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Chapter 214 - Tales of the Past
🕑 Added 2025-05-25 16:10:36 +0000 UTCGaius Nezzar stood in the kitchen, hands wrapped around a mug of tea. He’d reactivated the illusion so that one of the walls looked like Mirian’s childhood home.
“Where is this house?” she asked.
“Ten miles or so northeast. Not too far from Falijmali. Deep enough in the desert I thought it would be safe. But your mother was right. I should have never let those Baracueli scum get away with the first treaty violations. All it ever did was encourage them to keep doing it.” He sighed. “But who would have renewed war alongside me? By then, all my allies were dead. Ground to dust by war or time.”
She had so many questions. “You said you hid your true name. Were you always Atrah Xidi to them, or did you have another name before that?”
“You’ve read the histories of the Unification War?”
“Several, by now. Well, skimmed most of them.”
“And what did you think?”
“I’d burn half of them if they wouldn’t come back in the next loop anyways. Riddled with contradictions and what sources I did investigate didn’t say what the author said they did. Atrocious scholarship.”
The necromancer nodded. He held the teacup, but hadn’t taken a drink. Mirian was pretty sure he didn’t actually eat or drink anymore, but he seemed to like the ritual of tea. One question at a time, she told herself, though she was burning with so many. “Before I was Atrah Xidi, I was no one. I never needed another name. Gaius was good enough. I was, for most of my life, a historian. One who dabbled in necromancy not for power, but for answers.”
“That’s right,” Mirian said, a pang running through her. “I have this memory of saying I wanted to be a historian, just like you.” Only, Westerun had taken that from her. How much had warping her memory changed her? At least I kept my love of math, she thought. “I want to know your story,” she said.
Her father smiled. “Probably best not to tell the whole thing in one sitting.”
“The short version for now, then.”
He nodded. “I’ll try to keep it brief. Highlight the important parts, the parts that might be important to your mission. I was born, from what I remember, in a small village upriver of Alatishad.” He shook his head. “It was so different back then. Different in ways people don’t understand, can’t understand anymore. There were no spell engines, so there were no spellwards. Every able bodied man or woman in the village was required to do guard shifts in the watchtowers or maintenance around the palisade. Despite the precautions, myrvites killed someone at least once a month. Usually, in the farms along the river, but sometimes a river creeper would snatch a child from a room at night. And magic… it wasn’t the same. Now, they ship myrvite parts around Enteria. Every ink and organ is available, and alchemistry makes it so easy. In my time, spellbooks were worth more than gold. Collecting spells was the work of a lifetime. Getting the materials was only half the problem. Mage guilds and wizards’ towers kept their spells and artifice methods secret.”
“How old are you?” Mirian asked.
“Three hundred. Give or take. But I don’t feel a day over two hundred and fifty!” Gaius smiled. “I know, it’s a pretty poor historian who doesn’t know his exact age, but in my defense, the village I was born to never kept census records, and had no tradition at all for celebrating birthdays.”
“So how did you become a necromancer powerful enough that Baracuel still fears you?”
He snorted. “Doesn’t fear me enough, it seems. We’ll have to change that. Well, it happened slowly. When I was young and foolish, I figured out that I could sneak out into the desert and visit the old Persaman ruins leftover from the Triarchy, and that visiting arcanists would pay a fine price for some of the relics. Eventually, a wizard noticed I had a knack for finding the good stuff and not getting myself killed. She hired me to work on collecting old artifacts for her full time. Eventually, I realized that some of the libraries in Alatishad had old Persman records and maps, and if I used those, I could quickly find the best things. At first, I was only interested in the artifacts. Fragments of alchemistry equipment. Old spellrods. Extinguished glyph pieces. But then, I became fascinated by the history itself. I began to wonder, first about the Persaman Triarchy. How could an empire that had endured so long fall so far? I quickly realized that understanding necromancy was crucial to understanding the history.”
Mirian nodded. That was the historical consensus. “But you wanted to know the mechanism,” she guessed.
“Precisely. It was taken as axiomatic that necromancy was so terrible that its use destroyed the Triarchy, but that didn’t explain why such a civilization was able to rise above all the kingdoms around it, subjugate half the continent, and persist for over a thousand years. All the while, using necromancy.”
“So you started learning it.”
