The Years of Apocalypse - A Time Loop Progression Fantasy

The next cycle, Mirian killed Specter again as soon as she had her initial supplies. It was simple: she waited until night, used a sound damping spell while she pried open the hatch magnetically, then levitated down the passage and cut her throat with Eclipse. She took several critical files from Specter's desk, then burned the rest.

Her knowledge in glyph analysis got one Micael Nezzar a convenient position with Professor Endresen that took up two of her class slots. The work on glyph formation was fascinating, but it only reinforced the idea that she needed a permanent spellbook. Perfect glyph formation required patience and time, as well as the precision tools Endresen was using.

Mirian took an illusions class from Marva so she'd have an excuse to work with them again. The last class slot she filled with Professor Viridian's Myrvite Ecology 370. Funnily enough, she noticed Calisto was in the class, someone she hadn't thought about in a long time.

With no Nicolus present, the girl was much more subdued.

Troytin had managed to speed up the arrival of the Akanan delegation by a day, putting their arrival at the 7th of Solem. That still gave Mirian plenty of time to prepare, and with Torres helping her create divination listening devices modeled on the Akanan communicators, they would be able to pick up a great deal of conversations the Akanans thought were private. They hid the devices in the walls of the quarters the visiting professors had stayed in last time; Mirian got to work under Jei's direction using her various stone-shaping spells to cover up their work.

***

By the 15th, it was clear that the hidden eavesdropping machines were interfering with the Akanan communication devices, often preventing transmissions, or making ghostly hissing noises. Torres pretended to go around "fixing" the Akanan machines with Mirian, who disabled the key glyphs in her own hidden ones as the professor worked. She hoped it was enough to hide her involvement. Such an extensive espionage operation probably couldn't be dismissed as a hasty effort she'd thrown together before departing. Better to hide her mistake and try again later to preserve the secrecy of her presence.

Mirian hit the library, trying to figure out why the longwave beams of light the machines were using to send information would mess with each other. She had vague recollections of reading about something with waveforms in the book about magical telegraphs. Unfortunately, most of the most recent research was, once again, being done in Akana Praediar, and the books she found didn't answer her questions.

Still, the setback hadn't halted the stream of information entirely. Troytin appeared to be trying to keep his "Sulvorath" identity separate, since at least one of the professors, along with Marshal Cearsia, knew him from before the loop.

Mirian learned what she could from Troytin's former professor.

"Troytin?" Professor Denton said to Marva one evening. "Oh, I didn't know him all that well as a student. Never said much in class. But he's come into a lot more confidence, which is good to see. I was surprised when he got accepted into the military intelligence division program. It sounds romantic, sure, but they get up to some downright unpleasant things. Didn't realize he would have the stomach for it."

Marva had tried to get him to expound on the subject, but Denton had taken it to mean they wanted to know more about said unpleasant spy adventures and had proceeded to recount a frankly unbelievable tale about an operation in Persama where the Akanans had overthrown one of the local princes a few decades back. It sounded a lot more like one of the adventure thrillers Mirian had read back in preparatory school than anything that had actually happened.

Next, Torres was able to get Archmage Tyrcast to reveal that, if the research with the Divine Monument went well, Luspire might be offered a position in Vadriach University.

No surprises. Troytin knows he wants that. What she really wanted to know was what the Akanans thought they were getting out of the deal.

On that, the visiting professors were much more circumspect. Professor Denton said, "Oh, it's just wonderful to be able to further research on such a fascinating subject, don't you think?"

Over a different luncheon, Archmage Tyrcast said, "What's most exciting is delving into the unknown. Who knows what we'll find?"

Mirian might have bought the platitudes before the time loop, but there was no way that was the bait Troytin had used to assemble them all. She guessed that he'd sold the Divine Monument as something more powerful and better understood than it actually was. But perhaps there was another more political aspect she was missing.

She kept listening.

Torres and Jei reported that the Akanan team was now subjecting the Divine Monument to all sorts of new devices and tests, to no real effect. They need celestial runes, and they need a second Monument, Mirian thought. If that was where Troytin was concentrating his efforts, he lacked the two crucial pieces of information needed to make progress. Mirian getting Specter out of the picture had been just in time. None of the Akanans seemed to be familiar with rune magic. To them, the markings would just appear to be strange, unfamiliar glyphs. Without a celestial focus, they'd be unable to properly analyze them or recreate them.

Akana Praediar does have people using runes, but they've kept them separate too. Perhaps their spies and priests hold a monopoly on that power too.

Mirian also thought she'd been right about Specter being key to Troytin's quick control over Torrviol and expansion into the Deeps. The spies, the contacts—it was all her network. She had the trust of her operatives. If the transcript of that first conversation had been any indication, Troytin had been relying heavily on her to actually write and send the messages.

