Домагой Курмаич - Mother of Learning

"Alright," Benisek grinned. "I’ll hold you to that. Anyway, word is going around that a number of villages in Holakor – that’s the big neighboring country to the west of Eldemar, you know – have been hit by some sort of attack recently. A weirdly brutal attack. Rumors are saying it was a total bloodbath, with hundreds of people killed."

Zorian’s mood immediately plummeted.

He supposed they finally got a clue as to what Red Robe had been doing all this time.

Later that day, Zorian returned to Imaya’s place, his thoughts still on what Benisek had told them. He and Zach had immediately dispatched a pair of simulacrums to Holakor to check up on this situation, but it would take a while for them to reach the villages in question and investigate things. In the meantime, they could only speculate what Red Robe had been doing there and for what purpose.

He didn’t have a lot of time to dedicate to his musings, though, because he was soon interrupted by Taiven, who sought him out for recruitment.

Zorian didn’t want to tell her about the time loop. Like Kael and a lot of other people that once made up their group of temporary loopers, she couldn’t actually help them in any way and telling her about the invasion would just expose her to danger. Well, more danger than she was already in.

Sometimes he wondered if it wouldn’t be easier to just tell everyone about the time loop and point the central government at Red Robe and the invaders right from the very start. However, when they had discussed that scenario back in the time loop, even the temporary loopers agreed this was a very unhappy solution to the problem. The central government was notoriously corrupt and power-hungry, and the current king favored a highly aggressive stance towards any internal threats. Once Eldemar’s forces were done dealing with Red Robe and the Ibasans, they were almost certainly going to turn on them.

And anyone who knew about the time loop and the invasion would likely suffer along with them.

Calling in the military was pretty much a guaranteed win… for Cyoria and its citizens. However, they, and people close to them, might end up paying the price for this good deed. This was not a choice they wanted to make. They were not selfless angels, after all. Thus, it was decided to only make the report once they were reasonably sure it couldn’t be tracked down to them. That would take a while to set up, but it wouldn’t take the entire month to do so. That was the main reason why Zorian was fine with Red Robe’s stalling for time. Unless Red Robe blindsided them with something, Zach and Zorian were guaranteed to win.

Of course, if Red Robe’s schemes did blindside them, they would rather unmask themselves than allow the city to be destroyed and watch as an ancient godlike monster is released into the world. That was why it was important to keep most of the former temporary loopers in the dark for now. If the army suddenly stormed into the city and started asking questions, the less they knew about what was going on, the better.

Still, he couldn’t just refuse Taiven’s offer and send her off into the tunnels beneath the city to die. Thus, he let her in on some of his secrets.

"What?" Taiven complained. "Why are you staring at me like that? Is there something on my face?"

She ran her hand over her face to check things and even glanced behind her to check if there was someone standing over her shoulder. Zorian didn’t know whether she was faking it in order to make fun of him or if she honestly believed these were legitimate possibilities… but he supposed he had been staring at her for a little too long.

"Taiven, this job of yours is a total setup," he eventually told her. "You should stay away from this one."

"Huh? What do you mean?" she asked, narrowing her eyes at him. "It’s just a simple find and retrieve in the tunnels below the city. Fight some giant spiders, find the lost thingy, get out."

"The giant spiders are aranea," Zorian told her. "They’re giant, intelligent, telepathic spiders. Unless you know what you’re doing and come prepared, they can blast you into unconsciousness before you can blink."

Taiven took a step back at the description, her eyes widening at the description.

"Shit," she swore. "Roach, how do you–"

"And that man isn’t some innocent wanderer that lost his expensive trinket down there," Zorian continued. "He had been spying on the aranea and got caught in the act. That ward breaker device is currently safely stored in the aranea treasury, not carelessly dropped in some dusty tunnel and free for the taking."

"Roach, how do you know this!?" Taiven asked, a little more forcefully this time.

"Huh. I’m surprised you didn’t just accuse me of lying," he told her slowly.

"This is too serious," she said, frowning. "I don’t think you’d joke around with something like that. And you’re not really the joking type, either. Now tell."

"Well, I know about this because I’m friendly with the aranea," Zorian told her. "They’re teaching me how to control my telepathic powers, after all."

"Your… telepathic powers?" she repeated slowly. "As in… mind reading?"

[Among other things, yes,] he sent her telepathically.

She flinched back and gave him a frightened look afterward. For a moment Zorian thought she would bolt out of his room right then and there but instead she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and forcibly calmed herself down.

"Damn, Roach," she said, massaging her forehead. "You really know how to drop a secret on someone."

"I had to make sure you take this seriously," Zorian said.

"Well, you succeeded," she responded unhappily. She gave him a suspicious look. "You didn’t read my mind without permission, did you? How long has this been going on, anyway?"

"I didn’t," Zorian assured her. "I only found out about my innate mental powers recently."

"Well good," Taiven said. "Though I’m not too happy you’re keeping secrets like that. Especially something that sounds so… shady. I never knew there was a colony of sapient spiders living beneath the city. They’re not here legally, are they? And you’re just hanging around them and learning mind magic from them like it’s nothing? What else are you hiding from me?"

"You’re just mad I didn’t invite you along for this shady adventure," Zorian said, deflecting her worries.

"Yes, dammit!" she said, swinging her fist at his shoulder.

He flawlessly deflected her half-hearted punch to the side, causing her to stop and blink at him in surprise. His move wasn’t really all that amazing, but he suddenly realized he never used to do that sort of thing before the time loop. Oops.

"You know I’m right, though," she said, ignoring the incident in favor of crossing her arms in front of her chest and staring down at him. "It’s crazy dangerous what you’re doing, and you should have at least taken a bodyguard when going down there."

"You?" Zorian guessed .

"Who else do you know that is an amazing battlemage?" she ask asked rhetorically, straightening her pose pridefully.

"Well, I’ve been hanging out with Zach Noveda lately, and he’s pretty good at combat magic," Zorian told her.

"The Noveda heir? Isn’t he one of your classmates?" Taiven asked dubiously.

"Yes," Zorian confirmed.

"A third year student being able to compare with me? Please," Taiven scoffed. "You’re looking down way too much on me Zorian. Looks like I’ll have to challenge you to a proper fight soon, just to broaden your horizons and let you get some perspective on things."

Zorian couldn’t help it. He stopped himself from laughing out loud at her, but there was a wide smile stuck on his face that just wouldn’t go away.