After the End: Serenity

Blaze waved Serenity forward. Serenity nodded and started up the steps; that was the plan, after all. He was supposed to climb the steps and tell the Memory of Breath why he was here.

The first step was nothing. Serenity could barely even tell the restrictive spell array was there. He’d expected more from it, somehow; was the Memory of Breath less powerful than he thought she was? Serenity knew his Affinities and Tier would help a lot, but the Memory’s strength would act to counter that, if he’d read the runes correctly.

Several more steps added only an insignificant amount of weight to Serenity, so he took another look at the runescript that covered the walls so obviously. Surely there was a reason this was supposed to be a challenge? It was difficult for the man ahead of him, and at this rate even a Tier Three would have no trouble reaching the top.

Serenity was almost halfway up the steps before he thought he knew what was going on, and that came more from the sudden increase in pressure as he took that step than from understanding the runes better. A look at the Memory of Breath confirmed his guess: she was paying attention to him now when she hadn’t been, earlier. Her attention and concentration must affect the restriction he felt.

A few more steps told Serenity that it wasn’t that bad, even with the Memory’s attention on him. By the time he reached two thirds of the way up the incline, it was rather like wearing a fifty pound backpack would be for a Tier Zero human, except spread over his entire body; noticeable and potentially able to slow him down a little, but not a problem since he was in excellent shape. He had no doubt that he could make it all the way to the top of the steps without any true problems; it would have to get exponentially worse to even be a concern. The climb simply wasn’t long enough.

Serenity was still fairly confident he was missing something; there was something about the runescript that seemed familiar but that he couldn’t identify. Something about aura, perhaps?

He pushed his aura a little farther away from himself and the resistance shifted from restricting his body to trying to press ineffectually on his aura. It was like having someone several Tiers lower than him try to intimidate him; it simply didn’t do anything. Serenity smiled to himself and pulled his aura back to himself. It was better not to reveal that particular ability yet. The weight settled back on his physical form and Serenity took a deep breath before he resumed the climb.

Serenity stopped two steps before the peak to look at the Memory. It was truly heavy at that point, something he actually had to pay attention to for each step, but it wasn’t enough to stop him. He knew he could take the last two steps and be free of the effect, but he wasn’t certain he should. Would it be more of a statement if he reached the top or if he stood one or two steps below the peak and simply weathered the weight?

Serenity took one more step up and tilted his head at the Memory. A smile found its way onto his face; he felt like making the point that he was fine. She’d likely know just what it meant. “I’m here to petition you.”

The Memory of Breath seemed to stiffen as he addressed her. She was already seated completely upright, controlling her face and body language to try to appear unconcerned, but Serenity was fairly certain she was uncomfortable. “What is your petition?”

“The Mimir have attempted to kill my wife,” Serenity started with the words Blaze recommended. It was best to keep it simple, apparently. “There have been four attempts on her life; two were within the Timestream and two were outside. This has to stop.” Serenity only learned about the first attempt after it happened; it was apparently foiled by an alternate future version of Serenity. The other three attempts, however, he remembered all too clearly. The most recent one was the worst, because it was the only one where Rissa was actually hurt. The attackers were learning.

“We do not kill without a reason,” the Memory of Breath replied. “Why do you believe the Mimir are attacking your wife?”

From here, Serenity had to manage the conversation without Blaze’s help. They’d discussed options and ways it might go, and he had a sort of a script of points Blaze wanted him to cover, but any real conversation was too complex to be completely planned. “Three Valkyries have attacked her. Two of them reported to the Memory of Light and one to the Memory of Blood. The only conclusion I can make is that the Mimir plan to kill her.”

The Memory of Breath leaned forward a little, as if she were interested. “Do you know why? How did she survive?”

Serenity smiled internally. The first thing Blaze said he needed to do was get her attention, and those two questions said he’d succeeded. “Only the first Valkyrie gave a reason; the others were simply commanded to kill her.”

Serenity paused, but only for a brief instant; he didn’t want the Memory to ask another question. “The first Valkyrie said that she needed to die because she was supposed to be dead. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think that being alive is a good reason to kill someone.”

He probably shouldn’t have added that last bit. It wasn’t in Blaze’s partial script.

The Memory of Breath frowned, then tapped the middle finger on her right hand against the arm of the throne. “No such order has been approved by the Four. Tell me about it. Tell me everything.”

Serenity did. He started with the short tale Rissa gave him, where someone unknown stood between her and the onslaught of a Valkyrie, then his own experience in the Timestream with a Valkyrie who didn’t know how to fight. Neither of those held any information he needed to keep quiet. He skipped over a bit in the attack by Valkyrie Ann’s group; he didn’t want to reveal Morgan’s escape. It was easy enough to explain away, since the attack was a total failure.

