    He shook his head. ¡°Nah, you can tell that sorta thing from the shape. You ladies with the paper?¡±

    ¡°Oh, no, we¡¯re just interested students.¡±

    The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    ¡°Well, this¡¯ll interest ya. This crater here was definitely a physical collision, not any destructive magic I know of.¡± He held his hands out to form a ball, a bit smaller than a bowling ball. ¡°Object would have been yea big, based on the examination of the, ah, deceased, may he rest in peace. Trajectory was, near vertical, interesting enough.¡± That would have put the trajectory right next to one of the trees, just like Shera predicted. ¡°Energy on impact was¡­ 5 to 20 million Joules, far as I can tell.¡± He tapped his notepad, where Myra could see some figures worked out.

    She asked her last question quickly since she saw they had finally caught the attention of a police officer. ¡°Do you know anything about the victim? Which direction were they going, or anything?¡±

    ¡°Ahh, they were headed thataways.¡± He waved his hand down the trail. ¡°Officers think he was coming from the train. That¡¯s not my department. Here, you can ask Inspector Mumps.¡±

    Inspector Mumps, in fact, was not happy to answer any questions, and they were promptly shooed away.

    ¡°I think if they want us to stand farther away, they should have placed the tape farther out,¡± Shera grumbled. ¡°It only makes sense. They should have demarcated exactly the area they don¡¯t want people to be, not less of it.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s just enjoy the park for a sec.¡± Myra found a nice spot to sit down where it didn¡¯t look like she¡¯d get too dirty. ¡°It would have been a nice day for a picnic.¡±

    ¡°So what do you think?¡± Shera asked. ¡°Is there anything actionable?¡±

    ¡°Well¡­ I¡¯m wondering if we can figure out where he came from.¡± Myra took a map out of her pocket. ¡°That guy said he might have come from the train station, right?¡±

    ¡°We could have guessed that. It¡¯s easily the most prominent place that direction. Do they allow bikes on the train?¡±

    ¡°They do¡ªhold on, let me check the schedule.¡± The city of Ralkenon kept train schedules and other public service information at an accessible location in Abstract Space, so it was easy to pull the information into her mind. ¡°The guy was struck at¡­ around 5, right?¡±

    ¡°The article said 5:10.¡±

    ¡°So if they came from the train station, they probably got off the¡­ 5:02? It looks like a quick ride from the station.¡±

    ¡°Seems fast for the dark, though.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, maybe. And I dunno, do you think they boarded before or after 1:09 A.M.? If it¡¯s after, there really aren¡¯t that many major locations he could be from.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t really see an argument for either. It¡¯s not like we have a concrete way to connect it to the loop.¡±

    ¡°Do you think this was a waste of time?¡±

    ¡°No. Even if it¡¯s not connected, it¡¯s not a waste of time. It¡¯s still interesting to investigate, and¡ªand¡ª¡± She twitched. ¡°We got to come en-enjoy the p-p-park.¡±

    ¡°True.¡±

    ¡°H-hey,¡± Shera said, still kind of twitchy. ¡°We d-don¡¯t know where he came from, but can we guess where he was going? Is there anything in that direction?¡±

    Myra pulled out her map. ¡°Well¡­ not really. It¡¯s just that tacky tourist trap area.¡± She looked closely at the map. ¡°Actually¡­¡±

    ¡°Yeah?¡±

    ¡°Hotel Caldera is right here.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s the famous upscale hotel?¡±

    ¡°Yeah¡­ it¡¯s just, I vaguely remember hearing the imperials were staying there for the summit.¡±

    ¡°When do they arrive?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. The rumors about her being here started at least a week before the summit. I¡¯d been meaning to try to get some information on what they¡¯re up to for most of the month, but I didn¡¯t know where to start.¡±

    ¡°Well, we could start at the hotel.¡±

    ¡°I suppose.¡± Myra stood up and brushed herself off. There was no reason to not start walking.

    ¡°What are we gonna do? W-we¡¯re just gonna get stonewalled again.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s the receptionist¡¯s job to talk to people.¡±

    ¡°I presume they¡¯re not in the habit of giving away their clients¡¯ schedules.¡±

    ¡°Well, I got an idea. All we have to do is ask when their penthouse suite is free, take the complement of that, and that¡¯ll be the days the imperial family has reserved.¡±

    ¡°Unless other people have it booked at other times.¡±

    ¡°Okay, sure, maybe one group will check out in the morning, and then the imperial family checks in that same afternoon. That¡¯s how it usually works, right? So we just have to say we¡¯re looking to book the penthouse for a couple of hours right around noon, and we want to know when it¡¯s free¡ªoh wait, I have another idea.¡±

    ¡°G-good.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll say, ¡®We want to book the penthouse suite the first week of December.¡¯ And the clerk will be like, ¡®Oh, I¡¯m so sorry, we¡¯re already booked.¡¯ And I¡¯ll say, ¡®Ahem, we¡¯re here on behalf of Prince Humperton Raine,¡¯ and they¡¯ll gasp, bow, and say something like ¡®I¡¯m so sorry, ma¡¯am, there must be a misunderstanding. We have already taken the reservation from the imperial family. Do you need to adjust it?¡¯ And then we¡¯ll get all the info we need.¡±

    ¡°Okay.¡±

    The inside of Hotel Caldera looked like the inside of a volcano, or maybe it looked like what people expected the inside of a volcano to look like. The walls were rugged and craggy, and bright orange foam flowed down ridges at the bottom of the walls. The front desk was at the end of the main hallways.

    Myra flopped her arms on the desk. ¡°We¡¯d like to book the penthouse.¡±

    ¡°Of course, ma¡¯am.¡± The clerk spoke professionally and didn¡¯t give Shera any weird looks. ¡°Which one?¡±

    Myra blinked. ¡°There¡¯s more than one?¡±

    ¡°There are four. The tephra suite, the chamber suite, the conduit suite, and the vent suite.¡±

    ¡°We, uh¡­ which one is the best one?¡± Are those parts of a volcano or something?

    ¡°None is strictly better than the others. They are incomparable.¡± He passed Myra a brochure. ¡°You can find information about our first-class accommodations here.¡±

    ¡°The v-vent is the best,¡± Shera said. She didn¡¯t look at the brochure. ¡°It¡¯s the highest p-part of a v-volcano.¡±

    ¡°We want the vent¡ªwait, no, we want whatever¡¯s available,¡± Myra said.

    ¡°If you tell me which one you want, I can tell you what¡¯s available.¡±

    Great, how am I supposed to figure out when the prince and princess are in if we don¡¯t know which room they¡¯re going to be in? Why is there no total order on the penthouse suites?

    ¡°Is there anything available the first week of December?¡±

    ¡°You mean December of next year, correct?¡±

    ¡°Uh¡­ what?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m afraid we¡¯re booked fully for the next 8 months.¡± The clerk nearly dropped his professional demeanor, as Myra could see him barely suppressing a snicker.

    All right, it was time for the bluff. Myra leaned forward. ¡°And what if we told you we¡¯re here on behalf of the imperial family?¡±

    ¡°And who the hell are you?¡±

    Myra nearly jumped at the sudden voice behind her. She turned to see a well-dressed woman with pink hair and a golden wristwatch, clutching her own forehead and looking extremely pained.

    ¡°Oh¡ª¡±

    The woman shoved her way past Myra without so much another word. ¡°You,¡± she barked at the hotel clerk, ¡°do you have anything for headaches?¡±

    The clerk, of course, was immediately bowing and tripping over himself to assist. ¡°Ah! Yes¡ªyes, Your Highness. We have several options. Would you like¡ª¡±

    ¡°Anything. Whatever your medical officer recommends.¡±

    ¡°Of course, Your Highness¡± The man bowed. ¡°I¡¯ll be right back!¡± He left into the back room, not offering a word of explanation or apology to Myra.

    The princess placed her elbow on the desk, barely propping her head up. She looked like she was about to collapse.

    ¡°A-are you a-a-alright?¡± Shera asked.

    She looked at Shera out of one eye. ¡°Who are you again?¡±

    ¡°I-I-I-I-¡± Shera short-circuited as she was questioned by the imperial princess.

    Myra jumped back in. ¡°Hi, I¡¯m¡­ Myrabelle.¡± She hesitantly decided to give her real name. ¡°We¡¯re students at Ralkenon University.¡±

    ¡°I thought you said you were with the imperial family.¡±

    ¡°Well, uh¡ª¡±

    The receptionist returned with her elixir. The princess spent a moment inspecting it, probably with an analysis spell, then drank it. She breathed a deep sigh of relief. ¡°Ah¡­ that¡¯s better.¡± She took a moment to enjoy her newfound relief, then headed back towards the stairwell.

    ¡°Hey¡ªwait! Your Highness!¡±

    ¡°Oh, what did you want, again?¡± She squinted. ¡°Hold on, you aren¡¯t representatives of my family.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I told you, we¡¯re students at Ralkenon.¡±

    The princess looked at her in confusion for a bit. ¡°Bah, seems I was pretty out of it.¡± She walked back to the stairwell, but slowly. ¡°Hey, what¡¯s fun to do in the city?¡±

    ¡°Well¡ªthere¡¯s the volcano¡ª¡±

    ¡°Already saw it.¡±

    ¡°Anything at the Verj-Sandzar Theatre; the Ralkenon Museum of Ancient Art; you could go see a waterball game, the Ralkenon Pufferfish are doing well this year¡ªuh, I hear the river cruise is good¡ªyou can go canoeing, too¡­¡± Myra racked her brains for things a cultured person would do.

    ¡°The s-s-skating rink is good.¡± Shera spoke up from where she was hiding behind Myra. The princess flinched, either from Shera¡¯s stutter or from making eye contact with her for the first time.

    ¡°Eh, all right, thanks.¡± She turned back to the stairs, but she smiled before she left. ¡°You know, I have some business at your university. Maybe I¡¯ll see you two again.¡±

    Myra almost let her get away. But her last sentiment seemed surprisingly genuine, and before she could disappear, Myra snapped back into it. ¡°Hey! Can we ask you a couple of things?¡±

    ¡°Sure, why not?¡± She stopped and leaned against the rail. ¡°Myrabelle, was it?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, and this is Shera.¡± Shera waved, but the princess probably didn¡¯t see because Shera was still behind Myra. ¡°Did you know about the weird incident just a few blocks here last night?¡±

    ¡°Say what? When?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, there¡¯s this weird unexplainable crater¡ª¡± Myra quickly explained the weird circumstances of the crater. ¡°I was wondering if, uh, I don¡¯t know, you were targeted, or something.¡±

    She tilted her head. ¡°What, so you knew that I, Princess Malazhonerra, was staying here?¡±

    ¡°No, no,¡± Myra said quickly, ¡°we just knew the hotel was here. We certainly didn¡¯t know you were here until the clerk addressed her.¡± That was almost technically true. ¡°What are you doing here, anyway?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s just a vacation, mostly.¡±

    ¡°But you weren¡¯t outside when the crater happened?¡±

    ¡°Well, we got in at around midnight¡­ or one¡­¡±

    ¡°From where?¡±

    ¡°We hiked here from Kashthwarn.¡±

    ¡°Oh, wow. You walked all the way? Through the Nurjan forest?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, my calves are killing me. Whole trip took us twelve days, though that was with a detour up the volcano. We went scuba diving for a bit in the magma. Then we got in last night, walked all the way here¡­¡±

    ¡°Wait, you dived in the magma?¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re both perfectly capable mages,¡± she explained.

    ¡°And the ¡®both¡¯ of you, that¡¯s you and¡­¡±

    ¡°My friend Vi.¡±

    ¡°Okay¡­ and then you didn¡¯t leave the hotel or see anything suspicious? The crater appeared around 5 in the morning.¡±

    ¡°No, I went straight to bed. I was out like a light. Then I woke up around noon with this raging headache. I didn¡¯t want to get out of bed, ¡®cause you know, I¡¯ve been sleeping on the ground for two weeks, so I tried to just sleep it off, but that didn¡¯t work. I finally made my way down here.¡±

    ¡°And Vi¡ªthat¡¯s your friend?¡ªshe didn¡¯t go out, did she?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think so¡ªshe was showering when I nodded off¡ªoh, speak of the devil.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s going on? Who are you talking to?¡± Another familiar voice came from the stairwell. Violet Penrilla appeared from around the corner, then did a double-take when she saw Shera, still peeking out behind her. Damn, she really does have it rough.

    ¡°Myra, this is my friend, Violet. Vi, they¡¯re trying to figure out if we saw some mysterious crater.¡±

    ¡°Crater? I heard about that. Why would we have seen it? We were asleep.¡± The duke¡¯s daughter looked suspiciously at Myra. Shera started breathing harder. ¡°How¡¯d you know Her Highness was here?¡±

    ¡°Uh¡ªwe didn¡¯t¡ª¡±

    ¡°We just met, Vi,¡± the princess said. ¡°Chill out.¡±

    ¡°It sounds like they¡¯re interrogating you.¡± Despite the princess¡¯s support, Violet¡¯s suspicious stare only intensified. After enough time glaring daggers through her teal-tinted glasses, she turned back to the princess. ¡°Mala, did you get something for your headache?¡±

    ¡°Yes, I feel much better.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s get outta here. We¡¯re almost late for our boat ride.¡±

    ¡°All right.¡±

    Get out of there, she did, and she did it fast. She grabbed the princess and teleported out, barely giving the other woman time to wave. They were gone before Myra could call out.

    ¡°Wait¡ªdamn!¡± When she processed the empty spot where they¡¯d been, she nearly slammed a fist against the wall. ¡°Damn!¡± she cursed again.

    ¡°V-violet, sh-she¡¯s¡ª¡±

    ¡°She keeps slipping out of my grasp,¡± Myra said. ¡°I wanted to talk to her in a previous loop, and she teleported without notice then, too.¡± She turned to face her companion, who had an oddly flustered look about her. ¡°Everything okay?¡±

    ¡°I-I dunno. Never mind. Both of them seem very skilled at magic.¡±

    ¡°I won¡¯t dispute that.¡± She tried to collect herself so they could head out. ¡°The princess was no slouch in her duel with Ben. And Violet doesn¡¯t need a staff.¡±

    ¡°Maybe she can teach you the advanced teleportation you¡¯re looking for.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, sure. If I can catch her.¡±

    ¡ô

    ¡°Well, we learned some stuff,¡± Myra said as they rode the subway back to campus. ¡°I can¡¯t believe the princess is here the whole month and I never thought to check.¡±

    ¡°The princess was happier to talk than I expected.¡±

    ¡°Well, that¡¯s not that surprising. Someone manages to invite her to Melanie¡¯s party each time, so she¡¯s gotta be reasonably social.¡± For that matter, Myra still had no idea who actually did that.

    ¡°It sounds like her father isn¡¯t here yet? Just her and her friend.¡±

    ¡°I¡­ think so.¡± She let out a long sigh. ¡°I guess we¡¯ve still got a lot of information gathering ahead of us.¡± Staking out the hotel sounded like a pain in the ass, and it was probably useless if the imperial family was in the habit of just teleporting in and out of the building. ¡°We learned a lot of stuff on accident, I just need to learn how to do it on purpose.¡±

    Shera didn¡¯t laugh at her self-deprecating joke. ¡°I had f-fun learning stuff w-with you.¡±

    ¡°Aw, thanks.¡± She gave the girl a hug and got one of her adorable squeaks.

    After regaining herself, Shera asked, ¡°What are your other plans for this loop?¡±

    ¡°Ehh, work on my anti-Benkoten defenses, try to investigate what Mirkas-Ballam Pharmaceutical is doing¡ªI told you about that, right?¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡±

    ¡°I have an idea to figure out what spells are cast inside that event hall. And I would like to figure out how to wake up early next loop. That¡¯d make me safer, and I could just go check out what¡¯s happening with this crater, or ambush Ben as he¡¯s leaving, or something. But I really used up all my ideas last time.¡±

    Shera thought about it, but she remained silent.

    ¡°I¡¯m honestly kinda mad it didn¡¯t work. I mean, this looping mechanism moves all my memories back, so why doesn¡¯t it move back my other alterations?¡±

    ¡°Well, neither of those were purely neurological, were they?¡± Shera asked. ¡°Whatever stimulant drug you took was carried through your bloodstream. And circadian rhythms are controlled through a hormonal signaling process, right?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, but it originates from the brain. I looked this up, it¡¯s controlled by the¡­ something nucleus, I forget the name, but it¡¯s in the brain.¡±

    ¡°But what happens when your brain is suddenly out of sync with the rest of your body?¡±

    ¡°I¡­ I don¡¯t know? I guess the body wins? That doesn¡¯t make any sense. When you put it that way, it¡¯s a wonder I¡¯m not more fucked up, isn¡¯t it?¡±

    Shera shook her head. ¡°Not if we assume the loop was designed intentionally, which is a good bet, given the exact half hour. It makes sense that the designer would make the reset process smooth and undo alterations that could be undesired. What if you¡¯d been poisoned?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s a good point¡­¡± Actually, it made her feel better about the possibility of Ben catching her and injecting her with whatever-the-hell-it-is.

    ¡°Have you thought about doing another apprenticeship this loop?¡± Shera asked.

    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t really want to build that frequency detector again. I¡¯m not sure what I¡¯d gain from it, either.¡± She could try to warn them about the fungus in advance, and maybe learn something about how it gets into the pipes, but she already had Frederick Penman¡¯s name and address, and getting the apprenticeship would take a while without Benkoten recommending her. She wasn¡¯t sure reconnecting with Rose Tara would help that much.

    ¡°I was thinking you should work with Professor Bandine.¡±

    ¡°The biomechanical systems professor? You think I might learn something about brain interfaces?¡±

    ¡°Maybe. It could also be an avenue to learning about Mirkas-Ballam¡¯s project. That¡¯s not why I suggested it, though.¡±

    ¡°Then why?¡±

    ¡°Didn¡¯t you say Benkoten pushed you out of working with her?¡±

    ¡°Oh, yeah, he did.¡± And his reasoning didn¡¯t hold up in retrospect either¡­ ¡°You think he wanted me to avoid her for some reason? On its own, that¡¯s a pretty good reason to try it out¡­ Oh, fuck me.¡±

    Myra buried her face into her hands. She had already switched out of her class, the same as she had in the last loop, so she would need to switch back¡­

    God, it was going to be awkward at the registrar.

    ¡ô

    Come evening, it was finally time to track down Aurora Ferara. With some help from Cynthia, she was able to locate the senior girl¡¯s dorm room. She took a deep breath and knocked.

    Aurora Ferara answered quickly. The tall, olive-skinned girl was dressed casually, with a knee-length skirt made of multi-colored, interlocking fabrics and a crop top. As usual, she also wore ruby earrings and had her black hair tied back in a long braid.

    She also had a knife sheathed in a belt at her hip.

    ¡°Heyy¡­¡± She snapped a finger. ¡°You¡¯re one of Isadora¡¯s friends, yeah? From lunch today?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, hi, I¡¯m Myra. You brought up that weird suicide of Emmett Massiel.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, what of it?¡±

    ¡°Uh¡­ I just wanted to ask a couple of questions about it. About whatever you know, I mean.¡±

    She raised an eyebrow. ¡°Well, come on in.¡± She opened the door for Myra, and she crossed the threshold into Aurora¡¯s bedroom.

    The bedroom was clean. It looked like she had been working¡ªon her desk was an open textbook. It looked like it was for the class she was taking with Iz. Then, of course, there was her famous knife collection. The vast collection covered two walls of her room, and its pieces ranged from curved and jagged to straight and narrow, from simple to decorated, from familiar to foreign and exotic. None of them were in a protective cover.

    She plopped onto her bed. ¡°Close the door, would ya? Don¡¯t like the heat to escape.¡±

    ¡°Y-yeah, of course,¡± Myra said as she complied. Not scared of the murder-gossiping knife-collecting assassin heiress. Nope.

    ¡°So, I dunno if I can help ya, but whatcha need?¡±

    ¡°I was just wondering where the heck you got your info about Emmett Massiel. It hasn¡¯t hit the papers yet.¡±

    ¡°Nah, it was in the evening paper.¡±

    ¡°That doesn¡¯t answer my question.¡±

    ¡°Why, you don¡¯t believe my info?¡± Her tone was playful, though, not offended or accusatory.

    ¡°I was trying to find more information about it.¡±

    ¡°Well, where do you think I got it?¡± Still leaning back in her bed, she unsheathed the knife at her hip and began twirling it in her hand.

    ¡°I dunno, maybe you have¡­ connections¡­ in the uh¡­¡±

    Murder industry, Myra didn¡¯t finish.

    ¡°Yep. I got a connection at the Halnya Times,¡± she said. ¡°He¡¯s an old childhood friend, so he gives me inside scoops sometimes. We happened to be catching up over the phone this morning, so he let me know about it. That¡¯s it.¡±

    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s a pretty normal explanation.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, what¡¯d you expect?¡± She switched from twirling the knife around her hand to twirling it up into the air. It looked like her objective was to get it as close to the ceiling as possible without hitting it, and from the scratched-up look of the ceiling, she must have had a lot of practice. Myra slowly backed to the other side of the room.

    ¡°D¡¯you know anything else? Beyond what you said about it today?¡±

    ¡°Nah.¡±

    ¡°Could you get me in touch with your friend?¡±

    ¡°Hm¡­ I don¡¯t see why not, I guess.¡± The playfulness started to leave her tone, though. ¡°What¡¯s this to you, exactly?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s, ehh¡­ there¡¯s this personal thing I¡¯m caught up in¡ª¡±

    ¡°Oh!¡± She stopped what she was doing suddenly and sat up. ¡°Kent. Prua-Kent. You¡¯re that, ah, con artist¡¯s daughter.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s¡ªyeah¡ª¡±

    ¡°Ugh, sorry about all that. I won¡¯t pry into your business.¡±

    ¡°Thanks. Sorry if it, uh, seemed like I was prying into yours.¡± Misunderstanding aside, Myra was glad the girl had backed off.

    ¡°You¡¯re all good. Anyway, if you really want to find out more¡­ call Halnya Times main office and ask for Sky Mishram. You can tell him I sent you.¡±

    ¡°All right, thanks.¡± She wrote down the name so she wouldn¡¯t forget, then turned to leave.

    ¡°Close the door on the way out, would ya?¡±

    ¡°Sure, sure. Won¡¯t let the heat out.¡±

    As she was on her way out, though, she hesitated. There was one other thing she came for, wasn¡¯t there?

    This was a bit harder to ask¡­ but she really needed information.

    She took a deep breath. ¡°Hey, actually, one more thing.¡±

    ¡°Yeah?¡±

    ¡°Do you, uh, know much about¡­ security systems?¡±

    ¡°Oh~?¡± Her playful tone returned. ¡°What do you want to know about them?¡±

 9 - Learning Stuff on Purpose

    ¡°Hi, can you connect me to the main office for the Halnya Times? Yes, the main one is Jewel City.¡±

    ¡­

    ¡°Hi, I¡¯m trying to reach Sky Mishram. I realize it¡¯s late, but is there any chance he¡¯s in?¡±

    ¡­

    ¡°My name¡¯s Myrabella Prua-Kent. No, he¡¯s not expecting me.¡±

    ¡­

    ¡°Hello?¡± It was a deep, handsome voice. ¡°This is Sky Mishram.¡±

    ¡°Hi! Sorry for calling out of the blue. My name¡¯s Myrabelle¡ªI¡¯m a classmate of Aurora Ferara¡¯s.¡±

    ¡°Aurora? Is she all right?¡±

    ¡°Yes, sorry, my call is about business. She referred me to you. I¡¯m actually calling about recent news events.¡±

    ¡°I see. Can I help you?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m looking for information about the death of Emmett Massiel.¡±

    A long sigh carried over the phone. ¡°You learned about it from Aurora,¡± he deduced.

    ¡°Y-yeah. I was hoping you could tell me more information about it.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure why you¡¯re asking, but I¡¯m afraid we don¡¯t provide information except through our publications.¡±

    Myra had expected this, but she had a plan.

    ¡°I understand your policy,¡± Myra said carefully. ¡°But what if we exchanged? I have some information that I think your publication would be very interested in. If I could exchange that for whatever you know¡­¡±

    Sky Mishram was silent for a while. Myra faintly heard what might have been the clicking of a tongue.

    ¡°This is something we can discuss,¡± He finally said. ¡°To be upfront, I should say I don¡¯t know if the information I have will be particularly satisfying to you. But if you have an interesting lead, I will share what I know.¡±

    ¡°Thanks.¡± Myra plowed ahead before he could change his mind. ¡°The lead is this: On December 3, there¡¯s going to be a peace meeting between the Imperial Prince and the King of Unkmire in Ralkenon. Ralkenon University will be hosting.¡±

    More silence.

    ¡°That¡¯s quite a tip.¡±

    ¡°Do you believe me?¡±

    ¡°It checks out with some of what I know. There has been speculation around recent travel arrangements they have made¡ªhow do you know this?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s really complicated. I¡­ I can¡¯t tell you. But I can tell you most of the individuals who will be there. The prince; the princess; six imperial sages, Hazel Ornobis, Marcus Bora, Elwyn¡ª¡±

    ¡°Wait, wait, wait¡ªsorry, I need to get my quill ready. Okay.¡±

    ¡°Prince Humperton, Princess Malazhonerra, Hazel Ornobis, Marcus Bora, Elwyn Senserenasia, Linda Zeawak, Aiko Ueno, Theodore Kettle, and an arbiter, Judge Philium Krasus.¡±

    ¡°Philium¡­ Krasus¡­¡± Myra heard muttering over the phone. ¡°Okay.¡±

    ¡°And I don¡¯t know anything on the Unkmire side, other than the king.¡±

    ¡°Hrm. All right, I need to poke around about this to see if I can confirm some of it. But I¡¯ll answer your question now as a sign of good faith. If your information checks out, I¡¯ll continue to keep you updated.¡±

    ¡°Thanks.¡±

    ¡°I suppose you know the basics. Emmett Massiel went to sleep around 9 and died at around 1 A.M. by a laser¡ª¡±

    ¡°Hold on, could you give me the exact time?¡±

    ¡°It was 1:09.¡±

    ¡°Do you have it to the exact second?¡±

    ¡°You¡­ want his time of death to the exact second?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, sorry, it¡¯s fine if you don¡¯t have the information.¡±

    ¡°I could get it. I need to go check the report.¡±

    It took Sky about five minutes to come back with the report.

    ¡°It¡¯s 1:09:23.¡± Well, the reset was at 22 seconds. Close enough. ¡°So, the laser appeared near the ceiling of his bedroom, and it was focused directly downwards, into his chest. He died instantly. That¡¯s well outside his personal domain, assuming his domain wasn¡¯t more than a meter off his chest. The detective on scene noted this as significant because it means that the beam could have been created by another mage. However, the manor¡¯s security system records that the spell was cast by Emmett Massiel himself.¡±

    ¡°How does the security system determine this? Anything or anyone trying to sense something like that would just be blocked by the man¡¯s domain defense. It shouldn¡¯t be possible to detect him casting anything.¡±

    ¡°... Sorry, this isn¡¯t an area I know anything about. I understand the security system was designed by Massiel himself."

    ¡°All right¡­ thanks. Is that all you have?¡±

    ¡°There is something else interesting. From 1:20 to 2:30, his telephone rang six times. This was also recorded by the system. The sixth time, it was picked up by the detective, who had just arrived. The detective informed the caller that Massiel had died, but the caller hung up without identifying himself.¡±

    ¡°Huh.¡±

    ¡°That really is all the information I have.¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t know where the call came from?¡±

    ¡°No, there¡¯s no way of tracing that information.¡±

    ¡°Damn it, okay. Oh, one more thing¡ªdo you know about the crater that occurred in Ralkenon this morning?¡±

    ¡°I heard of it. We discussed whether to make space for it in the evening edition. Why? Do you think it¡¯s related?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s just a hunch. But the crater occurred very close to the hotel where the princess is staying¡­¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s very interesting. If all of this is connected, it sounds like something very big could be going on.¡± Oh, you have no idea.

    ¡ô

    Iz was in the library (the normal book library, not the one in Abstract Space), absorbed as usual in some text that had caught her eye. This one was a book on game game theory, about a legendary hunter who had beaten the Elusive Elk in a game of nim. Funnily enough, Myra hadn¡¯t yet seen her read the same thing twice, even across loops, though it wasn¡¯t like Myra tracked everything she read. Myra wasn¡¯t sure how Iz chose what to read at a given time, but it was apparently subject to the small perturbations that Myra injected into her life.

    Maybe I should go play more board games and see what happens. I wonder, if I played a board game with Tazhin at the very beginning of the loop, would he make the same moves each time¡­? What if someone other than me played him? (Of her friend group, Tazhin was the one she was least close to since she mostly knew him through Nathan. They had started spending some time together through a board game they both liked, but neither of them were talkative when they concentrated, and it had been an extremely low priority since the looping started. She hadn¡¯t played any games with him since the first month.)

    Anyway. She was here for Iz.

    ¡°Izzzz, I need your help.¡±

    ¡°Hey, Myra, what is it?¡± she said softly.

    Myra took a deep breath. ¡°Okay, so there¡¯s this project I¡¯m trying to do. The idea is you have a small bubble of space that¡¯s cut off and isolated, so no aura can get in or out. Once it¡¯s reconnected, I want to measure the elemental composition of the aura in the room¡¯s atmosphere in order to guess what was cast inside the room while it was isolated. The room¡¯s small, so casting inside the room should deplete the usable aura density by a measurable degree, I think. As far as I can tell, there¡¯s no reason this shouldn¡¯t work, and a few people I talked to all say it¡¯s definitely doable, but I don¡¯t think anybody¡¯s actually done this, so there are no instructions for it.¡±

    Iz put a bookmark in her textbook and closed her book to indicate her attention. ¡°It sounds like a fairly narrow application. What¡¯s this for?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s a, uh, personal project.¡±

    Iz narrowed her eyes. ¡°Okay. Well, do you have a certain room in mind?¡±

    ¡°Something the size of say¡­ the event hall.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re trying to figure out what they¡¯re doing in the event hall while it¡¯s cut off?¡±

    ¡°No, that was just an example!¡±

    ¡°Come on, Myra.¡± She crossed her arms and tapped her foot. ¡°Do you want my help or not?¡±

    ¡°S-sorry.¡± I¡¯m being evasive again, aren¡¯t I? ¡°Yeah, I wanna know what¡¯s going on in the event hall.¡±

    ¡°Is everything okay? You¡¯ve been acting odd, dragging me into that self-defense class, making that outburst at lunch, and now this.

    ¡°I, uh¡­ it¡¯s hard to explain. You wouldn¡¯t believe me.¡±

    ¡°Try me.¡±

    I¡¯m in a time loop, Myra imagined herself saying.

    Oh, you were right, I don¡¯t believe you.

    ¡°It¡¯s-It¡¯ll be easier to explain later in the month. If you help me out then I¡¯ll show you what it¡¯s about when the room opens up.¡±

    She sighed and stood up, taking her book with her. She contemplated it for a moment, then pulled out her bookmark.

    ¡°Don¡¯t like your book?¡±

    ¡°Too much animal cruelty. The Elusive Elk was just trying to protect her children.¡± She went to put the book back, and Myra followed. ¡°About your project, did you measure the elemental composition of the interior before it closed up?¡±

    ¡°No, I don¡¯t even know how.¡± I figured after getting your help, I could do all this next loop.

    ¡°Do you know what time it closed? When the interior was spatially severed, I mean.¡±

    ¡°Yeah. It was around 8:45 P.M.¡± 8:44:52 to be exact. Thanks, Shera.

    ¡°The aura density inside the building should be the same as in the ambient atmosphere inside it. We¡¯ll measure the atmosphere outside the building at the same time tonight. We¡¯ll need to correct for the changing phase of the moon, but that shouldn¡¯t be too hard.¡±

    Well, it sounded hard to Myra. The phase of the moon determined the strength of the lunar channel, so naturally, the aura composition in the atmosphere today wouldn¡¯t be the same as it had been yesterday. Theoretically, they just needed to figure out the right amount to offset, but Myra didn¡¯t even know where to begin looking up the relevant information.

    Luckily, Iz did. She also knew how to measure the atmospheric aura density, which could be done with a strange staff with a large diamond at the end that seemed to shine a different color every time Myra looked at it.

    The value they needed to measure, the aura density, could be measured in different ways, but the most common was as a value of a very high-dimensional tensor, the product of many lower-dimensional spaces that each represented one of the elements. It was an extremely large amount of information, which they would be storing in Abstract Space so they could retrieve it later.

    The actual process was uneventful, though. They went to the appropriate place at the appropriate time, activated the staff and that was pretty much it.

    ¡°So¡­ now we just wait until it opens, measure it again, subtract, and that¡¯ll be it?¡±

    ¡°Oh, no.¡± Iz shook her head. ¡°We have an enormous amount of math to do before then.¡±

    ¡ô

    Though Aurora had agreed to help them analyze the event hall¡¯s security, she preferred to wait a few days. When the night finally came (for she wanted to do it in the middle of the night) she showed up dressed entirely in dark clothes and a ski mask.

    ¡°You all really just want to go like that?¡± she asked them.

    Myra and Shera, of course, had just dressed like they usually did.

    ¡°Dressing like a thief is just going to make us look more suspicious,¡± Myra said. ¡°It¡¯s much easier to play it off as innocent curiosity if we look normal.¡±

    ¡°Be that as it may, I have a rule: I don¡¯t expose my face doing something illegal. I¡¯ve followed this my entire life, and I won¡¯t stop now.¡±

    Truthfully, Myra wasn¡¯t that worried about getting caught. Part of that was the time loop, certainly, but also, the stakes just weren¡¯t that high yet. The university hadn¡¯t yet announced the actual event, so the students weren¡¯t expected to know how seriously they needed to take the event. If they were caught, playing it off as curiosity would be pretty easy. If Aurora wanted to keep her face hidden¡­ well, that could be explained away too.

    Besides, they weren¡¯t planning to break into the building anyway. They were just going to look at the security panel Iwasaki used from the outside.

    They approached the building, ready to study it. There was no doubt that the security system was enabled: They could sense, geometrically, topologically, and algebraically that the inside of the building was gone. Myra never had any doubt about this. She had never sensed anything other than total spatial detachment, not before Iwasaki opened the whole thing up.

    ¡°How d-do we get to the c-c-control panel?¡±

    ¡°I think it¡¯s¡­ in this wall?¡± Myra walked to one of the side walls. It was just a normal stone wall. ¡°Oh, here.¡± There was a latch. It opened up so they were looking at a metal panel. ¡°It¡¯s locked.¡±

    ¡°H-how are we going to open it?¡±

    ¡°First, we need to check if it¡¯s rigged up to some alarm.¡± Aurora closed her eyes, presumably sensing around the inside. Myra did the same. On the inside, she could sense a bunch of switches and a giant orb. She couldn¡¯t sense anything attached to the door, though.

    ¡°Yeah, there¡¯s nothing. I¡¯m gonna pick it.¡±

    Aurora picked it. When they got the panel open, she saw the control panel she had previously felt.

    ¡°That orb thing is definitely rigged,¡± Aurora said. ¡°Don¡¯t touch it. Don¡¯t even psychically reach out to it or anything.¡±

    They looked at the panel for a while.

    ¡°All right, never mind, we need to learn what this thing does if we¡¯re going to get anywhere.¡± Aurora went silent again, psychically reaching out in direct defiance of her original instructions. ¡°Yeah. This thing is the tether.¡±

    ¡°It connects the inside to the outside?¡± Myra asked.

    ¡°Yes. And it needs a cryptographic code to enter through it.¡±

    ¡°Is there any way to get in other than the orb?¡±

    ¡°No way. Zilch.¡±

    ¡°You can¡¯t teleport?¡±

    ¡°The space inside isn¡¯t connected to the outside except through the tether. How else would you teleport inside? You can¡¯t teleport through nothing.¡±

    ¡°Is it possible to subvert the orb?¡±

    ¡°Not without the code. Or being the greatest mathematician alive, I guess.¡±

    This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

    ¡°What if there was a secret second tether? Is there a way to confirm there isn¡¯t one?¡±

    ¡°Why would there be another tether?¡±

    ¡°Just humor me.¡±

    ¡°Well¡­ if there was one, we wouldn¡¯t be tell from out here, unless we found the anchor point. But it could be anywhere, technically. Of course, any tether needs an orb on the inside as well, so the easiest way to check would be to search inside¡ªif we had a way in, I mean.¡±

    Myra knew that there was, in fact, an orb on the inside near the door. Presumably, it was the main one that was supposed to be there, though it would probably be worth confirming that at some point¡­ As for the possibility of a second orb, she¡¯d just have to keep an eye out for the trace of one during her searches.

    ¡°Sh-should we figure out what other functionality is here?¡± Shera asked. ¡°I think there are rune sheets behind the panel.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, there¡¯s another lock to get back there,¡± Aurora said. This one is rigged to the alarm. Myra, you¡¯re our rune expert, why don¡¯t you just sense around the inscriptions and see what¡¯s there?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think I can do that¡­¡± She tried anyway. ¡°I can never read runes with the extrasenses. They¡¯re carved in the silver, so I need to feel the silver and then kind of understand the negative space in the material¡ª¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t sense the silver then? Just sense the air.¡±

    Myra blinked. ¡°Huh, oh. I¡¯ve never tried that.¡± She switched from feeling the silver to the air around it. Now rather than feeling the indents in the silver, she could feel the outdents of the air in the same place. ¡°It¡¯s a little better¡­¡±

    ¡°Here.¡± Aurora plunged her knife into the back door of the panel that led to the silver rune sheets.

    ¡°Wait¡ª¡±

    She thought Aurora was about to pry the door off, but she did no such thing. Instead, she pried the door just enough to open a little gap, then pushed air into the tight gap. Myra sensed the pressure increase immediately, and it made her task earlier. ¡°Woah! This really works!¡±

    ¡°What do you see?¡± Shera asked.

    ¡°Give me a minute to look this over¡­¡±

    It took more than a minute. Even able to glance over the dense rune sheets semi-quickly, it wasn¡¯t exactly easy to interpret a rune script written in an unfamiliar style.

    ¡°Okay¡­ there¡¯s a bunch of alarms. Most of them come from the orb. I can¡¯t verify what they actually do, since the signal comes from inside the building, but they have messages associated with them¡ªThere¡¯s a sound detector, a motion detector, domain detector, spatial anomaly detector, structural integrity failure detector¡­¡±

    ¡°Those all sound standard,¡± Aurora said.

    ¡°Even the d-domain d-detector? How is that even p-p-possible? You can¡¯t sense someone¡¯s domain.¡±

    ¡°There are some tricks,¡± Aurora explained. ¡°Since a person¡¯s domain prevents the sensors from detecting anything inside it, you can build a sensor to detect the spaces that are undetectable. But, they¡¯re fallible. If someone knows what they¡¯re doing, they can fool that one.¡±

    Eugh, this doesn¡¯t really matter. Iwasaki should have checked the room was empty before closing it. I already have a plan to see if anybody¡¯s hiding in the armor statues. The fact is that nobody can get in or out in the first place, so it doesn¡¯t matter if they would be detected once they got inside. And after the event starts, the sensors won¡¯t be able to distinguish between the people who are supposed to be there and those who aren¡¯t¡­

    ¡°Okay,¡± Myra said. ¡°I¡¯m going to move on to the parts that rely on definitions in the Common Library.¡±

    It was easy to find what she was looking for. Rune scripts that relied on the Common Library were easy to identify because of the diagrams they used to identify the relevant mathematical objects. Myra quickly found a major component that relied on the Common Library, and it even seemed to be active, based on the way air was heating up near it.

    ¡°There¡¯s a huge component that is doing some kinda spatial distortion stuff.¡±

    That¡¯s probably to keep the severed spatial bubble in place. Don¡¯t want it drifting off and going kaput.¡±

    ¡°What would happen if this failed? Would it be unsafe to keep the thing running?¡±

    ¡°Unsafe is one way to put it. It would be unspeakably dangerous. You¡¯d need to reattach the bubble immediately.¡±

    Huh, so it sounds like Shera was right about me being right: Iwasaki really did have no choice but to reattach the bubble after the Common Library failed. It¡¯s good to get that question checked off, at the very least.

    ¡°If the thing¡¯s designed right,¡± Aurora went on. ¡°I¡¯d expect there to be a failsafe that initiates the process automatically. Probably an alarm on the inside, too, informing people to evacuate.¡±

    Wait, no that doesn¡¯t make sense! After the Common Library failed, Iwasaki had to manually reattach the bubble! Or at least, that¡¯s what he said he was doing¡­

    I guess I have to un-check this after all.

    Maybe this failsafe¡­ also relies on the Common Library¡­?

    Myra looked at Shera, but the girl didn¡¯t seem confused. Of course, Shera was probably missing all the context regarding the subtleties of Iwasaki¡¯s behavior. Myra kept forgetting that she didn¡¯t remember everything they¡¯d seen in the last loop.

    ¡°Okay, I¡¯m going to look at this failsafe,¡± Myra announced. It wasn¡¯t hard to find¡ªit was right below the stabilization module.

    ¡°D-does it look fine?¡±

    ¡°I mean guess so. It¡¯s pretty straightforward. The stabilizer sends its status to the failsafe. If the failsafe detects anything unusual it sends a signal to the shutdown module. The status line also forks off like there¡¯s supposed to be some other input.¡±

    ¡°Like an override line?¡± Aurora asked. ¡°That¡¯s really dangerous¡ª¡±

    ¡°No, I mean, it just goes off into nothing. I guess it could be used that way, but it shouldn¡¯t have any effect.¡±

    I should check back on it later. Maybe Iwasaki or somebody else activates it so he can delay opening up the building for some reason. There¡¯s no switch for it, though, which is weird because it means he would have to carve extra runes on the spot. I guess that makes sense, though, if it¡¯s meant to be maliciously subvert of the failsafe.

    In the end, Aurora didn¡¯t think much of the weird nothing-line, but she didn¡¯t have the context of knowing that the failsafe apparently didn¡¯t work. (Shera, at least, seemed to have inferred what Myra was thinking, since she looked deep in thought about it.) Eventually they parted ways, Aurora seemingly happy to have helped, while Myra was more confused than before.

    ¡ô

    Myra was able to get an apprenticeship with Professor Bandine without too much trouble. She didn¡¯t have as many apprentices as Snailsworth, which meant her lab was a bit less ¡®hierarchical.¡¯ She would be mentoring Myra personally, rather than foisting her off on one of her senior apprentices, which was a bit of a double-edged sword.

    Well, actually, it was just objectively good. Professor Bandine was fussy and old-fashioned, and Myra didn¡¯t really want to work with her, but she had to begrudgingly acknowledge that it was objectively good in every way that mattered right now.

    So Myra dressed her best and arrived punctually at the appointed time for the introduction to her biomechanical workshop.

    ¡°Since time immemorial, mages have used telekinesis and other magic to accommodate for their injuries and disabilities,¡± the elderly woman explained.

    The main wall of the floor showcased a number of exhibits to illustrate the point. There was a wheelchair that was powered by the mind of the occupant, glasses that could project the spoken word into text, a wrist splint with an extra claw attached, small matchstick-sized instruments that could be manipulated in the air to spell things out, a tentacle suit, and an illustration of an individual who simply used telekinesis in lieu of arms. It was all arranged as a timeline, from thousands of years ago up to the present day.

    ¡°I believe this is important to keep in mind. We may be on the cutting edge, but what we do, fundamentally, is as old as dirt. There is nothing new under the sun.¡±

    Despite her humility, she was happy to put her own inventions on display towards the end of the wall. The professor stopped before a cabinet, ten years ago on the timeline, which displayed a transparent arm. It might have been plastic. Inside the arm were synthetic muscles, from the biceps down to the hand muscles, all held in place with string.

    ¡°Have you ever tried to move your own limbs using telekinesis?¡± the professor asked. ¡°Say, tried to walk or pick something up?¡±

    ¡°Sorta.¡± She¡¯d done it recently in fact. Once when she was running from Ben, and the one time she had punched him, she had put extra force behind her arm.

    ¡°Purely with telekinesis?¡±

    ¡°No, not like that. But when I was having trouble standing up, I used telekinesis to stabilize myself, but I still walked normally, or mostly normally.¡±

    ¡°I see.¡± She narrowed her eyes. ¡°Were you intoxicated?¡±

    ¡°Uh, no, that¡¯s not what I meant.¡±

    ¡°Hmph. Good. Many young women your age spend too much time in debauchery.¡± Wow, okay. Better not tell her ¡®I had my drink spiked,¡¯ then.

    She went on with her lecture. ¡°It is much harder to move your limbs entirely using telekinesis. In fact, why don¡¯t you try it now? Be careful about it.¡±

    Myra tried. Specifically, she tried to take a step forward by telekinetically pushing her own leg. It was no different than having her leg kicked from the back. She almost fell over.

    ¡°You see what I¡¯m saying. As you can imagine, there are many uses for moving your own limbs telekinetically. Those who have been paralyzed, for example. However, it is an incredibly difficult skill to learn. The reason is that people always try to do it by pushing or pulling their limbs like you just did. They need to go to the source.¡±

    ¡°Our muscles,¡± Myra concluded.

    ¡°Good. The first recorded mage to master this skill was the Archmage Arlinta of Puro, three thousand years ago. The archmage was paralyzed from the neck down, but through telekinesis, they walked about nearly indistinguishable from a healthy, motortypical human, without any other aid.¡±

    ¡°Oh, wow.¡± That must have taken an enormous amount of skill. Doing it 24/7 and most of all without any aids.

    Magic was, in the strictest sense, directed by pure mental control. However, there were a number of aids that most mages used one or more of. When Myra had started out, she had used incantations, as was common for beginners. However, incantations were widely considered unwieldy, time-consuming, and too much of a crutch for mastering fine-grained control, so mages at Myra¡¯s level were expected to forego incantations. Instead, they used staves, which worked by amplifying imperceptible hand movements. An even more advanced mage would forego their staff as well, casting spells purely mentally. Myra was poor at this, though she could do some small things.

    There were other aids too; in some countries, they used hand movements to control spellwork, but it was very uncommon in the empire. There were also ¡®bottled¡¯ spells, like scrolls or the teleport sticks Myra used, though those weren¡¯t really aids at all; they just did the casting for you. There were some that occupied a middle ground, though.

    Anyway, the skill that Professor Bandine was describing required extremely fine-grained control, and you couldn¡¯t use any crutches, since incantations would be impractical, and anything that required motor control was obviously out.

    ¡°They were called an archmage for a reason. As I said, the skill is quite difficult to learn, in part because people don¡¯t know how their own bodies work. Almost nobody even knows how to isolate their attention to individual organs in their body. This device you¡¯re looking at¡ª¡± She gestured to the model arm with the synthetic muscle. ¡°¡ªis my invention, which I originally built to help train this skill.¡±

    ¡°It teaches you how the muscle feels on its own?¡± Myra asked. The professor nodded. ¡°But how does it even work? Without a bone in it, or¡ªor fat, or any other tissue¡ª¡±

    ¡°The whole point is to not have those things,¡± she explained. ¡°It removes distraction. But yes, it is challenging to have the arm function without them. These runes on the inside of the skin observe the way the muscle moves and adjust the shape of the arm accordingly.¡±

    ¡°You mean it simulates an arm and replicates it totally¡ªwow. The calculations on that¡­ Where can I get one of these? I kinda wanna learn this skill¡­¡±

    The professor nodded approvingly. ¡°You can purchase them from my company,¡± she explained. ¡°Though they are quite expensive.¡± Damn.

    She moved to the next display, this one from only six years ago. This display only had a poster showing a diagram of a human body, but the arms and legs looked like the same type of device as in the previous case. The torso was almost entirely empty, save for a self-sufficient artificial heart that Myra recognized from her first month in Professor Bandine¡¯s class, which worked by transmuting chemicals in the bloodstream. ¡°As I said, I originally developed this as a training device.¡±

    ¡°This is¡­¡± Myra tried to think through the implications of this arrangement. ¡°This is a full-body prosthetic, isn¡¯t it?¡±

    ¡°A full-body prosthetic is impossible. There is no replacement for a human brain. This is a neck-down prosthetic.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s, uh, what I meant.¡±

    ¡°Then you should have said it,¡± she chided. ¡°Regardless, yes, this is a neck-down prosthetic. The first neck-down prosthetic, which I transplanted personally while I was Director of Surgery at Halibar Hospital. Because it is possible to control the limbs using telekinesis, and because the surface mimics human skin precisely, it is suitable to replace your limbs and torso. Of course, the modern ones have bones, and stomachs, and all that unnecessary nonsense. So much wasted space¡ªmy patients really have no imagination. You could keep anything in there.¡±

    They were done with the timeline tour, apparently, as the professor was ready to head into the next room.

    ¡°It¡¯s really amazing, though,¡± Myra commented, ¡°that someone can learn that kind of control.¡±

    ¡°It is not so amazing,¡± she said. ¡°It is already what we do. The human brain is astonishingly plastic¡ªwith the right training, the neural pathways that control our motor function can be rewired to the same telekinetic control.¡±

    Well, it still sounded pretty amazing to Myra.

    ¡°And now,¡± the old woman¡¯s voice took on a bit of a dramatic flair. ¡°For our latest and greatest¡ª¡± She swung open the door to the next room.

    ¡°Woah!¡± There was an intriguing full-body mirror on the wall, engraved with runes along the border. As one does in the presence of a mirror, Myra instinctively slid halfway into a pose.

    ¡°Ahem.¡±

    ¡°Oh, sorry.¡± Myra turned back to the professor who was standing by what was presumably the main attraction of the room: a large, iron-plated figure in the shape of the upper body, including the chest, arms, and head, about 20x the size of an ordinary human. A large, cylindrical object was fitted on its arm. Its back was open, and a massive power core in its chest was hooked up to a thick aura tube that ran out of a room. Above the power core, there was a place for a person to sit. ¡°I was just curious what the mirror was for.¡±

    ¡°That mirror is a reflector-fabricator,¡± she explained. ¡°It helps us reflect objects, so they only need to be designed once. For example, after creating a right arm, we can immediately reflect it into a left arm.¡±

    ¡°Wow. Even the rune inscription?¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    ¡°Wait, but how¡¯s that work?¡±

    ¡°We use a typeface whose behavior is invariant under reflection¡ªor chiral symmetry, as it¡¯s called.¡±

    Myra¡¯s jaw dropped. A runic typeface that would still work if you reflected it all backward? Which not only still worked, but actually had the opposite, reflected behavior? ¡°So like, if I had a rune script that made an object go clockwise, and I reflected it, it would make the object go counter-clockwise?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s correct. You should study rune symmetries if you¡¯re so interested in it.¡±

    I can¡¯t believe fucking Benkoten! He said there wouldn¡¯t be exciting runework in this field, and I¡¯ve already seen a ton of cool runecrafting, and it¡¯s only been twenty minutes!

    ¡°This,¡± Professor Bandine tried to center her attention once again, ¡°is our latest attempt to apply our methods to build a human-pilotable mega-golem.¡± Previous attempts always run into the difficulty of control. I am sure you can see why my prosthetic technology is relevant.¡±

    Come to think of it, symmetry was the default situation for physical phenomena, wasn¡¯t it? Translational invariance, Lorentz invariance¡­ Maybe a better question was why ordinary rune scripts didn¡¯t obey symmetries? In the alphabet-based scripts, for example, a backward ¡®d¡¯ was a ¡®b¡¯, which was totally different.

    Myra realized the professor was waiting for her to answer. ¡°Oh, yeah! The pilot can control the golem¡¯s limbs the same way they would control the prosthetic.¡±

    ¡°Yes. In fact, since the synthetic muscles are decoupled from the actual limbs and bridged via magic, we can leave the synthetic muscles as normal-sized. However, it turns out that adapting the rune scripts to make the golem respond to the control-muscles has proved fairly challenging, due to the size difference. Originally, it was feasible to do because it was based on simulating the way real humans move¡ª¡±

    ¡ô

    Myra was tasked with improving the control runes that the professor had talked about. Unfortunately, this workload turned out to be fairly demanding, far more demanding than the aura frequency detector she¡¯d built for Rose Tara. Frankly, the task was just hard.

    On top of that, she had to commit a lot of time to her project with Iz. Myra had to follow everything Iz was doing since she was planning for the possibility that they¡¯d have to start over the next loop. She also annoyed Iz by insisting they not rely on the useful calculation tools in the Common Library, though she waved it away by insisting that she just wanted to understand everything deeply.

    Of course, this meant that all the extra work it entailed was on her.

    Furthermore, the whole process was a lot more complicated than Myra originally planned. The primary difficulty Iz had seen, which Myra had not accounted for, was that the aura would start equilibrating immediately after the space was reconnected, reducing the differential between the outside and inside. This complicated the procedure immensely. Iz had a plan that involved taking multiple measurements outside the area as soon as it opened and then extrapolating, but this process had a number of unknown variables that could only be determined empirically.

    So Iz reserved an empty classroom one night and¡­

    ¡°Iz, where the hell did you learn how to cast spatial severing?¡±

    ¡°From a book¡­?¡±

    ¡°I mean, I knew you always liked spatial magic, but this spell is ridiculously advanced.¡±

    ¡°The instructions are all in here.¡±

    ¡°This book is for runecrafters! You¡¯re supposed to do it with scrolls or rune sheets, you just cast the whole fucking thing in your head!¡±

    ¡°What difference does that make?¡±

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t make a difference, it¡¯s just¡ªit¡¯s just you¡¯re fucking amazing at this sometimes.¡±

    ¡°Okay¡­¡± Iz squirmed. ¡°Let¡¯s get on with the measurements,¡± she said.

    Sigh, this girl¡­ Iz was really bad at taking praise for her skill, sometimes.

    ¡ô

    Despite all the work she was putting into the work for Professor Bandine, Myra wasn¡¯t getting nearly as much out of it as she hoped. She looked into buying one of the telekinesis training devices that the professor had shown her, but they really were far too expensive for her, even with the time loop that permitted free spending.

    She had hoped to learn something about Ben¡¯s motives, but she had not yet found any reason why Ben would want to push her away from this apprenticeship specifically. Maybe it really was as simple as trying to insert himself so she would be grateful to him.

    She had hoped the biomechanical professor or one of her students might have connections to the pharmaceutical industry so she could learn something about whatever Mirkas-Ballam was up to, but she had no luck there either.

    About two weeks into the loop, when the rumors about the peace talks were starting to heat up, Myra finally got a message she had been waiting for, a memo from the campus telephone hub letting her know she had a call from Sky Mishram.

    Sky had information.

    First, Sky had contacted Ralkenon¡¯s police and learned a bit about the dead cyclist. He was a man in his late 60s, but healthy, probably a frequent cyclist. He still hadn¡¯t been identified, though. Sky was intrigued by the possibility that the cyclist was the person who had called Emmett¡¯s manor, but he hadn¡¯t found a way to act on that hunch.

    Sky also had information that Emmett¡¯s security system was based on some anomalous artifact. That explained how it could do the apparent impossibility, though not in a helpful way. What Myra really needed was to know how it inferred information so she could determine if there was a way to subvert it.

    ¡°Would it be possible for you to get me into his house? If I came to Jewel City personally?¡±

    ¡°Ahh¡­ I¡¯m actually on my way to Ralkenon. I have to report on the summit.¡± Ah, damn.

    ¡°What if that weren¡¯t the case?¡±

    ¡°Mm¡­ maybe. It is the case, though, so it doesn¡¯t matter.¡± Well¡­

    ¡°Okay, I guess we¡¯ll get to meet in a few days.¡±

    Before the call ended, she also asked about Mirkas-Ballam, but Sky knew even less about it than she did. She was starting to get frustrated at the lack of a break there.

    She finally hung up and turned to Shera, who had listened in this time.

    ¡°Any thoughts?¡±

    ¡°Not really. Are we g-going to go to Jewel City?¡±

    ¡°Sounds like we¡¯ll have to wait for the next loop if we wanna get anywhere.¡±

    ¡°O-oh.¡± She turned away, downcast.

    ¡°Shera?¡± She put a hand on her shoulder.

    Oh.

    ¡°Sorry. I should be more considerate with my word choice, I guess.¡±

    She pulled her into a hug and waited for her to relax.

 10 - Some unexpected help

    A break finally came from, of all people, Cynthia.

    ¡°Hey, are you still looking for information on that pharma company?¡± her friend asked one day. Myra had originally inquired to Cynthia in case anyone in her herbological alchemy class knew anything, but she hadn¡¯t really expected results.

    ¡°Well, sure. You learn anything?¡±

    ¡°Nah, but I was thinking, why don¡¯t we just go downtown and ask the employees?¡±

    ¡°How, exactly? Just walk up to their front desk and ask about their confidential projects? Ambush employees on the way out?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t be silly. I had a friend who apprenticed there last year.¡± She tapped a finger to her temple and grinned. ¡°I got the intel.¡±

    ¡ô

    The ¡®intel¡¯ turned out to be the bar the top alchemists at Mirkas-Ballam went to in the evenings, a bar called Mixopolium. Apparently, the cafeteria in their main office building was even named after it.

    Myra couldn¡¯t deny it was a good idea if they really could find the top alchemists there. They would be looking to brag about their work to young women, and they¡¯d be drunk, which meant they¡¯d have looser lips. And so Myra fetched Shera (and this resulted in curious looks from Cynthia, who had grown increasingly interested in the pair¡¯s sudden friendship this month), and the three set off.

    Anyway, Mirkas-Ballam¡¯s building complex was downtown, between the banking district and Halibar Hospital. The bar they were looking for was several blocks away, not one they would have picked if they¡¯d searched around on their own. It was a dimly lit but spacious place, playing jazz off the radio. There was a dance floor area, though it seemed unused at the moment.

    ¡°Emptier than I expected for a Friday,¡± Myra muttered.

    ¡°Weird.¡± Cynthia shrugged. ¡°Hey!¡± She flagged down the bartender. ¡°Where the heck is everyone?¡±

    The bartender, a muscular guy with a thick mustache, actually had the answer. ¡°Low crowds lately. Lotta my usuals seem tied up in something or other, so I overhear.¡± He tapped his year. ¡°Can I get yinz anything?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ll have¡­ whatever you recommend,¡± Cynthia said. They all ordered, and Shera tried asking someone in the corner for ¡°information about drugs,¡± but they refused to talk to her. Eventually, though, Cynthia eyed a promising candidate.

    ¡°That guy, in the green robes.¡± She pointed to a solitary man in thick glasses and wearing the mentioned robes. ¡°Hey, you!¡±

    ¡°Ah?¡± He was startled as the three women surrounded him, Cynthia on one side, Myra and Shera on the other. ¡°H-hi?¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s your name ?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m¡­ Vikram.¡± He adjusted his glasses and seemed to gain his confidence. ¡°Could I buy you ladies some drinks?¡±

    ¡°Why not? I¡¯m Cynthia, by the way.¡±

    ¡°And your friends?¡±

    ¡°Oh, this is Myrabelle, and the lovely one on the one on the end is Sherazyn.¡±

    Huh. Guess Shera¡¯s short for Sherazyn, Myra thought. I¡¯m just going to pretend I always knew that.

    They settled in, and Vikram ordered the aforementioned drinks. ¡°So what do you do?¡± Cynthia asked.

    ¡°I¡¯m a neurologist.¡±

    ¡°Oh.¡± Her voice faltered for a minute. ¡°Like, at the hospital?¡±

    ¡°No, I work for a pharmaceutical company.¡±

    ¡°Ohh. You know, I¡¯m actually taking an alchemy class at Ralkenon U. You must be at Mirkas-Ballam, I presume? Do you make, like, brain drugs?¡±

    ¡°Ordinarily, yes.¡±

    ¡°Oh?¡± Myra butted in. ¡°So you¡¯re working on something different, then?¡±

    He cleared his throat. ¡°That¡¯s right. The entire brewing and synthesization department has set aside everything to meet a special contract. We¡¯ve been working ourselves raw.¡±

    ¡°But you managed to sneak away, I see,¡± Cynthia said.

    ¡°W-well, my role is a little tangential, so I won¡¯t need to work over the weekend.¡±

    ¡°Over the weekend?¡± Cynthia acted horrified (or maybe she was horrified). ¡°Why so much urgency?¡±

    ¡°Well, it¡¯s top secret, you understand¡ª¡±

    ¡°Is it always like this? I always wanted to pursue alchemy, but if they¡¯re gonna have me working like a dog¡ª¡±

    ¡°No, no!¡± He quickly clarified. ¡°The whole thing is highly unusual. The buyer is paying us¡­ numbers I don¡¯t even know how to fathom. It might as well be infinite money. And they came with the entire synthesis process detailed to a tee. In exchange, all we have to do is meet a deadline.¡±

    Myra¡¯a ears perked up. Deadline¡­?

    ¡°Does that mean Mirkas-Ballam didn¡¯t invent it?¡± Cynthia asked, puzzled.

    ¡°It¡¯s a slightly strange situation, as I said. This formula¡ªI¡¯ve never seen anything like it. No other company in the world would have the expertise of equipment to create it so quickly.¡±

    ¡°And the deadline,¡± Myra asked. ¡°When is it?¡±

    ¡°Mm? It¡¯s¡­ December 3rd. And we only got the contract a couple weeks ago. You see what I mean? The timeline is absurd.¡±

    ¡°But what is it, though?¡± Myra asked, her mouth beginning to dry out.

    ¡°I wish I could tell you,¡± he said, still confident. ¡°It¡¯s a marvel.¡±

    ¡°Why can¡¯t you?¡±

    ¡°Well, hah.¡± He fanned himself. ¡°You know how it is with innovation. Some inventions, by their nature, send shock waves through the world, and this is¡­ well. It¡¯s not like most of the cures we put out. When it¡¯s unveiled, it has to be handled delicately.¡±

    If Myra didn¡¯t know better, she¡¯d think he was full of hot air. But given everything she knew¡­

    ¡°C-can you s-say who the c-client is?¡± Shera asked. ¡°Or is that c-confidential, too?¡±

    He shook his head. ¡°Afraid not.¡±

    ¡°I thought your funding sources were all public record,¡± Cynthia said.

    ¡°You¡¯re rather well-informed. But actually, I don¡¯t even know. It¡¯s a private contract, mediated through the, uh¡ª¡± He hesitated. ¡°Through the contract negotiators¡ª¡±

    ¡°Wait¡ª¡± Myra cut in. ¡°You mean your company doesn¡¯t even know? That¡¯s what you¡¯re saying? It¡¯ll send ¡®shock waves through the world¡¯ and you don¡¯t even know who you¡¯re selling to?¡±

    He grabbed his collar. ¡°Oh, ah¡ªI meant¡ªah, no, I didn¡¯t say¡ª¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t know who they are, what they¡¯re going to do with it or who they¡¯re going to use it on¡ª¡± She felt Shera yank at her. ¡°¡ªbut that¡¯s okay ¡¯cause you¡¯re going to make infinite money.¡±

    ¡°My-Myra.¡± Shera pulled at her again. ¡°C-can we t-talk?¡±

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°C-c¡¯mon.¡±

    She let the girl drag her halfway across the room. ¡°What is it?¡± she asked again.

    ¡°H-he was getting really ag-agitated. He was reaching for his staff under the table.¡±

    ¡°But¡ª¡±

    ¡°Just let Cynthia s-soften him up a-again.¡±

    ¡°You agree with me, right? He just wants to brag about how he¡¯s making infinite money to women in bars, and you know who he means by ¡®contract negotiators¡¯¡ª¡±

    ¡°I kn-know, Myra.¡± She looked away.

    Myra let out a deep breath. ¡°Sorry. I just. God, I¡¯m overwhelmed.¡± She buried her face in her hands. ¡°The deadline is the last day of the loop! I thought Ben just¡­ stumbled upon something they were already doing, but the person who ordered this must be looping!¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s n-not n-necessarily true. The deadline could be because of the summit.¡±

    ¡°But look at the other evidence. The contract started¡ªwhat, a couple weeks ago? That would have been just after the month started. And Mirkas isn¡¯t even doing R&D, you heard what Vikram said, they had all the materials and procedures lined up. How many loops did it take them to work this whole thing out? Who am I dealing with, Shera?¡±

    ¡°Do y-you not think it¡¯s B-Ben?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know¡­ where would he get infinite money?¡±

    ¡°I d-don¡¯t think it¡¯s literally infinite.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I got that, Shera.¡± (Some economists had attempted to introduce infinite ordinals into the imperial currency, but as far as Myra knew, none of the attempts had gone anywhere.)

    ¡°Well, he¡¯s looping, he c-could probably find a source of money, easy. You could win at gambling, or the prediction bazaars in Tzurigad. Maybe he found hidden treasure after N loops¡­ It¡¯s more likely than tricking those¡ª¡± She twitched, harder than normal. ¡°¡ªnegotiators of a-anything.¡±

    ¡°It still doesn¡¯t have to be Ben. There¡¯s¡ªwhoever it is that brings the drugs into the event hall. The ¡®culprit,¡¯ I guess.¡± Myra overhead Cynthia and Vikram were laughing about something. They seemed to be doing fine. ¡°Well, I guess we know why Ben doesn¡¯t attack until the last evening. It¡¯s because he can¡¯t acquire the drugs until then.¡±

    ¡°Actually, now that you say it, I think this could have been deduced from your first loop.¡±

    ¡°The first¡ªlike before he even attacked me a second time?¡±

    ¡°Yeah¡­ the situation you described was a bit complicated, so I wrote it all down and thought some of it was a bit odd. Ben had the date-rape drugs to incapacitate you in his shoulder bag, but I removed those from his bag. But he still had some to put in your tea, which paralyzed you. I got that right?¡±

    ¡°Right, yeah¡­ I think the tea was his Plan A, he¡¯d arranged that in advance, but if, say, I hadn¡¯t agreed to go to his room, he¡¯d have a spare dose on his person so he could improvise.¡±

    Shera nodded. ¡°I think that makes sense. But the syringe drugs were different, right? After he saw that they had disappeared from his bag, he had to run off somewhere and get another dose. That means he didn¡¯t have any already stocked in his room. So he double-prepared the date rape paralysis drugs, but he didn¡¯t have extra syringe drugs cached anywhere, and they were evidently the more important ones¡ªso why not?¡±

    ¡°I see¡­ because he only just got them. He probably showed up at the party right after acquiring them.¡± That didn¡¯t seem super important now, but at least it clarified some things. ¡°Nice work.¡± She gave the girl a quick head pat. ¡°Should we join back up?¡±

    ¡°I-I guess so.¡±

    They tried, but Cynthia made subtle head gestures prompting them to hold back for the moment, and Myra decided to trust in Cynthia. The trust paid off: Cynthia was able to arrange a tour of Mirkas-Ballam¡¯s main laboratory for the next morning.

    ¡ô

    Cynthia also decided to make a larger outing of it, inviting Iz, Nathan, and Tazhin. It wasn¡¯t entirely clear if Vikram was expecting a larger crowd¡ªactually, it wasn¡¯t clear if he was expecting anyone other than Cynthia¡ªbut Myra went along with it, so the six of them showed up bright and early at the Mirkas-Ballam laboratory. Vikram greeted Myra awkwardly but didn¡¯t seem incredibly perturbed. Cynthia had smoothed it over, apparently.

    There was light security at the entrance, but they were able to pass through the main barrier after signing the guest scroll. The laboratory was primarily architected around a massive, centrifugal cauldron. It wasn¡¯t operational, so they got to see the inside of it.

    It was a big cauldron. There wasn¡¯t much else to say.

    Vikram¡¯s neurology lab was on one of the upper floors. He showed off a fun experiment where he connected a bunch of electrodes to someone¡¯s head, and then told them to move a marble telekinetically. A runescript would process the neural impulses and predict when the subject was going to move the marble, then move it in the opposite direction just before they did. Cynthia tried it first, and it really freaked her out.

    While they were distracted, Myra took a look around the room for any information about the secret project. It was hard to know what was important¡ªthere was a ton of crap that was probably from normal work that had nothing to do with the special project. There was typical neurology stuff, a poster detailing parts of the brain, a poster detailing parts of a neuron (presumably all decorative, not legitimate references) a nanoscale magnifying glass, probably used to observe neurons in action, and so on.

    She quickly realized, though, that this wasn¡¯t the ¡®actual¡¯ lab. It was a recreational area, a nice spot to take a break, great for guests like the one they were doing now. The real lab, where they presumably did all the confidential work, was off-limits. The entrance door was tied shut by a long piece of yarn in an elaborate knot, stretched between the door handle and a nail in the door frame. She¡¯d never seen yarn used to lock anything before¡ªit was probably a state-of-the-art security system.

    She did, however, have access to Vikram¡¯s cubicle desk. On it¡­

    ¡°You do runework?¡± Myra asked the scientist.

    ¡°Not a whole lot.¡± Vikram, despite his overall friendliness, had been eyeing her suspiciously all day, and this wasn¡¯t an exception.

    ¡°Oh, I just noticed PKB open on your desk.¡± PKB was the most popular text on 3D runes, referred to by the initials of its authors, Prikata-Kyanizev-Begani. ¡°I was just curious ¡¯cause I¡¯m a runecrafting student.¡±

    His suspicious gaze didn¡¯t let up. What gives? Cynthia had seemed to have a lot of luck just talking about her own interest in alchemy. Why could it not work the same talking about runes?

    ¡°When I was a teenager I tried to make some 3D runes out of clay, but I almost burnt the house down.¡± (She was overstating it a bit. She had started a fire, but the house had strong anti-fire wards, so there hadn¡¯t been much actual risk.) ¡°Father was so angry, heh.¡±

    Vikram did soften a bit. ¡°I¡¯m afraid I don¡¯t know much about the subject, which is why I had to dig out the reference. You might even know more than me. It has to do with the confidential project. So¡­¡±

    ¡°C¡¯monnn.¡± She tried on her best doe eyes. ¡°Maybe a hint?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, c¡¯mon,¡± Cynthia encouraged.

    ¡°Well¡­¡± He took a deep breath. ¡°The thing is, if I give a good hint, it¡¯s against the spirit of my employment agreement, and if I give a bad hint, it¡¯s like saying nothing at all. You know?¡±

    Lean forward. Chest out. ¡°What about a medium hint?¡±

    He shook his head. ¡°Think of it like maximizing a convex function. The optimal point lies at one of the extremes.¡±

    Goddd what a fucking tool. Cynthia actually blanched from behind Vikram, though when he looked back at her, she immediately shifted to a pout with a puffed-out cheek.

    ¡°What I¡¯m saying is, the middle ground is the worst of both worlds. Communication should be all-or-nothing.¡±

    He wasn¡¯t going to budge on this, was he?

    ¡ô

    Vikram showed them around the more traditional alchemy labs, which Cynthia and the others seemed genuinely interested in. The rooms were full of transmutation circles, steam compressors, and cauldrons full of weird goop burning bright with aura. The floors were all kinda busy, though, so they had to move through quickly. They stopped by a break room to make tea.

    ¡°N-now¡¯s as g-good a time as ever,¡± Shera encouraged her.

    ¡°He¡¯s just gonna evade again.¡±

    ¡°Pretty sure the t-tour¡¯s about up. And look, I¡¯ve sensing around the trash, and I found this.¡± She pulled something out of her robe. It was a damaged syringe, not particularly interesting on its own, but¡­ ¡°Does this look like the ones you saw before?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I got a good look in the second loop. It¡¯s exactly the same.¡±

    ¡°These are self-sterilizing, see.¡± She pointed to a rune script in fine print around the edge. ¡°They¡¯re not c-common. Hospitals don¡¯t use these b-because most nurses aren¡¯t mages and d-don¡¯t know how to check that they¡¯re functioning properly.¡±

    I see¡­ so it¡¯s more likely the assailant got it from a research lab like this one.

    ¡°Okay, I got an idea. Hey, Vikram!¡±

    ¡°Yes, Myrabelle?¡±

    ¡°Can I talk to you in private for a second?¡±

    His eyes narrowed, but he beckoned her into the hall, and she followed.

    ¡°This syringe, is it one of yours? Your company¡¯s, I mean?¡±

    ¡°Where¡¯d you get that?¡± he snapped.

    ¡°Well, someone attacked me with it, and I think it was the secret project you were working on. This one had a red chemical in it, and there was another syringe with a blue one.¡±

    His mouth hung open.

    ¡°It is the secret project,¡± Myra said.

    ¡°Now hold on! That¡¯s impossible. They aren¡¯t done yet. Any similarity is a coincidence.¡± He spoke quickly. ¡°How did you even draw a connection to our plant? Why didn¡¯t you go to the police?¡±

    He started striding down the hall.

    ¡°The police didn¡¯t believe me. Where are you going?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m going to find someone who can deal with an issue like this. You said there was a chemical, where is it?¡±

    ¡°I already got rid of it. I-I¡ª¡± She searched for an excuse ¡°I didn¡¯t know what the police would do if I had an unknown drug!¡±

    ¡°You better not be pulling a prank here.¡±

    He led Myra to the office of someone named Kiera, a woman with deep bags under her eyes and thick, curly black hair who was downing a mug of coffee.

    ¡°Vikram¡­ you¡¯re in on a Saturday¡­¡± she said in a sleepy voice.

    ¡°Yes, I met¡ªno, never mind that. Kiera, this young woman came to us for help because she thinks she encountered someone in possession of the same drugs we¡¯re manufacturing. She says they tried to inject her with the¡ªwith the red and green drugs.¡± He took the broken syringe from Myra and showed it to the woman. ¡°Apparently, they used this.¡±

    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s concerning,¡± she said in a flat voice. Then, incredibly belatedly, the shoe seemed to drop in her head, and she physically jolted, her eyes popping open. ¡°The red and green¡ªyou mean¡ªthose drugs? How is that possible?¡±

    ¡°It shouldn¡¯t be possible. I¡¯m trying to convince her she¡¯s overreacting.¡±

    ¡°What is she claiming, then? Did someone else synthesize them before us? Was there a prototype I never heard about it?¡±

    ¡°Wait¡ª¡± Myra tried to cut them off.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Vikram said. ¡°I¡¯m trying to figure out what the possibilities are.¡±

    ¡°But the¡ª¡± she tried again.

    ¡°Well, tell me what happened. How do you know it¡¯s the red or green drugs?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m trying to tell you!¡± Myra waved her hands frantically. ¡°I told Vikram they were red and blue. There was no green, where the hell did you get ¡®green¡¯?¡±

    The two researchers looked at each other.

    ¡°Uh¡­ what kind of blue, exactly?¡± Kiera asked. ¡°Like a¡­ greenish-blue, or a teal, or¡­?¡±

    ¡°No, a dark blue, nearly purple.¡±

    They looked at each other again.

    ¡°You sure there wasn¡¯t a third one?¡± Kiera said.

    ¡°No, there wasn¡¯t¡ªWhat are guys talking about? Why do you think there should be a green drug?¡±

    ¡°Okay, look. There¡¯s three¡­ uh, drugs.¡± Kiera counted them off on her fingers. ¡°Red, blue, and green.¡±

    There¡¯s THREE drugs? There¡¯s motherfucking THREE? This is fucking BULLSHIT, fuck this¡ª

    ¡°See, there¡¯s no need to worry,¡± Vikram said. He sounded extremely relieved.

    ¡°You¡¯re saying if my assailant had the green drug, I would have to worry?¡±

    ¡°Well, ye¡ª¡± Vikram started, but his colleague shushed over him.

    ¡°Look, I¡¯ll explain this so you can relax,¡± she said. ¡°The way it works, there¡¯s three. The red, blue, green. The red just¡­ it just initiates the¡­ uh, effect. The blue neutralizes the red. You can¡¯t, it¡¯s not good to have the red in your system too long. To prolong the effect, you need the green.¡±

    ¡°So you¡¯re saying that without the green, they can only affect me for a couple of minutes before I die, or something.¡±

    ¡°No! I mean, the, the red does nothing on its own. Red sets the effect, the green determines its duration. Neither of them can do anything without the other. But they¡¯re just inert dyes, they don¡¯t mean anything. If your attacker got them from another source, they could be swapped¡ª¡±

    ¡°No, that doesn¡¯t make any sense. They¡¯re from here, they used your special syringes¡ª¡±

    ¡°Well, we¡¯re not the only lab that uses those,¡± she pointed out. ¡°And I told you, the red drug won¡¯t be done for another couple of weeks! If they are from here, they¡¯re something else, and if you have a sample we could help identify it. Otherwise, we can¡¯t help you.¡±

    An odd wording choice caught on Myra. ¡°You said the red isn¡¯t done. Does that mean the others are?¡±

    She winced. ¡°Well¡ªyes, the others are much simpler molecules. The red is the one that needs the¡ªuh¡ª¡±

    ¡°Kiera,¡± Vikram warned.

    ¡°¡ªThat is the, uh, complicated one.¡±

    ¡°See. It¡¯s not a drug from our company,¡± Vikram said, increasingly anxious. ¡°If they didn¡¯t have the green one, there would have been no point.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re completely sure? The drugs can¡¯t do anything without the green one?¡±

    ¡°Of course,¡± said Kiera.

    ¡°Absolutely,¡± Vikram said, though his voice was drier and raspier than it had been, and he was sweating so much his glasses were about to fog up.

    ¡°This isn¡¯t important,¡± Kiera said. ¡°As long as the red drug isn¡¯t finished, we can say for sure that whatever happened to you had nothing to do with our current contract.¡±

    This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

    ¡ô

    There really was nothing Myra could say to convince them, and to be fair, Myra¡¯s claims were only possible because she had literally gone back in time, so she could hardly blame them. Maybe she should come back on the evening of the last day or something.

    Vikram had been unnerved by the whole thing, so he ushered the group out pretty quickly while unsubtly hinting to Myra that she needed to keep quiet about everything she learned. Apparently, their contract with the mysterious buyer had a very strict secrecy clause, and Myra could read between the lines to see that Vikram was extremely concerned about his infinite money.

    ¡°Should we get lunch while we¡¯re out here?¡± Cynthia asked. ¡°Nathan, didn¡¯t you tell me about some hidden gem in the banking district?¡±

    Nathan bit his lip, trying to think what Cynthia was talking about, then lit up like a lantern, his mouth making a round O. ¡°Oh yeah, that place! It¡¯s just a few blocks from here!¡± He nearly started salivating.

