It took Serenity several hours and three monster cores to finish the rune inscription he selected. He wasn’t certain how much paper he used, but he’d had to get more several times, since the pattern was too big for an 8 ½ by 11 sheet of paper. It was a rune he’d been fond of at one point, primarily a barrier but with the ability to warn the caster and limited defense ability. It would only last a couple of days, but while it did, it was exceedingly useful.

Not that he could actually power it. Even with his higher-than-normal mana level for a Tier Two person, he didn't actually have enough to trigger that rune.

Serenity stared at it unhappily. He’d watched while he made it, and while he hadn’t deviated from his old practice at all, he now knew that there were large improvements he could make. They weren’t in the rune; instead, they were in the material he was using. Turning the monster core into liquid mana worked and worked well, but it completely ignored the fact that most of it was Essence. The entire rune was coated in Essence. Serenity suspected that was a lot of the reason monster cores could be used that way, even without prior processing.

It also meant that now that he could see and manipulate Essence, he ought to be able to do better than what he’d done before if he could just figure out how. The Essence in the monster core was frozen and didn’t want to move; it didn’t align with the rune’s structure. If he could somehow make it align, it ought to increase the power of the rune and extend its lifespan. Of course, he’d need to test it in a controlled environment; it was entirely likely that it would have some unexpected effects as well.

“Serenity? You haven’t moved in a while, are you done?” Rissa stepped into view on the other side of the table. “I’ve been done for a while, but I was just making a mundane item. I made a candle! I made my own mold and everything. I haven’t done anything like that in years.”

Serenity nodded. “A candle? Sure, let me see.”

Rissa set a candle down in front of him. It was similar to a pillar candle, but in a different shape and with three colors of wax. There was a muddy brown base that supported a vertical black oval, while the edge of the oval was a thin layer of golden wax. “It’s supposed to be a portal. I know it’s not exactly what they look like, but it’s the best I could manage. I figured we could burn it once the last invasion portal’s closed, to celebrate.”

“It looks good,” Serenity said. It was certainly better than anything he could make.

Rissa nodded. “Aki’s already accepted it, she said it’ll cost one Etherium to take it out of the dungeon but if I want to put it in the house and even burn it there, there’s no cost. She restricts stuff from leaving the crafting area because that way she doesn’t have to admit where the dungeon boundaries are.”

“Sounds like a plan then. I look forward to burning it with you.” Serenity pushed his chair back and stood. “So how do I get Aki to take a look at what I made?”

“You really weren’t paying attention to anything but what you were working on, were you? Take it to the Evaluation Table. Aki says she’ll probably hire someone to monitor it and her responses once people actually get in here, but for us she's just going to take care of everything.” Rissa glanced to one side; Serenity’s eyes followed hers and he saw a sign reading Evaluation Table that hadn’t been there when he entered over a table pushed against a wall.

Serenity moved the pile of paper covered in runes over to the table. The runes kept the papers from sliding or falling apart where they were joined; it was awkward, but didn’t require too much care. Core ink was sturdy stuff once it resolidified.

After a moment, Aki spoke directly to Serenity. :Please tell me you aren’t planning to take that.:

Serenity frowned. “No, I can just make another one if I need it. I can’t even use it right now. Why?”

:It would be cheap to buy, since the only thing of mine you used was paper. But if you let me keep it, I can sell it for a lot more. A lot more than I’d get from you. And then use that on … I don’t know. Something.: Aki sounded like she was almost drooling over the options, as if dungeons cores could drool. :I feel like I should pay you something.:

Serenity grinned. “Buy that cell phone tower you wanted, or invest in tools for the crafting area. I figured you’d want to put the pattern down somewhere; that’s why I used that one. It ought to be good somewhere in a dungeon. Make a pretty nasty trap for anyone who doesn’t notice it.”

:Ooh. Yeah, that’s a good idea, too, but I won’t have anywhere to put it for a long time. I wasn’t big enough even back on Asihanya. I only had eight levels, you know; that’s not even close to big enough.:

Serenity blinked. He’d have guessed it wouldn’t be on the first few, but eight? Surely that was big enough for a runic trap? “What did you evaluate that as, then? I didn’t think it was that impressive.”

:That’s another thing. How under the gods did you make a Tier Fifteen to Eighteen item out of Tier Zero materials? That’s a divine Tier item and the Voice is telling me that the value was downgraded due to the low quality of the materials used, but that didn’t affect the Tier it gave me!:

“Oops. I, er, wasn’t aiming for that high. I thought it’d come out as somewhere between five and eight.” Why had it come out that high? Serenity was confident the original rune was in the right range. Was it the improvements he’d made to the shielding structure, the damage reflection, or the remote activation and use? He knew he’d also upgraded the mana use a few times, but that was simple and straightforward.

