Lady Andarit,

Your presence is expected at a reception for the Prince’s birthday. As this is his twenty-fifth birthday, your absence will be noted. We will be leaving the Dukedom as a group on the 17th of the Silver Moon; if you are not available at that time, you will need to meet us at the Capital.

I will be taking your younger brother, as he is the same age as the Princess. I do not expect anything, but not doing so would also be noticed and we cannot afford the comment. You know our situation.

I hope you have met with success, but I cannot allow you more time even if you have not.

The caelium-flowers in the west gardens are doing well, but the horses continue to sicken. One attacked her rider yesterday; I worry about what this means for our future, with the Wildlands encroaching more every year. There have been no further incursions from the Bogs, but Fire Mountain is smoking again.

I look forward to seeing you.

Your father,

Kalo Lichbane, Duke of Lowpeak

Andarit folded the letter; she’d hoped to have longer, but she’d already told the others she was overdue and could be called home at any time.

The fact that Desinka’s father belonged to the Messenger’s Guild was surprisingly helpful. Andarit looked up at the kind man who’d kept the letter for her. “Thank you, Rakyn.”

Rakyn grinned. “Come now, it’s nothing. I’d do the same for any friend of my daughter’s. And have, as you know.”

Andarit nodded; nearly every time they stopped in, there was a letter for someone. “You’re certain you don’t want to come with me? Desinka keeps turning me down, but maybe you can convince her? Either of you would be welcome, even more if you both came.”

Rakyn shook his head. “Desinka can’t leave Tzintkra, and I’ll not go where she can’t follow. There’s a chance she’ll be able to leave in the future, but right now? No.” Andarit’s puzzlement must have shown on her face, because Rakyun smiled slightly wider. “Ah, she didn’t tell you? Well, probably wise. Still, being tied to a planet until you grow enough is not so much of a weakness; not so much as a young dryad, bound to a grove. Not that Tzintkra has dryads anymore; that is part of why.”

Andarit blinked. He’d just said that all backwards, but what he implied was … “You’re a native of Tzintkra?”

Rakyn nodded. “That I am. Desinka is only half, and born offworld at that. But this is home, for both of us, and Desinka is too young to leave.”

“I didn’t know there were any left.” Andarit covered her mouth with her hand; that was an incredibly mean thing to say. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.”

Rakyn was still grinning. “There aren’t many, but we’re still here. We don’t make much of a point of it, but you know the City Lord, Stojan Tasi? He’s also a native. The Stojan family saved most of us who survived by giving us shelter in their safeplace, which became the Shining Caverns. Something to remember for a young Lady like you.”

Andarit just stared at him. She’d been so careful to not reveal her social status; she was here as a mercenary, not a Lady!

Rakyn winked. “I read the outside of the letter. Next time you want to keep your position secret, ask your correspondents not to address them to “Lady Andarit, Daughter-Heir of Lowpeak.”

Andarit turned the stationary over. She hadn’t even noticed, but that was exactly what it said.

Maybe she should have told her father her plan, but she knew he’d have objected. Wouldn’t he?

She didn’t have time to deal with it now, and she guessed it didn’t really matter anymore anyway. “I have to be going. I only have two days to get home, and there’s no direct route to Lowpeak. I’m going to run to the Inn, see if I can catch everyone there, but after that I’m off to a portal. If you see them, please let them know I’m sorry I had to run and tell them to write.”

She was out the door before Rakyn could reply. She didn’t want to hear whatever else he’d come up with to embarrass her. He was almost as bad as her father!

Serenity blinked and shook his head. The flood of information from Helios didn’t actually blur his vision; it just felt like it should. There was one piece of information that stood out blindingly obvious now: in addition to pushing the Sun’s power into each of the “blessed”, the “blessing” was the part that had hidden the curse from its possessors, not the curse. With that information, Serenity was beginning to think that the “blessing” part was actually worse than the curse itself.

The curse was complicated, but in a completely different manner. Unfortunately, Helios wasn’t a master of curses. All he’d been able to tell was that the curse stole power from the cursed to send to someone else.

Serenity wondered if Apollyon would be able to tell that the blessing was broken. He probably would if he saw anyone with the now-revealed curse, but he might not be automatically notified. Serenity hoped he wasn’t; after all, it was broken by the death of Helios, not by direct action.

Serenity hoped he wouldn’t have to kill Apollyon to remove the curse. Killing someone drawing energy from thousands of others was never easy, especially if you didn’t want to kill the power sources.

“Serenity? Is something wrong? You’re just staring at me.” Red sounded worried again.

Serenity sighed. It was best to go with the truth. “I was looking at the curse. You know about your family’s curse, right? That’s why we were here. I didn’t expect it to go the way it did; I thought Helios would lift it and then we’d be done.”

A wide range of reactions flickered across Red’s face. As usual, Serenity could only wish he was as good at reading people as Rissa.

“Tell me about it. Tell me everything you know. All of it.”

Never mind. He didn’t need Rissa’s help to understand that; this was the Red Serenity was beginning to actually know. He smiled a little at the confirmation that she hadn’t changed.

