Arkandaeon followed the prince through the secret tunnel to where it exited, well away from the main entrance to the mansion. He’d been told to “keep quiet and follow,” which had been annoying but not quite offensive enough to be worth giving up on the plan.
His past few days had been busy but very productive. The prince was surprisingly simple to suborn; a few rumors based on what limited information he’d been able to gather from the destroyed business and he’d been able to work the prince up into a fury.
Of course, the contacts he already had in Zenith were key, both to the rumors and getting him in contact with the royalty. It was interesting that Prince Ora was on the best terms with his contacts; interesting but little more. It wouldn’t matter once the Great Lord established his dominion over the planet.
Not that Arkandaeon understood why he would bother; certainly it was the start of the Eon family, but they’d long since moved to Aeon. Even the planet’s name was a corruption of their own, one which most of the younger generations carried like Arkandaeon himself. Yet for some reason Lykandeon was still fixated on Zon.
Well, whether or not his Lord and Progenitor ever moved forward with his plans for Zon, the important thing was that Arkandaeon had finished his Quest. He had a scapegoat. He didn’t know what information the Quest had mentioned that Lykandeon would want to know, but he had the important part.
Serenity. He knew that name. It was the name of the strange instructor who was there for only a few of the Tutorials. It was also the name of a native of the world they were instructing; the first time that had ever happened, as far as Arkandaeon knew.
Worse, it was the name of someone who knew things no Tier Three should ever know and used magic in a way no Tier Three ever would. And he’d been Tier One when Arkandaeon first met him!
Tier Zero or Tier One to Tier Three over the course of six months was theoretically possible, but exceptionally rare. No, the man had to have been hiding his true Tier. Odds were that he still was; it would explain so many of the inconsistencies if he was from another planet and had somehow figured out where the Voice was going in time to be there when the tutorial started, gathering all of those benefits to himself. He was probably trying to set himself up as the world’s Sovereign; that would certainly explain why he was so worried about “helping” all of the students.
On second thought, perhaps that was exactly what Lykandeon would want to know.
There had to be a reason he’d sent a family member to the Tutorial, after all. Sure, it was normal to send someone and they’d passed it off as a normal training exercise in dealing with those outside the Faith, but if the Great One knew something and couldn’t reveal it, it would explain everything.
It was too bad he hadn’t managed to tag Serenity. Capturing someone like that would have been quite an achievement. Why, if they’d known he was an option, it might even be the reason Arkandaeon was there! Not that he could say that, or even imply it; no, he was to be careful not to mention his family connections to their God.
He had enough, now. Serenity; he’d have to remember that name. It might be enough to propel him to a higher position in the Church.
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The next morning, Serenity arrived at the Palace without Andarit. As much as he’d have preferred her company, she’d spent the rest of the evening fuming about the prince’s comments and bringing her seemed unwise.
She’d even agreed with him - both that he should go and that she shouldn’t.
The good thing was that she’d been able to give Serenity actual directions on what the prince meant when he said “at the Palace”. Apparently there was a specific entrance for invited nobles; Andarit told him to go there and act insulted if anyone suggested he should have gone to the workmens’ or even the crafters’ entrance. He was a noble, and that meant he went to the noble entrance.
It was clearly one of those ridiculous social rules that Serenity hated yet which could matter a great deal. He’d run into similar rules on other worlds with relatively large noble groups; they wanted a way to keep others separate from themselves. Back then, he’d used the delvers’ entrance, but it seemed like there wasn’t such a thing here. Perhaps that had only been a thing then because most of the nobles’ mansions were dungeon entrances and they didn’t actually want the delvers traipsing through the main house?
Not that Vengeance had ever wanted to go in the main house either.
The nobles’ entrance was imposing; the single door was half again the height and width of an ordinary door and inlaid with patterns done in a golden-colored metal. Serenity suspected it was more likely to be brass than gold, but with inlay anything was possible.
More importantly, Serenity could tell that they were part of a spell. Unlike the one at the dance hall, this one wasn’t based on runework; instead, it was probably established as a ritual. The spell was incomplete and inactive; it was clear it was supposed to be connected to something else. From the positioning, Serenity guessed that the doorframe was supposed to also be part of the spell, but the doorframe was simply wood. It was clearly polished and well taken care of, but there was no inlay.
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It was probably a ward, like the active ones on the door and ground of the Lowpeak house. This one was far more obvious, since it was visible without being able to see magic, but that was probably out of a desire to be ostentatious.
