Ita tza’Unkaa shivered as she huddled in the dimess and mist her new Lord had suggested she make. She couldn’t very well see out of it; hopefully no one else could see in.

Only she wasn’t Ita tza’Unkaa anymore, was she? Unkaa had fallen; they had to have failed for the Kaelitha to treat her the way they had. As though she were nothing, with no one who cared. At first, they’d been careful, but that had changed.

More than that, she’d changed fields the moment she could. Serenity - she’d submitted to him, thinking he was a Shameful One. She still wasn’t certain that he wasn’t; he leaked power like a Shameful One, but on this world so did the Battlelord.

He was fluid. That wasn’t an ability anyone who followed the Honor Path would use. At the same time, he didn’t seem to be Shameless; not only did he not seem to follow one of the Shameful Ones, he was remarkably open about being fluid, dissolving in front of others.

Ita shivered again. The first time had been bad enough, parts of him disappearing in shadows, but the second time he’d turned into the shadows himself. It was something straight out of a Hero Tale, not something she’d ever expected to see herself.

And yet there was something about the shadows that seemed different; she knew which ones were Serenity and which were simply shadows.

That wasn’t what she needed to figure out, though. The reason she was worried wasn’t really Serenity except as he affected her. She’d decided to herd with him; no one else would take her now, and she was happy with that. Her concern was - what was her name now? Was she Ita tza’Serenity, Ita verat a’Serenity, or something else? Someone else?

She didn’t think she was Ita tza’Serenity. A colored honormark meant she was Shameless. Which pointed at him being a Shameful One in truth.

Could a Shameful One truly be less powerful than a Battlelord? Or was he hiding something?

And what did it mean for Ita?

Serenity could hear the two scientists whispering when he came close to the door to the room they were in, but even a few feet away they weren’t audible. He probably shouldn’t have asked them to call for help; silence would have been wiser. Still, there wasn’t another good way to get backup and if he did this correctly it wouldn’t matter if they were heard. He’d just have to kill silently before the Sterath could shout a warning.

Serenity floated back to the door to the multi-use room and waited for the Sterath to enter. It went to the left and Serenity followed. He floated back to ground level and started to shift before realizing that he had a better way to kill silently and it didn’t require anything other than his Sovereign of Potential form.

Merge. He’d never done it consciously and the very idea bothered him, but he couldn’t really pin down why it bothered him. He was going to kill the Sterath either way; all this did was leave less traces behind in the physical world. Okay, he’d have to clean up his mind, but he had the tools to do that. Yes, it was the better option.

Serenity had already pulled himself together at the doorway leading out of the room; as the Sterath turned to leave, he flowed out and covered the entire room.

It was easier than he’d thought. He was, they were, he was.

Serenity knew everything the Sterath had known for a moment, before he stuffed it to the back of his mind.

He didn’t want to know that the Sterath was a creche-raised four-year-old soldier who’d trained as a Scout because he was unusually perceptive. Perceptive enough to know that he was expected to die, but also perceptive enough to know that some made it. That was where the teachers came from, after all.

He didn’t want to know that the soldier had hoped he would meet death in battle, or that he considered death a better ending than returning to teach. He didn’t want to know that the soldier had never expected to be anything other than a soldier, because that was the highest calling anyone could have.

There was a moment of dissonance as the young Sterath’s beliefs fought with Serenity’s, then Serenity succeeded in shoving them out of his mind as well. The soldier would haunt his dreams until he finished the cleansing process, and he now understood why that was such a huge gift.

What he remembered even after shoving most of it out of his thoughts made Serenity despise the Sterath more than he already did, and that didn’t help anything. He needed to defeat them, not hate them. Certainly the young soldier hadn’t been someone to hate. Serenity also needed to avoid pitying the misled soldiers; they still had to be stopped.

The one thing Serenity could easily say about Merge is that it was a fast, silent kill. Now he needed to get one or maybe two of them alone and do it again. Preferably ones that wouldn’t be missed immediately.

Serenity stalked the Sterath, striking as they explored the “safe” building. His next Merge was a pair near the entrance; they were relaxed, talking as they “guarded” the door. He took both at once, and found out that Merge definitely had a cost. It cost Essence, and how much it cost seemed to depend on who he was trying to Merge with.

He hadn’t noticed it with the three humans because he wasn’t entirely conscious and he hadn’t really noticed it with the first Sterath, but it was obvious when he took two Sterath at once. They were both Tier Two instead of the lowly Tier One of the first Sterath, who he now knew had been the youngest soldier in the Scout Strike Group. They were far more expensive; between the two of them, more than half of his available Essence disappeared.

They also had far more memories, but strangely it didn’t feel like it took much longer to push them away. They were more cynical than the young soldier, but equally uninterested in surviving to old age; they simply wanted to win this fight, even if it cost their lives. One had the goal of reaching Tier Three first, but the other didn’t care; he was content with his current role.

Neither would ever move beyond Tier Two. Serenity felt a moment of loss for that as he finished sealing their memories in the box at the back of his mind.

