“Where in the Palace?” Serenity didn’t like the idea of going back to the Palace, but if it let them get out of Zenith safely, it was worth considering. He knew there were secret passages in the Palace complex, but he didn’t know how easy they were to find or if they connected to each other. It was entirely possible they’d already been found and it wouldn’t be a safe way out.

“Deep inside the Palace, the most protected areas,” the prince admitted. “They’re isolated from the other passages for security. They’re always guarded, but I’m sure the guards left them to fight the invaders. So they’re probably still secret.”

Serenity sighed. “How much of their forces would we have to fight past to get there, though? There’s no point in taking a secret way out if we just lead them to it. Better to seem inoffensive and sneak out the known gate. Unless they’ve closed it?”

Prince Ora shook his head. “I haven’t heard. But you have to stay!”

Serenity stared at the prince.

There was no need to say anything; after a moment, the prince shifted uncomfortably and amended his statement. “At least long enough for me to write messages to the country nobles. I - you will carry them, won’t you, Andarit?”

Andarit nodded decisively. “I will. Don’t take too long writing them; I don’t want to stay in the city any longer than I have to.” She paused, then frowned. “Oh, did you hear anything about the fire? We could hear it yesterday, but I don’t know what burned.”

The prince seemed to think for a moment. “I know there was a fight near the slaughterhouse. I think it spread to the slums? The fire probably took out both of those and the docks, but the inner wall would have stopped it. Could have spread to several other areas outside the inner wall, but all I know is that there was a fight at the slaughterhouse and people were running from a fire.”

That level of destruction was terrifying, but Serenity knew it was simply the cost of war. He’d seen it before; more than once, he’d been on the receiving end of it. It was usually unintentional; fighting in a city was a terrible thing unless the city was built for it, and it only made sense that a city would be built for the majority of its inhabitants, not the few who were Tiers stronger.

Serenity wondered if that was the same slaughterhouse that Duke Lowpeak had mentioned, the one he suspected was a cover for one Court recovering monster cores that no one else knew existed. If it were, it would explain why there was someone powerful enough there to damage the city, though Serenity wondered just how powerful the attacker and defender truly were; if most of the destruction was from a fire, then all they’d had to do was start it.

The fight also meant that there was a very good chance that the Courts weren’t unified in whatever was going on.

Actually, that was probably a good tip to give the prince. “Have you thought about getting the Courts on your side? Some of them were helping the invaders, but that sounds like at least one fought against them.”

“Unity is our only …” The prince stopped. “No, you’re right. Some of them must have known. Even if some were simply hired, the plot was too involved for them not to know. How can I know who to trust?”

Serenity shrugged. “The same way you always do. See what they do, base your trust on that. Oh, and shouldn’t you have a spymaster or something? Have him figure out who helped the Eternal Church take over.”

The prince was already shaking his head. “If Father’s dead, so is our spymaster. He wouldn’t let anything happen to Father while he lived.” Prince Ora bit his lip and looked down. After a moment’s thought, he looked up at Serenity. “Would you be my new spymaster? At least until this mess is straightened out?”

His new what?

Serenity stared at Prince Ora in shock for a moment, then burst out laughing. Once he was mostly calmed down, he tried to speak through his remaining chuckles. “I’d make a terrible spymaster. Absolutely awful.”

Andarit was giggling as well. Serenity almost wanted to feel insulted, but he really couldn’t. He knew how bad he’d be at the job; the fact that Andarit also knew shouldn’t discourage or embarrass him.

Even if she hadn’t known him very long.

Somehow, he didn’t really feel like laughing anymore, but it was fine. Really.

Serenity flushed a little and pointed his thumb towards Andarit momentarily. “She knows.”

There was a short awkward stillness in the room until Andarit stopped laughing. At least, Serenity found it awkward. To break the silence, he swapped to a topic he was far more interested in. “Can you tell us anything about the gate? Is it open?”

Prince Ora shook his head again. “I don’t know, but if they want to eat they’re either bringing it in through offworld portals or the gates are open. Zenith’s city storage is very low. Maybe some merchants have something, but I doubt it’s much. There’s been a rash of fires at the granaries, and … wait. Is that because of the invasion? Were they trying to weaken us for a siege if their sneak attack didn’t work?”

Serenity nodded as he thought about it. “Could be. It would explain why they attacked the slaughterhouse. They wanted to control it. It’ll work against them now; I don’t know what they brought in, but the portals are shut down. Knowing that actually makes me wonder if it wasn’t your father that shut them down.”

