Mother of Learning. Arc 3 Incomplete

That he actually expected, truth be told. Mother didn’t like it when he spent his time reading, so he imagined she would be none too happy to see her darling daughter picking up such a hobby. Still didn’t explain why she didn’t want Kirielle to draw, though.

«Well, that’s mother for you,» said Zorian. She seemed to be getting rather upset, and Zorian could totally understand. It would appear her situation had more similarities to his own than he had ever dreamed about. «Don’t worry about it. It was the same with me at first. She’ll lay off once she sees she can’t bully you into submission.»

«It’s not the same!» Kirielle suddenly snapped at him.

Now what?

«Kiri…»

«You don’t get it! It’s not the same because you’re away from home most of the year and she can’t do anything to you while you’re away! You and Daimen and Fortov are here, learning magic and doing whatever you want, and I’ll never get to do that!» She buried her head in Zorian’s chest, her tiny little fingers digging painfully into his arms. «It’s not the same because I’m a girl…»

Zorian wrapped his arms around Kirielle, rocking her gently to calm her down while he digested what she was telling him. Finally, a realization hit him. Traditionalists in Cirin often held a view that educating female children was a waste of time and money. Hell, some of them even went against the law and refused to send their daughters into elementary school to learn how to read and write! It didn’t help that mage academies tended to be rather expensive, even lower quality ones…

«They aren’t going to send you to a mage academy…» Zorian concluded out loud.

Kirielle shook her head, her face still buried in his chest.

«They say I don’t need it,» she said, sniffing sadly. «They already have a marriage arranged for me for when I turn 15.»

«Well isn’t that nice for them,» said Zorian coldly. «You know what, Kiri? You’re right. It’s not the same. I had to defy mother and father all by myself… you, on the other hand, have me.»

Kirielle peeled her face from his chest and gave him a searching look.

«You never wanted to help me before,» she accused. «Every time I asked you to teach me magic you blew me off.»

«I didn’t know what you were dealing with,» Zorian shrugged. «I thought you were just impatient and didn’t want to waste my time on something you were going to learn in due time anyway. But rest assured, if mother and father don’t change their minds over the years, you will always have a teacher in me.»

She stared at him for a few seconds before she snatched one of his arms by the wrist and gripped it in an oath-making position.

«Promise?» she asked.

Zorian squeezed her hand tighter, eliciting a yelp from her.

«Promise,» he confirmed.

Two days before the summer festival, Kael finally laid out his plan to Zorian. It was a lot less concrete than the matriarch’s one, and basically involved talking to a number of individuals that Kael thought might know something about soul magic or time travel. None of them were in Cyoria, though, and would require Zorian to basically blow off school in order to travel across the country (and in some cases even across borders). The morlock also hinted that he knew a couple of individuals living in the Great Northern Forest, but he admitted it might be a bad idea to visit those until he could actually defend himself properly. Zorian memorized the names and locations, but it would be a while until he could visit any of them.

The end of the restart was totally uneventful — He, Kirielle, Kael and Kana boarded the train heading out of Cyoria on the night of the festival and spent the last remaining hours playing card games to pass the time. Imaya refused to go with them, which was fairly unsurprising, giving the suddenness of their request and the sketchy nature of their warnings.

And then, like always, Zorian woke up in Cirin, Kirielle wishing him a good morning. He didn’t take her with him this time, which turned out to be a good idea, as Zach did indeed come to class in that particular restart. The other time traveler tried to strike up a conversation with him, but Zorian was determined to avoid him and gave him a cold shoulder. After a few days, Zach seemed to admit defeat and gave up, but Zorian could see that the other boy was watching him way more closely than he did most people. Zorian’s freedom to act as he saw fit was consequently somewhat limited, and he mostly amused himself with honing his shaping skills, combat magic, divinations, and spell formula. Taiven was not informed of the ‘rumors’ behind giant telepathic spiders in the sewers, as he didn’t want to meet the matriarch just yet.

An entire restart passed in this fashion. And the next one. And the next. In total, it took six restarts before Zach stopped approaching him at the start of each restart and otherwise pay attention to him. Despite this, Zorian was pleased with what he had accomplished.