[Quest Updated: Seeded World]

Battlelord FlameHeart looked up from his messenger in surprise. It wasn’t normal to get a quest update before one of his messengers reported it, and the last time that happened was one of the Shameful Ones getting involved!

This quest had been a mess ever since they left SecondHome, and he didn’t need any more surprises. A world that was not only unexpectedly inhabited but heavily inhabited with an insanely large, dense city as their portal location was more than enough. The fact that the planet was painfully low-Tier didn’t help.

The only good thing so far was that they’d managed to escape the attention of the local ruling caste, other than one incident with a young lord’s bodyguard. It’d taken a while to realize that most of the ground-flyers actually belonged to peasants, but the lack of weapons meant they must. The Battlelord had made sure that the idiot no-rank who aggravated them was on latrine duty thereafter, but that didn’t change the result.

At least they weren’t able to follow the no-rank to the hidden temporary base.

The only problem with the base was that the route to and from the portal wasn’t secure, but the portal location was impossible to secure. There simply wasn’t space for more than a small force to remain unseen, and until they knew how strong the local lords were, it wasn’t worth the risk of being seen.

The Battlelord pulled up the Quest update. Bad news didn’t get better from waiting.

[Quest Update: A Sovereign has been born to your opponents. To achieve full victory, the Sovereign must be defeated or otherwise prevented from aiding them]

That didn’t make any sense. A Sovereign’s birth wouldn’t change anything; they usually took years to grow to maturity and fill out their band. Even if they were a replacement Sovereign and inherited a swarm, that wouldn’t make it worth a quest update, especially not for simply being born.

On top of that, the locals appeared to be human. Humans weren’t a Hive species. While there were a lot of Human variants, FlameHeart had never heard of a swarming variant.

Were the opponents simply pretending to be human, or was there another allied species they hadn’t found yet?

More reconnaissance was required, no matter what the Shameful One wanted. BattleLord FlameHeart wasn’t going to commit his forces without knowing what he faced.

On second thought, this Shameful One would likely approve. He was known as the Lord of Strategy, after all. That was almost enough to make FlameHeart change his decision, but he knew his duty, even if it trampled his honor. There was a reason each Shameful One always had a following, even among the nobility.

Dreams raced through Serenity’s mind. Important moments flashed by, yet he knew they weren’t his important moments. Running, working out, exploring a dusty library, time spent on a shooting range, a flash of a woman’s face. It all meant something, but none of it was his.

It was like waking up after the dream of the Final Reaper, only it was far less intense. It was all from his own perspective, yet he knew somehow that it wasn’t him. The memories of Vengeance and the Final Reaper were his own, even though they hadn’t happened. They shaped who Serenity was. These dreams did not. Serenity pushed at the memories, and they faded to the memory of a dream, then less, the wisp that would mostly vanish upon waking.

Serenity woke slowly and groggily. He felt like he was still mostly asleep, as though he’d stayed up far too late and not gotten much rest. He picked himself up off the floor, but only made it to a seated position before his dizziness told him to wait a bit before trying to stand. He still ached, but at least this time he recognized all of the places that hurt as belonging to his own body.

He looked around and realized he sat in the living room of Liam’s townhouse. It took him a moment to recognize the difference; the circle with the artifact was missing.

Rissa knelt on one knee in front of him, getting her face to only slightly higher than his own. “How are you feeling?”

“I ache all over and I think I’m too dizzy to stand.” Rissa was his fiancee, yes, but she was also his Healer. Serenity knew better than to pretend to be in better shape than he was to a healer. They’d usually know and call him an idiot if he did, but if they didn’t realize it, he’d end up back in a bad situation while still hurt. “The last thing I really remember was trying to carry you out of here. Everything’s fuzzy after that. What happened?”

Rissa shrugged. “We were both knocked out. They must have gotten you worse than they got me, because I woke up tied up in that ritual circle in the kitchen. I tried to heal you, but I’m not sure how much it helped. Liam did the ritual, but I don’t think it went the way he expected. You, er.” Rissa stopped and rubbed the back of her neck, clearly unsure how to continue.

Serenity would have thought she was nervous, except that he knew she wasn’t. She had complete faith in him and was simply trying to figure out how to describe what she saw. Serenity wasn’t certain how he’d earned that much trust.

Serenity could feel Russ’s gaze from the chair he sat in on the other side of the room. Russ seemed keyed up, as though he were worried about his daughter’s safety. Serenity didn’t think he’d done anything that should cause a father’s worry, but he couldn’t really remember. “Something about the Void? I saw … there were three names. And some strange memories. Plus I finished a Path somehow. Did I do something?”

Rissa nodded. “Your eyes went all strange, then everything went dark. There were three people outside the circle before, but the next I saw, I was outside the circle and they were gone. You were … you were made of living darkness. Then you collapsed. It’s been hours.”

Serenity nodded. “I’m amazed I was able to do anything, then. I’m still not in great shape from whatever was in those darts.”

“That’s the problem.” Russ’s voice pulled Serenity’s attention off Rissa. “I’m not sure it was you.”

“Who else would it have been?” Serenity wasn’t sure how he’d prove that he’d done something he didn’t remember doing, or even if he wanted to. It didn’t sound like he’d done anything he wouldn’t have normally, though, so why was Russ worried?

