Throne of Time [Magical Academy, Time Loop, Mystery]

At first Suria could only sit in stunned silence, her mind racing with explanations that didn’t make any sense. Had it been some sort of nightmare? A delusion brought on by her nervousness? Had she been teleported away from the fight?

None of that really felt right, and her mind kept returning to the tapestry: she remembered it falling before. When she stared at the fabric, she saw that the folds were identical to her memory. Or was she deceiving herself? It had seemed like an irrelevant detail before, but now... she raised a hand to her forehead and found no injury or even blood.

”What the hell?” Lirngelf pushed himself away from the table, knocking over his chair as he stumbled back. ”Where are they?”

”Don’t make a scene,” Maut-mai said from her chair. She didn’t look at all concerned, she was just staring at Lirngelf like he was some sort of repulsive insect. ”What are you babbling about?”

”You don’t remember?” he demanded, eyes bouncing between them. ”Either of you?”

Part of Suria wanted to answer, but she remained silent. After several seconds, Lirngelf let out a cry and rushed out of the room. In his absence, Maut-mai gave a scornful sniff, glanced briefly at Suria, and then returned to her reading.

That left Suria alone, trembling in place as if reality couldn’t find her if she didn’t move.

Her breaths were coming too quickly and she had to force herself to maintain control. She reached for the healer’s calm she had drilled into herself when a patient came in with a bleeding injury or terrible illness. She needed to think.

All evidence suggested that they had been thrown back in time, though it seemed that she and Lirngelf had retained their memories while Maut-mai forgot everything. Suria hoped that wasn’t the case and scrambled for other explanations. This could all be some sort of illusion. Maybe this was actually a spell that was testing her and she would wake up to find out whether or not she was accepted into the university.

Yet she didn’t really believe it. The memories felt too real... Suria forced herself to keep in mind all possibilities until she had more evidence, but the truth seemed obvious enough: she had been thrown back in time.

And that was a problem, because advanced time magic was forbidden across the world.

She wasn’t familiar with all the laws because they didn’t impact the life of normal people: sorcerers being executed for time magic was the sort of thing that happened in stories, not real life. It varied by nation and there were some exceptions - a spell to keep a noble’s food from spoiling wasn’t forbidden. But a spell that threw back time like this would be prohibited anywhere.

Most likely this had nothing to do with her and she had just been swept up in some spell that rolled back time. Yet even that was little comfort, because time magic wasn’t any less anathema when professors were using it. Apparently they had been fighting inside the great hall, engaged in some conflict she couldn’t begin to understand. If there was anyone who had the capacity and audacity to engage in forbidden time magic, it would probably be the professors of Darkmoon University.

All of this was far too big for her, but there was a simple solution: just leave. Suria didn’t know when the wards had gone up, but if she had really gone back in time, she had walked into the waiting room not long ago. Taking a deep breath, she stood up and tried to walk out as if everything was normal.

As she maintained a steady pace, Suria’s mind was whirling with thoughts. She couldn’t help but glance at Maut-mai on her way out, wondering if the other woman was also faking. It didn’t seem so, but she might be a much better actor than Suria. In the hallway, the lone guard seemed to regard her skeptically, perhaps suspicious of her behavior or perhaps just thinking that she was an unwashed peasant who didn’t belong.

Those thoughts fell away as Suria found herself alone in the corridors. She wondered what kind of conflict the professors were involved in and how it had led to a ”flawed” ritual. Was the time aspect the flaw, or her memories, or was it actually unrelated?

But what was the actual effect? Had time been rolled back just once, for a second chance at the battle? Was she marked by it, or would the professor remember her? Suria realized she didn’t even have enough information to speculate, and her mana senses had no experience with time magic, so she just wrapped her cloak around herself and walked faster.

”Let me out, dammit!”

She could hear Lirngelf shouting in the foyer, so she hesitated and pulled back. Better not to engage with him right now when he was so volatile. Instead, she began investigating side corridors, finding mostly locked doors. It seemed at this time of day, before the term properly started, the grand hall was largely abandoned.

