“True.” Marti turned back to Raz and Serenity. “Now, for how it works. The bond’ll go up when you go up in Tiers, you’ll need to cover that when you pay your annual each year. As long as you don’t need it, all you have to pay is your annual. Anything goes wrong, if you get in trouble or whatever, the bond will cover it - but you need to repay the bond. If it runs out or you don’t bring it to full with your annual, you’re not covered by the Guild until you manage to replace it.”

“As long as you’ve got bond with us, we’ve got your back. The bond isn’t charged until after the dust settles - but we’re not stupid. If you abuse it, we’ll kick you out and the bond’s forfeit. If you leave on your own, you can take the bond back. If you die, we’ll deliver the bond to your registered heir. So do set that up that when you can.”

“The Guild’s all over, so once you have your Guild chit, you can take it to your local Guildhouse and they’ll put you on their books. That’s how they know who to protect, so make sure you do it. Now, for the rest of what we do. Katya’s probably going to take you to the Phoenix, so the fact that we find work probably isn’t that important, but if you need it, we do. We also protect you from your employer if they break the contract.”

“Past that, if you’re down on your luck, we’ve got beds. It counts against your bond, but they’re cheap, and we’ll try to get you back on your feet if you’ll work with us. We can also do healing. Speaking of which, when we’re done here, I need to talk to you about curse removal.” Marti pointed at Serenity.

Marti reached into a different drawer in the dresser and pulled out a pair of small circular coins, about the size and shape of a penny. “Don’t lose these.” She concentrated for a moment, then touched one coin to each sheet she’d written information on.

The sheet disappeared and she handed the coins to Serenity and Raz. “Touch it with your mana so it can key itself to your signature, then concentrate on projecting the information to me.” After a moment, she nodded. “Good. They’re both working. Now, that will only work for an authorized Guild administrator. If it doesn’t work, they’re not Merc Guild and you need to get out if they say they are. Don’t look doubtful, Raz, it’s happened. More than once. And it ends up with dead mercs and a heck of a cleanup job if people don’t realize what’s going on.”

“One other thing I’ll mention. Yes, we have a branch in the Necropolis. Yes, you are allowed to fight other mercs, but only where it won’t break any laws or other peoples’ property. This means they’re allowed to attack you, as well. Don’t assume that a merc chit makes someone a good person. That’s not what they’re for.”

Marti nodded sharply. “Now, that’s enough lecturing. Before I let Katya head to the bathhouse-”

“HEY!” Katya sounded offended.

“You always go to the bathhouse, Katya.” Marti sounded amused.

“Well yeah, but you don’t have to say it like that!”

There was a smile on Marti’s face as well as in her voice when she continued. “As I was saying, before we let Katya go soak, I need to talk to you about curse removal. How good are you, actually?” The smile fell off her face as she turned to Serenity.

“If it’s Death-based I can break it. I can’t heal any damage it’s done, I can only remove the Death magic.” Serenity was confident in his ability to work with and against Death magic. “If it’s something else, I probably can’t do anything. A mixed-Affinity curse I may or may not be able to do something about.”

Marti nodded. “Fair enough. We think it’s Death-based, this is Tzintkra, after all. Please follow me. You two can leave if you want, or come, whatever.”

Katya looked at Marti, then at Serenity, then ostentatiously sniffed her armpit and gagged. “Bathhouse. Definitely bathhouse. C’mon, Raz. Marti’ll take good care of Serenity.” She was several steps away before she turned back just long enough to tell Serenity, “I’ll be at the bathhouse at least a couple hours, in the mixed area. Meet me there and I’ll show you to the Whale.”

For a moment, Serenity thought Raz was going to stay, but the lure of being clean was clearly too strong. He waved awkwardly as he left. “See you soon!”

Marti led the way down the hall, around a corner, up a flight of stairs, and then wove through a maze of corridors that all looked the same to Serenity. Serenity knew they must be close when he started feeling not only the Death mana that was in the air everywhere on Tzintkra but Death-tainted Essence.

They turned one last corner and Serenity saw a man lying on a bed who seemed to be tossing and turning in the grips of a nightmare. He was the closest source of the Death-tainted Essence, though Serenity didn’t think he was the only source. It wasn’t nearly as strong as it had been around Moira, but it was still noticeable. In a chair next to the bed sat an exhausted-looking man.

The exhausted-looking man looked up when the door opened. “Marti? Why are you here?”

“You said you needed someone who could do something about curses.” She waved Serenity forward. “I said I’d keep an eye out. This is Serenity, he’s new.”

The man seemed a little more energetic after the partial introduction. “I’m Rin - Healer Desariin if you’re being formal. Lak here - he disappeared about a week ago, was found two days ago. He’s unaffiliated other than the Guild, a bit of a troublemaker. When he was found, he was unconscious. So he was brought here to sleep it off. Only he started tossing and turning, acting like he was running a fever, but with no fever.”

“When he didn’t wake up, I checked him out. There’s nothing wrong with him that I can find - some small injuries and large bruises on his arms and his back, but nothing that should cause this. There’s definitely something wrong; he improves temporarily whenever I flood his body with healing. Whatever it is, I can’t see it. Unfortunately, Syri - she’s our cursebreaker - she’s also sick with something a lot like this. She was the first to disappear and then show up like this.”

