The Years of Apocalypse - A Time Loop Progression Fantasy

Calisto talked nearly nonstop on the train to Cairnmouth, then somehow had more to say on the train to Second Cairn.

"…the real gold-printing machine would let you control Labyrinth econode releases, but barring that, what's preventing us from constructing our own econodes on the surface? Again, there's basic economic principles these old fools refuse to put into practice. It's so simple. Reduce the cost of maintaining the myrvites, and increase the number of myrvites produced!"

Mirian thought if it really was simple, someone would have done it, but she nodded along. "So what's your dad think of all this?"

"Oh, he'll be easy to convince, especially with that detector of yours. And I'm sure once we can increase the range on it, he'll finally change his mind on the Elder titan search too."

Mirian looked out the window. The track mostly paralleled the Cairn River, and the floodplain was full of large farms using spell engines to move water for irrigation. They were more active in the growing season; now, the land was bleak with the onset of winter. There were too many browns for her liking. When they saw the river, there were always barges, either drifting with the current or using spell engines to go against it.

"Did your grandpa have a plan for taking on an Elder titan?" she asked.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Calisto laughed. "Yeah. Bring the whole guild! Probably hire some mercenaries, too."

Mirian wondered if even that would be enough.

***

As soon as they got off the train, they went straight to the Ennecus Guildhall.

"Hey Bern!" Calisto said to the guard. "Can you get the gate for us?"

The guard, Bern, apparently, gave Calisto a wary look. "You're supposed to be attending classes. And the hall is for guild members only, not…" He turned his skeptical gaze to Mirian.

"As my father would say, the use of time should be maximized. Micael here is going to help us do a lot more good than a few classes will. I'm hardly learning anything in them anyways, I could give the lectures in Viridian's class, you know."

Bern opened his mouth to say something else, then apparently changed his mind and sighed, looking defeated. "Just don't come crying to me later," he said.

Calisto rolled her eyes. "I'm not twelve anymore." As they made their way through the gardens, she said, loud enough Bern certainly could hear her, "Sorry about him. He never did learn how to be polite to guests." She opened the door. "Hey Silvera," she said to the secretary. "Is my dad in his office?"

"Calisto! Are you skipping classes? He's going to be furious with you."

"Oh, he's always furious with me. If he ever wasn't snarling, I'd assume he'd been switched with a doppelganger and run away screaming. So he's in his office."

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"In a meeting," Silvera hissed. "And sound carries in this hall."

"Meeting with who?" Calisto said, not lowering her voice in the slightest. "The Thanvile's again? Are they offering an even worse deal?"

"Do not go into that meeting," Silvera warned. She raised an eyebrow, and said very quietly, "Unless…?"

"No, not that. Honestly, something better, Nicolus can go—well you know where he can go. His loss, really. Come on, Micael, let's go."

"Calisto."

Calisto gestured for Mirian to follow her and they started heading for a set of double doors down a large hall. Several statues of myrvites, done in the traditional style, watched them as the passed. Mirian was feeling a sort of wry amusement at it all. If anything like this had happened before the loops, she'd have been absolutely mortified. Now, it was sort of funny. This explains so much, she thought. Mirian looked at Silvera and gave her a shrug and mouthed, 'sorry.'

"Calisto!"

Calisto ignored the secretary and slammed open the double-doors, startling two older looking men who were sitting around a large table that was carved with a map of Baracuel. Thanvile merchants, Mirian assumed.

Cain Ennecus, who was sitting at the head of the table, went from a false smile to a deep frown in an instant.

"What are they offering this time? Your own balls leased back to you?" Calisto asked, which was somehow even less diplomatic than Mirian had expected.

"What is the meaning of this?" one of the merchants exclaimed, at the same time the other one said, "How dare you—!" in a tone too exaggerated to really be taken seriously.

"I have a better offer. Something that will completely reshape the myrvite harvesting business. You two might want to hear it, because the more capital we have invested, the faster we can get it off the ground."

"Business partnership requires mutual respect," the first merchant said.

"No it doesn't, it requires money and signed contracts. Turns out, father, that I stumbled upon the man who's going to make the next innovation in artifice. And you, gentlemen, have the opportunity to invest."

"Calisto—"

"You know this rude woman?" the second merchant asked.

"I apologize for my daughter's inexcusable behavior," Cain hissed through grind teeth. "However, if you'll give me a moment—"

"Problems can't be swept away, dear father. Only hidden. Are they offering ten percent? Fifteen?"

