Liam led Serenity to one of the four workrooms he and Samantha used when they were looking at the things that had been recovered from A’Atla. This one had changed a lot since they first started using it; three of the walls were covered in white boards, while the fourth held a trio of bookcases that were filled with boxes holding small items.

The center of the room held a table, though the stools were all set against the longest wall with a whiteboard. The table held a laptop and a couple of dirt-encrusted spikes; Serenity hadn’t seen them before, but they looked like a sensor of some kind set on a spike to secure it into the dirt of the surface.

“Did you figure it out, Tom?” The door had barely closed behind Serenity when Liam asked.

Serenity looked at Liam blankly. Figure what out?

Liam seemed to deflate a little. “This isn’t about the books, then?”

“Books?” Serenity felt off balance. Liam had grabbed the initiative and Serenity wasn’t quite willing to ask his question bluntly without figuring out what Liam was talking about.

“Samantha said she’d talk to you about them, but I thought she was going to yesterday?” Liam sounded tentative.

“Oh, those books!” Serenity hadn’t even thought about them. They had a mild enchantment, but the reason the books survived was their location, not the enchantment. That was nothing more than a simple closure, not even a true lock. “I took care of that yesterday, it was just a matter of pushing a small amount of mana in the right place. Samantha was able to duplicate it once I showed her what to do. I couldn’t read them, unfortunately.”

He probably knew someone who could, though. He’d have to mention that to his mother; he knew that universal translation for written languages seemed to be a lot more difficult than for spoken languages. Amani could probably read them, but she could do something even more important and help create an item that would help someone else read them.

Liam frowned. “Then what did you want?”

Serenity didn’t answer immediately. He’d tried to think of the best way to ask the question as he walked, but he really hadn’t come up with much. He pulled over one of the stools and perched on it. “Has anything strange happened lately? On the surface, maybe?”

“Strange?” Liam looked puzzled. “What do you mean? I don’t think there’s been anything stranger than usual. Well, usual for A’Atla.”

Serenity was about to speak, probably to say something about the smudge, when Liam continued. “Unless … you didn’t show up for that fight and neither did Serenity. Is that the sort of strange you’re talking about?”

Serenity blinked. And neither did Serenity? Oh, right, he was in his Tom Cooper disguise.

“There was a fight I didn’t show up for? Yes, that’s the sort of thing I mean.” Whether or not it was actually what he was looking for, it was definitely something he wanted to know about. As far as he knew, there had only been one fight since the attack on the camps near the entrance, and it was a minor thing. He’d shown up and both sides had scattered. Well, Serenity had shown up; it was probably best to remember which of his identities got the credit or blame for breaking up each fight.

“It was yesterday, a little before sunset. We were out on the surface, surveying part of the area that should be part of the city but doesn’t have many buildings - you know the excess dirt has been disappearing, right?”

Serenity nodded. As far as he knew, it wasn’t significant, just another odd feature of A’Atla. It was probably related to the plant growth, but when you got right down to it, Serenity didn’t care. “An inch or less anywhere, right?”

Liam nodded. “Mostly, yeah. We’ve found a few places that have lost more, but we’re pretty sure that’s from the wind. We’re supposed to get some soil specialists soon, but …”

He spread his hands and shrugged. “They’ve been held up by the fighting over who gets to send how many people. Which is why I got stuck going out to check when one of the depth sensors reported a four-inch loss overnight. Anything that big is usually nonsense or a nearby sinkhole, but it was worth checking.”

Serenity nodded again. There wasn’t anything he could say to that; until and unless his father decided to close off A’Atla to anyone without his permission, that argument would continue. It would be difficult to close A’Atla no matter what, but Serenity was confident there was a way to do it other than simply submerging again. It wasn’t something he’d looked for.

“When we got there, we didn’t find the sensor at all. It wasn’t where the log said it should be; instead, it was inside one of the few buildings in the area. That was odd, but sometimes the registered location is a little off. Naturally we went to check it. It turned out it was one of the buildings that kept the mud out, so it was open inside.” Liam opened the laptop.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

“We’d just entered the building when there was a roar. Mike and I took cover in the building since we were already there, but the other soldiers stayed outside to deal with the weird winged ape that was throwing rocks at them. We’re under orders to avoid gunfire unless it’s life-threatening and the rocks weren’t.”

Well, that probably explained why he hadn’t noticed the fight; thrown rocks were almost certainly below the threshold he’d set. It was a little concerning but not at all surprising that people were figuring out what his detection limits were; at the same time, he wasn’t certain he should be bothered by it. Without guns, they weren’t threatening anyone at a distance and without both guns and most high-power Skills, any damage was relatively easy to patch up.

There were likely other fights he didn’t know about. Blaze would know, but Serenity probably wouldn’t ask.