    ¡°Well, I guess that¡¯s settled then,¡± Myra said. She needed a treat just about now, and she was a little curious about this mysterious ¡®hidden gem.¡¯

    ¡°Lead the way!¡± Cynthia cheered.

    The restaurant in question was an unnamed hole-in-the-wall squeezed between a couple of far more popular cafes. There was no seating, just a window to order. At Nathan¡¯s insistence, Myra got the specialty, the ¡®Slithering Onion.¡¯ It came in a handheld carton, deep-fried onion strips slathered in a spicy mayonnaise sauce, with bits of bacon and steak mixed in. Grease dripped not only through the box carton, but through the extra buffer of napkins as well, so it was impossible for Myra to hold it without her hands becoming a mess. That was before she even got to eating it.

    ¡°10/10,¡± Cynthia said through a crunchy mouthful. ¡°Another Nathan rec knocks it out of the park.¡±

    The group had settled on a bench across the street to eat. Myra was casually eyeing the place, idly watching the occasional banker or other well-dressed businessman stop by while she sifted through the information in her head.

    A drug is required to prolong the effect, but Ben never brings it, and it wasn¡¯t in the event hall, either.

    She was halfway convinced that Kiera and Vikram were right. It really didn¡¯t make sense.

    Some kind of neurological effect?

    Why did Vikram call his role ¡°tangential¡±?

    3D runes¡­

    ¡°It¡¯s pretty good,¡± Shera said. She had found the only winning strategy, using telekinesis to avoid touching the Slithering Onion with her hands. Myra was inclined to agree with Cynthia, though. It was more than ¡®pretty good.¡¯

    ¡°I think Zrinka mentioned this place before,¡± Iz said, referring to a classmate Myra didn¡¯t know.

    ¡°I might get another one,¡± Cynthia said. ¡°Myra, you wanna split?¡±

    ¡°You know they have other dishes,¡± Myra said. ¡°But sure. It¡¯s not every day I¡¯m gonna make the trek up here.¡±

    Shera considered it, then followed them as well, and they got in line behind a short, teal-haired woman in a dress.

    ¡°I¡¯m g-g-going to try the p-pudding,¡± Shera said. Myra wasn¡¯t paying attention.

    Hold on, that¡¯s¡­

    ¡°Violet Penrilla,¡± she said just as the woman turned around. Violet Penrilla flinched like she¡¯d been jump-scared in a haunted house, almost dropping the Slithering Onion she¡¯d just picked up, then quickly sank into a guarded defensive pose.

    ¡°You!¡± Violet¡¯s eyes flickered back and forth between the group. Myra heard the others, getting curious, approaching from behind. ¡°You, and you.¡± She calmed herself down, easing into a slow and deliberate tone. ¡°You were poking around at the hotelll¡­¡±

    ¡°You know this woman, Myra?¡± Cynthia asked.

    ¡°Could I get your all¡¯s order?¡± the restaurant server asked.

    ¡°Yeah, another Slithering Onion, please,¡± Cynthia asked. ¡°Who¡¯s this? Did you say Penrilla, like, the duke?¡±

    ¡°What do you want?¡± the young woman snapped.

    ¡°I-I¡¯d like a p-pudding,¡± Shera called to the server.

    ¡°Wanna hang out with us?¡± Cynthia asked. ¡°We¡¯re not sure what we¡¯re doing, but we¡¯re open to suggestions.¡±

    ¡°No, I don¡¯t want to hang out with the weird creeps bothering us at our hotel,¡± she snarled.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± Iz and the others had joined.

    ¡°Nothing¡¯s going on. I¡¯m leaving,¡± Violet said that, but she didn¡¯t teleport out in the blink of an eye this time. ¡°Actually.¡± She hesitated. ¡°You look familiar.¡± She pointed to Iz.

    ¡°Um¡­¡± Iz looked embarrassed. ¡°Sorry, I don¡¯t think we¡¯ve met¡­¡±

    ¡°Hey, I bet it¡¯s from that contest!¡± Nathan pointed out. ¡°Your face was in all the papers.¡±

    Violet snapped her finger. ¡°Yeahh, that¡¯s it. I remember that, I was in the audience. You shocked everyone! What¡¯s your name, again?¡±

    ¡°Oh, thank you,¡± Iz said warmly. ¡°I¡¯m Isadora.¡±

    Violet bit her lip, thought for a while, and then let out a deep sigh, then said to Cynthia, ¡°Fine, I¡¯ll join your group for a bit.¡±

    ¡°I still haven¡¯t caught your name?¡± Iz asked.

    ¡°I¡¯m Violet Penrilla.¡±

    Iz¡¯s eyes flickered as she recognized the last name, and her voice turned to ice. ¡°Oh.¡±

    ¡ô

    Cynthia selected bowling as an activity, which was met with general agreement. Bowling wasn¡¯t the greatest sport in the world, but nobody hated it either. Even if you sucked, you could have fun aiming for some high two-digit score.

    ¡°The extra f-frames at the end are so in-inelegant. No sane p-person would come up w-with this.¡±

    Shera had opinions on the scoring rules.

    ¡°You have to be rewarded if you get a strike at the end, though,¡± Nathan said.

    ¡°It could wrap a-around. If you get a strike on the tenth, it should add y-your score from the f-first frame instead of adding an e-extra frame. It-it¡¯s c-cleaner t-to go in a circle th-that way.¡±

    ¡°Wow,¡± Cynthia said.

    ¡°I guess we can score however we want,¡± Myra admitted. Shera beamed.

    ¡°¡­ How are we scoring?¡± Violet returned from the lane, having made her third strike in a row. It seemed like she hadn¡¯t heard the whole thing, but her face wore a profound skepticism anyway. Shera looked to the floor, blushing, while Iz swapped in for her turn. After some deep concentration, she bowled a perfect trajectory, straight and true, but which lacked the momentum to knock down all the pins. She got a spare.

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t really matter,¡± Myra said, responding to Violet¡¯s question. ¡°So, Violet.¡±

    ¡°Yeah?¡± She raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°Um!¡± There were a shitload of things Myra wanted to ask, and she suddenly realized she didn¡¯t know what to ask first. ¡°So what were you doing in the city? And where¡¯s your friend?¡±

    ¡°Malazhonerra,¡± she clarified.

    ¡°Y-yeah.¡±

    ¡°Well, I was in the city on business. My family holds a lot of assets in Casire. Malazhonerra¡ªGod knows. She¡¯s tied up in some royal business, probably.¡±

    ¡°Ah. I had the impression you two were¡­ vacationing here together? I mean, that was just an assumption I made at the hotel, I guess.¡±

    ¡°Eh.¡± Violet cracked her neck from side to side. ¡°It¡¯s half and half. We both have a lot of obligations¡­ I was going to take the whole month off, but we got back from our hike to find we¡¯d missed the biggest financial scandal in the empire since the Cod Counterfeiter.¡±

    Myra flinched, but Violet probably didn¡¯t notice. ¡°Was the Penrilla duchy hit hard?¡± she asked.

    ¡°Us? Nah, we¡¯re just bailing everybody out.¡± She smirked.

    ¡°Oh.¡± Myra remembered just who, exactly, she was talking to.

    So her family¡¯s probably going to come out ahead when all is said and done.

    ¡°You got to go hiking for a couple of weeks, though. What was that like?¡±

    ¡°Oh, that. Yeah, it was¡­ fun. It wasss¡­¡± She was suddenly very hesitant. ¡°A lot of exercise.¡±

    ¡°Myra! Your turn!¡± Cynthia called.

    ¡°Oh, coming!¡± Forgetting about Violet¡¯s odd reluctance, she stepped up to the lane.

    Myra got nine pins. The tenth one wobbled a bit. ¡°Damn.¡±

    Violet was up again. She got a strike without even looking like she was trying, casually flicking the ball off her left wrist.

    ¡°You¡¯re not using telekinesis, are you?¡±

    ¡°No, where¡¯s the fun in that?¡± she scoffed at the idea. ¡°What about you?¡± she asked.

    ¡°Huh?¡±

    ¡°What are you and your friends doing in the city? You¡¯re students, right?¡±

    ¡°We were touring a pharmaceutical plant!¡± Cynthia cut in. ¡°It was amazing, we saw their giant cauldron and did this fun neuron experiment!¡± She explained about the experiment from the neurology floor. ¡°Do you know much about pharmaceuticals?¡±

    ¡°Can¡¯t say that I do. I studied business and civil engineering.¡±

    ¡°Ooh. Where did you study?¡±

    ¡°Jatzerr.¡± (That was one of the top universities in Halnya.)

    ¡°Hey Violet,¡± Myra jumped back in as Cynthia went up for her turn. ¡°Can you think of a reason someone would want to massacre the royal family?¡±

    ¡°Ha. What the fuck?¡± Her voice was sharp and derisive. ¡°Why? You know of some plot? Do you have something you need to report? Ha ha!¡±

    ¡°Uhh¡­¡±

    ¡°I mean, what kind of question is that? Loads of people hate the royal family. They probably thwart an assassination attempt every month or so.¡±

    No. No, they don¡¯t. They actually do the opposite of that.

    ¡°It¡¯s not funny,¡± Iz said. These were the first words she spoke to Violet since she realized she was related to a powerful imperial duke. ¡°They have so many enemies because they hurt so many people.¡±

    Violet almost responded, then clamped her mouth shut. Iz stared her dead in the eye.

    ¡°Hmph,¡± Violet finally said, still in her derisive tone. ¡°Well, they¡¯re certainly controversial. Maybe you should tell it to their faces.¡±

    ¡°Maybe I will. Would you introduce me?¡±

    ¡°No.¡±

    ¡°So, uh!¡± Myra interrupted, trying to steer away from conflict. ¡°Did you ever learn about that crater? The one we talked about when we met earlier?¡±

    ¡ô

    Violet didn¡¯t know anything of interest about the crater, though she begrudgingly admitted it was ¡°more interesting than I thought.¡± Myra grilled her on Emmett Massiel¡¯s death as well, but she insisted she didn¡¯t know anything, and that she probably couldn¡¯t say more about it even if she did. Were there any leads? She didn¡¯t know. Was there anybody who would want to kill him? She didn¡¯t know.

    Violet won the bowling game with a 299 by the usual rules, having botched the very last bonus frame. That meant that with Shera¡¯s new and improved scoring method, which ignored the bonus frame, it was a perfect 300.

    ¡°You all want to do something else?¡± Cynthia asked. ¡°Ice cream, skating¡­¡±

    ¡°I have a lot of work to do¡­¡± Iz said.

    ¡°Bah, you all should enjoy yourselves,¡± Violet said. She was levitating the bowling ball a few centimeters above her palm. ¡°You all are in the primes of your youth, don¡¯t waste it doing homework.¡±

    Iz looked annoyed.

    ¡°O wise elder, we are humbled that you should deign to share your wisdom,¡± Cynthia said.

    ¡°You¡¯re not that much older than us, are you?¡± Nathan asked.

    ¡°I¡¯m twenty-one, if you must know. But I wasn¡¯t talking about your age.¡±

    ¡°Are you going to join us, though?¡±

    She thought about it for a second. ¡°I don¡¯t think so. I should go find Mala.¡±

    ¡°What did you mean?¡± Myra asked.

    ¡°Mean¡­ about¡­?¡±

    ¡°Just now. You were like, ¡®I wasn¡¯t talking about age.¡¯¡±

    She let out a frustrated sigh. ¡°You wanna let this go?¡±

    ¡°Well, now we¡¯re even more curious,¡± Nathan said.

    Violet lifted her glasses and rubbed her eye. ¡°Well, it¡¯s actually pretty simple. First of all, I started university when I was twelve.¡±

    ¡°Oh, wow! That¡¯s really impressive,¡± Cynthia said.

    She shrugged. ¡°What can I say? I¡¯m a Penrilla, so my father likes to remind me. He insisted.¡±

    ¡°Was it hard?¡±

    ¡°Academically? Not really, no. I just read all the books, did all the homework, you know. Not a whole lot to it.¡±

    Iz nodded along, for the first time not looking like she wanted to murder the nobleman¡¯s daughter.

    ¡°But honestly, I was miserable. Right, like, most college-age kids don¡¯t want to hang around with a twerpy twelve-year-old.¡± She looked intently at her bowling ball as she spoke. ¡°I mean, it was mutual. I was too young to be interested in the older kids¡¯ activities. So I never really made any friends. I didn¡¯t even take any fun classes, just went down the list my father picked out. Four years, all the mage training and education I¡¯d need to inherit the Penrilla duchy, and then it was back to high society. Don¡¯t waste your opportunities, that¡¯s all I meant.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± Cynthia said. ¡°But hearing a twenty-one-year-old wax on about this is bumming me out. We need to give you the college experience you¡¯re obviously yearning for.¡±

    ¡°Nah, I shouldn¡¯t, I¡¯ve bothered you all enough.¡±

    ¡°No, that¡¯s the stupidest thing I ever heard. You just poured your heart out, and we¡¯re going to make you have some more fun. Come on, we¡¯re going to go to campus, get some drinks, and sing bad karaoke.¡±

    Violet turned bright red. ¡°Well¡­ I mean, I guess I am on vacation¡­¡±

    Cynthia smirked. ¡°You could invite your friend, too.¡±

    ¡°Mala? Mm¡­¡± She vanished.

    ¡°Uh, what?¡± Cynthia said. ¡°Did she go to find the princess?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t want to meet the princess,¡± Iz said.

    ¡°Oh, shit, sorry,¡± Cynthia said.

    ¡°I thought you wanted to talk shit to her face?¡± Myra asked.

    ¡°I dunno¡­¡±

    Violet popped back. ¡°Yeah, she doesn¡¯t wanna come. Sorry, I think karaoke might be a little¡­¡±

    Beneath her, Myra could fill in the blank.

    ¡°Oh.¡± Cynthia sounded disappointed.

    ¡°But¡ªum.¡± Violet was a little red, and she was tapping her fingers together. ¡°Can I¡ª¡±

    Cynthia grinned again. ¡°Of course!¡±

    ¡ô

    They cleaned up, and then they all filed out of the bowling alley to their next destination, led by Cynthia and Nathan, with Violet close behind. Myra waited at the back for Shera, who was watching Violet closely. She had the same flustered look about her as the day at the hotel.

    Not just flustered, she looked¡­

    Oh.

    Hehe.

    ¡°Shera.¡± Myra crept up behind her and whispered while the rest of the group was still ahead. ¡°Do you think she¡¯s cute?¡±

    ¡°Wh-wh-what??¡±

    ¡°C¡¯mon,¡± Myra said, continuing to whisper. ¡°I see the way you¡¯ve been looking at her. You¡¯ve got a crush.¡±

    ¡°N-no, I-I-I mean¡ª¡± She turned beet red, stopping in her tracks. She held Myra back until they were farther from the rest of the group, obviously anxious. ¡°I-I-I-I d-don¡¯t¡ªI d-don¡¯t¡ª¡±

    ¡°C¡¯mon, you don¡¯t need to be embarrassed,¡± Myra assured her. ¡°I mean, she¡¯s pretty, and rich, uh¡­ she¡¯s good at bowling, uh¡­ she¡¯s a talented mage¡­ and it was kinda cute when she starting pouring her heart out¡ª¡±

    ¡°I d-d-don¡¯t have a c-crush on her. I just¡ªThink she¡¯s¡ªShe looks¡ª¡± She stopped and bit her lip so hard, Myra thought it was going to bleed. Even though she was keeping her voice sufficiently low, she kept glancing ahead at the group to make sure they weren¡¯t overhearing her. ¡°I-I don¡¯t know how to put it in words,¡± she finally said. ¡°Sh-she¡¯s elegant.¡±

    ¡°Elegant?¡±

    Well, she was a noblewoman, and she was certainly pretty, but her business dress didn¡¯t really stand out. She had a nice haircut, but she didn¡¯t wear any jewelry.

    There was really only one explanation for Shera¡¯s opinion. ¡°You do have¡ª¡±

    ¡°No, I don¡¯t! I j-just she looks elegant!¡± Shera dashed ahead to rejoin the group, clearly done with the questioning.

    ¡ô

    They walked back to campus while Myra tried to drop subtle hints that it would be great to have someone who could teach her long-distance teleportation, though she didn¡¯t get any response. Violet, instead, spent most of the trip answering Nathan¡¯s complex questions about the Penrillas¡¯ mining operations in Northern Halnya, apparently a topic he was interested in.

    Myra felt a little scummy about it, but she also used the trip to sense around in Violet¡¯s bag. Unfortunately, it was all parchment that she wouldn¡¯t be able to read without actually looking at it.

    They arrived at Cynthia¡¯s dorm, where they found the karaoke setup in the basement, and she got started setting up the projector and the pulley system that synchronized its lyrics with the phonograph. It looked excessively complicated, so Myra kept her distance and let the expert work.

    ¡°How about this song?¡± Nathan suggested. ¡°It¡¯s about coming out of one¡¯s shell. Seems appropriate.¡±

    ¡°Sure, why not?¡± Violet said. She wore her usual skepticism, though.

    And frankly, she was right to. The song Nathan picked turned out to be a bizarre science-fiction song about a slug who was forced to disguise himself as a turtle as part of a government experiment to increase biodiversity due to ill-conceived incentives in environmental policy. The ¡®coming out of one¡¯s shell¡¯ part was extremely literal. Myra didn¡¯t know if Nathan had picked it as a joke or what.

    They poke and prod my pneumostome. ??

    I¡¯m under a microscope ?

    They make theory after theory, ?

    Is that not right? No, it¡¯s not even wrong. ??

    Despite the bizarre and frankly off-putting lyrics, Violet seemed to get into it, finding her groove at around the part where the slug-disguised-as-a-turtle beats a hare at a foot race.

    On the victory stage, height of turtledom ??

    They demand, how did I do it? ?

    They treat themselves to their answers. ?

    Am I not real? No, I¡¯m not even fake. ??

    For the last thirty seconds of the song, the projector only said ¡°make slug noises,¡± which Violet didn¡¯t know to do, but they had all started drinking and somehow had a good time anyway.

    ¡ô

    They rotated around for a while. Myra and Cynthia sang a fairly ordinary song about romance. To Myra¡¯s slight surprise, Shera happily volunteered for a turn, choosing a ballad based on an old fairy tale. It went about the way Myra expected, but Shera seemed really into it anyway.

    It was difficult to continue her interrogation without ruining the upbeat mood. Myra was surprised, then, when it was Violet who broached a difficult topic.

    ¡°Myra¡­ I couldn¡¯t help but notice¡­ You¡¯re Prua-Kent, right?¡±

    Aw, fuck.

    ¡°What of it?¡±

    ¡°Kent as in Kent Arcane.¡±

    ¡°Yes, as in Kent Arcane. Yastmar Kent was my father, this whole thing has nothing to do with me.¡±

    ¡°Well, then, I should apologize for earlier. I was being pretty insensitive about it.¡±

    Myra sighed, half relieved to clear the air about this, half annoyed to give up an easy way of redirecting her resentment. ¡°It¡¯s fine, you couldn¡¯t have known.¡±

    ¡°Well, I might have suspected.¡± She cracked her neck. She seemed to like doing that. ¡°Pretty sure I saw an article or something or other that said Yastmar Kent had a daughter at your school.¡±

    ¡°Oh, I don¡¯t think I saw that. I, uh, kinda tried to avoid the news for a while.¡±

    ¡°Were you close?¡±

    ¡°To my dad? Well, I mean, he was the only family I had¡­ except my stepmother and her family, but, they¡¯re not¡ªwell, I don¡¯t count them.¡± She looked to the ground. ¡°He sent me a letter, but I haven¡¯t even opened it yet. I don¡¯t know how I can face him, knowing what he did. How many people he scammed.¡±

    ¡°I can only imagine how that feels,¡± she said. ¡°To have someone close to you hide a crime like that.¡±

    ¡°Well, I hope you never have to know.¡±

    ¡°Have you gotten a lot of flak for it?¡±

    ¡°Sorta. I got kicked out of an apprenticeship I wanted. I think they figured out my connection because they had my banking information. I think most of the students at school didn¡¯t realize.¡± Except the first loop where Ben told everyone so that I¡¯d get flustered. ¡°I feel like shit complaining about it, though. I¡¯m not the one in jail forever.¡±

    ¡°Nah, it¡¯s fine to be frustrated being in the fallout from a mess someone else made.¡±

    ¡ô

    When they finally parted ways, Violet said she¡¯d consider coming to hang out again, though she¡¯d be spending her vacation with Malazhonerra.

    The group disbanded, and Cynthia debriefed with Shera for a bit, then turned in for the night with Cynthia as usual. Myra was still camping in Cynthia¡¯s room just to make herself a little harder to find. In the previous loop, she had executed her sleep-schedule-shift plan about halfway into the month. This loop, it felt like she had properly moved in.

    ¡°You¡¯ve been a ton of help today,¡± she told her friend. ¡°Today and yesterday.¡±

    ¡°Aw.¡± She plopped on her bed and held her arms out. ¡°Snuggle.¡±

    ¡°Okay, okay.¡±

    Myra slid her into her arms and closed her eyes. ¡°Mm. Really, thanks.¡± Meeting Violet Penrilla had not been anywhere close to the range of projected outcomes for the day, and it absolutely would not have happened if it hadn¡¯t been for Cynthia.

    Now, if only I can get her to teach me teleportation¡­

    Cynthia ran a hand through Myra¡¯s hair. ¡°You know,¡± she said, a hint of mischief sneaking into her voice, ¡°Shera doesn¡¯t get jealous, does she?¡±

    ¡°Huh?¡±

    ¡°Sherazyn Marcrombie. You know. The girl who hangs off your every word. Does she get jealous of you spending the night here all the time?¡±

    ¡°C¡¯mon, it¡¯s not like that.¡±

    ¡°Pffft.¡±

    ¡°Cynthia! Seriously, she¡¯s attracted to Violet Penrilla, anyway.¡±

    Cynthia twisted around and pushed Myra onto her back. ¡°You cannot be serious. You think she wants to date Violet over you.¡±

    ¡°No, really! She said she¡¯s elegant.¡±

    Cynthia looked deeply skeptical. ¡°She¡¯s pretty. I dunno if she¡¯s elegant. Honestly, she looked a lot like any young hopeful banker you¡¯d see around that part of town.¡±

    ¡°Well, tell that to Shera!¡±

    ¡ô

    Unfortunately, Violet never did get in contact for the rest of the month. When the prince came to give his campus speech in the lead-up to the peace event, she didn¡¯t show up then, either. (Not that Myra could blame her.)

    Myra got back to investigating Mirkas-Ballam. She sought out Aurora, who said she was willing to help analyze their security system, though again Myra needed to wait a few days for her to be free. She learned that Sky Mishram was in town, though he hadn¡¯t contacted her yet. According to Aurora, he was pretty busy.

    The apprenticeship with Professor Bandine continued to challenge Myra, though not entirely in a good way. On one hand, she was exercising the runecrafting skills she wanted to exercise, but the professor seemed quick to grow impatient at Myra¡¯s lack of progress. She seemed a bit deficient in the ¡°there are no stupid questions¡± mentality, which meant it was hard for Myra to ask her for help. Sometimes, especially in runecrafting, just working out the proper way to phrase a question was almost as hard as answering it, which meant that someone who wouldn¡¯t help with ill-formed questions was no help at all.

    The last straw came three days before the end of the loop. She had gone into the lab to test a component, and the professor took the chance to reiterate how important it was that Myra finish her component in a couple of weeks to keep on schedule. Obviously, anything two weeks from now was extremely not Myra¡¯s problem, but that wasn¡¯t what pissed her off. In fact, two weeks even seemed like plenty of time under normal conditions. No, the issue was that Professor Bandine was going on vacation. Professor Bandine was asking her to finish her project over a time span when she wouldn¡¯t even be around.

    It was clear, now, that there really wasn¡¯t a deep reason why Benkoten had pushed her away from this apprenticeship.

    It just sucked. It put her in a foul mood.

    It was like she had thought originally: Ben had steered her clear of this shitshow to induce her gratefulness.

    ¡°If you¡¯ve got anything you need from me, be sure to ask it by Monday.¡± That was the whole of the instructions the professor gave. She didn¡¯t even point her to a backup mentor, or¡ª

    Wait.

    Monday?

    ¡°Hold on!¡± She caught up to the professor as she ambled out. ¡°So your vacation starts¡ª¡±

    ¡°On Tuesday.¡±

    ¡°Where are you going?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m going on a cruise with my son and his family.¡±

    ¡°Okay. Um, well, I hope you have a good trip.¡±

    ¡°Thank you.¡±

    She¡¯s leaving Tuesday? December 3? With her whole family, she¡¯s getting out of here the same day the city¡¯s drowned in lava?

    I mean¡­ people take vacations all the time. It could be a coincidence¡­

    She hadn¡¯t seen any other evidence to suggest the professor was involved. Her building was one of the ones to be destroyed, if that meant anything. But still.

    Myra filed it away in the back of her mind.

    ¡ô

    On Dec. 1, with less than seventy-two hours remaining, Myra spent most of the day with Iz. They had their self-defense class, the last one of the loop, and then finished up their plans for the aura measurement. Iz had really poured everything into it, managing to finish it before their deadline. She had even floated the idea of publishing a journal article on it.

    They celebrated by making cupcakes.

    ¡°How¡¯s your class going, by the way?¡±

    Iz was stirring the batter. ¡°Elemental composition? It¡¯s fun. The first week we learned how to make a ¡®book¡¯ element. It¡¯s really useful for looking up stuff in the library.¡±

    ¡°How¡¯s that made?¡±

    ¡°Its main components are wood and information.¡±

    ¡°¡®Information¡¯? That¡¯s not a base element, is it? I hadn¡¯t heard of it.¡±

    ¡°Well, that¡¯s its unofficial name. It¡¯s technically called dalet-three¡ªYou know, those obscure, unnamed elements in the astral channel that nobody knows what they do? There¡¯s talk of renaming dalet-three to ¡®information.¡¯ But it¡¯s this huge, controversial standardization thing, you know. All the sages need to have this long comment period before it goes official¡­ Here, this should be ready.¡± They moved to fill the tins with the batter. ¡°It¡¯s a tough class, though,¡± she continued.

    ¡°Heh. Hard for you?¡±

    She faltered a bit in her aim as she tried to fill the tin. ¡°It takes a lot of creativity, it¡¯s almost an art. I think you¡¯d be good at it.¡±

    ¡°Oh c¡¯mon, if even you find it tough, mortals like me don¡¯t have a chance.¡±

    ¡°Would you stop?¡± she said sharply. ¡°You know there are a bunch of people in the class, right? It¡¯s not like some impossible undertaking.¡±

    ¡°Uhm. Sorry. I really think you¡¯re amazing, though¡ªsorry. Am I reminding you of¡­ uh¡­?¡±

    ¡°You mean when I blew away everybody¡¯s grades as a freshman and got a bunch of shit from some insecure rich kids?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, that.¡±

    She sighed. ¡°Myra, I don¡¯t think you¡¯re anything like those guys. But like, yeah, it was frustrating and frightening to have them on my case when they could have just, I don¡¯t know, applied any amount of logic to any homework problem and gotten great grades. Sorry, I really don¡¯t mean to compare you.¡±

    ¡°I know what you mean.¡± Myra tried to sound less hurt than she was. She¡¯d wanted to take that class. Iz just didn¡¯t get that not everybody swallowed up advanced algebra the way she did. Myra didn¡¯t say it though.

    Besides, Myra was too anxious about Iz¡¯s fate to be annoyed at her friend for long. In the previous loop, she had kept her word to Iz and not interfered with the bogus duel on the very last day¡­ but she didn¡¯t feel great about it. Her attempt to help Iz win had been feeble, having her take the defense class with her, but nothing had prepared for such an underhanded attack.

    This time, Myra had some hope that they would just avoid the whole thing entirely this time, now that they were on friendly terms with Violet which could turn fate in any number of ways.

    She didn¡¯t want to bank on it, though.

    So she thought, if the princess was going to use a nasty trick, why shouldn¡¯t they?

    As she had in the second loop, she had steered Instructor Yam towards teaching them about lava. Originally, her intent had just been to make sure Shera got the training, though of course, it had the side-effect that Iz would learn too.

    And the surprise lava marble had worked out quite well before¡­

    On the whole, she was pretty proud of the effort she¡¯d put into defense this loop, especially given how much time she¡¯d had to sink on the apprenticeship. She had continued practicing dodging with Zirphilia, and she was actually improving rapidly. She was pretty sure she could dodge a tranquilizer dart, now. Her barrier was improving as well.

    Benkoten Talzatta was like the specter over everything, the big unknown that could throw her plans for the end of the loop into chaos. After humiliating him last time, he was sure to up his game. She¡¯d escaped him three times, though, she was getting better. Surely, she could do it again?

    She had to believe she would.

    ¡ô¡ô¡ô¡ô¡ô

    Six thousand kilometers away, deep in the Ptolkeran mountain range, separated from the nearest city by a treacherous and cold ten-day hike, there was a settlement. From all sides, it was surrounded by a wilderness crawling with danger, where wolves lurked and yeti slumbered. But those who knew of the settlement would have said it was the most dangerous of all.

    On the surface, it seemed like an ordinary village, if you ignored the location. There was a schoolhouse and a lively town hall. There was even, of all things, an inn.

    This village, and the complex of labyrinthine caverns that had attracted the settlers, was where Benkoten Talzatta spent around half of his loops these days. On this day, like most days, he was engaged in practice.

    Specifically, he was practicing and losing.

    Ben held a thousand ice crystals in the air. Brother Jatta held half as many.

    A thousand ice crystals shot in a thousand different angles. Not one hit its target. Every crystal was struck down by a defender. A perfect defense by Jatta, despite his handicap of one to two.

    Ben¡¯s partner looked at him with eyes colder than the air outside. ¡°What are you waiting for? Again.¡±

    Ben gritted his teeth and pulled his projectiles back into the air. They hung in loose, disorganized clumps, not like the perfect ring around Jatta. He tried again, focusing on the thing that couldn¡¯t be put into words, the thing that a childhood of imperial mage education had not prepared him for. He pushed forward and bombarded his opponent again.

    Again, every single one was knocked out of the air. It happened over less than a second: Five hundred were knocked down by five hundred defenders, and then every one of those defenders moved to strike again until every last projectile had been knocked out.

    Screw up. Incompetent.

    ¡°You will defend this time.¡± Jatta waited¡ªit was slightly insulting, but he waited to give Ben a fighting chance¡ªas Ben tried to push away distracting thoughts and reverse his mindset¡ª

    The volley came. Ben acted, moving his pieces, but it wasn¡¯t right at all. Ben¡¯s pieces clumped together, failing to spread out. Ten, no, twenty pieces all locked onto the same invader, all getting in each other¡¯s way. Too many invaders went unobstructed. Some of Ben¡¯s defenders missed their targets entirely.

    Ben had experienced his share of hail, having faced the elements on the way to the village. This was worse.

    You¡¯re not improving in the slightest.

    ¡°Not even close,¡± Jatta agreed, reading the thoughts on Ben¡¯s face. ¡°You are losing focus. Take a break and return when you are ready to give your all.¡±

    He left, and Ben slumped against the wall.

    What are you going to do about this? he demanded of himself.

    She keeps her barrier up constantly.

    She refuses to talk to you. You won¡¯t be able to get in her head.

    That¡¯s even if she¡¯ll even let you find her this time.

    How long before she starts committing suicide just to escape?

    If she understands what¡¯s going on, she¡¯d do it in a heartbeat.

    He needed the powerful methods of the sect, so he could come at her with everything he had, all at once in perfect synchrony, but he couldn¡¯t even master their parlor tricks.

    This was a mistake. I bit off too much, betting on this direction.

    ¡°Brother Benkoten.¡±

    He was snapped out of his spiral. Jatta had returned, and Benkoten had not regained his focus in the slightest. ¡°The Master has asked to speak with you.¡±

    Ah.

    That¡¯s strange.

    When Ben had first joined, when he had first figured out how to be accepted here, his relations with the master and the other students varied wildly from loop to loop. Over time, his skills started to plateau, and perhaps more importantly, his early loop routine had started to crystallize, so now things usually moved fairly predictably. A summons from Master Quoil wasn¡¯t expected.

    Not that Ben would complain. Unpredictability was welcome these days.

    ¡°He is in the meditation room.¡±

    ¡°Of course.¡±

    The meditation room was deep in the caves, a long, winding walk through the narrow tunnels, lit only by a faint glowing moss that the sect had planted on the roof. The beautiful, dancing bright lights of the meditation room were, as always, a welcome sight to Ben¡¯s eyes.

    The master sat on the pillar at the center of the room, his legs crossed and back straight. The pillar was adjusted, as always, for the height of its occupant, so that the old man¡¯s head was positioned in the center of the ¡®apparatus¡¯: the enormous number of pseudo-stalactites, the spiked, glassy rocks that jutted from the ceiling at odd angles, all focused to a single point. Moss crept along the spikes in thin strands, all of which connected to the back wall, where the moss was arranged in strips, rows and columns that interleaved in a large rectangle. Upon the rectangle, a bright line glowed, moving back and forth with a regularity that only the Master could achieve. The Master observed this rectangle, his eyes wide open.

    Absent was the enchanted headband that prevented the need to blink¡ªthe Master didn¡¯t need it.

    Does the masked looper know about this place? Ben had wondered this more than once. Did it give them their idea, or did they invent it independently? It was so different in its execution that Ben had failed to see the commonality for quite some time.

    ¡°Master, you have summoned, and I have answered,¡± Ben said. He kneeled, though the Master would not see it.

    ¡°My newest pupil,¡± he said, his tone gruff but reassuring. The lights continued to move, unimpeded. ¡°You have been disturbed, these last few days. Your seniors agree with me. You have been distracted while you train.¡±

    So that¡¯s it.

    ¡°It¡¯s¡­ it¡¯s the woman I told you about.¡±

    ¡°The criminal you must apprehend.¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    ¡°Tell me again, when is your obligation?¡±

    ¡°It is the eve of the full moon.¡± (They didn¡¯t use the imperial calendar, here, obviously.) Ben wasn¡¯t entirely sure why he had told Master Quoil of his obligation in the first place¡ªit was of no consequence to leave on the last day.

    ¡°What is special about that date?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s the only time I know where she will be,¡± Ben lied. He couldn¡¯t explain that, not without explaining the loop at the very minimum.

    ¡°Tell me, Benkoten, my pupil who vanquished the Belligerent Bird with the courage of a thousand men, what do you fear?¡±

    ¡°I have¡­ failed to apprehend Myrabelle Prua-Kent before,¡± he said carefully. ¡°Each time, the situation has only grown worse. She grows more wary, more paranoid, more difficult to catch off guard. And if I fail yet again¡ªwell, you see.¡±

    ¡°What do you fear?¡± he asked again.

    ¡°I fear that with just one more failure, success may be indefinitely out of my grasp, that I will try and fail forever. I fear that this may be the case already.¡±

    The master was silent for a while.

    ¡°What I do not understand, my pupil¡ª¡± His voice was cold and harsh. Suddenly, the lights on the back wall stopped, and the master stood up. He approached Ben where he was kneeling, his eyes piercing, drilling into Ben¡¯s skull.

    And then they softened.

    ¡°¡ªWhy do you not ask for help?¡±

    ¡°It-it¡¯s¡ªit¡¯s too¡ª¡± It¡¯s too complicated. How can I share this? How can I navigate all the lies I¡¯ve told? It would be impossible.

    ¡°It¡¯s my burden to bear,¡± is what he finally settled on.

    ¡°Your burden? Your burden? My pupil¡ªno, my son¡ªhave you forgotten your new family? Any burden of yours is a burden of The Sect Gazing Inward. It is my duty as your master to assure you of this: In apprehending this vile criminal, you will have our full backing.¡±

 11 - Teleportation Lessons

    It always rained the night before. As a mage, it was pretty easy to deflect it, but Myra usually didn¡¯t bother. For her, it was good enough to know that she could keep herself dry if she wanted to. Thus, she was a little damp when she entered the dormitory to find Aurora. The senior girl still hadn¡¯t contacted her since they¡¯d last spoken, and now they were cutting it awfully close.

    ¡°Come in.¡±

    ¡°Hey.¡± Myra entered Aurora¡¯s room. She was half-sitting, half-lying on her bed.

    ¡°Oh, it¡¯s you.¡± She stretched her arm out, directing a knife straight at Myra¡¯s eye. ¡°Sky was just lookin¡¯ for ya. I told him where your dorm was.¡±

    ¡°Thanks, I¡¯ll try to find him.¡± Myra sidled away from her outstretched blade. ¡°Do you have time to talk about the Mirkas-Ballam security?¡±

    ¡°Guess so. What do you wanna know, again?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m trying to figure out how someone would hypothetically break into their top-secret laboratories.¡±

    ¡°Hypothetically.¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡±

    ¡°So what do you know about it?¡±

    ¡°Well, the main building¡¯s got a barrier around it. We were given authorization to enter by signing the guest sheet.¡±

    ¡°Signing? Like, cryptographically?¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡±

    Aurora was referring to a certain cursive runic typeface specialized for unforgeable signatures. A name written in this form mapped to a cryptographic key, so a paper would light on fire (or worse) if someone tried to sign a name that wasn¡¯t theirs.

    ¡°All of you?¡±

    ¡°No, just our host, in order to authorize us. I signed it normally. I presume most guests without mage training wouldn¡¯t know how.¡±

    ¡°I see. So you either need to subvert the barrier or subvert the guest sheet.¡± She sounded kind of bored.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think I¡¯m going to be breaking cryptography any time soon. Hypothetically.¡±

    She snorted.

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t need to break cryptography to subvert the guest sheet. Not in the sense of developing revolutionary mathematics or anything. Whatd¡¯ya know about crypto?¡±

    ¡°Almost nothing.¡±

    ¡°Oh, I thought it¡¯d be up your alley. You¡¯re the rune girl, ain¡¯t ya? You should take Alzergodin¡¯s class.¡±

    ¡°Alzergodin doesn¡¯t like me very much.¡±

    ¡°So?¡±

    ¡°So, uh, nothing, I guess. You¡¯re right, I should take her class.¡±

    ¡°Anyway, the number one lesson she¡¯ll teach you is that cryptography is pointless if you don¡¯t use it correctly. This guest sheet sounds like a prime example. It¡¯s pure security theater. You already told me why.¡±

    ¡°I did?¡±

    ¡°Your host signed you in, securely. But you, a guest, signed yourself in normally. You can¡¯t forge a signature to authenticate yourself. But you can¡­¡± She trailed off, waiting for Myra to finish.

    ¡°I could¡­ impersonate a different guest who is authorized?¡±

    ¡°Yep.¡±

    ¡°Okay¡­ that doesn¡¯t really help, though. I mean, I can already get authorized as a guest. This wouldn¡¯t help me break in at night or anything. Hypothetically.¡±

    ¡°Okay. You could have said that to begin with.¡± She kind of scowled. ¡°I guess you have to teleport past the barrier, then.¡±

    ¡°You can do that?¡±

    ¡°Sure, it¡¯s just a barrier. High-end barriers are designed to block as much stuff as possible, physical stuff, aura, abstract objects, but you can¡¯t block everything, that would take an infinite amount of aura. There¡¯s always a way around them. Your bigger problem would be the teleportation disruption field. I¡¯m just assuming they have one. They¡¯re pretty standard. And a corporate security system probably has a really strong one, not like the cheap ones in our dorms.¡±

    ¡°But how do you do that? Like¡­ to teleport, you need a tether, so the tether has to get past the barrier, but most barriers block aura completely.¡±

    She scowled again. What¡¯s her problem today? ¡°Like I said, nothing blocks aura completely. And most barriers are limited in the number of attacks they can fend off at once, so they¡¯re vulnerable to multi-pronged attacks. Sorry, I don¡¯t know much about the actual practice here.¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s another thing¡­¡± Myra asked, despite her trepidation. ¡°On the inside of the building, there are a bunch of doors that are blocked off with yarn tied in complex knots. Do you know what¡¯s up those?¡±

    ¡°I ain¡¯t got a fucking clue.¡±

    ¡°What about the disruption fields? Any idea on that?¡±

    ¡°The corporate ones or the cheap dorm ones? The cheap dorm ones are mostly organic particles in the air. They¡¯re usually made from plants that emanate domains. There are a million ways to get rid of ¡®em. The corporate ones defend against all those million ways. Again, I don¡¯t know how to do it, or anything.¡±

    ¡°Thanks, I appreciate it. Also, um¡ª¡± Do I really want to ask? ¡°¡ªis everything all right? You seem kind of put off today.¡±

    Aurora sighed, pushed herself so she was sitting straight, and turned to look at Myra. She rubbed one of her eyes. ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯m not put off at you. It¡¯s just¡­ family stuff. I really am curious about that yarn security thing, just to be clear. But I¡¯ve never heard of it before. Maybe you should look into knot theory.¡±

    ¡°I see¡­¡± Myra wanted to ask Aurora if she could ask her family about the yarn thing, but now that would be extremely insensitive. ¡°Is there anything I can do to help?¡±

    ¡°What, with my family? Hell, no. You don¡¯t wanna get involved in their shit. It¡¯s really nothing big, anyway. They just have a tendency to go off on...¡± She tapped her foot against the lower edge of her bed frame. ¡°On business unexpectedly.¡±

    The Blank Cloaks on unexpected business?

    The Blank Cloaks, the assassin clan famous for their impossible murders, on unexpected business. At the end of the loop.

    Huh¡­

    ¡°When did they set off?¡±

    Aurora looked at her a little suspiciously. ¡°I dunno. I last heard from ¡®em last week. They don¡¯t really keep me informed, that¡¯s what pisses me off.¡± As she continued to tap at the base of her bed, she seemed to consider something about her knife, then hopped down to pull something out of the drawer she¡¯d just been tapping. She pulled out a thin, shiny disc. ¡°I¡¯ll just try to call them one day, and find out they¡¯re gone, no indication when they¡¯ll be back¡­¡± She ran the disc along the edge of her knife, making a terrible, cacophonous screech.

    ¡°Hey, uh, what is that, exactly?¡±

    ¡°Oh, sorry, I kind of sharpen knives as a tic. Sorry, it¡¯s kind of loud¡ªHey!¡±

    Myra grabbed the disc from her without thinking, her heart racing and her body moving on impulse. ¡°This is¡ª¡±

    It was a diamond disc, all right. It looked a lot like the one they¡¯d found in the event hall, shiny and rough. But¡­

    It wasn¡¯t the same one. This one had more indentations, and it was also a lot larger than the one in the event hall.

    ¡°Do you have any more of these?¡±

    ¡°Uh, no. You want one?¡±

    Myra handed the disc back. ¡°No, sorry.¡± Right, it doesn¡¯t make any sense for Aurora to be involved. Not with all the help she gave us.

    And it¡¯s not weird that she has a knife sharpener. It would be weirder if she didn¡¯t have one, really.

    ¡°Ya all right?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, yeah.¡±

    The girl continued to look at her oddly until they were thankfully interrupted by a man entering the room without knocking, startling Myra. He was short, and he was dressed in a casual business outfit, with thick, rectangular glasses. He was a little damp from the rain. He was surprised to see someone who wasn¡¯t Aurora.

    ¡°Pardon me, am I interrupting?¡± Myra recognized his voice instantly.

    ¡°Sky Mishram?¡± Myra asked.

    ¡°Oh! You must be Myrabelle. I was just looking for you.¡± In person, his deep voice came off much softer than it had over the phone. It was calming and melodic. Oddly, he looked vaguely familiar, too.

    ¡°Why the hell are you soaked?¡± Aurora demanded, suddenly a lot more chipper with Sky present. ¡°Both of you! I know you can repel water. It¡¯s the first thing I learned to do with the water elemental when I was a snot-nosed teenager.¡±

    ¡°Are you a mage, Sky?¡± Myra asked.

    ¡°I have basic training,¡± he explained. ¡°I did learn how to manipulate water as part of a basic safety course. Personally, it gives me peace of mind to know that I could repel the rain if it rained hard enough to bother me, but otherwise, I don¡¯t bother.¡±

    Myra nodded along. ¡°Knowing that you can is enough.¡±

    ¡°She gets it.¡± He held out his hand for a fist bump.

    ¡°What the fuck are you all talking about¡­¡±

    ¡°I should thank you again for your tip, Myra.¡± Sky adjusted his glasses. ¡°The Halnya Times has stayed on top of our reporting for these peace talks, and it¡¯s all thanks to your tip.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m glad. Did you, uh, have any information for me?¡±

    He thrust a manilla folder at Myra. ¡°This is the information on the participants you asked me to compile. And this is the police record for the crater death. You¡¯re gonna want to look at this one.¡±

    ¡°Oh?¡± She flipped the folder open. Aurora, curious, moved where she could see it as well. There were some (grotesque) pictures of the original scene, and there was a sketch ¡°reconstruction¡± of his face by the forensics team. He was an old, balding man with sideburns and a flat nose. There was a copy of his ID card, which was apparently fake. The ID card read, ¡°John Smith.¡±

    The next page was a report on his DNA sequence.

    TAGTAGTAGTAGTAGTAGTAGTAGTAGTAGTAGTAGTAGTAGTAGTAG¡­

    ¡°This is¡­ all ¡®stop¡¯ codons?¡± She read the report summary. ¡°He doesn¡¯t have a real DNA sequence? What the hell, is he a¡ªhomunculus or something?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve heard of magic that lets you obscure your DNA,¡± Aurora said.

    ¡°Really? It¡¯s the first I¡¯ve heard of it,¡± Sky said. ¡°The police were baffled.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s pretty obscure, I guess,¡± Aurora said.

    ¡°The evidence is really stacking up that this guy was up to no good,¡± Myra concluded. ¡°It doesn¡¯t explain how he died, though.¡±

    ¡°No, I¡¯m afraid it doesn¡¯t.¡±

    ¡°God,¡± Myra said, continuing to flip through. ¡°They still don¡¯t know what the projectile was?¡±

    ¡°I told you,¡± Aurora said, a tinge of playful snark creeping into her voice. ¡°It must have been an ice cube.¡±

    ¡ô

    It seemed Sky and Aurora were looking to catch up, so after Myra finished her business, she made herself scarce.

    She caught up with Shera (who had been busy sneaking lava out of the training room building) to flip through the new documents. Myra was trying to memorize everything important, and Shera was just looking for anything odd that caught her eye. If nothing else, they finally had the names of the attendees from the Unkmire faction.

    ¡°I¡¯ve been puzzling over the crater murder,¡± Shera said. ¡°I really feel like the tree¡¯s got to be important.¡±

    ¡°Those trees are all over the city. It could be a coincidence.¡±

    ¡°Something was weird about the projectile. It was probably enchanted. So the fact that it passed by the tree has to be important.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Myra said. ¡°The projectile could have just been a rock from the park or something. That¡¯s why they didn¡¯t find any ¡®unusual sediment composition¡¯ or whatever.¡±

    ¡°Well, I think the culprit needed to break the enchantment on the projectile right before impact.¡±

    ¡°Then they could have used the victim¡¯s domain¡ªoh.¡±

    ¡°Not necessarily. We don¡¯t know if they were even a mage. They might not have had their domain activated.¡± That seemed incredibly unlikely to Myra. Most adults activated theirs as a matter of basic safety, even if they had zero additional mage training. ¡°And I already told you, the billowing elm tree is less selective about it.¡±

    ¡°Right. If breaking the enchantment would endanger the victim¡¯s life, then his domain wouldn¡¯t break the enchantment. So what, should we conclude that he wasn¡¯t in any danger without the enchantment breaking? I mean, that would explain why the crime could only take place in the park¡­¡±

    Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

    ¡°Yeah.¡±

    ¡°So how do you¡­ instantaneously accelerate an object to multiple kilometers per second by breaking an enchantment? Is there a stillness enchantment or something that can bank momentum?¡±

    ¡°There is. So if you accelerate the projectile, still-ify it, then move it near the tree, the stillness will wear off, and it will accelerate down. It ought to have the impact we observe.¡±

    Myra massaged her temple. ¡°This is so dumb. Why not just attack him with a normal fireball or something? I¡¯m really skeptical this is the right track, sorry.¡±

    That¡¯s the question, isn¡¯t it? Why not use a fireball or some normal murder method?

    What were they trying to accomplish?

    ¡ô

    They continued looking through the paperwork in silence for a while. As they were finishing up, though, Shera broached another subject.

    ¡°Th-there¡¯s something else I wanted to ask you.¡±

    ¡°Yeah?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know if this is something I¡¯ve brought up in past loops. I don¡¯t want to bother you by bringing up the same thing over and over¡­¡±

    ¡°You shouldn¡¯t worry about that,¡± Myra assured her.

    ¡°Shouldn¡¯t I? Anything I do to inconvenience you is something you¡¯ll have to deal with N times, while I¡¯m going to forget about it. It w-would add up.¡±

    ¡°Shera.¡± She put a hand on her shoulder. ¡°Please tell me what¡¯s on your mind.¡±

    ¡°Are you looking for a w-way to bring me into the loop?¡±

    ¡°Of course, I am.¡± She reached out for Shera¡¯s hand to reassure her.¡± If I ever make any headway on whatever the hell¡¯s going on, that¡¯s one of the first things I¡¯ll try to do.¡±

    ¡°Oh. Have I asked it before?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, you have.¡±

    ¡°I see.¡±

    Myra moved her hand, but the girl flinched. She¡¯s still beating around the bush. Whatever she wanted to say, she was taking her time to say it. Myra waited patiently.

    ¡°W-why didn¡¯t you go to Jewel City?¡± she finally asked.

    ¡°You mean, to investigate the sage¡¯s death?¡±

    ¡°I-I mean, he d-dies the instant the loop starts. He could be the biggest clue to the w-way th-the loop works, right? B-but you d-did this a-apprenticeship thing instead¡­¡±

    ¡°Are you¡­ saying I wasted my time this loop?¡± Sure, I didn¡¯t learn very much from Professor Bandine, but we still got a lot done¡­

    She flinched. ¡°S-sorry. I shouldn¡¯t have brought it up.¡±

    ¡°No, it¡¯s fine. I¡¯m glad you did. I wish you¡¯d brought it up earlier. I had no idea you wanted to go. I didn¡¯t want to ask you to just up and go to another country with me, so I put it off, and then after I got in touch with Sky, it seemed less important¡­¡±

    She looked confused. ¡°You thought I wouldn¡¯t want to go?¡±

    ¡°Well, in the last loop, you seemed really skeptical and just wanted to nitpick about all these timing measurements¡­ I mean, you were really helpful overall!¡± Myra hastily added. ¡°It just took a while before you really bought in. I was kind of taken aback this time when you actively wanted to know more about what was going on!¡±

    She shifted uncomfortably. ¡°I s-see. You¡¯re working with all these assumptions about me that I don¡¯t remember. You were really happy about the timing measurements at the beginning of the loop, and I was so happy that I had helped you find a lead. But you really do find me really nitpicky and¡­ and annoying.¡±

    ¡°No, no, no, no, no, no, no! That¡¯s not what I mean! I told you, you were right, all that stuff was important!¡±

    ¡°So if it hadn¡¯t b-been important in the end, you would have just found my p-perspective annoying. I should have thought it w-was all too good to be true.¡±

    Fuck, why did I open my big mouth on that?

    ¡°Shera, I don¡¯t find you annoying,¡± Myra tried to say with a degree of finality. The girl didn¡¯t say anything. ¡°Look, I know we didn¡¯t get along that much before this month. I consider you a cherished friend now, even if it¡¯s for reasons you don¡¯t entirely remember. My gratitude on the first day of the loop, those were my honest feelings, I promise.¡±

    ¡°What will your honest feelings be at the beginning of the next loop?¡±

    ¡°That I want to take you on an adventure in Jewel City to find out what Emmett Massiel has to do with this goddamn loop.¡±

    Her face turned bright red. ¡°O-okay.¡±

    ¡°And just in case it needs to be said¡­ I do value your timing measurements and the huge lead we got from them.¡±

    ¡°Th-thanks.¡±

    In the end, Shera seemed reassured, and she seemed confident that she would agree to go to Jewel City if Myra acted the same way she had this loop. But¡­

    But it was evident that the baggage from two years of heated friction between the two girls didn¡¯t exactly evaporate in an instant. Worse, Myra was concerned about the girl¡¯s apparent desire to not inconvenience her. Is she still putting up a front?

    ¡ô

    Regardless, it didn¡¯t seem to be an issue the next day.

    At around 7pm on the last day, the Mixopolium was overflowing onto the street. The occasion was pretty clear: the Mirkas-Ballam alchemists had finished their drug, completed their contract, and made infinite money.

    They were also too drunk out of their minds for Myra to learn anything useful. Loose lips wasn¡¯t the issue. The issue was that they had just gotten off from three ninety-hour work weeks, and they had no desire to talk about their job. To make things even harder, at least a couple of people even seemed to recognize Myra on sight and did their best to stay away from her.

    Anyway, the company¡¯s success meant the odds were good that Ben could attack any moment, so she needed to keep her guard up. Myra was tempted to skip out on the party completely just to minimize his ability to locate her, but she figured it was unlikely he would attack with so many people around, and she really wanted to see Violet again. She headed to the party early with Shera.

    Her friends hadn¡¯t arrived yet, so the first person she made eye contact with was Aurora Ferara who was there with Sky. Suddenly, it clicked in Myra¡¯s head where she¡¯d seen the man before. He was always here with Aurora, every loop.

    That made enough sense. Even without Myra¡¯s tip, he had reason to show up here for the reporting.

    ¡°Hey, girls,¡± Aurora waved.

    They quickly introduced themselves¡ªShera had yet to meet Sky¡ªand then made small talk about all the events. Sky had spent all week trying to wrangle interviews with everyone involved in the peace talk. He had mostly failed, so he ended up chatting with people on the periphery. It sounded like he had gotten plenty of information out of the servants and other peripheral individuals, including the princess¡¯s maidservant.

    The party started to take form. Myra¡¯s friends eventually arrived, and they started talking strategy for couch wars. She once again thought about going rock climbing, but she had too many nerves. She asked Shera if she wanted to do anything, but the girl just stammered out that she¡¯d do whatever Myra did. They got involved in the game of water ball for a bit, though they were both dreadful at it.

    Eventually, the noise of the party began to quiet down in a very familiar way.

    They¡¯re here.

    The three of them, the princess, Violet, and the maidservant walked through the crowd. Myra waved to catch Violet¡¯s attention¡ª

    ¡°Hey, I know you,¡± the princess said.

    Goosebumps tingled on her neck, and Myra felt a spike of unease.

    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m sure. You¡¯re that genius commoner. You won that contest.¡±

    ¡°Oh¡ª¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s your name again?¡±

    ¡°Isadora, your highness.¡±

    ¡°Isadora! That¡¯s right.¡± She snapped her fingers.

    Iz turned her gaze towards Violet. ¡°I see my request has been granted.¡± That was¡­ new. It took Myra a second to remember what she was talking about.

    ¡°They have so many enemies because they hurt so many people.¡±

    ¡°Hmph. Well, they¡¯re certainly controversial. Maybe you should tell it to their faces.¡±

    ¡°Maybe I will. Would you introduce me?¡±

    ¡°No.¡±

    Violet smirked.

    The princess looked confused. ¡°What request?¡±

    ¡°My request to speak my mind to you,¡± Iz said.

    ¡°Oh? You got a beef with me?¡± She balled her fist and popped her joints, seeming excited about the idea. ¡°How about we have a go? Beat me, and you can say whatever you want to me.¡±

    ¡°A duel? I¡¯m not really a duelist¡­¡±

    ¡°Come on!¡± She teleported out of her dress and into her sports gear like usual. ¡°Hell, beat me, you can have anything you want. I won¡¯t even ask you to put anything on the line in return. Pretty good deal, eh? Seriously, what d¡¯you want to fight for? A mansion? A job? Just, like, money? A husband?¡± Iz took a step forward. ¡°Oh? Really? A hus¡ª¡±

    ¡°Your pendant.¡±

    It¡¯s the same, it¡¯s all the same.

    Violet, do something!

    Myra pleadingly tried to catch her eye to no avail. The green-haired woman looked on impassively.

    ¡°What, you want a bloodstone? I could getcha¡ª¡±

    ¡°No, I want your pendant.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s a really fucking personal thing to demand.¡±

    ¡°You said I could name whatever I want.¡±

    And on and on it went.

    And when it came time to start the duel¡ª

    ¡°Vi, you¡¯re officiating.¡± She tossed the pendant to Violet, who got into her position the way she always did, no hesitation or doubt on her face.

    As Iz started to leave her side, Myra frantically hissed in her ear. ¡°Cheat! Get her with the marbles before the match starts!¡±

    Iz looked stunned at Myra¡¯s sudden advice, then dashed to her position in the princess¡¯s makeshift dueling ring. Please cheat¡­

    ¡°All right! We are gathered for the duel between Isadora and Princess Malazhonerra Emerald Raine. At stake by Princess Malazhonerra is her honor, and her mother¡¯s bloodstone pendant. At stake by Isadora is her honor. We shall use the Prerarian Code of Duels.¡±

    Oh, good. I can feel Iz moving the lava already.

    ¡°Are there any objections to the terms?¡±

    ¡°I have no objections,¡± said the princess, popping her knuckles.

    ¡°I have no objections,¡± said Iz.

    But she¡¯s not fast enough¡ª

    ¡°Then let us enjoy a fair fight, and may the best mage win. 3¡­ 2¡­ 1¡­ Begin.¡±

    The lava marble accelerated at the same time, but it wasn¡¯t nearly enough. Iz wasn¡¯t underhanded enough. Fuck¡ª

    Iz stumbled backward, splattering blood everywhere in an all-too-familiar sight.

    Fuck, fuck, fuck¡ª

    ¡°And Princess Malazhonerra is victorious!¡±

    Myra¡¯s feet carried her into the ring before she knew what she was doing. All she knew was that she was pissed. This was the fourth time she¡¯d seen this happen, but it hit her harder than it had even the first.

    ¡°You piece of shit! Fuck you! I challenge you to a rematch!¡±

    ¡°Who are you talking to?¡± the princess asked in bafflement. Myra realized that she had pointed her confrontation somewhere in the middle of both of them.

    ¡°Either of you.¡± She leveled her eyes at Violet, who still refused to make eye contact. ¡°Vi. I want to duel Vi.¡±

    ¡°Like hell you are!¡± The princess held her arm in front of her friend. ¡°Lay a fucking finger on her and you¡¯ll be drinking through a tube the rest of your life. If you¡¯re going to duel anybody, it¡¯s going to be me.¡±

    ¡°Mala,¡± Violet said. ¡°C¡¯mon, we should go. This already spiraled out of control. If you win again, it¡¯ll just make it all worse. We should leave it here.¡±

    ¡°... All right.¡±

    ¡°What, you¡¯re going to say that like this isn¡¯t 100% your fault? As if you all are somehow being forced into escalating the situation? No, fuck both of you.¡±

    ¡°Fine. Have it your way. Vi, adjudicate again.¡± She stepped back into the ring.

    Myra gaped. I¡­ I didn¡¯t actually expect that to work.

    They didn¡¯t agree the first time!

    That¡¯s right, I wasn¡¯t nearly as forceful that time¡­

    Shaking, Myra took her place in the ring.

    ¡°We are gathered for the duel between Myrabelle Prua-Kent and Princess Malazhonerra Emerald Raine. At stake on both sides is your honor. We shall use the Prerarian Code of Duels. Are there any objections to the terms?¡±

    ¡°I have no objections.¡±

    ¡°I-I have n-no objections,¡± Myra said. Oh god, she¡¯s going to cut my stomach up, isn¡¯t she? Myra moved the lava marbles into position, but it was taking her too long. Oh god, I¡¯m going to flub this the same way as Iz.

    ¡°Then let us enjoy a fair fight, and may the best mage win. 3¡­ 2¡­ 1¡­ Begin.¡±

    Myra threw up her barriers at around ¡®1.¡¯ It was definitely illegal, but nobody called her on it. When the battle properly began, the princess started with lightning, which was good, because it was what she had seen him do against Ben. Myra had spent a lot of time practicing her barriers, now, so she was pretty sure she could hold up.

    When she didn¡¯t immediately get cut up, she went forward with a plan based roughly around what she¡¯d seen Ben do, which was pretty well suited to her own repertoire of dueling spells. She superheated the air around her, making sure the heat wouldn¡¯t escape where the princess would feel it, and then produced a gust of wind that knocked out the princess¡¯s legs. She teleported directly behind Myra and was shocked by the unexpected heat.

    The princess yelped and stepped out of the ring, except she adjusted the border as she did so. Yup, same as last time.

    But this time, she¡¯s in for another superheated surprise.

    Streaks of vivid orange sailed through the sky, the marbles coming to her rescue. Unfortunately, the result of everything that happened was that the princess was on the other side now, turned around, so she could see the marbles approaching from the side of the courtyard. Myra turned to face her, putting her own back to the marbles.

    With luck, the princess wouldn¡¯t recognize them for what they were. Most people didn¡¯t expect to be ambushed by lava marbles. She would reach out, try to redirect them, and have her psychic aura terminals burnt halfway to hell¡ª

    An image flashed through her mind, an image of the princess dismembered and beheaded. Guilt and deep shame at her own sadism churned in Myra¡¯s stomach. She lost her focus and was caught off guard by a sweep of wind against the back of her legs, same as she¡¯d done to the princess a moment ago. There were gasps from the crowd suddenly, but she didn¡¯t pay them any mind. She couldn¡¯t lose her focus on the most important thing, her aim. The marbles flew overhead, and¡ª

    What¡ª

    Where are they? Where did they go? What the fu¡ª

    Just as the instructor had taught her, she was manipulating the lava marbles via a layer of indirection using the vacuum element, not touching them directly even in auraspace. So when they were stolen from her, when she was all turned around the other way, she didn¡¯t notice. How!? How did she¡ª

    Then there was pain. She screamed, and she resisted every urge to strike out with her telekinesis and hurt herself even more. For a moment, it was like she was dying in the volcano again.

    She wasn¡¯t dying in a volcano. One of the marbles had brushed her leg. It was a marble that was over 1000 ¡ãC, admittedly. Maybe it hadn¡¯t even touched her, Myra wasn¡¯t sure. But it had fucked up the front of her left calf. An announcement of the duel¡¯s outcome vaguely made its way through her auditory cortex, but it was drowned out by the pain.

    As the princess passed her, she spat on her face. ¡°That¡¯s what you deserve for targeting my Violet,¡± she snarled.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t¡ª¡±

    The princess didn¡¯t listen. She was already walking away.

    Myra tried to get up. Despite her leg, she was hindered more from the emotional battering than anything else. She swiped the spit off her face. Disgusting.

    ¡°Are you all right?¡± The first one by her side was Zirphilia of all people. Where¡¯s Shera?

    ¡°No. Where are¡ªow.¡±

    ¡°Cynthia and your other friends took Isadora to the infirmary.¡± She helped Myra stand to her feet. ¡°Can you stand¡ª?¡±

    ¡°Y-yeah. It¡¯s¡ªmy leg¡¯s pretty fucked, but I can stand.¡±

    ¡°You need to get to the infirmary, too.¡±

    Shera finally joined. ¡°A-a-are y-you all right?¡± she asked redundantly.

    ¡°What happened? With the lava¡ª¡±

    ¡°I just got them,¡± Shera assured her. Oh, that¡¯s what she was doing.

    ¡°No, during the match. I had them behind me, then they were gone¡ª¡±

    ¡°They just vanished mid-flight. I think she teleported them out and took control.¡±

    How did she do that without burning herself? Damn, there¡¯s so much basic shit I don¡¯t know¡­

    Shera had a question of her own. ¡°W-why did she nearly run out of the r-ring?¡±

    ¡°Oh, I superheated the air. It was contained, so she wouldn¡¯t feel it until she teleported behind me. Ben did the same thing.¡± I think? Wait, I couldn¡¯t have felt it at the time, right?

    Her memory was a bit jumbled up, but that wasn¡¯t important now.

    Myra took some deep breaths and centered herself. More people were crowding around, and she had to field a few more questions about the match. Aurora and Sky came to offer their support.

    Finally, though, Zirphilia had enough of Myra¡¯s detached question-answering. ¡°You should get to the infirmary,¡± she said again.

    ¡°I-I-I¡¯ll t-take her.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll come, too,¡± Zirphilia said.

    ¡°I¡¯ll come.¡± Aurora offered.

    ¡°Sorry, I¡ªI actually want to be alone with Shera right now.¡±

    Shera nodded. ¡°Right.¡± She helped Myra escape the crowd. Myra, of course, wasn¡¯t going to the infirmary.

    Fuck this. I¡¯m finding Violet.

    She ran¡ªdecidedly not in the direction of the infirmary. Zirphilia called after her, confused, and Myra was sure she heard Shera following. She nearly ran into a passerby, a large man in a wool cloak. Sort of an odd way to dress for this weather, but Myra barely paid it any attention.

    Her leg wailed in pain as she ran through campus, but her injury didn¡¯t stop her. She followed the path she remembered the group had taken just a couple of loops ago, and she found the spot where the three of them had stopped to talk. Malazhonerra and her maidservant were gone, leaving just Violet Penrilla. She was standing by herself, looking deep in thought.

    ¡°Violet!¡±

    The young woman looked up in surprise. She bit her lip.

    ¡°How¡ªwhy? Why didn¡¯t you do anything? After we¡ª¡±

    Myra felt the air shift, and Violet was gone.

    ¡°¡ªbefriended you, and¡ªfuck you! Fuck you, Violet!¡± Her voice turned to a scream as she realized what happened, and she kicked at the building just behind the spot Violet had been standing. ¡°Fuck you! Aughh!¡±

    There were footsteps behind her. Shera had caught up with her. ¡°D-did you catch them?¡± She panted, nearly out of breath. ¡°I thought I saw her¡ª¡±

    ¡°No. She¡¯s gone. She didn¡¯t want to talk.¡±

 12 - Countered

    Myra had dug up a spell that would help her eavesdrop on the summit participants before they entered the event hall. It was somewhat complicated, and it relied on complex acoustic calculations stored in the Common Library, but it was easy enough to use on the exterior of the hall without getting noticed. Undoubtedly, the individuals would have no expectation of privacy in the first place, but she still felt it would be worthwhile to listen in. As in the previous loop, Myra found a spot in a nearby building where they could observe without being noticed, and she settled in with Shera.

    The conversations did turn out to actually be moderately interesting. The sages mostly talked about trade, but from the way they greeted Hazel Ornobis, the sage of magical infrastructure, it was obvious that she was grieving from Massiel¡¯s death, which got Myra¡¯s attention.

    Hazel Ornobis was an elegantly dressed woman, thinly built with a shaved head and earrings. She indeed looked forlorn, her eyes slightly sunken. It was Aiko Ueno, the sage of magical practice, who brought up Massiel explicitly.

    ¡°I¡¯m glad to see you¡¯re back,¡± she said gently.

    ¡°I am glad to be back.¡± Sage Ornobis didn¡¯t sound like she meant it.

    ¡°Has there been any update on the¡­ on the circumstances of his death?¡±

    ¡°You know there hasn¡¯t.¡±

    It went on for a bit, and Myra learned that Hazel was somehow involved in the process of selling off Massiel¡¯s estate. They must have been close?

    Opposite them, Marcus and Linda (forestry and seafaring) were concerned that Unkmire would be put off by the emperor¡¯s absence at the meeting. They were speaking to Judge Krasus, who was somewhat put off by the last-minuteness of their worries and felt confident it wouldn¡¯t be an issue anyway.

    The most interesting bits were from the imperial family.

    The princess, all nice and dressed up again, was leaning against the wall, arms crossed and avoiding all eye contact. Her maid was with her, also standing in silence. Every once in a while, the princess seemed to exhale intensely, each time garnering a look of concern from the maid. Eventually, her father walked over to the pair.

    ¡°Pull yourself together,¡± he said bluntly.

    ¡°Father,¡± she said. ¡°I¡ª¡± Whatever she was going to say got caught in her throat.

    The prince did look like he was waiting for a moment, but he eventually said, ¡°I don¡¯t want to know about whatever foolishness you¡¯ve been up to. You have eight minutes to get your head in the game.¡± He walked away, leaving his daughter with her mouth hanging open. She shivered, still holding herself.

    The maid suddenly seemed to make a decision, going after the prince.

    ¡°Sir¡ª¡± The maidservant looked the prince up and down, contemplating something. ¡°Sir, if I may speak freely¡ª¡±

    The prince said nothing, but he looked at her expectantly, as if to say, get on with it.

    ¡°Even now, it¡¯s not too late to postpone the event.¡±

    ¡°Postpone? What reason could I have to postpone at this hour?¡±

    ¡°Your¡ªyour wellness, sir.¡±

    ¡°My wellness? Surely, this is not about my appetite today.¡±

    ¡°You must be on your best form for the negotiations. If you need an excuse, I can find some issue with the venue, or make a scene of some nature¡ª¡±

    ¡°You can, and will, do nothing. If I believed I was unable to negotiate on behalf of our empire, then I would have said so already.¡±

    ¡°Sir¡ª¡±

    ¡°You are taking this far out of proportion. I am fine.¡±

    ¡°Sir, you were vomiting not twenty minutes ago. This isn¡¯t acceptable¡ª¡±

    ¡°Vomiting?¡± He almost spat the words. He drew some attention, too. A few sages looked at him oddly, startled out of their own conversation. ¡°What are you on about, woman? I did no such thing.¡±

    The maidservant boggled at the denial. ¡°S-sir, I saw it all in the sink. I don¡¯t know why you would choose now of all times to succumb to overpride, but this is¡ª¡±

    ¡°You are mistaken. I have no time for this. You are dismissed for the night, Cornelia.¡±

    The maidservant didn¡¯t argue with this order, and she left, her cheeks burning red. The princess watched her sadly.

    Myra looked over at her friend. ¡°Uhh¡­ what was that?¡±

    ¡°I d-don¡¯t like the way he spoke to her.¡± She shifted uncomfortably.

    ¡°Yeah, I don¡¯t either.¡± Even after she was even apparently willing to eat a lot of blame for something that had nothing to do with her.

    Myra took another hard look at the prince and his demeanor. ¡°Maybe I¡¯m just primed now, but¡­ he does look kinda sick, doesn¡¯t he?¡± He was swaying on his feet, and he looked like he wanted to vomit.

    ¡°D-do you want to go find that sink? See if sh-she¡¯s telling the truth?¡±

    ¡°I dunno¡­¡± Interesting though this had been, it was probably just a coincidence and had nothing to do with the massacre. ¡°Why would she lie about that?¡± Myra finally said.

    In the end, they (thankfully) didn¡¯t go try to find Prince Humpteron¡¯s excised dinner. The Unkmire group arrived, and the relaxed chatter among the imperial group ceased and the state of conversation shifted towards pompous, hollow greetings. The princess did seem to pull herself together and joined in with the sort of grace that would be expected of her. Myra started to zone out from the surveillance and think about her other obligations.

    They needed to get Iz. Myra felt awful asking anything of her, especially as she¡¯d once again failed to keep her from getting cut open, but¡­ they needed to get Iz. For their plan to work, there was a fairly specific measurement they needed to do when the event hall opened up, and Myra wasn¡¯t at all confident she could do it on her own. So they needed to get Iz. It was the sensible thing to do.

    ¡°I¡¯ll go,¡± Shera volunteered. ¡°I think you should stay close to Iwasaki. You said Ben seems unwilling to fight around him?¡±

    Myra was a little concerned about how that conversation would go, but she also trusted that Iz wouldn¡¯t need too much convincing to see the results of her hard work all the way to the end. Shera snapped one of her teleport sticks (for they had decided to stock up with sticks configured to various important points on campus). Myra joined Iwasaki, giving her usual spiel about how someone was after her, eventually leading to the pair of them standing around in awkward silence. After an uncomfortable number of minutes, she decided to try to consider what information she could get from the security head.

    She had a (quite vague) plan to get Iwasaki to be more accommodating of their investigation. She¡¯d observed that, in Loop 2, the man had been the most helpful after the volcano had erupted. She could theorize why that was all day¡ªsheer panic, the impending destruction of the evidence, who knew¡ªbut that wasn¡¯t so important. She had an idea that if she led with her knowledge of the volcano, he might be convinced.

    Well¡­ maybe it was a bit of a stretch.

    ¡°Excuse me, sir.¡±

    ¡°Yes?¡± He was serious. Professional.

    ¡°Do you expect anything to happen tonight? With the event?¡±

    ¡°Are you asking why our security is so intense? I realize it¡¯s a little abnormal for the university to hold something quite like this, but this level of privacy is standard for any kind of meeting with the imperial heads.¡±

    ¡°Oh.¡±

    That answer sounded really¡­ normal. Iwasaki was perfectly relaxed. It wasn¡¯t quite what she was expecting.

    ¡°If I might ask, why was the university chosen?¡±

    ¡°I believe a set of suitable candidates was agreed upon by all parties, and then one entry was chosen at random. The Unkmire heads, if I understand correctly, preferred a city in Casire because it borders Unkmire. That¡¯s all I know¡ªthough if I knew any more, I doubt I would be able to say.¡±

    ¡°I see.¡± Not particularly interesting.

    ¡°Pardon, it¡¯s protocol that I check the status every 7 minutes.¡± Iwasaki moved to check the cabinet that Myra had inspected with Aurora at the beginning of the month.

    Myra considered what to say next. Should I bring up the volcano now¡­?

    ¡°Actually, I¡¯m gonna go,¡± said a voice that sounded exactly like Myra¡¯s.

    ¡°All right,¡± Iwasaki said, somewhat absentmindedly.

    ¡°Huh?!¡± Myra cried. ¡°Where the fuck did that come from?!¡± To her shock, though, the security head didn¡¯t respond to her outcry at all. He was turned completely away from her. The ground beneath her feet jolted, and Myra¡¯s first thought was that it was too early for the tremors to start.

    It was a very unhelpful thought. The ground was moving, and it was moving her. In fact, it was moving her fast. A strip of the stone pavement, about a meter wide, was moving like a conveyor belt, and it was pointed far away from the event hall. The sudden jerk had resulted in her crashing to the ground, where she was swept away. She screamed again, and it was strangely muted, and Myra quickly realized why. Her voice wasn¡¯t echoing against the nearby buildings. Something invisible was blocking her voice.

    She tried to roll off of the strip, but the strip merely adjusted to follow her, new cracks forming in perfect response to her movements. The ground continued to drag her along, violently scraping and cutting up her legs.

    Shit, shit, shit!

    She snapped one of her teleport sticks¡ªshe was slow, she should have done that first thing¡ªbut it didn¡¯t do anything. She panicked and tried to teleport herself, but of course that didn¡¯t work either. There was obviously a disruption field.

    You fucking idiot, of course he had a plan for dealing with Iwasaki this time! You thought barriers and dodging things would be enough?

    Where the fuck did he learn to make the ground move?

    A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

    Ben had planned out the route well, taking her through deserted alleyways all the way to the side of campus. Thinking carefully about it, the ground beneath her¡ªthe ground in the small bubble that was her own domain¡ªhad to be under her own control. She grabbed onto it with all the telekinetic might at her disposal and tried to force it to stop. It was impossible to fight the current, though. There was too much force trying to push her along.

    Right. Obviously, the direction I need to go is up.

    Levitation, of course, was just telekinetic motion. It wasn¡¯t super easy¡ªthere was always something disorienting about moving yourself, and there wasn¡¯t really an ideal element for controlling human flesh¡ªbut it wasn¡¯t very hard, either. Myra yanked herself for a reprieve from the treadmill.

    It was a very brief reprieve. The senses she¡¯d been honing from rock dodging told her that something was flying towards her very fast. She put her force barrier up by instinct¡ªanother thing that she¡¯d been slow to do, so caught off guard from the absurdity of her situation. She was confident in her barrier, though. Thanks to her defense class, she was confident it could stand up to substantially more force than it would have two iterations ago¡ª

    But there were a lot of projectiles. That shouldn¡¯t have been an issue either, but¡ª

    They all hit the barrier at the same time.

    It was like Aurora had explained just the previous night. A force barrier wasn¡¯t a static thing¡ªit reacted to threats, and that meant it could only defend against so many things at once. Again, this usually wasn¡¯t a problem in practice. To actually coordinate on hundreds or thousands of attack lines at once to have them contact at exactly the same time, even accounting for the internal fluctuations of the barrier¡­

    It was something a criminal organization would do to break into a building. It took analysis and preparation. It took runescripts and complex equations in Abstract Space. It wasn¡¯t something you prepared to face in a street fight.

    It didn¡¯t really matter what she had prepared for. She was facing it. The thousand-some projectiles broke through her barrier in an instant, raining down on her clothes and skin. They seemed to be small ice crystals.

    Well, that wasn¡¯t actually so bad¡ª

    She put up another barrier. The world was still.

    She decided to push herself up a bit further, to see if she could fly off and escape.

    Something was wrong, though. She was heavier than she expected¡ª

    No, her telekinesis was weaker.

    And her senses were blurring¡ªHer barrier faltered¡ª

    And she realized one of the projectiles had not been a small ice crystal. In fact, it was sticking out of her neck.

    Oh¡ª

    As the world continued to blur, she lost her ability to support herself. She fell back to the ground, landing on a mattress.

    When did that get there¡­?

    The mattress continued along the path. It was, if nothing else, more comfortable than the flowing cobblestone had been, but only by a little because it was also covered in glue that had her completely stuck in place. It seemed completely redundant¡ªshe already couldn¡¯t move from the paralysis drug in her neck.

    Finally, the mattress took her to her opponents, who turned out to be multiple.

    The group was stationed on the opposite side of the athletics field, near the shed she had visited once with Shera. There were more than a dozen of them, imposing figures with thick winter cloaks and wool caps that looked familiar. None of them held a staff. They were all wearing earmuffs, too. What the hell? It¡¯s not that cold!

    It took Myra a moment, in her altered state, to recognize one of the men at the front.

    It was Benkoten.

    He looked confident.

