Die. Respawn. Repeat.

She-Who-Whispers had a headache. This time, her headache was not caused by incompetence among any of her underlings, or even by yet another plot to rebel being whispered about in the dark underbelly of the city where her citizens thought her ears might not be able to reach.

Foolish. She could hear everything that happened within the city, and everything that happened around it. Her range extended further than she let anyone be aware of. The castle she'd constructed helped extend it even further, gathering up stray pieces of Firmament snatched even from the other Great Cities.

No. Her headache this time was not caused by the incompetence of her underlings or the little rebels in her city.

It was caused by her own. Which was the most frustrating part about all of this, really.

[ To updt: Miktik helper tg?]

What the hell did that mean?

It wasn't that she didn't understand her own code she did. It was a code she'd developed on the off chance she would have to contend with the Trialgoer that would soon be going through its own version of an Integrator Trial set upon her own planet. The idea was simple: if there was no further update to the message, then the person she listed was almost certainly the Trialgoer.

Because the Integrators wouldn't just tell her who the Trialgoer was, where it was, or even what it looked like. They wouldn't even let her access any basic information, like whether the Trial had started or how many loops there had been. Not without paying in credits, anyway.

She'd paid the credits to see how many loops it had been and had been both gratified and slightly horrified to see that the Trialgoer was on its fifteenth loop. On the one hand, it couldn't be too strong yet. No doubt she'd killed it easily, and then failed to update the message because time had reset.

On the other, the thought that she'd already lived through fifteen loops and couldn't remember any of them frightened her a little. Not that she would admit it, of course.

Back to the problem at hand. It wasn't that she couldn't understand her own message. It was that there was no 'Miktik helper'. She didn't have teeth like some of the organics on this plane, but if she did, she was sure she would be grinding them in frustration. She wanted to strangle her previous self.

It is a time looper, you fool! There is no guarantee it will choose the same role twice!

And it clearly hadn't, because there was no sign that Miktik had a helper at all. There was not a single whisper she could hear about anyone being spotted even around Miktik. The inventor liked to keep to herself, even moreso now that she was actively working for She-Who-Whispers.

Under coercion, but still.

She-Who-Whispers grunted. She glanced at the body of He-Who-Guards, lying still on the pedestal. It still pained her to see him like this, but now that she knew the loops had started, she felt a little less worried. It wasn't like anything she did really mattered until the loops ended. She had time to find a cure for him.

Unless the Trialgoer chose to give up now, of course. But that was one of the few things the Integrators would tell her about, and there had been no such notice from them.

She-Who-Whispers put her mind back to controlling all of He-Who-Guards's bodies patrolling around Isthanok. It was a thankless task. She could already feel her headache getting worse.

Even if nothing mattered for the time being, she couldn't stand the idea that her city would be seen as anything less than perfect. Everything had to keep going just the way it did before.

Everything had to stay perfect.

I find Virin playing with his daughter in one corner of the village, tossing her high up into the air as she giggles and flails around. I smile a bit at the sight. It's such a surprisingly normal thing to see, after all the fighting and violence and death. Sure, it's being done by two oversized crows, but some things transcend species and cultures.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

"Virin?" I call out, and almost immediately regret doing so. I probably should have waited until his daughter wasn't midair to call out to him, because he jerks, startled, and almost drops her.

Fortunately, gravity is nothing compared to the passives of Quicken Mind and the speed of a Warpstep.

"Sorry about that," I apologize as I set his daughter down on the ground. She doesn't even seem mad she looks up at me with something resembling awe.

...That, or she thinks I'm a particularly cool, large, bipedal pet. I haven't really mastered crow language and she's mostly just pointing.

"It it alright," Virin says, breathing deeply and trying to calm himself. He flashes me an uncertain smile. "Who are you? I not recognize you. You visitor?"

"I'm the Trialgoer," I say. Virin's eyes grow wide in understanding, and he draws his daughter a little closer to him. Did Tarin and Mari introducing me to the village make this much of a difference? I don't remember any of them being this worried about me. "Uh, I'm not planning on hurting any of you."

