«Zorian?» she suddenly asked.
«Yeah?» he sighed.
«Why do you study so hard?» she asked, giving him a curious look. «Even though nothing really matters in this time loop you’re stuck in, you still keep working all the time. Don’t you want to have fun from time to time?»
«You’re wrong,» Zorian said. «First of all, everything matters. You are what you do, and if I were to start doing stupid things just because there is seemingly no consequence for them, those actions would eventually come to define me. Secondly… I actually find studying fun. Well, maybe not all of it, but you get the idea.» There was a short silence, but Kirielle seemed reluctant to continue the conversation, even though she clearly wanted to say something. Zorian decided to help her out. «Why do you ask? Is there something you would rather be doing?»
Kirielle’s eyes darted between him and the pile of drawings on the floor several times, before she finally reached a decision. She scooped up the papers into a neat stack and promptly plopped into Zorian’s lap.
«Can you look at my drawings and tell me what you think?» she asked excitedly.
Oh. Well that wasn’t too bad. He never paid much attention to her drawings, especially since she tended to hide them whenever he tried to get a better look, but from what he had glimpsed they were pretty good. Hell, he was feeling in a good mood so he wouldn’t even mock her… too… much…
Damn.
Zorian watched and listened in silence and Kirielle animatedly showed off the fruits of her labor, explaining what the drawings represented. Not that she needed to do so, because the drawings were frighteningly realistic. She wasn’t just good — she was freaking amazing. Zorian could swear he was looking at drawings of a professional artist rather than some childish drawings of his little sister. One of the drawings was a very detailed scene of Cyoria’s cityscape that was so chock full of little details that Zorian was shocked Kirielle actually had the patience to put them down to paper, never mind draw them properly.
«Kirielle, those are absolutely amazing,» he said honestly. He had intended to make a few jabs at her skill at first, but he honestly couldn’t see anything remotely worth mocking in these. «Why on earth is mother not bragging to everyone about having a budding little artist for a daughter?»
Kirielle shifted uncomfortably in his lap. «Mother doesn’t approve of me drawing. She won’t buy me any supplies and she yells at me whenever she catches me doing that.»
Zorian gave her a baffled look. What? Why on earth would she do that? Mother was close-minded and status-obsessed, but not actively malicious or anything. He picked up Kirielle’s stack of drawings and leafed through it again, stopping at a very nice portrait of Byrn, the boy he and Kirielle interacted with on the train to Cyoria. Kirielle had never even seen the boy after that day, yet she was able to create a very faithful rendition of him, presumably by working from memory alone.
«Wait,» he said suddenly. «Is that why you keep stealing my notebooks and writing supplies?»
«Ah! I thought you didn’t even notice,» she admitted. «Since you never complained about it to mother. Thanks for that, by the way.»
Well, he never said anything because he thought mother wouldn’t do anything about it, even if she knew. But hey, all was well that ended well, and he certainly wasn’t going to tell Kirielle the truth and destroy whatever gratitude he just earned…
«What about the books, then? I suppose she disapproved of those too?» Zorian guessed.
«Yeah,» Kirielle said, clutching her drawings close to her chest. «She won’t buy me any. She says a lady shouldn’t waste time with such things.»
That he actually expected, truth be told. Mother didn’t like it when he spent his time reading, so he imagined she would be none too happy to see her darling daughter picking up such a hobby. Still didn’t explain why she didn’t want Kirielle to draw, though.
«Well, that’s mother for you,» said Zorian. She seemed to be getting rather upset, and Zorian could totally understand. It would appear her situation had more similarities to his own than he had ever dreamed about. «Don’t worry about it. It was the same with me at first. She’ll lay off once she sees she can’t bully you into submission.»
«It’s not the same!» Kirielle suddenly snapped at him.
Now what?
«Kiri…»
«You don’t get it! It’s not the same because you’re away from home most of the year and she can’t do anything to you while you’re away! You and Daimen and Fortov are here, learning magic and doing whatever you want, and I’ll never get to do that!» She buried her head in Zorian’s chest, her tiny little fingers digging painfully into his arms. «It’s not the same because I’m a girl…»
Zorian wrapped his arms around Kirielle, rocking her gently to calm her down while he digested what she was telling him. Finally, a realization hit him. Traditionalists in Cirin often held a view that educating female children was a waste of time and money. Hell, some of them even went against the law and refused to send their daughters into elementary school to learn how to read and write! It didn’t help that mage academies tended to be rather expensive, even lower quality ones…
«They aren’t going to send you to a mage academy…» Zorian concluded out loud.
Kirielle shook her head, her face still buried in his chest.
«They say I don’t need it,» she said, sniffing sadly. «They already have a marriage arranged for me for when I turn 15.»
«Well isn’t that nice for them,» said Zorian coldly. «You know what, Kiri? You’re right. It’s not the same. I had to defy mother and father all by myself… you, on the other hand, have me.»
Kirielle peeled her face from his chest and gave him a searching look.
«You never wanted to help me before,» she accused. «Every time I asked you to teach me magic you blew me off.»
«I didn’t know what you were dealing with,» Zorian shrugged. «I thought you were just impatient and didn’t want to waste my time on something you were going to learn in due time anyway. But rest assured, if mother and father don’t change their minds over the years, you will always have a teacher in me.»
She stared at him for a few seconds before she snatched one of his arms by the wrist and gripped it in an oath-making position.
«Promise?» she asked.
Zorian squeezed her hand tighter, eliciting a yelp from her.
«Promise,» he confirmed.
Two days before the summer festival, Kael finally laid out his plan to Zorian. It was a lot less concrete than the matriarch’s one, and basically involved talking to a number of individuals that Kael thought might know something about soul magic or time travel. None of them were in Cyoria, though, and would require Zorian to basically blow off school in order to travel across the country (and in some cases even across borders). The morlock also hinted that he knew a couple of individuals living in the Great Northern Forest, but he admitted it might be a bad idea to visit those until he could actually defend himself properly. Zorian memorized the names and locations, but it would be a while until he could visit any of them.
The end of the restart was totally uneventful — He, Kirielle, Kael and Kana boarded the train heading out of Cyoria on the night of the festival and spent the last remaining hours playing card games to pass the time. Imaya refused to go with them, which was fairly unsurprising, giving the suddenness of their request and the sketchy nature of their warnings.
And then, like always, Zorian woke up in Cirin, Kirielle wishing him a good morning. He didn’t take her with him this time, which turned out to be a good idea, as Zach did indeed come to class in that particular restart. The other time traveler tried to strike up a conversation with him, but Zorian was determined to avoid him and gave him a cold shoulder. After a few days, Zach seemed to admit defeat and gave up, but Zorian could see that the other boy was watching him way more closely than he did most people. Zorian’s freedom to act as he saw fit was consequently somewhat limited, and he mostly amused himself with honing his shaping skills, combat magic, divinations, and spell formula. Taiven was not informed of the ‘rumors’ behind giant telepathic spiders in the sewers, as he didn’t want to meet the matriarch just yet.