After the End: Serenity

Serenity pushed Cymryn’s messages out of his mind as he followed Blaze to the back of the dyers’ building. The time “at sunset” meant that the building was essentially deserted; it was slightly later than when they’d met the Memory of Breath two days earlier.

Despite the lack of people, the building’s interior was lit by a set of mana lights set into the walls. They weren’t that bright, but it was still possible to see. Brighter lights hung over mana of the workstations and created a slightly eerie effect as they made the dimmer areas seem even more shadowy.

There was plenty of light to see the man in a green robe waiting for them as they rounded the dye vats. He was seated on a desk and seemed to be reading a notebook, but he set it down when he noticed the two of them.

Serenity took a moment to evaluate him; he was short and stocky but clearly still fit. It was, as always, hard to tell his age but he looked to be in his early forties, still relatively young but clearly weathered by time and experience. His clothing was obviously expensive but also just as obviously cut to stay out of his way when he did things. He had no jewelry on at all, not even a Master’s rung or pendant, though the green robes clearly indicated his affiliation with the Memory of Mastery. Perhaps they didn’t mark Mastery with the same outward symbols here as they did on other planets.

“You must be Blaze,” the man stated calmly. “Call me Neal. And you are…?”

“Serenity,” he answered. “How can you help us?”

“Any number of ways, depending on your plans.” Neal smiled. It was a polite smile but it was also somehow reminiscent of a shark’s grin. “You wish to deal with the Memory of Blood and the Memory of Light. I would be pleased to help you with that.”

“Why?” Blaze was blunter than Serenity expected. That sounded more like something Serenity thought he would say. “What are you gaining?”

Neal shrugged with a single shoulder. “Safety. Eternus is dangerous and only growing more so. If you can deal with him, well, he won’t be a problem for me in the future. I’d prefer if Dinatha survives; her visions are too useful to lose.”

“Visions?” Serenity glanced at Blaze. He remembered the message from the Memory of Breath. She’d mentioned visions as well, though she’d said they were seen by the Memory of Light. “Why would you think we’d kill her? I don’t have anything against seers and oracles. Unless … is Dinatha the Memory of Light?” He already knew Eternus was the Memory of Blood, after all, and Neal seemed to speak of him by name instead of by title.

Neal snorted. “I assumed you knew our names. Yes, Dinatha is the Memory of Light. Eternus is the Memory of Blood and I am the Memory of Mastery. Revna, the Memory of Breath, seems to think that you are powerful enough to win and I have very little desire to die. I think the rest is obvious. You intend to challenge, she said; you wish to challenge for the Rite of Recompense, do you not?”

Serenity wasn’t certain, so he didn’t say anything. He did see a slight smile cross Blaze’s face; he wasn’t certain what that meant.

“Well, you can’t. Not without help. The Sovereign must approve challenges under the Rite, and he won’t approve Challenges against himself unless he’s certain he will easily win.” Neal’s grin wasn’t at all humorous. “I can get you inside, past all of the defenses. I can’t stop the Valkyries but I can make certain they aren’t alerted by any of the wards. All I want is for you to leave afterwards. If you can leave Dinatha alive, please do.”

Serenity glanced at Blaze, half expecting him to reject the Memory of Mastery’s offer.

Instead, Blaze nodded. “We accept. If either of them will leave us alone, we have no reason to want them dead, but continuing to attack Rissa is not acceptable.”

Neal smiled. It was clear he thought he’d won, even if Serenity wasn’t certain what he might have won. “Good. Then return here tomorrow; it will take a little time to be ready.”

That was really the end of the conversation as far as Serenity was concerned. Serenity knew he could break through whatever wards there were if he had the time, but he supposed that having someone else let them through and lead them where they were going would be easier, if nothing else.

Blaze asked for a few details about what they needed to bring, but that was all. It wasn’t until they were back on the Death’s Wings that Blaze relaxed enough to say, “I don’t trust that man at all.”

“Neither do I,” Serenity agreed. “But it does sound like he gets something out of the deal. Do you think it’s worth backing out? If I really can’t challenge the Memories, do we have to follow his plan?”

Blaze chuckled. “He was wrong about which challenge I planned; I caught that detail when I read the rules and I knew it wouldn’t work. I suspect he assumed you don’t qualify for the Sovereign’s Challenge. You don’t want the planet, do you?”

Serenity shook his head. “Not at all.” He had enough problems, and Eadsyt was likely to be an even bigger problem than other worlds. He didn’t have anyone trustworthy he could leave in charge of it, unlike Lyka or Tzintkra.

