Mother of Learning. Arc 3 Incomplete

«You don’t believe me,» he concluded.

«It’s pretty far-fetched,» Zorian said. If he hadn’t lived through it, he wouldn’t have believed him, no. «But I’m a pretty open-minded guy. Let’s pretend you’re right for the moment. What’s that got to do with me?»

Zach arched an eyebrow at him, apparently incredulous about something.

«Huh,» he said. «You’re really different from your other self.»

«My other self?» Zorian asked curiously.

«Yeah,» Zach nodded. «My memory may be spotty about some things, but I definitely remember you. Mostly because you kept dying at the start of the attack…»

Zach mumbled the last sentence in a quiet voice that probably wasn’t meant to carry but did. Zorian pretended he didn’t hear it.

«You’re different than you used to be,» Zach said. «You were more irritable, and always busy with something or other. You never believed me when I tried to tell you about the whole time travel thing — you thought I was trying to make fun of you.»

Well… that kind of story sounded exactly like something his brothers would try to fool him with. And Zach did have a great many things in common with those two already.

«You’ve changed,» Zach concluded. «You’re a lot calmer. More laid-back, I guess.»

Zorian frowned. He didn’t think he changed that much in personality, but he supposed it would be hard to not change when going through something like this. To say nothing of the fact that more than 8 months had passed since the restarts started for Zorian.

«So, wait… why did I change then?» Zorian asked. «Didn’t you say the whole world resets itself?»

«Don’t know,» Zach shrugged, then gave him a speculative look. «Come to think of it, you were there too, weren’t you?»

Zorian gave him a confused look. He wasn’t going to get baited that easily.

«No, of course you don’t remember,» Zach sighed. «Do you at least feel a little different lately or something?»

«Come to think of it… yes,» confirmed Zorian. «I chose different electives than I intended to, for no good reason really, and I did a bunch of other strange things ever since I came to Cyoria.»

Zorian’s motivation for saying that was two-fold. First of all, he wanted to see how Zach would react to the idea of another person going through the time loop with him. Secondly, he wanted to lay the groundwork for an explanation why he’d be acting differently in every restart, in case he decided not to tell Zach about himself.

He was surprised that Zach was so willing to believe him, though. Apparently even after all this time (nearly 17 years, if the other boy was to be believed), Zach still haven’t developed an ability to effectively read people. That, or Zorian really was that good of an actor.

«Strange,» was all Zach said.

«Yeah,» Zorian agreed. «So… any advice a time traveler can tell a mortal like me? A secret spell of awesomeness, maybe?»

«To be honest, most of the spells I know are combat ones,» Zach admitted. «I’m really good at combat magic, which is good because I need to be good at it. There is… something I’m trying to stop.»

«Something involving the mysterious adversary that messed you up?» tried Zorian. He really wanted to work the invasion into the conversation but didn’t know how to justify knowing anything about it. «Do you remember how that happened, at least?»

«Ugh,» grunted Zach. «Mostly. I distinctly remember you being there, but you probably died right at the start of the battle — no offense Zorian, but you aren’t much of a fighter — and then I stupidly charged in, thinking myself invulnerable.»

«Why would you ever think that?» Zorian asked, honestly confused. «That you’re invulnerable, I mean. Doesn’t it strike you as dangerously arrogant to perceive yourself as invincible?»

«Do you know how many times I’ve died in these reverts?» protested Zach. «My memory is failing me again, but it was a lot. You tend not to take it too seriously after a while. And it’s not like I was too far off — I just have to watch out for necromancy next time, right?»

«Not just necromancy,» Zorian replied with a heavy sigh. «There is also mind magic to worry about. Aside from the obvious possibility of ending up as a mind thrall, you could also end up with more than a few gaps in your memory — you could have your whole mind blanked out. Then there is a possibility of having a geas forced upon you if you’re too careless, which also bind to the soul as far as I know. Some creatures, such as wraiths, eat souls — that’s another thing to worry about. And there are a couple of methods of sealing away a mage’s ability to do magic, which might very well stay with you when you… ‘revert’.»

Zach was silent, but Zorian could have sworn he had gotten even paler as he listened to Zorian speak.

«And that’s just a couple of points off the top of my head,» finished Zorian. «I’m only an academy student, and I don’t know anything. It’s obvious w- err, you are not invulnerable. Okay?»