There had to be other entrances, so Suria tried to make a mental map of the building. She knew the offices were to the north and the main entrance was to the south, so she headed west. It was difficult to keep everything straight, since there were so many nooks and crannies, or even passageways obscured by ornate marble sculptures, hidden in shadow due to the sparse mana lamps.

Soon enough she reached a hallway that led all the way to the outer wall, where she spotted a window. Suria broke into a run and pressed herself against it, staring at the landscape so close and yet so far away. She struck the glass in frustration, but her fist barely even made a sound. There was no mechanism that seemed like it could open the window, and if the doors were warded, she doubted that the windows were a weak point.

Sighing, Suria pulled back and resolved to keep searching. With the light from the window, it was easier to see the side passages. She spotted a smaller door and, no matter how irrational it was, rushed to try to push it open.

The door didn’t budge, just like the main entrance, and her limited mana senses seemed to detect pressure when she pushed against it. That made sense, since wards designed to lock down the building wouldn’t simply forget about a side entrance. Still, it was good to know the smaller door existed, and perhaps the defenses were weaker there.

Could she break down the door, even theoretically? Suria knew that her runes could support a destructive spell, the problem was that she didn’t know any destructive inscriptions. It seemed unlikely that her meager power could break down a barrier like this in any case.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Resolving to keep looking, Suria touched the left-hand wall and began tracing the edges of the building to make sure she didn’t miss any twists. She discovered a small alcove she had missed earlier, but no new entrances, and the path eventually wound her back around to the entrance in the south.

Lirngelf was gone now, but there were burn marks and even a few chunks hacked from the doors... none of which seemed to have gotten through the warding barrier. If a second year student couldn’t break out, she’d been right not to bother with force. Suria realized that she had been dismissing Lirngelf as panicking, but he had rushed to the doors even more quickly than she had, so she shouldn’t underestimate him.

If there was no way to break out, what she needed next was information. She turned back to the foyer and looked at the statue speculatively. On her first visit she had been over-awed, and on her second she had been nervous and overwhelmed, but now she had more time to interrogate it.

”Hello, welcome to Darkmoon University.” When it spoke, the statue’s mouth didn’t move, but it did turn its head so the bronze eyes were focused on her. ”Can I help you?”

”Why is the door locked?” Suria asked.

”Is it?” The statue actually blinked, a heavy motion that resulted in a clink of metal. ”Yes, it seems that the wards have been raised. They are designed to defend any students within the building, so do not fear, this is only a minor incident.”

”When were the doors locked?” Suria pressed. Even if the statue didn’t know much, it seemed to be connected to the building, so it might have information for her.

”I am not sure,” the statue answered. ”It cannot have been for long, because students were entering and departing not long ago. Do not fear, the faculty will soon take care of this minor incident.”

”How many exits are there to Convocation Hall?”

”The exit is directly behind you,” the statue told her in an unnecessarily cheerful voice.

”But are there other doors? I found one to the west.”

”There are four official entrances to Convocation Hall, one in each cardinal direction. The others are intended for the convenience of staff, but students or visitors are free to use them.”

”Wait, wait, are there unofficial entrances?”

”I am afraid that all doors are warded at the moment,” the statue said, as if this was new information it had just discovered. ”Please wait for a moment while faculty take care of this minor incident.”

Though Suria pressed for a little longer, she couldn’t get anything useful out of the statue. Whether it was a creature or a construct, its job was clearly to welcome people and offer generic guidance. The current situation was far outside of its capacities.

As she walked back toward the central rooms, Suria considered her options. She thought there were a handful of other people in the building based on glimpses when she first entered, but she really had no idea how many or who they were. For now, her only hope was to contact authorities. There was no guarantee that they would be able to help her, but they had a better chance of getting her out alive.

When she neared the waiting room, Suria caught a glimpse of Maut-mai stalking away from the guard, who slouched against the wall. He straightened a little when Suria approached and she got a better look at him this time.

He was perhaps five years older than her, with a strong jaw and the gray-brown hair of the locals. His armor was unadorned steel, far less fancy than the wall behind him, yet she felt certain that it was magical. One hand was covered in a military gauntlet, which was a lethal weapon on its own, and he had some sort of warded shield on his other wrist. At the moment he was staring at her with a dark mixture of emotions that made her want to turn around and leave.

