The Years of Apocalypse - A Time Loop Progression Fantasy-Chapter 281 - Unification

Mirian felt quite a bit of satisfaction when she saw Lily and Beatrice walking together. A nice little reunion. For them, it had only been about a year. For her, far longer.

She would have to do something similar with Daith and his sister. Get a better sense of who in the Pure Blade was there for money, and who was there because they believed in the Corrmiers eand their nasty little project.

Little by little, she met and talked with the people of Torrviol. That didn’t just mean the students and professors, either. She had conversations with the Akanan spies—except Specter, who had gleefully tried to further the project that had seen her memory cursed as a girl, even if she never knew the names of the targets, and Nathanial, the false guard captain who was as immovable as he was cruel. But people like Idras and Timmon were simply misguided patriots. Others, like Ayland and Gerard, the ones who were responsible for most of the blatant break-ins and intimidation, were young idiots. She had been a different flavor of “young idiot” once, so she couldn’t blame them too much.

She talked with Liamar about Rostal. She talked with Priest Krier about his rise through the Luminate Order. She chatted with Calisto about her father and the Ennecus Guild. She listened to Ingrid discuss her philosophy on craft and creation. She even had a conversation with Platus, the fool who liked to blow himself up in the alchemistry building, though that was an unpleasant experience, and she ended the conversation much earlier than she intended.

Then, when she was done reconnecting with the people she’d known, she moved on to meeting new people. The merchants whose wares she had purchased so many times, but whose stories she didn’t know. The apprentice researchers in Torrian Tower who she ordered about, but had never really talked to. The farmers who worked just outside town and kept an eye on the spellward barrier. Some of the professors who she’d seen, but never taken classes from.

Mirian then took time to rest and relax, tracing the conversations through her mind, stashing them in the vaulted ceilings of the Mausoleum she dreamed.

Frostland’s Gate would be next. Then Cairnmouth. Then Palendurio. Then Alkazaria. And so on, until she’d shared dinners and conversation with people from the Rift Sea to the edge of Mayat Shadr.

First, though, there was a conversation she needed to have that was long overdue.

***

Mirian made some adjustments to her force shield’s shape on her way to Arborholm. With a bit of divination to give her hard numbers, she could assess just how fast she flew given different shield configurations. A pyramidal shape did alright, but a cone was far better, and a fluted cone seemed to help for some reason.

A few hours later, she landed and spent some time walking around the city, using a minor illusion to normalize her eyes. Of the four largest Akanan cities, she decided she liked Arborholm the best. The people were more relaxed and willing to chat, and the food was more interesting.

Liuan wasn’t there, though, but a nice priest told her the Prophet Liuan was in Ferrabridge.

Mirian thanked him and flew on.

That trip was significantly shorter. Coming into Ferrabridge from above was quite the sight. The first thing she saw was the crater in the western part of the city. The shattered factories still hadn’t been cleared, though earth mages had been steadily working on leveling out the crater, and the houses were steadily being rebuilt.

The city was dominated by its many factories, including the massive ironworks south of Ferramont. Trains loaded with ore moved back and forth between the sharp-peaked mountain’s mines and the city. There was enough fossilized myrvite being burned that she felt the prickle of the toxic mana on her aura even flying above it.

It was fairly easy to narrow down where Liuan would be in the central district, and then her soul-sight allowed her to quickly pick out the two souls with temporal anchors in them. She expected Liuan to be with either Jherica or Celen, but was surprised to see Gabriel. He was working on getting the various princes and warlords of Persama under his thumb. Though, she conceded, Lord Saiyal is in Akana, as are several other prominent representatives. I only assumed he’d be in Persama, even though half of the economic dynamic is here and institutions like the RID are probably even more important to control than most Persaman institutions.

That saved her some time anyways. Gabriel was implicated in Liuan’s scheme, so she might as well chat with both of them together.

The two of them were meeting with a group of people—factory owners, she thought, but maybe that was the city council?—so Mirian spent some time trying out new foods. She found the constant sting of mana distracting, and the food was… interesting. They used strange flavored sauces to drench their food, but the meat was prepared shoddily and she found the spices lacking.

She overpaid with a silver florin, then flew to meet them as the meeting was wrapping up.

“Hello,” she said as she flew in through the window.

Gabriel swore loudly and dropped his wine glass. Liuan had started to cast something, but then stopped when she saw who it was.

“Why are you here?” Liuan said, voice on edge.

A pair of guards appeared by the door. “Sacred One?” one asked, hand resting on the hilt of a wand.

“We’re fine,” Liuan snapped, not looking away from Mirian.

“Our last reconciliation was an alignment of goals, but not one of ideology—or trust,” Mirian said. “I taught Ibrahim how to soul-bind, and gave him a focus. Liuan, I assume you already know about soul-bound materials. In fact, I’m sure you’ve bound at least one of the Prophet’s relics.”

Liuan’s neck muscles were tight. “What is this about, Mirian?”

“When Troytin ambushed me, I became paranoid something else like it could happen again. And, I discovered a finite strategic resource. When I met you, I wanted to trust you—but I also couldn’t bring myself to. I want to apologize.”

