“It’s hard to test for, especially later on, since sensitivity often increases with practice,” Senkovar continued with a smile. “Childhood testing is normal, but during the Tutorial would be at least as useful. I wonder if there are any other Talents we’re missing?”

Serenity made a mental note to talk to Senkovar about future changes to the Tutorial; there definitely were other Talents they’d missed on Earth. Serenity knew he’d already triggered some changes to the Tutorial by demonstrating methods that worked better than what the Voice usually did and he wanted to be careful about how much was changed between runs; the last thing he wanted to do was lower the success rate. It was an open question if the Council proposed options or commanded the Voice; Serenity still wasn’t certain how much control they actually had. That would also be a good question.

Once his head didn’t hurt quite so much.

Serenity rubbed his temple. It didn’t really help, but at least it felt like he was doing something, however ineffective. “What do we need to do here? I remember you wanted to see how bad the damage was to get an idea of when the World Eater would be moving on?”

The thoughtful smile on Senkovar’s face disappeared, replaced by a frown he couldn’t suppress. “I did, but if you’re a Sensitive … I’m sorry, I should have realized. What exactly are you feeling from Themrys?”

The ship shook slightly and Senkovar had to grab Serenity’s chair to keep his balance. Serenity scolded himself; this could have waited until after they were on the ground. The shakes weren’t usually too bad on landing, and there was no bad weather to make things risky, but there was always the chance of turbulence and he hadn’t even thought to look for that.

“Pain,” Serenity admitted. “As if it were my own, even though I know it isn’t. There’s no specific source.”

Serenity rather wished there was a specific source; if there were, he could set himself to ignoring it. General nonspecific pain was actually harder to get used to.

“Can you tolerate it? More than that, can you tolerate it if we dive into it to find the source? I’ve never been able to figure out exactly what causes the problems, but if you can already feel it…” Senkovar trailed off. He was obviously hopeful but at the same time he seemed almost tentative, as if he thought it might be too much to ask.

“I’ve felt worse. If it’ll help, we should at least try. If we know what the damage is, we’ll know where to look when we get back to Eitchen.” Serenity didn’t think his words reassured Senkovar as much as he’d hoped.

They definitely didn’t reassure Blaze.

“World Shaman, please take this seat while we land,” Blaze offered. “I need to examine Serenity. If he’s admitting he’s in pain, there’s a decent chance he’s ignoring something he doesn’t think is worth mentioning.”

Serenity groaned. “I’m not that bad.”

“Yes,” Blaze disagreed as he replaced Senkovar next to Serenity, “You are. You often don’t realize how hurt you are. If you didn’t have the absolutely ridiculous natural healing that you do, you’d cripple yourself every time you go out for a ride on Minu.”

Serenity frowned at that. “I usually don’t get hurt when I go out for a ride.”

“That’s what I mean,” Blaze said mysteriously. “You don’t even realize it because you heal so quickly. Now relax and let me have a look.”

Serenity sighed and deliberately allowed Blaze past his shield. He was confident Blaze knew how to get past it as long as he didn’t push it to kill everything and he wasn’t about to do that to Blaze. He was also confident Blaze wouldn’t try; Blaze was pushy but at the same time respectful.

He also knew Serenity was a pushover, didn’t he? All he had to do was ask.

Serenity turned his attention to Senkovar. Blaze would tell him if there was anything he needed to know. For that matter, Blaze would tell him if everything was fine, too. “So what do we need to look for? Where should we start looking?”

Senkovar settled into Blaze’s seat and clicked the seat belt into place before he replied. In anyone else, Serenity might have called that stalling, but Senkovar didn’t make any secret of the fact that he was still thinking about his answer. “I’ve usually started with asking the World Spirit, but none of them can locate it. Most of them can’t define it as anything more than wrongness without a location.”

Most of them? Serenity frowned at that. He’d gotten the impression that Lord Cymryn and World Shaman Senkovar had only been traveling together for about a year when they got to Earth. How many planets could they possibly have examined in that time, especially without the aid of a spaceship? “How long have you been looking into this?”

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Senkovar’s head tilted slightly to the side, as if acknowledging a point, but Serenity didn’t know what point he’d just scored. “Not that long, this time, but I’ve tried to figure them out on and off for most of my life. The World Eaters are strange; they’ll damage or destroy a dozen planets over half as many years, then disappear for decades. There are records of them going back to the Terror War. There aren’t any from before that, but so much was lost that it doesn’t really mean anything.”

Serenity blinked as the comment triggered a thought he should really have had earlier. :Aide, please send a message to Honoria and ask her to check the Library and the Broken Mirror for information on the World Eaters. Include the symptoms.:

:You don’t want to write it yourself?: Aide sounded surprised. It was a mild surprise, but it reminded Serenity that while Aide could sense and record everything Serenity saw, heard, or felt, Aide had never had his own body.

