Домагой Курмаич - Mother of Learning

"In other words, any growth in shaping skills you may have experienced is so miniscule that you wouldn’t even notice if it was gone," Zorian surmised.

"Yes, that," Ilsa nodded. "I guess I can learn a new spell or two this time just to see if I retain them the next time the world… resets."

"I can probably just ask Kael. The effect of even one month on his shaping skills and spell knowledge should be dramatic enough to tell," pointed out Zorian.

"I suppose that’s true," said Ilsa. "Plus, now that I think about it, I’m probably going to improve my shaping skills and learn quite a few new spells just by helping you out over time. Though you never did really explain what you wanted our help with…"

"Yes, we did not explain our plans and reasons too deeply in the previous restart," admitted Zorian. "Partly because we didn’t want to overwhelm people with information, but also because we suspected you would only take us seriously after you witnessed the time loop with your own two eyes."

"Ha. Well, you’re probably right about that," Ilsa laughed. "Xvim tried to explain how the time loop worked when he was trying to convince me to accept a mysterious soul marker from my two teenage students. I confess I didn’t pay too much attention to it, since the whole idea was so crazy. I’d have probably been even less interested in what you and Zach had to say."

Well, at least she was honest.

"Do you want me to explain now?" Zorian asked.

"No," she said immediately. "I don’t think I could pay attention well enough at the moment. I’m still rather disturbed at reliving the same month all over again. You said this has been happening for a while now?"

"Yes. The time loop has repeated itself many, many times," Zorian said. "This is just your first time remembering it."

"So, before this I was just… obliviously reliving the same month over and over again? Repeated the jobs, taught the same classes and spoke the same conversations?"

"Well, sometimes me and Zach shook things up a bit and you reacted accordingly, reacting to the changes," Zorian said. "But yes. Without a marker, people do not retain continuity across restarts."

"I tried to talk to some of the people around me before coming here," Ilsa admitted. "Just to check if they really don’t remember anything. I couldn’t resist. I don’t think I revealed anything crucial, but I feel it’s only fair to let you know."

Zorian sighed. He suspected she wasn’t the only one to make such discreet tests, and that there would be more of that stuff to deal with later… but that was okay. They kind of expected that.

"I understand the need for confirmation, but please try to be responsible about this," he said. "It would be a disaster if the knowledge of the time loop reached certain people."

"And now I’m being lectured by one of my teenage students," Ilsa said, clacking her tongue. "How low the mighty have fallen. But fair enough, I do understand we have a mighty, millennia-old lich breathing down our necks. Your fight against him has left quite an impression on me, I must say…"

Zorian just made a slightly sour expression in response. Unsurprisingly, Quatach-Ichl had taken great offense at them trying to look through his memories and stealing his crown. While Zach and Zorian were placing temporary markers on people, Quatach-Ichl was burning down the Noveda estate and Imaya’s house as the first step of his revenge. Fortunately, all inhabitants of Imaya’s place had been evacuated to Koth by that point, and Zach couldn’t care less about the Noveda estate. The ancient lich remained quiet after that, probably because he couldn’t find them and still had an invasion to execute.

Then Zach and Zorian had the bright idea to bring the new loopers to Cyoria on invasion day, to show them how high the stakes really were. Despite being under a plethora of powerful divination wards and constantly moving, Quatach-Ichl somehow noticed them.

The resulting fight completely leveled the street they were fighting in.

"Though Quatach-Ichl is a huge danger, I’m pretty sure the Eldemarian government, the Triumvirate Church, powerful Noble Houses and other powers would also make problems for us if they knew," Zorian said. "So please be careful."

They spent the next half an hour discussing various things – the mechanics of the time loop, the way things usually developed if Zach and Zorian did not interfere with things, and the details behind the Ibasan invasion. Ilsa turned out to be just as interested in the invasion of Cyoria as she was in the time loop itself. Then again, that was probably not too unusual. They brought people to witness the attack for a reason.

"You don’t seem to care much for the suffering and devastation we witnessed," Ilsa eventually said, a note of condemnation in her voice.

"I’m just a little numb to it all, that’s all. I’ve seen it happen too many times, sometimes from the memories of the invaders themselves," Zorian said. "It’s impossible for me to have the same visceral reaction to it that you probably have."

"You read their memories?" she asked, surprised.

"I had to," he simply said.

"Of course you’ve dabbled in mind magic too," she said in a strange tone.

"Dabbled?" Zorian huffed. "This annoys me more than it probably should. I did not dabble in it – I’m a natural mind mage who spent years honing his skills."

She seemed to be at a loss for words upon hearing that.

"This situation is endlessly bizarre and disturbing," she finally said after a few seconds.

"Agreed," Zorian nodded. "I’ve been stuck in this time loop for nearly eight years, not counting all the time dilation chambers, and I still think that."

"Time dilation chambers?" Ilsa asked. She suddenly shook her head. "No, never mind that for now. Eight years is actually not as long as I thought it would be."

"I got included rather late into this thing," Zorian said. "Zach is the one who has spent decades inside the time loop."

"Ugh. Every answer gives me five new questions," Ilsa complained. "You know what? Let’s stop this for now. You are planning to take the train to Cyoria, right?"

"Yes, I’m taking Kirielle with me, so I need to pretend I’m somewhat normal. Of course, if you are willing to teleport us to Cyoria yourself…"

"No," she said immediately. "I’m taking a train ride with you instead."

Zorian was taken aback at the proclamation. He knew that things would be very much different now that other loopers were walking around, but he couldn’t help but get blindsided by things like this.

"Uh, why?" Zorian asked uncertainly.

"You might be used to it, but I’ve just watched the city get brutally invaded by hordes of monsters and undead," she told him. "I’d like to stay away from Cyoria for a while, and this is a convenient excuse."

"Oh," he said lamely.

Come to think of it, it had only been a few hours at most since the invasion, at least from her perspective.

"You don’t mind, do you?" she asked him.

"Not at all," he said, shaking his head. "Just watch out for Kirielle if you plan to ride in the same compartment as us. She has an intense interest in magic and anything related to it, and she’s probably going to find you absolutely fascinating."

"I don’t see a problem with that," Ilsa smiled. "It’s nice to see kids interested in my work."

Zorian didn’t bother to clarify things.

Some things were better as a surprise.

Mother did not look very surprised when Ilsa informed her she would be accompanying them to the train station. It probably seemed entirely sensible to her that Ilsa would use a train to get back to Cyoria. The two of them got along pretty well with one another, and were soon happily chatting along as they waited on the station for the train to arrive. Zorian mostly ignored the conversation, as it sounded like your typical parent-teacher discussion. Kirielle was too excited about going to Cyoria to care about the teacher that had decided to stick around for a while longer, but Fortov did feel the need to approach the group and say hi after seeing Ilsa present. That was a little new.