Lillene

Enjoy!

Food on the Death’s Wings was unlike the food in the settlement of the Eight. It was far more varied, with both more meal options and more spices. The food Serenity ate on Eitchen ran heavily towards stews with the spice provided by the vegetables of the stew itself, so Serenity picked something different for his first meal back on the ship: a highly spiced curry. 

Serenity still didn’t know where Rissa found the staff for the spaceship. He wasn’t about to question the results, either. It certainly helped that many of the ingredients on the Death’s Wings were Tier Two or Three and therefore contained additional mana, but that wasn’t all there was to it. Whoever the cook was, he was skilled enough that he could have run his own restaurant and likely done well. Serenity could only assume that he didn’t want to.

It was therefore more than a little annoying that Serenity was only halfway through his meal when Senkovar set his own tray down on the table next to Serenity. “Have you thought more about visiting Suratiz?”

Serenity shook his head. “My father would be interested. I’m not sure I am.”

“Not even to meet the rest of your relatives?” Senkovar actually sounded hopeful and that somehow hurt more than if he’d simply been scheming. “It’s not directly on the route to Themrys, but it’s not that far out of the way.”

Serenity set his fork down. It seemed like he wasn’t going to be able to concentrate on his meal. “Why? I know you think I’m related to Dalmoti, but even if he was my great-grandfather, that’s not exactly a close relationship and I don’t know any of them.”

“How distant it is doesn’t matter. You bear the blood of the Asura only distantly, and yet…” Senkovar waved at Serenity. Serenity knew he meant more than simply the features Serenity was currently showing; he meant Serenity’s full Asura shape. “Heritage means a great deal to us. You are Et’Tart; more than that, you are the direct line and have grown into Sovereignty. An Asura Sovereign? We have not seen that since we fled to Suratiz.”

Serenity shook his head and deliberately took a couple bites of his meal before he responded. The pause let him bite back the severity of the words he wanted to say. He couldn’t completely suppress his reaction but at least he could avoid lacing his reply with profanity. “That doesn’t make me want to go any more than it did the last time you brought it up. I’m not a symbol; I’m me. It doesn’t matter to me what Dalmoti was to the Et’Tarts; to me, Timothy Dale Rothmer was my great-grandfather. If I were looking to expand an empire, maybe it would matter, but I’m not. I’m out here to protect my world, my family, and my friends. When we finish dealing with the World Eaters, I want to go home and raise my daughter.”

A smile spread across Senkovar’s face, as though Serenity had said exactly what the old man wanted to hear. “Fair enough. Very well, then; when we are done with the World Eaters, would you like to come meet your distant family? I won’t hold you to more than that. I can show you a city truly designed for Suras.”

It was clear what the old man was up to, yet Serenity couldn’t say it didn’t work. He did kind of want to know the family he hadn’t even known existed. He also wanted to see Suratiz in its own right; from what little Senkovar had said about it, it didn’t sound like a human city. It certainly didn’t sound like an Imperial city; Imperials didn’t build assuming that people would fly between buildings, but the Suras did. That was another reason to want to visit; the Suras apparently had excellent personal flight enchantments. 

“I’ll think about it,” Serenity offered. He didn’t want to tell Senkovar he’d won, even though his ancestor probably already knew.

Senkovar nodded but seemed to know better than to push more. The rest of the meal passed in a companionable silence. It wasn’t until Serenity stood that Senkovar spoke again. “We’re headed to Themrys next, I assume?”

“That’s the plan,” Serenity agreed. “You said you wanted to evaluate its condition. We’re also going to see if we can find anything traveling from Themrys to Eitchen, in case that might be the World Eater.” He didn’t think they’d succeed, but it would certainly be a nice coincidence.

“Good.” Senkovar sighed. “If we do succeed, going home won’t be as easy as you think.”

Serenity frowned. “Why not?”

Senkovasr chuckled. “I’d expect anyone else to already know this. Lord Cymryn holds a Grand Imperial Warrant. Do you know what that means?”

Serenity shook his head. He was pretty confident he didn’t know what it meant. Vengeance did his best to stay away from Imperial politics and really only dealt with the Mercenaries’ Guild during the time he was in the Empire. By the time he was dealing with matters on a larger scale, he was the Final Reaper and far more concerned about how to defeat Imperial attacks than how their internal structure worked. “All I know is that he can get us almost anything we want on Themrys, since it’s an Imperial world.”

“An outpost,” Senkovar agreed, “but an Imperial world. Like Eitchen, there’s one city that dominates the planet. Unlike Eitchen, that’s not because it’s a port that allows transit between several areas that are otherwise mostly inaccessible; instead, it’s because it’s the Imperial Seat for the planet and a proper spaceport. There’s still not too much there; it’s only been in the Empire for a few hundred years and the world is barely Tier Four. It will be uncomfortable for me to visit, though from your reaction to Eitchen I think you will be fine.”

“My reaction to Eitchen?” Serenity frowned at Senkovar. “What do you mean?”

