The wards reported an unknown person. The link with the enchantment on the House doors, which was one of the very few intact enchantments Serenity had found in Zenith, said that there was an authorized entry at that time. Serenity had Andarit follow him as they entered the doors.
Ben looked up from his book when they entered. “There’s a devil talking to Mister Lowpeak,” he started. “He just walked in, didn’t knock or anything.”
Serenity hid his wince at “Mister Lowpeak”. Proper methods of addressing nobility could come when Ben had a better idea of how to speak Bridge. They varied from planet to planet, sometimes even city to city, but “Mister” followed by their seat of power was almost never correct. “I take it he knows the … ah, devil?”
“Looked like it. They’re up in the living room.” Ben pointed, but Serenity didn’t need the direction. He knew which room Ben meant; for whatever reason, there weren’t many in the building set up for multiple people to talk in comfort.
Serenity headed up the stairs. They hadn’t found any new slaves from Earth today, so he’d planned to talk to Kalo about whether or not he had any contacts that could get Serenity access to Djen’s records. Since that was where Serenity had appeared, he had the feeling that a lot of the displaced Earthlings moved through Djen’s hands. With luck, he’d have records that could tell Serenity where they’d gone.
If Kalo didn’t have contacts that could help with that … well, Serenity was getting low on ideas. If nothing else, Djen would surely know where his records were and how good they were. Serenity didn’t want to depend on Djen’s memory, but he would if he had to.
Serenity was thinking of fire and blood as he walked up the stairs with Andarit directly behind him. He tried not to let his thoughts leak into his aura, and was fairly confident he’d succeeded.
When Serenity opened the door to the “living room”, he found that there was indeed a devil sitting across from Kalo. A pair of horns rose proudly from the unknown man’s head; they were a deep red, shading almost to black at the tips, roughly the same color as his hair. They contrasted significantly with his skin, which was so pale it was nearly a true white. Serenity couldn’t see it, but he knew that the man also had a prehensile tail, which would be covered in short fur the color of his hair.
He was almost certainly a Daa’il. Serenity had never really connected the species name to the word devil, but now that he’d heard it, it would be difficult to unhear.
The Daa’il smiled at Serenity. He seemed peaceful and pleased with his surroundings. “I assume you’re Serenity? Kalo has told me a great deal about you. I’m Tirmanak, of Order’s Guild on Ranar.”
Serenity felt himself tense up at the name, then forced himself to relax a little. There was no sign of coercion, and the Duke seemed comfortable. More than that, Serenity already knew the Duke was friendly with Order’s Guild. The memory of Margrethe didn’t help, but this was an entirely different circumstance. It did mean that there were things he wasn’t going to talk about, however. “Yes, I’m Serenity. Of Earth, if that’s important to you.”
Andarit took the third seat, leaving Serenity standing. He was comfortable with that, even if he did rather wish he’d practiced his Call on the Origin Skill enough to manifest a chair. It would have been fun to be able to flex that ability. Even the thought made him grin a little.
“Duke Lowpeak mentioned that you have a Quest to help the voice?” Tirmanak prompted Serenity after a long moment spent looking at each other.
Serenity didn’t see any reason not to share. If there was one thing he’d picked up from Margrethe, it was that Order’s Guild really did believe that the Voice was something to follow.
[Tutorial Trouble: There is a problem in the Tutorial. Students are being directed to incorrect locations at the end of the first Phase. Assist the Voice’s investigations, find the responsible parties, and arrange for appropriate punishment]
[Step 1: Find out how it’s happening in the Tutorial] [COMPLETE]
[Step 2: Investigate on Zon] [ONGOING]
[Optional Goal: Put measures in place that will prevent the same scheme from working in the future] [COMPLETE]
[Optional Goal: Recover the lost Earthlings and return them to Earth (if desired)] [ONGOING]
The Daa’il read over the notice, then visibly re-read it before looking towards Serenity. “How is Margrethe?”
Serenity tensed for a moment. Someone from Order’s Guild that knew Margrethe and knew she was in a Tutorial? He forced himself to relax. “She’s fine. How did you know she was in a Tutorial, much less the same one?”
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Tirmanak grinned as though he’d just won something. “There’s only ever one running at a time. As for how I know she’s in it, I placed her there. I am the Guildmaster for this cluster, after all.”
Serenity took a deep breath, then let it out. Getting mad at the other man wouldn’t help, and the real reason he was irritated was Margrethe, not Tirmanak. “Are you the one who bound her to an Oath she never fully read?”
The question clearly took Tirmanak by surprise and took the wind out of his sails, turning his grin into a frown. “Most Knives don’t, no matter what you tell them. Margrethe doesn’t look past the obvious well. It’s a common problem with Knives.”
