“Can you tell me about Karit?” Serenity tried to relax, but too much was riding on the question for him to actually feel easy, even in a comfortable recliner.
High Priestess Karin frowned at Serenity. “I take it you enjoyed your visit to the Tower of Broken Swords? I thought you might find it interesting and educational.” She sat down heavily on one of the couches, then leaned back and stared at the ceiling. “As for the Book found in the Tower, I cannot tell you anything not found in its pages. It holds a great deal of information for anyone who tries to read it.”
Blaze plopped down beside the High Priestess. “You don’t mind if I sit here, do you?”
High Priestess Karin raised her eyebrows but didn’t say anything.
“But you can’t tell me anything more?” Serenity tried again. He’d have to go back and actually read the Book after that clue, but he hoped she’d tell him more. At her headshake, Serenity tried a different question. “Can you tell me who reserves the Water Garden during eclipses?”
Karin actually chuckled at that. “I’m afraid not. Before you ask, I won’t get you an invitation, either. You wouldn’t want one. The next eclipse of Aeon is in a hundred and sixteen days; if you want to explore the Garden, I recommend trying before then. I hear it’s absolutely lovely at dusk.”
Another clue. This was frustrating when he didn’t know what he should ask. Serenity wished one of the others had agreed to be the one asking questions to distract Karin from Blaze. He never knew what to ask. “Ah, hm. Do you know anyone named Rourke?”
The High Priestess looked blank for a moment, then smiled. “Yes, I remember Captain Rourke. Though he’s a Priest now, I suppose. I wonder what he’s up to these days.”
That surprised Serenity. Captain Rourke? He hadn’t yet seen an organization on Lyka that used that sort of a rank structure. “Captain? What organization was he with? I met him on Lyka and I’d like to see him again.”
High Priestess Karin gave a slight smile and shook her head. “I can’t answer that. All I can tell you is that his sword never broke.” She patted Blaze’s hand where it sat on her arm, then turned to Ekari. Her smile grew broader as she looked at her daughter. “Are you watching me or this young man? Was I wrong about which one you were interested in?”
Ekari actually blushed. Serenity couldn’t believe it. “Mother!”
Karin chuckled. “I see I was. Well, you can’t blame an old woman for hoping. None of your other siblings ever had children of their own; I’m still hoping you’ll make me a grandmother. Tell me about this man of yours.”
Blaze had an almost glazed look on his face. Serenity knew that meant he was paying attention to healing instead of the room around him; it meant they still needed to keep the High Priestess distracted.
Ekari seemed to be doing a good job of it.
“Mother, I, he, Blaze is a healer. A really good healer, one of the best I’ve ever known.” Ekari couldn’t seem to stop blushing, but at least she’d stopped stuttering. “He’s also a caring person, and he cares about me. Possibly too caring, all I’ve ever seen him do is heal. I don’t know how well he deals with darker things.”
Karin patted his hand again. “Perhaps better than you think; few people become excellent healers without a reason. He is Tier … hm. Four? One higher than you?”
Ekari visibly twitched at that.
“Perhaps it is you and he that I should send to the Water Gardens instead of Serenity. I do believe a truly good healer would find them interesting. They are supposed to be quite soothing and good for one’s health.” High Priestess Karin paused and seemed to give her daughter a moment to respond. When Ekari didn’t say anything, she continued. “Yes, I think I’ll set something up for next week. If you want to bring your other friends, feel free, but make sure you and Blaze try one of the pools. Perhaps I will even come; they are quiet and surprisingly poorly attended away from the eclipse.”
The High Priestess’s grin slipped off her face as she turned to face Serenity. “They are a good place for private conversations, especially near the waterfalls. The attendants do not come too close.”
That message was obvious even to Serenity. “That’s good to know.”
The High Priestess took a deep breath, patted Blaze’s hand once again, then stood. “I should be leaving; I have duties to attend to. I will see about sending a message to this Rourke you mentioned; it sounds like he would be a good additional liaison for you while you are on Aeon. Two Acolytes as guides is not truly sufficient for your dignity, not when Lykandeon could call for you at any time.”
Serenity found it interesting that she called him “Captain Rourke” only a few minutes before but was now calling him “this Rourke you mentioned”; was she talking for an audience or was she having some sort of memory issue? It was enough to make Serenity look down at Blaze.
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Blaze blinked; he looked almost like he was waking up.
Serenity waited until High Priestess Karin was outside and well out of earshot before he turned to blaze and asked, “So what did you find out?”
Blaze didn’t look happy. “She’s definitely deeply hurt and wants to be healed. The thing is, it’s worse than I thought it would be. Physically … it’s pretty bad, but that can be handled. It’ll take time but none of it’s urgent. Mentally, well, if I have the time I think I can break the compulsions she’s under. There are a lot of them and they’re fairly strong but the real problem will be tracking them down. What I can’t do is put her back together. She needs a true mind-healer.”
