Rakyn couldn’t believe his - and his daughter’s - luck. Desinka’s injury had been the worst thing to happen since his wife’s Clan was attacked. She was killed, and he and his daughter were thrown out, back to the planet he’d thought he’d escaped from forever. The threat from the man Rakyn thought had healed Desinka after Rakyn refused to deliver a second package had terrified him; Serenity had arrived at exactly the best time.
Rakyn knew who - or rather, what - Serenity had to be.
He’d claimed he wasn’t an Avatar, which meant he had to be a young god. Rakyn had picked up some odd Paths over the years, and listening to the World he was on was one of his abilities; there were very, very few people who got the attention of magic and the World Core the way Serenity did, and all of the ones Rakyn had met had turned out to be exceedingly powerful.
Serenity seemed low-Tier most of the time, but the confidence he had didn’t match his Tier. Who would let a cursed vampire just bite them without being controlled into it? Yet Serenity had, and hadn’t seemed at all bothered by it. He simply didn’t act like he was low-Tier.
Rakyn had noticed that Serenity seemed to use magic without thinking about it; even the field he maintained around himself where the feel of Death was less oppressive was done almost casually. He’d seen that sort of magic before, but only in the hands of a deity. Even very experienced and high-Tier magicians were serious with their use of magic, and had to at least concentrate to use it, even if they didn’t have to chant or gesture. No, Serenity was definitely a young god.
It was Rakyn and Desinka’s good fortune that he seemed to be a kind one.
Rakyn had been puzzled by what he could possibly be a god of until he said he could link Desinka to a dungeon and it was his dungeon. Rakyn could tell Serenity wasn’t a monster of any sort - Rakyn could faintly detect Desinka’s core once Serenity pointed it out, and Serenity didn’t have one. Serenity also wasn’t a dungeon keeper or anything like that; Rakyn had worked with a number of those, and there was always a feeling of communication from the link between the keeper and his core.
Serenity was clearly a god of dungeons. Possibly of monsters as well, but definitely of dungeons.
If Rakyn wasn’t mistaken, there currently wasn’t a deity with authority over dungeons. He’d have to look into it, but Rakyn thought he might be witnessing the beginning of a new deity with a powerful portfolio.
Rakyn knew who he’d be praying to in the future, especially when he was in a dungeon. Serenity deserved it for saving his daughter.
He’d respect Serenity's evident wishes and not spread the news too far, but he’d definitely have to share it with a few friends; if they successfully rescued Guildmaster Hollis, it would only be right to let him know who to credit with the rescue, after all.
Desinka and her group should know, too. They went into dungeons, after all; it would only be right to pray to a dungeon deity while you were in a dungeon.
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That evening, Serenity was back at the Whale of a Time Inn before the others. Fortunately, his spellkey still worked to open their common room, so he was able to wait in privacy.
There was a piece of paper on the table. Serenity once again regretted that he couldn’t actually see; he suspected that it would have told him where the others were and what they’d been doing.
Serenity was looking at the map he’d downloaded from the City Node, trying to find the location Rakyn had mentioned, when Raz walked in. The Whale of a Time Inn was apparently too far from the nearest node; when Serenity checked, his map had “stale data” and said it was out of range, but he could still use it as a map. By the time Hale and Katya were back, Serenity had already located it and was looking at the notes from the closest Guard stations. They didn’t have enough detail.
When Serenity looked up, the three were clustered around the table, pointing at the paper. “What’s the paper?”
Raz was the only one who noticed Serenity had spoken. “It’s a map. Hale and Katya went to the nearby Guard stations and found out where they’ve seen people left unconscious recently. I got the same stuff from a bunch of local Guilds. People will tell you stuff if you say you’re from the Merc Guild and looking into it for the Council, even if they call you a dirty draykin at the same time.”
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Serenity felt his wings spread a bit in outrage. It wasn’t helped when Raz continued, “It wasn’t that bad. At least none of them did anything worse than call me names.”
“That’s not-”
“It’s a human city, Serenity. Some of it’s to be expected. It happened in Stallet, and Sunrise has been there since - well, pretty much since it was founded. The locals weren’t a problem, it was the students.” Raz shrugged. “I still complain, but you’re more upset than I am. It’s fine.”