“There are a few possibilities, and none of them are good. The Dark Man or one of the Ones Behind the Veil could easily have managed it; you might not ever know. The best would be if they simply left no trace, but that’s unlikely; they have goals, and none of them would help without a price.” Russ shook his head. “It’s tough with you not remembering. I understand why you don’t, knockout drugs will do that sometimes, but I couldn’t see enough.”

Serenity didn’t know what to think about the entire experience; he hadn’t even known anything could affect his Species other than the Voice. The Path he’d gotten wasn’t much help-

The Path he’d gotten. It was actually a lot of help. “It was me. If it weren’t, I wouldn’t have gotten this Path. Paths are always based on what you do; it’s possible to get a Path offered that you really wouldn’t want.”

Russ had an odd expression on his face. “A Path you wouldn’t want? What do you mean?”

“I once met someone with a Path that made it easier for him to be possessed by ghosts. That’s the sort of Path you can end up with if something else picks your Path. As for others you wouldn’t like, well, there are Paths that make you a better, happier, slave. Some people willingly take them because they’re a slave no matter what and they want to be happy.” Serenity shuddered. “I hate even the idea of those Paths.”

The Final Reaper did more than hate the idea, but Serenity didn’t need to think about that now. In the future perhaps he’d choose to try to do something, but he’d definitely need to pick a different method. The one the Final Reaper used didn’t end well. Few things he did ever had good outcomes in the end.

“That’s horrifying. I thought you said all Paths are equal?” Russ clearly hadn’t expected that bombshell.

“No, I said there’s no such thing as a useless Path and to choose the one that suits who you want to be and what you want or expect to do. Unfortunately, people do choose those Paths for reasons they think are good. Otherwise they wouldn’t exist. I’m not planning to talk about them; they’ll be found eventually, but I don’t need to make it easier.” Serenity wasn’t sure if those were exactly the words he’d used in the interview, but they were what he’d meant.

While Russ shuddered, Serenity pulled up the details on his new Path and sent it to both Russ and Rissa. He doubted it would allay all of Russ’s concerns, since Serenity himself had some worries about the Path, but at least it was evidence that he wasn’t possessed or something.

Serenity could tell where in the Path Russ was reading by watching his face. The magic-oriented abilities seemed to interest him, while most of the Void ones concerned him. The oddest expression had to be while he was reading Void Protector. It fit the other Void abilities only in that it still involved the adaptable nature of the Void Sovereign form.

“I’ve never heard of a Void Sovereign. The word Kernel is a little worrying, since it sounds like something you’d build around. Why do you have-” Russ stopped as a thought struck him. “No, I guess I did know that you’re a shapeshifter. You’re a really cute hatchling dragon.”

“Thanks,” Serenity stated dryly. “I always wanted to know that my father-in-law thought I was cute.”

Russ gave a sudden sharp laugh while Rissa giggled. “I tell him that, Dad. You’re not supposed to. Isn’t that a violation of the man code?”

Russ smiled and shook his head but didn’t say anything as he reread the list of Path abilities. “Can you send me another Path for comparison?”

Serenity did, and he knew Rissa had as well when her Time’s Eye Path popped up in front of him. He gave it a quick glance, but he knew Rissa would forgive him if he paid more attention to her father’s concerns just then.

Russ sighed and leaned back in the chair. “Well, I think I can safely say that you’re right. It was you, and you weren’t possessed. That reduces the possible problems a lot. Unfortunately, it’s clear you were changed, and it’s not clear that you knew what you were getting into.”

Serenity couldn’t argue that at all. “It’s probably safe to say I didn’t. I’m still not sure I do.”

“I might, but that depends on how similar it is to things I’ve heard of. The problem is that they were all enemies, so what we have are good guesses more than anything else.” Russ shook his head. “Some of those guesses will be very useful if they’re true, but I bet we’ll both be finding it out as it happens. The important thing is that I know enough now to know how to handle what happened and prove that you’re safe to be around. As safe as any of us are, at least.”

“What do you mean?” Serenity was perfectly safe to be around as long as you didn’t threaten him or one of his people.

“Neither the Dark Man nor the Shadows can stand the Starlit Sea. Nothing innately inimical to mankind can. Therefore.” Russ took a deep breath and started an obviously practiced question. “Serenity, will you stand with Rissa, protect her, and aid her in her tasks, placing your Sword in service to her Eye? This is not an agreement that should be taken lightly; you can say Yes later but it may not be possible to again say No.” Russ looked directly into Serenity’s eyes as he asked the question.

Serenity was confident he’d asked it before; the question had the feel of the beginning of a ritual to it. Even so it was clear that Russ meant each word he said. “Yes. I will.”

As far as Serenity was concerned, he’d already agreed to that.

Russ nodded at Serenity’s quick response. “Good. Then we should get started; the ritual to make you Rissa’s Guardian won’t take long, but I want to get to the Guardian Sea as quickly as possible.”

Serenity couldn’t help but feel a little coerced; it was clear that Russ wasn’t comfortable with him now and thought it would help. Still, getting along with his in-laws was worth quite a bit, and it didn’t sound like becoming Rissa’s Guardian would force Serenity to do anything he didn’t already intend to. It might not be worth it on its own, but as the cost for keeping peace in the family, it seemed like a small price to pay.