Even warded ones. He didn’t say this to Zach and Ibery, but the door he was trying to open was actually warded. Anything even remotely important in the academy was, including most of the doors. However, as Zorian quickly discovered when he experimented with the newly-developed skill, low-level wards were very specific — they countered a handful of common unlocking spells, and nothing else. Zorian’s little trick was not a structured spell, and thus didn’t trip these rudimentary wards at all.
The door clicked and Zorian tried the door handle again. This time the door opened without resistance.
«Wow,» said Zach as they all filed into the workshop. «You can open a lock just by pressing your hand against it for a few seconds!»
Zorian gave him a sour look. «It’s a lot more complicated than that — that’s just the visible part.»
«Oh, I don’t doubt that for a second,» Zach said.
Still, while Zach seemed very impressed with Zorian’s achievement, Ibery remained strangely quiet and kept giving him funny looks. This was why he hated telling people about his lock-picking prowess — most immediately assumed he was some kind of a thief. Well, that and he didn’t want the academy authorities to find out about his achievement. They would no doubt change their warding scheme and then he wouldn’t be able to do what he just did.
Fortunately, Ibery wasn’t as condemning as some people Zorian met in his life, and got over her suspicions quickly once he started to prepare the salve. Strangely enough, Zach didn’t know how to make one, even though it was a fairly simple thing to make and Zach had demonstrated some mightily impressive alchemical work in class. He didn’t appear all that interested in learning, either — apparently the anti-rash salve was too mundane for his tastes, and he was only interested in things like strength potions and wound closing elixirs. That sounded like trying to build a house without bothering to set up proper foundations, but it wasn’t Zorian who was a decade old time traveler. Yet.
«Aren’t those purple creeper leaves?» Ibery asked, pointing at the small pile Zorian had placed on a wet piece of cloth.
«Yes,» confirmed Zorian, wrapping the leaves into the cloth. «They’re the main ingredient, though they have to be crushed first. Alchemical manuals usually claim you have to reduce the leaves into powder but it’s not really necessary to go that far. You just have to use more leaves otherwise, but it’s not like purple creepers are in short supply…»
An hour later, the salve was done and Zach was kind enough to conjure some kind of illusionary mirror so Ibery could apply the salve on herself right then and there. Kind and sneaky, because while Ibery was busy with applying the salve on herself, Zach dragged Zorian away in the corner so he could talk to him in private.
«So?» Zorian prompted. «What is it?»
Zach reached into his pocket and pulled out a ring, which he promptly handed to Zorian. It was a featureless band of gold that reacted strangely when Zorian channeled some mana into it.
«It’s a spell formula,» Zach said.
«Magic missile?» guessed Zorian.
«That, plus shield and flamethrower,» Zach said. «Now you can use all three in actual combat.»
Zorian looked at the ring with newfound respect. There was only so much one could cram into a spell formula, and it was mostly dependant on the size of the item used as a base. Turning something as small as a ring into a spell formula for three different spells was a pretty impressive feat, even if they were relatively low-level ones.
«Must have been pretty expensive,» Zorian remarked.
«Made it myself, actually,» Zach said with a grin.
«Still, that’s a pretty valuable thing to give away to someone you’ve met less than a month ago,» said Zorian. «Why do I get the feeling I’ll be needing this in the near future?»
Zach’s smile disappeared and he suddenly became more subdued. «Maybe. I’m just making sure, you know. You never know when an angry troll might get a jump on you or something.»
«How… oddly specific,» noted Zorian. «You know, you’ve been getting steadily more nervous as the summer festival approaches. And you seem oddly interested in making sure I attend the dance.»
«You will, right?» Zach prompted.
«Yes, yes, I told you I will half a dozen times already,» huffed Zorian. «What’s so important about the dance, anyway? What’s going to happen there, oh great traveler from the future?»
«You have to see it to believe it,» Zach sighed. «It’s possibly even more implausible than time travel being real.»
«That bad?» asked Zorian, privately agreeing that an invasion of that scale was something he would have had trouble believing in if he had not lived through it.
«Just… try to survive, okay?» Zach sighed. Before Zorian could say anything else, Zach suddenly donned a mask of fake cheerfulness and spoke in a voice loud enough to be heard by Ibery. «Wow, Zorian, I’m sure glad we’ve had this talk but I should really get going now! Have to be well rested for tomorrow! Bye, Zorian! Bye, Ibery! I’ll see you both at the dance!»
And then he left. Zorian shook his head at the other boy’s exit and walked up to Ibery, who was now free of purple rash that once covered her face and neck.
«Well, I guess we should go too,» Zorian said. «The academy normally doesn’t have anyone patrolling after dark, but that idiot’s shouting may have alerted someone to our presence.»
«Oh. Um, right.»
Zorian watched Ibery as they filed out of the workshop and he used his magic trick to re-lock the door again. She seemed strangely subdued for someone who got what they wanted.
«What’s wrong?» he finally asked after a while.
«Err, nothing’s wrong,» she said. «Why do you ask?»
«You don’t seem very happy to be cured,» he noted.
«I am!» she protested. «It’s just…»
«Yes?» he prompted.
«I don’t have anyone to go to the dance with,» she said. «The boy I was hoping to go with already has someone by now.»
If her unnamed boy was Fortov (probably, considering her obvious crush on him), then yes, he most certainly did. In fact, he probably had one weeks in advance, so there was never much chance of her going with him in the first place, but he didn’t feel the need to crush her dreams like that.
«Then you’ll just have to do the same thing I will and go to the dance all by yourself, won’t you?» concluded Zorian.
She suddenly stopped and gave him an appraising glance.
«You don’t have anyone to go with, either?» she asked.
Zorian closed his eyes and swore in his head. He really walked into this one, didn’t he?
Zorian was nervous. Ever since his very first restart, he had been studiously avoiding the city on the day of the festival, not willing to get caught up in the invasion again. Being present within city limits could easily result in his grisly death, after all, and back then he wasn’t sure whether his current restart would be his last. That wasn’t an option anymore, unless he wanted to clue in Zach that there was something wrong with him (he didn’t).
Bottom line was, he was stuck attending the dance, with the unexpected addition of Ibery as his date for the evening. He wasn’t exactly happy with that, actually. He didn’t really have much of a plan for the evening, except to wait and see what would happen, but Ibery’s presence at his side would no doubt limit him. Not to mention that he still remembered his disastrous evening with Akoja, and had very little desire to live through a repeat performance, consequences-erasing time loop or not.
Speaking of his evening with Akoja, Zorian had to admit one thing about Ibery: she was a lot more reasonable and considerate than Akoja was. She didn’t drag him out of his room 2 hours before the event, or make him wait smack in the middle of the huge throng of people gathered at the entrance, or drag him off to chat with a bunch of people who only cared about him being Daimen’s and Fortov’s brother… She was also more interested in scanning the crowd for any trace of Fortov than paying attention to him, but that was okay — he was under no illusion that she had asked him out because she was actually interested in him. After a while he decided to have mercy on her and informed her that Fortov was already inside, preparing for tonight’s performance along with the other members of the academy music club.