    He even looked¡­ relaxed.

    One of the individuals wrenched Myra¡¯s staff out of her hand¡ªnot a hard feat given she could barely move¡ªand snapped it in two. Another individual, a woman with a hardened face and graying hair, stuffed her mouth full of cloth and taped it shut.

    At this point, the lava marbles were her last hope. She could barely control her own magic now, and her own delicate grasp on the marbles was slipping. If she hadn¡¯t gotten used to managing them unconsciously, she was sure she would have lost them already. Who do I go after first? Ben? The others?

    She pulled them closer, closer¡­

    The marbles were still there, thank god. She could barely see from where she was lying, but she could see them. They hadn¡¯t been secretly teleported away. She decided to go for Ben. She brought them over the shed¡­

    Then there was a large crash. The creaky old shed burst apart, specks of dilapidated wood spraying everywhere. Something, some thing, burst forth. It was massive, the size of four persons, with snow-white hair covering its entire body, wearing nothing but trousers. It brandished a large club.

    Is that a fucking yeti?

    The beast swung its club like a bat, aiming straight for Myra¡¯s incoming marbles. Its aim struck true, deflecting their momentum up into the atmosphere, and Myra¡¯s only hopes vanished into the night sky.

    Resting its club on its shoulder, the yeti took a spot with its allies, completing the circle they now formed around her.

    Okay. This is really bad.

    ¡°Did you really think that would work twice?¡± Ben finally spoke. He kneeled on the mattress, looming over Myra as he loved doing so much. Somehow, the glue didn¡¯t seem to affect him at all. ¡°We¡¯ve prepared for everything you¡¯ve ever tried and more.¡±

    ¡°Whddyandayetedofendaganmlavamrrbls?¡± Myra tried to say through her gag. Ben only smirked at her.

    ¡°We stuffed this thing with our fingernails, too.¡± He knocked on the mattress. ¡°Your cute little incorporeality trick won¡¯t work this time.¡±

    I¡¯m not even in a state to create something complex like a corporeality enchantment! Not drugged up like this, not without my staff!

    What, does he think I¡¯m going to escape through the fucking ground?

    No, actually, that wasn¡¯t a completely terrible idea. Cutting my losses at this point with a suicide¡­

    And that¡¯s when Myra truly understood the position she was in. That¡¯s when terror truly gripped at her heart.

    If Ben succeeds, it will be over.

    For all that Ben¡¯s actions were mysterious and inscrutable, this one fact was¡ªsomehow¡ªcrystal clear.

    If Ben succeeds, I won¡¯t get another try.

    If Ben succeeds, this will be my last loop.

    Another of Ben¡¯s team members came to inspect her. His gaze was analytical, less lecherous than Ben¡¯s. He looked a little familiar.

    ¡°I saw this woman earlier,¡± the man said. ¡°She was running from that ruckus.¡± Oh, I bumped into him, didn¡¯t I¡­? I thought he was odd¡­

    ¡°Hang on,¡± someone else said. It was the woman who had gagged her. ¡°I thought she wasn¡¯t supposed to arrive until midnight. Did we miss something?¡±

    ¡°I said I would know where she¡¯d be at midnight,¡± Ben said. ¡°That¡¯s all.¡± He sounded maybe a touch defensive.

    ¡°Isn¡¯t she a student? Wouldn¡¯t she be here every day?¡±

    ¡°Enough of this,¡± came a new voice. ¡°We should wait until the circumstances are safer.¡± This was from a man who, in the circle that surrounded her, was closest to Myra¡¯s feet. He was ancient, wrinkled with a thin wispy beard, and his peers had left him a lot of space on either side, perhaps deferentially. Myra suspected he was the leader.

    ¡°Benkoten,¡± he said. ¡°You said you had a means to nullify the allure of her voice.¡± Uh, what?

    ¡°Yes, I will use it immediately.¡±

    Benkoten pulled out his favorite syringe.

    Oh, no.

    What do I do? Should I commit suicide? Would that even help? Could he use my dead body to do what he needs to do?

    Myra wasn¡¯t even sure how to do that. She really didn¡¯t think she could do anything beyond telekinesis right then. Can I snap my own neck? I think the glue might stop me¡­

    Been wasted no time preparing the syringe, placing it near the same artery where the tranquilizer dart hadn¡¯t been removed. Do something do something do something¡ª

    At the last second, the syringe was close enough that it came under her control instead of Ben¡¯s. It was difficult to initiate a new telekinesis, but she did it, bending the shaft of the needle into a right angle, then twisting it all around for good measure. The bent-up edge struck her skin ineffectually.

    For a second Ben didn¡¯t know what had happened. ¡°What the f¡ª¡± He finally noticed had happened.

    ¡°Is something the matter?¡± the old man asked.

    ¡°She ruined my syringe.¡±

    One of the other members of their group looked at it and even tried to fix it, but that wasn¡¯t an easy thing to do. Eventually, they gave up, while Ben looked increasingly agitated.

    ¡°Worry not, my son,¡± the old man clasped his shoulder. ¡®My son¡¯? ¡°We should get back to the village before we¡¯re found. There we will have time to get the information out of her.¡±

    ¡°No, no, it has to be¡ªWait, I can get another one of these! It¡¯ll just take me five minutes!¡± He vanished before anybody could protest.

    Then he reappeared. ¡°And don¡¯t take that gag out! No matter what, don¡¯t let her siren¡¯s song ensnare you!¡± He vanished again.

    The yeti made a long series of grunts.

    ¡°Yes, we¡¯ll be getting the explanation for this,¡± the old man said. He crossed his arms over his chest, frowning. ¡°For now, we¡¯ll wait.¡±

    Now what the hell do I do?

    Myra knew the reprieve wouldn¡¯t last long. Ben had been very quick the last time.

    What can I use? She sensed all around for anything she could use. There was the forest. There was the shed, and all its junk: sports equipment, a fancy kite¡­ nothing she could use. The closest building¡ªthe only building she could reach in her state¡ªwas Professor Bandine¡¯s lab.

    Maybe¡­ I can control the professor¡¯s mega-golem? She sensed around for it. She located its massive, bulky arm. If I can pull this out of here¡­ make a ruckus, maybe a distraction? Maybe even attack them with it?

    The golem still had a lot of control issues, and all of Myra¡¯s apprenticeship had scarcely done anything to fix that, but maybe, just maybe, she could have a breakthrough right now¡­

    Come on, shit¡ª

    Drugged up as she was, it was so hard to do even simple magic, let alone this. Just making telekinetic contact with the thing felt like trying to balance a bowling ball on her head. In desperation, she cupped her fingers like she was still holding her staff and went through all the ¡®textbook stages¡¯ like she was a novice, step by step in a way she hadn¡¯t had to consciously think about in years.

    Come on¡ª

    The mega-golem was mostly made out of a fancy synthetic polymer that was specifically supposed to be easy to manipulate through auraspace. Surely, she could get it¡­

    Come on¡ª

    She desperately hoped they wouldn¡¯t notice her fingers moving around, and¡ª

    Got it!

    When her telekinetic connection took, it was sudden, and in her haste and panic, she tried to force the whole thing upwards, but of course, the golem was locked in place. Quickly, she tried to force the arm around the back to reach the locking mechanism. This failed utterly. The shoulder joint became jammed, and her effort forced the entire torso to turn. A couple of fasteners snapped, and the entire golem swiveled where it was hooked into the workstation. The entire construction¡ªtorso, head, and scaffolding¡ªcame down to the floor, but it was no closer to freeing itself. If anything, it was even farther. The noise could barely be heard from where Myra was, and one of her assailants did look idly in its direction, but correctly determined there was no threat.

    Okay.

    I am fucked.

    I am really, really fucked.

    What can I do when I can¡¯t move, can¡¯t talk, and can barely use telekinesis? Is there anything I can use as a signal for help?

    ¡°How did she know we were after her?¡± one of the men broke the silence to ask. ¡°She told the security officer she was being pursued. That was right before I extracted her.¡±

    The yeti made some more noises.

    ¡°Maybe.¡±

    Part of Myra was dying to know what the yeti¡¯s theory was, and not just academically. What was up with them? Was there something important about them that she could glean? Something she could use?

    Who even were they? She could sort of guess: they were probably from the Ptolkeran mountains, where Ben had mentioned he went for training. Unfortunately, that barely told her anything. What sort of organization were they? How had Ben met them? What had he told them? It was obvious, at least, that he was lying through his teeth, ascribing crimes and powers to her so they would take her seriously as a threat. He¡¯d done it to quite an unnecessary degree. Calling her a siren of all things¡­

    That one, at least, was easy to explain. He needed an excuse to gag her. Whatever insane lies he¡¯d woven would fall apart if she got one and a half words out. Or that¡¯s what he was worried about, anyway. How much did this team trust him? How flimsy was his story, and how hard would it be to knock it down?

    He¡¯d told another lie, that he hadn¡¯t known where she would be until midnight, which seemed harder to explain. That was a lie, right? Did he really think she¡¯d be off-campus for some reason? That didn¡¯t sound right¡­ and the drug had been finished by Mirkas-Ballam since around 7. Why did he need to wait so late?

    Was there a time window for what he needed to do? Could she use that?

    She searched desperately for something she could use.

    Oh!

    There¡¯s¡ª

 13 - Four-Dimensional Locked Room

    It had been a lot of work to telekinetically connect to the mega-golem, and now Myra had to do it again. It should, at least, be a little easier this time. The object she was after now was significantly smaller.

    Come on, shit¡ª

    In the outer hall of Professor Bandine¡¯s lab, in one of the display cases, there was a small device, a series of matchstick-sized links. She just needed to¡ª

    God damn.

    Augh¡­

    She felt a mental ¡®click¡¯.

    Phew.

    The links seemed to be made of copper, ordinarily an easy-ish metal to take hold of. Myra pulled the links out of their case, out of the building, and to her.

    These links, which could be arranged in letters, were an artifact that a mute sailor had used to communicate some four or five hundred years ago. Myra would make use of them now.

    Now what¡¯s my angle?

    The full truth? Do I convince them they got entirely duped by Ben? Do I tell them he¡¯s a rapist?

    ¡®He just gets off on drugging me and gagging me and he tricked you into helping him do it!¡¯

    I mean, that¡¯s true.

    ¡®I¡¯m not a siren. Please believe me.¡¯

    ¡®You¡¯re just pawns in his time loop.¡¯

    Actually, I¡¯m not 100% sure they don¡¯t know about the time loop, am I?

    ¡®I know you all trust Ben, but you should trust me instead.¡¯

    ¡®Epistemically, it¡¯s 50/50 odds, whether you should believe him or me! It¡¯s literally no difference if you switch sides.¡¯

    In the end, there really was only one way to start.

    HI

    The elder frowned when he saw Myra¡¯s greeting. ¡°Where did this device come from?¡±

    ALWAYS HAVE IT

    Wait, why did I lie about that? Shit.

    Wait, no. This works.

    PEOPLE FEEL SAFER

    The man rubbed his chin. ¡°I suppose that makes sense. I hadn¡¯t considered the unique challenges a siren would face integrating into society.¡± The yeti grunted in sympathy.

    On balance, it probably made sense to not directly contradict Ben if Myra wanted them to take her word on anything.

    (Even if that meant playing along with the stupid ¡®siren¡¯ thing.)

    Yes. If she wanted them to take her seriously, her best bet was to fill in the blanks on whatever questions they had about Ben¡¯s pursuit. So far as she could tell, Ben¡¯s story was that he was planning to use the drug to interrogate Myra. That was probably made up, and he really just wanted to do whatever he¡¯d been trying to do in the previous loops.

    I HAVE INFO WHAT BEN WANTS

    Maybe I should just give them a bunch of predictions, the earthquakes at 12:42, the event hall, and so on, under the pretense that I think it¡¯s the information Ben¡¯s looking for. Those predictions will all check out, I¡¯ll earn their trust¡­

    BUT WE NEED TO HURRY

    ¡°Hurry?¡± The individuals looked at each other in confusion. ¡°What deadline are you referring to?¡±

    SUMMIT IS GOING ON NOW

    ¡°The summit? What are you planning? What¡¯s that got to do with the locations we¡¯re looking for?¡±

    Uh, shit. We¡¯re not on the same page at all.

    One of the younger members stepped forward. ¡°Sir, she was standing near the summit when we extracted her.¡±

    ARE YOU NOT HERE FOR SUMMIT

    ¡°Of course, not! We¡¯re here for you!¡±

    WHAT DO

    Myra was frantically trying to put together her next sentence when Ben popped back into existence.

    Fuck.

    ¡°Okay, I¡¯m ready. I got a special syringe that shouldn¡¯t be an issue this time.¡±

    ¡°There won¡¯t be any need for that,¡± the elder explained.

    ¡°Pardon me?¡±

    ¡°We have been using this useful little device to communicate.¡±

    ¡°What?¡± His face twisted in confusion. ¡°How? What did she say?¡±

    ¡°She claims to be willing to part with the information we¡¯re after, but she seems to be ¡®playing dumb¡¯ regarding her conflict with you.¡± Oh, damn.

    ¡°I see.¡± Ben grinned. ¡°All right, I¡¯ll see what she has to say. Whatever she offers, it should be easy to check.¡±

    He stepped over Myra, the corners of his mouth curling. ¡°So. Myrabelle. Care to tell us? If we can resolve this now, there won¡¯t be any need for a full interrogation.¡±

    Fuck, Myra still didn¡¯t know what the hell his fake story was or what kind of information he claimed he was here to interrogate her for. Government secrets? Hostages? Love affairs? His story could have been arbitrarily convoluted. Ben knew damn well that there was nothing Myra could say, not when Ben himself was the arbiter and Myra had no idea what the criteria were.

    Was there a hint somewhere? What did the fuck would a combat sect from the Ptolkeran Mountains want from a Casirian college girl?

    If I was coming up with this lie, what would I say?

    Information¡­

    Information he wants¡­

    Wait¡ª

    Maybe there was an entirely different angle she could go.

    Hm¡­

    It felt like a bit of a long shot.

    But maybe¡­

    What if she really did have information Ben wanted¡­?

    I WAS IN THE MIDDLE OF GETTING IT

    ¡°Hah? Getting what?¡±

    THE SPELLS

    ¡°What spells?¡±

    THE SPELLS CAST IN THE HALL

    WHAT YOURE HERE FOR ISNT IT

    WERE GOING TO MEASURE THE SPELLS CAST IN THE HALL

    This was getting exhausting, but at least she could reuse some words.

    ¡°What¡¯s she talking about?¡± the elder demanded. ¡°What¡¯s this hall? Is she speaking about the summit again?¡±

    ¡°Yes, she¡¯s talking about the event hall where the summit takes place¡­¡± Ben murmured, but he was fixated on Myra. ¡°How the fuck are you going to do that? The measures they took for privacy are insane. I couldn¡¯t even get a camera-flower in there.¡±

    Myra¡¯s heart raced. This might work! I just need to convince him I¡¯m telling the truth¡­

    MEASURE AURA DEPLETION

    ¡°That can¡¯t possibly work. And if it can, I¡¯m sure I could figure it out myself.¡±

    CAN YOU?

    For once, she bothered with the punctuation.

    ¡°Of course I can!¡± Ben barked.

    ¡°How is that?¡± the elder asked, butting in. ¡°Once the summit ends, it will be too late to measure anything.¡± Oh, huh. The elder was following along surprisingly well.

    ¡°That¡¯s not what I mean!¡± Ben said. ¡°I mean I can¡ªI can¡ª¡± Use the time loop, obviously. But he wasn¡¯t saying that.

    He bit his lip and looked back where Myra¡¯s question was still floating.

    ¡°Actually, no, fuck this. I don¡¯t believe you can do that. You¡¯re full of shit.¡±

    JUST MEASURE AURA DIFF BEFORE AND AFTER

    NO PROB

    WE WORKED MATH ALL MONTH

    ¡°Who is ¡®we¡¯?¡±

    Oh, shit.

    If I tell him about Iz, he might just go to Iz next month.

    Would she do it for Ben, though? Honestly¡­

    Probably not, no.

    And anyway, there was no way to keep Iz out of the equation indefinitely, not if this plan was going to work¡­

    Ugh.

    In for a penny?

    ISADORA

    ¡°Ah.¡± He put a hand to his chin. ¡°That is more believable.¡±

    ¡­ Hey!

    The elder put his hand on Ben¡¯s shoulder. ¡°I need you to catch us up. Why is she so concerned with spells cast inside the summit building?¡±

    The elder wasn¡¯t even accusatory or anything. He was just confused, but Ben looked like a trapped animal.

    ¡°And why are you concerned about it?¡± one of the other members asked. Okay, that was a little accusatory.

    ¡°Sir¡ª¡± Ben started. He scrunched his face up. Finally, he spoke slowly and deliberately, as if every word were excruciatingly painful for him. ¡°I may have¡­ made a severe misunderstanding.¡±

    The elder nodded, though his eyes were sympathetic. ¡°We all make mistakes, son. If we reevaluate our course and act swiftly, our mission may yet be salvaged.¡±

    ¡ô

    The group discussed together in private. When they were done ¡®reevaluating,¡¯ Ben fed Myra some kind of paralysis antidote, explained that he ¡®got everybody on the same page¡¯ somehow and that they had all agreed to wear their earmuffs so that Myra could speak normally while executing her plan. While doing so, they would be reading lips, which apparently they had all learned to do specifically for this mission. In exchange, Myra had to give up her alphabet links to the yeti, because yeti phonology was entirely guttural and it would be impossible to read his mouth movements.

    Ben stayed close to her side as they walked. He was tense, to say the least, his face plastered in a familiar-not-familiar expression, outwardly confident as always, but obscuring an anxiety bubbling under the surface. He looked like he might renege on the truce at any moment just to be done with it. Fearing the worst, Myra stealthily pulled a small object from the remains of the athletic shed and hid it in her robes.

    It was insurance for when this would all inevitably go to hell.

    ¡°How did you know I regularly investigate the event hall massacre?¡± Ben asked. ¡°I thought you would assume I was the culprit.¡±

    ¡°It was just a hunch, I guess.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯d you say?¡± He pointed emphatically towards his earmuffs.

    She turned so he could read his lips clearly. ¡°It was just a hunch,¡± she repeated. She spoke louder this time, too, even though that wasn¡¯t particularly useful. ¡°The massacre has gone the same way every time, while your own actions have varied wildly. You¡¯re clearly out and about while they¡¯re locked inside. You even committed suicide in Loop 2.¡±

    ¡°Should that even matter? You¡¯ve surely noticed how impossible the whole thing is.¡± From his annoying smirk and knowing tone of voice alone, Myra was half-ready to decide he was involved after all. ¡°What¡¯s one more impossible feature, like the culprit not being present?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s inexplicable, not impossible. Nothing rules out a murder-and-suicide by one of the victims.¡± Ben looked skeptical, but Myra went on. ¡°And the last time we spoke, you were asking about some masked villain or other. I thought that they might be the culprit. Behind the massacre and¡­ everything else.¡±

    He put a finger to his lips and hummed.

    ¡°That¡¯s all you have to say?¡±

    ¡°The truth is, I can only make conjectures on that point. Incidentally, have you ever encountered them?¡±

    ¡°No.¡±

    ¡°Have you been making splashes, or keeping a low profile?¡±

    ¡°You want to talk to me about splashes? Fuck off.¡±

    Am I making splashes? Myra really wasn¡¯t sure. She wasn¡¯t making news or anything, if that¡¯s what Ben meant. But tracking down the princess or going to the Mirkas-Ballam office could count as ¡®splashes.¡¯ It all depended on who was watching.

    ¡ô

    Ben and Myra both came to the realization that Ben¡¯s ¡®sect¡¯ or whatever-the-hell would probably spook Iwasaki into not opening up the building at all. The resulting plan was for the sect to hold back, while Myra and Ben approached the hall entrance in order to help Iz with her equipment. Once Iwasaki opened the door, Myra supposed, all bets would be off.

    Iz was waiting by the entrance to the hall. She was still in the robe she¡¯d gotten at the infirmary, but she had already fetched the aural measurement device she¡¯d invented. The device was constructed out of a pair of staves taped together at the ends, and she was leaning on it for support. The whole thing was rather slapdash, but Myra trusted Iz¡¯s assessment that it was adequately calibrated. Iwasaki, meanwhile, was already busy with the orb that controlled the event hall security. He had probably dismissed Iz¡¯s device as some clever class project or other.

    ¡°Iz! Are you¡ªare you alright?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m fine,¡± she said, though her voice was so hoarse it made Myra thirsty. She looked briefly at Ben. ¡°Oh, you¡¯re back.¡± It wasn¡¯t a greeting so much as Iz registering the observation for herself.

    ¡°Iz, where is¡ªI sent my friend to get you.¡±

    ¡°Huh? I must have missed them. I left a while ago to get our stuff.¡± She shook the device in her hand. ¡°I made sure Cynthia took off with that teleporter you gave her.¡±

    ¡°Oh. Good.¡± Myra bit her lip. ¡°Thanks for, uh, taking that seriously. Why¡¯d you do that?¡±

    ¡°Myra¡­ it¡¯s pretty obvious you¡¯ve been hiding that you know something huge is going to go down. Between the teleporter, this thing¡ª¡± She shook the aura measurer once again. ¡°¡ªyour weird foresight in training me for a duel, and your inexplicable insistence that we avoid a dependency on the Common Library, all suggested something dreadful was going to happen. I even considered¡­ um¡­¡± She tilted her head uncomfortably.

    ¡°Did you consider time travel?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I did.¡±

    ¡°¡®Cause that¡¯s right.¡±

    She looked relieved, if anything. She had probably been embarrassed to suggest it.

    ¡°Why didn¡¯t you tell us?¡±

    ¡°Well, you would have thought I was crazy!¡±

    ¡°Did you try?¡±

    ¡°Well, no¡­ But a couple of loops ago, you figured it out on the last night, like you did just now, but you were confident that you wouldn¡¯t believe me until after my weird premonitions turned out to be right.¡±

    ¡°Oh.¡± She frowned. ¡°But you didn¡¯t actually try to convince me, though?¡±

    ¡°Not really.¡±

    ¡°You should try, at least. I¡¯m sure previous-me didn¡¯t mean to discourage you.¡±

    ¡°You need to get ready,¡± Ben cut in sharply.

    A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    ¡°Oh!¡± Iz closed her eyes and focused on the staff amalgamation.

    It was good to be prepared, but actually, Ben had called it a bit early. By Myra¡¯s watch, they still had about 30 seconds.

    ¡°Were you listening in?¡± she asked him quietly. ¡°Or watching our lips flap, or whatever you¡¯re doing?¡±

    ¡°I got the gist. It¡¯s nice, isn¡¯t it, when someone believes you?¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡±

    ¡°You should be more grateful.¡± Bitterness dripped off his every word.

    How many people has he tried to convince? How many people thought he was stark raving mad?

    He¡¯s probably been ridiculed more times than he can count. Of course, there was a limit to how much sympathy Myra could extend him.

    Myra checked her watch again. Any second now¡­

    She looked again at her friend, preparing her advanced magic without protest, even while she could barely stand up.

    ¡°There we go,¡± Iwasaki announced the successful reconnection.

    Iz winced in pain, clutching her stomach with her free hand. ¡°Iz, Iz, are you all right?¡± Shit.

    ¡°I¡¯m fine.¡± She took a few deep breaths. ¡°I got it. I got the¡ª¡± She swayed, then stumbled. Myra reached out to steady her friend by the shoulder.

    Another hand slipped onto hers.

    Ben, too, had held his hand out to steady Iz. His eyes caught on Myra¡¯s, piercing through her and sending a shiver down her spine.

    ¡°Th-thanks, you two,¡± Iz gasped. ¡°I¡¯m fine.¡±

    There was a creak as the door to the hall finally opened. ¡°I¡¯ll head in first,¡± Iwasaki said. ¡°I¡¯ll explain what¡¯s going¡ªWhat in the hell?¡± He cried out in alarm. Ben¡¯s team had reappeared, the dozen-and-a-half individuals, yeti and all, now striding straight towards the hall. ¡°Identify yourselves!¡±

    The sect did not identify themselves. In fact, they made no motion to slow their approach or appear harmless. Iwasaki thrust his arm out, and a lightning bolt skewered the air. Against an ordinary opponent, it could have been a fatal attack, but here, it was utterly ineffectual, redirected around them as if blocked by some spherical barrier. Iwasaki tried a ground attack next, uprooting the entire stone pavement. The walkway cracked like a whip, and by rights, it should have crashed down upon Ben¡¯s allies, but it all turned to dust, evaporating into the air.

    Then there was a massive fireball.

    Myra didn¡¯t even know who cast it¡ªit seemed to come from the middle. Something blocked the flames from reaching the three of them, and Myra wasn¡¯t sure who was responsible for that, either, but Myra could feel the heat on her face and the sting in her eyes. When it cleared, the group had advanced even further. They hadn¡¯t even slowed down.

    The air around Iwasaki spun. A vortex engulfed him, and he cried out as it lifted him off the ground, spinning him rapidly like a top. The vortex carried him high, multiple stories off the ground, then far into the distance.

    ¡°Myra¡­ was this expected?¡± Iz asked nervously.

    ¡°Y-yeah, kinda.¡±

    ¡°It was necessary,¡± Ben muttered. ¡°That guy always blocks the investigation.¡±

    The elder approached the door. What exactly is he expecting to see in there¡­? She almost whispered it to Ben, then remembered he wouldn¡¯t hear. She supposed it wasn¡¯t very important.

    The elder froze midway through the door, then turned back to the group. ¡°We¡¯re too late.¡± Myra had kind of imagined that he would stride in and dispassionately analyze the scene, but in fact, there was a deep regret in his voice.

    ¡°What happened?¡± Iz asked.

    ¡°They are dead. All of them.¡±

    The group entered one by one with Myra and Iz trailing from the back. She put her arm around Iz to support her for the inevitable shock.

    Iz shuddered when she walked in, and Myra let her take a moment. Finally, she walked up to the table, where the princess was in pieces. Iz looked over her, frowning to herself, her eyes fixated on the young woman¡¯s stomach, where there were two large slashes, same as always.

    Huh, now that I think about it¡­ it¡¯s a lot like Iz¡¯s injury, isn¡¯t it?

    Iz shuddered again, and she crinkled her nose. Finally, she pried her gaze away from the grotesque sight, pushed a couple of the seated corpses to the side, and placed a piece of parchment flat on the table. Immediately, she got to work, scribbling numbers in some form that made sense only to her. The result of their earlier measurement had been an enormous quantity of data, arranged in a tableau in Abstract Space. Myra felt the numbers shift slightly as Iz worked.

    Iz heard a new person enter the room.

    ¡°Shera!¡± Myra pulled her into her arms and swung her back and forth. ¡°God, I was worried, where the hell were you?¡±

    ¡°Wh-wh-wh-what¡¯s g-going on? Wh-who¡ª?¡±

    ¡°These are, uh, some of Ben¡¯s allies, who are¡­ helping us.¡± She blinked a bunch of times. They had not worked out any kind of signal like ¡®blinking a lot means I am under duress,¡¯ so she just had to hope Shera would pick up the hint.

    Shera watched her, wide-eyed, then finally blinked several times in return. Myra was pretty sure she had replicated Myra¡¯s timing perfectly.

    ¡°Shera,¡± she whispered through gritted teeth, ¡°I think Ben is going to try to drug me like always.¡±

    ¡°Y-yeah¡­?¡± She looked like Myra couldn¡¯t have said anything more obvious in the world.

    ¡°Right, um. Where were you?¡± Shera still hadn¡¯t answered that question.

    ¡°I-I-I couldn¡¯t find Iz at the infirmary. I looked for her at th-the dorm, then I w-went back here, and I-Iwasaki s-said you left. I f-figured you m-must have gone to find Iz s-so I went to find the sink the p-prince got sick in.¡±

    ¡°Oh.¡± Really? ¡°Uh, did you find it?¡±

    ¡°Y-yeah. It smelled awful.¡±

    ¡ô

    It was funny how it all worked out. On one hand, every movement Myra made was scrutinized by a group that could overpower her with a flick of a wrist by any of its members.

    On the other hand, the sect seemed to view an investigation of the crime scene as their right, or maybe as their duty. Most importantly, they didn¡¯t have any hang-ups about preserving the scene for the ¡®proper¡¯ authorities.

    Finally, Myra could investigate to her heart¡¯s content.

    She started with the suits of armor. At the very beginning of the month, she had decked out the suits¡¯ interiors with tape and string that would have to be disturbed if the culprit was to hide inside of one. Now, it was finally time to inspect her own handiwork for anything amiss.

    Unfortunately, Ben continued to hover over her the whole time, and he seemed deeply amused about something that he refused to say outright. Trying her best to ignore him, Myra had to conclude that her additions hadn¡¯t been tampered with at all. Thus, the culprit probably had not infiltrated the room by hiding in one of the statues.

    Meanwhile, the same pieces of evidence that had been there in previous loops were still there. The green goop, the diamond disc knife sharpener, and the syringes. She watched Ben carefully for a reaction, but for once, he maintained a steady poker face.

    They performed a deeper inspection of Judge Krasus¡¯s clothes to see what was up with the strange skeletal brace hidden in the seams of his clothes. Like they had discovered before, it seemed to be locking his body into the strange, outstretched pose. Runes were carved into the ball joints. They were very tiny, and they would have been impossible to read without a magnifying glass. (Myra had brought a magnifying glass.)

    Seemingly, the brace could be ¡®activated¡¯ with a very simple psychic command. Upon activation, the joints would immediately lock into these particular limb angles.

    ¡°I had thought it would be some k-kind of disability accommodation,¡± Shera muttered. ¡°What disability accommodation would require you to lock your limbs into an unusual position like this?¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s not even a command to unlock it,¡± Myra muttered in disbelief. ¡°It¡¯s a one-time use thing. There¡¯s no way this is a normal feature for somebody¡¯s clothes.¡±

    ¡°Look at us when you speak, girl,¡± the elder sect leader growled.

    Ugh. She craned her neck and repeated what she¡¯d said. The entire investigation had been like this, but it was still better than being gagged.

    How was this device activated in the first place? The only person who could issue the psychic command would be Judge Krasus himself since nobody else could access it while it¡¯s so close to his person.

    Well, no. His personal domain would be snuffed out when he died, so after that, anybody would be able to activate it if they knew it was there.

    ¡ô

    ¡°Hey, did you figure out what weapon was used to slit everybody¡¯s throats?¡± Iz asked idly. It was the first comment she¡¯d made, having paid little attention to anyone else¡¯s investigations.

    ¡°I actually hadn¡¯t thought about it much. I just assumed it was the sword¡­

    ¡°I-I figured it was a fingernail or something,¡± Shera said. ¡°A t-tunneler.¡±

    ¡°You should look for it,¡± Iz said, her voice still somewhat vacant.

    Myra kneeled to the floor putting her head to the ground, but the lighting was kind of bad, and she didn¡¯t immediately see anything. A shadow crept over her.

    ¡°Do you know where it is?¡± Myra asked. ¡°Save me some time looking for it, huh?¡±

    ¡°Why would I know where it is?¡± Ben sneered. ¡°I haven¡¯t been in the room longer than you have.¡±

    Asshole.

    ¡°We should check to see if anybody has a fingernail out of place,¡± Myra said, pulling herself off the floor. Partly, she didn¡¯t want to spend any more time in a position where Ben could hang over her like that.

    It was a bit of a tedious inspection, untying everybody¡¯s boots, though it could at least be done telekinetically to avoid crawling all over the floor. (Tying and untying shoes was a classic exercise for novice mages.) Shera helped, inspecting all of the imperial sages while Myra got the other half, which was nice because if anybody was detail-oriented and trustworthy enough to meticulously look for an odd-looking toenail, it was Shera.

    Last but not least, they checked over Princess Malazhonerra. Of course, Myra already expected to find part of her toenail missing from when she had assaulted Iz. To be exact, it was the big toe on Malazhonerra¡¯s right foot that had a big chunk removed. As Myra checked, Iz looked up for once, biting her lip.

    ¡°How¡¯s it going¡­?¡± Myra asked her.

    ¡°Fine, I just need to focus.¡± She put her head back down.

    Myra shifted. ¡°Just so you know, it really needs to be done in the next 10 minutes.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯ll be done, Myra.¡±

    She got back to work. To Myra¡¯s surprise, someone was able to locate the object that may have been used to slit everybody¡¯s throats. It wasn¡¯t a fingernail, though.

    ¡°I think this is it,¡± he announced, pulling a small object out from between two of the floorboards. He grimaced as he looked at it. The object was dark red with blood, though that might not have solely been from the slit throats. ¡°This could have been used as a tunneler.¡±

    Myra stepped closer, unsure that she was seeing it right. A tunneler, of course, could be any part of your body. The only requirement was that you be able to project your personal domain through it. Fingernails were just a convenient choice.

    ¡°Is that a¡­ tooth?¡±

    ¡ô

    The tooth was an upper molar; that is, it was one of the teeth from near the back. Nobody could prove it really had been used as a murder weapon. Nobody could guess why anyone would choose their tooth as a weapon of choice, but nobody had alternate explanations for its presence, either. It was like Ben had said earlier¡ªyou couldn¡¯t rule out a particular possibility just for being inscrutable and baffling, not when every possibility was inscrutable and baffling.

    None of the victims were missing a tooth, incidentally.

    ¡°So.¡± Ben had wormed his way to her side again. He was angling himself, deliberately, in such a way that the members of his sect couldn¡¯t see them, and he was speaking pretty softly, too. ¡°That sword sharpener is new.¡±

    ¡°Huh? The¡ªthat diamond disc?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean, ¡®new¡¯?¡±

    Ben moved, and Myra flinched, but he was only crossing his arms. ¡°Surely you thought of this possibility?¡± He smirked. God, would he stop making that fucking face? ¡°Surely you considered that the culprit might adjust or adapt from loop to loop?¡±

    ¡°I¡­ I had considered they might be looping.¡±

    ¡°Good.¡± He pointed at the diamond knife-sharpener, which he¡¯d already drawn her attention to. ¡°In all the times I¡¯ve investigated this place, I¡¯ve observed a number of changes in the circumstances. The last I saw, that sword wasn¡¯t moved at all, and there wasn¡¯t anything resembling that blade sharpener. Back then, there was a pocketknife instead.¡±

    ¡°The culprit sawed through Malazhonerra¡¯s bones with a pocketknife?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s correct. And long before then, the statue played a different role entirely. I assume you saw the footprints on the table?¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡±

    ¡°These footprints are evidently of bare feet. But back then, the prints matched the boots of the armor, the one in the middle, there. And the armor itself would always be out of place. I spent many loops studying that armor trying to see if the culprit hid inside it or whatnot. I wasn¡¯t at all prepared for everything to up and change on me. Today, it seems the suit of armor is barely involved at all.¡±

    ¡°Did anything else change?¡±

    ¡°Oh, no you have no idea. The first big change was when I found Judge Krasus shredded to bits, just gore and viscera all over the floor. I was absolutely beside myself, you can imagine, and it took me several loops to notice that the footprints had also changed. The judge really went through a bunch of iterations¡ªpresently, we have him bludgeoned to death, not to mention this baffling business with his clothes.¡±

    ¡°Judge Krasus was shredded to bits?¡± Myra repeated, her brain barely keeping up. She half-believed that Ben was just bullshitting all of this.

    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s what I just said. And then on top of all that, there was the business with the bust of Larpus McMacgerwermonbermon IV.¡±

    ¡°The¡ªthe what of the who?¡±

    Her ¡®bullshit¡¯ probability estimate went way up.

    ¡°The bust of Larpus McMacgerwermonbermon IV,¡± he repeated. ¡°You know, the one from the alchemy building?¡± He slowly moved his finger until it was pointing at one of the Unkmirian men on the other side of the table. ¡°That man, the High Ambassador Lluruma. He used to carry the bust in. Larpus IV was a peacemaking hero both to the Unkmirians and to many in the empire, so I initially assumed it was a prop for some rhetorical point or other.¡±

    ¡°... Makes sense.¡±

    ¡°But the odd thing is, it was always smashed into pieces once the room opened up.¡±

    ¡°Guess they didn¡¯t like his rhetorical point.¡±

    Ben clicked his tongue. ¡°Cute. But I don¡¯t think so. See, I decided to interview Lluruma about it, and I learned that he was bribed to carry it inside this building. I was over the moon about this discovery, as you can imagine. I thought it was my big break. And then¡­¡±

    He paused for emphasis.

    ¡°And then it stopped.¡±

    ¡°The bribe?¡±

    ¡°Nope. The whole thing.¡±

    ¡°Huh?¡±

    ¡°For the next seven iterations of the loop, there was no massacre. Iwasaki opened up the building to find everyone alive and well, and we took refuge in the building until the volcano erupted. Seven iterations of nothing, then it started back again, but there was no bust anymore.¡±

    ¡°You actually took refuge in here? With the imperials?¡±

    ¡°Well, not as such. They tele-evacuated pretty quick¡ª¡±

    ¡°Hey!¡± Iz suddenly spoke up, remaining hunched but craning her neck up. ¡°Aura crystals, what quantities do they come in?¡± She spoke breathlessly.

    ¡°Y-you mean standard quantities, like you¡¯d find from a s-supplier?¡± Shera asked.

    ¡°Yes. What are the ones above 100?¡±

    ¡°144 gigaquargals is the st-standard size.¡±

    ¡°Bigger than that.¡±

    ¡°192, 240, 360.¡±

    ¡°Two¡­ forty¡­¡± Iz repeated the number under her breath. Seeming to find it satisfactory, she put her head back to the parchment. Shera watched her for a while before she concluded Iz didn¡¯t need anything else.

    Myra realized she¡¯d taken her eyes off Ben, and she snapped her head back to him. He didn¡¯t seem to have moved.

    ¡°Why are you telling me all of this?¡±

    ¡°Isn¡¯t it obvious? I want to know your opinion. Do any of these differences mean anything to you?¡±

    ¡°You think I¡¯d have any idea? I¡¯m not even convinced you aren¡¯t bullshitting all of this.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m really not. I would like your opinion.¡±

    ¡°If you really, genuinely mean that, you¡¯d stop withholding so much information from me. The syringes in the suit of armor. What are they for? I¡¯m positive they¡¯re the same drug you keep using on me. You know a lot more about what¡¯s going on in here than you let on.¡±

    ¡°Truthfully, I can only make guesses about the syringe.¡± That¡¯s what I mean, asshole. ¡°I really don¡¯t have a clue what the culprit¡¯s objective is. Surely you don¡¯t doubt that? I put all my plans at risk to get some more information here.¡±

    ¡°And yet, you continue to not share information that might help us both.¡±

    Ben kept his jaw clamped shut.

    ¡°Fuck you, then.¡±

    ¡°Oh!¡± Iz slammed her hands on the table and bolted upright. ¡°Okay, I¡¯ve got it all.¡±

    Everybody turned their attention towards her, all moving to a position where they had a full view of her lips.

    ¡°First of all, the culprit, or¡ªsomeone, I guess¡ªbrought in a 240-gigaquargal aura crystal full of the space elemental.¡±

    ¡°Are you sure?¡± Myra asked. ¡°We never found anything like that.¡±

    ¡°Yes, I¡¯m sure, Myra. It was a 240-gigaquargal aura crystal. And they used up pretty much all of it. All the space aura in this room was completely spent.¡± She pointed a finger toward the green goop in the armor. ¡°Furthermore, we can infer someone transmuted 4.6 kilograms of matter into the green goop. I¡¯m sure you all know this, but green goop is a common transmutation target because it¡¯s very aura-efficient.¡±

    ¡°So it didn¡¯t take much aura?¡± Ben asked.

    ¡°No, it took nearly all the ambient aura in the room. The efficiency must have been a necessity for the caster. After that, there was very little aura left, and I believe they used that little leftover aura for telekinesis.¡± She coughed. ¡°Telekinesis is very low in aura-usage, to be clear. At least on the scale we¡¯re talking about, it is. The fact that it was so noticeable in our calculations suggests they did quite a lot of it.¡±

    Well, we already suspected they used telekinesis to sharpen the sword and to slice everybody¡¯s throats. ¡°So that¡¯s it?¡± she asked. ¡°They spent all their aura on telekinesis and the transmutation spell?¡±

    ¡°Sorry, I¡¯m being unclear. Those two spells took up all ambient aura in the room, but when you subtract those out, they were left with a significant quantity of aura from the space-elemental crystal, and all of that was used up as well. It¡¯s hard to say what they did with that, though.¡±

    ¡°I see¡­ so for this last mystery spell, they didn¡¯t have any elements to work with besides the space elemental?¡±

    ¡°Correct.¡±

    ¡°What could even be done with pure space aura? Could they have performed advanced dimensional magic to build an extra wormhole to teleport out of the room?¡±

    ¡°No. That¡¯s flat-out impossible. The entire interior was spatially severed, right? It wouldn¡¯t matter what elements they had available.¡±

    ¡°Eh, right, sorry, ignore me.¡±

    ¡°Certainly, they could have teleported,¡± Iz clarified, ¡°but only within the room. And they could have warped space, curving it or tearing it. And they could have manipulated gravity. Those are the purest applications of the space elemental.¡±

    ¡°Oh, oh!¡± A younger member of the sect clapped her hands. ¡°I got it! The culprit warped space so they could hide on the way in. They came in a pocket, or a purse¡­ you know, they made something bigger on the inside.¡±

    ¡°That doesn¡¯t explain how they got out¡ª¡± Myra tried to point out, but Iz cut them both off.

    ¡°No, it wouldn¡¯t work at all. 240 gigaquargals is not close to the quantity of aura you¡¯d need to pull that off. For space expansion, the aura expenditure would be exponential in the scaling factor. With the amount they had, they could manage¡­ maybe 1.5x or 2x. There¡¯s no way a human being could fit in someone¡¯s pocket or whatever it is you¡¯re thinking. Not a chance.¡±

    ¡°And if they did that,¡± the elder said, ¡°they would not weigh any less. The person who smuggles them in would need to be a conspirator, and they would need to be very strong.¡± He looked to Iz for confirmation.

    ¡°That¡¯s right, but it doesn¡¯t matter, because it¡¯s impossible anyway, like I just said.¡±

    ¡°Teleportation, bending space¡ªwhat was the third thing?¡± Myra asked.

    ¡°Manipulation of gravity.¡±

    Everybody present looked to the ceiling to check if the culprit had been hiding on the ceiling with anti-gravity magic the whole time.

    ¡°Yeah, I don¡¯t see how reversing gravity would help¡­¡± Myra muttered.

    ¡°I-I have a-an idea.¡±

    Shera crouched and crawled underneath the table.

    ¡°Are you checking the underside for something?¡±

    ¡°Th-there¡¯s something here!¡± She shouted. ¡°On the underside of the table, there¡¯s¡ªth-there¡¯s¡ªoh.¡± She backed out and stood upright, holding a dirty, dark blob in her hand. Her expression faltered.

    ¡°N-never mind. It¡¯s just gum.¡±

    ¡°What could the culprit possibly accomplish with gum on the underside of the table?¡± the sect elder asked.

    ¡°That¡¯s just a¡­ a table¡­ thing,¡± Myra said hurriedly. ¡°Iz, you said they did telekinesis. Is there any way to tell what materials they were manipulating?¡± Telekinesis was always easier when you matched the element to the material, so they might be able to guess based on which elements were used.

    Iz lifted her glasses and rubbed one of her eyes. ¡°It¡¯s really hard to be definitive. But I picked through all the numbers and, well¡­ I kinda feel like the ratios are the kind you¡¯d see if you were manipulating life. You know, plants, or¡­ people.¡±

    ¡°People?¡± Myra asked, confused. There were no plants in the room; obviously, that had been rhetorical. But manipulating people was uncommon for obvious reasons. ¡°I mean, we were talking about the tooth earlier¡­¡±

    ¡°Sure,¡± Iz said. ¡°That¡¯s so small, though. It¡¯s not the scale we¡¯re seeing here.¡±

    ¡°The culprit could have levitated themselves around the room.¡±

    ¡°Yes, they could have done that.¡±

    ¡°Th-they could have manipulated the corpses,¡± Shera said with her eyes fixated on Judge Krasus, whose position on the floor still unnerved her to no end. ¡°B-but only after they died, obviously.¡±

    Ben clapped his hands and Myra nearly jumped out of her skin. ¡°Hey! I just want to double-check that I got everything. The culprit did a lot of pure space magic, 240 gigaquargals worth to be exact, and they did the transmutation, and they did a lot of elementary telekinesis which may have disproportionately focused on human bodies.¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± Iz said.

    ¡°And that¡¯s it? You¡¯re sure there¡¯s nothing else?¡± Ben asked insistently. ¡°No more clarifications? No more specificities to specify?¡±

    Suddenly, Myra remembered to check her watch. She¡¯d been so absorbed in all the information, that she¡¯d let time slip away.

    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s everything,¡± Iz said.

    Oh¡ªShit¡ª

    It was 1:01 A.M., and Ben was hurrying to the finish, and it wasn¡¯t because he was ready to teleport to safety.

    There was a loud, familiar bang from the direction of the volcano.

    Then a lot of things happened at once.

    The room shook, which Myra could only surmise was the yeti trying to warn them. On any other building, the action would have brought it to the ground. Meanwhile, the room was flooded with bright light and a loud buzzing noise, drowning out her senses. A bony hand grabbed her; she was sure it was Shera.

    Finally, her head went fuzzy and the paralysis returned. This was the most baffling of all: she hadn¡¯t felt anything hit her body. What the fuck? She thought she was going to throw up. How did they¡ª

    Her legs almost gave out, and she nearly dragged Shera to the ground. Another hand grabbed her; this one was certainly Ben¡¯s.

    Myra didn¡¯t waste any more time. She had to use the ace up her sleeve now.

    That ace was a small object she had pulled from the remains of that athletic shed, now hidden in the chest of her robe. It was a sharp, rusty nail. Praying that she would wake up at 8 A.M., she pierced the nail straight into her heart.

 14 - Alternate Paths

    Shera sat across from Myra on the train, watching Myra intently.

    ¡°So¡­¡± Myra tried. ¡°Ya ever been outside Casire?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve never been outside the c-city.¡±

    The city? God, maybe that¡¯s why she agreed so easily.

    To be honest, Myra had expected Shera to be a lot more skeptical about ditching class for an entire month to play detective in Jewel City, no matter what the girl had said in the previous loop. On top of that, Myra herself had been anxious to get out of town quickly, which couldn¡¯t possibly have helped put the other girl at ease, and which left very little time for their relationship to ¡®break in.¡¯

    In spite of all this, Myra¡¯s worry had proved entirely unfounded. The girl had leaped at the chance.

    So Myra had made up some excuses for Cynthia and Iz, and the pair had left late into the evening, taking an overnight train to the imperial capital. The itinerary was four hours to the border, then another four to the capital for an early morning arrival. Despite a small ordeal wherein Shera had overworked herself deciding whether to face forward or backward, she was starting to settle in.

    ¡°You¡¯ve got a passport, though, right?¡± Myra asked.

    ¡°Y-yeah, they¡¯re required as part of our mage licensing.¡±

    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s right.¡±

    ¡°I-I mean, I actually got one because I thought about visiting my f-father. N-not that I ever did.¡±

    ¡°The count, right? He¡¯s in Halnya?¡±

    ¡°Y-yes. He¡¯s the Count of Sub Fralnasia. It¡¯s by the northern border, in the m-mountains.¡±

    ¡°Huh¡­ does that make him a subordinate of Penrilla?¡±

    ¡°Did I never mention that?¡±

    ¡°Uh¡­ You probably assumed I knew.¡± Duke Penrilla controlled most of Northern Halnya, a geographic region that made him obscenely wealthy for its rich deposits of heavy metals and rare gemstones. ¡°Not that it matters. I mean, I assume you¡¯ve never met the Penrillas or anything. Is there a mine in Sub Fralnasia?¡±

    ¡°No. Or I mean, it¡¯s one of the wasted ones.¡±

    When people had started mining the heavier, most unstable metals and transactinides, they didn¡¯t really know what they were doing, and they very quickly disturbed the naturally occurring curses that prevented rapid radioactive decay. As a result, the miners burned through a degree of wealth that dwarfed major nations several times over. Now, many of those mines were left with little more than cheap heavy metals that were only barely worthwhile to mine when compared to the cost of simply transmuting them. Those mines¡ªthe so-called ¡°wasted mines¡±¡ªwere highly undesirable except to optimistic speculators who thought that something more could be salvaged or reversed. Maybe Count Marcrombie was one of those.

    Myra considered asking, but she realized Shera might not even know or want to talk about it. Before she made a decision, Shera moved the conversation for her.

    ¡°W-what about you?¡± she asked. ¡°Have you been out of Casire before?¡±

    ¡°Oh, yeah, plenty of times.¡± Myra flipped a stray hair out of her eyes. ¡°My father went all over the place for business, and he¡¯d bring me along sometimes. Well, that was before he remarried. Then she¡¯d come along as well, so I¡¯d¡ªI¡¯d ask to stay home.¡±

    ¡°O-oh.¡±

    ¡°But yeah, I¡¯ve been to Jewel City a few times. It¡¯s really something. You¡¯ll love it.¡± A yawn caught Myra, and she let it course through her, then snapped her mouth shut in satisfaction. ¡°Ahh. Let¡¯s get some shut-eye.¡± Preparing to sleep, Myra activated an alarm spell so she wouldn¡¯t miss her stop, not that that was particularly likely.

    ¡°Okay. H-have fun.¡±

    Myra popped her eyes back open. ¡°Oh. You won¡¯t be able to sleep, will you?¡±

    She shook her head. ¡°D-don¡¯t worry about me. You should sleep.¡±

    ¡°Nah, it¡¯s okay. This won¡¯t be the first time I¡¯ve stayed up late for you on the first night.¡± The girl flinched, looking embarrassed for some reason. ¡°I¡¯m gonna go get a tea or coffee or something.¡±

    ¡°I-I¡¯ll accompany y-you,¡± she said, still a little flustered.

    ¡ô

    They got their drinks from the bored attendant manning the refreshment car, Myra opting for a strong coffee, and then they explored around the train a bit for Shera¡¯s sake. This got old pretty quickly since just about every car looked the same.

    They returned to their seats, and Myra looked at her coffee for a while. The stimulating caffeine led her thoughts away from the present and back to the time she tried to drug herself before the loop-back.

    She thought about Ben again.

    Myra had known it in her gut, at the end of the last loop, just what exactly that red drug was for, but there had been too much shit going on to think about it properly. Now that she¡¯d had a day to think it over, think through what Ben had said and did, she was only more sure.

    She looked back to Shera, who was now bobbing her head in sync with the rhythmic clacks of the train.

    ¡°So¡­ I think I know what Ben¡¯s drugs do.¡±

    Shera stopped and watched her expectantly. Right, I only explained the puzzle to her a few hours ago. Of course, Shera didn¡¯t see it yet, hearing it second hand, dealing with Myra¡¯s bad explanations¡­

    ¡°So what d-do they do?¡± she finally asked.

    ¡°Well¡­ let me put it this way.¡± She thought about how to put it, so the conclusion would make sense. ¡°This question was driving me insane: What caused me to enter the loop? Nothing unusual happened in the first loop, right, or that¡¯s what I was convinced. But something did happen. Ben tried to drug me with that red drug¡ª¡±

    ¡°He didn¡¯t.¡±

    ¡°He didn¡¯t, but only because of a series of flukes. Then, because I was alert, I avoided it for several more loops¡ªin other words, in all four iterations that I remember, Ben has never successfully drugged me.¡±

    ¡°Okay¡­¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s not to say he¡¯s never drugged me. He has obviously been looping for more than four loops, so it makes sense that he succeeded in the past. But he never drugged me in the loops that I remember.¡±

    ¡°Oh.¡± She scratched her head. It seemed to dawn on her. ¡°I th-think I see.¡±

    ¡°Yeah. If nothing happens, then I loop back. Ben¡¯s drugs prevent me from looping.¡±

    ¡°¡ªprevent y-you from looping,¡± Shera finished at the same time. ¡°Except he¡¯s been failing to do so¡ª¡±

    ¡°Right. After the first time, he thought it would be easy to fix. So he approached me, confident, certain he was about to fix his mistake. He wasn¡¯t in a rush, and he casually asked me questions. I caught him off guard again with the lava marble. And he¡¯s been desperately trying to reset me ever since then.¡±

    ¡°B-but I don¡¯t get what the drug does¡­ does it wipe your memory, or what?¡±

    ¡°I guess? Though I wonder, I mean¡ªIs it really possible to erase memories that cleanly? Like¡­ memories aren¡¯t just stored in chronological order like a textbook. It¡¯s not like you can just rip some pages out of a book, you know? And there¡¯s not just episodic memory, there¡¯s semantic memory, there¡¯s uh¡­ muscle memory? Implicit memory? Not to mention that memories fade over time, they all get mixed around together¡­¡±

    ¡°Y-you said Vikram was a neurologist, right? Or whatever his name was, the alchemist at Mirkas-Ballam?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, Vikram. He also described his work as ¡®tangential,¡¯ though¡­ That¡¯s weird if the whole thing is about memory wiping, right? That also doesn¡¯t address my objection, anyway.¡±

    Maybe this is the wrong track after all? I already determined that drugs don¡¯t carry over their effects anyway¡ªand Vikram was adamant that you needed some kind of continuous dose to have an effect. The strange ¡®green drug¡¯ that Ben didn¡¯t even have¡­

    But there was definitely something that corporate alchemist wasn¡¯t telling me.

    ¡°You need to be more defensive. If he gets you, even once¡ª¡±

    ¡°I know, I know. That¡¯s part of why I¡¯m getting the hell out of town. And there¡¯s no chance I¡¯m going back at the end of the loop either. Investigating that fucking event hall is going to have to go on pause for a bit.¡±

    ¡°He can still ambush y-you before you wake up¡ªKidnap you and keep you in a cage all month until Mirkas-Ballam finishes the synthesis.¡±

    ¡°Yes, I know.¡± You didn¡¯t need to be so detailed, though.

    ¡°Do you know why he hasn¡¯t done that yet?¡±

    ¡°Well¡­¡± She considered it for a bit. She didn¡¯t have a whole lot to go on, outside what seemed to be his priorities. He was worried about the event hall massacre, for one, much more than he let on. During the second loop, he had been concerned about a masked person approaching Myra. ¡°I do have a guess¡­ I think Ben is trying to avoid the attention of someone. If I were to disappear early in the loop, it¡¯d make a huge splash, it¡¯d probably make the news¡­ I mean, when Ben disappeared in my second loop, it was all over the newspaper. ¡®Please report if you know anything,¡¯ that kind of thing.¡±

    ¡°Okay, but he didn¡¯t seem to care about that.¡±

    Myra scratched her head. ¡°Right. Maybe it was an¡­ oversight? I mean, he seemed surprised when I pointed it out, but it¡¯s still a strange oversight if it¡¯s that important¡­¡±

    What is this? Is it just impossible to get into the head of that psycho?

    Does he have some kind of fucked up moral code I can¡¯t understand?

    Or am I still missing a major piece?

    ¡ô

    ¡°Is there, like, a butterfly effect?¡± Shera was working her way through some of the usual questions. ¡°Does the news change near the end of the loop due to seemingly small perturbations early on?¡±

    ¡°The news? Like world news?¡±

    ¡°Local news. Or either.¡±

    ¡°Not really. I think it¡¯s pretty much always the same, excepting loop two with Ben. But, like, the stuff around me changes a ton. Towards the end of the loop, all my friends¡¯ actions get way out of sync with what I expect. I mean, some of that¡¯s directly attributable, like last loop we all did an outing together¡­ But some stuff just seems totally random. In the last loop, Cynthia had a bunch of study sessions with a guy in her herbological alchemy class. That had never happened before, and that started really early, like the third day? It seems like it really catches up to the whole campus about a week in. Different club events get advertised¡­ there are different sports outcomes¡­¡±

    Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    ¡°Do you kn-know why those things are different?¡±

    Myra shrugged. ¡°I mean, if you think about it, our lives are shaped by all sorts of tiny happenstances. Accidental meetings in the hall, who you sit next to in class¡­ even a small timing difference can set you on a different trajectory, right?¡±

    ¡°I-I don¡¯t know. I usually plan out wh-what I¡¯m going to do in a day and do it.¡±

    ¡°Shera, the whole reason we¡¯re here today is that you happened to trip over Ben¡¯s shoulder bag and decided to act on what you saw.¡±

    ¡°Oh. R-right. But I mean on a normal day.¡±

    ¡°Well, Cynthia¡¯s pretty spontaneous on a normal day, I guess. I bet you¡¯re more spontaneous than you think, too.¡± Honestly, Myra wasn¡¯t even sure the distinction Shera was trying to make was a sound one. After all, it was random happenstance that made the difference between a so-called ¡®normal¡¯ day and an abnormal one in the first place.

    Suddenly, something lit up in her eyes. ¡°Oh! You can tell me how all the world news is gonna go!¡±

    ¡°What, you wanna check I¡¯m not pulling your chain?¡±

    She flinched in embarrassment. ¡°N-no, that¡¯s not what I meant! I j-just th-think it¡¯d be fun to know stuff in advance¡­¡±

    ¡°No, no, I getcha,¡± Myra said hurriedly. Though, really¡­ ¡°Um¡­ well, Emmett Massiel¡¯s death takes up a ton of news space for a while¡­ You know that offbeat opinion column in the Halnya Times? Someone always writes in to make this really bizarre comment about his hair, like, ¡®he¡¯s got the scalp equivalent of a neckbeard¡¯ or something. Erm¡­ towards the end, some marine mages in Miirun announce troubling trends about the jellyfish population, and they present evidence that they¡¯re gaining sapience. In a few days, there¡¯s an announcement that Minji has written a new play, some kind of philosophical sex comedy, but the first performance won¡¯t be for a few months, which sucks for me. God, what else¡­¡±

    ¡°What about this break-in at the trebuchet? Does that ever get solved?¡±

    ¡°The¡­¡± Myra wracked her brain. ¡°The what?¡±

    ¡°The break-in at th-the imperial trebuchet,¡± Shera clarified. ¡°It¡¯s all over the second page?¡±

    ¡°Uh¡­¡±

    Myra snatched the paper from her hand.

    Break-in at Imperial Trebuchet Foiled

    At 6:45 A.M. this morning, alarms detected an intruder at the Raine Eastern Trebuchet (REaT) launch site in Kanre, Halnya. The intruder, a battlemage, escaped after a confrontation with the imperial army, in which three soldiers were killed and an unconfirmed number were wounded. The intruder remains unidentified, and no description of the intruder has been reported. REaT reports that the intruder did not access the trebuchet at any time and that no significant damage to the building took place. It is believed the intruder was after confidential documents held in a secure area where blueprints and other confidential documents are kept. REaT did not comment on potential motives or targets. The launch site is expected to resume operations by Nov 9.

    Jay Thrustma, a momentum expert at Halnya Upper Institute of Magecraft, offered commentary: ¡°Due to its position, REaT has strategic importance and is a major military asset in conflicts with near-eastern nations. Beyond direct use as a weapon, it also plays a crucial role in other imperial infrastructure, being leveraged for high-energy atmospheric collision experiments and launching orbital satellites. For this reason, it is not hard to imagine a Trentoffish terrorist or Miirunian rebel wanting to sabotage its operation; however, doing so would certainly require access to the launch pad. Given the information available, it is more likely that the culprit sought blueprints or other trade secrets regarding its construction. REaT is a state-of-the-art trebuchet, capable of launching projectiles to more than 0.7 of the speed of light, and it can handle a range of payloads, from pure aura to mundane matter, sized as small as an electron or as large as a house. It is even rumored to possess an ¡®Abstract Mode¡¯, rendering it capable of launching pure mathematical concepts, such as the number 58008.¡±

    ¡°Uh, that usually doesn¡¯t happen,¡± Myra said. ¡°This page is usually about the crater¡ª¡± She turned the page. The article about the crater and the cyclist¡¯s death was still there on the next page, mostly unchanged except for the column layout. ¡°Oh, weird.¡±

    ¡°It must be a looper, right? Ben or someone else?¡±

    Ben gets up at 6 A.M., as far as I know¡­ It¡¯s an awfully short time to prepare to break into a military building, isn¡¯t it?

    ¡°No matter who it is, I don¡¯t have a clue what they¡¯d want a military-grade trebuchet.¡±

    ¡ô

    Halfway through the trip, they reached the border to Halnya, where they had a quick stop to check passports. From there, it would be only four more hours. Shera kept looking out the window, squinting into the fields zooming past, barely lit by the train lights in the night¡¯s darkness, trying to take in the foreign country for her first time.

    Once the small novelty wore off, she turned her attention back to Myra. ¡°S-so are you gonna tell me what¡¯s in the case?¡± She looked pointedly at a small box sitting with Myra¡¯s luggage.

    ¡°Oh, yeah, I didn¡¯t realize you were wondering about that.¡±

    ¡°You k-kept eyeing it as we went through the inspection.¡±

    ¡°Did I really?¡± Damn. Myra pulled her contraband out to show it to Shera. ¡°I, uh, kinda swiped this from Professor Bandine¡¯s building before we left.¡± The item she¡¯d stolen was a model arm from one of Professor Bandine¡¯s cabinets, the one that was meant for training anatomically precise self-telekinesis. She figured if she¡¯d be away from campus, it still made sense to work on something, and her miserable attempt at piloting the mega-golem was fresh in her mind, so it had seemed as good as anything.

    She relayed the purpose of the device as Bandine had explained it to her, going as far as to repeat all the historical motivation, and they inspected the object together. Shera shivered when she touched it, and Myra couldn¡¯t blame her: the professor¡¯s special skin-mimicking material, though completely transparent, really felt like skin, although it was kind of cold. If Myra had been blindfolded, she probably would have thought it was a real arm.

    ¡°Here, I¡¯m gonna give it a try,¡± Myra said. The objective, to start, was to rotate the forearm by tensing the pronator teres and the supinator muscles, but that was easier said than done. It was simple enough to telekinetically latch onto the material, but she struggled to induce the desired effect, involving as it did a somewhat complicated material property. ¡°Okay, this is hard.¡±

    ¡°You wanna try with your staff?¡±

    ¡°Ugh, I guess. I don¡¯t think it¡¯ll help. Do you want to try first?¡±

    Shera gave it a go, not even bothering to try it staffless. Come to think of it, Myra had yet to see Shera ever perform anything without a staff¡ªmaybe she couldn¡¯t?

    Whatever the case, Shera was actually the first to succeed in properly contracting the synthetic muscle. Though Myra was initially quite proud of her, this immediately led to the girl trying to over-explain her method at a mechanical level that just wasn¡¯t even remotely applicable to the way Myra intuited aura flow. This caused her own progress to grind to a halt as she couldn¡¯t find a polite way to give Shera a hint that didn¡¯t fly over her head.

    ¡°I think I¡¯m too tired to make any progress on this,¡± Myra finally said, giving up. ¡°I¡¯ll try again later after I get some sleep.¡±

    Shera nodded. ¡°Hey, d-do you usually do staffless magic?¡±

    ¡°Not really¡­ I¡¯m trying to get better. I mean, I learned to do telekinesis without a staff because it¡¯s just so common. And it absolutely saved my ass last night¡ªlast loop, I mean. I want to make it second nature.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve never been able to do anything without a staff.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll teach you if you want.¡±

    ¡°Ah, n-no! That w-would just waste time, it wouldn¡¯t be able to carry over¡ª¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t mind,¡± Myra said, her mouth ahead of her thoughts on the matter. No, teaching Shera magic sounds terrible! Don¡¯t you remember pairing with her in Instructor Yam¡¯s classes?? ¡°It¡¯d be a nice way for us to bond.¡± No!!!

    She blushed. ¡°Is it h-hard?¡±

    ¡°Welll¡­ it¡¯s not easy, but I don¡¯t think it¡¯s as hard as people make it out to be. You have to start by sort of ¡®pretending¡¯ you¡¯re holding your staff¡ªthere are all these tricks to it, and slowly you learn to get by with fewer tricks. After you do that for a few different kinds of spells, you reach the stage I¡¯m at, where you¡¯re supposed to learn new spells without doing the step-by-step.¡± She shrugged. ¡°I mean, it¡¯s conceptually the same process we used to learn to cast spells without relying on incantations.¡±

    ¡°O-oh.¡± She was quiet for a bit. ¡°I d-don¡¯t know that process.¡±

    Myra sipped her coffee. ¡°What d¡¯you mean?¡± she asked absentmindedly. ¡°You must have gone through that at some point.¡±

    ¡°I c-could never, uh¡ª¡± She trailed off. ¡°I never incanted.¡±

    Myra blinked. ¡°Huh? Why not?¡± Who doesn¡¯t get started in magic by learning incantations?

    ¡°I¡ª¡± She hesitated, her mouth hanging open for a bit, her expression vaguely suggesting that Myra was being a little thick. ¡°I c-can¡¯t say them, Myra,¡± she finally said. ¡°I c-can¡¯t enunciate th-them right.¡±

    ¡°Oh. Uh¡ªRight. I guess I just assumed you could, uh¡ª¡± She finished off the rest of her coffee, holding her cup to her mouth longer than necessary. Finally, she admitted, ¡°I don¡¯t know what I assumed.¡±

    ¡°Y-you assumed I could speak right if I just tried really hard, r-right?¡±

    ¡°I think I¡­ I don¡¯t think I¡¯d thought about it,¡± Myra said quickly. ¡°How did you learn magic?¡±

    ¡°Well, I h-had to give up on all the standard intro texts. There are s-some resources meant for people who can¡¯t speak, but I d-didn¡¯t have any of those. I thought I¡¯d never l-learn b-but I finally found a book that spelled out exactly how the aura flow was supposed to work for some b-basic spells. Usually, the books just s-say to do it with the incantation, feel how the aura flows, and then copy th-that, right?¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡±

    ¡°Well, th-the book I finally found had all the numbers, it was some k-kinda reference manual for rune scripters, I think¡ªand there was this one spell, that one th-that just moves small units of aura. It¡¯s incanted like ka-ja. And I c-could kind of do that one, I¡¯d go like, um¡ªka-ja-ka-ja-ka-ja-ka-ka-ja¡ª¡± She rattled it off quickly like a ticking clock. ¡°¡ªka-da-ka-ja-da-da-daaaa¡ªOo-oo-oops.¡± She fumbled it and got flustered. ¡°S-see, even that was p-pretty hard, but I c-could mostly do it, so I just moved the aura exactly b-by the numbers¡ªAnd then I just kinda stopped needing th-the incantation one day, th-there wasn¡¯t really a process to it¡ªWhat?¡±

    ¡°Nothing.¡± Was I staring? ¡°Sorry, I¡¯m just impressed. Really! I can¡¯t imagine having to figure all that out on my own.¡±

    It explains a lot about her idiosyncratic approach to learning spells, too¡­

    The girl across from her looked away in embarrassment or¡ªwell, Myra couldn¡¯t really tell. She fixated back on the window, watching the farmland roll by.

    ¡ô

    Despite the coffee, Myra did doze off eventually (well, sort of, it didn¡¯t really feel like she fell asleep, but she did close her eyes, and time seemed to pass a little quickly). She woke up as the sun peeked over the horizon, illuminating a wide, grassy plain that felt familiar, that somehow seemed intrinsically tied to a sense of childlike anticipation.

    ¡°We¡¯re almost there,¡± Myra realized.

    ¡°We are!¡± Shera opened one of the windows so she could stick her head out and get a good look. The city was just as Myra remembered it, a swathe of large buildings, sparkling in the sunlight, packed in cozily by the Erurian Bay, curving around them and stretching off to the west. Shera grinned wide like a kid¡ªit might have been the happiest Myra had ever seen her. If nothing else, Myra was glad that dozing off had reset the conversational frame.

    ¡°That tower in the middle¡ª¡± Shera yelled over the wind, pointing to the building in the very center. It reached halfway to the clouds, thinning like a spire and then expanding back into a jewel-shaped structure at the top. The titular jewel of Jewel City: the Imperial Tower, the home of the Raine family and the center of imperial governance. ¡°I-it¡¯s massive! I-is it really made of p-pure gemstone?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s what they say!¡± Myra shouted back. ¡°It looks even bigger up close, somehow.¡± God, I can¡¯t imagine what Iz thinks of this thing.

    They watched the city grow closer until their necks grew tired. Finally, the train rolled into the station, and the two girls exited out onto a street that was just beginning to wake up. They were near a market, and the faint smell of fish hung in the air.

    ¡°Do you know where we¡¯re gonna stay?¡±

    ¡°I know a few¡ª¡± Myra stopped in her tracks, realizing something. ¡°Shit, I don¡¯t think I can afford the hotel I stayed at with my dad¡­¡±

    ¡°Y-you mean because all your family assets were seized.¡±

    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s what I mean, Shera.¡±

    ¡°But c-can¡¯t you s-splurge because of the time loop?¡±

    ¡°That requires money to splurge. I barely have enough left to pay my tuition.¡±

    ¡°But y-you don¡¯t have to pay your tuition. Because of the t-time loop.¡±

    ¡°Look, the hotels are really expensive. Also, my tuition situation is complicated.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s the t-tuition situation?¡±

    ¡°The short story is debt.¡±

    ¡°C-can you take out more debt?¡±

    Myra let out a long sigh.

    The long story of Myra¡¯s finances was that most of her finances had been tied directly to her father or to his company, so pretty much everything she owned either became worthless (because it was invested in the now-worthless company) or it had gotten swept up to pay the company¡¯s debts. She did have one small personal account that had remained unscathed, but it wasn¡¯t enough to pay her tuition.

    Of course, her father was a competent businessman, and he had made sensible contingencies. For example, there was supposed to be an emergency chest of gold in a booby-trapped cave under the lake near her family¡¯s property. Myra had sought it out first thing when all her accounts had been locked down, but the money had already vanished. She could only surmise that her father had extracted it all himself in a futile attempt to dig his company out of its hole in the desperate days before the house of cards collapsed.

    Anyway, all this had left Myra fucked for her tuition. Ordinarily, it would be easy to get a loan with good terms: The empire wanted to train mages, and Myra was already a student with decent grades. The one problem was that the second half of her last name was now worse than mud for anything involving financial trust. She had gotten a loan, but only because the law guaranteed it, and the resulting interest rate was borderline theft.

    ¡°It would be¡­ difficult,¡± Myra finally said. ¡°I guess I could seek out something really predatory, as long as they leave me alone for 28 days¡­¡± Surely there¡¯s gotta be something, right?

    ¡°How much d-do organs go for?¡±

    ¡°Shera, I¡¯m not selling my kidney for a nicer hotel room, even if I¡¯m gonna get it back.¡±

    ¡°S-sorry!¡± She blushed. ¡°I-I-I didn¡¯t mean, just for¡ª¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine, Shera, I do need you thinking outside the box.¡± She threw her arm around the girl. ¡°Don¡¯t worry.¡± She winked at her. ¡°Even if we have to stay in a cramped hotel room, I¡¯m gonna make sure you have a great time.¡±

 15 - Artisanal, handcrafted, personal home security system

    The two girls eventually found an inn, and Myra crashed for a couple of hours while Shera rested in her own Shera way. Once again, Myra didn¡¯t sleep long, and when she woke up, she was starving. She changed into something casual and found Shera outside on a bench, quietly observing a stray cat.

    ¡°H-hey!¡± She said, a bit startled at Myra¡¯s approach.

    ¡°Ya all right?¡±

    ¡°Oh, I-I never saw you in that dress before.¡±

    ¡°Oh, this?¡± She twirled around, letting the light blue fabric catch in the wind. ¡°I thought I¡¯d pack for warmer weather.¡± She took the other girl by the hand and pulled her up from the bench. ¡°Let¡¯s get breakfast.¡±

    ¡°Can we get seafood?¡±

    ¡°Absolutely.¡± She pulled Shera along in the direction of the market district. ¡°I know a spot we can eat with a great view of the bay.¡±

    ¡°Have y-you figured out how we¡¯re going to get access to investigate Emmett Massiel¡¯s house?¡±

    ¡°We have a whole city to explore and you wanna get down to business, huh?¡±

    ¡°Ah¡­¡±

    ¡°Well, I have!¡± She grinned and pointed a thumb at her chest, very proud that she¡¯d gotten the whole detective thing figured out this time. ¡°Didn¡¯t I mention? Before we left, I talked to Aurora Ferara, and she introduced me to her friend-slash-boyfriend-I¡¯m-not-sure Sky Mishram who works here in the Halnya Times, and he has connections that can get us in as a favor for my useful information on the Unkmire talks. Though it¡¯ll probably take a few days¡ªSky has to check out the information before he trusts us.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯re we gonna do until then?¡±

    ¡°C¡¯mon, let¡¯s get some food in my stomach so I can think, and then we¡¯ll discuss.¡±

    Shera allowed Myra to treat her to breakfast, but she didn¡¯t let up for long. Myra supposed she couldn¡¯t exactly blame the other girl, though. She had volunteered to ditch class for a month solely on Myra¡¯s word, after all. It made sense that she wanted to see Myra being serious about all this.

    ¡°Almost all the victims live in the city, so I figure we can try to check them out. See if any of them are acting suspiciously or whatnot. I thought we could start with Judge Krasus.¡±

    ¡°How are we going to meet him? He¡¯s th-the most important judge in the empire, isn¡¯t he?¡±

    ¡°Well¡­ I actually have a pretty good reason to see him,¡± Myra said. ¡°I told you that he handled my father¡¯s trial, right?¡±

    ¡°Y-you might have mentioned it, but I probably forgot among the unceasing deluge of information. Does that give you a reason to see him, though?¡±

    ¡°Actually, yes.¡±

    When her father had been chucked into prison, Myra had become the plurality shareholder in the entire burnt husk of his trading company. That wasn¡¯t really a good thing. All that was left of the company was a pile of contracts and a couple of theorems in Abstract Space that were mostly just worthless or even worth negative. In theory, she could try to revive the company, though she certainly didn¡¯t have any interest in doing so. However, her stepmother certainly wouldn¡¯t be deigning to bother with it either, making Myra the de facto operator of the company if she chose to be.

    Furthermore, Judge Krasus had set a bunch of restrictions on how the assets could be used. Myra figured she just had to make up some questions about what these restrictions meant and it was a legitimate excuse for an appointment.

    ¡ô

    ¡°He doesn¡¯t give a shit.¡±

    ¡°W-what?¡± Myra stammered at Judge Krasus¡¯s secretary.

    ¡°That¡¯s what he says. Quote, ¡®I don¡¯t give a shit.¡¯ If His Honor had given a shit about any particular asset left in that flaming heap, he would have seized it out of the company instead of giving it to you. Ergo, he doesn¡¯t give a shit, and he has no need to see you.¡±

    ¡°B-but the documents he sent me said that I need approval for various¡ª¡±

    ¡°That was last week. This week, he doesn¡¯t give a shit.¡±

    ¡°So I don¡¯t need approval for anything.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡±

    Myra¡¯s mouth hung open as the blunt secretary walked away.

    ¡°C-c-c-can we get th-th-that in writing?¡± Shera called after him.

    The secretary stopped. ¡°Excuse me?¡±

    ¡°C-can we get it in writing?¡± Shera repeated, clearer this time. ¡°A signed st-statement th-that he doesn¡¯t give a shit.¡±

    ¡°Cryptographically signed,¡± Myra added.

    The secretary let out an impatient sigh, but he acquiesced. Rolling his eyes¡ªno, rolling his head¡ªhe retreated into the back of the building.

    ¡°Great idea, Shera. There¡¯s no way he¡¯s gonna put that in writing, so he¡¯ll have to see us now.¡±

    ¡°O-oh!¡± She seemed surprised at this conclusion.

    ¡°Is¡­ that not what you were going for?¡±

    ¡°I j-just thought it was normal procedure to get stuff in writing.¡±

    Myra patted her on the back.

    They had to wait an hour to see the judge. When they saw him, he was in the middle of writing something, his attention firmly at his desk. Myra silently waited for him to finish, and she ended up waiting an uncomfortably long time.

    When he finally spoke up, he leaned back and made direct eye contact. ¡°Myrabelle Prua-Kent.¡± The judge had a loud voice that boomed around the room, though his body language was at ease, somewhat at odds with his volume, and he seemed to draw out each syllable. ¡°I see you want to succeed in your father¡¯s disgraced company.¡± He paused, his fingers tapping idly on his desk. ¡°Why?¡± It was the most drawn-out syllable of all.

    ¡°Um¡­ I was just trying to explore my options? Your Honor.¡± Oh, am I supposed to bow? She bowed.

    ¡°You realize,¡± he said, ¡°You can just start a new company, if you¡¯re business-inclined. You could make a fresh start. I can¡¯t imagine what in that husk is worth salvaging. If you know something I don¡¯t¡ª¡± He tilted his head and left the implication unsaid.

    Myra definitely did not know anything he didn¡¯t, and she struggled to find something to say. She had prepared a couple of odd technical questions about the more mundane, understandable aspects of her father¡¯s trade services, but they had gone clear out of her mind at this moment.

    ¡°At any rate,¡± the judge continued, ¡°I did not have an impression of you as business-inclined. If I recall, you¡¯re a talented student in magecraft and runes, is that right? I cannot imagine why you would choose to throw that away for this pile of junk.¡±

    ¡°You¡­ you looked up my academic history?¡±

    ¡°Obviously, I did my diligence during the trial.¡± He stood up, seemingly just to stretch his legs. Myra was always kind of surprised by how short he was. Not that he was tiny or anything¡ªhe was about Myra¡¯s height¡ªit just seemed at odds with his projected presence.

    ¡°Listen, Myrabelle. I will sign off on anything you¡¯d like regarding your father¡¯s company, so long as I do not suspect foul play.¡± Wow, that says nothing. ¡°If you insist, my first advice would be to turn your father¡¯s heap of glorified pinky promises into real contracts. I could even point you to some lawyers who specialize in that sort of thing. It would give you some real legitimacy and assure any partners you might want to work with. However, my primary advice remains the same. You should let this go.¡±

    This would almost certainly be an emotionally charged argument for Myra if she gave half a fuck about any part of his fucking company. She was here for ulterior reasons though, and she certainly didn¡¯t give a fuck about the financial instruments that symbolized her father¡¯s betrayal of his nation, his business partners, and his family. She didn¡¯t care about the way the judge had insulted her father¡¯s business practices. No, she didn¡¯t give a shit about any of it. She didn¡¯t fucking care fucking at all. She was here for her ulterior motives, yes.