Serenity shook his head and knocked on the door. How many ancient, poorly maintained pieces of spellwork was he going to find here? He was no expert on enchantments; he couldn’t make an item even if he wanted to, other than runework. The best he could do was the same thing any good mage should be able to do, figure out what the spell was based on its mana and mana usage.
The door opened and someone dressed in what was clearly a uniform stood on the other side; at least, Serenity hoped no one would choose to wear something that looked quite that uncomfortable without a reason. He was a young adult, just old enough that he’d filled out some, but still probably only eighteen or nineteen.
“How may I assist you, sir?”
Serenity tried to smile. “Prince Ora asked me to meet him at the Palace this morning. My name is Serenity.”
The young man seemed startled for a moment after Serenity said his name, but recovered quickly. “Of course, sir. Please come in; I’ll show you to the blue room and then let the Prince know you have arrived.”
Serenity nodded and followed the footman. There was no sensation as he stepped through the door, indicating that either the ward was subtle or it was nonexistent. Given the general state of the Palace’s magic, Serenity guessed that there probably wasn’t one.
The hallways were the same darkened old wood as the doorframe, but the Blue Room fit its name. The entire room was furnished in shades of blue, from deep, almost midnight-blue rugs to furniture upholstered in a medium blue, walls covered in various blue tapestries and a ceiling painted a pale, almost robin-egg blue.
Or perhaps the ceiling was white and it simply reflected all of the blue in the room; Serenity couldn’t tell.
The footman ushered Serenity into the room, then closed the door and headed off to let someone know he was here. Serenity hoped the prince would arrive quickly and not turn this into a power game, but after the previous night he didn’t have much hope.
The only furniture in the room was six blue armchairs. Serenity sat in one of them, then started inspecting the entire room for magical traces. It was something to do while he waited and it was also probably going to be good to know for whatever the prince wanted.
He’d finished and was on his second pass through the room, with his eyes closed so that he could concentrate solely on the magic, when the door opened again. Serenity opened his eyes and looked towards the door only to see Prince Ora.
“Sleeping while you wait?” The prince had an edge to his smile as he asked the question.
Serenity was able to smile naturally this time. “Checking the magic in the room.”
He didn’t mention that he’d known the prince was nearby for some time; at a guess, there was a hidden spyhole in the wall around the corner from the door. It would explain why the prince’s aura sat there for at least ten minutes before coming to the door and it would also explain the manaflows in the area; they were slightly disturbed, as though magic were used frequently near that corner of the room.
Poorly controlled spells or items could have that sort of leakage, but only if it was very, very common. It was enough to make Serenity wonder if there was some sort of anti-divination item in the wall.
The prince seemed to relax a little. “Did you find anything?”
Serenity decided to be obtuse. “There are no spells actively affecting this room.”
The prince shook his head so minimally that Serenity wasn’t even certain he realized what he’d done. “Does that mean you can see ones that aren’t active when you close your eyes?”
Serenity shrugged. Either the prince didn’t realize that he’d given away the fact that he’d watched Serenity or he didn’t care that Serenity knew. Regardless, Serenity decided not to admit that he could see spell residue with his eyes open as well; closing them simply meant one fewer distraction. “I can sometimes see spell residue. It depends on the spell; how recent it was, how powerful it was, and where it was cast. The skill of the spellcaster also matters; the less leakage the spell has, the harder its residue is to find.”
Prince Ora nodded and changed the topic. “At the dance, what were you able to make out about the enchantment on the hall?” He made his way over to one of the other chairs and sat down.
“It was protective. I didn’t have that much time with it, so my initial impression could be wrong, but I’d guess something like a whole-building shield. There are several other possibilities; I’d have to examine the entire rune set to be certain. It appears to be a variation on the old Akkian runeset; they informed a lot of the modern runic development, but…” Serenity trailed off, realizing that he was heading off on a tangent about Akkian runes; it was fascinating to him, but probably not to the prince. “If you want me to be sure, I’ll have to have some time to examine all of the visible runes and check for any magic or incomplete pieces; while I’m looking, I’ll see if there’s a way to activate it and what will happen if you do. I recommend not activating it at all until it’s been fully examined.”
“Why not?” Prince Ora sounded surprised. “Other than the cost, that is.”
Serenity lifted then lowered his shoulders. “I don’t know how big it would be, but improperly maintained runes that are suddenly charged can potentially be quite explosive. It probably wouldn’t take out more than half of Zenith, but the minimum size would be most of the building they cover. I’d guess the lower end is more likely, but unfortunately an explosion is quite possible; the mana leakage says that there is definitely damage. If any runes are malformed in the wrong way, well, I’m a little surprised you haven’t already had things like collapsing walls.”