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#quatach ichl
mage-witha-glock · 3 months
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I have torn thoughts on Red Robe's characterization in Mother of Learning.
On the surface, one can draw a parallel between his villainous motivations and those found in lazy action movies. "The bad guy is the radical extremist trying to destroy an unjust system instead of doing nothing like the good guys." But as I thought about the protagonists, Zach and Zorian, I found the parallel isn't the same. Zach and Zorian really aren't defenders of the monarchy, the noble houses, or the status quo. Zach ends the story fighting a legal battle to right a wrong done to him and Zorian ends up as the ambassador to the aranea to help them establish official diplomatic relations with Cyoria. Sure, neither character is specifically politically ambitious, but that seems to be from a sense of humility or desire for rest than actual satisfaction with the status quo. So, what is the actual foil between ZZ and Jornak?
We don't get a lot of specifics with Jornak's characterization, but two details stand out to me. 1) Jornak discovered the deepness of eldemar's/ikosian empire's corruption during a time loop that he had to cheat to retain awareness of. 2) Quatach-Ichl betrays Jornak partially by revealing his plan to hold Zorian's friends and family hostage because Jornak believes that the first ikosian emperor used the time loop to ascend to power and wants to use the same power to conquer the continent. Let's start with the first detail. Jornak discovers in his research that the injustice that happened to him was a result of systemic problems. He couldn't fix those in a month by himself in increments, which is the only time frame he had within the time loop. But he could support the invasion, he could leverage it to destroy *everything* standing in his way and be free to start over from scratch. The only way he could feel like he was making progress was by consolidating more personal power and perfecting the outcome of a horrific invasion. And he knew that the "boon" of the time loop was not designed with him in mind. It was made for Zach in mind and Jornak was terrified of being cut out of the picture and exploited like he exploited everyone else and was exploited. So he had to make a deal with Qautach-Ichl and Panaxeth, further committing him to the invasion as his only course of action. So, his actions are extreme but kind of understandable and sympathetic? But if we look at the second detail of Qautach-Ichl's worries of him we see he's making the same mistakes that he claims are the reason for the systemic injustices today. Jornak wants to "follow the cycle" as it were, and become emperor like Shutur Tanara with his boon of the time loop. He consolidated immense magical power, skill, and political/psychological insight of important actors in the world. All he had to do afterwards was become emperor and instead of being bad like him, be good. Easy, right? But for that to work he still has to conquer the continent which one can't and shouldn't do without committing so many atrocities and compromising so many morals. He may not establish the same systemic injustices but if he doesn't he will make different ones. Jornak sees the cycle of the time loop being an unfair advantage and allowing one madman to reshape the continent as they see fit and decides he's going to ensure he's the madman in hopes of making the world better. And here we see ZZ truly promising something different by not doing that. It is a repeated character motivation of Zorian's and Zach's that they wish to pay people back for the support they received in the timeloop. They consolidated power and then worked on ensuring others got the benefits of it too. The two of them aren't planning on being the singular most historically important people to culture and civilization, they want to give their own (partially) realistic contributions and help their friends do the same. Zorian isn't going to be the one that publishes revolutionary medicinal and alchemical techniques, but Kael might. Zach won't go down in history for single handedly hunting down and dismantling groups of necromancers and cultists, but Alanic and his sect of the church might. They are so committed to helping their friends, and Zorian especially seeks to achieve their goals not through dominance, but through diplomacy. Zorian and Zach's diplomacy and "political" intrigue are so integral to how they win in the end that I'm tempted to say the author read On the Origins of War: And the Preservation of Peace or something similar. Zorian secures an alliance with Spear of Resolve by proving his trust and alluding to helping a rival. Zorian gets important information out of Qautach-Ichl by making a cogent and good faith argument for him to not support the invasion. Zorian gets Oganji to flee the battle by giving up valuable artifacts in a bargain. And most importantly, the angels cut a deal with Zorian and Zach to not enforce certain clauses of the law if Zach and Zorian can skirt the letter of it.
