“Rissa?” Serenity frowned. “What didn’t you expect to work?”

“It’s - my Path. I finally figured out how to use one of the skills. And that seems to have pushed me to the end of the Path?” Rissa shook her head. “It’s all about timing and making things line up together and - I’m explaining it poorly. Um. I’m going to pick a more combat-y Path while you clear out the rest of the house?”

Was that all it was. It must be a very specialized Path Skill then; low-Tier skills were usually simple and straightforward, training wheels rather than something to learn from. Even the simple skills held a lot of information, but they were so simple to use that it was often harder to learn from them than from later Skills. Knowing she had something else was a good thing.

Figuring out how to use a difficult Path Skill wouldn’t give significant experience in the Path unless you also managed to gain some comprehension of what lay behind it. If a momentary insight and putting it to its intended use gave enough Path experience to push her to the cap, Serenity knew Rissa would be working on learning more about the Skill for years. There would be a lot to learn.

Serenity nodded. “Sounds good.”

“I think we already got all of them, there was a slightly tougher one early on and after that they were basically mindless,” Katya commented. “I’ll check the kitchen and garage while you get upstairs; a bunch came down the stairs, so I’m not expecting much.”

Serenity headed up the stairs. It wasn’t until he checked the closet in the last bedroom upstairs that he found anything.

There was a beat-up Sterath curled in a ball on the floor of the closet. It was half the size of the other Sterath Serenity had seen, unarmed, and seemed to have been deliberately damaged until its carapace was useless; Serenity could see several areas where the armor plating had already been shed, too badly damaged to stay attached.

Serenity frowned. This wasn’t something Serenity had ever seen before among the Sterath, though he’d seen similar sights more than a few times in cities over the centuries. There was no way Serenity could consider this youngling to be an invader; instead, he seemed to be abused by the same people Serenity was trying to deal with.

Sterath culture wasn’t particularly kind to their young, but this one must be very young to be that small. More than that, this was a very strange place to find a youngling. Even past the oddity of such a child being with their soldiers, why had they spent everything that it cost to send a child this far? “Do you need healing?”

The young Sterath looked up at him, then seemed to press itself - no, himself; Serenity finally got a good enough look to tell - into the corner.He didn’t say anything, but it was so obviously a fear reaction that Serenity wasn’t sure how to respond for a moment.

Was there a way to make the youngster less terrified?

Well, perhaps if it wasn’t a human but another Sterath? It was too bad Ita wasn’t here; she might have an idea. Serenity was the best they had, though, so he’d have to make the best of it.

He shifted to his Sterath shape. As had happened before, it felt natural and he knew how to move, though he’d never been in the shape long enough to learn.

“Sh-shameful.” The child had his hands almost blocking his eyes as he hid, but he hadn’t actually taken his eyes off Serenity since he’d first looked up.

“Yes, I suppose I am. Are you in need of attention? Do you need healing?” At least the child had spoken.

The child looked at the floor, then rolled from his back onto his right side, revealing his twisted left leg. There were new injuries all along it, but what was worse was the clearly old scars. Serenity could even see large lumps under the skin at points where the bone was bent and shouldn’t be. It looked like the leg had been broken repeatedly and then allowed to heal without being properly set.

It also looked like the bone was recently broken, though the injury didn’t pierce the skin. No wonder the child was curled up and hiding. Serenity started to reach down and pick him up before he realized he should say something first. “May I carry you?”

The child seemed to think it over before nodding.

Serenity scooped him up, startled at how light the child was. :Rissa? I have an injured child here. Sterath. I’m not sure if you can help him or not. I don’t know why he was here.:

Rissa’s reply sounded startled. :A child? I’ll come up, don’t bring him down. Let me see what I can do.:

Serenity hopped slowly and cautiously out of the room he’d found the child in and onto the landing above the stairs. Rissa didn’t seem surprised to see him in Sterath form, but she’d told him in the past that she always knew who he was. Serenity wasn’t sure if that was Rissa’s Mind affinity or something to do with the link between the two of them, but it was certainly useful right now.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

:Tell him I’m a healer and need to look at his leg.: Rissa’s words reminded Serenity that she couldn’t speak Sterath, so he passed them along.

The Sterath child didn’t struggle when Serenity set him down or when Rissa examined the leg, other than once when Rissa got too close to one of his injuries.

:I can’t heal the broken bones. He needs real medical attention for that. The most I can help with is to soothe it a bit, and stop the bleeding. I don’t want to accelerate the healing until it’s set properly, and I don’t know what to do about the ones that are healed or mostly healed.: Rissa’s voice was cold and detached. Serenity knew that meant she either didn’t care at all or she was so angry that she couldn’t let herself express it.

