They set out early in the morning. It was just her, her mom, a couple family members, some staff and about two dozen armed and armored guards. That wasn't even an exhaustive list, there were other relatives that they had to pick up that lived in the east side of town, away from the main mansion, for a variety of reasons from owning shops in the residential area, to maintaining other pieces of property, to just disliking the atmosphere of the manor.

  "That's why we left through the eastern gate," the girl admitted. "So..."

  "Before we go on, what is your name?" Banks asked.

  "You don't remember my name?" she said, sounding genuinely upset.

  "Yeah, I met you for like two days, and a metric ton of shit has happened since then," Banks admitted.

  "Is this the man you were looking for?" the elderly man who was dressed as a butler, or this period's equivalent asked. "He doesn't really look like all that much."

  "What do I seem like?" Banks asked genuinely curious.

  "Uncle Jordan," the girl said, drawing out her words in a surprisingly immature tone.

  "You have the countenance of a minor thug," the man said. "You look like the kind of young man who instead of working a decent respectable job chooses to scam women."

  "Oh, I look young," Banks said ignoring the insulting tone as he leaned forward curious. "What age do you think I am?"

  "Enough, Uncle Jordan," the girl stated firmly, her voice taking on a tone of nascent authority. "I am Galayne Mondue, heir presumptive to the Galayne family. You were the one who awakened the Strange Elements in my blood and taught me how to use my powers. You are also the only thing that changes in these many, many repetitions so you must know what is going on?"

  "So I come off as a bit of a scoundrel," Banks stated. "Nice to know that I look like I can still scoundrel around."

  "Mr.Banks," she said frustrated. "I need you to focus."

  "You need to finish your story," Banks said. "And you need to tell me just when you became aware of these 'repetitions '."

  "I was getting to that," Galayne said. "The eastern part of town felt mostly normal when we got there and so we took our time, fetching the people and doing some last minute stocking up. If we hurry we can make it out of the town before we're attacked."

  "Good to know," Banks said. "Let's keep it on the first 'repetition'. You were dawdling and then attacked by zombies."

  "...yes," Galayne admitted after a while. "It was horrible. I was always told that they were slow, dumb creatures, but that couldn't be further from the truth."

  "First things, first," the butler interjected once again. "I can accept that this future may possibly happen. The gods know how many times we humans have been burdened with prophecy, but should we really be having this conversation in a public library."

  "Yeah, we can't eat or drink in the library," Banks agreed. "Let's go someplace we can have a meal."

  "Is that your only concern?" the butler said.

  "No, I am concerned by the information that I just received, but I'm also hungry," Banks admitted. "In addition I have a hunch how the story should go, and I don't really want to deal with this on an empty stomach. I'm feeling spicy right now. Know where I can get anything spicy?"

  "Uncle Cartrin's House of Heat is a few blocks away," the butler said.

  "It will be our treat," Galayne piped up.

  "Well then I have no reason to refuse," Banks said, with a smile. "Lead us to lunch."

  xxx

  "Um, are you sure about that," the young girl Galayne asked as she looked at his mix of mutton smothered by a thick soupy sauce, with little bits of spices like black dots breaking through the thick shiny curtain. There was an aroma of such potency that eyes watered and sinuses cleared from the sheer proximity and clearly inflicted some level of empathic suffering on the younger girl. Banks ignored her and lifted a spoon to his lips and his eyes lit up as he tasted the spicy, yet balanced flavors. He savored the taste of the oils for a moment before he gently put the spoon down as his mood lifted.

  "Perfection," he admitted. "It's been a long while since I've tasted a curry that good. Want to try some?"

  "I think that will literally kill me," Galayne stated looking at the plate. She had been trying to dissuade him, ever since he requested the hottest thing on the menu to little success and it was only now that she seemed to have calmed down.

  "Nonsense, you're not going to die from a little capsaicin," Banks said. "Fun fact the reason why almost all curry today is red is because they're imitating the legendary Phoenix Liver Korma. That curry is a long lost super secret recipe and it will actually kill you before returning you to life better than ever."

