The Years of Apocalypse - A Time Loop Progression Fantasy

Mirian started the cycle by connecting the Torrviol Gate to Mahatan, then snuck into the hidden gardens and stole several jeweled lotuses for Viridian to study. With the professors set on various research tasks, she headed for Florin City.

With some trepidation, she wondered if her adoptive parents and Zayd would make it. They were crossing the same area that Ibrahim would attack, and on the same days. On the night of the 4th, Ibrahim's forces started seizing the trains between Rambalda and Alkazaria. It was only on the 5th of Solem that her family made it to Westbay.

She had been avoiding finding out their fate deliberately. Better to not know.

Now, it was possible she would find out. She almost had argued against meeting at Florin City, but getting Gabriel to Alkazaria would take too long, getting Liuan to Urubandar would be just as annoying, and she still didn't want either of them poking around in Palendurio too much lest they notice two missing relics. Besides, loudly saying they shouldn't meet in Florin probably would have just gotten Gabriel more interested in what Mirian didn't want him to see.

They had agreed to meet on the 7th of Solem. Mirian bought new clothes in Cairnmouth. The arcanist's robes she found were sturdy enough for work, but fine enough to pass in wealthy circles. She liked the black with violet and silver accents. She went back to veiling her eyes with an illusion spell, and when she was walking around Florin, it would be no problem at all to extend the illusion to her face. She'd risk no chance encounters with her parents or Zayd.

Mirian had forged enough letters of credit up in Cairnmouth that the three of them could live in luxury in three different apartments deep in the Highcastle neighborhood for as long as they needed.

Liuan Var's priests were already roaming about the neighborhood when Mirian's train pulled up to the station on the 6th, which annoyed her, but it fit the other Prophet's pattern of paranoia. Gabriel seemed to have eschewed precautions, and the detective firm Mirian had hired reported that he sauntered off his boat, heading straight for the rendezvous without a care in the world. By Mirian's estimation, it was half bravado and half fatalism.

Mirian wandered about the city before their meeting and passed by the inn that her parents had stayed at in a previous loop. Detect life confirmed the room was empty, but that didn't mean they hadn't made it to the city. If they had escaped Ibrahim's armies, that would have changed how they acted in so many small and big ways that they could have ended up anywhere in the city. Or, they could be delayed.

She didn't pause. Better to give no outward sign of any interest in the area in case she'd missed a spy one of the others had recruited.

They met in the Starcrest tower penthouse. The security team there had experience protecting the richest and most powerful people across two continents, and Mirian appreciated their ward system. Beyond the wards, though, they had spell engines set to activate on contingencies. The expense must have been enormous given the amount of fossilized myrvite it consumed daily, but Mirian had also paid a small fortune for the penthouse so they could afford it.

She arrived last at the room. Gabriel was already lounging back on a couch, stuffing his face with delicacies from the feast that was laid out on the table, while Liuan sat in one of the black velvet chair tracing a finger over the armrest's scrollwork. She stiffened when Mirian entered the room, but then relaxed, looking outwardly calm.

"Prophet," Liuan said.

"Prophets," Mirian replied.

"Progfigt," Gabriel said, through a mouthful of eclairs.

"We should formalize our agreements to each other, to the Ominian, and to Enteria," Mirian said.

"Nog poight," Gabriel said, still chewing. He swallowed, then wiped the cream off his cheek. "No point swearing oaths. We're Prophets. Oathbreakers. Accountable to God only."

"We can hold each other accountable. And should."

Liuan said, "I see no harm in it. Most oaths rely on the heart of the person swearing them."

"Ah, seems like I'm outnumbered. And yet, we haven't decided on how our little Council of Prophets ought to decide things."

Mirian suppressed her annoyance. "We shouldn't need fancy rules. We're not a Parliament. A majority vote should suffice."

"Great! I propose the Council gets to take a look at your spellbook. All in favor?" he said, raising his hand and giving her a big grin.

To Mirian's dismay, Liuan raised her hand as well.

"Absolutely not," Mirian said.

Gabriel leaned towards Liuan using a hand to cover one side of his mouth and said, in a mocking stage whisper, "Sounds like someone wants traditional parliamentary personal privilege as granted by King Moroseth after the second Houses' Rebellion."

Liuan said, "The idea is to build a structure that can accommodate other Prophets, is it not? The Ominian has appointed us arbiters of Enteria's fate. Mirian, you want us to trust each other. Then we need to build an institution of laws that we follow."

"There's three of us."

"And if all goes to plan, there will be more. I have the RID investigating ways to break Jherica's curse," Liuan said. "And you intend to bring Ibrahim into the fold, once he can be put in check."

"Look, I get it. You have a grand plan, and you want it simply put into action. And, I'll be honest, it actually is a plan, don't really know what Liuan thought she was going to accomplish mucking about in her little secret societies. But no institution—no matter how small—functions long without some sort of established order."

Mirian grimaced. She was beginning to suspect Gabriel and Liuan had exchanged letters behind her back. "Perhaps we can hammer out the institutional details later. I prepared notes on a number of topics, but council governance wasn't one of them."

