“You can’t be serious!” Hugo yelled and threw down the letter, “If we let Shimmer mountain be destroyed, hundreds of thousands of people will die!”

Dean Artjom put his hands up and said, “Calm down, Hugo. Vika didn’t say anyone had to die. She said Shimmer mountain needed to be destroyed. We can let that happen without endangering anyone. I plan on working with the ruling council of the wheel to get this done. They will cooperate if I invoke the Graff Accords. I don’t know why this Marshal from Deva didn’t do the same thing. Anyway, we just make sure no one goes up the mountain this year, and cut off the shimmer veins before the end of the year. I imagine a few well placed explosions will save us from any blowback of the mountain’s destruction.”

Hugo sat back and took deep breaths. When he was calmer he said, “This would still drastically change our lives. Shimmer is the key to modern life. Pulsenotes, plumbing, lighting, manufacturing, and shimmer corps all rely on it. Without it, we would be back to slavery times.”

“I think you are overestimating shimmer’s impact. All of those things you mentioned can be accomplished with mana instead of shimmer. This school runs on a mana core, and we live a modern life. Everyone outside the wheel lives a happy and fulfilled life using only mana. We have to let the mountain be destroyed. There will be an adjustment period, that is true. But we must follow the accords.”

“What are the accords? They mentioned them in history class, but I thought they just outlawed slavery and codified the rules of engagement in war,” Hugo said.

“The Graff Accords were put in place shortly after the fay slaughter a thousand years ago. They helped stabilize a truly violent time in history. There was some disagreement about a few points, but the one thing everyone agreed on was the fact that the grand rituals could not be allowed to be completed. The exact reason is lost to time. Well, Vika might know it, she is old enough to have been around then. Anyway, the point is that if the rulers of all the nations of the land adhere to the accords for a reason. People wiser than you or I are afraid of what the grand ritual might do,” the dean said.

“So what? Just because a bunch of old people are scared of something, we have to suffer? Losing shimmer would hurt the wheel. I think I need a better reason before I let you all destroy our way of life. You have been the dean of a magic school for years, so maybe you have forgotten what it is like to live out there. More than half the city is living on the edge, just earning enough to keep food on the table. A disruption of this magnitude would kill people. Maybe not right away, but people would die in that ‘adjustment period’,” Hugo said.

Dean Artjom shook his head, “I can’t say that I appreciate the implication that I am that out of touch. Regardless, if you require additional convincing, Grand Automatonist Vika has already offered to talk to you. Here is her address. Go visit her. And perhaps when you return, you will have an apology for this out of touch dean.”

Hugo took the paper and left. He felt a little bad about how that exchange went, but he didn’t feel like he was in the wrong. He couldn’t just let Shimmer mountain be destroyed on a centuries-old fear that might not even be valid anymore.

Before he left campus, Hugo stopped by the runic workshop to see Mia. He sat down at the worktable with her. He explained to her what the letter had said about himself and the destruction of Shimmer mountain.

“That’s wild. I don’t know how I would react if I found out I was an ersatz,” Mia said, “Do you think you will come back as an ersatz next time too?”

“What? No, I can’t time travel anymore. All of the ritual nodes have been used up,” Hugo said, “This is my last life.”

“Oh. You should have mentioned that before. The last few weeks have been stressful, thinking that nothing I did was going to matter. I need to apologize to a few people,” Mia said.

“Sorry, I guess I wasn’t clear,” Hugo said awkwardly.

“Nah, it’s fine. At least I know now. Anyway, what are you going to do about Shimmer mountain?” Mia said.

“I don’t know. I mean, it’s good that they aren’t going to let the cities explode anymore. Dealing with the loss of shimmer won’t be easy though. It’s a huge upheaval, and a lot of people are going to get hurt in the transition. I wish there was a different solution, a way to keep shimmer and still stop the ritual,” Hugo said.

“Yeah, I am not looking forward to it myself. I have seen how the rest of the world lives, I prefer it here. At least you will be safer without shimmer around,” Mia said.

“Safer? How so?” Hugo said.

“Well, you are a being of pure mana right now, a shimmer caster could kill you in one shot,” Mia said.

Hugo’s eyes widened. He hadn’t thought of that. A blast of shimmer wouldn’t strip him of his magic, it would disintegrate him. He shivered at the thought. “I hadn’t thought about that. It doesn’t change my mind though. We need to figure out a way to stop this.”

Mia shook her head and said, “I think you are falling into the same trap I was. After several loops I thought I knew better than everyone, even the sages. I thought I always knew best, even when presented with new information. I was wrong. It cost the lives of dozens of people because I was stubborn. Luckily, I got to restart. You don’t have that luxury anymore.”

Hugo slowly nodded, “Maybe you are right. I just want to do the right thing. I have been focused on saving the wheel for so long, I don’t want to give up now.”

“Go talk to Artjom’s friend before you do anything. Find out what she knows. Maybe you will agree with her after you learn the whole story,” Mia said.

“Yeah, that’s a good idea. I need to talk to her before I make any decisions,” Hugo said, “By the way, I have something for you.”

Hugo took out a small piece of paper and fifty gold. He placed the gold on the table in front of Mia and said, “Here, this is yours now.”

“What? Not that I am refusing a gift, but why?” Mia said.

“How would you like to buy some mithril rods from an authorized dealer?” Hugo said as he pulled out his metal guild badge and fabricated a rod.