  "Is that true?" Galayne asked.

  "That's a fairy tale," the butler said. "The Journey for the Sacred Soup. It's a bit outdated and it was soup not curry."

  "Stories get updated every few centuries or so, but that is a particularly old one," Banks said, slowly eating his curry. "We've got off track. Tell me about your experience."

  "Our convoy was attacked, it was chaos," Galayne said, her voice becoming melancholic. "I wanted to help, tried to help, but Uncle told me to run as he held them off." She gave a look at the elderly man next to her that wasn't quite grateful. "I ran but there were more and more, they just kept coming. I used to think zombies were weak, shambling corpses, barely above animals, a threat to nobody. My views were certainly changed." She had a mocking smile, seemingly directed at herself, or an ignorant past version of herself.

  "Zombies tend to trade off their intelligence for speed, power and viciousness," Banks stated mercilessly. "If the corpse that became a zombie was an experienced magic user then they may even retain one or two spells that they knew in life, and they tend to spam them without reservation, it's very annoying. Strictly speaking in a situation where nobody is prepared a zombie will kill a magician of equal strength. The scales tip only when a magician has time to prepare and strategize."

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  "Good to know," Galayne said. "They certainly swarmed the convoy. People that I've known for ages. People that I always thought of as powerful. I saw those same people die and die again torn to pieces by the horde, and none of my spells did anything to stop them."

  "Just one of the reasons why zombies are such a pain to deal with," Banks stated. "You need some serious stopping power to put one down. Your half-baked spells can't down them fast enough before they rip you to shreds and people who don't know how to beat them seldom have a lot of time to learn. So go on, obviously you got away."

  "I did," Galayne admitted. "There were a lot of zombies, but there were also a lot of humans. They fell upon the humans, but they were broken in turn. It was a massacre for both sides."

  "And that's the other thing about zombies," Banks admitted. "For all their durability they tend to die easy. They are the epitome of self-destructive berserkers. Over nine tenths of them die a few days after their 'birth'."

  "I barely saw any of that," she said. "When my magic failed, my legs didn't and I escaped, running away from the East side. I ran and ran, ignoring everything until I nearly collapsed out of exhaustion. I was so overwhelmed by everything at that point I just collapsed, pulling myself into a nearby...shop and tried to hide. And then I saw you."

  "Oh, yeah I was over there then," Banks said recalling back to that time. "Wait, did you see the fight."

  "Between yourself and that big guy," Galayne said. "Yeah, I did. I'm so sorry. I wanted to help, but you were both so strong and when I saw you get tossed around."

  "Yeah, you did the right thing," Banks said. "Hell running from a fight you can't win is almost always the right move. So as despicable as it may sound to an outside observer, you watching as I get my ass kicked was without a doubt the right move."

  "It sounds to me as if the lady did the right thing, and the more you speak, the more convinced I am of that," the older man said, causing Banks to chuckle.

  "Then what did you see next? I got a momentary advantage and you saw a Sacred Body?" Banks asked. "Is that the first one you've witnessed?"

  "I've seen my dad summon a Sacred Body," Galayne admitted, a sense of awe in her voice. "But it was very different. All of the Mondue family that have Sacred Bodies tend to be tree related. A consequence of our bloodline, is what my dad said."

  "Yours will not be," Banks said firmly.

  "Are you so sure?" the older man asked. "Is this related to being a stranger."

  "Yeah, you've probably already started to feel your weaker bloodline abilities start to lapse," Banks said. "Strange Elements are both the source of bloodlines and Strangers, but the concentration in the former is a hundred times less. Therefore a Stranger either loses or incorporates their bloodline into their own Stranger power."

  "I know it feels a bit wrong, but some part of me wishes that I would get a Sacred Body half as impressive as that one," Galayne admitted.

  "Sacred Body of the Oni is only around the middle of what I consider to be decent Sacred Bodies," Banks refuted. "A body manifesting itself into an approximation of the mythical species, drawing on the power and legend of that legend is decent, but nowhere near as powerful as the true top tiers. I foresee" he started his sentence contemplating. "Your Sacred Body will be far more powerful, but a supreme pain in the ass to condense." It was a judgement born out of time and experience, if he had a notepad and a list, he could probably justify his insight, but he didn't feel it necessary.

