“It’s an auspicious day for the murk bogs,” Geel announced. “It feels like it hasn’t even been a month since our three newest members petitioned to join us, three bright-eyed schoolgirls who looked at us and said: Yes, we’re tough as nails. No, we don’t need a school telling us how to think. Yes, we can handle our own with the professionals. And I bet some of you all didn’t even believe them! For all you doubters out there, our girls have only three words for you: kiss our asses. That’s right. They personally beseeched me to pass on this message to any of their doubters. Kiss our asses. Were there any doubters in this room?”

  No doubters spoke up.

  “I thought not. Now! Tomorrow! These girls will be joining us for one of our most important missions yet! A mission that will catapult us to new heights, that will finally earn us the recognition we deserve from our blessed government, which has a lot of money to spend. I hope you all will make their first foreign mission one to remember. So, I’ll see you all bright and early tomorrow morning. Dismissed!”

  Myra quickly tried to catch him before he could vanish. “Uh—can we get a briefing on what we’re doing?”

  “Yeah, I guess so,” he obliged. “Tomorrow night there’s a big meeting between the Unkmirean government and the imperial prince. We’re just gonna stand around and watch. Unless something kidnaps the king or something, then we might have to step in and do something. It’s bodyguard duty, got that?”

  “Uh… Okay.”

  He smiled. “You all will do great.” He patted Myra on the shoulder. “Probably because we won’t have to do anything, anyway.”

  When he left, Myra turned to her friends. “That was definitely not the whole story, was it?”

  “Myra,” Iz reminded her, “we still don’t understand a word that man says.”

  ◆

  Nobody disagreed that Geel was hiding something, but the question ever remained: why? What reason would there be to hide anything at this juncture? They were gonna be on the mission!

  Something wasn’t as it seemed. Were they still on Geel’s shitlist?

  The girls split up to spy for any suspicious activity, with Myra naturally being tasked with tailing Geel, Iz taking the barracks, and Shera keeping watch over The Well.

  Geel was oddly active that night, despite seemingly not doing much of anything. It became increasingly hard to tail him without being suspicious, and she started to worry the man was onto her. He did a lap around the perimeter, then turned around and lapped the other direction. On its own this was a substantial walk, all without any apparent aim or purpose. Then he looped around the administrative building, did another loop around some other miscellaneous buildings, then walked the full diameter of the platform (waving to Shera as he passed by The Well), looked off into the woods for a bit, then turned around walked back (waving to Shera again).

  All the while, Myra followed behind at a distance, levitating slightly to avoid making noise with her feet, while still trying to look casual in case he looked back. Unfortunately, Geel then decided to do a zig-zag between a couple of structures, and it was impossible to follow him. Myra took the long way around, ending up out by the bridge, greeted only by the night air and a distant owl. Hoothoothoot hoo hooo hoooo…

  Well, now what?

  “You ever get the feeling we’re being watched?” Geel said, and Myra nearly jumped out of her own skin.

  “G-G-G-G-Geel!” Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck where did he even come from? “I was just—uh, checking up on the bridge! Yeah.”

  “Ah, good,” he muttered absentmindedly. To her surprise, though, Geel wasn’t really looking at her at all, but rather staring out into the wooded expanse.

  “Uh—”

  “I’m glad I ran into you, actually.” He seemed to snap into focus. “Would you join me for tea for a minute?”

  “Yeah, uh, of course.” Oh god, please tell me I didn’t fuck it all up now of all times…

  He looked at her oddly. “Relax, like I said earlier, you girls are doing fine.”

  He casually gestured for her to follow and led her into the main building. He put a kettle on for tea, just like he said, then sat down on his sofa, leaning back and crossing his legs.

  “Myrabelle Prua-Kent, why did you really want to join this organization?”

  Her blood ran cold at the sound of her own name. “You—you know who I am?”

  “Well, it wasn’t hard to figure out. To be honest, Myrabelle, I thought the lot of you were spies at first, so we did a little digging. The phone number you gave us could be traced to Ralkenon. Then it only required a little more investigation to figure out who’d gone missing. Once I realized who you were, the picture became a little clearer. I’m not sure about the other two, but you, at least, have a reason to maybe uproot your entire life, no?”

  “Ah. Yeah.”

  “I’ll admit, it may have put me at ease regarding your intentions, but seeing the determination you put into your tasks really caught me off guard. It made me wonder if there might be more to it. To you.”