“Be prepared for treachery, probably after you kill the Memory of Blood,” Blaze said with a nod. “I’d like to be wrong, but he seems the type to want to bury his secrets.”

The beginning of the infiltration was just as easy as Serenity hoped. They met the Memory of Mastery next to the dye vats and were led higher on the Mound, through two different warded fences and into a large warded building. On the way by, Serenity noted that the Memory of Mastery did not offer him or Blaze any of the divination-protection potions that the group that attacked Rissa had used; that only confirmed the idea that Neal, the Memory of Mastery, planned to betray them. He wanted to be able to find them later.

Serenity took what note he could of the wards and how they were allowed through them, but he could already tell that while the two fences’ wards weren’t all that good and could be easily bypassed, he’d have to take some real time to work his way through the ward on the building. The good news there was that it seemed to only protect against entry, so he could probably ignore it on the way out unless it had a mode where it locked down the building as well.

They started in areas that were covered in green, but it wasn’t long before the Memory of Mastery led them to passageways painted in a purely crimson hue. The first few doors opened at the Memory’s touch, but soon enough they reached a door where the memory had to pull a small wand out of his sleeve and use it as a key to pass the doors. Serenity got the distinct impression that it was a sort of a skeleton key for the wards inside the building, which was definitely something he needed to be aware of.

“Is no one else here?” Blaze looked around, puzzled, after the third warded door. “I didn’t expect this area to be empty.”

Neal grinned at Blaze. “The Memory of Blood doesn’t like people being in his areas when he’s resting, so the servants won’t be here until morning; his own people are mostly at practice or at dinner. The halls will only be deserted for the next hour, but even after that his private rooms will be empty except for him until morning. This is the perfect time.”

“What of the Memory of Light?” Blaze asked. “We need to head to see her after we are done here, after all, to be certain she will send no more attacks at Rissa.”

The Memory of Mastery nodded. “It will be fine, so long as you can manage Eternus without too much muss. There are more people around Dinatha, so I will take you to her afterwards.”

Serenity exchanged a glance with Blaze. A slight nod from his friend told Serenity that Blaze was thinking what he was: they were likely safe from betrayal until the moment Eternus was dead or they decided they weren’t going to kill him. Neither of them believed the Memory of Mastery wanted to take them to the Memory of Light.

It was almost enough to make Serenity wish he’d gone for the straightforward option of the Sovereign’s Challenge, but then what would he have done? Would he really have left the two surviving Memories in charge of the planet? Admittedly, he would probably do exactly that if Neal didn’t betray them, but it was somehow different when it was his planet.

Serenity shook off the thought as irrelevant; they’d decided to go with the infiltration option instead of the challenge option both because it didn’t leave Serenity with an additional obligation and because it didn’t reveal as much about Serenity. Right now, none of the Memories knew who he truly was, but he’d have to reveal that if he wanted to Challenge. He was less likely to draw any resentment at his actions back to Earth if the people here didn’t know about Earth.

Neal stopped in front of a door carved with an image of blood dripping from rubies or garnets set into the wood of the door. “Eternus should be inside. I’ll wait here until you’re done.”

Serenity glanced at Blaze, then nodded. He watched as Neal used the skeleton key wand once more, then opened the door onto a sitting room. No one was obviously visible, but there were two archways that led to other rooms. Serenity moved cautiously around the garish furniture, mostly crimson upholstery on a sort of red-orange wood that looked like red cedar. Serenity wasn’t usually very impressed by interior design, but this was definitely impressive. He hated the combination.

The first archway led from the sitting area into an area that was set up more like a work area or possibly a dining area; there wasn’t anything in the room that indicated which it was. There also wasn’t anyone in the room. It was, at least, less offensive since the only cushion in the room was on the seat of the single chair.

The second archway led to a short hall with three doors. Two were open, a bedroom and a restroom. It wasn’t a full bathroom since there were no bathing facilities; that must be elsewhere in the suite. Serenity expected that would be what he found behind the closed door, but instead he found a completely dark room with only a mat on the floor and a man seated on the mat who looked up when the door opened.

The man rose to his feet. “Who are you? What are you doing here?”

Serenity started to answer, but he felt a spell burrow its way past his shield before he could. Despite his questions, the man had clearly used an attack of some sort the moment he knew someone unexpected was in his room. The spell moved sort of sideways; if he’d expected it, he was certain he could have killed it with his shield, but it somehow didn’t trigger the shield when he didn’t know it was there.

It passed directly through Serenity’s clothing and tried to do something to him. Before Serenity could try to break the spell himself, it already started to fall apart with no effect.

“And why aren’t you bleeding?”