Chapter 4: Mapping the Building
As chaos erupted through the room, Suria knew she couldn't defend herself, she only tried to understand. The first spell had been the strange snaking darkness, but it was joined soon after by the spiraling destruction she remembered. Yet no professor had emerged to confront her, not like before. Had the person responsible for the time spell retained their memories and changed things? Or-
Flames tore through Suria's stomach and she collapsed to the floor. There was no pain at first, but as she saw the hole that had been burned through her, the agony blazed across her body. The first time, she had died so quickly she barely felt anything, but this was torture. She had managed to keep quiet for so long but now she writhed and groaned.
Gripping her talisman to cast pain relief on herself helped, barely. Suria was still in too much pain to analyze the battle, but there was definitely no sign of the professor who had confronted her earlier. It seemed like the others were dying as well, as defenseless as she was. Suria barely had time to realize that her life might just end like this...
And then she was back in her chair. The stomach that had been burned away flipped. The tapestry fell to the floor.
All Suria wanted to do was lie down and cry, but she forced herself to her feet and rushed out of the room, wiping her eyes with her sleeve. Behind her, she heard Lirngelf let out a shout and begin smashing his forehead into the table, but she ignored him. Maut-mai seemed as unaffected as before, just staring like the two of them were lunatics.
As soon as she had full control of her body, Suria sprinted to the western entrance, since that was the closest one. She seized the door's handle... and found it locked, wards already active. All at once her energy left her and she slumped against it with a groan.
Suria shuffled over to the hallway and stared out the window, which mocked her with the view of the university she would never attend. She considered finding something heavy to try to smash it, but was certain that it would be wasting her efforts. They were bound in by magic, and she'd already seen that brute force wouldn't do any good.
For a time she just leaned against the window, the glass cold against her forehead. She couldn't deny that there was time magic now, and it seemed more like she was trapped in a loop. That was madness: not just forbidden magic, it was the sort of thing written about in legends of the past. It seemed that, by some accident, she had become entangled in events far bigger than herself.
But what exactly was even happening? The most likely hypothesis was that the professors of Darkmoon University were engaged in some sort of battle - against one another or some outside force, she couldn't be sure. She and the others were just collateral damage, incidentally caught in the loop.
Or at least something that appeared to be a loop. Two repetitions was no guarantee there would be a third, especially if there were other people making changes. Suria took a deep breath and resolved to keep on her current path: what she needed now was information.
First, she checked the sun and began tracking time more carefully. Second, she pulled out her talismans and her wedge to test a simple theory: her body didn't feel charged anymore but she confirmed that she could no longer make seven runes. So there was no chance of taking Maut-mai's potion over and over again, increasing her capacity up to ludicrous levels. That would have been too easy, she thought bitterly.
"Okay," Suria said out loud to herself. "Think."
They were all trapped inside this building, so it was essential to determine what exactly it contained. Based on what she had seen, Convocation Hall was a single tall floor for the sake of the cavernous ceilings, but that didn't mean there wasn't a basement. Most of the rooms were locked, though she also felt confident that most of them were empty.
One possible plan would have been to explore the eastern side, where she hadn't spent much time, but Suria realized that she probably had a more direct method: she should talk to the guard. She hadn't even learned his name, but he hadn't been as rude as he seemed at first. Random wandering wasn't very effective, so she should learn more from him first.
On her way back, at a reasonable pace this time, Suria considered her alternative plans. The battle between the professors seemed to be centered around the front of the building, so if she didn't find a way out, she should at least make some distance and see if she could survive.
Just so she wouldn't be taken off guard, Suria first headed back to the waiting room. There was no sign of Lirngelf, while Maut-mai sat alone looking discomforted. She was paying almost no attention to her bag and Suria wondered how easy it would be to reach in and take the potion... but couldn't bring herself to do it. If she failed the attempt it would put her in an awkward situation she might not be able to talk her way out of and there was no guarantee the battle or the loop would prevent consequences.
Maut-mai rose to her feet, so abruptly that Suria flinched as if she'd been discovered, but the other woman only marched out into the hallway to talk to the guard. Apparently that was her decision whenever she got frustrated. Suria lingered at the edge of her hearing range, listening to Maut-mai berate the poor man.
By the time she left, Suria understood the situation better: the beleaguered guard had been harassed by countless students and was already short on patience with Suria showed up. She had been considering him cruel when she hadn't known him at all. After taking a moment to refocus, Suria approached and did her best to give a real smile.
"I'm sorry if I was short with you earlier," Suria told him. "This is my first time here and I was just confused."
The guard stared at her as if this was the last thing he expected to hear, then cracked a smile that transformed his face. "No problem," he said. "I was a bit rude myself. Lots of students think I'm some sort of servant."
"Well, I'm just waiting now, so..." Suria gave him a little bow. "I'm Suria Northbrook."
