The day after Serenity returned with Helen, no food was delivered to the Visitors’ Palace.

It surprised Serenity; he’d assumed that meals were cooked onsite, but apparently the Visitors’ Palace didn’t have a cook.

Strangely, the only people in the Palace seemed to be the two acolytes, Tinar and Deek. It seemed like everyone else had another place they lived, but Tinar and Deek were assigned to the group and actually stayed at the Palace.

It took the group some time to find the kitchen; it was back in the staff area and only Sillon had made his way back there before. He hadn’t found the kitchen because he’d concentrated on places with people.

When they did find the kitchen, it was completely empty, dust-covered, and abandoned. Before anything else happened, Sillon insisted that the kitchen had to be cleaned and inspected.

Serenity considered pulling out his Tent of Comfort, but he still hadn’t had time to really upgrade the kitchen yet. It was better than nothing, but this kitchen would be better still, as long as it still worked.

Breakfast was quick food snagged from their backpacks, eaten before the massive cleaning project was undertaken.

At one point, Serenity looked up to see the absolutely astonished face of Tinar. He didn’t seem to be able to comprehend that a diplomatic delegation was cheerfully cleaning an abandoned kitchen. It was obvious that Tinar had never been a delver; other than Rissa and Ita, they’d all had meals cooked over what they could find, often of safe but unappetizing meat with inadequate spices. Sometimes it was half-burnt; they all had a story of the time it came out half-raw and made someone ill.

Serenity got to hear all of them. He wasn’t thrilled, but it was a good way to pass the time while cleaning.

Fortunately, the lack of food wasn’t a big problem. Both of the acolytes were astonished when everyone pulled out a Tutorial backpack and started removing food; it was like they’d never seen a bag that was bigger on the inside before.

Serenity had expected Deek to act nonchalantly again, but he didn’t. He gaped just as much as his younger fellow acolyte.

They were even more amazed when Serenity did the same thing out of nowhere. He couldn’t hide it; some of the supplies he’d stuck through his rift were large and couldn’t fit in a backpack. That was why he was carrying them, after all.

While he was searching through the area on the other side of the rift, Serenity found a few things that he really should have dropped off with Ceney and Xarx back in Celestials’ Rest on Zon. He’d thought he left it all there, but apparently he missed a few things. He’d have to remember to give it to them when the portals were open again.

There was more food than he’d expected, especially more junk food. He knew that he often picked up stuff when they traveled, but why did he have seven different bags of jerky? Six of them hadn’t even been opened!

Not to mention the four bags of flour (all of which had been opened). He’d cooked sometimes and Rissa had cooked even more while they were traveling across Europe; he knew he’d stuffed extra bits and pieces through his Rift, but he hadn’t realized so much had stacked up. He’d thought he was pulling it back out so they could buy only what they needed at any particular stop.

Apparently stuff accumulated when he didn’t have a good organizational system. Well, that shouldn’t be a surprise. It always had.

While Serenity, Rissa, Ita, and Kerr attacked the kitchen mess and kept the attention of the acolytes, Ekari, Blaze, and Sillon disappeared into the city, each with a different goal.

Curio did his job as well: he very obviously and cutely played around, messing up the cleaned areas by dragging his cute but freshly-begrimed “fur” through them. Serenity wasn’t sure how that worked; Curio was made of shadows, how did shadows pick up dirt?

After the third time Rissa had to wash Curio, she deposited him with Deek. The little menace could serve as a distraction there without making the mess worse.

Sillon wished he could bring Kerr with him this time; she was great for making others relax. Or even Rissa; the one time he’d taken her to the Mercenary Guild Hall, they’d ended up playing Delve Deeper with a Tier Five pair.The Tier Fives won, of course, but Sillon thought Rissa came out the best; she talked them into a reconnaissance mission on Asihanya.

Apparently, at Tier Five you weren’t worried about people randomly destroying the city you were in. Or perhaps it was the reward she offered; Sillon didn’t think he’d have risked his life for a hundred Etherium, even a hundred Etherium each (which she didn’t offer), but he had to admit it was a really nice reward.

Or maybe they were just looking for a reason to leave Lyka. Sillon had to admit that was a good plan.

When Sillon reached the Guild Hall, the place was deserted except for a single receptionist. This was unusual for this Guild Hall; there were normally a number of people waiting around, hoping there would be work for them. Lyka was strange; no one under Tier Three was permitted, and even then mercenaries usually traveled in groups. The priests seemed to be the only ones hiring and they paid well enough that waiting around for work was fine.

