Chương 218: Chapter 291 - Yesterday

On the 28th of Cerelorn, Lily woke up before the alarm candle. She fumbled around for her nightstand, then found her glasses and put them on. It took a moment to link the enchantment to her auric mana through the tiny catalyst, but then she could see. When she glanced over, Mirian wasn't in her bed. Instead, she was passed out on her writing desk using a book on artifice as a pillow. Next to her was a slab of clay inscribed with several glyphs and with copper wires running through it. Lily sighed.

Her roommate was pushing herself too hard again. She went over and poked at the weird project she was working on. She knew it was for artifice, but she couldn't even begin to say what it was supposed to do. Lily recognized the glyphs for force and circular motion scribed into the side of a slab of clay, but then the copper wires led to the back into a mess of more glyphs. It definitely wasn't done. Isn't that thing due tomorrow? Mirian's face had also partially landed on top of her notes.

Hopefully the ink dried before she smeared it everywhere.

"Hey, Mirian," Lily said gently.

"Mirian. You fell asleep studying again. Hey. Hey." Mirian groaned, then started.

"Shit! What time is it?"

"Early. Just thought you might want a few extra minutes since you, uh might want to freshen… oh. You have, uh, some ink on your face."

"That's okay, I have a spell for that." Sure enough, she had remove ink scribed in her spellbook.

"Why do you have that scribed?" Mirian sighed.

"There was this girl who… never mind, it doesn't matter." Her face scrunched up in concentration, focusing on the simple spell. Lily got ready for her own day, tidying up her hair and sorting through her notebooks. After about a minute, Mirian's spell finalized and the ink lifted on her face.

"I'm doomed," Mirian said, glancing back at her book on artifice.

"I don't think you actually are." Her roommate let out another mournful sigh.

"I've got Professor Eld's stupid exam tomorrow, and he has us scribing a whole twenty-four glyphs. In class! No notes, either, we just have to memorize which inks to use, the glyph forms, and how to channel for each of them. And this project isn't done. Ugh." Lily gave her a quick hug. She was being too hard on herself again. It figured. What Mirian really needed to do was let loose. Not with exercise, that clearly wasn't helping. Maybe I can convince her to join one of those parties in the woods.

On second thought, there was no chance notoriously straight-laced Mirian was going to go for that. As Mirian headed off to the kitchen to make her usual breakfast of porridge and berries—like she was a starving peasant from the Fragmented Kingdoms Era—Lily headed out to the dining hall. Beatrice had left her a little silver in the family account when she'd last dropped by, and Mirian would both refuse to buy her own meal since she was pinching beadcoins and refuse to let Lily buy her anything.

The sky was overcast, but at least it hadn't snowed yet. Torrviol was always a bit warmer than the surrounding area for some reason. She wasn't looking forward to the inevitable snow. Lily took her notes for her next class out of her satchel and flipped through them. Really, Mirian worried too much. The simple fact was that no one could keep track of all this nonsense, and Mirian was a lot better at it than she gave herself credit for. A pair of Lily's friends waved at her, and she moved to join them.

Soon enough, they were happily chatting away on their way to the dining hall.

That evening, Lily met Mirian in the dining hall. They were serving a flatbread piled with meat and vegetables on it. Mirian muttered something about it "not being spicy enough," which was pretty typical.

"Just buy a spice mix next time we're in Cairnmouth. Hells, you could go down this weekend."

"You know I don't have the beadcoins," her roommate said.

"How were classes?"

"Fine. Mostly review stuff. I skipped botany so I could practice more for the spell empowerment thing. Did you finish your artifice project?"

"Yeah. Scribed three sequences of ten glyphs each, then had to make sure the copper wires wouldn't come loose around the conduit when the clay hardened, which meant doing even more spellwork. I am fried. I don't even know if I'll have enough mana for the exams tomorrow."

"I heard eating more helps. Also, sleeping in a bed instead of at your desk."

