Lillene

Enjoy!

Baron Restali,

I have informed World Shaman Senkovar Et’Tart of the situation on Themrys. He said that he had expected another one in that region by now and asked if there were any signs of damage to Dilmak or Injii. When I told him that I had no word of such, he said that we need to monitor them but that they are likely not impacted given the stellar configuration and the deflection on the route traveled by the World Eaters.

He has altered the planned route. We are now headed for Themrys by way of Eitchen, even though that is far out of the way for a normal route to Themrys. It seems that he believes that Eitchen may be the next world afflicted after Themrys. If he has star charts that explain his conclusions, he has not shared them; I request an analysis to determine if this routing makes sense and does indeed match a changed route for the World Eaters. 

For now, we are still on Berinath. We’ve been here for more than two months, yet Senkovar seems to be in no hurry to leave. I had hoped that the news of Themrys would set him back into motion, but while he did seem concerned, he still will not give a time frame for departure. All he will say is that “creating a new space requires the time it requires and I will not hurry it for something I cannot change.” 

I still have not discovered exactly what he means by “creating a new space,” nor have I managed to uncover exactly how Serenity went from barely acceptable to visit with oversight to hosted at the Crown Hotel at the expense of the Elders of Berinath. I suspect they are linked, as that was not a term Senkovar used before we arrived on Berinath; instead, he said that the purpose of the visit was “interface and adjustment training.” He also estimated no more than a month on the World, which we are clearly well past.

In regards to the question about the willingness of Earth’s population to commit to a fight in the current circumstances rather than the past, it is mixed. There are some areas that are like the Tsoioi, willing to fight over even the most minor of slights; other areas are like the Atchen, not overeager for a fight yet willing to follow their leaders straight into battle - or even lead the way, even if only death awaits them, so long as it harms the enemy. 

Beyond those populations, however, there is a wide range. There seems to be an incredible number that truly believe war is never worthwhile. Unfortunately, there are few places where they hold enough power to actually stop a war if we chose to conquer them. Most of the remainder seem to fall into the common range where as long as it does not affect them, they do not care. 

The most concerning fact about those regions is that several of them know the same trick the Imperial Army has: they have the knowledge and skill to turn civilians into soldiers. Worse than that, they have the capability to train even closer to how they fight than we do; their green newcomers are closer in quality to their veterans than most we see, especially from generally peaceful worlds. 

It is evidence that while the civilian may not see war come to them, Earth is not peaceful. Most of their wars, at least the open ones, are fought by professional forces that have significant training and experience. I believe that their better units might well be a match for a standard unit of a similar size from the Imperial army, despite the remaining Tier difference. In ten years, there will be no Tier difference; I am not certain it will last five.

I still believe that the better solution is diplomacy, possibly with an eye to quietly subsuming areas that we can buy or otherwise suborn without open war. Make the Empire seem positive before it becomes inevitable and we may not have to fight them. 

If nothing else, there should at least be a mission to discover more about the planet than I could from their incredibly open “internet.” I was unable to determine what secrets they are hiding behind it, what truths are not allowed to be known, but that is a task for years not the weeks that I had.

I will attempt to hurry Senkovar, but unless you grant me authority as something more than an escort with a Grand Imperial Warrant, there is little I can do. All of his needs and desires are being met by the Elders of Berinath without my intervention; I have very few levers available.

Lord Cymryn

Serenity triggered the rune again. It hadn’t actually trapped anyone or anything that was undead, but that didn’t matter; he built the runescript and knew how to fool it into believing it had been properly triggered. Breaking security systems was just as useful for testing your own creations as it was for getting into someone else’s, possibly even more useful. It was certainly easier.

Once again, the receiver didn’t glow. It should have; this time, he’d clearly seen the magical flash as something was transmitted. That meant he either had a failure in the receiver or the signal being transmitted was wrong. Neither was going to be easy to fix, but the easier one to check was whether or not there was something wrong with the receiver. 

Serenity scrawled a quick temporary rune on some runepaper. It was far more suitable than the liquefied mana stone and computer paper he’d used on Earth, but the principle was the same. The so-called crystalline ink, which looked like ordinary ink with flecks of mica or maybe glitter in it, was far more special than it looked; it was specifically formulated to create a steady mana trace through water tension, then dry in place quickly. Once it was dried, it would carry his mana input with no issues.

