If it was a real lightning bolt, he might be a bit singed but he’d be fine; his Shock resistance was high enough.

If it wasn’t a real lightning bolt, she was manipulating the environment and he could do the same thing. Serenity reached out as though he were casting a spell and told the world that the “lightning bolt” was simply a visual effect with no meaning behind it. Light and nothing more.

It washed over him as a light show with no effect. Serenity grinned; this space was even more malleable than Rissa had suggested.

The woman seemed astonished and angry. “How can you, how did you do that?”

Serenity could barely hear her words; they were whispered, not shouted. Even so, they made him grin. Maybe he could rub in some salt? Angering your opponent was often a good way to generate mistakes. “Easily.”

“Impossible!” The woman sputtered. “No one can override an Arbiter in the Timestream! Never mind easily!”

Serenity’s grin grew wider. “Let me know when you find one of those, then.” He had no idea what she meant by “Arbiter”, but it was clearly how she thought of herself.

The Arbiter growled then squinted her eyes. For a moment, Serenity thought she was going to shout something more, but she simply charged him, drawing back her sword for a massive swing. It was the most graceless, seemingly untrained movement Serenity had seen.

It didn’t line up with her earlier movement at all. Serenity suspected it was a trick of some sort, but it wasn’t obvious exactly what sort.

On the other hand, it did mean that she was absolutely open. Serenity waited until she was close, dropped the duplicating dagger, then sidestepped her, grabbing her sword arm and pulling her off balance in a circle. Her momentum pushed her past him. He’d hoped it would have her keep going past the edge of the tree branch, but she suddenly stopped, halted between Serenity and Rissa, and erupted with a bright white light.

Serenity concentrated and imposed his Intent on the surrounding space. It was just light. Annoying but that was all.

“Let the Light of the True Future erase these Shadows!” The Arbiter screamed at the top of her lungs. This was clearly the trick she’d planned.

It didn’t change the space around her.

The space was malleable and seemed to respond to him better than it did to the Arbiter, for all that she had more experience. The only reason Serenity could think of was that he was a Child of Time; perhaps that gave him some authority?

Serenity still had a grip on the Arbiter’s wrist; that made it easy to disarm her, especially when she wasn’t paying attention to the sword. It fell and clattered against the ground. It was more real than the effects she’d been causing, but Serenity wasn’t sure why he felt that way. It was uncomfortable to run into so many things he didn’t know; as the Final Reaper, he’d gotten used to understanding things.

Or perhaps he’d just stopped looking. That was also possible.

“Look, whoever you are, you have to have figured out by now that that’s not going to work.” Serenity kicked the sword off the tree branch and watched it fall. “Are you going to explain what this is about or do I have to guess?”

Serenity glanced at Rissa. She’d drawn her crossbow out of nowhere and had it pointed at the woman’s back. Good.

“She should be dead,” the Arbiter stated flatly. “That is the correct path the future should take. It goes through her.”

Serenity sighed. “Why do you believe there is a correct path for the future?” He wasn’t at this point that concerned about the Arbiter herself. Rissa might even be able to defend herself now; certainly she would be able to at some point. The fact that she couldn’t have the first time she saw the woman was nothing to be ashamed of, but she’d progressed since then.

Even if Rissa couldn’t defend herself, Serenity would be there. The Arbiter was no longer a real threat.

“It was seen! The future we have searched for was finally seen. We must make it happen.” The Arbiter twisted in Serenity’s grasp. “She must die.”

There was no future that Serenity wanted that included Rissa’s death. “No.”

The Arbiter suddenly kicked at Serenity’s knee; he twisted to rob the kick of its force, but she turned that into a squirm and twisted her wrist out of his grasp. He hadn’t thought to pin her better when she wasn’t trying to escape; that was a mistake, but not one he was too surprised by. He was trained to kill, not restrain. He’d have to learn better in the future. Practicing his unarmed combat would be a good start, but he needed something better than the limited guidance he currently had.

For starters, he didn’t even have claws at the moment.

The woman leapt away from Serenity towards Rissa and was rewarded with a crossbow bolt in her chest. She faded out of existence and Serenity gave Rissa a thumbs’ up. “Well done. Do you think she’s dead or just gone?”

Rissa shrugged. “Probably just gone, but it’s hard to say. The bolt should have hurt her, but I don’t know exactly how much. It depends on how much she believes what happens here is real.”

Serenity nodded. That was more or less what he’d guessed; the Timestream was a shared metaphor, not reality. She would probably survive; the wound wasn’t deadly as long as she got healing even in the real world. “Any idea why she’s calling herself an Arbiter or what this future she’s talking about is?”

Rissa bit her lip.

Serenity gave her the time she needed to compose her answer.