"Yeah, yeah," Mirian grumbled. Gods she looked tired. When was the last time she'd gotten a good night's sleep? Their chat moved back to classes as Lily regaled Mirian with some of the hilarious antics of her peers. She thought her roommate could use the cheering up. It was pretty amazing how many mistakes sixth years were still making in advanced classes like Applied Spellcasting. They kept talking after they finished dinner, then on Lily's insistence, walked east towards Torrviol Lake.

"I need to study more," Mirian griped.

"No you don't. Shush." Lily was sort of out of ideas, though. The funny stories hadn't seemed to take Mirian's mind off of things. If going for a nice walk didn't do it, maybe she could buy an alchemical sedative? Except the shops were all closed by now…

"Heard from your sister at all?" Mirian asked.

"Beatrice? No, she gets busy and forgets to write. Costs quite a bit to send a letter anyways, especially in the winter. She'll be back down in a few months. Definitely before we graduate. Hey, did I ever tell you about what I did to her during her graduation? Well, she told me not to embarrass her during the ceremony, but then she also started giving me a hard time about the time a bird flew into our house and started pecking at my bug collection, so I…"

Halfway through the story, Lily realized Mirian had totally stopped paying attention. She was gazing out at the lake. The clouds had parted just enough that the Luamin moon was visible, and the light-cracked clouds were reflecting beautifully on the waters. It was light enough they could see the Littenords, though all the color had been leeched from them.

"I do love this place," Mirian whispered, a small smile on her face. Lily wasn't sure what to say.

"Aright! Back to studying. Two more hours, then I promise I'll sleep. There's three glyphs I need to practice for tomorrow, and if I don't pass Enchantments I'm sure my mother will chop off my ear." Lily had to shake her head and laugh. Dhelia and Jeron were two of the nicest people she'd ever met, but to hear Mirian talk about it, they routinely hired assassins if she didn't study hard enough. They headed back towards the dorms. Two hours later, Mirian closed her notebook and put away her glyph pen.

Lily breathed a sigh of relief and set her own notes she'd been looking at on top of the precarious pile with the others. Then she lit the alarm candle with only a warmth spell so she could practice the focusing and intensifying enhancements. Mirian was asleep before Lily had even taken off her glasses.

The next morning, Lily woke, then as she fumbled for her glasses, tried to figure out what had startled her awake. It was her arcane sense, she realized. Except, her arcane sense had never felt something like this, not even the time that Beatrice had made her pet a restrained drake and it had breathed fire while she was touching it. Lily looked over towards the source of the arcane force and her jaw dropped. This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

Mirian was up, but it didn't look at all like the girl who she'd just seen go to sleep. The most obvious change was that her eyes were glowing. No longer dull gray, they were a bright silver, leaking aura so intense that sometimes wisps of light emerged from her eyes like luminous smoke. She exuded a confidence that hadn't been there yesterday. Something about the way she stood, something about the way she moved—Gods above, how had she gotten more muscular overnight?

"…Mirian?"

"Lily," she said with a sad smile.

"Everything's about to change. I wish I could properly convey what your friendship has meant to me. I wish I could share all that we did together. The strength that you've shown through the years—but there isn't time. I have much to do. You'll see me in the courtyard in an hour. Then it will become clear." Then she closed her eyes, and the room brightened as the air around Mirian glowed. Motes of pearlescent light appeared around her, then began coalescing into solid form.

Within moments, her entire body seemed to be glowing, and then the light faded into solid material. All Lily could think was that what she was seeing was impossible. It had to be an illusion, except, Mirian only knew how to make geometric shapes. Now, she was wearing an armored cuirass of white and black metal that resembled a rib cage, hundreds of glyphs on it. Beneath it was a flowing robe made of black silk, with yet more glyphs scribed onto the fabric in intricate patterns.

The inside of an Akanan spell engine was magnitudes less complex. Then, when she was done, she floated out the door. Floated! Since when could she levitate? And where the hells was her spellbook? Oh, there it was, abandoned on the table. Then… what!? How!? Lily scrambled to get dressed. By the time she'd made it outside, several other people were gathered, talking about what they'd just seen.

