“Ellie’s Place?” Serenity stared at Janice. “We’ve already had dinner, and I’m trying to keep Ita’s presence quiet for her safety.”

Janice sighed. “Ellie’s has excellent desserts. You don’t have to have dinner if you aren’t hungry. This is part of the plan to leak Ita’s presence; they have a private entrance to the private room; that’s why I scheduled it so late tonight.” When Serenity’s doubtful expression didn’t change, Janics sighed again. “You’re supposed to be meeting your parents and a few other important people there. Just go. All of you. I’ll be there to handle damage control if something goes wrong.”

Serenity frowned as he thought. He’d already made the decision to slowly reveal Ita to the world, as it seemed like the best way to keep her safe. This felt like rushing it, but at the same time he knew Janice was better at dealing with people than he was, and part of her past job included managing leaks.

She’d already scolded him for taking most of the remaining Sterath under his command without giving her time to do damage control; it had apparently made dealing with the situation around Ita much more difficult. She didn’t seem willing to accept either the time crunch he’d been under or the fact that she’d been there when he made the decision as sufficient.

Serenity shook his head; this was exactly why she was his assistant. The best thing to do with an expert was to give them guidelines, then follow their advice when they gave it. He’d question anything that seemed off, the way he had this, of course; even the best people could miss things. He’d also make the decision that was called for, even if she disagreed - even more so if she didn’t speak up. Still, this was squarely in her expertise, not his, and she was giving her opinion. “You’re sure that we’re ready to take that big a step?”

Janice smiled as she shook her head. “It’s not that big. It’s a private dinner to introduce her to the people her information is going to. Ellie’s has a reputation for keeping secrets, but this is juicy enough that it’d probably leak anyway. Which is the point; we want it to get out. I’ve already told the manager I arranged this with that the guest list is only confidential until we leave; the idea is to get us out of there before people find out. We’re not ready for that big of a step yet.”

Serenity was still doubtful, but it sounded like Janice had everything covered.

It was a smaller group at Ellie’s Place than Serenity feared; a woman in a dark uniform was the only person Serenity didn’t recognize. As soon as he saw the insignia on her upper arm that said “Chief of Police”, he knew who she had to be, even though he still didn’t know her name.

“You must be Ita.” The unknown woman stuck out her hand. “I’m Chief Whittaker. It’s nice to meet you.”

Ita took a moment to realize that she was supposed to put her hand out as well; it wasn’t a Sterath custom, but it must have been in some of what she’d watched with Rissa. She didn’t say anything, but once she took her hand back, she bobbed her entire body. It was the Sterath equivalent of a respectful greeting.

Serenity decided he’d better interfere. “Ita? This is Lieutenant Smith, and these are my parents - Lex and Bethany.” He pointed to each person as he introduced them.

Ita bobbed again. “We are here so that it is known I am valued. Is there more to say?”

As they all moved to sit down, Bethany picked up the conversational thread. “Of course. There is always more that can be said, even if it’s just a repeat. I wanted to ask about your carapace marking; Serenity said it’s not random, it actually has meaning, but it’s not tattooed or anything. It just grows that way?”

Ita nodded. “Rank-marks, achievements, Clan marks … who you are is on your armor. You will have noticed that all the Kaelitha have the same mark here,” she tapped the shimmering wings rising from a misty dark circle that formed Serenity’s symbol. “I do not; I am not Kaelitha. This is the clan or Lordship mark. The other mark that is usually in a specific location is the rank-mark; it appears opposite the Clan mark. Clan marks are usually simple, while rank marks can be very complex.”

Bethany looked puzzled. “You don’t have anything next to the clan mark, and yours is complex and colorful.”

Ita nodded. “I do not have a rank now. I am grateful that I never grew the slave-mark; I believe it is because I never accepted it. My Clan symbol…” Ita looked down and stopped speaking for a moment.

The door to the private room opened and several waiters entered, carrying food. Serenity knew what was going on from Janice: they’d pre-ordered the food. Ellie’s claimed it was to handle the heavy traffic, but they didn’t require pre-ordering of drinks or desserts. Serenity suspected they had access to a Garden like the Serenity Settlement Garden; it was the easiest explanation and would certainly be a good reason to need to know what was needed ahead of time.

Ellie’s was the only restaurant in the area that served food with a Tier rating, but she only had three Tier One options and one Tier Two option; the rest of the menu was unrated (though it was labeled as Tier Zero). The Tier Zero food was like anything you could get anywhere.

Anyone could eat Tier Zero food, since it was the same as her restaurant had always served, but the reason people were flocking to Ellie’s was the Tier One food. It was well-made and refreshing, but more importantly it provided small temporary bonuses. The problem was that if a Tier Zero person ate it, they would be uncomfortable until the boost wore off; they also usually wouldn’t get as large a boost as a Tier One person would get.

