Why was he here, watching while the enchanter was questioned?
Serenity really didn’t have anything to contribute. He could just as easily have watched this later or even heard the details from Russ, but Russ wanted him here. Serenity wasn’t sure why. It wasn’t like they were talking about anything interesting; they were just trying to find out what he knew about the boxes from the museum. So far, that seemed to be nothing.
Serenity kept listening, but his attention drifted a bit. It wasn’t long before he was paying more attention to what his active Magesight told him about the enchanter than the words the man said. There was something really strange there. It was familiar but he couldn’t quite place it. It was rigid, almost like a wall, inside the man’s aura. His aura itself was weak, even for a midrange Tier Two, but the wall was anything but weak.
Serenity focused on the wall. His awareness of the interrogation faded, but Aide was monitoring it. Serenity could play it back when he was done. He wanted to know what was going on beyond that wall, but it resisted him; he couldn’t see through the darkness, even with active Magesight.
Darkness?
Serenity paused and took a better look at the wall. It was indeed dark, almost black, but it flickered and sputtered at the edges in a way that reminded Serenity of fire. Could that really be?
Serenity blinked and turned to Blaze. “Can you take a look at the enchanter’s aura? There’s something in it that … you’ll know what I’m talking about when you see it. Is it what I think it is?”
Blaze gave Serenity a look he couldn’t quite interpret, then turned to stare at the enchanter.
Serenity focused back on the questioning. They’d moved on from asking about the illusion at the back of the building to asking about what the man had made. It was pretty basic stuff; charms, mostly. It sounded like his best-selling charm was an anti-bleeding enchantment that could only be triggered once and only worked for about half an hour. Serenity could see why that sold well, as long as it was cheap enough to be usable. He expected that a lot of delvers wanted one, but it was probably also finding its way into ambulances.
Aide explained that Mr. Dean mentioned that he wasn’t set up to make weapons and he’d found out that that made any enchantments he put on them weaker or even nonfunctional. Serenity wasn’t certain why he didn’t make armor; maybe he didn’t realize that most people should wear several layers of things when they were fully armored? Or perhaps he’d decided that charms were more fun.
There was one thing that bothered Serenity; Mr. Dean was chatting with the cop in front of him like he didn’t realize he was in trouble. Maybe it was because she was female? She did seem to be paying full attention, was that really all it took?
Serenity looked over to where Russ watched intently. “Why is he talking so much? Aren’t you supposed to shut up and ask for a lawyer?”
Russ shook his head. “Three years ago, we would never have publicly charged someone with a magic-related offense. It wouldn’t have been believed and it was better that way, then. I have the feeling he knows that and hasn’t made the transition to the way things are now. On top of that, he may well not end up in trouble now; we have to prove he knew the item was going to be used to commit a crime or he can claim he had no idea and get away with it. It’s possible that’s true, even; if he thought it was going to be used by someone in a dungeon to clear it, there was no reason not to make it.”
Serenity frowned. Russ had a point. He didn’t like mind control, but it was all some people could do; if they went to a dungeon and used the dungeon creatures against each other, how could he blame them for doing what they could? That would be like blaming someone for being undead.
“You’re right,” Blaze stated with a frown. “That’s Night Fire. I don’t know what it’s doing, but it’s not his native Affinity. That sort of structure in that location reminds me of-” Blaze froze, then pulled out his phone. He tapped away at it, clearly texting. It was interesting just how quickly he’d adapted to modern technology.
Serenity had no idea what the Night Fire could have reminded Blaze of that would make him need to reach out to someone else. “All it reminds me of is the summoner in the tunnels of A’Atla, the one who didn’t have enough Paths. He had Night Fire everywhere. I don’t think we ever got a clear answer on where it came from, either; I know Mother’s people were tracking his movements, but I don’t think they ever got a good answer. It’s definitely not like the Night Fire that was on Liam.” He’d also summoned a Wrath Demon and set it on Serenity. Serenity was still ticked about having to kill the young Wrath Demon; it wasn’t the demon’s fault!
“Good addition,” Blaze said absently. “I’d forgotten about that. Makes it more likely.”
“Makes what more likely?” Serenity wanted an answer from Blaze; he was talking like Serenity should already know what he meant but Serenity didn’t.
Blaze stopped tapping and looked up at Serenity. He seemed puzzled. “Artificial Tier enhancement. You’ve never seen it before? It’s common on high-Tier worlds.”
“Not among delvers,” was the only answer Serenity could come up with. He didn’t think he’d ever heard of such a thing. If he had, he’d clearly tossed the knowledge as useless.
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Blaze gave a smile and shook his head slightly. “Not publicly, no. Privately, it’s more common than anyone will say. It’s self-limiting, since you can never get to the Tier of the person who enhanced you; most can’t ever take another Path. Even so, people will find someone who can do it once they feel like they can’t go any higher. It’s … it creates a lot of people who are powerful enough to live their lives but not powerful enough to threaten the people at the top. I suspect it’s what the priests on Lyka were trying to do when they made Legion, but it’s definitely not what they accomplished.”
