Lex shook his head slightly. “Are you going to go?”
“I’m not sure.” Serenity shrugged. “I guess it won’t hurt, so I might. I’ll decide if it comes up. That’s not really why I wanted to mention it, though. You didn’t have a chance to meet Senkovar when he visited A’Atla; would you like to meet him now?”
Lex poured some more coffee into his mug then brought it up and sipped, clearly stalling for time while he thought. Serenity didn’t hurry him; he still had half of his breakfast left. There was no hurry.
Lex seemed to come to a decision while Serenity was still eating, but he didn’t say anything until Serenity finished his last bite. It was excellent, if a bit more than he’d want to eat on a regular basis. Maybe he’d ask for a lighter portion next time?
Lex set his coffee mug down decisively. “I think I will. I still remember Grandfather; I think I’d like to meet the man he didn’t trust to protect him.”
“Would you like me to come and support you or do you think it would be better if I met him later?” Bethany sounded like she didn’t have a preference. Serenity knew his mother well enough to know that that probably wasn’t true, but he also knew that she was deliberately concealing whatever preference she had. As long as it was only a preference, she’d let others make the decisions that affected them more than they affected her and try not to influence those decisions too much.
“Mmh.” Lex grunted in consideration, but didn’t take long to decide. “I’ll have Serenity in case things go badly. If all is well, it’ll probably be better to have you meet him when we’re on better terms.”
Bethany nodded. “In that case, I’ll leave you to it. I’ll be around, but you’ll need to message me if you need me; I’m not certain where I’ll be.”
There were more people in the dining hall when the three of them left, but it was still mostly empty. Serenity couldn’t blame people for sleeping in; it had been a late night.
Serenity led his father off the Death’s Wings to the hotel. He wasn’t sure Senkovar would be there; it was late enough that he might well have already left for the work site. They usually walked over together, though, so Serenity thought there was a decent chance he’d catch Senkovar before he left unless he assumed Serenity had left without him.
Senkovar wasn’t in the suite when they arrived, so after a quick search, Serenity led his father back outside. They didn’t make it far before Senkovar came around a corner. “Serenity! Where have you been? I -”
Senkovar nearly tripped over his own feet as he came to an abrupt halt. “Dalmoti?”
Almost immediately, Senkovar shook his head and started moving forward again, a bit more slowly this time. “No, you can’t be Dalmoti. You look a lot like him, though, so you must be Serenity’s father, Alexander Dale Rothmer?”
Lex nodded. “Serenity suggested I come meet you.” His voice was guarded but not hostile.
“Why don’t we head into the suite and talk? I’d like to know more about you.” Senkovar walked past Serenity. As he reached Lex, he whispered, “I’d like to know what you remember of Dalmoti, as well.”
It turned into a long conversation between Lex and Senkovar with Serenity sitting to one side listening. He didn’t really remember his great-grandfather, so he didn’t have anything to contribute. The biggest thing he learned came in response to Lex’s answer to why Dalmoti left the clan: that he feared he’d be killed because of another’s desire to rule.
According to Senkovar, the Et’Tart clan was devastated in the aftermath of Dalmoti’s disappearance. It wasn’t directly because he was necessary for the Clan; instead, it was because his disappearance got Senkovar’s attention.
Serenity had to read between the lines a little to reach that conclusion, since Senkovar only talked about what he’d done once he realized Dalmoti wasn’t anywhere to be found. Serenity couldn’t tell if Delmoti would have been able to get Senkovar’s attention if he’d gone to the man first, but it was clear that he’d have been able to go back afterwards if he hadn’t ended up stuck on Earth. Serenity doubted the man he’d met in the odd space in the Well of Worlds, the echo of a man fleeing for his life, would have trusted that. His opinion might have changed in his later years; Serenity didn’t know.
Lex was telling Senkovar about one of his many childhood trips with Timothy Rothmer when Rissa tapped lightly on the door to the suite. She’d told Serenity she was on her way, so he let her in without interrupting the ongoing story. It was a story Serenity didn’t think he’d ever heard; apparently, Timothy liked to go to remote locations and spend time in the wilderness, but he rarely went to the same place twice.
From what Lex said about the trips, Serenity had to wonder if Timothy had tried to talk to Gaia. That wasn’t what the young Lex had taken out of them, however. His biggest memory was exploring a long-abandoned city of stone nestled inside a cavern with his grandfather. Lex didn’t know where it was, other than that it was somewhere in the Appalachian Mountains. He wasn’t even certain what state they’d been in. What he did know was that he’d never been able to find any record of a city that resembled what he remembered.
“It was probably Veiled,” Rissa whispered to Serenity. “Hidden. There are places like that all over Earth, places where you can see things that don’t fit. That’s where a lot of the stuff Red works with comes from. No one knows if they move or if you get there by falling through a crack in reality, but we think they’re where the legends of Underhill come from. Places that may or may not be there when you go back, places someone else might not see.”