I think if you really comb over how Zorian and Zach interact with antagonists, how others try to get what they want, and characterizations of conflicting people/organizations, politically speaking the story is about how important it is to compromise your goals in the name of results and your ethics as opposed to compromising your ethics in the name of your goals. ZZ break a cycle of exploitation by refusing to forget others and paying back debts. Jornak's bitterness and despair push him to make a deal with the "devil" (primordial) and fight for the short term, corrupt solution. I think this is the most good faith interpretation I can have about the character dynamics and themes of the book but who knows? I might be wrong due to projections.
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cal-cium-the-nerd · 13 days
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Fun idea:
After the invasion is over and Quatach-Ichl is busy preparing defenses for Eldemar's attack (probably by inciting other countries to attack Eldemar before they can launch an attack on Ulquaan Ibasa) one morning he receives on his doorstep, a beautifully wrapped...
...Bouquet of flowers?
He scans it, of course, but can't sense anything harmful inside it, so it's not a bomb or a malevolous soul magic construct.
And when he finally takes a peek, a multitude of replicas of the soulseizer chrysanthemum happily greets him.
Cue a horrified screech, and the laughter of two ex-time travelers a safe distance away.
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xvimism · 2 months
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At the risk of dividing the fandom...
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greengargouille · 1 year
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I had an idea for a Mother of Learning AU, but just the idea of the length it would take to make it into a proper fic means I will never ever write it. So instead all you guys get is this post. Zach leaves the loop much like canon, but wake up 400 years in the future, exactly one month before the next planar alignment. The world progressed a lot during this time, obviously- the towns that hadn’t changed in decades from his point of view are now completely different. Technologies that were still in their first step back in the loop are now commonplace, and it’s frequent to see golems in the streets- as well as aranea now and then. Ulquaan Isaba is no longer on the maps, lost to war a couple centuries ago.
It’s all horribly wrong to Zach, and just as wrong is the contract he can feel deep into his mind, no longer about stopping the invasion but stopping Panaxeth’s prison from being opened. All the enemies he had known, Silverlake, Red Robe, Quatach-Ichl, all seems to be dead end. Even Oganj have been slain times ago- no one is exactly sure by whom, and whether or not they’re also responsible for Violeteye’s demise. There’s no sign of the Cult either, and no shifter children seems to have been kidnapped. No, instead the ones trying to break into the primordial’s prison are a small group of extremely competent people, and at their head an Immortal with a grudge against angels. His name? Zorian Kazinski.
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formerhimedanshi · 4 years
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Zorian, looking at Quatach-Ichl: I can't believe i'm gonna get taught by him.
Zach: Well, you don't have to
Zorian: No i'm gonna
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necer0s · 5 years
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So I just out of nowhere developed my theory for how Zorian is going to save Zach at the end of Mother of Learning:
I think Zorian is going to have secretly become a lich so he can fake his death. Unlike illusions, after all, there’s nothing about being a lich that Zach can dispel or mind blank away— if Zach sees Zorian’s real, actual body fall to the ground with no soul inside, he would have no choice but to believe that Zorian is dead. And that would free him from the contract.
Zorian is probably the most skilled caster of soul magic and simulacrums in the world who isn’t a necromancer, after all. This is almost certainly within his ability. Especially if he has Quatach-Ichl’s help. And this is exactly the kind of thing that QI would be willing to help with— it wouldn’t significantly affect the invasion’s chances, it would just (mostly) guarantee that Zorian survives the night. Which in turn means that Zorian would survive long enough to pay back this huge favor that he now owes Quatach-Ichl.
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lostinthewinterwood · 4 years
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Gen Freeform Exchange 2020
Hey friend!
I’m looking forward to whatever you’re going to make for me—if you want to take what was in my sign-up and run with it, go right ahead!  But if you’re looking for more inspiration/ideas, keep right on reading.
If you’re not my assigned person, and are instead a generous person looking at this letter for treating purposes, I’d be happy to get treats in any medium.
