Chương 86: Chapter 162 - Speedrunning the Loop, Solem 1

On the 163rd cycle, Mirian awoke, threw off the covers, and was out of bed before the first drop of water from the ceiling hit her. She scrambled to dress.

"Mirian?" came the voice of her groggy roommate.

"Did the alarm candle not—what time is—?"

"Sorry, gotta run. Don't worry about me. Love you roomie!" Mirian said as she burst out the door. She ran over to the next building and used raw magic to open the lock on the door, then again to break into the room of a pair of 6th year students whose names she hadn't bothered to learn. His spellbook contained a few key spells, including an incendiary beam, illusionary disguise, slice metal, manipulate glass, and magnetic lift. Both of the roommates were still asleep.

She swiped the book, gently closed the door, then hurried out to the dining hall. The next part she'd done so many times it might as well have been from the script of a play.

"I'd like three plates of the baduka boar, a large bowl of fish stew, and a plate of the vegetable curry. And three slices of apple pie. Please. Here's the silver, plus a bit extra for your trouble," she said as she moved through the dining hall. This early, it was all but deserted. The chef gave her a look.

"The baduka boar is for the dinner tonight."

"Yes, but I'm very hungry and you should count how much silver I just gave you." The chef gave her another suspicious glare but then noted the extra silver drachms. Two would pay for what she just ordered; seven was too much.

"The boar will take a few extra minutes to cook."

"I'll take the fish stew while I wait," she said, knowing it was already simmering in the pot. The chef gave her a look, but sighed and got her a bowl. When he returned with the vegetable curry, he gave her a slightly shocked look. The fish stew was already gone. Mirian looked at him pleasantly.

"Right, you are hungry. Auric overdrain?"

"Something like that," she said. Already, she could feel movement churning in her body as it worked to consume everything it could find to bring about the physical changes to muscles and endurance that were imprinted in her soul. Alongside it, she could feel her auric mana swelling. She devoured all three boar steaks in record time, then the pies, then left, quickly walking to Bainrose.

Once inside, she ran to the staircase, magnetically lifted the metal switch on the hidden door in the second basement level, then ran through the maze of the catacombs. She knew exactly where the bog lion would be, and cast incendiary beam right on it, nabbed the levitation wand from the ash pile, then hurried back out of the library.

Then, clutching her satchel so it wouldn't bounce, she broke into a dead sprint, running directly to the hidden trap door out in the field, used magnetic lift to open it, levitated down, and summoned Eclipse to slit Specter's throat. She jammed Adria's Praetorian uniform into her satchel, cut off Specter's ankle so she could get the focus off quicker, slipped off the signet ring, then burned the body into unrecognizability.

She retrieved a pile of incriminating documents, then swept the incendiary beam around the study, then her bedroom, then levitated back out the hidden door and slammed it shut. Nicolus was stuck in Alchemistry 402 for another hour, so after Mirian wrote out several letters with instructions to her allies, she moved to the crafting center to start producing components of her tri-bonded myrvite detector. As she rapidly moved between tools and stations, Grandmaster Ingrid started staring at her.

Then, she moved into position. First, she intercepted the second spy's route to the Myrvite Studies building and cut his throat in the alley he was moving down with a precise force blade. She left immediately so she was just outside Professor Seneca's classroom as the class let out.

"Hi Nicolus," she said, taking her place beside him.

"You're going to skip the next class because we need to talk. We might as well head back to your apartment, because Sire Nurea will want to be looped in." He gave her the usual funny look.

"Mirian, right? I—""Shh. You were obsessed with cows as a kid, your dad's always been a jerk to you, Uncle Alexus is in Akana Praediar trying to make the family relevant again, and none of it matters because the leylines are going to destabilize near the end of the month. This way, please, we'll cut through the alley. Now, I know what you're thinking about saying. One, how does she know this? Because it turns out I'm a Prophet and their foresight was derived from living their lives multiple times.