He didn’t hide much about the attack in the dungeon on Imperius, either; in fact, on Blaze’s instructions, he specifically mentioned that it happened not only on Imperius but within one of the dungeons of the capitol itself. “...and then I killed them all. I shouldn’t have; it meant I had to raise their zombies to question them. I doubt I could have gotten much from Ida otherwise, but Ann could have been tricked and the guards … well, I’ll never know.”

The Memory of Breath’s face was a stiff mask when Serenity finished. He had no idea what was behind it, other than the fact that she was definitely not happy. “And then you came directly here.”

Serenity shrugged. “Well, we did have to wait for Cymryn’s initiation into the Imperial Priesthood first. That was why we were on Imperius, after all.” He doubted he’d have mentioned it at all if Blaze hadn’t told him to; it wasn’t relevant. Blaze was also clear that he was supposed to omit Cymryn’s title; that, at least, made some sense. He was clearly dropping Cymryn’s name or at least his connection to the Human Empire.

Nothing changed in the Memory’s expression, but she moved her gaze up to Serenity’s head, then down to his feet. She then turned her head slightly until she clearly looked at Blaze. “You helped him, did you not?”

“I did,” Blaze answered clearly. Serenity knew Blaze well enough to know that his friend wanted to say more, but chose to hold his tongue.

“Then climb the stairs while your tool stays right here he is.” Her voice was cold and uncompromising. “You have to be strong to make the change you are trying to make; let’s see if you two can handle the pressure.”

Serenity had no idea what she was talking about. He was fairly certain that her calling him a “tool” was supposed to anger him, but it probably also meant something, since she seemed to think she knew what they were trying to do. She also seemed to think that it was something more than Serenity had said, which made no sense; he’d been very open about what he wanted. He wanted the attacks to stop.

He might prefer if that included the deaths of the Memories of Blood and Light, but Serenity knew he was unlikely to be able to make that part of the deal. It wasn’t required, though it was going to happen if he couldn’t find any other solution.

He opened his mouth to ask what she was talking about, but Blaze was quite clear about what he should and shouldn’t question back at the safehouse. He’d told Serenity that he could “... ask questions if you don’t understand what she’s telling you to do, but that’s the only time you should ask a question. Present a problem and let her propose a solution. Obey any orders she gives you unless I say otherwise. The Memories are touchy and if we want to get her attention, we need to keep it within the limits of what she expects in procedure even if it isn’t in content.”

He’d already violated that once with a rhetorical question; he didn’t need to violate it again with a real question, even if he really did want to know what the Memory thought they were up to.

Serenity felt the restriction try to press down on him a little more. He looked at the Memory and found that she was staring at Blaze with an expression that looked intensely focused. She was probably trying to make Blaze’s climb harder; the fact that it made Serenity’s task of standing where he was theoretically harder was probably a bonus to her. The additional weight wasn’t particularly significant.

Serenity wanted to turn and watch Blaze ascend the stairs, but he’d have to either step up or down with one of his feet to do that; the steps weren’t really wide enough to just turn in place. Instead, he did something he was always forgetting to do: he used one of the cameras embedded in his armor-self to get another angle of vision. It wasn’t perfect, since it was a single camera instead of a pair, but it was enough to see that Blaze was unhurriedly climbing the stairs as if they were simple with a slight smile on his face. It wasn’t enough of a grin to be considered gloating, but it was definitely enough to make it clear that he didn’t yet think this was a difficult challenge.

Serenity watched as the Memory’s eyebrows climbed into her hairline as Blaze climbed the stairs. He couldn’t help the smile that rose to his face at her surprise; she clearly didn’t think Blaze was nearly as strong as he was. By the time Blaze reached the top of the stairs next to Serenity, he was breathing hard; it was clearly more difficult for him than it was for Serenity.

The Memory glanced from Blaze to Serenity and back again. “What Tier are you?”

“Peak Tier Four; I will be Tier Five soon,” Blaze answered, “Not that it matters; there’s a trick to your stairs. There are three ways to beat them. At least, three that I found.”

Serenity blinked at that. He’d only noticed two. Had he missed an option because he simply stopped looking?

“What are they?” The Memory sounded both surprised and curious.

“Strength, aura, and conviction. Anyone at a high enough Tier or with good enough finesse can climb, but those aren’t necessary if you know that this is where you need to be and that you’re doing what you need to do. I’m not as good at that as Serenity is,” Blaze set a hand on Serenity’s shoulder as he said that, “but as long as I kept that in mind, the climb wasn’t that bad.”

Serenity supposed he hadn’t missed the third method after all; he’d simply overlooked it because it never changed. That was probably why the climb seemed so easy.