Coyote made his way through Dragon’s study towards the other God. Had he added more bookcases recently? Coyote didn’t remember some of the ones he was seeing.

Not that that was the real problem. The real problem was that he simply didn’t want to ask Dragon the question he was about to have to ask. He couldn’t find that entertaining mortal anywhere on Earth; had something happened to Dragon’s protege?

As he rounded the last corner and was finally able to see the vision Dragon was projecting, Coyote realized he wasn’t going to have to ask after all. Serenity stood in a cluttered room with two people Coyote didn’t recognize, seemingly safe and sound. “Where is he? I wasn’t able to find him anywhere.”

“Not even a greeting before you start the questions?” Dragon waved a hand at the vision and it froze. Coyote knew he was doing that for the impression, not because it was necessary, but he appreciated the drama of it. “Why couldn’t you find him? He’s on Zon, there’s nothing hiding him.”

“Zon.” Coyote repeated the planet’s name as the relief at finding that the most entertaining mortal in years was safe drained out of him. “Of course. Zon. There are no coyotes on Zon.”

Dragon twisted in his cushioned chair to face Coyote. “Why not? I know Zon’s in trouble, but I’m still expecting a bounceback well before we hit mana levels that are dangerous for coyotes.”

Coyote took three steps forward and threw himself into another overstuffed chair. “I never returned them. I didn’t want to watch. Not when it was my fault.”

Dragon snorted. “None of it was your fault. Phorus was the one who decided to change the test parameters, and he did it without telling anyone.”

Coyote shrugged. He still couldn’t escape some of the responsibility, even if the Terror Bird was the one who made the final disastrous set of decisions. “I chose Zon. And I’m the one who invited Phorus in the first place.”

Dragon shook his head. “And you’ve been punishing yourself for it for how long? You may have invited him, but we all thought Phorus was a good fit. His actions were a complete surprise.”

Coyote sighed. It wasn’t that easy. Not when he could have known. Only he hadn’t kept watch on Phorus; for all that the Terror Bird was a predator, he was generally a straightforward one, so Coyote had spent his time elsewhere. It was a choice that Coyote had regretted ever since, even though he still couldn’t point to anything that would have told him it was the wrong choice.

It was better to focus on the future than the past.

Coyote looked up at the still image of a room on Zon. “So does that mean you’re trying to fix Zon?”

Dragon chuckled. “What, because Serenity’s there? No. He’s there because the Voice noticed something and he’s following up on it. Which naturally means he’s started handing out pointers on proper dungeon management and enchanting without even realizing it and seems to be getting himself involved in the biggest upheaval there in about two hundred years. Maybe longer.”

Coyote shook his head, finding that somehow he was smiling slightly. “Only Serenity. I swear, that boy attracts upheaval. Did I tell you that I tracked down who the kid he rescued from that Death dungeon is?”

“The draykin?”

“Yeah. He’s one of Sunshine’s get, was on the run from something nasty on Asihanya. Still not sure what’s going on there, but there’s a feel of one of the Outer realms hovering over that world lately.” Coyote leaned back in his chair and tried to relax. “Nothing I need to get involved in thankfully, some of the others have their Chosen looking into it.”

Dragon’s expression sobered at the mention of the Outer realms and he nodded slowly. “Not much I can do about that either, Asihanya’s not dragon-friendly.”

Coyote nodded silently, then looked up at his old friend. “So you said you had something you wanted to tell me?”

“I was looking through some of the new Paths today and the Voice started talking to me, you know how it does sometimes.” Dragon paused, so Coyote nodded, letting him know he understood. “It used the word I for itself at one point.”

Coyote blinked. He wasn’t sure if that was good news or not; it was something they’d originally expected to happen quickly, but eventually they’d given up hope. For it to happen now was strange, and he wasn’t sure how he should feel. “You mentioned the Voice was acting a bit odd recently. Is that what you meant?”

Dragon nodded. “I think it’s part of the same thing. I’m just not sure what that is, yet.”

The prince in potter’s clothing took a seat at one of the tables and waved for the Andarit and Serenity to sit as well. “I wasn’t there. I didn’t even hear about it until hours later. I keep hoping someone else survived, but you’re the first nobles I’ve seen. I’m gathering up everyone I can to take back the Palace; we can’t let them have it. Especially not if they have any of my family captive.”

“We’re leaving Zenith. Andarit was already targeted before this whole thing started; I’m not going to keep her here when there’s a good chance they know she’s alive.” Serenity saw the prince start to say something and kept talking. “The assassin followed us into the Palace dungeon. It wasn’t the only attempt, but it was the first one where we caught the assassin.”

