The Years of Apocalypse - A Time Loop Progression Fantasy

The High Priest of Carkavakom was waiting for Mirian by the altar. The rest of the main area of the Great Temple was empty. Gaius turned and watched the entrance of the temple, ready to renew the fight at any moment.

"Ask," the priest said, as if he'd been expecting her. His rictus grin had faded, and now he looked pale and clammy.

"When did you commune with Carkavakom?"

"I didn't. I've seen… flashes. Fragments. From… not the God Himself. I don't think it's possible to perceive him directly. Not us. Not and stay sane."

Mirian frowned. "What did you receive in these flashes of memory?" She could already tell from looking at his soul that there wasn't a temporal anchor.

"They came in dreams, a few days before you arrived. An eyeless face watched me. They knew… they wanted to know your intentions. To make sure Carkavakom's Law was upheld."

"This would be easier if the Gods or Elder creatures would share the exact nature of the laws we're to follow. Or anything at all."

The high priest shook his head. "It doesn't work like that. It doesn't… translate. Each message needs to be interpreted, and much is lost when it is. And there's… too many paths. Too many paths for Him to watch them all. So He… delegates. I was chosen. An honor I never dreamed of."

Mirian continued to examine the man. "The same thing that gave you memories took some, didn't it? Your soul's been damaged by it."

The high priest nodded. "His laws… they're laws of consequence, not laws like we have," the priest said. "I understand that now. The result is what's important to Him. A blessing, to be touched so. Carry His message forth."

Mirian nodded. "Anything else?"

The priest gave a pained smile. "That's all I know."

"So the Ominian chose us… but the other Gods…" Mirian ground her teeth, trying to think through the implications. Was Carkavakom the only one she had to be concerned about? Would any of the others intervene on her behalf? On Enteria's behalf? The Pantheon was just that because they were all the protectors of Enteria. Has something changed? Are they working at cross-purposes?

It was all too vague to be helpful. She was bound not to do certain things, but what? The Elder creatures would enforce the rules on the Gate. They knew different futures. They'd seen things she hadn't done yet. But what needed to be prevented?

She thought of the burning tree. Too many paths. But which one leads to a future for Enteria?

"Thank you," she told the priest. There was no sense being impolite.

As she left with her father, she asked, "What do you make of it?"

The necromancer shook his head. "We're far beyond the things I know. The Sixth Prophet never shared much about what he knew of the Gods. And you can imagine, with all the splitting religious orders, no one can agree on much of anything."

"East, then," she said as they exited the temple, and they flew off towards Arriroba. Mirian could smell the smoke from the fires wafting through the air, could still hear the shouting, but she didn't look back. What was the point? Whatever the people of Alkazaria suffered, it would only be for a few more days.

***

It took them two days to make the flight, mostly since Mirian's mana was exhausted, though she practiced converting myrvite souls to mana using her father's more refined techniques. By then, the leyline eruptions had begun in full, and anyone with eyes could see the world was ending.

"Shall I use my disguise?" Gaius asked as they neared her village.

"Oh, might as well. No sense getting people all riled up."

They landed about a mile outside of town, then walked the rest of the way. Mirian happily chatted about her childhood there. "…and that's the farm my friends and I would play hunt-the-myrvite in. Renic would yell at us when we trampled his crops. There's Tav's groves, where I learned you weren't supposed to eat olives right off the tree. And that's the schoolhouse you can see coming up. I ran away from that a lot…"

She knew where to find Grandpa Irabi, not from any knowledge of past loops, but just because she knew him. He was over by a creek sitting on a log, watching over a group of children while their parents worked. It had always seemed ridiculous to her how many people still worked when it was obvious something terrible was happening, but it was a common mindset.

"Grandpa Irabi!" Mirian said with a smile.

The nearly unflappable Irabi did a double take. "Mirian!" He put his hand to his chin, then that hand held up a finger, then he said, "Is that an illusion spell you've been practicing?"

"No, my eyes just glow now," Mirian said, sitting next to him. "I'd like you to meet my birth father, Gaius. Gaius, this is Irabi, honorary Grandpa of the whole village."

"Oh my," he said, standing. "No, yes, I can see the resemblance. A pleasure to meet you, sir," he said, holding out his hand. He didn't flinch at all from the hand shake, which possibly meant Gaius had done the trick where he magically heated up his hand so it didn't feel as cold as it usually did. To Mirian, Irabi said, "So I suppose you know… well! Dhelia and Jeron are going to be surprised. They were quite sure you were an orphan. But welcome to the family, Gaius! Have a seat, have a seat."