"Sure. There's no rush," Gabriel said, taking a bite of a pear. "Informally, we should start sharing knowledge in common."

"Agreed," Liuan said.

"There's that majority again," Gabriel said, grinning, but to Mirian's surprise, he then turned to Liuan and said, "Let's start with you. How do you wrest control of the RID from Allen Matteus?"

Liuan stiffened.

Gabriel's smile only widened. "She may not know the Republic Intelligence Division well enough to identify anomalous deployments and changes in the organizational structure, but I worked for the bastards, and I was paying close attention when this all started." He pointed at Mirian. "To be clear, I'm not picking a side. There's only one person on my side, me, and I'm sure as hell not going to let either of you use me as a tool to check the other in some hells-blasted power play."

"I don't know—"

Gabriel threw a grape at her.

A brief flash of rage passed over Liuan's face before she suppressed it.

The man winked at Mirian. "Saw that, did you? She's a better actress than you are, but not flawless. Liuan, do you want to tell her your trick with the spies, or shall I?"

Liuan stared at Gabriel, mouth a tight line.

"Not a problem, I love hearing myself talk. RID calls it a 'in-plain-sight' operation. You send a bunch of bumbling oafs to the front, in this case, her little cult of priests, to walk around and draw attention. Counter-espionage then focuses on the incompetent group, which is easily outmaneuvered. Both the target and the first layer of agents are usually unaware of the second layer of operatives. Those operatives are actually skilled, and either survey the target or carry out the task. In this case, Liuan has some of RID's top agents in Florin already. They're currently monitoring the perimeter of the building. The part I don't know is how they're warding against divination. Did you want to tell us?"

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The other woman took in a sharp breath. "Orichalcum-sheathed wands."

Mirian looked at one of the papers in the stack of documents she'd prepared. "So you don't need instructions on how to make it?"

Gabriel snorted. "Any other preparations you'd like to tell us about? I'll find out either way, I've already assigned my team to capture one of your agents. The real ones."

This time, Liuan looked surprised. She hesitated, adjusting the bracelet on her wrist, then said, "Orichalcum-tipped spellpiercer bullets. In theory, they should be able to defeat even a magnetic shield of… substantial strength."

"The bracelet with the communication spell won't work because of the building's spell engines automatically using counter-spells," Mirian said. Her bracelet appeared to be a small artifact. Likely it was manufactured by the RID using the same kind of minuscule glyph scribing that was used in glyphkeys and seals.

"My turn," Liuan said. "How did you sneak agents into Florin City without our knowledge?"

"I didn't. I lied. Mirian's turn. How do you hide your spellbook?"

Mirian frowned. She held up her fake spellbook case. "The real one looks too conspicuous."

"You're a terrible liar," he said, and Mirian bristled because it wasn't even true. She'd deceived Archmage Luspire, Sylvester Aurum—even Specter! Gabriel continued. "I want to know about the real one. I used a remote weight spell, and most of the time, that fake spellbook case is lighter than it should be. Occasionally, the spell just fizzles. Liuan here tells me you made it disappear from a hole in the ground. And Minister Zeysum was quite willing to tell me about the precautions Prince Rehiz's assassins took to ambush you. They were told to make sure—absolutely sure—that your spellbook was not on your person when they attacked. Even went so far as to get the Head Archivist to make up a rule about magical objects being too close to the ancient scepters you were studying so that you'd set it aside."

Mirian's mind raced. There were a few secrets she wanted to keep, and soulbinding objects was one of them. "I hide it in the fourth dimension," she said. "It's related to the blink spell. Based on my research of stone moles."

Gabriel raised an eyebrow. "Can you teach us it?"

"I'd rather not. Parliamentary person privilege, or whatever you called it. I developed it when fighting Sulvorath so I could better ambush him. I'm no good at taking over intelligence agencies, so I'd like to keep my one advantage over her."

"Hmm," Gabriel said, and Mirian thought, Not as good at detecting lies as you think, are you? "Just the one advantage? What's your practice routine? What kind of myr can you hit?"

"Practice varies. Sometimes I don't have enough time to go through all of it in a day. Sometimes, I have an annoying Holy Sentinel shadowing me and can't do any of it." She paused. Gabriel already knew she had overtaken and then killed two hundred riders. Better to reveal this and build trust, and keep the most critical secrets safe. "I usually go through the dervish stances a few times per day when there's downtime. Ten minutes of tri-elemental raw magic practice. I'm working on seeing if antigravity raw magic is possible. A few practice sessions with a new spell I'm working on, like blink. A half-hour of practicing simultaneous quickened casting of the most common combat spells I used, plus I've reworked my spellbook for flexibility with non-combat spells so I'm getting in that habit of being able to use those quickly. That's usually another half-hour of practice. Then interval casting of something at high power, alternating through the energy types." Luspire had taught her that particular technique.

"Bloody hells," Gabriel muttered.