"Right." Virin seems a bit embarrassed now; his grip on his daughter loosens slightly. 'What you need?"

"I was hoping you could teach me a little about imbuement." Virin's eyes light up almost as soon as I say the word 'teach', and he only gets more excited when he hears 'imbuement'.

"You want learn imbuement?" he asks. "I teach! This way!"

...I don't remember him being this enthusiastic, either.

Not that I'm complaining. A slightly amused smile adorns my face as he leads me over to his hut, already gesturing animatedly as he talks about Firmament resonance and material enhancement.

A little bit on impulse, I decide to tell him about the loop. It'll be a lot easier to explain what I know of imbuement already if I can just tell him that he's taught me before. Virin's eyes grow even wider than before as I explain the details, and instead of being disturbed, he seems positively delighted.

"You help me!" he says. "Not now. But when you have time! Some imbuement hard. Thing break. If you come back, it not broken anymore. I not need to worry about breaking things!"

...Fair enough, really. A time loop is pretty much perfect for destructive testing.

"Last time you taught me about resonance," I say, trying to bring the topic back to learning. "Something about some materials being easier to imbue than others, and needing to match the resonance of something to imbue it. Can you do that for me again? I want to see if I understand."

More specifically, I want to see if my stronger Firmament sense as well as the new Firmament Sight skill gives me any new insights as to how this so-called reosnance process works.

I watch carefully as Virin takes a hold of one of his stones, then carefully alters his Firmament so that it slips in easily. I frown. I sense something change, but I'm not sure what.

"Can you do that again?" I ask. Virin seems amused, but he complies.

It takes another three tries before I figure out what's happening. It comes down to Firmament layers again when Virin 'matches the resonance' of an object, he's manipulating the layers of his Firmament so that they align perfectly with the layers of the thing he's trying to imbue. The moment he does, they slip together, like two pieces of a puzzle; after that, the 'knot' twists the whole thing up so they can't come apart as easily.

That... makes a lot of sense, actually. I remember my own insights the last time I did this the pattern I noticed in the Firmament, almost like a lock-and-key system. Virin's method of first aligning the layers makes everything slip into place.

Hm. Maybe I can apply this to my own techniques. Well, before anything else, I need a point of comparison.

"I want to show you a method of imbuement I developed next," I say. "Can you tell me what you think of it?"

"You make something new?" Virin's eyes are practically shining with delight. "Show!"

My method of imbuement, unlike Virin's, is a lot more brute force. I rip the surface layer of the object's Firmament off before pushing my own Firmament in. Now that I have a direct comparison to make, even without Virin saying anything, I can tell the difference. I'm only operating within a single layer my method means a lot less Firmament gets pushed into the object.

"Hm." I frown. I'm not exactly happy with this result; I've been hoping I discovered something important. "I can see the downsides"

I stop in my tracks as I notice Virin's expression.

His eyes are wide and his beak has fallen open he stares at the rock I'm holding like I'm holding a live grenade, somehow simultaneously afraid and excited. "What you do!" he asks. "Your imbuement different! Not as much. But more... no word. It easier to reach. Better for channeling."

"It's more accessible?" I ask to clarify, and Virin nods rapidly.

"Yes! Accessible. This imbuement much easier to connect with other things," he says. I think about this for a moment. It does make sense the entirety of my imbuement is packed close to the surface, so foreign Firmament doesn't need to penetrate as deeply to be affected by the imbuement itself.

Which makes it almost perfect for my plans, really, except...

It occurs to me that I could do both pack a good amount of Firmament in the uppermost layer and intertwine it with an aligned set of Firmament all at once. All the benefits of both, none of the flaws.

In theory, anyway.

"I want to try something," I tell Virin. I feel him peering over my shoulder cautiously as I begin to channel both Firmament Control and Hueshift.

This isn't an imbuement stone like the ones available in the Craven Arena, but it'll do for now. I'll ask Virin about the differences afterward.