The 2316 Nobel Prize for Magic was awarded to Dr. Carol Ellerby for her work documenting the rise of the Dungeon Lord. The award was controversial as her work did not specify how someone managed to become one of the few demigods known by his portfolio rather than his identity. Most awards for Magic have been awarded for the understanding of new principles or techniques.

Despite her work proving that independent belief transmission chains originated on Earth, Ranar, Zon, and Tzintkra, Dr. Ellerby was able to show that the central figure, commonly known as the God of Dungeons or Dungeon Deity, had identical characteristics in all cases which were not altered by the belief transmission. The minor differences in emphasis are all completely explained by the differing cultures of the four origination points. Unfortunately, she was not able to explain how a non-demigod could arrange this, as there is no known way they could have appeared effectively simultaneously with different Prophets at each location without deific assistance.

The question of who the Dungeon Lord truly is will likely never be answered, as the few demigods that were willing to comment were unwilling to share his name or even to confirm his status when he took up the mantle of Dungeons.

Dr. Ellerby’s most controversial conclusion is that the Dungeon Lord has strong ties to Earth and may have even been an Earth native and not a demigod prior to his investiture as Dungeon Lord. While the belief transmission cannot be tracked earlier than Earth’s First Tutorial, it appears to have started on multiple planets within months of that time and that is clearly impossible for an Earth native. The only evidence provided by Dr. Ellerby is the well-known alliance between Tek, one of Earth’s most beloved demigods, and the Dungeon Lord…

• Excerpt from an anonymous Letter to the Editor that ran in several papers the day after the announcement of the 2316 Nobel Prize for Magic

Aaron and Denise both followed Serenity, as did the man who’d objected about Serenity talking to Evan.

It took a while to find Evan. Serenity checked Evan’s study first, then the room they’d spoken in. Serenity reached out to Ita to avoid searching the entire building; she directed him several rooms away from where he’d started. He should have checked with her first.

Blaze sat next to Evan and leaned back in his chair with his eyes closed. He was obviously healing Evan given the magic Serenity could see flow from Blaze’s hand into Evan’s side, but if Serenity hadn’t been able to see that, Serenity would have thought he was simply sleeping.

Serenity nodded to himself; Blaze was probably the reason Ita knew where Evan was.

There were a couple of other people in the room talking to Evan. Serenity didn’t recognize either of them, but they were dressed similarly to the people he’d seen in the fields the night before. “Serenity?” Evan looked over from the quiet discussion. “Do you need something?”

Serenity decided to bite the bullet and go for it; there were other people listening but most of them would have to make the choice as well. “I have somewhere I can send you all, but there are some choices you’ll have to make.”

“Somewhere on Earth?” Evan seemed surprised. “Some of us have other places we can go, but most of us are more than a couple generations on Lyka; we don’t have any outside contacts. I think a few have already found people they want to settle with.” He seemed to be looking at Aaron instead of Serenity as he said the last words.

Serenity shook his head. “I can send you to Earth, but if I do I can’t support you there and a lot of places on Earth aren’t very welcoming to outsiders. I don’t know how well traveling to Earth would work out. I can send you elsewhere too, but you will have to make your own way. The only place where I can really offer much support is Tzintkra.”

“Tzintkra?” Evan frowned. “Isn’t that the planet where everything and everyone tries to kill you so they can control your corpse?”

Serenity sighed. This was why necromancy had a bad reputation. One of these days he was going to have to figure out how to separate Death magic and necromancy in peoples’ minds.

It was probably impossible. They were related, after all.

“It’s a training planet. I won’t deny that there are necromancers, but really it’s a planet with two rival cities. The Necropolis is larger and holds most of the death mages and necromancers; living there requires some tolerance of death mana. The Shining Caverns is the safe city, the city where people who can’t tolerate the atmosphere of Tzintkra live. Very few death mages are permitted into the Shining Caverns, both because of the rivalry and to maintain the low levels of Death in the city.” Serenity stopped and watched Evan for a moment. He didn’t want to dump too much information at once.

A slight nod from Evan and two of the three unknowns at the table told Serenity he was good to move forward. “Recently, after an attack on the Shining Caverns, the City Lord of the Necropolis was overthrown. The new City Lord of the Necropolis reached an agreement with the City Lord of the Shining Caverns. The City Lord of the Shining Caverns is also the City Manager for the Necropolis, which makes him the Planetary Manager for Tzintkra. He’s found that there are a lot of problems in the Necropolis caused by the previous City Lord’s mismanagement and he’s also still dealing with fallout from the attack that triggered everything, so he’s happy to accept settlers.”

“The Necropolis?” One of the unknown people wrinkled his nose. “I don’t want to live among a lot of dead bodies.”

Serenity was sure he’d once had that problem, too. He wasn’t sure how to answer the concern; there were a lot of undead in the Necropolis, but Serenity knew he didn’t notice them the way others might. Maybe he could avoid the question. “The Planetary Manager is looking for some people to help deal with the issues, especially in the Necropolis, but most of those positions will require an oath to the Planetary Lord. Anyone who can’t handle the atmosphere in the Necropolis or who doesn’t want to swear an oath to someone they will rarely ever see can settle in the Shining Caverns. He’s the most interested in healers for the Caverns, but I’m sure almost anyone here can find work in the Caverns.”

