"All right. I think I got the gist. Powerful conqueror, won't be stopped short of killing him, not willing to negotiate.” Ran narrowed his eyes. “I don't see what this has to do with Yast, though."

"Me neither. That's why I'm concerned.” Jair paced uneasily. “Sekir has never shown himself prior to his sudden appearance as King Farshen's advisor. A few times I've tried to follow him backward from that point, but without direct access to the Palace I've been unsuccessful.”

“Surely someone saw him arrive?”

“The staff don't know anything, he just shows up one day. No one knows where he came from, or how he got in. Probably used a private unlisted transit platform, if I had to guess, but even that is something I've never been able to prove. Despite all my ploys to ingratiate myself with the nobility, one year, three years, none of it is sufficient to climb quite that high."

“Right, no one below third generation is allowed access to private networks. What’re his capabilities? Threat level?”

"Threat level is incalculable, but very high. He's also a power-array user. Herns’ Double, mostly." Jair gestured to his chest area. "I've always preferred less permanent options and faster casting, but Sekir makes it work. He is very, very adept with his chosen spells."

"What's his spell loadout?"

Jair frowned, bitter memories rising. "I don't know. Enforcement and Starlance, or something close to them, but the rest are subtle."

Ran stared at him in disbelief. "You fought this guy how many times, killed him how many, and you don't know his capabilities?"

Jair shrugged and sighed helplessly. "Any time he dies, his imprints vanish completely. I have partial concepts from observation during our fights, but he's so strong it's impossible to force a submission. It's hard enough to trick the deathblow past his defenses. I've never been able to subdue him safely to examine him while living, and whatever failsafe he has built in to hide his secrets does a good job hiding them."

"… How is that possible? That’s not how imprints work. They’re a tie between the magical and the physical, why would that disappear?"

"I have a few theories. Nothing I can prove, but given Sekir also has a troubling habit of coming back from the dead, there’s clearly something going on there. I'd almost suspect him of being a vampire, except the details don't line up right. But whatever he is, it's not subject to the same rules as the rest of us."

"Do you…” Ran's voice was low and suddenly rough, “think it’s possible for other people to come back from the dead?"

Jair glanced over at him, shaking his head slowly. "Not traditionally, I’m afraid. Whatever Sekir did, I've never seen him do anything particular to trigger a resurrection. My working theory is that his soulspell is a failsafe to prevent death from taking full hold, allowing him to reincarnate. Much like how Temporal Reversion has a few seconds to be activated before soul-level decay starts to set in, but with a new body instead of time travel."

They stood in silence for a while.

Ran asked the occasional question, which Jair answered, but there was only so much more to be said. Sekir remained largely a mystery, even now. Even having killed the man dozens of times, destroyed him a handful of times, and died to him more times than Jair cared to remember, Sekir remained an inscrutable adversary.

"And now he's come into play a whole year ahead of schedule," Ran mused.

"I'm not ready for him.” Jair closed his eyes and exhaled slowly. “We can throw ourselves against most opponents or obstacles again and again until we get it right, but Sekir requires a very specific set up in order to deal with, and I simply don't have the resources at the moment."

"I have resources."

"You have money. It's not the same thing."

Ran stiffened, affronted, and Jair immediately regretted his harsh tone. But he wasn’t going to take it back either. Money would not be sufficient to deal with a threat of Sekir's level.

Not every problem could be solved through bribery, hiring the right people, and purely material resources. Even Ran Serin’s connections, though they would help, wouldn’t suffice. Some problems required personal skill and power of a particular scale.

"I'm ready," Ran said abruptly. “Time to try again.” He struggled to his feet, eyes distant as he took deep breaths in preparation, then his eyes flashed gold and the pair of them tumbled back down the timeline.

Ran stumbled into Jair, clutching his stomach, mouth tightly closed as he swallowed convulsively.

Jair steadied Ran, who trembled, almost doubled over, his arms tight around his chest and stomach. "Do you need to sit down?"

Ran shook his head, but stumbled over to the nearest wall to lean against it.

"Is he all right?” Yast asked in Zakvari.

"He will be. Give us a minute."

"This is inconvenient timing," Yast pointed out.

"We aren't going to be able to go immediately anyway, there are some things I need to take care of before we can get in safely. Stay out of sight for now." He switched back to Ran. "You okay? You look really bad."

"That's what you said-- hrng-- the last four times." Despite his best efforts, Ran disgorged the contents of the stomach all over Jair and the nearby walkway.

"Last four.” Jair frowned. “You've been looping without me again?"

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"You keep sending me out to get a sandshark!" Ran straightened and glared at him fiercely, wiping his mouth. "I am not good at getting sandsharks."

Ah. "We should take a vacation–"

"No,” Ran cut him off forcefully. “We're not going gallivanting off before finishing this. We are getting Maelstrom back, and we’re doing it today."

"You really don't look good."

"And your soul will look even worse if we don't get Maelstrom out of it."

Jair stopped arguing. Presumably, they’d had this argument several times already, and given Ran’s position he doubted he'd win it this time either.

Some people buckled under pressure, while others only got more stubborn. Ran was definitely the stubborn sort.

He waved away Jair's attempts at providing further support, staggering to his feet. "I've got this. Don't worry about me. Do your thing. I’ll be in position." He turned around and headed back to the transit platform.

Jair watched long enough to ensure Ran had time to get on with things, then explained the plan to Yast and Lorsit before heading off himself to collect Rhebina.

