Chapter LIV (54)

  “Explain my new levels,” Mitsuko said to Sterling as they walked the streets of Crocus City towards the clock tower. This loop, with no money or connections to her name, Mitsuko had accepted the Sailor Guild’s offer of housing for the first time. She had told Holly that she was going out to gather information about Emperor Sasaki and Wan’s location. While the lie caused her heart to twist a bit, she needed the space away from Holly to speak to Sterling openly.

  “Well, in regards to my spell, Mend, I believe it is quite obvious the capabilities you’ve now unlocked for yourself,” Sterling said. “Shall we review them?”

  “Mend Others and Mend Self - Aging,” Mitsuko recited. Despite not having the words directly in front of her, it was as if their names were inscribed into her soul. She had a suspicion that even should she lose memory of her very name, those spells would remain known by her.

  “And what do you suspect they might do, based on those clearly descriptive names.”

  “I’d think that Mend Others would be the counterpoint to Mend Self, allowing me to heal others,” Mitsuko said dryly. “And that Mend Self - Aging would…undo my age?” That last one was a bit more nebulous. It couldn’t be what she thought.

  “Correct! And correct!” Sterling announced. “You have unlocked immortality! Did I not tell you that my spell would lead you to near-godhood? Time itself cannot stand as an obstacle in your path. It truly is remarkable what can be accomplished with my power.”

  “I…won’t die?” Mitsuko asked. “But what if I undid my age right now? Could I make myself into a fetus?”

  Sterling flicked his tail. “That’s where your mind jumps to immediately? I’ve handed you an ability that few can ever even comprehend. Wars have been fought for far less than the capabilities of that spell. But, should you decide to use the spell in that way, you’d be stopped at a certain point when your brain stops becoming useful. And I’ll warn you against sending yourself back to puberty as well. Dreadful. I’ve suffered through it on five separate occasions. Each worse than the last. Your mind gets extremely muddled up by hormones. No, I recommend you stay the way you are now and keep this spell in your arsenal for use at a later day.” Then he paused. “Do your people still know what hormones are? Have you lost access to that branch of the Rejuvenation and Restoration magic over the last ten or so centuries?”

  “Yes, I know what hormones are. I received an extensive education while working for Emperor Sasaki,” Mitsuko replied. “Didn’t I already have this spell with Mend Self? I was able to undo my body’s sleep.”

  “To a degree, yes. But that was a matter of hours, not years.”

  Mitsuko considered that. Shouldn’t she feel more excited about potentially living forever? It was certainly great in many respects. But it had never been something she wasted much thought on before. There were other immortal beings that walked the world, like Wan, so at least she’d have company. But it sounded so unreal that she only felt empty at the prospect.

  They arrived at the clocktower and found it locked. Just as she had in the previous loop, Mitsuko cast Mend and unlocked the thick wooden doors.

  Mitsuko blinked her eyes and let them adjust to the low lighting before slowly walking up the winding stairway that wrapped around the clockwork. Sterling padded along in her wake.

  As they passed the gears that had crushed her body, she shuddered, remembering the sensation of her bones turning to powder under its power. In her memory, it hadn’t even been a full day since she was dying in this room. But, as she passed through the doorway into the loft above, Coleo’s corpse remained absent. Unlike the boy she’d killed, Coleo’s soul would be regurgitated back into the loop. She wondered how much of the guardian’s influence would remain on the bard.

  A different bitelas man turned to face them as they entered the loft. His shell was a simple black with very little sheen to it. He smiled and beckoned her forward with a hand gesture.

  “This is Escara, the Sage of the Retrospection spell,” Sterling announced as they approached. Mitsuko didn’t miss Escara’s eyes harden as they focused briefly on Sterling, but a warm smile returned when he looked back to her. His mandibles twitched upwards.

  “Hello, Escara,” Mitsuko said. “Tell me about your skill.”

  What followed next was a blur of motion. The bitelas man’s hands formed symbol after symbol. It was as if he was casting some sort of complex somatic spell. But when he finished, nothing happened.

  “Did you catch all that?” Sterling asked. “I know he does sign quite quickly. Need me to clarify any information?”

  “What….” Mitsuko blinked. “Was that some sort of signaling system? Or a strange dance? What was I supposed to get from that?”

  “Ahh.” Sterling sat back on his haunches, sounding like he just solved a riddle. “This helps explain why they felt the need to reinstate me as your guide. You don’t know dactylology? Has the art been lost or are you just uneducated?”

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  “Dactylology?”

  “The art of speaking with one’s hands.”

  Mitsuko slowly shook her head. She vaguely recalled reading about a civilization which used hand gestures to communicate basic commands silently for purposes of espionage and stealth, but not an entire language based around it like Escara appeared to be using.