“It took a while for them to get it down, but once it ran out of rocks it just charged them instead of finding more rocks. It wasn’t much of a fight after that; Matthews dodged and it half-buried itself in the loose dirt. He was able to stab it before it freed itself.”

Serenity raised an eyebrow and grinned. “You were watching, weren’t you?”

Liam nodded and stared fixedly at the laptop, almost like he knew he should be embarrassed even if he wasn’t really contrite. “Yeah.”

“I probably would have, too.” Actually, Serenity very well knew that he’d have had trouble only watching. He wasn’t about to be a hypocrite and scold Liam for something he knew he’d have done as well. The most he’d say was a way to do it more safely; Liam wasn’t a combatant. He had the wrong Paths, reflexes, and training for that. “Might be worth using a remote camera or tiny drone next time.”

“Probably. Just as glad I wasn’t this time, though, because that’s when the building collapsed.”

Serenity tried to parse that while Liam was silent. The building collapsed? That sounded “strange” all on its own; none of the other buildings on A’Atla had collapsed as far as Serenity knew. Most were filled with mud; the others seemed to draw on the same self-repair and maintenance enchantments as A’Atla’s tunnels. If this one was clear, it should be in the same shape as when it was new.

“Here it is.” Liam turned the laptop around to face Serenity. It showed a photo of what had to be the collapsed building; he could see a hole that was probably where Liam and Mike were dug out of the mud. There wasn’t any sign of a winged ape, half-buried or not.

The building itself looked oddly slumped. Normally, Serenity expected the skeleton of a building to still exist, broken but present. This building didn’t look like that; instead, it looked like the supporting members melted and the ceiling simply collapsed. “That’s odd. Did it all come down at once?”

Liam shook his head. “We’re pretty sure it started at the center of the building. There are some people really interested in studying it, since it’s the first building of its type they can look at without damaging or destroying an intact one. We’re all supposed to be even more cautious about entering the buildings now, but I don’t think it will really change much.”

That gave Serenity two things to check out: the building and what the magic had done to Liam. Of course, that assumed Liam was even telling the truth; the photo made it seem more likely, but he couldn’t be certain. It was too bad he hadn’t looked as carefully at the summoner originally; he certainly hadn’t noticed a huge taint of black fire, but he hadn’t looked. It was possible this was all a deep plot.

Whether it was or not, Serenity had no doubt that he could handle Liam.

Yes, that was the place to start. “Liam, have you ever heard of Night Fire?”

Liam’s face scrunched in thought for a moment. “Doesn’t sound familiar.”

“How about seeing some? It might have looked like a fire, only black like it absorbed light instead of giving it off?”

“There’s a way to do that,” Liam noted. “Add something to a fire. It might take a second fire or light source, I can’t remember the details; I only saw it done once. But you mean what happened when the building collapsed, don’t you?”

Serenity nodded; that would make sense for when it happened. Fire could well explain why the supports looked melted, too. The timing was extremely suspect and the fact that something was moved to get people to enter the building only made it more so. “Sounds like it. You saw black fire then?”

“Maybe?” Liam sounded uncertain. “Shadows that flickered like they were thrown by a flame but there was no fire. Close enough, I guess.”

“Well, that might explain why you’re covered in it. I think the next step is to get it off you, then have you lead me to the collapsed building. I need to see what happened there.” Serenity paused and debated if he should say why the Night Fire was important. It probably wasn’t a good idea while Liam was still covered in the stuff. He didn’t think it had any way to get information back to whoever unleashed it, but he didn’t actually understand it. It was all guesswork and guessing about a known trickster was not a great option.

Liam blanched and opened his mouth to say something, then closed it again. When he did it a second time, Serenity decided that he looked kind of like a fish.

“There are two ways I can clear it off you,” Serenity mused out loud. “The fast way is a bit dangerous if I’m not careful; I bet you’d prefer the slow way, wouldn’t you?”

“Slow sounds good,” Liam whispered. “What does being covered in spent magic do?”

“Usually nothing,” Serenity stated reassuringly. “At least, nothing unless you’re trying to do something delicate; that’s when it can interfere. I just want to make sure it’s not hiding anything. That’s possible.”

Liam seemed to get even paler. Maybe he shouldn’t have said the last part? But “usually” wasn’t all that more solid, was it? It wasn’t like he expected to find anything; this was just insurance.

“Fast sounds pretty good right now actually,” Liam stated in a fast, high voice. “What’s the danger?”

“It makes monsters,” Serenity admitted. “And I have to do it all at once, so the power of the monster or monsters depends on the power of what I’m cleaning up. I think it might be best if I at least start with the slow way.”

Liam nodded. Serenity noticed that his eyes were wide and seemed to be all white with only a tiny pupil at the center.