They all sat on the log together. Down by the creek, two of the children were poking at the mud with sticks, while two more tussled with each other and another looked around, seemingly in a daze. Another young boy was hiding in a bush, apparently playing hide-and-seek, only he didn't seem to realize there were no seekers.

"So what brings you back from the Academy?" Irabi asked.

"Ah, it's a bit complicated. There's a time loop. The Ominian chose me as a Prophet. The apocalypse is in three days, but there's not much to accomplish until the loop resets, and I was nearby so I decided to drop in."

There was a long pause, and then Irabi said, "Then we'll need to celebrate your birthday. I imagine we've missed it quite a few times."

Mirian laughed. It was like a weight had been taken off her shoulders. Like the fire simmering in her had cooled, if only for a bit. "There's a reason I like to visit," she said. "All these other cities—they can't get the spices quite right, and the fruit is never as fresh."

"You're doing okay, then?"

She shook her head gently.

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"Ah," he said. "But you put on a brave face. You didn't used to be so good at hiding your emotions." He paused. Three of the children were now engaged in a race. One of them tripped and fell in the mud, then looked around, trying to decide whether it was more important to cry or to get up and keep running. He decided to run, shouting about how there was a new rule that everyone had to trip once. Irabi said, "What can we do for you?"

"A birthday celebration sounds fantastic."

"It does," said Gaius with a smile.

***

The festivities weren't particularly dramatic, which suited Mirian just fine. Irabi talked to a few people around the village, and whatever he said, the folks who did show up were pleasant and happy. The food was good. Gaius put on a little show of illusions for the children.

That evening, when everyone else had gone home, Mirian found herself back in her family home, her hand gently brushing over the furniture. Chairs she hadn't sat in for decades. The often-repaired dining room table, where she hadn't shared a meal with her family in years.

"The choice to leave you in poverty was deliberate," Gaius said bitterly.

"I wonder who was watching me when the memory curse was complete and Westerun finally moved on. I don't think it was Adria."

Her father shook his head, looking at the sorry state of the kitchen.

"It doesn't matter anymore. I stopped worrying about money years ago." Mirian paused, running a finger over the chips in the stone fireplace. "What a stupid thing it is. Dhelia was always limited in the work she could do by the cost of supplies and tools. How much wonderful woodwork she could have done. Now, I can make a special seal to put on paper and bankers give me piles of gold."

"It used to be all I wanted," Gaius said. "I risked my life for silver coins, time and time again. Sometimes, I think it's dumb luck I didn't die to a myrvite attack. It's still strange hearing of 'bandits' in the Persaman countryside. It used to be you couldn't have bandits because anyone trying to live in the wilds would just be eaten by myrvites, quickly and painfully."

Mirian stopped at the door to her room. Then she smiled. "That's right. I remember now. It's so nice to remember." She opened the door and strode over to her desk. The ring was deep in the back of the drawer, behind the old letters she'd kept and a poorly carved statue of Eintocarst.

She cast a light spell and held the ring up to it.

Gaius's eyes lit up. "You kept it! I wondered where that went. How in the world did you manage to keep it hidden?"

"I don't know. I had it in my hand the night… when… she died." She marveled at the ring. She still didn't recognize the material the black band was made out of, but now she knew the silvery-white metal was mythril. G. N., she saw engraved on the band. "A part of you stayed with me, all this time."

"Do you remember how to use it?" he asked.

"Vaguely. What's the black material?"

"Black focus stone. Jade focus stone is found mostly in Tlaxhuaco. The Zomalator focuses are marbled red and white. The Luminates and Church tend to use a silver-gray stone with green veins. Black focus stone was used mostly by the Triarchy. It's best for necromancy, so people tried to destroy it when they tried to eliminate the practice."

Mirian summoned her soulbound focus, the one she'd bound in mythril and used to test binding objects with relicarium. It was the same silver stone with green veins the Lumiantes favored. "Where does it come from? The jade-stone comes from somewhere in Tlaxhuaco, but there must be a source of it. And why can runes be carved on it, when normally you need a substance that was once living in all other instances?"

Gaius shrugged.

"You must have looked into it!"

