But if Miretrix Lampleer was trapped in a time loop, why did she not remember the previous iterations she had lived through?
How long had it been?
It was clear some things were being conserved between each iteration. If everything was being exactly reset, Miretrix’s body would not be able to accrue muscle memory.
There was another clue to solve the mystery, however.
Miretrix Lampleer withdrew the bloodstained spirit vessel. Within it was the soul of the slaver who had sold her to the Coronum when she was still a helpless child. The soul of the slaver who also possessed extraordinary muscle memory.
Had Miretrix not been searching for clues, she would have taken them to the lake without a second thought. Is that why they both suffered from amnesia? It was possible; the protection spell could fail, and the madness of the Lake would curse them both. It was possible then that the lake’s curse caused memory loss.
That would be most in line with how ADAM liked to design things, Miretrix thought; to curse those seeking eternal life with an ailment that would make eternity useless to them.
Supposing Miretrix’s conjecture was correct, what was she to do?
The obvious course of action was to break the time loop.
Hold on…
“You have one week.” That was what ADAM had said. “Virtuus Lake. You have one week.”
There was a time limit.
Was ADAM being deliberately deceptive and declaring a time limit that would never be reached owing to the time loop?
No. Miretrix knew that their righteous protector would not resort to such tactics, tempted as he may be.
The time limit was genuine. If Miretrix was unable to complete her trial within a week, she would fail. And then, she would be unable to make a wish. The time limit suggested that Miretrix would either place herself in a time loop, or something would happen to trap her in one.
Miretrix’s muscle memory suggested that following her impulses would lead to becoming trapped in the time loop. Only actions that eventually led to the perpetuation of the time loop would become muscle memory and feel familiar.
But that fact betrayed another key idea: any muscle memory that Miretrix followed likely led to an unsuccessful trial, for entering a time loop was simply a failure state of ADAM’s trial.
So, Miretrix Lampleer was faced with a choice; she could either do as her gut advised, and teleport to Virtuus Lake to guarantee her continuity, or she could defy those impulses and risk everything in an attempt to overcome the challenge that ADAM had set for her.
“…I need a drink,” Miretrix said, zipping over to a small, fairy-sized door which opened for her automatically. Within was a room which contained a small kitchen and a magically chilled cabinet from which icy mist wafted. It seemed that on Apolaphia, alcohol was the common solution to many people’s problems.
Like her Elder Vulana, it seemed that Miretrix had a habit of mixing drinks for herself. The lord allowed herself a few moments to rest her fevered mind as she made herself a sugary concoction of Lepton White, a cocktail with magical properties that assisted clear thought.
The ‘correct’ choice to Miretrix’s conundrum was obvious, but difficult to make. Miretrix was obligated to take the risky option, especially since she had a plausible hypothesis about her situation. Who knew how many more iterations it would take before she made the same revelations? But the instinctual allure of her own body wanting what was familiar and comfortable made a simple choice difficult.
There were still six days left to decide, although depending on the precise flavour of madness the lake cursed trespassers with, it was very much possible that Miretrix took the exact same course of action every time she arrived at Virtuus Lake. After all, she had been operating on nothing but muscle memory for the past ten hours or so. If that was the case, who knew how long it usually took Miretrix to do whatever she normally did at Virtuus Lake? It was theoretically possible that establishing the time loop would take exactly however much time was left to complete the trial.
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
To live in comfortable misery, or to risk it all?
Or, perhaps there was a third option?
The conceptual idea of a time loop had given Tenebria Coronum’s greatest mind an intriguing idea.
What if Miretrix engineered her own time loop, within the current time loop? For example, now that she knew time loops were indeed a magical possibility, she could make herself re-experience a chosen period over and over again. She could relive the second day of her seven allotted trial days for eternity, and in that theoretically infinite time, she could think through every possibility without fear of having her memories wiped away by whatever occurred at the lake.
