Домагой Курмаич - Mother of Learning

Every once in a while the morlock boy would inspect some random stump or boulder, occasionally picking up some other magical plant that wasn’t on their list, but which he apparently also considered worthwhile, and occasionally just stared at them meaningfully while pondering some mysterious issue. The backpacks the three of them wore had all been made by Zorian, and were considerably larger on the inside than they appeared, but Zorian estimated Kael’s backpack was already starting to get full from the various plants, jars full of worms and beetles, and even some colorful stones that seemed pretty mundane to Zorian’s eyes. Even if they failed to find the things they were searching for, Kael certainly intended to make the most out of this expedition, that’s for sure.

Relaxing times like these had become increasingly rare in these last five restarts. Everyone was constantly busy with something, whether it was following some plan, searching for things that could help them, experimenting with exotic magics or simply training their skills. This was especially true in this particular restart, since this was the last restart for the temporary loopers. If they could not figure out a way to modify the temporary markers before the end of the restart, they would lose… well, everything .

Sure enough, eventually Kael and Taiven could not help but bring up the issue that was constantly in the back of everyone’s mind these days.

"This is the end, isn’t it?" Kael suddenly said.

The other two gave him conflicted looks. There was no need to ask him what he meant by that.

"Tell us honestly, Zorian… what are the chances we can figure out how to adjust our markers before this month runs out?" Kael continued, seeing how he had their attention.

Zorian suppressed a sigh. Temporary markers… they had spent almost a year studying them, if one factored in the time spent in Black Rooms, and in that time they had made significant progress. They managed to map the general structure of the markers and figure out what many of the pieces did. They compared these markers to the larger, more complete markers embedded in Zach and Zorian. They placed and removed temporary markers on random people to test possible modifications and see what happened. They found out that, yes, the markers really did contain components made out of divine energies… and they also found a way to deal with that. Through several ruinously expensive deals with Quatach-Ichl and innumerable destroyed divine artifacts, they managed to create methods to detect and crudely manipulate strands of divine energy inside their markers. Not enough to manipulate them as they wished, but enough to tear out some portions of the structure and change how this divine foundation interacts with more normal magic that surrounded it.

It wasn’t enough. Despite their best efforts, the solution remained frustratingly out of reach.

What bothered Zorian most about this was that he didn’t think the problem was impossible. They were making good progress. He felt they were definitely on the right track. He felt that this was something that could definitely be solved in time.

Could they figure out a way to prolong the temporary marker in one more restart? No. Not even three would be enough. But maybe if they had five or six… if their soul magic was more developed… if they had easier access to the imperial crown resting on Quatach-Ichl’s head… if they had learned how to sense divine energies sooner…

If. If, if, if…

"No," Zorian finally admitted. "There is no chance at all."

All three of them walked in silence for a while.

"I am actually not that upset," Taiven eventually said. "The idea that I could just suddenly disappear at the end of the month was terrifying at first, but I’ve gotten used to it by now. I even died in one of the restarts."

Zorian vividly remembered that one. Watching Taiven get decapitated by a war troll was strangely upsetting, even though he knew she would be fine in the next restart.

"I mean, I don’t want to disappear at the end of the month," Taiven continued, "but we’ve done everything we could and it was fun while it lasted. If this is how it has to be, then so be it."

"Indeed," Kael said. "Besides, if I understood Zorian correctly, there are only 13 more restarts left at this point. A little more than a year. We’re not losing all that much."

"Both of you talk like you think you’re dead for sure," Zorian said. "Have some faith, okay? Modifying the temporary markers is probably a failure, but the possibility of exiting the time loop still remains. This was our fallback plan if we couldn’t modify the markers, remember?"

"Oh?" Taiven perked up. "That’s still an option?"

"Of course," said Zorian. "What do you think we have been doing all this time?"

"Well I don’t know," Taiven said with a grin. "That mean old witch keeps complaining about you wasting your time on distractions and taking too many breaks from your duties , so…"

"Silverlake thinks everyone should be a tireless golem except her," Zorian said with a derisive snort. "It’s not like she never takes any breaks or tinkers with new potions that have no connection to anything urgent."

"I thought that whole project was still shrouded in uncertainty, though," Kael pointed out.

"Well yeah," Zorian reluctantly admitted. "We have yet to actually try things, so it’s all very theoretical. However, just because we are uncertain about some things doesn’t mean the attempt is bound to fail. It’s hard to put actual numbers on things, but I think there is at least a 70% chance that we could transport people’s souls into the real world, and 30% or so that we could successfully open a dimensional bridge that would let us physically step out of the time loop."

The two of them gave him complex looks that he could not interpret. It was a little hard to accurately discern their emotions these days, since they had both learned to protect their minds and emotions with unstructured mental defenses. In fact, this was something that all temporary loopers decided to invest time in, once they realized the extent of Zorian’s mental powers. Even the ones that already had some level of unstructured mental defenses promptly decided they were insufficient and needed to be strengthened as much as possible.

Zorian understood their reasoning. It was just like that old saying: trust your neighbor, but lock the door. Even if you trusted someone to be a moral and principled person, it was better not to tempt them with easy opportunities. Thus, he did not take such things against them. In fact, he encouraged it. Considering aranea explicitly considered anyone with an unshielded mind fair game for psychic invasion and that they were working closely with several groups of them, getting some level of mental protection was just plain common sense.

"If the only option to exit the time loop is to steal our original bodies from our past selves, I would rather stay here and forget everything," Kael said, shaking his head. "Additionally, I only care about physically leaving if it allows me to take Kana with me. If not, I’d rather stay with her till the end."

Zorian opened his mouth to say something, but then realized that it probably didn’t matter that Kana doesn’t have the temporary marker. If they physically left the time loop, every person was as good as any other.

Would others also want to bring family members with them? That… could get kind of complicated.

"Err, I might have gone for the soul exit if it was actually an option," Taiven said hesitantly. "I mean, I feel sorry for old Taiven but let’s get real here… she is kind of an idiot."

Zorian’s lips twitched into a beginning of a smile, but he suppressed it.