Serenity sent the invitation to High Priestess Karin, then finished his cocoa. Sitting and waiting didn’t suit him well; he wanted to be out doing something. From what Sillon had seen and the fact that the Church was clearly retreating, there was a disaster happening out there even if it hadn’t yet affected the Visitors’ Palace.

Other than the lack of food delivery, anyway. Guards, as well, though Serenity considered the lack of guards to be a net positive.

He could see two options before they heard back from either Rourke or Karin. Technically, there were three, but Serenity wasn’t giving much weight to the option of working with the Mercenaries’ Guild to destabilize the situation further. He was also ignoring the option of huddling in the Visitors’ Palace and waiting.

The options he was considering were to try to rescue the group of “novices” he knew of or to preemptively head into Abiding One to be close to Rourke or Karin when they did respond. It should have been an easy choice - he knew where the novices were and they were probably unguarded; that would make it a good task to handle while he waited.

Unfortunately, they were a day’s travel by flyer away and Serenity didn’t have a flyer unless he managed to borrow the one the acolytes had. Even if he did, it would be a tight fit for his group, if they’d even all fit; Serenity wasn’t sure they would. On top of that, he didn’t want to leave Blaze unguarded but he also didn’t want to take an unconscious person with him. Splitting up would solve the space issue, but it had issues of its own.

Heading into Abiding One would let them find out what was going on there and be closer to the priests, but it wouldn’t advance the goal of freeing novices directly. They’d have to leave someone behind in case Rourke or Karin tried to come to the Visitor’s Palace, as well as to guard Blaze, anyway, so it would only be a small group no matter what.

No, without more information, heading into Abiding One didn’t really seem to offer much.

Come to think of it, they’d need people to get messages no matter what the plan was, so they were going to have to split up if they wanted to do anything other than huddle in the Visitors’ Palace. That took the worst problem off the table; it was unavoidable, no matter what choice he picked.

Everything else was problems to be solved.

Serenity headed off to find the two acolytes.

“Maps? Why would you need maps?” Acolyte Tinar sounded terribly confused. “Our task is to guide you on your tours.”

Serenity debated between trying to talk them out of the map and having someone - probably Ekari - sneak into their rooms and steal them. Of course, if he’d wanted to steal them, he shouldn’t have asked first.

“It’s fine, Tinar.” Acolyte Deek winked at Serenity. “You know as well as I do that this isn’t just a simple dungeon break. I’m sure Serenity just wants to know where the other dungeons are, to know how far away they are.”

Serenity could almost hear the acolyte saying “this is a good excuse”. He grinned at Deek and nodded. “I’d like to know where the ones near that church are, too, the one we got Helen out of.”

Deek nodded. “I think they’re on my map. It only has a few of the more important locations called out; I know the Visitors’ Palace is on it, as are most churches. I think dungeons are, too.”

Serenity also wanted to know about City Nodes, but there was a very good chance they would be in churches, so they were probably not separately called out. He hoped there would be an indicator on the map.

Deek welcomed Serenity into the acolytes’ suite. It had a common room and four bedrooms; they were all smaller than the equivalent rooms in Serenity’s suite. The biggest other difference was that, rather than a single-person workstation, there was a large table in the middle of the acolytes’ common room.

Serenity had the feeling that whoever furnished the rooms intended them to be used rather differently from each other.

Acolyte Deek spread the maps out on the table while Acolyte Tinar watched and fussed. Deek put up with it until he had the maps out, then sent Tinar off with a “why don’t you make some tea?”

Serenity was glad that Deek seemed to be the senior of the two acolytes; Tinar went off to boil water without any objections.

Serenity more than half expected an overt gesture from Deek, but the acolyte seemed content to continue to pretend that everything was normal. He showed Serenity the different maps and even explained the key; it turned out that there were notes on the map about the services offered at each church, including whether or not they had a City Node and what was enabled on it. Serenity had Aide record everything so he’d be able to recreate it later.

The church that had the “novices” from Earth was one of the churches with a portal-capable City Node. If Serenity had known that, he’d have done things different the first time he visited. It significantly simplified his planning for his next visit.

The really weird thing, to Serenity’s Earth-trained sensibilities, was that none of the churches had names. They were simply addresses, like a house in a subdivision. Deek seemed to think the question was odd, so Serenity didn’t spend much more thought on it.

It was probably just like subdivisions; Serenity knew that many homes, especially larger ones and ones in smaller communities were once named. They might take their name from the family that lived there, but it was still how people would talk about it and give directions. In a city, on the other hand, once you had enough homes and they had an address, did you really need a name?

