[Global Quest: Permanently deal with all Invasion Portals and remove the threat of the invaders]

[Quest Status: 32/512]

Serenity frowned. The number of portals closed hadn’t gone up when he closed the portal. That had to mean that the Voice wasn’t counting the Sterath invasion as complete. At a guess, he’d have to at least deal with the BattleLord. Serenity hoped that was all there was to it; if he had to actually defeat Tranquil Conviction in battle, he’d be in trouble. If all he had to do was win the contest, he had a chance.

Either way, whatever Dr. Ridge found to the south was the next target.

Everyone was quiet as Serenity headed away from the platform to find the SWAT team. Serenity heard Rissa tease Raz about “leaving a mess behind” as she picked up the trenchcoat he’d dropped before the battle started, but other than that, no one said anything.

Brown was waiting for them at the top of the stairs. “All clear?”

Serenity nodded. “Yeah. There’s a bit of a mess at the end of the platform, but they’re cleared out of here.” Serenity paused and his slight smile flipped into a frown. “This isn’t the last group if that’s what you mean.”

Brown frowned as well. “Can it wait til tomorrow? I need to manage this scene now. I can get some people together if it has to be right now, but tomorrow morning would be a lot better.”

Serenity considered the timing for a moment. It was unlikely the BattleLord would kick anything off that quickly; the most that would happen would be moving some Sterath around. It might take a while to locate the spell guarding him, as well. “Tomorrow should be fine. It’ll probably be a lot like today; we haven’t actually located the next location yet.”

Brown’s frown got even deeper. “See if you can do that before we join you, but don’t go in til we’re there.”

Serenity inclined his head but didn’t say anything. He wasn’t about to agree to those conditions; he’d go in if he felt it was appropriate. As far as he was concerned, the SWAT team was there mostly to handle civilians, not to deal with the Sterath. A UART team might be able to deal with Sterath, but as far as Serenity could tell, this SWAT team was still depending entirely on what they’d had before the Tutorials started. It wasn’t safe to set them against the Sterath - at least, not the ones above Tier One. They’d do fine against Tier One Sterath.

Brown took Serenity’s motion as agreement and waved at him to leave.

When Serenity arrived back at the vehicles, he found Dr. Ridge and Rachel anxiously waiting for them. Rachel was reading something on her phone and Dr. Ridge was fiddling with the portal detector, but the moment Serenity knockd on the door, they both stopped what they were doing.

“It’s closed? I can’t see it anymore.” Dr Ridge tapped something on the screen again, but his attention was on Serenity.

Serenity nodded. “It’s closed. Doesn’t mean the situation is resolved, though. There’s still what you found to the south. I don’t want to ask you to drive all night, but … can you maybe have someone else drive the van around the area and analyze the data in the morning?”

“That’s a good idea.” Rachel turned her attention to Dr. Ridge. “If a certain someone will agree to walk whoever we find through the data collection process.”

Dr. Ridge drew himself up as well as he could while sitting on the floor of the van. Serenity was confident he’d have been standing if there were enough room to stand without bending over. “I have to be there when the equipment is used in case something goes wrong with it and it requires troubleshooting.”

“And that’s why we stopped for three hours in the middle of the day when nothing was wrong with the equipment? Nothing went wrong with it today; if something goes wrong with it overnight, you wouldn’t be able to fix it til morning anyway.” Rachel didn’t seem impressed with Dr. Ridge’s argument. “Seriously, Allen. It’s not like leaving it running for a few hours while it’s driven around is going to destroy it. You’ll even get to analyze the data; think of it as a way to get more data, not as the equipment being taken from you. You can monitor it tomorrow.”

Dr. Ridge shook his head. “But how will they know where to go? Where to go back and collect additional data?”

“Draw them a map.” Serenity was tired of this argument. “We can collect whatever extra data you need in the morning. There’s been no issues with vehicles, so just driving by wherever it is should be fine, as long as they don’t stop. Think of it like … oh, one of those Google cars. They’re just taking down data, we’ll do cleanup and whatever else tomorrow. That way we don’t take all day, we can go straight to where we’re needed.”

Dr. Ridge’s hands clenched, then relaxed. “Fine.”

Serenity nodded to himself, then turned and headed to his own rented van. He hopped in on the passenger side, next to Rissa.

The moment the door was closed, Rissa spoke. “You can’t do that again.”

“Do what? It only makes sense to have someone look for the enemy base without us there.” Serenity couldn’t think of anything wrong with that idea. It had its risks, but the benefit of saving time was very worthwhile.

Rissa shook her head. “Not that. The counterspell you used. Anything like that. You have to let the spell go earlier.”