Serenity didn’t know what to make of that. It was true that many people didn’t want to fully read contracts, no matter how foolish that was, but at the same time it felt wrong to deliberately take advantage of that. It was clear the Guildmaster did that to Margrethe. Serenity wasn’t thrilled about that, even though it turned out well in the end. He wasn’t certain where to go from here, but maybe a leading question would work? “So now that you’ve confirmed I was in the Tutorial…?”
Tirmanak blinked, then his eyebrows went up slowly. “That wasn’t why I asked about Margrethe; I already knew you were there from the Quest text. It’s simply that she should have come out at the same time as all of the other instructors, but she hasn’t reported in yet.”
Oh. Of course. Tirmanak knew how Tutorials worked, and he knew that sending someone to investigate wrongdoing in one who was new to the greater universe was a bad idea, which meant they had to be an instructor, not a student. Well, there was an easy answer to that. It was even true. “I’m on a strange contract; I went in as if I were a student and pretended to be one who matched the missing students until we found out who it was and how it was done. The Tutorial isn’t over yet.”
Tirmanak hadn’t seemed tense, but Serenity was still sure he relaxed a little at the explanation. “Good to know. What’s made it take so long?”
Serenity shrugged. It ought to be obvious; Tutorial length was directly related to the number of people who had to go through it. “Nine billion people? More or less. Takes time to get that many through.”
“Nine billion?” Tirmanak seemed floored by the number. “Even for humans, that’s an incredible number. I’m surprised Margrethe qualified to be the Knife. Explains why you could masquerade as a student, at least. What’re they coming in at? Tier three? Four?”
Serenity shook his head. Higher Tier planets did tend to be larger and could potentially have bigger populations, but that wasn’t always true; it was more that higher-Tier people could survive in worse circumstances. “Tier Zero. Earth was …” Serenity paused. He’d been about to say manaless, but that wasn’t true. “Earth was low mana on most of her surface, damaged by a war. She’s recovering now.”
Serenity could tell that none of the others believed him. It probably didn’t really matter, but he still wanted to be believed. “Do you know about the Tech Grades used for Tutorials?”
The Guildmaster nodded, but the Duke and his daughter seemed lost.
“Earth is a Grade Seven world. Possibly Grade Eight; it’s hard to tell. The important thing is that technology’s been used for all sorts of things, and food’s one of them. Earth’s population is much higher than you’d expect from its size. There were also no monsters and no monster areas; the only things inhibiting people from living anywhere was the terrain and climate.”
“How can we cover a planet that large?” Tirmanak muttered. “I’d planned to have Margrethe and a few of the juniors cover it, but they were on Asihanya … and they wouldn’t be enough, even with the invasions taking over most of it. Ten years isn’t much time, and new populations always have so many who don’t believe…”
Serenity chuckled. Tirmanak’s assumption of how much the invasions would reduce the population and how much land they would control was high, even for the first time around. It was sad to think that Earth had done well for a Tier Zero world. “The invasions are over; the Global Quest is complete. They killed thousands, maybe tens of thousands; there are some places where the records weren’t very good. Dungeons will probably kill more over the next ten years. If you can get the permission, though, you can send people to Earth sooner than that.”
It was something else he’d learned over the course of the Tutorials: Margrethe’s job was unpleasant but necessary. There had been students who’d tried to increase their power by consuming cores and been surprisingly effective, up until they decided they needed to kill everyone around them. Most of the time, Margrethe caught them before that, but when she didn’t it could be bad.
It explained some of the particularly strange monsters Serenity remembered from Vengeance’s past, as well. It was clear that it didn’t only happen at low Tiers; Serenity suspected that some people walked the edge for a long time, while others were careful until they thought they were powerful enough to manage it, or simply until they were that desperate.
“Earth itself isn’t the point.” Serenity knew he could be here all night talking about Earth if he didn’t pull them onto the subject he cared about at the moment. “The point is that I think we’ve found everyone who’s easy to find in Zenith, and I need a way to find more people and to figure out what’s behind it all. I think the records at Djen’s Hiring Hall is probably our best starting point, since we know that’s where people appear. They should be able to tell us where people were sold and maybe even point us at who’s behind it all; he’s got to be paying them somehow. The thing is, I’m not a forensic accountant and I’m also not exactly the sneaky type to be able to easily get those records.”
Tirmanak looked up at Serenity. “I can get you the help you need, but it’s not going to come free.” A fierce grin flashed across his face before he continued. “I should commend your restraint. If it were me, I’d almost certainly have simply killed the man I thought was responsible, especially if I thought the information I needed was written down somewhere. Maybe make him tell me where it is.”
“Force works,” Serenity agreed, “but it’s usually possible to use force later if you don’t use it at first, while it’s rather hard to undo.”
The Final Reaper’s actions were a perfect case in point. No matter whether or not he’d regretted them, he couldn’t undo them. There were some he’d wished he could.
Serenity needed to focus on the present. “So what do you want from me for your help?”