General DNW
Rape/non/dub-con; non-canonical major character death; heavy angst; hurt no comfort; graphic depictions of deliberate and methodical self-harm*; graphic depictions of suicide; anything E rated; gore; heavy gender dysphoria; grimdark; complete downer endings; character bashing; incest; cringe comedy; a/b/o; mpreg; full setting AUs (canon-divergence is fine); graphic eye trauma; graphic and/or permanent hand trauma (unless the setting can provide a more-or-less fully functional prosthetic or equivalent); issuefic; unrequested identity headcanons.
*I don’t include things like, say, punching a wall in a fit of emotion under this. however, something like cutting would not be appreciated.
 General Likes
– I really like plotty fics
– Secret identity and disguise shenanigans, the more layers to them and more absurdity the better.
– Crossdressing for whatever reason and gender disguises, also for whatever reason.
– Time travel and time loops are always fun, especially as a fix-it.  I have a general preference for Peggy Sue style (aka, an older character getting put back in their younger body at an earlier point in the timeline) over the character’s physical body stepping back in time, but either one is good.
– A focus on family and/or friendship, especially characters realizing they’re not nearly as alone as they think they are, and just generally characters who like each other and enjoy spending time together
– Found family; families of choice
– Character studies
– Worldbuilding
All of my requests have way too many tags to relist them here, but if you’re at a loss for what to do, anything in a given request’s tags is obviously fair game; don’t feel bound by them either, since I’m definitely interested in more things than just those which appear in the tag requests.
 Fandom-specific prompts and DNWs
 Mother of Learning
Fandom-specific DNW: physical parental abuse within the Kazinski family, significant exaggeration of canonical emotional neglect/abuse/general family dysfunction, any implication or presence of romantic and/or sexual Zach/Zorian, either Raynie or the rest of her tribe being portrayed as Absolutely Right And Entirely Justified in all of their actions
 Neoluma-Manu Iljatir & Zach Noveda
Solo: Zach Noveda
Zach Noveda & Zorian Kazinski
Fanfiction
I’d generally prefer something set at least in part after the time loop begins, but beyond that I don’t have a strong preference for where in the timeline this might be set.  Maybe something from before Zorian got looped in—maybe one of the iterations where Zach and Neolu just went off across the country having fun the whole month? Zach doing whatever, possibly very early on, or maybe him freaking out a little because what the hell, time travel is supposed to be impossible, and yet—what did he do in the start? Some canon-type shenanigans with Zach and Zorian together because there aren’t lasting consequences to their actions?
Or for post-canon, I’d really like an exploration of Zach, who’s got the lived-time of a middle-aged man and the body of a teenager—how does he relate to his classmates/other people in the real world, where everyone’s growing again?  Maybe something about his lawsuit against his caretaker, or just a little thing with him, Zorian, and How Do You Live Normally, Again?  This Is Hard, or some such thing.
One tag I like especially—though obviously if you didn’t match on it you needn’t include it—is “Character expected to die but didn’t and now has no idea how to live anymore,” since Zach definitely didn’t fully expect he would get a chance to live through the rest of his adolescence/adulthood, and something delving into that would be really interesting!
 Raynie & Raynie’s Tribe
Raynie & Kiana
Fanfiction, Podfic
I love Raynie, and I love the little glimpses we get into her character and her past in canon!
For her I was thinking maybe something after the invasion, maybe her going home again.  I’d love to see a reconciliation between her and her tribe, and a settling of the issues and problems that led to her being sent away.
If I’ve got my timeline right, her brother should be old enough to have reasonable interactions with; I’d really enjoy something dealing with the tension between them, letting them reconcile and build a better sibling relationship.
Alternatively, if we’re going for pre-canon, I’d really enjoy something dealing with her initial arrival in Cyoria and befriending Kiana.
