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Chapter 250 - Benansuo
🕑 Added 2025-09-24 19:02:07 +0000 UTCThey waited in a restaurant for Gabriel to return from his task in the city. Jei continued to order new dishes for them to try, while Mirian and Ibrahim continued to stack bowls of finished food. Ibrahim’s stack of bowls was, Mirian was disappointed to see, higher than hers.
The air smelled like crispy pork, boiled fish, unfamiliar spices, and black tea.
Feng shook his head at the two. “So you really were restraining yourselves from eating during the trip.”
Ibrahim finished slurping down some sort of soup made from the eggs of a myrvite bird Mirian had never heard of and slammed his bowl into the stack. “Delicious! I hope we do find a Gate here. I’m going to try ever restaurant in the city.”
Gabriel walked in, eying Ibrahim suspiciously. “Alright, I talked to a bunch of people, said a bunch of common code words, passed around some money, and now we wait. I figure it’ll take a day or two. Then one of the local bureau chiefs will chat with me, and he’ll say something about following protocol, and I’ll give an impassioned speech about not letting protocol get in the way of an emergency… anyways, it usually works. All these bureau chiefs are a type. Oh, gross, what is that?”
“Koiso fish liver. Comes from the islands off the coast,” Feng said.
“Eugh. No thanks.”
“Try the crispy pork and that rice with the sauce,” Mirian said, gesturing.
“Now we’re talking,” he said, sitting down heavily. “Anyways, I also stopped by the Akanan Embassy, and they said there was a bunch of weird stuff going on at the palace. The Zhighuans are, apparently, ‘up to something.’ So I’m sure we’ll have to deal with some sort of annoying… thing. I don’t know. How many conspiracies are running in parallel? Can we toss in another one, you know, for fun?”
Gaius pretended to sip his tea.
Ibrahim burped loudly—this was a sign of respect for the cook in north Persama—and leaned back in his chair. “This is why all the conspirators should be dragged out into daylight and executed in the public squares.”
“A revolution’s just a bigger, worse funded conspiracy,” Gabriel shot back. “The trick is to convince the elites—who are always conspiring, it’s called ‘talking’—to think in the long term so that you can guide them on a more reasonable path. Executions should be reserved for people that can’t take a hint as an instructive lesson.”
Feng was growing uncomfortable with the conversation. He asked in a low voice, “Is this what… people like you talk about?”
Mirian nodded. “The world isn’t coming out in the same shape as when it entered this crisis. It can’t.”
Jei looked like she was about to say something, but then the door burst open.
A woman looked around the restaurant, her eyes instantly settling on the group. She was wearing a black tangzhuang that was decorated in gold with sinuous myrvite constellations made up of stylistic stars. Her silver hair was cut short, and she had a red scepter with a golden crystal orb set in it held loosely in her hand.
Jei stood up so suddenly her chair tilted over and crashed to the ground. “Zhuan Li!” she exclaimed.
The woman’s eyes went wide, then narrowed again. “Song Jei?”
Mirian’s spellbook appeared in her hand beneath the table. In a second, she confirmed her guess. The woman’s soul was moving in a strange, fractal current; it was the most organized she’d seen a soul move, looking more like a dervish stance at work than a natural flow. More importantly, she saw the hole in it where the pattern flowed around.
“Another Prophet,” she said.
“What?” Gabriel exclaimed.
“Makes sense,” Ibrahim said. “One in each region.” He stood, and bowed respectfully. In clipped Gulwenen, he said, “Chosen Zhuan Li, I am Ibrahim Kalishah of Persama. My pleasure to make your acquaintance.”
“Mirian Castrella. Of Baracuel.”
“Balls,” Gabriel said.
Mirian kicked him under the table.
“Ow! Shit. Right, yeah, I’m Gabriel Arjen, welcome to—how in the five fucking hells did you find us so fast?”
Gaius was looking at Song Jei. “You know Zhuan Li?” he said.
“The name sounds familiar… vaguely. Jei… you’ve mentioned her.”
“The foremost Zhighuan scholar in research on Viaterria. Her work on political theory is also fascinating,” her father said.
Zhuan looked at the group arrayed before her. Briefly, the crystal orb glowed faintly. “Four—no, three Exalted. You haven’t visited before. What are you doing here?”
“Would have come sooner, but there’s a bunch of hungry animals in the jungle and I wanted to make sure they all got fed first,” Gabriel said.
“We’re looking for Elder Gates, primarily,” Mirian said, ignoring the other Prophet. “Large four-dimensional objects, made by the Elder Gods, often buried or trapped in volcanic rock.”