"I'm not done," Mirian said. "I also have to practice soul magic. That's mostly the bindings." This was an understatement. She had been practicing her mana siphon spell as well, and recent events had made her resolve to spend more time on that. "Plus Viridian's myrvite soul-communication technique is a new addition. I like to end with meditation." Her soul was mostly settled after the disruptions from the last cycle. "That doesn't include artifice research, but I get to practice that regularly with all the leyline detectors I make." She'd neglected to mention tri-bonding glyphs and runes. Perhaps she could say it had slipped her mind. She also decided to omit her rapier work and physical exercises.

Gabriel nodded his head, raised both his eyebrows, then sighed. "So who's scarier? The woman who can destroy an army—" he turned to Liuan, "or the one who can marshal one?" She didn't answer. "How do you gain control of the Akanan high command?" he asked.

"Parliamentary person privilege," the other Prophet said without missing a beat. "If she can hide spells, I can hide my own piece of information. After all, I don't want her thinking I'm not serving a critical function."

Mirian opened her mouth to object, then closed it. There was no argument she could make that would sway the woman. She had also underestimated Liuan significantly. She'd known she could stop the Akanan invasion, but hadn't realized it was by influencing the top brass. "Now that we've cemented the bonds of mistrust, can we move on?" she said instead.

"My dear, this is just bringing things out into the open. Better to open the chest of secrets then to let the wound fester beneath bandages," he said, popping another grape into his mouth.

"You're mixing your metaphors," Liuan said.

"Right? Now you see what I have to deal with," Mirian said.

Gabriel laughed and Liuan almost smiled.

"Anyways, it's clear to me that the Elder Gates can, at the very least, delay the crisis. Our priority should be locating as many of them as we can. Historically, they may have been referred to as the Gates of Fire. It seems clear they were used prior to the Gods' War and the resulting Cataclysm, but seem not to have been used since. Finding even one more Gate could have a significant effect; simply having Torrviol connected to Mahatan for an entire cycle has delayed moonfall until the 25th of Duala. With judicious use of multiple gates, the cycle might extend multiple months. That extra time will be invaluable in researching the crisis. Liuan, any luck in Akana?"

"If there are Gates, they're well hidden. I've begun systematically searching the holy records for records. Akana has little enough information. There are more complete records in the Grand Sanctum of Palendurio."

Mirian waved a dismissive hand. "I've scoured those thoroughly enough. The Grand Sanctum is a bit of a mess."

Liuan nodded. "You also mentioned geological surveys."

"Large anomalous formations of obsidian. Alkazaria and Palendurio both have examples. Mahatan and Torrviol don't."

"Then there's the thing you want to do with large mana regulators. Study conduit crystals, muck about with jeweled lotuses, blah blah blah, we know," Gabriel said. "I can get the lotuses."

Mirian cleared her throat.

"Oh, she already got them," he told Liuan. "I suppose I can… ah, shit. You want me to search Alatishad, don't you?"

"The historical records could be invaluable. Anywhere in Persama."

"I hate archive work. It's sooo boring."

"Yes, well, you're a Prophet," Mirian said.

He sighed. "As long as you don't yell at me for taking breaks."

"Breaks?" Liuan said, raising an eyebrow.

Mirian made a rude hand gesture. Liuan snorted.

Gabriel rolled his eyes. "I'm only human. So are you two, if you've forgotten. Fine, I'll search for more Gates. Anything else?"

"Labyrinth entrances and Labyrinth Vaults. The more we find, the better. There's Elder tools that might become useful. Memorize what you find and where you find it. Liuan, it also might be worth investigating the leyline repulsors used in those two airship dreadnoughts, especially now that you have relatively easy access to them. And investigating where they came from and if it's possible to find more. I assume, like most Elder artifacts, we won't be able to duplicate them."

"She really does love ordering people around," Gabriel mused.

Mirian glared at him. "Did you have some suggestions?"

"Find more political levers of power to pull on. Subtly. If you can get the elites to see that their own best interest is with you—it'll be much easier to guide things. Isn't that right, Liuan?"

She nodded.

"I'll work on it," Mirian said. "I want to see if I can break Ibrahim's hold over Atroxcidi. Then, he'll be much more approachable."

"And you'll be that more dangerous," Liuan said.

"You can manipulate the entire Akanan army. That's more than what I can do. What we don't want is an arch-necromancer who knows curses only he and the Gods have heard of exterminating us because of a tall tale Ibrahim spun. Everyone here already knows about Westerun's curse."

"She definitely does," Gabriel said, nodding at Liuan. "And that means all of us have demonstrated our disinterest in the Sio Jherica treatment. Liuan, I have to agree with our cute little archmage here. Ibrahim is a scary fucker, but he's manageable without the necromancer."

"I am not cute."

"Gabriel thinks anything with a pair of tits is cute, and I'm quite sure that includes wild animals," Liuan said.

"Uncalled for," the man replied, but for once, the retort shut him up. But only for a little bit. "So we're largely in agreement, then? Fascinating. I still think we should develop a framework for our little council. And Mirian, you're going to need to play schoolteacher with some of that magic of yours. Plus, we need to actually start putting together a proper list of where we've all investigated and where we haven't so we're not running our trains over the same tracks, so to speak." He grinned. "But first, a bit of fun. Mirian, why don't you show us what you can do?"