 Cikan Kazinski & Kirielle Kazinski
Solo: Kirielle Kazinski
Nochka Sashal & Kirielle Kazinski
Zorian Kazinski & Kirielle Kazinski
Fanfiction
I’d really like something focusing on Kirielle here—she is, after all, the uniting factor in this set of requests.
I’ve got a few ideas for what could come of this!
-- Kirielle and her mother.  For this one, I’d rather it not be anything where Cikan can be described as “winning” a confrontation—I’d much rather have it be a confrontation where it either ends neutrally or in Kiri’s favor, or a reconciliation when Kiri’s a bit older, coming to understand each other better.  I’d be down for Cikan realizing that Kiri is her own person, and can forge her own way in life, if you can get a story there, but I’m not sure if there’s an in-character way to do so, given how she still relates to Daimen, a successful adult in his own right.
-- Kirielle and Nochka.  They’re adorable and I’d love a further development of their friendship, especially getting to see it grow and develop over the months and years after the invasion.
-- Kirielle and Zorian.  I love their dynamic!  And again here I’d really enjoy seeing their relationship developing in real time, rather than a constantly looping world.  I think it would be great to see either of them defending the other to their parents—and maybe Zorian ends up with custody of Kiri, there’s definitely things to explore there.
-- Kirielle.  I’d be here for any sort of character study of Kiri, really, but I’m gonna prompt a few specific things anyway.
---- She grows up a little, and becomes a student mage—what’s that like for her, especially having received Zorian’s tutelage?
---- She grows up a little, and doesn’t seriously pursue magic—does she devote herself more seriously to art?  Do something else?  Get away from her parents, and get to just be a kid for a little longer than her siblings?
---- By some mechanism, Kirielle gets pulled into the time loop, whether with Zorian, instead of him, or in some utterly unrelated incident. What’s it like to grow older and older in life experience while your body remains stubbornly nine?  How does this change the story?  If you go this route I’d rather looper!Kiri not be erased in the timeline of the fic—ending the fic before it becomes an issue or letting her escape back to the real world are what I’d rather see.
---- For some reason—there’s actually a fair amount that’d have to change here, but shhh this is my ridiculous self-indulgent prompt—Kirielle is the Controller.  How does she react to being in a looping world, with no one else looping she can possibly compare notes with?  What does she do with her time?  Why did the angels choose her?  How does this impact canon—is Jornak even a problem, does the whole Sovereign Gate affair pass much as it was meant to rather than the debacle that became of it in canon?
 Solo: The Ghost Serpent
Solo: Quatach-Ichl
Fanfiction, Podfic
So, these two are just… they’re old.  They’re very old; QI, the younger, is still a thousand years old, and they’ve just seen so much??  I’d love some sort of exploration of the world’s history through either of their eyes.
For the Ghost Serpent, I’d be very interested in what it saw the other Branded Ones do that put it off of them so badly.
For QI, I’m interested both in the world history around him and also how he became what he is—why/how did he become a lich in the first place?  Who was he before?  Why did he get a divine blessing?  What did he think of the gods falling silent?  What was the Necromancer’s War like?
For this prompt, I’d be down for an in-universe document or legend/folktale/fairytale about them, rather than an ordinary narrative. I’d also definitely be down for something like an epic poem or story-song, if you feel so inclined.
  Star Wars Rebels
Alexsandr Kallus & Garazeb “Zeb” Orrelios
Fanfiction
I’m a total sucker for the enemies-to-allies redemption arc that Kallus and Zeb have going and really, anything exploring that dynamic I’d be down for.  Post-Honorable Ones is probably better—there’s a bit more to work with there—but mutual respect/grudging acknowledgement from before that point would be great too.
That being said, I would also be super down for one or both of them mentally travelling back in time and whatever ridiculous shenanigans emerge from that—honestly most of my tags can be interpreted as prompts for that, if you squint at least.
  Star Wars Rebels: Servants of the Empire
 Solo: Zare Leonis
Solo: Dhara Leonis
Zare Leonis & Dhara Leonis
Fanfiction
These poor kids, god.  I love them and I love their siblingship and I just, I want more. A lot of the freeforms I’m asking for are geared towards the aftermath of Secret Academy, and Dhara’s recovery and her relationship with Zare throughout that.  Do feel free to bring in their parents, too, though it’s by no means necessary.
