BattleLord Flameheart turned to his aide. “What were the results at the portal site? Were they able to clean it up enough?”

The aide shook his head. “They’re not back yet.”

“Odd. It must have been more difficult than I expected. Let me know when they arrive; I’d like to get their impressions firsthand.”

Serenity was low on both Essence and Mana; far lower on Essence than Mana, since he’d saved some Mana for future use. He really didn’t have enough Essence left to safely use Merge.

Serenity wanted to keep the Sterath leadership ignorant about what happened here; if they knew he’d captured - turned! - the portal mage, Serenity was certain they’d change things to keep him from taking advantage of her knowledge. If he kept them in the dark, though, they were unlikely to assume she was captured. He’d assumed it would be an easy task; he should have had the Essence to manage it. Unfortunately, after that last Sterath, he definitely didn’t.

If he fought them physically, he’d have a reasonable chance of winning but it was unlikely he’d be able to stop them from running. It was too bad Rachel’s call hadn’t worked out, but Serenity was just as glad they hadn’t sent someone without a combat Path. That was far too likely to end up with a dead human.

No, he needed something else. He’d made a good start with the six he’d already taken out, but there were two left and he needed another plan. Something that would make them surrender instead of run. Or die, of course; that would also mean that their higher-ups wouldn’t know what happened. The longer he could keep what happened secret, the more likely it was that he could use Ita’s knowledge.

Or the knowledge of the other Sterath. Serenity shuddered as he thought about the route they’d taken to get here from their small encampment. It wasn’t the main camp, but it was still fairly large, with about thirty Sterath; as many as they could hide in this dense a city. It was in an abandoned house -

- Or perhaps one where they’d killed the owner -

Serenity cut off the memory. He didn’t want to remember that right now. He needed to concentrate on not alerting the enemy.

Or perhaps alerting the enemy was exactly the right way to approach this? If he could cut off their way out, or at least make it seem like he’d cut it off and then channel them to him … yes. That might work. Sterath warriors tended to be suckers for battle challenges, and Serenity’s memories from the six Sterath he’d absorbed said that, if anything, Kaelitha Sterath were even more challenge-prone than average. He’d simply have to make himself look like someone worth taking a challenge from.

Showmanship. Bah. Serenity could manage it, sort of, but it wasn’t his preferred way to deal with things. Sometimes it was worth it, though, and this seemed like one of those times. Even if it was a dumbass plan.

What was that saying? “If it’s stupid and it works, it’s not stupid”? Serenity wasn’t certain he agreed right now. It was a stupid plan even if it worked; it depended on him adequately reading a pair of aliens, playing up to their preconceptions, and then it depended on those same aliens having enough honor to follow through on their forfeit. It might work, but it was still stupid.

He’d just have to add “and if it doesn’t work, kill them” to the end. Losing their information would be unfortunate but not as bad as letting them escape. He hoped he could manage it if it came to that.

It was time to actually come up with the plan.

Serenity knew he could set up portals relatively cheaply if they were close together. They were in a room with three exits; he’d simply have to link two of them, then appear at the third. If he could be appropriately intimidating, that might do it.

Serenity decided he’d “enter” from the glass doors that led outside; that way, even if the Sterath got away they wouldn’t think to check the hallway and find the people he was protecting.

He moved to the door into the hallway leading to the room he’d hidden the others in and built the spellform for a portal. Instead of the free-floating oval he’d used before, he wanted to use the doorframe; that was simple with Liminality. It complicated the overall spell since he needed a second Affinity, but a high Affinity like Liminality anchoring the SpaceTime location actually made the spell more mana-efficient. Serenity absently wondered if that explained why many portals, even some of the ones in the portal networks on some worlds, had frames they rested in.

It was a good thing that Serenity could cast using spellforms and pure mana formations; not only did it mean he could cast silently and without motion that would catch the eye, it meant he could cast while he stayed in his Sovereign of Potential form. Intelligent smoke casting spells; it was a strange thought.

The spell wasn’t complete without a destination for the other portal. Serenity drifted slowly over to the hallway he’d originally entered from, the one that led to the kitchen. It didn’t take long to tie the other hallway with Liminality and ready the spell to trigger.

The two remaining Sterath were nervous.

“Six? Eight? Get your soft carapaces out here!” One yelled towards the exit Serenity had just covered with a spellform.

Three hopped once towards the hallway. “I can go see what’s taking so long?”

“No. That’s what I sent Six to do. Something’s wrong with this place; it’s not just the lack of any sign of the portal explosion; do you think it ate the portal?” One slid the wand he’d been using into a holster attached to his belt.

It was almost too bad that Serenity couldn’t let them go. A house eating a portal and a group of Sterath soldiers was exactly the kind of rumor he wanted to start.

