Serenity did return to the Tutorial in the morning, but nothing he tried told him where the problem was. In his free time, he scoured the Mages’ area and even sat in on some classes, but nothing seemed out of place. None of the instructors he was willing to ask had seen anything either, and Serenity knew he didn’t want to ask most of the mages. Even if they weren’t the cause, they might talk.

Serenity considered it likely that the anomaly was caused by someone. If he was wrong, there was no harm in it. The thing was, he wasn’t an investigator; he could ask his friends, but he didn’t really know where to start.

It was clear that the Voice expected more from him than just handing the problem to Ekari. That didn’t stop him from consulting with her and Blaze a few days before the end of the Tutorial. He needed the help.

They promised they’d keep an eye out and let him know if they saw anything suspicious.

Serenity was distracted during the travel that day; it was a good thing the day’s dungeons weren’t particularly notable, because he simply didn’t have his head in the game. When they finally arrived in Kirkwall, Serenity was surprised to hear that they’d be traveling more the following day; apparently, the invasion portal wasn’t on the same island as the largest city.

That evening, once they were away from their guide, Serenity told his friends about the issue in the Tutorial. He owed them an explanation for his distraction. They all seemed concerned, but less so than Serenity was. Almost a thousand people was a lot, but there was nothing they could do about it.

Rissa made Serenity promise that he’d wear the better armor the following day, instead of shifting to protect her; not only was his armor form the best armor he had, he could shift its shape at the same time as he shapeshifted if necessary.

He still wasn’t certain how damage to his armor form would affect him; when he thought about it, it seemed strange.

The following morning Mr. Williams led them to a small boat, which took them out to a ship. It was larger than Serenity had expected, somehow, with an enclosed area in the middle that seemed to have two levels. At the back, there was a circle that Serenity recognized as a helipad. There even seemed to be a gun at the front, though Serenity didn’t get a good look at it.

If it had been a US ship, Serenity would have assumed it was Coast Guard, and it probably served a similar role here. He didn’t ask.

They were led into the lower portion of the enclosed area without much information and simply had to wait there for the next two hours. Serenity spent the time watching the manaflows around them until they started moving; he’d never seen how mana moved around a technology-based ship before.

It was fairly similar to how it moved around a car in a lot of ways; to his magitech Affinity, mana was similar to other forms of energy, while essence was closer to matter, even though they could all occupy the same space at the same time. It was fascinating.

Rissa poked Serenity when they finally started moving, pulling him out of his trance. It was a while before they reached anything interesting; it almost felt like a vacation, sitting with his girl and watching the ocean move by.

The armor and weapons he was wearing told a different story, but he was used to them.

Eventually, Serenity started to see something strange: a whitish sheen on the water, followed in short order by what had to be clumps of ice. He turned to Mr. Williams. “Are we headed far enough north that we should be seeing ice?”

The liaison shrugged. “I thought it was too early in the year, but this is an icebreaker.”

He didn’t seem interested in saying more. Serenity wondered if he actually knew more or not; it was entirely possible that he didn’t.

Another hour passed as they made their way through the icy waters. Serenity would have thought that much time would take them outside the area, but when he checked his map, he found that they hadn’t been heading in a straight line. Their path looked more like a spiral.

He sent a silent thank-you to Aide for mapping their path, then tried looking up the nearby islands. As far as he could tell, only one was inhabited, and they were headed more or less away from it.

He was still trying to figure out where they were going when one of the seamen stepped into the room they were in. “You’re wanted on deck. Something about a bird.” He waved at them to follow him, then headed back outside without waiting.

Serenity followed; he heard the others behind him.

When he got outside, Serenity noticed the cold. The temperature had to have dropped thirty or forty degrees since they left; it was well below freezing outside. He was fine, of course, but it was still enough of a change to be surprising. They hadn’t really gone all that far.

When Serenity made it all the way outside and looked up, he saw a group of bluish-white birds flying far above him. He could tell just how large they were because they were outside the range of his Eyeless Sight, but they were still visible to the eye; it was hard to judge distances, but he expected each of them to be larger than he was. He simply stood there, watching them.