Other things I’d be interested in include various types of role reversals and how that changes things—maybe it’s Zare who’s older, with a Force-sensitive little sister in Dhara, or the ages are the same and the Force sensitivity is flipped, or maybe Zare’s Force sensitive as well as Dhara, or the ages and Force sensitivity are flipped, making Zare Force sensitive and older and Dhara not force sensitive as well as being younger.
Another interesting thing would be exploring Zare readjusting to a civilian life; he’s quite conditioned into being so careful and military in his dress and his living space—does he keep that going? Let it fade?  Deliberately reject it?
 Solo: Lieutenant Chiron
Zare Leonis & Lieutenant Chiron
Fanfiction, Podfic
I love Chiron, he’s such an interesting character, and I am Big Sad that he doesn’t appear in any fics on ao3 as of yet.  He strikes me very much as a good man who doesn’t really know most of the bad things his government is doing; he cares about Zare and he cares that there’s abuses of power and murder going on at the academy; he truly, genuinely wants to make the galaxy a better place.
I would love to see a story where he lives through the climax of Secret Academy and, however that happens, is thus forced to question his government from that, since I’m also Big Sad that he died before he had that chance; failing that it would be interesting to have a fic exploring his past and how he came to be part of the imperial war machine, I think.
For him and Zare post-canon, assuming an AU where they both survive, I’d be down to see them rebuilding the relationship they had before and regaining some sort of trust/regard for each other.
  Original Works
Fandom-specific DNW: the word “queerplatonic” being used to describe relationships (writing something that you’d normally consider it is fine!  I just don’t really like the term), fics that are All About Being Trans And/Or Disabled, neopronouns, nondysphoric trans characters.
 Archmage & Apprentice
Failed Chosen One & New Chosen One
Girl Who Killed The Dark Lord & Her New Inherited Minions Who She Would Like To Be Less Scared
Fanfiction
I love fantasy, including space fantasy, and so many of its associated tropes: magic, destiny and fate and the subversion thereof, people being fundamentally human whilst caught up in something far beyond them…
This one’s a bit harder to prompt for, but looking through the tags I asked for should give you a decent idea for what I like; see also the general likes section above.
Thank you for creating for me!! I’m sure whatever you make will be lovely, and I’m looking forward to seeing it :D
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lonsheep-blog · 8 years
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Mother of Learning
Posters and fanart for the awesome long-running web novel Mother of Learning, featuring a schoolboy mage who relives the same month over and over, Groundhog Day style.
Top:  Zorian and the Lich King
Bottom:  Zorian and his teacher
Looks badass in full resolution.
And an old post where I drew Red Robe.
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mage-witha-glock · 7 months
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Quatach Ichl is, quite possibly, my favourite villain of all time. Actually, scratch that. He is my favourite villain of all time. Nobody does it like him.
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mage-witha-glock · 6 months
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Red Robe, setting out some conditions for the tenporary peace pact: Oh yeah, and stop killing and robbing my people
*Everyone turns to Zorian*
Zorian: What??
Zorian: .... Ugh fine. I'll stop killing and robbing your people.
Zorian, whispering: Fucking spoil sports. Can't have shit around here. Everyone's gotta be a party pooper
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mage-witha-glock · 6 months
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Zach when his cover for his house getting attacked was that he wasn't at home because he was out partying, when in reality he was there and got hit so bad he probably would've died if not for his friend who somehow always manages to be able to swoop in and save his ass
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mage-witha-glock · 6 months
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Out of all the MOL characters, which of the side characters did you wish was more fleshed out/want to flesh out yourself?
Andir, Zorian's dad. Zorian doesn't like his parents, for obvious reasons, but he seems to really hate his father, moreso perhaps than his mother. Obviously, this has to do with his comments on Zorian's appearance in addition to the scathing comments about Zorian's lack of social skills that both Andir and Cikan pile on him, but I feel like there's other stuff.