The runepaper was similarly simple looking yet specialized. It provided the perfect surface for the crystalline ink, just barely porous enough to hold the ink and help it dry, moving some of the mana capacity into the paper itself; anywhere that was impregnated with the crystalline ink would be an excellent mana trace, while anywhere without the crystalline ink would reject the incursion of mana. It only worked well with a paired crystalline ink; the two had to have their properties matched to each other for the best effect.

Serenity had no idea how they were made. He’d never asked before he arrived on Berinath. He’d asked when he bought the two components, but the vendor had waved him off with some words about trade secrets. Serenity didn’t push.

It took ten minutes for the rune to dry once he drew it. Serenity used the time to review Aide’s recordings of his attempts to trigger the rune; he still didn’t see anything wrong with it, but it clearly wasn’t working. That was yet another reason to look at the receiver first before trying to adjust the main runescript.

Just before Serenity triggered the simple runescript on the runepaper, the door to the suite opened and triggered Serenity’s ward. He grumbled to himself but rose and went to check on who it was. This wasn’t the normal time for hotel staff; they usually visited at mealtimes. Other than that, they would clean the suite only while Senkovar and Serenity were gone. Had they thought he was gone?

The other primary options were a message from Elder Omprek, since it had been four days since his last query about the new runescript, or someone who wasn’t happy about Serenity’s presence. Only one objector had reached Serenity’s wards, but despite his lack of success beyond opening the door, the fact that he’d made it that far meant it was clear that Serenity needed to maintain his wards and even spread them to cover the walls, floor, and ceiling as well as the windows and door.

Serenity warily rounded the corner that booked his easy view of the door into the suite, then froze in place. He had to be seeing things. “Rissa?”

Serenity’s fiancee grinned at him, then charged towards him. He spread his arms and braced himself. As he’d more than half expected, she threw herself into him at full speed and even wrapped her legs around his waist.

“How, why, you didn’t tell me you were coming?” Serenity sputtered, giddy at Rissa’s presence and confused by it at the same time.

“You’d have told me not to come,” Rissa rumbled with her mouth next to Serenity’s ear. The words send a pleasurable thrill down his spine. “I don’t care, we’ve been apart for too long. This sort of travel is part of your life, so it’ll be part of mine too.”

Serenity closed his eyes and rested his head against Rissa’s. For a long moment, that was all he could do. He was thrilled to have her with him again and annoyed that she hadn’t talked to him about it before she came. Yes, he’d probably have told her not to come, but she could have worn him down; he knew that. He missed her; beyond that, there truly didn’t seem to be much danger now that the situation with the dryads was handled. 

Heck, she could have joined him when they reached Lyka. Lyka was on the planned route, after all; he’d planned to visit her then. She could simply have come to see him then without taking the long trip to Berinath. As expensive as it was, they could afford it.

“At least tell me you didn’t come alone?” While it was usually not a problem to travel alone, it wasn’t completely safe either. Larger groups cost more but were far safer.

Rissa chuckled. “No, not alone.” 

She didn’t expand on her statement. Instead, she leaned back just far enough to kiss Serenity.

He wasn’t sure how long the kiss lasted. He could have found out by asking Aide, but he would never do that. It lasted as long as it lasted and it only ended when the door behind Rissa opened again and revealed Blaze.

“Blaze? You’re here too? Weren’t you investigating Earth’s medical technology?” Serenity had thought Blaze was quite happy learning about the options and treatments available on Earth for a wide range of things that weren’t at all simple to treat. He vaguely knew that Blaze was trying to combine some of them with the ones he was more familiar with to achieve something greater than the sum of its parts, but he hadn’t kept up with the details beyond knowing that Blaze refused to jump through the hoops required to attend medical school. 

“I was, but I’d rather be with you, helping to heal all the hurt people you continually stumble across, instead of trying to convince those overproud peacocks that their way is in fact not only the only possible way but not even the best way for a lot of things. It’s almost like the fact that people can heal using magic is offensive to many of your doctors, even though it’s no different from any other use of magic. The ones who accept it are quiet and happy but the ones who object …” Blaze shook his head. “I’m not going to put up with that when it doesn’t help a single patient.”

Lillene

Poor Blaze. Becoming a symbol of magical healing wasn’t something he desired; becoming the symbol of magical healing to people who felt left out or betrayed by its existence is even worse. He (probably) knows why they’re acting that way but that doesn’t make it any more fun.