  “Oh. Uh, no, not really. That’s just my personality.”

  “Mm.” It didn’t sound like he believed her. “Well, be that as it may, I’m certainly not going to complain about your performance. Though I do wish the others would put a bit more work into their language skills.”

  “If you thought we were spies, why’d you hire us in the first place?” Myra asked.

  He smirked. “Why do you think?”

  “I really have no idea.”

  He tapped his fingers along the desk. “I know you recognized me. You used my full name the other day. What does that tell you?”

  “You used to work in academic psychology, and you did some, uh, questionable studies?” She had been referring to his mainline academic papers, but suddenly realized it might have had a different implication. “With the replication crisis and all.”

  “Well, we all make mistakes. But my point is, Myrabelle, I’m a scientist. I’m a philosopher! I hired you because I wanted to see what would happen.” He paused. “Well, we also really did need some rune experts.”

  “Do you mind if I ask you the same question?” It was too rare to find Geel in a talkative mood, and she didn’t want to waste it. “How’d you go from academic psychology to leading the murk bogs?”

  “Hrm. I’m afraid the story’s not quite so exciting as you might think. When I came across the murk bogs, they were leaderless. They were on the cusp of falling apart—truthfully, I don’t even know how they made it that long. And I just… stepped into the spot.”

  What a strangely familiar story.

  They were startled by the shrill ring of a telephone in the corner. Geel looked at it curiously for a moment, and it rang again. Finally, he held a finger up, then took the phone.

  “Geel Hattuck speaking.”

  It was hard to make out the voice on the other end, which was hoarse and spoke quickly against a faint, grainy background noise.

  “How’d you get this number?” Geel asked sharply.

  …

  He frowned. “Hrmm.”

  …

  “Fair enough. Now what do you want?”

  …

  “I’ll hear you out, but get to your point.”

  …

  His frown continued to deepen. Suddenly, he wordlessly gestured for Myra to leave the office, kicking her out before she even got to drink the previously promised tea.

  Geel was speaking too softly to properly eavesdrop, so Myra just loitered outside his door until he finished. It wasn’t a long conversation. When he exited the room, he was still scowling.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  “What was that?” she asked.

  “Nothing. Someone with a job offer, but I had to decline.”

  “What was it?”

  “It would have been tomorrow, but it’s not something we could do while maintaining our existing commitments.” He scraped a fingernail into his ear, a far-off look in his eyes. “They were too sketchy, anyway. Wouldn’t even identify themselves. Can’t trust someone who won’t even give you their damn name.” He missed the chance to rib at Myra, not even with a sly look. Instead, he just clasped her on the shoulder and wandered off. He seemed to be in his own head.

  Huh…?

  On the one hand, this kind of last-minute outside factor could be exactly the missing puzzle piece she needed to explain the murk bogs’ odd behavior on the last day. But if he’d declined the job, then what did it matter?

  Did we screw it all up? Was Nesr Wald supposed to be a key player at the end of the loop, and now the loop is way off course?

  Damn it.

  Even though she dreaded that everything was all for naught, she knew she couldn’t just throw in the towel yet. Thus, she took a deep breath and went to track Geel again.

  He hadn’t gone far. He had situated himself against a building, his back to a wall, eyes closed and arms crossed.

  What are you thinking about, Geel Hattuck…?

  Whatever it was, he thought about it for around ten minutes.

  Then, all of a sudden, his expression changed. His eyes lit up, and the corners of his mouth stretched out into a thin smile, a smile meant for no one other than himself. He sauntered off into the dark. A cold shiver ran down her spine: the Geel Hattuck that Myra knew was back.

  ◆

  About an hour later, Geel showed up to The Well with Chrysji and a few others. They scooped up buckets full of the weird goop fog and packed it into a freezer. Then they dismantled the entire bucket and pulley system, packed it up into a box, and left it with the rest of the supplies to take to Ralkenon.

  “… Any ideas?” Myra asked.

  “Maybe Geel anticipates someone’s gonna die,” Shera said. “And/or he wants to force everybody to forget about someone.”

  “Why would he need to pack up the pulley and bucket?” Iz asked, looking frustrated. “What the hell is he gonna do with it in Ralkenon? There’s no abyss in Ralkenon.”

  Iz was right, of course, although what that meant, Myra had no idea. According to Shera the next morning, the box remained where it was all night, untouched for about eight hours, before it was loaded up with all the other supplies on the train.

