The view from the third-floor room was nearly ideal. Andarit and Serenity could easily see what was happening at the gate, without it being obvious that they were watching. The inability to hear anything was a negative, but Serenity thought he could probably put together a spell to handle that if he had to; he’d done it before as Vengeance. He didn’t have the mana pool to keep it up for all that long, though, so he’d only build the spell if they thought it was important.

It probably would be, but he wanted to have an idea of when to use it before he spent the mana.

At first, it just looked like an open gate. There were guards in the same black-trimmed burgundy as the other acolytes, but they didn’t seem to be actually stopping anyone from entering or leaving, though they did talk to each group and in several cases search a wagon.

It took a while for Serenity to see the patterns. Most of the traffic was wagons, piled high with produce on the way in and empty on the way out. There were other wagons entering and leaving; Serenity could only be grateful that the city had functioning water and sewer systems so that he didn’t have to worry about them being part of the wagon traffic. As it was, he got the impression that it was mostly raw materials coming in and finished goods leaving, but enough of the wagons were covered that it was only a good guess.

After watching the wagons for a while, Serenity swapped to watching the foot traffic. There was a significant number of people entering and leaving, even though it was late morning already. Strangely, even though he could see the guards searching wagons periodically, Serenity got the feeling they were paying more attention to the individuals.

It was probably fifteen minutes after that when Serenity saw someone be turned away from the gate, not allowed to leave. They simply merged with the incoming traffic and Serenity realized that he’d probably missed some earlier; as long as they didn’t make a fuss, he wouldn’t have noticed without paying attention specifically to the people walking. Over the next few minutes, he saw several more be turned away, but he couldn’t hear any of the conversation to know why.

At least it seemed to be fairly peaceful. Serenity wondered if that was because the acolytes were fairly strong or if people were simply being cautious in a new situation; chances were that both came into play.

“We’re going to want to hear, aren’t we?” Serenity had hoped to avoid it, but he started building the spell anyway. SpaceTime was the key component; he’d used Space in the past. If he made a small area be ‘next to’ a spot down there, the sound should come through on its own. It wasn’t the most elegant of eavesdropping spells, but it was one that was well suited to Serenity’s particular Affinities. That was often more important than using the actual theoretical best spell.

While he was still building the spell, Andarit muttered. “Four. And the other two were … yeah, that has to be it.”

Serenity paused the construction of the spell and turned to Andarit. “Did you notice something?”

“Hm?” Andarit didn’t seem to realize she’d said anything out loud. “Oh. Yes, the people being turned away are either well-dressed or armed. But they’re only being turned away in the line for individuals; I’ve seen several armed groups go through with wagons. I guess they’re guards or something?”

Serenity had noticed the armed people leaving with wagons, so he’d assumed that wasn’t the reason for others being turned back. Perhaps he’d been too quick to dismiss it as a reason. That only made the hearing spell more important, unfortunately.

“Please be quiet,” Serenity told Andarit. “The type of eavesdropping spell I’m using will let them hear us as much as we can hear them.”

Andarit nodded. She didn’t say anything, so Serenity felt safe to complete the spell. Realistically, as long as they weren’t too obvious, any noises they made would be lost in the clutter outside; still, Serenity didn’t want to tempt Fate.

Or Luck. He definitely didn’t want to tempt Luck. Tyche was far too mischievous and he still had the title that warned him she was watching.

Most of the conversations were short, little more than the acolyte guards asking where people were going and why or going through the motions of inspecting cargo entering or leaving the city.

They were definitely more interested in cargo leaving the city; after an hour of listening, Serenity and Andarit found out why when the guards found a group of people hiding in one of the wagons. One of them decided to fight and all three of the hidden people were killed. The man driving the wagon and the wagon itself were taken away; Serenity wasn’t certain what happened to them.

Serenity leaned over and whispered in Andarit’s ear. “Did you know any of them?”

She shook her head. Serenity was pleased to see that she seemed more angry than upset; her fists were clenched and she had a scowl on her face that was truly notable. She wanted to do something, but she was sensible enough to know that they couldn’t. Good enough.

He felt that way, too, but he was older than she was and had had more time to adjust to the unfairness of the world. Acting on those feelings wouldn’t accomplish anything here other than getting the two of them killed.

All they could do was keep watching and try to figure out a way out.

Slowly, they gathered the information they needed.

People who looked like trained warriors were being pulled out of line and either rejected (usually) or taken away, even if they didn’t have weapons. It made that line a bad idea for Serenity; Andarit might be able to get through, but he didn’t want to count on it even for her.

