It was more than a few days before High Priestess Karin was able to arrange for Serenity to talk to any of the people who’d been kidnapped from Earth. During that time, Rissa and Serenity toured a different part of Lyka each day. They toured Abiding 17, which Serenity would have categorized as a working class area, then Abiding 8, which seemed to be a commercial area, similar to Abiding 4 but less fancy and busier.

If Serenity understood it correctly, each number covered somewhere between one and three square miles; certainly not enough area to be considered a full city but far more than a neighborhood. It was about the amount of area usually closest to each individual node inside a city; a two-mile hike to find a node was a long walk.

Serenity somehow doubted that the Abiding nodes had many of their features enabled. This didn’t seem like a particularly liberal place, so it was likely that the nodes were really only usable by the local guard, police, or city managers. They certainly weren’t on the tour itinerary.

By now, Serenity and Riss had plenty of time to observe the dynamic between the two acolytes leading them. Acolyte Tinar was the one who did most of the talking; he clearly had the tour routes memorized, including occasional jokes and small bits of historical gossip. Acolyte Deek, however, was in charge. He was the one who set the schedule and handled the logistics. Serenity got the feeling that he was senior to Tinar, even though they had the same title.

The question of how they managed really high numbers was answered inadvertently on the third day, when they were sent to tour Abiding Field 7: they added extra words as categories to keep the numbers small enough to be comprehensible. It was at least twenty square miles, probably more, and was planted with a wide variety of crops. There were small barracks-style buildings scattered around the property; they seemed to be temporary housing, probably for workers.

On the fourth day, Rissa and Serenity toured Abiding 1. It was a large section of what had to be the central administration area of the city but it had been completely converted into a religious area. Unlike the other areas, it was almost a complete city; there were even some small industrial areas. Other than the lack of sources for food and materials, it was closer to self-sufficient than most of the sectors.

On the way out of a combat training facility, their guides led them to a meeting room. It was blatantly obvious that was the purpose; a table surrounded by chairs was simply too useful for the purpose to be anything else.

“Stay here.” Acolyte Deek told the two of them. “We’re not allowed to stay while you meet with whoever you’re meeting here.”

“We’re not even allowed to know who that is,” Acolyte Tinar muttered.

Acolyte Deek glared at his fellow acolyte for a moment before he continued in the same flat, informative voice he often used. “They should be here shortly; we will check back in an hour. If you are done, please open the door; if it’s closed, we’ll go away and not check for another hour. We have a window of up to three hours available in the schedule, but that will impact your meal schedule.”

Serenity had snacks for both himself and Rissa. They’d be fine even if they missed dinner, but it puzzled him that there was a surprise secret meeting of indeterminate length showing up in the middle of a tour. The one reassuring thing was that the guides were clearly expecting to meet them after the surprise meeting; that meant it was unlikely to be specifically hostile, at least.

While Serenity was thinking, the two guides left and closed the door.

It was less than five minutes later when the door opened again, letting in a short, skinny man dressed in the same robes as the acolytes. Once he was in the room, he tossed the outer robe onto a chair, revealing dark, unadorned clothing. “You must be Serenity and Rissa?”

Serenity nodded. “We are. You are…?”

The man grinned. “You hide your Status; that’s a good thing, especially here. I’m Initiate Rourke. My outwards position is trainer of the novitiate, but my actual duty is as a Separator. I determine which novices will reach the heights and be considered as acolytes and which will stay as novices or be discarded. It’s rarely stated that bluntly, but that’s what my job is. Supposedly my calling, as well, but my actual calling is a little different. I try to save as many as I can.”

A grimace flashed on Rourke’s face before he returned to the same grin. “It’s not always easy, especially not with the newest group. All too few are willing to learn the Book of Eternity without severe punishment. All too many won’t even try. Even those that are willing seem to have never memorized anything before. Learning the Book is the first step in the novitiate, and there are time limits.”

Rourke sighed and shook his head. “A few are being sent to Final Separation, but many are going to the Legions. They are not going as fighters.” The grin was completely gone, now. “They’re going as tools. I’m not supposed to know why, but I believe I do. They’re from a new world, a world still in the protected period, aren’t they?”

Serenity glanced at Rissa; he hoped she’d have a clue for him, but she didn’t indicate whether he should say anything or not. He was on his own for now.

