Chapter 57: The Thrilling Hunt for Crystal Drakes

Shutting the office out of her mind, Suria tried again, pushing her soul along with her mana until she could feel it in her fingertips. Then that final push, the most difficult part, and she was exerting her soul energy through her stylus. Her arm trembled as she turned it back toward herself, but she managed to keep moving, closer and closer...

"That's good enough." Professor Huen gave her a nod and that was all it took for Suria to lose her grip and the effect vanished.

"You can see that it's still difficult for me," Suria said as she turned her stylus over in her hands.

"I didn't expect you to master soul runes; simply gaining the fundamental ability is an accomplishment for any student." Professor Huen folded her hands together. "And it's worthy of a reward. We also need to work on the meditation aspect, as it's necessary to prepare your soul."

"I've been trying the exercises. I think my runic capacity increased while meditating."

"Truly? Hmm... this is not something that can easily be determined from the outside."

"I'm reasonably confident." Suria was split between wishing she could have direct confirmation and relief that it wasn't possible, because other people being able to look at her soul would cause major problems when looping. "But that isn't enough, is it? If I'm reading the book right, you need a lot of preparation."

"That aspect is actually perfectly quantifiable," Professor Huen told her. "The preparation necessary for a soul talisman increases runic capacity by three - no more and no less. Even an archmage's soul talisman is still anchored by those three."

"Then I'm one third of the way... or not. Runic capacity seems to get more difficult with each step."

"It's good that you're aware of that, but you should be proud of your progress. I honestly expected that I would be sending you away for an entire term at least. You've worked unexpectedly hard at this."

"This is important to me." Despite everything, Suria smiled at the professor. "Thank you for being so helpful. I know it's an inconvenience."

"I think I may have given you the wrong impression." Professor Huen shifted to lean on one arm, suddenly much more human than the rigid archmage she usually presented, and smiled slightly. "Did you think I'm a professor who hates teaching? No, what I hate is having my time wasted by students who aren't serious about magic."

"What does it take to prove that?"

"Your work on the soul talisman certainly qualifies. Now, let's return to your stylus technique. You're forcing the soul with techniques that function for this purpose, but are less than ideal..."

Suria listened carefully, since Professor Huen offered excellent advice now that she was really teaching. Part of her wished that she could have gotten more information: she hoped to get to this place again without going through Magical Analysis In Depth and burning one of her class choices. Would a soul talisman be proof of her seriousness, or was there a larger chance it would make her look like a looper?

Those were questions to worry about in another cycle; for now, Suria's goal was simply to advance her main objectives as much as possible before everything reset.

As she walked back across campus, she noted the preparations all around her. There were still a great many students ignoring the fervor over the crystal drakes, and Suria had heard some grumble about the distraction, but the excitement tinged the entire campus. She saw groups testing their magic in public, or simply dressed in mimicry of explorers.

Ignoring all of it, Suria returned to their room. Xuhriha was kneeling over the table, monitoring the potion currently bubbling. The process hadn't been quite as smooth as they had hoped, and they were still working on increasing concentration.

"Still going?" Suria asked. "If it takes this long, it might not be a good solution after all."

"We'd do better if we had an actual Alchemy expert," Xuhriha pointed out over her shoulder. "But I think we can still get a test, if we leave it sitting for a few hours."

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"I suppose that's our only choice. Unless it turns out that crystal drakes can concentrate potions, too."

"Hah! Given the excitement around all this, there won't be any left. Almost feel sorry for the things."

Sticking to her plan, Suria gathered her books and headed to Foundations. Even though she arrived exactly on time, the class was only about half full, and it didn't get much better over time. The professor shook his head and just tapped his wand on the table to start things.

"I guess we'll persist anyway," he said. "Hmm, should I do a special lesson today, give some exam answers to credit anyone who came?"

"Why is everyone so excited about the drakes?" someone asked.

"That is really more of a Naturalism question, and this is a general course..." The professor didn't resist for long before he sighed and surrendered to the waves of popular opinion. "Alright, this hearkens back to our very first lessons, about magic being unnatural. The way humans use magic is dissimilar from the way monsters and beasts do, so there usually isn't much compatibility.

