Talking a bit more about Zorian's "secret" abilities, he definitely has some level of future sight along with everything else. In one chapter ( I forget which) he casually mentions in his monologue about how before the time loop he had weird dreams involving 3-eyed crows and flying pyramids pretty consistently.

Zorian seemed pretty oblivious to his dream's weirdness factor, but if that shit's not a sign of prophetic dreaming, I don't know what is. It's just that ironically, the time loop scrambles all future divination since the world only lasts a month. So, unless PLOT happens, as long as Zorian is inside the time loop he can't notice any hidden prophetic ability of his.

 

What? He already knows that Open individuals can have prophetic dreams.

 

Am I the only one who was eagerly awaiting to see the dynamic between Zorian and Damien today? Looks like the chapter is delayed until Tuesday though.

I feel like I need to re-read this, as some of the stuff y'all are talking about I can barely remember.

 

Oh we've waited to see Daimen for himself for the longest time... I'm also interested in seeing Zach in the middle - Daimen enough of a prodigy to measure up to even eclipse him?

And yes, Sildet. You should reread it, there's so much detail that comes up on a second or third read - I generally read at least the last chapter on the Saturday before the update. Sadly I didn't check if the update date had changed and woke up to disappointment today- n103 is pretty consistent with his updates (praise be!)

 

Damien might be better then Zorian still, but he definitely isn't better then Zack. Dude has been studying magic via the loop for over fifty years.

 

You're probably right, Vanathor. But everyone keeps going on and on about how Daimen was such a prodigy. Probably the extra 10-12 years that Zach had would be too much of a gulf, but I'm looking forward to seeing at least one aspect of magic that Daimen is the bees knees at.

 

I think there's a good chance it'll be divination. It'd help with his occupation, and given he's open (though he's likely not aware of it, though he may know he's an empath but not what that means) he would have a noted natural advantage towards it that most others just don't.

He's likely at least tried a little bit of magic of most disciplines, and so it's not a stretch to believe he would have realized divination came easier for himself than others even with his supposed prodigal nature.

Daimen then comes further into the story too as he'd be equipped to track down the various artifacts that they're looking for and skilled enough to help acquire them, which is of increasing importance given time is ticking down on the loops.

 

There is a point when getting better stops being simply a matter of having more time.

I suppose, I expect Daimen to have at least one subject where Zorian and Zach will be worse simply because of how they learn. Their situation forces them to be pretty much better than 80% of other wizards at everything and it's something that only very few ever try. At the same time, they neither have need or even desire to be the very top 5% in every subject, focusing their extra effort on their favourites.

In case of Daimen, it probably means that, yes, Zach can easily defeat him in a battle, and Zorian probably can already teach his brother a thing or two about spell formulas. At the same time, he, like other exceptional wizards they interact with, will have one area where he will be their experts on the matter in all future loops.

Considering what he's doing and what is most needed at this moment, I agree it's probably going to be a divination.

 

For Divination we already had that detective guy, Haslush, and we have aranea who are supposed to be really good at it. I'm thinking more prosaically it'll be Daimen's knowledge of and contacts in Koth. More interesting is finding about what Daimen's fiancee and her family's magic is all about and how it can help in ZZ's quest. Oh and dude's a treasure hunter. He'd have other magic apart from Divination, or just a hyper specialized version of it too..

Also I'm looking forward to seeing if the relationship between Daimen and his fiancee is on the up and up or not. He's been taking a long break with her, it's very sudden, he claims he can't let this opportunity go... It seems slightly fishy. It could be ok too, of course. It's natural to focus on a girl if you're in love... But is it really love?

 

Daimen's reactions to the loop situation were what you could expect from him. His interactions with his younger brother too.

Some of his comments suggest that Zorian's perspective on his family is not entirely fair and I'm starting to suspect that much of this was somehow screwed by his untrained emphatic abilities. Like any normal disagreement hit him twice as hard and he couldn't simply get over them as normal people do and that accumulated over the years into his grudge with them. Kiri would be an exception because she's younger and had a lot less time and, by the time he went to the academy, no much opportunity to annoy him. He probably managed to learn how to deal with it better across the years too.

The question though is what about an apparent skill that his older brother have. Maybe it's a lot weaker and instead of being initial disadvantage, it only helped him to somehow be better at connecting with others.

As for the ending of this chapter, we get a confirmation about some old guesses. At least with this Key Zorian and Zach will get the best help they probably can find.

 

I mean, I don't think anyone is surprised that this mysterious "ancient artifact" just happens to be the same thing that Daimen was looking for.

On the other hand, I'm not sure I really like that reaction from Daimen at the end of the chapter. Feels like he's not particularly happy that his brother and friend also want the orb, and there's also the sense that Daimen might want the orb for himself.