Rissa looked down towards Serenity’s feet. “I’ve seen some bits and pieces from the future you lived. The future where I died. They’re far more detailed than a normal vision, and the links are also clearer. There’s a sense of unreality to them because they are a future that can’t happen, but they’re far more detailed than any other future I’ve seen, impossible or not.”

Serenity stared at Rissa. “And she’s trying to make that happen? Why would she want to?” That future led only to death. Serenity couldn’t imagine anyone wanting that.

Well, anyone who wasn’t suicidal. It wouldn’t really work for someone who wanted to die, either, would it? It wasn’t like it was soon.

Rissa shrugged and her words echoed Serenity’s thoughts. “Maybe something in between now and the far future? People can be shortsighted. They may not have seen where it ends, as well.” Rissa shook her head. “I don’t know what an Arbiter is. It sounds like something a group of people trying to control the Timestream might come up with.”

Serenity nodded, then froze as something occurred to him. He didn’t know who they were either, but he did know someone who might. “We should stop by Ranar on the way to Earth, both to see Helen and to talk to Guildmaster Tirmanak. He might know something.” Serenity frowned in thought. “Why did you send her there anyway?”

Rissa seemed startled. “Helen? Didn’t I tell you?”

Serenity shook his head.

Rissa laughed. “Thought I did. It turned out she didn’t really want to go back to Earth immediately. She wanted to see more of the universe but she wanted to do it safely. I figured the Guildmaster would help with that.” Her smile turned wry. “It was also a lot cheaper, so I gave her some Etherium to give her a hand while she got going.”

Serenity shook his head. Even if she hadn’t given Helen the full difference, it was likely that she could get to Earth on it. Multiple small trips tended to be significantly cheaper than one big trip. Knowing Rissa, though, she’d probably given it all. Money was simply too easy for Rissa to get; she lived relatively simply for her level of wealth but didn’t value it the way many people did.

Serenity grinned and shook his head. “I can understand that. I’d like to see the universe from a bit happier perspective than last time.”

Rissa nodded, her eyes gleaming. “I told you about Berinath, didn’t I? We should go there again. Together.”

“Repeatedly.” Serenity couldn’t help his fond smile as he swept Rissa up in a hug. “But you can tell me about it again.”

It was a while before they got back to the reason they entered the Timestream in the first place.

Serenity wouldn’t have chosen prophecy as his method of determining a course of action if he’d had the knowledge of Lyka and Aeon to make an informed decision, but he didn’t.

They were looking for possibilities, guideposts that might give them an idea of what the better paths were. Serenity turned to his fiancee, “So how do we find a way forward?”

Rissa looked around. They were still in an odd area made of trees and branches. “It’s still a metaphor, even if it’s not the one I’m used to. Concentrate on the future option you want then … climb a tree, I guess? That should be moving into the future.” Rissa stood, then dusted off her pants even though there was nothing on them. “All I really need you to do is to not alter the area. Let me lead.”

Serenity picked himself up off the branch as well. “Of course.”

Serenity pulled his aura back into himself. Having it spread out made it easier to influence his surroundings, which was exactly what he didn’t want right now.

Rissa looked around, then put a hand on Serenity’s shoulder as though she were making sure he was there. The area around them changed and didn’t change at the same time; Serenity couldn’t tell when it happened, but they were no longer in a dense thicket of trees. They instead stood on a branch that seemed to come from three different directions, three different tree trunks. Other than those three trees, no other trees were visible; instead, the surrounding area was a vaguely green and brown haze.

Serenity looked up and found that the sky was a similar blue haze. It wasn’t the blue of a clear cloudless day or the bluish gray of a storm-filled sky, but it also had no defined clouds. Instead, it somehow gave the impression of a cloudy blue with storms on the horizon without any actual definition or visible clouds.

That probably shouldn’t be a surprise, really. This was a metaphor, after all, and they were looking into destabilizing a government after getting the World Core angry with it. It was enough to make Serenity wonder why it wasn’t already storming, but he answered his own question just as quickly. They weren’t yet openly embroiled in the mess, even if they had triggered it. If Lykandeon were to come to the same metaphor, it likely would be storming.

Rissa turned to Serenity. “Now we pick a tree.”

Serenity couldn’t tell the difference between the trees. “Can you tell which one is which?”

Rissa pointed to the one ahead and to the left. “There’s a man I don’t know dominating that path. I assume that’s Rourke.”

She turned a little and pointed at the one ahead and to the right. “High Priestess Karin is there.”

The last path led behind Serenity. “And that one, hm. It was supposed to be working with the Mercenaries’ Guild, but that’s not the impression I’m getting from it. Perhaps it’s because I don’t know them, but I get the feeling you’re calling the shots. Maybe in consultation with something bigger and angry?” Rissa shrugged. “Not that any of these are fixed; they change as I look at them. I doubt any of them are exclusive, either.”

Serenity nodded. “We could work with more than one person or group. It’s interesting that you can’t see us working for the Mercenaries’ Guild at all.”