However, I want to talk about what we've got. Daimen being able to notice Andir's ticks (relaxing minutely when he sees his children are okay after the invasion) in the epilogue was interesting. Andir is clearly a well put together man, who doesn't seem to show much emotion. He doesn't show that he's glad his kids are okay in an obvious way, indeed, if Daimen didn't know him so well, nobody would have noticed.
Now, since the story is mostly from Zorian's point of view, we know that Zorian would never notice these things. He doesn't know his father well enough, nor care enough to change that. But it makes me question a specific scene. After Zorian wakes up late in a restart because of an attack which hurt his soul (can't remember if it was after Quatach-Ichl suicide soul detonation or another occurrence) he is forced to stay at home by his mother, which means his father (which he doesn't usually so much as see in a restart) interacts with him. From Daimen's pov we know that Andir does care about his children so perhaps he was worried about his son and such but Zorian didn't notice. Just an interesting little thing.
But yeah, him being more fleshed out would be cool, although from the Daimen's "their parents seemed like strangers to Zorian" comment, I understand why he isn't.
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mage-witha-glock · 7 months
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Okay but can we talk about how terrified Jornak was when he realised what was happening, and that he was in an illusion?
W-What?
Wait…
No.
No!
"You can't be! You can't be him!" Jornak protested, his voice getting more and more panicked. "I killed you! I know I did! Your soul got devoured by wraiths! I… I have a mind blank on, that spell is total protection against-"
He checked his mind. He checked it again, and then a third time. Always the same result. His mind blank was still one. His mind was protected.
Except it wasn't.
'None of this is real…' Jornak realized.
"Well then," the imposter in the guise of Quatach-Ichl said. "Let's try this again, shall we?"
Jornak's heart went cold.
LIKE OH MY GOD YES ZORIAN! STRIKE FEAR IN YOUR ENEMIES HEARTS! BE THEIR WORST NIGHTMARE MANIFEST! FILL THEM WITH DREAD! YOU GO SWEETIE!
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cal-cium-the-nerd · 6 months
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life has been wild lately and i've been having trouble getting the writing worms wriggling and prioritizing, so…
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cal-cium-the-nerd · 7 months
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You know, we've talked a lot about the temporary loopers sacrificing themselves for Zorian and all, but it's interesting to think how Zorian kind of did the same thing.
At the end of chapter 4, right before getting his soul meshed with Zach and joining the time loop, this happens:
“Unfinished business!?” Akoja protested. “Zach, this isn’t a game! These things are going to kill you!” “I’m perfectly capable-“ Zorian wasn’t sure what tipped him off, exactly – he just got a vague feeling of dread and knew he had to react immediately, much like what happened when the winter wolf tried to get a jump on him earlier. Wrenching himself free from Akoja’s grip with a sudden jerk, he pushed Zach out of the way of the incoming spell. An angry red ray surged through the air in front of them, passing right where Zach’s head was only a few moments ago, and hit the wall behind them. The jagged beam of red light bit deep into the wall, gouging a deep trench in it and shrouding the area in a cloud of fine dust. “Crap,” Zach said. “He found me. Quick, hold the rod before-“ Akoja winked out of existence as the rod teleported her away to safety. “-it activates,” finished Zach in a long-suffering tone. “Damn it, Zorian, why didn’t you hold on?!” “You’d be dead, then!” Zorian protested. He wasn’t going to let a person who helped him so much tonight die from a stray spell if he could help it.
Granted, he doesn't know for sure he's about to "die", but it's this impulsive decision to save Zach which directly causes him to end up as Quatach-Ichl's victim (instead of following Akoja into relative safety).
It's doubly interesting to think that, had Zorian not been there during the conversation between Zach and Quatach-Ichl, the lich might have decided to "mutilate" Zach's soul by itself, potentially causing more damage than he ended up doing.
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