Ekari,

Have you had the chance to gather up all of the research from the priests that were mining Lyka’s World Core? I need to know about the effects on the planet from the mining and if they were doing anything to minimize them. It would probably be from early on.

If you have anything from when Lykandeon tore Aeon out of Lyka, that would be good too.

Thanks,

Serenity

---

Serenity,

I have the material but I haven’t assigned anyone to go through it. I’ll have Legion look at it; she’s trustworthy and you can pass information back and forth easily.

When will you next be on Aeon? We found some sealed doors hidden near Lykandeon’s rooms and I’d rather have you try to open them before we force them. 

Ekari

---

Ekari,

I’m not sure, but I’ll stop by before I head back to Earth if I can. I have a spaceship now, so if the Death’s Wings arrives, please make sure I can land.

Serenity

---

A spaceship. I should have known. Well, if it gets you here faster, I’m in favor of it. 

Let me know when you’re on your way.

Ekari

---

Stojan Tasi was not in the City Lord’s Palace in the Necropolis. His assistant directed Serenity to the Shining Caverns.

He was also not in his mansion in the Shining Caverns. He was apparently out of the city, surveying some of the farther-out deadlands. It was never stated, but Serenity got the impression that he was considering restarting the exploration initiative that was halted by the attack on the Shining Caverns that Serenity stopped the first time he visited.

He wasn’t going to be easy to find, but he was exactly the person Serenity needed to talk to. Serenity wasn’t certain where to start looking for Stojan Aith’s history with Tzintkra without Stojan Tasi’s help.He left a message at the mansion, then went to the next most obvious place to look.

The Mercenaries’ Guild. 

This time, a few things were different. The room wasn’t empty; there were three different groups gathered around their individual tables. One seemed to be a group playing a game of Delve Deeper, but the other two looked like they were either planning a delve or discussing issues from a past delve. 

Only a few of the people in the room looked up when he entered. Two of them were impolite enough to spread their auras far enough to check him out; both were Tier Four. Based on the way their auras immediately retreated after touching his, Serenity didn’t think they liked what they’d found.

Both of them were seated at the same table. Serenity sent the table a toothy grin and felt satisfied when they very obviously jerked their attention off him and onto each other. There was a good chance they were talking about him, but that was fine. With luck, they’d take that as a reminder that there were bigger fish out there. 

Serenity wasn’t even at the top of the Tier range for Tzintkra; he wouldn’t be too surprised if there were some Tier Fifteens out there; he knew there were some at Tier Ten. Most of them were probably from offworld and simply visiting the dungeons, but that meant there was a good chance they’d visit the Guild in one city or the other.

Marti was at the receptionist’s desk again. Serenity didn’t think he’d ever been in the building when she wasn’t the receptionist. The only times he’d seen her not be at the desk were when she was helping someone.

As he walked up, Marti set her book down and looked up at him. She seemed to tense and glanced surreptitiously at a sigil on her desk before she looked back at him with a slightly more relaxed grin. “Welcome to Tzintkra. You seem familiar; do I know you?”

All Serenity could quickly make out of the symbol was that it seemed to be some sort of detection display and that it wasn’t lit. Given where it was, Serenity had to assume that it was intended to detect undead. It was good to see that the Mercenaries’ Guild had a good enchanter. 

Serenity grinned at Marti. “Serenity. I was here a couple years ago.”

Marti frowned. Serenity could almost see her running through her memories before a sharp intake of breath told him she remembered. “Oh, right, I remember you. You found that group from the Necropolis.” She squinted at him with one eye nearly closed. “You weren’t Tier Nine then.”

Serenity shook his head. “I’m not now, either. Tier Eight.”

Marti snorted. “Close enough when you come in with that much danger radiating off you. Either way, it means you’ve been advancing too fast; slow down or you’ll get yourself killed.”

Serenity cocked his head to the side, then chuckled. “I have. Haven’t Tiered up in more than a year. It’s a long story; things have been eventful.”

Marti snorted. “I bet. You don’t Tier up like that when things are quiet. So, what are you here for? Another card update?”

Serenity shook his head. He’d had plenty of chances to update his Mercenary Guild card during his travels, and he’d used it more than once. The Guild was still the best way to find dungeons. “No, I’m looking for Stojan Tasi. I asked at his place, but apparently he’s out somewhere in the deadlands. I hoped you’d know; I’d rather not wait until he’s back. I have limited time before I have to head offworld again.”

He wasn’t going to wait long after the Death’s Wings finished its survey of Berinath. He couldn’t afford to; he had no idea how long it would take the White Tiger mother to locate a Near Point and dig a tunnel. If he was lucky, he might have a year or two. If he wasn’t, he might have only a few days if he wanted to catch her before she moved on from Berinath.

Marti raised one eyebrow and squinted with the other eye. “And what do you want with the City Lord?”

