am-books Chapter 72 - Steering the Ship
Chapter 72 - Steering the Ship
When she killed the first spy for the third time, Mirian felt like a puppeteer, controlling her own body, but separate from it. She pulled her own strings, yanking on panic here and fear there, then made herself feel dejected to fit the part. She didn't need to fake it much. She really did feel terrible killing the man. Playing the deceitful role made her feel like she had a layer of grime about her.
In the gardens, when she had a chance to rest, she meditated, and examined her soul. It was harder to see the details without the Elder reliquary, but she could see enough. Pieces of it were still frayed like threads sticking out, though the worst of the damage had faded.
Then it must be my soul traveling back. It was the only part of her that didn't reset. And the body and mind are reflections of the soul.
That night, she was exhausted, but she trudged her way over to Torrviol Lake all the same. The trail to the ruin was overgrown, and Mirian stumbled twice making her way through the tall grass and half-sunken paving stones. At some point, this had been a road. She wondered where it had once led to.
Sure enough, there was a ruined building just south of the spellward and by the lakeside. It seemed to have once been a two-story affair, but most of the bottom half had sunk into the mud, and the roof had long since vanished. Vines and moss covered most of the walls, while the grass and shrubs nestled by it were slowly cracking apart the base; maybe in another century, they'd be done. The eastern wall had already collapsed into the lake, where waves gently lapped at it.
The second story walls were intact enough to block the view of the inside, so it was only as she was climbing up the last part of the slope of rubble that she actually saw Nicolus. It was dark enough he was practically a shadow, sitting with his knees tucked in, apparently oblivious to Mirian's approach until she said, "Hey."
"Carkavakom's balls!" Nicolus said, startling. "Five hells, bit late to be sneaking up on people, isn't it? Do I know you? And how'd you know I'd be up here?"
"Sorry, thought I'd been noisy enough you'd hear me. To answer your questions, Mirian Castrella, time traveler," she said, holding out a hand. "We died a few hours ago, so I get to do this again. You'll never remember it, but we made a deal."
Nicolus tentatively shook her hand. "Did I, now? Then I suppose you know what I'm going to ask."
"Not exactly, every cycle is different. But, yeah, sort of. You told me the cow story."
Nicolus's voice turned incredulous. "I told you the cow story?" Muttering, he said, "Why would I tell you the... listen, can you send messages to the other me, and tell him he's an idiot?"
Mirian laughed.
"I do know you," he said. "You're..."
"...that girl you've had a crush on, but never talked to."
Nicolus grimaced. "Gods, I hope this isn't Calisto's idea of a joke."
"No," Mirian said, sitting next to him, and then she explained. Nicolus sat quietly for most of it; maybe the tranquility of the dark waters calmed the part of the brain that felt the need to always crack jokes. When she was done, she fell as silent as the waters.
"Shit," he said, and then he sat there, looking at her. Finally, he said, "If I'm a fool for believing you, I guess I'm a fool."
Mirian smiled. "Good to have you back on board. Now, I've been thinking about what we can ask your uncle..."
***
On Firstday, Mirian managed to harangue the guards into raiding the spy's headquarters before they could burn. Even with them on the lookout for traps and triggering glyphs, they missed something, because they were evacuating the building a few minutes later, several of them swearing, one of them singed by flames. Mirian watched the building burn and felt her resolve harden. Later, she'd need to get more details about the traps and layout in there from the guards. Whatever secrets the Akanans had hidden would see daylight, eventually.
***
With Nicolus recruited early, Mirian also worked to better incorporate Xipuatl into her little alliance sooner. Unlike Nicolus and Jei, he didn't think some story from his childhood would do much good. "Then I'd just think you were creepy, and were part of a spy group trying to get leverage on the Yanez family," he explained, once Mirian had gotten him on board.
"You read the books I was recommending, since they're obviously better. Nah, whatever, I can summarize. Basically, you need to find a way to prove your point, but in a way that doesn't get him all defensive. You have to be subtle. Make him think he's clever. Make him think there's some way he can control you. Play to his pride."
