Throne of Time [Magical Academy, Time Loop, Mystery]

Seeing Darkmoon University alive with students was invigorating, at first, but Suria soon grew tired of the crowds. Previously she had been able to walk anywhere with little interruption and now she had to deal with lines in every direction. She understood why the administrators wanted to handle business earlier and was grateful that she’d already sorted out her housing and university robes.

The clock was ticking to enroll in classes, but Suria didn’t want to make a potentially final decision just yet. To get into certain classes without prerequisites required professorial approval, according to the course catalogue, including the healing program in general. All she was able to do was make an appointment to speak to the Medicine department tomorrow, so she resolved to make those decisions later.

Which also meant she was free to go straight to the Sequential Library and get new books. Suria was glad she had a good excuse to do that first, otherwise she would have needed to come up with a bad one.

Though the Sequential Library still looked like a cube of black marble, there were people trailing toward the side that faced the rest of campus, where a large set of wooden doors had appeared. They barely had time to close, due to all the students trailing in and out getting books for the coming term. It didn’t seem to be quite as popular as some of the other buildings, but this was a university, so it was inevitable that a lot of business would take place at the main library.

When Suria stepped inside, she slowed down in wonder. The cube had a vast open section in the center, meaning that she could see three stories worth of bookshelves, all crammed to the limit. Students swarmed through the center, many consulting with librarians at desks while others used magic to interact with steles engraved like books. In the corners of the lowest floor she saw numerous nooks behind bookshelves with comfortable-looking chairs.

”Don’t stand in the way!” someone called at her, and Suria was nearly trampled as she stood gawking. She wasn’t the only new student stopping in the entrance, however, so no one seemed too upset about it.

She quickly got out of the entrance and tried to determine the best way to go about her business. There was nothing stopping her from just walking to one of the shelves, but she wasn’t sure how all the books were organized. A part of her wanted to grab any book and run off with it, but she needed to be more selective than that, with only a few days to prepare for classes.

Most likely the best policy was to consult the librarians, even if there were long lines waiting at the desks. She noticed that the library staff wore a variation of the Darkmoon uniform with trousers instead of robes. Some had spiky crystal circlets floating over their heads, which looked rather impressive. Others wore hats that sort of mimicked the circlets that she thought looked absurd. There were groups of them situated on several sides of the building, their eyes scanning the room like guards.

”Excuse me,” Suria said as she approached, ”could you dire-”

”Go to the librarians for questions,” one of the women told her sharply. ”We’re the Sequential Guard.”

”Oh, sorry.” Though she apologized instinctively, Suria frowned as she left. They were just standing around watching things, looking so self-important... did the library really need so many guards? Did they think the students would steal books they could borrow for free anyway?

In that case, there was no choice but to go to the center and wait in line for one of the main librarians. As she waited, Suria observed that they would close their eyes and mana would run through their floating circlets, then they would give answers. Presumably they interfaced with the library in some way, then? Suria wished she could get a circlet and find books on her own, but no doubt that took specialized training.

After only a few minutes, a group of other students approached and shoved their way in front of Suria. She was so surprised at first that they got away with it, and before her ordeal in the time loop she would probably have let it happen. But there were half a dozen students and it looked like they were going to let in even more friends, throwing her much further back in line.

Who did they think they were? The leaders of the group all had unusual skin tones, ranging from red to blue to green. She hadn’t seen very many people from Endelyth and all she knew about it was that it was descended from an ancient glyphic empire, with lots of magical legacies. That meant nothing to her, but she could tell from the ornately brocaded clothes they wore that they must be well off. None of that meant that they could simply cut in front of her in line.

Instead of raising a fuss, Suria simply moved around them, placing herself where she had been in line before the whole group piled in. It almost seemed to work until she felt a hand clench around on her shoulder and jerk her back.

”What do you think you’re doing?” one of the Endelythans demanded.

”Taking my place in line,” Suria answered quietly. ”You must not have seen me earlier.”

”We saw you, we just didn’t want to wait for you.” It was a woman with blue skin this time, wearing what looked like an actual crown with a glyph inscribed on the front.

”I will barely take any time compared to all of you.”

The man gripping her shoulder tugged again, nearly pulling her off her feet. ”You don’t get it. People like us don’t wait for someone like you. Get to the back.”

