Rissa reached out towards the portal node crystal. She hesitated for a moment; she couldn’t wait to see Serenity and yet at the same time she didn’t understand why she’d heard nothing from him in weeks. She’d heard from her parents; she’d even heard from his!

Things were going well on Earth, at least.

As for the small group of travelers, Rissa knew they were lucky Ekari was with them; getting across Lyka would have been very difficult otherwise. With Ekari’s help, or perhaps more precisely, with her mother High Priestess Karin’s help, they’d been treated like nobles.

There wasn’t much of a difference between nobles and priests on Lyka; priests were more powerful, but the actual treatment was similar. Rissa didn’t like it, but then again, she’d always been suspicious of clergy.

Rissa pushed her hand the last inch through the air to touch the crystal. It was strangely difficult, even though the only thing between her and it was simple air.

The portal node structure was the same as all of the others she’d used, at least, even if it was a bit more barebones than most. The actual list of portal designations hid an unpleasant surprise.

[Authorized Destinations: Zenith Common Portal (Zon)]

[Warning: All portals within the Zenith Control Zone, including the Zenith Common Portal, are unavailable for transit due to restrictions set by the Zenith Lord]

Rissa let her hand fall away from the portal node crystal in shock. She wasn’t certain if she should be happy to know that there was something happening in Zenith or not. It probably explained Serenity’s silence, which was good, but at the same time that meant Serenity was probably in the middle of it which was definitely bad.

Now what were they going to do? Could they wait on Lyka or should they leave? For that matter, could they leave?

The caravan traveled slow enough that there was no chance to catch up to the three fleeing guards. It traveled especially slowly since it was at night, the animals pulling the wagons were already tired, and the wagons were heavier than normal since many of the humans were hiding in them supposedly resting instead of walking beside the wagons as normal.

The kids were probably actually resting.

Serenity found three people who’d contracted Swamp Rot as he and Andarit walked behind the wagons, guarding their vulnerable rear. Two were the male guards, but one was in one of the wagons. Serenity suspected it was a child from the way it felt, but he wasn’t certain; it could have been a small, weak adult. It didn’t really matter, because the Swamp Rot was easily removed with Eat Death and a little concentration, even at a distance. Serenity’s aura wasn’t large enough to cover all six wagons from the rear, but it was enough to reach the three people it needed to.

They kept traveling through the night. It was almost entirely uphill, along a series of switchbacks that took them slowly up the mountain. Serenity wasn’t as tired as the people around him, but it had still been a very long day.

Shortly after daybreak, Irma called a rest break. It was mostly for the animals; for all that the oversized lizards known as erkal had better stamina than horses, they weren’t able to simply walk forever. They had a quick hot breakfast, then the guards took a short nap while Serenity and Andarit kept watch. They were only halted for about three hours; no one felt rested, but it was clear that the caravan travelers didn’t feel safe simply stopped on the road.

When they moved on, Serenity and Andarit followed on the flyer. Andarit slept while Serenity guided the flyer; he’d need sleep soon as well, but it was obvious that she needed it worse than he did.

They reached the next wagonrest in midafternoon. Serenity took the time to examine the ward. It was intact, so Serenity quickly set up his tent, crawled inside, and passed out.

No one woke him up for dinner. Instead, he slept until shortly before dawn. When he woke, he felt groggy but otherwise recovered. He grabbed some snack food he’d stored in his Rift to tide himself over until breakfast; by then, he wanted to truly be awake.

The next day was more travel up the mountain. This time, people were walking beside the wagons; only the smaller children were allowed to ride. Fortunately, it was clear that the wagon rests had been set up a reasonable distance apart; about an hour after the lunch break, they finally saw the Mountain’s Crest Estate in the distance.

It was more than two hours until they actually arrived.

Serenity waited a couple of minutes after the caravan arrived, but when the gate didn’t open even to let an inspector out, he headed up to the front of the caravan. A voice reached his ears; it sounded distant and a little distorted, almost like someone was speaking or perhaps shouting through a tunnel. “... deal with them yourself. They were only a day ahead of you; we’ll open the sections up.”

“What’s going on?” Serenity knew he’d missed something, since the words he’d overheard didn’t fully make sense. They had to be about the three guards that fled ahead of the undead, but what was it about opening sections up?

Irma shrugged. “We encountered undead. That means we need to go through a long quarantine instead of the normal cleanse. The Estate doesn’t want Swamp Rot in the city. Can’t blame ‘em; I’ve seen what happens when it gets loose in a village, a city would be worse.”

Serenity frowned. “No one in the caravan has Swamp Rot. Is there any way for them to check and let us through?” He wanted to get to Lowpeak as quickly as possible so that he could regroup with Rissa. The problem on Zon was handled, at least for now, so they needed to move on to Lyka.

