"Who the fuck is we?" Banks asked. "Do you mean to include yourself in whatever imaginary squad that doesn't exist." He pointed to the nearby waiter pulling out a menu and gesturing towards for the waiter to bring him some milk tea. "Even if you want to join this squad that doesn't exist, what would you even bring to it?"

  "You said my Strange Elements were high right now," she defended herself.

  "Easily higher than ninety percent of Strangers, but so the fuck what," Banks said detached. "I had higher concentration of Strange Elements than ninety percent of Strangers since the day I was born." It was honestly a bit of a lowball for the actual figures. "Do you think Baby Banks couldn't have been crushed to death by a particularly big rock at that point."

  "So then what do the numbers mean?" Galayne asked. "It's not a bigger number wins."

  "Bigger numbers mean bigger effects, executed with greater ease," Banks said. "But you can have a Stranger Rating of ten and not know how to turn it into tangible power."

  "I also now have a mana level of four hundred and six," she defended herself. "Are you going to say that it doesn't matter either?"

  "Having that mana level normally denotes a level of skill that you haven't attained," Banks said, not even bothering to keep the condescension out of his voice. "Can you see the recurring theme here. You've got rare, raw potential, but potential means nothing if you can't convert it into power. I'm sure that you've got a few little beginner spells for people who have a teaspoon of mana, but you know nothing about magic past the civilian level. You wouldn't even know how to cast properly. Casting from your core and through your veins, is different from merely relying upon the ambient mana soaked into your body. Didn't you tell her anything?" His last question was said to the butler.

  "The master deemed that he would have a proper discussion with her when the time was right," the elderly man said. "It's not too good to let them get ahead of themselves."

  "A statement that I agree with in theory, but falls ludicrously short in this situation here," Banks admitted. "Would you let her run around the city, unaware of the dangers around her."

  "I wouldn't have her run around the city at all," the butler said. "Except the Master is convinced that she would come to know lasting harm, and that her knowledge of this alleged time loop may be necessary. Personally, I don't trust your words, or the young lady's judgement, but my faith in Lord Mondue has never been misplaced and thus I defer to her in this situation."

  "Quite a syncopathetic approach," Banks chirped.

  "We all have our masters," the butler said. "Mine is just more physical."

  "Cliched nonsense," Banks said. "The first stage is the one in which you have spent the vast majority of your life. In this stage the only mana that can be used is the ambient mana that swirls around and through you. At this stage both the quantity of mana as well as your control over mana is the lowest. Mana levels at this stage are pointless, reflective only your bodies tolerance for mana, it's not as if this mana is your own in the first place. This has been called the civilian stage, the fodder stage and a dozen other vaguely derogatory names throughout history."

  "That's...actually pretty hurtful," Galyayne said. "Saying I'm only fit for cannon fodder."

  "The second stage directly after that is one where you would form your core and start collecting personal mana," Banks said. "By methodically refining your core you are able to absorb and store ambient mana into your own personal mana greatly increasing both your control over mana and the impact of any spells you cast. Many people consider this the first proper realm. It has been called the initiate stage, the elite stage, the Core Creation stage and a dozen others depending on time and culture. This stage starts from a mana level of one hundred."

  "That's where I am," Galayne said.

  "Correct," Banks admitted. "The third stage is when Mana Veins begin to form. From a stabilized core thin line extend to the world, drawing in mana constantly boosting the regeneration of mana. Recovery that would take days only takes minutes and as the veins widen and form a complete network regeneration and core growth correspondingly increase. As a secondary effect mana flows out from the veins, boosting output and control even further and the complexity of spells you are able to cast. These two effects cannot occur simultaneously until the stage is complete. Many people consider this the first proper stage. This stage starts from a mana level of five hundred."

  "Your tea sir," the waiter interrupted him, and Banks gave him a thumbs up as the drink was placed in front of him.

  "But you said the Core Creation was the first proper stage," Galayne pointed out.

  "No I've said that many people believe it is," Banks pointed out. "The disparity in stages is so great that somebody who is a decent core and the appropriate tools can shred through a small village of civilians and the disparity grows from there. It's demoralizing for many that despite all their work and training they will simply be crushed by somebody one stage up. It's demoralizing for many more to realize just how powerless they are. If you are to consider the civilian stage as stage one then the entire Undying Empire was ruled by a stage five. Think about that, only three stages, three qualitative leaps between you and the Emperor."

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  "The former emperor," Galayne pointed out.

  "No shit," Banks said. "Which other emperor could I possibly be talking about. Don't be glib. Can I have the bill please Mr. Waiter."

  "You didn't tell me about the last two stages yet," she pointed out.

  "And I'm not going to," Banks stated. "Just know that there are people in the fifth stage involved in this little shitfuckery and try to keep your nose clean. I don't know when this loop will end but the last iteration of you will be left holding the bill. How many times have you died so far? How many ways have you died so far?"