Zhuan’s brow furrowed. “Yes, I know where one is. But we can’t escape with them, so what’s the point? We need one of the Viaterrian Chiminan Behemoths.”
Gaius tapped his chin thoughtfully. Mirian said, “What? Escape?”
“Yes.” Zhuan Li looked at them. Then she said something rapidly, and this time, there were too many words in Gulwenen Mirian didn’t know. She looked to Jei.
Jei translated it to Adamic. “She said, ‘I imagine our strategic planning has diverged significantly as we analyzed regional dialectical shifts, and based on available research and our biases within the intelligentsia. Did you approach tasks by shaping discreet entities, or holistic-popular ones?’”
“Ah, Adamic. I can do that,” Zhuan said.
Ibrahim frowned. “I don’t understand that.”
Gabriel brightened. “I did. It’s… am I the only one who’s read her work?”
“I have,” Gaius volunteered.
“Right, I should explain it then—”
Mirian cleared her throat. “Would you like to join us?”
“No. I’m busy. You should join me,” Zhuan said. “Though the experiment this branch is probably ruined. New variables don’t always cause a qualitative shift. I suppose it will be something new. Song Jei, are they trustworthy?”
Jei swallowed. She glanced at Mirian. She looked at the others. “I…”
Zhuan waved a hand. “Bad question. Don’t answer it. Hmm. It’s good to see you, Song. Unexpected. The specifics, at least. The anomalies in different branches and in the dream implied other Exalted, but I’d hoped I was wrong. More variables is not what we need. But maybe you all can assist.” As they emerged outside, Zhuan turned to the mob of robed functionaries who were apparently following her around. She started speaking in rapid Gulwenen. “See that the restaurant is paid. You, give me an event-trace. You, the follow-up. Remember procedure. You, tell the Baracueli Archaeological Society we’ve approved the dig. You, tell the joint-council to approve it. You, tell Spell-Captain Turaki to begin assembling the expedition. The rest with me. Runner, alert the palace I’ll be returning, and none of the contingencies need to be implemented, but prepare rooms for six guests.”
“Oh, we have rooms—” Feng started, but he was cut off.
Zhuan whirled. “NOT when I’ve just ordered an event-trace! There is a procedure!” she snapped.
Feng recoiled.
Ibrahim snorted. “I like her.”
However Mirian had thought events would go in Zhighua, this wasn’t it. Like Ibrahim, she’d thought there might be another Prophet based on the pattern, but she’d thought they would have to track them down. Whatever Gabriel had done, it apparently had acted as a signal flare to Zhuan.
“We need to compare notes,” Gabriel told Zhuan. “You’ll want to hear the woman’s plan. Then you’ll want to tell us yours. I have a feeling you’ve been too deep in the weeds and forgot to come up for air. Let’s start with the basics. What in the five hells are you doing?”
As the functionaries peeled off, they made their way through one of the city gates, Zhuan setting a quick pace. Benansuo’s neighborhoods near the palace were divided up by thin walls and arched gates. As they passed through this one, the guards stood at attention.
“Experimenting. What anyone should do if they haven’t come up with an optimal solution.”
“You’re being vague,” Jei told her.
“Am I? Hmm. I’m afraid that character flaw has only gotten worse with circular time, not better. What’s confusing?” Zhuan asked.
“Perhaps explain what you’re doing in a way that someone not in the time loop would understand,” Gabriel said.
“I don’t explain it to them. Why would I? The goal is to effectively modify action, not create understanding. Let me think.”
“The sun is not your only equal,” Jei said.
To Mirian’s surprise, Zhuan burst out laughing. “Certainly not anymore! Mmm. Let me simplify. Pretend there are three choices. One, do nothing. The world ends. Not a good choice. Despite its flaws, I think humanity should attempt to persist. Two: stop moonfall. Probably impossible. Three: escape moonfall. The most plausible option, and therefore, the one I’ve pursued. However, the portal-keeper informed me that the Portals—you called them Elder Gates?—couldn’t be used for the purpose I intended. Unfortunate, but non-terminal to the idea. Therefore, I researched other solutions. There’s clear evidence of the Viaterrians visiting lands that are not in settled Enteria. Therefore, they must have had a reasonable way to transport themselves. There’s also indication that one or more of their transport vessels survived the Cataclysm.”
Mirian nodded along. “Ah. Is that what a Chiminan Behemoth is?”
“Yes. At a minimum, it was a vessel capable of penetrating the stormwall. If one still exists, it’s plausible to repair it and evacuate a large enough portion of the population for humanity to persist. Moonfall’s death-field propagation has an upper limit. We just have to hope that limit is smaller than the planet.”