Mirian glanced at one of the papers on the table. "Sixteen percent," she murmured to Calisto.

"Sixteen! The interest payments alone would kill us, you might as well just hand them the keys and let them ransack the place."

Then everyone started talking at once.

"Our rates confirm to the best loan practices of the Crown Bank of—"

"—extending a much needed lifeline to the family and I'll be damned if—"

"—call the guard to have them arrested for extortion in broad daylight!"

The shouting went on for several minutes until the two merchants angrily packed their documents away and stormed out, leaving, "—may be able to offer you higher rates in the future, but certainly not lower to such an unprofessional organization!" as a parting gift.

The door slammed shut, and Cain put his head in his hands. When he raised his head, his face was red and his veins popping out. "We are already paying our creditors unsustainable amounts! Do you have any idea what the Akanan myrvite hunters are doing to the spell organ prices right now? We've had to sell at a loss for years now, which is why we need someone with reach to put a damn tariff on—God's blood! I've told this to you! Why do you insist on being so disobedient!?" he screamed.

"I may be able to provide some financial contributions," Mirian said. "My family has some money to go into business with—"

"Yes? Some money? Do you have seventeen thousand doubloons stuffed up that pompous ass of yours?" Cain screamed at her.

"Two thousand," Mirian said. "And I don't keep them there."

"That won't hold back the creditors for a week," Cain snapped. Turning to his daughter and standing, he shouted, "And you've just ruined the only chance we had at solvency! Get out. Get OUT!"

Calisto left the room, head held high, but when she was out, Mirian could see the tears gathering in her eyes. "Seventeen thousand? How did it get so bad?" she whispered, as something slammed and shattered in the room they'd just left.

You have no idea, Mirian thought.

***

Calisto had gotten her in the door, but over the next few days, it became clear the situation was unsalvageable. Cain Ennecus even agreed Mirian's myrvite detector could revolutionize the business, but only after an injection of gold that he didn't have. As bad as the Thanvile Merchants were, the Allard family had an iron grip on most of the banks, and they'd decided they wanted to buy the Ennecus operation—whether or not the patriarch wanted to sell. Cain had been outmaneuvered a decade ago when the Allards had quietly bought up their debt, and now the courts were forcing him to sell off his operations bit by bit. Each piece that was carved out further slashed their income, made only worse by the cheap Akanan imports that forced most myrvite-related products down in price.

Of course, the Akanans wouldn't sell certain myrvite parts or magichemicals they considered 'strategic assets,' so there was an opportunity for money to be made there—except that the Bardas family had a near monopoly on those myrvite hunting grounds. The Allards wanted the myrvite ranches of Second Cairn because the Bardas family had manipulated the guilds they controlled to cut them off from several magichemicals critical to their operations. So they went after a small, independent player: the Ennecus family.

It comes back to the same noble families, she thought. Playing their stupid games to get more wealth and power—for what? What do they use it for? Control the resources to control others—but for what greater purpose?

At the very least, a generous donation of gold got her access to Grandpa Ennecus's old records.

"What do I care about a bunch of tall tales about old myths?" Cain had spat before tossing Calisto a worn key.

Then she and Calisto had made their way into the second level basement, where an old system of wards kept the humidity and temperature low. In the soft shadows lit by antique magelights, Mirian comforted Calisto, telling herself that her actions were necessary to facilitate their alliance.

But the more time they spent together, the more the hole in Mirian's heart ached. She still had her fun with Valen from time to time, but there was nothing fulfilling about it. It was a distraction from her loneliness, not a cure. Spending time together with Calisto only served to remind her of what she missed. What she would continue to miss. None of her relationships felt real, because she was the only one who would remember anything about them.

Calisto, who usually hid her fears behind an unimpeachable bravado, was disarmed by someone who accepted her in her crisis of vulnerability. When they first kissed between the deep shelves of books and scrolls, they each brought a certain desperation to the endeavor. Mirian, who had done little experimenting in her 'Micael' body, realized the experience was, while not unpleasant, somewhat disorienting. She had grown used to the differences and sensations of a man's body, but it wasn't the same as the body she was most used to. Professor Marva had talked with her about how some people found changing forms totally intolerable, some found it simply an interesting difference, and some people found it comforting beyond description. Mirian had always found it more interesting than intolerable, but as her hands trailed over Calisto's body, and Calisto's rough grip pulled her closer, she found herself longing for…

…something. Honesty, perhaps. She felt guilty, even as they kissed. Was she being too deceptive? Was she taking advantage of her? But Calisto seemed to want it too, perhaps more badly than she did, so they got lost in each other in the romantic shadows of the basement library.