"What that commonly means is that you need some sort of conversion layer, for example using Alchemy to turn monster parts into a usable reagent. Plenty of inscription ink comes from processes like that. But the crystal drakes are unusual in that the crystals growing in their bodies are directly usable by mages. Some think they were some sort of experiment from the age of sorcerer kings, though that was never actually proven..."

The background to the hunt was more interesting than the event itself, as far as Suria was concerned, so she listened and took notes. She had been keeping her distance, but she wondered if she was going to have to go along with everyone else. It would be so much easier to just ignore the event and ask other loopers in the next cycle...

Once class was over Suria was eager to get back to check on their experiment, only to be intercepted yet again. This time it was Wynchard, striding across campus with a grim expression on his face. He moved directly toward her, making it impossible to escape, and gestured for her to step aside from the crowds.

"Are you going on the hunt?" he asked.

"I haven't decided," Suria answered.

"It will be a great advantage, but it's up to you." Wynchard's eyes slid around them suspiciously. "There's been no sign of the necromancer this loop... I think this will draw them out. The problem is, I don't know if they're going to go along with the hunt, or whether they'll stay here while everyone is distracted. We could split our efforts and try to find out."

"What evidence do you have of their actions?" Suria asked.

"Too much is still unknown. Decide if you're going and we'll talk later, before everyone leaves."

Then he was off again, rushing to coordinate something else. It had been nice to have a peaceful cycle without any disruptions from other loopers, but apparently that was at an end.

When she got back to their room, Suria was pleased to see that Xuhriha had nearly finished the experiment. They boiled down the remaining silphium and poured it all into a vial. After so much work, it was a small thing: just a thin vial of purple liquid. An ordinary enough object to find in many women's bags, yet if they had done their work properly, absolutely lethal.

"I wish we had a good way to test it," Suria said as they held the vial between them.

"There's an obvious answer," Xuhriha told her. "Just capture a student and force them to drink."

Suria chuckled and the other woman giggled, but it wasn't entirely clear if it was a joke. Technically that actually would be a viable option, except for the fact that without a clear end to the loop, they could end up facing consequences. For the time being, Suria just tucked the vial away in her satchel and returned to her reading.

She couldn't ignore the inevitable for long, however, and needed to think about her strategy regarding the drake hunt. Based on the amount of attention it was receiving, she was going to need to deal with it one way or another. Perhaps she should just go the library and find books on the subject so she wasn't completely ignorant...

Then Suria felt a twinge in her stomach and realized it might not matter.

"Xuhriha." She sat up from her bed to look at her roommate. "I think the cycle is going to end soon."

"Are you sure?" Xuhriha looked at her sharply. "Are you saying that you can sense time magic?"

"I think so, but can't explain now." The sensation wasn't directly pain anymore, but Suria still winced as it intensified. "I'm reasonably certain. Certain enough that I'm willing to do an experiment."

Xuhriha's eyes widened. "You mean take the silphium? Alright, I won't stop you. If you're wrong, I guess I'll take care of your body and we can talk about it next cycle."

"Good, thanks."

There wasn't much time, because her sense of the time loop curling up on itself was growing more intense. Suria pulled out the vial and her hands trembled a little as she uncapped it, because she still wasn't used to this. Making herself drink something toxic was different than throwing herself off an edge and there were so many unknowns...

She drank the entire vial and it seemed to shoot straight to her head. But instead of killing her instantly, Suria hunched over as pain wracked her body. It felt like her esophagus was on fire and her stomach was consuming itself; she could feel the bile rising in her throat and-

And then she was sitting and listening to the tapestry clattering to the floor.

For a moment Suria was disoriented: her mouth was clean even though part of her mind expected it to still be burning. Clearly they hadn't concentrated the silphium enough, because far from being instantly lethal, the result might have just left her miserable. It proved the viability of the plan, however, especially if she could take new classes.

As her mind reoriented itself to a new loop and a new term, Suria chuckled to herself. A whole lot of loopers were going to be very unhappy about the drake hunt.