"And how do I do that?"
"You've got time, right? Figure out more about him in one cycle, then use that in subsequent cycles. Get him to open up a little bit. It's called establishing rapport, you want to quickly find connections and bond with people. That's what people with charisma naturally do, but it can be learned."
"Just 'establish rapport.' The man is like a magnet that only repels. How, exactly?"
"Well there's this book I can recommend..."
Mirian gave an over-dramatic sigh. "I'll get around to it, eventually." That, and several thousand other things.
***
Previously, Mirian had paid close attention to the surface battle. This cycle, she focused more on the developments underground. Torrviol was too honeycombed with passages for blockading them to do much but give the geomancers more work, and it was clear the Akanans had a complete map of the underground so they were able to quickly adapt. Teaching Jei's recrystallization spells to the militia and army was a non-starter; the glyph sequences were ones no one but Jei was used to, and the inks they needed to scribe the spells would need to be mixed from ingredients they hardly had any of.
As preparations for the battle began, she helped Cassius and Moliner plan their part of the defense.
It failed utterly. Mirian had envisioned employing clever attacks, withdrawals, and flanking maneuvers to repeatedly ambush the Akanans, giving and then retaking passages so that the underground assault was either delayed or pushed back entirely. However, the books on tactics hadn't quite prepared her for the realities of battle. There were communication breakdowns, messengers who got lost, unexpected setbacks, and tunnels that collapsed, none of which she'd planned for. Underground fighting was also not something the Baracuel Army trained for, while the Akanans had clearly trained in exactly that.
Just how long have they been planning this war? she wondered. And how can they pretend we started it when they're the ones who have been preparing for it?
It didn't help that in the later stages of the attack, Marshal Cearsia and her elite company left the airships and personally led the charge. Archmage Luspire could not be convinced to leave the Monument and help the defense. He was far too stubborn to listen to anyone else.
Bainrose fell again. Respected Jei managed to cast a hidden watcher spell that the Akanans weren't familiar with in the Monument chamber before they fled to one of the last evacuation boats, and confirmed that Cearsia personally oversaw the bombs being laid out. That was expected. What wasn't was when Jei said, "One of her assistants just attacked her. It seems he wanted to stop the detonation. She killed him very fast, though."
"One of... does the assistant have brown hair, perhaps?"
Jei frowned. "Ah, they found the spell. I think he did. Lanky, a bit short. Turned into a pile of ash before they dispelled my watcher. Is it important?"
"I don't know," Mirian said. "I've noticed there's some things that seem to happen no matter what. Mayor Ethwarn, for example, gets elected even if dozens of things have changed. Professor Viridian, on the other hand, needs only the tiniest change and he'll give a totally different lecture the next day. Some people are more... spontaneous?"
"Selkus never did plan his lectures in advance. He advised, 'go with what feels right.' Iliyia advised the opposite. Perhaps it is a difference in thought patterns."
"Probably. But then it ends up meaning there's people that are damn near impossible to predict the actions of. Which can be bad, if I need a certain outcome, but I guess it's good if I need something big to change." She looked back at Torrviol. The whole town was burning, and the western half of the sky was blotted out by smoke. "It's like trying to steer a ship with a twig, though. I can sometimes get it to start moving in a different direction, but there's so many things I can't control."
The boat they were on shook as a massive explosion erupted from the plaza in front of Bainrose, cutting the conversation short.
Jei looked back, eyes widening as the light burst forth, and then they were both momentarily blinded by the raw magic spewing into the sky.
"That's it, then," Mirian said. "Thanks for everything." She gave Jei a hug. Jei froze up, then awkwardly patted her on the back as their vision returned.
When the leyline erupted, being halfway across the lake didn't matter much. Then land split apart, and Mirian watched the brilliant rays of chromatic light shining out, like on the other side of the fissures was a second sun, and then the final eruption incinerated them both in a second.