Chapter 49: Tense Turning of the Wheel

According to Darkmoon's general course schedule, the first wave of examinations usually took place in the middle of the first term, which had always been cut off by the time loop. Suria was surprised when her last period of Introduction to Hazardous Naturalism was actually an extensive examination, despite the fact that they'd just come back from saintsday break.

As she worked her way through the questions, Suria struggled more than she expected. Because she hadn't taken this class repeatedly, it was possible that she was merely overestimating herself, but she was disappointed with how many questions stumped her. Had some of these plants even been covered in their textbooks? And at the end there were a few questions she found so baffling that she wouldn't have even known where to begin looking up the answers.

After class Suria remained in her seat, stewing over the questions. She had decided that she wouldn't push too hard, especially not doing anything that would make her seem like a looper taking final risks, so she would let the professor decide whether to engage.

Fortunately, once the other students were gone, Professor Abouric walked over to lean against her table. "You okay?" he asked.

"I don't think I did well on that exam," she told him. "Please tell me that isn't what you normally expect of your students."

"No, not quite."

Professor Abouric chuckled and he glanced around the room to confirm there was no one listening. Suria was struck by how subtly he did it: if she had tried to look around, she was sure she would have looked suspicious, but his eyes just happened to move around. He had an unusual talent for seeming amiable and she couldn't let that weaken her guard.

"As I think you've guessed," he continued, "this examination was a different kind of test. I came up with questions I've never used before, frankly unfair ones that could only be answered correctly by someone who had seen them in a previous loop. I'm afraid I'm going to be hard on the class about their failure and hint at rewards for those who could succeed, in order to bait future loops, so play along."

"But... we can't send any information between loops. How do you know you'd ask the same questions?"

"I'm confident that if I ever suspected forbidden time magic, I'd think along basically the same lines and come up with similar questions. The fact that we can't learn from the loops is a weakness, but that consistency can work in our favor. With enough forethought, you can coordinate with yourself across loops."

This was about as positive a start as Suria could have hoped for: Professor Abouric seemed friendly and was trusting her with information. He wouldn't have revealed his plan with the test if he didn't trust her... unless he was intentionally sacrificing that ploy in order to bait something else, but at that point even Suria was convinced she was too paranoid. Better yet, he'd offered her a lead in to one of the conversations she wanted to pursue.

"There are some things I'll be happy to forget," Suria told him in a quiet voice. "I can't stop thinking about the attacks... how ruthlessly they killed anyone in their path."

"That's how people behave when they believe that the ends justify the means. It's hardly unique to time magic; the loops just change the equation a bit."

"But if students could do that, how much worse would a professor be?" Suria looked up to meet his eyes, letting a little fear leak through. "In the beginning, you suspected that Professor Drazen set this up. I know this is beyond me... I mean, I saw you all fight. But I can't help but think: what if he was part of the loop too? What could we possibly do to stop him?"

"Admittedly, that would be a grim scenario." Professor Abouric stopped leaning on her desk and instead stared toward the ceiling. "If it's any comfort, we've been doing an internal investigation as well and we don't think any of the current staff could have been involved with setting up the loop."

"Then Prof... then Zaasif Drazen was definitely responsible?"

"We don't have enough evidence to say that for certain. There are always a lot of eyes on Darkmoon University and it's possible that someone was attempting to sabotage something unrelated."

"But..." Suria frowned as if she had to think about it. "He attacked you, didn't he? It was all too fast for me, but it looked like he attacked you from behind."

"He did." Professor Abouric removed his hat and slowly began rotating it in his hands. "I shouldn't put this on a student, but... we're a group of mages with aligned interests, not an alliance. Truth be told, Zaasif and I got along pretty well; I don't think there was any hatred there. But if I stood in his way, he wouldn't hesitate to try to kill me, and I knew that before the attack."

"How can you work like that, knowing your own colleagues would stab you in the back? Is that... is everyone here that way?"

Abruptly the odd reverie vanished and Professor Abouric chuckled. "Sorry, this is more of a burden than a student should have to bear. Focus on your studies and hopefully when the loop collapses, you'll be able to have a less chaotic education. For all its flaws, Darkmoon really is a wonderful institution."

