FVN Chapter 41 - Seeker
Chapter 41 - Seeker
Mirian jerked up from her bed with a very short scream, then quietly muttered curses to herself while holding her head in her hands. Seeing that she'd woken Lily, she said, "Sorry, nightmare. Also, just remembered I have to do something, be right back." As if to punctuate her sentence, a drop of water plopped on her forehead.
She had tried not to shout, it was just that getting shot was painful. Even though the wound was gone by the time she woke, the primitive part of her brain didn't understand, it just understood lots of pain, must act.
When she came back downstairs, Lily said, "Mirian, why is their a hole in the ceiling, and how is there a hole in the ceiling, and did I see it going up to the roof before you covered it?"
"I don't know, I don't know, and yes, but don't worry I'll fix it after classes. Exams today, gotta go. You're the best though," she said, and quickly changed and left.
The month had started again, and Mirian continued to act as if this was going to be a long term thing. There was no other way to act—the Gods damned moon was going to come down, so planning for any other future was pointless. What was up with that, anyways? It all seemed far too big to even think about that part. She had to focus on the little things she could control.
The acceptance that she was in this loop for good had given her an idea. After stealing the scroll satchel from the first spy and meeting Nicolus again, Mirian skipped ecology so that she could go buy a pocket watch and stand at the base of the Myrvite Studies staircase and wait for spy two to make an appearance. She already knew he'd be taking the stairs because she'd hear him come up them.
Sure enough, she saw dark cloak number two approaching through the gardens east of the building. She mentally marked the part of the walkway where she'd first seen him and the time. She'd stand there next time. He approached with his cowl down so it was hard to get a look at his features.
"Hey," she said in Eskanar (which was one of the few words she now knew) as he walked by her into the building. That caused him to start and look up, and she got a good look at his face, though he quickly lowed his head again and rushed by her without speaking. Mirian sketched down what she had seen in her journal as best she could, making notes about the shade of blue his eyes were, a few of the freckles on his pale face, and the way his hair was styled under the hood.
Before her math exam on Firstday, Mirian thanked Professor Jei for a wonderful class before slipping her own seeker-stone in her bag. As usual, Jei left early while the proctors took over. Mirian scribbled down answers for a minute before requesting a bathroom break. Once outside, she activated her seeker device, a rough fan-looking thing of brass, wood, and silver wire. Lights along the edge of the fan shape lit up in the direction of the stone.
The lights pointed her towards Bainrose. She hurried over to the courtyard, and just caught a glimpse of Jei walking into the castle before the lights in the device went dead. Either the thick stone walls were interfering, or the distance had grown too long.
She stashed her device under her cloak and walked quickly, trying to catch up without looking too suspicious. The guard in the plaza was usually not standing in front of Bainrose—no guard was posted there until night, when the doors locked. Today, he was standing right in front of the barbican. He leaned his halberd against the wall, adjusted his belt, then stood at attention again. It looked like normal behavior—but maybe not. Was he in charge of signaling when Jei passed? She recognized him as the guard she'd talked to that first cycle, the one who had been totally apathetic. Was he a spy, or just a traitor?
Mirian walked past him into the library, quickly passing the front desk to duck behind one of the towering shelves. She pulled out the tracking device again. The light in the center blinked faintly, then stopped again. She probably went to the basement already, Mirian decided, and hastened her steps. When she got to the second basement level and pulled out the device again, it was dead. She wondered if she'd jostled lose a part, and traced the silver wires to make sure their connections were intact. Seems good. Maybe there's too much metal in the walls. Or maybe she has some spell that disables them. But if she did, wouldn't she have used it on the Akanan seeker-stones?
She'd lost Professor Jei though, so she reluctantly returned to Griffin Hall. "Sorry," she told the proctor. "Last night's dinner did not agree with me."
The proctor sighed. "I really didn't need to know that."
Mirian sat back down and resumed her work, though she spent most of her time thinking about the problems in the back half of the exam. When she looked at the first few problems, her mind automatically started thinking about what steps she needed to take to solve them. When she looked at the last problems, there was no mental tool that came to mind. It just looked like there wasn't enough information. And maybe there isn't, she realized. It's using one of the four-dimensional coordinate arrays, but half the information is just... missing? How did she get the first half? And why don't they know the second? If she could just get Jei to tell her about the secret project....
But already, her questions for Jei would have to wait for the next cycle. If Professor Jei wasn't already dead this cycle, she soon would be.