  "I've died to zombies, I've died to rubble, I've died to humans and I've died to things I didn't even see coming," she admitted. "Only once did I see the end of this five day loop. Once when I convinced my father to leave on the first day. After midday on the fifth day, the world turned grey and there was a noise like a rushing waterfall, only in reverse, and much, much louder. The world cracked, and fractured and there was a feeling of falling, as if the ground beneath my feet just disappeared all of a sudden and then I woke up. In my bed again."

  "Which humans killed you?" Banks asked as he took the bill, ignoring the waiter's half-hearted attempt at eavesdrop. "Was it like the guard or..."

  "It was..." Galayne started giving a look to the waiter that made him back off and leave. "A man dressed in a gold and purple. He looked like some ancient noble king from the old era. He was holding a wineglass full of blood. Could he have been a vampire?"

  "Probably not," Banks stated. "That whole conflation of vampires and nobility arose from a piece of writings in the early days of the Golden Empire and is more of a metaphor if anything. You know, combining two different types of nobility into one. Still an aristocratic looking man that indulges in cannibalism does ring a bell. Does he have fangs, and a pencil moustache."

  "Those little," she made a gesture putting her finger just above her lip. "Yes, that's him. Do you know him. He killed me quite quickly. What stage is he? Four. Five."

  "Five, his name is Delta Wolf," Banks said. "He's bad news. Another specter long lost to the pages of history and returned from the dead. A flesh-eating madman playing at civilization." He sighed. "Nime, Delta, three more. Four if you consider the one that left to the sky." That was an enormous number, dwarfing even most empires. At that rate no matter what the goal was, it felt more than a bit excessive. Six Monsters of that level could probably dominate the entire human world, at least at this time during history. The influx of once-a-generation heroes would be a tipping point throughout history, not lost to the history books, something that he would read about even millennia later.

  "Is Monster the name of the fifth stage?" Galayne asked. "Are you a monster?"

  "It's one of the most consistently applied terminologies for those who have broken from the ranks of magicians and entered the ranks of the transcendent," Banks stated. "Every single person in this rank has a mana level of ten thousand and enough power in their hands to flatten a city, and I don't mean flatten a city house by house like the world's worst door to door salesman. I mean..." he snapped his fingers. "Boom."

  "Have you ever destroyed a city?" Galayne asked, her voice utterly serious as she stared him down.

  "My ML capped out at nine-nine-nine-nine," Banks admitted casually. "Never could quite take that last step. Kept meaning to do it, but you know how things are when you're almost done with something. If the job is too big you don't want to get started, but also sometimes if the job is too small you don't want to get started either. Like it's not worth the effort of having to get up off of the couch."

  "But still that's much higher than me," Galayne said. "Higher even than my dad apparently. So if there is no 'we' then what are you doing to stop this?"

  "Absolutely nothing," Banks admitted. "Even if I could stop this in one loop, then what. The loop will just continue and the same thing will happen again. I have little to know desire to fight a war across time with a foe that is just as enduring as I am."

  "So you don't care about the people dying?" Galayne asked, a thick layer of criticism beneath a nominally impersonal tone.

  "Who says the same person will die in the final loop," Banks pointed out. "Who says that the ending will even be disadvantageous for the city overall."

  "But you don't know that," Galayne pressed. "Do you have any idea what the villain actually wants? Maybe we can even help them get it without all this bloodshed."

  "I don't know what they want," Banks said, leaning forward with his chin on his hands. "And I've promised them not to look further into it, in exchange for being left alone."

  "But I made no such promise," Galayne stated. "I can investigate."

  "With your paltry abilities," Bank stated.

  "I can get stronger," Galayne said. "I've got time, and I've got chances, opportunities in this loop. Can't training normally be dangerous. Well if I die it's not a massive problem. I only need one thing."

  "No," Banks said getting ahead of her.

  "A mentor," Galayne said, ignoring his objections, giving him a half-smile as if deliberately refusing to see his reality. A sense of déjà vu hit him at that moment and he blinked as vague image seemed to overlap before fading away. He sighed.

  "In Rhanim it was traditional for an apprentice to present their master with a gift," Banks stated. "One of the most popular gifts was a jar of strong wine. The stronger the better to demonstrate your sincerity. Bring me a jug of good wine in another loop and I'll accept your mentorship."

  "I can order some wine now," Galayne said.

  "That's not sincere enough," the older butler spoke up from his long period of silence. "Discuss it with me later and we will come up with an appropriate gift for your future mentor."

  "Great, I'll leave the bill to you," Banks said as he stood up from the table, straightening out his back causing a series of satisfying clicks.

  "Farewell for now," Galayne said and Banks gave a half wave as the butler gave a slight bow. Whistling a jaunty tune to himself he strode out of the restaurant, pushing past the door and halfway down the street before he paused for a bit.

  "What the fuck am I doing?" he asked himself as he let out a mirthless chuckle before continuing on with his day.