:I’m not sure I can concentrate well enough,: Serenity admitted. :I’ll review it before you send it.: Serenity knew it would be fine, but it would make both of them feel better if a message sent using Serenity’s name had at least been read by him.

“When we land, Lord Cymryn will arrange for us to be hosted in one of Themrys City’s private Node rooms. That should get us close enough to a nexus to perform an examination of the planet. I’ll start with my usual examination, but I want you to try to resolve where the pain’s coming from. If you find anything at all, interrupt me; what you’re searching for is far more likely to be what we need than what I’ll find from the same search I’ve tried dozens of times.” Senkovar looked at his feet for a moment then up at Serenity. I’f I’d realized you were a Sensitive, we’d have come here first. You probably don’t need the comparison from Eitchen and I could have accomplished the training here.”

Serenity was about to tell Senkovar that he wasn’t sure how well he’d work with his headache, not to mention the rest of the distracting pain, when it suddenly eased significantly. Serenity’s first thought was that they must have gone back into orbit for some reason, but even a glance at the screen ahead of him, much less the data he was still receiving through Aide from the Death’s Wings, told Serenity that they were closer to the planet than ever; in fact, he thought he could see the spaceport ahead of them. He certainly was seeing runways, so either there was an airport or Themrys was set up for conventional takeoff and landings as well as vertical ones.

“Are you feeling any better?” Blaze’s question explained a lot but raised another question at the same time.

“Yes, what did you do?” Serenity frowned up at his friend. “I can still feel the pain, but it’s distant and easier to bear.”

“There’s nothing wrong with you except for pain,” Blaze explained without actually clearing anything up for Serenity.

“Is that supposed to tell me something?” Serenity already knew there was nothing wrong with himself except for the pain, and that was coming from Themrys.

Blaze chuckled. He seemed quite a bit happier now that he’d examined Serenity. “Maybe not, but it definitely meant something to me. You’re feeling pain from outside as if it were your own, so you’re making it your own, which amplifies it and makes it feel even less distant. It’s not actual damage, so your healing isn’t able to do anything; in fact, if anything, it’s making the problem worse. All I did was soothe your nerves to stop the feedback.”

Serenity blinked. He couldn’t have just heard what he thought he heard. “I’m healing myself into having pain because my body thinks I’m supposed to be in pain because Themrys is in pain? Is that what you just said?”

Blaze chuckled again. “More or less, yes. I told you you need to get conscious control of your healing Skill; this is what happens when you don’t.”

“It’s not a proper Skill,” Serenity muttered. He’d told Blaze that too in the past. “But neither is mana control, I guess. I’ll get to it when I have time.”

“You need to make time for it,” Blaze insisted. “I’m not in a hurry to leave, but I won’t be around to teach you forever.”

Blaze left unstated the possibility that Serenity might be. They’d never talked about it, but the implication was obvious even to Serenity: Blaze had realized that Serenity wasn’t aging. Serenity couldn’t be certain if the healer knew he wasn’t aging at all or if he simply thought that Serenity was aging far slower, the way Senkovar seemed to have aged, but either way it was clear that Blaze knew Serenity would outlive him.

“Will that make it easier or harder to find where the planet is in pain?” Senkovar didn’t directly address either Serenity or Blaze; instead, he asked the air and seemed to wait for one of them to answer.

“Most likely easier,” Blaze immediately responded. “Planets and people aren’t built the same way, not even a rock-head like Serenity.”

“Hey!” Serenity objected reflexively before he realized that Blaze might well mean it as a pun, given the crystal that replaced his brain and most of his nerves.

Blaze winked at Serenity. Serenity wasn’t certain why; did it have something to do with the rock-head comment or was it because Blaze was defending him by asserting that removing the pain was better when he probably wasn’t completely certain? Serenity knew he wasn’t certain, though Blaze’s statement seemed like a reasonable guess.

Blaze turned to Senkovar. “Before you do anything, Serenity needs sleep. A full night’s rest; anything less is just asking for trouble.”

“He does?” Senkovar took a long look at Serenity. It wasn’t obvious what he was looking for, but he seemed to find whatever it was because he nodded towards Blaze. “I see. Do we need to leave the planet so the sleep can be pain-free?”

Blaze shook his head. “I can suppress the pain. It should already be minor enough that he’ll be able to sleep anyway.”

“Lord Cymryn will be pleased if I give him a little more time to work,” Senkovar started.

“Don’t I get a say in this?” Serenity interrupted.

Almost like it was planned, Rissa, Blaze, Ita, and even Senkovar replied in unison. “No.”