After a while, a uniformed man Serenity hadn’t yet met walked up to him. “Whenever we try to get close, the birds show up. The cold’s been getting worse, too, and the temperature drops when they appear. My job is to get you close enough to do something about it.”

Serenity turned to look directly at the officer. “The temperature drops when they show up? You’re sure about that?”

“Yes, why?” The man frowned as he spoke.

“Because it means they’re probably frostbirds, and frostbirds love to talk. They’ll stop to talk in the middle of a fight, if they can. They’re also extremely curious. As long as they aren’t under anyone else’s control, we can probably work with them.” Serenity looked around the ship. There was that nice, convenient helipad; it should have more than enough room for a frostbird to land. There might not be enough room to take off; Serenity knew it took more room, but not how much. On the other hand, if it wanted to talk and there wasn’t enough room, it would know.

Serenity turned to Mr. Williams. “How does your government feel about negotiations?”

“What?” The liaison sounded confused. Perhaps he was distracted by the way he was shivering? Unlike Serenity, he couldn’t simply tolerate the cold.

Serenity glanced over towards the rest of his group. Katya seemed to have pulled a heavy cloak from somewhere, while Ita seemed fine. Both Raz and Rissa were missing.

:I retreated back into the warmth,: Rissa’s mind-voice informed Serenity before he could even start to panic. :I’m not dressed for this weather. I’m watching through your eyes; Raz and I will come out if you need us.:

Good enough.

Serenity turned back to the shivering liaison to repeat the question. “How does your government feel about negotiations? That is, would you be willing to work with some giant flying birds or possibly their riders if they’re willing to work with you?”

Neither the groups of attacking humans nor the bugmancer had given any sign of being willing to cooperate. Serenity had wanted to try with the bugmancer, despite the spider, but once he met the distorted man it was obviously hopeless.

Mr. Williams didn’t speak for long enough that Serenity opened his mouth to ask yet again. He spoke before Serenity could decide exactly what he was going to ask. “It’s been discussed. I don’t - I think it depends. Who and what and where.”

Serenity shook his head. “Of course it does. Details are important. The big thing is if you’re willing to find out. Goodness knows I can’t negotiate for you.”

He couldn’t even negotiate for his own government. All he could do was set things up so that negotiations could start. In this case, that meant opening a line of communications. Serenity turned to the other man, the one who seemed to be an officer for the ship. “Can I send up a signal? It’ll be magical. With luck, one of the birds will land on the helipad. That or they’ll want us to follow them somewhere.”

The officer nodded. “Please wait five minutes; any time after that.” He turned and headed away; Serenity saw him climbing stairs to the second level.

Serenity decided that probably wasn’t just an officer; he was probably the captain. He’d made the decision without consulting anyone else.

Serenity carefully waited five minutes before he headed out onto the helipad and started building the spell; it would take two or three minutes to build, but he wasn’t in a hurry. It was better to not surprise anyone.

It was a simple spell, taking advantage of his Plasma and SpaceTime Affinities. There were other ways to build the spell, but Serenity didn’t need it to do anything fancy. He slotted the pieces together and examined the structure; entirely mana. That wasn’t surprising, since it was little more than a temporary flare. The hardest part was shaping the image into the correct shape.

Serenity triggered it and the magic shot up to the same level as where the giant birds were circling in the sky. Once it got there, Serenity could see the colors and magic, but not the shape itself; it was designed to be visible to the birds, not to him. He knew that it was a circle with a pair of curved lines cutting through it and dripping towards the ship; it reminded Serenity as much of a baseball with a couple of lines dripping from the stitching as anything else.

Serenity hoped it would mean the same thing to the birds that it did to him. He was fairly confident it would, since he’d seen it used on several different worlds, even though there was really no equivalent Earth signal. A white flag was the closest he could think of, but that had other meanings as well.

Even if it didn’t, it should be obvious that it was a signal to them and not an attack.