The Years of Apocalypse - A Time Loop Progression Fantasy

Lily glared at Mirian as she entered the room.

"Sorry," Mirian said.

"I haven't even told you why I'm mad yet," Lily said.

"Yeah, but sorry anyways. Hug?"

Lily sighed. "Yeah, that would be nice." After they embraced, Lily said, "You're four for six, by the way. Emanuel only interrupted the professor four times, and you said it'd be five, and I didn't meet Selesia. But the other stuff was uncanny. Nicola really did knock over an entire stack of metal plates in the middle of the exam, and it took like a full minute for them to stop clanging around. How did you do it?"

"Luck, I guess," Mirian said. "Want to come watch duels?"

"You're trying to dodge the question," Lily said. "Besides, I have to study."

"On a Fifthday?" She frowned at the stack of books on Lily's desk. "Really?"

Her roommate sighed. "Okay, no, I would rather jump off the top of the Torrian Tower. Yeah, I'll come. Apparently you're pretty good. Or something. But you are totally dodging the question."

"That's true," Mirian admitted. "There's not an answer I can give you that's satisfying. Humor me until dinner, okay?"

Lily looked at her then rubbed her forehead. "I… alright. But only because you're my friend."

Mirian was paired with Valen again on the first bout. Go figure, she thought. This time they were three and six, so it wasn't even a repeat of the first month. This time, though, Mirian was ready for the fast counter-attack, and when Valen tried to press her, she dashed to the side and got a point on her back before she could turn. She smiled at Valen. Take that, she thought. The next point, Valen tried another lightning offensive when she thought Mirian was off-balance, but Mirian had feigned the overextension because she knew that's what the other girl was looking for. A quick parry-riposte sent Valen back to the starting line scowling. After that, she was more hesitant to go on the attack, and Mirian got two more points by abusing her reach.

Mirian was pressing Valen hard, looking for the last point, but her footwork kept her away. Then, she came in with a lunge and a disengage. It was, Mirian had to admit in retrospect, a perfect attack. Perfect form, perfect distance—rapid backpedaling didn't save her—and seriously impressive speed. Anyone blinking would have missed it.

It was also a lethal point, right over her heart, with the blade glowing fully red.

Damnit! was all she could think. If anyone else had done it, Mirian would have had to congratulate them. But since when had Valen of all people gotten this good? And of course, the other girl couldn't stop from smirking when they bowed.
"Better luck next time," Valen whispered under her breath, and even though Mirian was used to this kind of trash-talk from her, it still infuriated her.

"Ouch," said Lily. "Bad luck I guess."

"That's the worst part, it wasn't even luck. I'm never going to tell her that, though."

"So what's with you two anyways?"

Mirian found herself slipping back into the same conversation they'd already had. But then she interjected, "You're taking Alchemistry and Spell Empowerment next quarter. And you have to do a demonstration in front of a panel of professors."

Lily got silent.

"I'm going to keep doing this crap until you believe me," she said.

"It's… really unnerving," Lily said. "I was just thinking about it, but then… Mirian, I don't like this."

"Neither do I," Mirian said sadly.

During her next bout she heard a brief yelp from Lily's direction and knew that Selesia had just introduced herself. She hoped that wouldn't screw things up. She beat her opponent in an easy 5-1 bout. Really, she shouldn't have lost a single point, but she'd kept glancing over at her roommate.

"Well," said Lily, her tone sour. "This is Selesia. But you already knew that."

Selesia was looking nervous. "I'm… look, I'm sorry, I didn't know she was your roommate. I really have never met her before. I just transferred to Torrviol and… I'll just go," she said.

"Please stay," Mirian said. "Lily's upset because of something I did, not you."

"It's… it's okay. Have fun!" And Selesia left.

Mirian watched her go, feeling sad. All she could think was, you really fucked that up, didn't you?, and about all the things that wouldn't happen now. They wouldn't laugh and talk at dinner. Mirian wouldn't show her the basics of form and bladework. They wouldn't hold hands. But wasn't that how it always went? Most of the time, you never got a second chance, you never got to experience those moments again.

Mirian said, "I should go too."

"Wait… Mirian?" she heard Lily calling, but she was already out the door. The dark shadows beneath the columns of the Stygalta Arena matched her mood as she left the building, and outside, she tried to let the cool night air clear her mind. She just felt bitter, though. She was trying to be kind to Lily and save her life. But she had no idea. She had no fucking idea what it had been like to watch her die. Then to die herself, utterly helpless. And to know it was coming again. No matter what she did, it would be painful. No matter who she saved, she would regret the ones she hadn't.

