The next morning, Serenity walked out of his tent and found his mother actively playing with her phone. She’d never really been one for idle games, so it had to be something else.

It was clear she either hadn’t had breakfast yet or had already cleaned up the dishes; since he didn’t see anyone else, he guessed they probably weren’t up yet. There were only two place settings on the table; that was different from last night.

He sat down across the table from her, figuring he’d wait until she was done.

Bethany looked up at him a moment after he sat down. “Serenity, you have to see this. Here.” She passed her phone over to him. It was zoomed in on a map of some sort, the type that showed on Google Maps if you turned on the satellite view.

It wasn’t hard to make the connection. There was only one place his mother would really want to look at. “Is that A’Atla?”

Serenity’s eyes flicked up to the top right of the phone’s screen. It said 10:13. That couldn’t be right; it was just after 7 AM. The :13 part was correct, though, so what was going on?

It hit him almost immediately. He hadn’t adjusted for time zones. Serenity felt like a fool; he was still on Eastern time since that was the time zone of the last cell tower he’d synced with. His mother’s phone was probably on the correct time zone for the middle of the Atlantic.

When were the Coast Guard sailors supposed to arrive? He remembered that they’d said “morning,” but he didn’t think they’d set a time. “Have the Coast Guard shown up?”

Bethany chuckled. “Not yet, and yes it is. I spoke with their captain an hour ago; they should be here soon, with breakfast. They left the ship recently, but it takes a while to get to the entrance we used yesterday. I’m not expecting the breakfast to be all that good, but there will be coffee. It’ll probably be strong enough to eat the spoon, but it’ll definitely have caffeine.”

Serenity realized he wasn’t looking forward to coffee. It didn’t really do anything for him anymore; part of that was the fact that he was Tier Eight, but more of it was his Resistances. At least, that was the normal reason. Serenity couldn’t be certain it was the only one, given his strange physiology. Did coffee normally affect dragons?

Probably, but what about essence dragons? Or was it the fact that he was also a Sovereign of Potential?

His eyes fell back on the table. The fact that there were only two place settings suddenly took on more meaning. “You want Blaze and me to hide again, don’t you?”

“Either that or go out exploring,” Serenity’s mother agreed. “I’m sure you’ll insist on armor again; that’s fine. Your tent can stay here as well. I don’t know what they’ll assume, but there’s a good chance they won’t think about it. Better to have it just be here and be accepted than have someone catch it here when it hasn’t been here. I was going to wake you soon, but since you’re up I’ll let you wake Blaze.”

That wasn’t an issue; Blaze was easy to wake up. What was an issue was that he wanted to spend time examining the new satellite images and comparing them to the limited detail of the layouts from the ship. He hoped that would give him a clue to one of the two locations the Voice had specifically pointed him at. There simply wasn’t time for that, not if the Coast Guard was already on their way.

He and Blaze could slip out the same entrance by using a different route through the interior if they wanted to. That was probably how Bethany planned to handle things, in fact. That gave him a little extra time, but not that much.

Serenity moved out of the app his mother had open and pulled up the settings. If he could tether the phone - there. He could pull down the same information himself if Aide couldn’t just pull it out of the phone’s memory. Aide probably could do that, actually, now that he had a connection to the phone.

Are you certain I can’t absorb this piece of technology?

Serenity chuckled. Aide was really unhappy that he hadn’t gotten the technological treats he’d expected when they got back to Earth. There were a lot of packages waiting in Aki’s dungeon for them; Rissa had actually complained about how much space they took up. Serenity thought that was probably a joke, but it was hard to be sure sometimes.

I’m afraid not. You know what we have waiting for us when we get back home, don’t you?

Yes.

Was Aide sulking? That wasn’t exactly common.

At least you got me some interesting data.

Oh, not sulking. Aide was teasing Serenity! Wasn’t he?

Come to think of it, there was something Serenity could promise that would help, now that he knew where they were. If we’re going to be here for a while, I’ll try to have some of it sent to us. We’re probably too far away for Ita’s portals, but we can find out this evening. I’m sure there will be a lot of stuff shipped in over the next few weeks, too; I’m sure we can add some things for you.

Aide’s response was quick. Thank you. I will look for opportunities as they arise.

Serenity headed into the tent to wake Blaze.

By the time Serenity and Blaze were finally outside, Aide had finished going over the maps. He’d even managed to get elevation data from somewhere, but it wasn’t the highest peak that had Serenity’s attention. Instead, the one Serenity wanted to visit first was a hill that wasn’t there in the maps inside A’Atla’s records yet clearly showed on the new satellite images despite all the mud. It probably wasn’t technically a mountain, but it was definitely tall enough to be noticed. It was taller than many of the other hills that were noted in A’Atla’s records.