It was Valen of all people who saw Troytin entering the spy's first headquarters, the one by the train tracks. He came back out with a bag full of papers, chatting in Eskinar with Agent Idras. I'll target those next, Mirian thought. Even with memory tricks, there was only so much one could hold in their head. Then, she could destroy the wards by the derelict tower in the forest that the spies were using to send zephyr falcon messages. That would severely limit his ability to do anything in Baracuel, unless he actually left Torrviol. But he seemed to think holding the Divine Monument was critical.

Most of the Akanans think it's a weapon. What did he decide it is?

It had something to do with the control of the leylines, that much was clear. Perhaps it was the key to stopping all this—but then, what did Troytin gain from trying to eliminate other time travelers?

It was still a mindset she had trouble understanding. Like Archmage Luspire, who was ruthless in shaping the narrative around himself, it annoyed Mirian that the aggressive mindset seemed to work. Archmage Tyrcast had, apparently, helped crush the competing spell engine manufacturers in Akana Praediar, so his guild-protected product now dominated the markets. Pontiff Oculo had spent decades politicking in the Luminate Order to reach the top.

It wasn't even the ruthless aggression that baffled Mirian. By now, she'd had to use that mindset enough. It was the ruthlessness with no purpose behind it she really couldn't comprehend. Fighting for oneself—and nothing else—felt like an empty goal.

"The point is to make the world a better place," her father had told her once. What was the point of power for power's sake?

***

On the 19th, Mirian's network noticed the Akanan spies heading into the wilderness repeatedly and coming back with satchels full of something. Mirian thought it might be myrvite parts because they'd run out of some critical ink for glyphs.

It was the 22nd, and Mirian had already started her work on her leyline measurement devices. The Akanans had made up their excuses to depart, and this time, Troytin had left with them on the airship. Like before, Luspire had gone with them.

She was deep in her work when one of professor Cassius's apprentices came running.

"You're… you're the one, right? The… I was told to get you. Micael, right?"

Mirian nodded hesitantly. "What's going on?"

"The Master's Hall. The dining hall for the professors. You… you have to come! Quickly!"

She threw down her tools and followed him, mind sorting through the possibilities. Troytin left already, and I watched him board the airship. Cassius hasn't been a part of our operations, but Torres is on good terms with him, and no one's reported the spies in contact with his apprentices.

Still, she got ready to cast a shield all the same.

When she got to the Master's Hall, she suddenly understood. Dozens of professors were lying on the ground, faces pale. There were pools of vomit, and the scent of iron permeated the air. She saw Jei staring blank-eyed at the ceiling, and Torres shaking on the ground. As Mirian quickly embraced her focus, she could already see that three of them were dead.

Professor Viridian was one of the few sitting upright. He'd pushed himself back up against a wall, and his eyes were darting around erratically, but he was conscious.

"What happened?" she asked.

Viridian's face twitched. "B-bloodleaf," he managed to stutter, and then collapsed.

Mirian's eyes went wide. Poison. That's what the Akanans had gotten up to. They'd harvested the nastiest poison they could find, packed their satchels full of it, then just given it to everyone. Cassius's apprentices had been spared because he was a traditionalist who always made them eat after he was done.

Mirian rushed over to Viridian, drawing from her soul repositories. If anyone would know how to reverse the effects of the plant, it would be him. Looking at his soul, the damage was everywhere. She visualized it as spreading black patches, except they were diffuse, and there were hundreds of them. She tried to reverse the damage, but she had no experience healing poisons. Viridian's life force faded in front of her eyes.

She tried to save Torres next, but the damage was too widespread. Bloodleaf was a nasty poison. It was even more effective against arcanists than the general population, because the myrvite poisoned their own auric mana, degrading the mana type until their own aura was toxic to them.

Cassius's apprentice stood there dumbly, and then he realized she couldn't save them and started to weep. "How? Why…?" was all he managed.

"I know who did this," Mirian whispered. A cold rage began to fill her. The Luminate priests arrived, led by Krier and Cassius's second apprentice, but Mirian was already out the door.

She didn't bother to inform Magistrate Ada. She went straight to the false captain's office, ignoring the desk attendant's protests. She used a force blast to shatter the door, then decapitated him with a force blade while he was still drawing his pistol.

She left through a window, levitating to the spy's headquarters. Two of the spies were stupid enough to still be inside it. She cut off their heads too, and let the building burn. Then she started hunting down the rest of them, one by one. The one acting as a train employee never knew what hit her. The mayor's assistant begged for his life, but only for a moment. Some of them tried to run, but that just left them out in the open where she could easily chase them down with levitation. The ones that hid took longer, but she knew every safehouse, every hiding place. The last ones she found hiding in the underground, but they couldn't hide from detect life. She stopped their bullets with a magnetic shield, then brought a column of flame down on top of them until they had as much flesh left over as Adria's skeleton in the catacombs.