    ¡°Th-thanks for your advice,¡± she said, her advice cracking like Shera¡¯s for some reason. ¡°I had a second question¡ªdo you know where I can buy braces for my clothes?¡±

    His face twisted in confusion. ¡°Braces? You¡¯re looking for a binder?¡±

    ¡°N-no! I mean like a wire mesh through your clothes. Something that can be locked into place.¡±

    He continued to look supremely befuddled. ¡°What on Zyarth for?¡±

    Myra had learned just about what she¡¯d come to learn. But the judge was still standing up, and there was still one more opportunity. She dove in for a hug.

    ¡°What in the blazes are you doing, girl¡ª?¡±

    Nope. No skeleton wire mesh thing.

    ¡°I was just¡ªwell, you just gave me some advice, which I thought was kind of you, so I thought it was socially appropriate to¡ª¡±

    ¡ô

    Suffice it to say, the judge wasn¡¯t buying Myra¡¯s spontaneous and inexplicable sign of affection, and while he couldn¡¯t make anything of Myra¡¯s sartorial inquisition, he was quick to summarily kick them out for bothering him.

    They eventually met up with Sky Mishram, and as they expected, he got them the ¡®in¡¯ they needed. Specifically, he helped them arrange to meet with the late sage¡¯s heir and the administrator of his estate, Hazel Ornobis.

    Hazel Ornobis, Imperial Sage of Magical Infrastructure. Another one of the victims.

    Without her imperial robes, Sage Ornobis was nearly unrecognizable, in business clothes that were upscale but otherwise unremarkable, her hair down and her makeup softer.

    ¡°P.I. Prua-Kent, I presume?¡±

    ¡°Oh, yeah, that¡¯s me.¡± Sky must have really talked her up. ¡°That¡¯s me. And this is my partner, Shera Marcrombie.¡±

    ¡°The reporters at the Times spoke highly of you. I¡¯m grateful to have an additional pair of minds on the situation.¡±

    Apparently, Sky Mishram had claimed they were private investigators. Well¡­ they did investigate. And they certainly weren¡¯t public investigators, so¡­

    Well, I guess so.

    The sage started walking. They had met in a public area downtown, but they were headed into a very upscale neighborhood near the tower.

    ¡°I apologize if this is a personal question,¡± Myra started. ¡°What is your relation to Sage Emeritus Massiel? I understand that you¡¯re his successor for the position of magical infrastructure, but I was surprised to find that you were also his heir?¡±

    ¡°He didn¡¯t have any children,¡± the woman explained somberly. ¡°But he was like a father to me, in some sense. He taught me everything I knew. Of course, I¡¯m sure if your reputation is anything to go by, you already knew that.¡±

    Oh god, what did Sky say about us? ¡°We had our suspicions,¡± Myra said mysteriously.

    The older woman sighed. ¡°Many times I wondered if I wasn¡¯t off the mark, confusing a purely academic mentorship for a closer bond¡ªbut then everything was gifted to me, so perhaps he did think of me like a daughter in the end. Or maybe he just got used to thrusting all the hard work off onto me.¡± She laughed darkly.

    ¡°So, it sounds like you knew him well. Do you have any opinions on the official story?¡± Myra asked.

    She sighed again. ¡°I¡¯ve looked into everything. I could not see any grounds to doubt the official story, bizarre as it is.¡±

    ¡°That being, he killed himself in his sleep,¡± Myra confirmed.

    ¡°Yes¡­ Sleep-casting is rare, but it¡¯s not unheard of. Emmett was not in the habit of casting laser-based spells, but I¡¯m sure he was capable of doing so.¡±

    ¡°Is it possible that he was awake when he did it?¡± Shera asked. ¡°That the s-security system said he was still asleep, but maybe there was a mistake?¡±

    ¡°There are two things wrong with that,¡± the sage said coldly. ¡°One, that he would intentionally commit suicide. And two, that a system of his own making would give an incorrect report.¡±

    ¡°The report also said the house was empty except for him. Is it true that he lived alone?¡±

    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s correct.¡±

    ¡°Were there any regular visitors, a servant or anyone like that? Other than perhaps yourself, I mean.¡±

    ¡°He didn¡¯t have any servants. I didn¡¯t make house visits that often. If he had other personal friends that visited, I can¡¯t say. He knew a lot of people.¡±

    Emmett Massiel¡¯s mansion was two stories of exquisite masonry. It was surrounded by thick shrubbery and vines that almost looked overgrown, but still had an aesthetic balance to it that must have been intentional. The inside was extravagant, with lush carpets and tasteful artwork scattered throughout. They climbed a wide, spiral staircase to the top floor where the bedroom was.

    The corpse had long been removed, leaving a charred hole drilled halfway through the mattress.

    ¡°According to the report, the laser was from this corner of the room up here.¡± Myra cautiously floated herself up to the corner, holding her arm out to trace the ray that the laser must have made, looking down its length with one eye closed. ¡°Seems to check out,¡± she confirmed, as if knew anything about laser scorch forensics.

    ¡°Should we take a look at this alleged security record?¡±

    The security system was in the sage¡¯s office, down the hall from the bedroom. The office contained a large oak desk in front of a wide, vine-covered window, and the security system was in a stack of unassuming drawers on the left side of the desk. The top drawer stored a stack of blank pages and an enchanted quill. There was a gap at the back of the drawer¡ªit seemed that filled pages could move to the next drawer down, where the log was kept. In the bottom drawer, there was a radio, which presumably could call for help when necessary.

    Myra took a look at the latest records. The day before the loop, Nov. 5, didn¡¯t have anything suspicious, and Nov. 6 was just about what she¡¯d been told.

    Nov 4, 9:02:54 PM - Emmet Massiel - Falls asleep

    Nov 5, 6:45:02 AM - Emmet Massiel - Wakes up

    Nov 5, 6:02:05 PM Emmet Massiel - Leaves property.

    Nov 5, 7:30:30 PM - Emmett Massiel - Enters property.

    Nov 5, 9:12:23 PM - Emmett Massiel - Falls asleep

    Nov. 6, 1:09:23 AM - Emmett Massiel - Casts spell: Spatially coherent light beam, 13.4 kilohorsepower. Master Bedroom; Origin (6.3 m, 4.1 m, 2.8 m); Direction (Polar angle ¦È = 2.1234 radians, azimuthal angle ¦Õ = 0.52 radians)

    Nov. 6, 1:09:23 AM - Emmett Massiel - Dies (Cause of death: Spatially coherent light beam directed at heart)

    Nov. 6, 1:09:24 AM - Security System - Send alert to Imperial Police

    Nov. 6, 1:20:30 AM - Phone - Rings

    Nov. 6, 1:34:56 AM - Phone - Rings

    Nov. 6, 1:50:02 AM - Phone - Rings

    Nov. 6, 2:05:44 AM - Phone - Rings

    Nov. 6, 2:12:16 AM - Phone - Rings

    Nov. 6, 2:24:11 AM - Unknown (?) - Enters property - Assigning ID ?

    Nov. 6, 2:24:12 AM - Unknown (?) - Enters property - Assigning ID ?

    Nov. 6, 2:30:18 AM - Phone - Rings

    Nov. 5, 2:30:25 AM - Unknown (?) - Answers phone

    Nov. 6, 2:46:36 AM - Unknown (?) - Enters property - Assigning ID ?

    It went on like that for a while, with various ¡®unknown¡¯ individuals showing up, presumably police officers and investigators. She checked the logs for earlier days, and it went on like that for a while. The last person to visit Massiel¡¯s house was Ornobis, approximately five weeks before the loop started.

    ¡°Man, this really doesn¡¯t have anything we didn¡¯t know from the report.¡±

    ¡°How does it know who cast the spell? Th-that should be impossible.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s what I said!¡±

    Unfortunately, it didn¡¯t look like it would be easy to answer Shera¡¯s question. Myra had hoped the security system would be rune-based so she could just read how it worked. Unfortunately, it seemed most of it was implemented via some arcane definitions in Abstract Space, attached to some relational, set-theoretic interpretation of his property. In retrospect, it was obvious that the Sage Emeritus of Magical Infrastructure would organize his system that way, but interpreting it would be quite a stretch for Myra. The best she could tell was that it seemed to get most of its information from some source that she couldn¡¯t wrap her head around at all.

    She decided to ask their host if she knew.

    ¡°I believe it¡¯s based on the origin point of the spell,¡± the sage said.

    ¡°Okay, but how is that possible?¡± Myra asked, still confused as ever. ¡°The origin point would be inside his body! The security system shouldn¡¯t be able to detect anything in his domain!¡±

    The sage¡¯s eyes flickered. ¡°It is a device of Emmett¡¯s own invention. He was always cagey of the specifics. I presume it is some clever inference based on environmental factors.¡±

    ¡°W-what environmental factors?¡± Shera asked.

    ¡°Maybe it¡¯s measuring aura usage¡­?¡± Myra suggested. ¡°Like, it could measure the depletion of certain elements in the space around Emmett?¡±

    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t it need a measurement device?¡± Shera asked. ¡°Like, something physically present near his body?¡±

    ¡°Yeahh¡­ it would.¡± Myra knew all about those constraints after all the work measuring the aura inside the event hall in the last loop. ¡°Maybe there¡¯s a network of, uhh, aura-measuring pollen in the air throughout the house?¡±

    ¡°Ma¡¯am, is there a n-network of aura-measuring pollen?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think so,¡± she said, growing impatient from their speculation. ¡°Besides, aura depletion doesn¡¯t work that way.¡±

    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

    In exactly what way it did work, she didn¡¯t clarify, but in any case, it left them without an answer to their question. God, I should call Iz about it¡­

    Wait, doesn¡¯t the house have a private phone? I could actually do that right now.

    ¡°Is it all right if I use the phone? I have a contact who specializes in this kind of thing.¡±

    ¡°Be my guest.¡±

    ¡°I-I¡¯m going to inspect the system a bit more,¡± Shera said.

    So Myra called Ralkenon University from the private line while Shera continued to inspect the system. The secretary agreed to summon Iz, though Myra knew it would take a while for her to call back. In the meantime, Myra took a closer look around the manor.

    The sage had seemed to go off on her own, rummaging through some drawers in the sitting room on the first floor. ¡°Are you looking for something?¡± Myra asked.

    ¡°Yes. Emmett¡¯s will left one trinket to the imperial prince. I was supposed to collect it today.¡±

    ¡°What is it? I can keep an eye out for it.¡±

    The sage bit her lip. ¡°It¡¯s fine. Focus on your investigations.¡±

    ¡°If this was important enough to leave in his will, it could be relevant to my investigation.¡±

    ¡°Ah¡ª¡± She looked increasingly uncomfortable at the line of questioning. ¡°I very much doubt it.¡±

    Annoyed, Myra continued looking around the house, though she tried to keep an eye on the sage while she did so. It was hard to do that without being obvious, though, so she mostly didn¡¯t.

    She found the door to the basement. It was boxes upon boxes and looked like it would be hell to walk through, let alone rummage about. She didn¡¯t envy Hazel, if the woman was going to have to sort through all this¡ª

    She struck gold faster than she expected. Only moving one or two boxes uncovered a large glass case. The lid was tied shut with yarn that wrapped around the entire case in a complex knot. It resembled a secure door she¡¯d seen in the last loop, but she still didn¡¯t know exactly what it was or what kind of protection it gave. Inside the glass case was a pillow, suggesting a deep respect for the contents.

    On the pillow was a golden wristwatch with a wristband made out of tiny gold links. It ticked silently, displaying the correct time.

    ¡°There it is.¡± Hazel Ornobis had followed her into the basement. There was an edge in her voice.

    ¡°Is-Is this what you were looking for?¡±

    ¡°Indeed.¡± She eyed Myra suspiciously, but she didn¡¯t say anything. The case was by far the most distinctive thing in the basement, so there was hardly any reason to question Myra¡¯s interest in it.

    ¡°Do you know how to get the case open?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯ll be a problem for the prince.¡± She spread her arms and hefted the entire case up. She hesitated, then decided to place it in one of the crates. ¡°Listen, the prince¡ª¡± She hesitated, then switched tracks to a different sentence. ¡°Well, it must be rather sentimental, whatever this watch is. I just didn¡¯t expect it to be in something so large.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll be discreet about it, if that¡¯s what you¡¯re trying to say.¡±

    She smiled weakly. ¡°Thank you.¡±

    ¡ô

    Myra had the idea to check Massiel¡¯s spell books for a laser spell. If she could confirm that he knew the spell or what kind of context he used it for, maybe it would shed a bit of light.

    But Emmett Massiel had been an academic through and through. He had a lot of books. Even if you filtered down to just the spell books, it was still an intimidating pile. She flipped through anything that looked like it had an engineering focus, but nothing caught her eye.

    Though she wasn¡¯t looking for it, she stumbled across an address book full of contacts. She pocketed it to comb through later. If nothing else, it would be useful for tracking down the other imperial sages.

    When Iz finally called her back, Myra asked her about the security system, and her very confused friend confirmed that it was ¡°flat-out impossible¡± for any automatic system to detect the origin of a spell through basically any means short of ¡°some wild breakthrough.¡±

    ¡°Hey, can I ask another question, Iz?¡±

    ¡°Yeah¡­?¡±

    ¡°You know that spell you were talking about to help find books in the library? With the book element?¡±

    ¡°Huh?¡±

    ¡°You know, that spell you learned in your elemental composition class?¡±

    ¡°What the hell are you talking about, Myra? The class only just started.¡±

    ¡°Oh!¡± Fuck! ¡°I mean¡ªahhhh¡ªthe spell you¡¯re going to learn this month. In your class. It¡¯s on your syllabus.¡± But also since this happened it¡¯d be nice if you do your thing and deduce that I¡¯m a time traveler because I acted weird on the phone.

    ¡°Oh, okay¡­ umm¡­ what about it?¡±

    ¡°Can you tell me how that spell works? Or where to learn it?¡±

    ¡°We haven¡¯t learned it yet.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, like can you ask your teacher or something?¡±

    ¡°Can¡¯t you just look it up?¡±

    ¡°How is she going to look it up without the library-searching spell?¡± came a faint voice through the phone.

    ¡°Cynthia! I didn¡¯t realize you were here.¡±

    ¡°Hiii.¡±

    ¡°Cynthia, can you convince Iz that I need her help because I think this spell is supposed to be really new and advanced? It uses some astral element I¡¯d never even heard of and I know you were joking, but I genuinely don¡¯t have a clue where to look it up.¡±

    Iz made a long sigh, probably exaggerated for the sake of the phone. ¡°You need it soon?¡± Iz asked.

    ¡°I¡¯d owe you one.¡± I already owe you far more than one. ¡°Please?¡±

    ¡ô

    They made a complicated arrangement to call again in a couple of days since it would otherwise be pretty difficult for Iz to reach Myra. Then she went to check up on Shera, who told her that the sage had already left.

    ¡°Oh, I thought I might¡¯ve heard her leaving while I was on the phone¡ªDamn, I still wanted to see what I could get out of her.¡± She told Shera all about the golden wristwatch, and Shera told her what she¡¯d learned about the security system.

    ¡°I f-figured out how to query it for more information,¡± she said. ¡°Once you get the hang of the relational algebra, it¡¯s not that hard. Look.¡± She held up a sheet of paper like the ones from the desk. Drawn in the same dark red ink as the records she¡¯d seen earlier, it was the outline of a human being. It was female, and extra marks around the wrist, cheeks, and ribs suggested a bony figure. Inside the outline, parts were shaded with what looked like charcoal. The shaded area covered the head and chest. Myra slowly realized it was an outline of Shera, specifically.

    ¡°I re-enabled the system and cast some spells to see what would happen,¡± she explained. ¡°The shaded area is what the system identifies as the source of the spells.¡±

    ¡°But you still don¡¯t know how it determines that area?¡±

    ¡°No, but I think I can get a picture for this laser spell record.¡±

    She closed her eyes and pulled some kind of abstract switch, and one of the quills on the desk began inking a picture on another piece of paper. The new picture was a top-down view of a bed with a man lying on it. Again, it was just a vague outline, but the outline was kind of lumpy, conveying wrinkles and saggy skin. Once the outline was complete, the quill set itself down and the piece of charcoal floated up to the paper. Myra expected it to shade in the upper body, similar to the first picture of Shera.

    The charcoal positioned itself above the head and tapped down gently, barely leaving a speck in its place.

    The girls looked at it in confusion while the charcoal put itself away.

    ¡°Uh¡­ is it broken?¡± Myra asked. ¡°Why isn¡¯t it drawing anything?¡±

    ¡°Um¡­¡± Shera scratched her head.

    ¡°Maybe the record was damaged or erased?¡± Myra asked. ¡°If you were a culprit, and you knew about the security system, you would try to erase the record somehow, right? Maybe that¡¯s what they tried to do, but they did it wrong.¡±

    ¡°I couldn¡¯t find a way to modify the records, but I d-didn¡¯t look too hard.¡± Shera squinted at the parchment. ¡°It can¡¯t possibly be that the origin of the spell was localized to¡ªwhat, this small part of the brain?¡±

    ¡°What part of the brain is it?¡±

    ¡°Let me ask.¡± Shera activated something again, and the quill returned. With a dashed line, it drew a small shape around the speck. It labeled the shape, Temporal lobe. ¡°Does th-that tell us anything?¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Myra said. ¡°What phase of sleep was he in?¡±

    ¡°Slow-wave.¡± Shera didn¡¯t need to ask the system this time, so she had probably looked it up already. ¡°That is when sleep-walking happens, for what it¡¯s worth.¡± Is sleep-casting the same? It probably is.

    ¡°Where did the laser strike again?¡±

    ¡°His chest.¡±

    ¡°Can you also show the laser trajectory?¡±

    The quill added the laser trajectory, which went from the bottom of the page to the chest. It also drew a gaping hole in his chest, where the laser burned through him, quite unnecessarily.

    ¡°Huh,¡± Myra said, scratching her head. ¡°That¡­ that doesn¡¯t tell us anything. I thought they might line up or something.¡±

    Shera only shook her head.

    ¡°I take it you didn¡¯t figure out where it gets this information from, did you?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s f-from the ink.¡±

    Myra blinked. ¡°The ink? Like the ink from the line art? I thought the quill was driving.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s the ink. I c-can¡¯t sense it, either. It has domain protection.¡±

    ¡°Wait, the ink is organic?¡± Myra had heard of plants with domain protections¡ªthey¡¯d been discussing them recently in light of the trees at the crater site¡ªbut she¡¯d never heard of a liquid with those properties.

    Myra looked around the desk. ¡°Where is¡ª¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s in the drawer, at the back.¡±

    Myra found the ink well just where she said, sitting in a cup-holder slot. There was a small nozzle near the top of the drawer, evidently used to refill the well. ¡°What¡¯s behind this thing?¡± She pulled at the drawer. ¡°How do you get this drawer out?¡±

    When it became obvious that she couldn¡¯t force it out, the two of them decided to just take apart the entire side of the desk. Myra resisted the urge to just slice it open with an easy cutting spell, and Shera observed that the side panel was designed to be removable. The screws were on the inside, though (a feature in woodworking that was often considered a sign of class because it required a mage to screw or unscrew).

    Working with screws¡ªwhile not exactly the most challenging task asked of Myra in the past few months¡ªwas still more difficult than she¡¯d remembered it being: It required her to apply a substantial amount of torque purely telekinetically, without any physical leverage. After fifteen minutes of frustrating sensing, they popped the last screw out, and the main board, with nothing to hold it up, fell outward on top of an unprepared Myra.

    At the back of the drawer, attached behind the nozzle, there was a tube that led all the way out through a hole in the back of the desk.

    ¡°For fucks¡¯ sake! We could have just moved the damn desk and gotten in from the back! God, help me pick this up.¡± They dragged the desk across the floor. Indeed, the tube came out the back of the desk and led into an equally sized hole in the wall. Whatever was inside the wall seemed to be just as un-senseable as the ink tube itself.

    ¡°O-okay, we need to figure out h-how to get inside the wall,¡± Shera said.

    ¡°Shera, you¡¯re sure that sage left, right?¡±

    ¡°Y-yeah?¡±

    Myra reached into the hole and ripped the wall off with her bare hands, The drywall broke off easily, revealing the wood frame underneath. Soon they had a substantial square hole they could look through.

    ¡°What the hell?¡±

    There were vines in the walls. They were a striking red, thick as her wrist, and adorned with thorns. Twisted and interlinking, they densely covered all the area she could see. There was a small mechanical device that was clearly some kind of extractor that processed and produced the ink. As far as she could tell, shining a light into the cramped space, the vines seemed to cover the entire wall and beyond. It probably surrounded the entire manor. There were leaves, too, bulky, with veins in irregular shapes, though they were very sparse, spaced roughly by the meter. Why are there even leaves somewhere so dark?

    Myra looked for a spot that was spare on thorns, and she touched it with a curious finger. It was rough and itchy, and it was very, very sad.

    ¡°What¡¯s it like?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s¡ª¡± Wait, what the fuck? Myra blinked in confusion. ¡°It¡¯s, uh, I think it¡¯s sad?¡±

    ¡°How c-can haptic sensations be sad?¡± Shera reached it out to touch it and flinched. ¡°Oh! It¡¯s¡ªIt¡¯s sad.¡± She moved her hand away. ¡°It¡¯s like being stuck with a reminder of something you¡¯d rather forget.¡±

    Myra shivered.

    ¡°Well, it m-must be observing the entire manor,¡± Shera said. ¡°Maybe some kind of spontaneous anomalous phenomenon that he found and brought here to use for his security system. Or maybe it spawned here, because of the vines on the outside of the house.¡±

    SAPs tended to be conceptually connected to the environments they spawned in, so that didn¡¯t seem entirely unreasonable.

    ¡°Do you recognize those leaves?¡± Myra asked. ¡°I feel like I¡¯ve seen them before.¡±

    ¡°Oh. Maybe we should check the library.¡±

    ¡ô

    They did one last sweep of the place for anything unusual, and Shera figured out how to add themselves as authorized guests to the security system so it would be easy to get in again (just in case someone re-enabled the system). Their next destination was the university library at the Gemstone Institute of Arcane Theory and Craft. University libraries were generally open to students, even foreign students, or at least that was the case in Ralkenon.

    At any rate, they didn¡¯t have trouble getting in. They beelined for the botany section and flipped through a book on leaves.

    It wasn¡¯t hard to find what Myra was looking for. The leaves resembled a very peculiar and well-known leaf called a camera-leaf.

    All leaves absorbed light through a process called photosynthesis. The camera-leaf was unique in that it could absorb a record of its entire surroundings via this process. It was possible to extract that recording through various means¡ªusually by taking the wood from the camera-leaf¡¯s tree, pulping it, and pressing it into a thin paper sheet. If done right, the recorded picture would show up in full color on the sheet. The practice was called photography. The process was quite technically involved, though, and camera-leaves were pretty rare, native only to a few areas in Miirun. As a result, it was mostly practiced by well-funded artists, journalists, and researchers. Everybody else had to make do with portraits.

    ¡°I guess it makes sense you¡¯d want to employ something like this in a security system,¡± Myra mused. ¡°But that vine was something else. And it definitely wasn¡¯t absorbing light.¡±

    Shera suggested that maybe it was some kind of aura-absorbing equivalent. In the end, though, there really wasn¡¯t much to conclude other than that it was probably some anomalous phenomenon with a hitherto unknown ability to detect spell origins despite the casters¡¯ domain protections. They certainly didn¡¯t find anything like it in all the library references, so they were unlikely to get any more insight into the irregularity with the charcoal shading.

    The next day, Myra suggested they go back to the manor, use the private phone, and call other imperial sages at their own private numbers she¡¯d gotten from Massiel¡¯s address book. She had thought they might be open to talking to her if she name-dropped Hazel Ornobis, but mostly they were just put off that she had dredged up their private numbers. So they called Sage Ornobis again, but now she was put off because the others had spoken to her about Myra badgering them. Ornobis seemed to think that they should stick to reverse-engineering Massiel¡¯s home security system and interviewing ¡°actually plausible suspects¡±¡­ whoever that meant.

    They were not very far into the month, yet already they were struggling to find leads. Myra really preferred not to return to Ralkenon, and if it had just been her, she would have been content to take it easy and be barely productive in Jewel City for a month. It wasn¡¯t just her, though. Shera was here, and Myra felt awkward about wasting her time (as little sense as that made), which meant she had to really stretch to find plausibly useful things to do while waiting for Iz to get back to her. They ended up doing ¡°stakeouts¡± at the houses of Judge Krasus and the sages for a few nights, which were atrociously boring and led nowhere.

    ¡ô

    One night, they met up with Sky Mishram for drinks, and they found some mutual comfort in complaining about the difficulty of sourcing.

    ¡°If it makes you all feel any better,¡± he told them, ¡°I can barely get through to those folks either. Whenever the Times needs a statement from one of them, we always gotta go through some underling. If Hazel Ornobis hadn¡¯t been personally invested in Massiel¡¯s death, you can bet I wouldn¡¯t be talking to her either.¡±

    ¡°It does make me feel a little better.¡± Honestly, Sky¡¯s soothing, deep voice always put Myra at ease regardless of what he was saying.

    ¡°W-why?¡± Shera asked. ¡°Th-that makes it harder to get in touch with them.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s¡ªthat¡¯s not what I meant, Shera.¡±

    ¡°Anyway, I have a tip you might like. I mean, I don¡¯t know what the hell you girls are looking for. You¡¯ve already given me the tip of the year, and I¡¯m still dying to know how you all know.¡±

    ¡°Sorry.¡±

    ¡°No, no, you¡¯re good. What I¡¯m saying is, you might know this already. But: Hazel Ornobis and Aiko Ueno, the Sage of Magical Practice, have both made frequent trips to Unkmire in the last year.¡±

    Seeing the girls¡¯ expression, he grinned wide. They had not known that.

    ¡°The last one was about a month ago. Now, that wouldn¡¯t be out of the ordinary for any of the others. Obviously, the Sage of Economy is visiting neighboring economies, you know what I mean? But Ornobis and Ueno barely have any reason to travel. And their trips were somewhat more¡­ discreet.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s why you took my tip seriously,¡± Myra realized.

    He shrugged. ¡°Eh, it was a part of it.¡±

    ¡ô

    The next day, there was another surprise waiting in the newspaper.

    Break-in at Imperial Trebuchet Foiled Again

    At 11:50 P.M., yesterday evening, alarms detected a second intrusion at the Raine Eastern Trebuchet (REaT) launch site in Kanre, Halnya. This second intrusion comes just five days after the previous attempt. A spokesperson for REaT reports that they believe it to be the same intruder. Despite the heightened security that resulted from the first intrusion, the intruder was able to counter most defenses, infiltrate REaT, and remain undetected for some time. It is believed the individual spent about 20-30 minutes in a confidential record-keeping area. Upon confrontation, the intruder wielded a small number of spherical, radioactive projectiles. Several officers were injured with radiation burns, though all are expected to recover fully. One Class B Aura-Lock barrier was damaged. The individual attempted to escape with a cabinet, but they left it behind upon escape.

    We once again reached out to Jay Thrustma, momentum expert at Halnya Upper Institute of Magecraft, for commentary. Professor Thrustma does not believe that the new information reveals additional information about the intruder¡¯s motives. However, he expressed surprise at the report of a damaged Class B Aura-Lock Barrier. ¡°It¡¯s certainly not impossible,¡± he said. ¡°But it would require a tremendous amount of force. The radioactivity has nothing to do with it. The projectile must have been extremely fast.¡± When asked for a specific number, Jay Thrustma suggested, ¡°Maybe 69 times the speed of sound.¡±

    ¡°Man, I¡­ kinda just thought they¡¯d wait until the next loop,¡± Myra said, her heart racing. God, who the fuck is this person? To assault an imperial military base and escape alive was one thing, to do it again when they were already on high alert¡ª

    If this is who I¡¯m up against¡­

    Luckily, she didn¡¯t have that long to spend wallowing in dread. Later that afternoon, Myra finally spoke to Iz again and got all the details on the book-searching spell. Iz, who had evidently read ahead by about three weeks just to help out, had already become proficient in the new spell and was ready to explain it to Myra.

    On one hand, the spell itself didn¡¯t sound too difficult¡­ Rather, the challenge was in fusing the constituent elements, ¡®wood¡¯ and ¡®information¡¯, into ¡®book¡¯. And Myra didn¡¯t understand Iz¡¯s explanation at all.

    After fifteen minutes of frustrated negative progress, Iz seemed to throw in the towel. ¡°Okay, let me put this in words you can understand,¡± Iz said, speaking slowly. ¡°Kata moujur aba valak de¡ª¡± She started belting out morphemes from an industrial runic script.

    ¡°W-w-wait! I need to write this down.¡±

    She scrambled to pull open her notebook and ink so she could keep up with Iz¡¯s description. She was using a public hotel phone, and she caught sight of a line starting to form behind her.

    ¡°Hold on, are you saying I can just inscribe this and it¡¯ll do the fusion for me?¡±

    ¡°Probably¡­ I mean, I haven¡¯t tried it or anything.¡±

    ¡°What? Iz, you¡¯re not just making this up on the spot, are you?¡±

    ¡°Marsha katwa aba to fur¡ª¡± Iz went on. ¡°Make a fork here; on the downwards branch, za fo erj ka¡ª¡±

    ¡°Excuse me,¡± came an impatient voice as Myra tried to hold her notebook steady against the wall. ¡°How long are you going to be exactly?¡±

    ¡°Sorry, I just need to¡ªyou know¡ªI have to copy this down.¡± She shot an apologetic look at the angry people behind her, almost causing the phone to fall off her shoulder. ¡°Iz, sorry, can you start over?¡±

    ¡ô

    The second problem, besides the complex synthesis process, was actually finding the information element¡ªor ¡®dalet-three¡¯ as it was officially called. It being an obscure element in the astral channel, Myra didn¡¯t even know how to find it, but as luck would have it, Shera did. It seemed her interest in astronomy was coming in handy.

    They decided to try it out in the evening when they would be able to focus on the astral channel, even if they looked a little dodgy entering Massiel¡¯s manor at that time. Not much had changed since they¡¯d left, though it seemed like a few more things were packed into boxes. They made themselves comfortable in the sitting room; Myra took off her shoes so she could feel the floor¡¯s expensive, fuzzy carpet between her toes.

    She set out a silver sheet where she had inscribed the diagram at Iz¡¯s instruction. She still didn¡¯t understand half of it, but at least she could see that two elements would go in and one element would come out. ¡°Okay, Shera, you focus on fusing the elements, and I¡¯ll cast.¡± Frankly, she had only inquired about the spell on a whim, not even thinking it would be particularly useful. But once they¡¯d started, it was too awkward to set it aside.

    Shera got to work, and Myra focused on the aura coming out of the third terminal of the runic diagram. Pulling it into her chest, she knew immediately that it had worked. The ¡®book¡¯ aura was fresh and crisp, full of anticipation and possibilities. It was romance and adventure, wisdom and knowledge. It was text, and it was subtext. It was being transported to a new world from the safety of your porch on a breezy autumn evening.

    Myra cast the book-finding spell according to Iz¡¯s instructions. First, she searched for all the books that mentioned ¡°lasers.¡± They were looking for any evidence that Emmett Massiel personally knew a laser spell. In the end, the closest thing they found was a spell to bend existing lasers.

    Did this tell them very much? It wasn¡¯t exactly hard to find information on laser spells in the library. He could easily know the laser spells despite not personally owning the books. On the other hand, he owned a lot of books, and the amount of laser information they contained was statistically low.

    They tried a few other words. ¡°Time loop¡± didn¡¯t get any results. ¡°Time travel¡± only got junk. ¡°Watch¡± had too many results. ¡°Gold watch¡± and ¡°Golden watch¡± got none. ¡°Unkmire¡± got too many results. ¡°Ralkenon¡± got too many results. ¡°Ralkenon University of Magecraft¡± and ¡°Volcano¡± each got a reasonable number of results, none of which were interesting.

    ¡°W-what about ¡®vine¡¯? Or ¡®red vine¡¯?¡±

    Myra perked up at the result. ¡°There¡¯s one. For ¡®red vine.¡¯ It¡¯s in the basement.¡±

    Once again, Myra was confronted with the basement box problem that looked like a challenge she¡¯d find in the puzzle section of the newspaper. She thought she had gotten off easy last time, so of course this time the box they were looking for was buried in the very back corner. The girls carefully moved them one by one, going top-down (for Myra vetoed several clever shortcuts that Shera suggested). They moved boxes containing bedsheets, figurines, a drum set, slide rules, financial records, and coat hangers.

    The crate they finally unearthed was stuffed mostly with hiking and survival equipment, and they found what they were looking for at the very bottom, tucked in a crack between the boards composing the bottom of the crate. The book was enclosed in a protective leather covering. The covering was much nicer than the book itself, which had cheap pages, a stained brown cover, and an uneven binding.

    There was no title on the cover, only an atrocious line sketch of a beaver.

    The two girls sat on the crate to read through it. It appeared to be a journal, and the first entry was dated around 60 years ago.

    Dear Research Journal:

    I fear I have been negligent in my thoughts-keeping since the beginning of my career. Truthfully, I had been in doubt that I would have thoughts worth recording, and I pictured in my head that any journal of mine would gather dust in an old box, pages empty, serving as an embarrassment. ¡®Oh, how embarrassing,¡¯ I could picture my friends saying. ¡®Emmett really thought he would fill this with groundbreaking research! How I pity the poor lad.¡¯

    Well, it is time to rectify this farcical hesitation. It is a better time than ever: I have been selected for an expedition into the heart of the Miirun wetlands. Leading the expedition is Professor Kurtwell Raine. Even now, I can scarcely believe that such a renowned explorer would select me for his team! The expedition is planned for six months.

    We are going to see the largest beaver dam in the world.

 16 - The Largest _____ in the World

    ¡°A beaver dam!¡± Myra squealed in delight.

    Shera looked at her oddly. ¡°Y-you okay?¡±

    ¡°Sorry. I just like beavers.¡±

    ¡°Really? I would have put you down as an antelope person.¡±

    ¡°Huh? Why antelopes?¡±

    ¡°O-oh. It was just a joke.¡± She looked embarrassed that it hadn¡¯t landed. ¡°Why beavers, though?¡±

    ¡°I mean look at them!¡± She flipped back to the cover so she could point to its atrocious beaver sketch. ¡°They¡¯re cute! And they¡¯re basically nature¡¯s runecrafters! You know, it¡¯s believed the earliest runecrafters learned how to build an alphabet by observing the way a beaver¡¯s dams could manipulate aura flow. The earliest known runic alphabet is from around three millennia ago, and it only had, like, four symbols, and they were huge. ¡®Cause they didn¡¯t have all that precision tooling at the time, so they were shaped out of logs, and a diagram would extend for hundreds of meters. Anyway, lots of evidence suggests these runes were modeled off of nearby beaver dam structures.¡±

    ¡°Oo-okay.¡±

    Myra flipped back so they could keep reading.

    <hr>

    April 12

    Dear Research Journal:

    Today for the first time, I met the rest of our crew. In addition to the professor, there are his 3 apprentices: Marcus Bora, Linda Zeawak, Jen Rebanko, and one other outsider besides me: Theodore Kettle, an architect who works with waterwheels and other forms of hydropower.

    In our first meeting, Professor Kurtwell spared no effort in impressing upon us the danger of our mission. He lectured the group for over an hour on safety precautions, reminding us that any natural phenomenon on the scale of the sort we¡¯re going to see is always accompanied by some anomalous effect. It seems he already trusts his own group well enough, as most of the lecture seemed pointed towards myself and Theodore.

    While I was always prepared for a taxing and possibly perilous journey, what I had failed to realize was that beavers in particular are believed to be directly responsible for roughly 30% of all Spontaneous Irregular Phenomena. It makes some sense, in hindsight. Beavers shape their ecosystem unlike any other non-sapient animal, but because they are non-sapient, they are also highly susceptible to irregularity. Furthermore, it is well-documented that beaver dams dramatically shift and consolidate aura both in the water and in the atmosphere. I simply didn¡¯t realize the percentage would be so high.

    Fortunately, none of the reports by the natives indicate anything we should be particularly concerned about. We¡¯ll be deep in the untamed wilderness, of course, but all our reports indicate that the biggest risk near the dam will be ¡°getting lost.¡±

    <hr>

    April 14

    Dear Research Journal:

    Today, we set off. We anticipate four weeks of hiking to reach our destination. I am getting along with the other members. I find Theodore to be a little standoffish. Linda, Jen, and Marcus are a delight. They seemed to have developed quite a rapport with each other, united, perhaps, by the pressures of being an apprentice to the most demanding, renowned explorer in the world. Jen in particular is a bit of a flirt. I imagine I will quite like having her around for the trip.

    <hr>

    April 17

    Dear Research Journal:

    Despite the uneventful journey, there has been no dearth of conversation.

    The professor has a lot of stances, and he doesn¡¯t hesitate to make them known. He has a lot of opinions on recent educational trends. He believes there is too much focus on narrowly applicable skill sets, and that as a result, too few students are capable of innovating. He worries Halnya will lose its edge in magecraft if the trend continues.

    A hot topic of discussion each evening is the collaborative abstraction project. Interconnected abstract objects with a common logical basis, accessible around the world, seem to be a boon for knowledge-sharing and it is accelerating magical innovation. It is accessible even all the way out here! It is truly something.

    The professor believes it¡¯s the future of magical infrastructure, but he seems worried about ¡°low standards.¡± He repeatedly brings up an incident about six months ago, where a building collapsed because its architect relied on support magic based on ¡°shoddy¡± abstract objects from the shared endeavor. He also complained at length about various experiments in his laboratory that had gone wrong because various abstract objects didn¡¯t do what he expected.

    Jen pointed out that since abstract objects are mathematical in nature, their physical and psychic interactions can be proved through airtight logic, and those proofs themselves can be made into abstract objects that can be shared. She thinks this is the best way to achieve reliability. Anything safety critical should rely on unforgeable proofs of functional fitness.

    The professor disagreed on the practicality of Jen¡¯s proposal. He said it was ¡°elegant and high-minded, but too idealistic¡± (or something like that). He seemed to think the problem was more about access and qualifications. Unqualified or antagonistic mages shouldn¡¯t be able to manipulate the shared abstract objects. He seemed intrigued by the idea of linking the abstract objects to a physical anchor that could be used to create obstacles in the link between Physical Space and Abstract Space.

    <hr>

    April 22

    Dear Research Journal:

    Today, we passed a beaver dam. It is a small, normal beaver dam, much smaller than the one at our destination. Professor Raine, who doesn¡¯t like to waste time in the slightest, had no interest in stopping to gawk at it. His apprentices overruled him. We are on our way to see beavers, after all, and so the professor could hardly fault us for being excited about beavers.

    I was thinking more about the professor¡¯s statistic about how beavers cause 30% of Irregular Anomalous Phenomena. While idling last night around the fire, it occurred to me: Could human mages not count themselves among that number? After all, in a certain light, humans are highly irregular. Further, it is said that the earliest humans learned to build runes by observing the beavers and that these developments kickstarted agrarian civilizations. Though not a purely scientific notion, I find it to be a romantic idea.

    Professor Raine, however, seemed to find the idea to be repulsive. He believed my perspective implied that humans were indebted and subservient to the beaver. He proposed an alternative viewpoint. His view was based on the observation that humans and beavers are the only species to engineer their environments to such an extent (and I believe he was lumping other sapients in with humankind). In this light, he proposed, humans and beavers are the animal kingdom¡¯s only worthy contenders for environmental domination, and as such, they are natural competitors, locked in an indefinite struggle.

    In my mind, it is a rather cynical perspective.

    <hr>

    May 2

    Dear Research Journal:

    We encountered an aggressive bear today. It seemed impervious to all magical attacks. This is the sort of danger we were prepared for, though. The professor faced the bear head-on, emerging victorious with only a few scratches. There may have been some swooning from the ladies. I confess I was fairly taken in myself.

    <hr>

    May 15

    Dear Research Journal:

    Today, we finally reached the edge of the dam.

    The beaver dam, as we were led to understand, is more like a ¡®dam complex.¡¯ On one hand, there is a ¡®main dam,¡¯ about 2000 meters west to east, but there are multiple ¡®offshoots¡¯ along the way that divide the surrounding area into sub-levels. Chief among our goals is to discern the structure and purpose of this ecology. Our first task is to map the dam in its entirety. We will begin tomorrow.

    <hr>

    May 16

    Dear Research Journal:

    I had a productive day mapping out the furthest-east part of the dam. The group split into pairs; I was paired with Linda. In addition to our surveying work, we were able to observe the beavers in action. In one instance, I spotted a young beaver learning from an older beaver, probably its parent, how to chew through a branch. We observed their work for around an hour, until the pair returned to a lodge some distance away.

    I cannot help but wonder: What drives them so? Despite moving with such purpose, the elder beaver seemed concerned with an area quite far from its lodge, which already seems to be safe and stable. It is not at all clear what this beaver had to gain from its work. Much like the shared abstraction project, I suspect the beavers are collaborating towards their common good. But how?

    <hr>

    May 17

    Dear Research Journal:

    I had another fairly productive day of mapping, though something unexpected happened. While I was traversing a shallow pond, its water level rose quite suddenly, about half a meter. It gave me quite a shock, though I was unharmed. The cause was not apparent, but I wondered if part of the dam broke somewhere. I never figured it out, and in my investigation of the surrounding area, everything seemed to be in equilibrium, as if it had always been this way.

    <hr>

    May 19

    Dear Research Journal:

    I regret to say that the productivity mentioned in my previous entry has not been maintained. The last couple of days have become a confusing mess, as our attempts to piece together the results of our surveys have led to naught but contradiction and inconsistency. We have spent all day trying to figure out what went wrong and making a game plan to stay organized in the future.

    <hr>

    May 23

    Dear Research Journal:

    Despite our efforts, our attempts to map the dam have proved utterly fruitless. Marcus says that he has started leaving physical trail markers, but he insists that the beavers are ¡°undoing his work¡± because he keeps stumbling upon areas that he has already marked only to find them unmarked. I found myself a little skeptical of his story. If he can tell without the markers, why did he need the markers in the first place? He must be getting confused.

    Regardless, the group is starting to become convinced that there is something ¡®off¡¯ about the space that is causing us to become confused (though a part of me fears that this is just our poor attempt to cope with our dreadful surveying skills).

    Somehow, Professor Raine remains unperturbed. He rejected the group¡¯s prevailing opinion that we have made no progress over the entire week, insisting instead that we have done valuable work in understanding the problem we are facing.

    <hr>

    May 24

    Dear Research Journal:

    Many of the others also have anecdotal reports of the water levels moving suddenly. This seems to be a part of the reason for all our inconsistent data (though not the whole story). Professor Raine argued that the moving water must be a consistent, predictable feature of the dam¡¯s structure. The group is generally in agreement with this, though there was heated debate over the mechanism.

    Broadly, there are two camps of thought: One camp posits there is a continuous but slow water movement, but that when water levels hit certain critical points, there¡¯s some kind of ¡®tip-over¡¯ effect, resulting in the sudden motion of a large quantity of water. A siphon is a simple example of such a phenomenon, though probably not the only one.

    Classical beaver living situation.

    Camp 1¡¯s Proposal.

    The other camp (which has my allegiance) proposes that the dams have moveable gates with an explicit, operable control mechanism hidden in one of the lodges.

    Camp 2¡¯s Proposal.

    Unfortunately, at this time, there has been no strong evidence in favor of either theory. Professor Raine has remained neutral. We intend to search for evidence of either mechanism early tomorrow.

    <hr>

    May 26

    Dear Research Journal:

    Theodore claims to have made a breakthrough. After pouring over our data for a while, he seems to have concluded that the water is moving around in a cycle, roughly twice daily, like the tides. He said the water was moving clockwise around a particular point, and he went to inspect that point. There, there was a large circular pond, and in the center, growing out of the water was a tall red vine. He seemed to struggle with words to describe it. He said it extended into the clouds, though this makes little sense to us since we would surely be able to see it from here if that were the case. He also said the pond was covered in such a dense fog that he could barely see eight meters ahead (except that he could see the vine anyway).

    It seems a clear case of an irregular phenomenon. The group will seek it out tomorrow.

    <hr>

    The next page was blank.

    ¡°Really? Really? This is when he decided he got bored of journaling?¡±

    ¡°I c-can¡¯t believe it,¡± Shera looked at the book in awe.

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°Kurtwell Raine¡¯s unfiltered opinions from before he became emperor? A h-hint on how he seized and locked d-down the Common Library? As short as this book is, it c-could be worth a fortune to the right person.¡±

    ¡°I wanna know about the beavers, though!¡± Myra protested. She didn¡¯t care much about the fucking emperor. ¡°Do they think they ever found evidence of this dam gate pulley mechanism?¡±

    Shera¡¯s skeptical look at Emmett¡¯s schematic was answer enough. ¡°Maybe.¡±

    ¡°We should go there. I wanna see it.¡±

    ¡°Is it that important? It sounds like th-they found the vine and brought it back and made a security system out of it.¡±

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter if it¡¯s important. I just wanna see the largest beaver dam in the world.¡±

    ¡°We d-don¡¯t even know if it¡¯s still there.¡±

    ¡°Well, let¡¯s go find out!¡±

    ¡ô

    They made for the library. Gemstone Institute, where Kurtwell Raine had earned his renown as an explorer, of course had an entire archive dedicated to his academic writings. The librarians didn¡¯t seem to know anything about a ¡®beaver dam expedition,¡¯ though, and there wasn¡¯t any paper or book about it. The only evidence the expedition had existed was a gap in publishing that corresponded to roughly the time period of the journal (a span of 8 months that predated the founding of the empire by about six years). They checked an atlas, but the entire northern third of Miirun was sprawling uncharted wetlands, so it was impossible to narrow down the location.

    Shera increasingly started to think that it was important, that they¡¯d discovered something on the expedition they wanted to hide. If the anomalous red vine had substantial implications for security technology, maybe because it could subvert domains and measure spell origins, it was conceivable that the emperor would keep it to himself. And in retrospect, it was definitely weird that Myra had never heard of ¡®the largest beaver dam in the world¡¯ despite the beaver being one of her favorite animals.

    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    (Though, he hadn¡¯t been the emperor at the time¡­)

    Nonetheless, they¡¯d hit a dead end, and it was highly unlikely they would learn more about Emmett¡¯s death this way. Myra tried to call all the sages again, especially the ones that had been on the expedition, but it seemed they had already left for Casire.

    However, learning the book search spell had unlocked a lot of potential, and it invigorated them to press on.

    ¡ô

    A few days later, Shera made a breakthrough in another direction.

    ¡°I might have found something,¡± Shera reported, holding the contact book to her chest.

    ¡°Someone noteworthy?¡±

    Shera held out the book and pointed to one of the entries: Carmack Sermanol, with an address in a place called Ealichburgh. In her other hand, she held out a map of Casire with a train line annotated.

    ¡°Ealichburgh¡¯s a tiny village in Casire. It¡¯s only a few hours north of Ralkenon by train. If, around 2:30 A.M., Carmack decided to ride to Ralkenon as quickly as possible, he could have caught a train at 2:45 and arrived at 5:02. I read your notes, and you said the cyclist probably arrived by train at 5:02¡ª¡±

    ¡°Oh, huh.¡± Myra didn¡¯t have any hard evidence that the mystery caller and the mystery crater victim were one and the same, but she¡¯d long thought it was an appealing way to connect the two deaths together. ¡°Who¡¯s this Carmack guy?¡±

    ¡°Well, I went back to the university library¡ª¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s open at night?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, it was really nice. The night shift librarian made cocoa. A-anyway, I went through all their news archives with the help of your new research spell and looked for any mention of Mr. Sermanol.¡±

    Shera summarized what she¡¯d found. Carmack Sermanol had been an elite infiltration officer and crackmage in the imperial military until about twenty years ago, when he was discharged due to a knee injury. He worked an office job in the military for a year, then took a post at Gemstone Institute as a lecturer and research assistant on formal mathematical logic. Six years ago, he retired. That was presumably when he moved to Ealichburgh, though Shera¡¯s sources didn¡¯t specify it.

    ¡°Logician? That¡¯s an¡­ odd career turn,¡± Myra remarked.

    ¡°Yeah, but it could explain why he was connected to the Sage of Magical Infrastructure.¡±

    ¡°Sure.¡± Formal logic is the foundation of mathematics, and that makes it inseparably tied to the intrinsic structure of Abstract Space. Emmett Massiel was the head of development for the Common Library, and the formal proof theory that underlies the Common Library is one of the most sophisticated ever developed. Massiel must have been an expert in mathematical logic, and he would have had a lot of contacts in the community.

    It made sense, but it also meant that Carmack Sermanol didn¡¯t really stand out so much in the late sage¡¯s contact book. His military experience could just be irrelevant to his relationship with Massiel, and the fact that the train times worked out could just be a coincidence. After all, there were a lot of names in the contact book¡ªthere were a lot of opportunities for coincidences.

    Even so, it seemed reasonable to follow up on the lead. They first went back to the university to try to find a picture of the guy. Unfortunately, Sermanol hadn¡¯t been a full professor, and it didn¡¯t seem that lecturers had enough status to get official portraits. They decided to go check Massiel¡¯s manor again and search for Sermanol¡¯s name, but they had to wait for nightfall (as Shera still didn¡¯t think she would be able to isolate the information aura during the daytime).

    They puzzled over what to do until then. It seemed impossible to call Sermanol. Ealichburgh only had two phone numbers listed for the whole village, one for the train station and one for the town hall. They did call the town hall, but it wasn¡¯t much help.

    Then Myra had a brainwave: Near the gemstone tower, there was a military tribute center. It was the sort of thing Iz would disown her for setting foot in, but it seemed like a good bet it had information on Sermanol.

    They were right. In one of the larger halls, there was a wall honoring over a hundred officers and exemplary rank mages. Carmack Sermenol had a short bio, which explained that he had served the empire gathering intelligence in Quistil and Dakteria before they had been subsumed into the empire. There was also a short quote by him:

    ¡°They say I executed impossible heists. But that¡¯s impossible.¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s r-right,¡± Shera said.

    There was also, most importantly, a portrait. Carmack Sermenol was a flat-nosed man with a thick head of hair and sideburns to match. He had a sharp jaw, a slight overbite, and a far-off look in his eyes, though the last could have been the artist¡¯s interpretation.

    ¡°What do you think? Could it be him?¡±

    Myra hadn¡¯t seen anything other than a police sketch. She didn¡¯t even remember it that well, and it¡¯d be hard to get her hands on it again this loop. And the man in the portrait was twenty years younger. But¡­

    ¡°Yeah. He could be the guy.¡±

    ¡ô

    It was apparent they really needed to actually go out to Ealichburgh. They did wait until they had a chance to check Emmett¡¯s manor for any more information on Mr. Sermenol, but they didn¡¯t find anything. Deciding they were as prepared as they¡¯d ever be, they set off the next morning.

    The trip was a long one, slightly longer than the one they took to get here, despite Ealichburgh being closer as the crow flies. That was to be expected. Ealichburgh was a small town with only one major train line running through it, so they had to make a couple of transfers. They left early so they could arrive late in the afternoon.

    Ealichburgh was an idyllic countryside village. It was also, Myra gathered, a fairly wealthy one, the kind of place rich old people would move. Shera seemed impressed by the houses (and Myra didn¡¯t mention that they were similar to the house she¡¯d grown up in).

    They briefly stopped to check out the phone at the train station, mostly just to confirm it existed and that it was open to the public. They considered taking prints, but it would be a lot of work and they didn¡¯t have anything to compare to. Myra filed it away as a possibility.

    They had to ask for directions to even find the road, a straight dirt path with a row of houses that sat in front of a densely wooded area. Shera continued to look impressed at the elaborate architecture. ¡°Hey, uh,¡± she finally asked. ¡°Is this the kinda place you can afford on a lecturer¡¯s salary?¡±

    ¡°Not a chance.¡±

    ¡°What about his military role?¡±

    Myra scratched her head. ¡°I¡¯m not sure. He was pretty high-ranking.¡±

    The house they were looking for was a large brick house, three stories high. Its windows were shut and its blinds were drawn. They knocked for around five minutes but didn¡¯t get any answer. Shera had the idea to check the shed for bike equipment. This was fruitful: The shed was unlocked, and it housed an air pump, a spare tire, and a handful of other tools. Notably, there was no bike.

    Of course, they¡¯d already known the resident was away from his house. Shera, though, also noticed there were no tire tracks. If he¡¯d left within the last day or so, there ought to have been clearly visible tracks.

    They went to a couple of the neighbors to ask about Carmack, claiming to be relatives who were worried about him. The neighbors on both sides said they hadn¡¯t seen him in a few weeks. Unfortunately, the neighbors seemed to twig pretty quickly that they weren¡¯t who they said they were, and they quickly retreated once they got past the pleasantries. It was hard to get more out of them.

    ¡°The neighbors don¡¯t have any defenses,¡± Shera observed. ¡°No teleportation disruption field, no sensing disruption field, nothing like that. Carmack¡¯s house does.¡± Shera was right; it was impossible to sense anything inside the house.

    ¡°I think we should break in. I need to start taking more risks with these things. Probably best to start with something like this¡ª¡±

    ¡°Hold on, d-do you hear something?¡±

    ¡°Eh?¡±

    Myra closed her eyes and listened. ¡°Not really.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve b-been wondering if it was my imagination this whole time, but I hear something very faint.¡±

    ¡°We should check it out, then¡­¡±

    They walked around a bit to find the source of Shera¡¯s sound. It was louder in the back, loud enough that Myra could hear it now. They levitated up to the top story and hung by the window. Here, it was louder still.

    ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s some kind of ringing, isn¡¯t it?¡±

    It was definitely some kind of ringing, but there still wasn¡¯t anything they could do without getting inside the house. They looked all over for a way to enter, and they finally decided to go through the front door.

    ¡°It¡¯s not a magical lock,¡± Myra said, inspecting it.

    ¡°Do you know how to open a mundane lock?¡±

    ¡°Eh¡­ yeah, it¡¯s really pretty easy with telekinesis, but¡ª¡±

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°This lock is fucking weird. All the pins are the same height.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s that mean?¡±

    ¡°It means that¡­ uh, the key to this lock would have all its grooves at the same height. It might not need grooves at all, it could just be flat, maybe?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re s-sure it¡¯s a normal lock?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, don¡¯t worry, let me just¡ª¡±

    She clicked the pins into place and turned the knob. She pushed open the door, and she realized immediately that something was wrong with the tension. ¡°Oh, fu¡ª¡±

    The entire house went up in a fireball. The roof went up and the windows went out, and all was engulfed in hot purple flames. Bricks and shingles and shards of glass scattered across the grass.

    ¡°Shera! Shera!¡±

    Myra had teleported in the nick of time, the instant she¡¯d felt the pressure wrong with the door and realized how stupid she¡¯d been. The air was hot and her ears were ringing, but she had teleported as far as she could, and she was fine, physically, at least.

    But Shera¡ª

    Fuck! Shera! I just said¡ªI just said it was safe! I just told her not to worry and then¡ª

    There was an ugly coughing noise.

    ¡°Shera!¡±

    She was on the ground, surrounded by debris, hacking and coughing. She had teleported, by the looks of it, but she hadn¡¯t teleported as far. Something was odd¡ªher leg wasn¡¯t right.

    ¡°Shera! Shera, Shera¡ª¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m a-a-alive.¡± She kept coughing.

    ¡°Oh, god.¡±

    ¡°Just l-leave me¡­ next loop¡­¡±

    ¡°For fuck¡¯s sake, I¡¯m not leaving you here.¡± She took a look at Shera¡¯s leg, which was clearly broken and which had hot pieces of debris lodged inside it. ¡°Fuck, I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯m an idiot who should have learned more first aid when I found myself in a time loop, and I didn¡¯t.¡±

    ¡°I kn-know¡ªfirst aid,¡± she said weakly.

    ¡°She cast something on her leg for a bit, wincing sharply as she did so. ¡°I-I-I need t-to wrap th-this up.¡±

    ¡°Uh, uh¡ªI don¡¯t have any bandages¡ª¡±

    Shera grabbed onto Myra¡¯s sleeve. There was a weird look in her eyes. ¡°I need your¡ªyour¡ª¡±

    ¡°My clothes, right.¡± A quick slicing-spell chopped off a big chunk at the bottom of her dress, revealing most of her ankles. She helped Shera tie it around her leg. ¡°Sorry.¡±

    ¡°Wh-what?¡±

    ¡°Next time, I¡¯ll pick something more revealing.¡± Myra wasn¡¯t sure why she said that. Shera turned bright red and looked away, making it more difficult to finish the bandage. When she was finally done, she hefted the girl to her feet, and they made themselves scarce before the police could arrive.

    ¡ô

    They were in a bit of a pickle.

    They had already gone around and raised the neighbors¡¯ suspicions, and there was no doubt the police would speak to the same people. So the police would definitely be on the lookout for a pair of suspicious girls. To make matters worse, both of them were dirty, Myra¡¯s clothes were torn, Shera¡¯s clothes were singed, and her monochrome hair was very distinctive. To make matters worse again, they were in a middle-of-nowhere village where visitors stood out.

    Ultimately, they agreed they needed to find a hood or some other covering for Shera, and even then, they would need to travel pretty far away before they could safely board a train. Shera could barely walk, so the only way she could get anywhere was by chain-teleporting, roughly 40 meters at a time, a generally inadvisable process that could quickly lead to headaches and nausea. Thus, Shera had to pace herself to avoid getting sick, and on average she was able to move just slightly slower than Myra¡¯s hiking pace.

    It took them a day and a half (living off of the light snacks they¡¯d thought to bring, and pulling water out of the atmosphere) to reach a town they¡¯d judged far enough away. Myra bought a cloak for Shera, and they took a long train back to Jewel City. Throughout the entire trip, Shera was quiet.

    By the time the whole ordeal was done, it was the second-to-last day.

    They hobbled off the train, again to the salty sea air. There was a commotion by a newsstand.

    Break-in at Imperial Trebuchet Not Foiled

    At 2:30 A.M., last night, a third intrusion was detected at the Raine Eastern Trebuchet (REaT) launch site in Kanre, Halnya, twenty-one days after the previous attempt. The intruder once again targeted a building containing confidential documents and blueprints. To the shock of the facility operators, the intruder moved the entire building onto the trebuchet and launched it hundreds of kilometers west. It is believed the intruder also escaped inside the building. The imperial military recovered the building at 6:00 A.M. They did not comment on the state of the building or the status of its interior.

    There has been much speculation over whether this incident would affect the anticipated peace conference with Unkmire, currently set to occur tomorrow night. The latest release from the emperor¡¯s office indicates that the conference will proceed as planned.

    Finally, the Halnya Times wishes to offer a correction and an apology for erroneous information in the previous reports on the break-in. It has come to our attention that there is no individual at Halnya Upper Institute of Magecraft named ¡°Jay Thrustma.¡± We originally met the individual claiming to be ¡°Jay Thrustma¡± on the institute¡¯s campus while searching for a domain expert to offer commentary. The name and credentials of this individual were entirely self-identified, and no independent verification was attempted. However, the editors at Halnya Times still believe that the previously reported information was largely correct. The individual¡¯s motivations remain unknown.

    ¡°Look! W-we were right!¡± Shera cried.

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°Look!¡±

    While Myra had read the front page article, Shera had stood opposite her, reading the back page. Myra flipped the booklet around to see whatever Shera was looking at.

    Domestic explosion connected to mysterious crater death

    A peaceful afternoon in Ealichburgh, Casire was interrupted by an alchemical gas explosion that destroyed the house of the distinguished former crackmage and imperial military officer, Carmack Sermanol. There were no known direct witnesses, and the cause of the explosion is not well understood. There is no known reason why the chemicals involved should have been present at the house, and police were unable to identify clues in the rubble. There is no evidence of any casualty.

    Subsequent investigation revealed that Carmack Sermanol had been missing for several weeks. Police later determined that Carmack Sermanol was a previously unidentified victim of a mysterious crater-related incident in Ralkenon, Casire. The cause of the crater incident is unknown.

    Villagers reported that two young women of dubious character were asking around about

    Shera squealed. ¡°Ah-ah-ah! Look at th-this!¡±

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°The intruder at the trebuchet! Th-they pulled it off!¡± Shera turned the paper around again, shoving the article about the trebuchet in Myra¡¯s face.

    ¡°Oh, yeah, I¡ªI already read that.¡±

    Myra turned back to finish the article about Carmack Sermanol, but there wasn¡¯t much else beyond the attacks on the pair¡¯s dubious character.

    ¡°W-what do we do now?¡±

    ¡°I apparently need to get ready for Ben to come after me with a trebuchet,¡± Myra said dryly, though in truth, she had her doubts that Ben was the intruder, or that he could really build a trebuchet off of a stolen blueprint that he would have two days to memorize.

    But she also hadn¡¯t expected Ben to come at her with a mage sect from the Ptolkeran mountains. So who knew what he was really capable of?

    ¡°And me?¡±

    Myra looked back at Shera. Genuinely, it was a miracle she was even standing. Was she supporting herself with magic?

    ¡°You need to rest. You¡¯ve earned it, anyway.¡±

    ¡°I need to eat.¡±

    ¡°Okay. I will drain my bank account so we can eat at the nicest, most expensive restaurant in Jewel City. And then¡ªwhatever the hell you feel like after that.¡±

    ¡ô

    Shera wanted to spend the last night stargazing.

    That was fine with Myra. They went to the astronomy tower at Gemstone Institute, which they were technically not allowed into, but which didn¡¯t have very good security anyway.

    Myra really only had one objective for the end of the loop: to observe Jewel City and see if anything interesting happened. She had been killed by Unkmire mercenaries in her second loop, and she still didn¡¯t know anything about them, if they were hired by the Unkmire monarchy, or by the ¡®culprit¡¯, or if it was another weirdo group Ben had allied with one time, or what.

    Anyway, the astronomy tower was a nice, tall location from which they could observe the city and watch for any last-minute invasions.

    As of half past midnight, the city was peaceful. Shera was seated, head down with her eye glued to a telescope, humming softly to herself, observing her favorite neutron star. Myra sat right behind her, straddling her with her legs. It was nice, for once, not having to worry about the event hall or the volcano or Ben. She worried about her friends, of course, and she worried about Iz, who was probably in the infirmary right now. And she couldn¡¯t stop from looking at her watch.

    Still, Shera seemed happy, and that made Myra happy.

    ¡°So what do you think?¡± Shera asked.

    ¡°About¡­ which thing?¡±

    ¡°Carmack.¡±

    Of course, Shera would also want to spend the last hour of the loop discussing the case.

    ¡°Welll¡­¡± Myra started. ¡°Assuming the police did their job right and that paper reported accurately, I mean, it must be what we were thinking, right? Carmack Sermenol, for some reason, tried calling Emmett Massiel until the investigator picked up the phone and informed Carmack that Emmett was dead. Then¡­ Carmack immediately caught a train to Casire, brought his bicycle, and then biked off in the direction of the hotel, maybe to see the princess¡­ though I¡¯m not really sure how he¡¯d have known where she was, so maybe it¡¯s something else¡­ And on the way he¡­ uh¡­ gets in a crater accident?¡±

    ¡°You think it¡¯s an accident?¡± Shera asked, still occupied with the sky.

    ¡°I dunno. Do you think it was a murder?¡±

    ¡°We know the culprit¡¯s interested in trebuchets and high-velocity projectiles.¡±

    ¡°Okay, but all that stuff didn¡¯t happen in the previous loops.¡±

    ¡°I d-didn¡¯t say it did. I just said they¡¯re interested in trebuchets and high-velocity projectiles.¡±

    ¡°Okay¡­ I take your point. But might I remind you, the trebuchet break-in was less than two hours after Carmack¡¯s death.¡±

    ¡°Not strictly impossible.¡±

    ¡°Fine.¡± No fucking way. ¡°But why would they use such a baroque, complicated method?¡±

    ¡°We don¡¯t know the method.¡±

    ¡°Well, we know that it¡¯s complicated.¡±

    ¡°You could say the same thing about the event hall massacre.¡±

    ¡°I guess so¡­¡± That¡¯s not an explanation for anything, though.

    Around that time, the Common Library finally went out. Myra briefly got up to go to the tower balcony so she could look over the city. There were alarms in the distance, probably because of the Library disappearing, but at least there didn¡¯t seem to be any invasion. After a while, she returned to her seat, wrapping her arms around Shera¡¯s stomach and resting her head on her back.

    ¡°No surprises?¡± Shera asked.

    ¡°No.¡± What a relief, honestly. She watched her watch tick down. ¡°It¡¯s nice to be able to just¡ª¡±

    Shera screeched. She slammed her head back, knocking into Myra¡¯s nose. ¡°What th-th-th-the¡ªfuck¡ª¡± She twisted around to look at Myra, her arms flailing around and her eyes about to pop out of her sockets.

    ¡°Shera what¡¯s¡ªow¡ª¡± She massaged her bruised face.

    Shera grabbed Myra¡¯s shoulder with a shaking hand.

    ¡°Th-th-the stars¡ªthe stars just moved¡ª¡±

    End of Book 1

 [Book 2] 17 - Myrabelle grinds one skill for multiple loops

    The stars moved?

    Myra rushed to the usual meeting spot by the fountain, where she knew that Shera would pass by. She stopped herself from grabbing the girl¡¯s shoulders and shouting ¡°the stars moved!¡± right back at her. A vision bubbled to the forefront of her mind¡¯s eye, the sight of Shera curled on her bed, nearly catatonic after being told that the date of her supernova was wrong.

    Damn, how am I going to handle it this time? She hated playing this game¡ªshe¡¯d gotten lucky with Shera the last couple of loops by simply being forthright, but right now, the stars didn¡¯t seem like they¡¯d make a good opener. Myra looked at the warm-up period ahead of her with a lump of despair in the pit of her stomach. She wanted to just talk to Shera the way she¡¯d talked to her ten minutes ago. She didn¡¯t want to walk on eggshells.

    While she hemmed and hawed to herself, Shera walked by, vanishing into the training gym for her first class of the day.

    What am I doing this loop, anyway?

    She had some rough plans, but as she played them out in her head, it was increasingly unclear how she was going to involve Shera in a meaningful way. In the end, she decided to think on her approach as she proceeded with the first thing she had planned. But deep down, she probably knew that she¡¯d already made up her mind.

    ¡ô

    Logokinesis described a mage¡¯s ability to sense and manipulate the world around them through different mathematical interpretations. Ninety-nine percent of the time, mages used a framework based around ¡®the laws of physics¡¯, resulting in the art of telekinesis.

    In the other one percent of the time, mages utilized the wider spectrum of mathematical interpretations that led to other, useful ways of interacting with the world. The topological interpretation of the world, which Myra had learned from Ben; the coordinate transformations that Zirphilia had taught her to help with rock dodging; the relational interpretations that Massiel¡¯s security system used to summarize his physical property into X-did-Y items.

    (To say that telekinesis was a form of logokinesis was actually kind of pedantic. Colloquially, logokinesis referred to everything but telekinesis. Telekinesis had a different feel to it, being based on intuition rather than technical precision.)

    Anyway, by studying mathematical logic¡ªthe ¡®mathematics of mathematics¡¯ in some sense¡ªone could extend and manipulate the mathematical interpretations themselves as objects in Abstract Space. It was through this means that mages had worked out how to construct spells by carefully writing out mathematical definitions, spells that anyone could use without all the training needed to understand them.

    Myra was average at it. She preferred runes. A well-written runic diagram was like a nice instruction manual or recipe; abstract objects were like textbooks. But there was no doubt Myra and many people like her got enormous use out of the Common Library. Among its many useful offerings, for example, there was a representation of every city in the empire as a graph: a network of nodes (locations of interest) and edges (roads and other paths). This freely available information turned traveling and navigation into a breeze.

    The Common Library even had the capability to translate between languages, though the mathematical understanding of language was somewhat nascent. Nonetheless, it theoretically allowed Myra to have productive conversations with individuals who didn¡¯t share a common language with her. The Common Library really was a thing of beauty, and its potential usefulness when traveling to a foreign country couldn¡¯t be overstated.

    It was just too bad she couldn¡¯t use it in Unkmire.

    ¡ô

    See, Myra¡¯s plans for the next few loops centered around Unkmire.

    Until now, her view into Unkmire, and into the actual status of the relationship between the empire and its neighbor, continued to be highly inadequate. The peace talks and Unkmire¡¯s possible admission into the empire were at the heart of things, somehow, and she only had a couple of pieces of information about it. First, there was Sky¡¯s tip that multiple mages had been taking secretive trips into Unkmire. Second, there was Myra¡¯s encounter with the murk bogs, the mercenary group had shot her at the end of her second loop, evidently on the way to attack the city.

    Myra had only been outside the empire once, for a ski vacation in a country called Fishnia up near the Ptolkeran mountains. She had been with her father, who did business there and spoke the language. It had been a long time ago, but despite it being so far away, Myra didn¡¯t recall ever feeling too out of place.

    Unkmire, though, was widely considered to be a difficult tourist destination, despite bordering Casire. The language barrier was just a small part of it; rather, the complex geography and city structure tended to freak people out. With those two factors combined, people had a lot of difficulty navigating. That¡¯s what she¡¯d heard, anyway.

    The first thing she decided to do was take a train to Krinph, the capital and largest city, just to see what she was dealing with and get a feel if all the warnings were overblown or not. It was a short trip, forty-five minutes to the border, fifteen minutes through the border control, and then three hours to Krinph. The train was a bit slower and much bumpier in Unkmire since it was difficult to build stable train tracks with no ground underneath.

    Well, no, that wasn¡¯t quite right. The area she was in was called ¡°The Groundless Realm,¡± but there really was a ground. Probably.

    All Myra could see when she looked out the train window was a lush, green forest canopy that stretched as far as the horizon. Unkmirean society sat just under this canopy, nested at the top of the forest whose height was measured in kilometers. The actual ground, so far below, was blanketed in a dense fog that was toxic to breathe, and nobody lived there.

    The platform at her destination was a massive rectangle of wooden planks, resting on top of the canopy. From the platform, she descended a staircase into a giant tree fort, which served as the ticketing area, an area that had only one exit. That exit was a rope suspension bridge that led to a complex of similar platforms. Crossing it, she couldn¡¯t help but look down, down into the blackness where all the trunks vanished, and her stomach jolted in a fit of nausea.

    This was the first challenge that foreigners faced in a city like Krinph: the vertigo. Myra was a mage, so she had less reason to be afraid of heights than most, but that didn¡¯t matter to the wooziness in her gut.

    There really is a ground, she reminded herself. Probably.

    Some kids, probably natives of the Groundless Realm, were jumping around at the other end of the bridge, causing the wooden boards to bounce and clatter under her feet. Myra gripped the rope railing tightly while passersby continued unperturbed. It took a moment to collect herself and continue, and it was an enormous relief to reach the other side, though she knew it was far from the last bridge she¡¯d have to cross.

    The second challenge visitors faced was that the city was naturally three-dimensional, but all she had to navigate with was a physical map that came in the form of a little paper booklet with different pages for different elevations. In principle, it should have been possible to make a small, abstract three-dimensional map she could carry around and interface with the way she was accustomed to¡­ However, she didn¡¯t know where she could acquire such a thing. Certainly not from the Common Library.

    She decided to put the map away and just navigate by looking around and trying to map out the bridge system with her eyes. That wasn¡¯t any easier, but at least it was more enjoyable.

    There seemed to be two kinds of structures in the Unkmirean city: the ¡®buildings¡¯, which to Myra looked like tree forts, usually situated between several trees at the corners, and ¡®platforms¡¯, usually situated as a wide ring around a single tree. The platforms were open to the air, and they seemed to be popular locations for restaurants and bars.

    She chose one of the restaurant platforms and (with some struggle) was able to order some food by thrusting money into the bartender¡¯s hands with a pleading look that conveyed something like, ¡°Just serve me anything, please.¡± In the end, she got a spherical, purple fruit she didn¡¯t know the name of, something that looked way too large for a serving, but which turned out to be very light, so light that it felt like biting into air.

    With a table to herself and hunger quenched, she could finally relax and actually enjoy the novelty of where she was. The city was incredibly beautiful¡ªit was mostly blocked off from the sunlight, with only a few persistent rays of light trickling in through the leaves, but the city was lit up with thousands of lamps hanging from tree branches. They dimmed as the day gave way into evening. There was something in every direction, whether up or down or slantways: a school, a library, a playground.

    ¡­

    Now what?

    Even more so than in Jewel City, the starting point for an actual investigation was unclear. Even so, there was something she knew she would need to do before any proper investigation could begin. Because like it or not, there was no getting around the fact that learning the language would be near-essential to making any headway. If she¡¯d had any hope that the investment wouldn¡¯t really be necessary, the notion seemed absurd now that she was here. Thus, her plans crystalized, and she knew she would be spending the next few loops doing little more than cramming the language into her head.

    ¡ô

    Myra¡¯s situation was a little unfortunate¡ªon one hand, the university offered classes on everything she could need¡ªlanguage, culture, history¡ªbut on the other hand, she was still trying to avoid being physically present there. If she had been smart, she would have signed up for one of those classes in an earlier loop, but she hadn¡¯t been smart, so it now came down to self-study. She found an introductory textbook to learn the grammar, a flashcard set for vocabulary, and some Unkmirean literature for practice, and she holed herself up in a hotel.

    When she wasn¡¯t busy losing herself in the joys of Unkmirean adjective order, she did her reading on the murk bogs. The mercenary group had been formed around forty years ago, though very little was known about its founding. Officially, they mostly did ¡°security,¡± renting out guards for places, events, and people. Unofficially, their name seemed to pop up in all sorts of armed skirmishes. Furthermore, the group was loathed in Unkmire because of their tendency to accept payments from international sources, including enemies of Unkmire.

    Using her new library-searching powers, Myra was able to dig up a smidgeon more than she had previously. There were rumors that the empire had tried to pay them to disrupt Unkmire from the inside in the long-running shadow conflict between the two powers, though they were just rumors, and there was no information on what had become of this (if it had even happened).

    The question at the front of Myra¡¯s mind was, who did they work for now?

    Originally, Myra had been quick to assume their employer was the same ¡®culprit¡¯ responsible for everything else. Thinking about it more, though, there were some other obvious possibilities. They might be working for the Unkmirean government, for example. Unkmire had its own military, but the mercenaries had a lot more experience fighting on international soil, so it was conceivable that they might be contracted for business in the empire.

    This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    Finally, there was the possibility that the imperial government had hired them. After all, Aiko Ueno and Hazel Ornobis had been taking trips to Unkmire in secret. Maybe the purpose of those trips had been to negotiate with the mercenaries. If that was the case, it was, what, some kind of false flag operation? Would the empire run a false flag operation against Ralkenon? It seemed kind of absurd¡ªif the emperor were doing that sort of thing, why would they target Ralkenon, an economic and intellectual cornerstone of the empire? It made more sense to sacrifice a location whose value was more cultural, something full of history and landmarks. Something that would get people riled up, but which the accountants wouldn¡¯t consider much of a loss.

    Not that Myra was an expert in this kind of thing.

    ¡ô

    There was still one thing she could do this loop that involved some real footwork. Namely, she could gather some intel on the murk bogs¡¯ movements. Until now, all she had known was that they were just outside the city very shortly before the loop ended. After that, she had done everything to avoid them¡­

    But now that she wanted to find them, it seemed they weren¡¯t anywhere. The murk bogs were a pretty large organization, thought to number in the low hundreds, so she had expected they would be pretty hard to miss. When she wandered through the cliffside forest on the final night, though, she only encountered nature and crickets.

    Had they only been present in what Myra thought of as ¡®Loop 2¡¯? If that was the case, it had a lot of implications¡­

    Ultimately, she decided to go back to the same location she¡¯d run into them before. She remembered exactly where it was¡ªshe had chosen it the first time because she had thought it would be a good vantage point to observe the city¡ªand she knew approximately what time she had been there.

    She went to the location several minutes before she expected the mercenaries to show up.

    From this spot, she had a better view than ever. A better view of the volcano blowing its top, of the bright red liquid hurling down towards the city. It was only the second time she had seen it happen, as she had been indoors or elsewhere each time other than the first. She had vaguely hoped that watching it from this angle she might see something important, but it just made her sick.

    As she watched the ash blanket the sky overhead, she realized she had made yet another misstep. She had planned to watch the sky in the last minute of the loop, but this was going to be impossible.

    She was jolted out of her stupor by the sound of approaching footsteps.

    They¡¯re here after all? Myra scrambled behind a tree.

    Even though they had finally appeared, they were still fewer in number than she had expected. The last time, she had been so overwhelmed that they had probably seemed more numerous as a result¡­

    There were seven of them, five men and two women. Everyone wore forest-green slacks and vests that sported the murk bogs¡¯ insignia, a color-inverted frog. Everyone held either a mage staff, a utility belt with a pistol, or both. One of the mages was emanating a cool, moon-like light from his staff. The group stopped at the cliff¡¯s edge and watched the inferno unfolding across the city.

    Myra breathed slowly. As always, her domain would protect them from sensing her, but that didn¡¯t matter if she gave herself away by being noisy. One of them started speaking in fast Unkmirean. She was not nearly far enough along in her studies to follow along. And of course, the Common Library had already been snuffed out, so she still couldn¡¯t use its translation abstractions.

    When she got a good look at the speaker¡¯s face, it sent a shiver down her spine.

    The man had dark, short-cut hair, a goatee, and shaded glasses. He didn¡¯t have a staff, and he was also the only one to forego a vest, only wearing a dark, tight-fitting shirt (also with the frog insignia). He had bracelets up and down his left arm.

    This was the man who had shot her.