  The train, incidentally, turned out to be designed for smuggling, with enormous compartments beneath the floorboards. Apparently, the murk bogs had a couple of Unkmirean railway executives in their pocket. (Geel also had a backup plan in case they failed to fool the imperial border guards; Myra suspected it involved murder.)

  Anyway, they did make it into the empire without much issue or murder. Geel finally handed out a more detailed schedule, and the girls found an isolated carriage to plan their next moves. This turned out to be more contentious than Myra expected.

  “Are you really planning to go to that campus party?” Shera asked. She had a deep frown of disapproval on her face. “What if we miss the murk bogs doing something important?”

  “Well—you’re gonna stay with the murk bogs, right? It makes sense to split up and cover our bases. I want Iz’s analysis on the princess’s behavior.”

  “I think it’s irresponsible. What if Ben shows up?”

  “I’m not going to show my face,” Myra said. “It’s Iz who decided to go, anyway.”

  “Iz c-can do whatever she wants,” she said, deliberately not looking at her. “But I don’t th-think you need to indulge her.”

  “Indulge her? I’m not indulging anyone. What’s up with you, Shera?”

  “I just don’t want her c-causing any more problems.”

  “More problems?” She folded her arms. “What are you talking about? Iz doesn’t cause problems.”

  “That’s w-wrong.”

  All the while, Iz remained silent, leaving Myra caught in the middle. “Shera, we don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “H-haven’t you realized?” She clenched her fists and closed her eyes. “She’s th-the one who killed Nesr Wald!”

  Iz scoffed and looked the other direction, her eyes rolling all the while. Meanwhile, the knot that had been incubating in Myra’s stomach pulled itself taught.

  “She nearly r-ruined the whole loop!” Shera went on. “She’s the reason you had to go all the way to f-fucking Miirun! She sabotaged his pistol so the enchantment wouldn’t work! Then she probably flipped the switch with the telekinesis just after he died. So when Chrysji looked at it, it looked like he forgot to set it r-right—”

  “You have no basis for this,” Iz snapped, finally speaking up in her own defense.

  “Myra, d-do you really think it was just a random accident?”

  “I did it,” Myra said sharply. “I… did it.”

  Shera flinched. Her eyes flickered between the two, then settled on Myra. Her entire body sank, shoulders slumped and eyelids lowered, her chest depressed. “You?” she said softly.

  “It was about like you said. I sabotaged it and then fixed it with telekinesis right after he died.”

  “I figured as much,” Iz said neutrally.

  “I know it was stupid,” Myra said, running a hand through her hair. “I didn’t really think he’d actually do the blow-his-brains-out thing again.” Fuck, that was an awful excuse. “I mean, I figured on the off-chance he did do it, it would have meant that a, uh, bad situation had arisen—in which case I’d be glad to have done the sabotage…”

  “You c-could have ruined the loop!”

  “We didn’t ruin the loop! We pulled things together. We even learned something!”

  “If Nesr Wald h-hadn’t died, the crack team would have finished their job, and we could h-have g-gotten a closer look at the v-vault contents!”

  Myra sighed. “You’re right. It wasn’t a smart idea, regardless of how it played out. I was just so angry at the way he was treating Iz…”

  “You didn’t have to do that for me,” Iz said.

  “And I wanted to show you that I, uh, was serious about the no-consequences thing. I mean—” she said quickly “—I wouldn’t do that to a random person! But Nesr Wald—he—he deserved it, didn’t he?”

  “You don’t need to justify it, Myra.”

  She turned back to Shera, who obviously felt otherwise. The girl was looking to the ground, dejected. “Shera, I’m sorry.” She held out a hand, but the other girl flinched away. “I should have told you. Both of you.”

  “D-did you do anything like th-that the last time?”

  “Last time?”

  “When it was just me and you. You said he kept creeping on me or s-something…”

  “No, I—I didn’t do anything like that.”

  “Right, of course.” Somehow, she sounded even more betrayed than she had a moment ago.

  ◆◆◆◆◆

  Much earlier that morning

  Benkoten knew that Myrabelle probably hadn’t seen that second note he’d left her. Benkoten knew that, but he wasn’t sure if he should be glad about it or not. It had seemed like an interesting idea for a minute, and that was all the time he needed to scribble it out and leave it there. But there were a lot of ways for his idea to backfire—

  …

  Not to jinx it, but there was a good chance it wouldn’t matter.

  Things, after all, were looking up this loop: he had finally managed to locate Myrabelle.

