After the End: Serenity

Serenity’s aura lashed out, seeking another threat. The only things he found were allies and spiders; for all the area had a reputation for being safe, his search made it clear that it wasn’t actually monster-free. This was clearly a hidden encounter area, probably one with exceedingly obscure requirements. That wasn’t important; what was important was that the four dead people seemed to be the only actual enemies.

“I’m fine, Serenity.” Rissa didn’t sound fine. She sounded like she was in pain.

Serenity’s eyes glowed with purple fire as he searched for other threats. He still hadn’t found any when he turned to check on Rissa. Blaze was already attending to her, healing her past the dragonhide armor she was wearing. The dragonhide armor that allowed her to be hurt. “I should have stopped it before she hit you.”

Blaze snorted. “You almost did. The strike was well aimed, but it didn’t hit anything vital. Your armor stopped that.”

Serenity shook his head. “Not good enough. She was not nearly high enough Tier to be able to punch through Tier Eight armor, but she did. My armor isn’t good enough.”

He wasn’t good enough to protect Rissa. She was injured, maybe badly, while he was standing right next to her, by a threat he didn’t even see. Serenity didn’t know who the attackers were; could they be dissidents of some sort? This was the Imperial capital and he was using a token for dungeon access instead of the normal method. That could have made them a target.

Maybe he should have kept some of the attackers alive to question. He was probably going to have to raise them from the dead to ask questions.

“It’s the sword. It has to be.” Rissa slipped past the hand Blaze had on her chest over her injury for long enough to pick it up. The moment she did, the sword vanished.

Serenity blinked. What just happened?

“Oof. That … yeah. That sword belongs in the Timestream. How did they ever take it out?” Rissa sounded more puzzled than pained, now. “I think it used the fact that it wasn’t entirely in reality to slip past the armor.”

“Damaging a different form of the being under attack?” That would make a weapon far more effective, both against anyone wearing armor and against creatures of a higher Tier; Serenity could understand why someone would want that effect. It ought to completely bypass equivalent-Tier armor. “It was only able to partly bypass me, probably because of either my Tier or Unbound. It hurt you but couldn’t kill you. No wonder she seemed so shocked.”

Serenity relaxed a little. As he did, he realized he was being stupid again: they were in a dungeon. There was someone he could ask if there was anyone else present. The dungeon core would know. It wasn’t easy to contact without actually being in the core’s presence, but he could still do it.

It was easier than he thought, almost like the dungeon core was just waiting for him to reach out, eager to talk to him. When he thought about it, that was possible; while it hadn’t reached out to him, that might be as much shyness as anything else. Dungeon cores weren’t exactly well socialized.

The dungeon core didn’t speak in words, but Serenity knew what happened. A few minutes after his group entered, another group came into the same instance. They were still under the limit and they took a different Challenge Path, so the dungeon core assumed they were together and the second group was just late. It had seen that before.

The important thing was that the entire group that entered late was dead. He’d caught the first one right after she stabbed Rissa; the second made it several steps into the clearing before she fell over. The last two were a heartbeat behind in their reaction time and barely broke cover before he found them.

The dungeon core was quite appreciative. It didn’t need to kill in order to advance its Path; in fact, Serenity got the impression that death was completely unnecessary. It did, however, have the ability to learn from people who died in the dungeon and it learned something from each of their deaths as well as the method Serenity used to kill them.When it expanded its dungeon, it would have some new spider types to try.

Knowing they were all dead and he hadn’t missed another threat let Serenity finally relax.

Blaze spoke just as Serenity let the fire fade from his eyes. “They were terrible assassins.”

Serenity turned to Blaze. What did he mean by that? “They almost succeeded.”

“They were never going to succeed.” Blaze’s voice was cold, almost like he was scolding Serenity. Perhaps he was really scolding the assassins? “They didn’t know about you. They could have; it would have been easy. Brushing you with an aura is impolite, but it’s impolite because it’s a basic precaution for someone who wants to attack you. It would have revealed your Tier, which they clearly didn’t know; any combat-ready Tier Eight could kill that group before they got more than their surprise attack. If they didn’t want to warn you by brushing your aura, they could have checked at the Delver’s Desk. You’re registered for a solo dive of a Tier Eight dungeon tomorrow. Not doing either of those checks is basic incompetence and enough to foil their plans. A healing potion could have handled the injury Rissa received.”

“Not as quickly or easily, and without knowing about the armor…” Ita seemed to try to defend Serenity from Blaze. Serenity wasn’t sure if he should be glad she wanted to defend him or sad that she didn’t want to reassure him. Maybe both?

Blaze waved dismissively with a hand. “No, but even without the armor a Tier Eight potion would keep her alive long enough to get out of the dungeon and get to help if they only got the single strike in. You’d have to kill them immediately but with Serenity at Tier Eight, they should plan on that. They also clearly didn’t know I was a healer; I admit that’s harder to find out since I registered as a Fire mage, but there are still ways to find out. You never assume that you know who the healer is or that there’s only one; secondary minor healing abilities aren’t that unusual. The wound didn’t resist healing at all, and they went after the heart instead of the brain; that’s a sign of lack of proper training.”

