Lillene

A thousand chapters. I never expected this story would reach four digits.

Enjoy!

Serenity,

I’ve pulled together everything I can find on phoenixes. It’s quite a bit more extensive than I expected, especially after I raided Red’s collection. She had a few volumes I haven’t seen before. Most of them didn’t have much on phoenixes but it was still interesting.

Good call on the secret restricted section of the University of London’s library; Librarian Navi was willing to allow me to copy some passages from his books. I have the feeling his will be the most helpful since they are the only ones that speak without heavy obscuration or the distortion of centuries of word of mouth. One of them was even written by a phoenix for his children.

I didn’t see anything about awakening a phoenix bloodline, but perhaps I simply don’t know what I’m looking at. 

I considered sending an electronic copy to you over the Voice’s message network, but when I saw the Etherium cost, I changed my mind. I’m sending a stack of copies to you on Berinath using the Messengers’ Guild instead.

In more personal news, Red finally managed to create her first new-style enchanted item that didn’t explode and actually did what it was supposed to. I’m not sure why she decided to make a magical warming pad for Minu, but Minu definitely likes it. 

I also finally decided to retire. There are enough other people who can do the job now. I should know; I trained most of them. I’ll be helping out occasionally, I’m sure, but it’s time for the younger generations to take over.

Phoebe has turned to art. I don’t think she realizes just how much of her Sight leaks into her paintings, but at least it isn’t bothering her so much anymore. She’s talking about moving to A’Atla to paint there.

I’m not sure I will follow her.

Tell Rissa and Jenna we love them.

Russ

Serenity’s discussion with the dungeon turned into a nap. He woke when a hand touched his shoulder. His eyes shot open and he turned to see who interrupted his sleep.

Serenity almost couldn’t believe his eyes. What was Stojan Tasi doing here?

At the same time, it made sense. Where else would he stay when he was surveying the area to see what he could and should do about it? The A Rest from Death dungeon was far more comfortable than most temporary shelters. Only luxury shelters, like Serenity’s tent, even came close.

“Serenity?” Stojan Tasi sounded puzzled. “Why are you here? Has something gone wrong?”

Serenity shook his head. “No, well, nothing on Tzintkra. I need to talk to you about your sister.” He thought about the misunderstanding he’d had with Marti and added, “Your older sister.”

Tasi frowned. “Not here. Maybe in the back, or you can ride with me when I head back to the Shining Caverns in the morning? That might be best.”

Serenity nodded. “Sounds good to me. I hear you’re putting together another expedition out here?”

Stojan Tasi’s mouth twisted into something Serenity could most easily call a grimace. “It’s still just as important as it ever was, if I want the Shining Caverns to ever be more than a poor shadow of the Necropolis. We have to start reclaiming the surface. I also need to have people live here, not just come in and train; outsiders are a large part of how we’ve survived, but they won’t be enough for us to grow. People have to stay.”

Serenity rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably. He’d just offered to help Desinka and her father leave Tzintkra. It was probably the right decision for them, even if the same decision made in large numbers was bleeding Tzintkra’s future away. 

“There have to be places for people to live where they aren’t smothered by Death magic.” Serenity knew that he was ill suited to making that change real. Senkovar could probably do it, but it would take time. In fact, no matter who did it, it would take time, the same way that fully terraforming Berinath wasn’t complete even after centuries. Come to think of it, a dome setup like there was on Berinath would be a good start; additionally, the dryads of Berinath might well be willing to try. “Have you asked for outside help?”

Stojan Tasi shook his head. “I can’t afford - the Shining Caverns can’t afford to show that much weakness. We might be able to hire a specialist, but we have no way to find them.”

Serenity nodded slowly. “I know some people. What do you know about the moon?”

Stojan Tasi frowned. “About Berinath? Not much. The light can be helpful when it’s full.”

It definitely wasn’t a coincidence that Stojan Tasi knew it by the same name as the dryads. It was very interesting that he didn’t know the dryads existed any more than they seemed to know that there was still a settlement of the living on Tzintkra. Serenity suspected that the devastation was bad enough between the war and the damage to Tzintkra’s core that both groups simply didn’t know about each other. It was enough to make Serenity wonder if there were any other pockets of the living hidden in Tzintkra’s tunnels. 

“It’s inhabited by people who fled Tzintkra,” Serenity informed Stojan Tasi. “Why don’t you come with me when I head back to Berinath? I think they may have some methods that will help you, but they’d know that better than I would.”

Stojan Tasi frowned, then nodded. “That risk sounds worthwhile. We can talk more later, when we’re in private.”

With that, Stojan Tasi turned the conversation to the status of the expedition. It was far smaller than Serenity expected; he’d expected something like what he saw before the attack on the Shining Caverns. 