  In general, the girl was difficult to track down. She was paranoid, and she was good at slipping Ben’s attempts at tailing her by teleporting randomly at the start of the loop. This time, though, she had finally slipped up, returning to Ralkenon early in the month. Ben had been long gone by then, of course—he couldn’t reasonably survey the campus twenty-eight days a loop every loop—and with his usual sort of luck, the story ought to have ended there.

  But this time… his younger brother had come through for him.

  Apparently, Myrabelle had run off south with Isadora and—

  Ben cut off his own thoughts with his other thoughts.

  Isadora.

  She went off to Unkmire with Isadora?

  What the fuck was the story there?

  Just thinking about the whole thing made his blood boil. It’s not fair, he thought. After everything, it’s not fair.

  His mind went back, way back to the early days. To that shocking sight in the first topology lecture. She doesn’t even remember what I’m protecting her from.

  She doesn’t understand everything I’ve been doing for her!

  Now look at her, prancing off in all her ignorance while refusing to even give me the time of day.

  It’s just not fair.

  “You’re losing focus,” came the instructive tones of Master Quoil.

  Ben sighed. Yeah, no surprise there.

  Ben was in a meditation chamber the group had erected in their temporary base near the southern border of the empire. It was nothing compared to the grand chamber in the Ptolkeran mountains, but Ben had thought the plainness of this makeshift one might make it easier to use. The massive chamber in the mountains had always intimidated him. He always felt like he didn’t belong there.

  Ben had thought wrong, of course. He hadn’t gotten anywhere, not in the grand chamber or in the plain one. The lights on the wall were just a mess, sharp and shapeless. The lights didn’t display his emotions—that wasn’t the point—but it was easy to think of it that way.

  “Yes, master. Much is on my mind.”

  “Hmph. This makeshift machine may be poorly calibrated,” said the sect head. “Perhaps you should set this aside until our mission is complete.”

  Ben could tell that the master was giving him an out, but he took it. “Of course.”

  Master Quoil put a hand on his shoulder. “This will be over soon. I have contemplated the issue you relayed to me either, and I am confident in our solution. In the meantime, Jatta and Lechour have returned. Come, let us see what they have to say.”

  ◆

  Right. Back to the original train of thought—

  Myrabelle had run off south with Isadora and Shera Marcrombie, but that wasn’t all. Isadora had checked out a bunch of books about Unkmirean history (now overdue) and then later a bunch of books about psychology, all centering around either Dr. Geel Hattuck or the Falmiir Village incident. It didn’t take a genius to guess where Myra had ended up this loop.

  Brother Jatta and Brother Lechour had been sent to do reconnaissance. If their report was fortuitous, the group would be able to make their move soon.

  “We have good news and bad news,” Brother Jatta reported. “The good news is that your brother’s intel was good. We found Myrabelle Prua-Kent. The bad news is that she seems to be under the protection of the murk bogs.”

  That was puzzling. “Under their protection?”

  “We tailed her for a while. She appears to have free reign of the place.”

  “At first we thought she was hiring them…” Brother Lechour said, “but on closer inspection, it soon became clear that she has joined them. She’s a full member, together with the other two.”

  “Her movements were very strange,” Jatta went on. “She wandered all around the platform, seemingly with no goal or reason. She lapped the whole thing several times, then wandered around through the middle. We wondered if she was taunting us.”

  Taunting us! Would she do that?

  “If she’s onto us,” Lechour said, “we will need to be exceedingly careful in how we proceed.”

  She probably thinks she’s untouchable.

  She knows what she can do when worst comes to worst.

  “After that,” Jatta said, “she met with the organization’s leader, one-on-one.”

  “Geel Hattuck,” Ben said.

  “That’s right. She left soon after, and then she waited around and watched Geel Hattuck do something in the center of the platform. We don’t know what that was about.”

  Ah, yeah. The ‘Well’ or whatever it was. Ben had most of the picture there, but that was a digression they didn’t need. He had no way to explain how he knew anything about it anyway, so he kept his mouth shut.

  “Then she went to sleep soon after, together with Isadora. Sherazyn Marcrombie was still awake when we left.”

  “It won’t be easy to mount an assault on an organization like theirs,” Lechour added.

  “No, it won’t,” Ben said. “But I think I know how to handle them.”

  You think you’re safe, Myrabelle? You think you have allies? You think you can just escape whenever you want?

  Just you wait.