«I agree with the morlock,» the matriarch said, refusing to rise to Kael’s provocation. «It is highly implausible that you’d be able to bring us into the time loop as you are now.»
«You’ve completely lost me at this point,» Zorian complained. «What do you want, then?»
«My idea was to store memory packets in your mind, allowing your soul to ferry them when the time resets itself,» the matriarch said nonchalantly. «It’s not quite as good as having your entire soul sent back, but it would be good enough for my purposes.»
«And I would agree to that… why?» asked Zorian suspiciously. That sounded like it would require some serious messing with his mind. Far more than he was comfortable with, in any case.
«I’m sure I can find something to tempt you with,» the matriarch said, punctuating her message with a mental shrug. «You need information about the loop that I have. You want to learn how to control your empathy. You need my help in countering the invaders. Need I go on?»
Zorian sighed and turned to Kael instead of answering her.
«I wanted to connect you with some people and have you figure out, with their help, how your connection with Zach works. Then you could apply that knowledge to bring me into the time loop,» said Kael. «It would probably take quite a few restarts, and I don’t have anything nearly as tempting as our esteemed matriarch over there, but on the other hand it is something that will definitely help you learn more about this time loop in the process.»
Left unsaid was that those people Kael wanted to connect him with were probably all necromancers and that having them mess around with his soul was every bit as dangerous as letting the aranea screw around with his mind, and possibly more so.
«I see,» sighed Zorian. «Well, I’ll set aside Kael’s proposal for now, since that’s not what we came here to discuss.»
«That’s fine with me,» Kael said quickly. «I still have a lot to think about in that regard.»
«Right,» said Zorian. «Then let’s move on to the details of the matriarch’s proposal. Just out of curiosity, do you have a name? If we’re going to do business, especially so sensitive, I’d like to know who exactly I’m talking to.»
The matriarch didn’t answer verbally. Instead, she sent a short burst of telepathy containing the same sort of psychedelic jumble of images and concepts that the less-skilled aranea bombarded him with in the initial greeting. Thankfully, this particular burst wasn’t painful, just confusing — probably because it was so relatively short. After mentally dissecting the chaotic message in his head, he realized this was the name he asked for. Translating the concepts into something appropriate for human communication proved a bit of a challenge, however.
«Spear of Resolve Striking Straight at the Heart of the Matter?» questioned Zorian curiously.
«As good an approximation of my real name as any,» said the matriarch. «And yes, I know that’s too unwieldy to use in human conversation. Your language is very crude, so it’s hard to translate aranea names into it without ending up with such overdramatic-sounding drivel. You can just continue calling me ‘matriarch’ and I won’t hold it against you.»
Kael snorted derisively at the matriarch’s swipe against human speech, but didn’t say anything. Zorian, for his part, was considering how to proceed.
«Alright then,» said Zorian. «You told me that there is a reason why you took the time loop seriously. Why don’t you tell us what you mean by that.»
Before the matriarch could answer, a loud roar pierced through the relative silence of the tunnel, quickly followed by several more similar ones. Color drained out of Zorian’s face as he realized the identity of the creatures that produced the roar.
A band of war trolls were coming their way.
Chapter 18
The Pact is Sealed
He should have known, really — every time he got even slightly closer to getting to the bottom of this mess, some complication sprang up to hamper his progress. It was uncanny. He was half-tempted to conclude the (as of yet unconfirmed) third time-traveler was messing with him, but he would have expected something far more decisive than a pack of war trolls if that were the case.
…and now that he thought about it, it was kind of scary how radically his perspective must have shifted during the last year if he started considering troll war bands a nuisance rather than an existential threat.
[Not this again,] the aranea matriarch complained telepathically. [How do those things keep finding us? I had the whole web warded against divinations and everything…]
Zorian filed in the back of his mind the fact that this wasn’t the first time the matriarch encountered the war trolls, but at the moment he didn’t really have enough time to consider that little tidbit in any appreciable detail. He exchanged a knowing look with Kael, and then they both turned around and started running in the direction they came from. Zorian motioned for the aranea to follow after them, and received a thought of assent from the matriarch in turn.
[We can’t outrun them,] the matriarch noted as they ran. [Especially us aranea — aside from short bursts of speed, we’re actually a lot slower than humans.]
[It’s fine,] Zorian thought, certain that the aranea would pick up on it. [Me and Kael prepared a couple of surprises for pursuers behind us. They should slow the trolls down enough for us to reach the surface.]
[Ah. An insurance against me in case the talks turned sour?] the matriarch surmised. [You hid it well from my surface scans. I would have been caught totally off-guard if I had truly planned to double-cross you. Then again, I don’t think I could have caught up to you if you decided to run anyway, so it was mostly a wasted effort. Or would have been, had there been no war trolls.]
[Information on aranea running speed is a tad hard to come by in human books,] Zorian thought irritably, slowing down to let the aranea overtake him. They were just about to pass the first trap and he didn’t want to seal the aranea on the other side of the forcefield along with the trolls. [Can’t you use your mind magic to pacify those things?]
The war trolls rounded a corner in a tightly-packed mass of green flesh, howling like lunatics and waving their huge swords and maces around like they were twigs, but Zorian was ready at that point. He sent a pulse of mana into the pair of nearby cubes covered with sigils and a sheet of force sealed the corridor. It wouldn’t last long if a bunch of trolls kept beating at it, but he never counted on it being an insurmountable obstacle in the first place.
[Sadly, whoever is controlling them has learned to shield their minds against us after the first few conflicts,] the matriarch said. [It’s not foolproof, but we won’t be able to pick their defenses apart before they smash us into pulp.]
There was a terrible racket behind them, and Zorian chanced a glance back to the barrier to see what was happening. The sight that greeted him brought a pleased smile to his lips — the trolls had apparently failed to arrest their momentum properly and ended up crashing head-first into the barrier. Probably because the relatively narrow corridor didn’t allow the trolls to advance in a single line and the ones in the back didn’t let the ones in the front break up the mad charge. Or maybe they just didn’t recognize the forcefield for what it was? No matter, the point was that they were currently all tangled on the floor in a great big confused mass, and would take some time to reorganize. That should give them enough of a lead to escape cleanly, even with the slowpoke aranea weighing them down.