Mother of Learning. Arc 3 Incomplete

«He is?» blinked Benisek. He shook his head. «I mean, of course he is. I kind of didn’t expect you to know, though, since he’s kind of a failure as a mage and you never interacted with him much.»

Zorian shrugged. Truth be told, it was very rare for him to forget someone’s name, regardless of how often he had interacted with them or how long it had been since he last saw them. Even before the time loop, Zorian would have instantly known who Benisek was referring to.

«Anyway,» Benisek continued, «Zach escaped from his family mansion yesterday.»

«Err, what?» asked Zorian incredulously. «What do you mean ‘escaped’? Why would he need to escape from his own mansion?»

«Well that’s the question, isn’t it?» Benisek said. «Apparently he had an argument with his guardian that eventually descended into a full-blown magical duel. A duel which, get this, Zach won! Half of the mansion was trashed, and Zach fled into the city and has yet to be found. They’re searching for him everywhere!»

«Um, wow,» Zorian said, honestly at a loss for words. What the hell was that about?

«You said it,» Benisek agreed. «I’m not sure I believe the official story, though. I mean, there’s no way Zach could have taken on his guardian in a magical duel! Tesen Zveri is a 7th circle mage or something, and Zach barely passed his own certification! Then again, something sure demolished Noveda mansion…»

«How do you know this?» asked Zorian.

«It’s all over the newspapers,» said Benisek. «Besides, everyone is talking about it. I can’t believe one of our classmates would be involved in something like that. What do you think, Zorian?»

«Ben… I honestly don’t know what to think about that,» said Zorian.

And he really meant it. He didn’t doubt for a second that Zach could beat the stuffing out of his guardian, 7th circle or not — the man was a politician, as far as Zorian knew, not a battlemage — but why would he want to do that?

«I suppose he won’t be coming to class this time, then,» mused Zorian out loud. Then again, he would not have put it past Zach to just walk into class one of these days as if nothing was wrong.

«I doubt it,» Benisek laughed.

«Did he kill anyone?» asked Zorian. Benisek shook his head in the negative. «So basically he didn’t do anything that serious. What’s the worst that can happen to him if he simply turns himself in?»

«Well, Tesen must not be too happy with him now, and he’s too influential to brush off, even for someone like Zach,» said Benisek. «Attacking one of the Elders of Eldemar is actually a fairly serious crime, and Tesen could really ruin Zach’s day if he was inclined to pursue satisfaction. Not that I think he would, since that would just draw even more attention to what happened. This whole thing is a giant political scandal for him. I’m guessing Zach will come back after a month or so, after he cools off a bit, and Tesen will ‘magnanimously’ forgive him everything.»

Zorian was silent. Zach had told him that it was rare for him to spend a restart in Cyoria, and even rarer for him to attend classes. In light of that, it had been foolish of him to expect Zach to be around in this restart. Zach may have found Zorian interesting in the previous restart, but probably not that interesting. Still, this was more than a little strange. If he had wanted to leave and do his own thing, couldn’t he have just walked out of his mansion one day and kept going? Who would have stopped him? His guardian? Why would Tesen do that? The man was clearly very hands-off in his dealings with his charge, as evidenced by Zach’s frequent absences from school during the last two years, as well as Zach’s abysmal performance prior to the time loop.

There was no obvious answer, and Zorian didn’t feel like trying to track down Zach. He probably couldn’t find him, even if he tried, and he had more attainable goals to pursue.

Like getting out of Xvim’s merciless clutches. What could be more important than that?