Oh. That.

Rissa leaned over and put her hand on Serenity’s shoulder. “It worked, but you pushed yourself too far. You have to stop doing that. I know you made it through, but we can handle this without you pushing yourself to the edge. I’ve got all sorts of reasons but really - I don’t like it when you do that. Take care of yourself. Please.”

Serenity smiled as he put his hand on top of Rissa’s. It was good to know she cared. “I’ll try. I can’t promise to never hold a spell too long, but I’ll try. It doesn’t do any damage, it’s just unpleasant.”

Rissa shoved his shoulder away from her. “You big lunk. Stop trying to get yourself killed. You have to come back to me and I want you intact, okay?”

Come back to her? Rissa’s words made Serenity feel like she was talking about something other than what they were about to do. “You’re going with me though?”

“Now, yes, but not always. If you make this a habit, you’ll pass out some time when you don’t have anyone covering your back. So don’t. Okay?” Rissa sounded fierce and worried.

Serenity shifted in the seat to face Rissa, glad they weren’t actually moving yet. “Something you’ve Seen?”

Rissa pulled her hand out from under his and wrapped her arms around herself. “I’m not sure. It’s hard to tell low-key premonitions from ordinary worries sometimes. This one felt real, I think it is, but it might not be pointing at anything specific yet. It’s different trying to read your future; I get a lot less detail and a lot more feelings. Everything’s fuzzier.”

Serenity reached out to Rissa this time, putting his hand on her shoulder. “That’s probably a good thing. I’d prefer to make my own future. I can’t see one set by fate being one I’d like.” Serenity didn’t want to be the Final Reaper again, and that seemed like the most likely result of allowing fate to rule his actions.

Serenity looked forward to Janice. “Let’s get everyone home. And maybe some dinner?”

[Quest Updated: Seeded World]

BattleLord FlameHeart stared at the Quest Update. It wasn’t possible that it was good news; he hoped it was only the news he’d already heard, that the two largest troop concentrations he’d pulled together were both raided by locals, and only a day after the resting site. If that wasn’t enough to be worth a quest update, he didn’t think he wanted to know what it was.

[The Portal that led your band to this world has been closed, but all is not lost! You have several choices you can make that will lead to-]

FlameHeart closed the quest update. He didn’t care what the Voice thought his options were now. All that mattered was what Tranquil Conviction wanted. He couldn’t go home because the Portal was gone; that might be the best news he’d had since the entire invasion started.

If Tranquil Conviction weren’t here, FlameHeart knew he would have several choices to make; remaining in the city would not be one of them. Which he would make would depend on who he could get to follow him without the Kaelitha behind him.

Now, Tranquil Conviction would make the choice.

FlameHeart glanced around the command room before calling over one of his aides. “I will be in the back. Start setting up the entrance as a killing field; it’s acceptable for it to be minimally obvious this place isn’t abandoned.”

The aide frowned. “I thought you wanted at least twice as many people here before we reveal ourselves.”

“I do, but we no longer have the time to wait. Get on with it.” The BattleLord shoved the aide as a reminder that he was only an aide and he wasn’t to question his superiors. He might be willing to explain, but that didn’t mean he would tolerate the insubordination of being questioned.

Once he was in the closed-off room at the back, FlameHeart started setting up one of the old abandoned tables as a temporary altar. Every Kaelitha BattleLord had to know the basics of calling a Shameful One, even those who did not want to. The Kaelitha Lord considered it far too much power to give up to not recognize the power of the Shameful Ones and their Shameless.

Sometimes FlameHeart wished he’d been born to another Clan; one that paid less attention to power might not have required some of the compromises he’d made with his ethics over the years. Opposing that, of course, was the fact that the Kaelitha preference for power, even over a warrior’s requirements, was why FlameHeart had been allowed to rise as quickly as he had even though he came from a slave creche.

Not that anyone other than perhaps the Kaelitha Lord himself still knew that. FlameHeart had killed everyone he could identify that knew the secret of his past.

It was fortunate that the implements needed to call Tranquil Conviction were easily gathered by an expeditionary force. A token of clever conquest and a token of the death of an enemy were both easy to obtain; two would be enough since FlameHeart knew Tranquil Conviction was near.

When the BattleLord finished the ritual, he didn’t see the Shameful One. All he heard was a few words. “One more battle. I’ve done my planning, but random chance and cleverness has won so far. Perhaps strategy was indeed your best choice. I see one more move ahead, and it is yours to choose; do you remove the Lord from the board at the price of a fight you do not want, or do you wait?”

Once the words finished, the sense of a connection to something greater vanished like smoke in the wind.