“Indeed. I had picked up a bit of arcane magic from serving the wizard. But it was in Mayat Shadr that I found a spellrod with a focus incorporated into it. I became obsessed with learning all I could about necromancy. I scoured libraries for books, scoured ruins for old scrolls and tablets. Eventually, one of the old restorationist cults got wind of what I was doing and recruited me, and then I had proper teachers.”
“Restorationists?”
“Wanted the Triarchy back, necromancy and all. Largely culled by Prince Fariba and her Great Guilds a hundred years later. Most of them moved north to hide in what would become Baracuel, then got purged by the Luminates. Anyways, that was all to come. At the time, we figured we could both help each other. The years passed, and I began to understand something of the nature of the fall. And here’s where you might be interested. The Ominian is dead, and yet, They live. The last Triarchs sought to resurrect Them. Whatever ritual they prepared, whatever method they thought to do so, all I can tell you is it involved mass sacrifice on a scale that chills the blood. They thought, perhaps, with enough souls, it could be done. Except, the necromancers at the time perhaps knew more about that soul than we do today. They knew a soul cannot be simply switched around. No amount of falcon souls could ever animate a person.” Gaius shrugged. “Most of the records around then, including of the magic, were deliberately destroyed. Whatever those Triarchs did, it caused a collective horror that changed the culture of the land for generations to come. The exile of what would become the Luminates. The rise of the Isheer. Mass rebellion, war, and the near-complete destruction of necromancy. I never did quite solve the history, because I became obsessed with another question.”
“The fate of the Ominian?”
“Not quite. The question I wanted to know was: how far could I trace humanity’s history?”
Mirian paused at that. Even a few years ago, she would have thought, ‘to the Cataclysm,’ because too much had been destroyed during it to say much. But then she’d seen those soul fragments beneath the oasis of Mahatan. “There are tales told in the remnants of souls. Tales in the stones of ancient ruins. Tales in legends,” she said.
“Yes. I began to seek them all out. It all led to more questions. That all non-Elder creatures share common ancestors is ancient knowledge, passed down as common sense for generations. But where did the idea originate? It is easily seen in the variations of birds and lizards, or the traits of flowers. But where are the creatures like humans?”
Mirian found herself nodding along. Talking of humanity’s origin had triggered an old memory. “Xylatarvia’s Great Ship. She descended from the stars on a boat made of vines.” Priest Kier had given a sermon on it that she’d heard many times in the early cycles. There had been a strange reference to that it in the Grand Sanctum. She closed her eyes, trying to remember. Down this hall, in this room. “There was as cult of Altrukyst that had a secret room in the Grand Sanctum of Palendurio. It said Xylatarvia sailed her ship through a hole in Altrukyst’s chest. She then emerged from the moon. The strangest tale. It sounds like a fable for children.”
“Fascinating. I had not heard that one, but yes, I began to wonder about Xylatarvia’s great ship. I began to wonder why ancient texts never specified which moon they talked about. I began to travel the world, searching for texts and ruins. Torrviol was one such place you might be familiar with.”
“Indeed.”
“Someday, I’d love to tell you the full scope of my research and discoveries. The Praetorians destroyed some of my collection when they stole you away, but I still have some of the texts and notes. Suffice to say, all my journeys led me to one place: the Jiandzhi.”
“The Land of Spires. The only place as dangerous as the open ocean.”
“Yes. When I traveled, which was often, I usually took work as one of the mages guarding the caravan to earn a bit of coin, and so I’d done a lot of fighting. But to traverse the jungles outside the trade routes, I found myself in need of gaining power, simply so I could survive my explorations. As the years went by, I started to feel my age. I turned to necromancy to extend my life, which required new studies I could apply to my mastery of the arcane. Finally, I discovered something fascinating. Some of the spires in the Jiandzhi are of simple rock. Others, of steel and hewn stone.”
Mirian’s eyes went wide. “Structures from before the Cataclysm?”
“Yes,” he said. “But there was one thing I could never understand. If you map out the history of a thing, say, building architecture, since that’s what I found the most of, you can see iterations and advances. Modern Persaman architecture is based on Triarchic designs, which in turn were based on melding at least seven distinct pre-Triarchy styles found in the surrounding kingdoms. Go back farther, and you can see these kingdoms were in turn adapting Zhighuan geometry to local materials, which then slowly evolves into its own distinct style. The monuments in that era combine practical, cheap techniques with practices that were clearly imported. Travel to Zhighua, and you can see some truly ancient structures. Several of them copy pre-Cataclysm techniques.” He paused for dramatic effect then said, “I could find no examples of precursors to the Viaterria structures.”