Serenity didn’t know much about Lyka; hopefully one of the people traveling with Rissa would.

“No one?” Irma’s eyes drifted over to one of the other guards; Serenity thought it was the one who’d been temporarily possessed, but they looked enough alike that he wasn’t certain. “Good news if it’s accurate. I thought for sure…”

“It’s not that hard to get rid of if you catch it early.” At least, it wasn’t hard for Serenity. He was fairly confident he could have done it any time after he learned to destructively heal; it was simply destroying an infection, after all, and the Death attunement made it easy to find. Admittedly, he’d been a higher Tier at that point but that was simply because he hadn’t been anywhere that taught it until later. Serenity shrugged. “How long is the quarantine?”

“A month, as long as no one gets sick. It’s the reason this route pays so well; it’s usually not dangerous like this trip, other than Swamp Rot, but there’s always the chance of ending up in quarantine so I charge appropriately. The one good thing about quarantine is the food; the cities want trade to continue, so as long as we pay for it, they’re happy to provide good materials to cook.” Irma grinned for a moment. “It’s also the reason I end up as both chief guard and wagonmaster; my reputation’s good enough that most of the merchants don’t want to risk the trip, they trade with known associates.”

Serenity did not want to spend a month waiting for something that wasn’t going to happen.

“I’ve never had to go through quarantine.” Andarit sounded puzzled.

Irma chuckled. “Then you’ve been lucky. If you don’t encounter any undead, there’s a cleansing station near the entrance that can deal with the traces from the swamp air. If you actually see undead, you’re too close to them to count on it so you have to quarantine. No one’s allowed to skip and they have some people with strong lie detection Skills just in case. Well, no one other than Lichbane himself; I’ve seen him go through. He’ll even stop in the quarantine to cleanse people sometimes; his Skill is good enough for that.”

“Lichbane himself” had to be Kalo Lichbane, Andarit’s father. That certainly explained why Andarit had never had to deal with quarantine; her father was with her.

Serenity glanced over at Andarit and found her flushed and biting her lip. She clearly didn’t want to mention her heritage; good. He’d cautioned her against it, but he knew how easy it was to slip up when you were trying to keep something quiet. “Andarit? Can we talk for a moment?”

Andarit followed Serenity a little ways away from the others before she piped up. “You’re going to tell me you don’t want to spend a month in quarantine, aren’t you?”

Serenity nodded. “I don’t have much faith in being believed when I say I can cure Swamp Rot, so the best solution seems to be to not enter quarantine. You said we can get to Lowpeak through the Dead Swamp?”

Swamps were bad, but they weren’t bad because of undead. In fact, swamps tended to be relatively bad for undead; the only advantage undead had in a swamp was that the types that were susceptible to fire were harder to burn. The problem with swamps was spiders.

He’d just have to deal with spiders if they found any.

“We can, but I still need to get this letter to the Estate’s Lord. And don’t you want to do something about the three guards that ran?”

Serenity grinned at Andarit’s excuses. He wasn’t certain if she didn’t want to go through the swamp or if she was simply uncertain, but it was telling that “it’s too dangerous” wasn’t on her list. “I don’t care about the three that ran; Irma will take care of them. You told her we found someone near the swamp controlling the undead; that’s enough for her to put it together. As for the letter, why don’t you give it to Irma? Merchants deliver letters, don’t they?”

Andarit looked at the ground and seemed to think for a moment. When she looked up, she took a deep breath and let it back out before she spoke. “It would be better if I delivered the letter, but it’s not worth a month in quarantine. Father needs to know about what happened in Zenith. I don’t think he’s great friends with the King, but he does care about Zenith. At least, I think he does.”

Serenity smiled. If she was uncertain about her father’s personal beliefs, it probably meant he chose not to share them with her. Serenity expected that meant they weren’t entirely positive about their rulers. Still, it didn’t matter to Serenity whether or not Lowpeak moved to help Zenith; it would be a long time before he could move people back to Earth either way, and staying here wouldn’t help that. It would only delay his meeting with Rissa.

“I’ll just tell her that we have a royal missive; she’ll understand if I mention that I also have one for Lowpeak, won’t she? I guess it doesn’t matter if she doesn’t believe me as long as she delivers the letter.” Andarit muttered to herself as she walked back towards the guard captain without ever actually agreeing to go through the swamp.

Serenity just watched her go. She’d clearly talked herself into it and the last thing he wanted to do was accidentally talk her out of the trip. He’d done that sort of thing one too many times to trust himself to say anything without putting his foot in his mouth.