Admittedly, there wasn’t that much difference between Tier Eight and Tier Fifteen, just a few centuries. It all kind of blurred together; perhaps he’d put down the wrong version of the rune. “If it’s Tier Fifteen, I’m surprised it’ll activate without burning out the paper and the ink I used; I expect it’ll be far shorter-lived than the design should be.”

There was a long pause. Serenity was about to speak when Aki did. :Serenity. You’re a ranked Runemaster, aren’t you? You’ve been very good to both me and Raz, so I’ve put off asking. You keep making mistakes that make it obvious there’s more to you than you’re saying, even with what you told Raz on Tzintkra. Can we trust you?:

Serenity froze. He’d already been thinking about telling them, but he’d put it off time and again as not really necessary or that there would be a good time later. It didn’t feel good to have it catch up with him, but he couldn’t think of a better solution than to admit to his past. Or perhaps his future?

You had to give trust to get trust, sometimes. Raz and Aki had given him their trust, holding off this long. The fact that he simply didn’t want to talk about it wasn’t a good enough reason, not now.

It was time to tell them the whole story. Serenity hoped that they’d still accept him, but putting it off any longer would just make it worse when it happened.

Serenity took a deep breath, then let it out. “If I’m going to tell this story, let’s get somewhere more comfortable. I could make it a short tale, but I’m pretty sure that won’t be satisfying.”

Rissa softly rubbed Serenity’s back between his wings. It didn’t do much to ease the tension, but it was good to know she was there for him. The only other people in Aki’s core room were Aki herself and Raz. It was more comfortable to expose himself this way in front of fewer people, and there was no way he was going to tell Katya, however much he liked her and thought of her as a friend.

Serenity took a deep breath and started the story. “I’ve told most of this to Rissa and my father; he probably shared it with Mom. Russ knows most of it as well. I think you’ll understand the implications better, but if you have any questions or concerns, ask. You’re from a low-Tier world, there will be things that don’t make sense.”

“Asihanya caps out at Tier Nine,” Raz objected.

Serenity smiled gently. “That’s what I mean. Tier Nine is a low-Tier world. There aren’t any high-Tier worlds near Earth.” Serenity paused, realizing something he’d never paid attention to before. “Now that I think of it, that’s strange. The highest-Tier planet nearby is Tzintkra, and it’s badly damaged and graduated-Tier on top of that. That’s not normal, but I don’t have the information to do a proper statistical distribution analysis.”

“Serenity. Stay on topic.” Rissa quietly pulled him back to the current situation.

“Right. Interesting but not currently relevant. I think the place to start is that I kind of am and kind of am not a ranked Runemaster. The highest rank I’ve ever held was Grand Rune Scholar, but I don’t hold that rank yet.” Serenity saw the confusion on Raz’s face and decided to enlighten him. “Grand Rune Scholars have to know and use multiple rune languages; they’re the only people the Rune Guild certifies as capable of designing new runes without supervision. It’s the highest Rune Guild-evaluated skill rank, but doesn’t give any rights in the Rune Guild itself. There are never many Grand Rune Scholars, and I probably wouldn’t rank as one right now; I simply don’t have the power to do it. That doesn’t mean I don’t have the skill, though, which is how I made that rune Aki saw.”

“How did you lose the rank? Did you do something wrong, or was there infighting? Did someone betray you?” Raz clearly read too much fiction. Or perhaps not enough; he hadn’t picked up on it when Serenity said he didn’t hold the rank yet.

“No. Nothing like that; I didn’t lose it until the Guild didn’t exist anymore. That’s, never mind. I guess I started in the wrong place. I should have started with the Tutorial. No, earlier than that. I should have started with Rissa’s death.”

Serenity felt Rissa flatten her palm against the back of his neck. He took a deep breath, then continued. “Rissa was killed in her home while I was at work. It turns out that this was the first day of the Tutorial, though I didn’t know that at the time. I didn’t enter the Tutorial until several weeks later, and by then I was a mess. I picked up Death magic in a misguided attempt to bring her back. Lots of things happened after that; Earth fell and exploded; I watched it come apart from a spaceship along with a few other survivors. We made our way to another planet and tried to restart our lives.”

Serenity took another deep breath. He could still remember the image of his beautiful blue planet disintegrating in front of him. He still didn’t understand how he’d survived; they’d been too close, yet somehow none of the fragments had hit any of the survivors’ ships. They hadn’t had many; spaceships capable of interstellar flight were expensive enough that few could afford them, especially since the only way to get them delivered to Earth in its last days was the Voice’s store.

“It didn’t go well. I lost everything. I remember bits and pieces of that time; it’s when my name comes from. Serenity is a translation of a Sterath title. They killed my parents, so I killed them. It didn’t change anything but I did it anyway.”

Raz stared at him in silence; Serenity had the feeling that if Aki had eyes, she’d be doing the same thing. Rissa already knew this part of the tale, so she simply stayed next to him, reminding him that it hadn’t happened this time.