Mirian considered that. “The Cataclysm wiped them out.”
“That’s what most historians will say, if you back them into a corner. But I’ve never been satisfied with that. There’s a discontinuity in the history. Pre-Cataclysm people had marvelous technology. And not Elder technology, either. My greatest discovery was a group of artifacts, hidden in a collapsed structure in the Jiandzhi. I hesitate to call what I found ‘necromancy,’ because that does a disservice to how carefully it melded the many arts. It wasn’t just soul magic and arcane magic, but some amazing technique that harnessed small amounts of electric energy to do things I still don’t understand. I also found the largest treasure trove of the Viaterrian language—Lorcadian—that anyone has yet discovered. I was then actually able to translate the instructions on and understand how to operate several of these ancient devices.”
“Fascinating. And you still have them?”
“Two of them. The other was smashed by the Praetorians.” Gaius’s face grew dark. “Barbarous thugs. They destroyed so many things that day. All irrecoverable.”
He sat there, and through the contortions of his face, she could see the hatred he still held. Then he washed the emotions away, his voice steady again. “It was some sort of medical facility, I believe. The healing arts they had—the most advanced soul magic we have still can’t surpass it. One of the devices, the one the Praetorians smashed, was used to preserve living tissue in perfect stasis. Useful for, say, preserving a thumb that was cut off to it could be reattached, or, if the Lorcadian texts are to be believed, transporting a living heart so it could be given to another.”
“I can’t believe I haven’t heard of such discoveries.”
“Ah, well. The crusade against necromancy was quite problematic for me. I never could get people to understand how valuable necromancy could be, and I never could hold my tongue around Luminates or the Isheer when they told blatant historical untruths. After a while, I ignored the wizard towers and academics, and had to stay in the shadows so the priests and mages didn’t purge me as they did so many other necromancers. There was a lot of hiding.” He frowned. “And killing. I don’t remember those years fondly.”
“So was the chthonic needle one of those Viaterrian artifacts?”
“No, that came later. I should say all these things took a long time. Travel took ages back then. No trains or spell carriages, you have to remember, and myrvites preyed on travelers along every route. By the time I returned from the Jiandzhi, I was seventy or so, and by the time I gave up swaying academia and hid myself in Alatishad where I could settle and do my research in peace, I was near ninety. Even with necromancy, I knew I would die soon. But I had too many questions, still. An old Persaman text discussed a device that could extend life far beyond mere spells, but it was only to be found in one place: the Labyrinth.”
Mirian raised an eyebrow. “You managed that. Without a time loop?”
“I did indeed. They didn’t have tri-point meters at the time, but I think I must have been an archmage by then. There’s something to be said about obsessive study. The chthonic needle was my prize from an Elder Vault,” he said, tapping his chest. “I got lucky. It was in the third one I opened.”
“Gods above. That’s impressive. I died a lot opening just one Vault. You know the locations of them? After enough time, the Vaults seem to regenerate their stock. Well, so says one text, at least.”
“I could give you their general area, though the Labyrinth’s no doubt shifted by now. Anyways, I still didn’t have a child at that point. Had never married, never settled down. Only then, at the end of my life, did I suddenly regret that. So I opened up the old Viaterrian device that could preserve tissue and…” He cleared his throat. “Preserved a living sample. For later. Just in case.”
“Oh my,” Mirian said.
“I knew I wouldn’t be able to do it after I bound my soul with the needle. I used what I’d learned from the techniques on the device to preserve as much flesh as I could, but it’s just preserved, not living. But it all worked out. There’s two-hundred or so more years to my story. More studies. A nasty encounter in the Jiandzhi that convinced me it wasn’t worth it to keep going there. Falling in love with this land and its people. Meeting with the Sixth Prophet. That terrible war. How I met Leyun. But I’ve told you what I think is the most important part for you as a Prophet to know—that somehow, these things I stumbled on in my journey—they’re connected to this moment. The Viaterria and their knowledge. The necromancy of the Persaman Triarchy. The secrets still hidden in the Jiandzhi. It’s hard to describe, because it’s a hunch based on centuries of study, but they must lead back to the Ominian. To Their missing Mausoleum. To the story of humanity. To the Cataclysm. To the narrow path up the burning tree the Sixth Prophet spoke of—the same one you spoke of with Ibrahim.”
