There was no talking as they climbed into the flyer and flew back to the Lowpeak house. Andarit started to say something, but her father asked her to wait.

Serenity tried to relax, but that just made the lingering pain more obvious. It was strange; his body didn’t seem badly hurt, but his head, hands, and feet burned. His armor-self stung a bit as well, but it seemed to be healing quickly. It was fairly obvious that his armor-self had protected the human-self it covered, but in that case why was it healing faster?

It took several minutes before Serenity realized the obvious: his healing skill wasn’t exactly a healing skill anymore, it was a shapeshifting skill. More than that, he’d locked his human-self into place with Honoria’s help to prevent losing the disguise.

The healing did seem to still work, but it was far slower than he’d grown used to. He’d have to be aware of that whenever he locked a form in place. Unfortunately, the reasoning he’d run through before still made sense; looking different now that he’d been seen was a good way to get himself in trouble. Locking himself into his dhampir-bloodline human form seemed like the best option.

On the other hand, he wasn’t actually certain how long the lock would last; it’d already held for a month. He’d need to go back to Honoria to get more and take her the materials; he could only do that while the Tutorial was still ongoing, so he should go ahead and do that once he was alone. That would also let him shift into his more comfortable chimera form, as well as improve his healing back to normal.

It would take some time to gather the material she needed, but if he worked at it he could get a lot prepared over the course of a night or two. The repeated shifting was tiring, but it seemed like a good idea to have some on hand just in case, since he didn’t know how quickly she’d be coming to Earth after the Tutorial, or if he’d be on Earth to meet her. At some point he’d have to find her or find someone else who could do the same thing, but preparation would give him time for that.

That meant he could shift and heal once he went to “bed” for the night. He could sleep in the Tutorial, after all. Serenity looked forward to that; he ached.

“Why is the magic level still high?” Andarit looked around, puzzled, as they arrived at the house’s door. “It’s usually back to normal before we get here.”

The Duke shook his head at her and ushered them all inside. Once the door closed behind them, he answered. “If you watch the gradient, it’s higher near Serenity. This seems to be why Sensitives don’t like the Palace. Serenity’s a Sensitive and he appears to have been injured by the increased mana level.” The Duke shook his head. “Which means it’s not as positive as we thought. I don’t understand why anyone would put in a mana-densification enchantment that would bother Sensitives; you’d need Sensitives to make it.”

“I’m leaking mana?” Serenity hadn’t realized that. He checked, and the Duke was correct; he was indeed leaking mana. It seemed to be drifting away from the areas that still felt injured. Serenity sighed. Apparently even when he tried to seem normal, he failed badly. “As for the enchantment on the Palace, it wasn’t intended to raise the mana level. The runes I saw were generally protective, but they were damaged. Time and lack of repair, probably. If no one knows what they did or how to fix them…”

“Is that what you were talking to the Prince about?”

Serenity turned towards Andarit, surprised. “Yes, it was. You were dancing then, I didn’t realize you’d noticed.”

Andarit shrugged, but she had a wide grin on her face. “Irval was unbearably smug. He’s convinced that since his elder brother was sent away, he inherits the betrothal. I had to pay attention to something else or he was going to find out just how I feel about that again, and after last time …”

The Duke was already shaking his head as he stared at the floor. “I’ll talk to the Sect Leader again. Blue Flame is a strong Court, but they broke the betrothal, not you.”

Serenity frowned and decided to find out just what was going on there. “Are they a Court or a Sect? What’s the difference?”

“They’re both,” the Duke answered. “They’re a Sect because they follow a different set of gods than those common here. I’m not even certain they follow the gods at all; they refuse to talk about their beliefs with outsiders. They’re a Court because of their power; Courts are organizations in the capitol as powerful as a noble House that aren’t nobility. The rules are different, but they have certain rights that the less powerful don’t. If you’re talking about them as an organization, they’re the Blue Flame Sect. If you’re talking about them as a group with other Courts or about their powers in Zenith, they’re a Court.”

Serenity blinked. That wasn’t confusing at all. Not that human organizations were ever simple. “What rights?”

“We’d be here all night,” Andarit interrupted. “Don’t get Father started. I’m ready for bed; where are you going to be staying? Or do you need healing?”

“I’ll heal in time,” Serenity answered. She was less energetic than Echo, but something about Andarit reminded Serenity of the cheerful girl who never let anything stop her. “I should be healed by morning. As for where I’m staying, I have the feeling your father is going to assign me a room near yours.”

“Good guess,” Kalo rumbled.

Shifting out of the ‘locked’ form took the same effort it always had, more than a normal shift but not an incredibly high amount. It was far more of a relief than normal, however. Serenity only realized just how bad the pain was when it stopped.

He also wasn’t leaking mana anymore. It made him wonder if that was going to be a thing going forward; he did have a significant connection to magic, after all. He was an Essence Dragon, and the Dhampir heritage in particular was connected to both essence and mana. It was something to watch, but not something he could do much about. At least leaking mana was probably better than leaking blood.

