One thing in favor of Blaze’s choice to surprise Serenity was definitely the fact that it limited the time he had available to worry about how the Imperials would see him. That wasn’t one of the reasons Serenity handed over the task of corresponding with them to Blaze; that was because Blaze was far better at giving excuses for why he couldn’t leave Earth without admitting that they were dealing with a mystery ritual that might liquefy the surface of a significant fraction of the world’s surface when it was used. Serenity still thought that was a good reason to hand over the task of dealing with the Empire.
He still wasn’t certain how the Empire would see him. Yes, they had to know that he wasn’t human; he’d encountered Cymryn on Asihanya, after all, and that meant Cymryn had to know Serenity as a chimera. He remembered them as distinctly humanocentric.
Vengeance spent a lot of time in the Empire before the first time he died, but after he rose and regained his awareness, the Empire wasn’t a good place for an undead that wasn’t effectively controlled by a human. It might well have been worse that he was once human. Serenity couldn’t tell if the issues he’d had then were anti-nonhuman or anti-undead sentiment. It could have been either or both.
Serenity chuckled at himself as he drew close to the parking lot that held the portal node. It was obvious Blaze had been planning; it was midafternoon, which put it between normal delve start times and there were few cars in the lot. There was a good chance that none of the delvers would see the offworlders. Even if they did, a group sitting at the outside benches on a nice afternoon wasn’t that unusual.
He liked the way it felt, since he often had to keep his wings held tight against his body, but he had no idea what he looked like as he came across the short grass grinning as he rode a demon with his wings half-spread behind him. For the only man present who knew the ancient myths for the Suras people, Serenity looked like he’d stepped directly out of a tale.
Serenity swung around the parking lot to approach from the grass. Minu could walk on pavement but she didn’t really like it. Once he was within a comfortable distance, a little farther than speaking distance, he vaulted off Minu, then patted her on the flank. “I’m sorry I don’t have time to groom you today.”
Minu headbutted Serenity. He knew that meant she wasn’t happy about it but was going to pretend she didn’t care. Minu was definitely a cat sometimes.
Serenity grinned at Minu’s antics. The fact that she could understand what he said, even if she couldn’t speak back, made things interesting sometimes. He was certain that if she could talk, she’d be saying something about food, but maybe he was just thinking of Curio. “Okay then, have a good time.”
As she ran off, Serenity turned to face the more worrying part of the afternoon: visitors he didn’t know. There were four strangers sitting at the tables.
Lord Cymryn stood; he was a little shorter than Serenity but close enough that it wasn’t particularly notable. Serenity would probably have recognized him even if he hadn’t known the man was coming, because he looked a lot like the first time they’d met. He was, if anything, a little more tanned than the previous time they’d met, but his light brown hair didn’t seem particularly lighter in color. It was gathered into a loose braid that hung over his shoulder on top of his deep green robe. The robe was tied at the waist by a belt that openly carried a sword. He gave a polite smile before he spoke, “Serenity. Thank you for welcoming us to your world.”
Serenity smiled back. He couldn’t quite bring himself to feel welcoming, though he knew he should. This time, he wasn’t trying to hide anything, at least not anything large. They weren’t opponents pretending to be friendly; instead, they were representatives of two very different cultures feeling each other out. It made sense when Blaze explained it, but Serenity still wasn’t quite comfortable with it. He’d do his best anyway and be grateful that Blaze knew enough to help at the strategic level. “Earth is an interesting world; anyone who wants to deal with it should see it first.”
Serenity’s eyes moved to the other three. Two wore armor that might as well have been a uniform. It wasn’t the clamshell armor of the Imperial elites, but the well-crafted metal armor of the Imperial Army was still instantly recognizable. They both felt like they were roughly Tier Three and projecting their auras as a sign of strength. Serenity figured that they were probably unimportant, though they would almost certainly report anything they saw when they got back to the Empire.
The last man was the only one who was still seated. He was human, at least mostly, but something about his thin face seemed familiar. The fact that he had horns only intensified the feeling of familiarity. Serenity tried not to frown as he looked at the man who had to be World Shaman Senkovar Et’Tart. That was the one secret he still intended to keep; after all, his great-grandfather ran from the Et’Tarts in fear for his life due to a competition of some sort over family leadership. Serenity doubted it was still relevant but definitely didn’t want to find out the hard way that his heritage might buy him enemies. He was currently enemy-free and wanted to stay that way.
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“I can’t speak for the world yet, but this area definitely seems unusual,” the World Shaman agreed softly. “As do you, but that is a matter for another time. I am World Shaman Senkovar and I greet both you and your world. Earth, I believe it is called?”
