In a way, Lex was actually grateful for the timing of the latest worldwide earthquake. Yes, it left him unable to head to the island he now called the Appearing Island for weeks, but it also meant that when he was finally able to go, his wife would be able to travel with him. In fact, she was already available and the repairs weren’t yet complete on the helicopter; apparently, being knocked around in an earthquake meant certain large parts had to be replaced.

While he could have found another company, Lex wasn’t in that much of a hurry. The equipment in the area that wasn’t damaged spent the first week or so helping with the local rescue effort; Lex wasn’t about to interfere with that. He could have brought in equipment from the mainland, which was far less affected, but he was already bacon in Arlington by the time he knew that would be necessary and it seemed better to wait.

While he was gone, Bethany finally completed the sale of their Arlington home.

It all reminded Lex of his past, with his wife managing the home front while he pursued his own duties. In other ways, it reminded him of all the problems that past caused. This time, he was able to help her complete the move and even “help” her select the motor home they’d moved into. Unpacking everything that wasn’t going in the motor home into Rissa’s house, then clearing out Thomas’s apartment for him brought home just how much of a pain it must have been for Bethany to repeatedly move their household without his help.

Lex was grateful that increasing his Tier seemed to make him feel a little younger; it wasn’t as dramatic as it was for Thomas, but a decade younger was still very noticeable. From what his son said, Lex suspected that the biggest remaining gains wouldn’t be from Tiers or attributes but from improved healing; unfortunately, there weren’t yet any Earth-based healers that could reverse old injuries or the aches and pains of old age yet. Since Thomas said it was possible, Lex expected to start seeing it some time soon; there were a huge number of older people on Earth, after all.

The messages back and forth with Thomas were what led to Lex and Bethany following a set of directions that led into the Pelham Bay Park. It wasn’t as easy as Serenity’s message made it seem, but once they reached the end of the deserted paved road, Bethany hopped out of the mobile home and talked to the air for a few minutes. When Lex looked back at the road, he saw that it continued forward, into an underground structure made of stone rather than concrete.

They parked and followed a lit walkway up into a clearing that was surrounded by hills, each with a door on its side. Once they emerged from the underground garage, the pathway became a sort of densely packed sand; it was easy to walk on while it was dry, but Lex worried that it might turn to mud when it rained. He scuffed at the ground with his shoe. “What is this made of? I’ve never seen anything quite like it.”

“It’s called dungeon path (sand). I suspect it’s intended to make walking and fighting in sandy areas easier, but I liked the effect for this pathway. Why don’t you come inside? I’ve been looking forward to meeting you in person.” There was no person associated with the voice, but Lex glanced around and found a speaker set inconspicuously in the door of one of the mounds that seemed like the source of the voice. As he watched, the door swung open, inviting them inside.

Message from Serenity to Alexander “Lex” Rothmer

Hey, Dad -

First of all, good news. Tirmanak finally replied! Jenna’s fine; he repeated that several times. He’s on his way here with her because “someone on Order’s Council” told him to “Get that child to her parents. Quickly. Take her yourself, she’s your responsibility and anyway you’ll be needed when you get there.”

He says he doesn’t know who it was and won’t speculate other than to say that he thinks the person knows me. Since I don’t know who’s on that Council, it doesn’t help at all. I had Legion check the Library, but there’s very little on Order’s Guild and nothing at all on anything called Order’s Council. Honoria asked the Broken Mirror, but all it would tell her is that I need to ask in person, so I’ll do that when I get back.

As for why he didn’t reply for so long … apparently he took a spaceship instead of a portal, and there are no Nodes in space. That last part is true, and there are a lot of routes where space travel is faster than trying to find the right connections on a planet, but it’s exceedingly expensive and hard to find. I didn’t even try because we wouldn’t have been able to find a ship large enough for Legion.

I’m not sure what I think about that other than that you’re right - I shouldn’t have left her with Tirmanak. Rissa didn’t want to stay behind again, so we should have detoured by Earth and dropped her off with you and Mom. I hope we’d still have gotten to the Library in time; it’s hard to tell since we wouldn’t be here yet and things were starting to fall apart when we arrived. Maybe a better plan would have been for me to head here and Rissa to head to Earth to drop Jenna off?

Or maybe I could have portaled to Earth, dropped Jenna off with you, then found a ship to get from one of the planets with a direct portal link to Earth to Asihanya? That didn’t occur to me as an option since we couldn’t all go. It would have the added risk of taking longer to get from Earth to Asihanya if I didn’t find a ship, but it would have been faster if I did. There are a couple of ways I could have split us up so that a group could travel with Legion.

Yeah, that would probably have been the best choice. I could have told Raz to come back and meet us so we could travel together, too.