Her rage hadn't dissipated at all. What she really wanted to do was send a disintegration ray through Troytin's face. All she could see was that cruel smile of his when he'd pretended to be Nicolus, and she wanted it wiped off the face of Enteria.

Magistrate Ada found Mirian in the gardens, staring at nothing in particular.

She'd brought the entire Torrviol Guard.

"Are you going to come peacefully?" she asked.

Mirian levitated her one of Specter's reports.

"What's this?" Ada asked. "Where… where did you get this?"

She told her the quick and dirty version of the story. "So the murderers of all the professors are dead," she said. "All except one." Mirian ground her teeth, then said, "I made a mistake. Now there's too much evidence I was here. The other time traveler can't be allowed to find it. Torrviol must be evacuated. You have five days."

The guards and magistrate stared at her.

Mirian turned to one of the guards. "Bertrus, you can cast a pretty good lighting spell. Go ahead and take a shot at me. Your best shot. Don't hold back."

Bertus kept his wand sheathed.

"Seneca was my friend too," Mirian said. "Do it for her. Do it!" she snapped, then stood.

It was Roland who took the first shot, pulling his pistol and firing at Mirian's aggressive move. She held the bullet still with a magnetic shield, then let it fall to the ground.

One of the guards tried to use a force binding spell, but she didn't even need to react to it. Her orichalcum-enhanced spell resistance caused the shackles to disintegrate upon contact.

The standoff resumed. Even the birds had grown quiet in the garden.

Mirian conjured Eclipse, and let them all get a good look at it. "I'm not coming peacefully, because none of you can actually stop me. Evacuate Torrviol to an encampment across the lake. I'm blowing it up in five days. One day later, and the Akanans burn the town to ash and murder everyone anyways."

She levitated away.

***

The Divine Monument wasn't exactly trivial to break into, but she had plenty of time. With High Wizard Ferrandus among the poisoned and Luspire gone with the Akanans and almost certainly dead, it wasn't like anyone was around to stop her, even with the alarm wards blaring. Celestial coatings helped her pierce the more troublesome spell engine-generated shields on the door, and then the room was open to her.

Next, she started using the gift Troytin had left: a warehouse full of fossilized myrvite. She spent an entire day levitating pallets of the stuff down into the underground room. After that, she worked on finalizing her leyline detectors, then deploying them, this time south of the city.

She set the spell engine in the Monument room to detonate on the 27th of Solem, while the Akanans would still be en route. She re-trapped the entrance, incorporating runic traps too, ones that would set off the spell engine bomb early. Hopefully, no one in Torrviol was stupid enough to test her threat.

Eventually, the magistrate and the guards had come around as they investigated the material she'd left them, especially as reports had filtered north of the war with Akana and the beginning of their invasion. That was just a matter of convenience for her, though. It just meant that she wouldn't have to watch her back as much.

The day before the detonation, she flew south. She brought with her some rations from the same warehouse Troytin had stockpiled with fossilized myrvite. They, at least, wouldn't be poisoned. She camped out in the woods, repairing and then powering up an old wayfarer's obelisk so the myrvites would leave her alone.

The explosion was as grand as it always was, and sure enough, the early detonation triggered an early leyline reroute. She hoped Troytin was on one of the airships when it fell out of the sky. She hoped the airships crashed down in the middle of the army convoys and the soldiers burned with them.

She spent the rest of the cycle analyzing what data she could. There were significant differences. Either her artifacts had given her bad data, or the leylines were already in motion before the Divine Monument's destruction caused a larger reroute.

Sure enough, the moon fell a day earlier than it normally did.

***

Mirian got her supplies, killed Specter, then burned her hideout. She killed Agent Hache next so that the Torrviol Guard was free of his influence, then dropped off piles of incriminating documents over at Ada's office. While the Magistrate was looking those over, she triggered the traps in the spy's headquarters so their documents would all be incinerated. Then she scheduled Specter's dossier on Luspire to be sent to the Archmage by the Royal Couriers the day after the collaboration announcement.

The next day, she destroyed all the zephyr falcon cages in the derelict tower, then informed Sire Nurea about the Deep's efforts to infiltrate the Cairnmouth Syndicate, and that Specter, who had blackmail on them, was dead. By the 4th, she felt she'd prepared her allies in Torrviol enough for what to expect, and the Akanan spies were already being rounded up.

She looted one of the fake gold ingots from the mayor's office, then headed down to Palendurio.

Troytin could keep playing at his lunatic schemes and pointless murders. He could wallow about in Torrviol. She had better things to do than to watch his murderous flailing.