Домагой Курмаич - Mother of Learning

Since he had already thrown away his good sense and taken Kirielle to the death trap that was Cyoria, he may as well introduce her to her former and future friend. At least if they started hanging around each other, he could more easily protect the both of them without spreading himself thin.

The actual conversation with Rea was pretty mundane. Nochka’s mother was pretty friendly, and Zorian did not confront her with any heavy topics. They simply talked about who he and Kirielle were, how they had met Nochka, and where they were staying. Kirielle almost ratted out Nochka on dropping her bike in the stream, which caused the little cat shifter to panic and hurriedly shut her up… by manifesting her claws and clamping down on Kirielle’s arm. This caused Rea to freak out because Nochka almost ruined their secret and hurt a guest, but the situation was thankfully resolved in the end, and Zorian pretended not to have noticed anything strange about the incident.

Interestingly, Rea also brought up the news of Zach’s place being attacked, just like Bryn did. She didn’t have any new information for Zorian, but it did emphasize how notable the attack was for people. Zorian wondered if Red Robe even realized how eye-catching the whole thing would end up being.

"You are classmates with the Noveda heir?" Rea asked. "My, I seemed to have met an important person today."

"Not… really?" Zorian said dubiously.

"Come now, Mister Kazinski. You have a famous brother, you attend a prestigious magical academy, and one of your classmates is a scion of a Noble House," Rea pointed out.

"Two, actually," said Zorian. There was also Tinami. "I don’t think any of that makes me important."

Rea hummed loudly at him, clearly not agreeing.

"Have it your way," she shrugged. She rose from her seat and took a look at the weather outside. Things didn’t look good of course. The rain was pouring in thick sheets while the wind was blowing madly in all directions, and Zorian knew from the time loop that the storm wouldn’t be ending any time soon.

This was the main reason Zorian was less impatient about leaving Rea’s place this time around. He couldn’t just teleport to Imaya’s place or create a rain shield around himself and Kirielle. No, he would have to use an umbrella like a normal person, and they would end up wet and miserable by the time they actually reached their destination. He was in no hurry to experience that.

"What horrid weather," Rea said, frowning. "I think you’re going to have to remain here over the night."

"We can’t impose on you like that," Zorian said hurriedly, shaking his head. "We’ll just slowly make our way through the storm. A little rain won’t kill us."

"You can’t be serious," Rea said, giving him an annoyed look. "I know teenage boys can be a little reckless, and I would not have said anything if it was just you being stupid… but you’re taking your little sister along and you have to take this into account. Are you seriously thinking of taking her out there into that with just an umbrella?"

Zorian stared at Rea for a few seconds before looking at Kirielle, who was sitting on the floor with Nochka. They were both whispering something to each other and pretending they weren’t listening in on their conversation.

"Kirielle," Zorian asked her slowly. "What do you think about going?"

"Umm…" she fumbled, rubbing her hands awkwardly. "It’s raining pretty hard."

Zorian sighed, taking off his glasses and massaging the bridge of his nose. After a few seconds he gave Rea an embarrassed look. He was just about to speak up but she put a hand on his shoulder to stop him and simply nodded her head knowingly.

"I’ll go get some blankets," she said, before wandering off to do just that.

In the corner of his eye, he could see Nochka and Kirielle excitedly whisper to each other. They, at least, seemed pleased with this outcome.

After a few seconds, Zorian clacked his tongue and decided to just roll with the situation. It was embarrassing, but there was no real harm in it.

He looked through the window, silently observing the storm for a while. After a while, Rea wandered in and placed a steaming cup of tea on the window sill beside him. Zorian gave her a curious look.

"A cup of tea is necessary for proper rain watching," Rea explained to him.

"Ah. Thank you," Zorian said quietly. "Sorry for the imposition. I could tell it was going to rain, but–"

"Do I look that mean and selfish to you?" Rea asked, raising her eyebrow at him. "Hospitality had always been important to my people."

"Your people?" Zorian asked her curiously, feigning ignorance.

"Your acting skills are decent, but I know you saw the claws on Nochka’s fingers. You probably know what we are," Rea said, sipping slowly from her own cup of tea while standing beside him.

"Yeah," Zorian admitted with a shrug. "It doesn’t bother me."

"Good," Rea said simply. She then dropped the subject and no longer pursued the matter. "I don’t know if this is really the issue, or if there is something deeper going on, but it’s pointless to get angry or frustrated at a storm. It’s a force of nature; there is no fighting that. You just take shelter and wait until it ends."

"Right," said Zorian quietly, taking a sip of the tea Rea had made for him.

Sadly, some storms couldn’t be dodged that easily.

While Zorian had been escorting Kirielle, his simulacrums had been very busy. They, along with Zach’s simulacrums, constantly attacked known cult leaders and invader bases, raiding them for funds and trying to decapitate their organizations. Sadly, this hadn’t been nearly as effective as they had hoped. Red Robe had clearly been very busy and most of their targets had been forewarned they were coming. Warding schemes were changed, the guards were on alert, and some people were just outright evacuated to safety. They had managed to acquire a lot of money and resources, since many of the secret caches had been protected mainly by their secrecy, and it wasn’t easy to strip a base of everything that was worth money in a hurry, but Zorian doubted they had managed to deal any kind of decisive strike to their enemies.

Below the city, the fighting was also intense. It was mostly the aranea fighting the cranium rats, but Zorian’s simulacrum sometimes helped the aranean side… and since Zorian’s uncontested presence would have meant a decisive victory for the aranea, Red Robe’s simulacrum was always there to stop the cranium rats from getting wiped out. Neither Zorian nor Red Robe were fighting seriously, wary of showing the enemy too much and wasting their mana reserves, but the fact Zorian’s simulacrum had a much more resilient golem body meant that he was slowly getting an upper hand in these skirmishes. It remained to be seen what Red Robe would do in response to that. Zorian doubted he would let the cranium rats just die, since they were a critical asset for the invasion forces.

The simulacrums were also negotiating with various aranean webs in the region, trying to bring in additional support for the fight. Of particular importance were the negotiations with the Silent Doorway Adepts, since they needed their help to open a connection to Koth. Zorian did not doubt for a second the negotiations were going to succeed; they had lots of things they could tempt Silent Doorway Adepts with. The Bakora gate addresses in particular were bound to have irresistible allure for the web. However, the issue was that these negotiations would still end up taking time, and they had to keep the web protected from enemy machinations while they were in progress. Silverlake knew exactly how important this was to them, so an attack at Silent Doorway Adepts was worryingly plausible.