Chapter XXXVIII (38)

  “What are you in for?” Xeri, the bitelas woman imprisoned for arson, asked from the next cell over.

  “Murder.”

  “Who?”

  “An ex who stalked me and killed my cat.”

  “Nice. Did you do it?”

  “Definitely. And I’ll do it again.” There was little doubt of that necessity. If Akuto found her in a future loop, Mitsuko would kill him again rather than deal with him.

  Xeri started ranting about ex-boyfriends and how they were absolutely impossible to deal with. She told the tale of her arrest for Mitsuko again, this time going into embellished detail about the underwear in question. Despite herself, Mitsuko chuckled when the bitelas woman got into the details. It turned out that insectoid anatomy was both very different, yet still very similar to that of human anatomy.

  Mitsuko found herself chatting with Xeri, surprised by just how much she enjoyed it. Telling stories to most people about horrible dates would be awkward and uncomfortable, but Xeri remained attentive and commiserate with her as she told tales about her own terrible experiences. Mitsuko was midway through a story that involved freshwater fish breeding, cake, and escaping a kappa’s lake while naked, when the prison door opened. The sound cut off their storytelling and a guard walked in.

  Unlike in her first loop. The bitelas guard was completely unsympathetic to her current plight. He questioned her stiffly and she replied, telling him about Akuto stalking her and then killing her cat. He nodded curtly at her explanations then, of all things, he reprimanded her for scarring the children of the city. Apparently, a lot of children across the city were reenacting her display of violence and several of the girls were arrested for threatening boys. He let slip that he found his own child was being bullied as a result. Somewhat endearingly, Mitsuko got the impression he was very protective of his son. But immediately after recovering from that slip up of his personal life, he dismissed himself without another word.

  Xeri whistled from her cell next door.

  “Damn. You really did it. I wish I had that amount of guts. And you’re even a celebrity with the kids. Are you expecting the Hon Emperor to politic you out of here?”

  “Maybe.” Honestly, Sasaki’s interference hadn’t even come to mind. She supposed the Hon Emperor probably could get her released into his custody and result in a simple banishment for her from the archipelago. If only he wasn’t on the wrong side of the dome. He’d be no help at all until after the Prismatic Spiral ended.

  “What a pain,” a familiar haughty voice said.

  Mitsuko quickly looked around her cell for a cat. Instead, she spotted a malnourished mouse slowly limping its way to her.

  “Sterling?”

  “The one and only Mend Sage. Known throughout his nation and beyond as one of the greatest temporal mages of all time.” He finished his journey up to her boot and collapsed on the stone floor, body heaving in exhaustion.

  “Why a mouse? And why that mouse of all things?” Then before he answered, she quickly amended her statement. “Not my question.”

  “Prison guards have been using an exterminator’s poison for the nearby pests. It’s killed just about every creature in a kilometer radius of this place.”

  “Poison?”

  “It seems to be a near molecular use of sand elemental spellcraft. There are tiny little pieces of glass in all of the prison water. Humans wouldn’t notice, but smaller creatures take the toll of it harshly.”

  The mouse body squeaked a cough as it gulped down another breath.

  “The entire strategy is idiotic,” Sterling continued. “Just because you don’t notice immediate effects, does not mean that the water is safe for consumption. There will be long term health problems in the area from this. Not to mention the destruction of the local wildlife habitats. It all circles back.”

  “Well, I’m glad you’re back, regardless,” Mitsuko said. And she meant it. It had been weird not having the sage within a stone’s throw away. His prattle and constant complaints loosened tension that had built from her confrontation with Akuto.

  “You have terrible taste in men,” Sterling said.

  “So I’ve been told.” She hesitated, then decided to confide in the sage. “I actually did go for a really decent guy once. But I realized he was in love with his friend. Neither of them knew it at the time, but it was pretty obvious.”

  “Men are like chamberpots,” Xeri said, overhearing her statement. “They’re either already in use, or full of shit.”

  “Elegant,” Sterling said dryly. “I see you wasted no time replacing my witty banter with something far inferior. Who is this new friend of yours?”

  “Xeri,” Mitsuko said. “Where do you place my odds of a successful prison break? Just out of curiosity. I’m thinking about ditching this place.”

  “Next to nothing,” the bitelas woman said. “You said you don’t know any magic while chatting and telling your story earlier. I assume they confiscated that enchanted ring of yours that you used to kill your ex. The cells are laced with antimagic, so even if you did know a trick or two, you’d struggle to get out of here.”

  “Antimagic is not commonly applicable to temporal spells,” Sterling said. “There are of course exceptions but most mages casting antimagic spells don’t understand the nuances of temporal magic well enough to adapt it to their spells. It’s a known weakness of most antimagic that’s rarely exploited due to the scarcity of our craft. However, you’re right to think this perhaps may serve as a nice little training exercise. I applaud your work ethic.”

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Mitsuko had no idea how to make her one Mend spell useful in this situation. It didn’t break anything. She decided to test it out, casting it on the stone floor beneath her feet. She pressed it hard, willing anything at all to happen. It exceeded beyond any point of her spells before, transforming the floor into an earlier version of itself. But unfortunately, all that meant for her was that the patch of stone was now a slightly lighter shade and less worn than the rest of the floor.

  “How far can I transport something back in time with my current level of spell?” Mitsuko asked quietly.

  “Hm. At level four? Oh, I’d say a month. Two at most.”

  “A month!”

  “Until your trial?” Xeri asked. “Well if that’s the case, good for you. Maybe your emperor buddy will show up by then.”

  “A month if you push to the limit, as you just did on a patch of ground that size. There’s an extremely complex equation in relation to the size of the object and the amount of change it’s gone through in proportion to what you can muster at your current level of spellcraft. I doubt you will understand if I start spouting off numbers. So, simply put in layman's speech – bigger numbers equals harder. Also more movement equals harder. But your growth is always exponential per level.”