Two, is she going to kiss me? No, not this time. Three, wow, it's really weird she would know all this stuff, but is there anything she could show me as proof?" Mirian conjured Eclipse and then rammed it tip-first into the pavement. The cobblestone cracked, and the sword wedged into the ground. Nicolus jumped back, startled, and looked about. But no one would be coming down the alleyway.

"Four, I know you want to touch the sword. Inadvisable, because it's connected to my soul and will both burn you and disrupt your auric mana slightly, but I'll be able to heal the burn so go ahead." Nicolus looked at her, then the sword, then back at her. He reached for the hilt, grabbed it, and winced.

"Ow," he said.

"Well five hells. So… why now?"

"The First Prophet's time loop lasted decades. I have a month," she said, using a thimble of her own soul energy to soothe the burn on his hand.

"The loop just reset today. And we're on a deadline." She looked at him, waiting, but there was no anticipation. She already knew the answer. She was just going through the motions again. When he said yes, she gave her usual reply. Soon enough, they were back in his apartment, and she was laying out exactly what she needed him to do while Nurea watched on:"…

and then you'll tell Calisto you found an investor who created a novel long-range myrvite detector, one who has the kind of money that can save the Ennecus Guild. That House Sacristar is already investing in the detector and you can vouch for it; in fact, I'll have it to you at noon, and you'll take it with you. Give her one of those trademark smiles of yours, and she'll feel too many butterflies to question you.

Nurea, you're suspicious right now because you still think I'm trying to steal money, so let me reiterate that I will cover all finances of this, including the twenty thousand doubloons. The key point is this: you and Calisto Ennecus need to meet me at Xylatarvia's Hearth between the Port Market and First Cairn at noon on the 5th of Solem. Travel together with her, and leave no later than the 3rd." So that Troytin can't interfere. She slid a piece of paper toward them. Nicolus made a face.

"Calisto? Really? You sure there's not a bog lion I can wrestle instead?"

"There's several, north of town, actually. But I've been dismembered by Akanan soldiers and eaten alive by myrvites. You can talk to your ex-girlfriend." Her old classmate opened his mouth, closed it, opened it, then closed it again.

"Point taken. I guess you've already heard all my smarmy jokes, haven't you? Actually, you probably knew I was going to say that, too."

"I get it. It sucks on both sides of the coin," she said, but was thinking, yup. No meaningful deviation yet.

"While you're in Cairnmouth, go to Sound and Sea Trading Headquarters and put in three orders of fossilized myrvite, shipped out of Alkazaria, expedited orders. Tonnage requirements, destinations, and shipping companies are also on that piece of paper. Sire Nurea, use illusions and false identities where you see fit. There is an interested party watching you, but mostly, he's looking for me. Feel free to use your Syndicate contacts to help cover your movements."

Nurea glanced at Nicolus, who said, "Don't look at me!" The bell tower started chiming.

"I know you have questions, but I also trust you both, and that's my cue to leave. Remember, when this is all over, I'll remember House Sacristar. Ominian watch over you." Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. Mirian opened up the balcony door. While Nicolus said, "Wait, that's not the—" she leapt off, using her levitation wand to catch her fall. Mirian didn't look back, but she knew he was leaning over the railing, gaping at her.

She ran through the alleys, then cut through the plaza, running past Bertrus as he guarded the front entrance to Bainrose, then around the side. She levitated straight up the old latrine shaft, bursting open the cover with a raw blast of force. Mirian quickly ran through the door to the second floor walkways. The quickest way to the tower she needed was a leap straight across the gap between two of the walkways, a leap she could now do with ease thanks to Rostal's training.

That then brought her to a door to the tower's spiral staircase. She opened up the stolen spellbook and cast detect silver. She immediately sensed the purses of all the nearby people, including one coming up the staircase. Ten seconds too early, she thought, and counted down, ignoring the second year student who'd seen her leap across the gap and was now staring at her. Three, two, one. She cast an enhanced muffle footsteps, creating a bubble of suppressed sound around her and opened the door.

Then she took the steps two at a time, and caught the closing door to the third floor. She dismissed the spell a moment later. Professor Torres, having heard the door not close at the correct time, whirled.

