Neither Ita nor the Scout Strike Group’s memories had any information on where Tranquil Conviction might be; none of them had known he was present on the planet.

Ita simply seemed to accept that Serenity could remember some things from the Sterath he’d killed. Serenity almost wanted to ask her why, but he wasn’t certain that he wanted to hear myths about the Shameful Ones. Even if they were true, he’d need time to pick out the facts that mattered, and he didn’t have either the time or attention to do that today.

The Sterath were even more limited by the loss of Ita and possibly another portal mage than Serenity had realized; the reason they were using locations like the abandoned church building was that most of the portal mages didn’t have the capability to reach some of the safe houses from the invasion portal. Ita would have, but there would still have been the need to get her there, and for some reason they’d prohibited her from creating a link to the site of the invasion portal.

It was in some ways unfortunate and in some ways fortunate that Ita needed a connection in order to make a portal. There were several ways to make that connection; for the portals on Earth, she’d taken the relatively easy route of creating the circles that held them at each end. It meant that she had to have been to all of the locations where she was creating a portal to and from, and the circles were paired. It limited the Sterath to certain routes, all of which were disrupted by Ita’s absence, and it meant that she’d walked some of the routes herself.

It also meant that for any of the locations she’d reached through someone else’s portal, she couldn’t use a sense of Space to figure out where she was. She didn’t even have the Space Affinity, which raised questions in Serenity’s mind; he’d thought he felt SpaceTime mana from the portal she made. Was that simply because it was a portal and therefore looked like SpaceTime to him, or was there something more fundamental?

How Affinities interacted with each other was relatively poorly understood; some people did the research, but without a good way to share the knowledge it was all too often lost with its discoverer. Of course, many of those people didn’t really want to share; they were doing the research for their own benefit.

Ita’s travels told them there were at least four Sterath safe houses they hadn’t identified - two additional routes - but they hadn’t been able to figure out either of them. Ita had walked through them at night and she didn’t remember anything notable that was distinctive enough.

By dinnertime Serenity and Ita had determined two places that might be the invasion portal location and seven more that probably were safe houses they’d need to clear out. They kept talking as they ate pizza, trying to figure out anything they’d missed. Serenity was happy Ita had finally mostly relaxed; she’d still freeze sometimes when she thought about it, but she mostly treated him like a coworker.

Serenity sent the data on, then wished Ita a good night. On the way to the door, he realized that Ita didn’t have a way to call for help if something happened. She needed a phone - or did she? Couldn’t he just leave the tablet here?

Serenity quickly pulled up Aide’s tab in his Status. He wasn’t sure if Aide was watching or not; he often didn’t. Either way, he’d reply quickly to a Request.

Request: Can you set up the tablet to call me easily?

Aide: Only if I connect it to the local wireless router. I could set up the phone to call you and only you using the cellular network. Altering the tablet to enable cellular connection is possible but would require cannibalizing the phone.

Request: The phone is fine, please set it up.

Serenity pulled the phone out of his pocket and looked down at it. The screen lit, showing a green circle that said Call Serenity.

After a moment, the words shimmered into written Sterath; instead of Call, it said Contact, but that was close enough. Serenity handed the phone to Ita. “Here; if you need me, touch the green circle. The screen will go dark soon; click this button and it should light up, then you can touch the green spot.”

Ita looked around the room then carefully walked over to the tiny desk and set the phone down next to the motel’s room phone. “I will remember.”

“Sleep well, then. I’m not sure if I’ll be by tomorrow or not, but Janice will make sure you have anything you need.”

Ita looked positively lonely as Serenity left. He couldn’t stay; he needed to consult with his father. On top of that, Rissa would be in the city soon; he wanted to be there when she arrived or at least be at his parents’ place. “Janice? Please remind me to get back here tomorrow. Maybe in the morning.”

If nothing else, he could meditate and cleanse the other Steraths’ memories in the same room as Ita. He wasn’t sure if that would help or not, but it wouldn’t hurt. Perhaps he should talk to his father about her? No, better yet. His mother. Bethany Rothmer would surely have an idea on how to deal with a defector, wouldn’t she?

Serenity was in the middle of telling his mother about Ita and her situation when he noticed Janice lever herself off the couch. “I’ll be back in an hour or so.”

It was nearly time for Rissa’s plane to land; she’d caught a commuter jet from New York City about an hour before. By the time they could reach the airport, she’d be on the ground and would likely have her luggage if she’d bothered to check any. Serenity felt conflicted; he wanted to see Rissa, but he knew he would soon either way and he also wanted to help Ita. He was about to ask Janice to wait for him when his mother beat him to it.

“Picking up Rissa? I’ve been looking forward to seeing her in person. Why don’t we all go?” Bethany smiled, looking at Serenity instead of Janice.