    She was coming to terms with this when she saw the group do something expected. The goatee man held his hand to his chest and incinerated his insignia with a basic fire spell. The others followed suit, either incinerating their own or ripping them off. Once they¡¯d done that, the goatee man raised his arm and waved them all forward. Some of them flew off the cliff; some of them teleported.

    Myra hastened to follow them, trying her best to keep the right distance. They moved fast though, and she nearly lost them at the bottom of the cliff. She tried at first to follow them on foot, but the area was densely wooded, and there wasn¡¯t a dedicated path where they were. Running through the area was also incredibly noisy. Almost immediately, she seemed to catch someone¡¯s attention.

    The soldier keeping up the rear stopped and shone a light back in her direction. Myra teleported in the nick of time, just before she was caught. She hid behind a tree while the soldier slowly turned their beam in all directions. She started to believe the man would never give up.

    He did eventually give up. Myra had to chain teleport in order to follow them the rest of the way to the city, which was easy at first, though she started to get nauseous and disoriented.

    Luckily, it wasn¡¯t that far. They reached the edge city in only a few minutes, entering into a wealthy residential district.

    There were screams.

    Myra thought she had already hardened her heart over the catastrophe, but she was wrong. Truthfully, she had never really seen the catastrophe. She had never seen the molten red flood crashing through home after home. She had never watched the desperate citizens running as fast as their legs would allow. She had never seen a couple, one fitter and faster than the other, and had to wonder what they were thinking. She had never seen panicked parents with more children than they could carry.

    Well, now she had.

    The team she was following didn¡¯t spare a citizen a passing glance.

    It¡¯s only a couple of minutes until the loop¡¯s end, and they haven¡¯t even done anything. They can¡¯t possibly have been hired by the looper, can they? To what end?

    Running towards lava is the kind of thing that makes a person stand out. The mercenaries finally noticed her again, but¡ª

    They seemed panicked by something. One of the women had with her a large metallic wheel, and they seemed to be arguing about it. Myra had learned all the Unkmirean curse words already¡ªit had been the first thing she¡¯d learned¡ªand they were using a lot of curse words. They were so caught up they seemed unable to properly react to Myra¡¯s presence.

    As the lava was only seconds away, the entire team teleported away. They left the wheel behind, and Myra used her last possible second to inspect it. It was covered in runes.

    ¡ô

    The loop ended shortly thereafter, and then it was back to the flashcards¡ªwith a side of armchair theorizing.

    What was all that about?

    First of all, why had they torn off their insignia?

    Presumably, they usually wore insignia as a form of marketing. When they pulled off a high-value job, they wanted people to know it was them. So what did it mean that they took their insignia off?

    No, that was the wrong question.

    What did it mean that they did it mid-mission? Were they impostors? Were they not even the real murk bogs? If that was the case, what were they doing before they¡¯d shown up?

    Second of all, what had their objective been?

    Evidently, the group wanted to reach a point that had already been swallowed in lava¡ªthe event hall, probably?¡ªbut something had gone wrong. The rune wheel¡ªit was probably a device to part the impending lava, but it hadn¡¯t worked¡ªOh, that was obvious. It probably relied on the Common Library¡¯s abstractions on fluid dynamics, and so it didn¡¯t work after the library had up and vanished.

    Which meant¡­ the team had been prepared for the lava, but they weren¡¯t prepared for the Library¡¯s disappearance¡­

    (Was it weird that the group from Unkmire had been ready to rely on a device dependent on the library? Surely there was an explanation for that¡­ but it was a little weird.)

    ¡ô

    Myra continued her studies for the next couple of loops. When she got comfortable enough, she started spending more time in Unkmire so she could practice conversing in it.

    At the end of the next loop, she left the city so she could watch the sky, but nothing interesting happened. She certainly didn¡¯t see the stars move.

    In retrospect, this kind of made sense. The most natural hypothesis was that the stars were ¡°moving¡± back in time by exactly one month. Somehow, the time loop wasn¡¯t uniform or instantaneous. The stars moved back in time before her planet did. Anyway, the point was, it wouldn¡¯t be possible to observe that kind of distance with the naked eye.

    After three loops of study¡ªby the end of ¡°Loop 8¡±¡ªshe was feeling fairly confident in her ability to carry an Unkmirean conversation. She was pretty sure she could listen in on the mercenaries¡¯ conversation now and actually get something out of it.

    She also came up with a slightly more advanced plan to cover a bit more ground. Since her ability to teleport was still limited, she settled on a brute-force approach. She purchased a crateload of teleport sticks and prepared them all in advance, setting waypoints in the forests outside the city. To actually set the points, of course, she needed to actually hike around the whole area, which would probably take several days.

    She considered foisting the task onto Shera¡­ In the end, she hadn¡¯t roped Shera into her situation since the loop in Jewel City. Maybe this had been a terrible idea, but there would have been so little for her to do during this period, and she would have been a distraction from the study time, and¡­

    Ugh.

    Well, anyway. Myra roped Iz and Cynthia into helping out instead.

    With all the teleportation sticks prepared in advance, she could sweep over a massive swath of the area in less than an hour. It didn¡¯t make it any easier to find the mercenaries, though. She found the area just as silent as she had the last time. Guess they¡¯re really not here after all¡­?

    When it was time, she finally went to eavesdrop on the team again. She pieced together bits of their conversation and found out what they were trying to do. They were trying to take advantage of the situation to rob a bank. On her list of theories, that one hadn¡¯t been very high.

    So their mission isn¡¯t related to the peace talks at all? They have nothing to do with the event hall? The university? They¡¯re just here to loot?

    But how were they prepared for the volcano?

    Why would someone bring them here?

    Myra let out a long sigh¡ª

    ¡°Found ¡®em.¡± At the voice, Myra nearly jumped out of her skin.

    ¡°What the hell? Iz! Don¡¯t sneak up on me!"

    ¡°I teleported in.¡± Iz was holding a snapped teleportation stick. She casually tossed it aside. ¡°I don¡¯t know how else you expected me to arrive.¡±

    ¡°Sorry, I¡ªI was spying on someone, so I¡¯m in a jumpy mood¡ªHold on, did you say you found them?¡±

    (Iz had, once again, twigged on to some of what was going on, but only after Myra had asked her for a weird suspicious favor. As a result, she had insisted that she help with the search. Myra had thought it would be redundant, but she ultimately agreed when she realized it would keep Iz from getting slashed up at the campus party.)

    ¡°You said you found them? How? I looked everywhere¡ª¡±

    ¡°I used a fire-searching spell.¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t see any smoke anywhere!¡±

    ¡°They were well hidden, all kinds of obfuscation spells¡ª¡±

    ¡°Oh. Of-of course. Uh, where¡¯d you even learn a fire-searching spell? Why weren¡¯t they protecting against something like that?¡±

    ¡°Oh, I just invented it.¡±

    Myra blinked. ¡°You¡­ you what?¡±

    ¡°I modified a book-searching spell I learned in class. I modified it to search out chemical reactions, then looked for combustion reactions.¡±

    ¡°What, like, you did this just¡ªSorry, that¡¯s not important.¡± Myra turned away, trying to hide her look of embarrassment. It had barely occurred to her that the competent paramilitary organization might have ways of evading detection. Iz had, once again, bailed her out of a problem that turned out to be well beyond her. ¡°Um.¡± She looked at her watch and saw that time was ticking away. ¡°What did you find? Where were they?¡±

    Iz briefly explained where they were. ¡°There were a hundred, maybe a hundred and fifty,¡± she said of the encampment she¡¯d found.

    ¡°And what were they doing?¡±

    ¡°Well¡­ It didn¡¯t look like they were gearing up to attack, that¡¯s for sure.¡±

    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s¡­ good?¡± Myra said.

    Iz bit her lip. ¡°Well, you tell me. There was drinking, dancing. Throwing coins in the air.¡± She hesitated. ¡°Myra, it looked like they were celebrating.¡±

 18 - Match made in heaven

    After those three hard loops of study, Myra was ready to say she had learned Unkmirean to her satisfaction. It was time to proceed with the next stage of her plan¡ªtaking a more active approach to the investigation of her murk bogs. And that meant it was finally time to enlist Shera¡¯s help again.

    ¡°So w-what¡¯s your p-plan, exactly?¡± Shera asked.

    ¡°I¡¯m going to approach the murk bogs¡­ as a client.¡± Myra beamed, expecting the boldness of her proposition to impress the other girl.

    ¡°Uh-huh¡­ How¡¯s th-that gonna help?¡±

    They were sitting on a train, though this time it wasn¡¯t to Jewel City or Unkmire. Myra had a different destination in mind, a much farther one, but Shera had once again surprised Myra by committing to the trip with hardly any persuasion. Myra just had to hope that Shera wouldn¡¯t change her mind when she heard the details of her plan.

    ¡°I figure I¡¯ll try to hire them to do a job in Ralkenon, something that contradicts attacking the city. We¡¯ll measure their reaction, and if they say they¡¯re already taken, I¡¯ll insist I can outpay their other clients, have a little bidding war¡­¡±

    Shera didn¡¯t say anything.

    ¡°I got the idea,¡± Myra kept talking, ¡°¡®cause I was thinking about a few loops ago when we investigated Hotel Caldera, and I came up with a plan to try to rent the same hotel room as the princess and see how the receptionist reacted.¡±

    Shera still said nothing, but she gave her a look very reminiscent of the same look she had given to Myra¡¯s hotel plan so many loops ago.

    ¡°Look, it¡¯ll work this time. I think the secret to this kind of thing is to have a lot of money.¡±

    ¡°And y-you¡¯re going to have a lot of money.¡±

    ¡°Yeah. I have a plan.¡±

    ¡°And I liked the plan in the last loop?¡±

    ¡°Oh. Yeahhh, weeee didn¡¯t really talk about it that much.¡±

    Shera squinted. ¡°Why not?¡±

    ¡°I mean, I was busy studying the language the whole time. We didn¡¯t interact as much as we usually did.¡±

    ¡°I wasn¡¯t helping you st-study?¡±

    ¡°Nah, nah, of course not! I mean,¡± Myra said hastily, ¡°it was all dreadfully dull, and it¡¯s not like you could¡¯ve retained anything loop to loop, so there wasn¡¯t any point.¡±

    ¡°B-but I would have insisted.¡± She said it quietly, like she¡¯d been let down by herself for not being maximally helpful.

    ¡°C¡¯mon, don¡¯t be silly. It was obvious that wouldn¡¯t have been the best use of our time.¡±

    ¡°R-right.¡± She bit her lip. ¡°S-sorry. Of course y-you have a better big picture than I do.¡±

    ¡°Sherrrra.¡± She pulled the other girl into her arms and swung her around a bit. She squeaked. Myra was eager to move the conversation onward. ¡°What do you think we should spend our time on this loop?¡±

    ¡°W-well, um. It sounds like the biggest clue to the time loop is¡ª¡±

    ¡ô

    A few hours earlier.

    ¡°C-can you run that by me again?¡±

    ¡°You said ¡®the stars moved,¡¯¡± Myra explained.

    Shera crossed her arms and shuddered. ¡°Wh-what does that mean?¡±

    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t know¡ªyou didn¡¯t really have time to explain before the loop ended. I didn¡¯t get a chance to see it. And whatever it is, it can¡¯t be seen with the naked eye, and it can¡¯t be seen from Ralkenon when it¡¯s blanketed in ash.¡±

    She was quiet for a while, but she didn¡¯t freak out. Finally, she said quietly, ¡°Do you have any theories?¡±

    ¡°Well, my first assumption was that the time loop isn¡¯t instantaneous across space, and the stars go back in time before we do for some reason. So they aren¡¯t really ¡®moving¡¯, just leaping back in time by a month.¡±

    Shera squinted, her look very doubtful.

    ¡°Right, you see the problem already. It, uh, kinda took me a while to see that.¡±

    ¡°The st-stars are lightyears away,¡± Shera explained. ¡°The nearest star is around 4.2 lightyears away. If any star moved suddenly, it would take far more than a few seconds for the event to propagate to us.¡±

    Specifically, it had only occurred to her about four days ago, towards the end of the previous loop. That left her scrambling to come up with a new theory so she¡¯d have something to present to Shera.

    ¡°Exactly,¡± Myra said. ¡°So I thought of a different possibility. Actually, this is one of the first things I thought of back when we first looped. The idea is that only Zyarth is looping, or only our system is looping, or something, which means the stars have probably progressed years since this loop started. But there¡¯s some kind of illusion to prevent us from observing star drift. Because in my second loop, this was the first thing I checked. I checked if the stars were in the right place, and they were¡ª¡± Uh, except for Shera¡¯s supernova, but Myra wasn¡¯t going to explain that part because Shera seemed disturbed enough as it was, and it wasn¡¯t the best time to give Shera a panic attack over a discrepancy they¡¯d already determined had nothing to do with the loop. ¡°¡ªso maybe there¡¯s some kind of illusion, and the illusion falls right before the loop ends. And as soon as it falls¡ªbam, the stars appear to have moved forward instantaneously.¡±

    Myra could only turn up her wrists and display a helplessly lost look.

    ¡°I dunno. I kinda wonder if there¡¯s a connection to the trebuchets¡ªmaybe, if there¡¯s some kind of sky illusion, then the illusion is probably operated by some kinda satellite¡ªwhich would have to be up on the first day of the loop, somehow¡ªbut, uh, maybe they wanted the trebuchet that launched the satellites, or¡ªwanted the trebuchet to attack the satellites?¡±

    Shera nodded through the whole jumbled thought process.

    (Speaking of the trebuchets¡ªthe trebuchet attacks had continued through the previous three loops, though the intruder seemed to have finished their business with REaT, instead turning their attention to other trebuchet and astronautics facilities. The intruder got a lot better at it over time, too: Starting with Loop 7, the third loop to host trebuchet attacks, the attacker managed to infiltrate multiple facilities, each on their first try. Oh, and the newspaper never quoted any ¡°Jay Thrustma¡± again.)

    Shera needed more time to process the stars being out of place, and she didn¡¯t bring it up again until they were on the train, when she stated that it was the biggest clue to the time loop. Indeed, if the satellite illusion theory was right, then whoever set up the illusion must have information on the purpose of the loop.

    Unfortunately, this direction didn¡¯t lead to any immediate action items. They agreed to observe again at the end of the loop, and until then, they would focus on Myra¡¯s mercenary plan. And that plan started with making money.

    ¡ô

    It really was annoying how difficult it was to actually make a lot of money, even with literal future knowledge. It seemed like it should be easy, but translating future knowledge into massive wealth in such a short time without preexisting resources wasn¡¯t as easy as it sounded. Previously, Myra kind of just had an idea that there were a bunch of gambling opportunities just around. Unfortunately, casino games were too chaotic to benefit from a time loop, and the emperor had outlawed most forms of sports betting. He had outlawed lotteries, too, on the basis that the only lottery that mattered was the genetic lottery. What now remained in that sphere operated on too little volume to be useful to Myra.

    Fortunately, there was still one place in the world where you could definitely leverage future knowledge into money by design. That place was the prediction bazaar of Tzurigad.

    That was the avenue, but it still wasn¡¯t that easy.

    Or rather, it was tedious.

    The main problem was that if Myra traveled to Tzurigad and tried to return to the empire with a mysterious new sum of cash, the imperial border guard would absolutely know something was up and suspect (correctly) that she was leaking imperial secrets at the bazaar.

    Now, technically, she didn¡¯t need to re-enter the empire because her final destination was Unkmire. However, Unkmire was to the south, and Tzurigad was to the northeast, beyond Miirun. It was doable to get from Tzurigad to Unkmire without entering the empire, but it was a circuitous route that would take about six days.

    Still, doable was doable.

    The next problem was that in Tzurigad she would be racking up Tzurigadish currency, so at some point she would need to exchange it for Unkmirean currency. The best currency exchanges were in¡­ the empire. She could only find out by trying, but it was entirely possible that she wouldn¡¯t be able to make the desired transaction in Tzurigad. She would probably need to trade for imperial currency in Tzurigad and then trade again in Unkmire, effectively doubling the exchange fee.

    She also needed starter cash.

    In total, her plan was:

    <ol>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Take the train to her family home in Jinorsa Bay to get papers on all the frozen assets from her father¡¯s company.</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Take the train up to Jewel City and grab the journal from Emmett¡¯s house.</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Take the train to Tzurigad (around forty-eight hours).</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Put the company assets and the journal up for collateral to get as big a loan as she could.</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Make a profit using foreknowledge of how prices would move, trying to stick to trades that seemed like they would be stable across loops. (She estimated she could increase her reserves by around 1.5-2x each day if she knew in advance how the prices would move.)</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Trade for imperial currency.</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Take the long train ride to Unkmire (around six days).</li>

    <li style="font-weight: 400">Exchange for Unkmirean currency.</li>

    </ol>

    Of course, she had to spend one loop just taking the trip to Tzurigad to figure out how prices would swing over the month and thereby determine what trades would be profitable. This was the preparation phase. She took Shera, of course, because Shera had a good head for numbers and would probably be good at this part.

    Tzurigad was not nearly as difficult to navigate as Krinph had been. It was, for lack of a better word, a ¡®normal¡¯ city. The prediction bazaar was in the heart of the city, a large crescent-shaped temple that kind of wrapped around the merchant¡¯s bazaar. There was a tall spire protruding from it¡ªa coveted location, since many predictors at the bazaar still used the tried-and-true method of sitting in a tall place with a pair of binoculars so they could see approaching news earlier than anybody else. The bazaar was roughly organized by expected time to resolution¡ªif you wanted to bet on when a king would die, that could be years out, so that was at one end of the building. If you wanted to bet on the outcome of some short-term crisis or investigation, you¡¯d go to the other end.

    This timelines didn¡¯t matter much to Myra. The price for any market could swing wildly in response to news events of the month. The long-term bets were easier to trade at a higher volume, though, so that¡¯s where they decided to hang around.

    Incidentally, the assets of her father¡¯s company were worthless. No surprises there. But the beaver journal was a hit. Bankers were tripping over themselves to lend her start-up money. Shera¡¯s take was that possession of the journal indicated insider imperial status, which meant a high likelihood that she would win bets, making her an attractive lendee.

    It was actually a little concerning: Logically speaking, if a time looper wanted to find other time loopers, this would be the place to look. Attracting attention was something Myra very much didn¡¯t want to do.

    ¡ô

    In the end, the observation phase went off without much issue, so the last thing to figure out was how to spend the end of the loop. Myra contemplated a few options, but there wasn¡¯t a pressing reason to go anywhere else, so they just stayed in Tzurigad to the end. And of course, the loop ended with observing the stars.

    Their main goal was to measure how far the stars moved. If their new hypothesis was correct¡ªthat is, if the stars appear to move forward in time as a result of an illusion falling¡ªthen they could calculate how displaced-in-time the stars become when they move, and thereby estimate how long the time loop had been going on.

    ¡°Okay, I think Kasia should be a good star to watch,¡± Shera explained. Myra had left all the technical planning to her. ¡°Kasia moves fast, relatively speaking, so it¡¯ll be the easiest to measure.¡±

    ¡°Oh, I know that one. It¡¯s the bright star in the Terron Bowl, isn¡¯t it?¡± She gazed out towards the constellation, a pair of concentric circles comprising twenty or so visible stars in total, including Kasia on the outer ring. Tonight, the ring was host to Altina, the second and most distant moon of Zyarth. Altina was barely more than a speck, compared to the full moon that shone brightly from the other end of the sky, but it radiated brightly in its own right.

    ¡°It¡¯s such a beautiful night,¡± Myra mused. ¡°The sky¡¯s so clear out here.¡±

    ¡°Mm-hm.¡± Shera was busy fixing her telescope in the proper direction. ¡°How much time will I have? After the change happens?¡±

    ¡°Not much at all. Like¡­ three seconds?¡±

    ¡°O-okay, I¡¯ll give you the angle and distance it moves in arcseconds.¡± They worked out the exact way Shera would convey the information. There was quite a lot Myra had to memorize this time, and it was all starting to strain her brain. (Being exhausted from three months of flashcards didn¡¯t help.)

    They sat and waited.

    Myra waited for the time to tick down¡­

    5¡­

    4¡­

    3¡­

    2¡­

    1¡­

    ¡°No-nothing¡¯s happen¡ª¡±

    ¡ô

    Well, what the fuck?

    Did something change?

    Did the other looper do something with the trebuchets and change something? Was it because they were in Tzurigad? Was the illusion theory right, but the illusion only held in the empire?

    ¡­

    Ugh.

    Nothing was ever easy.

    ¡ô

    The dry-run was over, and now it was the real thing. Myra would make money and get her foot in the door with the murk bogs. Halfway through the month, Myra met up with Shera in Krinph. They had agreed to meet up in one of the bars that Myra was familiar with¡ªthe first one she¡¯d eaten at, in fact.

    Myra found her there, just as she said she¡¯d be, eating the same purple fruit Myra had gotten on her first trip here.

    ¡°Hey!¡±

    ¡°Hey.¡±

    ¡°Whatcha think of the city, eh? You learn Unkmirean in the last two weeks?¡±

    ¡°N-no. Y-you were right, learning a language is hard.¡±

    ¡°Well, I¡¯m glad you came, to be honest. This is the first time I¡¯ve told you about the time loop and then immediately run off like that.¡±

    Myra had suggested that Shera meet her in Unkmire on the basis that there was no need for her to suffer through the awful travel arrangements, and that there was lots of productive research she could do.

    Though¡­ it would have been nice to have her around. Myra wasn¡¯t entirely sure why she planned it this way.

    ¡°All y-your predictions were true,¡± Shera explained simply. She took a bite of her fruit. ¡°D-did you have a good trip?¡±

    ¡°Well, I didn¡¯t have any delays or anything. Going by the Ilmanian Ocean was actually kind of fun¡­ I saw a real siren, actually. You remember about the fourth loop, right¡ª¡±

    ¡°You mean out in the ocean¡­?¡±

    ¡°No, I mean they boarded the train.¡± Myra coughed. ¡°They were required to bind their mouth shut before they were allowed to board. Did you know that was a thing?¡±

    ¡°N-no.¡±

    Really, Myra shouldn¡¯t have been surprised that Ben¡¯s weird gambit about Myra being a siren had been inspired by real-life treatment of sirens. On the other hand, it was now obvious to her that the Ptolkeran Mountain sect probably didn¡¯t know anything about sirens because there was simply no way Myra could have been mistaken for one. The siren she had seen had been ethereally beautiful, with silvery smooth skin, hair that glistened in a gentle rainbow, and solid gold eyes. Before they had boarded, Myra was pretty sure, she had caught a glimpse of sharp, pointed teeth.

    Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

    ¡°How was your trip?¡± Myra asked.

    ¡°Oh. It was short. They didn¡¯t give me a-any trouble about the rocks.¡± She gestured to the large case by her feet. Myra had instructed Shera to bring some rocks they could make lava out of, since there weren¡¯t many rocks up here in the trees.

    ¡°That¡¯s good. I figured there wasn¡¯t any law about moving rocks across the border.¡±

    ¡°Did you get all the money?¡±

    ¡°Oh¡ªYeah, uh¡ª¡± She pulled a metal case out of her luggage. She nearly opened it, but maybe that wasn¡¯t a good idea in public. Shera squinted at it, and Myra could almost feel the calculation behind the girl¡¯s eyes, the largest denomination of a banknote in common use, times the volume of the case over the volume of a banknote.

    ¡°Y-you¡¯re going to hire mercenaries,¡± she said, her voice tinged with a sliver of disbelief.

    ¡°Look, it¡¯s¡ªI mean, you thought this would be enough last time.¡±

    The girl flinched. Okay, appealing to her past self might have been kinda rude, Myra¡­

    And honestly¡­ executing trades had been harder than Myra had thought. She hadn¡¯t made as much as she and past-Shera had estimated.

    ¡°Look, we just need to get in the door. I can say I have other assets that I need time to extricate from the other empire, and¡ª¡±

    ¡°Y-you should talk to y-your f-father.¡±

    ¡°¡ªI can probably¡ª¡± Myra¡¯s words crashed in her tracks. ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°Your f-father. He¡¯s in prison, but he can p-probably tell you how to leverage all your assets, how to trade on the information better¡ªM-maybe he has a contact¡ª¡±

    ¡°Are you really trying to tell me I could solve my money problems by talking to my fa¡ªto that¡ªthat guy that scammed half the businesses in the empire?¡±

    ¡°Thinking out of the box could be useful, I think¡ª¡±

    ¡°Out of the¡ª¡± Myra stood up and almost slammed a hand on a table. She stopped herself, but her hand needed a place to go, and without thinking she grabbed the other girl¡¯s shoulder instead. The girl flinched and looked back at her with her eyes wide. ¡°¡ªOut of the box? That¡¯s what you call it? Do you even listen to yourself sometimes?¡±

    ¡°More th-than anyone¡ª¡±

    ¡°Shera, his ¡®out-of-the-box¡¯ thinking left me with nothing! He¡¯s the reason I can¡¯t already just buy my way out of every problem!¡±

    ¡°I h-have no way to know! If you y-yell at me this every time I c-can¡¯t remember¡ª¡±

    ¡°Shera¡ª¡±

    Myra realized she was still holding the other girl¡¯s shoulders. She was losing control of herself. Slowly, she let go, took a deep breath, and sat down. A few patrons of the bar were eyeing her.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s o-okay.¡± Yeah, no it¡¯s not.

    ¡°This is a sore¡ªlook, I always have to adjust each loop, after you forget the last one. I didn¡¯t mean to snap like that.¡±

    ¡°I get it. It was a long t-train ride.¡±

    ¡ô

    ¡°What¡¯s this about, papa?¡±

    One day when she was fifteen, Myra¡¯s father took her out by the lake. On the side opposite from their house, there was a large stone slab that hid an underground passage. It was a tight fit, especially for her father, and it was dirty and damp. However, it quickly opened up into a wider passage made of brick, tightly packed and sealed water-tight.

    ¡°There¡¯s some things about our finances that I need you to know,¡± he explained.

    ¡°Is this one of your vaults?¡±

    ¡°No, no, no.¡± He laughed. ¡°My arcane vaults are much deeper in Zyarth¡¯s crust than this. This area isn¡¯t part of my business. No, this area is just between you and me.¡± He raised a finger to his lips. A secret.

    ¡°Did you build this?¡±

    ¡°It was here when I bought the property. This is why I chose it. I wanted somewhere hidden, away from thieves, away from my partners, away from the prying eyes of the empire.¡±

    There was only one path through the corridor, which must have led them deep under the lake.

    ¡°So what¡¯s down here?¡±

    ¡°Emergency money. Something you¡¯ll probably never need¡ªIf we never see the inside of this place again, I¡¯ll be happy. But just in case.¡±

    The tunnel opened up into a large cavern, with a cliff and a great chasm. The old man showed his daughter how a stalagmite had a secret compartment with a brazier. He lit it with his lantern, and a satisfying melody rang throughout the cavern. A series of levitating platforms appeared out of nowhere, forming a bridge to the other side. He showed Myra how to cross safely.

    The next room was rigged with hidden pressure plates on the floor, which her father showed her how to avoid.

    ¡°Papa, why are you showing me this?¡±

    ¡°Because if anything happens to me, you need to know what to do.¡±

    ¡°B-but, if anything happened to you, wouldn¡¯t I inherit your savings?¡±

    ¡°There are many contingencies we can¡¯t foresee.¡±

    The next room was circular, with two sealed doors to the left and right, and a pair of stone gargoyles at the far end. There was something scratched into the wall behind them, though it was in an old language that Myra couldn¡¯t read.

    ¡°It¡¯s a logic puzzle,¡± he explained, taking a stance between the gargoyles. ¡°One tells the truth, one¡¯s a liar.¡±

    ¡°Oh I know this one! You say¡ª¡± She turned to the gargoyle on the left. ¡°What would the other gargoyle not answer?¡± Nothing happened. She turned back to her dad. ¡°Right?¡±

    ¡°Old thing¡¯s busted, I¡¯m afraid.¡± He knocked on the gargoyle, and its head turned, making an awful screech as it faced Myra¡¯s father. It let out an odd croak. ¡°Doesn¡¯t matter so much. This sort of thing hasn¡¯t been considered good security for centuries.¡±

    ¡°Aww.¡±

    ¡°Maybe you could take a crack at fixing it.¡±

    ¡°Maybe¡ªHey! You still haven¡¯t told me why we need to do this! Quit distracting me!¡±

    ¡°I meant what I said. You never know what could happen.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t believe you. You¡¯re worried about something.¡±

    He shook his head. ¡°Myra, it¡¯s my job to manage risk. Tens of thousands of merchants, businessmen, and noblemen trust me to keep their financial instruments safe. But, Myrabelle, there¡¯s one thing I can¡¯t take a risk on. I can¡¯t take a gamble on my daughter. Maybe it seems excessively paranoid, but a little paranoia is a small price for securing your future.¡±

    ¡°Oookay, papa.¡±

    He chuckled to himself. ¡°You¡¯ll understand someday.¡±

    ¡°So where are we going? If the magic wasn¡¯t screwed up and I asked the gargoyle what the gargoyle wouldn¡¯t say, what would it say?¡±

    ¡°It would say the treasure is through the right door.¡±

    He made for the left door.

    ¡°Then¡­ why are we going through the other door?¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re not going using the treasure room. The treasure is hidden in the death room,¡± her father said. He showed her how to safely navigate the death room and reach the hidden treasure chest in the maw of the spike trap. (Though the whole time, Myra couldn¡¯t help but be bothered, if the treasure¡¯s in here, isn¡¯t the puzzle wrong?)

    ¡ô

    Myra apologized for her outburst a few more times throughout dinner. Eventually, they finished eating and took a walk through the city.

    ¡°I really like having a th-third dimension to the city,¡± Shera mused. ¡°The distance you have to walk scales with the cube root of the population instead of th-the square root.¡± This was the Shera way of making peace, Myra supposed.

    ¡°Yeah, but having to go up and down stairs all the time is way worse. Not to mention all these bridges.¡± Though Myra had now been to the city several times, she still hadn¡¯t gotten used to the bridges. To her slight annoyance, Shera didn¡¯t seem to be having the same trouble with all the bridges at all. ¡°Don¡¯t you find it disconcerting at all?¡±

    ¡°N-no. I just don¡¯t look down.¡±

    ¡°Brilliant.¡±

    ¡°I w-wonder what happens if you drop something down there.¡± Despite what Shera had just said, she looked down into the blackness. ¡°Is there a service to go get it?¡±

    ¡°No idea. It just freaks me out how they can walk around so carefree when you could fall and die from a single misstep¡­¡±

    ¡°They¡¯re used to it.¡±

    ¡°I guess so.¡± Myra flipped around through her booklet that mapped the city, happy for the question to occupy her. ¡°Y¡¯know, I don¡¯t even see any paths marked here that lead down to the ground.¡±

    ¡°The fog¡¯s really dangerous. They probably wouldn¡¯t label it on a tourist map.¡±

    ¡°Thought they¡¯d have some kinda guided tour thing,¡± Myra muttered.

    She looked back at Shera, who was now just looking around the city in awe. I guess if she¡¯s not dwelling on it, I won¡¯t either.

    ¡ô

    Thankfully, Shera was eager, at least, to proceed with the plan.

    ¡°So do you know where we¡¯re going to meet the murk bogs?¡± she asked.

    ¡°Yes, and it wasn¡¯t easy to find. I asked around while I was practicing the language, and let me tell you. The people here despise the murk bogs. I mean, I knew that already, but I didn¡¯t really get it until I heard what people had to say about them. I got chased out of a few bars.¡±

    Shera shuddered.

    It had been difficult to get around the overt suspiciousness of an obvious foreigner trying to locate the murk bogs. She had tried to convey that the murk bogs were an enemy (which was true), and that had garnered sympathy¡­ but the moment she said she wanted to find them¡ªrather than file a legal claim or whatnot¡ªthe looks of doubt came out. Her still-poor facilities with the language really didn¡¯t help.

    In the end, Myra had found the answer in a library. The librarian had been a lot more helpful since Myra could claim she was doing a research project, though what saved her in the end was her new book-searching spell. The spell was legitimately challenging to operate in a non-native language, and she was still incapable of casting it except during the night when the information aura was easily available (in contrast to the wood element, which was overwhelming so deep in the woods).

    At any rate, she had eventually found the information she needed in a newspaper archive.

    The murk bogs¡¯ lair was accessible from a village so small and out-of-the-way that official sources referred to it by its train stop. Myra doubted it would be a good idea to stay the night there, so they stayed the night in Krinph and then rode to their destination early in the morning. Myra carried the money, and Shera carried the rocks, which they had already melted down and stored in an insulating case. They had been on the fence about bringing a weapon at all, but they decided it was better to regret having a weapon than to regret not having one.

    The village had little in common with the bustling city that had been Krinph. The train platform in Krinph had been clean and sturdy; the platform in this unnamed village was made of planks that had a little too much give to them. There was one attendant at the station.

    ¡°N-now where?¡± Shera muttered to her.

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure¡­ maybe we should¡ª¡± She eyed the old attendant and weighed asking the guy.

    But she didn¡¯t need to. He gave the girls a long appraisal, and without saying anything, pointed emphatically in a certain direction.

    ¡°I th-think he knows why we¡¯re here.¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡±

    The two girls found what they were looking for without significant trouble. At the edge of the village was a balcony that overlooked a large, expansive area where the trees thinned and the sky was visible, gray and overcast. There was yet another rope bridge, the longest one she had ever seen. The area was layered in fog, and though it was relatively light, the distance was vast, and the endpoint of the bridge was barely obscured.

    ¡°Okay,¡± Myra said. ¡°Um.¡±

    The bridge was swaying in the wind.

    ¡°I mean, it¡¯s just like the other bridges, but longer, right?¡±

    ¡°How long is-is it?¡±

    Myra squinted off into the distance. ¡°Several kilometers, I guess.¡±

    Shera inspected the slant of the bridge, holding her arm out as if to measure it. The bridge slanted downward at probably 25-30 degrees. ¡°If we inspect the curvature of the way it droops down, I think we can calculate it.¡±

    ¡°I think we should just¡ªjust go,¡± Myra said.

    With some trepidation, she stepped onto the first panel. With her case of money in one hand, she held the rope railing tight with the other. ¡°Why the hell¡¯s it so steep, anyway?¡±

    ¡°The shape a b-bridge like this makes is called a c-c-catenary.¡±

    ¡°Thanks, Shera.¡±

    ¡°C-could we¡ªcall ahead?¡± Shera asked. ¡°Th-there¡¯s a phone line done there.¡± She pointed to a wire hanging just below the bridge proper.

    ¡°If you know where to get their number,¡± Myra muttered.

    ¡°Th-that attendant at the station. He m-might have called ahead about us.¡±

    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t be surprised.¡±

    ¡ô

    Their progress was slow-going. It wasn¡¯t easy to traverse a tilted, oscillating series of wooden planks. Myra had resorted to carrying her case with telekinesis so that she could hold onto the rope railing with both hands, her knuckles increasingly white. She used some additional telekinesis to stabilize her footing.

    ¡°I th-think we¡¯re a quarter of the way there,¡± Shera said, after what Myra was sure had been 2 or 3 kilometers.

    ¡°God, this is going to take fucking hours.¡±

    ¡°Do you know what the runes are for?¡± Shera asked. She was referring to the runes carved into the wooden planks at their feet. There were only a handful of runes every couple of meters, so it made for a bit of a challenge as they progressed, something to distract herself.

    ¡°Honestly, I¡¯m kinda baffled,¡± she said. ¡°I don¡¯t even know what they were thinking. You can¡¯t use wood for runes, it warps too much, and they become inert.¡±

    ¡°Maybe it¡¯s a secret Unkmirean technology.¡±

    ¡°If that exists, and honestly, I doubt that it does, then it isn¡¯t being used here. I¡¯m certain these runes are all defunct.¡±

    ¡°Do you know what they¡¯re supposed to do? Or what they¡¯d do if they were operational?¡±

    ¡°Quite a lot, actually... There are some voice-activated defensive measures: barriers, making the bridge burst into flames, that kinda thing. Then there¡¯s something that is supposed to stabilize the bridge, which would really be nice to actually have¡ª¡±

    Right on cue, there was an unusually large gust of wind, and the bridge swung so hard it nearly flung them off. ¡°Fuck! Fuck fuck god!¡±

    ¡°Y-y¡¯know,¡± Shera half-yelled. ¡°If this b-bridge collapses, we¡¯re too far from the edge to teleport to safety!¡±

    ¡°Thank you for pointing this out, Shera!¡± Myra took a second to calm herself. ¡°I actually brought teleport sticks.¡± After they¡¯d gotten stranded in Ealichburgh Myra wasn¡¯t making that mistake again. Krinph was too far a spell stick, but she had set a waypoint back at the village.

    ¡°M-maybe you could give me one so I can use it.¡±

    ¡°Oh. Right. Sorry.¡±

    ¡ô

    The Murk Bogs¡¯ headquarters was on a large floating platform, itself maybe a kilometer wide. She stepped onto the ground¡ªthe first real ground she¡¯d stepped on in Unkmire¡ªwith palpable relief. They were quickly met by a battlemage who ushered them into a white shack at the front of the compound. He wordlessly took Myra¡¯s trunk of money from her as he did so.

    ¡°Hey, um, that¡¯s kinda¡ªOkay, sure. It was for you all anyway.¡± She wasn¡¯t even sure the mage heard her.

    ¡°W-what¡¯d you say?¡± Shera asked. Of course, she hadn¡¯t understood any of Myra¡¯s Unkmirean. Incidentally, she had been allowed to keep her trunk full of lava.

    ¡°It, uh, it doesn¡¯t really matter,¡± Myra said.

    Thankfully, it wasn¡¯t long before someone came to greet them. It was impressively quick, in fact, given that they had shown up with no notice.

    ¡°Lading, ladies, I¡¯m sorry to keep you waiting.¡± The word he used for ladies was one that her Unkmirean textbook did not explain very well, but did in quite strong terms urge new speakers to avoid.

    Myra repressed a shudder as she saw who had come to receive them. The lanky man with a goatee, the same one who had shot her, who had led a small team to rob a bank while her city burned, stood before them. He was wearing the same thing he had before, trousers and a tight black shirt with bracelets. He was rubbing his hands together, a shrewd grin on his lips.

    ¡°My name is Geel.¡±

    Myra introduced herself with some fake names she made up on the spot.

    ¡°So, what can I do for you?¡± the mercenary leader asked.

    ¡°We¡¯re looking to hire you.¡±

    ¡°And we¡¯re looking for work!¡± Geel sat on a sofa opposite them and propped one leg over the over. ¡°Sounds like a match made in heaven.¡±

    ¡°R-right. We¡¯re¡ª¡±

    ¡°Where are you ladies from?¡±

    ¡°Oh. Uh, we thought that didn¡¯t matter.¡±

    ¡°We still need to know.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re from Casire.¡±

    ¡°Imperials! I love working with imperials. Go on.¡±

    ¡°We have reason to believe that the city of Ralkenon will be attacked on December 3, but the nature of our source makes it difficult for us to act on the information. Our hands are tied, and we can¡¯t go to the empire. We¡¯re looking to hire someone to protect it, and we had to get¡ª¡± Oh what was the word for ¡°¡ªcreative looking for a solution.¡±

    He leaned forward and stopped fidgeting so rapidly with his hands. He gave a long, searching look. ¡°December 3, you say?¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    ¡°Why don¡¯t you give me a few minutes? I have to consult.¡± He scampered off.

    ¡°W-what did he say?¡± Shera asked when he was gone.

    ¡°Not really anything.¡±

    The ¡®consultation¡¯ was quick.

    ¡°We accept.¡±

    ¡°You¡­ do?¡±

    ¡°Absolutely.¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t have, like, any conflicts¡­ you¡¯re not busy that day? I mean. We¡¯re here on pretty short notice.¡±

    He looked at her again with a searching expression. Finally, ¡°Nope. There¡¯s no problem. We should be able to spare as many men and women as you need. Should we discuss payment? Our base rate for an op on foreign soil¡ªa one-night op¡ªwould be 8,000 quet per head. We can supply up to 100. Oh, do you need that in your imperial whatsits¡ª¡±

    ¡°We can do the conversion.¡±

    ¡°And of course, you owe us our consultation fee. 20,000 quet.¡±

    ¡°Right. We brought that.¡±

    ¡°Really? Where?¡± He looked around in mock confusion, rubbing his chin.

    ¡°Oh, we, uh, brought a case, a guard took it¡ª¡±

    ¡°But we have that now, not you.¡±

    ¡°Er¡ª¡±

    Geel snickered. ¡°Lighten up. I¡¯m only joking around.¡±

    Myra, obviously, did not have enough money to pay for 100 or even 10 men for a one-night operation. She had really not thought she would get this far¡ªthe whole plan was that they wouldn¡¯t accept because they had already rented themselves out to a contradictory cause, and then they¡¯d fish for information or start a bidding war or something. Did they come too early, and they really were free that day? But no, he was way too dodgy about that date. He obviously knew there was something important.

    They ¡®negotiated¡¯ for a while¡ªbut the whole thing felt ridiculously fake. He was far too laid back¡ªmaybe Geel was just like that¡ªbut Myra was dead certain he was having fun pulling one over her. And honestly, if he had just immediately pegged her as a naive idiot and decided to con her, she could hardly blame him for the judgment, even if he seemed to genuinely believe she could pay what she said.

    Eventually, after making a ¡®deal¡¯ (wherein Myra agreed to every forceful suggestion made by Geel) they were escorted out (they never got their case of money back).

    ¡ô

    Out on the bridge, Shera looked at her expectantly.

    ¡°Okay, you were right. This plan was stupid.¡±

    ¡°I still d-don¡¯t know what you talked about for half an hour.¡±

    ¡°Right, sorry.¡± She buried her face in her hands and quickly explained.

    ¡°So we got zero information,¡± she concluded.

    ¡°Damn it¡­ I don¡¯t know why I thought I¡¯d be able to outwit a powerful mercenary leader into divulging information about a rival client in a language I barely speak. I wasn¡¯t even able to chat up nerdy pharmaceutical alchemists at a bar.¡±

    ¡°O-okay.¡± Shera looked a bit confused, probably because Myra hadn¡¯t really explained that story properly this loop. She didn¡¯t press on it, though. ¡°I¡¯m sure we can figure out something. Maybe you can get more money¡ªu-u-um.¡± She cut herself off very hastily. ¡°Or maybe we should find something they need more th-than money. Or we could just stake out this bridge for an entire loop. See who enters or leaves.¡±

    ¡°I guess we have to do that,¡± Myra said, resigning herself to a dreadful stakeout. ¡°I don¡¯t really see what else we can do. I mean¡­ maybe I should sell them future knowledge? Maybe I should come back, say, ¡®Hey, we can¡¯t hire you all after all, the volcano is gonna blow,¡¯ and see how they react?¡±

    ¡°Worth a t-try.¡±

    It was worth a try, sure. A lot of things were worth a try, though Myra still had a feeling the conversation would go something like, Jeepers, a volcano? Sounds bad, I¡¯d better consult with my colleagues. Good information, we¡¯ll give you a discount on that job you agreed to pay us for.

    So there was that plan, and then there was the stake-out plan¡­

    There was making more money¡ª

    They trudged back to the village, walking a few hundred meters onto the bridge (out of the compound¡¯s anti-teleport measures) then snapped their sticks to return to the village. It was thus that she was in a sour mood as she waited for the train. Shera sat next to her on the bench, but subtly at a bit of a distance.

    What she wouldn¡¯t give to go back to the loop in Jewel City.

    What else do you expect, the way you¡¯ve been acting?

    Fuck, I just don¡¯t want to¡ª

    I know.

    But then this is all you¡¯ll get.

    She barely noticed the train station attendant approaching her. ¡°Pardon me, ladies.¡± The word he used for ladies was noticeably more¡­ cordial than the one Geel had used.

    ¡°Yes?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re from Casire, is that right?¡±

    ¡°Uh¡ªUh, yeah, we are,¡± Myra said.

    ¡°You mind taking these back with you?¡± He handed her a stack of posters. ¡°The boss thought you might know where to send these.¡±

    ¡°Um¡­ you want us to¡­ advertise?¡±

    The man grunted an affirmation and walked away.

    Uh, yeah, right, like we¡¯re going to go hang these up in our fucking campus.

    ¡°H-hey. Th-there¡¯s the phone number,¡± Shera observed. She pointed to the corner.

    ¡°Oh, this isn¡¯t even an ad for services,¡± Myra said as she finally looked at it closely. ¡°Wait, the murk bogs are¡ª¡±

    HIRING SUPPORT MAGE OFFICER IN RENOWNED PARAMILITARY ORG

    ADVANCED RUNECRAFTERS WANTED

 19 - Time zones suck

    ¡°Jeepers, a volcano? Sounds bad, I¡¯d better consult with my colleagues.¡±

    Yes. Just like Myra had predicted, word-for-word.

    ¡­

    Okay, he didn¡¯t say it word-for-word. He said it in Unkmirean. But that just meant Myra had a lot of freedom in how she wanted to mentally translate it.

    Anyway, Geel did consult with his colleagues for about five minutes, then came back to pressure Myra for the payment for the job she¡¯d asked them to do. He refused to give her any real specifics on their operational methods that she presumed a ¡®normal¡¯ client would be receiving. And he never, once, acknowledged that he had a conflict of interest in being hired to protect Ralkenon.

    Myra was ready to throw in the towel on this travesty of a plan. If she were to do it again, she would consider hiring them for something entirely unrelated, just to see how much his specific behavior was related to the fact that her request centered on Ralkenon. But the good news was that she wasn¡¯t going to do this again. She now had key information that provided a much, much better in with the paramilitary group.

    The only thing left to do for this loop was watch the sky again.

    ¡ô

    Okay, actually, there was one other thing she wanted to do. She procrastinated until the very last night, until they¡¯d secured their stargazing spot atop an open platform just above the trees.

    Myra had asked around (mostly for more language practice) to find the best stargazing spot. She ended up stumbling on a really good tip about a hard-to-reach spot outside the city, something of an abandoned hideaway, cleverly constructed but difficult to reach, that was now an open secret in the community. There were no bridges there, but it could be reached hopping branch-to-branch, quite a ways outside the city, guided by subtle scratches in the tree bark that signposted the intended path. The spot was perfect for stargazing, and Myra laid on her back to take in the whole sky at once. It was a nice, peaceful way to end the loop.

    Oh, right. Except that one thing she wanted to do.

    She took a deep breath. ¡°Can I tell you about my father?¡± Myra asked.

    Shera pulled away from the telescope. ¡°I won¡¯t remember, th-though.¡±

    ¡°Well, I wanna tell you anyway.¡±

    Shera looked longingly back at the telescope, but she finally looked back to Myra. ¡°Okay.¡±

    ¡°My father ran this complicated scam with the artifacts that he held onto for his clients and partners,¡± Myra explained. ¡°There was a lot to it, but the key pillar of it had to do with his underground storage dungeons. Kent Arcane¡¯s dungeons were deep under the surface¡ªreally, really deep. It¡¯s one of the selling points, why people trusted him with their valuables and financial artifacts. Very safe, only accessible with secret magecraft owned by Kent Arcane.¡±

    ¡°Okay.¡±

    ¡°The thing is, there were a lot of these dungeons, and there were a lot of entrances, and they¡­ didn¡¯t actually line up 1-to-1. In actuality, there were fewer dungeons than there were supposed to be, but nobody would notice unless they went to every entrance and verified each one went to a different dungeon. This allowed him to lie about how much value he actually kept in reserve to all the authorities. And you know what he did with all the money he skimmed off?¡±

    ¡°What d-did he do?¡±

    ¡°He spent it on my fucking stepmom. Spoiled her rotten with vacation homes and rare artwork and... fancy meals with legendary chefs, and box seats at the Sunstone Theater, always they were going to some opening night at something or other ¡­¡±

    And he didn¡¯t spend it on me.

    That last part seemed crude. She didn¡¯t say it.

    ¡°I kn-know,¡± Shera said.

    ¡°Know what?¡±

    ¡°All that. It was in the newspaper. About the dungeon scam and his exorbitance and his second wife.¡±

    ¡°Was it in the paper that he stole back the emergency funds that were supposed to be left to me?¡±

    ¡°N-no.¡±

    ¡°Well, now you¡¯ve learned something new.¡±

    ¡°I st-still think you should consult him for financial advice.¡±

    Myra didn¡¯t respond. She only thought, I can¡¯t wait until the next¡ª

    ¡ªthe next loop.

    ¡°Okay, well, let¡¯s get on with this thing, then.¡± Myra sat up and cracked her knuckles, palms out, emphatically pushing the conversation onward to business mode.

    ¡°Right.¡± Shera looked relieved, if nothing else. ¡°Wh-which star should I look at?¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s do Kasia, same as the last loop.¡±

    Shera adjusted her telescope down to the horizon, looking for Kasia. ¡°Oops,¡± she said.

    ¡°Yeah?¡±

    ¡°Err. We can¡¯t see K-Kasia.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean? We watched it last time in Tzurigad.¡±

    ¡°Y-yeah. In Tzurigad.¡±

    It took Myra a second before the neuron fired and she remembered how planets work. By then, Shera was already flipping through one of her astronomy books.

    ¡°Tzurigad¡¯s really far east,¡± she explained. ¡°See, here¡ª¡±

    At the back of her book was a page that showed the Zyarth system¡ªthe planet itself, the moon, and Altina¡ªas if looking down on it from the north, and their positions relative to the stars, divided into twelve major constellations. The page was enchanted, and it could be set to any date and time. It was currently set to the loop end time.

    She hesitated before scribbling on the book, but she presumably remembered it wasn¡¯t going to matter. She marked Tzurgiad and she marked their current longitude (also roughly the longitude of Casire and Jewel City).

    ¡°Look. The star¡¯s just past the eastern horizon here.¡±

    Diagram of Zyarth (rotating counterclockwise around the sun), and Zyarth¡¯s 2 moons (orbiting counterclockwise around Zyarth). In clockwise order around Zyarth: (1) The sun, at 150,000,000 km. (2) Visible region from Tzurigad begins. (3) Kasia star, part of the Terron Bowl constellation. (4) Visible region from Halnya begins. (5) Altina, at 975,000 km, in half moon phase. (6) Jyo-Yilla star, in the Yilla Boot constellation. (7) The moon, at 370,000 km, in full moon phase. (8) Visible region from Tzurigad ends. (9) ZK-1034 in the Swampbear constellation. (10) Visible region from Tzurigad ends.

    ¡°Yeah, I remember now,¡± Myra said. ¡°I had trouble staying awake because it was almost morning in Tzurigad when the loop ended. I just didn¡¯t think about the difference in the night sky. Anyway, this doesn¡¯t really matter, we just need to pick another star.¡±

    ¡°It m-might matter.¡±

    ¡°How? I mean, do you think that¡¯s why we didn¡¯t see it move last time? Because it wasn¡¯t visible from the empire?¡±

    She shrugged. ¡°Maybe.¡±

    ¡°Like, only stars visible from Ralkenon move? Or from the empire?¡±

    ¡°Well, the em-empire¡¯s pretty big. You could see Kasia if you went as far east as Miirun.¡±

    ¡°Okay, from Ralkenon, then.¡±

    ¡°That still doesn¡¯t make sense¡ªif there¡¯s an illusion that only c-covers part of the sky, someone would have noticed it. And if the illusion covers all of th-the sky but only breaks down for part of the sky a few seconds before the loop ends¡ª¡± She closed her eyes and scrunched her forehead deep in thought. ¡°Why would that happen? I th-think we just need to get d-data. If we get d-data, we¡¯ll know what we¡¯re looking at.¡±

    ¡°What do you think we should do this time?¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s pick something further from the horizon, so we can be consistent in the future even if we travel around. I st-still think we should pick something close, something that moves relatively fast so we can measure how far it moves. Let¡¯s do¡­ Jyo-Yilla, in the ear of the shoelace of the Yilla Boot constellation. I¡¯ve always liked that one.¡±

    ¡°Is it close?¡±

    ¡°Only 8 lightyears. It¡¯s not super fast, but it should be easy to measure.¡± She took the telescope¡ªwhich was still pointed at the eastern horizon¡ªand casually bumped it up towards the zenith of the sky.

    As Shera watched, Myra wondered if they were on the right track at all. The idea that the stars were moving through time was entirely her assumption¡ªall she knew for sure was that Shera had said ¡°the stars moved.¡± Did they move instantaneously? Continuously? Maybe they rotated or brightened or dimmed or went nova. Maybe they grew arms and gave Shera a thumbs-up.

    In the end, Jyo-Yilla also showed no signs of moving.

    ¡ô

    Loop 11.

    Myra had the murk bogs¡¯ phone number now, so one of the first things she did was call them to introduce herself as a runecrafter so she could get on the inside and learn about their upcoming job.

    Calling Unkmire from the empire was expensive, and calling the murk bogs of all things was even a little dangerous. The poster she¡¯d been given in the previous loop had special instructions. First, she had to dial for the border operator, to be forwarded into Unkmire. Rather than give the border operator any information about who she was calling (since they were likely to sound some kind of alarm over the phone, blow Myra¡¯s eardrums out, and signal the police to come arrest her), she had to first get through to an Unkmirean information line, and then give them the murk bogs¡¯ number to be forwarded again.

    When she finally got through to the murk bogs, she then had to wait half an hour for the mercenary group to connect her to ¡°someone who matters.¡± Finally, she heard a familiar voice over the line.

    ¡°This is the boss speaking, what can I do for ya?¡±

    ¡°Are you, uh¡ª¡± I¡¯m really doing this, huh? ¡°¡ªrecruiting?¡±

    ¡°Sure are. Can you follow orders and shoot things?¡±

    ¡°No, I¡¯m actually skilled in¡ª¡±

    He hung up.

    ¡°What¡ª?¡±

    ¡°What happened?¡± Shera asked.

    ¡°He just hung up!¡± Myra hissed. ¡°This fucking guy¡ª¡± She dialed the number again. She got put on hold again. She waited another long fifteen minutes.

    ¡°This is the boss speaking, what can I do for ya?¡±

    She got right to the point this time. ¡°Hi, are you looking to hire any runecrafting experts?¡±

    ¡°Nah.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean ¡®nah¡¯?¡±

    ¡°I think you got the wrong number, lady. We¡¯re not a bunch of fat wizard beards carving our philosophical farts into silver. You know someone who can shoot, you send ¡®em our way. Eh?¡±

    Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

    ¡°But¡ª¡±

    He hung up.

    ¡°Can you believe this fucker?¡± She was ready to pull her hair out. ¡°I know he¡¯s looking for runecrafters! They were handing out fucking posters!¡±

    ¡°They w-will be, y-you mean.¡±

    Myra took in Shera¡¯s words and allowed a moment to collect herself.

    ¡°Yes. Thank you for keeping a clear head, Shera.¡± She patted the other girl on the head, and she beamed.

    All I know is that they¡¯re looking for a runecrafter approximately three-quarters of the way into the loop. Something could happen between now and then. Maybe they get a job, they get hired to go attack Casire or whatever their job is, and they need some complex rune construct to accomplish the job?

    That made enough sense.

    ¡°Okay, we just need to wait for the job opening then.¡± She mentally prepared to call them back so she could leave a way of contacting them.

    ¡°What sh-should we do until then?¡±

    ¡°Well, I¡¯d like to go hang out in Krinph so I can respond quickly and I¡¯m still trying to avoid the university as much as possible. Do you want to join me?¡± She really hoped the girl would accept. Spending half a loop without Shera had been a mistake, and she was somewhat eager to make up for it and hopefully have another good Shera loop. ¡°I¡¯m getting better at the language, so I think we can try engaging with the city a bit more.¡±

    Shera, of course, did accept, so they went back to Krinph, got a hotel, and tried to find things to do.

    Myra¡¯s first instinct for exploring Krinph was to see a play, but that was a bad idea because Shera wouldn¡¯t be able to follow along. They visited the theater anyway, just to see what it was like. Myra was particularly curious how they would make a space in the dense forest large enough for a theater.

    Somehow, the city had managed to bend the trees around to create a hollow, spherical space, with bleacher-like seats surrounding a stage. It was a beautiful space, but the schedule showed that the main event that month was a production of a famous murder mystery, which immediately turned Myra off of the idea.

    Then they went shopping. They decided to get some Unkmirean clothes just so they¡¯d stand out a little less. Dresses like Myra usually wore seemed to be quite uncommon in Unkmire; instead, most people wore trousers or skirts with a vest above the waist, and everything was made out of thick, protective clothing that wouldn¡¯t tear if it caught on a stray branch. Very few people wore their hair down, preferring braids or buns, but long hair seemed a lot more common with men than it was in Ralkenon (which Myra was quite happy about). The accepted magewear centered around cloaks rather than robes. Myra purchased one that was wooly and fairly light, coming down to her knees, while Shera got a heavier one that could obscure her entire body.

    The murk bogs, being soldiers, had been dressed differently altogether, but Myra still thought it was probably for the best if they approached the murk bogs without looking like obvious imperial citizens. (There was nothing they could do about Shera¡¯s inability to speak the language, though.)

    And as for that meeting, Myra feared they would be waiting for most of the loop. To her delight, she only had to wait until day four.

    ¡ô

    The murk bogs¡¯ compound was just like they remembered it, save one thing. There was a weird smell in the air, so faint that it almost seemed her imagination, something Myra was sure hadn¡¯t been around the last time.

    ¡°So,¡± Geel greeted the pair. ¡°You¡¯re the ladies who have kindly offered us your expertise in this esteemed arcane skill.¡±

    Well, that sure was a different tack.

    ¡°That¡¯s us,¡± Myra said. ¡°By the way, do you speak imperial by chance¡­? My companion doesn¡¯t speak Unkmirean.¡±

    ¡°I do speak imperial,¡± Geel said in Unkmirean. ¡°Now, we are looking for a runecrafter, it turns out. Theoretically, we only have one opening, but I take it the two of you come as a pair, is that it?¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re both looking for work,¡± Myra said. ¡°Who decides about the job openings?¡±

    ¡°I do.¡±

    ¡°Then you can make one for her.¡±

    ¡°I suppose you¡¯ve got me there.¡± He flashed a cheeky grin. God.

    ¡°So can you give us information on what the job is?¡±

    ¡°Now, hold up a bit, we still need to interview you ladies, don¡¯t we? Let¡¯s not get ahead of ourselves.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯d like to know what we¡¯re going to do before we agree to interview,¡± Myra insisted.

    For the first time, the man frowned in irritation. ¡°You¡¯ll manage runes for us. What¡¯s more to say?¡±

    ¡°Is there a specific job you need a runecrafter for¡­?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ll accompany us on many of our jobs. Your primary roles will be in maintaining all our runic equipment, upgrading it, and assisting with planning for more unusual situations that require more of a¡ª¡± He gestured into the air a quick scribbling motion. ¡°¡ªhandwritten touch. If you pass our interview.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s the reason for the sudden opening?¡±

    ¡°Simple. We realized we needed a rune expert.¡±

    ¡°Even though it¡¯s for a generalist position, not anything specific.¡±

    ¡°Huh, guess so. Bit odd now that I think about it.¡± He pursed his lips. ¡°Guess it didn¡¯t seem that important a couple days ago.¡±

    Geel saw Myra¡¯s expression and threw up his arms. ¡°Hey, hey, look, we really do need a rune expert. I know whoever spoke to you on the phone was kinda rude about it, but we¡¯ll make everything up to you.¡±

    ¡°Weren¡¯t you the one we spoke to on the phone?¡±

    ¡°Sure. Never said I wasn¡¯t. So, does this all satisfy you?¡±

    There really wasn¡¯t a choice, was there? If she wanted to find out what they really needed a runecrafter for, or more importantly, what they were generally doing in Ralkenon or who hired them, then they needed to wriggle into the group. ¡°Fine, we¡¯ll interview.¡±

    ¡°Great. Your interview is¡­ hm.¡± He rubbed his goatee. ¡°Ah!¡± He snapped his fingers.

    Geel led the two girls out to the suspension bridge at the edge of their compound while Myra quickly explained to Shera what they were doing.

    ¡°This bridge. There are runes in some of the planks there. I need you to figure out what¡¯s wrong with ¡®em and fix it.¡±

    ¡°The runes are carved in wood,¡± Myra said. ¡°The wood warps and the runes become inert. That¡¯s why it doesn¡¯t work.¡±

    Geel¡¯s jaw actually dropped.

    You¡¯ve gotta be kidding me. Please tell me you at least understood that much.

    ¡°Who even built this thing?¡± Myra asked.

    ¡°Don¡¯t remember,¡± he said. ¡°Anyway, fix it, and you girls got yourselves a job.¡±

    ¡°How? I¡¯ve never seen anything more ill-conceived in my life! You don¡¯t carve runes that small into wood!¡±

    ¡°Dunno. It¡¯s your interview. Hey!¡± He suddenly pointed to a soldier who was passing by, a muscular woman in a tank top with a shaved head. ¡°Chrysji, watch these ladies while they interview. They¡¯re gonna fix our bridge for us.¡±

    The woman¡ªChrysji¡ªonly responded with a scowl that said very plainly there was nothing she wanted to do less. But Geel walked away and Chrysji plopped to the ground, cross-legged, so she could watch Myra and Shera do their work.

    ¡°Hey, uh¡ª¡± Myra approached her. ¡°Do you know¡ªOh, do you speak imperial? My companion only speaks it¡ª¡±

    ¡°Sure I do,¡± she said in imperial.

    ¡°Okay, great. Do you happen to know why this position opened up?¡±

    ¡°I do not have a clue.¡± Her speech was slightly stilted but perfectly understandable.

    ¡°It¡¯s just Geel wasn¡¯t interested in speaking to us at all a few days ago. We were surprised to hear back from him.¡±

    ¡°I guess we didn¡¯t need a new rune expert a few days ago.¡±

    ¡°But what changed? Did you have a different expert a few days ago?¡±

    ¡°No. I do not know what changed.¡±

    Myra sighed. ¡°All right.¡± She turned back to Shera. ¡°Let¡¯s figure out how to fix this fucking bridge.¡±

    ¡ô

    Myra looked at the bridge for a few minutes and contemplated the idea of carving runes into wood.

    ¡°Yeah, what the hell are we supposed to do?¡± she finally concluded. ¡°There¡¯s no way this bridge ever worked. Shera, throw out an idea.¡±

    ¡°Could we stabilize the wood so it doesn¡¯t warp?¡±

    ¡°Do you even know how to do that?¡±

    ¡°Wood warps because of the elements, right? Wind¡ªrain.¡±

    ¡°Sure.¡±

    ¡°So what if we made the boards incorporeal? So the rain and wind goes right through them without affecting the boards.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I guess that¡¯d work, if you want the bridge from hell to have gaps in its floorboards on top of everything else.¡± That could actually work, though. She¡¯s right that incorporeal objects are static. ¡°We¡¯d still have to fix every single broken plank, though, which is most of them.¡±

    She took a step onto the bridge to inspect one of the boards. ¡°Look at these splinters. This is irreparable. We¡¯d need to replace every plank that looks like this. And then it¡¯d probably break again in a few days anyway.¡±

    ¡°Should we just do that?¡± Shera whispered. ¡°We just need to get it working once so we can pass the interview and¡ª¡±

    ¡°No, of course not, I¡¯m not a hack. This whole thing is just flawed on a conceptual level!¡± Myra had decided. ¡°We need to reengineer the whole thing from scratch.¡±

    ¡°Er-er, how hard is th-that?¡±

    Myra contemplated it. ¡°Well, from what I recall trying to understand the script as we walked here, it really is designed to be carved into the wood. The script directly refers to ¡®the wood that this rune is embedded in¡¯ and that kind of thing, so the actual geometric shape of the rune script is critical to the design. Trying to rewrite the whole rune script to fit on a plate of silver that we can install in one spot would be pretty difficult¡ªI mean, spreading the rune script out across the bridge is clearly a superior option from a design standpoint, if you ignore the whole carving-runes-into-wood element. Runes always work better when they¡¯re carved on the object you want to manipulate, rather than trying to do everything from a distance.¡±

    The more she thought through the alternatives, the more she could see the vision behind the bridge. Whoever had put this together was obviously uninformed about runes, but they had been clever.

    Like, the obvious thing to do, if you were trying to build something like this, would just be to replace the wooden planks with engraved silver or some other high-quality medium. But that would fuck with the composition of the bridge. It would weigh more¡ªwhich might or might not be a problem¡ªbut more importantly, it would also make the bridge much more difficult to control via runes. Deep in the forest, wood aura was abundant, which in turn made it easy to control wood with magic. Even a 7-kilometer bridge made of wood was no problem.

    But if every fifth plank was made of silver? A back-of-the-envelope calculation suggested it would become orders of magnitude more expensive in aura usage. If a professional rune forge was building it¡ªsay, Precision Isomorphic in Ralkenon¡ªthere was no doubt they¡¯d go that route. They could just pump in the aura they needed from the empire¡¯s distribution system.

    But that wasn¡¯t an option here. There was no distribution system in Unkmire. So building the entire bridge out of wood made sense. Except for the fact that the runes wouldn¡¯t work.

    Framed like this, though, a solution space began to unfold, and Myra snapped a finger. ¡°The wood element. That¡¯s the key. It¡¯s so abundant here, it opens up tricks that might otherwise not work.¡±

    ¡°W-what do you have in mind?¡±

    ¡°Easy. We¡¯ll make an automated repair system.¡± Yes, this will work. The pieces started to come together in her mind¡¯s eye.

    Shera frowned, looking back at the plank that Myra had inspected earlier. ¡°You said it would be t-too difficult to repair them.¡±

    ¡°Sure, we¡¯re not gonna repair any individual planks. We¡¯ll just replace them. Each plank only has one rune on it, and the alphabet they use is a pretty small one. We just need a large stash of backup planks covering the whole alphabet.¡±

    ¡°Wh-where will the stash go?¡± Shera still seemed puzzled.

    Myra bounded to the cliffside and swept her arms around the open area. ¡°Just right here, of course, by the side of the bridge.¡±

    ¡°But how will the replacement planks get where they need to go?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s the tricky bit, isn¡¯t it?¡± She lightly bounced on her feet. ¡°Having them fly would be way too error-prone, or at least require weeks of testing. Having them teleport right in, swapping with the plank they¡¯re replacing, is the obvious thing to do, but then the distance would be much too far. Not to mention the detection would be difficult at this distance. There¡¯s a better way, though.¡±

    Myra explained her plan.

    Say, for example, a plank with the quu rune broke down. There would be another quu rune a few meters away. You could just teleport-swap those two. This wouldn¡¯t change the rune script at all: every plank would still have the same rune. The only thing that would change is which plank was broken, moving it a bit closer to the end of the bridge.

    Now, how should she actually implement the mechanism? Well, she could carve more runes into the planks. (For this, she could use the bottom sides of the planks, which were unused.) But those runes would also be prone to breaking down. Therefore, she had to make sure that the rune script making up the automated-plank-swapping mechanism was robust to individual runes going out. In academia, this feature was usually called ¡®runic error correction,¡¯ and it was often considered too impractical outside of select circumstances.

    However, this was one of those circumstances. Because the swapping mechanism was a fairly simple one that just needed to be repeated tens of thousands of times, the error correction design constraint became significantly more reasonable.

    After thinking it through carefully, she was even able to design this secondary rune script so that the fixed bridge would ¡®bootstrap¡¯ itself. She would only need to insert the first twelve planks of the upgraded bridge; after that, the bridge would repeatedly invoke the swap mechanism to upgrade the next plank on the bridge until it was complete. (This was kind of tricky to get right, since if she did it wrong and made it too ¡®eager¡¯, then the upgraded planks would swap themselves over to the far side of the bridge too quickly, thus leaving the near side of the bridge with only broken planks, causing the bootstrap process to stall.)

    The last problem to solve was actually making enough rune-carved planks. She had to pester Chrysji on whether there was a source of lumber on the compound, a request that made Myra desperately glad Geel hadn¡¯t hung around to proctor them. She showed them to a shed near the side of the compound with a large quantity of wooden planks.

    ¡°I think these are the same shape we used to build the bridge in the first place,¡± she explained. To Myra¡¯s eye, they looked the same width and thickness, so they only needed to be sliced longways.

    ¡°So y-you do remember making the bridge?¡± Shera asked.

    ¡°Sure.¡± She shrugged.

    ¡°But you d-don¡¯t remember who did the runes.¡±

    Myra was already working on the next part. She needed runes to automate the slicing and carving. And that was easy¡ªsort of. On a theoretical level, there was nothing challenging about carving some runes to automate the plank carving, and again, there was an abundance of wood aura. Practically speaking, the actual runes she needed to carve were pretty complex.

    She needed to carve every rune used in the bridge, plus all the runes she was using for the teleport mechanism. That meant writing runes to carve the runes. There were a few runic alphabets that were designed with this kind of self-reference in mind, but they were mostly useless to her here. Thus, she had to do it from scratch, specifying the individual runic geometries in exacting detail. She got started, realized how tedious it was, and then went back and adjusted her teleport-swapping scheme just to make the geometry slightly simpler. She worked until Shera asked if she was hungry.

    ¡°Sorry, just a sec,¡± Myra said, while Shera held out some of the fruit they¡¯d packed. ¡°I¡¯m almost done with this curly phla rune¡ª¡±

    ¡ô

    She had everything ready around midnight. She initiated the bootstrap process, which took around an hour to complete.

    ¡°So, so, what do you think, huh?¡± She held her arms out, arms spread wide like a showgirl unveiling an ancient treasure. The runic features of the bridge were now active, and they would stay active. The bridge was also now frozen in place, no longer swaying in the wind, thanks to the stabilizer.

    Chrysji, who had dutifully looked on for the entirety of the interview, surveyed the bridge. ¡°It¡¯s certainly not what I expected,¡± she said. She cupped a hand around her mouth and called out a command word. The bridge caught fire, all seven thousand meters of it.

    She let it burn for a few moments, then called out another word. The fire stopped.

    ¡°Damn. The truth is, I never thought I would see that working again,¡± she said. ¡°Good job. You pass.¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t need to check with your boss¡ª?¡±

    ¡°No, there is no need,¡± Chrysji said. She walked towards the compound and with her back to both of them, dismissed them with a lazy wave. ¡°Be back here at sunrise, and we¡¯ll show you around.¡±

 20 - What would they do without her?

    Myra woke with a slight headache, a couple of calluses on her hand, and a faint sense of reserved satisfaction. The feeling of having a difficult all-nighter done and over with, but still with the need to get up early in the morning for the very class it was for.

    Myra¡¯s calves were burning as she trudged back across the bridge with Shera to meet Chrysji and Geel at the appointed time.

    ¡°So. I¡¯m told you all did a [unknown word] job with that bridge of ours.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, it should stay working as long as the planks are restocked periodically. By the way, Shera still doesn¡¯t speak Unkmirean.¡±

    ¡°Got it,¡± Geel said in Unkmirean.

    If Myra had hoped he would be more polite now that they had passed the little interview, she was sorely mistaken. If anything, he was more casually disrespectful now that they weren¡¯t potential clients. He was lying laterally on the sofa, his feet propped up on the arm. He was barely looking at them at all, instead fixated on a solitary game with a rubber ball that involved tossing it at the ceiling. The objective seemed to be to get as close as possible to the ceiling without touching it.

    ¡°Today,¡± he instructed, ¡°I want you getting situated and getting up to speed on our rune work. Tomorrow, you¡¯ll join us for training, and¡ª¡±

    ¡°Wait hold on,¡± Myra said frantically. ¡°We haven¡¯t agreed to join yet.¡±

    The ball hit the ceiling and went careening off. He scowled, either at the ball or at Myra.

    ¡°What do you mean, you haven¡¯t agreed? You agreed to do the interview.¡± The ball telekinetically snapped back to his hand.

    ¡°Er, yeah, but that doesn¡¯t mean¡ªI mean, we still want to know what you¡¯re going to be having us do.¡±

    ¡°We discussed this already. You¡¯ll maintain our runework.¡±

    ¡°You¡­ you don¡¯t have a specific mission you want us for?¡±

    ¡°What are you going on about?¡± he said impatiently. ¡°We already went over this. You¡¯ll accompany us if any missions require it. That all depends on who comes along and hires our services.¡±

    ¡°Yeah but¡ªbut¡ª¡±

    But what? He did say that pretty clearly.

    ¡°Ah, I see.¡± He snapped his fingers, and a glint shone in his eye. ¡°We still haven¡¯t discussed your salary. That¡¯s what this is about.¡±

    ¡°Er¡ªYeah. Yeah, that¡¯s it. How much are we going to make?¡±

    ¡°Our general salary structure is a monthly base salary, plus bonuses for successful jobs.¡± He went on to explain the pay levels, which didn¡¯t seem to match up with anything about the cost structure he had explained in the last loop. Myra let the numbers wash over her until Shera tugged on her sleeve.

    ¡°C-can I talk to you for a second?¡±

    ¡°Sorry, can you excuse us? I think Shera has concerns about the, uh, the money.¡±

    Geel frowned, but he gestured for them to go on.

    ¡°W-w-what are we doing?¡± she whispered, once they¡¯d found an isolated spot.

    ¡°Sorry, I know you can¡¯t follow along, but¡ª¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m getting the gist of it,¡± she said. ¡°It sounds like y-you were making plans to move here.¡±

    ¡°Well, they say they just want general runecrafters.¡±

    ¡°So the job opening has n-nothing to do with w-what they¡¯re doing in Ralkenon.¡±

    ¡°I mean, they clearly need runecrafters¡ª¡± She double-checked for anyone watching, then moved slightly more into an open area. ¡°They clearly need runecrafters for something covert, right? They¡¯ve been so evasive about it!¡±

    She hesitated. ¡°I d-dunno. I th-think eeverything they¡¯ve said is consistent with just needing a general runecrafting expert on hand. They¡¯re evasive because they¡¯re a weird d-dubiously legal group of mercenaries. If they have a specific job for us, covert or not, they would need to, y-you know, tell us about it.¡±

    ¡°Maybe they¡¯re still testing us.¡±

    ¡°They know we¡¯re from Casire!¡± she insisted. ¡°If they wanted help because they¡¯re planning an attack on Casire, they would have passed over us, no matter how convenient we appeared!¡±

    ¡°Okay. Fine. I agree. It doesn¡¯t all add up. And I don¡¯t want to actually join up with these guys any more than you do¡ª¡±

    ¡°You sure seemed eager to impress them yesterday.¡±

    Huh? ¡°Shera, what the¡ª¡± fuck are you talking about?

    She stopped herself from saying anything she¡¯d regret.

    Good Shera loop. Good Shera loop.

    ¡°Are you talking about the bridge? I just wanted to fix that stupid bridge. It was fun, and it was driving me crazy. But, Shera! No matter why they want to hire us, we¡¯re going to be on the inside. We can dig around for information. If we get to craft a few runes while we¡¯re at it, all the better.¡±

    She twitched.

    ¡°Look, I understand that joining up with a¡­ mercenary group¡­ is a lot more than I¡¯ve asked of you in the past loops. But I could really use your help.¡±

    ¡°I d-didn¡¯t say I wouldn¡¯t help.¡±

    Myra hugged her. She squeaked, her now-familiar first-hug-of-the-loop squeak. Good Shera loop. ¡°I knew I could count on you!¡±

    ¡°Of-of course!¡±

    Myra hugged her again for good measure. ¡°Okay!¡± Good Shera loop.

    After finally hashing things out with Geel (which mostly involved losing at salary negotiation), they were sent to tour the compound with Chrysji. The circular platform was massive, about a kilometer in diameter, with wide open spaces and buildings erected mostly near the edge. At the center of the platform, a number of soldiers were engaged in a training exercise.

    The first stop was to the barracks, which was a very long, rectangular building with hundreds of beds arranged in a single row, each spaced less than a meter apart from the next, with shelf space overneath for personal belongings. The room smelled unmistakably like ¡®human.¡¯

    ¡°Oh, so, we¡­ have to sleep here?¡±

    Myra couldn¡¯t help but notice that the large, rectangular room lacked entirely in privacy. There were no bed curtains or dividers, and there was no segregation by gender (and the organization was mostly men, probably 70-80%, based on what she¡¯d seen so far).

    ¡°There are two beds with yinz¡¯s names on them.¡± She pointed. The two beds were at the far end, adjacent to a stretch of unused beds. Evidently, they just assigned the beds in order as new members joined. The one directly next to Myra¡¯s, on the other side from Shera¡¯s, was unmade and had sheets stained an unmentionable color.

    Shera seemed unconcerned. But then, she probably wasn¡¯t planning on sleeping anyway.

    They changed into what Chrysji called the ¡®casual uniforms¡¯¡ªbasically just slacks and tank tops with the organization¡¯s frog insignia. There was no dedicated changing room. This was going to be a joy.

    They carried on with the tour. To Myra¡¯s slight surprise, many of the buildings were not nearly as sparse and utilitarian. In fact, the barracks, plain and wooden, were more of an exception rather than the norm. The administrative hall at the front, the dining hall, and the open-air bathhouse were rather homely, with intentional, artistic masonry, and statues made of petrified wood at the entrances. Vegetation around the platform was spare, but there were large patches of dirt arranged as if intended for a garden. Or more likely, Myra, thought, they had sported gardens at one point, but no longer.

    The training gym was another plain building, large, wooden and rectangular like the barracks, but the storehouse to the side was another artfully crafted hut.

    They were shown to the mess hall, the meeting rooms, the medical center, the logistics office, and the supply rooms.

    And then there was¡ª

    At the dead center of the platform was a small shack Chrysji called ¡°The Well.¡± The shack was dilapidated, and the wood was both rotting and had weird bulbous growths on the inside. It had a very distinctive smell¡ªMyra couldn¡¯t tell what it was, but it was similar to the faint smell from the previous day, the one that had otherwise dissipated around the compound. The shack had no floor, and the ground was mud. The centerpiece of the room was a hole in the ground, about a meter across. There was a bucket hanging by a rope from the ceiling, and there was a crank.

