Jair and Ran retreated to Lord Ajriol Serin's well-appointed home in the city to ponder their next moves - as well as get Ran off his feet, since he was supposed to be resting his shark-bitten leg. Even with magical acceleration, this kind of healing could only be rushed so far.
"You're sure Yast didn’t go exploring?"
"I don't know, but yes, I'm sure. The whole situation feels wrong for it to be anything simple. The timing is too much to be coincidence. Yast isn’t the sort to go wandering off and disappear on me. I don't trust it."
"So how are we going to find him?"
For once, Jair fully appreciated Ran's loyalty and unwillingness to be purely pragmatic. Jair may gladly use and forget about the vast majority of people, but those he committed to he stayed committed to. For his own stability if nothing else. He might lie or deceive if necessary, but he would not abandon his allies.
“I’ll search. It doesn’t matter how long it takes, since once we know what went wrong you can take us back and we can fix it. This loop is probably dead at this point.”
If they'd caught Yast, this was probably going to end nowhere good. Since they were in entirely uncharted territory here, Jair needed as much information as possible about how things were and would end up.
"And here I was hoping I could be done with sandsharks for at least a few more days."
"You’d prefer we leave Yast to his fate? Let him be imprisoned or start a war over our actions, not our problem, just skip on ahead up the timeline."
"You know that's not what I mean. Even if we do skip on up the timeline, we’re going to loop back for him." Ran pushed himself back to his feet, tucking his crutch under his arm. “I’m coming with you.”
“You need to rest.”
“If this loop’s dead, then it doesn’t matter. I’m coming. What if you get killed while I’m not there? Then you’ll lose whatever information you may have learned and waste everyone’s time.”
Jair’s protective instincts wanted to argue. This was Ran. He needed to be preserved and shielded from any potential threats.
But that was the past. Ran was no longer a hazy memory to be safeguarded, he was a friend and ally to be taught and listened to. He may still be young, but he was no longer limited the way most were. Like Jair himself, Ran was unbound from the restraints of time.
Not alone. He had to keep reminding himself of the reality. Years upon years of being the only one who could do anything or change anything in a world of repeating patterns had built deep habits of acting and thinking alone.
“Then we’ll search together.” Jair smiled with genuine gratitude. “But first, let’s see if there is a quick way to get my class back. The sooner I can flash Maelstrom around at anyone who looks at us funny, the better.”
In that, however, they were doomed to disappointment. Ajriol did know a number of mageblades in the region, but none was of the proper tier. Either they'd gone on to teach at the institute, or left the relatively undesirable continent of Veor behind and gone off to the more coastal continents to prove themselves as adventurers on the front lines, or taken positions elsewhere.
The first-tier mageblades who lingered around were the sort who would have been willing to perform the initiation without asking questions, but didn't have the power to do so.
"Guess that leaves a few other options," Jair mused. "But I think the simplest is to wait for a ghost moon passage. There'll be someone there who'll ask no questions and give us whatever we ask."
"You don't think them having the knowledge of Maelstrom's existence will come back to bite us?"
"Does it matter if it does? As soon as I’m back to full strength, we can deal with whatever they send after us."
Ran glanced at their lunar calendar. “There’s a Terluna over a week sooner than the next Dark Night, we could hire someone legitimately.”
“I would be equally concerned with anyone ‘legitimate’, but I’m not particularly concerned either way. The sooner I can get my spells imprinting, the better. But, that’s a problem for another loop. Today, we need to figure out what happened to Yast. I have a few ideas of where to start, but do you have any thoughts?”
“Go back to the Institute and ask around? People see more than they admit, and if something went down I could get info from other students that the authorities might not.”
“Hm, good point. You are pretty good at the social thing. It’s got a high chance of getting us caught up in the whole mess sooner, but might be the fastest way to answers if it’s something on that end.”
“What would have been your plan, if not that?”
“Spend some time chatting with the local gossips, see if they heard anything about a disturbance in any of the areas between the transit terminal and Yast’s place, and if that fails, try the pickpockets. They’re a bit more attentive than your average busybody to anything that smacks of covert law enforcement action.”
“You think it’s something outside of the Institute?”
“The timing doesn’t line up for Yast to have been trapped inside. I can’t think of any reason he shouldn’t have gotten out. He had the headmaster’s universal authorization token, and the window of time was plenty large for him to slip out unobserved. Might a few students have noticed someone walking from admin to departure? Sure, but none of the lecture halls are close enough for them to identify him. He should have been able to disappear without more than passing notice.”
“Oh. That does sound reasonable. We should probably start with your contacts first, if going to the Institute is more likely to implicate us. No need to force a reversion any sooner than necessary.”
“Still trying to put off your next round of sandshark driving?”
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“I know they’re a great alternative to being crushed to death by Professor Firdon, but you will never convince me they’re not evil incarnate.”
“Hey, it only took you a few dozen tries to get it right. You learned faster than most.”
Ran regarded him flatly.
“Well, most don’t learn at all because they die, but thankfully you’ve got a way around that particular hurdle. It’s quite simple once you get the hang of it.”
“Simple doesn’t mean ‘non-terrible’ though.”
"We don’t have to investigate, if you prefer. Could let it play out a few weeks and see what happens, go back afterward. We've got time, so this would be a good time to practice pulling yourself out at places between ledges. Also, try to pay attention while we're in timefall, see if you can reach me."
“I don’t even know where you are.”
“On my side, it looks like you’re falling on the opposite side of my cliff. Underneath your sand?”
“What exactly are you hoping to accomplish with this?”
