Домагой Курмаич - Mother of Learning

"Why?" Zach asked. "What is it about the Key that triggers this?"

"Activating the Key signifies that something has gone wrong with the time loop mechanism," The Guardian answered, as if that was the most obvious thing in the world. "Of course a thorough check of everything is in order."

"It does? You never mentioned this when we asked you about the Key," Zach stated accusingly.

The Guardian ignored the statement. Zorian was actually a little taken aback by this, since it meant the Guardian had probably kept them deliberately in the dark about that when they had talked to him in the past.

He supposed it made sense. The key was a security measure meant to confirm the Controller’s identity. It made sense not to discuss the details of its operation unless the Guardian felt he had to, for some reason.

"What about those privileges I claimed, then?" Zach asked. "What does that get me?"

"It affirms your status as the one true Controller and locks out all the other pretenders that may be walking about," the Guardian said.

"What!?" Zach protested incredulously. "That’s it? No new functions or abilities or anything like that?"

"As a Controller, you already have all the privileges," the Guardian told him. "You have simply ensured others do not infringe on this."

"Why can Zorian even access this place, then?" Zach demanded.

Hey!

"He is an anomaly," the Guardian said.

"These privileges are such a rip-off," Zach complained. "It doesn’t even do what it’s supposed to properly."

"I’m sorry," the Guardian said, sounding honestly apologetic. "He’s a very frustrating anomaly."

And thank the gods for that, Zorian thought.

He wasn’t panicking, strangely enough. He didn’t know why. Maybe because he already faced a very dire situation today and was rather emotionally drained at the moment, but finding out he was going to be deleted at the end of the month only brought a dull mixture of dread and determination to his mind.

So what if Silverlake had betrayed them? So what if Panaxeth was actively working against him? So what if he would get erased at the end of the month? Hadn’t they already planned to make an escape attempt in this restart?

They just had to make sure it worked.

He looked over at Zach, who had stopped arguing with the Guardian and was instead looking at Zorian like he was a dead man. A mixture of horror and guilt was etched clearly into his face.

"Don’t beat yourself over this," Zorian told Zach. His voice was so calm and even that even he was surprised how confident he sounded. "There was nothing else we could have done. You heard what the Guardian said – the moment we presented the Key to him, I was marked for erasure. It was always a given that we would do that the moment we gathered all the pieces. We should be grateful it was so difficult and took us that long to do it, or else we would have ended up in this situation at a much earlier and far less favorable restart."

"But, Zorian!" Zach protested. "You, you…"

"This just means I need to get out of here before this month ends. It’s the same situation the rest of the group is laboring under, really," Zorian said. "Don’t tell me you’ve already given up?"

"N-No… no…" Zach said slowly, taking a few deep breaths. "Damn it. I really hate this."

"Ask the Guardian if the Key still works. Can you unbar the gate again?"

He could, it turned out.

"Do you want to do it now?" the Guardian asked.

"No!" Zach shouted at it. "No. Do nothing until I tell you, you useless thing."

"As you wish," the Guardian said peacefully, completely oblivious to their emotional turmoil.

There was a few seconds of silence as neither Zach nor Zorian said anything.

"Well…" said Zorian finally. "We should probably end this for now. We need to come here later to ask more questions, but I don’t think either of us is in the right frame of mind to do so at the moment."

"Yeah, I guess," Zach gloomily agreed. "I just–"

Suddenly, the Guardian started convulsing again.

"Oh, not this shit again!" Zach protested in an exasperated tone.

Zorian made no moves to exit the Sovereign Gate this time. He probably couldn’t even if he wanted to, but this time he actually wanted to have a talk with Panaxeth, so he didn’t even try. Interestingly, Panaxeth did not bother to separate Zach from Zorian this time around and simply possessed the convulsing Guardian in front of them both. The glowing humanoid erupted into a forest of blood-red branches and tentacles before shuddering and contracting into a more human-like mass. It then quickly shapeshifted into the same female form that it had chosen for Zorian the last time they spoke. It did so far quicker than last time, apparently having gotten more proficient with the process.

It took a step forward, seemingly intending to walk over to them, before pausing and stopping in place.

"Hello Zorian," Panaxeth said in a pleasant female voice. "We meet again."

"I thought you said you would not bother talking to me again," Zorian immediately pointed out. "That it was a one-time offer."

"Bah, I told you it was just playing hard to get," Zach stated.

"Getting past the safeguards on this mechanism is not an easy thing to do," Panaxeth said. "It is not easy for me to appear before you like this. I meant what I said last time, but I decided you are more interesting than I first realized."

"Last time you didn’t even dare show your face in front of me," Zach said loudly in a challenging tone, folding his hands over his chest.

"As the Controller, you are especially well protected from any tampering," Panaxeth said, shifting its attention towards Zach for a moment. "And you can leave at any time. You do not require my help, nor am I able to stop you from leaving. You are of no use to me."

"But here you are, showing yourself in front of me anyway," Zach pointed out.

"I need to conserve my power," Panaxeth said. "Isolating you in a separate space is costly and unnecessary. I do not care if you hear us."

The female form Panaxeth was wearing turned its attention back to Zorian, staring at him intently.

"You still have a chance to survive this," Panaxeth said. "I have managed to stop the Guardian from rescinding all your Controller privileges. Wreck the Controller’s mind as much as you’re able, use the key to unbar the gate, and I will incarnate you in the outside world. I do not even ask that you make a contract with me. Grievously sabotaging the Controller and preventing him from exiting the time loop will be payment enough for your salvation."

Zach actually floated a few steps back when he heard that.

"You don’t want me as an agent?" Zorian asked, frowning.

"I already have two of them. That’s more than enough," Panaxeth said. "If I can ensure that the Controller dies here when the time loop collapses upon itself, it will be far more valuable to me than any additional number of agents."

Neither Zach nor Zorian said anything for a few seconds, but Zorian was furiously thinking about things. If Panaxeth was so desperate to take Zach out of the picture… that probably meant this entire time loop had been made specifically to help him find a reliable way to stop Panaxeth’s release. Even if Zach could not remember so, the two of them were mortal enemies.

"Before I helped Zach gather all the pieces of the Key, you were already winning," Zorian realized. "You had already sent one of the temporary loopers out as your agent, and Zach had mostly forgotten his mission to stop you. He only had vague feelings to guide him in what he must do. Even if he figured out how to come here, the gate was barred and he couldn’t leave."

"Yes. It would have been better for me if the Key had never been found," Panaxeth admitted readily. "However, I am the very embodiment of adaptability. I do not blame you for looking out for your best interests. I simply recruited one of you as my agent, thinking that was the best way to make use of the situation. It was only later that I found out how capable you are at mind invasion, and how the original plan could still be salvaged."