  “Thank you so much for dumbing it down for my simple mind,” Mitsuko said dryly.

  “I do my best to be considerate of your needs.”

  “Just so you know, I doubt your current body would be fast enough to avoid my boot squashing it.”

  In response, Sterling backed away, but he still kept his rodent head held high. “Unnecessary hostility for my kindness. Death does still hurt a great deal. I feel the pain of this vessel. Your former fiance’s choice of killing me was extraordinarily unpleasant. I finished bleeding out half a minute while you continued to converse, laboring for breath every second of it.”

  “You should have just left the body.”

  “Perhaps…but I, ah, did not want to. I needed to hear your conversation. It was simply unfortunate that I still passed before its conclusion. But I take it you killed that horrid man?”

  Mitsuko frowned and examined the cat. Sterling was fidgeting. It could be the illness in his new body, but the sage rarely lost his composure.

  “You’re lying,” she accused him. Then it hit her. “You didn’t want the cat to feel the pain. You feel guilty about getting it killed.”

  “Logically, that should not matter. The loop will reset and the cat will return to its happy life abandoning ship alongside yourself in a few days time. Assuming you don’t die before then.”

  “Logically?”

  “Ah…well, I am not a monster.” The rat avoided her gaze and lowered his voice, as if in defeat. “And logic is not something we humans are particularly talented at. At least, not on mass. And the outliers are not examples I believe should be idolized or replicated by the general population.”

  Mitsuko considered that, a bit surprised by the answer, especially since he seemed to consider himself part of a ‘general population.’ But, after a moment of hesitation, decided not to press him on it. Instead, she turned her attention back to her neighbor.

  “Xeri, do you know anything about how to get to other islands in the archipelago right now?”

  “How soon are we talking? When do you want to be gone?”

  “Like, yesterday.”

  “So while the dome is down? Hm. I know of one ship that will take anyone anywhere for a good price. Break me out of here and I’ll put in a good word for you.”

  “It’s not…The Terror, by any chance is it?”

  “Oh? You know it already? Yeah, they’re the best smugglers. Even the guild knows they’re smugglers, but can’t place enough evidence on them to pin them down for fines or any real repercussions. They’re definitely the ones to go to if you want to get around discreetly and quickly. Especially since I heard the guild has locked down the shipping routes.”

  “Considering your future routes?” Sterling asked. “Glad to hear you’re not simply focusing on one prize at the moment. Planning access to other sage locations is an exemplary use of your current downtime.”

  “Xeri, do you know anything about a sixth island in the archipelago?”

  “Sixth island?” The bitelas woman laughed, a buzzing rhythmic noise. “You been listening to children’s tales? Afraid even The Terror won’t be able to carry you to the mythical Azure Island.”

  She continued to laugh but Mitsuko didn’t mind in the slightest. She now had a new lead. The Azure Island. And if it was part of children’s tales, then she might be able to get the information about it pretty easily.

  “And the other islands? You think the ship can take me to any of them?”

  “Hm.” Xeri stopped chortling to consider. “Maybe not Amber. Those wizards have sticks up their asses and don’t give their coordinates out. But Ashen, Verdant, and Porcelain should all be easy enough. If you want my recommendation, go to Verdant.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “Best place for outlaws. You want to avoid Mauve guards chasing you down? That’s the place to go. The residents hate Mauve. Though, to be fair, they hate most people. So you’ll need to lay low there. But it’s so big that shouldn’t be an issue. Lots of dense jungle and swamp to hide in. Rogue Port there usually puts up with outsiders as well, so long as they don’t drag their problems onto the island with them when they show up.”

  Before Mitsuko could ask for more details, the prison door opened and a guard approached her. He frowned and examined her through the bars of her cell.

  “Got someone who wants to talk to you. Mitsuko’s your name, right?”

  She let out a sigh. So Holly had finally scryed her and noticed her in prison. That should be fine. She could talk Holly out of doing anything too crazy.

  “Yes. Of course.”

  “Good, put these on.”

  He tossed a pair of shackles through the bars. Mitsuko recognized them immediately, though she rarely was required to wear them. The metal cuffs were laced with antimagic. An expensive enchantment that few could afford. Whenever she’d been captured in the past, her guards usually correctly identified her as a low risk prisoner. At least, in comparison to her average companions. Normal steel usually worked just as well on her.

  Still, she clicked them on and raised her wrists to show her submission. The guard eyed her warily, clearly suspicious of a trap. But he still unlocked her cell door and escorted her from the prison.

  As she left, Mitsuko spared a glance back at Xeri. The bitelas woman gave her a wink. A disconcerting facial expression on an insectoid. Mitsuko thought most bugs didn’t usually even have eyelids to wink with.

  Sterling struggled after her. Attempting to keep up with the guard’s long legged pace. But after hauling himself up one of the steps leading up, he gave up and lay there, body heaving with each labored breath.

  Before she let her mind wander any further, the guard brought her to an interrogation room. The walls were covered in one-way scrying mirrors. To her, they simply reflected like a normal mirror. But other guards watched on the other side, waiting for her to make a wrong move.

  That was to be expected. Pretty standard for most interrogation rooms. What she didn’t expect was the room’s occupant. Not Holly, like she’d predicted.

  Her pa sat across the table from her. Face wrinkled and now missing more hair from his previously balding head. His jacket was wellworn and his eyes tired. Still he gave her a smile as she was forced into the seat adjacent from him.

  “Mitsuko,” he said. Then he paused and took in a deep breath, as if he wanted to relish the moment. “My daughter. I missed you so much.”

  “Fuck. You.”

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