That seemed to be the kind of mercenary Lyka attracted, too - ones who were happy to work when they had it but even happier to sit around and slowly spend the money when they didn’t. It made for a good place to pick up information and a terrible place to work as far as Sillon was concerned.

With no one here, though, there was no way he was going to be able to get info casually; he was just going to have to ask. It was a good thing he’d already checked in with them. At least the lack of people meant something was going on and the priests were paying; that meant the receptionist should know something.

Sillon walked up to the woman reading a book while she waited at the counter. The young woman seemed little older than his niece, but she was the receptionist at a Mercenary Guild Hall which probably meant appearances were deceiving. He’d only spoken with her a few times, but he made sure to memorize her name. “Juka? What’s going on, the place is empty.”

Juka placed a scrap of cloth in the book and set it on a shelf hidden under her desk and flashed a giant toothy smile at Sillon. “Contracts. Hunting and extermination contracts; all for Abiding One. They seem to have a problem; several local dungeons broke and for some reason the monsters all headed for Abiding One. They’re paying a premium. Only makes sense, Abiding One’s about as holy as you get without going to Aeon.”

Somehow, Sillon got the feeling that Juka didn’t like the Eternal Church.

“So, are you going to take them up on it? I can put you down for it, but you’ll want a team. Going in alone will just get you killed.” Juka still had a slight grin on her face.

Well, it wasn’t like dying was unknown for mercenaries. On the other hand, Sillon didn’t really have any desire to help the priests. More than that, he wanted to see if his guess was right and there was more to the guild hall than the obvious; mercenaries weren’t known for selling their services to only one buyer, after all. “No, I think I’m interested in other missions. You wouldn’t happen to have any, would you?”

“I do like the older ones,” Juka replied. “The ones who aren’t just in it for the quick money. Who have learned how to think. Why should I trust you?”

Sillon sighed. He never knew how to answer that question; sometimes it was rhetorical, sometimes they actually wanted a detailed explanation about morality or revenge, and sometimes they just wanted to hear that he wanted money. “I don’t know. Why should you? I’m a mercenary.”

Juka nodded slowly. “Honesty, I like that too. It won’t get you far, but it’s nice to see. In that case, why don’t we start with this: why are you on Lyka?”

Ekari snuck through the streets of Lyka. The trick wasn’t keeping to the shadows; it was looking like you belonged. As long as no one was specifically looking for her, it would work well. It always did.

A hat here, a coat swapped for a cloak there, a different bag or pair of shoes. Ekari knew how to make it work as she traveled. More than that, she knew Lyka. She didn’t know it as well as she knew Aeon, but she still knew the world.

No matter where she was on Lyka, the clothing was similar in the same sort of area. What little she’d seen of Earth made her realize that Lyka was dull, drab, and remarkably uniform; she wanted some of that warmth and color but didn’t expect she’d ever see it.

It wasn’t even that Lyka was lacking in color, not really. It was simply that everything came from the same color set - and if you could read the colors, you knew who you were talking to. It made Ekari’s blending in easier, but it removed any sense of mystery.

Of course, that was probably one of the reasons for the uniformity. It long predated Lykandeon; some previous planetary ruler lost in the mists of time and the Shattering had specified what was appropriate to wear and most of Lyka still followed that tradition. The parts that didn’t … well, they were especially hard hit when they fell to Lykandeon.

Akar itself, lost in the Waste and the waters that followed …

Ekari didn’t remember Akar. It fell before she was born, the last of the principalities to fall. She was taught about it, since her family came from Akar, but also taught to be silent about her knowledge. Perhaps that was why she longed for different styles; she’d seen them as a child but not an adult. As she grew older, her teachers took up the mantle of Lykandeon’s priesthood, one by one, and drifted away from her.

The streets were odd. They were almost normal; there were few signs of disturbance or destruction. There were people on them, going about their daily routines. Still, something was missing. Sure, traffic was lighter than usual, but that wasn’t what she was half-noticing.

Ekari was over two hours into her trip before she realized what the problem was: she hadn’t seen a single priest or acolyte, even when she walked past a Church. When she realized that, she headed into the first Church she saw; they were all supposed to be open to worshippers at any time, so the sanctuary, at least, would be unlocked.

That was all that was unlocked, and there didn’t seem to be as much as a single initiate present. The Eternal Flame was lit, but no one watched it; that was wrong. There was always supposed to be someone watching the Flame.

Ekari walked to the door to the priests’ area, pulled out her ChurchKey, and unlocked the door before tucking the key away. It was a minor magical item produced on Aeon that would open any Church lock of lower rank; she’d stolen it from her mother, so it had to be fairly high rank.

While Ekari knew how to pick a lock, using a key was generally better.