"—was flying, wearing some sort of armor!" a fourth-year was saying.

"Yeah I saw her too! She just took off. I saw an Arcane Praetorian once, and even he couldn't fly that fast." A fifth-year shook his head.

"Someone's playing a prank. It's obviously an illusion. Didn't you see how it went right over to Torrian Tower then disappeared?"

"Uh, I'm taking 400-level illusion classes and I couldn't do that. You can't maintain an illusion at those sorts of distances. Unless they stopped teaching fourth-years about the Gulian Equations for mana and spell distance?"

"Oh, shut up. You really think someone flying around is more likely?"

"Maybe a Praetorian spent a night in the dorms…" Lily stood there, still in shock.

"She went to Torrian Tower?"

"That's what I saw! But where did she come from?"

"She's my… roommate." Everyone turned to look at her.

"I… don't have the slightest idea what's going on. She was normal yesterday!"

People started gathering in the plaza in front of Brainrose Castle. Word had gotten around that all classes were canceled and something was happening. At first, it was just a few students who Lily had talked to, but somehow, word was getting passed around. Several professors had gathered with their entire classes.

"I heard Archmage Luspire is going to tell us something," one student told another.

"Luspire can't levitate, idiot."

"He can levitate, it's just illegal." …Yeah, Lily wasn't going to get anything useful out of the rumor mill today.

"—heard that they just found the captain of the guard dead in his home. No sign of entry." What!? Lily thought. Another sixth-year she sort of recognized sidled up to her.

"Hey, you're Mirian's roommate, right? I'm Valen. Uh, really weird question. Did she—" Whatever she was going to ask got interrupted by loud shouting nearby.

"Back! Move back! Out of the center of the plaza!" The Torrviol Guard was out in force. No captain that she could see, though. Gradually, people backed away to the nearby roads and the Bainrose gatehouse. Lily found herself being jostled in the tightly packed crowd as she stood on her tiptoes trying to see what was going on. Then she heard someone gasp and say, "Look!"

"Up there!" Sure enough there was Mirian, robe fluttering in the wind, casually descending from the sky down to the plaza.

"People of Torrviol!" Her voice came loud and clear. She was using some sort of voice amplification spell. The murmurs of the crowd died down.

"The age of Prophets has come again. I am Mirian Nezzar, and I have spent the last hundred years living through the same months over and over again. Enteria faces a crisis like no other—but I will not save it. You will." The crowd looked around. The murmurs started back up again.

"Today marks the beginning of a new era. The leylines have become disrupted. Over the next few months, magical eruptions will begin to intensify. If not stopped, the leylines themselves will break, and when they do, Divir will come crashing down. The Mausoleum of the Ominian will shatter. And you will die. Each and every one of you." Again, she paused. This is absurd, Lily thought. Why is she… but then how…? From the whispers she was hearing, she wasn't the only one doubting Mirian's story.

And what's with changing her last name?

"For a century, I have fought a war against the apocalypse. And in those long years, I have come to know— you. Beginning today, we move mountains. Each of you shall become the stone that triggers and avalanche. Together, we will build a future for you, for your friends, for your families. Together, we will save Enteria from ruin." Then her voice became a whisper that spread across the courtyard.

"Together, we will save the Ominian." The crowd was becoming restless. Then, all of a sudden, a great image bloomed around Mirian and the ground began to rumble. Lily gaped as she saw a huge figure whorled stone, covered in wings and eyes. They were impaled by two dozen glowing needles. A presence washed over her and it made her knees weak. Several people near her did collapse.

"Gods above," someone gasped. And they were right. It could only be an image of the Ominian. Only it felt real. Lily found herself trembling. There were gasps around the edge of the plaza.

"What is—?"