Liuan glanced at Gabriel. Gabriel said, “You do understand that flying through a window is not how normal people enter a room?”

Mirian conjured a chair made of force and sat on it. “I didn’t want to do it through the dream. I think by now we all know the Ominian didn’t remove Troytin from the loop. I did. If I wanted to remove either of you from the loop, I could have done it long ago. I don’t want to. I want allies. Not subjects. Not begrudging associates. Allies.”

Liuan stared at Mirian, then said, “I was wondering when you’d finally admit it.” Gabriel’s eyes widened in alarm, but Liuan waved him off. “I was on Tyrcast’s airship in disguise when you blew it up and absconded with Troytin. I died in the crash, of course, but I knew you were lying to me the day I first actually met you.”

Gabriel made an incredulous face and looked back and forth between Liuan and Mirian. Then he picked up a new wine glass from the table and started taking a long sip.

Mirian let out a long breath. “I can’t change what I’ve done.” Then she burst out laughing. “That’s funny, given our circumstance, where we do that every loop. But to each other, we can’t change what we’ve done. Even this little bit of linear causality, and it still restrains us. Moving forward, I want us to be far more honest. I visited Luamin—”

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Gabriel spewed out a mouthful of wine. “You WHAT?!”

“Jherica was taking too long, and I wanted to see what was up there. I’ll share most of my discoveries in the dream council, but the point I wanted to make is I discovered we have a lot more time in the loop. Far too much, actually. We need to reach a permanent peace with each other. One where we can support each other. I can’t be worrying that Liuan is going to send an army at Torrviol, and she can’t be worrying that I’ll snatch her anchor away.”

“I—” Liuan started to say, then clamped her mouth shut.

Gabriel set down the wine glass and reached for the bottle, then sprawled back in one of the fancy chairs around the conference table. “Liuan, tell her. She obviously already knows. That’s Mirian’s style, by the way. She figures out the truth, then sees if you’re willing to admit it. If you’re going to unfuck this, you should tell her something she doesn’t already know.”

Liuan let out a breath. “Then you already know Scebur was a fiction for probing the capacities of other Prophets while maintaining my own reputation. I faked my death in two of the cycles. I wanted to develop a contingency plan for dealing with… you.”

“Yes,” Mirian said. “And obviously, Gabriel figured it out first and helped cover for you. He’s always liked your plan better than mine. But the lie wouldn’t have survived the Ominian’s dream becoming linear, so you had to come up with an excuse to ‘capture’ Scebur.”

“I bound the Mask of the Fifth Prophet,” Liuan said, and the mask materialized in her hand. From the front, it looked just like the one in the vault of the Grand Sanctum: orichalcum, designed to look like a smooth face with an engraved scar. When she turned it over, though, there were three small jewels embedded in it. “One jewel is a catalyst. Another, a focus. But I believe the third jewel is an Elder relic from the Labyrinth. It allows one to create an undetectable illusion. He also carved runes on it that create a potent manipulation spell. It can cause either great fear with one sequence, or a desire to have someone please you, with a second sequence.”

“Interesting. So the one in the Grand Sanctum is a forgery. How many relics of the Prophets did the Church of the Ominian seize?”

“Just that one. Or at least, that’s the only one prepared with relicarium. From the records, I don’t think that the Fifth Prophet was able to bind it, just to create and prepare it. I assume you found out what relicarium is and how to prepare artifacts with it?”

Mirian nodded.

“Gods’ blood, I’m such a fool,” Gabriel said, leaning back and staring at the ceiling. “It was the funny looking liquid in the cube, wasn’t it? I just put that together. I gave that information up for nothing.”

“It was the funny looking liquid in the cube.”

“BALLS!” Gabriel shouted at the ceiling.

“I used the cube you found to make a portable leyline regulator,” Mirian admitted.

The room fell into a silence for a moment. Then Liuan said, “I suppose that’s a better use than most for it. Which relics did you find?”

“You probably already know. The Holy Pages and the Sword of the Fourth. The Holy Pages are the reason I’ve been able to plan out the leyline regulator. Keeping such a complex piece of artifice in my head would be too difficult otherwise.”

“See? What I’ve always said,” Gabriel sighed. “She’s not an unfathomable genius, just a regular one. Oh, but she can destroy a city if she gets mad.”

“Liuan’s command of Akanan forces has destroyed far more of Baracuel than I ever could. As has Ibrahim’s command of his rebellion.”

“Sure, sure, happens to the best of us,” Gabriel said. “Oh, wait, I’ve managed to destroy zero cities this whole time. Do you think that earns me a statue? I think they should put one up in the main plazas of every city I haven’t destroyed.” He sighed. “So what’s your intention with all this?”

“Minimize the secrets among us. I assume all of us—well maybe not Celen, he’s new to this—have made contingency plans about what to do in case of betrayal, but aside from those plans, we should further develop the rules and results we want for the world that comes after. It’s inextricably tied to how we solve the crisis.”