People who were Tier One and hadn’t invested enough in either their Phys or their Mind tended to have similar reactions to Tier Zero people.

Janice had laughed when she told Serenity how the order had gone; they’d warned her when she ordered any of the braised Tier Two trout. She’d been warned that it was expensive and if the people she was ordering it for didn’t qualify, they’d be charged for the trout plus whatever they ordered to replace it.

The first words out of the first waiter’s mouth backed up her claim. “So who ordered the Tier Two trout? There are supposed to be four of you.”

The waiter sounded doubtful.

Serenity grinned as he turned to the waiter. “That’d be me, Raz, Katya, and Ita. Bring it over.”

“I have to check you fir-” The waiter stopped in the middle of a word and swallowed. “Ah, you definitely qualify. Who’d you say the others were?”

Serenity didn’t suppress his grin at the waiter’s discomfort as he pointed out the others.

After a moment, the waiter sounded defeated. “Yes, you can have the food. Give it to them.”

He didn’t stay in the room as the other waiters served the Tier Two fish.

It was a flex, of course. The entire point was to get the word out about Ita - both that she was working with humans and that she was relatively high Tier and useful. At least, that was what Janice claimed, and Serenity knew she was better at this stuff than he was.

Once the waiters left, the conversation picked up more or less where it left off when Serenity’s mother turned back to Ita. “You were saying something about your Clan symbol?”

Ita shook her head. “It’s not my Clan. It’s Serenity’s.”

Bethany raised an eyebrow. Just one. Serenity had always wanted to be able to do that, but he couldn’t. “Serenity? Is that why the same symbol is on Azav’s chest?”

Azav was BattleLord FlameHeart’s aide. Serenity had spent hours and hours with him over the past two days and eventually he just couldn’t stand not using a name. “Aide” was someone else! Azav hadn’t had a name he was already called, so Serenity spent a while finding one that the Sterath liked; Azav was “memorable and short” so it stuck.

Serenity rubbed the back of his neck. He’d been an adult for decades, but he still felt a bit like a child when his mother took that tone. “Yeah. He, ah, works for me.”

Bethany smiled. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Bethany turned to her food, so Serenity turned to his as well. It was excellent; not only was it well-cooked, but he could taste the higher mana content of the fish. It was higher than the background level on Earth. Even if it had been poorly cooked, the higher mana level would have made it delicious.

The taste of the mana almost overwhelmed the taste of the fish, which told Serenity that it was properly cooked; if you cooked high-mana meat incorrectly, you could limit the amount of mana it contained. The mana in this trout was River affinity mana. Serenity could taste the water and feel the banks maintaining its depth; rocks or pebbles below, sometimes even above as well. Bits of earth and air flavored the mana, though it was definitely mostly water.

There was also a faint hint of a dungeon about it. Serenity couldn’t place that as a specific mana, but he knew what he was tasting. It was something about the way the mana presented itself.

The sides were also high in mana. They weren’t as good as the fish, but they were still better than ordinary vegetables. The taste of dungeon mana was stronger in them than it was in the fish. At a guess, they were Tier One.

“Don’t worry, I checked, one bite is fine.” Before Serenity could react to the statement, Rissa stole a forkful of the fish. “Mm. I see why you like that. Strange, it tastes almost like water? But yummy water?”

“You can taste that? I mean, it’s the fish’s mana. River mana, I’m pretty sure.” Come to think of it, Rissa was a “hybrid” dragon, and dragons were manavores. Did that mean she could eat mana the same way he could? It would explain why she could taste it. Serenity glanced at everyone present and decided to bring it up with her later, along with how she checked that it was “fine”. Eating higher-Tier food usually wasn’t, even “only a bite”. Manaburn was not comfortable.

Serenity wondered where the fish came from. A dungeon, definitely, but that didn’t really answer the question. He could believe in a Tier One dungeon on Earth, but a Tier Two dungeon was highly unlikely. It simply hadn’t been long enough. Was Ellie somehow raising the Tier of the fish when she cooked it? “Janice? There’s another trout dish on the menu, isn’t there?”

Janice looked up from her meal of ordinary Tier Zero food. She seemed to be enjoying it, but Serenity was glad to have the fish instead. “Hm? Yeah, baked trout is one of the Tier One choices.”

Interesting. A Path Skill, perhaps? It probably wasn’t that important on older worlds, but such a Path Skill could be extremely useful on a new world like Earth.

Dessert was good, but not as good as the fish. Serenity would have happily had another serving of fish for dessert if it were possible.

End of Arc 5