And yeah, Zorian is too harsh towards his family. I think this is a common trend for the story, to be honest, where his opinion of his family members goes up throughout the story if he interacts with them. Kirielle, for example, was incredibly annoying to him at the start, but later on he really started to genuinely like and care for her beyond like... sibling duties. And now Daimen at least seems to be gaining his esteem as well. One has to wonder if he's going to feel better about his parents or something as the loop goes on/gets towards the end, and also if Fortov will ever be more than "an idiot" in his eyes, but I do think that a major trend in the story is Zorian's reevaluation of those around him, and is probably an important character note of his.

One thing that isn't really touched upon in the story, mainly due to him not being the narrator I feel, is Zach's mental state. Even after all those years in the time loop, he's still a teenager, still the same type of guy that (if we trust Zorian's narration on Zach to be true from earlier chapters) he was before the time loop began. I'm very surprised that 50 years or so in the loop hasn't changed him at all.

 

Feels like everything in his life comes to that orb (including Orissa..). Also, he should be ecstatic... A) Zorian can literally sense it if he's close enough while he's in the loop. B)Zorian only needs it during the loop.

RE Zach's mental state.. he's been in the loop for 30 years or so (when the Guardian of the Threshold said so). Also, there is a point where Zach was muttering darkly and Zorian thinks to himself that Zach had after all been trapped for a long time here.. So it's mentioned in passing. Also, the fact that it kind of reset for him (6 years ago when Zorian came back and his memories were messed with) might help him to deal with it. If he can't remember most of the 30 years that have passed... I'm not sure though how extensive his memory loss is.

 

This is weird. Really weird. Like, Zorian had just spent two paragraphs thinking and then talks about it with Zach wondering why he chose her and then, he doesn't want to anymore? Weird.

 

You also have to consider the difference in situations. Damien was the first born golden child. Zorian was the third born semi disappointment. Those would be some very different emotions you're subconsciously picking up on.

 

It's not that weird. It just took him these paragraphs to get to a conclusion that he doesn't care.

Though what was an initial relationship between his older brother and his fiancée that later transformed into love, a suspicious teenager girl and even Daimen's abilities is probably going to be a mystery that Zorian could discover much earlier if he started asking questions right away.

Good point.

 

I feel it's been touched on in a roundabout way. Zorian's mentioned in the past that mind blank has some pretty big drawbacks if used consistently. I'm thinking part of this is the 30ish years of having the spell running.

 

The important clause is likely "that much."

That is to say, Zorian doesn't care about the answer enough to ask Damien about it, which ties back into their relationship, and also makes sense given, well, how likely is Damien to give a perfectly honest or objective answer? It's a rather personal question, when you get down to it. Consider all the myriad ways such a conversation might go, and then one can see why Zorian would refrain from diving into it.

 

Zach hasn't had mind blank going for 50 years. It's even noted in the chapters where Zorian comes out about being a master mind mage that Zach starts turning it on.

 

Yeah, pretty sure if you had a mind blank on for 30 years you'd be way past insanity at this point.

I was more referring to his mental health. I mean, it's not like he can forge real relationships with anyone since they'll all forget him. And like, sure, he could always seek shallow relationships with people once he figured out how to be their ideal friend/romantic interest. But like, eventually there comes a point where you're just questioning why you're reliving a month over and over and how hellish that is. It's kinda an existentialist thing, but I expected the story to comment more on it.

I mean, I'm pretty sure Zach doesn't know about the origins of the loop, so until he was told about it a few chapters ago I'd imagine he'd be pretty emotionally tilted at the idea that he'd be spending the rest of eternity repeating a single goddamn month, all the while understanding that there is a limit to what he can accomplish and that nothing ever lasts.

 

A lot of you are guessing that Damien might not help Zorian an Zach find the orb, honestly I got the vibe they'd bargain with letting him have it in the real world, giving him a tip on where to find it when they get out.

If he didn't believe them abut the loops(he didn't seem convinced), then they still have the option of Zorian mind-reading him.
I doubt he has any compunctions about doing that, after all Damien used to practise that body control spell on him and it's not like he's his mom or anything. Which will then let us know about any mind-shiftiness.

Overall both Damien and Zorian are totally biased about their family, so unless Fortov out of nowhere adds some clarity or something that's going nowhere.

Meanwhile I'm wondering mostly about the bit character that tried to mind-probe Zorian since she'll obviously have some critical role about exposing the Taramatula's mind control an tyranny over the sentient bee cousins of the desert wasps.

Spoiler

Also, is it just me or did Zorian exposing himself as Open/mind mage either open or close some doors with the Taramatula? I mean I'm wondering if Damien's mind magic is more detectable or subtle because it's not directed?