Blaze opened his eyes and smiled. “You’ve skipped an important point, Serenity.”

Serenity blinked at his friend. What was he talking about? He was pretty sure he’d covered most of what Stojan Tasi wanted; he’d emphasized the oath a bit less, since he didn’t want to force people into it while he was rescuing them, but that was all. Well, he’d also decided that he didn’t really want people to settle in the Necropolis if they weren’t going to directly help; no one here had the sort of death-related Path that would be best for that city.

Blaze chuckled and looked at Evan. “He’d forgotten to mention that the new Planetary Lord of Tzintkra is right there. Serenity doesn’t like talking about his titles, but he’s the person you’d be wearing an oath to.”

He’d mentioned that, hadn’t he?

No, he guessed he hadn’t.

In the end, Serenity ended up traveling to the portal with most of the captured Earthlings that day, along with a handful of locals who wanted to try their luck on Earth. The rest of the locals and a few Earthlings who wanted to travel to a planet of Death (especially once they were assured that there were portal routes from Tzintkra to Earth, even if none of them were direct) stayed another day while they discussed options.

That evening, Serenity was in his portable tent when Blaze walked in. “Serenity? Can you come out here and help?”

“What do you need?” Serenity stood and followed Blaze out of the tent. Evan waites, seated sideways on a couch.

“The magic you did on Rube, I think you can use it to rebuild Evan’s wings. They’re not going to regrow naturally; I’ve repaired the remainder of the damage to his back, but actually regrowing wings is a project that would take months. It can’t be done all at once the way I do things.”

Serenity could see the hope in Blaze’s eyes. He looked over at Evan and realized that the former priest was carefully not looking at them, even though Blaze was actively talking about him; that meant it had to be deliberate. “Do you want me to try, Evan? Blaze should be able to fix anything I have issues with, but that doesn’t mean it will be simple or painless.”

Evan’s voice was rough. “I want my wings back. I’ll never be able to fly, but that was always unlikely. I-”

Evan stopped there, the rest of his words lost.

Serenity watched Evan for a moment, then looked at Blaze. He wanted to question Evan’s confidence that he’d never fly; that was like Serenity saying his chimera form wouldn’t fly. Certainly it wouldn’t be easy; the wings weren’t large enough to support his weight and his bones weren’t hollow like a bird’s, but that didn’t mean flight was impossible. It just took following the right Path. “Maybe not, but perhaps you still might. You’re still young enough to gain more Paths and perhaps one will lead to flight.”

Evan shook his head but didn’t reply.

Serenity sat behind Evan and set his hand on the man’s back. He knew what wings felt like; he felt them every time he shifted into one of his two winged forms. Evan’s body also knew what Evan’s wings were supposed to be like. Serenity simply had to interpret it.

Serenity used his magesight to look into Evan’s body, concentrating on his essence affinity. The physical structure of Evan’s shape would be revealed; Serenity was sure of that. He called on the knowledge of his own Form and found it perfectly preserved in memory; he’d never had a photographic memory, and this didn’t seem like Aide’s help, but either way it was easy to see the model and make it work.

He could also see Evan’s muscular structure easily. It nearly matched Serenity’s when he was in his chimera form; there were only so many ways to add wings to a bipedal humanoid, after all, and it was clear that even if there were several, they’d both used the same option.

What wasn’t clear was Evan’s own wings. They weren’t there and he couldn’t trace what wasn’t there with the tools he’d already used. On the other hand, the mana flows were strong enough that he could do something he’d mostly avoided and call on his Aspect. Aspects could break the rules; that was what they did.

Well, they broke the rules that people created for magic; they didn’t break the rules of magic itself. An Aspect meant you were so in tune with an Affinity that you could work with it instead of controlling it.

He’d never used his Aspect for Essence, but with everything that he’d learned about Essence it seemed likely that Evan’s essence, like his cells, carried the code Serenity needed to rebuild his wings.

Serenity sunk into a world of flows, where nothing was solid yet everything was. He had to use his understanding of mana and how it related to essence more than once, but he started piecing together a model for Evan’s wings. They weren’t like Serenity’s; they were wider and thinner, with an aspect more like an albatross’s wings. They were a completely different set of colors, as well; Evan’s wings had their colors set mostly by pigment, while Serenity’s wings’ colors were set largely by their microstructure.

Serenity took only a small detour to discover that the same microstructure actually affected both his hair and his scales.

When he refocused on Evan, he had a template in front of him. Without further thought, he opened a Rift to the Origin and pulled Potential from it, shaping it into the wings Evan should always have had, the wings that were taken from him unwillingly.

It was a long, timeless moment of Shaping followed by the warmth of a friend’s help as Blaze’s fiery mana settled around the wings and began his task of finding anything Serenity hadn’t done correctly.

Lillene

I didn’t expect Blaze to take this long to bring up Serenity’s magic, but I forgot just how reserved Blaze can be.