  “Well this is rather inconvenient in some respects,” Sterling said. “Though I suppose it’s for the best as it helped upturn the foolish decision of the other sages to remove me as your guide. As you can see, Escara cannot speak. Even should he take on another form like I have, his voice is not something that would come with him. For it was never a part of him. So if he attempted to guide you in the skin of another, as I now do, it might prove difficult.”

  “A witch’s curse?” Mitsuko guessed.

  “Perhaps. It’s not my story to tell, even should I know it.”

  “I’m sorry I can’t communicate with you,” Mitsuko apologized to Escara.

  He bowed his head then began to sign down to Sterling.

  “While saddened by the changing times, he understands losing the art of dactylology is not a fault of your own, simply a regression of society as large.”

  “You guys really don’t think highly of modern times,” Mitsuko said dryly.

  “You’ve accomplished very little to impress us,” Sterling replied.

  Mitsuko rolled her eyes. “Fine. What can you tell me about Retrospection? I apparently leveled it once during the last twelve loops. So it’s at level 2 now. What does it do?”

  Sterling waited until Escara finished his series of hand signs before translating them over to Mitsuko.

  “To preface, these are the Sage of Retrospection’s words, not my own,” Sterling said. “He wants you to know that Retrospection’s ability is to look back and comprehend the world around you. It’s closely tied with divination, but a more temporal shade of that branch of magic. Using it, you can find answers you wouldn’t ever even consider the questions to ask.”

  “So it lets me look back in time?” Mitsuko asked.

  “That is how one might summarize its effects,” Sterling agreed.

  Mitsuko considered the implications of her new spell. “Divination is the only other branch of magic I have even a crumb of skill for. Everything else I’ve attempted has either spluttered out or been completely unsuccessful. Is it related to temporal magic?”

  Sterling again waited until Escara finished signing before responding. “Yes. There likely is a connection there tied to your innate talent with temporal spellcraft. Divination is the only means in which most mages can even hope to access the wonders of our craft. Though it’s far less reliable for them then it is us.” He paused. “Basically, they cast an inferior magic to our own that is merely a poor copy of what we can accomplish.”

  Escara began furiously signing with his hands. Sterling yawned while watching him, then turned his attention back to Mitsuko.

  “The Sage of Retrospection would like me to let you know that there is no such thing as inferior magic, only inferior mages. A philosophy I disagree with. However, I am fair enough to inform you about the existence of a different perspective to my own.”

  The silent sage frowned at the cat. Mitsuko began pacing around the room, ruminating on what she’d learned about the spell. Then she brushed a hand over one of the big cogs sticking out of the floor and attempted to cast Retrospection.

  In a moment, she saw the gear rapidly cycling backwards. Turn after turn after turn. It gained more speed as she pushed it further back. A hundred turns, a thousand, ten thousand. The constant circling of the mechanics hypnotized her.

  Then she snapped back to the present as she slammed into her level 2 spell’s limits.

  Her head spun and she set a hand on her forehead to focus herself back on the present.

  “How long did I just zone out?” Mitsuko asked.

  “Aproximently a second and a half,” Sterling replied. “You likely receive the information in your mind at a far more rapid rate. That will be a different—ahhhh!” Sterling cut off in a yowl as Escara stomped on his tail. Then he leaped to the side and hissed up at the bitelas sage. The new sage returned Sterling’s hissing with a flat, unamused glare.

  Mitsuko sighed. Sterling had been on the verge of revealing something that required a question. Her usual tactic of getting Sterling to ramble for extra information wouldn’t be possible with this sage listening in.

  “You do realize this is not my own body?” Sterling complained to the sage.

  The sage responded with two quick flicks of his hand.

  “Yes. Technically it doesn’t feel pain unless I exit and I don’t plan to do so until the loop ends, but that’s not the point! You’re an utter barbarian.”

  Rather than sign, the bitelas man crossed his arms and gave Sterling an unimpressed look.

  “Can I use my questions that I unlock through leveling Retrospection through Sterling?” Mitsuko asked Escara. “Or do I need to ask you directly?”

  “Any sage will do,” Sterling asked. “Though, I state with utter confidence the fact that I am your greatest source of information and I do not recommend wasting those questions on anyone else.”

  Escara moved to stomp on Sterling’s tail again but the cat was too nimble and leaped away before the other sage could land his attack. He hid behind some gears off to the side.

  “Well then,” Mitsuko said. “I suppose it’s best not to waste any time. We need to get over to Verdant Island and free the sage.”

  Mitsuko walked over to the large window on the wall. The hands of the clock stretched across its surface. Beyond the glass and backwards painted numbers, she could see the Mauve Island spread out before her. The clockwork cogs in the room ticked rhythmically, reminding her that she had a limited amount of time before this city would be wiped out. Gone the same as the city where she’d found Sterling.

  Now was the time to save children. None of them would die in this loop.

  15 more chapters on my !!