Arrin bit his lip before he continued, looking uncertain. “Dead paid more but gone was enough. It wasn’t just the Lowpeaks; I don’t know who the other targets were, but I know they were nobles and the date was the same. I wasn’t in Zenith then so I didn’t get the details. I was given the contract after the sixth failure, the one that you interfered with.”

Serenity snuck a glance at Andarit. He’d had no idea there had been that many attempts, and it looked like she didn’t either. It did explain why her father was so interested in getting her a bodyguard. It still surprised Serenity that Kalo hadn’t gotten himself a bodyguard as well; after all, Serenity had stopped that attack, not Kalo.

Come to think of it, he’d never asked Kalo how he’d have managed if Serenity hadn’t been there. Kalo should have had a plan; he was simply walking next to the street even though he knew there had been assassination attempts. Was he deliberately inviting them? As strange as that sounded, it might not be the worst plan Serenity had ever seen or been involved in, as long as he had a plan to deal with the attack he couldn’t see coming.

He had seemed awfully calm about it.

“So what else do you know? Do you know why they were targeted? Why do a lot of nobles need to be dead or out of the city?” Rissa was going to be coming soon. She wouldn’t arrive tomorrow; probably not for another week or so. Serenity still didn’t like the thought that he was bringing her into an unstable political situation, and multiple noble assassinations had ‘unstable political situation’ written all over it.

Arrin shrugged. “No. I just know that we were supposed to all finish before Rift Day. Most of the nobles will be back on their land anyway; it is Rift Day.”

“What’s Rift Day?” That sounded like a holiday of some sort, though the word “Rift” wasn’t a happy one.

Andarit spoke before Arrin could. “It’s a day to remember those we lost in the past year, spend time with family, and relax. It’s also a day to prepare for the next year, so there are usually competitions. It’s tradition to carry a weapon wherever you go, probably because most of the competitions are martial.”

Serenity doubted that was the origin, somehow. “Do you know why it was started? Or when?”

Andarit shrugged. “It’s been around forever.”

Her father might know, but Andarit clearly didn’t; she’d also clearly never thought much about it. It was simply part of life. What she did know made it sound like a combination of a memorial day and a day to prepare to fight; that wasn’t a sign of a peaceful past to the holiday, whatever else it was. After the beginning of the dungeon, Serenity had to wonder if it was a result of the Nights of Shadows mentioned by the dungeon, but it could easily have been more recent.

Serenity turned his attention back to Arrin. “So why before Rift Day?”

Arrin frowned and seemed to consider not saying anything for a long moment. “None of the royals were on the list to be killed before Rift Day, but they were being followed. There is a large gathering outside the city where they give a partial display; all of the adult royals appear to give a demonstration. It’s the one time of year when they’re all away from the Palace and together. I think the Crimson Wing Court is managing the event venue this year.”

Andarit gasped, but Serenity had no idea why the Crimson Wing Court was important. Of course, he wouldn’t have guessed that the Night Sky Court was full of assassins, either. “What’s special about them?”

“Crimson Wing is the Court the two youngest royal children joined. There are rumors that they don’t get along with their family, but he’s suggesting that it’s more than that.” Andarit’s voice was cold. “Which nobles were the ones targeted?”

Arrin stared at the floor. “I only know Lowpeak, Meadowthorn, and Stonefoot for sure, but the rumors said it was all of the noble houses without someone with ties to a Court. I don’t even know which Courts are involved for sure; asking questions isn’t healthy.”

“We need to get out of here as fast as we can. The door back is closed; that means we’ll need to get to another two checkpoints. Let’s go, Serenity.” Andarit hopped to her feet and headed to the exit door.

“Wait! Don’t just leave me.” Arrin called out before he realized that Serenity hadn’t moved.

“We aren’t done,” Serenity agreed. “Andarit, please wait. Arrin, right? Is there anything else you should tell us before you make your oath to the Voice?”

Arrin shook his head. “But … but don’t tell anyone I told you. If they find out I talked and even put the pieces together, that I’ve been listening…”

Serenity shook his head. “I can’t tell you what to do, but if you think the organization you belong to will kill you for asking questions, maybe you should find another place to be. You can think about that later; for now, I need you to be quiet for a moment. The spell takes a bit to build.”

It wasn’t simply a spell. As with most things that interacted with the Voice, it also required aura manipulation. Fortunately, this one was relatively standardized and there was a spell that would do most of the heavy lifting. It was too bad that Serenity didn’t have a specialized Affinity for it, but Arcane would work.

It was a solid half hour (and three interruptions from Andarit, who didn’t want to wait) before Serenity had the spellform complete. “Right, so. Arrin, right? Swear by the Voice that you’ve told us the truth and didn’t leave anything out. Word it however you’d like.”

How he worded it might well tell them something.

Serenity triggered the spell and flexed his aura as Arrin started to speak, startling both Arrin and Andarit.