At first, Blaze tried to walk on his own, but the heavy mud changed his mind quickly. They found a piece of rubble that was about the right height and he climbed onto Serenity’s back. It was a good thing Serenity had decided to spend the day in his human form in case they ran into anyone; carrying Blaze piggyback would not have been at all comfortable with wings. Neither of them was happy about it, but it was a lot faster.

There was nothing obvious about the mountain when they got there; it just looked like a tall, mud-covered hill. Serenity guessed that whatever he was looking for would be obvious only at the peak, since that was where the Voice directed him. He started up the mountain, picking out the best route he could find.

It wasn’t a good route. The mountain was clearly rough, almost jagged, under the mud. The footwraps’ enchantment kept Serenity in the air, but it couldn’t cope with the spots where the ground rose four feet within a foot of forward movement. Those spots were probably even steeper under the mud. Serenity was usually able to find a way around, but on several occasions he had to descend quite a bit and try another route up.

They were about halfway up the probably-not-a-mountain when they found a section that there just didn’t seem to be a good way past with just the footwraps. It wasn’t that tall, but there wasn’t a way around. Serenity debated summoning something he could use as a ladder before deciding that was silly. He could easily get over it if he was willing to get muddy and that wouldn’t cost any mana at all.

He dropped himself into the mud and was surprised; it was far drier than it had been when they started the day. He only sank about three feet into it, even with Blaze still on his back. Maybe it just had a better way for the water to drain?

Serenity brushed off the thought and pulled himself and Blaze up over the obstacle. It was a significant lift and the ground was oddly sharp at the edges; there must be rock under all the mud. That was fine; it made things a bit less comfortable but it wasn’t sharp enough to actually be a problem. He might pick up some scrapes and small cuts but that was all; they’d heal effectively immediately.

Blaze tightened his grip when he realized Serenity was climbing over the obstruction. “You can let me down for stuff like this. I can climb for myself.”

Serenity shrugged. “No need.”

Serenity couldn’t have heard Blaze’s next words right. They sounded a lot like “Tier Eight Strength-focused idiot.”

That was enough to make Serenity pause. “Do you actually want me to let you down?”

Blaze sighed audibly. “Not right now, but the next time you have to go over something like that. Or if we get to a flatter section that’s as dry as this one.”

Serenity wouldn’t want to walk through three-inch-deep mud, but if that was what Blaze wanted he’d let him down.

There were only two other times where they had to climb before they reached the peak. There really weren’t any flat sections, so other than those two climbs, Blaze stayed on Serenity’s back until they were about twenty feet below the peak.

Below the peak Serenity had chosen, at least. There were several different peaks that seemed to belong to this almost-mountain, but one was higher than the others.

The peak was not a point; it was more like a long ridge that had broken off on one side, then been broken again to sort of round off the corner. The sides were the same nearly-flat surfaces that created the sections that were difficult to get over, but this one was taller. There was one other large difference between it and the areas below: there wasn’t anything higher than it where more mud could come from. It was mud-stained but not really mud-covered.

This made a huge difference when Serenity passed into what he expected would be the shadow of the peak as he looked for a way up.

Suddenly, the world lit up. It energized his mystical senses at the same time the light level increased slightly and Serenity froze in surprise, then turned towards the peak. The Sun shone through the muddy crystal and something clicked for Serenity. It wasn’t green like Lyka and Aeon or shadowed like Tzintkra; in fact, he couldn’t make out what color it was at all, but this was something he’d seen before. This was a World Core crystal.

A mountain of World Core crystal. It was far larger than Aeon, even larger than Lyka’s actual core, yet it was simply extra crystal. Serenity suspected it was larger than Gaia’s actual core; he didn’t know exactly how big that was since he hadn’t been there in the flesh, but he suspected it was only about ten to fifteen feet long in its longest dimension. That was larger than Aeon’s core, but not by all that much, and far smaller than Lyka’s.

This wasn’t Gaia’s World Core crystal. There was no sense of her from it at all. In fact, there was no sense of any consciousness at all. Other than that, it felt exactly like each of the bits of World Core he’d come into contact with, the bits of World Core he’d eaten. It was a very distinctive sensation.

It made him feel hungry, but he could resist it. He’d had practice.

If it were another magical material, perhaps he’d have given in. World Core crystal, however, was precious. Especially Gaia’s. Lyka hadn’t wanted the bits that were chipped off of it back and neither had Tzintkra, but Serenity couldn’t help but wonder if he could do something with it.

Specifically, could he help Gaia heal and grow faster somehow?

Lillene

There hasn’t been a good place to insert this in the story, but for anyone wondering how Bethany’s sat phone still has power … she has a solar charger for it. Since the point is to have a phone where there may not otherwise be access, power is an important thing to have available as well.

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I don't usually talk about it, but I really appreciate the thanks, cookies, and comments (including the ones that point out mistakes - goodness knows I can make them!). They're a lot of what makes writing a story like this worthwhile :-)