"Maybe. If I did, I don't remember. Can't question everything. There's not enough time to answer every question under the stars."

The ring expanded to fit her finger as she put it on. "How did you manage the resizing trick? You'd have to use shape metal and something to shape the focus stone, but not break any of the runic connections or conduits…"

"I used one of the trinkets I found in the Labyrinth. Applied its magic to the ring completely on accident, actually. As far as I can tell, that's all it does, though."

"Fascinating. I wonder what other devices they have." She turned her attention back to the ring. "I suppose it's not useful. The necromantic construct it was… attached to…" She trailed off. "No way," she whispered.

"Hmm?"

"Shhh. I'm concentrating." Mirian closed her eyes. She could sense something. "Outside," she said, and hurried out. She ran behind the building, trying to feel out where the mental soul signal she was getting came from.

Two hundred feet away, where the houses and apartments faded into fields, there was a patch of dry dirt and a few stray rocks, and Mirian recognized it immediately. When she'd had a tantrum at school, she'd often run to this spot. After a while, her father had figured out to check there first.

Now she remembered why.

Mirian channeled into the ring. Rise, she commanded, and from its shallow grave, a tiny mummified paw burst from the ground. This was followed by a bunch of undignified scrambling until the whole mummy burst forth.

"Mrrrew?" the necromantic construct asked questioningly.

"Meu!" Mirian cried out, and a stupid grin plastered itself onto her face. "Gods above, that's where you went! This whole time…" She laughed out loud. "My adoptive parents must have really thought I was insane the day they found me hugging a dead cat."

Gaius walked up behind her. "Oh my. So that's where he went. How did you manage that?"

"I have no idea," Mirian said. "I was five, so it's all a bit fuzzy."

Gaius raised a hand and soul magic danced from it to the undead cat. "Let me check on it. Hmm. The runic bindings are all intact. The soul's undergone some degradation, but only a little. Impressive work, if I do say so myself."

Mirian laughed and playfully shoved at him. "Yes, yes, crafted by a true master. Let's see if I remember how to make him do tricks…"

***

They spent the last days doing casual lessons in necromancy. The ring was simple enough to use. Like a scepter, it had set pathways, so all she had to do was channel soul energy through them. Then she could focus on the mental aspect of implementing commands.

On the last evening, Mirian found herself running her hand over Meu as the undead cat sat in her lap. Together, they watched the sunset. The stripes of orange and pink across the clouds were distorted by auroras streaming across the sky.

"You could use Ibrahim. If you and Dawn's Peace seize the city, you'll have free reign to dig," Gaius said. "You know where to find me. I can bring my army next time."

"If what I try next doesn't work, I suppose I can try that," Mirian said. "I still find… all the death… distasteful."

Gaius said nothing to that. It wasn't the first time they'd talked about it.

"How did you deal with… the distance? Between you and the rest of the world."

He sighed. "Poorly, at first. I began to isolate myself. Stopped forming relationships with people. Everything became transactional. But it's no way to live. To be human is to be connected to others. Eventually, I saw that. And just in time." Her father stared at the sinking sun. "Leyun," he whispered, so softly Mirian wasn't sure if he knew he'd spoken.

"It's easier to do this all when I can distance myself from it."

Gaius nodded. "Yes, and sometimes you have to. A general ordering her soldiers into battle can't love them. She can't mourn for all the dead afterward, not as individuals."

"That's what I've become. I rearrange Torrviol now like the people are pieces in a board game. Now, I'm about to do the same for Alkazaria. And all I wish was that the pieces weren't so defiant about being moved."

Her father looked at her. "Remember, I'm here for you. No matter what."

She leaned up against him. "I know. You tell me every time."

***

There was an ache in her heart when she woke up next, but she buried it. Back to Alkazaria, she thought. This time, she didn't have to meet Gabriel, so she'd get there sooner. She would make sure Deeps agents weren't watching her, that the Luminates were better under her thumb… a hundred little tweaks to be done.

At least I have another friend waiting for me in Arriroba, she thought. Perhaps if she had a bit of extra relicarium, she could bind the ring. Of course, Meu would remain in the village, quite out of the way. There was no way to bind Meu himself since it would be impossible to bind a foreign soul to her own.

Something to look forward to when she returned. Perhaps in a few years, she thought.

Mirian cast an illusion spell rather than dress in her old school clothes and casually levitated out the door.