“Put her back together?” Ekari sounded absolutely monotone. Serenity glanced over at her. What he saw made him stay turned towards her: Ekari was absolutely expressionless. He’d seen her like that before a few times, but most of the time she had some expression even if he couldn’t tell what it was.
Blaze also looked at Ekari before facing the floor instead. “I think it’s how she protected herself and kept herself as intact as she has. She shattered herself; the compulsions bind her but they only bind the shards they touch, so other pieces of her mind are free. They sort of move together, which makes it all work. It’s beautiful but kind of terrifying.”
“That could explain a lot.” Rissa sounded troubled; when Serenity looked over at her, she’d pulled out her phone and was turning it on. “I know of a couple of people who might be able to help her on Earth, but I’m not sure. They’re supposed to be good, but how can you judge that?”
Blaze shook his head. “I know a few people as well. The only way to know is to try. We first have to get her stable, and that means she has to be free of this place. I’m not certain I found all of her problems, either; I was chasing a shadow when she pulled away from me.”
“We’ll just have to remember that she’s an unreliable ally then. I think the clues she’s giving us are real but I’m not sure if we can put them together usefully. At the same time, we need to keep what we’re doing secret from her so that we don’t trip over one of those compulsions.” That was the best Serenity could come up with. He didn’t want to simply abandon Ekari’s mother, but at the same time he couldn’t afford to rely on her.
If she led him to Rourke and the kidnapped Earthlings, that would be more than enough. If the two clues she’d given of the Water Garden and the Tower of Broken Swords panned out, it would be even better.
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A knock on the common room door brought everyone out of the rooms they’d retreated into after dinner. Rissa was the first to reach the door; Serenity thought she’d started moving before the knock, but knowing her that wasn’t really all that surprising.
With the door open, Serenity could see that the person waiting at the door was none other than Rourke.
“I heard you asked about me.” Rourke smiled gently. “I wasn’t expecting to be assigned to you.”
“Please come in,” Rissa stated. “We don’t need to talk in the hallway when there’s this nice sitting area in the common room.”
Rourke chuckled and followed her to the couch. “That’s fair.”
Rissa directed Rourke to the same couch that High Priestess Karin sat in before she found a recliner for herself. She waved Blaze over to sit next to Rourke.
They hadn’t discussed it, but Serenity could already tell what Rissa’s intentions were; she wanted Blaze to check Rourke the same way he’d checked Karin. It was a good idea, but Serenity wished they’d thought of it earlier so that they had a plan.
Blaze seemed to pick up on Rissa’s intentions as well, but he didn’t immediately try to enter the same trance. He sat in the same spot as before and leaned back; his knee touched Rourke’s but he kept his eyes open and seemed to track Serenity.
Blaze was clearly going to try to do his diagnosis through their clothing instead of skin-to-skin. It was possible but harder; still, Serenity could manage it and Blaze was a far better healer than Serenity was. It had one large advantage over the other method in these circumstances; it was far less obvious.
Serenity settled himself in the same recliner he’d used earlier then turned to Rourke. “You said you’ve been assigned to us? That’s faster than I expected.”
“The High Priestess doesn’t waste time. She never has.” Rourke seemed happy about that.
“She called you Captain and said your sword never broke.” Serenity wasn’t certain what reaction he was expecting to that statement.
Whatever it was, it probably wasn’t the wince followed by a momentary closing of Rourke’s eyes that he got. “That’s in the past. It doesn’t matter anymore.”
“Does that mean I shouldn’t ask you about Karit?” Serenity was really curious about what was going on with the Book of Karit. He was definitely going to have to go back and read it, but he’d prefer to do that some time when he didn’t have an entire group of people waiting outside.
Rourke closed his eyes again, then rubbed his nose. “Not here. I don’t think anyone’s listening but they could and Karit is far too sensitive a topic to talk about here.”
That wasn’t a no, but it was clear that Serenity needed to be patient. Well, he did have another topic he wanted to bring up with Rourke and it seemed like a good time. It wasn’t like he was trying to keep this one a secret. “Have you made any progress on finding my missing people?”
Serenity knew he needed to figure out some way to get into the infirmary to rescue the ones there, but that would probably set off alarms. The place to start was everywhere else; if he could get the majority out without alerting anyone it would be far easier than starting with a few and then trying to get the majority out while people were already trying to stop him. He felt sorry for anyone he couldn’t rescue in time, but it was still the better choice.
“Some. I’ve only found a few people so far, but more importantly I found one of the people who escorted them to Lyka. He’ll know where he put them; all we have to do is get him to tell us.” Rourke’s grin was predatory.