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

Suria wasn’t able to tell exactly when her runic capacity increased, yet she had a gut instinct when she was close. Was she just deceiving herself based on what she remembered, or was she actually developing her magical senses? Either way, she only had to try a new glyph twice before, after a little more training, she completed a fifth rune.

Just under two hours and she’d increased her runic capacity to five.

That didn’t feel like a triumph, even though part of her mind wanted to treat it that way - it was just information. She thought it had taken her longer the first time she’d begun using the exercise of crossed runes, but there had been so many uncontrolled variables she couldn’t be certain. When the next loop began, she would repeat everything and see how much time it took.

With her task finally done, Suria looked around her nook blearily. She was still in the Taedric Building, of course, just unmoored from events. What could have been disorienting was actually pleasant, since it let her clear her mind of the meeting with other loopers and refocus on her next task.

She immediately realized that there was a stupid problem right in the middle of her clever plans: if she didn’t enroll until the end of the viable period, she had nowhere to stay tonight. It still made sense for her to try to fulfill Jeilin’s request, since it would earn her a favor and potentially give them information about all the schemes at Darkmoon University, so she needed to figure out a way through that problem.

As she walked back to the Blue, Suria used the distance to think over everything she’d learned about the other loopers. She couldn’t get along with Gerial and Nastoora and all the others who seemed most inclined to view the time loop as an opportunity for hedonism. Adwyrma and Moiunun made Suria nervous and she intended to keep her distance. Wynchard seemed basically goodhearted, but could actually be more dangerous due to the intensity of his convictions.

On the other hand, she basically liked Jeilin and Qinq, from what she knew of them. They were thinking about their situation carefully and using the loop to their advantage, not so different from herself. It also helped that they didn’t seem particularly aligned with any of the factions.

When she reached the western field, Suria spent a while fumbling around, struggling to find the dimensional entrance despite knowing the general location. Just as she began to think there was some additional trick to it, she took a step and was suddenly standing in the Blue again. Now that she was less tense, she noticed that the air was cooler than on the main campus, and she could appreciate how peaceful it was.

Peaceful and empty.

At first Suria searched through the blue field, sure that they would be just around a tree or through another veil, but the group seemed to be gone. She was paranoid that she had entered the wrong space somehow until she stumbled over some bottles she remembered them drinking. It made sense that their gathering couldn’t have lasted for hours, but it gave her a bit of a problem taking her next step.

Just in case anyone was still around, Suria spent a while moving into and out of the Blue. It seemed to cover a similar area as the green field in the normal dimension and could be exited in any direction, but there were only a few entrances at various odd places. Even after experimenting for a while, she wasn’t confident that she had found all of them, or could even find any given one under tight time constraints. The Blue didn’t seem to contain any greater mysteries, at least, nor any loopers.

When Suria went back to campus, she felt certain that she would run across one of the loopers one way or another. An hour later, she was forced to question that assumption. Darkmoon University was built to support thousands of students, so it was easier for a few dozen to disappear than she had imagined.

Maybe Jeilin and the others hadn’t even considered that she might have problems, since they all had their own rooms or estates. Unlike all of them, she didn’t have a noble family and a fortune to fall back on. As Suria’s bitterness rose, however, she forced it back down by reminding herself that it was her fault she hadn’t gotten anyone’s room number or other information. She had been so uncomfortable in the crowd that she hadn’t thought through the consequences - she needed to work on that.

Well, she didn’t need to be out on the street; at worst she could just put off Jeilin’s favor until the next cycle. But when Suria went to the maintenance building where Maut-mai had gotten them registered, she found it closed for the day. As she looked around, finding closed building after closed building, Suria’s anxiety began to ratchet upward.

She told herself that was foolish, even if there didn’t seem to be many good options. Could she use her unlocking spell to get into one of the empty dorms and just sleep there for the night? That might start things off poorly, if there were security spells she didn’t know about or she was otherwise noticed.

Going back into Darmkael seemed like a non-starter, since while she had vastly increased her knowledge of practical spellcraft, it would be hard to compete in a city like this. Trying to scrounge up enough oss for an inn sounded miserable, plus it wouldn’t get her any closer to any of her substantial objectives.

There were a few officials around Convocation Hall, keeping everything closed... could she talk to them? Then again, it seemed like the conspiracy was already underway, so she might not want to draw attention to herself behaving strangely.

Because the previous loop had gone so smoothly, Suria had gotten a false impression of how much control she had over the sequence of events. She told herself this was a lesson she’d need to learn for the next time, mostly as another way of keeping her panic down.

If she just lived in the street and got stabbed to death, she’d be returned to the start of the loop, right? A half-mad giggle escaped her as she thought about how surreal her new reality was.

Eventually all the walking made her feet hurt so much that it overcame the anxiety, so Suria dropped down onto a piece of rubble in the field of arches. She was sitting there, staring out over the campus, when she half-noticed something odd in the corner of her vision.

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The door to the Sequential Library was closed, but there hadn’t been a door at all previously: the great library was a solid cube until it first opened up. Suria frowned and watched for a while, then realized she needed to try to take advantage of this. She trotted across campus, hoping the door wouldn’t disappear before she could get there.

Once she arrived, she tried to pull it open... and immediately felt the resistance of a thoroughly warded door. She let out a groan and slumped against the door before sliding all the way down to her knees. It felt like she’d had something, only for her to be blocked again. So many stupid barriers in her way...

”Well, this is awkward.”

The door opened to reveal Orinyan and Suria hastily scrambled to her feet. Just as she remembered him from the last loop, the librarian was looking at her with a compassionate expression, though he was carrying a whole stack of books with him this time.