"But for how long?" Suria asked. She'd intended it as a deflection, but there was more emotion in the question than she expected.

"There's no way of knowing. Think of it like falling asleep... you won't know the moment, you'll just wake up. One day this will become a nightmare you won't even remember."

Suria had also wanted to ask him about Anstell Milirent and Eortrax Nullsah, especially if she could confirm why they hadn't been invited. It seemed like an innocent enough question, except that she'd have to find some way to integrate her knowledge about Slagterwese and Frunah Gwaslos... no, it would all come off as forced. She'd apparently gotten through the conversation safely, so better to count it as a win and not push.

She asked one more question about the next class, just as a precaution, then thanked him and headed out. Despite all the tension, she actually felt strangely better. Professor Abouric was one of the more encouraging instructors, which just made it all the more unfortunate that he was so dedicated to eliminating loopers.

No classes remained, so Suria would need to make her own opportunities at the end. She got a good night of sleep and did some final runic exercises, because what else could she accomplish in her remaining hours? As they counted down, however, she decided that she could afford one more risk, especially since she didn't even need to leave the building.

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Making her way down to the lower floors, which were dark even in the morning sunlight, Suria approached Professor Huen's office one more time. She hadn't pushed at all up to this point, playing an obedient student, so it was time to cash in on those efforts.

"Come in." The voice emerged before she arrived, so Suria pushed the door open.

"I've been talking to Professor Abouric," she said as she took a seat. "I know this forbidden time magic is beyond me, but... have I done a good job? Have I helped?"

Professor Huen didn't answer right away, instead regarding her with that knife-like gaze, and Suria tried not to freeze. Had she made a mistake or misjudged the woman? Surely any normal student put under so much pressure would feel some anxiety at a time like this... yet she couldn't help but wonder just how it looked to her professors, since they knew so much more than she did.

"Your assistance has been appreciated," Professor Huen said in neutral voice that revealed nothing. "What can I do to help?"

"I know your time is valuable," Suria said to buy time as she reconsidered which risks to take. "You aren't my adviser, and you wouldn't spend time with a student like me if not f-"

"No need for humility. What do you want?"

"I just want some advice. I had to take specific courses this term and didn't get to choose any for myself. I'm afraid I'll have started off on the wrong foot. I have absolutely no idea what to take next term. Would it be too late to join the Conjuring department? I saw you offer Magical Analysis In Depth every term but the description sounds intense... I wasn't sure if that'd be a good starting point..."

Her words trailed off under that scrutinizing glare and, despite her efforts to remain composed, part of Suria was planning for how she'd try to flee if the professor attacked her. But after a long pause, Professor Huen shifted back and shook her head.

"I don't suggest you take that course," she said. "It's... more theoretical than most students need. If you want to start, especially if you aren't sure whether or not you want to specialize in Conjuring, I suggest a course called Practical Conjuration. It gets ignored because most students want to learn from the department throne, but it's really the best start."

"Okay, thank you so much," Suria said with as much gratitude as possible. She resisted the urge to flee immediately, since that would look suspicious, but the professor was clearly busy and so it wasn't difficult to find a natural time to depart.

As she walked back down the corridor, Suria tried to memorize every nuance of expression and intonation. Now that she didn't think her professor was targeting her, she thought there were useful clues in her response regarding the onerous reading course. Suria had a few ideas for the next loop... but she set those aside, because she had more immediate priorities in the near future.

First she stopped by her room one final time and couldn't resist staring at the chamber, from the plush beds to the window over the lake. These were certainly the most luxurious accommodations she'd experienced at Darkmoon, but she wasn't sure she'd want to stay there again, even if she could afford it. Aside from the excessive wealth, having servants moving around made her anxious.

Technically it would be time for class soon, so Suria gathered her books even though she would never arrive. She wasn't going to become reckless now, when she was so close to escaping this grim loop.