Suria tried to pull his hand away, but he was physically stronger than her. Anger simmered at the injustice of it, but no one seemed to be paying much attention and she was outnumbered. What could she do, try to use her sleep spell in the middle of the library? That would be starting a fight, and there was a good chance that it would fail against their defenses anyway.

Instead of humiliating herself, Suria simply backed away. She expected the noble Endelythans to laugh at her, but they turned back to themselves as if they’d already forgotten she existed. This was the arrogance she had expected: she was a meaningless peasant to them and there was nothing she could do to change that.

She channeled her anger into quick steps to another line, but even before she arrived, she saw another group cutting in line. Not Endelythan, instead an extremely wealthy-looking group of Akrashic women. Was basic order not respected anywhere? Still angry, Suria stalked away to reconsider.

Now that she looked around again, she was surprised that the Sequential Library wasn’t larger, considering that it needed to service thousands of students. It contained more books than she’d ever seen before, but not as many as she might have expected. The problem was the large empty space in the center: it looked very picturesque to have the air filled with floating crystals that cast the library in soft warmth, but it was a terrible use of space.

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Or maybe she was just bitter about getting so close and then being treated like this. Suria kept her gaze away from the central lines around the desks and instead examined the shelves, vaguely hoping that a book would catch her eye.

Instead she discovered something else: a door in the wall, tucked between the shelves.

That shouldn’t have been strange, except that she was certain that was an exterior wall. She looked back and judged the distances, only confirming that there was no space for the door to open into. Her first instinct was to disbelieve her own memory and assume that it must simply be another door in, but if so there should be people passing through. If it was a potential door, like the main entrance that had recently appeared, why wouldn’t the librarians have opened it on the busiest day of the year?

Then again, she had just seen the raw potential of spatial magic, so perhaps it led to another room that didn’t make sense in normal terms. Suria touched the door and felt defensive wards that resisted her. Not long ago that would have been an impossible barrier, but now she knew she just needed runic glasses and a proper spell to unlock it.

Could she make her way through directly? Would it really help if she could? Suria frowned at the door and considered her options until she heard a throat clear behind her.

”Excuse me, I saw what happened earlier.”

She turned around and, to her shame, first noticed that the man talking to her was Endelythan. Similar to the nobles who had tormented her, he had blue skin, and his eyes were a shimmering gray. But he was smiling instead of scowling, and she noticed that his outfit was very plain... other than the librarian circlet hovering just above his head. Now that she looked at him properly, she judged that he was four or five years older than her.

”It’s not fair, but that’s how life goes.” The young man inclined his head to her, the crystal circlet shimmering as he did so. ”My name is Orinyan Gessalsah. Are you a new student here?”

”Suria Northbrook.” She nodded and favored him with a smile. ”Are you a librarian?”

”I’m a journeymage in the Perception department, so that makes me just a student librarian. It’s terribly difficult to become a full professor here - I teach classes every term and I’m still not really a professor.” Orinyan shrugged languidly. ”School isn’t fair, but it’s more fair than life.”

”You said you saw what happened earlier... is such rude behavior tolerated here?”

”I’m afraid that some people will find ways to gain privileges no matter what kinds of systems you put in place. They executed their nobles over in Junn, had a whole revolution over it, and yet now they’re building up a new noble class again, for all that they deny it and use different words.”

Suria didn’t particularly want to talk about politics, but this librarian was the first person today to be nice to her, so she decided to change the subject. ”Is there a better way to find books?” she asked. ”Can you help me?”

”Of course, but mainly I didn’t want you to get the wrong impression about Endelythans.” He flashed her a surprisingly charming smile. ”Don’t get me wrong, the ones you met are bastards. But for every noble Endelythan with a thousand years of magical lineage, there are ten thousand farmers who are just like anybody else. I’m one of those.”

”I see. And are farming Endelythans common at Darkmoon?”

”I’m afraid not. The privilege of wealth and class, like I said.” Orinyan shook his head. ”Forgive me for asking, but where are you from?”

”The Westlakes. That’s part of the southern continents, near the Shantic St-”

”I’m familiar. I haven’t visited, but of course it comes up... let me see, if I recall the region was something of a breadbasket? There was that famine in the Republic of Junn that would have been much worse if it hadn’t imported so much grain from you. Well then, we can be farmers together.”

