Traveling to Aeon was as simple as traveling to Abiding Six; they simply went to the same portal, then passed through it. Acolytes Tinar and Deek led them there as they walked; there were too many of them to be comfortable in the flyer and none of them were afraid of the half-mile of walking. They kept their weapons ready in case of passing monsters.

Whatever dungeon the giant bluejay was from hadn’t protected it against magic. The sparrows they saw a few minutes later were more of a threat simply because no one realized they were monsters until they actually swarmed the two acolytes.

Serenity started with Spot Nullification; it took care of most of the sparrow monsters, but he couldn’t handle the ones actually attacking the acolytes with it; it simply wasn’t safe to get that close to someone with that spell. Serenity didn’t want to accidentally remove an arm.

While he was handling the ones that were still in the sky, the others converged on the acolytes to take care of the sparrows. Sillon and Kerr simply grabbed them and flung them at the ground; that was enough to break wings even if it didn’t kill.

Ita’s contribution was a bit more esoteric; she somehow made every attack from each sparrow push the sparrow away from the acolyte; they weren’t able to hit more than once without a pause to fly back. Rissa seemed uncertain what to do, but after a couple of sparrows bounced off Acolyte Deek, she dropped her pack to the ground and pulled a quarterstaff out of it, even though it was obvious that it shouldn’t fit. She turned towards Deek and started smacking sparrows once they were far enough away from him.

Ekari froze. She glanced back and forth between the acolytes and didn’t seem sure what to do until she saw Rissa start smacking the sparrows out of the air. At that point, she stepped forward and grabbed for the surprised birds, like Sillon and Kerr.

Blaze didn’t help fight. He simply stood there watching, the same way Serenity did after dismissing his Spot Nullification. The others had it under control. Serenity watched mostly for other threats, but he still noticed that when one of the birds tore a bloody hole in Acolyte Tinar’s neck, Blaze had a healing spell ready to close it up and prevent the bleeding, even from a distance.

The fight lasted several long minutes. Other than the few individual lucky strikes that Blaze immediately healed, the acolytes weren’t in any real danger even though neither was able to effectively fight off the host of sparrows.

Both Tinar and Deek were clearly shaken by the fight. Serenity wasn’t confident that either of them had ever actually been in real combat before; at their Tier, it was entirely possible that they hadn’t.

There were no further attacks on the way to the portal, but the two acolytes were still covered in drying blood and had a number of small injuries Blaze hadn’t finished healing when they arrived. Nothing had been said about them one way or the other in the communications Serenity had with High Priestess Karin about the trip to Aeon; that was probably why they weren’t there in the vision Serenity had seen.

He wasn’t comfortable sending them back out without protection. They’d get themselves killed.

“Acolytes?” Serenity paused and waited for them to look at him. He hadn’t even touched the Node yet. “Do you have somewhere to go once we leave?”

Acolyte Tinar nodded. “We’ll head back to the Visitors’ Palace. That’s where we’re supposed to be.”

Acolyte Deek looked troubled but didn’t speak.

Serenity shook his head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. Why don’t you come to Aeon with us?”

Acolyte Tinar shook his head firmly. “That’s not where we’re supposed to be.”

Sillon raised an eyebrow and butted in. “Are you assigned to the Palace or are you assigned to us? You weren’t there when we arrived.”

Serenity could see where he was going. A creative interpretation of the rules could be useful as long as it wasn’t severe enough that someone powerful cared.

By the smile on Acolyte Deek’s face, he could also see Sillon’s point. “We were told to go to the Visitors’ Palace and guide you, especially Serenity and Rissa, on approved tours and to approved locations. You’ve been approved to go to Aeon.”

Deek turned to Tinar and tried to look innocent. If Serenity hadn’t seen the earlier smile, he might have believed it. “I’m afraid they’re right. By our orders, we should be going with them to Aeon and not back out into the monster-infested streets.”

Acolyte Tinar looked relieved. “As long as that’s what the orders say.”

Serenity was glad that the rule-bound acolyte was junior to the clever one, especially since Deek seemed inclined to be helpful. It might also be very convenient to have Deek with them, now that he thought about it; after all, Deek was outside the room when Serenite met Rourke and seemed to at least know to keep it quiet. That made it likely there was some sort of connection. If Rourke didn’t seek them out, maybe Deek could find him. Rescuing the rest of the kidnapped victims was Serenity’s top priority right now, after all.

After ensuring the safety of those he cared about, at least. That always came first.

With the issue of the acolytes resolved, Serenity turned to the Portal Node. He could select from three planetary destinations, Earth, Tzintkra, and Aeon. Serenity frowned; hadn’t Rissa said that she couldn’t open a portal to Earth, at least not for herself?

Serenity dug through the menus for a bit until he found a note that explained it.