“You’d have done it differently.” Serenity made the statement flatly. He knew Blaze had at least some of the training, even if he didn’t like using it.

“With what I know about you?” Blaze shook his head. “Attacking Rissa is a death sentence. Literally, even.”

Blaze seemed far too amused. Serenity glowered at him for a moment, then Blaze relented. “If I didn’t know about you and wanted Rissa dead for some reason, then yes, I’d do it differently. They had some of the skills but not the comprehensive training. Inside a dungeon was a good choice, but they did almost everything else wrong. They clearly underestimated everyone here; I’m betting they assumed Ita was a familiar or bonded companion.”

“I try to give that impression. It makes things easier.” Ita sounded proud of herself.

Although she hadn’t done anything during the attack, Serenity had to agree that it was something to be proud of; if the attackers had waited until Serenity wasn’t there, Ita would have been able to hit them when they weren’t looking. She was the only one who’d deliberately hidden anything of significance.

Or was she? Serenity looked at Blaze again with a frown on his face. “You did it too, didn’t you? You deliberately registered as a Fire mage so that people wouldn’t assume you’re a healer. How did you know we were going to be attacked?”

“I didn’t.” Blaze shrugged slightly. “I don’t trust the Emperor. He could easily be tracking us with those tokens. I wasn’t expecting anything, really, but it’s a simple precaution to show only one of the two major aspects of my abilities.”

Serenity shook his head slightly. He’d considered that, but it was too paranoid for him. “If the Emperor wanted to do something, he wouldn’t need to hide it.”

Blaze shrugged. “I know, but I don’t trust the Emperor’s people, either. With that said, I don’t think these people are Imperials.”

That was enough to get Serenity to take another look at them. “They look like mercenaries,” Serenity started, trying to see what Blaze saw. “They had a sword that belongs in the Timestream and vanished when Rissa touched it.”

“I still have it, but it’s not in this world, only the Timestream,” Rissa interjected. “It’s really similar to that sword you kicked away from Morgan the first time I took you to the Timestream, but I don’t think it’s the same sword.”

Serenity nodded with a frown. “They could be from the Mimir, then, like those Eternus people. Do you think that would explain why you didn’t realize they were coming?”

Serenity still didn’t know what Blaze saw to convince him that they weren’t Imperials, but he only knew of one group targeting Rissa. Imperials would probably be after him. If they thought Rissa was the healer, they might kill her first, but he didn’t think that was why the attack was on Rissa when the blade used was Time-specific. Killing an oracle first wasn’t necessary.

“They probably are,” Blaze agreed, “But you’re missing the obvious. You’re too used to mercenaries and your own people. Almost all of the Imperials around here have dark, highly curled hair and sharp features. What do you see in the dead?”

They looked normal to Serenity; two blonds and two brunettes, with normal faces that seemed a bit more oval than the Imperials he’d seen. They also had fairly straight hair. Serenity had to admit that they didn’t look that much like the Imperials. “The Emperor looked more like them than like the locals,” Serenity objected.

“Yes,” Blaze agreed, “but if it was locals attacking, they’d have local talent to use. They wouldn’t all look like they were from other places. Their armor is also very standard; it doesn’t have any Imperial touches at all. Most of the mercenary groups operating in the Empire pick up something of an Imperial flavor to their gear simply because so many of the people in them are former Imperial soldiers. I can’t say for certain that they aren’t Imperial, but that’s the way to bet.”

“It has to be the Mimir. No one else would have a sword like that.” Rissa sounded confident but also tired. “Why do they keep attacking me? It doesn’t make any sense. I know what Morgan said, but surely they realize it isn’t going to accomplish what they want!”

“Obviously not.” Serenity followed Rissa’s train of thought to the logical conclusion. “If they did, they’d stop. Which means that they won’t stop attacking you until we make them.”

In many ways, this was a conclusion he’d wanted to reach for a long time. Years, even, ever since Rissa was first attacked in the Timestream. He hadn’t known where the attack came from them, but he knew now. “We need to go where they are and stop them from ever attacking you. We need to go to Eadsyt.”

He was going to have to be careful. He wanted to destroy the planet, or at least kill everyone on it, but that was exactly the wrong reaction. He was simply pissed that someone dared to attack Rissa. Overreacting and killing innocents wouldn’t help and might hurt; it might even be the response someone wanted when they attacked Rissa.

That thought did more to cool Serenity’s emotions than anything else. He hated being controlled and he was very worried that it was happening indirectly. He had to figure out how to do this right, to stop the attacks and punish the responsible parties without becoming a tool for them to use.

If they knew anything about him, they’d know that he was a necromancer. Could he even trust the information the attackers had? There was no reason to assume they knew the truth and every reason to assume they’d been lied to.

Well, maybe. He’d have to get Blaze to think through anything they learned; he was simply better at that sort of twisty thinking than Serenity was. He’d be able to figure out which bits were traps and which were threads they could pull on.