“He’s awake,” Blaze announced. It wasn’t necessary for Serenity, but it drew the attention of Gabriel and Daryl. “Probably still confused about what’s going on, but awake.” Blaze stood just long enough to make his way over to one of the nearby chairs; unlike Serenity, he would be sore after kneeling for so long.

Zany looked puzzled and terrified at the same time; Serenity half-expected another attack. It only made sense; the last thing Zany remembered was a fight. Waking up after that was always confusing.

“That’s great!” Gabriel hurried over to his Guildmaster. “Are you hurt anywhere else? Skill backlash can be nasty.”

The expression on Zany’s face was more complicated than Serenity could read. The one thing he was certain of was that Zany wasn’t happy. “Gabriel? What are you doing here?” Zany clearly tried to control his voice, but he sounded upset.

Gabriel didn’t seem to notice. He shrugged and grinned. “You were in trouble, whether you’d admit it or not. You helped us out, so we’re here to help you out. We’ve got what’s left of the Guild waiting, when they’re not clearing dungeons or sleeping anyway.”

Zany’s face flashed through a series of expressions. Serenity thought he read both confusion and worry, but he wasn’t sure. What he was sure of was that Zany tested his hands and feet; he seemed surprised when he was able to move freely. Zany sat up and looked around. His eyes settled on Daryl, who was a little farther away. “Daryl? I specifically told you to get help and not come yourself.”

Serenity decided to bail Daryl out of that one. Partially, at least. “He did. I was headed here anyway; the information from Gabriel and Daryl simply sped things up. They wanted to come along to be certain we got you out of there first.”

Zany glanced at Serenity momentarily, turned back towards Daryl as if Serenity hadn’t interrupted, then did a double take. “You’re - who are you, really? Why are you trying to trick me? You’re with him, aren’t you?” Zany waved a hand at Blaze. “How did you fool Daryl?”

Now Serenity was puzzled. Why was Blaze important? “I think I’d say that Blaze is with me, not the other way around, though I expect that the people he’s healed over the past year would probably disagree. As for who I am, I thought that was obvious. I’m not trying to fool anyone.”

Serenity was wearing the uniform provided by Tirmanak, with his bound insignia attached; it was the best way he’d thought of to reassure Zany after the fight. That had to be part of what he was referring to, but Serenity didn’t understand the root problem. “For that matter, why did you attack in the first place? We didn’t go in there expecting a fight; two healers and an archer is not exactly the choice I’d make for that.”

“Two healers and an archer?” Zany scoffed. “Fire elementals aren’t healers. Either you’re trying to fool me or he’s fooling you.”

Blaze chuckled. “Fire elementals can heal. The thing is, I’m not a fire elemental. My bloodline is Phoenix. I think you’ve taken me for something I’m not.”

Zany shook his head and glared at Blaze. “You can stop pretending. There’s no point in secrets between us, you know too much about me and I know too much about you.” He took a deep breath, then closed his eyes. “I know you’re a Face, and I’m not going to tell you anything. You’ll trick it out of me somehow but -”

Zany stopped talking and opened his eyes when Blaze started laughing. It clearly wasn’t the reaction he expected. It wasn’t the reaction Serenity expected, either. He wasn’t sure what he should have expected, but this definitely wasn’t it.

Blaze laughed as if the situation were actually funny. When he tried to stop, he glanced at Zany and started laughing again. When he wound down the second time, he managed to ask a question. “It was the armor, wasn’t it? The style was a little off what I’ve seen before, but it was close enough to get us overlooked at a distance.”

The style was a little off?

Serenity was pretty confident he’d made it almost exactly like the Imperial armor he knew the best; he’d had plenty of chances to examine it in detail as the Final Reaper. He pulled up the best image he had from his reconnaissance rituals and compared it to what he’d made. It was similar, but Blaze was correct; it wasn’t the same. The style he remembered was sleeker and more form-fitting, while the images he’d recorded were bulkier and less ornate.

He was fairly confident he’d gotten it right, but he’d clearly made a mistake somewhere; had he made armor from a later time period or was it simply for a different type of unit? Either was possible, but Serenity suspected the more likely explanation was that the people sent after a single high-Tier undead threat wore different armor than low-Tier people.

Oops.

He probably should have checked in detail; he’d seen the materials and knew how to put together the armor. It hadn’t seemed worth the time to work from new images when he already knew an Imperial armor design well enough.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Zany shook his head. “No, customized balanced armor isn’t that unusual. Expensive enough that it’s only worn by the wealthy or those who need it, but not out of place. Armor that can fully block a Tier Ten Skill, though? That’s something special.”

“That was Tier Ten?” Serenity didn’t mean to sound shocked, but he was. None of the attacks Zany used had felt even remotely higher Tier than Serenity; Yes, he was immune to Death magic, so the nes that directly hit the armor were never going to be an issue, but he shouldn’t have been able to easily warp the direction of a Skill of a higher Tier than he was.