    ¡°Er¡­ Is this where you get¡ª¡±

    Myra was going to say water, but she stepped up to the hole, which opened to naught but inky blackness. To her shock, however, was the bucket, whose insides were stained with a dark and purple blotch. It might have been mold. There was no fucking way she or anyone else would drink water out of this thing. ¡°This is, uh¡ªwhat¡¯s this for?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ll need to spend some more time around here,¡± she said. That was it for the tour of The Well.

    ¡ô

    Chrysji then showed them the actual place to get water (which was very clean), and after that was the runeshop. It was near the edge of the platform, very out-of-the-way, but in one of the ¡®nice¡¯ buildings. Functionally, it was adequate. In fact, it was more spacious than it needed to be, and it certainly didn¡¯t want for carving tools. It had all the usual reference books a runecrafter might need, and there were trunks full of diagnostic equipment. In fact, it would have been really useful to have had access to the room during the interview.

    Actually¡ªit was surprisingly clean and well-kept given that it evidently didn¡¯t have a keeper.

    ¡°Is this used often? By anyone else?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t think so.¡±

    She spoke casually and carefree, no hint of shiftiness or doubt in her voice, but the runeshop had obviously been used recently. Shera seemed to find her response pretty suspect because she gave Chrysji an odd look. Chrysji didn¡¯t seem to notice at all.

    They were instructed to spend the day familiarizing themselves with the runework around the base, but that the next day they would be joining for regular training exercises with the rest of the team. So there was that to not look forward to, but in the meantime, they had a good excuse for nosing around. Geel had insisted that they be supervised for the time being, which was understandable, but they could pretty much go wherever.

    Most of the organization¡¯s runework (sans the suspension bridge) seemed to be pretty reasonable, mostly what she either knew or assumed to be standard. The group had various runic weapons; their pistols were enchanted to reduce kickback and improve aim, that kind of thing. There was a runic console that controlled the various defenses besides the bridge, like the massive anti-teleport field that blanketed the platform.

    It didn¡¯t take too much work to track down the runic wheel that she¡¯d seen Geel¡¯s team carry into Ralkenon. It was straightforwardly constructed, and it didn¡¯t take much deciphering to figure out its purpose: to part a large body of liquid.

    Huh. At the time, I assumed it didn¡¯t work because it relied on the Common Library. But it was probably built out here, it doesn¡¯t rely on the library at all. Knowing what I know now, it must be¡ª

    She inspected it closely, running her fingers down the edge of the cylinder, one line at a time, shining a bright light around it so she could see. Finally, she found what she was looking for¡ªa deep scratch that cut through multiple runes.

    It¡¯s just not maintained.

    This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    In fact, it was worse than that. The device was clearly designed for lakes and rivers. For water. Even if she were to fix the scratch, Myra was fairly certain it wouldn¡¯t work for lava at all.

    ¡ô

    There was some small relief in the understanding that the antagonistic mercenary group would actually just drop the ball on all their runework if Myra didn¡¯t interfere. Even so, the pit in her stomach didn¡¯t let up as she approached the mess hall with Shera.

    The dinner crowd was a loud one. They were packed together, men and women, talking boisterously and laughing and ribbing each other. More than a few were drinking. She couldn¡¯t help but remember what Iz had said about the group¡¯s appearance near Ralkenon.

    There was drinking, dancing. Throwing coins in the air.

    They were celebrating.

    Geel clapped his hands once. He immediately had the attention of the entire room, which quickly split to the two girls, quite a bit more of it going to Shera. ¡°For too long,¡± Geel started, ¡°we have been without any practitioner of the most esteemed pseudo-linguistic art of precise [unknown word] [unknown word] geometric craftswomanship. That changes today. Ladies, would you introduce yourselves?¡±

    ¡°Uh, hi.¡± She waved. ¡°I¡¯m Myrabelle. Um¡­ I¡¯ve been interested in runecrafting since I was a kid, and I¡¯ve always wanted to use my skills for covert offensive applications.¡± She didn¡¯t actually say ¡®Myrabelle¡¯, she gave a fake name. Everything was mentally translated anyway.

    Geel looked to Shera, on whom many eyes were still fixed. ¡°I¡¯m Sh-Shera,¡± she said, inferring the situation from contextual clues.

    ¡°Now, why don¡¯t we all introduce ourselves back?¡± Geel asked of the room.

    Every soldier in the hall, in unison, said their own name.

    ¡°Great! Two of you got all that?¡±

    ¡°Er¡ª¡±

    ¡°So! Anybody got runes they need read or written or turned upside-down, you hit up these girls.¡± He slapped them both on the back in an overly friendly manner. Shera jolted upright as if he¡¯d sent an electric shock through her body. ¡°You¡¯ll find them most of the time in our runeshop, 6-8 each morning, 7-9 in the evenings, and they might be anywhere else any of the other times, but you can still find them, and they still have to help you out.¡±

    ¡°Wait up!¡± one of the soldiers called out from the back. ¡°Where¡¯s this rune shop, then?¡±

    ¡°We have a rune shop?¡± someone else asked. There were a few other quizzical comments.

    ¡°It¡¯s on the east side somewhere,¡± Geel said vaguely. ¡°You know, the¡ª¡± He kind of sketched a map with his finger in the air. ¡°Over there.¡± There was a chorus of ¡°oohs¡± from the crowd.

    Myra tried to share a bewildered look with Shera, but the girl still couldn¡¯t understand anything they were saying, leaving her blissfully unaware of the presentation and its outright bizarreness. Geel finished with yet more praise for the utility and intrinsic beauty of the runic arts, all sentiments that Myra could get behind, even if they were expressed oddly.

    ¡ô

    Dinner was pork, potatoes, and canned something-or-other. Despite the ambiguity of the last item, it didn¡¯t smell or taste half-bad.

    Reluctantly, they chose seats near Geel and Chrysji, who were sitting with a number of other people that Myra recognized from the team in Ralkenon. She took a spoonful of the mystery dish, which had more of a kick than she was expecting. She tried to listen in, but the conversation was somewhat inane. They gossiped about people Myra didn¡¯t know.

    She focused on Shera, who looked uncomfortable squished at the cramped table they¡¯d sat at. ¡°What are you gonna do tonight?¡± Myra asked.

    ¡°What d¡¯you mean?¡±

    ¡°Are you gonna sleep in the barracks or¡­¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t sleep. I¡¯ll find something to do around the c-compound.¡±

    ¡°Are you sure?¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s th-the alternative? I could go to bed, but I¡¯d just lay there all night. I¡¯ve never been able to fall asleep without drugs. It¡¯s okay, I-I¡¯m used to it.¡±

    Myra wasn¡¯t thrilled about sleeping in a room with 100 other people, and she was even less thrilled about being on her own without Shera, but Shera was right. There wasn¡¯t any sense in having her crawl in bed if it wasn¡¯t going to do anything for her.

    And so come nighttime, Shera wandered off and Myra prepared for bed.

    She vaguely considered moving to one of the empty beds farther toward the end of the hall and away from everybody else, but ultimately she decided it was probably best not to do anything that risked pissing the organization off. How much did they value things like ¡®assigned beds¡¯ in their social order? It was probably best not to find out.

    She quickly changed into pajamas, maximally covering herself despite the warm climate deep out here in the Unkmirean forest, then drifted off to sleep.

    ¡ô

    When she asked Shera the next morning what she¡¯d done all night, she simply said, ¡°Stargazing.¡±

    ¡°Of course.¡± She put her arm around the other girl¡¯s shoulder. ¡°I¡¯ll stay up with you sometime, just let me know if you want company.¡±

    She twitched and averted her gaze, but she nodded.

    ¡°Did you find a good spot?¡±

    ¡°Mm-hm. I f-found their astronomy e-equipment, too.¡±

    Myra blinked. ¡°Oh, they have astronomy stuff?¡± It seemed fitting that Shera would somehow sniff that out so quickly. It was pretty useful, too. It would be a good idea to have an extra telescope on hand at the end of the loop, one for each of them.

    ¡°Yeah, they¡¯ve got all k-kinds of stuff in the underground layer.¡± By ¡®underground¡¯ she obviously meant ¡®inside the platform¡¯.

    ¡°Ohh¡­ I thought I sensed something down there. I wasn¡¯t sure if it was off-limits or whatever since it never came up on the tour¡ª¡±

    ¡°No, it¡¯s easy to access,¡± Shera explained. ¡°There¡¯s all kinds of things down there, but I d-dunno, not much that seemed relevant to the murk bogs. There was a whole storeroom of¡­ slides and see-saws. Playground equipment. Actually, it was k-kinda creepy.¡±

    ¡°Huh.¡±

    ¡ô

    At the very least, they would be learning some interesting skills that could turn out to be useful for any time looper out of her depth against an array of unknown forces. Their first training session was ¡°remedial pistols.¡±

    ¡°So you girls are the nerds who have never shot a gun before.¡± The instructor, who introduced himself as Nesr Wald, was a middle-aged man with a hard face and a hard nose. His lips were dry and cracked and stuck in a perpetual scowl, and he was also one of the soldiers Myra recognized from Ralkenon. He was speaking in their common language, and he used the same somewhat stilted not-entirely fluent style Chrysji used, but he was fluent enough to know words like ¡°nerd.¡±

    ¡°Th-that¡¯s us,¡± Shera said.

    ¡°Not even for fun,¡± he said flatly, as if he could hardly believe such people existed.

    ¡°We haven¡¯t,¡± Myra insisted. Guns, as with many weapons that didn¡¯t require magic to operate, were illegal in the empire.

    Actually, they might have been illegal in Unkmire too.

    ¡°We¡¯ll start with target practice,¡± Nesr ordered. He carelessly tossed one of the guns to Myra who scrambled to catch it, nearly dropping it at her feet.

    Nesr cursed in Unkmirean. ¡°Careful, girl! It is ready to fire!¡±

    ¡°My¡­ bad,¡± Myra said.

    They proceeded with their target practice, shooting at mechanical hummingbirds hidden in the trees. Shera was weirdly good at it. She explained that she simply measured the ¡°bias¡± of her aim and then perfectly corrected for it by aiming slightly off of the target she intended to hit. Myra tried it, and it just resulted in her missing even worse than she otherwise did. Thus she ended the morning with ears ringing and one arm aching.

    The afternoon was physical fitness and endurance. They had to run around the circumference of the platform for several hours, then do an obstacle course. This was a completely normal, reasonable, and even healthy thing to do.

    ¡°This fucking sucks!¡± Myra gasped out, managing to be semi-coherent through her deep panting. ¡°I won¡¯t even get to keep whatever gains I get from increased fitness!¡±

    ¡°W-well I¡¯m not complaining.¡±

    It took a second for the words to sink in, and then for a brief, panicked moment Myra¡¯s brain grasped for a way to unlodge her foot out of her mouth. But then she caught onto Shera¡¯s expression.

    ¡°I was j-just joking!¡± the girl said quickly, waving her arms as she caught Myra¡¯s own look. ¡°I¡¯m really not complaining. I had fun. More th-than I thought I would.¡±

    ¡°Oh. Good.¡± Phew. ¡°I knew you¡¯d enjoy it,¡± Myra lied.

    ¡°Yeah. I g-got my standard d-deviation down to 7 seconds per lap.¡±

    ¡°Your standard deviation¡­?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. I try to make all m-my lap times as close as possible to each other.¡±

    Myra almost laughed. ¡°God, Shera, that¡¯s so you.¡±

    She tilted her head. ¡°So ¡®me¡¯?¡±

    ¡°Y¡¯know, I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever seen you doing athletics before.¡±

    ¡°Well, we never hung out much, so of course you haven¡¯t.¡±

    She gently nudged Shera to turn her back. Then she took her by the shoulder and dug her thumbs into her back.

    ¡°Do you do lots of sportsy stuff, though?¡±

    ¡°No.¡±

    She continued to knead away at the sharp edges of Shera¡¯s bony shoulders, and Shera made a soft humming sound. Good Shera loop!

    The next day they had to train in guard-avoiding. This was actually pretty fun. Or¡­ it was somewhat fun. It was basically a stealth game. Both girls were dreadful at it, never making it more than half a minute before being shot, but the strategy was interesting. The worst part is that the guards were using real guns and real bullets, which were very loud and quickly started to give Myra a headache.

    The bullets were incorporeal, so they went right through the participants, but it was still disconcerting as her domain made her hyper-aware of any foreign enchantments passing through. Once or twice, a bullet went straight through her heart. She was also a little worried something would go wrong with her domain, that it would break the enchantment and kill her. There was also some small chance the enchantment would fail for a different reason, which would technically be her fault as the rune specialist.

    Thank god for the time loop.

    ¡ô

    They were resting for a few minutes before their next task, which was to help Nesr Wald fix up some pistols. While they rehydrated, a different man approached.

    He was lanky, with a soft face and bronze skin. ¡°You are the new rune crafters. Is that right?¡± He spoke in their common language without any prompting, though like Chrysji, it was somewhat stilted. ¡°My name is Obyl. Some of our obstacles are acting up. Can you investigate?¡± He gestured towards the other end of the training area.

    ¡°Sure¡ªum. We¡¯re already expected¡ª¡± She looked at Shera. ¡°Should we¡­ divide and conquer?¡± Myra was pretty sure she could take either of the tasks alone, but she wasn¡¯t sure if Shera would be up for it.

    ¡°Oh, please, if you¡¯re occupied, it¡¯s nothing urgent.¡± He waved his hands, looking a little embarrassed.

    ¡°I can handle the p-pistols,¡± Shera said. They had already taken a look at the pistols in some depth, so she was probably more confident handling them than she was about the unknown obstacle course.

    ¡°Okay, come get me if you need help,¡± she said, hoping she wasn¡¯t being too condescending or anything.

    She followed Obyl, who made friendly small talk, mostly about Myra¡¯s desire to ¡°use her skills for covert offensive applications¡± or whatever it was she¡¯d said during her introduction.

    ¡°Hey, Obyl, I got a question. Who was in charge of runes before me?¡±

    ¡°Old guy named Rickar. Retired about¡­ 3 years back, I think. Real brilliant guy, could look at any system and break its effects down into runes, knew all the grammar forwards and backwards.¡±

    ¡°So what¡¯d you do since then, after he retired?¡±

    ¡°What do you mean?¡±

    ¡°Like if something broke. Who¡¯d you go to?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t really know. Guess I made it someone else¡¯s problem.¡± He chuckled to himself.

    ¡°So was Rickar the guy who made the bridge?¡±

    ¡°Mm. No, that¡¯s¡­ I¡¯m not sure who made that thing, actually.¡±

    ¡°When was it built?¡±

    He just shrugged. ¡°I¡¯m really not sure. We definitely had a normal bridge before that one. Geel could probably tell you.¡±

    ¡°Geel doesn¡¯t really answer my questions.¡±

    ¡°Eh¡­ yeah, Geel takes a bit of getting used to. Great leader, though.¡± Sure. ¡°Maybe you could ask Mehar, or Jil¡­¡±

    Myra helped out with the broken obstacles (which were actually quite simple¡ªprobably simpler than the pistols) and then to the dining hall for more mystery goop. Shera never showed up though, and after ten minutes or so, she started to get worried. She went to look.

    Shera wasn¡¯t hard to find, though. She had a plate of food, but she was eating on a bench outside.

    ¡°Hey, you finish up?¡±

    She nodded.

    Myra sat down. She didn¡¯t look up from her food.

    ¡°Hey, is everything okay?¡±

    ¡°Nesr W-Wald, he was really¡­ he k-k-kept¡ªI kept asking him to step away, but he k-kept¡ª¡± She shuddered, then she set her plate down and crossed her arms over her chest, as if protecting it.

    ¡°He¡­ what did he do?¡±

    She shook her head. Myra watched her for a while, then finally stood up. ¡°I¡¯ll kick his fucking teeth in.¡±

    ¡°W-wait!¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t care what he did, if he hurt you or¡ªor groped you or¡ªI¡¯m gonna fucking kick him in balls until he¡¯s¡ª¡±

    ¡°He d-didn¡¯t touch me! But he kept a-acting like w-would. Well, actually he did¡ª¡± She rubbed her shoulder. ¡°Just here, like¡ª¡± She flicked at the shoulder strap of her uniform. ¡°But like¡ª¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m gonna¡ª¡±

    ¡°Wait!¡± she said again. ¡°We need to k-keep our heads down!¡± She appropriately bent her own head down, still avoiding eye contact.

    Myra grabbed her by the hand. ¡°C¡¯mon, let¡¯s go find¡ªGeel sucks, but maybe Chrysji will know how to handle these¡ª¡±

    ¡°No!¡± She jerked her hand away. ¡°Chrysji was there! She was helping with the pistols¡ªShe didn¡¯t care!¡±

    Then Myra realized she didn¡¯t know much of anything at all. She plopped onto the bench beside her partner, and she gave up a gasp of exhaustion. They sat for a while, and finally she said, ¡°Are you okay?¡±

    ¡°I told you, he d-didn¡¯t really¡­¡±

    ¡°But are you okay?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m okay.¡±

    ¡°Okay.¡±

    Myra could have kicked herself for letting Shera go off alone with Nesr Wald. That guy had been nasty from the beginning, nastier than even Geel.

    The whole thing made Myra even more uneasy about Shera staying out on her own each night, but Shera was if nothing else more uneasy about sleeping in the barracks now, and Myra couldn¡¯t just not sleep. She tried to stay up with her for a bit, but with the knowledge of another intense training course the next day, she forced herself to turn in around midnight.

    ¡ô

    Since most everyone else would already be asleep, Myra chose to sneak in through the side door, so she only had to walk past the row of unoccupied beds before reaching hers. The lights were out, so she used a soft lantern spell to guide her way.

    As she did, she couldn¡¯t help but note something.

    It was actually hard to miss, even in the faint lighting. The last bed at the very end of the row was a few meters from the wall. There was just enough space for one extra bed¡ªand there had obviously been one there at some point. It caught her attention because of the holes in the wall, signs that a shelf had once been attached here, just as there were shelves all down the row. Looking closer, there were unmissable dents in the floor where the bed¡¯s feet must have been, and the wall sported a (very faint) discoloration in the shape of a bed frame. There were also scrape marks on the floor, suggesting the bed had been moved laterally.

    On a whim, not entirely sure why it caught her interest in the first place, she dropped to the floor to see if there was anything else. Weirdly, the scrapes seemed to go on very far down the hallway. Past Myra¡¯s bed, past maybe twenty or thirty beds after that, past Obyl¡¯s bed, finally ending at the bed of someone Myra didn¡¯t know. And from there, there were scrape marks that led to the door.

 21 - Lost in Thought

    Obyl was probably the least bad person in the murk bogs.

    Maybe that phrasing was a little unfair. But: In Myra¡¯s opinion, there was an upper bound on how ¡®good¡¯ a member of the murk bogs could actually be, and that upper bound fell a bit short of actually being good. Still, Obyl was pretty nice. Thus, the next few days weren¡¯t so bad, sticking close to Obyl and the people he was close to, and staying farther from Geel, Nesr Wald, and their close-knit core leadership group.

    One thing the girls did in their evening downtime was join Obyl for a particular tile-based word game he seemed very fond of. It was similar to a game Myra had played as a kid, though the rules were a bit different. Myra participated because it was a good way to practice Unkmirean vocabulary, though it took a lot of focus and went counter to the board game¡¯s ostensible goal of relaxation. As a handicap, Shera was allowed to use imperial vocabulary.

    As they kept their ears to the ground for any news of an upcoming attack on Ralkenon, there remained no shortage of runework to be maintained. However, it was mostly fairly mundane work. When Myra realized that evening board games were taking up around half of her mental expenditure each day, she was ready to officially declare that their lives as Actual Mercenary Support Officers had fallen into a ¡°lull.¡±

    Obyl was also generally more forthcoming than the other mercenaries, usually happy to answer their questions. Eventually, Shera brought up a question that had been sitting in the back of Myra¡¯s mind.

    ¡°Obyl,¡± she started. ¡°What was here b-before the murk bogs?¡±

    ¡°What do you mean, ¡®before¡¯?¡±

    ¡°Lot of the buildings, th-they don¡¯t look like they were built for this kind of organization.¡±

    ¡°Mrm.¡± He rolled his tongue around the inside of his mouth for a bit. ¡°I think I can say a bit about that. This was a community center.¡±

    ¡°For the village¡­ the village we walked through to get here?¡±

    He shook his head. ¡°Other side.¡±

    Myra scratched her head. She had checked the maps pretty thoroughly for this area, and the unnamed village with the train stop was just about the only thing in the area. It was naught but wilderness in every direction.

    ¡°The village isn¡¯t around an-anymore,¡± Shera concluded.

    ¡°That it isn¡¯t,¡± he said solemnly. ¡°We took the space from them.¡±

    The two girls looked at each other. ¡°Y-you took?¡±

    ¡°Like you stole it? You pushed them out?¡±

    ¡°Sorry, I am not speaking properly,¡± he said hastily. ¡°We took it¡­ we took it after them. After they had abandoned it I mean. Though you are not the first to misunderstand.¡± His voice turned bitter. ¡°We didn¡¯t do anything, though if you ask anyone, they¡¯ll tell you we did it. Everybody thinks it was us. The truth is, all this space was abandoned, gone to waste, all but forgotten by Unkmire on the whole. No one was using it. No one wanted it. There was no reason we couldn¡¯t move in. We moved in four years ago.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve asked around a lot, when we were researching your organization,¡± Myra admitted. ¡°People were pretty quick to say awful things about your organization, but I don¡¯t think anybody ever accused you of burning down a village to make your base. I¡¯m surprised I didn¡¯t hear about this before.¡±

    ¡°As I said, the city has been all but forgotten.¡±

    ¡°Then what did happen to it?¡± Shera asked. ¡°It sounds like¡­ something big happened that you¡¯ve been falsely accused of?¡±

    ¡°It was a fire. The circumstances are¡­ are¡­ Aughk.¡± Even his frustrated guttural noises had an unmistakable Unkirean accent. ¡°Sorry, this is easier in my native tongue.¡±

    Shera looked away in annoyance.

    ¡°Sorry, Shera really can¡¯t understand¡ª¡±

    Obyl nodded. ¡°Okay. I will try.¡± He continued in their common tongue. ¡°Unkmireans maintain large enchantments to prevent forest fires,¡± he explained.

    ¡°Makes sense.¡± Shera nodded.

    ¡°The enchantment was undone, somehow. People said it was an act of sabotage, but nobody ever decided how. Then there was a fire, and the village was destroyed.¡±

    ¡°Oh,¡± Myra said quietly. ¡°That¡¯s awful.¡±

    ¡°Did they find evidence of t-tampering with the enchantment?¡± Shera asked. ¡°Or anything wrong with the enchantment at all?¡±

    ¡°Well, the enchantment controls were wrecked beyond repair. But they were all locked up, safe behind teleport shields, the¡­ everything. Nobody figured out how the¡­ ¡®sabotager¡¯... got in or out. It was a big investigation, nothing came of it. Many people blamed your empire, but they didn¡¯t have any evidence. They blamed that famous assassin.¡±

    ¡°Assassin?¡± Myra asked. ¡°You mean the blank cloaks?¡±

    ¡°Is there more than one?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. That¡¯s like their M.O., so it sorta makes sense to blame them.¡±

    ¡°M.O.?¡± Obyl was clearly confused by the word choice.

    ¡°Oh, like, their signature method. Uhh, I mean, just, the type of thing they are known everywhere for. Getting in and out of high-security areas without a trace is one of their big things.¡±

    ¡°Well, nothing came of the investigation,¡± he said. ¡°If it was them, Unkmire had no evidence and no means of recourse. Then people forgot, and they blamed us, but only after we took over the space. We cannot possibly have done it. We only wish we had the skills to pull off that sabotage.¡±

    ¡°Right¡­¡±

    Obyl relaxed, and his defensive tone reverted to his solemn one. ¡°There were a few survivors¡ªsome of them still live around here.¡±

    ¡°What was the village called?¡± Myra asked. She anticipated looking this up later, not the least because she considered it fairly likely that the murk bogs did, in fact, destroy the village. Maybe Obyl was lying. Maybe he didn¡¯t even know.

    ¡°Don¡¯t know. Name was lost.¡±

    ¡°Er. What? What do you mean, ¡®lost¡¯?¡±

    He blinked. ¡°Lost¡­ am I using it wrong? Lost as in, we don¡¯t have the name anymore.¡±

    ¡°Er,¡± she said again. ¡°Would this be easier to explain in Unkmirean?¡±

    ¡°Sure.¡± Obyl shrugged. He said it again in Unkmirean: the name was lost.

    Again: anything about these people had to have an asterisk. Obyl wasn¡¯t forthcoming; he was more forthcoming than most everyone else.

    ¡ô

    It was interesting to consider the possibility that the blank cloaks really had burned down the village, especially in light of their relevance to the event hall massacre. Between the very nature of the imperial assassins and Aurora¡¯s info about them, they were pretty solidly number one in her culprit suspect list.

    The blank cloaks possibly acting on foreign soil. Unresolved cold case. Peace talks several years later. The blank cloaks disappearing ¡®on business¡¯ near the end of the loop, possibly murdering everyone involved. And the murk bogs in the place of the village, hired to do something in Ralkenon¡ª

    Was she just seeing patterns? What were the connections? What was extraneous?

    ¡ô

    Myrabelle claimed she¡¯d never heard of the event at all, but Shera was pretty sure she had. She couldn¡¯t think of where she had heard it¡ªat that time of her life, when the fire must have happened, Shera had been holed up in her mother¡¯s old house, barely leaving except for groceries, scarcely making contact with anyone, and not in the habit of reading the news. Still, the fact of a tragic village fire resulting from failed enchantments was a story she was sure she¡¯d read somewhere. Even the name of the village¡ªwhich Obyl had cryptically said ¡°was lost¡±¡ªwas on the tip of her tongue, just out of reach.

    To Shera, the underground area of the platform now took on a graver, more melancholic atmosphere. Whereas before, it had seemed creepy and menacing¡ªWhat were they planning to do with a bunch of playground equipment? Where had they gotten it?¡ªnow that she knew the answer, it just seemed sad.

    Now that she knew what to look for, a lot of the equipment showed signs of the fire itself. Soot still coated the slides and the climbing walls and the swings, and the rubber was disfigured. There was a centrifugal carousel thing that was stuck in place, maybe from warping in the heat. This has probably been a villager kid¡¯s favorite toy. Some couple¡ªmaybe a pair of teenagers¡ªhad apparently liked it enough that they had engraved a heart with their initials into the center. It was easy to imagine the pair standing in the center, holding each other, as the carousel spun ¡®round and ¡®round. Both of them were probably dead, if they weren¡¯t among the lucky¡ªmaybe she should just say unlikely¡ªsurvivors, and now the initials were unreadably disfigured by the fire¡ªno, actually, on closer inspection, it looked like they had been scratched out. In any case, there might now be no record this romance had ever existed. It was lost.

    She shivered. The way Obyl had spoken of the village had unnerved her.

    She didn¡¯t spend didn¡¯t spend too long in the playground storage area. There was something else she had a mind to investigate.

    Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!

    While mapping out the underground, there was a pretty clear irregularity near the ¡®front¡¯ side of the platform. Sensing around, it was immediately obvious that there was a large, inaccessible area, and then it wasn¡¯t hard to find the secret entrance. It was so poorly hidden that, once she finally worked up the nerve to investigate, she could tell almost immediately it probably wasn¡¯t going to be a stash of the mercenaries¡¯ closely guarded secrets. She reduced her expectations: it would probably be a maintenance tunnel or something equally banal.

    It was a lounge.

    It surely hadn¡¯t been touched in years. The air was thick and disgusting, the carpet was hidden under a layer of dust, and there were potted plants that had decayed to unrecognizable detritus, all attached to a mechanical irrigation apparatus that had long since dried up of water.

    It had probably been a nice place when it had been used. The lamps still worked, and they had clearly been installed by someone with an eye for lighting and color, illuminating the room in a cool, blueish light that in better days would have set a relaxing mood. There were multiple sofas and chairs, and the carpet was soft, even after all this time, and when it was clean it must have been a joy to sink one¡¯s toes into.

    There was a box full of toys (yo-yos, perpetual bubbles, that kind of thing), a strange tank with blobby gunk that floated up and down in a liquid medium, and some kind of art project made of leaves.

    The final object of interest was a book of photographs, which was interesting purely because photography was so unusual. The photographs themselves were nothing special. There were thirty or forty in all. Most of them depicted a single young, lanky woman, usually sitting on a branch or frolicking in a garden or doing handstands, though a few other individuals made some appearances, like a younger boy with glasses and braids and an older man that (based on his face) might have been a relative of the first woman. There were also a couple of photographs depicting nothing but owls.

    The photos all but confirmed what she already suspected. It was a secret hideout, obviously a leftover from the village.

    She flopped on the sofa and sighed.

    The whole fucking thing was so confusing. When Myrabelle had whisked her off for an adventure in a foreign city, when Myrabelle had gushed about all the insights and observations, even her bravery, it was like some kind of dream come to life. To Myrabelle, these were facts of the previous loops, but to Shera, they had formed a promise. A promise that she, the Sherazyn Marcrombie of this loop, would get to do all those things too.

    But what were her contributions here? She didn¡¯t speak the language, and that wasn¡¯t something she could change. (Apparently, she had tried in a previous loop? That was ridiculous. Why had she even tried?) For the one and only intellectual challenge they¡¯d faced, it had been Myrabelle¡¯s wheelhouse. Since then, she had thought that snooping around could be her thing, but it had also turned out that the underground area had little to do with the murk bogs in the first place.

    Maybe she would make it a task of cleaning up the place, making it her own hideout. It would at least be nice to have something to keep occupied. She just wasn¡¯t sure she would be able to replace the plants. What species would survive in the low lighting? But if she aired the place out, cleaned up the carpet and the furniture, it¡¯d still be a nice place to sneak away to. Myrabelle often complained of having to sleep in the barracks, but she could sleep on the couch instead.

    She imagined the bewildering time looper stretching out on the sofa, safe and comfortable in the isolated room, drifting off for a chance to clear the dark bags under her eyes. Her head sunk deep into a thick, cushy pillow, her bare feet propped up on the opposite arm, her pajama top riding up her waist to expose her soft stomach¡­

    Shera twitched. She snapped out of her daydream of nighttime.

    She pulled herself back to her feet and left the secret lounge through the passage on the other end and ended up near the storage closet full of all the astronomy gear.

    In truth, Shera wasn¡¯t sure she would have stuck around this long if not for this place. No matter her conflicted feelings about the plan or about Myrabelle, there was something here to uncomplicatedly enjoy. That implied she could decide to stick around purely for that reason, without all the more complicated feelings being load-bearing elements of the decision.

    In short, the Unkmireans¡¯ astronomical equipment was of extremely high quality. Shera could tell this from the instant she operated the first one. The telescope had a satisfying weight to it, balanced at its fulcrum, with near-frictionless rotation brought about from finely-machined staggered gearwork that let her make minuscule adjustments with ease. The image itself was super crisp, and on the inside of the scope around the circumference of the view was a bronze meter that showed the telescope¡¯s angle in an intuitive way, cleverly arranged out of intricate moving parts. It wasn¡¯t just functional, this telescope had been constructed with the delicate touch of an artist. She was certain: whoever crafted this telescope had loved astronomy.

    Additionally, the storage closet also had an unexpected amount of special-purpose equipment. There was one telescope¡ªwhich was unfinished, or maybe under repair¡ªthat would have let her see through the planet and look at the other hemisphere. It was too bad it was in this incomplete state since it sounded like it might have been useful for Myrabelle¡¯s experiments.

    There was another telescope that could automatically track comets, which seemed to be functional, though Shera wasn¡¯t interested because following along with your hand was always part of the fun, to her. In the corner of the room, almost unnoticed, there was a large vase that was designed to detect gravitational waves and correlate their measurements with the astral aura channels. Most impressively, there was a rare combination telescope-microscope. Some of the major labs used these scopes for lunar-microbiology. She had never seen one before, and even Ralkenon didn¡¯t have one¡ªshe had never imagined she¡¯d just find one in the middle of nowhere.

    Myrabelle would probably geek out over all this runework, wouldn¡¯t she?

    ¡°Hey, tell me what these lenses do!¡± Shera imagined her saying. ¡°I¡¯ve never seen a design like this before, I want to learn it¡­¡±

    She smiles, warm and bright and somewhat manic, just as enthusiastic about the machinery as she was. She puts her arm around Shera and they look at the lenses together.

    Besides having the equipment, the platform was just objectively a nice place for stargazing. Fresh air, wide-open sky, no light pollution.

    What did the Unkmirean villagers see when they looked at the sky? Shera wondered. The Unkmireans had probably divided the sky differently, spotted different shapes, and named different constellations. In that spirit, she tried to look at the sky with a fresh eye, looking past the shapes she was so used to seeing. What else could you pick out? What did they?

    One thing that the base didn¡¯t seem to have, among all its fancy equipment, was a stack of star charts. So she could only guess.

    ¡°I never thought of it that way, Shera. That different cultures would have different constellations.¡± Maybe that¡¯s what she¡¯d say.

    ¡°Do you wanna name some constellations with me?¡±

    ¡°I dunno, that¡¯s such a you thing, Shera.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s that mean?¡±

    ¡°Y¡¯know¡­ astronomy, constellations. That¡¯s a you thing.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s that mean?¡±

    Her expression changes completely, turning upside-down and inside-out and backward and inverting itself in every other dimension in the qualia-vector that made up the image projected in Shera¡¯s mind. She turns up her nose.

    ¡°It means you¡¯re fucking weird, Shera.¡±

    ¡°¡ª¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s that you said the other day? You measure your laps by their standard deviation?¡±

    ¡°Y-yeah¡ª¡±

    ¡°What, do you just like periodic orbits?¡±

    ¡°I m-mean, y-yeah¡ª¡±

    ¡°Does it make you feel like the moon?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, it d-does! I l-like b-being the m-moon!¡±

    ¡°Aww, that¡¯s cute! You know, I think your way of thinking is kinda helpful sometimes. Sometimes an unusual perspective is just what I need.¡±

    ¡°Really?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, sometimes.¡± She looked absentmindedly over Shera¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Though I really could use¡ª¡±

    Shera forced her gaze into the night sky. Stars would calm her down. Her attention caught on a clump of stars that looked kind of like a waterfall. A soft streak through the sky ran like a river, bending downward around a much brighter patch. She¡¯d never heard of anyone considering this group as a single constellation. Shera was pleased with her identification.

    ¡ô

    Early on the morning of November 16, the 11th day of the loop, during the deepest phase of Myra¡¯s sleep cycle, she was prodded awake.

    There was momentary confusion, Geel¡¯s hand was on her shoulder blade, the result of her mind filling in the blanks of her context. For some reason it had picked Geel. Then there was the reorientation, seeing Shera¡¯s outline, smelling her smell, and getting everything a bit more in order.

    ¡°What¡¯s up?¡± She muttered groggily. She lifted herself, put her arms around Shera¡¯s neck, and released her back muscles, pulling the other girl down with her weight. ¡°You wanna sleep here?¡±

    ¡°N-n-no, I need you to c-come, quickly.¡± She yanked up and dragged Myra out of bed. Myra followed unconsciously, trailing Shera and mimicking her light-footed half-tiptoe jog maneuver, not properly gaining awareness until they were outside.

    ¡°Where are we going?¡± she finally asked.

    ¡°There¡¯s a client. Two of ¡®em, came across the bridge ten minutes ago. Geel¡¯s meeting with them.¡± Shera led her into the underground area of the platform. ¡°Geel was thrilled, he couldn¡¯t contain his excitement, he was doing this¡­ little dance thing on the way to meet them.¡±

    ¡°Do you know their names?¡±

    ¡°No, s-sorry. I overheard them, but they kinda slipped away. I still don¡¯t quite g-get Unkmirean phonology.¡±

    Shera continued to lead her and eventually brought her to a secret tunnel in the underground. To her surprise, it led to a dilapidated sitting area.

    ¡°When¡¯d you find this?¡±

    ¡°Last night, it¡¯s not actually that interesting, it¡¯s from the village, but there¡¯s this¡ª¡± Then she stopped and shushed Myra, a finger to her mouth. Then she pointed to the ceiling. There was a ventilation shaft, and distant, echoing voices reverberating out of it.

    ¡°It¡¯s connected to that lounge in the main building,¡± she whispered. ¡°You know, where Geel does his negotiating.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I can¡¯t make this out at all¡ª¡±

    She tele-floated herself up to the vent, then for good measure, she took the cover off and stuck her ear in. ¡°I can hear, kinda¡­ they¡¯re¡ªthey¡¯re negotiating price.¡± Shit, I missed the terms of the job, didn¡¯t I?

    She listened in for a while.

    ¡°Wow, this price is really close to what he quoted me last loop,¡± she muttered. And when I was negotiating last loop, this deal would have already been in place.

    ¡°W-what¡¯s the job for?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know¡ªI missed that¡ªShhh.¡± She listened to the end of the conversation. It seemed they were finalizing the deal.

    ¡°I think they¡¯re done.¡± Myra floated back down. ¡°Sorry, I didn¡¯t get much. But they definitely said ¡®Ralkenon¡¯ a few times. And the clients want as many soldiers as possible.¡±

    There was a loud thudding above them. ¡°What the hell¡ª¡±

    It was periodic. There was something that sounded like a rolling motion down the floor followed by a thump at the end, which then repeated but shifted slightly down the floor. It slowly made its way to the side of the room.

    ¡°I think Geel is c-celebrating,¡± Shera said.

    ¡°Forget about Geel,¡± Myra said. ¡°Let¡¯s go catch a glimpse of the clients.¡±

    They maybe weren¡¯t as careful as they could have been. Myra was prioritizing learning something over not being caught. Anyway, with the bridge rune setup, it wasn¡¯t hard for her to justify hovering around the bridge.

    The two clients barely glanced at her, nodding politely as they proceeded to the suspension bridge, but that one glance was enough for her to get a good look at their faces. And she did learn something.

    At the peace summit, there were four men from Unkmire. Obviously, there was the ruler, King Niwal. There was (as she learned from Benkoten), Cultural Minister and High Ambassador Lluruma, the man who had apparently been bribed to participate in the event hall massacre until Ben had discovered it.

    And there were two other men who, despite all her efforts, and not even with the help of Sky Mishram, had Myra been able to identify.

    She still didn¡¯t know who they were, but she now knew that on November 16th, the 11th day of the loop, these last two men hire over a hundred murk bogs to be in Ralkenon on that night.

 22 - Subgoal

    ¡°I know you¡¯ve all been complaining of a slump in activity lately,¡± Geel announced in front of the entire organization. The assembly was a bit more formal than the one where the two girls had been introduced to the group. They were outside, with Geel perched on one of the rooftops. It bent slightly under his weight, a fact he seemed either unaware of or simply cavalier about. ¡°This slump ends today. In two weeks, we have an important job in the imperial borders. So brush up on your imperial fancy talk!¡± He clapped his hand in a mouth-flapping motion while he continued to speak in Unkmirean. ¡°We¡¯re gonna be in¡­ fuck it, what it¡¯s called¡­ Ralkenon! The city, not the volcano. Anyway, that¡¯s not the kicker. That¡¯s who the client is. Anyone want to guess?¡±

    Nobody guessed.

    ¡°That¡¯s right, last night, we were visited by the esteemed General Kyeren and General Jenola. This is a job from our own, beloved government! We¡¯re finally moving up in the world. This may be our most important job in years. And that¡¯s why everyone, and I mean everyone, no exceptions, is going to be there. We¡¯ll need all hands on deck if we want this going as smoothly as possible.¡± He clapped his hands. ¡°Dismissed!¡± He hopped down from the roof.

    Myra elbowed her friend. ¡°You hear that, Shera?¡±

    ¡°No.¡±

    ¡°Right, well, we¡¯re gonna be¡ª¡±

    ¡°Wait!¡± The crowd went silent again as Geel called out again and reappeared on the roof. ¡°Ah! I forgot! You¡ª¡± He waved his index finger, scanning the crowd for something. He finally settled on Myra and Shera. ¡°You two! You¡¯re a bit too green. That¡¯s right. I want everyone, absolutely everyone, on this mission! Except for you two. Dismissed!¡±

    ¡ô

    ¡°The m-mission¡¯s g-gotta be about destroying Ralkenon,¡± Shera said. ¡°He knows we¡¯re from Ralkenon. So he doesn¡¯t want us on the mission.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, that does make sense,¡± Myra agreed, but she was already on her way to talk to Geel. ¡°I think we should confront him anyway. We might learn something. We¡¯ll just have to convince him we don¡¯t care about Ralkenon or something. I mean, why else would we join the murk bogs? We¡¯ll sell it.¡±

    ¡°Th-that¡¯s worked well in the past.¡±

    ¡°Hey, we¡¯ve already learned something. We know who those last two victims are, and we learned that they hire the murk bogs. Anyway, we¡¯ve gotta keep pushing.¡±

    They got an appointment with Geel as soon as possible, which turned out to be around eight hours after the assembly. Maybe it was because he was just busy making plans for the new mission, or maybe it was because he could smell that Myra and Shera were looking for him and made himself disappear in order to be as obstinate as possible, but in any case, he seemed impossible to find for the first time since they¡¯d joined the group.

    ¡°Ah, you two.¡± Geel slid into his office where the duo was waiting for him. ¡°You wanted to see me?¡±

    ¡°We¡¯d really like to go on the mission in Casire,¡± Myra insisted right out of the gate.

    ¡°Well, of course, you would! It¡¯s a very exciting mission.¡±

    ¡°¡­ Right. What I mean is, we were wondering if you would reconsider your decision to exclude us from the mission.¡±

    ¡°I stand by what I said. The both of you are too green. That¡¯s not to say you aren¡¯t good at your jobs. The runes are rune-ing more smoothly than I can ever remember. But you don¡¯t have experience on the field.¡±

    ¡°Maybe we could¡­ be on standby in case you have a runic emergency?¡±

    He scratched his goatee. ¡°I do admit that we may be at a runic disadvantage. Perhaps we can make some kind of agreement.¡±

    Geel¡­? Being agreeable¡­? What alternative universe did I stumble into?

    He hemmed and hawed for a few moments. ¡°I may have a way for you to prove yourselves ready. There¡¯s a job we¡¯ve had on our plate for some time, but we¡¯re a little, you could say, stuck¡ªyes!¡± He clapped his hands. ¡°You might even say we¡¯re in a bog. We¡¯ve sunk a deal of resources into this project already, and the payday will be quite substantial if we succeed, but to be blunt, we are failing at the final hurdle. It might be something that could use your expertise.¡±

    ¡°Is it an interesting rune problem?¡±

    ¡°Possibly. It¡¯s definitely a rune problem. Whether it¡¯s interesting is a question best left for the philosophers.¡± Well, fair enough. ¡°In short, a client in Briktone has hired us to break into a vault owned by the Unkmirean government and report its contents.¡±

    Myra almost did a double-take. ¡°What? Wait, wait, wait. The big mission in a couple of weeks is for the Unkmirean government.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± He frowned. ¡°What¡¯s that got to do with this?¡±

    ¡°Er¡ª¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m just confused why you¡¯re testing us with a mission that goes against Unkmire¡¯s interests.¡±

    Geel didn¡¯t let up his confused frown. ¡°The murk bogs accept clients of all interests and nationalities. You could even say it¡¯s what we¡¯re famous for. Our only loyalty is money. That makes us objectively neutral, and that¡¯s why people love us.¡±

    Briktone was a sea-faring nation to the south of Unkmire. It was Myra¡¯s understanding that tensions had always been high between the two nations, and historically, they were frequently at war, though they¡¯d been at relative peace for at least all of Myra¡¯s life. She understood that much of the tension had to do with Unkmire trying to secure its trade routes across the sea in the face of Briktone¡¯s large piracy problem. Briktone either couldn¡¯t deal with its pirates, or it deliberately used them to disrupt Unkmire¡¯s operations, depending on who you asked.

    Anyway, this sounded like exactly the sort of murk bog treason that people always mumbled about. It definitely wasn¡¯t a loyalty test.

    So either Geel¡¯s position could be taken at face value, that they just needed to prove out their skills, and the specifics meant nothing.

    Or¡­

    Myra looked at Shera to guess what she was thinking. The girl looked clueless. Right. Geel¡¯s refusal to speak a language Shera can understand is really getting old.

    Innumerable concerns aside, there was nothing to lose at this point. ¡°Of course we¡¯ll help,¡± Myra said. Considering how she could present even more of a can-do attitude, she added, ¡°We joined so we could do stuff like this, all you had to do was ask.¡±

    ¡°Great! Let¡¯s take a walk.¡± He grabbed some kind of fruit candy bar from his desk and led them outside.

    ¡°The vault lies in a hollowed-out tree near the government building in Krinph. Unfortunately, we aren¡¯t specialists in this kind of infiltration work. We¡¯ve been able to subvert the first few levels of security without tripping any kind of alarm, but we¡¯re stuck on the next obstacle. Some kind of large runic wall.¡±

    ¡°And who¡¯s the client again?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s a small company. They seem to be some kind of private investigators¡ªbit of an odd lot. Personally, I suspect they might have ties with the Briktonese intelligence agency, but that¡¯s neither here nor there. They paid us to not ask many questions, so I can¡¯t tell you what interest they have in this vault. But I can tell you they¡¯re very interested, even after all this time, in getting into that vault.¡±

    ¡°I see. Sorry, do you mind if I explain this all to Shera?¡±

    Geel shrugged. ¡°Hey, don¡¯t let me stop you.¡±

    So she relayed all the information to Shera.

    ¡°I have a qu-question,¡± Shera asked, once she finally understood the full situation. ¡°How long have you been working on this project?¡±

    ¡°I believe we put the project on hiatus a few months ago, thereabouts. Roc¡¯s been keeping an eye on the vault, so he¡¯ll know if the status has changed at all. To my knowledge, there¡¯s been no movement. Come, I¡¯ll introduce you to Roc, and he¡¯ll get you ladies up to speed.¡±

    Roc was the name of the group¡¯s weaponsmith. His workshop was in one of the small utility buildings near the border of the platform, similarly styled to the rune workshop. Roc was busy tending to the forge; he was a tall, broad-shouldered man, strong as an ox, but with white hair and an aged face, wrinkled and sunken. The girls had needed to interact with him on occasion, but they had been non-events. Roc was reliable, and he didn¡¯t speak beyond what was needed for his job.

    This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

    His usual role in the organization was to pump out pistols, identical and unfailingly to specification, a task he performed steadfastly. At the wall at the back of his workshop, however, there were weapons with more individual touches. There was a spear with an engraving along the shaft, for example, but there were some real oddballs, too. A sword with a built-in pistol, a sniper rifle with elaborate knobs and levers that assisted your aim by God knew what method¡­ There was even a halberd connected to a prosthetic hand made of bronze.

    ¡°Roc, my man!¡± Geel called out. ¡°We¡¯re looking at starting up the ol¡¯ vault project. Our new runists might be able to help with that rune wall bullshit.¡±

    Roc grunted affirmatively.

    ¡°You¡¯ll take it from here, yeah?¡±

    Grunt.

    Geel left, which was always a good thing.

    ¡°There are many layers of security,¡± Roc said, getting down to business immediately. He hadn¡¯t moved from where he stood, and he stared straight ahead of him, not looking at either of the girls. ¡°Fortunately, there have been no surprises with the intrusion detection. Thus far, the information from our clients in Briktone has been accurate.¡±

    ¡°How does the intrusion detection work?¡±

    ¡°Intrusion detection is very difficult to begin with,¡± he explained. ¡°Nothing can sense a person protected within their own domain.¡±

    Except maybe Emmett Massiel¡¯s security system.

    ¡°Of course,¡± Myra said.

    ¡°The detectors can sense some second-order effects of your presence. Airflow, sound, shadows. Once you learn how to control those, it won¡¯t be a problem.¡±

    ¡°You need us to personally go into the vault?¡±

    ¡°Of course. You¡¯ll need to examine the rune net. The last thing you¡¯ll need is the ability to get past its teleportation defenses.¡±

    Suddenly, Myra perked up, her frustrations melting away as an exciting possibility opened up. ¡°And how do you do that?¡±

    ¡°There are two things. You need to force your way past the disruption field, and you need to avoid getting caught up by the redirection rod. I take it you will need instruction in both?¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    He nodded. ¡°We have an instructor qualified to teach you.¡±

    Yes! Oh, finally, something good was coming up this dreadful loop.

    ¡°You¡¯ll need to see Nesr Wald.¡±

    ¡ô

    ¡°Are you gonna be okay learning from Nesr Wald?¡± Myra asked once the two of them were alone.

    ¡°Of c-c-course,¡± she said, quite plainly not meaning it.

    ¡°Okay, well¡ª¡± Myra patted her shoulder. ¡°We¡¯ll be working under him together. He won¡¯t be able to try anything.¡±

    She turned to go, but Shera stopped her.

    ¡°Hey! Um, on a different note, d-doesn¡¯t this seem odd to you?¡±

    Myra laughed darkly. ¡°Everything seems odd, Shera, what specifically are you referring to?¡±

    ¡°The runes? Like¡ªThey¡¯ve been stuck on this rune problem for m-months, right?¡±

    ¡°That might be the least weird thing to happen, though,¡± Myra said. ¡°It finally explains why they wanted runecrafters.¡±

    ¡°No, it doesn¡¯t! When you called them at the beginning of the loop, they said they didn¡¯t need anyone. Then they suddenly turn around and hire you a few d-days later, but they don¡¯t even mention this whole thing except incidentally because you asked for a chance to prove y-yourself?¡±

    Myra scratched her head. ¡°Okay, yeah, I guess the way they went about it is still pretty weird.¡±

    ¡°Th-think about it, you called out of the blue offering your rune services, and he hangs up instead of thinking, ¡®Hey, m-maybe they can help with the high-paying vault project¡¯?¡±

    ¡°Maybe he just needed a few days to mull it over, and the rudeness was just Geel being Geel.¡±

    ¡°He didn¡¯t even ask for your contact information.¡±

    ¡°Okay, fine. You¡¯re right. It¡¯s an abnormal level of weird. Everything about these fucking people is weird¡­ Maybe they forgot about the project, but then it suddenly becomes more important for some reason? That would maybe explain why they were handing out posters around this time last loop¡­¡±

    But if Geel was lying about the parameters of the vault mission, he was doing a great job of covering up. They asked around the organization, and everybody confirmed that the vault project had been stalled for months. Chrysji even showed them the contracts they¡¯d signed with the Briktonese group, which were dated about eight months ago, together with an intelligence file on the vault provided by the same group. Many individuals were able to explain how they had contributed to existing progress. Obyl even agreed it was pretty weird that Geel didn¡¯t hire them for the vault project the first time she had called.

    ¡°I¡¯m starting to th-think trying to read into Geel¡¯s decisions might be like reading into soap bubbles,¡± Shera finally concluded. ¡°Totally random and meaningless.¡±

    ¡ô

    The lessons with Nesr Wald started almost immediately.

    ¡°The vault has a redirection trap. Do you know what that is?¡±

    ¡°I heard it¡¯s like a lightning rod for teleportation that¡ª¡±

    ¡°That was a rhetorical question. Don¡¯t bother answering. A redirection rod is commonly known as a device that traps anyone trying to teleport to a nearby location. Instead of appearing where they intend to, they arrive at a trap destination. For this government vault, the redirector is probably set up to ensnare anyone trying to subvert its defenses. Now, many mages think that a redirector works by ¡°pulling¡± in your tele-endpoint like gravity, or electromagnetism. In fact, a redirector does nothing of the sort. All it does is trick the caster into teleporting to the wrong spot. Do you know why wasps are attracted to flames?¡±

    ¡°I read that¡ª¡±

    ¡°It was a rhetorical question,¡± he said again. ¡°Don¡¯t bother answering. The reason is that wasps usually use the sun to navigate.¡± That¡¯s what I was going to say¡­ ¡°Therefore, bright lights confuse them. A redirection rod is very similar. Mages can instinctively feel their way through auraspace using the natural auraflow of the universe. The solar channel, the lunar channels. You may not realize you rely on this, but you do. It¡¯s the same way you use the accelerometer in your inner ear to know if you¡¯re standing up right or not. You don¡¯t even think about it, but you do.¡±

    I guess that makes sense.

    ¡°So can you guess how a redirection rod works? That¡¯s also rhetorical. It messes with all the aura flow in a space so that you get disoriented and move your endpoint into the redirector without thinking about it. Fortunately, if you know how it works, there are many ways to course-correct by properly understanding the correspondence between physical space and auraspace. Let¡¯s practice now.¡±

    Nesr Wald brought out a rod for practice. It was shaped like a rod, about a story high, that branched like a tree at the top, splitting outwards in a complex, ever more fine fractal pattern that glowed with a soft rainbow in the mid-morning light. He had them practice teleporting, marking an ¡®X¡¯ in the dirt a few meters from the rod and asking them to reach the ¡®X.¡¯

    For all that Nesr Wald seemed to hate teaching, he was pretty good at instructing on this arcane topic. It took the girls a couple of hours before they could reliably avoid the trap. Then they had to do it blindfolded, and finally, they had to do it from a greater distance.

    After learning to avoid redirection rods, the next thing they had to learn was how to subvert a teleportation disruption field. Again, the training began with learning the theory underlying the disruption field.

    The field they would have to bypass was made from a certain plant with a strong magic-blocking domain. It might have been a Billowing Elm, like the trees along the bicycle pass in Ralkenon, or it might have been a similar plant. Anyway, the plant was ground up into microscopic dust and scattered in the air.

    Somehow, it had been engineered to block teleportation specifically. According to Nesr Wald, this was likely because an airborne field disrupting magic indiscriminately was considered too dangerous. This limitation was great for them, because it allowed various loopholes.

    One loophole was to just telekinetically push the microscopic matter to create a free pocket for you to teleport into. However, the vault¡¯s alarm systems would immediately go off if it detected this pocket opening up. The solution was to teleport into the pocket as quickly as possible, thus ¡°plugging the hole¡± in the domain with your own.

    To say the least, this was much harder to master than avoiding the teleportation rod had been. Meanwhile, time was ticking and the end of the loop was approaching. By the time Nesr Wald was satisfied that the girls would be able to get themselves into the vault, the loop only had 9 days left.

    ¡ô

    On the morning of Day 19, they met with Roc for the infiltration.

    ¡°I made you some new equipment,¡± he said to start it off. He handed each of them a new chisel pen.

    ¡°Oh! Thanks!¡± The new chisels were sharp and sturdy, and they were well-balanced too. Shera inspected hers, tapping a fingernail to the side. Myra noticed that her handle was a bit smaller, befitting her hand. ¡°Hey, did you make these just for us?¡±

    He nodded. ¡°Our gear has been getting a bit old. It¡¯s time for a refresh.¡± That was all he said about that. ¡°Now, the vault is here.¡± He pointed to a map of Krinph, using a booklet like the one Myra had used to navigate the city. ¡°I want you to start by teleporting here.¡± He pointed to a little treehouse not far from the vault.

    ¡°Er, all the way from here?¡±

    ¡°Yes, is that a problem?¡±

    ¡°Er, neither of us can teleport nearly that far,¡± Myra said. ¡°Not even close.¡±

    Roc frowned. ¡°I see. Well, then we will take the train to Krinph.¡±

    They took the train to Krinph. Roc remained as unreadable as ever, so it was hard to tell if he was annoyed about this hiccup. In principle, he could have sent the two of them on the train and then joined them by making the long-distance teleport himself. Myra wouldn¡¯t even have thought it rude. He did join them for the train, however, sitting in silence the entire ride.

    The tree containing the vault was massive, even by the standards of Unkmire. It was over a hundred, maybe two hundred meters in diameter. Geel had described it as ¡°hollowed out,¡± but Myra hadn¡¯t quite registered what he meant. Now, she could feel immediately what he¡¯d meant by hollow.

    The ¡®safe house¡¯ wasn¡¯t far from the tree, and it was easy enough to get to. It was almost disappointingly empty; when Roc had pointed it out on the map, Myra had pictured some kind of secret base with¡­ you know, infiltration spy stuff. It was actually just an empty building.

    Roc pointed out the exact location inside the tree that they needed to teleport to. Myra took a deep breath, held onto everything she had learned about avoiding detection, and teleported into the vault.

    She made it, avoiding the redirection trap and getting past the disruption field without issue, arriving in a massive cylindrical room with walls of bark. The room was well-lit, though the light source was unclear. The light simply was. At the very edge of the room, there was a staircase leading down. That was the normal entrance, which they had obviously skipped. To move forward, they would be going up.

    The stairs leading up were at the very center of the room. Roc led the way up. The device on the ceiling was familiar, but different; whereas the event hall had been controlled by an orb, this was more like a large wheel, embedded in the ceiling, but it was made of the same icy white crystal.

    On the other side of this ceiling, there was nothing. Severed space, the inside of this massive trunk, shunted out of the dimension, tethered to this world by a thin thread of a manifold.

    Following Roc¡¯s instructions, the three individuals spread their domains out to cover the entire wheel. Roc took out a silver anti-wire and attached it between two carefully chosen points on the wheel¡¯s runework. These actions together would interfere with the alarm system, giving them substantially more freedom once they were on the other side, where Myra would be tasked to inspect the troublesome component.

    (Not specialists in this kind of infiltration work, they¡¯d said.)

    Finally, Roc rotated a knob in the center of the wheel, and they were sucked through.

 23 - Problem-Solving

    There was no gravity on the other side.

    They were still inside a tree, a large cylinder of bark lit by ambient light that seemed to come from nowhere, but there was nothing outside the tree. It wasn¡¯t emptiness, it wasn¡¯t coldness, it wasn¡¯t a vacuum, it was just nothing. Even without consciously using her extra-senses, she could tell¡ªit was such a stark difference from her normal reality that it couldn¡¯t be missed. Her stomach was utterly convinced that this tiny universe was all there was, all there would ever be, just three people floating in a room without even a force on them. She shivered.

    The wall ahead of them¡ªor ceiling, maybe, if she oriented the room so that the tree was upright, like it had been outside¡ªhad a round door in the center, but it was covered in a strange green goop.

    ¡°Zero-G, here we come,¡± Myra muttered. Experimentally, she gave herself a telekinetic push forward. An arm¡¯s length away from the wall, she stopped herself, applying the equal and opposite push.

    ¡°Is this stuff safe to touch?¡±

    ¡°It will kill you instantly,¡± Roc said. He floated to Myra¡¯s side and took from his bag some kind of long suction tube with a pump. He inserted one end of the tube into the goop and began operating the pump, an entirely awkward affair in Zero-G. He seemed practiced at it, though.

    ¡°What¡¯s this do, exactly?¡±

    ¡°It extracts the badness,¡± he explained.

    ¡°Is there a r-reason we can¡¯t just teleport to the end?¡± Shera asked.

    ¡°They did something to the space, strengthened the fabric. You can¡¯t teleport at all. We don¡¯t know how they did it.¡±

    Maybe that was something to ask Iz.

    Eventually, Roc declared he was done, though there was no indication how he could tell. He led the way, reaching through the goop (not dying, because the badness had been sucked out) and opening the door for them.

    This was the first of three security layers the murk bogs had already figured out how to crack. There was a room where they had to avoid sharp vines growing out of the walls, a room that required a musical password that Roc played on a flute, and a room with owls. And finally¡ª

    ¡°And this is where we need your help.¡±

    The centerpiece of the room was a large, glass tube, about big enough to fit a person lying inside of it. From Myra¡¯s current orientation, it was arranged on its side. It was fit in place by a couple of bracings that were attached to the walls. Also around the walls were massive aura crystals, pointed inwards at the tube device.

    As she¡¯d been told to expect, it was also engraved with runes, on both the inside and the outside of the surface (though this wasn¡¯t technically correct, as she would realize in a moment). It was bottle-shaped, narrowing into a neck at one end.

    The final notable feature was the pair of glowing rings. One ring acted as the bottle¡¯s ¡°cap,¡± while the other one was inside the bottle, near its ¡°base,¡± except the base of the bottle seemed to curve inwards, creating an ¡°inner neck¡± that was also capped by this glowing ring. The two rings were identical in size. It took a minute to understand what she was looking at.

    Shera floated around to the other side of the device. ¡°It¡¯s a Klein bottle,¡± she said.

    ¡°Oh, huh. So it is.¡±

    At first, Myra had thought the rings were mirrors since the bottle seemed to be reflected in them. But when she looked closely, the necks were actually continuing into the space. The rings were portals.

    Myra had seen Klein bottles in museums and novelty shops, though always of the self-intersecting variety. It wasn¡¯t possible to have a Klein bottle in normal 3D space without that kind of intersection, but they had punched a hole in the spatial fabric just to make it happen.

    ¡°No wonder they need so much aura,¡± Myra muttered. ¡°Holy shit.¡±

    ¡°Is the whole tree in z-zero-G just for this?¡±

    ¡°What do you mean?¡± Myra asked. Roc, too, looked a little puzzled.

    ¡°Look how the portal has to be flipped,¡± Shera pointed out, ¡°so that the neck comes out this end in the opposite direction. If this was in normal gravity, it would have to flip the direction of gravity at the boundary.¡±

    ¡°Okay, yeah, that¡¯s true. It doesn¡¯t actually need to be flipped, though,¡± Myra observed. ¡°You¡¯d just have to twist the neck around more, and it wouldn¡¯t look as nice.¡±

    ¡°O-Oh. I guess you¡¯re right.¡±

    ¡°Hey, is it safe to put your hand in this thing?¡± Myra asked.

    Roc nodded, though he also warned, ¡°Don¡¯t touch the perimeter, it¡¯ll burn you, it might even slice through you.¡±

    With that in mind, Myra tried it out. The neck was almost as large as the portal itself, leaving just a little bit of space for her hand; the other side of the portal, however, was wide open, so that was the side she used. Her hand came out the other portal, on the ¡®inside¡¯ of the bottle (though there wasn¡¯t really an ¡®inside¡¯). She made a thumbs-up, though she had to think hard about how to orient her arm the right way.

    ¡°So um,¡± Myra said, remembering they weren¡¯t out on a museum date. ¡°What are we supposed to¡­?¡± She looked around the room. ¡°Like, what do we do?¡±

    ¡°We don¡¯t know,¡± Roc said. ¡°To be honest, when we got here the first time, we thought we¡¯d reached the end, that this bottle was the object of the entire vault. We were thrilled¡ªHowever, our clients said it didn¡¯t make sense. Furthermore, we can sense plenty of more space behind this wall.¡± Like Myra, he was calling them walls even though they really should have been ceilings. ¡°So this is almost certainly an aspect of the security.¡±

    Myra scratched her head. ¡°There¡¯s no door, or lock, or¡ª¡±

    ¡°There actually is something¡ªit¡¯s faint.¡±

    The girls looked more closely at the wall-ceiling, which was made of a hard, slick metal. There was a very thin crack, almost impossible to see, drawing out a circle in the very center of the room.

    ¡°We think that¡¯s the door.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯d be a tight squeeze, but I guess it could fit a person,¡± Myra acknowledged. Well, it¡¯d be a tight squeeze for Roc. ¡°I guess this cylinder slides out?¡±

    ¡°We tried many tricks to remove it, but it doesn¡¯t budge. It resists all attempts at telekinesis as well.¡±

    ¡°I th-think we should figure out what these runes do,¡± Shera said.

    ¡°Right¡­¡± She inspected the runes closely for the first time. ¡°Er¡­¡± Myra floated around the bottle to look like she was doing something, but it was equally unclear from every angle. ¡°I have no idea what I¡¯m looking at. I don¡¯t even know what script this is.¡±

    Fortunately, this at least was a question that the murk bogs had already answered. Roc had brought the symbol guide for the script, which turned out to be a fairly obscure one.

    In principle, it should have been a matter of interpreting the script through that symbol guide, but for some reason, it wasn¡¯t that simple. Myra spent quite some time trying to read the script just as she normally would, but the meaning always seemed to slip away. It was like the ¡®colorless green ideas sleep furiously¡¯ of runes. Something was deeply strange about this rune script.

    ¡°We¡¯ve been baffled by it,¡± Roc assured her, as he could see her getting increasingly confused.

    ¡°I can see why. Who¡¯s ¡®we,¡¯ by the way?¡±

    ¡°The murk bogs.¡±

    Not what I meant¡­

    Eventually, she decided to put that aside for a moment. There were more ways to understand a rune script than just reading it directly. She performed a few basic test-spells to confirm the runes were actually active and doing something. But what they were doing escaped her.

    What runic functionality could possibly require such a strange topology? What could be worth the expenditure of setting up these portals just to host the rune script?

    ¡ô

    When they were ready to call it quits for the day, they left the way they came. Through the thread of space back to the main universe (what a relief) and then teleporting back out to the safe house. The sun had long set. I lost track of the time again¡­ ¡°How long were we in there?¡±

    ¡°S-seven hours and thirty-eight minutes, and about¡­¡± She kind of trailed off with her sigfigs, a little uncharacteristic. She was probably tired.

    Roc, for his part, hunched over, nearly making himself a right angle, face pointed straight at the ground.

    ¡°You okay? ¡­ Roc?¡±

    He nodded, but he didn¡¯t move from his position. Myra almost thought he was going to heave.

    ¡°Right well, uh, let¡¯s get a move on,¡± Myra said. ¡°The night trains are infrequent, so we don¡¯t wanna miss the next one.¡±

    They walked back to the train station, Roc walking with a full stride but not quite ever standing fully upright. They caught the train on time (maybe thanks to Shera¡¯s good planning).

    As they flew over the trees, Myra grew increasingly worried about Roc. Is he tired? Is he distressed we didn¡¯t make more progress?

    ¡°Well, I, uh, think I got a good handle on what we¡¯re dealing with,¡± Myra said. ¡°I just need to take the time to really methodically pick through this script.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s good,¡± Roc said, not looking up. ¡°We should start planning the next excursion. I need to catch up on my work, and I assume you need some time to make a plan of attack, so I would suggest going three days from now.¡±

    ¡°Three¡­?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t believe I can justify going sooner. You can consider going without me, though I would highly advise you find at least one additional teammate.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll have to think about it.¡± It certainly made sense that Roc had limited time to devote to the project.

    Come to think of it, how did the group¡¯s blacksmith end up in charge of this operation, anyway?

    ¡°Roc, do you mind if I ask how you ended up in charge of this mission?¡±

    Roc didn¡¯t say anything for a bit, then he eventually grunted, filling the space where the answer should be, but not yielding any information.

    God, I keep thinking this group can¡¯t get any weirder¡­

    ¡ô

    Day 20

    Luckily, there was some good news the next day¡ªNesr Wald was ordered to continue their teleportation lessons, this time instructing them in long-range teleportation.

    Myra had always just kind of imagined that subverting a disruption field would be the harder of the two skills, but apparently, just because something was sketchy and dubiously legal, that didn¡¯t make it difficult. Subverting a disruption field had been relatively easy compared to long-range teleportation, and there was a reason that Instructor Yam said he would wait until the fourth year before teaching the latter.

    Specifically, the aura constructs needed to move a teleportation endpoint far away in a short amount of time were numerous. Many of them were fairly bespoke, too, so they were unlikely to be of use in other domains. Nesr Wald started by judging their competencies on a number of relevant tasks, tasks which got easier and easier as they botched one after another, Nesr Wald¡¯s face darkening all the way. Myra was pretty sure that they were failing tasks Nesr Wald had intended as insults. Finally, after the round of humiliation concluded, the man decided on a direction for their training, and he assigned them some specialized aura manipulation exercises.

    As he walked away, there was a loud gunshot which nearly gave both of them a heart attack. It seemed that in his need to blow off steam, he¡¯d shot a training pistol¡ªone of the safe ones that shot incorporeal bullets¡ªthrough his own head as he was walking away.

    ¡ô

    That night, Myra slumped over the desk in the rune shop, trying to hold her head high enough that she could actually see the notes in front of her. ¡°God, I need somewhere I can actually think.¡±

    Shera had a suggestion. ¡°Th-there¡¯s the bathhouse over on the eastern edge.¡±

    ¡°Okay, the bathhouse looks really nice, but c¡¯mon¡­ it¡¯s, y¡¯know¡­¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s mostly empty around midnight,¡± Shera said. ¡°The only people who go that late are th-the others that prefer peace and quiet. And it¡¯s pretty large with lots of corners you can hide in.¡±

    ¡°Well¡­¡±

    The fact was, for all Myra¡¯s reservations of bathing in a common area, the suggestion was enticing. So she agreed.

    Like Shera had suggested, the bathhouse interior was divided into alcoves by rock walls that were probably meant to imitate the feel of a cavern hot spring. There were places that looked like they were supposed to carry trees or plants, so it was disappointing those weren¡¯t maintained, but the building also had an open ceiling, so it was no surprise Shera liked it in the middle of the night.

    ¡°You were right. This is what I needed,¡± she said, stretching out and enjoying the steaming water. ¡°I¡¯m now half-convinced this building is the reason the murk bogs took over the platform.¡±

    Shera was seated opposite her in their private alcove. She was a bit less daring, wearing a towel, but an opaque layer of bubbles coated the top of the water, and Myra didn¡¯t feel immodest.

    Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

    ¡°Now, all I need is a spell to let me write in the water and this is the perfect place to do my thinking.¡± The Raine Empire used spells like that to draw borders and other kinds of signs, way out in the ocean.

    ¡°I th-think you free-form t-telek it,¡± Shera said. ¡°It¡¯s not that bad.¡±

    Myra focused on all the ambient water aura around. She still remembered the time she¡¯d had to partner with Shera while practicing the manipulation of water with non-water aura. That had been a disaster, and she still sucked at it.

    Fueled by water aura¡ªthe normal, easy way¡ªit was pretty easy to ¡®etch¡¯ letters into the surface of the water. It definitely took some concentration to get the shapes right, but then it didn¡¯t take much effort to hold them still once they were made.

    ¡°It¡¯s not quite chalkboard-ready, but it¡¯s pretty fun.¡± She etched a series of heart symbols in a circle around Shera. Then, with a spell of mischief overtaking her, she drew another circle of runes. Suddenly, the hot water surrounding the girl had the viscosity of syrup.

    ¡°Eek!¡± the girl jolted as she was enveloped by the thick, rubbery sensation of hot water, and Myra laughed, dispelling the runes. ¡°W-what was that?¡±

    ¡°Viscosity trick,¡± she said, taking only a second to stop laughing. ¡°Sorry. I actually got kicked out of a party for that once.¡±

    ¡°Why?¡±

    ¡°When I was a kid¡ªI was an older teen I guess, but this is kinda immature, so imagine me as a kid. My father brought me to some social function with some businessfolks. And there was like a lake party, mostly for the kids¡­ Anyway my dad had this business partner with a kid my age, and she was an absolute prick, so I had this plan to use the noodle-floats to make some runes¡ª¡±

    Shera looked confused so Myra had to explain.

    ¡°Noodle-floats are like these styrofoam floaty things. They¡¯re just pool toys. Anyway, my plan was to wait for her to dive in, and then while she¡¯s at the bottom of the pool, turn the whole section of the lake into syrup-water to freak her out.¡± Shera winced. ¡°Look, you need to understand how much of a dick this girl was¡­ Anyway, it didn¡¯t work. Noodle-floats make for a very bad runic medium. They all exploded in flames and spewed burnt styrofoam all over the lake.¡±

    ¡°Mm, you really do like r-runes, huh?¡±

    ¡°Yeah¡­ honestly, this was part of my life where I really self-identified as ¡®the rune girl,¡¯ so I was always eager to thrust them everywhere, show off my thing, even if it didn¡¯t make sense¡­¡±

    ¡°Oh, it¡¯s like me but with astronomy.¡±

    ¡°Nah, c¡¯mon, there¡¯s nothing embarrassing you can do with astronomy,¡± Myra said.

    This seemed to brighten the other girl up a bit.

    ¡°So, have you m-made any progress?¡± she finally asked, reminding Myra that their relaxing time was strictly utilitarian by bringing the topic back to the heist. Theoretically, the two of them should have been working on the runes together, but practically, the whole thing was just much farther up Myra¡¯s lane, and it had been left to her for most of the night.

    Myra exhaled. ¡°Sorta. So¡­ First of all, the thing is deliberately obfuscated, I¡¯m sure of that. Do you know much about ambiguous grammars?¡±

    She shook her head.

    ¡°So like, if we take a normal sentence, I don¡¯t know¡­¡± She thought for a second. ¡°Take ¡®I ate the cookie by the monkey-lamp.¡¯ Does it mean the cookie was by the monkey-lamp? Or does it mean I was standing by the monkey-lamp? There¡¯s multiple ways to read the sentence.¡±

    ¡°I know wh-what an ambiguous sentence is.¡±

    ¡°Right, sorry. Anyway, in normal language you just infer from context. But a rune script doesn¡¯t do that. It takes on both meanings at once¡ªWell, some mages have tried to build ¡®semantics-sensitive rune scripts,¡¯ where ambiguous parses would be disambiguated in context by some complicated rules, but those are uniformly a disaster. Just overcomplicated messes all around. It¡¯s almost always better to just avoid ambiguity in the first place.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, that makes sense.¡±

    ¡°I knew you¡¯d get it.¡± Myra nodded to the girl. ¡°Anyway, in principle you could intentionally use the ambiguity because you want both effects. This is rarely done outside a handful of well-understood tricks¡ªlike, to take the earlier example, maybe the cookie is by the monkey-lamp, and you¡¯re going to stand next to the monkey-lamp while you eat it. Then, ¡®I ate the cookie by the monkey-lamp¡¯ is a reasonable way to optimize that in a rune script. So there¡¯s things like that, but like¡­ this rune script is¡­¡±

    ¡°Pathological?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. It¡¯s pathological. It has so many ambiguities stacked on each other, so there¡¯s an exponential blow-up in the number of interpretations. It¡¯s more like a magazine puzzle than anything else¡­ Anyway, so many of the interpretations are semantically garbage, but I think many of them are canceling each other out somehow, which is why the damn thing isn¡¯t blowing up in flames from ill-formed trash. The trouble is in figuring out what it is doing; that is, what¡¯s not getting canceled out, so I¡¯m trying to get systematic about understanding the whole algebraic structure of the damn thing¡­¡±

    ¡ô

    The ideal approach to this kind of thing would be to build a replica and experiment on it.

    But this was geometrically impossible: a Klein bottle couldn¡¯t be embedded in 3D space, not without the portal setup. Sure, there was always the self-intersecting Klein bottle you¡¯d see in toy shops, but that self-intersection would completely fuck up the runes. The rune script in question was topologically impossible.

    She even started making calls in her desperation to make some progress. She called her topology professor, Professor Suzuki, and even the runes professor, Professor Alzergodin, whom she still didn¡¯t like very much. It was obvious that getting help from either of them would probably require a loop where she stayed in school. She called some of the people she knew at Precision Isomorphic¡¯s lab, who quoted their exorbitant consulting fee.

    They also went back to run some more tests on the rune scripts, though at Roc¡¯s suggestion, they took someone else along. Myra picked Obyl, who didn¡¯t mind tagging along but ultimately wasn¡¯t much help with the specifics. They didn¡¯t stay long either. Myra only had a few ideas and neither of them panned out.

    ¡ô

    Day 22

    For obvious reasons, Myra was taking the training more seriously than Shera. This was balanced out somewhat by Shera being naturally better at it, but not significantly, so Myra ended up progressing to the next stage first. Nesr Wald had a smug look about him as he delivered the news, making Myra a little uneasy, but it was otherwise encouraging: Myra would start doing what might be called ¡®mid-range¡¯ teleportation.

    Well, really it was like ¡®low-mid-range¡¯ teleportation. Maybe ¡®low-low-very-low-mid-range.¡¯

    Anyway, she was supposed to teleport halfway across the platform. Not very far in the grand scheme of things, but still farther than she had before.

    She did all the steps as she¡¯d been instructed. An expert would do it in seconds; she took her time. As she was getting ready to move, something made her hair stand on end. What was it?

    ¡­

    Shit!

    I¡¯m not supposed to leave Shera alone with this guy!

    ¡°Hey, er, maybe one of you should head over to the destination? In case I get hurt.¡±

    Nesr Wald pursed his dry lips. ¡°We¡¯re going to be here working on Shera¡¯s metric aura alignment. There¡¯s plenty of people where you¡¯re going if you get hurt.¡± The old teacher already didn¡¯t seem like the type to think much of someone who worried about getting hurt. (He had only begrudgingly put up safeties to prevent her from accidentally teleporting off the edge of the platform.)

    ¡°But, I¡¯d feel better if, uh¡ª¡±

    ¡°How about this? You can walk to the center and then teleport back here.¡±

    ¡°Oh, I guess that¡¯s¡ª¡± Wait, no, that doesn¡¯t help at all!

    Shera was twitching. ¡°Myra, it¡¯s f-f-fine. Just go.¡±

    ¡°I¡ª¡±

    ¡°I need to work on my metric aura alignment.¡±

    Shera definitely didn¡¯t need to work on her metric aura alignment. She was obviously telling Myra not to worry about her and get the practice she needed.

    God, this is like that ¡®wolf, goat, cabbage¡¯ puzzle.

    Though not entirely proud of it, between Shera¡¯s strained blessing and Nesr Wald¡¯s impatient glare, she ended up doing as he suggested, walking to the center of the platform and then teleporting back. When she did so, there was nothing untoward going on, just Shera practicing her metric aura alignment.

    ¡°Go again,¡± Nesr Wald instructed.

    She did it a few more times.

    One reason teleportation was difficult to practice was the nausea. Teleportation nausea was a lot worse if you were inexperienced in whatever you doing, and Myra was definitely that, and it wasn¡¯t long before she started to feel woozy. In Myra¡¯s case, it took about eight attempts.

    One more, she thought to herself. Then I¡¯ll need to stop, I think. But nausea, Myra forgot, wasn¡¯t linear. Not the least because it skews your judgment and disrupts your focus.

    Myra botched the final attempt badly. She missed her destination by over half the teleportation length, and she was immediately overwhelmed by nausea. Her vision went dark, her head went numb, and she quickly flopped to the ground to rest by a tree.

    It took a few minutes of deep breathing before it really passed.