But just because she knew it was possible, didn’t mean that she knew how to do it. In fact, she hadn’t even the slightest idea of how to manufacture her own time loop. She strongly doubted that she would be able to master it in the six or so days she had left before her memories were wiped. The idea of a nested time loop was just another escapism from her cowardly mind.
That was the problem with her.
“I’m afraid.” The fairy said to herself, her brutal honesty spurred on by the effects of the Lepton White in her dainty hand.
But it is natural to be afraid of the unknown. That was why Miretrix was so successful. She leveraged her great intelligence and reasoning abilities to plan ahead, prepare for every eventuality, and inevitably overcome every obstacle. When she was younger, she had been unprepared for the cruelty of life, and so she had learned never to be unprepared ever again.
But the trial she faced was cruel indeed, Miretrix thought, noticing the unusual sense of déjà vu that pervaded every sip of her drink. Every single action she had ever thought to take during the trial had felt seeped in such familiarity. No matter how much Miretrix planned, it did not seem to matter, for every action she took indicated that she had thought, planned, tried, and failed. Countless times. Even the most random and inane action she might take, like dancing a jig, waving at an imaginary squid, spitting, or even sneezing when a lick of cold mist unexpectedly tickled the inside of her nostrils in a particular way, all these felt far too familiar. She had done these things countless times already.
How long has it been?
It truly felt like failure was an inevitability.
Miretrix downed the rest of her drink and placed the glass back on the bar. It left a bitter taste in her mouth.
Perhaps her body would eventually learn to be content reliving the same seven days for eternity. Like some kind of domesticated animal, not questioning her life and simply enjoying the omnipresent feeling of security. Perhaps that was the kind of punishment that ADAM had in mind for those unworthy of his wishes.
Was that a fate worse than death? To exist in meaningless repetition? Unable to break free?
Miretrix could not allow her will to be broken. The mere idea of letting herself succumb to comfortable misery filled her with indignation. If everything she did felt familiar, then she needed to believe that her retraced steps would eventually lead her to the cliff where she could make her leap of faith.
She needed to seize the chance given to her in this iteration, where she had some idea of the trap she had fallen into.
I am the last of the Lampleers. Miretrix thought to herself, mustering some motivation. I will not-
Her train of thought was abruptly derailed by a memory of a time long past.
Have I been misinterpreting ADAM’s instructions this entire time?
Virtuus Lake. You have one week. That was what ADAM had said.
Miretrix had assumed that ADAM’s mention of Virtuus Lake indicated a challenge to fix the heart of the lake. But on second thought, Miretrix realised that that idea could easily be another comfortable fabrication made by her mind. There was another way to interpret those words, a way that indicated a challenge far more personal and difficult.
ADAM’s words were a reminder to Miretrix of the last promise she had sworn through bitter tears as her village was reduced to crumbling cinders.
“I won’t let this be the last of the Lampleer name. I’ll make you all proud.”
But what had become of the Lampleer name now? It was synonymous with the name of Tenebria Coronum, of fear and cruelty. Despised and revered only for the power it represented.
Her promise, made from the depths of her heart, had become a shameful memory.
Since becoming one of the most powerful people in the world, Miretrix had lived her life in comfortable misery. Whether she wanted to admit it or not, her activities as one of the Coronum’s leaders had enabled further atrocities akin to the one that had shaped the dark trajectory of her life. The sole survivor of Virtuus Lake could hardly place the blame anywhere else at this point. Theoretically, she knew that she had the power to change the way things were, but instead…
Miretrix withdrew the crystal that contained the slaver’s soul, still stained with sticky, sharp-smelling red blood that soiled her hands. The irony of killing Ava’s grandfather the way that Miretrix had was not lost on the fairy.
Miretrix sighed.
She had finally seen the true nature of ADAM’s trial; she could feel it in the depths of her heart. The trial was a microcosm of the temptation that she had succumbed to all her life. An invitation to comfort and longevity at the cost of what was truly important to her.
"...Just what have I been doing with my life?"