“Hm?” Prince Ora looked up at Serenity. “It definitely was. Otherwise we wouldn’t have a year and a day. The succession rules - those aren’t the normal succession rules. I know the legends; this is like the story of the Butterfly King, changing the rules to give his son a chance. The normal rules…”

The prince trailed off. Tears fell from his eyes, but his lips stretched in a grin. “I know how he did it. The normal rule is that a King presents his successor at the Palace Node. There’s a lot of stuff around it, but that’s the essence of it; any possible Heir under the rules can be presented. That has to be what an accredited heir is. So they must have tried to force him to pass the crown to someone they had under their control that qualified, only he used the time to change the succession rules instead. I wonder if that’s why the normal rules are set up the way they are?”

It certainly sounded possible, but Serenity doubted they ever really know and didn’t really care. “Why don’t you get started on those letters while Andarit and I look around the city and see if we can figure out if the gates are open?”

“Do you have to leave?”

Serenity shrugged. “I’m not leaving Andarit alone, and if we can get a look at what’s happening at the gate, leaving will be safer. I want to know if they’re letting armed people leave or if we need better disguises.”

“Oh.” The prince seemed to shrink a little. “That makes sense. I’ll be here. This shouldn’t take too long.”

It was an hour’s walk to the area near the outer city gate, even though they were outside the inner wall and had been since they left the nobles’ residence area. In that time, the city became more and more normal, even though there were Eternal Church patrols visible regularly. They were less common than they had been closer to the center of the city, even though there were more people here.

Or perhaps there were more people visible because there were fewer patrols?

No, Serenity was fairly confident that he’d gotten it right the first time. The Eternal Church simply didn’t care about the normally weaker common folk. It was probably somewhat insulting to them, but he doubted they minded the lack of attention, and realistically it was reasonable. Most common folk wouldn’t have the Paths to fight back effectively, after all. If they were fighters, that’s where they would be; if they were living as craftsmen and workers, those were almost certainly the Paths they’d chosen in life.

Serenity couldn’t blame them. He knew he’d never be happy with that role again, but he’d been very happy as Thomas with a job that was technical, rather than combat oriented. He remembered looking forward to a long peaceful marriage with Rissa, kids, and living the dream. In some ways, that was still his goal; in others, he simply wasn’t that man anymore. He didn’t think he’d ever be happy to completely settle in one place, now that he could travel the universe. He certainly wouldn’t be happy to simply relax and stop fighting.

“If we head this way, there’s an inn with rooms that look over the gate. It’s famous; some of the best food in the city, even if it’s not really noble-friendly. Father says it was a Mercenaries’ Guild affiliate before they left, but the food’s really good. Better than it was on Tzintkra, even when Rakyn cooked.”Andarit seemed a lot more cheerful now that they were in a crowd of people who were more interested in getting their work for the day done than in paying attention to Andarit’s situation.

Rakyn? Was that the same Rakyn Serenity had met on Tzintkra, the Messenger?

Naah, couldn’t be.

Serenity picked up his pace to keep up with Andarit. They were due for another talk about not leaving the bodyguard behind, but that could wait for now.

The inn Andarit led Serenity to, the Inn Gate, wasn’t nearly as nice as the Whale of a Time, but it still seemed to have all of the normal amenities. Serenity dismissed the notes about times for meals and laundry and was momentarily amused by the Help Wanted sign before his eyes settled on the counter near the entrance.

Even though it seemed to be set up as a bar, with bottles of various liquors lining the wall behind the bartender, Serenity was fairly confident that it was also the check in area. It was too close to the main entrance to be anything else, and there wasn’t another option.

On top of that, Serenity had seen the exact same setup before on other worlds. Why keep a separate person working when mercenaries would often keep rooms long-term? It wasn’t like getting a room really took all that long anyway.

The bar was empty other than the bartender, which was probably fairly normal for this early in the day; it was too early for people working a day schedule and people working overnight were probably asleep.

Serenity fished his Mercenary Guild tag out of the pocket he’d stuffed it in after Andarit mentioned that the inn had a Guild connection. It was possible they didn’t care anymore or even that the tag would get him in trouble, but it was such a classic Guild bar that Serenity felt confident enough to flash the tag. He set it on the counter and grinned at the bartender.

She made her way towards Serenity and glanced openly at his hand, taking in the Mercenary Guild tag. “What can I get for you?”

Serenity slipped the tag back in his pocket and felt his grin become a bit more genuine. “We’re looking for a room with a view.”

“Peoplewatching?” There was an amused glint in the bartender’s eye as she reached down to pull a book out from under the bar. “I’m afraid that the best view we have is unfortunately partially blocked by the city gates when they’re open, the way they are now. Are you still interested?”