"Mirian?" she said.

"Students aren't allowed—""Let's wait for Respected Jei, so I can tell you both at once," Mirian said.

"You're meeting her here to discuss the Divine Monument, so she'll be coming through that door in about fifteen seconds, and then we can go to the lounge." Torres's eyes grew wide, then they narrowed. She reached for her spellbook, saying, "How do you know about the—" but was interrupted by Jei coming through the far door, greeting her in Gulwenen. Then Jei saw Mirian and froze. In Adamic, she said, "Jei, your sister's name is Bao and you accidentally gave her brain damage."

Switching to Friian, she said, "Torres, you like your proof of time travel in ability, not knowledge, so here's the project I started." She handed her the initial pieces of the tri-bonded myrvite detector. The discussion from there was routine. In short order, they were in the lounge while Mirian laid out their tasks.

"…so Jei, you'll prepare those wands and instructions for the Praetorians," she finished.

"Any questions?" She held up a finger.

"Sorry, wait, Torres, I'll answer yours first. No, I don't know how the Divine Monument connects to all this yet, only that right now it's acting as some sort of stabilizer for the leylines. Any other questions?" Torres was perturbed that Mirian had answered her question before she'd asked it, and both of her old professors were giving her that look that meant 'I don't believe this.' She'd grown used to it.

"Good. It's critical you leave Torrviol before the 4th, and you'll want to lie low until you get to Alkazaria in case the other time traveler wants to question you. Your roles are both critical. The Praetorian assault team is very difficult to convince without your help." Mirian waited patiently for the next question. Torres would like it even less if she answered it ahead of time.

"And how do we know you're doing this all for… our benefit?" Jei looked at Torres.

"You know her," she said.

"I knew her," Torres responded.

"People change."

"It's a good question. I've started to wonder—we know what the old Prophets did, but what were they tasked with doing? Did they actually succeed? I've begun to suspect they didn't, because how else would have we found ourselves here, in this situation? And the other Prophets seemed obsessed with war and domination. I don't think Troytin was always so… psychotic. You're right, I have changed. All words are just that—meaningless. What we do is far more important, but even that can be faked for a time.

And there's no time to show you who I am now. That's the funny part. I have all this time—and not nearly enough of it. So in the end, you have to trust me, don't you? I wish I had something more to offer. Trust is a fragile thing." Torres was silent.

"I'm not going to help my case much, either, because the fastest way to do everything I need to do is theft and deception. But I've trusted you all these long years for a reason, and I hope that I never forget who I was." She smiled.

"I won't lie though. It's a struggle, some days."

"Was that speech planned?" Torres asked.

"No," Mirian lied.

"If I plan out that part, you decide not to help. You respect honesty too much." That part was true enough. But it was also true that Mirian already knew the result of this conversation. She'd simply had it too many times.

"I have to go now," she said.

"I need to finish several critical devices before I leave tonight. Thank you both, by the way. It's the foundations you laid that helped me get this far." She stood and left. Next, she wrote and delivered her usual letter to Magistrate Ada laying out the spy cell and added Specter's incriminating documents. Then it was off to the banks to take out loans from each of them, then to the market to immediately spend it all on materials, some of which she resold.

The letters of credit from Torrviol banks would be no good in Frostland's Gate; she needed gold. On her way to the Academy crafting center, Mirian stopped by the dining hall for an early lunch, scarfing down four more plates while the increasingly distraught chef looked on. The next few hours were dedicated to the myrvite detector and three soul repositories. Then, the noon bell rang. For the next part, she'd have to move fast, because she was about to piss off half of Torrviol.

To Grandmaster Ingrid's surprise (since she had gotten very interested in Mirian's craftwork), Mirian, upon finishing her last soul repository, took off straight up, levitating both herself and the bulky myrvite detector with the trusty old lift object. She dropped it off on Nicolus's balcony, then sped towards the Myrvite Studies building. With the second spy removed before he could carry out his mission, all the myrvites were alive and ready.