He rose back to the ceiling and returned to the large room where the apparent group leader was still using the wand to inspect the circles where the portals had been. He seemed somewhat frustrated with what he found, but didn’t say anything that gave Serenity a clue about what he did or didn’t find.

It was clear that they didn’t actually expect anyone to be there. The searching was rote, to satisfy themselves that they did their duty, but even the memories of the soldiers Serenity had absorbed said they thought it was wasted effort. Everything Serenity saw them do showed the same half-hearted attempt to do what they should. It was making picking them off individually much easier.

Serenity waited for a bit, watching as his Essence refilled. Three other Sterath came and went from the large room, but there was one Sterath Serenity hadn’t seen yet. Since he apparently wasn’t expected in the commander’s presence, he would make a good target. Serenity guessed that the likely place was outside the building; he didn’t have time to check everywhere. He needed to take care of as many as he could before One realized Eight wasn’t coming back.

Serenity paused as he realized that the One and Eight designations had come from the Sterath memories instead of his own. They were simply rank order within the Scout Strike Group; they would change if they were pulled into another unit.

Serenity shook himself mentally again and moved on.

The missing Sterath was stationed near the front of the deserted building, where he could see the scientists’ van and anyone coming from the street. He couldn’t see the broken entrance or be seen from it; that explained why Serenity hadn’t found him earlier. Serenity doubted he’d have placed anyone there; the threat of being seen seemed worse than the threat of not seeing someone coming.

Of course, Serenity knew that his people hadn’t found them yet. It was always easier to see your own side’s issues than your opponent’s.

He was no more of a challenge than the first soldier, though he dropped Serenity’s Essence available low enough that Serenity couldn’t risk taking on the remaining four without more time to let it rebuild. He wasn’t confident he could get even one more; this latest one had taken more Essence than any of the others, almost as much as the pair he’d taken together. He was no higher in Tier; it seemed like resistance simply cost Essence instead of effort. Perhaps it would be possible to reduce the Essence cost with more effort somehow? Most things could be more efficient with practice.

Serenity was beginning to feel a little off from being so low on Essence. It wasn’t the unconsciousness of low Mana; instead it felt more like being groggy and slightly nauseous at the same time. Or perhaps the nausea was simply from Merging with so many in quick succession; that was also possible.

Serenity disliked the low efficiency of the Skill, but it was time to use Second Wind. He dumped all of his Stamina and some of his Mana into recovering his Essence. The grogginess cleared, though he still felt tired. The nausea didn’t improve. He knew his Stamina would recover quickly; if the conversion efficiency weren’t so poor he’d have dumped his Mana as well, but he didn’t want to be out of Mana if he ended up in a straight-up fight and it wouldn’t recover the way his Stamina would.

Serenity checked the time and was surprised how little had passed; no wonder he hadn’t gotten much Essence back yet. It had only been about twenty minutes since they ran to hide. Serenity was still a little surprised he hadn’t seen any police yet; he’d expected them to be visible when he went outside.

Serenity was able to quietly pick off one more before One started to get nervous and wonder what was going on. He sent Six to find Eight; Serenity took advantage of that to quietly take Six out as well. The only two left were One and Three, and Serenity wasn’t confident he had enough Essence left to Merge with either of them.

Taking out Six took Serenity close to the room the two scientists and Ita were hiding in, so he filtered in to check on them. The scientists were still on their phones in one corner, while Ita huddled in another corner. They were all partially hidden by the room’s shadows and Ita’s spells; it wouldn’t prevent them from being seen, but even a small delay would be good.

It was oddly difficult to shift to his human form; he felt a pull to the new Sterath forms he’d acquired. It took more out of him than he was willing to admit to become temporarily human.

“There are only two left. I haven’t heard any police?” Serenity’s soft voice pulled the attention of Rachel and Allen towards him; Ita had watched him enter the room, but apparently the two humans hadn’t noticed.

“They’re pulling together a response team. Apparently everybody they think can deal with this was elsewhere?” Rachel didn’t sound happy.

“They’re coordinating. That’s the term they used.” Serenity took a good look at Dr. Ridge and realized that unlike Rachel, he wasn’t still on his phone. Instead, he had a tablet out and was tapping away at it without looking up. “The mana leakage interference level has dropped significantly in the past few minutes; is that when you dealt with them? It was dropping slowly before that.”

Ah. It must be tied into the equipment in the van. Wait … was he really trying to do science while in a crisis?

Serenity couldn’t quite believe that, but he knew what he was seeing. He shook his head as he answered. “We can talk about that after we’re out of here. I think I know what it was.” There was no way Serenity was going to go into detail about two types of magic; he’d have to figure out what to say. For now, the best way to answer was to leave the room.

Serenity looked at Ita and tried to say something reassuring before he left. She couldn’t have understood what he’d said before, after all. “It’s only one Scout Strike Group; there are only two left. I’ll be back soon and we’ll get you somewhere safe.”