"I'm Rije Gadreel," he answered, mirroring her bow. "If you're trying to network, I'm afraid I have to tell you that I'm nobody important."
"I don't even know what networking is," Suria told him honestly. "If my name didn't make it obvious, I'm from the middle of nowhere. And you're not nobody, you have to be a mage to work here, right?"
"Barely." Rije waved it aside modestly. "I studied Enchantment, Transmutation, and Evocation for... wait, do you know the departments?"
"A little." She knew that Darkmoon University divided magic into eight major fields of study, but wasn't clear on the details. Those didn't matter so much as keeping Rije talking. "So you were a student?"
"Kind of. They decided I didn't have much potential, and I never managed to earn a seal in any of those departments, so I ended up here. Not a mage at all by most standards."
Such standards were absurdly far beyond hers. He spoke about earning a ranked seal as if it was nothing, but in Suria's world that was the mark of an accomplished mage who could easily become wealthy. The strongest person she knew, her old instructor, was a three seal mage. She didn't even want to know how many seals the professors here had.
"So are you just here to answer student questions?" Suria asked.
"Well, and keep order." Rije shrugged. "I'll help out if anyone gives Shuguja trouble. She's the proctor here."
"Do you guard the professors as well?"
Rije barked a laugh. "That'd be like a dog guarding a dragon."
"Oh, I see. I thought you might be here because they were having a meeting."
"Are they?" Rije's laughter faded and he eyed her carefully.
Suria pretended to blink in puzzlement. "I mean, aren't the professors having meetings now? Isn't that what they do before the term starts?"
She managed to deflect his suspicion, but the conversation shifted at that point: she had brought up the topic too clumsily and he was never at ease again. Despite the way Shuguja treated him as a brute, Suria thought that Rije was actually quite clever. Even if he didn't have the book learning or raw power to earn seals, he couldn't have studied three different fields here if he didn't have some ability.
"Oh, by the way," Suria said when the conversation faltered, "I think I'm making a mistake with the main doors. I tried to open them and I couldn't."
"Yeah, you have to twist." Rije frowned and looked to the side. "But you know, I'll take a look in case the mechanisms need to be greased. You stay here, and don't be too afraid of Shuguja. She's not as menacing as she seems."
He left her, moving down the corridor with barely restrained haste. Had he actually taken her comment about the doors seriously? Apparently being friendly with him made all the difference, unless she had caused it by making him suspicious.
Uncertain what the consequences would be, Suria decided to vacate the central corridors. Instead she explored the eastern side of the grand hall, confirming that there was another hallway with a locked door and another window. This one let her see a different set of school buildings... she could probably learn everything she needed if only she could get to the classes held there, but instead she was trapped inside this loop.
Aside from the central hallway, the eastern and western sides weren't symmetrical, so Suria was only partially confident that she had thoroughly explored it. In the northeastern corner, she discovered that one of the rooms was actually unlocked: it led into a richly carpeted room where a slightly older woman sat at a table. She had gray hair and dark skin and reminded Suria a little of her late aunt, though this woman had a much more severe expression. Her clothes were also strange and she wore numerous beaded necklaces that Suria hadn't seen before. Several books lay on the table, including a runebook, and the woman was fiddling with a pair of reading glasses with one hand.
"You need something?" she asked. Nowhere near as friendly as Suria's aunt.
"Sorry, I'm just waiting for my interview," Suria said. "I'm-"
"I'm in the middle of something important," the older woman told her. "You'd better go and study."
"Can you t-"
"Ask the statue if you have any questions."
While the older woman wasn't being directly rude, she definitely didn't want to be disturbed. Suria decided not to press and backed out of the room while getting another good look at everything. The older woman wasn't wearing university robes, but Suria was fairly certain that she was a mage of some kind. All her books could be a good resource, if Suria could figure out how to approach her.
Just when she began to think she'd explored the building thoroughly, Suria ducked around a cornice-laden wall and found herself in front of a set of stairs. She blinked in surprise, trying to figure out how the stairs could be hidden in a nook like that. The mana lamp over the stairs didn't illuminate much, so they simply disappeared into the darkness of the basement.
Still, there was nowhere else to explore, so Suria began to head down the stairs carefully. She gripped her talismans, for all the good they would do her. Yet as she stepped off the bottom stair, she found herself standing in a corridor that she was sure she'd seen before.
Puzzled, Suria spun in a slow circle, examining all the carved edges. Yes, some of them were familiar. She navigated her way to the eastern hallway to confirm: she'd tried to go down the stairs and somehow ended up back on the ground floor in a single blink.
Spatial magic was also legendary stuff, though it wasn't as wild or forbidden as time magic. Suria had heard about a nobleman who supposedly had spells cast on his home to make it larger on the inside, and a few wealthy merchants could afford to travel by teleportation or gates. So it wasn't wild to think that the stairs down might be protected like this, and she was just glad the movement was harmless.