"Mirian!" she heard Lily calling. She walked faster, but the other girl ran to catch up and grabbed her arm.

She spun, suddenly furious. "I'm trying to save your life," she said. "You think I'm just pulling a stupid prank on you, but do you have any idea what it was like to watch you die? I watched Akanan soldiers rip apart your body with force blades, and you died in my arms. I wish it was some hallucination, or bad dream. I wish I could forget watching that airship raining fire down on us the second time, or forget Selesia bleeding out in the snow—Gods, if only it were just a nightmare. When I say Akana Praediar attacks the Academy, I mean they bring the five hells to Torrviol." Mirian knelt on the ground then, suddenly weeping. "I wanted to see her again. Selesia. I wanted to see her smile, so I didn't have to keep thinking about her corpse. Three days ago, Lily. It was three days ago that she died. I… I don't know how I can even…." She couldn't talk anymore, she was too choked up.

Lily didn't say anything, she just gave Mirian a hug. A few students walking by gave them funny looks, but Mirian ignored them. After a while, her body stopped shaking, and her breathing had calmed. She was a mess, but she wasn't inconsolable.

"I… I don't know what to say," Lily told her.

"That's okay. I don't think I'd know what to say either. Just… when it's time to go, promise you'll go with me. Okay?"

"Okay," Lily said.

Mirian sighed and wiped some of her tears away. "Let's go eat," she said. "There's a boiled fish stew and roast baduka boar, and both dishes are seriously good."

After they ate, Mirian said, "I need to go to the library tonight. One of the Akanan spies is doing something there, and I want to try to find out what." No need to mention the giant mysterious stone door, she thought. "So… don't wait up for me. And don't worry. I'll try to be quiet when I get back."

Lily looked worried, but she accepted it.

***

Mirian stashed the set of glyphkeys in her satchel and went to the library early, before the guard shift changed. She kept her hood on as she asked to enter and told him she'd only be a few minutes. Then she made herself scarce in the second-basement floor. The idea was to make sure that no one remembered she was still in Bainrose, and if she was seen, no one could place her name or many details about her.

First, she tried to find the door to the third basement floor she'd gone down before, the one with the ridiculously long spiral staircase. There was no point hiding out farther away from it if she could hide closer. Mirian had thought this would be easy. As she explored the level, she realized that even though she knew Bainrose well, she had gaps in her knowledge as large as that big stone door downstairs.

Another student, a fifth year, found her wandering about, looking carefully at the walls, and asked if she needed help.

"No, I think I just found it," she said, then wandered up to a nearby shelf and picked a random book to read while she waited for them to go away. Miran then went to where she knew she had been. And there it was: Flexible Spellbook Composition for the Practical Mage. And there was the chair she'd read it on. She then retraced her steps, moving past a few rows of shelves. Then he went down this hall, and the door was…. But there was just a wall. Mirian bit her lip. The frustration was building in her. She was sure it had been right there. But it was just another of the stone walls, made of roughly hewn dark granite.

Mirian went up to the wall. It felt like a wall. Well, she didn't know what she'd been expecting. How could that be?

She mentally marked the spot in her mind. There were plenty of dark alcoves to hide in, especially once the glyph lanterns down here dimmed for the night. She had, by her reckoning, at least three hours before the spy came through. Where was the damned door, though?

Against all odds, Mirian found herself wandering up a level to the history section. Willingly reading a history book, Miran thought to herself. What new lows will you stoop to next? She let her finger drag across the various textures on the shelf, feeling the worn leather, cloth, and vellum. A few volumes even had covers made from wood, with the title engraved into it. Bainrose was an extensive library, and though most of the books now were copies made by scribing spells, there were plenty of originals, preserved by long lasting decay resistance spells.

At last, she found what she was looking for: A History of the Famous Buildings of Torrviol. The book was dated enough it didn't have a table of contents or an index, but some barbarian of a person had dog-eared all the pages where a new chapter started. On one hand, that was a crime against books; on the other, it made it significantly easier to flip through until she found the chapter on Bainrose Castle.

She skimmed through the early parts about explorers stumbling upon a ruined city and a bunch of archaeologists just absolutely losing it with excitement and the other part about how construction had already started and significant work begun before the workers digging the basement and foundations discovered the catacombs. There was something about various passages being walled up and the remains moved. A few pages later, she came across what she was looking for:

In the Siege of Marrian, traitors among the Firian defenders managed to open the main gate and portcullis to the attackers. Surprising the attackers, though, Bainrose did not fall. Instead, defenders retreated both to the upper levels and the catacombs, securing the area above and below each stairwell with spell and blade. Judicious use of levitation spells let the attackers seize control of most of the second floor, but the inner sanctuary and its battlements and the catacombs remained beyond their reach.