    She stood up (slowly), tested that she could properly walk, and then gingerly walked back to meet with¡ª

    Oh.

    Nesr Wald was standing over her, one hand on her shoulder, another on her arm. Shera had her eyes closed and was practicing her metric aura alignment, but she looked profoundly uncomfortable.

    ¡°What the fuck are you doing?¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s practicing her metric¡ª¡±

    ¡°No, what the fuck are you doing?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m helping her keep a steady hand so she can practice.¡±

    Myra physically yanked Shera away from the grubby creep. ¡°I¡¯m done for the day, I can¡¯t do any more. Come on.¡±

    ¡ô

    Day 23

    ¡°Y¡¯know¡­¡± Shera said.

    They really hadn¡¯t talked about what had happened the previous day, except the sorta perfunctory are-you-okays. Somehow, Shera¡¯s hesitant lead-in gave Myra the impression she was finally going to.

    ¡°Nobody ever really finds me attractive at the university.¡±

    ¡°Oh.¡± That wasn¡¯t quite the direction she¡¯d expected.

    She bit at her nails. ¡°Y-y¡¯know, it¡¯s always cr-creeps. Why can¡¯t it be¡­¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡±

    She sighed a deep sigh and sunk down until her nose was barely above the water.

    ¡°You ever gone on a date?¡±

    She shook her head.

    ¡°Anyone you like? Maybe we could use the¡ªactually, no, we shouldn¡¯t use the time loop, that¡¯s kinda¡­¡±

    ¡°Y-yeah.¡±

    ¡°I mean like. I told you about¡­ Ben¡­¡±

    ¡°Y-yeah.¡±

    Myra coughed. Idiot. She tried to ask a more normal question. ¡°What¡¯s your type? Is there anyone you like?¡±

    Shera didn¡¯t move, but she narrowed her eyes, looking at her from the corner.

    ¡°Oh, c¡¯mon, you don¡¯t have to answer if you don¡¯t wanna, but we should have some girl talk.¡±

    She raised up a bit. ¡°I dunno. Friendly, smart, c-confident¡­¡± She seemed embarrassed at the generic adjectives. ¡°It¡¯s hard to describe¡­¡±

    ¡°Nah, like, who do you think is hot?¡±

    ¡°Oh.¡±

    ¡°Do you like guys, girls, both? Neither?¡±

    ¡°Umm¡­ guys, I gu-guess¡­ and¡­¡±

    ¡°And?¡±

    ¡°Well, s-sometimes I would fantasize about¡­¡± She paused for a long time. ¡°Z-zirphilia.¡±

    ¡°Oh god, yeah, Zirphilia is so hot.¡±

    Shera turned bright red and looked away from her. Myra giggled and floated to her side. ¡°Have you ever thought about asking her out?¡±

    ¡°I dunno. I mean we used to be friends¡ªor still are, maybe, but I dunno, I always felt like she was k-kinda taking pity on me ¡¯c-cause I didn¡¯t have any other f-friends¡­¡±

    ¡°Oh.¡±

    Myra suspected that was probably Shera¡¯s imagination, but she didn¡¯t want to presume anything.

    ¡°Do you have an ideal date?¡±

    She didn¡¯t answer for a bit.

    ¡°I mean, we don¡¯t have to talk about it if you don¡¯t want¡ª¡±

    ¡°No!¡± she shook her head. ¡°I¡¯ve never had a chance to have this kinda talk before¡­ I like talking about it, I¡¯m just thinking.¡± She thought. ¡°My ideal date¡¯s like¡­ going out to a museum or something, then getting dinner, and then she, or he, shows me some cool enchantment. Then they ask, ¡®hey, do you wanna come back to my place for tea?¡¯ or some other transparent excuse, and we make out and then¡­ y¡¯know.¡±

    ¡°Hehe.¡±

    ¡°And then he¡¯ll l-look me in the eye and tell me I¡¯m beautiful and I¡¯ll sing him a song to sleep.¡±

    ¡°Wait, you sing?!¡± Myra asked incredulously.

    ¡°N-no! I just mean, it¡¯s a fantasy. Oh, I guess you asked my ideal date, and that¡¯s not really th-the same thing as a fantasy, sorry¡ª¡±

    Myra elbowed her to stop being silly and pedantic.

    ¡°And then I guess I wouldn¡¯t fall asleep, so I don¡¯t really know what I¡¯d do after that¡­¡±

    It was hard not to feel for her, she was obviously insecure about her appearance and her voice.

    And her appearance was fine. It was definitely odd, but it was easy to imagine someone enjoying her striped hair or her heterochromia. It had certainly grown on Myra.

    Her voice, though¡­

    ¡°Shera have you ever, like, seen a voice therapist or anything?¡±

    Her eyes, which despite her embarrassment had been slowly lighting up the whole conversation, plummeted into darkness.

    ¡°W-what?¡± she cried, and Myra knew then she had fucked up. ¡°W-w-what do you mean? W-what¡¯s wrong with m-m-my v-v-v-v-voice?¡±

    ¡°Um¡ªI just mean, like, you know¡ª¡±

    ¡°W-why would you a-a-ask that, n-now of all t-times? J-just after I¡ª¡±

    ¡°Sorry, I was just, wondering.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I g-g-¡± She stopped, then took several deep breaths. ¡°I. Get. It.¡± She enunciated each syllable near-perfectly, though each with an enormous degree of conscious effort, more than Myra had ever seen her use before, the weight of which slammed down like an anvil three times.

    ¡°I think I-I¡¯m done for the night.¡± And from someone who never needed to be done from the night, that was a damning thing to hear.

    ¡ô

    As she went to sleep that night, her head sunk face-down as far into her pillow as humanly possible, it was impossible to think about the runic topologies. She was close to a breakthrough, she was pretty sure, but every time she looked at the patterns in her mind¡¯s eye, every synapse in her brain violently asserted that she was being selfish, and that the only thing she was allowed to do was stew in the guilt of her foolish tongue.

    So much for the Good Shera Loop.

    Fuck me!

    I haven¡¯t deserved the help she¡¯s given me at all.

    After all, the only thing Myra had done this loop was drag Shera here to this fuckweird place. And then Shera had had to take a bunch of shit so Myra could focus on teleportation training that might actually help in future loops, and she barely even complained about it! Tomorrow she would probably act like nothing happened because Shera was all rational and knew that it was more important for Myra to be happy¡­

    And indeed, this loop would be over soon at which point she¡¯d forget it all, but¡ª

    She just couldn¡¯t let it be this way. She¡¯d been such an idiot with Shera the last few loops, and now she¡¯d blown it again¡ª

    Myra pushed the runic algebra out of her brain with a finality. She aligned every neuron in her brain towards one goal: She would get the Good Shera Loop.

    ¡ô

    ¡°Shera!¡± She hurriedly jogged to the other girl early in the morning.

    ¡°Hey, M-Myra. Did you sleep well?¡± As Myra had suspected, she was acting like nothing had happened. But Myra had decided: she wouldn¡¯t have it.

    ¡°I¡¯ve made up my mind!¡± Myra announced. ¡°First, we¡¯re not gonna train with Nesr Wald for the rest of the loop. He¡¯s already taught us a bunch, and I can train on my own for the last few days.¡±

    ¡°Oh. Okay.¡± She looked a little relieved.

    ¡°And!¡± Myra took off her murk bogs standard-issue tank top and threw it on the ground.

    Myra had come to an insight. There was no reason Shera had to suffer the attention of weird creeps because Myra could act as her lightning rod. Myra didn¡¯t mind going around in her sports bra, at least not that much, and this way she would be sexier and attract more of the stares. Shera would be safe from creeps.

    ¡°Wh-what?¡± Shera seemed to short-circuit. ¡°W-what¡¯s that for?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s for you, Shera,¡± she explained. The girl¡¯s face turned bright red. She made some noises, but no words came out. ¡°Look, I know you probably think it¡¯s not rational, but I don¡¯t want any complaints about it. I¡¯ll be your lightning rod, and that¡¯s final.¡± She took the other girl¡¯s elbow in hers. ¡°Come on, let¡¯s go to breakfast.¡±

    ¡ô

    Day 25

    Shera seemed to be in a much better mood as a result of Myra¡¯s sacrifice, which lightened Myra¡¯s mind and allowed her to focus on the rune problem again. And thus, she finally cracked the complex web of runic ambiguities. Afterward, she wouldn¡¯t be able to say exactly how she had figured it out. Once she looked at the right way, she couldn¡¯t un-see it, and then all vestigial thoughts melted away. The problem didn¡¯t even seem hard anymore.

    Unfortunately, the answer she came to wasn¡¯t an answer that thrilled her.

    ¡°So. I finally figured out what it does,¡± Myra said with a trace of dejectedness that the sentence didn¡¯t seem to imply.

    ¡°Yeah?¡± Shera asked.

    ¡°It, uh¡­¡± She sighed. ¡°It creates the portals.¡±

    Shera¡¯s jaw went slack. ¡°Er¡ª¡±

    ¡°Yeah, this whole time I just assumed the portals were maintained by the same subsystem that severed the rest of the space and held it in place.¡± She flopped to the ground, back against a tree, and sighed. ¡°But no, the portals are created by the bottle itself. Just two portals¡ªWhat a fucking waste of time. I mean, the device is clever and self-referential, you have these superimposed interpretations on top of each other, and those are forcing the two discs of space to impose on each other in the same way, but¡ª¡± She sighed again. ¡°All these runes, and they don¡¯t do anything other than create these portals we already knew were there. What a, just, fucking waste of time.¡±

    ¡°No it wasn¡¯t,¡± Shera said.

    ¡°We¡¯re no closer to¡ª¡±

    ¡°Yes we are!¡± she blurted out. ¡°I mean, we should have realized this sooner. But I th-think the misdirection was intentional.¡± She was nodding to herself, then nodding faster. ¡°Y-yeah, this is what we needed. I feel stupid. Remember how the bottle is held in place by those large braces connected to the walls?¡±

    ¡°Yeah¡­?¡±

    ¡°Why were those necessary? Think about it. It shouldn¡¯t have been possible to move the Klein bottle, anyway. Because the portal flips the orientation, if you try to move one part one way, it will push another part the other way.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s true¡­¡± Myra said, not seeing where she was going. ¡°So the braces seem redundant. So what?¡±

    She shook her head. ¡°N-n-no! They¡¯re not redundant! Because the Klein bottles aren¡¯t pinned to those two portals! The portals are pinned to the bottle! If you move the bottle, you move the portals!¡±

    ¡ô

    From Shera¡¯s insight, they worked out what to do pretty quickly, and with only three days left of the loop, they returned for the third time to the vault, again with Roc. Roc brought some large tools to unscrew the braces. There was probably an ¡°intended¡± way to unlatch them, which they never found, but they were still able to take the thing apart safely and reversibly. Sure enough, it was possible to move the Klein bottle around, and the portals followed.

    They rotated it so the ¡®outside¡¯ portal was towards the wall, aligned with the circular crack. The crack and the portal were exactly the same size¡ªanother thing they should have noticed to begin with. Thus, the perimeter of the ringed portal slotted right into the cracks. They pushed the bottle into the wall, and the cylindrical section of the wall appeared on the inside of the bottle. This cylinder also had its own runes on it.

    ¡°God, this is the real puzzle, isn¡¯t it? Look how the runes line up with the bottle¡ª¡±

    They rotated the bottle following Myra¡¯s direction until the runes lined up like she envisioned. Then there was a pop and a click, and the cylinder moved out of the wall¡ªthough since it was reflected by the portal, it looked like it was moving towards it. Anyway, they extracted the bottle, pulled out the cylinder, and opened the door to the next area.

    ¡°Victory! We¡¯re in! We¡¯re in!¡± Myra raised her hands in a ¡®V¡¯ and tried to do a zero-G dance, which was a little different than a normal dance. Then they pushed themselves through the doorway to the next room.

    The next room had a wall-ceiling that was tiled in gargoyles. There must have been a thousand of them.

    ¡°Oh. Another obstacle.¡±

 24 - Honor and commitment

    There was a note.

    <blockquote style="border-left: 4px solid rgba(204, 204, 204, 1); padding: 0 15px; margin: 10px">

    Of these 961 gargoyles, between 43% and 58% always lie. At least seven always tell the truth. Some of them answer randomly using unspecified (and not necessarily identical) Bernoulli distributions over boolean truth values. If you ask a question that cannot be answered consistently (e.g., ¡°is your answer a lie?¡±) you will be immediately incinerated. If you ask a question that can only be answered consistently (e.g., ¡°is your answer the truth?¡±) some number between 40 and 605 of them are configured to respond with ¡°yes¡± while the rest respond with ¡°no.¡± The behavior of the gargoyles can be modified when they wear colored hats¡­

    </blockquote>

    The explanation went on for several pages. Myra¡¯s eyes glazed over most of it.

    <blockquote style="border-left: 4px solid rgba(204, 204, 204, 1); padding: 0 15px; margin: 10px">

    ¡­ and do not assume the axiom of choice. Finally, note that all gargoyles answer at the same time, and the room has a lot of echo, so it is difficult to tell which gargoyle gives which response. You may only ask three questions.

    </blockquote>

    ¡°What the hell is this!?¡± Myra nearly crumpled the instruction booklet in frustration.

    ¡°It seems we need to solve the logic puzzle,¡± said Roc. ¡°One of these gargoyles hides the door to the next room. We need to learn which.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, but¡ªwhy? My dad told me these logic puzzles haven¡¯t been good security practice in decades. They¡¯re awful¡ª¡±

    ¡°Good,¡± Roc said. ¡°Then you should be able to get through it in no time.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s¡ªthat¡¯s not what I meant.¡±

    Slowly resigning herself to her fate, she tried to process the instructions again, though the details continued to slide off her like oil over water. My brain is absolutely fried for this loop.

    ¡°What do you think would happen if we just forced our way through? I mean, I assume there¡¯s a reason we didn¡¯t do that for the last room¡ª¡±

    ¡°Any significant damage or alteration to the tree¡¯s architecture triggers the space to be immediately reattached. Then we¡¯d be caught and arrested immediately.¡±

    ¡°Could we prevent that? You already blocked some of the minor alarms, right?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re welcome to try. If you think you can disable all the safeties on the space-shearing engine without killing us all, that is.¡±

    ¡°Right¡­ maybe I¡¯ll take a look later,¡± she said, although she knew full well that wouldn¡¯t be happening this loop.

    ¡ô

    Myra, truthfully, thought they had done pretty well. Unfortunately, Geel¡¯s unsympathetic eyes told her that he thought otherwise.

    ¡°We got through that Klein bottle thing! That¡¯s what you wanted us to do, right?¡±

    ¡°You were supposed to get to the vault.¡±

    ¡°Is this not enough to prove ourselves?¡±

    ¡°Sorry, ladies, but a deal¡¯s a deal. Can¡¯t go backing out on those. I said you could go on the mission if you could break into the vault. And you didn¡¯t.¡±

    ¡°But surely you could make an exception?¡±

    ¡°What would the rest of the team think if they knew we could just go back on our commitments like this? The fabric of our organization would crumble!¡±

    ¡°But¡­ what commitment?¡± Myra asked with a touch of confusion. ¡°You said we could go if we made it into the vault. But you never committed to not letting us go if we didn¡¯t make it. So you can just agree to let us go on the missions, and you don¡¯t have to¡­ break your word or whatever.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t even know what that means.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t know what what means?¡±

    ¡°These logical knots you¡¯re tying, they¡¯re all too complicated for me. We try to keep things simple around here. We either remember our commitments, or we don¡¯t. Nothing else to it.¡±

    ¡ô

    Day 27

    The next morning, Shera was strangely absent. Myra started to get worried, but the girl showed up close to lunchtime.

    ¡°Where¡¯ve you been?¡±

    ¡°I took a quick trip back to Ralkenon. There was something I wanted to check, b-but it¡­¡±

    ¡°Yeah?¡±

    ¡°You remember the story about the village that burned down? I know I¡¯ve heard that story before, but it was bothering me because I couldn¡¯t th-think of where¡ªbut then I had a thought!¡± She snapped her fingers. ¡°I used to get this astronomy magazine. It was probably th-the only news I ever read regularly. And the people here had obviously been very serious about the subject, so I think the magazine must have printed a eulogy or something like that¡­ and I¡¯m sure it had the name of the village in it! If we could just find the name, we could use your cool library search spell and dig up more on it¡­¡±

    ¡°Oh.¡± Myra crossed her arms. ¡°You think we can find a copy of this magazine?¡±

    ¡°I thought so! I have a box stuffed full of issues back at my dorm. I went back just to dig through it. That¡¯s why I was gone all night.¡± She shook her head. ¡°I couldn¡¯t find it, though. I double-checked and triple-checked every copy.¡±

    ¡°Maybe we could check the library for an archive.¡±

    ¡°I did¡ªthat¡¯s why I was late getting back. I went to check the library, but I didn¡¯t have any luck there either.¡± She looked off into the distance. ¡°But I¡¯m certain I w-wouldn¡¯t have thrown any out, anyway. I g-guess I was just wrong.¡±

    ¡°Well, it was a good thought,¡± Myra said. She clasped the other girl on the shoulder.

    ¡ô

    At this point, it was no longer possible to find a chaperone and go back to the vault¡ªeverybody at the base was too busy with the looming Ralkenon mission. Officially, the girls were only supposed to go to the vault in groups of three or more, though Myra suspected nobody would actually care if the two of them went on their own¡­

    It didn¡¯t really matter. Myra had already decided there was no progress to be made in the remaining time, and it was better to focus on what they could salvage of the end of the loop.

    Even if they couldn¡¯t go on the mission, they could still learn a lot about it. As literally everybody else in the entire organization was going to be involved, they weren¡¯t exactly tight-lipped about their plans. Supposedly, the murk bogs were purely there to serve as backup security for the Unkmirean king during the summit. That mostly made sense, and it was consistent with the clients being the two generals who were present at the summit meeting.

    There was only logical inconsistency, specifically the objective fact that it was completely false. Myra knew from her own eyes and from Iz¡¯s report that the murk bogs would be doing no such thing on the last night of the loop.

    As for themselves, their only responsibility for the second-to-last day was to double-check any runic equipment that the group was packing, which wasn¡¯t a massive burden since they had spent nearly a month getting things in order. Myra debated with herself on fixing the broken runic wheel that she knew Geel¡¯s team was going to be struggling with. It really wouldn¡¯t have mattered at all, since the group would barely get a chance to use it before the end of the loop, but as a matter of principle, Myra objected to fixing something that would be used to loot her own city. So in the end, she just left it as it was.

    ¡ô

    Day 27 - Night

    The girls plopped down on the edge of the platform for the last full calm night of the loop.

    ¡°A-are you sure you don¡¯t wanna get some sleep?¡± Shera sounded a little concerned.

    ¡°Nah, it¡¯s fine, I mean¡­ every loop we spend the last night trying to figure out what¡¯s up with the sky, so now stargazing with you has become a bit of a loop tradition, and¡­ well, tomorrow night might be hectic. So. Here we are.¡±

    Myra had reluctantly decided she would probably return to Ralkenon for the final night, with or without the murk bogs¡¯ permission. (What were they going to do, fire her?) It was hard to say how the night was going to go, and most worryingly, it wasn¡¯t clear if they would be able to complete one of their sky tests.

    And yeah, that was frustrating. They only got to do those once a month. But on the other hand, they could do that pretty much any loop they wanted to, while chasing down the murk bogs was probably best done this month.

    At any rate, she could at least try to have the usual send-off bonding time. Maybe with a little less pressure.

    ¡°Shera, I¡¯m sorry about what I said earlier.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯d you say earlier?¡±

    ¡°About your¡­ voice.¡±

    ¡°Oh. It¡¯s okay.¡±

    Great! Looks like we¡¯re all patched up.

    The ¡®lightning rod¡¯ plan had fallen kind of flat, in part because the end of the loop approached, everybody got too busy, and their training had to wind down. So in the end, mostly to her relief, she never had a chance to test it out.

    ¡°Myra.¡± She took a deep breath like she were really nervous about whatever she wanted to ask. ¡°D-do you wanna look at constellations with me?¡±

    ¡°Sure! I don¡¯t know anything about constellations.¡±

    ¡°Well, I was thinking about how Unkmire probably has its own constellations, but I don¡¯t know what they are, but they¡¯re probably different. I th-thought we could maybe look for our own, though.¡±

    ¡°Okay, hm.¡±

    It was easy to look at the sky with fresh eyes, if only because Myra already didn¡¯t really know many constellations other than the major ones. She scanned the sky for shapes and lines, waiting for patterns to jump out from the random visual stimuli.

    ¡°That kinda looks like¡­¡± She held her finger up and traced something. ¡°A rune. Mahya.¡±

    ¡°Oh, yeah, I see it.¡± Shera nodded.

    Typical me.

    ¡°What about you? Do you see anything?¡±

    ¡°Umm¡­¡± Shera looked around for a bit. ¡°There¡¯s kinda a crescent there¡­ like a crescent moon¡­ maybe it¡¯s kind of silly to make a moon out of stars, though¡ª¡±

    ¡°Wait, you know what we should do?¡± Myra sat up suddenly. ¡°I think we have a constellation that, like, goes all the way around the sky.¡± She made a sweeping motion with her arm. ¡°360 degrees. Just a long strip that goes all the way around. So you can¡¯t even see the whole thing at once!¡±

    ¡°What would it represent?¡±

    ¡°I dunno. A ribbon or something.¡±

    ¡°It seems hard to find a place where the stars would form a consistent, delineable pattern for such a long stretch.¡±

    ¡°Aw, man. You¡¯re probably right.¡± She laid back down and huffed.

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°Nothing. I just wanted to come up with something big, y¡¯know?¡± She stretched out her hand again. ¡°Something that¡¯d impress you.¡±

    ¡°Impress me?¡±

    ¡°Yeah!¡±

    The other girl looked away, but Myra could see she was holding back a smile, and a soft warmth spread in Myra¡¯s chest.

    We had our ups and downs, but I did manage it after all¡­ the Good Shera Loop.

    ¡°Hey, M-myrabelle.¡±

    Shera leaned over, looking at her. She looked like she had another question.

    ¡°Yeah?¡±

    She took a deep and audible breath. ¡°Would you be my girlfriend?¡±

    Oh.

    Myra wasn¡¯t sure what kind of face she was making, but Shera¡¯s eyes were slowly widening in a kind of realization of what she¡¯d said.

    ¡°Eh, well,¡± Myra said weakly.

    ¡°Uh-uh-uhmmm¡­¡± Shera hit some kind of breaking point and her face gave way to an all-out panic. ¡°I-I j-j-j-just thought¡ª¡±

    ¡°Shera,¡± Myra said sternly. Maybe too sternly. You were supposed to be stern, about this kind of thing? But she regretted the tone immediately. No, why did she think she needed to be stern? ¡°Shera,¡± she tried again. ¡°Time¡¯s going to reset in twenty-four hours.¡±

    ¡°I guess, I th-thought, next loop, you could¡­ explain¡­¡±

    ¡°Explain that we¡¯re dating, but that you don¡¯t remember? Do you think you¡¯d buy that?¡±

    ¡°W-well¡ª¡±

    The girl looked away. Myra sat up. ¡°Do you think I want to have to explain that every month?¡±

    ¡°It was stupid. I got c-caught up.¡± She flinched as if a sudden realization had occurred to her. ¡°Oh no. I-I-I must be so awkward. I must do this every loop, don¡¯t I?¡±

    ¡°¡­ No. You¡¯ve never asked this before.¡±

    ¡°But I probably will. In future loops, I¡¯ll keep¡ªcausing problems and making everything awkward between us¡ªIf I was stupid once, I¡¯ll keep b-being stupid¡ª¡±

    ¡°Shera, it¡¯s¡ªthere¡¯s no problem,¡± she said on damage-control autopilot. ¡°I won¡¯t let it be awkward¡ªI mean, we¡¯re adults.¡± Oh god, I absolutely just said this in a way that implies we¡¯re not adults.

    ¡°Yeah, you¡¯re right. Although, now you¡¯re g-gonna know about my crush every loop and I¡¯ll have no idea¡ª¡± She buried her face in her hands, the unfortunate girl on the wrong side of the undo button.

    ¡°Do you¡­ want me to tell you about it?¡± Myra tried.

    ¡°Uh-uh, no.¡±

    ¡°Are you sure? ¡¯Cause I¡¯ll tell you if you want me to. If you¡¯re worried about the information imbalance or whatever.¡±

    ¡°No, no, no! I don¡¯t wanna know!¡± She waved her hands frantically. ¡°We should just forget all about this. I¡¯ll¡ªI¡¯ll send psychic waves into the future loops telling myself not to ask you out!¡±

    Myra laughed, but she was sure it came out hollow.

    She laid back on the floor, probably because it made it easier to avoid looking at her, and Shera likewise returned to her telescope. Myra sighed, but she tried to do it silently so she wouldn¡¯t be heard.

    Then they were like that for a while.

    Where did this come from? Myra wondered. Is it because we talked about romance the other night? But I ended up making an ass of myself.

    The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

    Still am.

    And once again, she found the end of the loop beckoning. Except, this time, there was a whole twenty-four hours left.

    In the distance, some soldiers were still awake, talking. It sounded like they were moving something. She thought of going to check it out, using it as an excuse to get some space. It would be so transparent, though.

    God damn, I really have to do something about this tonight.

    She sat up again. In her head, she repeated the words one last time. Good Shera Loop.

    Okay.

    ¡°Shera.¡± The girl turned back to her. ¡°I wanna make this promise to you. Every happy memory we make over these loops, I¡¯m going to recreate them with you, once this time loop is over. That way you¡¯ll be able to remember them, too.¡±

    ¡°Okay¡­¡±

    ¡°And that includes this conversation right here.¡± She jabbed at the girl¡¯s forehead. ¡°That¡¯s right. I¡¯m gonna get you to confess, just like you did just now. And then we¡¯ll go on a date. And if I can¡¯t get you to confess, I¡¯ll ask you on a date. I dunno what¡¯ll happen after that! But it¡¯s one date, guaranteed.¡±

    ¡°Oh. O-oh, okay.¡±

    ¡°And that means,¡± she tried to keep the momentum going, ¡°You don¡¯t have to expect anything to be awkward, okay? Because it¡¯s not even like I¡¯m saying no! Mark your calendar, evening of December 4, we¡¯re gonna have a date! And if you ever ask me out in any future loops, I¡¯ll just be like, we already got this covered!¡±

    ¡°Um. About your promise¡­¡±

    ¡°Yeah?¡±

    ¡°Does that also mean we can sit and name constellations together? Will you tell me about your huge ribbon constellation?¡±

    ¡°Of course!¡±

    ¡°And does it mean you¡¯ll¡­¡± Her face turned bright red.

    ¡°I¡¯ll what?¡±

    ¡°Never mind.¡± She turned away, face still bright red.

    ¡°C¡¯monnn, what is it you want me to do? If you don¡¯t tell me, I won¡¯t know to repeat it!¡±

    ¡ô

    Day 28

    Bright and early, the entire organization was on the move. They were coordinated by Geel, who stood near the entrance, waving a clipboard around and speaking at the top of his lungs. At his direction, they emptied out the pantries, the medicine cabinets, and the weapons closets. With the full material resources of the base organized and packed into crate upon crate, the soldiers carried them seven kilometers down the bridge to the train station. It might have been Myra¡¯s imagination, but she could have sworn even her extra-senses felt a little lighter. There was just less stuff around to sense.

    Most soldiers would be traveling by train. (Myra had no idea how the hell they¡¯d be getting across the border, but they presumably had a way.) By mid-morning, they were gone. Geel was the last person to leave, whistling to himself as he strolled over the bridge.

    Then they had the entire platform to themselves.

    They swept the platform from the end-to-end, scouring what little had been left, leaving no stone unturned. They dumped out every personal bag in the barracks from one end to another, knowing well there was no need to put anything back where they left it, and taking full advantage of that fact.

    The mercenaries had taken all essentials with them, and thus they had mostly left personal items. There was too much junk to give the lion¡¯s share more than a cursory glance, so they had to hope anything incriminating or informative would stand out.

    Geel¡¯s area (far at the end) was the one they checked the most carefully. He seemed to have an affection for what Myra called ¡°hand fidget¡± toys¡ªyo-yos, rubber bands, puzzle cubes (all scrambled and unsolved), that kind of thing¡ªbut nothing that really interested them. They turned his pillows and mattress inside out, they tore up the floorboards, but they found nothing.

    Chrisji¡¯s bed was even less interesting, lacking entirely in personal touches. Nesr Wald had a pistol under his pillow.

    ¡°Hey, d-didn¡¯t you say they moved a bed or something?¡±

    ¡°Oh, yeah, I dunno if it was really that important¡­ Look, see, there¡¯s these scrape marks on the floor, all the way to the end¡ª¡±

    ¡°They end at Roc¡¯s bed.¡±

    ¡°Huh. So they do.¡± Myra decided to take another look.

    ¡°I don¡¯t g-get why the scrape marks go under the beds.¡± Shera lay down on the floor so she could get an unobstructed view of the entire floor, and Myra cast a simple lighting spell to illuminate the marks for her. ¡°Right? Like, the beds are in the way of whatever you¡¯re dragging. If you were moving something, you¡¯d obviously just go around them. Unless they moved every bed over by one spot?¡±

    ¡°You wanna check Roc¡¯s stuff again?¡±

    Roc was yet another member with basically nothing of personal significance among his belongings, though (Myra supposed) it was possible that he had simply taken anything important with him. The only thing he had were a pair of empty picture frames, which in a way were worse than nothing, hollow placeholders to put emptiness on display.

    ¡°Hang on, there¡¯s something down here¡­¡± Still on the ground, Shera maneuvered to reach under the bed, towards the back. ¡°It¡¯s caught between the floorboard and the wall.¡±

    It was a pair of glasses. One of the lenses was cracked, and it was covered in a layer of dirt and dust.

    ¡°Roc doesn¡¯t wear glasses, does he?¡±

    Shera shook her head. ¡°Th-these are too small for him anyway. Not many people wear glasses here.¡± She checked the nameplates on the adjacent beds. ¡°I don¡¯t think either of these guys do¡­¡±

    ¡°Well, it looks like these have been here a while.¡±

    ¡°Yeah. It¡¯s p-probably not very important.¡± She dropped the glasses on the bed.

    ¡°Y¡¯know, I think Roc might make glasses, though,¡± Myra said.

    ¡°Really?¡± Shera blinked. ¡°What gives you that idea?¡±

    ¡°He has a load of glassworking equipment stuffed in the back of this workshop,¡± Myra said. ¡°And one of those, whatdya call it, eye chart test things.¡±

    ¡°Huh. G-guess he really is a master of many crafts.¡±

    They did a once-through of most of the buildings, Roc¡¯s workshop included, but there didn¡¯t seem to be much out of place. The platform didn¡¯t actually have very many off-limits places to begin with, so it wasn¡¯t as if the murk bogs¡¯ absence opened up that much ground.

    Shera thought to check one place that Myra had almost forgotten about, a mysterious but nonetheless inconspicuous building. They had seen it on their first tour, and nobody had mentioned it since: the building that was referred to as ¡®The Well.¡¯

    ¡°Oh, what the¡ªdidn¡¯t there used to be a bucket here?¡± Myra scratched her head.

    ¡°There was definitely a bucket here.¡±

    There had been a bucket, and there had been a rope pulley. All of that was gone, save for a bit of the scaffolding that it had been screwed into. ¡°They¡­ took the whole pulley system? Did they pack it for Ralkenon? The fuck?¡±

    ¡°When¡¯s the last time you checked the well?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve been here since the first day,¡± Myra said.

    ¡°So we don¡¯t know when they moved it. But¡ª¡± She pointed to the ground. ¡°These footprints look pretty fresh.¡±

    Indeed, the mud had a cluster of boot indentations, thick and crisply defined. There was also a much larger, circular indentation. ¡°What is this, some kind of container or barrel?¡±

    The Well was mysterious enough. But what was important about the fucking pulley system that they¡¯d need to pack it up?

    ¡°Strange.¡±

    ¡ô

    One last place.

    They broke down the door to Geel¡¯s office and turned the place inside out. They dumped out his drawers, full of writing instruments, carbon copy paper, and yet more hand-fidget toys. They rolled up his rugs, moved his furniture, and checked all the floorboards.

    There was a binder full of personnel documentation. There were about 300 pages total, including both present and past employees. Employees had left for all kinds of reasons¡ªage, ideological differences, death. There were just 118 active employees, including Myra and Shera.

    There was a note clipped on, a reminder from Geel to himself that both girls were due for a significant raise.

    Shera scratched her head. ¡°I¡­ guess we¡¯re doing well?¡±

    ¡°I mean we¡¯re getting fucking scammed right now, look at our salaries compared to anyone else¡ª¡±

    They flipped through every contract in his filing cabinet and learned a bit more about the organization¡¯s usual mode of operation. Jobs like the current one, which involved everybody in the organization, seemed to be relatively rare. Most were small security jobs that took a dozen soldiers each. Most of them even seemed legal.

    They found the contract with the small Briktonese company, the one that Geel said was a front for the government. They had already seen most of the contract from Chrisji, though, so Myra set it aside.

    ¡°Wait, there¡¯s no contract for the Ralkenon job,¡± Myra said. She flipped through everything, looking to see if she missed anything.

    ¡°These are all filed in order. The contract should be at the top.¡±

    ¡°Well, it¡¯s not here.¡±

    Shera bit her lip. ¡°Remember when Chrisji showed us this other contract a week ago? I¡¯m certain there was another f-file on top of it.¡±

    ¡°Wow, uh, I definitely don¡¯t have a memory for that kinda thing,¡± Myra said. ¡°I guess Geel must have brought it with him to Ralkenon? That doesn¡¯t seem that weird.¡±

    ¡°Hey,¡± Shera suggested. ¡°Look at this other contract again.¡±

    ¡°The vault one?¡±

    She nodded. ¡°It¡¯s got a phone number for the Briktonese clients. Do you want to call them?¡±

    That was undoubtedly a good idea. They used the phone from Geel¡¯s office. She received an answer on the second ring, and a man greeted them with a word in an unfamiliar language. ¡°Hello,¡± Myra tried (in Unkmirean).

    ¡°This is Lenda Zii. Who am I speaking with?¡± Also Unkmirean now. Myra was still learning to interpret tone, but she thought it had a touch of caution.

    ¡°Hi, this is Elize Simone. I work for the murk bogs.¡±

    There was a pause. ¡°I see. Pardon my confusion, but we usually expect Dr. Geel Hattuck to call.¡±

    ¡°Yes, we work for Geel Hattuck,¡± Myra said quickly. ¡°We were recently assigned to work on the infiltration for the vault in Krinph. We broke through the, uh, Klein Bottle and got to the gargoyle liar puzzle.¡±

    ¡°Dr. Hattuck has already informed us.¡±

    ¡°Oh! He has?¡±

    ¡°Yes. He informed us two days ago. Our security consultants are already working on the liar¡¯s puzzle, but as we already informed Dr. Hattuck, we believe the puzzle text to be a red herring. Even if the puzzle has a unique solution, there is no guarantee that it identifies the correct door. We don¡¯t have any additional analysis at this time.¡±

    ¡°Ah.¡±

    ¡°Unless you had more to report?¡±

    ¡°Oh, no, no! We actually wanted to ask you, er, if you could tell us more about the vault contents.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s your job to report the contents of the vault.¡±

    ¡°Right, I know, it¡¯s just¡ª¡± She racked her brains for an excuse. She hadn¡¯t quite expected such a straightforward chat, and she was unprepared. ¡°We¡¯re considering more forceful methods for entering the vault. But we¡¯re worried the contents are volatile¡­¡±

    There was another long pause. ¡°I believe we¡¯ve already informed you that we believe the contents of the vault are not volatile at this time.¡±

    ¡°¡®At this time¡¯? What¡¯s that mean?¡±

    ¡°Again, as we¡¯ve informed you, the primary aim of your mission is to confirm or deny our suspicions. By definition, this means we can¡¯t describe the contents of the vault with certainty. Is this a risk you¡¯re unable to take?¡±

    ¡°No, no! The risk, that¡¯s what we do. We¡¯re mercenaries, y¡¯know.¡±

    ¡°Quite right.¡±

    ¡°I was just wondering what ¡®at this time¡¯ meant.¡±

    ¡°Just a moment.¡± There was another very long pause, and Myra could only guess that he was consulting with someone else. Finally, he returned to the phone. ¡°Sorry about the wait. We appreciate your concerns. I¡¯ll say again, all the information we have suggests the contents are not volatile at this time. Furthermore, should the ¡®status¡¯ on this question change, we give our word that we will contact you.¡±

    Ugh, that¡¯s not helpful at all. ¡°Okay, thanks¡­¡±

    ¡°One more thing. Can you ask Dr. Hattuck to speak to us as soon as possible?¡±

    ¡°Oh, uh, yeah. Of course. They¡¯re currently out, but he can call you tomorrow.¡±

    ¡°Thank you. Good day.¡±

    Myra almost put the phone down, but then¡ª

    ¡°Wait,¡± the man on the other end said.

    ¡°Yes?¡±

    Another pause. There was what might have been a sucking in of a breath.

    ¡°The time window is short,¡± he said.

    ¡°What¡¯s that mean?¡±

    ¡°Exactly what it sounds like. That¡¯s all I¡¯ll say. If you¡¯re truly worried about the volatility of what you¡¯ll find in that vault, I would suggest you make haste. Good day.¡±

    Then he hung up.

    ¡°H-how¡¯d it go?¡±

    ¡°I dunno. He was pretty evasive, but he was also¡­ more professional?¡±

    ¡°Is that by normal standards or by Geel¡¯s standards?¡±

    ¡°Uh¡­ Let¡¯s just say he was mostly polite. Anyway, he seemed a little doubtful of me, but he also answered my questions.¡±

    I would suggest you make haste. The last sentence hung in Myra¡¯s mind. How much haste? For Myra, there was only one cutoff that mattered, and it was less than nine hours from now.

    ¡ô

    The problem with going to Ralkenon was that the smoke from the volcano covered the sky, making astronomical experiments impossible. The plan, then, was that Myra would chase down the murk bogs and wring whatever she could out of them, while Shera would radio her the results of the experiment from a distance away. The murk bogs had high-quality radios, so they were mostly optimistic this would work.

    However¡­ Myra had a plan to squeeze out one more data point.

    The astronomy room in the platform underground had a telescope that was meant to be able to see through the planet, intended for full spherical astronomy. It was broken, unfortunately, and Myra had taken a look at it, but she had determined it was unsalvageable.

    However, there was one component that looked operational. It was a component meant to negate the impact of atmospheric interference. It was probably meant for clouds and smog, but if it was powerful enough, it was perfect for what she needed. Most importantly, this particular component was modular, so she could attach it to almost any functional scope.

    So that¡¯s why she entered Ralkenon with a full tripod setup in her bag, and a reference book in the side pocket, bookmarked to the relevant page.

    That was all for later, though. First, she had to deal with the murk bogs.

    And where the hell are they?

    From listening in on all their planning meetings, Myra knew where they were supposed to be. They were supposed to station themselves in a secluded spot between the event hall and the volcano. From there, they would be ¡®on standby¡¯ in case anything threatened the Unkmirean officials.

    By the time Myra reached the spot, around 8 P.M., they were gone.

    There were obvious traces of them. The thick grass had been scrunched, and a modest amount of debris had sloppily been left behind.

    She would have liked to investigate the area in depth, but she was uneasy being so close to campus. There was a particularly strong reason for that, this time. Specifically, she had called Cynthia earlier as part of her now-usual routine, urging her to get to safety, and her friend had mentioned offhand that some ¡®odd people¡¯ were around campus. Upon further questioning, she had learned that they were dressed like northerners, all in warm wooly coats.

    So she gave the abandoned campsite a once-over, then set off quickly for the other location, the forest at the other side of the city, which she knew of only because of her previous loops.

    Myra would have liked to say that with a bit more teleportation skill under her belt, getting around was a bit easier than before. The truth was, she still wasn¡¯t that good at the low-mid-range tricks she¡¯d been doing, and she didn¡¯t want to risk hurting herself again. Between that and the fact that they still weren¡¯t exactly easy to find, it was hours before she finally reached them.

    It was exactly as Iz had described. There was singing and music, very upbeat and accompanied by an in-house woodwind band. There was dancing and shouting and, yes, throwing coins into the air. There was food roasting over campfires, and there was drinking, and there was smoking¡ªa lot of smoking¡ªand there was a grotesque smell that wafted through the air.

    Myra caught up to the camp just as a small team was leaving. Led by Geel, with Nesr Wald and Chrisji and a few other prominent members she recognized. It was the team that intended to loot the city.

    She expected anger, maybe confusion or at least irritation. She certainly didn¡¯t expect the mercenaries¡¯ leader to break out in a grin.

    ¡°If it isn¡¯t our new runecrafter!¡± Geel called out, reaching his arms wide as if to welcome her. ¡°So you¡¯ve joined us after all!¡± He laughed.

    ¡°I¡ªyou¡¯re not mad to see me?¡±

    ¡°Mad? Why should I be mad?¡±

    ¡°You told us we couldn¡¯t come on the mission,¡± Myra said, thrown off enough that she could do nothing but state the obvious.

    ¡°The mission? You want to rob a bank with us? That might be a little¡ª¡±

    ¡°What? No! The¡ªthe big mission! The one for the Unkmirean government! You were supposed to be camped over by the volcano!¡±

    ¡°What mission are you talking about, Myra?¡±

    ¡°The¡ªbig fucking mission! The one that¡¯s gonna propel the murk bogs to new heights, that I¡¯ve been begging to go on! The one that paid out all this money you¡¯re throwing sky high!¡±

    Geel approached her and clasped her on the shoulder. ¡°I don¡¯t know what in the dark floor you¡¯re talking about, Myrabelle. Get some rest, enjoy the party. It¡¯s a new day for the murk bogs!¡±

    And he carried past her without another word, the team following his lead, leaving her to stand stupefied.

    ¡°You fucking¡ª¡±

    She caught up with herself and turned around, but they had already disappeared into the woods. She almost went after them, but she knew it would be futile. Instead, she stormed into the campsite, weaving fluidly through the crowd as it danced to and fro.

    ¡°Obyl! Obyl!¡± She shouted over the music to get his attention.

    ¡°Myrabelle! Welcome!¡± Grinning wide, he held out a pipe for her, which Myra absentmindedly pushed aside. ¡°Obyl, what the fuck happened to the mission?¡±

    ¡°What mission?¡±

    She grabbed his shoulders in frustration. ¡°Why are you here?¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re here for the celebration, of course.¡± The grin never slid off his face. ¡°Join us. Where¡¯s your partner?¡± He held out the pipe again.

    Myra turned away without a response. She continued making her way through the crowd, scanning for anyone else she could get answers from.

    There was at least one person who wasn¡¯t letting loose. Roc was on the edge of the festivities, sitting cross-legged on the ground, hunched over and face down with a pipe in his hand, recognizable only by the long white hair flowing over the top of his head.

    ¡°Roc! What the hell happened to the mission?¡±

    ¡°What mission?¡± He didn¡¯t look up.

    What the fuck?

    Myra hissed in frustration and stormed away. Some distance from the festivities, she set down her bags and pulled out her two-way radio. ¡°Shera, can you hear me?¡±

    Shera responded in the affirmative, though through a lot of static.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know what the fuck¡¯s going on. They all claim there¡¯s no mission with the Unkmirean government, but they¡¯re fucking swimming in the payout¡ª¡±

    ¡°What are they doing?¡±

    ¡°Nothing! They just¡ªthey just keep inviting me to party with them!¡±

    Shera didn¡¯t respond, equally clueless.

    She made her way through the crowd again, looking for anyone or anything that might tell her what was going on. However, the soldiers responded only like Obyl or Roc, pretending they had no idea what she was talking about. Slowly, as she tried to interrogate the crowd, she got swept into it¡ªshe caught on to the overall motion of the dance, comprising a variety of rotating cliques that turned into each other like interlocking gears. She tuned into the repetitive rhythm of the music, and she figured out how to move with the group, and she moved through the crowd with ease, crossing from one circle to the next, each one welcoming her, thrusting food and drink into her arms, then sending her off to the next one.

    She was shaken out of the hypnotic stupor when the volcano blew.

    She wasn¡¯t the only one. There were some oohs and ahs like you¡¯d see at a fireworks show. But the music and dancing didn¡¯t stop, not for more than a moment. She forced her way out of the crowd, back to where she¡¯d placed her bags.

    ¡°Shit!¡± She hurried to set up her telescope. Neutron star, neutron star, where are you¡ª

    She knew she¡¯d gotten distracted. She had to hurry.

    She had to find out if the star would move.

    She was looking for ZK-1034: Shera¡¯s favorite neutron star, a citizen of the swampbear constellation. She had gone through the logic again and again. No matter how she sliced it, the neutron star and its non-chronological supernova couldn¡¯t possibly have anything to do with the time loop.

    And yet, when Shera had cried that the stars had moved, this was probably what she had been looking at. Myra couldn¡¯t be sure¡ªShera had looked at a lot of things that night, moving the scope around constantly. But she had definitely looked at it at one point, that much she knew.

    And anyway, what else was there to try?

    The one star known to be discrepant.

    Smoke and ash covered the sky, blotting out the stars. C¡¯mon, I hope this works¡­

    ¡°I¡¯m looking at Philisifor-9,¡± Shera said over the radio, confirming the star they¡¯d agreed upon earlier.

    ¡°Great, let me know if it moves.¡±

    To Myra¡¯s relief, the plan worked, and she was able to see the neutron star, even through the ash. They were all set up to collect two fresh new data points.

    The clock ticked down.

    She watched with despair in her heart as the murk bogs continued to laugh and be merry as lava splashed through her city not too far away. Every one of them, Obyl and the others, not a care on their faces¡ª

    There was one who stood out. Roc was even stranger than before. Still separate from the crowd, he had inverted himself, now standing up but with back arched back, face towards the sky, basking in the nightmare. Myra looked back to check the star was still there. She checked her watch. Thirty seconds to go. She looked up again. She almost leaped back. Roc was looking straight at her now, his neck at an angle, his mouth wide open. His eyes, normally soft and distant, now pierced intensely.

    Twenty seconds. The star was still there.

    Fifteen seconds. Myra tried to ignore the old man and put her head back down.

    Ten seconds.

    ¡°You!¡± Roc was lurching towards her, movements stiff and disjointed. ¡°Rune girl!¡±

    Five seconds. Star¡¯s still there.

    ¡°What are you looking at?¡± the blacksmith roared.

    Three seconds. The neutron star disappeared in a blink.

    But through the radio, Shera only said, ¡°Nothing¡¯s changed¡ª¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s all gone!¡± Roc¡¯s massive hands ripped the telescope out of her own, throwing her off balance and bludgeoning her eye. ¡°Extinguished and buried!¡± The loop ended.

 25 - Logic and Rationalization

    Loop 12

    When Myra had discussed the need to collect some data points, she had imagined they¡¯d be like, ¡®the star doesn¡¯t move at all,¡¯ or ¡®the star moves¡¯ or ¡®the star disappears¡¯. Things like that. At the tail end of possibility space, she had imagined like, ¡®the star grows¡¯ or ¡®the star shrinks.¡¯

    But ¡®Roc interrupts her, intuits what she¡¯s looking at, and attacks her in a furious rage¡¯ hadn¡¯t been on her list.

    Where do I even start with this one?

    Hell, what am I even gonna do this loop?

    On one hand, Myra felt like she could probably get more out of the murk bogs with another go at it, now that she had a much better idea what to expect.

    ¡­ But right now, she desperately needed a bit of a breather loop.

    ¡ô

    She went to the cosmology section of the library. The first thing I need to do is figure out if that supernova thing is a printing error or what.

    There were a few different publishers when it came to the sort of exhaustive reference book with the information she needed. The one she¡¯d been using before was called Star Guide, published by Casire Scientific Press, a prolific distributor of textbooks and encyclopedias.

    According to Star Guide, ZK-1034¡¯s supernova should have been visible 8650 days prior to the start of the loop, or about 23 years and 8 months ago; Shera said she had seen it 11 years ago.

    This was the exact same information she had read back in Loop 2. (Of course it was. What, did she expect the book to change from loop to loop? Maybe a part of her had expected that¡­)

    CSP wasn¡¯t the only source available, though. Myra could cross-reference the information in CSP¡¯s Star Guide with some other sources. Maybe she¡¯d find that the CSP book made a mistake. She scanned the shelves for some similar books from other publishers and checked the same information. All of them agreed, though: ZK-1034¡¯s supernova should have been visible 23 years ago, not 11 years ago.

    Maybe I should check an older edition. It still might be the case that all these sources are mistaken for some reason. Even if that¡¯s the case, the editions from before the supernova would surely be different, labeling ZK-1034 as a ¡®normal¡¯ star rather than a neutron star.

    What she wanted to check was a reference from more than 11 years ago. All the books she¡¯d checked so far were recent editions, published between one and four years ago. To her annoyance, there didn¡¯t seem to be much available from earlier. She checked a couple more libraries but didn¡¯t have any more luck. She even tried to book-searching spell but couldn¡¯t find a single book mentioning the star that was older than five years.

    The star ZK-1034 disappears¡ªwell, moves, probably, I probably just zoomed in too much¡ªbut only at the very end of the time loop. All the other stars don¡¯t show any sign of motion. Meanwhile, the historical record for the star disagrees with Shera¡¯s memory, but it seems that this was true before the loop started. What are the fucking chances, the one star that moves in the loop is the one star Shera has an emotional connection to?

    The chances were almost nil, that¡¯s what. Something she believed had to be bunk.

    Calm the fuck down, Myra. There¡¯s got to be a logical explanation here.

    You don¡¯t know that it¡¯s ¡°the one star that moves.¡± You¡¯ve only checked 4 stars. That¡¯s literally 1-in-4. Maybe 25% of all stars move.

    Furthermore, ZK-1034 is the only one we¡¯ve checked in this part of the sky. I¡¯m pretty sure this is the same part of the sky Shera was looking at the first night she saw the stars move. Even if she wasn¡¯t looking at ZK-1034 at the end, I know she was pointed roughly that direction.

    So that had to be it, right?

    It made sense. The sky is under an illusion to prevent people in the time loop from observing the discrepancy. For some reason, the illusion fails right before the loop ends, but only in that one part of the sky.

    But why?

    Maybe the illusion is maintained by a handful of artifacts around the planet? And the one responsible for that part of the sky happens to be in Ralkenon, and gets destroyed?

    That doesn¡¯t explain why the timing with the end of the loop is so tight, only a few seconds apart¡­

    Then again, it wasn¡¯t so tight to be outside the realm of reasonable coincidence. It was unlikely to be so close by chance, but it wasn¡¯t absurdly so. And if it wasn¡¯t a coincidence, what the causation even be¡­? It was pretty doubtful that the illusion failure was the cause of the time loop, but it seemed equally doubtful that the time loop was the cause of the illusion failure.

    Put that aside for now. How¡¯s this fit in with everything else?

    First, Shera¡¯s discrepancy.

    Okay, so.

    This is anticlimactic but¡ª

    It¡¯s gotta be unrelated.

    Right? Shera either misremembers, or there was a data error that just¡­ ended up getting copied everywhere. The fact that all the books had the same wrong information could just be because they all used the same erroneous source. It didn¡¯t mean anything conclusive. Short of any concrete idea how to connect it to the time loop, this was still the only logical explanation.

    Right?

    What else could I be missing?

    Whatever.

    If it turns out that the neutron star really is the only star that moves, I can revisit this.

    Then finally, there was the question of Roc and his reaction, and¡­

    Myra didn¡¯t have even the ghost of a clue on that one.

    ¡ô

    Myra had meant everything she¡¯d said to Shera. But she also knew she couldn¡¯t do another loop that way. I desperately need to find someone else to share the loop with.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    She knew who she wanted. The smartest, most emotionally secure, and highest-intuition individual in her university.

    ¡°Psst. Iz!¡±

    Iz froze where she stood in the hallway and looked around, face scrunched up in confusion.

    She tried again, doing the biggest, most selectively conspicuous ¡°psssst¡± she could muster up. Iz¡¯s eyes finally flickered in the right direction, and she hesitantly walked to Myra¡¯s hiding spot.

    ¡°Myra, is that you?¡±

    ¡°Shh. I¡¯m not here!¡±

    ¡°What you are doing in a janitor¡¯s closet¡­?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m in a time loop. I made a bunch of predictions to prove it,¡± Myra said. She slipped her friend a few sheets of paper through the crack in the door. ¡°Check the newspaper each day.¡±

    ¡°Myra, what the fuck are you¡ª¡±

    ¡°Just check the news for the week, okay? I¡¯ll explain everything later! And don¡¯t tell anyone I was here!¡±

    ¡ô

    Myra realized she didn¡¯t really have to join the murk bogs to investigate the vault. It was a little difficult to do it on her own, but she¡¯d learned all she needed to know by watching Roc closely. On the morning of the second day, she entered the vault in the usual way, made her way past the first few security layers, used the Klein bottle key, and reached the gargoyle liars puzzle.

    She didn¡¯t even remember all the long-ass instructions from the last loop, so the first thing she did was make another copy. She didn¡¯t even understand everything in full. The instructions said she only got 3 questions, but was that like¡­ 3 per day? 3 and then you¡¯re locked out forever? What if she used up the 3 questions and then the actual people who owned the vault couldn¡¯t get in?

    After contemplating the puzzle a bit more and inspecting the gargoyles for some kind of weakness, she screwed around in zero-G a bit (for she had been too embarrassed to do that when Roc had been around) and eventually left. She put everything back where it should have been and teleported back out.

    There had been some risk, in this entire escapade, of running into the murk bogs infiltration team, so she was a little wary of teleporting back to the usual safe house. That was an annoying restriction since it was in a pretty good position for an outgoing teleport. Close by, not too close to get zapped by the redirection rod, and out-of-view. Still, out of an abundance of caution, she landed on a nearby branch instead. It was dark out, and it was far from the well-lit center of the city. Quietly, and watching for passerby, she hopped back to solid ground, or whatever passed for that in an Unkmirean city.

    Her heart almost stopped as someone she hadn¡¯t seen bumped her shoulders. The other person yelped in a youthful, masculine voice, dropping a handful of notebooks.

    Myra was quick to apologize, but the other man didn¡¯t respond at all. He just hurried to pick up the notebooks that had dropped to the floor, barely looking at her. Though it was hard to make him out in the dark, he didn¡¯t look familiar.

    As he scurried off, though, Myra got a funny feeling. What is he doing all the way out here? They were on a public path, but¡­

    ¡°Hey, wait!¡± she called out, impulsively, conjuring some light so she could see better.

    He was lanky, with soft and youthful features, with straight black hair tied back in a pair of braids and glasses. He wore a somewhat shabby Unkmirean mage cloak, had bags under his eyes, and held his books at his side with tense, white knuckles. He seemed to panic when Myra confronted him, and he teleported immediately.

    ¡­

    Who the fuck was that?

    With little else to do, she decided to spent the next week doing some stakeouts. She hung out in the area and watched for anyone interesting or suspicious¡ªboring, but somewhat stress-free, knowing that even if she ran into the murk bogs, they wouldn¡¯t recognize her.

    But still really boring. Almost nothing happened. She never did see the lanky guy again, and though the murk bogs did show up once, it was almost a non-event. On Day 6, a small team¡ªconsisting of Roc, Geel, and one other guy named Perrin from Geel¡¯s core group¡ªentered the safe house where they presumably teleported into the vault. They left a few hours later, looking dissatisfied and irritable.

    ¡ô

    A few days later, she summoned Iz to an obscure cafe a ways off campus. It was a dingy one with small windows and poor lighting, a place that Myra had always avoided because of its dreadful tea and coffee. Cynthia had always claimed to like the burnt parts of their pastries, which she called ¡®crispy¡¯ and ¡®sort of caramelized.¡¯ Myra had always suspected she was doing some kind of bit. Anyway, the location was probably safe from the Bens of the world.

    ¡°Soo¡­ what¡¯d you think?¡± Myra asked hopefully.

    ¡°Well, it was¡­ an impressive trick, whatever it was.¡± Iz sounded pretty unsure of herself, though. ¡°How¡¯d you do it?¡±

    ¡°I thought you¡¯d figure it out by now,¡± Myra said.

    ¡°I have no idea, Myra.¡± She sighed. ¡°Though honestly, I don¡¯t care about this.¡± She handed the predictions list back to Myra. ¡°You disappeared for a whole week! I¡¯m worried about you! Cynthia¡¯s worried about you, Nathan¡¯s¡ªwe all are¡ª¡±

    ¡°Wait, wait, Iz, I need you to let me explain.¡±

    Iz waited.

    ¡°Here¡¯s the thing. I¡¯m in a time loop. I don¡¯t know how it¡¯s happening, but I keep living the same month over and over.¡±

    ¡°Myra, what the hell are you talking about?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ve gotta believe me! I¡¯ve been trying to convince you, but you always think I¡¯m crazy until the end of the loop, all I want is for you to believe me at the beginning¡ª¡±

    ¡°Myra,¡± she said sharply. ¡°I know what happened to you is awful, and we¡¯re here for you.¡±

    ¡°Great, I really need your help!¡±

    ¡°What do you need?¡±

    ¡°Umm. I need you to help me investigate the massacre of the imperial family and a bunch of sages, mainly. I also need help investigating a mercenary group in Unkmire, and I need help escaping the clutches of a rogue time-looping upperclassman and his allies from some northern mountain cult. And¡ª¡±

    She shifted uncomfortably. ¡°Myra, I know you¡¯re just joking around, but it¡¯s kinda weird. C¡¯mon, just tell me how you did the trick¡­¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not a trick! How would it be a trick?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡±

    ¡°Then you should believe me.¡±

    She shook her head. ¡°I¡¯ve been to nonmagic shows before, Myra. They always have these complex illusions that I can barely fathom, and when I was a kid I used to always think ¡®they must have cheated, they must have really used magic,¡¯ but there¡¯s always some kinda trick, right?¡±

    ¡°The Great Yonder was revealed as a hack, wasn¡¯t he? He used actual magic.¡±

    ¡°You know what I mean, Myra. Just because they pull tricks that seem impossible under the given constraints, there¡¯s always some logical explanation in the end, usually subverting some other assumption you don¡¯t know you¡¯re making. Sometimes it¡¯s sleight-of-hand, invisible wire, or whatever, sometimes it¡¯s psychological.¡± She was speaking slowly and deliberating, like she was telling herself a story. ¡°Misdirection, information theory¡­ just straight up leaving things up to chance and having different scripts for different outcomes. So yeah, just because I can¡¯t solve your trick, I¡¯m not going to be convinced you¡¯ve gone back in time.¡±

    Leave it to Iz to logic herself out of trusting her own logic¡ª

    ¡°Iz, can you trust me, like, emotionally, instead of logically?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know what that means, Myra.¡±

    ¡°Look,¡± she took a deep breath. ¡°At the end of the loop, Princess Malazhonerra Raine and her friend Violet Penrilla are going to show up to a campus party. The princess is going to recognize you because she saw you at that puzzle competition in the imperial capital. She¡¯s going to challenge you to a duel, and you¡¯re going to ask for her bloodstone pendant as a reward.¡±

    Iz didn¡¯t interrupt her, listening silently.

    ¡°The princess is going to be really unsettled by this. She¡¯s going to cheat and slash your stomach open with a tunneler. You¡¯ll end up in the infirmary. Then the volcano blows and you die if I don¡¯t convince you to evacuate. And you always do, because it¡¯s easier to convince you at the end of the loop for some reason. But I need to convince you of this earlier in the group because I desperately need your help!¡±

    The bookish girl¡¯s pitiful looks morphed into something else, something sadder and angrier.

    ¡°Myra, this really isn¡¯t fucking funny.¡± She stood up. ¡°I think I know what you meant earlier, now.¡±

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°¡®Trust me logically instead of emotionally¡¯?¡± There was a hitch in her voice. ¡°You might as well say, ¡®Just let me manipulate you.¡¯¡±

    ¡°But¡ªI thought the news predictions were entirely logical!¡± Myra hastily tried to explain, but Iz was already walking away, working to obscure her own face from Myra. ¡°It¡¯s your fault you didn¡¯t believe me!¡±

    ¡ô

    There was no reason to not take the brute force approach. Because fuck this loop.

    She returned to the gargoyle room.

    With a series of carefully planned explosive spells, the kind that she had been trained to not use under any circumstances, she blasted open every single doorway in the room.

    Third row, sixth from the left. That¡¯s where the doorway was. Great!

    Suddenly the entire world changed around her. Not visibly, but rather, the claustrophobia lifted as the bubble of space reconnected to the rest of the world. It was like a click, like fitting a jigsaw piece in place, and she could feel the universe again. Then a shrill alarm blared, and there was a loud bang that was probably the Klein bottle portal system shattering in the next room over, unable to sustain itself outside the simplicity of the isolated space bubble.

    It was only an instant more before she heard soldiers landing on the outside of the tree. She tried to teleport, but the air was thick with a new disruption field, powerful enough to make her nose sting and her eyes tear.

    ¡°Damn it,¡± Myra cursed to herself, and as the police quickly closed in on her, she performed a Time Looper¡¯s Exit and escaped.

 26 - Missing piece

    Loop 13

    How many damn layers are there to this thing?

    The room immediately after the gargoyle room was blocked by a massive combination lock. It was crystalline, taking up the entire wall, consisting of a large number of concentric rings, each with numeric labels all the way around.

    Myra didn¡¯t even have a clue how to proceed. Maybe this was the kind of thing the murk bogs would actually know something about, but she had cut the last loop short, and that was as good an excuse as any to extend her ¡®vacation.¡¯ She would put off going back to that group for at least one more loop.

    She took note of everything worthwhile and exited the vault the way she came.

    Should I try and find that dodgy guy¡­?

    If she recalled correctly, the young man she¡¯d run into last time had showed up a little after dark. That was a few hours from now, so she found an out-of-the-way place to observe. As she had learned doing the same thing in the previous loop, the nice thing about Unkmire was that there were always a lot of trees to hide behind. She set up some extra lights so she¡¯d been able to see after dusk, trying best she could to make it inconspicuous.

    The man showed up at the expected time, looking just as Myra remembered. Lanky, with pitch black, braided hair, notebooks under his arm and a sack over his shoulder. He was paranoid as all hell, stopping every couple of meters to look in every possible direction.

    Come on¡­ just keep walking. You don¡¯t need to have anything to do with the vault¡­ Show me I¡¯m just paranoid¡­

    But Myra¡¯s plea fell on no one¡¯s ears. The anxious man entered the safe house¡ªthe exact same one the murk bogs had used. From inside, he did who-knew-what.

    Damn!

    What the hell? Is this guy with the murk bogs after all? Why¡¯d I never see him? Why¡¯d he go in alone instead of in a group of three?

    Is he a competitor¡­?

    Myra realized she didn¡¯t actually know who owned that safe house. All she knew was that the murk bogs thought it was a good teleport spot.

    The man left the house about half an hour later, still radiating distress and paranoia. He stopped to peer off the edge of one of the city bridges. He stood like that, peering down into the abyss, standing still save for a slight, steady teeter back and forth.

    Well, I¡¯m not going to learn anything just standing here.

    Bravely, Myra made an approach, though she was unsure what she¡¯d do differently than the last time. As she got closer to the man, though, her unease got stronger and stronger as her impression of the man sharpened through myriad details: he was breathing heavily, his face was caked in sweat, and his pupils were dilated behind his glasses which looked like they were about to slip down to his nose.

    Faced with such, whatever opening she¡¯d thrown together in her head was wiped clean away. Instead what slipped out was, ¡°Are you okay?¡±

    He looked at her and opened his mouth. He tried and failed to say ¡®yes.¡¯

    She tried again. ¡°Are you feeling ill?¡±

    ¡°Who are you?¡± His voice was deep but raspy. ¡°What are you doing here?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m just passing by,¡± Myra said quickly, answering nothing. No, actually, she could answer one thing: ¡°My name¡¯s Myrabelle.¡±

    ¡°Thank you, Myrabelle, but I¡¯m fine.¡±

    ¡°You really don¡¯t look fine,¡± she said forcefully. ¡°Could I, uhh¡ª¡± What can I do, what can I do, what ¡°¡ªbuy you something to eat?¡±

    He was taken aback, but his look of annoyance slowly turned to a mild fascination. Finally, he nodded. ¡°A-all right.¡±

    ¡°Is there anywhere you like?¡±

    His face flushed, more than it already was, somehow. ¡°I don¡¯t know the city.¡±

    Myra had to pick, so she just went to a nearby bar that she¡¯d been frequenting, seemingly the only place that was even open this late all the way out on the edge of the city. It was structured like most restaurants in Krinph, on a circular platform surrounding a thick tree. Barely saying a word to each other, they took a table to themselves, and Myra ordered one of the large purple fruits that were growing on her. (She still didn¡¯t know the name of the fruit; she just asked for the ¡®purple fruit,¡¯ and the server knew what she meant but didn¡¯t feel the need to clarify the fruit¡¯s name for future reference or anything.) Her mysterious partner ordered a tomato and leaf sandwich.

    ¡°So,¡± Myra said, ¡°what was your name, again?¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t say,¡± the man said. ¡°But it¡¯s Lukai.¡±

    She belatedly realized they¡¯d been speaking imperial the entire time. His command of the language was excellent.

    ¡°So, Lukai, what troubles you?¡±

    ¡°I just had a bit of a nausea spell,¡± he said bluntly.

    ¡°I think it¡¯s a bit more than that,¡± Myra said, trying to be encouraging.

    He shook his head.

    Myra worried that she had waited too long to be pushy, that he had accepted her invitation in a short window of vulnerability that had since closed.

    ¡°What are you doing in the city? You acted like you weren¡¯t from here.¡±

    ¡°I was just working on a¡­ school assignment.¡± He probably could have left it that, but he didn¡¯t. ¡°A puzzle challenge thing.¡±

    ¡°You like puzzles?¡±

    ¡°Usually.¡± He laughed, but it was hollow. ¡°Right now I¡¯m a bit sick of them.¡±

    ¡°I know the feeling. I hate to say it, but right now I kind of miss doing homework from university. It¡¯s not that I liked doing it, but there was a simple predictability to it, stimulating but always designed to be doable¡­¡± Oh my god, why am I gushing about how great homework is, what the fuck am I talking about? ¡°Uh, not like anything I deal with now.¡±

    ¡°You went to university?¡±

    Was he interested? Intrigued?

    ¡­ Envious?

    ¡°Well, I do. It¡¯s¡­ complicated.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s it like there?¡±

    So Myra got roped into telling him a bit about Ralkenon¡¯s mage curriculum. She described Instructor Yam¡¯s Mastery class and some of the classroom classes, and the excitement of being at the beating heart of research and intellectual pursuit, the activities and the events. As she watched the other man¡¯s expression, she increasingly got the impression it was envy.

    But maybe she was just projecting. After all, she was envious of the earlier Myrabelle, the Myrabelle from before fall break, who didn¡¯t have a care in the world. She regretted letting the conversation go down this road. Eventually, there was a lull while they ate their food.

    ¡°Lukai,¡± she said. ¡°This challenge you¡¯re working on.¡±

    He tensed, and she leaned over to speak in a whisper.

    ¡°You¡¯re breaking into the vault, aren¡¯t you?¡±

    ¡°W-what?¡±

    ¡°Do you know the murk bogs?¡± He flinched in shock, and Myra took an intuitive leap. ¡°Have they been threatening you?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t understand¡ª¡± He cut himself off, and while he didn¡¯t move or speak for a moment, Myra could practically see his thoughts racing at kilometers a minute behind his eyes. ¡°I don¡¯t understand why you would think that,¡± he finally said.

    ¡°Well, I know the murk bogs are trying to get into that vault,¡± Myra explained, ¡°but I know you¡¯re not one of them.¡±

    He looked baffled.You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

    Fuck! Was I way off? I thought I was onto something!

    ¡°Are you working for¡­ Briktone?¡± They must have had other spies involved in the project, right?

    ¡°Are you accusing me of treason?¡±

    ¡°No, no!¡± Myra said quickly. ¡°Look, I want to help!¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re talking about.¡± He looked terrified. Confused and cornered, terrified, but¡­ god, maybe it was her imagination, or just what she wanted to be true, but she was sure something behind those eyes wanted her help. He had agreed to eat with her, after all. And he wasn¡¯t running away.

    ¡°If you tell me what¡¯s going on, I can help,¡± she insisted.

    ¡°It¡¯s nothing to do with that vault,¡± he said. ¡°You¡¯re¡­ not¡­ wrong about that,¡± he said. ¡°But that¡¯s not¡ª¡± He picked up his sandwich, maybe in an effort to stall, but he was shaking so much he could barely even do that. ¡°That¡¯s not something you can help with.¡±

    ¡°I can help with quite a lot.¡± It probably didn¡¯t sound as cool as it did in her head, but it was probably true, objectively. She could probably help with a lot if she had another hundred loops to get good at stuff.

    ¡°No, I mean, it¡¯s not¡ªit¡¯s not the source of my problems. The source of my woes.¡±

    ¡°Oh.¡±

    He nodded.

    ¡°So what is?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re not from around here, right?¡±

    Myra shook her head.

    ¡°You wouldn¡¯t understand it, then.¡±

    ¡°Try me.¡±

    ¡°Imagine¡­ that one day, your life turns upside-down.¡± That¡¯s¡­ easy to imagine. ¡°You lose everything. But when you look back, you wonder what was there to begin with.¡±

    ¡°I do know what you¡¯re talking about!¡± Myra half-stood up and slammed her hand on the table, startling the man slightly. ¡°Sorry¡ª¡± She sat down and collected herself. ¡°I do know what you¡¯re talking about, though¡­ Never mind.¡±

    ¡°No, you can g-go ahead,¡± he said. Maybe he wanted to shift the focus off himself.

    ¡°All right.¡± Well, it couldn¡¯t hurt. She took a deep breath. ¡°A few weeks ago, a family member was¡ª¡± Why am I speaking in vagueries? ¡°¡ªmy father was convicted of a bunch of crimes. And when this happened, you know how it goes, the stages of grief or whatever¡­¡±

    ¡°Stages of grief¡­?¡± He tilted his head.

    ¡°You know, denial, uhh¡­ acceptance, and there¡¯s some in the middle.¡± He continued to look blankly. ¡°Er, never mind. Anyway, at first I was like, my father couldn¡¯t possibly have done all these things, he¡¯s being framed, that kind of thing. But the more and more evidence that came out, I had to acknowledge he really had committed these crimes, but¡ªsorry, I¡¯ll get to the point.¡±

    ¡°Take your time.¡±

    ¡°Well he was tried, it was quick and decisive, and he went to jail. So¡ª¡±

    ¡°A quick trial?¡± He looked suspicious. ¡°Was it a sham?¡±

    ¡°No, the evidence was¡ªit was incontrovertible. And everything, like, business trips and odd times and things like that, they all kinda clicked and made sense. But it was the scale of what he did that was hard for me to process. Because it¡¯s not just something he did once, on a bad day, I mean, he¡¯d been siphoning off money my entire life. Every day as he was raising me, he¡¯d been scheming in the shadows, and¡ªand every time he spoiled me, it was all bought with money that wasn¡¯t rightfully ours, everything was just a lie. And when I found out that he¡¯d emptied out my entire emergency stash, I¡ªI had to face the fact that he¡¯d¡ªhe¡¯d never¡ªloved me at all.¡±

    She wondered if he¡¯d recognize the event. The whole incident had been international news, and it had probably been reported on in Unkmire, but no recognition was apparent on Lukai¡¯s face.

    His face softened, though. ¡°Why do you think that?¡± he asked.

    ¡°Think what?¡±

    ¡°What you just said. That he never loved you. He did something to hurt you, but why does that mean he never loved you?¡±

    ¡°I just said. He took my entire emergency stash.¡±

    ¡°But he set it up in the first place.¡±

    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t know! It was probably for himself the whole time. He probably told me about it as a practical measure or something,¡± she spat. ¡°You know, in case he ever ended up in a jam and needed me to fetch all the treasure to bail him out.¡±

    He frowned. ¡°Do you really think that?¡±

    ¡°I mean¡­ yeah. You know, it¡¯s not just that, for years he¡¯d been paying less and less attention to me, only concerned about grades and careers, and¡ªand for a while I assumed part of that was that I was growing up, I guess. And I was always good at stuff, so I took pride in it myself, so I always felt like, I¡¯m making him proud, not Wow, isn¡¯t he interested in anything else? But now¡ªyou know, I see it all in a different light.¡± She paused. ¡°You think I¡¯m being dramatic.¡±

    ¡°No, I believe you really feel that way,¡± he said. ¡°But I also don¡¯t think you should dismiss his feelings out of hand, either. Do his later actions on this¡­ emergency stash, do they change the fact that he raised you or set it up in the first place?¡±

    Myra looked away.

    ¡°And his interest in your academics¡ªyou said yourself you were proud of it. Are you sure he wasn¡¯t just taking interest in what he thought you liked?¡± Myra didn¡¯t answer. ¡°Sorry. I must be speaking out of turn.¡±

    ¡°No, it¡¯s fine,¡± she said automatically.

    ¡°Well, then, here¡¯s what I think.¡± She still wasn¡¯t looking at him, but she heard what was definitely the deep breath of someone preparing to say something pointed. ¡°At a glance, it sounds like you¡¯ve committed to looking at your own situation in the worst light. Maybe you¡¯re right, the money was never yours, but¡­¡± He spoke softly. ¡°It pains me to see someone dismiss their whole past like that. You have a new perception of your father now, and that¡¯s okay, but to warp everything he did to fit into this new narrative¡­ you see what I mean?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s¡­ something to think about. Thanks.¡±

    Myra looked back, and Lukai was at ease now, his arms resting peacefully on the table and his eyes watching her compassionately. He gave her a very soft smile, while a stray hair blew across his face.

    Attentive and comforting like this, he was in fact kind of cute.

    ¡°So¡­¡± Myra said.

    ¡°Mm.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s going on with you?¡±

    ¡°Oh.¡± And then his voice ran cold, and his face became hard. ¡°No. I told you, you wouldn¡¯t understand?¡±

    ¡°Why not? I¡ª¡±

    ¡°Despite everything you said, you did have the capacity to lose something, after all.¡±

    Um. What¡­?

    ¡°And as I told you, you¡¯re not from around here,¡± he added.

    ¡°Well, uh, you still haven¡¯t really tried to explain it.¡±

    He looked down and to the side, towards the edge of the platform. Myra followed his eyes, but he didn¡¯t seem to be looking at anything in particular.

    ¡°What do you think of the cities here, Myrabelle?¡±

    ¡°Uhh¡­ I got used to ¡¯em. I mean, I¡¯m a mage, so ultimately I¡¯m pretty safe even if I fall, but I can¡¯t imagine living here without that safety net.¡±

    ¡°Well, you don¡¯t have to worry about that.¡± He forced out a hollow smile. ¡°Do you know the statistics? The Cultural Ambassador loves to brag.¡±

    The Cultural Ambassador?

    Wait¡ª

    That man, the High Ambassador Lluruma. A fragment of an encounter, one with a different chilling and disturbing voice, flashed through Myra¡¯s mind. He used to carry the bust in. Larpus IV was a peacemaking hero both to the Unkmirians and to many in the empire, so I initially assumed it was a prop for some rhetorical point or other.

    ¡°Myrabelle?¡±

    ¡°Sorry, I was lost in thought. You said something about the statistics.¡±

    ¡°Right, the statistics.¡± His voice went colder yet, as if all the nervous hesitation itself had slipped out into the abyss, and a chill ran down her spine. ¡°Nobody,¡± he said, ¡°and in fact nothing, has ever fallen off the edge.¡±

    ¡°Er, w-what? That¡¯s impossible to believe.¡± She said that, and she hadn¡¯t even really processed the second part of his claim, thrown off as she was by his change in tone. Just the idea that ¡®nobody¡¯ had ever fallen off the edge was simply out of the realm of possibility. And¡ªwhat the fuck does that have to do with anything?

    ¡°Consider, what price would you have to pay to believe it?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯d have to pay my, uh, common sense?¡±

    He stood up and set a few coins on the table. It was clearly enough to pay for both their meals. ¡°I appreciate you trying to help, Myrabelle, I really do. And I¡¯m sorry about your father¡­ But there¡¯s nothing I can do to explain my current state to you. If there was something to explain, it would be¡ªwell, it would not be.¡±

    What?

    He started to walk away.

    ¡°Wait! Can you tell me about the murk bogs? What are they up to?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know what you mean¡­¡± Just like that, he was jittery and nervous again, as if that whole thing had never happened. He looked genuinely confused. ¡°It seems you¡¯ve already got the gist, don¡¯t you?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m¡­ missing a piece.¡±

    ¡°How about this¡­ come back here tomorrow. If you meet me¡­ I¡¯ll tell you about it then.¡±

    ¡°Oh.¡± Myra blinked. ¡°Oh, okay.¡±

    He teleported away so that Myra couldn¡¯t follow.

    And against his word, he also didn¡¯t show up the next day.

    ¡ô

    She sat at the bar all evening waiting, increasingly feeling like a girl who¡¯d been stood up for a date. She turned over the things the man had said, trying to make sense of his strange point-of-view. but already, his exact words were slipping away, replaced in her memory by whatever she had last wrongly remembered them as.

    Frustrating.

    On a whim, mostly from anxiety to do something, she decided to throw something off the edge of the platform. Feeling stupid about the whole thing, she took a napkin from the bar, found a secluded spot, crumpled it into a ball, and tossed it over the edge. Part of her thought it would strike some invisible barrier or safety net.

    But it just slowly fluttered down into the darkness. It wasn¡¯t impeded, and nobody showed up to arrest Myra for littering.

    Wow, guess I just single-handedly ruined their perfect record, Myra thought to herself wryly.

    Lukai had been unwell when he¡¯d spoken to her, and Myra was inclined not to take much of what he said literally. Still, she was convinced there was something about Unkmirean culture that she was failing to understand.