Gabriel was chuckling to himself, shaking his head. “You sound like her.”
“I don’t sound like that at all,” Mirian said. “Besides, I don’t think we can assume the ‘death-field’ as you called it is that small. We can’t exactly measure the intensity of it, but we can estimate it. There’s no difference between being in far Akana and in Mayat Shadr. And the rate of propagation is nearly instantaneous. And it goes through solid rock—Gabriel, I think you tried to hide in the Labyrinth one cycle? Yes, that’s what I thought. Any equations I’ve used to model it imply the destruction is so much larger than Enteria that I stopped bothering as soon as I was done with the initial calculations.”
Gabriel snorted again.
They passed through another gate, and now the road to Wongzho Palace lay before them. Two more functionaries wordlessly joined the entourage.
“So you’ve been searching for Viaterrian ruins? Atrah will be able to help with that.”
“Yes. Good.”
They continued walking in silence until Mirian asked, “What experiments are you doing?”
“I’ve been testing and refining my political theories. Circular time allows for a unique investigative environment. History can at last be tested. Variables isolated. Experiments run, repeated, and run again. Song, I’d like your help with statistical modeling.”
“Of course,” Song Jei said immediately.
“Explain your theory of change,” Zhuan said to Mirian.
Mirian explained her plan, beginning with the leyline instability, then moving into her research on leyline regulator devices. “…and if the cycles can be extended long enough, that might give us long enough to mobilize enough artificers and factories to make the leyline regulators we need to stabilize the moon. Xecatl in Tlaxhuaco is also researching spirit constructs, which might let us grow part of the solution.”
“Mmm. Interesting. That’s not a theory of change, but it is a plan I hadn’t considered. Accessing Mayat Shadr with the Jiandzhi in the way limited my options. Yes, the branch-extensions have been useful. I wondered what was causing them. Not just the temporal needles. Yet, you would also need the Gates to move material and people around, which will impact the efficacy of the natural regulation produced by the Gates being open.”
Zhuan kept up her fast pace of walking, but she seemed lost in thought. “Our objectives align. Hmm. The experiments are probably unsalvageable given how many variables are about to change. A pity. The Chiminan Behemoth may be useful to us both for study. The records indicate they are able to manipulate a great deal of energy. Your device would benefit, if not from the vessel itself, from study of the technology. If it survives. Evidence suggests the remains are at the edges of the eastern tributaries.”
Gaius said, “Near the ruined towers that look like rock spires?”
“Yes!” Zhuan said, stopping and whirling. “You know of it?”
“I’ve been there. A long time ago. Found some very interesting things, but the danger wasn’t worth it. Came too close to dying too many times.”
Zhuan stopped and examined the necromancer. “How old are you?”
“Three hundred. Give or take. But I don’t feel a day over two hundred and fifty!” he said.
He loves that joke, Mirian thought.
The Zhighuan Prophet looked Atrah Xidi up and down like he was a spell engine she didn’t understand the function of.
Feng, meanwhile, was clutching his heart, looking like he’d just seen a ghost. Or an undead soul anchored to its body, I suppose.
“Well,” Zhuan said, spinning and continuing to walk. “We all need to go to the same place. That’s where your portal is. Or near enough. These two are helping you with this… leyline project?”
“Eh… not really,” Mirian said.
Gabriel made a gasp of outrage.
Ibrahim didn’t even pretend to be bothered.
“How much progress have you made in aligning the factories of Akana to your purpose?”
“I can manipulate Sylvester Aurum into doing what I want.”
Zhuan shook her head. “Oh. Oh. Song, did you teach her nothing?”
“I taught her arcane mathematics, which is my field.”
Gabriel cleared his throat. “Baracuel and Akana subscribe to the same basic philosophy. To manipulate events, you target leaders and information. Leaders and broadsheets manipulate the masses, and then the masses do what you want. Hence the conspiracy in Akana Praediar. This is why the department heads like Silou Westerun so much. What if you could steal the mind of the leader of a country? Then, it wouldn’t even matter if they were assassinated or replaced—you’d just do the same thing again to the next guy. Akana shapes the head of state, and the head of state shapes the country.”
“A philosophy of fools,” Zhuan said curtly.
“Anyways, that was all to say that Zhighua has different philosophical traditions.”
“Correct ones,” Zhuan said. “My theories now have the evidentiary backing of 200 time branches.”
Song Jei cleared her throat. “Is time a circle or a branch? You keep going back and forth.”
“A circular branch.”
The math professor shook her head. “You certainly do need my help.”