Senkovar shrugged. “Perhaps I should have said Eitchen’s reaction to you. Eitchen is only Tier Three, yet somehow the area near you felt less painful than that. As a World Shaman, I receive the same benefit from Worlds I am on good terms with; you seem to have that even before you speak with them. It’s an unusual way to deal with the issue, but no more unusual than everything else you do when you talk to a World. I assume it has something to do with the friendship you claim to multiple worlds; Eitchen must have seen it somehow and acted instinctively to assist you.”

Serenity didn’t have a better explanation than that, but he knew it wasn’t his Worlds’ Friend Title. He’d had issues on Earth from being too high of a Tier for the planet after he had the Title. They stopped later, after he visited A’Atla. Serenity had assumed it was a change in himself. He didn’t understand how it could be the planets supporting him more, but he had to admit that for all his knowledge, Worlds weren’t the Final Reaper’s specialty. Worlds didn’t attack him; people did.

More than that, he hadn’t really noticed Eitchen’s low Tier any more than he’d noticed the Tier of worlds they traveled through on the trip from Earth to Berinath. Admittedly, most of those worlds were at least somewhat higher in Tier; worlds on major routes tended to be higher Tier simply because those routes were easier for more people to travel along. Font was a low-Tier sector, but even so they were unlikely to be below Tier Four and could be quite a bit higher. At Tier Eight, Tier Four worlds should be entirely tolerable.

Senkovar nodded at Serenity. “Silence is a good policy; no one shares how they can visit worlds of lesser Tier, not if they’re wise. Some simply suppress the pain, while others like you and I have better methods. We’ll talk more about Themrys when we get closer, but it’s clear you aren’t an Imperial by birth. A Grand Imperial Warrant means that Lord Cymryn speaks with the voice of the Emperor Himself for any matters covered by the Warrant.”

Serenity felt like he was missing something. Senkovar said that as if it should mean something important, something specific. “Okay, and his warrant is to deal with the World Eaters?”

Senkovar shook his head. “An Imperial Warrant might be issued for a single matter like that, but a Grand Imperial Warrant isn’t. They only go out for two reasons: first, matters that affect the entire Empire. The World Eaters aren’t a large enough threat for that. Those are fairly well known in any case; they are issued in Open Court and have defined limits, so that the Empire’s neighbors don’t overreact. There is one active right now, a hunt for the leader of the Petros Rebellion. They’ve probably caught him by now. That’s fairly common; most of the time, they’re issued with a single person as a target.”

Serenity suspected that the Final Reaper might have been a target of a Grand Imperial Warrant, but he’d never know for certain.

“Lord Cymryn’s isn’t one of those; instead, he holds a personal Grand Imperial Warrant. That means he’s expected to act as the hands of the Emperor in places the Emperor can’t go. They don’t always get as much help as you’d think; the Empire is far less monolithic than it seems from the outside. Even so, I specifically requested someone with a Grand Imperial Warrant to ease travel.” Senkovar paused until Serenity gave a small nod to indicate that he understood and followed that far. “They move around. I understand that Cymryn was under a bit of a cloud from his previous mission, which is why he was assigned to a foreigner.”

Serenity nodded. Given where he’d met Cymryn, he could guess what the mission was. There were really only two reasons Serenity could think of for outsiders to be in Takinat on Asihanya while they were under assault by the Viper and Cymryn didn’t seem to have had anything to do with the Viper himself. He had to have been there for the Broken Mirror of the Repository of Secrets and he clearly hadn’t actually found it.

“He was sent to find you, you know. You’ve clearly caught the attention of the Emperor, or at least the attention of his spymaster.” Senkovar paused after the statement as if he expected Serenity to say something. When Serenity didn’t, he continued, “Then I involved you in the hunt for the World Eaters. I claimed you for Et’Tart for more than one reason; even the Emperor steps warily around a World Shaman.”

Serenity couldn’t tell if the expression in Senkovar’s eyes at that moment was concern or anticipation. Did he care more about Serenity or was he using this as another way to get Serenity to agree to join his Clan? 

Serenity shook his head. It didn’t matter which was more important for Senkovar; all that mattered was what Serenity did with the information. He was at least confident that that much was true, even if Senkovar put a spin on it due to his own biases and desires. “I always knew I’d have to deal with the Empire somehow. Earth is a valuable world and the majority population is human. It’s a target unless I work something out with the Empire. Maybe this will help?”

“It certainly means you aren’t being ignored. I assume that’s why you let Cymryn go wherever he wanted on Earth?” Senkovar didn’t sound like any of that was a surprise. “It sounds like it all depends on success against the World Eaters.”

“It always did,” Serenity countered. “Earth can’t take much damage. If we fail, how the Empire feels about Earth won’t matter for more than a few years anyway.”

Lillene

The primary requirement to hold a Grand Imperial Warrant is the trust of the Emperor. Exactly what that means varies; some holders have been trusted with very narrow parameters. I haven’t at all touched on why Cymryn has one.