The next day, Serenity had a choice to make. He was supposed to meet the Silver Blades at the Mercenaries’ Guild “near sunset”, but he also wanted to try and figure out where the biplanes’ base was. That was the reason he was in Takinat, after all, while looking into dungeons was simply something to keep him busy while he waited.

So he decided to split the difference. He wasn’t in a hurry; he could take the time he needed to prepare, and the first thing to prepare was obvious. He needed maps.

The first thing he looked for was maps of the ley lines. He knew Old Man Rinsetti didn’t have them, but the Library ought to. As it happened, it did; he had a choice of a crude, incomplete map of the city or a more complete map of the area that predated the Terror War.

Naturally, they didn’t match. Before the Terror War, four different ley lines ran into the nexus under the Library, but the modern map only showed two. Those two more or less lined up on both maps, though they were significantly larger on the old map. Serenity was fairly sure they were in the correct place, but that was all he knew. That was the easiest spot to check, so Serenity did. It took a couple of hours of walking to be sure that what he was seeing was accurate, since he ended up having to travel about a half-mile from the library to really get a good idea of where the ley lines were and weren’t.

There were actually five - or possibly seven, depending on how you counted it. Two were larger than the others; they were each over five hundred feet wide, even at the narrow points. Those two both entered and left the nexus area more or less linearly. There were three other ley lines that entered the nexus, but none of them left it; they seemed to merge into the two larger streams at the nexus.

The small streams didn’t line up with the ancient map, which meant he couldn’t trust it; the fact that they weren’t even on the modern map told Serenity he could trust it only so far. It would probably give the wide, obvious ley lines, but it had them marked as much narrower than they actually were.

Serenity suspected he was quite a bit more sensitive to ley lines than whoever drew the modern map. The older one might well have been fairly accurate in its day, but that day was a very long time ago.

The problem was that Serenity didn’t need a map of the city; he needed a map that showed the ley line Legion saw the biplane leave on and that map didn’t exist in the Library. He’d asked Legion to check around the city for a map, but she’d reported a complete lack of luck; even at the magic shops, most people seemed to not even know what a ley line was. It was frustrating.

The only maps that were available were fairly simple maps that showed the travel routes; Serenity picked up a selection of those and had Legion pick up more. They weren’t properly surveyed, but they’d still give him an idea of where things were and maybe what might be close to a ley line. The general maps were good, but the one he managed to find that showed all the City Nodes was particularly important.

It made Serenity wonder why he hadn’t heard anything from Honoria about the City Sovereign. When he asked her, she laughed bitterly; apparently, he’d fled offworld when the attacks started, along with at least half the city’s Guard. The City Manager he’d left behind didn’t actually have the power to accomplish much, but at least she was coordinating much of the rescue and medical efforts. By now, Blaze probably knew everything about her that Serenity might need.

The map collection lasted until mid-afternoon. Serenity had visited everywhere he could think of that would have useful maps other than the Mercenaries’ Guild; the last few maps he wanted would almost certainly be there. It wasn’t close to sunset, but it was probably better to be there early anyway.

Rissa decided to walk to the Guild with him; she wanted a Guild card and she wanted to spend time with Serenity. Serenity suspected the second was more important to her than the first; she kept finding excuses to spend time with him instead of at the Library, even though he knew she liked the Library, liked Honoria, and found a great deal of satisfaction in working with the Library system to repair the damage.

Getting Rissa her card was simple and the man at the counter was happy to sell all the maps they wanted; he even sold maps of a number of the lower dungeons when Rissa asked. The fact that she actually asked his name, Alain, probably helped; Serenity always forgot that names mattered. He’d probably have sold Serenity the maps as well, but Serenity doubted Alain would have been quite as happy about it.

An hour later, Serenity was laughing at a joke Rissa made about the dungeon located at the corner of Abyss and Aware when he saw a notification of a new message. He opened it and rapidly wished he hadn’t.

Message from Guildmaster Tirmanak Oathbinder

Serenity,

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

I’m on my way to Asihanya. It will be months before I can reach the portal to Takinat, but I’d like to stay on the other side of the portal with Jenna. I’ll let you know when I’m closer so you can come see her.

I take the health of your daughter seriously.

Tirmanak

Serenity stared at the message, all humor lost in worry for his daughter. What the heck did that mean? “Rissa? Tirmanak’s headed here. I think he’s bringing Jenna.”