It wasn’t fine. Raz was right that there wasn’t anything Serenity could do about it, unfortunately.
Hale turned towards the two of them. “Oh, you’re awake. Did you find out anything from the Messenger? He seemed pretty worried.”
Serenity hadn’t been sleeping, but he supposed there wasn’t any reason to argue. “Rakyn didn’t know much. He got the package from someone at what looked like a warehouse, he gave me directions. They asked him to deliver one to the…” Serenity trailed off, thinking. What did he call it again? Oh, yeah. “The Convocation of Stars. After the Hall of Healing, Rakyn refused. He’s been watching for them ever since, but hasn’t seen anything he knows is them. He was able to describe the man, but … I’m not sure how much knowing he’s a lightly-built human man with medium-brown hair in ordinary workman’s clothes helps us.”
“The Convocation of Stars. If they’re being targeted … well, we already knew this was big. Almost has to be someone from the Necropolis, but who would dare? The Convocation will raze them to the ground if they abduct everyone from their establishment.” Hale shook his head. “It must be someone who thinks they won’t be found out. Which means we need to hurry. Where is the warehouse?”
“The west side of town. Rakyn said that if you start from the south side of Tanner’s Market and go west…”
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The night outside the warehouse was quiet. Katya had cast a Nightvision spell on Raz, Hale, and herself. Serenity didn’t need it; the night made no difference to him.
Raz led the way. They weren’t expecting traps, but anything was possible. When they reached the door, they found that they had the same problem as they’d had at the Hall of Healing: it was locked.
This time, they didn’t want to risk alerting anyone by the use of major magic like Serenity’s teleportation, but Katya had come prepared with a container of some sort of putty and a thin metal stick with a wider area engraved with a spellword and inset with a monster core. She wouldn’t say where she’d gotten it, though Hale had hinted that it came from Marti at the Guildhall.
Katya shoved as much putty as she could into the lock, then stuck the stick into the putty. After a moment, she stepped back, pulling the stick out of the lock. The putty didn’t seem to be there anymore as she put the stick back into its case, and Serenity could hear a slight hissing noise from the lock.
The next time Katya pulled on the door, it opened. It made some noise, but it wasn’t loud; it only seemed loud because Serenity was listening for it.
The place smelled terrible, like a mix of excrement and rot.
The smell came from a wall of coffin-sized crates stacked against the wall. Serenity had a bad feeling about what or who they’d find in the crates, especially since he could feel the curse-tainted essence emanating from many of them. Raz started to head towards the crates, but Serenity grabbed him and silently pointed along the pathway between the crates and the outside wall of the warehouse. They needed to make sure there weren’t any guards before they started rescuing people.
It seemed to take forever for Raz to carefully pick his way along the route. They turned a corner and found an opening in the new wall with another door. Raz stopped them; Serenity wasn’t sure why until Raz whispered that there was light coming from under the door.
Once again, Serenity’s inability to see had left him at a disadvantage.
“Let me go first. You three be ready to disable anyone you can.” Serenity knew he was repeating the plan; they’d decided that Serenity should go first, since he was the most resilient against Death magic. He hadn’t told them he was immune, but simply having a resistance was unusual enough.
They’d also decided that they’d capture anyone they could. It was possible there was a counterspell, and the best way to find it would be to catch someone who knew it. They also wanted to know anything else they could find out.
When they were ready, Serenity opened the door to a strange scene. It looked like the aftermath of a fight; Serenity could make out three people. One gave off a strong feeling of curse-tainted Death Essence.
Serenity wasn’t a detective, but he’d been in a lot of fights over the years, and this one was easy to read. The cursed man seemed to have fought the other two; it looked like he’d caught the woman by surprise and hit her over the head, then stabbed the man with a weapon taken from the woman, only to get stabbed himself. It was likely that he’d known it would happen and accepted the injury in order to kill the other man.
Hale stepped into the room while Serenity was looking over the scene. “Is that Guildmaster Hollis? He looks-” Hale stopped without saying what he looked like, but Serenity could guess. The skin of the man’s face was pulled taut against his skull, and he looked almost desiccated. The curse was clearly trying to change him into a mummy of some sort.