"It's a pit! Look out!" Through the crowd, Lily could see it. The fountain had split in two, and the entire plaza was opening up, revealing a huge pit. There was something coming up from it—she could see a glow. More shouts came from around the plaza.

"Long have I served Torrviol as priest. I, Priest Krier, proclaim Mirian as Prophet. There is no doubt."

"Yesterday, I was teaching Mirian. Today… all I can say is that she's created the most complex piece of artifice ever seen. Ilyia Torres vouches for the Prophet Mirian."

"Song Jei vouches for Mirian."

"Selkus Viridian vouches for Mirian!"

"Archmage Medius Luspire vouches for Mirian."

"I've never met Mirian before in my life. But she knew everything about me. She's sending me on a mission to go save my sister's life. Daith Whellian vouches for Mirian."

"Somehow, she's met Emperor Xecatl and knows Tlaxhuaco better than I do. Xipuatl Yanez vouches for Mirian."

"Nur—stop, let go, I'm not going to fall in. Nicolus Sacristar vouches for Mirian!" Lily stood there, blinking away her astonishment as more and more people shouted out their endorsement of her. But what was even more shocking was what was coming up from the depths of the pit that had just been the plaza a few moments ago. It was some sort of Elder device. It had to be a hundred feet tall, and even as it sat still, it seemed to be moving. With a clunk the platform became flush with the ground.

The shouting died down, and Mirian's voice echoed out again.

"By my authority as Prophet, by the Ominian's grace, I link the Tlaxhuacan city of Uxalak with Torrviol. Through this Elder Gate, let the two be joined!" She held her hand over the structure, and Lily felt arcane force rushing by her like a wind. It built like a tidal wave, and the device began to spin. The mind-bending structure became a blur of motion, light gathering around it until it became a sphere. And in that sphere she saw—darkness.

Then, a stream of light, as if she was looking at a cave illuminated by a single sunbeam, distorted through a glass orb. Lily's jaw was open.

"What was impossible yesterday has become possible today. People of Torrviol, I ask that you join me! Prepare yourselves, for each of you has a purpose." Whatever doubt had been present a few moments ago was utterly wiped out. Everyone started talking at once. The great vision in the sky vanished, and Mirian descended down to begin talking to people. She noticed Professor Viridian nod, and then he and one of the students who had said something stepped through the sphere. And then—there they were.

Lily could see them on the other side of the Gate. Suddenly, she found herself pushing forward through the crowd.

"Mirian!" she called. Mirian saw her and smiled.

"I know you still have questions, but I have a mission for you, too. In twelve days, Beatrice's team will be ambushed and killed in the Labyrinth. In eighteen days, a myrvite stampede will kill dozens more in Frostland's Gate and shatter the greenhouses. Two months later, a blizzard will trap them in town. Four months later, an ice carnipede herd annihilates the whole village. You and a team of apprentices will be helping evacuate all of Frostland's Gate." Lily gaped at her.

She seemed to be doing a lot of that lately.

"I… I will?"

"You'll rise to the occasion. You have before, and you will again. Begin your preparations. There's much to be done."

On the morning of the 1st of Solem, far to the east, in a little village, an old man was taking his usual morning walk. Irabi liked the quiet of the morning. He also liked the bustle that would come later, and the laughter as children made their way to the schoolhouse. For now, though, he was enjoying the way the wind whispered across the fields and the early morning light. A scrabbling sound caught his ear. At the edge of one of the fields, he saw motion. He paused his walk and squinted. Was that…

a cat's paw bursting up from the dry dirt? Why, it was. There came the rest of the cat. Irabi had seen hairless cats before. This one wasn't just hairless; it was very clearly dead. He could see a bit of bone protruding out of the mummified skin. The cat looked around, then, apparently noticed him. It held up a little paw and—waved? Irabi blinked. Then the cat darted off, moving south along the road at a full sprint. He watched it go. Well, that was strange, he thought.

He went over and investigated the hole it had come out of. It was a very ordinary hole. He shrugged, and continued on his morning walk. No sense worrying about that sort of thing.