”Are you okay?” Orinyan cast a disc of force with a subtle gesture and set the books down on them, then stepped out to her. ”I don’t think I recognize you, but if the statues let you in, you must be a student.”

”Prospective student,” Suria said, sniffing and composing herself. She had to introduce herself again, but it was easy since she already knew Orinyan and he was positively inclined to help her.

”Normally someone would get you sorted in Convocation Hall,” Orinyan said once they’d both introduced themselves, ”but I suppose the trouble there has thrown off everything.”

”Do you know anything about what’s wrong?” Suria asked. She felt dirty pushing him for information, but it was possible that he might know something this early in the cycle.

”Afraid not. The Sequential Guard checked if there was any general warding trouble, but they were told that it’s localized to one building. Since it doesn’t have anything to do with us, we’re just back to doing our normal work, getting ready for the term.”

”Do you... think you could help me? I don’t have anywhere to stay tonight.”

”Oh.” Orinyan’s expression shifted, but it wasn’t pity; he discerned something about her troubles. ”Yes, of course. It doesn’t take much authority to get someone a place in the dorms - hell, sometimes they even have visiting scholars or family there.”

”Actually, I was hoping for something specific.” Normally Suria hated to impose like this, but she pretended she was someone with confidence. ”I don’t know about them in detail, but I heard there are a few rooms in Oculon Hall. I want to study in the Perception department, so those would be just perfect.”

”Those are usually only for graduate students or overflow...” Orinyan stroked his chin for a moment, then smiled. ”Tell you what, I can get you temporary quarters, then you can make arrangements tomorrow. As it happens, I work in the Perception department, so I might be able to put in a good word for you.”

”That would be wonderful!” Suria didn’t need to fake her smile. ”I think I actually recognize your name from the course catalogue... don’t you teach a class called Combat Perception? I was thinking of taking it, if they allow in first years without much experience.”

”Oh, definitely. It’s an entrance-level course that could be useful to anyone, and we have all kinds. Listen, while the library is open, do you need any books? I’m going to be busy, so let’s just take care of this all at once.”

Suria would have been happy to spend a lot more time with Orinyan, since her hours wandering the campus had left her more forlorn than she thought. It seemed like he truly was busy with work, however, so she didn’t waste his time. In short order she had an identification pin, a temporary room in the eastern dorms, and a small stack of books.

That short meeting had completely transformed the state of her loop and Suria silently thanked Orinyan. It was remarkable how much better she felt after that meeting, especially compared to her conversation with the other loopers. They seemed to ignore all the normal people trapped in the loop, but Suria felt closer to the people she’d met before.

While moving in between the dormitories, Suria thought she saw a hulking form moving through an alley like a shadow. When she tried to look, there was no trace. It might be her imagination, but she remembered that she had stumbled across a gaping cavern around this area before, so she shivered and focused on her task.

She successfully found the right building quickly, aided by her knowledge of the previous loop, and her pin unlocked both the outer door and her room. It was an unadorned cube, larger than her room in the last cycle but much less cozy: there were four stiff beds on the walls in two bunks and only tiny windows on one side. Fortunately it didn’t seem like there were any other students yet, so she was free to spread herself across the lower beds.

Though she realized that she was hungry, Suria was too tired of running around campus for hunger to move her. No, she wanted to stay inside and read. To calm herself down, she pulled out the Darkmoon Course Catalogue and set about deciding her plan for the next term.

This was completely different than the first time she’d decided, thanks to her certainty of the loop. On one hand, the decision felt less momentous than before, since she wasn’t deciding her entire academic career, but on the other hand, she knew the loop would restart in under a month. Any class that slowly built on itself was a lost cause because she would never see the end of the term, which necessitated different choices.

Unfortunately, she was still required to take Foundations of Modern Spellcraft, which would be much less interesting the second time around. There was another easy choice: she would take Magical Analysis In Depth, both to potentially work on the favor for Qinq and to learn more about Professor Huen.

She hadn’t been lying to Orinyan about wanting to take his course. Introduction to Glyphic Combat might be the more logical starting point, but she didn’t want to spend days on the basic assessments and early inscriptions again. With Orinyan she could learn something new, and she had a feeling that he would be a more flexible teacher. If the cycle continued over many loops, she might end up choosing professors more than classes, if that was the only way she could keep learning.

Would the loop eventually stretch itself far enough to finish the first term? That meant she was going to have a very strange education, but Suria forced such thoughts out of her mind. Without information about how or when the loop would change, that was just futile rumination. She needed to focus on steps that would prepare her regardless of how things changed.

She’d chosen three classes, which was the number she took on the first loop, but her scholarship would pay for a fourth course. Suria wavered over that choice for a long time, trying to weight different elements. Magical Analysis In Depth was supposed to be brutally reading-heavy... but on the other hand, she had already done all the readings for the introductory course.

What tipped her over the edge was that her decision wasn’t permanent: if she couldn’t keep up with the reading in the special class, she could just take it again next loop, this time with some of the books read. As she looked through the courses again, Suria settled on one she’d rejected the first time: Exploration of Runic Capacity. That might teach her something about what she could carry over loops, teach her new exercises, or at minimum give her a useful grounding for increasing her strength.

Choosing her courses did a lot to calm Suria down, almost more than getting a roof over her head. The encounter with the other loopers hadn’t ruined anything or changed what she needed to do. She was a student at Darkmoon University again and she had a plan - maybe not the best plan, but she had a lot of tries to get it right.