That brought a smile to Zhuan’s face, though it didn’t slow her pace. They now approached Wongzho Palace’s main gate. Briefly, Mirian wondered if they should prepare for an ambush, but with Gaius at her side and her own mastery of soul magic, there was nothing for her to worry about. Benansuo didn’t have a sacred tree capable of blanketing a city with its aura like Ceiba Yan. She wondered at Zhuan confronting them immediately, without hesitation. Had she simply not considered that the temporal anchors could be manipulated, or her soul cursed? Or did she already have contingencies in place?
As they entered Wongzho—the walls and towers of the castle looming high above them—Mirian could see how the palace reacted to Zhuan. Guards stood at attention here, too, and the people of the palace looked to her. Gabriel saw it too. “Oh, that explains things,” he said. “I bet she cut the bureaucracy right out from under the leadership.”
“I have preparations to make,” Zhuan announced. “You will be shown to quarters, then we will meet again when I’m not busy. I will also order copies of my book to be delivered to you—translated. The expedition north will be in a week, so make whatever preparations you need. The archives and palace are open to you until then.”
A guard and servant bowed to each of them, gesturing for them to follow.
Zhuan Li went through a pair of thick double-doors, already talking rapidly to a group of bureaucrats. The door shut, and she was gone as quickly as she’d arrived.
“That is not how I thought this would go,” Gabriel said. “What now?”
Mirian shrugged. “She’s already found the Gate. Once we get there, we can make our next trips to Zhighua significantly easier and faster. So we prepare to go north.”
Gabriel groaned. “We just left the Jiandzhi.”
“You’re free to stay behind. We’ll all investigate the long lost secrets of the Viaterrians without you.”
“No, no, I’m going. I’ll just make sure we have proper supplies this time. I bet they have some Zhighuan rice wine vintages I haven’t tried…” He wandered off to his room.
Mirian went to hers. The wood paneling in the room was masterful, carved with depictions of myrvites in the midst of sinuous movements. The bed appeared to have silk sheets. There was a spell-engine powered shower in the adjoining room too, which was a welcome relief. The balcony looked out east, over most of the palace walls. Mirian levitated a bit higher so she had a better view. From there, she could see distant storm clouds at the edge of the horizon. To the north, she saw the mountains and jungles of the Jiandzhi, waiting for them to return. To the south, Benansuo, the sounds of the city carrying up to the balcony, and the open ocean beyond.
Piece by piece, things were coming together.
There was a pleasant chime over by the door, and a servant presented her with a leatherbound copy of Zhuan’s book, as she’d promised. Mirian smiled. Zhuan certainly didn’t lack confidence.
She went out to the balcony and began to read. She and Zhuan still had a lot to talk about.
Comments
kyle
Bet the book is titled: "Guide for Competent Leaders: If you think you are, you aren't"
Erebus
Thanks for chapter :)
Erebus
‘ “Delicious! I hope we do find a Gate here. I’m going to try ever restaurant in the city.” ‘ ever -> every ?
Michael Vonica
So, a couple things about this Chimian Behemoth. At first, I thought it was going to be a space ship. Because I didn't see how else it could possibly take them out of the blast radius, and also because it sounded like it was in the same location as the things that sounded like space ships. But it seems pretty clear on a closer read that the Behemoth is meant to take them around the world, which as Mirian said, probably won't be enough. I wonder if Zhuan will get upset if the project she has spent years working on, her main hope for surviving the crisis, just doesn't work. I don't think she has a backup plan. At least she'll be willing to go all in on Mirian's after that? Unless she switches to actually trying to build a space ship. Anyway, another important point. The elder creature maning the gate told Zhuan that the gates can't take her where the Behemoth can. Or maybe it only said they can't take her out of the blast radius? But assuming the first, this might be confirmation that there are no gates in other parts of the world. Which means that the only way to get to other landmasses might be the Behemoth. Zhuan beleives that the Viaterrians have visited other parts of the world. Which may mean that there are other human settled areas outside of what we know, and maybe even other prophets across the world. But if the Behemoth is the only way to get to them, it could be very time consuming to do so. These other potential prophets may also be the source of the second returned anchor, once again assuming it even came from a prophet.
M Tan
I’m also sooo curious about the second anchor. It surely cannot be another Zhiguan prophet with those powers, because it would imply that both (the anchor taker and the anchor victim) hid from Zhuan for decades and seemingly had no particular agenda apart from powering up for 20+ years, yet somehow developed a strong enough personal grudge to take the other out of the loop. I’m thinking a suicide, possibly. Or Scebur has some second agenda that requires the Prophets’ cooperation, because if he had this power, he could have easily killed Jherica/Liuan ages ago.