Just as Suria was returning to investigate the stairs again, she heard footsteps stomping through the corridor. She quickly ducked around a corner and, to her surprise, saw Lirngelf charging past her. He bounced off the wall and threw himself down the staircase with an angry cry that suddenly cut off.
For a moment Suria remained pressed to the corner, wondering what she had seen. It must be that he knew about the spatial barrier and was trying to break through it, somehow. For a moment she considered talking to him, since he might actually know more about what was going on, but he seemed so angry and reckless... no, best to keep her distance for now.
As she walked back to the central rooms, Suria was surprised to see a middle-aged man approaching her. He wore university robes very similar to Shuguja’s, though this man clearly displayed three seals marking his rank. That made him the strongest mage she'd seen here, aside from the professors. There was a chance that she might be able to-
"Excuse me." The man spoke before she could and stepped around her. He didn't glare, didn't even look at her at all, yet Suria was quite certain that he would react poorly to being interrupted.
The encounter made her uncomfortable, and she realized another reason why a second later: the man was moving directly toward the stairs to the basement. It was entirely possible that he was involved in whatever was going on with the professors, which could make him very dangerous. Plus, she had never seen him before, suggesting that he must have been in one of the other rooms. She considered following him to confirm he was going downstairs before deciding it was too much risk.
A little unsettled, Suria covered the first floor again in case she'd missed something. It was entirely possible that she'd missed an out-of-the-way corner, and she could never keep track of all the carvings, tapestries, and paintings, but she was fairly confident that there were no major rooms or people that she had yet to discover.
What did that leave her with? Suria returned to look for Maut-mai and found the waiting room empty... and the office door was open. After hesitating and looking about nervously, Suria crept closer. There was no sign of Shuguja at all.
First she couldn't help but think that it was a trap, even though that made no sense. The more likely explanation, based on their past actions, was that Rije had found the doors were locked, then gone to find Shuguja. That meant that Suria might have some time completely alone, so she marshaled her courage and began to explore the office.
The desk itself was largely what she remembered from the interview: numerous piles of paperwork, financial ledgers, various quills, even the knife that Suria had once planned to cut herself with. Not so long ago in absolute terms, yet it felt like an age ago. She double-checked the papers in case they contained inscriptions or some other secret, but it seemed like Shuguja was mostly an administrator. Other than a paper mentioning that a scholarship student named Suria was on her way, which said very little else, nothing was of interest.
All of the desk compartments and cabinets were more useful. Suria discovered that there was an entire drawer filled with styluses, each of which would have been a treasured object back home. There were stone slates in numerous compartments, so she had more than enough if she needed to practice her runes.
Presuming that she simply stole them. After some thought, Suria took several plates for her satchel and also picked up a stylus, since it was definitely superior to her wedge and brush. Committing a crime made her nervous, since she couldn't help but think about the consequences, but it wasn't really stealing when everything was likely to be reset soon anyway.
One compartment of the desk was locked with what seemed to be a sturdy lock, so Suria left it alone. She also found the hidden panel and secret compartment that Shuguja had revealed in a previous loop, but it proved impervious to all her efforts. The sides felt warded, so it was likely that she wouldn't be able to get inside without the key around Shuguja's neck. Something to worry about later.
Even though the consequences would be temporary, Suria left the office as untouched as possible. She wanted to go take Maut-mai's potion to test it, but it proved difficult to find the woman - it was strange how she seemed to be in a different place so often, yet her reactions had seemed so authentic. Then again, Suria didn't think she was particularly good at reading people.
Instead of worrying about any of that, Suria walked to the northern side of the building, finding a nook as far from the entrance hall as possible. There she monitored the sun while she practiced her new enhancement inscription, making sure that she hadn't forgotten any details.
Then the lights flickered and the building shuddered: the battle had begun. Previously Suria had been too harried and confused to track time carefully, but this time she had been careful, so she estimated that it had been a little over an hour since the beginning of the loop. That was how much time she had... ever so long when she was sitting waiting, not long at all when she needed to solve a problem.
Though the battle hadn't reached her yet, Suria could feel tremors through the building. She sat down against the wall, gripped her healing sleep talisman, and cast it on herself. She instantly fell asleep, wrapped up in a warm blanket of mana...
Which tore apart as she found herself sitting in the waiting room. She sighed and looked to the side in time to see the tapestry fall again.
She hadn't really expected the healing sleep to do much good, it was just the closest thing to a defensive spell that she had. Her real hope had been that being further away and avoiding attracting attention might keep her alive. Either it hadn't worked or there was something deeper going on, but either way, it was time to make another attempt.
Except, as she looked around the room, she realized that this time would be different. Lirngelf was staring directly at her, and when she met his gaze, he leapt up and marched across the room toward her.
"You! You're in here too, aren't you?"