Mirian’s heart raced at that. He saw the tree as well. I wonder—did it burn as brightly when there was so much time left before the end?
She wanted to know it all. She still had a thousand questions.
Gaius cleared his throat. He was still holding onto his tea cup. “I’ll be honest. I’m quite sympathetic to Ibrahim. I’d like to kill everyone involved in your abduction. Take their corpses and reanimate them, then parade them into Palendurio’s Parliament and explain to them the exact text of the treaty their ancestors signed and what I’ll do if they violate it again.”
A shiver passed through Mirian. He said it so calmly, but she knew he meant every word. He’s friendly to me because he’s my father. But he and Ibrahim are probably the only two people in Enteria who have killed more people than I have. “I’ll make sure justice finds them. Ibrahim uses the blade. In normal circumstances, it would be the right tool. But with the loop, there’s time. I can use a scalpel. Cut away the tumors. No more innocent lives wasted.”
“I pray that you are right. I find myself restless. I don’t get out as much as I used to,” he said, gesturing at the cavern walls.
“I want to learn everything,” Mirian said.
Gaius smiled. He set his teacup down, the liquid still steaming, and stood. “I always did love teaching you. Then let’s have a lesson, my little lotus. First, let’s see what you know.”
Comments
Cally JJ
Personally killed. If a single general goes rogue they probably cant move their army to perform unrelated genocides, too many other people in the command structure who would notice and stop them. But if either Ibrahim or Gaius wished, they could commit that genocide single handed, so could Mirian. Interestingly this problem of the 'limited' power of generals were a problem for the Neurenburg trials. Most of the Nazi generals/ colonels/etc when placed on trial would claim that they both had no knowledge of the concentration camps and that they were forced to do every horrific action by the now dead Hitler.
lenkite
> But he and Ibrahim are probably the only two people in Enteria who have killed more people than I have Mirian is naive. She is likely not even in the first 1000 people. Is she forgetting all the lives repeatedly harvested by the republic's generals, colonels and the coup ?
UraniumPhoenix
Apologies if anyone in the $10 tier just got another email blast about this chapter. The interface did something really dumb when I was editing this for inclusion of the second tier, and then started giving me error messages right after. :|
Kevin O'Malley
They were reacting to Ibrahim’s use of the zombie horde, which won’t occur this time, but if the Praetorians are feeling frisky I think Father/Daughter day will be a rough time for them.
WindGunner
Vines = cables > electricity?
Cameron Earl
No IVF of soul fuckery required. A turkey baster is enough. I like that it explains both how he can be her father despite age, and that she is insanely precious to him. 😥
wintersky
Jiandzhi reminds me very much of jianghu, which tends to be the name given to the world or part of society that wuxia and xianxia stories happen in, but there may be no relation there beyond sonic similarity.
samwise
Interesting backstory here, history of humanity on this world… might be worth exploring in future chapter. I wonder if it’s similar to the spellmonger series
Hubris
If I read this right it looks like antient Zhighua used their crystal techniques to make processors for magitech devices.
Daniel McConville
I really love that our 'evil necromancer' character is really her dad and he had her through essentially IVF or some kind of soul fuckery? Very cool concept. Totally loving this series so much and how we slowly see the MC turn colder and more apathetic to the people around her as they are only temporary. They become more and more like video game characters. I'm really REALLY hoping she ends up forming something long term with Jei after this learning arc from her dad. I really want her and Jei to go and explore her culture and land and they have such good chemistry together and Jei seems the most logical and accepting of her even though she drastically changes overnight from her perspective.
Brian P.
So in this loop Ibrahim isn’t around. As mentioned, that means the anti-necromancy squad will possibly come up. The OTHER thing is that Specter is still active and Mirian both engaged the gate and left a note saying she was the prophet. So it’s possible that squad knows something of Mirian’s circumstances as well as their past actions towards her.
Michael Olson
Enjoying the break from justified but exhausting paranoia! Can't wait to see what they can do together
E
Amazing
Brian P.
And the destruction possibly deliberate and targeted, so he couldn’t have any more children.