Afterward, Mirian asked if Calisto wanted to talk, and the other woman shook her head. Mirian could practically see the complex weave of emotions bundled up in her. Eventually, they returned to their task, and Calisto's bravado reasserted itself.

Cain had an unhealthy hatred of his father, and blamed him for anything he could. In a fit of rage, he'd burned plenty of his notes. Fortunately, many of them had survived.

Grandpa Ennecus had understood the myrvite titans needed a source of energy beyond mere flesh. Based on the ancient texts he'd researched involving Prophet encounters with the beasts, he thought they ate magic. Having just witnessed a slithering swarm in the Labyrinth eat a spellbook, Mirian thought this was probably correct. What he hadn't considered was that soul energy was just a type of arcane energy.

Mirian focused her efforts on learning about Apophagorga, though there was little reliable information. The beast had last been spotted moving around an abandoned battlefield during the Unification War, though most of the reports were dismissed as peasants hallucinating, or trying to manipulate the armies into coming to protect them. One of the reports said that the beast simply walked into a hill, then became it. Mirian had watched the beast emerge from the ground without disturbing it. Perhaps moving through the fourth spatial dimension? Its movements would defy the senses in that case, and an observer might describe what they saw inaccurately as they tried to make sense of it.

Most of what was recorded was rumors. There were several descriptions of it moving slowly, seen at great distance. Naturally, anyone who'd seen it up close probably hadn't lived to tell the tale.

The late Ennecus patriarch had found information on other myrvite titans. Not all of them were as large as Apophagorga. Terrifyingly enough, the one the First Prophet was said to have killed was at least twice as large. There was no easy weakness, and in fact, based on the descriptions and partial diagrams Grandpa Ennecus had uncovered, he speculated their internal organs shared neither functional nor structural similarities to most creatures. They seemed to have a circulatory system, and they certainly had organs, but where they were in the body varied from titan to titan. Naturally, the beasts had incredible spell resistance.

"I guess we should head back to Torrviol," Calisto said one night. "I have to get back to my boring classes. Looks like I'll need that certification after all."

Mirian nodded. "I'll meet you up there in a few weeks. There's something my family wants me to take care of first."

Calisto's facade dropped briefly. She said softly, "So… this is it?"

Mirian looked at her with a mixture of guilt and pity. "I guess so." It felt like no matter who she met or what she did, her interactions with people all ended this way. Calisto got her own little personal apocalypse from me. Does anyone talk to me and end up happier?

She walked Calisto to the train the next morning. For once, the other woman didn't have much to say. Mirian packed her things and took the train out of town in the evening, heading back to Cairnmouth. She ran an energy detection device she'd assembled in her spare time as the train moved, noting where flares of excess energy occurred. The Arcane Praetorian she'd talked to several cycles back had been right; the area near the tracks seemed to have a higher concentration of energy and eruptions. I would have thought there'd be more eruptions near leylines, since that's where the problem is. And if that's not it, one would expect a random distribution. But either I've configured my detector wrong and it's missing the eruptions and energy spikes further out, or there really is a statistically significant concentration of arcane energy near the trains and the cities. But why?

She thought of Viridian's lectures on the climate. Perhaps the Labyrinth is involved somehow. But how? And why?

Her other detector told her myrvite populations along the route were low, but that was expected given the spellward that ran along the whole route.

Pondering the eruption concentration didn't help it make any more sense, so Mirian turned her thoughts to her problem with the myrvite titan. She switched the bindings on her soul around to change her features, just in case Troytin had decided to watch Calisto and had picked up her trail. As far as she could tell, no one was following her, but the extra precautions helped her feel safe.

In the evening, Mirian went to one of the fine dining establishments in Cairnmouth and contemplated what to do over a big meal. Calisto had tried to show her the ledgers, which had only given Mirian a headache. She wanted to delve into the nuances of finance about as much as she wanted a crippling curse again. The summary was enough: the Ennecus group needed a great deal of money.

However, they also had several dozen trained myrvite hunters employed, and an excellent reputation among several mercenary groups that regularly contracted with them. Exactly the kind of people I'd need to bring down something like Apophagorga, she thought.

She headed down south again to find a remote town to stay in, then dedicated herself to magical exercises and rapid casting practice. In the evenings, her mind wandered, thinking about how she wanted to proceed.

As the cycle came to a close, she knew what she would need to do next. The first step would be to figure out how to get a lot of money very quickly.