Chapter LVI (56)

  “You believe you have a lead as to where the children might have disappeared to?” Basha eyed her with suspicion. The goblin sat crosslegged on a mat, her green skin shadowed with the curtains drawn. “Care to explain who you are, how you got to my island, and why you have a filthy cat on your shoulder?”

  “Filthy!”

  Mitsuko had to grab Sterling to keep him from throwing himself at Basha. He even went as far as to rake his claws across Mitsuko’s skin in a scramble to get past her before calming down. She simply Mended the wound and it disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. Reflexively casting, she performed the spell with enough speed that Basha never even noticed.

  “Goblin lectures me about being filthy,” Sterling grumbled, sitting back on her shoulder again. “The sheer quantity of corrupted filth in a single goblin’s soul could stain a lake green.”

  “As I said in my introduction, my name is Mitsuko. I’m investigating the disappearances.”

  “Yes, the introduction where you strolled into the building and demanded the secretary give you a meeting with me. You said you had valuable information on the perpetrator stealing our town’s children.”

  They once again sat on the floor where Mitsuko had met the goblin woman in a past loop. This time she decided to obfuscate a bit more information while remaining truthful to bypass any sort of truth detection methods the woman had. Based on her past experience, forgoing her connection to Emperor Sasaki seemed prudent this loop. It created more suspicion than it was worth. A nebulous foreign power throwing around weight with unknown motivations. In hindsight, it seemed obvious the town leader might be wary.

  “I do,” Mitsuko replied. “My best friend is a diviner. How about I lay out the information I currently possess and you let me know if I’m missing any important details.”

  Basha nodded slowly. “Fine. Go on.”

  “After the dome dropped, the children began disappearing from town. The human ones aged between seven and thirteen. The nonhuman ones of an equivalent age. Yesterday, one girl celebrated a birthday, turning seven years old, and wandered off into the jungle. Her father chased after her but later returned after being turned around in the forest with a muddled mind.”

  “So far, you are correct,” Basha said. “Your diviner friend must be quite talented. And do you know who or what is responsible for the phenomenon? Or did you interrupt me simply to inform me of information I was already aware of?”

  “I believe the person responsible is hunkered down in some sort of ruins and is using mind magic to bring the children in. For what reason, I’m not certain. But I don’t believe it could be for anything good.”

  “Old ruins? Your diviner friend witnessed this? Hm.” Basha considered the information. “You have no hints on the motivation?”

  “I…have some suspicions,” Mitsuko admitted. Basha waited for Mitsuko, so she reluctantly continued. “I have had bad experiences with soul mages in the past. Children have more malleable souls and necromancers have been known to abduct young for experimentation. I also know that mental mages have an easier time manipulating the minds of children. So it could be about experimentation.”

  Mitsuko watched the goblin woman’s face as it twisted in disgust at the suggestion. She remained silent, hoping she hadn’t just overplayed her hand, when Basha finished cursing and turned her attention back to her.

  “Why do you want to help us?”

  “Why do I want to help a group of children lost in the forest?” Mitsuko asked. “First, I’m not heartless. I came from Mauve Island after I learned about what was happening here. And second, I recently acquired a bit of an ax to grind when it comes to people manipulating children. I told you, I’ve seen what happens when people start playing with the souls of children like pawns.”

  “I see.” Basha stared at her for several minutes. “Obviously you want information. Island secrets that few have access to. Perhaps I could be convinced to part with that. What are you capable of? And what else do you want from me?”

  “I’m a temporal mage,” Mitsuko said plainly. “And, other than information, the one thing I ask for is a means in which to block mental spells. Anything antimagical based.”

  Basha snorted. “A temporal mage? Is that your clever way of calling yourself a jester?”

  Sterling preemptively suspecting Mitsuko’s response, hopped from her shoulders and fled a few meters away.

  Mitsuko, expecting that sort of response from the half-goblin woman, flicked her wrist, creating a blade of ice. Basha’s laughter stopped abruptly and she tensed, clearly preparing for a fight. But Mitsuko didn’t plan to use the blade on her. Instead, she flipped it into reverse grip and steadied herself. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, letting the humid air settle in her lungs. Then stabbed the blade into her chest.

  Pain racked her body, nearly tipping her over. The sword’s edge scratched along a rib as it entered into her. But she held steadfast and let the momentum of the strike continue to pierce her soft insides. She held her breath as the sword sliced a lung. She released her grip on the hilt and let herself slouch, bleeding out for several seconds. Blood drenched her clothing and stained the mat under her. She struggled to cling to consciousness. If she slipped away now this would all be for nothing and the loop would reset.

  Basha shouted something garbled at her and rushed forward, but Mitsuko raised a hand to stop her approach. A fierce determination remained in her dark eyes that halted the goblin midstep.

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  Then Mitsuko cast Mend on herself and the blade sticking out of her midsection.

  Immense relief followed as her body rewound time, bringing herself back to the state it had been half a minute earlier. Her blood trickled up from the floor and reinserted itself in the sword wound and the sword unsheathed itself from her body, both her skin and the fabric of her shirt knitting back together as it exited.

  A moment of silence while Mitsuko caught her breath. The muggy air now felt so good with the memory of a pierced lung fresh in her mind. Beyond increasing her magic capabilities, Mitsuko noted to herself that her pain tolerance was also improving by leaps and bounds throughout the Prismatic Spiral. Likely not a healthy development, but whatever. It worked out in this scenario at the very least.