    She returned to the bar and told the bartender that she¡¯d dropped something over the platform and asked if he knew what to do about it. He said he didn¡¯t know, but suggested she go to the information and citizen services at the city center.

    She went there. The receptionist, though nice, said she couldn¡¯t help. She sent her to the ¡°Foreigner¡¯s Service Center¡± instead.

    The Foreigners¡¯ Service Center told Myra they could retrieve whatever she dropped for a fee (though it was a massive fee).

    That was weird, though. Why had she been sent to a foreigner¡¯s center for what ought to be a general-purpose service?

    She went to another city. This time, she dressed as Unkmirean as she could, and she even practiced an accent before entering.

    Again: go to the Foreigners¡¯ Service Center. (Admittedly, her accent had probably been atrocious, no matter how much she practiced.)

    What the hell? Do Unkmirean citizens really never drop anything?

    She felt stupid going through all this trouble. She was busy researching Unkmirean lost-and-found services of all things, only because it might help her understand some odd guy named Lukai, only because he might hold a clue to whatever the murk bogs are doing, only because they might be related to the time loop. What was she doing?

    ¡ô

    Luckily, the remainder of the loop looked a little brighter. Before leaving campus on the previous day, she¡¯d spoken to Iz and proposed that they go on a vacation. She hadn¡¯t acted like a psycho or made predictions or anything, she had just told Iz that she desperately needed something to make up for her fall break. Iz, then, had hesitantly agreed that she could miss a couple of days of class.

    Myra had wanted to go to Jewel City or Unkmire since those were the productive locations, but Iz wasn¡¯t a fan of Jewel City, and Unkmire was too much of a proposition. So they were going to Iz¡¯s hometown in Miirun. Iz was happy about that, and in fact she had invited Myra there before. Meanwhile, Myra was looking forward to some downtime with a¡­ less complicated friendship, and she was optimistic that the bonding time would give her a chance to make inroads on convincing her to help.

    Even so, Iz wasn¡¯t planning to leave until Friday, sensibly planning a weekend trip to minimize academic disruption. Thus, Myra still had a few days to fill.

 27 - Pulling on threads

    The loop started on Wednesday, and the trip was planned for the second weekend. That gave Myra several days to follow up on miscellaneous leads, while even having an additional opportunity to practice some of her recent skills. For example, now that she could bypass a professional disruption field, she realized she could break into the university office to pull up records on various people of interest.

    Benkoten Talzatta. Model student, near-perfect grades, no harassment complaints. Wonderful.

    Well, okay, to be fair: that was mostly what she had expected. Myra hadn¡¯t yet seen anything to suggest there would be dirt on him from before the loop had started.

    Next: Hachirou Iwasaki, the head of security. His record had the same information she¡¯d learned previously: he used to be in the navy. To Myra¡¯s annoyance, there wasn¡¯t any dirt at all, and everything indicated he had been a competent naval officer and a competent head of security. He¡¯d received several raises since starting, all with letters of support from university administrators and staff, which Myra read. On-campus theft had dropped to near-zero since he upgraded building security at the start of his employment.

    ¡°Mr. Iwasaki has achieved the paradoxical result that campus feels both more open, conducive to free learning, yet simultaneously safer,¡± wrote the president seven years prior. ¡°Since joining, Mr. Iwasaki has kept the university free of major incident or tragedy.¡± The last recommendation and raise was from two years ago, which repeated the claim that he had performed his job admirably and that theft was near-zero.

    Professor Bandine, the elderly woman who leaves town the day of the disaster. Not quite an exemplary record. Lots of complaints about her conduct¡­ Complaints included the fact that her standards were ¡°strict and undocumented¡± and ¡°inconsistent with university rules,¡± and that her disciplinary methods were ¡°unnecessarily humiliating.¡± On the other hand, the professor brought in an extraordinary amount of funding and prestige, so unfortunately, the university was unlikely to enact any kind of pressure for change.

    Anyway¡­ assholes were a dime a dozen. Again, there just wasn¡¯t anything to indicate why she might be wrapped up in this whole thing.

    What about someone who worked in topology? Seemed like a good candidate for subverting the event hall enclosure (no matter what all the spatial manipulation experts said).

    Wait, what about Mio Suzuki? Two time loopers were in her class after all¡ª

    Mio Suzuki was a new professor, so her record was completely empty save her application materials. As an apprentice at the Mituhaka Technical University, she had studied the topology of whales, having switched to the field from marine biology. Her application emphasized potential applications to advanced spatial manipulation, but much of it was speculative at this point¡­

    Now what?

    Hm¡­

    Professor Snailsworth, the old guy who worked on aura distribution. Myra realized that she was, in part, just going through some of the people she¡¯d met in her first loop. But it sort of made sense¡ªshe had gotten wrapped up in this mess, so there was likely something important in her first-loop routine that she hadn¡¯t found yet.

    Anyway, Professor Snailsworth was by far the most controversial guy of the lot. The guy attracted a lot of criticism and death threats the way garbage attracted flies. Though the political context of it went a little over Myra¡¯s head, a lot of interest groups seemed to have very strong opinions on aura distribution. On the other hand, he was even more untouchable than Professor Bandine on account of his connections to the imperial royal family.

    She flipped through the files again, and a particular piece of information caught her eye.

    Oh, I have their addresses, now¡­

    ¡ô

    Iwasaki¡¯s house looked difficult to break into (for obvious reasons). Professor Snailsworth was a rich fuck who lived in a manor with live-in servants and a literal security guard. Those were out.

    Mio Suzuki had a nice apartment, though she had done something to make the space non-Hausdorff, which Myra found extremely uncomfortable. She lived alone, and it seemed she liked to cook, and there was a blackboard in her living room where other people might have had a painting to tie the room together.

    Myra checked the woman¡¯s mail, too. Most mail in the empire these days had tamper-proof seals that could be validated through cryptographic functionality in the Common Library, and Myra didn¡¯t want to break those. Admittedly, it was unlikely anything bad would happen to her even if she did, but there was still an easier way: just teleport the paper out of the envelope and then teleport it back in. (Actually, this was how Myra often opened her own mail, just because opening envelopes cleanly was kind of annoying.) Anyway, Mio Suzuki mostly had mathematicians¡¯ mail: colleagues mailing theorems and proofs back and forth.

    Professor Bandine had a much larger house, but it seemed to be vacant in the middle of the day, and it didn¡¯t have substantial security. It was friendly and wheelchair-accessible, with ramps in the front and back, and a single elevator bridging the two floors. Based on the state of the rooms, it seemed she lived here with her husband and had others, probably relatives, that visited frequently.

    She had a lot of photographs adorning the walls, most of them depicting her either inside or in front of a hospital, standing with a patient. Most of them were black-and-white or highly desaturated. One depicted a smiling man with no left arm and a prosthetic right arm, supporting himself with a single crutch. One depicted a bald woman with scars on the top of her head and a metallic contraption in place of her eyes, but with an extra biological eye in the middle of her forehead. One depicted the professor with her arm around a young, scruffy-looking teenager in a hospital gown, every limb of theirs prostheticized and with thick bandages wrapped around their face. And many others.

    The next hall over had plaques and newspaper clippings of various awards.

    ~

    Moving the Needle Award:

    To Dr. Lana Bandine for her tireless work on safer surgery through semi-autonomous stitching

    ~

    And stuff like that.

    ~

    The Human Efficiency Project Presents:

    OUR BREAKTHROUGH OF THE YEAR AWARD

    To Professor Lana Bandine

    The cardiovascular system represents thousands of grams of biomatter that could be put to better use. Thanks to Professor Bandine¡¯s work on minimal viable prosthetics, this wastage can almost entirely be eliminated¡ª

    ~

    Local surgeon kicks over trolley

    When a significant government official and a poor orphan boy arrived at Halibar Hospital at the same time, both in critical condition, it was quickly determined that the most experienced surgeon, Dr. Lana Bandine, was the only employee capable of saving either, and time was running short. Surprising everyone, the doctor chose to perform double-surgery: Standing between the two stretchers in a stance that onlooking residents would describe as ¡®heroic,¡¯ the ambidextrous doctor devoted each hand to a different life-saving procedure.

    ~

    Someone like that couldn¡¯t possibly be involved, could she?

    If she was, it¡¯d just be depressing¡­

    Myra felt a little bad combing through the woman¡¯s mail, even accounting for how much the woman had pissed her off the one loop she¡¯d apprenticed for her. She tried to focus on that to feel less guilty.

    Amidst all sorts of work-related correspondences, there was an envelope containing six tickets for a cruise on the Ilmanian Ocean. They must have been the tickets for the vacation that the professor had told Myra about many loops ago, the one that began the very last day of the loop.

    The same envelope had a professionally typeset letter from a director at Halibar Hospital, complete with the hospital seal, explaining that in recognition of exemplary service for years yadda yadda yadda, the board had unanimously voted to approve a ¡°gift,¡± and explained that the professor needed to provide some information related to shipping in order to receive it.

    Behind the letter, there was a flyer with information on the vacation, with the words ¡°A well-earned rest!¡± scribbled on top.

    The timing is suspicious, but it could easily be a coincidence. Besides, the tickets are a gift from the hospital, so that means she didn¡¯t even pick the date, right?

    She even checked the seals¡ªthe seal on the envelope and on the letter both validated as being from Halibar Hospital. Still, she couldn¡¯t help but feel like something about this stunk.

    ¡ô

    The next stop was Ealichburgh to snoop into Carmac Sermanol¡¯s house. To her frustration, though, her newfound teleport skills were no help at all.

    Carmac Sermanol was presumably an expert at these sorts of security systems, but still. The murk bogs had taught her the teleportation techniques to break into a high-security government-owned vault. It was extremely concerning that this house in a rustic retiree nowhere village had a higher-grade disruption field than a literal nation-state.

    It only increased Myra¡¯s urgency to get into the damn house. She inspected the door again, more thoroughly this time. Rather than fixating on the lock as she¡¯d done last time (and the lock was still very weird, with all its pins at the same height, making it functional but degenerate in its design) she tried to sense around on the inside. There was something blocking her extra-senses just as there was her teleportation. As a result, she could only ¡®see¡¯ a few centimeters in, and that was probably only because of her personal domain overriding whatever blocking mechanism was in place.

    As centimeters went, though, they were pretty interesting. There was some kind of device that was almost certainly the detonation mechanism, but there wasn¡¯t an obvious way to disable it directly, and it felt like it would trigger at the slightest disturbance. So how was the door meant to be opened?

    There was another device on the back of the door, a slab of silver. That was a good sign: silver meant runes. She could make out a little bit of the structure¡ªthe runes were clearly connecting the door knob to the detonation mechanism. So the high-level picture was obvious: you had to unlock the door the ¡®right¡¯ way to disable the mechanism. Many loops ago, when Myra had unlocked it by moving the pins, that obviously hadn¡¯t been the ¡®right¡¯ way.

    But what was the right way?

    Unfortunately, the runes seemed to be some kind of aural composition that left Myra flummoxed. She kind of recognized it as an element combinator, similar to the one she had built to do the book spell. This one was mixing the ¡®information¡¯ element with the vacuum element, each supplied by a massive aura crystal. What did that mean?

    Yet another thing I need Iz for¡­

    ¡ô

    Myra probably would have left it at that, but there were still a couple of days before the trip. She had little to do, and she had a bit of a whim.

    She went to a locksmith and bought a handful of differently-sized key blanks, which were basically just keys with smooth, straight edges, absent any bitting, thus not yet attuned to a specific lock.

    Her logic was this. In the past, she¡¯d tried to open the door telekinetically, but that hadn¡¯t worked. It seemed likely that the lock was meant to be opened with a key, and that the detonation mechanism would trigger if the lock was subverted via basic telekinetic lockpicking¡ªeven if Myra had no idea how that mechanism actually worked.

    But she didn¡¯t need to understand the mechanism just to try opening the door with a key. Since the pins were lined up at the same height, it seemed like a flat key ought to be able to work.

    Now, she hadn¡¯t measured the lock in advance or anything, she just bought enough key blanks in hopes that at least one would be the right size. She figured she could resize one with magic if she really needed to. So she just tried each key blank in turn, hoping to find one that would fit.

    And one did! One of the ¡®keys¡¯ worked perfectly, and when she did she could feel something on the inside moving. But her heart sank when she felt a little more closely. There were two latches that needed to be undone to deactivate the bomb, and she had managed to undo one.

    Just to make sure she understood it properly, she removed the key from the lock and tried the telekinesis approach, moving the pins that way. This time, nothing on the inside moved.

    That was progress of a sort. She was on the right track¡ªshe just had to open the door ¡®the right away.¡¯ Moving the pins telekinetically wasn¡¯t ¡®the right way,¡¯ but opening the door with a key was. If she could understand how that happened, maybe she could figure out how to fix the second latch¡­

    ¡ô

    ¡°So, neither of you told anyone where we¡¯re going, right?¡±

    ¡°Myra, you¡¯re not gonna serial kill us, are you?¡± Cynthia said.

    ¡°I¡¯m not gonna serial kill you!¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s a serial killer kinda thing to ask us, though,¡± Iz said.

    Yes, it was a weird thing to ask, but Myra remained terrified that Ben would find out where she was going. Until now, her habit had been to randomly pick a small village and tell Cynthia she was going there, knowing that whatever she told Cynthia would be relayed to Nathan, and Nathan was likely to tell Ben if he came asking.

    For this trip, she was in the awkward position that being too insistent about secrecy would look awkward, but if she didn¡¯t insist at all, Cynthia would just tell Nathan as a matter of course.

    Myra¡¯s solution had been to play the ¡®my life is in shambles¡¯ card and give them all something about how she was really embarrassed and didn¡¯t want anyone to know she was having a mental breakdown that required vacation treatment or something. It had been an absolutely dreadful excuse, and Myra was terrified it hadn¡¯t worked and that Cynthia had told Nathan anyway.

    ¡°I just want this vacation to be a secret,¡± Myra said.

    ¡°Well I didn¡¯t tell anyone,¡± Cynthia said, rolling her eyes. ¡°Come onnn, I gave you my word.¡±

    ¡°Okay, okay¡­¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s play a game,¡± Cynthia said, already bored of the train ride.

    ¡°Do you all wanna hear a puzzle?¡± Myra asked.

    ¡°I like puzzles,¡± said Iz. Cynthia pursed her lips.

    ¡°Okay. And this is hypothetical,¡± Myra emphasized. ¡°Just to be clear.¡±

    ¡°I get it, it¡¯s a puzzle. You don¡¯t need to belabor this.¡±

    ¡°Okay, so, 13 people enter a room, and it gets cut off from space¡­¡±

    ¡ô

    Myra didn¡¯t really get much out of portraying the puzzle as she did. Neither Cynthia nor Iz seemed to find anything suspicious about her puzzles or notice the similarities to real-world events, and at the same time, Myra¡¯s abstractions were too divorced from reality for any of their speculation to be meaningful. Eventually, they stopped and played cards instead.

    Iz¡¯s hometown was Kaloru Vizha, translated as Kalo¡¯s Valley, a calm village nestled between tall, lush mountains. The village itself was hilly, with spacious dirt roads that sloped in a mostly downward direction on the hike to Iz¡¯s parents¡¯ apartment, on a small street offshooting from the main market road. Inside, there was a steep, cramped stairwell that had been jammed in against all sense, stairs positioned in a way that only technically worked. Iz had the wisdom of experience to just teleport herself and her luggage up. Cynthia followed suit while Myra, armed with her unfortunately wide trunk, fought against the pathway¡¯s low turn radius.

    ¡°You didn¡¯t really need to double down on that, Myra¡­¡±

    ¡°I just wanted to prove it was possible.¡±

    Iz rolled her eyes but smiled, then turned to her apartment doorway.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    ¡°Mother, I¡¯m home.¡±

    There was the scraping of a chair and quick footsteps. ¡°Oh, Isadora, what a surprise, so soon!¡± Iz¡¯s mother was a squat woman, with short blonde-brown hair that curled reminiscent of Iz¡¯s much longer hair, wearing a very colorful patchwork shawl over much plainer, gray-white robes. ¡°Isn¡¯t school in session?¡± She gasped, and in a clearly joking tone asked, ¡°You didn¡¯t get kicked out, did you?¡±

    ¡°No, Mother, I¡¯m visiting for the weekend. I brought a friend¡ª¡±

    Her mother gasped again, looking first to Myra and then Cynthia. ¡°Oh, you must be Cynthia and Myrabelle!¡± she exclaimed, guessing them correctly as an unordered pair, then pulled both of them into a hug.

    Iz¡¯s mother, Selene, was quick to usher the two inside to feed them, bombarding them with questions about their favorite classes and hobbies and whether Iz had any crushes or budding romances that she didn¡¯t know about. She fed them cheese (delicious) and bread (kind of stale).

    Myra¡¯s eyes were quickly drawn to a large framed portrait by the table. The portrait was of a man and woman, and though it was so lifelike, the object was so uncommon that Myra didn¡¯t know what she was looking at. This was embarrassing because she had just seen them in Professor Bandine¡¯s home, but in fairness, she associated them with rich people and industries, and on top of that, this one was so much more colorful than the ones she had seen in the professor¡¯s house. The blue and brown eyes of the two individuals shone vividly, and behind them, there was an expansive, striking blood-red sunset. At first, she thought it was just a hyper-realistic painting.

    Cynthia said what she was thinking, ¡°Wow, is that a photograph?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s my grandparents¡ªmom¡¯s parents.¡±

    ¡°I was just surprised to see a real photograph here.¡±

    ¡°Well, the camera-leaf is native here,¡± Iz said. ¡°You all always act like they¡¯re so rare in the empire¡­ We could just go for a walk and pick some, right now.¡±

    Iz did that sometimes, using ¡®the empire¡¯ to refer only to its core bloc¡ªHalnya, Casire, and Mituhaka¡ªwhile excluding her home country.

    ¡°It¡¯s probably not the abundance, per se,¡± Myra suggested. ¡°It¡¯s the expertise.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, you¡¯re probably right,¡± Iz agreed. ¡°You can probably find four or five professional photographers on this street. The imperial government just wants camera-leaves for their cheap newspaper photographs. It probably doesn¡¯t occur to them to invest in¡­ this sort of art. Not Miirunian art, anyway.¡±

    ¡ô

    They eventually escaped Iz¡¯s doting mother, and Iz showed the pair to her room on the upper floor of the apartment. (The apartment as a whole turned out to be much more spacious than the building entrance area had suggested. Iz pointed out that this was just efficient building design.)

    Anyway, Iz¡¯s room was highly on-brand, the back wall stuffed from floor to ceiling with books on every topic imaginable: magic, engineering, mathematics, history, geography. On the side of the bookshelf, there was a hand-written yet entirely alphabetized index annotating various subjects with books and page numbers.

    ¡°Oh my god, Iz, how much work was this?¡± Cynthia asked.

    Iz squirmed. ¡°I didn¡¯t like the idea of reading something and not being able to find it later. So, uh¡­¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s so cute! What are these arrows for?¡± she asked. She pointed to the arrows inked on the side of the parchment.

    ¡°It lets me move the text down,¡± Iz said. ¡°When I need to insert something into the list, since I need to keep it alphabetized. I used to just replace the pages wholesale, and that was dreadful¡­¡±

    Myra burst out laughing while the others looked at her in confusion. ¡°Oh, man, Iz, I know a spell you¡¯re gonna love.¡±

    She quirked an eyebrow.

    ¡°Y¡¯know that fancy aura composition class you¡¯re taking?¡±

    ¡°Fancy? Oh, you¡¯re talking about the book-searching spell.¡±

    ¡°Yeah! You learned it already?¡±

    ¡°Day before I left¡ªhow did you know about it?¡± She looked at Myra suspiciously.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about that,¡± Myra said slyly.

    Iz looked at her painstakingly crafted personal book index with a look of faint dejectedness. ¡°Yeah, I guess I don¡¯t really need this anymore.¡±

    ¡°Aw, Izzy, I think it¡¯s great!¡± Cynthia patted her on the back.

    They didn¡¯t stay in the room long after that, only quickly changing out of their travel clothes.

    Out in the city, Iz took them to see her old school, which was out of session for the evening but hosted a dozen and a half kids playing some sport in the field out back. She took them to the town square, with its central attraction of an outdoor theater surrounded by cafes and street vendors.

    Iz took them underground, where there was a massive transportation cart system connected to other major cities in Miirun and even a few in neighboring countries. Her parents had met while working here, her father maintaining some of the equipment and her mother working in sorting.

    The main room contained a massive system of interconnected tracks that weaved in and out of junctions, through loading docks, and into pitch-black tunnels.

    ¡°Can we ride in the carts?¡± Cynthia asked.

    ¡°You can,¡± Iz said. ¡°By which I mean it¡¯s physically possible, not that it¡¯s allowed. It¡¯s also terrifying, though. It¡¯s pitch dark in there.¡±

    ¡°That means you¡¯ve done it?¡± Cynthia asked.

    ¡°Mmm¡­ well¡­¡± She put her hands behind her back and grinned sheepishly.

    ¡°Y¡¯know, I think you told me about this place,¡± Myra said. ¡°Didn¡¯t it get shut down when Miirun lost access to the Common Library?¡±

    Iz frowned, her stature hardening. ¡°I don¡¯t remember telling you that.¡±

    ¡°Uhh¡­ you did!¡±

    Iz closed her eyes for a moment. ¡°Yeah, that did happen. That was when the empire was doing everything it could to squash the independence movement. It almost destroyed the country. Food couldn¡¯t get to the big cities¡­¡±

    ¡°Sorry, I shouldn¡¯t have brought it up.¡±

    ¡°Did I tell you that¡¯s how I got started in logokinesis?¡±

    ¡°I think so.¡±

    She walked down one of the tunnels, beckoning the pair to follow her. ¡°Let me see if it¡¯s still here¡­¡±

    She located a runic wall with some kind of graphical structure. It was crudely drawn but with a touch of (and Myra didn¡¯t want to say this out loud) whimsy in the way the parts were arranged and connected to each other. Professional rune scripts had an austere quality to them, packed so efficiently, that this lacked. The one here reminded her in a way of the murk bogs¡¯ bridge.

    ¡°I made this part here. The whole system is planned through a series of network flow algorithms that balance things so they can get where they need to go without it all getting clogged up. When Miirun originally made these tunnels, they used a mathematical framework that had originally been developed for the Common Library in Gurr, I believe.¡±

    ¡°Gurr? Isn¡¯t that on the other side of the planet?¡± Cynthia asked.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Iz said wistfully. ¡°They can¡¯t make those kinds of contributions anymore, of course¡­ Anyway, I rebuilt some of it here. Looks like they still use parts of it.¡±

    ¡°Man, you must have been, what¡ªfourteen? fifteen?¡±

    ¡°Fourteen, yeah.¡±

    ¡°God, you never cease to impress me, Iz.¡±

    She scratched the back of her ear. ¡°I just thought about how the tunnel network could be modeled and solved it the obvious way.¡±

    ¡°You make it sound so easy.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, honestly it wasn¡¯t hard,¡± she said in her characteristic self-dismissive tone. ¡°I just did it ¡¯cause it had to be done.¡±

    ¡°Oh, come on, Iz, I know you don¡¯t like compliments, but you should be proud of this kind of work!¡±

    ¡°Yeah!¡± Cynthia agreed cheerfully.

    ¡°People always say things like this. But honestly¡­ I think they¡¯re just covering their asses. Look at it objectively. They needed a fourteen-year-old to bail them out! They went and heaped all this praise on me so they could tell themselves it was hard, so they could excuse themselves for not fixing the mess earlier.¡±

    ¡°Sorry, I¡ªI shouldn¡¯t have said anything¡ª¡±

    She shook her head. ¡°You¡¯re fine, Myra. It¡¯s just bad memories. I get so upset when I remember how Miirun¡¯s leaders let things get so bad. When they let so much crucial crap rely on the Common Library when anyone could see that Raine might have a fucking hissy fit and yank the thing any day¡­¡±

    She let out a long, long sigh. ¡°I didn¡¯t come here to reminisce, though.¡±

    ¡°Did you come here to ride in the carts?¡± Cynthia asked.

    Iz stretched her arms out high above her head. ¡°¡­ Maybe.¡±

    ¡ô

    Myra was relieved to move the conversation on from the traumatic conversation she had accidentally stumbled into. She was then even more relieved when they were finished with their cart ride. Objectively, the experience was one of the least dangerous things Myra had done since the time loop had begun. Subjectively, she did not enjoy velocity in the dark as much as Cynthia seemed to.

    When they returned outside, it was approaching dusk, and the peaks of the surrounding mountains were softly glowing.

    ¡°Oh my god,¡± Cynthia blurted out. ¡°What is that? Are those all camera leaves?¡±

    ¡°No, they¡¯re lantern trees,¡± Iz said. ¡°A lot of people get them mixed up, but they¡¯re actually an ecological symbiote with camera-leaves.¡± And Iz launched into a long explanation about it, which Myra enjoyed, leaving the previous anxieties forgotten.

    They returned to Iz¡¯s home and met her father, who was now home. He was a large, jovial guy with a bushy beard and thick wrinkles in his dark tanned skin. They all had dinner, and then they set up camp in Iz¡¯s room, laying out a couple of cots and changing into their pajamas.

    As far as the plan went, Myra decided it was time to kick things up a notch.

    ¡°Hey, Iz,¡± Myra started, pulling a small object out of her luggage. ¡°I¡¯ve got a book that¡¯s uh¡ªI don¡¯t know what to make of it. I thought you might have some strong thoughts about it.¡±

    ¡°Oh?¡±

    Myra was referring to the beaver journal, which she had taken the time to fetch. She handed the journal to Iz, who first looked over the ancient cover and binding with a look of admiration. The smile slipped off her face nearly immediately when she opened it to read, and Myra could probably guess the exact word she was reading when her eyes darkened.

    It didn¡¯t take long for her to read the whole thing. When she was done, she closed it slowly and handed it back to Myra.

    ¡°Where the hell did you get this?¡±

    ¡°I kinda stumbled upon it in Emmett Massiel¡¯s house.¡±

    ¡°¡­ And why were you stumbling around in Emmett Massiel¡¯s house?¡±

    ¡°Eh, can I talk about that later?¡±

    ¡°Myra, you can¡¯t drop this on me and then brush it under the rug.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± Cynthia asked, joining in on the conversation. ¡°What¡¯s in the book?¡± Iz handed it to her to read through, then looked back to Myra.

    ¡°I¡¯ll tell you where I got it later, I promise.¡±

    Iz didn¡¯t look happy about that, but what was Myra supposed to do? She couldn¡¯t talk about the time loop. She hoped that bringing up the journal hadn¡¯t been a mistake.

    ¡°Have you heard of this beaver dam before?¡± Myra asked.

    ¡°No¡­¡± She looked puzzled about that too. ¡°Does this have anything to do with your sudden interest in visiting Miirun?¡±

    ¡°Oh, no, not at all!¡± Myra said hastily but honestly. ¡°I just thought it¡¯d be something fun we could look into here. I mean, if you¡¯ve never heard of it, it could be some lost history or something.¡±

    ¡°Myra, is there something going on you¡¯re not telling us?¡± She adjusted her glasses and squinted.

    ¡°No,¡± she lied.

    ¡°All right¡­¡±

    Myra could see the gears turning in her head, though.

    ¡ô

    The gears were fast and well-oiled.

    Someone shook Myra awake early in the morning. So early it was basically the middle of the night, but she would retroactively reconsider it to be ¡®early morning¡¯ a few hours later, after coming to terms with the fact that she wouldn¡¯t be going back to sleep.

    She was sleeping on the floor in a cot between Cynthia and Iz¡¯s bed. The person waking her up was Iz, leaning down from her bed, twisting all her blankets around so she could bend her torso off the edge.

    ¡°Myra.¡±

    ¡°Yeah?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve been thinking. That hypothetical time loop puzzle from last night¡­ it¡¯s not hypothetical, is it?¡±

    ¡°You¡ªyou believe me?¡±

    ¡°No¡­¡± she said slowly. ¡°You told me it was hypothetical. And I don¡¯t believe it was.¡±

    ¡°Uh, right.¡± Myra flipped her brain around to make sense of that. ¡°But like, you believe the time loop is real?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, sure.¡±

    Myra nearly strangled her with a hug. ¡°Oh, thank you thank you thank you¡ª¡± Cynthia grunted in her sleep from the other end of the room.

    ¡°Why didn¡¯t you tell me earlier?¡± Iz asked. ¡°Why the whole guessing game?¡±

    ¡°You never believe me! I was trying to be coy.¡±

    Iz blinked, barely visible in the dark bedroom. ¡°What? Why not?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know! I mean, sometimes you believe me, but only at the end of the loop! All the stuff with the, empire, I guess, happens, and you kinda just work out that I¡¯m acting weird¡ªyou¡¯ve done it a few times.¡±

    ¡°What empire stuff?¡±

    ¡°Oh, I guess I haven¡¯t told you yet¡ª¡±

    ¡°And can you let go of me for a sec?¡±

    ¡°Oh.¡± Iz was clearly suffering in Myra¡¯s tight embrace, twisting her from what was already a very awkward slanted position. Myra let her worm out, and Iz positioned herself to get a better look at Myra¡¯s face.

    ¡°Myra, you look like you¡¯re about to cry.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m just so happy you believe me!¡±

    ¡°I told you, I didn¡¯t believe you. That¡¯s why we¡¯re having this conversation now.¡±

    ¡°The thing is just, if I just outright tell you, you¡¯re all like, ¡®no, logic is officially impossible now. I can never believe anything ever again.¡¯¡±

    ¡°What¡­?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know!¡± Myra told her again.

    ¡°But you make it so obvious¡­¡±

    ¡°I mean. It¡¯s kinda unbelievable.¡±

    She heaved a sigh. ¡°Never mind,¡± she said, though she still looked a little distressed about it. ¡°Let¡¯s just talk about the facts.¡±

    ¡ô

    Many facts were talked about, then opinions.

    ¡°I think Emmett Massiel¡¯s murder is the easiest,¡± Iz said. ¡°Someone, whoever has control of the loop, did something to him so that he¡¯d always die at the beginning. I want to say¡­ some kind of mental compulsion, causing him to cast this laser suicide spell on himself, but I¡¯ve never heard of such a thing¡­¡±

    They had snuck out of the bedroom and taken over one of the walls in the living room, filling it with notecards. There were four main columns: ¡®Massacre,¡¯ ¡®Crater Death,¡¯ ¡®Laser Death,¡¯ and ¡®Murk Bogs are Weird.¡¯

    ¡°How¡¯d the culprit manage to give him a mental compulsion in the first second of the loop?¡± Myra asked, not following the idea at all. ¡°And why do it that way?¡±

    ¡°Oh,¡± Iz said, realizing she¡¯d leapt too far ahead. ¡°What I¡¯m suggesting is that Massiel is himself a time looper, but the villain has¡­ sabotaged him. Think about it, what¡¯s the one thing that preserves itself when you loop back?¡±

    ¡°My¡­ brain. That¡¯s why you suggested a mental compulsion. It would actually remain in the loop, even when the rest of his body puts himself back together, so¡ª¡±

    ¡°Exactly.¡±

    ¡°But I¡¯ve never heard of such a¡­ compulsion before.¡±

    She shrugged. ¡°I¡¯ve never heard of a time loop before.¡±

    ¡°All right, but¡ª¡±

    ¡°No, I know what you mean.¡± She sighed. ¡°It¡¯s best not to imagine two impossible things. I have heard of drugs that overstimulate your aura terminals and cause you to lose control of your own magic. But that¡¯s too unpredictable. On the off chance such a thing were used, it would mean Massiel¡¯s situation is unintended¡­ Well, I guess it could be unintended. But would it be so repeatable¡­?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve tried drugging myself, but the effects don¡¯t go back in time.¡±

    Iz blinked. ¡°Oh. Well, never mind, then.¡±

    ¡°Wait, what about this¡ª¡± Myra snapped her fingers. ¡°We¡¯re hung up on why he dies the first second of the loop, right? But what if causality is reversed? What if he died for unrelated reasons, and then the person who initiated the loop intentionally chose his time of death as the loop-back time? Eh?¡±

    ¡°Why¡­ would they do that?¡±

    ¡°I dunno.¡±

    ¡°Well, uh. Let¡¯s throw it in the theory pot, then.¡± She made a notecard for it and hung it on the wall, far from eye level. ¡°Just to be clear, there¡¯s more reasons to think Emmett Massiel might be a time looper, or at least know something about the time loop. After all, the time loop might be tied to the Common Library, like you said, and Emmett Massiel knew more about the Common Library than anybody else on the planet.¡±

    That made sense.

    ¡°And¡­ Can I see the journal again?¡±

    ¡°Sure.¡± Myra handed it over, and the girl reread it twice in completion.

    ¡°We should look into this,¡± Iz finally said.

    ¡°You think it has to do with the time loop?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s a hunch.¡± Iz bit her lip. ¡°You were the one who brought it.¡±

    ¡°I thought it would help me convince you about the loop, but I mean, at best it would help us figure out how his weird security system works, and I don¡¯t know if that will really help with solving the case, so¡­ I didn¡¯t think it was a great use of time.¡±

    Iz sighed. ¡°Myra.¡±

    ¡°Yeah?¡±

    ¡°At ¡®best,¡¯ it could bring to light lost history about one of the most powerful persons in the history of our planet. I¡¯ve read a number of biographies of the emperor, and none of them mentioned anything like this. The emperor must have worked very hard to shove this out of sight, and there¡¯s probably a reason. And I mean, look at what they¡¯re talking about here, at the beginning¡ª¡± She was probably referring to Massiel¡¯s depiction of Raine¡¯s opinions on the Common Library.

    ¡°No, I get that!¡± Myra said. ¡°I just didn¡¯t think it had to do with the time loop.¡±

    ¡°I know right now it¡¯s hard for you to look beyond the month, but¡ªy¡¯know.¡±

    ¡°Hey, I don¡¯t mind looking into it!¡± Myra said quickly, and slightly hurt by the implication that she had tunnel vision. ¡°I mean, I did bring it.¡±

    Iz smiled. ¡°You were right that I¡¯d be interested in this. I am very interested. How about this? My condition for helping you¡­ is that we look into this. Whether or not it turns out to have anything to do with the time loop.¡±

    ¡°Deal!¡±

    It was at that point the door to Iz¡¯s room opened and Cynthia lumbered out. She took a good long look at the wall of notecards, scratched her head, then walked to the kitchen.

    ¡ô

    Cynthia thought Myra and Iz were doing some kind of bit. This wasn¡¯t a surprise¡ªjust a disappointment¡ªto Myra, but it had the silver lining that Iz would now get to know what it felt like to be disbelieved.

    Anyway, it was easy enough to motivate an investigation into the beaver dam, so the three of them began to work on that together.

    There was nothing in Iz¡¯s atlas, so they went to the town library (where Iz was very well-known by the friendly old librarian) and they didn¡¯t have anything on it either. They tried to cast the book-search spell, but as always, they found they would have to wait for nightfall when they could access the abundant information aura in the astral channel.

    ¡°Can¡¯t we just get an aura crystal?¡± Cynthia asked.

    ¡°The element¡¯s too rarely used,¡± Iz said. ¡°It isn¡¯t even officially used yet, I don¡¯t know where you¡¯d get an aura crystal outside a specialty store.¡± Something itched at Myra¡¯s brain, but it slipped away when Iz directed them to their next destination.

    Iz led them to the wilderness guild. This was a place Myra didn¡¯t expect her friend to be quite as well-known as she was at the library. Myra was wrong.

    The guild headquarters was on the edge of the city, bordering the woodlands. It was a large log building surrounded by an enormous, overgrown garden. Iz walked right on it to the sight of a large gathering, men and women sitting around a table with mugs of alcohol and dark drink stains.

    ¡°If it ain¡¯t our little Isadora!¡± the person closest to the door shouted, a large man with scraggly brown hair, a thick beard, and no less than three scars across his face. ¡°We was just talking about ya! Have a beer!¡±

    There were some greetings and cheers from the rest of the crowd, and he thrust a mug into her hands, and she managed to take it into hands without spilling overmuch.

    ¡°Sanna ¡¯ere¡¯s gone and ripped up that tent o¡¯ yours,¡± said the woman next to him, slapping him on the shoulder. ¡°We need your magic touch ta fix it right up.¡±

    Iz frowned. ¡°I just fixed it a couple weeks ago¡­¡±

    ¡°Can I have a beer?¡± Cynthia asked.

    ¡°Ya know me,¡± the large man continued, as he obliged Cynthia. ¡°I can never keep track o¡¯ the moon, can I? Ha ha ha! Coulda sworn we had a full one last month!¡±

    ¡°We have a full moon every month,¡± Iz said flatly. ¡°Technically two, if you count Altina.¡±

    He banged a fist on the table, nearly knocking over a beer or two. ¡°That explains it!¡± While the entire table burst into uproarious laughter.

    Iz looked to the far wall, where there was a large, dark blue tarp that looked like it had been shredded by a wild animal. There were tent poles leaning on the wall next to it, one of them having been snapped in half. There were also some runes etched in with thread.

    ¡°W-what happened here?¡± Myra asked.

    ¡°I designed them a tent that¡¯s bigger on the inside,¡± Iz explained. ¡°Pretty basic space magic, works really well at night. Figured it was a great application for a tent.¡± She brushed her fingers along the tarp, inspecting the damage.

    ¡°What kinda predator did this?¡± Myra asked.

    ¡°Ya gonna introduce us to your friends, there, Izzy?¡±

    Iz turned back to the large group. ¡°Ah, everyone, these are my friends from school, Myrabelle and Cynthia¡­ And for you two, this is the wilderness guild, or at least the ones of them that like to have more pints than brain cells.¡± Though as she said this, she took a drink of the pint they had thrust into her hands earlier.

    ¡°Ya wound us, Izzy!¡± Sanna held a fist to his chest in mock agony.

    ¡°Sanna¡¯s a werewolf,¡± Iz explained for the girls¡¯ sake, ¡°if you hadn¡¯t worked that out.¡±

    He bared his teeth. He had human teeth befitting his present human form, but the expression still made him very wolflike.

    ¡°Nice to meet you all,¡± Myra said, doing a short curtsy.

    ¡°I¡¯ll fix the tent again,¡± Iz said, ¡°but we need help with something. Do any of you know about a massive beaver dam somewhere in the wetlands?¡±

    ¡°Ya mean that pond down the old rust road?¡±

    ¡°No, uh, much bigger than that. How big was it¡­?¡±

    ¡°Like two kilometers,¡± Myra said.

    ¡°Yeah, and there was some kinda expedition there some sixty years ago,¡± Iz added.

    The group all looked at each other with searching expressions. ¡°No idea. But y¡¯know, somethin¡¯ that long ago, you¡¯d best ask Old Hat. He¡¯s probably out by the gardens.¡±

    Iz led the girls out to the gardens, where they found an elderly guy hunched over a patch of root vegetables with a trowel, the majority of his body obscured by a beige, wide-brimmed hat.

    ¡°Old Hat!¡±

    ¡°Well, if it isn¡¯t young Isadora,¡± the man called back in a stretched, nasally voice, not looking up from the vegetables whatsoever. He poked at the ground with his trowel, contemplative but noncommittal. ¡°What brings you here today?¡±

    Iz explained the situation yet again.

    ¡°A large beaver dam¡­ a damn large beaver dam¡­ The damnest beaver to ever leave ¡¯er¡­¡± He muttered on, wandering increasingly far from the subject. ¡°A dam what damns Beavis to hell¡­ Can¡¯t say I know of anything like that.¡± But then in direct contradiction, he continued, ¡°But you know. Back when I was a young¡¯un, there was a rumor like that. A large beaver dam.¡±

 28 - Pulling on threads II

    ¡°It was only a rumor,¡± he said, looking up just a bit from where he was crouched, though not quite enough they could properly make out a face under his hat. ¡°I don¡¯t know who started it. Seemed like everyone an¡¯ their cat had a friend of a friend who¡¯d been there and seen it personally.¡± He waved his hand.

    ¡°Do you know where it was?¡±

    ¡°Oh yeah, yeah,¡± he said. ¡°The location was the only thing consistent in all those fanciful tales. It was¡ªI¡¯ll show ya.¡±

    He turned away from his garden and hobbled towards the building, one careful and excruciatingly long step at a time.

    ¡°So everyone an¡¯ their cat was gearing up for an official expedition,¡± he went on. ¡°The team down at Blurja was gettin¡¯ ready to go. And there was this other bigshot group¡ªthey were the first.¡±

    ¡°When you say ¡®bigshot¡¯¡­¡±

    ¡°Big famous explorer outta Halnya, or whatever it was called back then.¡±

    ¡°It was called Halnya.¡±

    ¡°He was a big deal, had a buncha fans even over here. His name was¡­ bah, I don¡¯ remember.¡± He hummed to himself as they entered the building, a process that took several minutes. He dug around on one of the shelves, pulled out a large scroll, set it on the table, and let it roll out on its own.

    ¡°There!¡±

    He jammed a finger onto the map, far from any of the labeled cities.

    ¡°It was here!¡±

    ¡°Is that even in Miirun?¡± Myra asked. To say it was in the middle of nowhere was an understatement. It was at the farthest end of nowhere.

    ¡°Yeah it is,¡± said Iz. ¡°Old Hat, how sure are you about this spot? You said it was decades ago, right?¡±

    ¡°My memory¡¯s sharp as ever,¡± he rasped out. ¡°I know it was here because I remember it was behind the Snake Belt. That¡¯s why it was practically impossible to get out there.¡±

    ¡°Couldn¡¯t they just teleport?¡± Myra asked. ¡°Past the Snake Belt,¡± I mean.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think anybody knew how to teleport that far back then,¡± Iz reminded her. ¡°This was sixty years ago.¡±

    ¡°Right¡­ never mind.¡±

    ¡°Teleporting¡¯s not in the nature of an explorer,¡± Old Hat said, as if Iz¡¯s explanation was just irrelevant. ¡°The nature of an explorer is to experience nature itself. Even if that means walking through the Snake Belt.¡± He coughed.

    ¡°So the bigshot,¡± Iz asked, ¡°do you know if he ever made it?¡±

    ¡°I remember him! Whole lot of ¡¯em came through that canteen by the¡ª¡± He waved his hand towards nowhere. ¡°¡ªthat one village I was at back in the day.¡±

    ¡°Fulka,¡± Iz added helpfully.

    ¡°Fulka! That was it. Anyway, I remember the leader well! Real sturdy looking guy, charismatic, too. I remember his team was starstruck, hangin¡¯ off his every word.¡± He coughed again. ¡°And I remember when they came back,¡± he said. ¡°Passed back right the way they came.¡±

    ¡°Did they¡­ say anything about what they found?¡±

    ¡°Nah, they said they didn¡¯t find anything.¡±

    Myra and Iz looked at each other.

    ¡°Came back real harrowed though.¡± The old guy wheezed with laughter. ¡°Guess the Snake Belt really sunk its teeth in ¡¯em! I dunno what became of ¡¯em after that. Hear the man left the business for¡­ politics or somethin¡¯.¡±

    ¡°And nobody else tried to find it after that?¡± Iz asked.

    ¡°Nah, of course they did, the Blurja group went after that.¡± He shook his head. ¡°And they said it wasn¡¯t there either. They said they found uh¡­¡± He trailed off. ¡°They found a¡­ don¡¯t remember. That group found a lotta things over the years. My memory¡¯s not as sharp as it used to be, you understand.¡±

    ¡°Any chance we could talk to this Blurja group?¡± Myra asked.

    ¡°Talk to the¡­ nah, ¡¯fraid not, missy. Big Coat was the last of ¡¯em, and he passed away ¡¯bout a decade ago.¡±

    ¡°Damn,¡± Myra said. ¡°Is there anyone else? Can we go find their families in Blurja? Or maybe they left journals?¡±

    ¡°You can try,¡± he said.

    ¡°It¡¯s not that far,¡± Iz said. ¡°But if they never found it, I don¡¯t know what we¡¯re gonna learn. I think we should focus our efforts on the people mentioned in the journal.¡±

    That was just about all Old Hat had to tell them. Despite getting the location (which Myra made sure to memorize), it still felt like frustratingly little information.

    They stuck around at the wilderness guild for a bit so Iz could fix up Sanna¡¯s tent while Myra thought about what to do next.

    ¡°So¡­¡± she asked Iz, ¡°how possible is it to go check this place out?¡±

    ¡°Depends. How far can you teleport?¡±

    ¡°Probably like forty or fifty kilometers before I lose my lunch.¡±

    Iz admittedly looked a little impressed. ¡°Wow, you¡¯ve been practicing.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I have.¡±

    She shook her head, though. ¡°You¡¯re gonna need to go a lot further than that. And honestly, the Snake Belt is the least of your problems. You¡¯ll have to get past Bear Trap Canyon, not to mention the Fractal Fields¡­ Unless you can one-shot the thing, you¡¯re gonna have to stop somewhere. Also, you need to account for the average aura density out in the wilderness. Your 40 kilometers might not even be 5 out there.¡±

    ¡°At least I don¡¯t have to budget for the return trip.¡±

    Iz rolled her eyes. ¡°Guess not.¡±

    ¡°Hey!¡± Cynthia jumped in. ¡°Let¡¯s go to that beaver dam. The small one!¡±

    Cynthia was referring to the small pond someone in the guild had mentioned earlier, the one nearby at a place called ¡®old rust road.¡¯ Myra quickly agreed it¡¯d be fun, so Iz led the way. It wasn¡¯t far.

    They sat at the bank opposite the lodge, a mound of dirt and sticks. There was a beaver outside, a cute little guy, chipping his teeth away at a small tree trunk.

    ¡°Do you think he¡¯ll draw runes for us?¡± Cynthia asked.

    ¡°I¡¯d say the chance is less than 0.001%,¡± Iz said.

    ¡°Did you just make that number up?¡±

    They sat for a while and played a card game for a bit. Then they skipped rocks for a bit, trying not to disturb the pond¡¯s occupants. It reminded Myra of Nathan, and she remembered how frustrating it was that she couldn¡¯t take the risk of talking to him. Cynthia had probably suggested the game thinking it would cheer Myra up, but it ended up having somewhat the opposite effect.

    ¡ô

    ¡°Iz, I¡¯ve been thinking¡­¡± Myra said once she and Iz had a moment to themselves. ¡°I can¡¯t help but feel you do think this beaver journal has to do with the time loop.¡± Iz was quiet. ¡°After all, you believed my story right after I showed you the book.¡±

    ¡°Once again, Myra, I was disbelieving your story.¡±

    ¡°Right, right.¡±

    ¡°Well¡­ I did think something like that, yes.¡±

    ¡°Why?¡±

    She put a hand to her mouth, thinking for a bit. ¡°Well, point one, because something on the scale of the time loop could only be caused by an enormous irregularity. And there aren¡¯t many irregularities bigger than this beaver dam.¡±

    ¡°Sure. What¡¯s ¡®point two¡¯?¡±

    ¡°Well, there¡¯s the giant clock.¡±

    Myra blinked. ¡°What giant clock?¡±

    ¡°The giant¡­ mmm¡­ you read the journal, right?¡±

    ¡°There was no giant clock.¡±

    Iz gave her the ¡®really?¡¯ look and flipped through the journal, then shoved it in Myra¡¯s face, pointing to a specific paragraph.

    <blockquote style="border-left: 4px solid rgba(204, 204, 204, 1); padding: 0 15px; margin: 10px">

    Theodore claims to have made a breakthrough. After pouring over our data for a while, he seems to have concluded that the water is moving around in a cycle, roughly twice daily, like the tides. He said the water was moving clockwise around a particular point, and he went to inspect that point.

    </blockquote>

    Myra read through the sentence a few times. ¡°Wait¡­ Oh¡­ Twice a day¡­ like the hour hand of a¡­ clock¡­?¡±

    Iz was smirking.

    ¡°Hey!¡±

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t smirk at¡ªI thought it was the fucking tides! He says it, he says it¡¯s like the tides¡ª¡±

    ¡°Myra, it literally says clockwise in the next sentence. Clockwise. You know. Like a clock.¡±

    ¡°I mean, that could be a coincidence,¡± Myra insisted. ¡°There are only two possible directions. Clockwise is just an etymological coincidence. And also, hour hands aren¡¯t some pure ontological concept! They¡¯re human-made!¡±

    ¡°So? Anomalous phenomena mimic human-made concepts all the time. Just look at Bear Trap Canyon. That¡¯s not the problem.¡±

    ¡°Oh. There¡¯s a problem?¡± Myra didn¡¯t need to argue against the idea if Iz was going to do it for her.

    ¡°There¡¯s no such thing as time magic, is there? If there were large time anomalies, there¡¯d be small time anomalies, too. And there aren¡¯t.¡±

    Myra frowned. ¡°I don¡¯t know if that logic holds at all. Naturally, large anomalies should be able to do things small anomalies can¡¯t.¡±

    Iz scratched her head. ¡°Maybe.¡±

    So that¡¯s why Iz believed me this time, Myra suddenly understood. Iz believes time magic is impossible¡ªbut then she learned about the beaver dam and this ¡®giant clock.¡¯ And that gave the idea, at the very least, a path to feasibility.

    ¡°You know what, I think I¡¯m going to call one of the sages that went on this trip,¡± Myra said. ¡°I tried to do that before, but when I did, it was near the end of the loop and they¡¯d already gone to Ralkenon.¡±

    ¡ô

    They could start with anyone named in the journal (well, other than the emperor, probably) (and other than Jen Rebanko because they had no idea who that was). Myra started with Linda Zeawak, Sage of Seafaring. Myra did not even remotely remember Linda Zeawak¡¯s phone number from eight loops ago, but fortunately she¡¯d had the presence of mind to grab Massiel¡¯s contact book at the same time she¡¯d taken the journal. She dialed the eighteen-digit phone number and waited.

    ¡°Hi! I came across this interesting book. It describes a trip to a large beaver dam in the Miirun wetlands where you found a giant red vine. I was wondering if you could tell us about it!¡±

    ¡°Who the hell is this? There¡¯s no such book you¡¯re describing.¡± Linda Zeawak asked, her tone harsh and gravelly. ¡°Where¡¯d you find this book?¡± That was certainly an interesting question to ask about a book that she also said didn¡¯t exist.

    ¡°I found it in Emmett Massiel¡¯s house.¡±

    ¡°Who the¡ªHazel, is that you?¡±

    ¡°Um¡­ yes! This is me, Hazel Ornobis.¡±

    There was a spell of silence. God, that was a bad idea.

    ¡°You aren¡¯t Hazel Ornobis,¡± she predictably observed. ¡°I don¡¯t know who the fuck you are, but I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re talking about.¡± She spoke very quickly and hung up immediately.

    Myra turned to Iz. ¡°Did you hear that, Iz? She flipped out! We¡¯re onto something.¡±

    ¡°We should try the others¡­¡±Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

    They did try the others. They tried Marcus Bora, but right as she thought she was about to speak with him, there was an interruption, and she was suddenly hung up on. She called back and got a busy signal. She called Theodore Kettle and got another busy signal.

    Hmm¡­

    ¡°Uh, they¡¯re all busy¡­¡±

    They tried again a few hours later, and that time, the phone just rang and rang without anyone picking up, for all three of the sages.

    ¡°We should keep pestering them,¡± Iz said. ¡°Maybe send them a threatening letter? We have to act like we know more than we do, though. I¡¯ll draft something up.¡±

    ¡ô

    Although they were busy working on the beaver dam project, Myra still intended to get Iz¡¯s takes on all the murders.

    ¡°What about the cyclist murder?¡± she asked while they relaxed in Iz¡¯s living room, looking at their wall of clues.

    ¡°Well¡ª¡± Iz bit at her fingernail, looking up from her draft letter. ¡°Frankly, this one¡¯s the most bizarre to me. The laser murder is obviously connected to the time loop. The massacre is confounding, but it¡¯s not too hard to think of political motives. But then we have the crater thing¡ªI can¡¯t even come up with a story. It¡¯s deliberately conspicuous, yet nothing comes of it. At once, it seems like it¡¯s at the center of everything, connecting the phone call to the sage¡¯s house and the hotel where the princess is staying, and it also seems to have to do with nothing. You said they don¡¯t even identify the guy without you poking around?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right.¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s a nobody,¡± Iz said.

    ¡°Do you at least have any ideas about how this strange murder method was enacted?¡±

    Iz bobbed her head at an odd diagonal. ¡°¡­ Yes and no.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s hear the ¡®yes¡¯ first.¡±

    ¡°Well, you said you were baffled by the fact that they never found any trace of the projectile. That might not be too hard to explain, though. We know from the reports about the trebuchet assaults that the culprit is capable of accelerating objects to high speeds.¡±

    ¡°69 times the speed of sound,¡± Myra added, remembering Jay Thrustma¡¯s commentary. Iz looked at her funny.

    ¡°Right. So the culprit could pick up any old rock at the park, accelerate it, smash the guy¡¯s head in, and the rock turns to dust. And that dust wouldn¡¯t stand out in forensic analysis because it¡¯s already from the park. With me so far?¡± Myra nodded along. ¡°In that sense, it¡¯s simple. The culprit shows up and kills the guy with one of their usual offensive moves.¡±

    ¡°It does sound simple. I guess that¡¯s it, then?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, but¡ª¡± She bit her lip, hesitant.

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong with it?¡±

    ¡°I mean, nothing, really. But I want to clarify something. You said it¡¯s consistent¡ªhow consistent?¡±

    ¡°It happens every single loop.¡±

    ¡°Yeah. And at the same time every day?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s always reported the same in the paper. And it¡¯s always at the same place too, at least every time I went and physically checked. Shera and I were curious about the trees, so we took note of the tree that he¡¯s next to¡ª¡±

    ¡°By the way, does the crater ever overlap with the trebuchet break-in?¡±

    ¡°No. Sometimes it¡¯s earlier, sometimes it¡¯s later, but it¡¯s never intersected.¡±

    Iz nodded. ¡°If it is the same person, they can obviously get around the empire quickly. They could ambush him wherever the hell they want. But they always pick that specific place and time no matter what else they¡¯re doing that night. That¡¯s odd, isn¡¯t it?¡±

    ¡°Maybe they don¡¯t want any other loopers to realize the crater was a looper-related murder?¡±

    ¡°I have a hard time believing that, though. They obviously don¡¯t care about making waves with these trebuchet assaults. And if they don¡¯t want to draw attention to Carmac Sermanol¡¯s murder, why do something so flashy in the first place?¡±

    ¡°You could make the same argument about the event hall massacre.¡± Can you, though? As soon as she said it, Myra wasn¡¯t so sure.

    It¡¯s mostly all the same, but the exact position of the princess on the table is always a bit different. In Loop 4, her right arm was mangled differently than it had been before.

    Iz had a different argument. ¡°The event hall massacre has a lot of specific circumstances. Whatever the culprit¡¯s doing, it probably has a lot of planning behind it. And I think¡ªsorry, this is more of a gut feeling than anything, so make of it what you will¡ªthe massacre means something to the culprit. It¡¯s set up that way for a reason.¡±

    ¡°No, I get what you mean.¡±

    ¡°Anyway,¡± she went on. ¡°All this is to say: I think that the perpetrator of the crater murder isn¡¯t the looper after all.¡± She lifted her glasses to rub one of her eyes. ¡°I just thought they were gonna be the same because of the projectile thing. That¡¯s what¡¯s got me hung up on this.¡±

    ¡ô

    As far as the newspapers were concerned, it had been a relatively quiet loop thus far. Myra was checking the paper every day to make sure she didn¡¯t miss any trebuchet intrusions, but there had been none this loop (and Myra was incredibly grateful that this fact hadn¡¯t caused Iz to doubt her).

    This changed on the third day of their vacation, when there was an unexpected news item. Myra, in fact, had almost dismissed it, thinking it was Miirun-local. She asked Iz about it, and then Iz had looked puzzled, pointing out the same announcement in the empire-wide Halnya Times.

    To get to the point, the government was planning to run some kind of ¡®test¡¯ at midnight. A test of what, exactly, was completely unspecified. The only detail they had was that it would involve something very bright originating from somewhere in the city, and that it was perfectly safe and nobody should be alarmed.

    ¡°They¡¯re doing this in every major city?¡± Myra puzzled in disbelief. ¡°That has never happened in any loop I¡¯ve seen. I mean, maybe I missed it when I was in Unkmire¡­ It definitely didn¡¯t happen last loop, though.¡±

    They went out onto the town to inquire about it, but nobody was particularly curious about the ¡®test,¡¯ let alone able to tell them anything about it. Hell, it took a while for Myra to even impart to Iz how much this event squicked her out. Late at night, then¡ªpartly out of paranoia and partly in the name of intelligence gathering¡ªshe dragged her two friends out to the mountainside, overlooking the valley. Far from the action, but with a good view of it.

    The moon at this point was a sliver crescent, and it was difficult to see anything. In fact, it would have been outright impossible to make anything out without the soft glow of the lantern trees on the mountainside on the opposite side of the valley. The trees as they were, though, they could see the shadow of something¡ªsomething like a pillar or a spire rising up from the small town.

    It rose, ever so slowly, over the course of ten or fifteen minutes. It was too slow to actually see it in motion, so it was some time before it was tall enough that the girls were convinced it wasn¡¯t just their imagination. It was definitely rising.

    Then it was bright.

    A blinding bright blue flooded the sleeping town, probably waking up half its population as it did so. It was vast: it reached the spot they were sitting, just barely, and the same grass they sat on lit up softly.

    It lasted a minute, then it was done, and the spire let itself back into the ground.

    ¡°Wow, that was bright, all right,¡± Cynthia said.

    The whole event had pretty much been exactly what the newspaper had said would happen.

    ¡°I¡­ I don¡¯t know what I expected,¡± Myra said.

    ¡°What was that a test of?¡±

    ¡°Iz, what building was that coming out of?¡± Myra asked.

    Iz frowned. ¡°It¡¯s just a random imperial bureaucracy building,¡± I think.

    ¡ô

    Sadly, random imperial bureaucracy buildings were not the sorts of things that were healthy to mess with. Iz managed to dig up the information that the building had been erected around 5 years ago by a governmental department with a name that sounded like it was designed by a committee to be as forgettable as possible. Short of another suicide run, that was all the information Myra was gonna get.

    They woke up early to catch a train. On the way back to Ralkenon, they were going to stop at Ealichburgh so Iz could take a look at Carmac Sermanol¡¯s door or try to find a safe way to break in. Iz wanted to walk to the station, and Myra wanted to teleport; they compromised by teleporting only to avoid walking uphill.

    ¡°I¡¯ve been thinking¡ª¡± Iz said.

    ¡°Typical Iz,¡± Cynthia cut in.

    ¡°I¡¯ve been thinking about what you said, about how I never believed you before.¡±

    ¡°Eh, don¡¯t worry about it,¡± Myra said. ¡°All I really need to know is how I can convince you next loop.¡±

    ¡°Well, that¡¯s what I was thinking about too¡­¡± Iz said slowly. ¡°And I¡¯m pretty sure it¡¯s this. Just do what you did this loop. It¡¯ll work, I¡¯m sure of it. We don¡¯t need to go on vacation or anything, just do it on campus¡­ Introduce it as a hypothetical, wait a bit, then show me the journal. I¡¯m dead certain it¡¯ll work. I¡¯m gonna be honest, I¡¯m sorta flummoxed you seem to have done this by accident.¡±

    ¡°I knew it!¡± Myra said. ¡°It was the journal that made you believe me, after all!¡±

    ¡°It was¡ªyeah.¡± She sounded a little embarrassed. ¡°Yeah, the journal helped. Just do exactly what I just said.¡±

    ¡°All right. And then you¡¯ll help me investigate, like you¡¯re doing now?¡±

    ¡°Of course.¡±

    ¡°Would you go with me to make money off the prediction bazaars?¡±

    ¡°God, that¡¯s far. But sure. I¡¯ve always wanted to go to Tzurigad.¡±

    ¡°And you¡¯ll investigate the murk bogs with me?¡±

    ¡°Er¡­ don¡¯t push it, Myra.¡±

    Myra deflated.

    ¡°Sorry,¡± she said, seeing Myra¡¯s expression. ¡°But that¡¯s kind of a ridiculous thing to ask, isn¡¯t it? Even accounting for everything¡­ You can be at ease because of the loop, but I¡­ you know?¡±

    Myra was quiet. Her friend was being reasonable, but it also came as a huge disappointment.

    ¡°I mean, you can still call me and consult,¡± she said. ¡°No matter what, I won¡¯t leave you to do something dangerous like that on your own.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine¡­ Though¡ª¡± Did I not mention this yet? ¡°¡ªI won¡¯t really be on my own, ¡¯cause I¡¯ll have Shera, so you don¡¯t have to feel that bad.¡±

    ¡°Er, Shera?¡± Iz did a double take, face warping in confusion.

    ¡°Y¡¯know, Shera Marcrombie? She always believes me without very much trouble.¡±

    ¡°Her? You mean that¡ª¡± She cut herself off, then blinked several times. ¡°Well, all right. I¡¯m glad someone¡¯s got your back.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m still not really following what you all are talking about,¡± Cynthia said. For better or worse, Cynthia was never the type of person to call bullshit to someone¡¯s face. She was more likely to just act confused. ¡°But like¡­ if this¡­ thing is serious, wouldn¡¯t it make more sense to help Myra with her thing?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s important to be skeptical in the face of a time looper,¡± Iz said. ¡°They have infinite tries to manipulate you into whatever they want.¡±

    ¡°So you¡¯re saying that if Myra really needs your help in Unkmire, then she should keep trying more and more devious ways of manipulating you?¡±

    Iz furrowed her brow. ¡°No, that¡¯s not what I¡¯m¡ª¡±

    ¡°Uh, hold up,¡± Myra said, holding out a hand. ¡°What¡¯s going on here?¡±

    She had to cut the conversation in its tracks. The group had turned the corner, but they couldn¡¯t even look at the station, which was blindingly bright, crawling with a vast number of police officers in their shining golden uniforms.

    ¡°You¡¯ve gotta be kidding me,¡± Iz growled sharply. ¡°Is the station closed?¡±

    ¡°Maybe,¡± Myra asked, eyes already starting to water. ¡°Let¡¯s just get out of here before we get sunburned.¡±

    ¡°Shouldn¡¯t we at least ask what¡¯s going on?¡± Cynthia said.

    ¡°I¡¯m not talking to the police,¡± Iz muttered.

    ¡°Yeah, but you want to know what¡¯s going on, right? You can stay here.¡±

    Cynthia did approach while they waited from around the corner.

    ¡°They just barked at me to get out,¡± she explained when she got back. ¡°Train¡¯s closed. But I also heard them talking about some kind of hunt¡­ And they searched my luggage with some kinda enchantment.¡±

    ¡°A ¡®kinda enchantment¡¯?¡± Iz repeated.

    Cynthia shrugged. Iz bit one of her nails.

    ¡°We should get outta here.¡±

    Cynthia snapped her fingers, something in her eyes lighting up. ¡°Hey, could we take one of the carts to the next city down?¡± She looked very excited about the prospect.

    ¡°Um¡­ maybe.¡±

    They walked back the way they came. A weird test last night, all over the empire¡­ and now some kinda police operation, shutting down the whole town? Myra had a very bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. ¡°Hold on, I wanna check something,¡± she said.

    Splitting off from the group, she teleported a ways outside the village, near the mountainside.

    And off in the distance, almost exactly where the trio had been last night¡­

    It was crawling with officers. They were impossible to miss, obviously. She reached down to get her binoculars out of her luggage, then thought better of it, realizing how pointless that would be given the circumstances. No, I¡¯ll just go back to my friends so we can get out of here.

    ¡°Yep,¡± she said quickly, ¡°we need to take the carts¡ª¡±

    What?

    She had tried to teleport back to her friends, but she hadn¡¯t gone anywhere. She was talking to the empty air, and her blood ran cold as she felt the disruption field¡ª

    The deep voice of an adult woman spoke behind her. ¡°You seem awfully interested in our activities, lady.¡±

    She nearly leaped 180 degrees around. There were two of them, absolutely blinding at such a short distance. She couldn¡¯t make out details of either of them. Desperately, she tried to teleport away, trying every trick she¡¯d been taught, but whatever they¡¯d blanketed her in was more powerful than anything she¡¯d had to beat before.

    ¡°Um¡ª¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re searching your luggage.¡±

    ¡°Uh, go ahead, I don¡¯t have¡ª¡±

    They plowed ahead, ripping her suitcase out of her fingers.

    They threw out her robes, dresses, and underwear, tossing them on the dirt. They carelessly tossed aside her binoculars, which made a large crack as they hit the ground. Why are they here? I don¡¯t have anything on me, do I¡­? They found her passport, grunting with mild recognition as they inspected it. They also tossed it onto the dirt.

    Then, finally, they pulled out the item at the very bottom of her trunk. This item was different. They didn¡¯t toss it aside¡ªrather, they held it with almost reverence.

    They didn¡¯t open the book, not even to glance through. Instead, they took out some kind of elastic band covered in runes, and they bound the book shut.

    ¡°Well, well, well,¡± the woman said. ¡°Myrabelle Prua-Kent. You certainly have a lot of explaining to do.¡±

    ¡ô

    They took to her a cold, metal room at the police station where they chained her to a chair. They grilled her for hours. Why did she have the journal? What was she planning to do with it? Who else did she tell about it? Who did she plan to tell about it? Of course, the officers didn¡¯t offer her any sunblock or eye protection, and they didn¡¯t take kindly to her closing her eyes or even squinting. She answered as best as she could while her eyes seared in pain.

    Myra picked a story and stuck to it, that she had obtained the journal from her father shortly before he was arrested, and that while she didn¡¯t know how he had acquired it, one might guess¡ªwell, she let them draw their conclusions. As uncomfortable as it was to bring up her own father like this, it was very convenient as a misdirect.

    To her relief, the first interrogator seemed to accept this story. To her perturbance, he left, and then she was visited by a much higher-ranked officer, one with a much greater sense of skepticism. This officer believed that Myra was also responsible for the sage¡¯s death¡ªwhich in retrospect was a natural accusation to make¡ªand it wasn¡¯t like Myra could just ask the guy to go check his security logs without heaping even more suspicion on herself.

    Things were looking increasingly bad, and Myra was strongly considering another Time Looper¡¯s Exit. The main problem was that the police had searched her and taken her razor blades and poison pills that she kept on her for this purpose. She was left contemplating ways to accelerate the furniture of the room relative to the reference frame of her head. She was limited in what she could do while she was chained to the chair though, and there were massive magic-suppressing fields that made it virtually impossible to cast an effect more than half a meter from her person.

    Even as she racked her brain for possibilities, she knew she wouldn¡¯t really do it. Even if it was temporary¡­ she didn¡¯t want her friends to deal with that. When she had killed herself in the vault, she had smashed her face in so that she would be hard to identify. It was already too late for that. Even if she found a compelling way to violate physical mutual exclusion principles using the corner of the table and her skull, she wouldn¡¯t do it.

    Besides, there was a chance she would be interrogated by Linda Zeawak herself, or maybe one of the others. If they cared about this so much, maybe they would want to speak to her personally. That was an opportunity she couldn¡¯t pass up.

    ¡ô

    That didn¡¯t happen.

    A woman walked into the room. She was, quite mercifully, not wearing a shining police uniform. She was tall with dark olive skin, dark black hair to her neck, with a very hard face and heavy black robes. She was wearing thick sunglasses, and if it hadn¡¯t been for that, Myra might have noticed the subtle familiarity of her face before she introduced herself.

    ¡°Good morning, Myrabelle. I am Major Sensa Ferara, in service of military intelligence. I¡¯ve been overseeing the search for this book that you stole. You¡¯re probably wondering how long we¡¯re going to keep you here.¡±

    ¡°I was starting to wonder, yeah,¡± she said.

    ¡°Well, I have good news.¡± She smiled. ¡°We¡¯ve been able to confirm your story.¡±

    ¡°Oh. Um, you have?¡± Huh?

    ¡°Yes, we¡¯ve gotten all we need from you. If you¡¯d just follow me.¡±

    She gestured to the door.

    ¡°S-sure.¡±

    She followed the woman out into the hallway, heart pounding as delayed realizations hit her. Even out here, the oppressive suppression fields were still active.

    ¡°Would you like to use the bathroom?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t need to go.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t be silly, you¡¯ve been cooped up in here all day.¡±

    Putting a commanding hand on Myra¡¯s back, she forcibly guided her towards the women¡¯s room.

    The women¡¯s room had a strange setup. There was a wire running across the room, tied to the inner lock on one end, and hooked to the toilet handle on the other, nearly taut. From the handle, it then ran directly into the toilet bowl itself.

    Separately, there was a large rope resting on the toilet tank.

    ¡°What is¡­ this?¡±

    ¡°I suppose I don¡¯t mind explaining,¡± the woman said, blocking the doorway. ¡°When I shut the door, the wire will at the same time flush the toilet handle, while also twisting the lock, thus locking it from the inside. Then the entire wire will be flushed down the toilet, erasing its existence from the room.¡±

    ¡°I see¡­¡± said Myra, resignation creeping into her voice.

    ¡°You had some very nice razor blades on your person,¡± she said, reaching into a bag and taking something out. ¡°So we can do that, or we can use this rope, like I had planned. What¡¯ll it be?¡±

 29 - Replication Crisis

    Loop 14

    Myra nearly had a heart attack when she woke up to see a folded sheet of paper on her desk where it should have been empty.

    What the fuck did you do?

    I¡¯m not the only one you have to worry about, Myrabelle. Watch who you piss off.

    ¡ª Ben.

    That first part must have been a rhetorical question, since there was no return address.

    Myra got dressed and tried to calm down. The fact was, if a note from a pissed-off Benkoten was the worst thing that had come of that catastrophe, she could probably count herself lucky.

    But was it the worst thing?

    The death had been¡­

    Well, there had been no negotiating with Major Marchioness Sensa Ferara. Myra had put up a token attempt at telling the woman that she was friends with her daughter at school¡­ but that hadn¡¯t worked at all, possibly because it wasn¡¯t actually true. Myra had barely spoken to Aurora Ferara before the loop had started, and she wasn¡¯t sure if the other girl even knew her name. Certainly, there was no chance she had ever spoken of Myra to her parents.

    Anyway, the death was not the worst death she¡¯d had. The hanging had been quick, which Myra was grateful for (no matter how much she had wanted to see the stupid locked room toilet string trick in action). It wasn¡¯t as bad as burning up under the volcano.

    No, what terrified Myra about that whole clusterfuck was the idea that she¡¯d made such a big splash. She¡¯d drawn attention from the worst possible enemy¡­

    What was it that Iz had theorized about Emmett Massiel¡¯s death?

    Someone, whoever has control of the loop, did something to him so that he¡¯d always die at the beginning.

    Myra shivered.

    Her ¡®suicide¡¯ had probably been reported in the paper, not to mention the fucking imperial ¡®test¡¯. Any looper would have noticed it, whether it be Ben or¡­ someone else. Someone who was now pissed off, maybe.

    And speaking of that ¡®test¡¯, incidentally¡­

    Myra could make a pretty good guess what the hell that thing was now. It had obviously been used to track her down, prompted by her decision to poke around about the beaver journal¡­ That was what the police officers had been looking for, after all. And she could take a guess at just exactly what spell it had been, too.

    What did you expect, Myra? You kicked a hornet¡¯s nest, and it¡¯s a fucking miracle those hornets didn¡¯t put a laser through your brain at 1:09 AM this morning.

    ¡ô

    The plan for this loop was to join the murk bogs again. This was too bad, since she had really been looking forward to two more weeks of not joining the murk bogs, and she was very annoyed at having that time cut short.

    But there was nothing for it. Joining the murk bogs was the best move right now; she needed more instruction on teleportation and infiltration, and she was pretty sure she could learn a lot now that she halfway knew what to expect.

    She had a somewhat packed checklist for the front of the loop. First, after getting Shera on board, she had to make the murk bogs aware she existed so they¡¯d contact her in a few days just like the last time. She did that.

    Then, she had to go talk to Iz and position the time loop as a hypothetical mystery puzzle. This was extremely awkward this time around; it had worked a lot better when they¡¯d needed something to do on the train. At least, she suspected (or hoped), that this part of the plan wasn¡¯t very important compared to the beaver journal.

    After that, the plan was to go meet Lukai in Krinph, then go to Jewel City to get the journal, then go back to Ralkenon to give it to Iz, then wait.

    The anomalies began with that first step. Lukai never showed up.

    This put Myra completely out of sorts, and it had taken Shera to point out that Myra¡¯s phone call to the murk bogs could have conceivably had some kind of butterfly effect that caused Lukai to not show up. It was an explanation that raised more questions than it answered, but it was the only explanation she had, short of Lukai being a looper.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

    Could he be a looper¡­? She wished she had a transcript of all the things he¡¯d said to her.

    Assuming the answer was no, though¡­ the result was that the trip to Krinph was completely pointless. Furthermore, they had to follow it up with a trip to Jewel City to get the journal, and Jewel City was completely in the opposite direction.

    Thus, she was in a cranky mood on the long train ride when the next anomaly showed up.

    ¡°Have you ch-checked the paper yet?¡±

    ¡°Oh no, I¡¯ve been meaning to do it.¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s a trebuchet thing, like you were talking about.¡±

    ¡°Oh, let me see.¡± She idly took the paper from Shera, preparing to skim it for the high points.

    The truth was, she didn¡¯t think these could surprise her anymore.

    Break-in at Imperial Trebuchet Foiled

    At 6:51 A.M. this morning, alarms detected an intruder at the Raine Eastern Trebuchet (REaT) launch site in Kanre, Halnya. The intruder, a battlemage, escaped after a confrontation with the imperial army. The event saw four soldiers killed and a yet unknown number of wounded soldiers. The army has not been able to identify the intruder, and no description of the intruder has been reported. REaT reports that the intruder did not access the trebuchet at any time and that it took no significant damage. REaT did not comment on potential motives, but a spokesperson speculated that the intruder was after confidential documents or blueprints from a secure area. The launch site is expected to resume operations by Nov 9.

    ¡°What the hell?¡± Myra hissed, and Shera flinched in surprise.

    ¡°It looks normal to me. It¡¯s like you d-described¡ª¡±

    ¡°Sorry, I realize it doesn¡¯t look that weird on its own, but¡ªwell, this article is very much like the very first article I saw,¡± she explained. ¡°The Raine Eastern Trebuchet was the very first one they attacked! And they successfully got what they were after from REaT on the third attempt! So why do they need to attack it again? And why did they fail again? They haven¡¯t botched one of these intrusions in, I dunno, three or four loops.¡±

    The only difference between this article and the original one was that the new one didn¡¯t quote Jay Thrustma.

    Myra ran a hand through her hair. ¡°Why are they attacking the same one again? I don¡¯t understand¡­¡±

    ¡ô

    Between all these oddities, she was filled with trepidation and unease when they prepared to break into Emmett Massiel¡¯s house to steal the journal. It should have been pretty easy; after all, she knew exactly when it should be empty on the first few days of the loop thanks to the security log. She had managed the small heist several times already. That didn¡¯t stop her from jittering and tapping her foot conspicuously.

    ¡°You¡¯ve d-done this before, right?¡± Shera asked, as they camped out near the house, waiting for the last investigator to leave.

    ¡°Yeah, on the loop where I went to Tzurigad, I picked it up at around this time.¡±

    ¡°You seem awf-awfully n-nervous about it.¡±

    ¡°You can tell, huh?¡±

    The truth was, Myra had a terrible feeling that the book would be gone. If the shit from the last loop had made the looper aware of the book¡¯s existence of significance, then it might cause them to go pick it up immediately. That was Myra¡¯s logic.

    And shouldn¡¯t the last investigator have left by now?

    She looked at her watch.

    No. He wasn¡¯t supposed to leave for another minute and thirty seconds¡­

    Calm the hell down, Myra¡­

    She watched her watch for a while, then decided it probably wasn¡¯t helping her nerves at all, so she put the watch away. A rebellious part of her brain immediately went to check the time according to the Common Library.

    ¡°I¡¯m just anxious about this journal,¡± she explained, half to herself and half to Shera. ¡°I need it to convince Iz about the loop¡­¡±

    ¡°D-does she not always believe you?¡±

    ¡°No, she doesn¡¯t,¡± Myra said. ¡°Sorry, I guess I explained it badly earlier¡­ you¡¯re the only one who reliably believes me.¡±

    ¡°M-me?¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m reliable?¡± She looked down at her thumbs to hide her face, but Myra could see a faint smile even at this oblique angle.

    ¡°Yeah, every time,¡± Myra confirmed. ¡°Sometimes I screw it up and get off a bad foot, but you still believe me even then. And you¡¯ve always been willing to follow me into dangerous stuff¡­ I mean, even Iz said she¡¯s not going to go mess with the murk bogs with me, but you hardly needed any convincing at all. Which is honestly incredibly brave of you.¡±

    Shera adjusted where she was sitting to be a bit closer to Myra, though in a kind of complicated way with extraneous movements that sort of disguised what she was doing. Myra checked the Common Library clock again.

    ¡°Do you really think it won¡¯t be there?¡±

    ¡°I dunno. The empire flipped its shit about this book when I made one phone call about it, to the extent that they deployed some advanced new never-before-used empire-wide surveillance spell just to find me. They deployed their best assassin to fake my suicide, and¡ªand who knows what happened after that.¡±

    ¡°How do you know they never used it before?¡±

    ¡°I kinda think we woulda noticed!¡±

    ¡°Oh. R-right.¡± She tried to come up with something reassuring. ¡°But you don¡¯t know the looper culprit cares about this book.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re right, I don¡¯t.¡± She took a deep breath. ¡°And even if they do care, they might not know where it is.¡±

    But still, the words from Ben¡¯s note were etched in her mind.

    What had happened after she¡¯d died? Who was pissed off about what?

    ¡­

    Her thoughts were interrupted by a noise down by the house. The door was opening, and an imperial detective was exiting the scene. Myra breathed a sigh of relief.

    Not too big a sigh, admittedly; she didn¡¯t let herself breathe easy until she got her hands on the journal, but despite all her worries, it was there where it always was.

    Now, I just have to hope Iz pulls through.