With the main well under his control, General Virmont supposed the defenders would now be short on food and water, and starving them out should take only a matter of days. He was mistaken. In this dark hour, King Rolart Sacristar II revealed the existence of many secret passages within the walls of Bainrose to his captains. The passages, it turned out, were extensive, and connected the inner sanctum to the catacombs, bypassing the areas held by General Virmont and his invaders entirely. The catacombs, in turn, were connected to a wider network of old tunnels that led outside the walls, allowing the defenders to smuggle fish and water from the nearby lake at night. Henceforth, King Rolart was often called 'Rolart the Nightfisher…'

Here, Miran stopped and rubbed her eyes. Leave it to a history to spend three sentences on the nifty secret passages and the rest of the chapter discussing the importance of the term 'Nightfisher' on court rituals for the next hundred years. Then she squinted, and reread part of it. Wait a second—Sacristar? No way, she thought. Nicolus's ancestor was a king who defended Bainrose? What were the chances?

The important thing, though, was the 'secret passages,' part. It made her a bit giddy. As a child, she'd loved playing 'who can be the quietest' as they snuck through halls and rooms, pretending they were going a secret way no one else knew. There was, in her estimation, nothing cooler than a secret passage, except for an ancient magical artifact at the end of a secret passage. Obviously, Mirian had wanted to be a Labyrinth explorer for years before her parents made it clear that it was way too dangerous, no way. She still daydreamed about it occasionally. The Labyrinth was full of old treasures. Some of it was old material that was much needed for spell engines. Some of it was the myrvite monsters down there and their valuable spell organs. But occasionally, someone would stumble across an artifact of immense power. Put there by the Elder Gods, the priests said, and only those worthy of their trials could obtain them.

Mirian rubbed her eyes again. She was exhausted from the day, and her mind was wandering. There were secret passages in Bainrose, hells, all over Torrviol. That would explain what Professor Jei was doing after class. Was it weird for a grown professor to use a secret passage instead of the front door? Probably. Did Mirian's respect for her double? Also yes.

Then her brow furrowed. What if Song Jei's secret project was somewhere in the secret passages? It was a secret project, after all. Well, except for the part where everyone in class seemed to know she was working on it, whatever 'it' was.
Well, that settled it. She was going to figure out Torrviol's secrets. The spies were clearly using them. Somehow, the door she couldn't find was protected by more than just a glyphkey.

Over the next few hours, she skimmed through a dozen books, but while plenty of them referenced secret passages in Bainrose or Torrviol, none of them gave examples. And as much as she wished for a book like 'Map of Secret Passages in Torrviol Academy,' it seemed no such volume was on the shelves. That brought her back to magic. She would need to figure out how one went about detecting such passages.

By now, the library was deserted, and the glyph lamps had dimmed. Mirian grabbed a book titled Divination Foundations and Theory and stuffed it in her bag, then headed downstairs to the second basement level. She had been totally out of it by the time the spy had woken her, so she wasn't sure exactly what time he appeared, but the secret door revealing itself would be a clue. She positioned herself in a shadowy alcove and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Her mind wandered all over the place, thinking of glyph combinations and neat items she'd like to create. Then she thought about the attack on Torrviol. Then what she might say to Professor Torres again. Then she thought of her family, and made herself sad, then went back to thinking about artifice designs.

By the time several hours had gone by, she was stiff from not moving and totally exhausted. Eventually, she decided she'd changed the timeline. Was the spy she captured yesterday the one that came down here today? She didn't think so, but then again, he'd used illusion magic to change his face, so maybe. With a sigh, she went off and picked up a book about illusion magic too. It was time to fill the gaps in her education.

Sure enough, it was just before the next guard shift when she emerged on the first floor, meaning it was well past when the spy should have opened the secret door. The desk attendant was shocked to see her approach. "Oh my! I didn't… when did you come in? I thought the library was empty."

"Ah, sorry. Fell asleep studying," Mirian lied. Well, it had been true the first time.

The librarian nodded sympathetically. "That does happen, just usually not on a Fifthday. You must really be studying hard for those exams."

"Yeah. Clearly I need to sleep more, though. Hey, can I check these two books out?"

She did, and headed back to the dorm, the night air absolutely frigid. The guard was equally surprised to see her, but didn't say anything, which to her further confirmed there were no spies in Bainrose tonight. Well, it was good to know for next time she experienced this month. Assuming there was a next time. She didn't want there to be a next time, but the feeling in her was growing: there probably would be.