Ace
She seems more focused on technology, escaping, history and politics. So I don’t think she would even be strong enough to go deep into the labyrinth, let alone Want to go. So I truly doubt she knows about Relicum.
FuriousDee
I hope she hasn’t learned of Relicum but given they are meant to have excellent records I wouldn’t bet on it. Given Ibrahim is there this might put a timer on how long Mirian has to tell him.
DrSubterfuge
Given what we know about the anchors, the only way her escape plan works is if that's the final loop, which requires everyone to either relinquish their anchors before they die or have them forcibly removed. Because if anyone does die with an anchor, they are going to wake up again in a new timeline, meaning the timeline they left won't be the final one.
Michael Vonica
Assuming Zhuan was telling the truth, we still don't know where that second anchor came from. Zhuan claims this is her first time meeting other exalted. And it comes across in the way she acts. Unless she is just really good at acting. So, I don't think she has any clue where that second anchor came from. Could there be any more Zhiguan prophets? Ones who have hidden from Zhuan for more than 20 years, without raising her suspicion? Maybe the second anchor is related to Scebur? Or it might not have even come from a prophet at all. I guess we'll see. I hope Zhuan's experiments have been mostly political. When you start thinking of people as just experiments, you can get to some pretty dark places pretty quickly. And finally, it looks like Gaius might end up getting close to Zhuan. They definitely share some interests. And Gaius even started pulling out his dad jokes. Mirian better watch out, before she gets blindsided by something.
bob semple
So she's been doing her own thing for 20+ years with zero pushback and now has to deal with Miriam, Gabriel and Ibrahim. Poor lady gonna get whiplash
Evil Legend
I cracked up when Gabriel told the new Prophet to go touch some grass because she’d been isolated with herself for way too long. I didn’t expect her to integrate faster than Xecatl did. On the other hand, the way Zhuan Li sticks to a utilitarian philosophy makes it seem like she might actually outclass Miriam in that regard. Which, honestly, could make her dangerous. But we’ll see — this chapter was fun.
Danidreye
I have a feeling Zhuan Li will be the one to spill the beans on temporal anchors and (maybe) relicarium. She doesn't seem like she has time for secrets that might lead to progress.
AntiClimax she her
Gabriel: You sound just like her. Mirian: No I don't! Also Mirian - proceeds to speak just like her.
Zurko
I think she'll find the ship, bring her people inside and leave. The she will either die to the explosion and reset or she will succeed and be out of the loop. But personally, i think she will succeed and bring her people to safety, then still get sent back in time. The ominian, who gave her the temporal spikes, seems to really care about the world. I don't think it would consider fleeing the world as its destroyed a "success".
SweetPea
Spelling mistake found - "I’m going to try {ever} restaurant in the city.” ~ {every}
Daniel
Yeah.... I'm not sure Zhuan is going to be a long-term benefit to the efforts, to be honest. She's way too far inside her own head.
Schuh
The reason she stopped teaching, is because it would be a significant time investment for something that many non-loopers can do. Her time is best spent doing things that others cannot, which means teaching things that others cannot teach. So it makes sense for her to start teaching the others once finding other teachers starts getting really difficult. This is under the assumption that they would actually be willing to learn and to use their skills constructively. So far ibrahim has been the least useful in general and especially considering his combat prowess. He has been either a warlord or a tourist. He has considered saving Enteria to simply not be his job. So why teach him anything at all, unless he gives something in return?
Amadhe
I think it’s a pretty clear assumption to make for someone who is *shown* to be a Genius. Mirian is the only one who looks young enough to be Jei’s Student in their party. And Jei definitely wouldn’t have come with Ibrahim or Gabriel considering their temperaments. Though, it’s more likely Jei just told her in that exchange they had in their native language.
Touch
Zhuan shook her head. “Oh. Oh. Song, did you teach her nothing?” Wait how did she know Mirian is Jei’s student?
tentacles4all
It's preaty clear by now that each prophet has a specialization. I think Mirian isn't ment to solo-solve the problem. If other prophets had progressed more than her in the loops and reached her territory then she would be the "magic teacher" archetype. I think her initial job in the loop was to TEACH other prophets magic and provide a base for artifice needs in the Academy. She shouldn't just ask other prophets to learn magic and pray for results but with the trust broken , here we are.
Robocreator223
Miriam going to get a chance to look in the mirror I think. TFTC!!
Anotherb Account
Mirian finally has a real peer.
KooZnack
Thanks for the chapter!
