Chapter XVII (17)

  Like a phantom, a man materialized in front of her. He looked young, maybe mid twenties. As far as she could tell, he was human. He stood a handspan taller than her, but nobody had ever claimed she was particularly tall. He wore a black suit and, if she squinted, it looked a bit like what was fashionable among the elite and aristocratic in Hon. But this version was extremely old fashioned. There were several overlapping straps of clothes, attached via buttons. He had stark black hair and piercing green eyes that glowed.

  She pointed her blade of ice at him.

  “Who are you? The juggernaut outside his armor?”

  “Hardly. Come now, do I look like someone who enjoys being stuffed in a claustrophobic suit of armor and swinging around crude hunks of metal?”

  Her eyes flitted around the room and then she glanced over her shoulder at the entrance back to the church above. This could all be an illusion, to buy the juggernaut time to arrive. If they moved that altar above, she would be sealed in here.

  “Oh come now,” the man said, exasperated. “You banished Rodrick in your last loop. He won’t bother you again. Well, not until your final loop.”

  “Loop? Rodrick?”

  He sighed dramatically. “Well, at the very least you had the good sense to free me as your first sage. Despite what those other fools believe, I will be the one to set you on your path properly. Tedious as it might be to explain the basics of our predicament, my spell is invaluable. Superior to the rest.”

  “Talk,” Mitsuko demanded. She kept her sword pointed at him, but the man barely gave it a glance.

  “Very well. My name is Pilrorth Sterling Novryss III. I am one of the six great sages of the Prismatic Archipelago and the lead mage of the great city of Tempus. You’ve been sealed within a very unique phenomenon named the Prismatic Spiral. The first part of the name is obvious.” He paused. “Our location is still known as the Prismatic Archipelago, correct?”

  She nodded.

  “Good, good. Best to check. It’s been a few centuries since we sealed away Tempus. Perhaps even a millennium or two.”

  Mitsuko stared at him. He clearly enjoyed dancing around the subject with comments that created more questions.

  “Now. I am only permitted to give you the most barebones of information. Simply put, you are trapped. Under this dome the same week will pass fifty more times. It would be a full year, but including this loop, we’re now down to fifty more restarts. Each loop will play out identically save for your actions in it. So the word ‘spiral’ is a bit misleading, since the allotted time in the individual loops doesn’t ever shrink. Personally, I advocated for Prismatic Pirouette. A far superior metaphorical descriptor. However, I was vetoed by the other sages. I digress. Outside of the spiral’s influence, not even a moment will pass until its completion. You are our Champion. There is a way out of this dome that you find yourself under. All you must do is meet with each of us six great sages. Each of us will gift you our prized temporal spell. The greatest talent in our arsenal. Once you have all six spells maxed out at level ten, we will direct you towards the exit. Fail and…well you saw the city? The entire archipelago will look like that.”

  There was a moment of silence. Mitsuko waited for the sage

  “That’s it?” she said when he remained silent. “Give me an explanation! Why? How? Who? Tell me!”

  He had the gall to smirk slightly.

  “That information is not free. There is an…additional rule. You leveled up my spell last loop, correct?”

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  “Mend,” Mitsuko said, frowning. “Level one.”

  “Excellent! Now. With each level you are permitted to ask one question of us. We must answer, though ask a broad question and expect a broad answer. And, since each spell reaches its maximum potential at level ten, that means you will receive a grand total of sixty answered questions. Quite a grand volume!”

  “I can ask you one question right now?”

  “That, in itself, was a question. Be grateful that the information you requested falls under what I can give you, otherwise I’d steal that as your first question,” he warned. “And I suggest you wait to ask your question. There are follow-up warnings I am permitted to tell you for free as well. And they directly involve the spiral. Better to wait until you have a more complete image of your position.”

  “Go on.”

  “First, you must understand that you can die here. Albeit the means in which to accomplish death is difficult. How much magical theory do you know? Do you know the nexus of all magic?”

  Mitsuko blinked. She wasn’t a mage, but she’d spent the last five years among some of the most talented in the world. She liked to think she knew more than most about magic.

  “Blood,” she replied. “Mages use their blood to cast spells.”

  “Missed the mark, but you landed in the vicinity. Blood only obtains its magical properties after being pumped by a specific organ. The heart. Succinctly stated, if your heart takes substantial damage, you die. Forever. And you doom everyone.”

  Mitsuko raised a hand and pressed it over her chest. The hand the juggernaut had sliced cleanly off her body what felt like yesterday to her. Then she recalled the corpses piled high inside his lair. All of them had their chests ripped open. She flexed her hand into a fist.

  “Understood. Next warning.”

  “Your mind. Your brain is not quite as valuable as your heart. You’ll still be brought back if it’s damaged. Though I highly recommend keeping it out of harm’s way whenever possible.”

  “Let me guess, otherwise I’ll be catatonic?”

  “Not quite. If we notice tampering or damage we sages do hold the power to revert your mind back to a state that it was at the start of the current or previous loop. But you’ll lose all memories from that week. Any information gained, will be lost.”

  Not as bad as heart damage. But still not what she wanted. She only had fifty weeks. Losing one week was the equivalent of losing two percent of her progress.

  “Final warning?”

  “Your soul. It is directly tied to the Prismatic Spiral. Don’t damage it.”

  “Or?”

  “Just don’t.”

  Mitsuko paced back and forth while the sage, Pilrorth Sterling Novryss III, watched. She had half a million questions. Why her? She wasn’t anything special. A half decent bladedancer, but little more than that. She desperately wished her boat had arrived seconds later at the archipelago and crashed into the dome rather than get caught within it so she wouldn’t have to deal with this mess.

  She flopped down on a pile of gold coins and closed her eyes. A reckless action. Minutes earlier she’d been convinced it would be cursed, but at the moment she did not care.

  “Let me review what you said before I ask my question.”

  “Very well.”

  “I’m your Champion. I’m supposed to go find all six of you sages, learn a spell from each of them, then end this timeloop. And I should avoid fucking up my heart, head, or soul.”

  “Correct.”

  “And you can only answer one question for me?”

  He hesitated. “Well. Not quite. There are questions you can ask me. Just not about the Prismatic Spiral. In fact, I encourage you to ask me questions about my spell, Mend. Though I can only give instructions based on your current level’s abilities, not speak on its potential. Though should you choose to ask a question about its future as your level boon, I will of course speak on it.”

  Mitsuko ground her teeth. At least that was something.

  “But you have to answer honestly? Anything?”

  “To the boon question, yes.”

  She sighed and sat up. Then she asked the most important question.

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