“First, where’s Phoebe? I thought she was here with you, but I haven’t seen her.” He’d tell Red all about it, but it would be better if he could talk to both of them at once.

Red shook her head. “She did the Oracle thing yesterday, booked herself a redeye to New York City and left. Got a text from her right before you knocked that she was about to confront Russ. Not sure what she was going to confront him about, she wouldn’t say. Just that she needed to talk to him about her past. She hasn’t texted since, so I’m sure they’re still talking.”

Serenity was explaining the Voice’s Quest system to Red when Rissa called him. “Serenity? Are you going to be able to come back the same way you left, or do I need to arrange something?”

Serenity hadn’t thought about how he’d get home, but he had an idea. “No, but I think I’ll check out the portal options first. I’m supposed to be able to affect them, and I haven’t tried yet; maybe I can portal straight to Aki’s.”

He didn’t wait for Rissa to reply. He needed to tell her what happened. “Helios sort of killed himself; he injured me and the Voice decided that was enough to kill him.” Serenity hurried to reassure Rissa. “I’m fully healed, you know me. It was like that time at the Met … huh. The healing was a little different, more like shifting myself healthy than shifting to a different healthy body. I wonder if that’s just because I thought of it differently?”

“Serenity.” There was a distinctly unamused note in Rissa’s voice.

He was getting off topic again. “So ah, yeah, I’m fine. And Helios’s death stripped off the blessing that was hiding the curse, and really it seems to have been a curse as well, at least I’d call it one. The mental stuff was in the blessing, not the curse. So, ah, how’s your mother? I should have started with that, shouldn’t I?”

Rissa sighed audibly. “What am I going to do with you?”

“I recommend lots of snuggles, kisses, and togetherness time.” If Serenity didn’t treat it seriously, he could usually jolly Rissa out of her irritation.

Plus, snuggling, kissing, and alone-together time sounded really good.

“Ahhh. Serenity.” He could imagine Rissa shaking her head at him while smiling on the other end of the connection. “And I’m sure I’ll pet your little dragon, too.”

Had she just come up with a new euphemism, or did she actually want to pet him as a dragon? Serenity wasn’t going to ask, because he already knew that if he did, she’d just say yes.

“As for Mother, she’s currently crying in the bedroom. Dad’s in there trying to comfort her. I think everything she’s done has just hit her all at once, and it doesn’t help that her memory seems to be fragmented in places. Her emotional state is - well, I left. I just couldn’t, and she literally couldn’t tell if I was there or not; even when I spoke to her, she didn’t react at all. Everything’s in her head right now. Dad expects her to cry herself to sleep soon; he said he’d let me know when I should come back in. I’m at the park now.” Rissa started off businesslike but the pain leaked through quickly.

She was obviously trying to distract herself from it.

Serenity sighed. “I’ll be there as soon as I can - if I’m lucky, maybe even before you can walk to Aki’s stone. I’ll try, at least. Love you.”

“Love you, too.” Rissa’s words were whispered.

Serenity turned to Red. “If I were looking for a city core near here, where would I look?” He knew she knew what he meant. Normally, he’d have simply asked Gaia, but he had to be in a ley line to do that, and he didn’t yet have the ley line map for the area.

Red bit her lip. “I’m not sure. I know where some dungeons are, though; will that work?”

The dungeons would be in a ley line. “Sure, let’s go.”

From the ley line, finding the City Core was easy; Gaia was able to give Serenity good enough directions. Red dropped Serenity off, but stayed to watch at a distance.

Serenity wasn’t pleased to find out that the City Core had already been claimed by someone other than the Reno mayor, but a quick conversation with Gaia put his concerns to rest; the person who had claimed the City Core, then left it unguarded, was the most powerful landowner in the city. In many ways, the mayor worked for him. It had apparently been true before the Tutorial and was even more true now.

On the other hand, Reno was one of a number of cities that had had remarkably little trouble with people returning from the Tutorial and causing havoc, deliberately or accidentally. Maybe that was worth something.

Serenity shrugged to himself. If that was how they wanted to run their city, well, that was up to them. At least it wouldn’t be secret anymore. The Voice would allow all sorts of forms of government, but the person actually making the decisions was the only one allowed to be called City Lord. The City Lord’s name didn’t have to be known, but no one else could have the title.

Serenity sometimes wondered if that was part of the reason so many cities had forms of government that didn’t include a City Lord.

Serenity pulled up the menu and was reminded that he needed to get into the Dungeon Taxation menu soon. He’d do that from Aki’s. For now, he was only concerned with the new Portal Management window.

It turned out to be simple to set up a one-time portal to Aki’s dungeon that would only work for the person with Earth’s Planetary authority. Serenity avoided thinking about the fact that Planetary authority usually came with the title Planetary Lord.

As he stepped through the portal, he heard a voice behind him. “Hey! What’re you-”

It was cut off when the portal closed.

Serenity was rocked backwards as Rissa slammed into him, then wrapped her arms around him in a fierce hug.