Prince Ora overtly turned towards Andarit, clearly trying not to look at Serenity. “Please. I need - we need your help. We need to recover the Palace. We need to rescue my father. The King is the only one who can stop them on his own.”

Andarit looked towards her feet. “The King is dead, Prince Ora. You’ll have to take the Palace first, somehow get the Kingship, before you can do whatever you’re thinking of.”

The Prince looked like the weight of the world hit him all at once. “Father is dead? Are you certain?”

Serenity pulled up the current information and shared it with Andarit and Prince Ora.

[Zenith Node Capture in progress]

[Zenith Node Succession Rules active:

Previous City Lord Status: Deceased (Confirmed)

Under the established Succession Rules for Zenith, City Capture cannot be completed until all accredited Heirs within the City Control Zone at the beginning of the Capture attempt are deceased or have abdicated their claim to the Lordship.

Accredited Heirs Confirmed Deceased: 27

Accredited Heirs Abdicated: 12

Accredited Heirs Remaining: 3

Zenith Succession Rules will be active for another 1 year, 0 days, 4 hours, 52 minutes]

“A year and a day,” the prince muttered. “I thought that was only a legend.”

Serenity noticed water falling from the prince’s eyes. He didn’t seem to have realized he was crying.

“They’re hunting for us.” Adarit bit her lip and looked over at Serenity for a moment before turning back to the prince. “Serenity’s right, we need to leave the city. You have time; come with us. Raise an army and retake the city.”

The prince shook his head silently.

Serenity wasn’t sure what to say. He knew that nothing anyone had said to him when he lost his parents to invaders had helped at all; what was he supposed to say to someone else who had the same thing happen?

There was a long uncomfortable silence until the prince finally looked up and brushed the tears away from his eyes. “No. I can’t leave. Not only do I need to find out who else survived, I need to find out how this happened. And then I need to figure out how to let an army in. You’re right, I have time, but I have to be here. We’ll never win if I leave. Zenith has never fallen to outside attack and it never will; you will need someone on the inside to let you in, the same as they had. I must find out who did this. Who let this happen; who led them to kill my family.”

There was a fire in the prince’s eyes that Serenity found all too familiar. It was the fire of hate and the desire for vengeance. He couldn’t say it was wrong; all he could hope was that it wouldn’t push the prince to the same extremes that Vengeance took.

The Prince took a deep breath before continuing with an impassioned request. “Andarit, I need you to go to all of the country nobles. Recruit them to bring the best army they can; we must retake Zenith, and they will be needed. Your father will come, and so will many others, but convincing them all will be difficult. That’s what I need you to do; get them to work together to retake Zenith.”

[Quest Available: The Potter Prince’s Army]

[Convince the “Country Nobles” of Zon to form an army to retake Zenith]

[Accept Quest?]

There weren’t many details, probably because the Voice didn’t want to reveal anything Serenity didn’t already know. Even without the details, the decision was easy for him.

No.

If Andarit accepted, that was her choice. Serenity had other things he needed to do. Playing politics on Zon was not one of them.

“I’ll think about it,” Andarit temporized. “Are you certain that you won’t leave Zenith? I mean, I understand needing to have someone on the inside, but surely you’d be better at rallying the nobles than I would?”

Prince Ora shook his head. “You’ll be fine. Don’t think I didn’t notice that the city nobles were angry with you and the Courts rubbing their faces in it, while the country nobles ignored the whole thing. Father always said that you country nobles would stick together better than the city nobles if something went wrong in the city; looks like he was right.”

Or perhaps the prince was simply trying to talk Andarit into doing what he wanted her to do. Serenity was sure that the city nobles got up to a lot of trouble, but he was also certain that the country nobles didn’t always get along. There would be land disputes and water disputes at the minimum; not having to think too much about that sort of thing was exactly why Serenity intended to keep offloading his Settlement Manager responsibilities on Echo. She was good at dealing with people, he wasn’t.

“We can talk to the country nobles we’re near on the way to Lowpeak,” Serenity interjected. “I’m not going to sign up for more than that right now, but we can do that much. More than that will depend on what we see when we’re outside the city.”

He wasn’t willing to sign up for much at all. If Andarit wanted to do more after he got her to Lowpeak, that was her call; he was only going as far as necessary to reach a working portal and message node. The first priority was redirecting Rissa; having her try to transit to Zenith only to find the portal unavailable would be bad, but if they somehow managed to get it to accept incoming portals that would be worse.

Serenity watched the prince nod, accepting the offer. Good enough. “Now, on to the important part. Do you know a secret way out of the city? That would be better than using the city gate and hoping we can get past it without being challenged, which is the only plan we have so far.”

Prince Ora sat there for a moment, clearly considering how to reply. “I do, but it’s in the Palace.”