Домагой Курмаич - Mother of Learning

"Right. You only die if the knowledge of the time loop isn’t contained in the real world, when it actually matters. It doesn’t matter how many people you tell inside the time loop, because they’ll never get out of there anyway," Zorian guessed. "Or at least that was the idea, probably."

"Keep in mind, I had no idea how the time loop worked back then," Zach said. "I didn’t know there was a real world and the time loop world, or any other details that we figured out later. I wasn’t lying to you when I said I don’t remember how I got in the time loop and how it functions."

Right. That was pretty terrible design by the angels. If they could make sure that the contract they made with Zach was impossible to forget by any means, why didn’t they include some basic information there as well?

Alanic apparently wasn’t kidding when he said angels worked in mysterious ways.

"If you didn’t know how the time loop works, how did you know when telling people about the time loop matters and when it doesn’t?" Zorian asked.

Zach couldn’t answer him, of course. That would mean he would reveal some of the information about his contract thing, and that was forbidden.

"Well, we have no real choice here," Zorian said. "If you can’t discuss these mysterious rules you are laboring under, and you don’t even have a solid idea what they mean, we’ll have to summon the angels for a talk."

Zach gave him a surprised look.

"But you…" he began.

"I’m not supposed to be here, outside the time loop, yes," Zorian said, nodding.

This was the primary reason they had been hesitating about contacting the angelic hierarchy, even though they had already suspected the angels were involved in the time loop. It was entirely possible that summoning an angel would just draw their attention to Zorian’s existence and give them a chance to finish what the Guardian of the Threshold had already tried and failed to do.

"We’d be risking a lot," Zach said, frowning.

"No, I’m risking a lot," countered Zorian. "And I’m willing to take the risk. We need to see if this contract of yours can be re-negotiated, or at least find out what it actually entails."

Zach gave it a brief thought, tapping his fingers against the beer glass in his hand.

"Well… it’s not like I was looking forward to dying," Zach finally said. "Though if the angels immediately smite you dead upon sight, don’t come crying to me that I didn’t warn you."

"I won’t be doing anything at that point, being dead and all," Zorian blandly pointed out. "Anyway, Silverlake said you made a contract to stop Panaxeth from being released at the end of the month. If true, that suggests the angels care a lot about keeping Panaxeth in his prison. Killing me would interfere with that. Plus, silencing all the extra witnesses is impossible so long as Red Robe lives. Hopefully that will give them pause."

Well, that all made perfect sense to Zorian, but it was obvious that the logic of angels was not the same as the logic of men. It wouldn’t be too surprising if the summoned angel just ignored everything Zorian said and tried to kill him anyway.

Would it be considered disrespectful if he sent a simulacrum instead of participating in the summoning personally?

"You really think there is a chance to renegotiate… this?" Zach asked, waving vaguely over his chest.

It was unlikely. But hey, it was worth a try, right?

"The contract is probably divine magic, right?" Zorian asked, ignoring the question for now.

"I… don’t actually know," Zach said uncertainly. "It has to be. I mean, otherwise I would have managed to find it by now, right? The only piece of mortal magic I ever found embedded in my soul is the marker…"

Zorian shook his head. He was pretty sure the marker did not include any divine energies or mysterious rules in it… because if it did, Zorian himself would have probably inherited them from Zach when he acquired his marker.

"It’s probably a part of the soul stabilization frame that boosts your mana reserves," Zorian pointed out. "The divine blessing and divine contract probably came together as a package deal."

Zach winced slightly.

"Yes, I kind of guessed that too," he admitted. "But that whole frame is incredibly complicated… it’s hard to figure out where the blessing ends and the contract starts."

Yes, that was pretty much how Zorian expected it to be. The blessing and contract were probably intertwined in a way that made it impossible to remove one and not the other. That way, even if Zach found a way to remove the contract, he would have to give up the mana boost that came along with it.

An extra layer of security that would make just about anyone hesitate to tamper with the whole thing. After all, who would be willing to lose something as amazing as a divine blessing that doubles your mana reserves?

"Even if the angels agree to renegotiate, you’d probably have to give up your divine blessing," Zorian eventually said.

Zach looked horrified at the thought, but also a little bit resigned. He seemed to have expected something like that to be true.

"Aw, man…" he whined, finishing his entire beer glass in one desperate gulp before ordering another from a nearby waitress.

"It’s better than being dead," Zorian consoled him.

"I don’t know, man… how would you react if you had to give up half of your mana reserves tomorrow?" Zach asked him sullenly.

Zorian blinked rapidly in surprise. That’s right… Zach didn’t even know his mana reserves were a result of a divine blessing until relatively recently. The current situation had persisted as far as he could remember. His mana reserves felt normal as they were right now, and reducing them probably felt no different than a crippling injury…

"I’d be absolutely devastated, but it’s still better than dying," he finally said, a little quieter this time.

Zach gave him a cranky grunt and said nothing else in response.

"How are we going to summon an angel, anyway?" Zach eventually asked, calming down a little when he got his second glass of beer delivered to their table. "Alanic?"

"Alanic can’t summon an angel," Zorian said, shaking his head. "Only a few priests are capable of that, and he is not one of them. However, I happen to know someone in this very city who is capable of summoning angels, so it shouldn’t be a problem. Though we might want to invite Alanic with us, anyway."

"Oh? Who is it?" Zach asked curiously. "I don’t remember anyone like that."

"You wouldn’t know her. I haven’t really interacted with her ever since we teamed up," Zorian noted. "It’s Kylae Kuosi, a priestess in one of the semi-abandoned temples here in Cyoria. She a bit of an obscure figure, but she’s a capable mage and she knows quite a bit of interesting magic. For instance, she is one of the experts when it comes to forecasting the future through divinations… and she also knows how to establish contact with the angels. It didn’t matter much in the time loop, since contact with the spiritual planes had been blocked there, but now…"

"Alright," Zach said after a second of thought. "Let’s see what the heavenly bastards have to say."

It took them three days to arrange for the summoning to occur. It wasn’t particularly difficult, but Kylae was understandably very suspicious about a couple of teenagers showing up on her doorstep and asking for her to summon an angel so they could talk to it. The fact Zach and Zorian were in a hurry and were pushing for her to set up the ritual quickly did not help matters. Thankfully, after bringing in Alanic to vouch for them and explaining several times that Zach had been given some kind of mission by the angels that he had forgot made her reluctantly agree to their request.