Serenity nodded. He felt like he’d just missed something there, but there wasn’t much he could do about it. If there was a ritual greeting he was supposed to give, he didn’t know what it was. Of course, that wasn’t really his fault, either, was it? This was his planet; they should either follow his traditions or tell him what theirs were.
Serenity ran down the list of things Blaze had mentioned. He knew it wasn’t really necessary, since he knew what to do, but it helped keep him focused. “Would you prefer to see your rooms first or some of the nearby areas?”
“Rooms, I think,” Cymryn answered for the group. “Can you tell us something about your world? What makes it so unique?”
Serenity smiled, then turned to head towards the building Aki had put together once they decided to invite the Imperial contingent. It seemed wise to keep them close and Aki could watch them if they were inside the dungeon. Having Aki create the rooms also meant that they could be built to a hybrid of Earth and offworld standards, which would make them familiar but just strange enough to get the Imperials’ interest.
Serenity suspected they’d overshot a little on the strangeness. The Imperials would have no idea what to think of any of the electronics, after all. The bathrooms would simply seem unusual; while most used magic at the point of use, there were places that would handle things like heating water in a central location and then pipe it to where it was needed.
“Well, the first thing to know is that Earth has somewhere around nine billion people. The area we’re in now-”
“Emperor’s balls,” one of the two guards interrupted Serenity.
Serenity stopped and turned to look at the guard, who glared back at him defiantly. “What? You’re clearly lying. That’s a third the size of the Empire, and the Empire has almost fifty planets. You’re just trying to puff up your importance, like any subhuman.”
Serenity blinked, then laughed. “If there’s one thing I need to worry about, it’s not feelings of inadequacy.”
He debated for a moment, then shrugged internally. If the idiot said something like that in the Empire in front of someone more powerful than him, he’d expect to be crushed. It wasn’t quite might makes right, but it was close. Serenity clearly needed to be more intimidating.
Serenity relaxed his tight hold on his aura. It was not an easy thing to extend it to cover only one person and miss the people next to him, especially when they were slightly closer to Serenity than the guard was, but it was possible. He didn’t even try to push; he simply let his aura overlap the outspoken guard. As the man turned white, Serenity reinforced his action with a few words. “I don’t mind someone who’s blunt, but I do mind someone who is willfully ignorant calling me a liar. Next time, make sure you’re correct and not just proud.”
Serenity pulled his aura back to himself once he was certain his point had been made: if the guard tried to fight Serenity, he’d lose before he even had a chance.
The other guard seemed a little confused, but neither Lord Cymryn nor the World Shaman seemed bothered by Serenity’s scolding of the guard. While the World Shaman’s expression was still serene, Cymryn actually had a smile on his face. In the rear, Blaze nodded encouragingly. He must have kept it to a reasonable level; good enough.
Serenity led the way again. “Other than its large population, Earth is unusual in several ways. I probably don’t know all of them; this is home to me, so I don’t notice everything. One thing that stands out is that magic wasn’t commonly known until the Voice came four years ago.”
Serenity half expected to hear the same guard scoff at that, but he must have learned his lesson. “That’s not because it didn’t exist but because it was weak and kept secret. Earth was a Tier Zero planet four years ago.”
“This is definitely not Tier Zero,” World Shaman Senkovar Et’Tart commented. “Two Tiers in that time would be fast, but even in a high magic zone, this area feels higher than Tier Two.”
That was definitely the polite way to say the same sort of disbelief as the guard. Serenity grinned at that; stated the way the World Shaman had, he wasn’t bothered by it. “Earth is a Tier Five planet right now. She was once higher, but the World Core was damaged and her Tier fell. The Voice has helped her recover, as has the population.”
He frowned momentarily; he’d made some guesses over the years that weren’t very happy. The Voice definitely seemed to want to help Gaia recover, but it was obvious that it had avoided Earth even though it had to know where it was. That was probably due to the damage that dated all the way back to the original event, what Serenity assumed was the Voice’s birth. He could only guess that the Voice waited as long as it could to try to give Gaia a chance to heal.
At one point, he’d thought that the Voice’s return might have been what finally killed the planet, perhaps as Gaia attempted to advance a Tier. That seemed unlikely now, as the planet was past any Tier that Earth could possibly have reached in the original timeline. Vengeance would have known if Earth was Tier Five.
Tier Two or Three in the original timeline was possible; Tier Five wasn’t. There would have been too many issues with wildlife Tiering up quickly and going mad. That was already starting to be a problem in some areas and Serenity expected that it would get worse for a while before it started getting better. People would have some of the same issues as well, though as long as they stayed to the Paths, they’d be in better shape. The Voice would limit their growth to a safe level, a benefit that ordinary animals didn’t have.