[Transit Restriction: Serenity and Rissa]

[Destinations allowed: Aeon]

[Sovereign Override: Additional Destinations: Earth, Tzintkra added]

Apparently Lykandeon couldn’t specifically restrict Serenity from traveling to Earth because he was a Sovereign, but blanket portal shutdowns like the one on the entire Zenith Control Zone could still lock him out. That was probably because it effectively wasn’t a Portal Node anymore, at least not during the lockdown.

It implied that there was another way to prevent Serenity from making a portal: a Sovereign could change which Nodes were allowed to make portals. Serenity had done it on Tzintkra when he opened a lot more up. That would probably work.

There wasn’t anything Serenity could do about it other than keep it in mind; he found it exceedingly unlikely he would ever try to restrict a Sovereign from leaving Earth or Tzintkra, but if he did he now knew what he’d need to do.

Serenity opened the portal to Aeon. There was only one possible Portal Node available as a location, so he locked it in.

They were met on the other side of the portal by High Priestess Karin. Her smile seemed wan and forced, but she held it the entire time the group spent coming through the portal. Serenity caught a flicker of an expression on her face as the two acolytes stepped through, but she didn’t say anything about it and he couldn’t make out what the expression was.

Maybe it was just a twitch? Serenity couldn’t be certain.

This was already different from the vision and Serenity didn’t see any point in holding to it as a script anyway. He nodded at the High Priestess He wasn’t about to bow; some places would take that as submission rather than respect. “High Priestess Karin, thank you for welcoming us after our journey.”

“It seems to have been more eventful than I expected,” she murmured. “I am pleased that you all made it to Aeon safely. Please follow me to your rooms. I fear we have no Visitors’ Palace here, but we have set aside some quarters for visiting Priests for you instead. Should I take you by the Infirmary first?”

Blaze shook his head. “No, I have it handled. I specialize in some of the more esoteric forms of healing and recovery, but I’m certainly competent for basic injury as well. I would appreciate an introduction later, however; I like to compare my knowledge against others’ so that we can all become better healers.”

“I fear that your sentiments will not find as much company here as you might prefer,” Karin stated. Serenity could almost hear a sad smile in her voice. “Even so, I will arrange an introduction. Shall it be solely you?”

Blaze shook his head. As he did, Serenity realized that with High Priestess Karin leading, she couldn’t see Blaze’s gestures. “No, Ita will probably come; Rissa may as well, she has some healing ability and she’s been working with me on improving it.”

“I will, too.” Ekari offered. “I’ve been to this part of Aeon before, but I don’t think I’ve been to the Infirmary. I expect everyone else will be on a tour of the sights of Aeon at the same time?”

Serenity knew what Ekari was doing, but only because she’d told him in advance in private. She wanted them to see as much of Aeon openly as possible so that they’d be somewhat familiar with the layout. She also wanted them to be seen, so that they could blend in later more easily. He wasn’t certain why she wanted to visit the Infirmary, but he was sure she had a reason.

He was going to be leaning heavily on Ekari’s knowledge and planning here. She knew the layout and the people; she was also far better at the sneaky stuff than he was. He’d have to cover for her if they got into a fight, but he was good at that part and if they didn’t mess up too badly, maybe they could even avoid the fight. Serenity didn’t hold out too much hope, but it was still possible.

The place they entered Aeon was a room; it was fancy and covered in tapestries, but it was still just a room as far as Serenity was concerned. The hallways between it were also fancy, but they were of interest only because they were between the portal and the places they’d be staying.

Once they were outside for the tour, that changed. The sky was dominated by a blue-white marble that seemed far closer than Earth did from Earth’s moon. In fact, it filled enough of the sky that Serenity thought that Aeon might not even be in a stable orbit; wasn’t Earth far smaller than that from the ISS? He wasn’t sure; the pictures he could remember just showed a window with a piece of Earth outside.

Lyka’s Sun shone in the distance; it was far smaller than Lyka visually even though Serenity was certain it was actually much bigger. Lyka was bigger than Earth but still nowhere near the size of a star, even a small one, and Lyka’s star seemed similar to Sol.

When Serenity turned his attention to the buildings around him instead of the sky, he was puzzled. Every single building, including the one they’d just left, was in the shape of a pyramid. There were both step pyramids and smooth-walled pyramids, but they were all pyramids. That wasn’t the case on Lyka; even the temples weren’t pyramids. Here, everything was. They were also lined up exactly the same way, but that wasn’t too big a surprise; modern buildings that were close together were often set up on a grid, after all. This was clearly a highly top-down society, so determining where a building was located and which direction it would face was not all that surprising.

He turned to Acolyte Deek. “Why are all of the buildings pyramids?”

Deek shook his head. “I don’t know. I’ve never been to Aeon before.”