I hate decisions like this. I want to keep Jenna with me but I know it’s not safe. Now I understand why Mom and I always had to stay behind.

Anyway! On to your questions.

First, the Well of Souls. The only material Legion was able to find in the Library was in legends and stories. Naturally, it contradicts itself. The Broken Mirror was willing to talk to Honoria about it; he even had one use for the term that we didn’t see in the stories in the main Library.

Most of the stories we were able to find don’t sound like anything that could be what you’re looking for. The most common use of the term is for ‘the Well the gods draw the souls from when a child is born.’ I’m pretty sure that’s a literary convention rather than anything real.

There is one I want to warn you about. There’s an entire epic about an evil Well of Souls in the Library; it doesn't get into how or why it was created, but I’m pretty sure it was an imitation of the common myth. It’s shaped like a pyramid, but at the top there is a “Well” that heads down “into the depths”. I suspect it only goes to the bottom of the pyramid rather than deep into the planet, but it can be read either way.

The evil Well is described as a “place of Demons, the darkest Spirits who cheat their rightful Demise and steal lives” . There are a few ways to read that, obviously, but from the context of the rest of the epic I’m pretty sure it’s talking about possession. The epic itself is a massive Quest to enter the “blasted lands,” find the evil Well, and dismantle it, “leaving no stone that once formed the Well to touch another lest its power return”. The people in the story succeed, but they aren’t the first expedition and they lose some people to the Spirits of the Well on the way by, in addition to the dangers they face to get there.

So be careful if the Well you find is on top of a pyramid.

I also have good news in the form of the information from the Broken Mirror; it definitely sounds like it might be what you’re looking for. It’s a paired artifact that has to be constructed to serve as a Well. You jump in the Well on one side, it takes your soul and sends it to the matching Well, then rebuilds your body on the other side. It reminds me of Star Trek transporters, sort of, but far more limited.

Unfortunately, there isn’t a description of this Well; it’s like they expected everyone who read the records to already know what it looked like. The fact that you actually jump in to travel tells me there’s an opening, but I can’t guarantee that it isn’t a pyramid with a circular hole in the middle.

The Broken Mirror added that it ‘tended to damage the future growth’ of anyone who went through it if they used it too often; that was apparently one of the reasons it was in this repository. From what he says, the damage was because the movement was powered by the soul using it. The damage depends on a bunch of factors, but the biggest is that you have to completely recover from each use before you use it again or the damage becomes permanent. It feels like we’re talking different languages on what the damage is; the Broken Mirror keeps talking about cycling modes and stress fractures due to overdraw on the soul, but can’t explain how it damages a soul in terms I understand.

I think this might be what you’re looking for. There was a project at the time of the destruction of the main Repository of Secrets that aimed to improve the Well of Souls transport method and allow more than two points to be connected. They were apparently trying to reach the point where you could enter at any location and exit at any other location, but so far had only managed to get to being able to enter at any of the connected Wells and exit at a single master Well. The other direction was random and couldn’t be directed. If the one you’re looking for is the master Well, it would make sense as a way to get to Earth.

That’s the best information I’ve been able to find on the Well of Souls.

It’s good to hear that you’re moving. I know Mom didn’t want to stay in the DC area when she retired.

Rissa says you can store what you need to at her place. You’ll have to get with her Dad for keys, but Russ said he was going to be in your area next week. He didn’t say why, other than that it was about the Solomon vases. I think he doesn’t want to talk about them until I’m back on Earth.

While you’re there, can you clear out my apartment? I should have taken care of that a while back but somehow it never happened. Russ has the key to it as well; I think he’s used it a few times when it was more convenient and he was in town.

If you want, you can take the Winnebago up to Aki’s and get Rissa’s car to use around the City; Aki installed some hidden parking a few months ago and it’d probably be good for her car to be driven a bit. Go into Pelham Bay Park from the south and head to the golf course; there’s a parking lot right there. You should see a road out of the parking lot that isn’t on the map; it’s not blocked off, but it doesn’t apparently lead anywhere. I’ll pass on your license plate to Aki; that way, she’ll know to let you into the underground garage.

She’s lonely, even if she won’t admit it. Please see if she’ll talk to you.

Love you!

Thomas / Serenity

Lillene

Serenity probably ought to leave one of himself at the Library to do research. The thing is, he can only concentrate on it when he isn’t doing anything anywhere else, so it wouldn’t be as useful as it sounds - especially when he’s in a ley line and can just teleport back. When he’s off planet, however, it would be useful as long as he doesn’t need to do something like the sets of armor he used as disguises for Blaze, Daryl, and Gabriel.

On the other hand, it might be better to just leave part of Legion behind…