“Pocket realities?” Serenity wondered. “Why haven’t you mentioned them before?”
“I thought you knew about them?” Rissa shrugged. “Serenity Settlement is in one, a great lost forest. I figured that was part of why the planet’s surface was expanding, some of the hidden places are emerging. Like dungeons, only less dangerous and usually less rewarding. Sort of like lesser versions of A’Atla?”
It was true that for all the money that had been sunk into exploring A’Atla so far, Serenity didn’t know of anything that had come out of it. At the same time, it was still early days; A’Atla hadn’t even been above the surface for a year yet and it was a mix of bits and pieces. The only fully working systems were ones that couldn’t be taken apart without damage to the ship.
“That’s fair,” Serenity admitted. “I did know land is appearing and had stuff on it; I probably should have made the connection that it’s land that used to exist. Where else would it come from?”
Another knock at the door interrupted both conversations. This time, Serenity didn’t have a message from Rissa letting him know she was at the door. There wasn’t a good way to tell who was on the other side, but they’d clearly either talked their way past the guards the way Rissa had or fought their way past. Serenity doubted it was the second one; there hadn’t been any noise from the other side.
Serenity opened the door to a short dryad. It took him a moment to realize he recognized her; she was the messenger who brought a prophecy from their local oracle, whatever they called it, during the “trial” before it became an attempted coup. He thought it might be the Dreaming Tree?
“Ah, I have a message for the Eyes that Shifted Time?” The messenger sounded tentative.
“The what?” Serenity was just as puzzled as she was.
“I hoped you’d know. All I know is that Elder Jinsa sent me here with a message from the Dreaming Tree to her colleague, the Eyes that Shifted Time.” The messenger’s frustration was clear.
Serenity glanced at Rissa; as he’d expected, she’d just gotten up and was headed for the door. He let her take his place. He couldn’t think of anyone else who might be a colleague to an oracle, even if “Eyes that Shifted Time” was a very odd way to describe her.
Not that Serenity had any real idea about how a tree oracle would see the world.
“Elder Jinsa told you where to find the Eyes that Shifted Time?” Rissa’s question wasn’t the response Serenity had expected; he’d expected her to say the message was for her.
The messenger nodded. “Visiting Elders’ suite in the High Boughs. That’s here.”
“Come on in, then, and give us all the message. Maybe it’ll make more sense when we know what it is.” Rissa stepped back from the door and let the messenger enter.
The messenger looked curiously around as she entered then let the door close behind her. Serenity followed her and Rissa out of the wide entry hall and into the comfortable common room.
Rissa sat back at her seat and waved Serenity over to join her. “Okay, we’re all here. What’s the message you have for the Eyes that Shifted Time?”
“It’s two messages. First, from the Dreaming Tree: The Eyes that Shifted Time see more than they should yet less than they might for early damage will last. Come and dream with me and see the shape our future might take together.” The messenger paused, then looked at Rissa. “Don’t ask me what that means. I don’t interpret for the Dreaming Tree, I just deliver messages.”
“I can guess,” Rissa said. Her had reached down and gripped Serenity’s knee in a clear message to keep his mouth shut. He’d have to ask what she was thinking later. “What’s the second message?”
“Elder Jinsa invites you to come see her. I can guide you there or you can ask for directions to the Dreaming Tree; it’s not that hard to find.”
Serenity was certain it wasn’t hard to find for someone who grew up in this dome. For an outsider, it might well be quite a bit more difficult. He’d experienced that when he tried to find the materials he needed for the runescript prototypes he still needed to finish.
:Do you need to be here while your father and Senkovar talk?: Rissa’s quiet question was a surprise to Serenity.
He tried to minimize the motion but he was still sure he shook his head slightly. :No, not at this point. I was just enjoying listening to the stories. It’s a lot of stuff Dad doesn’t generally talk about. I don’t think he minds, I think he just thinks it’s not really relevant.:
Rissa nodded slightly. “I think we’ll take you up on that. I’m not sure who exactly is the Eyes that Shifted Time, but chances are good that it’s one of the two of us. Lex, Senkovar, I’m going to steal Serenity for a bit. You two have fun.”
“Make sure you check the future dome at some point today. We can do a more detailed check tomorrow; I’ll see you in the morning,” Senkovar told Serenity.
It was a long time since he’d had to report to work on a regular basis, responsible to someone other than himself. Serenity wasn’t sure he liked it.
On the other hand, if he was truly unhappy with it, he really could just leave. The only thing he’d lose was training/ That was really what this was about, after all. Training. He wanted to know how to alter the surface of a world with the World Core’s help; he’d already learned a lot from what they were doing on Berinath. It was a very specialized field.
The message from the Dreaming Tree requires some background the messenger doesn’t know.
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