He said it so casually that Suria almost thought he was serious, like the people who really believed that everyone from a farming region was a farmer. But he’d seemed more savvy than that, and there was a hint of a twinkle in his eyes, so she smiled instead of taking offense. She wanted to ask him for books, but that might seem like she was just using him... her eyes wandered back to the door.

”Does this lead outside?” she asked. ”Or are there more rooms tucked into spatial magic?”

”Actually, it’s neither. Bit complicated... but let me show you.” Orinyan shifted past her and placed one hand on the door, which responded to his touch and creaked open.

When she peered through, Suria gasped softly. There wasn’t simply a room beyond, there was another cube every bit as large as the first, all its walls lined with books. And she thought she could see a door on the opposite side, just the same as the opened one.

”How many rooms are there?” Her voice was barely above a whisper.

”Let’s just say that it’s something librarians argue about,” Orinyan told her as he closed the door. ”The main doors will be open, after all the students have gotten their orientation. We can’t have people getting lost in the library... it’s possible to become extremely lost, if you understand me.”

”I think I understand a little. But we can get books from there?”

”It’s based on your classes, how many seals you’ve earned, membership in organizations, and all kinds of different things. Don’t worry, that system is far more fair. They have to cater to the wealthy students so their money keeps funding the university, but you can’t buy your way to real power.”

”I see. Then... umm...”

”You’re here for books, no shame in that.” Orinyan grinned at her again. ”It was nice to meet you, but I’m a librarian and I came over here to help you out. What are you looking for?”

”Well, the problem is that I’m not actually sure.” Suria had made a list of second picks, just in case the librarians frowned on indecisiveness, but she kept that in her satchel. ”I’m afraid that I won’t be fully prepared for my classes. The students who pushed me out of the line... that’s frustrating, but they’ve probably had tutors from a young age and they’ll know so much more than me...”

”Ah, I understand. Tell me about what classes you’re thinking of taking and I’ll see if I can’t help you avoid some of those pitfalls.”

Suria explained her thoughts, ending up rambling more than she’d hoped. The conversation was the polar opposite of Houdon’s interview, where she had been expected to come up with specific answers immediately. Orinyan seemed entirely patient and understood how important the decision was, listening until she started repeating herself.

”I have a couple of suggestions,” he interrupted gently. ”First, you should start on the Classical Glyphos Primer series. A lot of magical theory uses words from ancient languages and the nobles will mock you for not knowing them, even if those languages are useless anywhere else. Second, there’s a book called Remedial Orthomancy... the title sounds a bit condescending, but it will give you a great foundation for all classes here.”

”Those sound good,” Suria agreed. ”Also, I’m... not planning to get into any fights, but I want to be able to defend myself. Is there a good place to start?”

”Well, the straightforward books on combat magic will be the ones that you’ll be assigned first in any combat class. The basics are pretty simple, really. But no matter what you choose, you’ll need to build up your strength, so I might suggest a book called The Measure of a M-”

”I have that!” Suria pulled the book from her satchel triumphantly. ”It was very useful, yes.”

That earned her a grin and Orinyan stroked his chin. ”Hmm, in that case... you should get a broader base in different inscriptions. You might actually be better at casting spells than some nobles, but they can buy access to all kinds of information. If you get started now you might be able to level the playing field.”

With Orinyan’s help, Suria was able to finish her business in a flash. She returned all the books she’d finished and left the library with Remedial Orthomancy, Classical Glyphos Primer Volume I, and Elemental Inscriptions in the New Age. It would have been nice to keep talking with Orinyan, but it seemed like he had more students to help and she didn’t want to unfairly take anyone else’s time.

Instead she headed out into the campus, resisting the urge to begin reading her new books already. She hadn’t been able to stop herself from taking a peek and she’d seen the last book had direct instruction on what looked like hundreds of different inscriptions. Just reading that alone could vastly increase her capabilities as a mage.

She shouldn’t focus entirely on herself, however. Seeing the full professors at the ceremony the previous day had reminded Suria of the conspiracy she needed to unravel, and the first step in that was gaining basic information about the departments. That could also tell her more about which classes she wanted to pursue, so she shouldn’t waste any more time.

So she tucked her books away and headed toward the Hall of Thrones. This time, she wouldn’t leave until she had some answers.