People who were actually armed were being allowed through only with wagons, and it had to be a wagon with something of value on it; there were a handful where the wagon was let through and the guards weren’t. In several cases, the hauler turned back to stay with the guards, but most simply kept going. Serenity thought some of them were taken away as well, but it was less clear since they were taken to the side, away from the easy listening range of Serenity’s spell.

After the third hour of listening, Serenity thought he had enough information to put together a new plan. He turned to Andarit and whispered. “You ready to move to the next step?”

At her nod, he dismissed the spell. It was nice to get rid of the mana drain; while he’d been able to keep it up, it had hit his mana pool hard and it was actually lower than it usually ended up on Earth. Since it was now rising again, Serenity knew he wouldn’t end up aching from the use, but it still meant he was less combat capable than he’d prefer.

He needed a payment and wasn’t certain what the right amount was; it varied. In a situation like this, it was probably better to overpay than underpay. The room had already taken most of the kopeks he had left, unfortunately. Andarit had some, but the longer they could make them last, the better.

Well, he’d already shown his Guild tag; the bartender had surely guessed he was from offworld; why not pay like an offworlder? He had plenty of monster cores, and they were ridiculously valuable on Zon. If he had to, he could even offer Etherium.

Serenity pulled a monster core out of his Rift, then thought better of it and pulled out a few more to tuck in his bag. It was better to have them on hand; if his bag was searched and they were found, well, he was a Mercenary. Having some cores was to be expected.

The same bartender was at the checkin counter / bar when they got back downstairs. This time, she wasn’t alone, but the person with her seemed content to stare at nothing while drinking. Serenity knew he’d probably overhear anything that was said, so he’d need to be careful, but if he phrased everything correctly that wouldn’t be an issue.

He rolled the core between his fingers as he walked up to the bar. He hated this part. Was he doing it right? Was he acting normal? He always ended up second-guessing himself.

“What did you think of the room?” The bartender greeted them as they approached.

Serenity couldn’t help but chuckle. “Nice view.” He set the core on the bar but kept playing with it. He’d been told that was a good way to draw attention to something without mentioning it, and it did seem to work. “Do you happen to know of any merchants leaving soon who might be interested in hiring some guards?”

“You’re looking for work?” The bartender sounded surprised. “I thought you’d have some lined up. No one comes to Zon without already having work.”

That was probably true. Serenity certainly wouldn’t have been on Zon without a reason. On the other hand, he could tell the truth as long as he said it correctly. “I did. Unfortunately, plans change and well … now I’m looking for work.”

“Plans change. Isn’t that the truth.” The bartender sounded a little bitter as she spoke. Her eyes followed his hand to the monster core and he could see her smile. “We have a couple of merchants staying here who will probably be heading out in the next day or two; why don’t you drop by this evening and I’ll get you an invite to their table? You’ve already paid for the room, after all, might as well get the meal.”

“Sounds like it’d be good for all of us. I’m going to walk the city a bit; might as well see a bit more if we’re not going to be here long.” Serenity stepped away from the bar, “accidentally” leaving the monster core behind.

“See you this evening.” The bartender waved as they left. Serenity didn’t see her scoop up the core, but it was gone before they were out of the room.

Despite the length of time they were gone, the prince still wasn’t done with the letters when they arrived back at the potter’s studio. From the wadded up paper scattered around the room, Serenity got the feeling that Prince Ora was suffering from a mighty nasty case of writer’s block.

Serenity was torn between annoyance at the delay and amusement that even people who’d been specifically trained for a task would get stressed out and be unable to decide what they wanted to say. Amusement won out; after all, they weren’t in a hurry for the next couple of hours.

As Andarit tried to help the prince figure out what to write by acting as a sounding board, Serenity tried sending a message to Rissa again. He knew it wouldn’t work, but he still had to try.

As expected, it didn’t work. The only thing that had changed was the timer as it continued to count down.

Rissa was fine. She had to be. He was just nervous because she was crossing worlds without him. Ita would keep her safe, or at least do her best. Blaze, as well; the man was rigid in some ways, and protecting those under his care was definitely one of them. Serenity was sure Sillon would try, too.

He hadn’t expected Sillon to come to Earth at all, but apparently he’d brought his family. Rissa had needed to arrange things so that the kids could get schooling; they didn’t even speak English, so she was having a tutor come to them for a few months. They might well end up in a more formal school with the next regular year, but that wasn’t decided yet.

Yes, they’d all take care of Rissa. She’d be fine, even if he couldn’t reach her.

The portals being closed would stop her from coming to Zenith, so at least she wouldn’t run into the mess he was trying to escape. He needed to look on the bright side.