In the morning, Suria's perfect mood was marred a little by the fact that she had to walk to the Taedric Building to get breakfast at the cafeteria. She understood some of Maut-mai's complaints now, though her temporary room seemed reasonable to her otherwise. In the cafeteria, Suria listened in on gossip about Convocation Hall: it seemed like most had survived, but Rije had again died.
This soured her mood further even though it had been expected. Suria threw out her plans to explore campus thoroughly or talk to other loopers and just retreated to her room, spending the next two days reading, training runic capacity, and generally preparing for her classes. She only left to eat and once to get fitted for her robes, since she wanted to do that before most students arrived.
On the fourth day, she'd forgotten just how busy everything became, and at first she worried that connecting with Jeilin was going to be difficult. Instead it was the exact opposite of her first day, as the two of them ran into one another while walking across campus.
"There you are," Jeilin said with a smile. "I've been monitoring Oculon Hall this far, but starting today I can't keep up. Have you arranged things on your end?"
"My housing and pin are temporary," Suria said, tapping the pin on her collar. "I'm ready for the other steps, but I don't know what it takes to get put into Oculon Hall."
"Don't worry, I have that mostly sorted. The main dorms are already filling up, so we just need a pretext for you to use that housing. I'll escort you to meet with a professor from the Perception department, so all you have to do is impress them a little and we can get approval."
"I actually might have that already... Orinyan Gessalsah is in Perception, right?"
"Wow, already?" Jeilin's smile shifted to something more positive. "Yeah, Orinyan has a fair amount of pull for such a young journeymage. He'll do fine."
Based on how their conversation went from there, it seemed like Jeilin was impressed by her competence. That felt intensely ironic to Suria, who still ashamedly remembered wandering around campus unable to get anything to work. She supposed that it could have been worse, however, and she deserved at least a little credit for setting up for the plan.
They stopped by Convocation Hall, where they had to wait in a long line, but Jeilin used the time to show her the basics of his monitoring glyph. Once they actually got into the office, they were rushed through, so Suria was glad she had already decided on her exact classes and had everything else in order. Apparently Orinyan had made good on his promise, so she got permission to live in Oculon Hall.
That took them directly west, to a large building Suria had seen multiple times but never entered. Oculon Hall seemed to be a square based on the angles she could see, but had a completely different profile from some of the blocky buildings on campus: all the walls were covered in windows. They seemed to come in every possible size and shape, from the large rectangles beside the entrance to tiny triangles and circles on the upper floors. All of the windows were made from the same blue-white glass, which only reflected the sun until they got close.
"If you ask me, Oculon Hall is one of the nicest buildings on campus," Jeilin told her as they approached. "The structure has a lot of character, but the classrooms are all modern. I hear it's been a continual work in progress for years, and I believe it."
"Are you a Perception student?" Suria asked.
"You can't really join a department until you're a few years in, or earn at least one seal. I do like Perception magic, but my main interest is in monitoring things due to... the professor's situation."
Jeilin was at least a little circumspect about the time loop and everything they knew, which Suria appreciated. It wouldn't have attracted much attention to talk about the missing professor, though, because that was gossip all over campus. She would have to ask Orinyan directly about how the Perception department handled the loss of their throne.
The front entrance to Oculon Hall led to a large circular room that spanned all the way to the roof of the building, with a glass lens at the top. Though the room was sunny, the light was all filtered to soft pastels, giving it a dreamy atmosphere. That sense was only enhanced by the illusory signs that hovered in the air, directing students to the various hallways that branched from the entrance.
"It's a bit confusing at first," Jeilin told her, "but don't worry, your room will be easy."
"Perception includes illusion, doesn't it?" she asked. "Is that what those signs are?"
"Illusion professors argue about the boundaries of the discipline, but I think so. There's actually a class where the entrance is hidden and the first test is even finding it. But like I said, don't worry, the main parts all feel modern."
They headed deeper into the building down blue hallways and, as they turned, Suria realized that there seemed to be doors leading back outside, despite the fact that the building should be much larger than that. When they passed larger windows, she saw that they opened into a strange forest: the trees were covered in leaves of white crystal, shimmering in the sunlight.
"Wait, is the center of the building a garden?" she asked. Suria had been pretending to take everything in stride, but this was more than she had expected. She'd passed this building so many times and hadn't realized there was something in the middle.
"The whole building is a square," Jeilin explained, "built around Oculon Park. But don't try to cut through the center, because it's one of the densest spots of magic on campus. I've heard stories that students got so lost in there that they starved to death, and it's probably not true, but it's confusing enough that I wouldn't risk it."
From the window, the park looked only medium-sized: if Suria peered, she could see the other sides of the building through the crystal foliage. But given everything she'd seen so far, she had a feeling that if she opened one of the central doors and actually tried to go through, the paths would prove more complex than they looked. She was happy to walk along the outer square and avoid getting lost in the magical crystal forest.
When they finally reached her room, it was nowhere near as mystical, just a part of the dense hallways in one corner of the building. It was actually crammed underneath a staircase through a door that looked more like a closet. Suria opened it with some trepidation, but the interior was pleasant: there was a well-furnished bed and a large window. Even if she couldn't stand up in half the room due to the stairs, she could imagine enjoying it.
"Alright, this is exactly the sort of thing I was hoping." Jeilin started to walk inside, then hesitated and adjusted his glasses awkwardly. "Uh, is it okay if I come in?"
"You need to set up the device, right?" Suria gestured for him to enter and they crowded into the room.
Once there, she was more aware of how this might look, but she wasn't particularly worried about Jeilin. He seemed entirely focused on setting up his magical artifact, which he assembled out of pieces from his bag. It looked just like he'd described it: a bronze pentagon with inscribed glyphs at each one of the points. More complex than anything she could create, though hopefully she could manage it well enough.