The humor faded away on Rissa’s face as well. “Here? It’ll be good to see her and it’s safer than we thought it would be, but why now?”

Serenity shook his head. “He didn’t say, just that he takes her health seriously. I’ll ask.”

“Sounds a little ominous. Hopefully it’s nothing, but something has to have triggered this.” Rissa frowned. She didn’t seem to have any more idea why Tirmanak was headed to Asihanya than Serenity did.

Message from Serenity

Tirmanak,

Is something wrong with Jenna? Takinat’s not a safe place for a child, that’s why we left her with you.

What’s changed? Don’t just tell me you’re coming without saying why.

Serenity

Serenity knew it could be a while before he got a response; it depended on how quickly Tirmanak got back to a City Node where he could see Serenity’s message.

They tried to return to the task at hand, but while they did manage to make some more progress on setting the new ley line map against the map of dungeon locations, the fun was gone. Both Serenity and Rissa were too worried about their daughter to keep joking at the odd street names and fanciful dungeon names.

They were on edge but finally starting to relax a little when Alain came over to the paper-strewn table with three people Serenity hadn’t seen before. They were not doing a particularly good job at controlling their auras; it was immediately obvious that they were two Tier Nines and a Tier Seven, even if the Tier Nines felt oddly fragile to Serenity.

Serenity was proud of Rissa. She was only Tier Two, but she didn’t react to the auras other than to glance up, huff to herself, then look back down at what she was doing. Serenity hadn’t run into any Tier Nines when he was Tier Two, but he still remembered the first time he met an angry Tier Ten who wasn’t controlling her aura. Vengeance hadn’t managed anything close to Rissa’s nonreaction.

“You’re the Tier Eight who thinks he can help with a Tier Nine dungeon?” The man standing next to Serenity sounded doubtful. “You don’t feel like a Tier Eight, much less one that can fight up-Tier.”

Serenity looked up and sighed. He knew what was going on now; it wasn’t necessarily poor aura control. It was at least partly deliberate; they were announcing just how badass they were. He’d gotten over that a long time ago, but sometimes it was necessary.

On the other hand, that didn’t prevent him from rubbing their noses in it a bit. Serenity’s grin was positively predatory as he released his own aura and didn’t even try to keep his Incarnate from filling it. “Of course not. I know how to control my aura.”

Rissa actually relaxed a little. Serenity would have to remember that; he wasn’t sure he’d ever realized that she found his aura comfortable. He should have; it did leak sometimes when they were together and she’d never reacted negatively. It was probably helping her now; in fact, that very leakage might be why she didn’t have that much trouble. She was used to being around an aura stronger than her own.

Alain paled and stepped backwards two steps; that took him out of Serenity’s aura, since he’d kept it fairly close. There was no reason to allow it to reach farther than needed; after all, if someone else entered the building, Serenity didn’t want to be rude.

The three people who had to be the Silver Blades group Alain mentioned two days earlier reacted just as strongly but more offensively; all three reached for their weapons. They quickly aborted their movements and tried to pretend they hadn’t felt threatened, but Serenity knew what he’d seen. They weren’t comfortable with his aura, and he didn’t think it was just surprise.

“Maybe you actually are Tier Eight,” the Tier Seven in the back of the trio said. She was tall and thin, similar to Rissa in body type but more muscled. She was also wearing sturdy plate-and-chain armor and had a sword belted at her side. “How under the hells did you get an aura like that?”

The spokesman cleared his throat and looked at the Tier Seven. “What Naomi is trying to ask is if you’d spar with us. We can’t take someone untested into a dungeon.”

Serenity smiled at that. He could use the chance to blow off some steam and distract himself from the uncertainty about his daughter. More importantly, his display had achieved its purpose; they weren’t trying to roll over him anymore. He had no doubt they’d try again if they thought they could get away with it, he’d seen the type before, but as long as he seemed strong enough they wouldn’t dare.

If he was lucky, they were simply too used to being the biggest frogs in their small pond; if he was unlucky, they were deliberately staying where they felt powerful. He couldn’t know which it was without taking the time to find out.

:Rissa, can you take care of the cleanup?: It was better to ask silently; that way, he’d keep their attention on him instead of her.

Rissa smiled at Serenity. :Of course. Go tear them a new one.:

Serenity grinned and stood up, suddenly feeling a lot better. “I’d be happy to. All three of you at once, or one on one?”