Collecting different jars of heritage-tainted Potential took some time, but Serenity only had so many empty jars. Even so, filling them took most of the night. As expected, he was able to enter the Tutorial from Zon, and leaving the Tutorial put him right back where he entered.

Honoria was happy to learn he’d found the person he was looking for and muttered something about “thinking that Arkandaeon was too proud for his own good anyway, not that the other Mages are much different”. She was far less happy to learn that Serenity wanted her to make more of the shift-locking amulets and told him she would, but it would cost him some of the materials; she was especially interested in the Shards of Crystalline Hope, but also wanted some Drops of Mana. He gave her the one of each that he had in exchange for creating amulets from the rest of the potential he’d jarred plus a promise that he’d bring more Shards the next time he could.

There wasn’t time for more before the house started stirring, so Serenity simply performed a “normal” shift into his dhampir bloodline for the day. He wasn’t planning to hold the shift into the next day anyway.

That morning, Serenity realized that he didn’t have a good way to determine who was from Earth and who wasn’t. Sure, if they spoke English he could assume they were from Earth, but a large portion of the planet’s population didn’t.

Voice? Can you help me figure out which of the slaves are from Earth, if there are any?

[You do not require assistance]

Serenity had no idea what that meant, so he could only hope he’d figure it out.

Over breakfast, Serenity went over the most likely characteristics of an Earth native. There were no surprises until he got to the end. “Oh, I almost forgot. They’re very likely to have an awakened bloodline; they’re quite common on Earth.”

Andarit gave Serenity a hard look. “Seriously? Bloodlines are really rare, especially at this Tier. And you said the Earthlings are going to be Tier One? Next you’re going to be telling me you have a bloodline.”

Serenity failed to completely suppress his smile as he replied. “It’s true, I do.” He decided not to mention that he had several; that was getting too close to information he didn’t want to reveal. “It’s not that important - at least, not as important as you seem to think it is. A bloodline is useful, but it’s not going to climb the Tiers for you, and not having one won’t stop you.”

Andarit simply stared at Serenity before turning back to her breakfast. She’d clearly decided to ignore the whole bloodline thing.

From Kalo’s suppressed laughter during the discussion, Serenity suspected that Andarit probably had a bloodline she didn’t know about.

The first stop was fast; another merchant’s, trading three monster cores for kopeks. The price was slightly higher, but unlike the first merchant this one told them that she wouldn’t accept any more for at least a week.

The slave market Andarit knew of was several blocks past Djen’s Hiring Hall, deftly avoiding the rest of the traffic. Serenity had the feeling that she was flying more recklessly than usual.

The feeling was probably because she didn’t stop swearing until right before they arrived.

It was blatantly obvious that she liked their destination even less than Serenity did.

“You know the plan,” Serenity started. “You’re supposed to be the buyer. I’m your bodyguard.”

Andarit brought them to a halt a block from the market. “I know. I just have a hard time believing it’ll work. Why would I ever want slaves?”

Serenity hopped off the flyer. “People believe the worst of others easily. It won’t be that hard as long as you can manage to not look angry. Bored is fine. Interested would be better.”

She nodded, clearly disgruntled, but a moment later she looked calm and proud as she tapped the flyer to shrink it to a size that could be carried then led the rest of the way to the market. Serenity could only hope it would work.

They were met at the door by a well-dressed but clearly non-noble older man. He bowed shallowly as he gestured them inside. “Lady, lord. Have you been to All Shapes and Sizes before?”

Serenity suppressed a shudder at the cutesy name for a slave market.

Andarit shook her head. “I have not. Please tell me about your wares.”

The man nodded and began his spiel. “As the name says, we have all shapes and sizes available. Most are human, but we even import some others! We do take precautions so that the imports cannot spread once they are here; that is a minor service we offer for humans as well, but it is not required. We serve a wide range of needs, from the practical to the whimsical and everything in between. Both criminal and debt-slaves are available, as well as some foreign slaves that are under a permanent bond. Do you know what you’re looking for?”

Andarit frowned. She managed to make it look like she was thinking instead of uncomfortable, at least as far as Serenity could tell. “Human and near-human. Stronger bloodlines where possible, but not required. Not locals. Mage-type Paths would be preferable, and low Tier. The bond type isn’t relevant.”

Serenity tried not to react to Andarit’s recitation. It was what they’d agreed on before they left as the most likely set of characteristics of Earth-humans. Neither of them knew if they’d be counted as “imports”, but it seemed likely that “not locals” would work. From what Serenity could tell, the rate of obvious bloodlines was far lower on Zon than Earth.

Lillene

The world is never simple, is it? And people are even less simple.

They've missed at least one characteristic of Earth people that would make a good discriminator; is it obvious?