  "Do you have a Sacred Body?" she asked.

  "Had, Sacred Bodies can break," Banks admitted. "Due to a lot of reasons, that all ultimately boil down to a change in nature. Continue with your story. I didn't see the next part because I was too busy being dead."

  "After you were dead, a man showed up and instantly killed the Sacred Body, Oni, person," Galayne said. "He stood over your body for a bit before leaving."

  "I was actually awake for that bit," Banks admitted. "Man's name is Ascrew. He's an extremely powerful magician."

  "What's his Sacred Body?" she asked.

  "You're focusing on the wrong stuff," Banks pointed out. "And it's not only rude, but actively antagonizing to ask that question. He has the Sacred Body of Numbers, I think."

  "Sacred Body of Numbers," Galayne repeated skeptically. "Is that stronger than the Oni."

  "It blows it out of the water," Banks stated clearly. "Now what happened after he left?"

  "After he left, I walked up to look at your body," she said.

  "Miss, that was very dangerous," the older butler said.

  "I'm sorry uncle," Galayne said, somewhat contrite. "It just felt like everything was dangerous at that moment, and you were my teacher, at least for a little bit." These words were spoken to Banks. "I know I watched you die, but I couldn't just..." she trailed off as she thought about what she would do, seemingly to wonder if she could even retrieve the body.

  "And then you ate me," Banks said causing both other participants in this conversation to whip their heads in his direction eyes wide. He looked at the young girl, probably only sixteen at the oldest. "I hope it was blood or flesh and nothing weird."

  "How dare you," the old man said standing up, mana flaring revealing a magician, a few notches below the start of the Long Road.

  "I did," Galayne admitted, her soft voice immediately causing an empty silence to spread. "When I approached, I felt an overwhelming urge to bite. I've never felt anything like that before. It was as if only a portion of my brain was still working and it could do nothing to stop it. I..." she held her mouth as if she wanted to throw up, something that had long been assimilated. "I only remember the first bite, and then everything went black and I woke up in my bed. I thought it was all a dream for a while."

  "Until either my advice regarding your mother worked or the zombies attacked again and you woke up in your bed again," Banks said, fleshing out the picture in his mind.

  "But I never saw you in the library since, until today," she admitted.

  "That's because I didn't come to the library before today," Banks stated. "Give me your hand?"

  "Why," she asked.

  "I'm not going to bite," Banks said, flashing a grin. "I want to check your concentration of Strange Elements." He whistled as she complied and he felt the resonance between them. "Eight."

  "But it was six before," she said. "I thought you said they didn't increase."

  "They don't easily increase," Banks amended his past words. "Seems like your act of cannibalism gave you quite the power boost. Although I'm quite certain that feeling of going black was because you exploded as your body tried to cope with the influx of Strange Elements. Your awareness of this little time loop seems to be some derivation of my own power. You're like a mini-Banks."

  "Don't call me that," she said almost reflexively. "A concentration of six to eight. That's a large increase right?"

  "Very, very large, " Banks admitted.

  "Right, does that mean that my power increases by a huge amount every time I..." she paused. "Eat somebody."

  "Looking for an excuse to indulge your cannibalism fetish you sick freak," Banks teased. "No it only increased by so much because my concentration of Strange Elements was much higher than yours. The blackness you experienced after you did the horrific deed was likely you exploding. The only reason you ever woke up was because you were in a time loop. So do you really want to do it again?"

  "I...am on the fence," she said after a while and Banks could see the gears in her head turn. A consequenceless death for a power boost. Many people would gladly sign up to that with enthusiasm.

  "Well sorry to ruin your mood, but the first time is the only time that it will work," Banks said, finishing up his curry. "It's not a thing that can be repeated, at least not without side effects that will be a lot worse than the benefit."

  "I'll take your word for it," the young girl said. "So what are we going to do now?"