Mia’s face lit up, “Oh yes, please. Give me as many rods as fifty-five gold can get me.” She pulled out five more gold to add to the pile and pushed it his way.

Hugo smiled and started fabricating. Once he had a pile of rods he pushed them over. He wrote out a receipt for her and signed it with his badge number. He also wrote himself a note so he could pay the guild their cut from the sale. He said, “Now that you have legally acquired mithril, you can make anything you want with it and sell it. I am sure you can earn enough to keep the mithril flowing for all your fun projects.”

Mia stood up and gave him a hug, “Thank you so much. I can’t wait to start inscribing. There is this big project I have been saving up for, I think it's finally time to start it.”

Hugo smiled, "Good luck, I hope it works out the way you want it to."

...

“All aboard!” the conductor yelled out.

Hugo boarded the train with a bit of trepidation. He had taken a shimmer train to Tallinn and then south to the edge of Shimmer mountain’s veins. The train he was on now was different. Instead of floating above the vein, this train rode on metal wheels and track. This train itself was much wider and stockier than the one he rode in on. The grain shipments that accompanied him on the ride were slid inside the train. They had simply slid the whole train cars into the more armored one.

The construction of the train revealed something about the expected journey. The windows were long and narrow. The train walls were layered metal four inches thick. The inside of the train car was covered in the same runes as the city walls. This was going to be an exciting ride.

One nice thing about this new train was that the passenger section was much more comfortable. Nice padded seats that could turn into beds later. Hugo luxuriated in comfort for now. He suspected he would be sick of it by the time he arrived at his destination six days from now.

He looked around at the people sitting in his section. He would be around these people a lot. He hoped they would be pleasant so this trip wouldn’t be torture. He had the bench seat to himself, and across from him was an older woman with her teenage daughter. In the same section but across the aisle were a nox man and woman. He would say they were a married couple based on how they acted around each other, but she looked so much younger that he didn’t want to make assumptions.

A half hour after they got underway, the teenage daughter across from him said, “Hey. I’m Karina. What’s your name?”

“I’m Hugo. And you are?” he said and turned towards the mother. He wanted her to know he was being polite, not just talking to her young daughter.

“Birgit,” she said and nodded at him.

“This is my first trip beyond Shimmer mountain. How about you two?” Hugo said.

Karina said, “Just the opposite for us. We live in Makhanda and came to visit Tallinn for New Years. It was my first time visiting the breadbasket.”

“That’s a long New Years vacation,” Hugo said. It had been over a month since the heartbeat.

“I wish it was a vacation, we had to work the whole time. I wish we had just gone home right away,” Karina said and gave her mother the stink eye.

Birgit laughed, “We saved sixty gold by taking the later train. All the rich snobs take up seats on the train just after the heartbeat.”

“Wow, sixty gold,” Hugo said, shocked. He had thought the train tickets were already rather expensive.

“Yep. I guess you didn’t try and leave the breadbasket sooner. Where are you off to?” Karina said.

“I am headed towards Soweto. I have a golem maker I need to meet,” Hugo said.

“End of the line, huh? We are only joining you for half the journey...” Karina said before she was interrupted.

A young man in uniform burst into their traincar and said, “Monsters, A22. Approaching from the east. Again, Monsters, A22.” Then the man hurried to the next train car.

Hugo watched him go, glancing around to see if anyone else was worried about monsters. No one else seemed to care. He turned back to Karina and Birgit and said, “What was that all about? Was he speaking in code?”

Birgit answered, “It’s a monster report. Passengers can listen to the reports and assist in the defense of the train if they want. You take that ladder right over there and hop up on the roof of the train.”

Hugo glanced over to see a metal ladder leading to a hatch in the roof of the traincar.

Birgit continued, “The code he said was the tier and number of monsters. A tier is for low level monsters, B tier is the next step up, and so on. No one got up because we are all above rank eight here and none of us would gain points. If you hear a C100, I will probably take a turn on the roof. I am happy with my rank, but I wouldn’t object to a few more easy ones. On the other hand, if you hear him announce F or G monsters, we don’t go on top of the train. We open up the slit windows and pray we survive.”

“Seems a bit haphazard to rely on passengers for the defense of the train,” Hugo said.

Karina spoke up, “Nah, it’s actually quite brilliant. The higher tier monsters there are, the more help we need in defense. But high ranked passengers are more likely to want to help out so they can continue to rank up. If the passengers are lazy on that particular ride, the conductor can take care of things. He is a high ranked light mage with a powerful laser. He would just have to chug mana potions to keep up with a horde.”

“Huh. So this system helps passengers rank up, while saving the conductor’s mana potions,” Hugo said. He glanced out the window to see a horde of spiked frogs bouncing towards the train. When they got within two hundred yards, a bright light flashed and all of them fell dead. That conductor was powerful.

“Exactly, everyone wins,” Karina said, “Anyway, as I was saying we are only here until Makhanda. That’s three and a half days from now. We should get to know each other better.”

The next few hours were really awkward. Karina was obviously flirting with him, right in front of her mother. Birgit didn’t like it, but she didn’t tell her daughter to stop. Hugo tried to stay polite with Karina while not leading her on. She was admittedly pretty, but he wasn’t going to have a relationship with someone he just met on a train.

Just after they returned from dinner in the dining car the uniformed young man came through their traincar again. He said, “Monsters, D55. Approaching from the west. Again, Monsters, D55.”