“N-no.” Three didn’t sound confident at all.

Serenity hurried as quickly over to the set of glass doors leading outside. He wasn’t quite there when it was obvious that One and Three weren’t going to wait any longer. He triggered the portal spell in front of Three as he hurried out through the doorway.

Three stopped short when he found himself facing One from behind, at a completely unexpected angle. “What - no!”

One pulled his wand as he whirled to face Three. When he saw it was Three, he lowered the wand but didn’t put it away. “How did you get over there?”

Serenity answered before Three could. “You may not leave.”

It sounded impressive in the royal dialect, but Serenity said it mostly to draw their attention. As the two Sterath turned to him, he made certain his wings were slightly spread. He’d only just managed to shift in time to speak. It was easier to reach his chimera form than human, but it was still harder than it should have been, especially when he was trying to shift quickly.

Serenity watched them for a moment before realizing he was missing a trick. He reached out for his Aspect of Death. He found it comforting, but he’d been told enough times that it made him intimidating for it to start sinking in.

Both of the Sterath flinched backwards. Three reacted fastest; he pushed open the door he stood next to and dashed out of the room.

Only to find himself running towards One from the other entrance. Three skidded to a halt and looked around the room for another way out.

Serenity tried to stop himself from grinning, then realized there was no need. “I said: You may not leave.”

Serenity knew he needed to push them into a situation where their honor would allow them to surrender; it was a difficult balance to reach, since not all Sterath extended the concept of honor to non-Sterath. At least, the ones he’d fought as Vengeance didn’t until he earned a Name from them.

Now all he had to do was somehow replicate that effect on two Sterath soldiers. He stood there feeling slightly silly about the dramatics for more than a minute until One finally spoke.

“You must let us out. It is our duty -”

“How is that my problem?” Serenity decided to push a bit more; he needed to keep the Sterath off balance. He pushed, allowing his Gaze of the Origin to rise into his eyes. “You are in my place now. You do not leave until I say you can.”

One and Three looked at each other. One gripped then released his wand. “What happened to the portal mage? The one that was here.”

Serenity smiled at the soldier’s dedication to duty - or was it his curiosity? Serenity could see that both were present. There was no reason not to tell the truth, but Serenity needed to shade it a bit to get the right effect. “She is mine.”

Three muttered, “I bet she’s dead. He seems like a -”

One slapped Three without taking his eyes off Serenity. “What happened to the rest of my Group?”

How best to answer that? Serenity needed to make it sound both intimidating and casual, and he couldn’t take much time to decide what to say. He went with his first reaction. “All of your Group is in this room.”

Serenity couldn’t be certain what One thought, but if One thought it meant the others were dead, that was close enough. It seemed unlikely that he would guess the truth.

One glanced at Three before looking back at Serenity. “You will let us out.” One was starting to sound desperate.

That was probably enough. Serenity hoped so, at least. It was time to spring the trap. He’d just have to think of some of the people he’d dealt with as the Final Reaper; he hadn’t liked them, but the one thing he had to admit was that they were good at pushing people. “Hmm. What do I want from you to let you out. Perhaps you have an idea?” Serenity didn’t pause long enough for One to come up with an answer. “No? Well then. Perhaps we’ll fall back on the old standard. Are you strong enough to make me let you out?”

One was Tier Three, but he seemed to be a Tier Three mage. Three was only Tier Two, the same as Serenity. Serenity didn’t think that was really a fair comparison, however; Serenity had far more training than any Tier Two should have. On top of that, Serenity strongly suspected that a chimera was natively stronger than a Sterath, the same way he was stronger in his chimera form than his human form.

“A fair fight, perhaps? One of you against me. If you win, you can leave. I’ll even let both of you go. If you lose, however, you must surrender to me. Oh, and I’ll even give you another gift. If you wish, we can have the fight without active magic use. I won’t cast spells if you don’t.” That was a trap, of course. Serenity did still have his infused spells, but they were still the only ones he could reliably cast in a fast-paced combat. A proper spellcaster would have more. If they refused, Serenity would have a harder time, but his antimagic ax would go a long way towards evening things out.

“A fair fight.” One released his wand and gripped the long knife sheathed next to it. “Why would a Shameful One offer anything fair?”

Serenity grinned, deliberately showing his sharp teeth. “I offered fair, I didn’t offer to lose. I believe I’ll win, of course.”

He also hadn’t said he was a Shameful One, but pretending to be one was helpful.

One didn’t even look at Three. “You will follow the rules of an Honor Battle?”

Serenity smiled. The trick worked. Now all he had to do was win the fight. “Yes.”

“Then I accept.”