Домагой Курмаич - Mother of Learning

"He was just really abrasive to me right from the start," Daimen said. "He refused to even let me in, eventually started shouting at me and then slammed the door in my face and ignored me."

Huh. Interesting.

Daimen looked at Zorian, silently asking him for an explanation. Zorian said nothing, though, and Daimen grew visibly frustrated as seconds ticked by. He ran both of his hands through his hair and clutched it tightly in his fists, as if wanting to tear it off.

"You’re going to go prematurely bald if you keep doing that," Zorian commented lightly.

Daimen gave him an unamused glare.

But he did remove his hands from his head.

"I don’t understand!" Daimen protested loudly. "Am I… Am I such a horrible older brother? I knew you didn’t like me, but even Fortov? Even little Kirielle?! Why?! What did I do ?!"

Zorian clacked his tongue and considered things for a second. On one hand, he felt that Daimen was getting exactly what he deserved. On the other hand, the fact that Daimen was so upset over this meant that his mental image of him was little… unfair. He decided to be a little nice to his older brother for a change.

"In regards to Kirielle, the answer is simple, my dear eldest brother," Zorian told him. "You’re practically a stranger to her. By the time she was old enough to interact with people, you were practically never at home. When was the last time you talked with her? Disregarding yesterday’s meeting, of course."

"Uhh…" Daimen fumbled.

"You can’t even remember," Zorian stated, shaking his head. "Anyway, all she had of you were stories she heard of you. Most of which came either from Mother… or from me. After all, I’m one of the people who interacted with her the most over the years."

"Oh, heavens help me," Daimen lamented. "What exactly did you tell her about me?"

"The truth," Zorian shrugged.

"You mean your truth," Daimen accused.

"Of course," Zorian responded, completely unmoved by the accusation. "But don’t worry, I kept quiet about your worst excesses. Truth be told, I never liked talking about you to anyone , and that included Kirielle. And besides, Mother never failed to take your side in everything. If it were just the matter of stories, Kirielle would be more ambivalent to you. The thing is, she needs help… and she knows she’ll never get it from you. She just might get it from me, though, which is why she doesn’t want to sabotage her relations with me by getting cozy with you. She knows you kind of piss me off."

"What do you mean she needs help ?" Daimen frowned. "And why are you so sure she’d never get it from me?"

"Because it would require standing up to Mother," Zorian said.

Over the next hour or so, Zorian tried to familiarize Daimen with Kirielle’s situation. The arranged marriage their parents had prepared for her. Her desire to learn magic like the rest of them. He tried to keep the explanations brief, worried that telling this to Daimen constituted some kind of betrayal towards Kirielle, who had told him these things in confidence. He said enough for Daimen to form a rudimentary picture of what was happening with Kirielle behind the scenes, though.

"I can’t believe I never heard of this," Daimen said, his eyes somewhat unfocused as he seemed to recall something in his head. "I speak to Mother and Father often and they never mentioned this."

"Did you ever actually ask them about Kirielle?" Zorian asked.

Daimen was quiet for a few moments.

"…no," he eventually admitted.

"Well, there you go," Zorian shrugged.

Daimen exhaled heavily and then corrected his posture, sitting a little straighter in his chair.

"Okay, I admit I haven’t been very fair to our little sister. I guess I kind of deserved such a chilly reception from her," Daimen said. "What about Fortov, then? What’s his deal?"

"How would I know?" Zorian protested. "Do you honestly think I speak to Fortov about you?"

Daimen gave him an annoyed huff. "Yes, I get it, I get it – you never talk about me to anyone if you can help it. But surely you have some inkling about how Fortov thinks and what bothers him. You’ve been interacting with him for six years now."

Zorian made a weird face, momentarily struck speechless by this statement.

"What?" Zorian laughed. "Whatever gave you that idea? Why would I be interacting with Fortov?"

"Are… Are you serious?" Daimen asked incredulously. Zorian stared at him. "He’s your brother. You live in the same city. You can visit him anytime you want."

"So?" Zorian asked, inclining his head uncomprehendingly.

"Are you honestly tell me that in all these years, you haven’t seriously talked to our brother even once?" Daimen asked. His tone was pleading, as if begging Zorian to tell him he’s wrong.

"That’s what I’m saying, yes," Zorian nodded. Why would Daimen expect anything else from him?

"Doesn’t the restart end in a massive invasion?" Daimen frowned. Zorian nodded again. "What does Fortov do during the invasion?"

"Presumably he reaches the academy shelters and spends the night there, along with the other students," Zorian shrugged.

Admittedly, the shelters hadn’t been very safe during the one occasion he had actually experienced them, but that was when Red Robe had actively been helping the invaders by feeding them information. Without his help, the shelters were actually pretty safe.

"Presumably? You never checked?" Daimen asked. Zorian shook his head in denial. "Zorian, for heaven’s sake…"

"I don’t see why you’re so surprised by this," Zorian told him honestly. "Fortov is my second least-favorite person in the whole family, right after Father. Of course I never bothered to check up on him."

Daimen opened his mouth, as if he wanted to continue that argument, but then just shook his head and gave up.

"Nevermind," Daimen sighed. "Did you have any interactions with him during all these time?"

"Actually, yes," Zorian said. "He pushes this one girl into a purple creeper patch near the end of every restart and then comes to me to beg for a healing salve. I used to just avoid being home whenever he comes, but these days it’s not even necessary. He never comes to find me if I stay at Imaya’s place."

"He pushes this girl into a purple creeper patch regardless of what you change in a restart?" Daimen said, frowning.

"As far as I can tell, yes," Zorian confirmed. "The girl has a huge crush on him, if that means anything to you."

Daimen made a thoughtful hum. "It’s better than nothing, I guess. But really Zorian, must you be so petty and callous? I know you and Fortov didn’t get along as kids, bit this sort of attitude is a little too much. You nurse your grudges way too deeply."

"It’s easy for you to call for peace and understanding," Zorian said, folding his arms over his chest defiantly. "It’s not you who had to deal with Fortov’s crappy attitude over the years."

"All I’m saying is that maybe you should give him a chance," Daimen said. "Like you did with Kirielle when you decided to take her with you to Cyoria. If you were wrong about her, who’s to say you weren’t wrong about Fortov as well?"

"But I wasn’t really wrong about her," Zorian pointed out. "I didn’t want her around because I felt she was a selfish little blabbermouth that would distract me from my studies and tattle on me when she returns to Mother. That’s all still true, it’s just that I no longer care about that. Provided I actually manage to find a way out of this time loop, my future is set. I can afford a distraction or two, and Kirielle running off and revealing my plans and activities to Mother is irrelevant because our parents can’t stop me anymore. I’m so skilled and powerful that I can do whatever I want, Mother and Father be damned."