While moving across campus, Suria reflected that one of her biggest regrets was that she hadn't been able to spend more time properly using her runebook. It was nice in many ways, yet also unfamiliar, and her casting speed hadn't been up to par. She'd wanted to run experiments comparing the different methods and, amid all the classes and tensions from professors, hadn't gotten around to it. Without the unique circumstances of this loop, she wasn't sure when she'd next get the chance.

At the end of previous loops Suria had practiced committing suicide to harden her resolve, and she had more things she wanted to try, but this was clearly not the time. There was one thing she could do: even though she was reasonably confident in her magical sense of time magic, she focused fully on the sensations of the time loop as it grew nearer and nearer the end.

Other than that, she would need to behave as if she had time, right up until she didn't. She continued heading across campus toward a class she would never reach until, between one step and the next, it was over.

Back in the waiting room, hearing the tapestry clatter to the floor, Suria allowed herself to breathe a huge sigh of relief. Technically that might have looked suspicious to anyone watching, but she was back in safer territory: she knew that there was no one watching, plus in this loop she wasn't being actively hunted. So long as she made the right decisions, it would stay that way.

Despite the relief, her head was aching. Feeling that pain in her refreshed body made her realize just how much of a toll living under constant scrutiny had taken on her. Whatever parts of her mind and soul went back in time, they could carry a headache with them.

Suria would have loved to take a break, now that she was finally safe - honestly, she would have been happy to just lie down on the ground and not move for a long time. But despite the fact that the threat of the professors had been left behind in the past timeline, she now had a new threat in the form of other loopers. Soon enough she was about to get a lot of answers and a lot of problems, likely all at once.

To prepare herself, Suria recreated her talismans and waited for the proper moment. The work had become so routine that she was easily able to examine Maut-mai while she did so: the other woman had reverted to her uncertain state at the beginning of the cycle. Suria wanted to both hug her and slap her, so she pushed the matter out of her mind. She would unravel problems of personality across timelines in another loop, not this one.

When Maut-mai went to go bother Rije, Suria got up to dispose of Lirngelf. All her studies with force spells made it easy to pick him up and carry him into another corridor, taking his potion in the process. Once that was done, Suria continued heading east.

Her most obvious mistake, in the previous loop, had been exiting via the west door as had become routine. Now that she was under observation from other loopers, that predictability was a weakness. She hoped that the first hour would play out nothing like before, given what had happened, but she couldn't be too cautious. After some fumbling she located the locking glyph and prepared to unlock the door.

For a time she hesitated, staring back at Convocation Hall. If she followed this plan, Rije would probably die again... but she wasn't a good enough healer to save him, and she couldn't recreate the circumstances that had led Professor Gwaslos to do it. No, the best choice was to accept losses in this loop and prepare for the next, once she'd squared away matters with the other loopers.

She did it all at once: unlock the glyph, push open the door, and slam it closed as soon as she was through. It seemed like it had been unnecessary, because there was no one around her on the eastern side of the building, but now she was committed. Once the wards resealed, her unlocking spell wasn't strong enough to get back in, so she had no choice but to go forward with this plan.

As she began walking around Convocation Hall, Suria expected to be confronted by other loopers, if not a bloodthirsty Adwyrma. None of her contingencies for that turned out to be necessary, because she actually saw no one at all.

After waiting a little longer, Suria decided there was no reason to waste time. She went to purchase her supplies and hourglass, as usual, and set up her experiment. As a concession to circumstances, she didn't replicate every single variable, instead just walking to the field of broken arches and doing her training there - there was a good chance she would be interrupted anyway.

To her surprise, an hour later she had successfully increased her runic capacity. That wasn't just a record, it was her fastest time by a wide margin. Smiling in satisfaction, Suria considered going back to the store to purchase some supplies for different exercises, but at that moment everything else finally caught up to her.

Wynchard and Adwyrma appeared on the field - looking grim, but not fighting one another. For them, it had been no time at all since they had fought one another in the hall and barely escaped the professors via suicide. Suria had been prepared with various arguments, but the way they were looking at her, it seemed that they'd already been asking around.

"Come to the Blue," Wynchard said. "All of us need to talk."