  “What…was that?” Basha asked. She hadn’t sat back down and remained alert as she stared down at Mitsuko’s unblemished shirt.

  “Temporal magic,” Mitsuko said simply.

  “More likely an illusion. Or some sort of advanced medical spell. Or even mind magic creating and editing my memories.”

  Mitsuko sighed. She should have known this would be the response. So she cast Mend again, this time on the goblin woman’s clothing. They jolted her backwards and forced her back into a sitting position on the floor. The woman yelped and struggled against the magic, but it did her no good.

  “Did that feel like an illusion to you?” Mitsuko asked.

  “It did not.” The woman’s red tongue flicked across her lips, wetting them as she considered. “And the way my clothes folded back into the exact sitting position makes me slightly more inclined to believe you.

  “I just cut my stomach open and Mended it back together by rewinding the causality of time. But ruffling your clothes properly is what convinced you?” Mitsuko reigned in her irritation. “Whatever. Anyway, you know my qualifications now. I can reset time on a small scale.”

  “I do not recall requesting you bleed all over my floor,” Basha retorted. “But now that we have settled that, I suppose I can tell you a bit about the surrounding area. There are two ruins on the island. They’re from the time before goblins migrated to this land. If I had to guess, I would assume the northern remains are where you want to head. They’re more intact than the southern ruins. And that’s roughly the area where the father got lost and turned around. I’ll circle the location on a map for you.”

  Mitsuko waited as the woman stood and exited the room. She returned a minute later with a scroll. Unrolled, it showed a lopsided drawing of Verdant Island. Amateurish would be a generous term for cartography. But she supposed not everyone could have Holly’s skill. After Basha marked the location, she rolled it back up and passed it to Mitsuko.

  “Anything for antimagic protection?” Mitsuko asked.

  Basha snorted. “You think we just have priceless artifacts in our sock drawers? Look around yourself, girl. You’re not in a metropolis with magic shops on every corner. We’re in a swamp.”

  “Fine, I get it.” Mitsuko tucked the rolled up map under an arm. “I’ll figure something out.” She looked over to the cat lurking off in the corner. “Sterling! We’re leaving now. Let’s go.”

  With a swift farewell, Mitsuko left the wooden building behind while Sterling followed her into the town.

  “I do hope you have an adequate plan for moving forward,” he said as they walked. “It would look bad on me if you just wandered into the jungle and still lost your memory on the first loop with me returned as your guide.”

  “Making you look good is clearly my priority right now,” she replied dryly. “Do you have any actual useful advice on how to pull that off?”

  “Would you like to use a question on that?”

  Mitsuko took a few seconds to seriously consider the offer. Sterling wouldn’t put it forward if he didn’t genuinely believe he had something worth offering. As it was, she had a map guiding her to the temple but no real defense to protect herself from the island’s guardian.

  “Fuck it. Sure. Let’s use one of my two remaining questions. If it earns a free sage it will pay for itself.”

  Sterling perked up. “Excellent! You’re far too stingy with those questions, might I add. In the past I have had to manipulate you into letting me share information. Hoarding them for the perfect opportunity keeps many more doors closed that you never see without any information on hand. Knowledge today is infinitely more valuable than knowledge tomorrow.”

  “Focus, Sterling. Give me some advice on how to move forward.”

  “Honestly, if I was in your position, I would wait to tackle this specific problem. Spend a few loops training and investigate another island. At level five of Retrospection you’ll unlock the ability to rewind your own memories, removing the influence of mind magic.”

  “Good to know, but that’s three levels away,” Mitsuko said. “I want this solved now. I’m not letting these children die for the next thirty loops.”

  “Then…perhaps you might be able to bypass the attempts at mind magic. It depends on how the guardian is casting her magic. But there used to be underground tunnels that stretched across the length of Verdant Island, connecting the two ruins that the goblin woman mentioned earlier. Should you head to the south site, perhaps the tunnel might still exist. And, if not, you likely can reverse any damage with my spell.”

  Mitsuko frowned. That seemed an extreme response. “How powerful is my current version of Mend? How far back can I reverse at level seven?”

  “As I have mentioned before, though perhaps it is worth repeating, my spell’s effects have a number of factors determining its efficiency. If you are touching the object. And it's static and not alive. And has been so for long stretches of time. And the size of the object isn’t too extreme. Then perhaps…four centuries.”

  “Four hundred years!” Mitsuko repeated, loud enough to get a few looks from others in the town. She got a hold of herself. “That’s insanely powerful.”

  “It is not perfect, as I have been asleep for well over a thousand years so its possible the tunnel fell into disrepair long ago, outside your range. But hopefully it will be serviceable in this situation to remove any roadblocks that mar your path.”

  “You know, Sterling. You’re actually extremely helpful when you try. Thank you.”

  “I am currently doing my best to not end up banished in a treasure room for the next half of a year. Burpe, for example, lounges in a tower with an outlook over a bustling city. It might be repetitive over the loops, but there’s something present for him to spectate. My room lacks that sort of entertainment.”

  “Why did you choose to be stuck in a church’s basement?”

  “Would you like to use your final question on that information?” The cat looked back at her, a smirk on its face and an eyebrow slightly raised. Comically human expressions plastered on a feline body.

  “Ass.”

  15 more chapters on my !!