Mirian bound them and killed them one by one until her repositories were metaphorically bulging with soul energy. Sentiment led her to drop a prepared note on the ground that said,"Sorry Professor Viridian. I promise it's for a good cause." Then she flew off again, to Torrian Tower. Here, the stolen spellbook's manipulate glass and slice metal would be critical.

She applied an illusionary disguise as she flew, then arrived at the window two stories below Archmage Luspire's quarters, then used manipulate glass to silently open the window by burrowing a hole into it. Her work with Endresen had let her examine nearly all the security wards in the tower, and the ones by the window had the biggest flaw: they detected kinetic perturbations from the glass breaking, but not a piece of it being turned liquid and moved.

The room would be empty, because Professor Endresen would be on her lunch break. She ran across the laboratory, out into the hall and the balcony overlooking the hollow center of the tower. Then, she could levitate up to Luspire's inner balcony, where he would be entertaining several rich donors to the Academy. The angle of approach was critical. Luspire's back would be turned, and this method bypassed almost all of the wards.

As soon as she was on the balcony, Mirian drew from her soul repository so Luspire's strong aura wouldn't distort her spell, then used slice metal to cleanly sever the chain that linked his spellbook to his belt. Then she grabbed it with lift object. Once it was in motion and away from his aura, it was too late for him to do much. He turned in shock as she grabbed the book in her hand.

Immediately, the archmage was standing and using an emergency catalyst he kept on his belt to grab the spellbook—but Mirian's mythril amulet and own powerful aura kept the spell from working. She lowered herself back to the balcony she'd come from, then dashed back through Endresen's lab, dismissing her illusion spell as she did, and dove out the window. Adria's old levitation wand let her break her fall and she hit the ground running, running south to the Stygalta Arena.

There, she found Winterblossom pacing about in his stable. She hit the eximontar with a thread of his favorite kind of mana, let him investigate her with his snout, then threw on a saddle, broke open the stable doors with a burst of force magic, and rode hard. Winterblossom didn't need much encouragement to start galloping. She rode him down streets that wouldn't have guards, zig-zagging to avoid their routes.

This let her ride past the spy's headquarters, which she hit with Luspire's very own cascading inferno, then moved north towards the market. There were cries of outrage and curses as people scrambled to get out of the way of the galloping eximontar. Mirian let the stolen student's spellbook hit the ground as she rode, using the archmage's book to break open a case and lift out the mana elixirs inside.

She nabbed her favorite traveler's pack, favorite cloak, a pair of nice boots, bundles of dried food, a waterskin, and a scribing set. Bedlam erupted in the market as levitated objects zoomed about every-which-way.

A few arcanists tried to grab their materials back or use force spells to pull Mirian off her mount, but the spell resistance of soul-bonded mythril triumphed again, and Mirian continued her gallop out of the market square and towards Torrviol Lake, again taking a quick hook down an alley so she'd avoid running into a guard. As she rode, she loaded the stolen pack with her stolen loot. As Winterblossom neared the lake, she tore off her own cloak and burned it and pulled on the new one.

Behind her, half of Torrviol was in commotion, but by the time they found her trail, she would be long gone. There'd also be an added difficulty in tracking her. As she neared the shore, Mirian levitated both her and Winterblossom across the lake. This version of Winterblossom, not yet used to levitating, kicked and hissed, while Mirian fed him mana and whispered soothingly in his ear. Then, they were across, and galloping hard north.

After a half hour, Mirian slowed Winterblossom to a trot, and used the time to sort her things in her pack and cast collect water to fill her waterskin. She then systematically began cutting up and destroying Luspire's tracking glyphs he'd hidden throughout his spellbook. When Winterblossom seemed rested, she fed him a mana elixir, which had him snorting and tossing his head about until she ordered him into a gallop again. She rode until nightfall, just making it to one of the traveler's obelisks.

Then, exhausted, she pulled out the stolen scribing set and got to work, munching on jerky and dried fruit. Only when she'd finished with the double-force bubble spell did she finally let herself rest.