The infiltration played out much as it had before, Jair taking the lead. Yast efficiently disabled the security constructs and departed, leaving Jair and Lorsit to raid the vault.

"Left, right, right, straight, left, straight… Here we are, do your thing."

Lorsit raised his arms, carving through the stone with deliberate motions. The slab of stone crashed to the ground, leaving the way open. Lorsit immediately got started on their escape sled and tunnel while Jair grabbed Maelstrom’s physical form.

The sword transformed, rejecting Jair as having an incompatible class, but he was ready for it. He bundled the protesting weapon in holding-cloth, then jumped onto the escape sled just in time. Lorsit threw them down the escape tunnel at breakneck speeds, hurling up obstacles behind them as they descended.

Not long after, Jair heard Firdon’s violent shattering of the stone spikes Lorsit left behind to slow their pursuer even over the rushing wind of their passage. It was going to be close, as usual.

Jair found he was laughing. This kind of simple chaos had been missing from his life for so long. The sheer absurdity of it was unreasonably pleasing.

Trying to outrun one of his former teachers after stealing something he already owned, it felt surreal. He really hoped this wasn’t all a dream. It was so far outside the ordinary, having happened only a couple times so far, it didn’t feel solid yet. Ephemeral.

They exploded out of the cliffside, hurtling toward the sands below.

“Ran? You here this time?” Jair shouted as they flew out in an arc, the white fabric of his robe fluttering wildly behind him with the force of their motion.

Their sled hit the ground hard. Jair let his momentum carry him off it and forward, into open sand. Ran wasn’t in a perfect position to catch them, but they had a few seconds before–

Firdon blasted his way out of the cliffside in close pursuit, standing in midair on a block of stone as tall as himself, more stone spreading out around him as he scanned for his target.

“Come on, Ran,” Jair muttered. He grabbed Lorsit’s hand and tugged him to his feet. They made it two steps before one of Firdon’s massive rock chunks slammed down in front of them, cutting off their escape.

They instinctively dodged in opposite directions to go around the sudden obstacle, and Jair cursed as another slab of stone landed between them, forcing them to stay split up.

Any second now, come on…

The shark surged up and Jair’s instincts took over, curling up and tumbling safely into the control zone.

For a split second, his instincts warred with his plans. He’d wanted to keep Lorsit around for a good long time, and if the man were killed or captured that would make things complicated. But the temptation to simply dive then and there was strong. Firdon presented an extreme threat who shouldn’t be underestimated.

He dove, then resurfaced immediately on the other side of the stone block, toppling the surprised Lorsit into their shark’s crowded mouth.

“Careful with your arms!” Ran shouted, as the mouth began to close.

Lorsit tucked himself in just in time as the shark’s jaws snapped shut and an instant later they were diving.

“At least you’re not going to be limping this time.”

Ran scoffed. “You don’t want to know how many failures it took to get here.”

“I can guess. I was a newcomer to the skill once too, you know. It’s much harder than people imagine.”

The shark collided with a sudden obstacle, vibrations suddenly surrounding them.

“Oh, that’s bad.”

“What–” Ran tried to ask, before the ground lurched and the shark tipped.

Jair lost his footing as up became sideways. The shark convulsed and spat them out, its instincts rejecting the objects that had been stuck in the back of its mouth for too long now that it was no longer being actively reflex-driven.

They flew out into the dazzling light in a spray of sand, just in time to see Firdon’s last stone slab slam shut over the top, sealing them in darkness.

Along with an angry sandshark.

“Get us a hole down,” Jair ordered Lorsit, diving back into the shark to reclaim control before it could start biting off limbs. “We don’t have much time. Ran, get in here.”

“I can’t see a thing!”

“Follow my voice, then.”

“Ow!”

“Yes, shark tooths are pointy, it’s–”

The entire bottom section of the cube encasing them disintegrated into dust, and they fell.

Firdon had lifted them a good halfway up the cliff toward the Institute. They tumbled into sunlight in a cascade of glittering sand, the light making dramatic rays in the stone dust.

Jair had no time to enjoy the view. He instinctively tried to Lift Lorsit back into the shark, but no imprints meant no spells.

He really needed to do something about that sooner rather than later.

Maelstrom’s soul complained loudly in the back of his mind, sensing its body nearby but unable to reach it.

“Be patient,” Jair growled.

“What?” Ran demanded.

Rather than waste time explaining, Jair ordered, “Get Lorsit back in here.”

They were falling fast, the two of them in the open mouth of their sandshark, the tumbling stone mage a bit further away on his own.

Ran edged his way to the teeth and shouted for Lorsit, reaching out an arm.

Their stone mage twisted and reached, snatching at Ran’s hand.

Before they could do anything more, Firdon’s bottomless cube slammed down onto them and didn’t stop. It drove them into the sand with sudden stunning force, pushing all the air out of the box to give them no room to move.

The sandshark went still, Jair lost his hold again, and Ran’s reaching arm received several new perforations as the shark’s mouth was forcefully crushed shut.

A brief flash of gold light was Jair’s only warning before they tumbled back through time.

“Yeah,” he said as he steadied Ran, back at the Institute. “I think you’re right, that loop was doomed.”

“Aaaaaah,” Ran whimpered, clutching his arm to his chest.

“It’ll pass, it’s okay.”

Jair pointedly ignored Yast’s inquiries, waiting until Ran stopped panting for breath and regained some semblance of his usual color.

Ran took a deep breath and looked Jair right in the eye.

“I don’t like sandsharks.”

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