“Which is why you think it’s a curse. Someone knew who to target first.” Serenity could follow the logic.

“Yeah. The thing that worries me is that curses aren’t usually contagious, and this one seems to be. So perhaps it’s a disease, but then why is it being caught by people who disappear for a few days?” Rin put his hands on his knees and stared at them. Serenity followed Rin’s gaze and saw that Rin’s hands looked far less healthy than the man himself. They looked a little shrunken and dry, with larger knots at each joint, and the bones looked a little elongated.

If they hadn’t been attached to a clearly living human, Serenity would have assumed he was looking at the hands of a draugr.

Serenity turned to the man on the bed. He was fully clothed, so it wasn’t easy to see much, but his hands showed the same signs and the shape of his face also seemed a little off from normal human. Again, he looked dried out, but his teeth were sharper than they should be, and when Serenity felt Lak’s forehead, he could feel the beginning of the ridge of bone that would reinforce that part of the skull in a draugr. It wasn’t nearly as pronounced as it would be in a true draugr; Serenity guessed the transformation still had a ways to go.

Serenity wished he could check the man’s animating Affinity to see if he was using Life energy or Death energy, but he’d just had a reminder of how bad an idea showing eyes of blue-white fire could be around other people - and he was currently mostly undead. He’d have to wait until he was alone for that.

The Essence around the man felt strange. It was clearly Death-tainted, but it was far stronger and more overt than the Essence he’d felt around monsters, whether they were in the dungeon or in the forest. It didn’t have the same stale feeling as the Essence he’d seen in Moira and the craftsman who’d nearly killed himself. Margrethe might know - wait. Margrethe wasn’t the only person who could answer that question. “Have you had someone from Order’s Guild out here to look at them?”

Rin’s voice was puzzled when he answered. “No, it’s obviously not monster core poisoning. Why - what makes you think they could help?”

Serenity knew he couldn’t say that he could feel the Essence. Margrethe was quite clear about that; that would draw the attention of her Guild, and he might not have a chance to explain. “It’s not poisoning, no, but there’s something similar. If they’d looked at it, maybe they’d have information I don’t.” He shrugged. “I think I can do something, at least. Let’s step a little ways away and I can look at your hands?”

They went down the hallway to another room. When they were most of the way there, Rin turned to Serenity and jumped. “You don’t have silver tattoos? I thought- No, I shouldn’t have.”

Serenity wasn’t sure what Rin was referring to, other than the lines that appeared when he was in close proximity to Essence - or, apparently, a ley line. It was good to know they were silver now; they’d been black back in the Tutorial. Serenity didn’t know why or when that had changed, but assumed it was probably one of his evolutions.

“That means we’re far enough away to be safe.” It actually meant he wasn’t absorbing Essence anymore, but that was pretty much the same thing.

Serenity paused. He’d been absorbing Death-tainted Essence, but he hadn’t been watching what happened to it. What did that mean for the Heart?

“Do you need anything? I should have asked earlier, I know most curses take material components to break.” Rin stopped outside a door in the hallway.

Serenity stepped into the room. “I won’t need any materials, but - that’s a good idea. Could I have a bit of privacy, please? I need to center myself before we begin, and I’d rather do that in private. It won’t take long.” Rin and Marti stopped outside and Serenity closed the door.

The room was nearly identical to the one they’d just left, with a bed, a chair, a small desk, and a tiny dresser. There was no decoration on any of the walls; they were simply whitewashed brick.

Serenity sat on the bed and sent his attention to the Heart, which seemed more or less the same as it had since he’d entered the dungeon - unhappy but not fighting - and then checked the rest of his body.

One of his feet was fully consumed, and the other had only a couple of toes left.

Serenity decided it would be better to finish this now than risk going past the safe point while healing Healer Rin. He needed to accelerate it just a bit, while monitoring the progress, so he expanded his aura as far as he could go, then slowly increased the intensity of Eat Death. The Heart started grabbing pieces of the Death energy he gathered, and Serenity watched as it consumed the remainder of his foot.

Serenity lowered the intensity of his aura and pulled it in close before attempting to talk to the Voice.

Can you lock it in now? I think this is as far as is safe.

[Path Rejected: A Lich Again]

He felt his Death-based abilities and incarnate fade away behind the Voice’s lock again. This time, he felt some of what the Voice did. He knew he didn’t have the power to break the lock, though the Final Reaper would have been able to do it.

He might be able to finesse his way past, but that wouldn’t serve his goal right now.

It looked like he was going to have to take advantage of the Tutorial again, to gain that week’s time with his Death abilities locked out and still be able to heal Rin, Lak, Syri, and whoever else was being affected by this.

The only problem was that he wasn’t sure how good he’d be at teaching Death magic when he couldn’t use it directly. Maybe he could finess it with some rune usage, some lectures, and a ritual or two? It only had to be a week, after all, then he could evolve and unlock it again. He’d have to run some Trials and maybe part of the Solo Dungeon for the Core progression, but that was simple enough.

[Tutorials Completed as Instructor: 42/180]