Arrin paused, took a deep breath, and then started to speak his obviously carefully considered words. “I, Arrin, currently of the Night Sky Court, swear on the Voice that everything I’ve told Serenity and Andarit here has been the truth as far as I know, and that I’ve left out nothing deliberately.”

Serenity smiled as he closed the last piece of the spell off and waited for confirmation from the Voice. When it arrived, he grinned; it was a tricky spell, but he’d gotten it right. All it said was [Oath accepted], but both Arrin and Andarit were obviously shocked.

“Now that that’s taken care of and we know that what you said was true as far as you know - good wording there, by the way - we need to make a plan. First of all, Arrin. I don’t trust you, but I also don’t like to abandon people in dungeons. So you’re going to get to lead while we get out of here. Second, Andarit. What exactly were you planning to do if I left with you and we abandoned Arrin?” Serenity wasn’t above rubbing Andarit’s nose in what she’d almost done, though he wasn’t certain it would matter to her. Arrin had tried to murder her, after all.

He couldn’t even really blame her if she wanted Arrin dead.

Andarit stood up from the bed she’d spent most of the past half hour on. “We’ll warn them, of course! The King will do something!”

That was an overly optimistic plan. “And you’ll somehow get in to see them and they’ll believe you on the strength of some guesses and inferences from an assassin? Which we didn’t even know he actually believed until now?”

Perhaps that was a little too harsh, but Serenity really didn’t think she’d thought it through. “Even with the confirmation, we really don’t have anything solid we could take to an authority. Also, how will you even get in to see the King?”

“He has regular…” Andarit trailed off. “But not the three days leading up to Rift Day. That’s why the Prince’s celebration ended then. Most people don’t follow the Three Days of Mourning tradition anymore but the King does.”

“I might be able to see the Prince,” Serenity noted. “Maybe. But I’m not confident he’d believe me. Not with something this fragile. Even if he did, what can he change? You said it was tradition?”

Andarit sank back down, onto the bed. “Yeah. I’ve only been twice, we’re usually at Lowpeak but Father thought I should see it. We didn’t stay long, just enough to see the demonstrations.”

“Right.” Serenity sighed. “You’re right that we should get going. Even if we can’t warn them, if we can get out in time we might still be able to do something. You said the first way out is at the fifth waypoint?”

“Yeah. At least, the Palace one is and so is ours in Lowpeak.” Andarit glanced at Arrin, stood up again, then took a hair ornament that looked like little more than a clip with a shiny green enamel circle on top and clipped it into Arrin’s hair. “We’ll have to wait a few hours for you to heal, but I’d like to start moving on while we do.”

The next area was a destroyed, deserted shantytown. It seemed like it had been densely populated at one point; the crude buildings were large enough that Serenity almost thought it had simply decayed with time, but there was no sign of formal planning or services. There was no direct path or road; everything led through a building, eventually.

Serenity was certain that someone who had actually lived there could get from place to place easily, but it wasn’t easy for the three of them. They didn’t even really know where they were going; unlike the jungle, the dungeon hadn’t given them an obvious clue to the path. Or perhaps it had and they’d simply missed it; Serenity couldn’t be certain.

Some of the buildings had collapsed without any obvious reason, while others showed clear impacts where something struck the buildings.

Many of them had bodies. They were clearly years old; few were anything more than a skeleton.

They were only dungeon mockups. None had ever actually lived; Serenity could feel the difference. They’d never hosted a soul, never had a vital affinity. Not even Death had touched them.

They were an hour in when Arrin disturbed a flock of bats. Andarit and Serenity readied themselves for a fight, but it didn’t come. After a few minutes, they moved on.

Two more hours passed the same way, with no encounters other than small creatures living in the abandoned buildings. At about that point, Andarit retrieved her hairclip. Arrin was healed enough that he could sort of use his damaged arm for balance, and Andarit didn’t like having it on someone else as they traveled through the decaying and sometimes poorly built architecture.

The continual tenseness and having to watch all directions was tiring, especially since they didn’t even know if they were headed the right direction. It seemed to bother Andarit the most, but Arrin also seemed twitchy. Serenity suspected that was partly because he still hadn’t returned the weapons he’d taken off the man. Arrin hadn’t asked, and he probably wouldn’t have even if the question had been asked.

A bright noise and a thunderclap in the distance, more or less ahead of the trio, broke the nervous monotony. Arrin sped up, choosing a path that led up instead of forward. Andarit and Serenity were right behind him, eager to see what happened.

When they finally reached a good vantage point, they could see a short section of the same time-ravaged structures, then a section where they were all destroyed by something that seemed like an explosion. Most of the area was clearly burned black, but in amongst the debris, Serenity could see sections where the black outer layer was being lifted to reveal something bright orange underneath. “Flaming hells. I really hope that’s not creeper rot.”