Knowing that he hadn’t fucked up on the armor was a relief. He had definitely made a mistake, but at least it wasn’t the one that caused a fight.

Wait. Something didn’t add up. “If you didn’t think anything was odd until your first attack failed, why did you attack?”

Zany froze and glanced between the people there. “Uh. I, ah, thought the Base Commander was there. He’s Tier Nine, so…”

Serenity turned to look at Daryl. He noticed that Blaze did the same thing. It was obvious what had happened, now; Daryl had proven himself unable to completely corral his aura during the trip into the base; it was clear he rarely tried. Gabriel wasn’t good at it, certainly not as good as Serenity or Blaze, but he could keep it to within a foot or two of himself fairly reliably. Daryl couldn’t. “You’re going to have to stay behind next time.”

Daryl looked down. Perhaps he’d take the advice to practice aura control more seriously now, but Serenity kind of doubted it. He hoped he was wrong, but his experience with people like Daryl said that in a few days this would have faded and it wouldn’t be Daryl’s fault anymore - or at least not enough Daryl’s fault to be worth the effort required to learn control. Serenity hoped he was wrong but wasn’t about to bet on it.

Serenity looked back up at Zany. “So are you willing to work with us now?”

Zany shook his head. “Not until I know more about that armor. I can’t believe anyone makes armor that good for a disguise.”

Serenity chuckled. “It’s a Skill. One of mine, which is why it’s so good against Death; the Resistances are generally high, but Death is definitely the best.”

“Show me.” Zany still looked defiant.

Serenity shrugged and manifested his fourth form in front of himself in the form of armor. It first appeared as his Sovereign form, a cloud that almost looked like black smoke, but it quickly shifted into the shape of armor. It was easiest to shape the armor as if he’d be the one wearing it, so he did. It took some concentration to get his armor-self to take on the appearance of the Imperial armor; it wanted to be dragonscale. It took at least half an hour, but when he was done, a set of Imperial runeclam armor lay between him and Zany.

“I have to concentrate to keep the Skill active,” Serenity admitted. He didn’t want to make his Skill look as powerful as it was; simply being able to form good at-Tier armor for himself was an incredible Skill.

Zany stared at the armor for more than a minute after it finished forming before he looked up at Serenity. “What are you? You’re not a Knife. That’s not an ability a Knife would train, and it’s not one you’d have from before, either.”

Serenity had the impression Zany was talking around something; this time, he didn’t even have to wonder what it was. He knew how Knives were found; they were people who had once at least started to form a monster core. Some were born with one and wanted to convert to being Pathed, while others were Pathed who wanted the power of a monster and didn’t realize the cost.

One way or the other, Order’s Guild tracked them down and dealt with them; co-opting them into the ranks of the Knives was preferred but usually not possible. Zany had to be referring to monstrous abilities when he said “from before”.

Serenity smiled and shook his head. “I’m not a Knife. I never claimed to be one; it wouldn’t suit me. I’m a Hand; I’m told that role suits me well.”

“This is a dream, isn’t it?” Zany stared at Serenity as he spoke. “A Hand on Asihanya? A Hand coming to my aid? There’s no way that’s real.”

Serenity dissolved his fourth form. He didn’t want the extra perspective, even if it couldn’t move and distract him. “Is it so unbelievable? If it makes you feel better, I’m here because of the attacks on the Library, not because of you.”

Serenity felt bad for Raz, but the attack on Stallet and the destruction of the Sunrise Clan wasn’t enough reason to come to Asihanya. He knew that Stallet Center would recover in time; after all, he’d attended the Academy and been into the city as Vengeance. It might take years, but it would happen eventually. He’d helped Raz find a new home with Aki; that was the best help he could give the young draykin.

He didn’t know what would happen to the Library or to Honoria without his help and he felt like he owed her something. It didn’t hurt that the Library was likely to be a huge resource, but as far as he was concerned Honoria was the important reason.

Zany’s expression seemed conflicted as he thought through Serenity’s reply. Zany pinched himself; it was kind of amusing to see an undead attempt to wake himself the same way an earthling might. “It sounds like I had good luck for once.”

Serenity nodded encouragingly. “If that’s settled, then, why don’t you join us at this table? I’ve got a map of the base; we can plan what we’re going to do next. Oh, you’re here to kill the base commander? I need to take him alive to ask some questions, first. I need to know where the rest of them are and why they’re here; taking out one base won’t stop the rest of the attacks. It probably won’t even stop the attacks on Takinat for long.”

“There are more of them?” Zany looked horrified.

Serenity thought over what Daryl and Gabriel had told him earlier. Had Zany really left Takinat before he knew the rest of Asihanya was under attack? He was pretty sure they’d said that they’d heard about the attack on Stallet before the attack on Takinat happened.

This was going to be a very long conversation, wasn’t it?