“She finally figured that one out,” Gabriel said. “I’m game, Mirian, as long as you don’t try to dominate the whole project. Liuan?”

“Yes,” Liuan said.

Mirian looked at her more closely. “You’ve… gone through a soul ascension, haven’t you? That’s most of us by now. But the currents of your soul are different. And I don’t see it in your eyes, like I can with Ibrahim, Xecatl, or Zhuan.” Whatever she discovered is incompatible with what I’ve achieved, she thought.

Liuan was quiet for a long while. She went and stood by the window Mirian had flown in. The glass of it had flowed apart, then been sealed back together so it looked as good as new. She put a gentle hand on it, though, and spiderweb cracks blossomed across it. Then she turned back.

“I learned a great deal about soul ascensions from the various cults in the Church of the Ominian. Ascension patterns are never the same between two people. The pattern the soul’s flow takes must be tuned to the individual’s soul, and each soul is as different as the memories we carry. How did you come to your understandings, Mirian?”

“Journeys to different places. Deep in the Endelice Mountains. In Viaterrian ruins in the Jiandzhi. By the old Takoa temple in south Akana.” She didn’t mention Ceiba Yan; that was Xecatl’s secret to tell, though by now Gabriel and Liuan had to know about it. She also didn’t mention her mother’s grave.

“Of course. Ibrahim found his through battle. I assume Zhuan found hers by reading a bunch of insufferably opaque political theory. You, though, you’re an explorer.” She glanced at Gabriel, whose demeanor had grown serious, then continued. “I found mine as I began to apply the lessons of the Church of the Ominian to Akana. It came from understanding people.

“Humanity is greedy. Power corrodes our better nature. The ones at the top… they just played the game better. Even as we build all this, each person is in a private war against the world to accumulate. I’ve seen a man rob his own grandmother. I’ve seen parents steal from their own children. The holy lessons of the Gods, the laws we establish—they are all that stand between our cruel nature and barbarism. The walls of civilization must be fortified with holy truths and strong laws. People… the only reason the Akanan war can be fought against Baracuel is because people believe in things that aren’t true. But the only reason they are so easily swayed is because they yearn for the lies they hear. This is the truth I understood, and I have grown stronger for it.”

Their eyes met. Yes, she could see it now—her dark eyes did hold a glow, like a faint part of the cloud of stars she’d seen in her journey through the void.

She couldn’t deny that Liuan had seen something true about humanity. But it wasn’t all they were. It was incomplete. “There’s so much more to us,” she said. “I spoke to one of the Unmoored—”

Gabriel, who had just taken another sip of wine, spit it out again and swore.

“—and he said that even he couldn’t say what human nature is. We’ve changed, and changed again. Societies move like the water, and our history goes back far before the Cataclysm. Here in Akana, you see the worst of it. Who is elevated to the heights of fame and power? Pitiless businessmen like Rosen. Coldhearted industrialists like Aurum. Ruthless generals like Cearsia. Charity is seen as a sign of weakness. Cruelty is refined. In Tlaxhuaco, they have no such values. They value interconnectedness, and elevate those with grand gardens and mastery of spirit magic. There’s still cruelty and suffering, but there’s that much less of it. The truth of humanity is not an immutable thing, but a clay, molded by our environment and the people who touch us.” Thinking of both First Praetorian Voran and Grandpa Irabi she said, “Both those who cut open our hearts, and those who heal them.”

“And yet, if Uxalak had the factories and warships instead of Vadriach, there would still be a campaign of conquest. That’s what the Triarchs did when Mayat Shadr was still the center of power. Only when the Persamans are at the other end of the blade do they weep. The ocean is malleable. Most of the time, the waves are calm, but inevitably, there will be a storm, and inevitably, some shore will be ravaged by it.” Liuan gave a deep sigh, a shudder that passed through her whole body. “I do tire of this all, some days.”

“Teach Jherica and Celen enough to take over for you so you can have some breaks,” Mirian said.

“Absolutely, it’s what I’ve always said,” Gabriel said. “Finally seeing some sense on that too. Hey, Mirian, you mentioned meeting an Un—”

“Perhaps,” Liuan interrupted. “Nevertheless, I understand your purpose. I believe the best solution will be to map out areas of sovereignty among us. Codify common practices into law. No one will be happy with all of Enteria, but it will be stable.”

Mirian nodded. It was an imperfect agreement, but it would do for now. They had plenty of time to shape it.

“We’ll meet in the dream tonight. We can revisit our agreements there.”

***

That night, they did just that. She discussed the Unmoored, and gave them new details about the Labyrinth. Zhuan shared the Zhighuan relic she’d bound, and Xecatl, the nature of Ceiba Yan, though Liuan seemed to have already understood that much. It was like weight had lifted.

Mirian’s new outlook was tempered, though. She had meant what she said about contingency plans. They had all spent too many times dealing with political realities. After all, Liuan had been right about her truth; people did have flaws. Sometimes, they only listened because of a power made them.

For that reason, she still kept two secrets:

That she could remove temporal anchors of Prophets in this era from Luamin, and that her father was Gaius Nezzar.