"You just need to charge it with mana after curfew," Jeilin explained as he worked. "It will detect every time someone enters the building and take an impression. Sorry if it wakes you, but Oculon Hall isn't usually that busy after dark, so I hope it won't be too much trouble. And I will definitely owe you a favor after."
"Are you sure this will catch someone?" Suria asked. "I mean, if there was a thief or someone targeting the department's vault, they might have highly advanced stealth magic."
"Maybe, but I'm convinced that this is a more opportunistic crime. The main thing I want is a record of exactly how many times curfew is broken and when. I know it happens at least twice during this month; I'm just not sure why."
"What if the thief comes during the day? Hiding in plain sight, I mean."
"That could be, but I doubt it." Jeilin finished his work and sat back with a satisfied expression. "During the day, there are too many professors here, so they effectively help guard the vault. But even if you don't uncover anything, just ruling out the possibility will mean a lot. That's why you have to be 100% consistent about running the device."
"I will," Suria promised. "I don't intend to go out to gatherings. I'll be skipping all the events tonight."
"That's probably wise. It just makes too much sense for someone to try to steal something while everyone is at the opening feast." Jeilin brushed off his hands and headed out, but as he opened the door he paused. "That doesn't mean that you should stay inside the whole time. I guess I can't invite you to the looper gathering tonight, but..."
"It's okay, I have reading to do anyway."
"But we don't want you to be a stranger. There will probably be a few daylight celebrations, during the days before classes start. Oh, and you could check out the krashorb competition. You should come, it can be fun."
In the end, Suria committed to join him at the krashorb competition and just made vague promises to think about the rest. Part of her wanted to stay a half-step removed from all the other loopers, since they represented so much peril and complication. Avoiding them entirely could bring problems of its own, though, so she resolved to interact at least a little, earning a few favors without making any alliances or enemies.
Hopefully they would think she was just shy, thus harmless, thus not worth targeting. Even if they all acted like they were on the same side now, Suria doubted that would persist.
Thoughts of the others made her even more committed to her training. Over the next several days, she managed to raise her runic capacity to six, which she was sure was faster than before, but still felt inadequate. The sixth rune still let her take advantage of a new book Orinyan had recommended to her, which contained a variety of element-specific augments. She couldn't master them all, but she improved her fire and shielding glyphs with precise augments.
Her favor for Jeilin proved to be only mildly disruptive. Usually only one or two people entered Oculon Hall after the official closing time, often an older student apparently working in one of the labs. Each time the device made a chiming noise and captured an image of the person before they entered, lasting long enough for her to record what she observed. By far the most entrances were from the other students who lived in the Hall, which Suria dutifully recorded all the same.
Exactly once she had been woken in the middle of the night: suddenly sitting up in bed, shaken and disoriented. She had come to herself enough to observe that the image was of a middle-aged woman who Suria recognized as a professor in the Perception department. Probably just doing late work, but Suria made special note of what the woman was carrying both into and out of the building since that might matter to Jeilin.
Unless the pace of things changed, she didn't anticipate the favor to be very problematic. She'd lose a little sleep, but she could rest up between classes. And if anyone did enter the building illegally, to try to enter the Perception vault or Professor Drazen's office, they would have a clear record.
With so much time to read and relax, Suria was even beginning to think that she wouldn't mind attending one of the events with the other loopers. She ran into Qinq across campus and they spoke for a while, which gave her the sense that the loopers used these early days as a time to relax before the term started. She also learned that they had been the ones drumming in the tower of the Taedric Building, and apparently they remembered arguing with Maut-mai - that certainly explained why they hadn't been intimidated by her.
On the seventh night, Suria settled down for bed thinking about the krashorb tournament tomorrow. She was so far ahead on her reading, she wouldn't mind getting out and experiencing the event properly. It had enough magic involved that it might even be fun.
Suria didn't remember falling asleep, she was just suddenly jolted awake by the chime. She recovered faster this time, rolling over to check the magical device. Yet her hands faltered as she started to pick up her paper, because this wasn't the same at all.
There were three people at the door, wearing white masks that wrapped around their heads and gave no hint of their identities. Unlike every other late-night guest, they didn't enter with their pins - it looked like they were casting spells against the door. The pentagon chimed twice more, showing images of them making unclear progress, then went dark.
Meaning they were inside.
Forcing herself to take deep breaths, Suria carefully recorded what she had seen. That was all she needed to do, but it was going to be hard to get back to sleep. She couldn't really convince herself that this was just a student prank: in the magical images the masked figures looked prepared and determined. At least they seemed to be students, not professors or special operatives, and based on the level of their spellwork she didn't think they could be using soul-killing spells.
That should have been the end of it... then Suria began to hear something in the corridors. There were odd sounds in Oculon Hall at night, especially the crystal leaves scraping against the windows, but this was different. She knew they were footsteps, and they were getting closer.
She'd worn her peasant's cloak to bed and she had all her talismans on the table beside her, so it wouldn't take much time. They might pass her room, but they could also be coming for her, and the thought of them suddenly breaking open her door was terrifying.
It seemed mad, but she had more than one life to live - Suria gripped her talismans and stood up.
-
Welcome to a new week of Throne of Time! Sadly, our run at the top of Rising Stars seemed to have come to an end, despite many new readers finding the story. It's possible that I just haven't done enough promotion to compete with the top stories. I've only done a fraction of the shouts and ads that many advise, as I tried to limit them to relevant stories, mostly from authors I know.
Hopefully that won't matter in the long term, as my goal is not to be a flash in the pan: I hope that when Throne of Time is complete, readers will feel it's a satisfying and cohesive story. This week includes both some new threads and some answers, so I hope people will enjoy them. Thanks for reading. ^-^