How had he missed that? Serenity could see why Vengeance had never pursued it; he’d never thought of stopping in place, so a temporary boost that was the last one he ever got would always have looked like a bad trade. At the same time, surely he’d have known if the people around him were making that trade. Wouldn’t he?
Was that why he left so many people behind eventually?
Was it because they didn’t trust him enough to tell him what they’d done?
Serenity pushed that dark thought away. That wasn’t him; that was Vengeance. It hadn’t happened in this world. It wouldn’t happen in this world. He knew how to advance, and he was going to take the people he cared about with him. Some might fall along the way; Death was always present. That didn’t mean he had to accept the loss as inevitable.
Serenity was still reassuring himself when Blaze sighed and turned to Russ. “We need to find out what his Paths are and whether he got a boost into his current Path. If so, we need to know where; it might be connected to the attacks on A’Atla. Worse than that, if the Path he got is an enchanting Path, we need to know if he ever enchanted anything to help out the person who boosted him.”
Russ shook his head. “That’s going to take some time. Is there any need to keep why we;’re asking a secret?”
Blaze shook his head. “I don’t think he can tell anyone by unusual methods, if that’s what you mean.”
Russ huffed slightly. “I’m more concerned about him killing himself before we get our questions answered.”
Blaze frowned at that. “That might be valid. Serenity, you said the summoner killed himself?”
“It wasn’t quite that straightforward, but indirectly, yes. He seemed to have to attack me and he tore Night Fire out of the … whatever it is that boosted him … to throw at me. I’m fairly confident that’s what killed him.” Serenity knew he hadn’t, at least. Yes, he’d enveloped the man in a Death Field and thrown Death Bolts at him, but they shouldn’t have killed a Tier Five so quickly. Perhaps the summoner had died from the Night Fire bleeding away or maybe he’d died from Serenity’s attacks when his Tier dropped; Serenity wasn’t sure which. Either way, it wasn’t Serenity’s magic alone that did it.
Russ nodded. “Indirect it is. I hate dead man switches, but this isn’t the first one I’ve seen. I’ll get with your mother and see if we can cross-reference the summoner’s movements with Mr. Dean’s. Let’s get back to watching; you never know when there will be something important.”
Serenity noticed Russ tapping at his phone right after that while he kept one eye on the one-way glass. He was clearly adding questions or at least a new direction for the lady cop leading the interrogation, because she surreptitiously checked her phone right after Russ finished.
Russ was wrong about one thing, though. Even though the interrogation lasted another two hours, nothing else interesting happened.
----------------------------------------
Cymryn
I have good news, bad news, interesting news, and two new tasks for you.
First, the good news: I’m ending the survey of Eklimat. You’ve confirmed the initial findings and it’s been long enough since your failure on Asihanya that I can move you back to a more valuable position.
Unfortunately, the more valuable position is the bad news. I need an escort for World Shaman Senkovar Et’Tart and he’s specifically requested someone who’s been to one of the affected worlds. You’re the best option I have available, so you need to report to Transfer Station Seventeen on Suratiz within the next two weeks. This time, you may admit that you hold a Grand Imperial Warrant.
I don’t know what the Shaman is planning, but if he can reverse the damage from the World-Eater or even contain it, he will get the concessions for his moon that he’s wanted. He’ll probably even be granted it as a fiefdom. He does NOT have access to Imperial resources except through you. The exact limits of what you are permitted to use for this project, including funds, are still being fought over by the Emperor’s Ministers, but I should have the details to you well before you reach Suratiz.
The interesting news, however, has nothing to do with World-Eaters, large or small. Instead, it’s about the half-dragon you encountered on Asihanya, Serenity. We’ve finally identified him. As the fact that I called the news “interesting” should tell you, he’s not who we expected; he’s not the scion of a large clan of dragons associated with their God.
Instead, he’s the most famous person on a newly inducted world. The planet, Earth, is an oddity; it’s low Tier, but highly populated. More than that, it’s politically shattered. Even with those disadvantages, it somehow managed to complete the Invasion Global Quest before the Tutorial ended - an Invasion Global Quest that permitted entrants to be five Tiers above Earth’s initial rating! That seems to be a major portion of Serenity’s fame, but you know as well as I do that no single person can solve a Global Quest alone. Earth has something else going for it, but so far the only thing we have identified is an unusually large population and an aberrant level of reliance on nonmagical crafting.
We’re still working to identify the sigil you provided, but what we know so far is that it is known on Earth as Serenity’s symbol. The current best guess is that Serenity is laying the groundwork for a more or less peaceful annexation of the planet into whatever polity he represents.
Your second task is to reach out to him again. We need to know who and what he represents. The nine-year timeline he laid out is clearly the release of the final Tutorial protections, but the planet is already starting to open to merchants from outside.
We do not have enough information for me to suggest a plan; your task is to gain that information while also dealing with the demands of World Shaman Senkovar Et’Tart.
Good luck.
Restali