Zorian wordlessly gestured for Taiven to come inside before slowly closing the door and shuffling after her. He could feel her impatience at his sluggish pace, but he paid it no heed. He was deliberately stalling, trying to decide what to do.
He fully intended to have a chat with the weird telepathic spiders that inhabited the sewers, but it would be lunacy to go there at this point. There was no guarantee they would be as friendly as they were the last time, and their mind magic made them dangerous even within a time loop. He needed a way to protect his mind before venturing into Cyoria’s underworld, and so far he had only found one ward that protected the caster’s mind in the academy archives. Unfortunately, that particular ward blocked everything related to the mind, mind-based communication spells included. He needed something more selective than that.
But just because he was unwilling to descend into the Dungeon didn’t mean he was content to let Taiven get herself killed by going there either. He wasn’t sure why he cared, exactly — pragmatically speaking, he shouldn’t be bothered, since everything would be reset in a couple of days and she’d be fine again. Still, he was bothered, and since he was forced to have this conversation repeatedly every few days, he could as well find a way to talk her out of going.
He didn’t think for a moment it was going to be easy. Taiven was possibly even more stubborn than Zach.
«So, Taiven, how is life treating you?» he began.
«Eh, so so,» she sighed. «I am trying to secure an apprenticeship but it’s not going all that well. You know how it goes. I got Nirthak to take me as his class assistant this year, so there is that. You wouldn’t happen to have taken non-magical combat as one of your electives?»
«Nope,» Zorian answered cheerfully.
«Figures,» Taiven rolled her eyes. «You really should have, you know? Girls—»
«…love boys who exercise, yes, yes,» Nodded Zorian sagely. «Why are you here, Taiven? You tracked me down here even though I only moved in yesterday and never told anyone which room here is mine. I suppose you used a divination to find me?»
«Uh, yeah,» Taiven confirmed. «Pretty easy thing to do, really.»
«Aren’t these rooms supposed to have some sort of basic warding scheme placed on them?» Zorian inquired.
«I’m pretty sure it’s just rudimentary stuff like fire prevention and basic detection fields to warn the staff about fighting in the hallway and attempted demon summonings and what not,» Taiven shrugged. «Anyway, I’m here to ask you to join me and a couple of others on a job tomorrow.»
Zorian said nothing, patiently listening as she said her sales pitch. It was actually on Monday, not tomorrow — Taiven’s definition of ‘tomorrow’ differed greatly from the standard definition — but other than that, she was actually fairly honest in her explanation of the situation. She even mentioned that there was a small chance they might encounter something very nasty in there, but empathized that she and her friends were totally capable of confronting anything they may find there. Right.
«Anything?» Asked Zorian suspiciously. «You know, I happen to have read up on magical spider breeds, and they can be pretty powerful. A single grey hunter has been known to wipe out entire hunting parties of mages, and they’re no larger than a human at their biggest. Phase spiders can literally jump on you out of nowhere and drag you off into their own private pocket dimension. Some of the breeds are even sentient and have mind magic at their disposal.»
The last one was a joke in more ways than one. Dungeon ecology was a giant mystery, even to mages that specialized in it, and information about monsters that made their home there was very scarce. As such, it was probably not surprising that he could find nothing on sentient telepathic spiders in the academy library, even after conscripting Ibery and Kirithishli on the effort.
Was it just him, or was the academy library a lot less useful than he had imagined it to be? Every time he tried to find something there he got disappointed. Then again, the things he was trying to find information on lately tended to be obscure, borderline illegal or both.
«Oh please,» Taiven snorted dismissively. «Don’t be so paranoid. As if something like that could be right below Cyoria. We won’t be delving into the Dungeon’s depths, for Gods’ sake.»
«I don’t think you should go at all,» Zorian insisted. «I’m getting a really bad feeling about this.»
Taiven rolled her eyes, an undercurrent of annoyance in her voice. «Funny. I never took you for a superstitious guy.»
«Time changes people,» Zorian said solemnly, smiling at his private joke before straightening his features into a serious expression. «But seriously: I’m getting a really bad feeling about this. Is this really worth getting yourself killed over?»
Apparently this was a wrong approach to take, as Taiven’s temper flared immediately. He supposed she perceived his comment as an insult towards her skills as a mage. Before he could apologize and rephrase his argument she was already shouting at him.
«I’m not going to die!» Taiven shouted irritably. «Gods, you sound just like my father! I’m not a little girl and I don’t need to be protected! If you didn’t want to come you should have just said so instead of lecturing me!» She stomped off angrily, muttering to herself about conceited brats and wasted time.
Zorian winced as Taiven slammed the door behind her. He wasn’t sure why she had reacted so strongly to his words, but apparently pointing out the potential danger of the job was ineffective and only pissed her off.
Oh well, he didn’t expect to succeed on the first try anyway.
«Hi Roach!»
«It is a good thing you came, Taiven,» Zorian said with a grave expression. «Come in, we have much to talk about.»
Taiven raised an eyebrow at his behavior before shrugging and sauntering inside. Zorian tried to project a serious, ominous presence about himself, but it seemed to amuse her more than anything.
«So… I gather you wanted to see me then?» she asked. «I guess you’re lucky I decided to drop by, then?»
«Not quite,» Zorian said. «I knew you would come today, just as I know you’re here to conscript me into joining you for a sewer run.»
«It’s not a—» Taiven began, only to get interrupted by Zorian before she could gather steam.
«A sewer run,» Zorian repeated. «Retrieving a pocket watch guarded by some very dangerous spiders from the top layer of the Dungeon under the city.»
«Who told you that?» asked Taiven after several seconds of bewildered pause. «How could they possibly know? I told nobody where I’m going or why I’m visiting you.»
«Nobody told me,» Zorian said. «I had a vision about this meeting… and about what will happen should you descend into the tunnels.»
Well, it was true in a way…
«A vision?» Taiven said incredulously, disbelievingly.
Zorian nodded gravely. «I have never told you this before, but I have prophetic powers. I receive visions of the future from time to time, seeing glimpses of important events that will affect me personally in the days ahead.»
It wasn’t completely implausible — people like that did exist in the world, though their powers were quite a bit more limited than what he had at his disposal thanks to the time loop. From what he understood, their visions were less of a detailed recording of the future and more of a general outline of some upcoming event. The future was always changing, always uncertain, and trying to get a clear image of it was like trying to grasp a fistful of sand — the more you squeeze, the more things slip past your fingers.
Unfortunately, while being prophetic was not impossible, Taiven clearly wasn’t buying his claim.