It was the next morning before they started the long flight back to the Shining Caverns. Before Serenity could ask about Stojan Aith, Stojan Tasi told Serenity about what was happening in the Necropolis. Unlike the Shining Caverns, the Necropolis still required extensive maintenance of the city infrastructure, so most of the Etherium gained from that portion of the planet’s population was being spent to deal with those problems. Stojan Tasi expected that it would be several years before he had any Etherium to spare from the urgent issues to even start on the longer-term issues; he was openly unhappy with his sister’s city management.

That gave Serenity the opening he was looking for. “So, about Stojan Aith. When I fought her, she had a necklace with a piece of Tzintkra’s World Core on it that she was using to advance her knowledge of the Death Affinity.”

Stojan Tasi nodded. “That’s what she always said it was for. It was also a trophy for her, the best piece she was able to find.”

Serenity frowned. That didn’t quite match what he remembered, but it was hard to tell if it was his memory that was bad or if he simply hadn’t gotten the whole story. Either was possible; both were likely. “Do you know what she did to get the piece? Something this small shouldn’t have damaged Tzintkra that badly.”

After he killed Stojan Aith, Serenity thought that her damage to the World Core was what caused Tzintkra’s imbalance. He now knew that was probably more from the war where the Vrak killed most of the planet’s population to make the Necropolis the only surviving city and take control of the planet. Serenity still didn’t quite know how they all died; he couldn’t even be certain they had all died, even if Elder Omprek thought they had. 

Even though he’d been wrong about the reason for the damage, Serenity knew for certain that Stojan Aith hadn’t just found the World Core and knocked off a small piece the way he’d originally thought. That wouldn’t have completely pissed off Tzintkra the way it had; yes, Lyka and Themrys were hurt by their World Cores being damaged, but it was far more of the core. Eitchen only itched and he’d taken more damage than that small bit of Tzintkra’s core. Had Stojan Aith once had more of Tzintkra’s core? Was that the reason Stojan Tasi called it “the best piece?”

Stojan Tasi shook his head. “It was before I was born, during the war. I assume she used the war as a distraction to let her sneak her people into the tunnels, but I don’t know more than that.”

“Tunnels?” Serenity looked sharply at Stojan Tasi. He remembered something about tunnels in the information he’d gotten from Stojan Aith, but he’d thought she and her people dug them. Had they really just snuck in? “Do you know where she found the stone?”

Stojan Tasi nodded. “It’s a long way from here. I’ve visited a couple of times; Stojan Aith claimed it was an excellent place to meditate on Death.” Tasi bit his lip, then seemed to unconsciously shake his head slightly. “It always felt off to me. I’m not sure why, but that’s probably why I never managed to push my Death Affinity farther there. It wasn’t comfortable, so I quit going once she stopped pushing me to go there.”

Serenity nodded slowly and revised his plans. Getting information from Stojan Tasi was good, but getting it from looking at what actually happened was likely to be better, especially since Tasi wasn’t alive when Aith damaged Tzintkra. “Can you take me there?”

Stojan Tasi nodded. “Can it wait for a couple of days? I have some things I need to take care of when we reach the Shining Caverns, and I’d like to handle them before heading to the Near Gate.”

Serenity nodded slowly. “At the moment, I think we have the time. The thing is, I don’t know how much time there actually is, so it’s hard to estimate. Please try to limit it to a couple days before we head out.”

A check of the data from the Death’s Wings, through a relay satellite the ship dropped into orbit as it left Tzintkra after leaving Serenity on the planet, told Serenity that the survey was behind schedule by about half a day at the moment. It wasn’t really a surprise; they’d planned as if everything went correctly the first time it was tried and that was never the case. It was a good thing that there wasn’t any cloud cover to worry about; on Earth, Serenity knew that weather would almost certainly have added several days at the minimum to the survey time.

“What can you tell me about the Near Gate before we get there?” The term Near Gate sounded entirely too much like “Near Point” to be coincidental. Serenity hoped the tunnels hadn’t collapsed. Digging out a tunnel, even one that already existed and was relatively short compared to the radius of the planet, was not something he was prepared for. It would almost certainly take too long. After all, that might well be why the White Tiger hadn’t attacked Berinath’s core yet.

“It was a Vrak ritual site, the only one I know of that wasn’t near a portal node. They didn’t allow anyone else there; Aith and her people had to sneak in. That’s really all I know. I haven’t been down the tunnels; the surface was unpleasant enough.” Stojan Tasi shook his head. “I’m not sure what to tell you, other than that.”

“What happened to the Vrak?” Serenity figured he might as well try to get the story from someone who actually stayed on the planet. Stojan Tasi ought to know more than Elder Omprek, who hadn’t been on the planet since he fled as a child.

“They disappeared.” Stojan Tasi looked down. “My parents thought they did a giant ritual that failed and backfired, but no one really knows. We just know that the death-storms suddenly got worse. When we were finally able to leave the Shining Caverns, there weren’t any Vrak. Maybe they hid away somewhere, but then why haven’t they turned up again, even in the Necropolis?”

Lillene

For anyone who is wondering, the destruction of Tzintkra is a very, very long time after the creation of demons.

Also, no, I haven’t yet described the Vrak.