“I held on too long inside without pulling myself out once, and it left damage to my manabody despite its condition otherwise being reverted upon returning to the past.”
Ran’s hand went to his chest. “The spikes on my cactuses, you think they’re causing manabody damage?”
“I didn’t think so at first, but the more I consider it, the more sense it makes. But that also begs the question, if you get yourself impaled on a cactus every time you revert time, how do you leave the timefall?”
“With a sort of…” he jerked and gasped in demonstration, as though startled. “Like waking up from a nightmare.”
“Is it voluntary, have you any control over when it happens?”
“I… don’t know. I’ve tried to force myself to stop before hitting the cactus, but it doesn’t work.”
“But it might, if you could grab another cactus.”
Ran ran his hands together uncomfortably. “If it’s causing manabody damage, wouldn’t that interfere with my imprints? Grabbing it with my hands?”
“If you can think of another way to get yourself out, go ahead and try it.”
“In a few days. Perhaps. If we don’t find anything worth reverting about sooner.”
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Headmaster Dalin Larenok struggled to maintain a facade of calm, only showing the edges of his anger, though he was internally screaming. Someone had violated his home, obliterated his defences, and assaulted his person. Worse, they'd done all this successfully.
"We've collected afterdrift traces from the vault, the door, and the transit platform, as well as from your house. Some of them match with the elf we've captured, others do not. He wasn't working alone."
"Then find out who he's working with." This should be obvious to anyone with half a brain, but he bit back the reprimand before it could become a full on tirade. He was working with valuable allies, it wouldn't do to burn bridges here.
"Do you know anyone who speaks Zakvari?” retorted the officer. “It's not one of the necessary skills for this region, is it?"
"What am I paying you for, again?" Larenok's ire seeped into his tone despite his best efforts at control. Everything about the past day had shaken him more than he'd ever admit. All indications pointed to a very wide-reaching conspiracy, an incredibly well-informed network, and a group who'd pulled off the strangest break-in in the Astralla Mageblade Institute's history with nearly flawless precision.
If not for his own extreme paranoia the intruders would have gotten away entirely. And people said he was over prepared, well, hah.
Yet even with that advantage, Larenok's investigations had only touched the tail of the chaos so far.
This elf appeared at first investigation to be nothing but the most ordinary of hirelings. Young and talented, but without any known reputation or affiliations.
'Yast Mebort' was a nobody. As far as they could find, he’d just appeared out of nowhere just in time for this invasion.
The fact that it had been Dark Night two days prior escaped no one’s notice. But if he were going to learn anything from that angle, Larenok would have to involve his least favourite contacts.
The local underworld was better behaved than most, but Larenok hesitated to involve professional criminals. Even if they were more trustworthy than most, he always felt uneasy around their representative. The man tended to stare into his soul, as though he could tear through all Larenok’s facades and pretense and drag out his long-buried insecurities at a glance.
He knew instinctively that to show any weakness there would be his downfall, and right now he couldn’t afford to risk it. His mind was too much in turmoil to brave those waters. If he had no other choice, perhaps. Not until he’d expended any other option.
With a growl that was half frustration, half resignation, Larenok waved the man away. "I don't care what you have to do, just make it happen."
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Sekir Lifekeeper felt the presence at the far end of his scanning range long before the skimmer came into view. The rigidity of the other man’s manabody made his affiliation blatantly obvious long before his red vest came into view.
Not that it was surprising. Sekir’s planned route wasn’t widely known, and the man was heading directly for him.
Standard combat loadout for a magekiller, all defence and detection, reflex and resistance. For a moment he ran his mind back over his actions, wondering if this was a sign that he’d been careless and overlooked something in his meticulous planning. But, no. If anyone had discovered him, they wouldn’t have sent a single man to deal with him. They’d have sent the whole legion.
The skimmer reached him and slowed to a hover. “Sjorlain! You’re needed back at Astralla.”
Sekir, known as ‘Sjorlain’ by his current co-workers, relaxed the intensity of his scanning spell, disconnecting the amplification construct from his imprint with a faint sense of relief.
“Has the king finally realized that I’m right?” He climbed aboard the clearly-appropriated skimmer and it immediately turned and headed back through restless sands.
His counterpart smiled secretively and shook his head. “This isn’t something the king needs to be involved in. Consider it a side job, if you must.”
So he would be returning to the pointless search afterward. Well, any distraction was better than none. “Who’re we working for this time?”
“A benefactor. We’ve been waiting for an opportunity to repay his generosity in the past, and this is an easy opportunity to do so.”
“Easy? We don’t get called in for ‘easy’.”
“You’re the only person I know who speaks Zakvari and can be trusted with this level of interrogation.”
The man paused, clearly waiting for Sekir to ask.
Sekir only stared at the man. He didn’t play that kind of game. Speak or be silent. Toying around with mission-critical information was idiotic. He had no reason to care what anyone here thought about him, and their unprofessional behavior only made him more confident that this place desperately needed a change in leadership.
The man folded, not allowing the silence to become too awkward. “An elf was captured after attacking one of the secure facilities under the protection of the Veor Crown.”
“An elven play for power?” That would be inconvenient. He’d spent too long establishing himself here, he wasn’t going to give up his foothold to an elven invasion.
“We don’t know. He’s not said anything except ‘No human words’ over and over. Young one. No records, no paperwork, no request for admission. Probably underworld, but none of our usual contacts know anything.”
“I wouldn’t trust those sort with something this important.” Sekir agreed. “You’ve come to the right man. I’ll find everything he knows, and deal with it.”
“I thought you might.”
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