Acolyte Tinar returned with tea when they were nearly done with the maps. He seemed more accepting of the situation now that it was obvious

“I assume you are considering visiting the church where we found Helen?” Acolyte Deek shuffled through the maps and pulled out the one that had that church on it.

Serenity looked at the map; he already had it recorded, but it was still easier to talk about locations with other people if he referenced something in front of him that they could all see. He wasn’t certain why Deek brought it up now, but he’d play along; Deek had been helpful so far. More helpful than he needed to be. “Yes. I need to check on them and make sure they’re fine, with everything that’s going on.”

He also planned to rescue them and ship them back to Earth if they were willing to go; this time, he’d take the time to talk to all of them.

“They are novices, their wellbeing is the responsibility of the Eternal Church.” Acolyte Deek somehow managed to say that in a completely neutral tone.

If he’d been even slightly condescending, Serenity would have been ticked off by the statement. They’d been kidnapped then brainwashed and abused by the Eternal Church; their wellbeing was definitely not the Church’s highest priority.

Serenity decided he was more bothered by the statement than he’d first thought. Still, he needed to control his reply. “How many of them are like Helen and have never made the choice to join the Church? Have never been given the chance to choose? There are people there that are my responsibility and I won’t let that slide.”

Based on Acolyte Tinar’s flinch, Serenity didn’t think he’d done as well at controlling himself as he intended.

Acolyte Deek nodded. “We’ll prepare to travel there tomorrow. Under the circumstances, I recommend spending the overnight at the church instead of transient housing, the way we did last time.”

Serenity frowned. They had traveled by flyer last time, but now that he knew the church had a portal-capable Node, he wasn’t sure why. Especially not when it was a solid eight hours’ flying time away, with a broken dungeon in between that would make it take longer. “Why don’t we just use a portal? I’d prefer to avoid the Glass Dungeon.”

Acolyte Deek shook his head. “Portals require authorization; only a Priest or higher can create an intraplanetary portal. Acolytes aren’t allowed to make portals.”

“Hmm.” Serenity nodded as he thought, his anger forgotten. Rourke was a priest; more than that, Karin was a High Priestess. He didn’t know the Church’s rank structure, but that had to be a higher rank than priest. Could she permit him to make portals? More importantly, would she be willing to?

Serenity put together a quick message and sent it before he forgot.

Message from High Priestess Karin to Serenity

Your request to inspect the living conditions of your former subjects during this emergency to ascertain whether or not they require additional assistance has been approved. Your level of devotion is commendable.

Your request to use a portal for the inspection is approved due to the known presence of the Glass Dungeon between your current location and that of the former subjects. Authorization is limited to you, Acolyte Tinar, and Acolyte Deek. Please follow the instructions of Acolyte Deek if any are provided.

Rissa is not permitted to accompany you.

You must use the Abiding Four Seventh Portal Node to leave, but you may transit directly to the Abiding Six First Portal Node, which is attached to the church training the novices. Acolyte Tirinal will know the route to the Abiding Four Seventh Portal Node.

Travel to the church must be accomplished within the next three days; the return trip may be any time within a tenday of the outgoing trip. You must cover all portal costs.

As for the other request, my presence is currently required on Aeon. I cannot predict when my next available time to visit Lyka will occur; however, a request to visit Aeon might be entertained once you have returned to Abiding Four.

Serenity read the note and tried to decide how he felt about it. It was in some ways similar to how the High Priestess spoke when she was being formal, yet at the same time there was something about it that seemed a little off. It was almost like she expected it to be read and wanted it to hit that note of bureaucratic disinterest Serenity remembered from dealing with various functionaries over the years. It just didn’t quite sound right.

Serenity passed the note on to Ekari. She shrugged and pointed out the obvious: messages could be shared with other people if the person sending or receiving the message wanted it to be shared. Therefore, her mother was probably sharing her messages with someone.

She’d still given Serenity everything he’d asked for except Rissa’s presence at the other church. In fact, she’d emphasized that while commending him for reasons he hadn’t given. Serenity wondered why for a moment before he connected that fact with what Rissa had told him earlier: they weren’t allowed to leave Lyka. It was enough to make Serenity wonder if he could open an offplanet portal even though Rissa couldn’t. He was a Sovereign, after all; it would make sense if there were some protections.

In that case, they were holding Serenity’s people, especially Rissa, hostage to keep him on Lyka. Quietly, of course.

It wasn’t like he intended to leave while there were still people who’d been kidnapped on Lyka and he hadn’t tracked down the person behind the kidnappings. The sheer underhanded gall of whoever was holding people hostage, however, made Serenity wonder how they ever got anyone to cooperate using anything other than force.

He was too bemused by it all to even be angry. That would change if they ever actually stopped him, but for now, the silk gloves were clearly still on.