He was willing to bet it was the second option. He was pretty angry himself. :Okay, take care of what you can. I’ll get him downstairs and we’ll get him to some real medical attention as soon as we can.:

He was even more angry that he couldn’t call for an ambulance now. It would give too much away; they had to deal with the Sterath in the other buildings before they called for help. Any other order would result in bad outcomes. That might be the Sterath grouping up, though if that was the only option he’d have accepted it.

More worryingly, they might attack the ambulance crew, to avoid news getting out. That could possibly be dealt with; the Sterath seemed to have a shortage of mages, since the only ones he’d seen so far were Ita and the three elemental mages, plus the portal mage Serenity knew had to exist even though he’d only seen the portal.

Ranged weapons might be an issue, but he’d also seen a distinct lack of those; Serenity thought that probably had more to do with the way the Sterath were planning to attack the city than any restriction on their use. He could remember fighting some units armed with bows back when he fought the Sterath on their home worlds. Of course, he’d also fought quite a few mages back then.

Neither of those were good, but the real problem was if there were more children trapped in the other homes. Serenity didn’t expect it, but he hadn’t expected to find this one. He had no idea what the Sterath might do to them if they thought they’d been found out; Serenity knew he wasn’t responsible for them, if they even existed, but he also wasn’t responsible for this one.

He hoped he was making the right call.

While Rissa busied herself healing what she could without healing anything that would need to be undone later, Serenity crouched next to the child. It was surprisingly easy, far more natural than the same position in his human form. He knew the child wouldn’t have a name, but that wasn’t the only thing he could ask. “Do you know why you’re here?”

The child nodded vigorously. “Yes. I’m here ‘cause my creche leader said I’m weak an’ I have the wrong Path. I’s supposed to learn about bein’ big an’ strong an’ get a better Path.”

Serenity frowned. He had no idea how beating a child up until he couldn’t move was supposed to do that. More than that, how could a child have the wrong Path? You weren’t allowed to choose your first Path, outside of things like the Tutorial. Serenity had heard of species that had more than one First Path, but he thought they were usually insect-like beings, where they specialized roles from the beginning. Even then, he didn’t think you got to pick. “What do you mean, wrong Path? How can your first Path be wrong?”

“I’s not a Warrior. I’s a Sterath Scholar. They no like me, want me away. Portal is away.” The child said almost defiantly before looking down and continuing in a soft voice. “...please don’t hit me.”

That explained a lot and nothing at the same time. Serenity was going to have to ask Ita about Sterath Paths when they got back; he knew the Sterath grew up quickly. Was having a specialized first Path part of that? Or was the shield somehow considered adult enough to be on his second Path? “I’m not going to hit you. I like Scholars, and I wouldn’t hit a child anyway.”

The child looked at Serenity for a long moment before relaxing more than he had before. “You’s Shameful. They no like Shameful. They no like me. You help me?”

Serenity smiled sadly. To think that the child would even have to ask. “Yes, I’ll help you.” Serenity paused, then decided he might as well ask. “What should I call you?”

The child didn’t answer. He’d just have to keep calling him “the Sterath child”, then.

“I’m done.” Rissa spoke out loud, this time. Her voice was soft, probably to avoid surprising the child.

Serenity started to pick up the child to take him downstairs, but one look at the stairs told him why the Sterath in the first house had been so weird about stairs: they weren’t wide enough for a stable landing or launching point.

On second thought, there was no reason to take the child downstairs yet. Serenity turned back to him. “We’re going to have to leave you here for now. I’ll come back when I can, it shouldn’t be more than a couple of hours.”

The child tensed back up, then curled himself into as small a space as he could. Serenity wanted to do more for him, but there wasn’t much they could do. They’d brought a few backpacks, Rissa was even wearing her at the moment, but they really weren’t prepared for this situation.

“Do you think he’s cold?” Rissa asked Serenity.

Serenity nodded. Armor was insulation for a Sterath, and much of the child’s armor was missing or badly damaged.

Rissa pulled the blanket she used for picnics out of her backpack. She chuckled, “Thought this was still in there. Here.”

She spread it over the child, who froze.

“It’ll help keep you warm,” Serenity explained.

The child grabbed the blanket but didn’t say anything.

There really wasn’t anything more to do up here. After one more look at the stairs, Serenity shifted back to his human shape. It wasn’t worth trying to hop down them. That was just a bad idea.