Well, if he had to be on his own, he’d go with his gut feeling and his gut feeling was that Rourke was extending a hand to help. He hoped he was right and this wasn’t a trap, but at this point even a trap would be better than more of these boring tours. “If they’re the people I’m looking for, yes.”

Rourke nodded and reached into a pocket in the discarded robe’s liner, then pulled out a pair of small spheres. They looked entirely too much like the stone Serenity had found in Djen’s secret office for Serenity’s comfort. “That’s not the only reason, I’m sure, but it’s a lot of it. People from new worlds seem to be more likely to be able to activate these, but there are far, far too many in this new group.”

A frown crossed Serenity’s face as he stared at the spheres. They weren’t the same, yet they were. “What are those?”

Rourke shrugged and the false grin returned to his face. “These are birdseed, or at least that’s what everyone calls them. I think the formal name is something like Phorus Amplifiers, but everyone just calls them birdseed. They’re very powerful weapons for those who can use them. They can let you cast magical Skills faster, with more power, more often.”

“At what cost?” Serenity tried to Identify the birdseed, but the Voice didn’t give any information. He didn’t believe in power for nothing, however, so there had to be a price.

Rourke shrugged. “I don’t know for sure. What I know is that they’re only given to people who are Separated from the novitiate and sent to the Legions. People who are themselves considered weapons. They don’t tend to last long, but I don’t know if that’s from the birdseed or from something else.”

“The methods used to control them.” Serenity’s voice rumbled. He restrained a growl; he knew what giving powerful but dangerous-to-the-user weapons to people who weren’t fanatically committed meant: you had a plan in place to control them. He’d seen it any number of times.

It was a plan that tended to work very well when the disposable soldiers were controlled undead, golems, or summoned creations and less well when the disposable soldiers were intelligent people. Even so, regimes that used the method could last for a very long time as long as they stayed careful about their slave soldiers.

Rourke set the two balls on the table. “These are yours. They’re used to test novices for Separation. Sometimes they wear out; these two should have some life left in them but they were reported destroyed. I know they’re not why you’re here but I thought they might help.” He paused and bit his lip before he continued. “You’re here to get your people out, right?”

Serenity nodded. He didn’t say anything; he didn’t trust his own voice after Rourke’s revelations.

Rourke seemed to relax a little. “I can - I mean, you have a choice. The novices who haven’t been Separated yet and who also haven’t been accepted as Acolytes can be reached relatively easily. I know some people who can probably help you get them out, even override the restrictions on a Portal Node long enough to send them off Lyka.”

That sounded pretty good, but the fact that this was the first option made Serenity think that it was the one Rourke didn’t want him to take. Serenity didn’t really care about Rourke’s preferences, but at the same time he was concerned about the way Rourke phrased the option; he’d limited the number of people they could help escape. “How many?”

Rourke seemed surprised at the question. “I didn’t say, did I? There are a few hundred Novices left in that group. Three or four hundred, I think.”

Three or four hundred out of thousands. That was an abysmal recovery rate. He’d take it if he had to, any was better than none, but it wasn’t what he wanted. He wasn’t going to accept that Rourke was presenting the best options for Serenity’s people, but he was the local and they would at least give Serenity a starting point he didn’t have now. “And the other option?”

Rourke looked down. “There are two. We have a raid planned on the Phorus facility. The goal is to destroy the birdseed. We’d planned to kill the weapons, the people, but getting them off Lyka and out of the Church’s control is good enough. You can help with the raid; it’ll be dangerous but the Legions have to be stopped. I can send most of the current Novices there as well, so you can get them all out at once.”

Serenity started to say something about the Novices but stopped himself. He didn’t need to propose changes to a plan he hadn’t even accepted yet.

“The last option.” Rourke stopped himself and swallowed before straightening his shoulders. “Unless you have a god in your pocket, I can’t recommend the last option. Lykandeon isn’t about to permit even localized rebellion, others have tried. It’s the option I’m supposed to be trying to get you to support, but I can’t drag someone into this. There isn’t any real chance and the consequences of failure are nasty.”

Serenity wondered why Rourke was even there if he didn’t think there was a chance. Perhaps it was as simple as having to try for the victories he could manage; after all, it sounded like he routinely sent people to death or fates worse than death. That had to be hard.

When Rourke mentioned having a god in his pocket, Serenity’s mind drifted to a set of tokens. They weren’t actually in his pocket, they were on the other side of his Rift where they would be safe, but they might just be what was needed. “When you say I need a god in my pocket, what do you mean?”