”I can’t open the door,” Suria forced herself to say. ”I-”

”You have to push the latch and then twist,” the guard told her flatly, like she was an idiot child.

”No, it’s not that. The statue said that the wards came down.”

That got his attention, but the guard frowned. ”You probably misunderstood. There are protective wards active at all times, but they don’t lock the doors.”

Suria sighed and shook her head, moving away. He obviously wasn’t going to listen, and based on what she remembered from before, the guard couldn’t get the door open anyway.

Or... wouldn’t be able to. She was remembering the future, or a possible future, or a previous future. Suria shook the confusion away and focused on what she could control. Setting other matters aside, Suria returned to the waiting room, finding no sign of Maut-mai.

She didn’t want to talk to Shuguja again, since the proctor had been so rude to her, but getting the school faculty involved was her best chance of surviving. Back in the waiting room, Suria sat down and considered her approach. There was no point going through with the normal interview, not anymore. She also couldn’t repeat her mistake with the guard: she needed to convince people to investigate. Perhaps if she played to their biases...

”Ready.” The door opened and Shuguja stepped out, then frowned at her. ”Who are you?”

”Please excuse me.” Suria stood up and bowed stiffly. ”I was sent here to interview, for becoming a student...”

”Oh, the scholarship.”

”But I’ve realized that I’m not prepared for Darkmoon University. When I tried to leave, however, the main entrance was warded. I was confused at first, but the statue told me that the wards had been activated for my safety.”

”What?” Shuguja stiffened, entirely thrown off. ”You probably misunderstood. There’s a latch and a certain sort of twist...”

Despite her words, however, Shuguja left the waiting room with real concern on her face. Suria followed her, not daring to hope. She didn’t really trust authority figures, especially those who disdained her, but this seemed like a better plan than trying to break out on her own.

When they reached the entrance, Shuguja pushed at the door, and when that didn’t work, uttered some sort of command phrase that Suria couldn’t follow. Several failures later, her face was pale and she no longer treated Suria’s warning like an irritation. Instead Shuguja went to interrogate the statue, though it didn’t know anything more than it had before.

A little while later, Maut-mai wandered in from an eastern corridor and frowned to see them. ”You’ve seen the doors are locked?” she asked. ”What’s going on?”

”That’s what we’re trying to find out,” Suria said.

”It must be a mistake.” Shuguja turned back to them with a scowl. ”They upgraded the wards before the new term, so they could be oversensitive. The problem is, we don’t have many people to fix them on a day like today. We need to break out and find staff to come repair things.”

”Aren’t some professors meeting here?” Suria asked, as if it was a vague rumor.

Shuguja waved her suggestion aside scornfully. ”We aren’t going to interrupt the professors for a matter like this. You stay here. I’ll go get my runebook.”

Despite the command, Suria followed the proctor as she paced back to her office. She wasn’t sure what came over her; she just didn’t want to stand by the door again, waiting to die. Thankfully, Shuguja was too distracted to think much about her. In the office she reached into her shirt and pulled out a necklace with a silver key at the end, which unlocked a cabinet behind a hidden panel.

So that was where everything was kept: Suria could see more stone slates, extra styluses, and a thick runebook that Shuguja pulled out. As she turned back the proctor scowled at her, making Suria flinch.

”I told you to stay,” Shuguja snapped as she pushed past her. ”Obey from now on! Once we take care of this little problem, I’ll write up this insubordination. Now come along!”

Suria padded after her, wondering why she had instinctively followed. Normally she would never break rules like that, not when they could ruin everything she’d worked so hard for. Yet the memory of dying, and the possibility of forbidden time magic, left her spinning adrift.

Maybe none of it would matter: Shuguja was Darkmoon staff and might be able to undo the wards. Maybe the same events wouldn’t play out at all and Suria had ruined her chances of becoming a student. Maybe she should have stayed and waited.

But somehow, Suria didn’t think so. She looked over her shoulder, fixing the exact location of the hidden cabinet in her mind. Just in case.