Ian Chin
Now that we know more about the fall of the triarchy, I'm guessing that the Mausoleum is on the moon, which is actually a part of the ancient city it sits above that was somehow levitated in the ritual mentioned in this chapter.
Mr NerfGun
If Atrah Xidi bound something to his soul, it would just get bound to his soul. There was that pope that tried to bind all the relics to himself. He managed to bind the sword but failed to bind the Holy Pages, erasing their contents instead. He was executed. When he died, the Sword of the Fourth Prophet dropped as his soul dissolved.
Enthernal
Some interesting developments here. I hope they take full opportunity of this loop without Ibrahim getting in their way to go over some of the more interesting/sensitive things out of the way. Like the memory curse, the bindings, relicarium, etc. I wonder what would happen if a non looper like Gaius were to bind something to his soul with relicarium like Miriam did. Assuming it's not specifically bound to time loopers, that might be how they get Gaius in the loop. Since he met the/a sixth prophet, he hopefully has some answers about the loop, but considering how quickly he went over that it seems unlikely. Still, all the little bits help. I also like how he discribes the pre-calamity tech as merging the different styles of magic. One final thing I'm really excited about is how Gaius learned necromancy to get answers. That could overcome quite a few barriers for Miriam if she can interrogate certain people that way. One final thing I'm not sold on is Miriam how Miriam tries to hold back her/Gaius venting their rage. I understand she wants to avoid needless bloodshed, but since they both know they're in a time loop, it would be great to see them go and dish out some punishment, even if only to get it out of their system(s) for the next time they meet the praetorians or other related parties. Then again, there is still time in the loop.
Magesh S
I thought of the same thing. Her father should know of some ways to carry memory packets maybe?
Magesh S
She is not going to reveal their relationship to other prophets.
Kadi
I've been wondering if we can make educated guesses what real life words the names here were bastardized from ("naturally changed over time through language drift or ignorance of the language")... Akana always struck me as "Arcana" or "Arcane". Anybody here speak enough Chinese to guess at Zhigua or Jiandzhi? Gua -> guo -> country? ...Same zhi between these two? Different Zhi? Any wild ideas? And where/what could the Lorcadian be from? Viaterria -> Latin via terra -> road + (planet?) earth?
Mr NerfGun
The fact that he waited 200 years to use his preserved 'biological material' makes her kidnapping all the more tragic...
Anotherb Account
YAYYYY. Standard response, but I always mean it. Love it. Love all of it
Kyfe
Not just Necromancy, but a ton of Arcane Magic, too, most likely.
kyle
The great ship going through a hole In 'her chest' sounds suspicious like space travel via wormhole. What could made of vines be? A solar sail?
Mr NerfGun
Or maybe they are just from the Luamin moon...
Doleo
Now the inevitable tension of the other prophets learning she's related to big bad necromancer man.
Metal(Liz)ard🏳️⚧️
Will this finally be the time she figures out memory transfer across loops. She can finally have her companion in her dad and not-crush Jei
Mr NerfGun
Damn, so this must really be some kind of lost colony of humanity? Or maybe its remnants?
Reppyxz
I mean, they haven’t seen each other for many years now (around 30 years from Mirian perspective) So I don’t think it’s surprising that both of them treat each other in a way that’s the most natural for them. Which is a kind of detached and scientific, way of speaking. Gaius is Mirian’s father but he wasn’t there for the vast majority of her life. So I think it makes sense that they’re both kind of awkward. Plus, I’m pretty sure this conversation they’re having is them breaking the ice. Plus, I don’t know what you mean? This is the most convenient cycle to have her be taught by him. With Ibrahim being so close to Gaius, it’s very likely that Ibrahim would try to interfere or just be really inconvenient, but since he is out of the picture for this cycle, this makes it the perfect cycle to spend time learning about necromancy.
CherMi
Uh, lessons are good and all, but they could be done in any cycle. What's exclusive to this cycle and their first meeting are two things: ask him how he broke her memory curse and talk about possibly transferring his memories so that Mirian would be able to remain genuine and not repeat first meeting every time. And also I hope for a little more warmth between them. This felt like a conversation between two scientists, and while Gaius seemed uncomfortable with it, Mirian seemed content as is.
Crystal Llily
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I'm so excited for her to learn necromancy from her dad, she is going to become actually unstoppable