Serenity nodded. He could keep talking to her about Ita while Janice drove.

Serenity’s deep purple hair gathered only a few looks as he headed into Baggage Claim. Rissa wasn’t waiting outside as expected; instead, she was in the airline’s Baggage Service Office when he called to find out why she was delayed. It took Serenity a few minutes to find it; she was walking out as he arrived.

Rissa only had her carryon backpack; her small rolling bag wasn’t there.

“Rissa!”

Rissa looked up and glanced around; when she saw Serenity, she broke into a run for the dozen or so steps it took to reach him, then jumped like a teenager, wrapping her arms and legs around him.

Serenity caught her solidly; it was a bit more extreme than her usual greeting, but it wasn’t entirely unexpected. “Rissa, it’s so good to see you.” He wrapped his arms around her, supporting her upper body - and not at all incidentally giving her a solid hug.

Rissa squeezed him tightly. “You too.”

Serenity stood there, supporting Rissa’s weight as well as his own, until Rissa unhooked her legs and slid down to stand on her own feet. “We should head outside.”

“Janice is circling. We can take as long as we want.” Serenity hugged Rissa tight for a moment, then let her go before turning to head outside.

“I told you you needed an assistant.” Rissa’s voice bubbled with mirth.

Serenity knew she was right; it’d taken him a while to admit it, but he had to admit that Janice had already shown her value; her assistance with Ita alone was huge. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, ah, what happened to your luggage?”

“Hahaha.” Rissa’s voice was still warm as she laughed. “I saw what you did there.” Her voice became a little flatter as she continued. “Apparently it didn’t come off the plane; it’s already on its way to Charlotte. They’ll pull it there and get it on another plane back here; once it arrives, they’ll deliver it to your parents’ house. It should arrive tomorrow, but we’ll need to stop at a store to pick up some toiletries and clothes.”

Serenity decided he’d get another phone as well, as long as they were going to be in a store anyway. It wasn’t like he needed to get another phone plan, after all; Aide would just link it to his current plan. He didn’t even need to get a particularly high-end phone, since it was mostly for display anyway. A phone was easier to carry than a tablet, that was all.

“-helped me find some possible locations for the Sterath invasion portal and some of the Sterath safe houses, but we know there are at least four neither of us could locate. I think she’s lonely.” Serenity’s story had gotten more polished as he told it for the third time; it also helped that Rissa didn’t need nearly as much backtracking as Serenity’s parents.

“You need to cleanse those memories first. The idea of being influenced and you don’t realize it -” Rissa shivered.

Serenity nodded. He agreed; he hadn’t had time yet today, but it was the first thing he planned for the next day. “Tonight’s for you. I figure I can finish up some time tomorrow if I start in the morning.”

“As for Ita … you said she has a spell that means she can understand what someone is saying as long as she casts it on someone in the room?” Rissa paused; when Serenity nodded, she continued. “I have some things I need to take care of, but I can do them in a hotel room just as well as I can here. I wasn’t about to let the airline handle my laptop, thankfully. I can sit with her and we can talk or watch something; I’d like to find out a bit more about her, and while you’re busy would be a good time. You two can join in if you want.”

Janice nodded, but Bethany shook her head. “Maybe in the evening, but I doubt I’ll have long. Things are pretty busy at work right now. A lot of refugees in a lot of different places and I’m still not sure exactly what’s going on in Bahrain. Plus there’s India…” Bethany shook her head. “Never mind, that’s nothing you need to deal with right now. What you can do something about, actually, is Ita. Janice, do you have the contacts to leak something incomplete but juicy to the news?”

Janice frowned. “Maybe. It’s not something I ever did, but I have dealt with a number of reporters over the years. They mostly focused on business news.”

Bethany smiled. “I bet you’ve been wanting to get Serenity on some talk shows, haven’t you?”

Janice nodded. Serenity was only slightly horrified at the idea; he didn’t really like public speaking, but he knew it was necessary.

“Call them up, schedule some appearances. They may refer you to someone else; that’s fine. While you’re on the phone, take some time and chat. Try to drop in an offhand comment about Serenity working with a Sterath defector. If the timing feels right, mention she’s a freed slave. Whichever piece of information you drop, ask them to keep it quiet until the Sterath are defeated in a few days - and make sure to schedule the appearances at least a week out to give Serenity time to deal with them.” Bethany’s grin was fierce.

Janice nodded along with Bethany’s plan. “I think I’ll offer them an earlier appearance if they keep it to no longer than an hour because of Serenity’s other commitments. That should make it easy to work in.”

Serenity was glad he had other people to handle public relations. He could see part of the shape of what they were planning - make it safe for Ita by making her known and sympathetic - but he’d never have come up with a workable plan on his own. At least, not this plan.