Serenity knew he had to be careful here. Stojan Tasi hadn’t yet made it generally known that Tzintkra’s rule was unified under a Planetary Sovereign and he certainly hadn’t admitted that Tasi was the Planetary Manager. Serenity didn’t want his position to be known. “I need to ask him about his sister.”

Now both of Marti’s eyebrows went up. “You’d do better to ask her yourself.”

Serenity blinked once, then blinked again. “How? Stojan Aith is dead.”

He knew she was dead. He’d killed her himself then removed any chance she might have had to return from the dead naturally. He’d even destroyed her body, which would make it extremely difficult for anyone to resurrect her or even raise her as a wraith, especially since he’d made certain to stabilize things until her spirit was gone.

“Aith?” Now Marti was the one who was surprised. “I didn’t know he had a sister named Aith.”

Serenity relaxed. Marti must have been talking about a different sister. “Stojan Aith was older. A lot older, from what I understand.” He paused and tilted his head. “I didn’t know he had another sister?”

Marti nodded. “I suppose I have to admit to it now. They don’t talk about it; she doesn’t even use the Stojan name. I won’t tell you who or where she is; that’s up to her. I can get a message to her if you want, but that’s all I’ll do.”

Serenity nodded. “Please let her know I have some questions about Stojan Aith’s necklace. You can tell her who I am and where I’m staying, which will be the Whale of a Time Inn unless you’re able to tell me how to find Stojan Tasi?”

Marti laughed at the way Serenity turned telling her where he planned to be into asking about Stojan Tasi again. “He’s out in the deadlands, as you said. I recommend you wait; he’s due back tomorrow. I doubt you could catch up with him before then anyway.”

Serenity nodded. “Then if you see him, please let him know I’m looking for him. I already left a message at his place, as well.” 

Serenity paused, then continued with one more question. “So you happen to know if Desinka’s around?” He could find her if he searched for her, but it seemed more polite to ask.

“Desinka?” Marti sounded surprised. 

Serenity nodded, then realized that Marti might not have recognized the name. “Desinka te A’nar Rakyn? I know she’s around somewhere, I just wondered if you happen to know where.” 

Marti shook her head. “Didn’t realize you knew her. She hasn’t been here in a couple days. I think her latest team left again.”

Serenity nodded, a little saddened. He knew she’d lost several teams that way; she kept being invited to join them offworld, but Serenity hadn’t yet figured out how to lengthen her connection to the A Rest From Death dungeon enough to allow interstellar travel. He was definitely going to need to check into the dungeon while he was on Tzintkra; maybe he could figure something out. “I’ll check at her father’s, then.”

Marti rolled her eyes. “Oh, you know her father. It all makes sense now. You tell that man that he needs to get his act together and start training again or he’ll never get back on a delving team. He said he was only going to retire until his daughter was able to take care of herself; seems like she’s taking care of him more these days than the other way around. He needs to get his head back in the game.”

“You know Rakyn?” That was a surprise, somehow.

Marti nodded. “Delved with him a few times when he showed up here with a motherless baby. He quit as soon as he got that job with the Messengers’ Guild, said he wanted to make sure she had at least one parent. I admit delving’s not safe, but it’s not that bad.”

Serenity wasn’t so certain. He’d seen a lot of people die on delves gone wrong when he was Vengeance. The fact that it was rare didn’t mean the odds wouldn’t catch up with you over the course of the years it took for a child to grow up. It was a very lucrative profession if you could pull it off, but it was also dangerous unless you delved below-Tier. Given Rakyn’s Tier, Serenity suspected that delving down would have limited him to dungeons that weren’t nearly so rewarding.

On top of that, he could work as a Messenger in the Shining Caverns. All but one of the dungeons were outside the city and portaling back and forth every evening would probably wipe out pretty much everything he made if he delved down a Tier.

“I’ll talk to him,” Serenity agreed, “but you know as well as I do that it’s dangerous to push anyone into a dungeon that doesn’t want to be there. There has to be a reason he hasn’t gone back even though Desinka’s been delving for years now.”

Serenity had suspicions that the problem was Desinka’s vampirism, but he wasn’t about to say that. Vampires weren’t allowed in the Shining Caverns, after all. He could override that restriction as far as the Voice and the city were concerned, but that wouldn’t change anything as far as the people went. Neither would the fact that Desinka didn’t actually drink blood. If he said “vampire,” she’d be forcefully kicked out of town or killed.

She’d reform at the A Rest from Death dungeon, but that would only make things worse. Being an escaped dungeon monster was not likely to make anyone more tolerant of her. Not on Tzintkra and especially not in the Shining Caverns.

If only he could get her to Earth. There would still be people there who would be scared of her, but the attitude wasn’t as hardened. 

Wait, could he? He did have a dungeon bound to him on Earth: the one on A’Atla.