Serenity wasn’t sure where to start, so he planned to let Ekari lead while he tried to pay attention. She was right that he probably needed to learn more, even if he didn’t want to admit it.

The church either didn’t really have “a more comfortable place to talk” or Priest Evan wasn’t interested in taking them there. Instead, he led the group of people to a simple room that held only a long table and a bunch of wooden chairs. They weren’t even particularly comfortable chairs.

The walls were painted an almost sunny yellow, while the chairs and table were stained a deep brown. It sort of worked, but it gave Serenity the impression of a room for difficult discussions rather than a room to be comfortable in.

The chairs had backs. That meant he had a choice: sit uncomfortably or shift to a form without wings. Without further thought, Serenity shifted as he sat. The warmth of the black overcoat on his now-wingless “human” shoulders reminded him that he wasn’t dressed identically.

Serenity slid into the chair and rested his back against the chair’s back. It seemed sturdy enough, but he didn’t want to test it. He’d let it hold his weight but that was all he wanted to do.

“It’s that easy for you?” Priest Evan stared at Serenity.

That brought everyone’s eyes to Serenity; Aaron seemed surprised as well, but Denise didn’t. Serenity guessed that she must have seen some of the news coverage about him. There was a lot of it and the fact that he could shift between his “human” and “half-dragon” forms was almost always mentioned.

Serenity shrugged. “It’s a Skill. They’re not supposed to be hard; the Voice does most of the work for you.”

“You don’t think that who you are is important? That you can just change through the use of a skill?” The priest sounded positively horrified.

Serenity frowned. Was he missing something here? He glanced at Ekari, but she didn’t say anything to help. “No? My shape isn’t who I am. I am me, no matter what I look like. My body has an influence but it’s not everything.” Serenity paused, trying to find a way to put it, then tugged on the overcoat he was wearing; it was a symbol, so it was a good comparison. “It’s more important than putting on a borrowed coat but less important than the bonds and responsibilities I choose to accept.”

If he could have, he’d have indicated his Sovereign symbol at that, but it was hidden by both the coat and his clothing.

Priest Evan still seemed bothered by Serenity, but he didn’t immediately say anything; he just stared, frowning.

Ekari shooed the other two humans into seats, then sat down herself.

Before she could speak, the priest found his own voice. He shook with repressed emotion. “This was once a temple to the Quetzal. The High Temple of Esata. When Esata fell, when the Endless Army came, we tried to fight. Our best fell with Esata; we had no chance. All we could do was try to get a few Quetzal Matriarchs out, to another country where we might have hope. A few fought with us, the ones who warned us what would happen if we did not flee. If only we’d listened. We knew there was no way Esata would fall until it did; even if it did fall, none would be so cruel as what they said.”

Evan closed his eyes. When he opened them, he unclenched his right hand and set it flat on the table. Serenity could see Evan’s fingers press into the tabletop as if it were trying to clench back into a fist. “We were wrong. So very wrong. The few true Quetzal slain, eggs smashed or cooked and eaten in front of us! We were complimented on our skill at raising such delicacies.”

Serenity was glad that Evan showed so many signs of rage. He was more worried about the fact that Evan spoke without it affecting his voice. Serenity remembered what that was like, when rage became normal. Vengeance had experienced it, but far worse than Vengeance’s experience was the Final Reaper’s. For him, it was simply part of who he was.

In many ways, that rage was the biggest thing he’d given up to return back in time. It was far bigger than the fuzzing of his memories; that happened with time and Serenity couldn’t be sure how much was time and how much was because he’d been sent back.

The Final Reaper hadn’t entirely realized he’d have to give up his rage, but Serenity knew that if he had known, it would have only made the choice easier.

Serenity also knew it was something he never wanted to feel again.

Evan hadn’t waited on Serenity thoughts. “That was painful, but we knew we’d done the best we could. The eggs that were left were unfertilized, never going to hatch. Those which might were sent away with the Matriarchs. They knew they hadn’t broken us, that we were still defiant, so they decided that they would. Many who served here were Quetzal-blooded, and the most common Sign was wings. So they cut the wings off. Bad enough if they’d just clipped them so we couldn’t fly, but no. They had to remove the sign of our inhumanity. So they cut them off.”

Serenity suddenly understood Evan’s reaction to his shapeshifting. Wings weren’t even close to the only thing that changed for Serenity between his human and chimera forms, but they were by far the most obvious when he was wearing clothes; even more so when he sat. It must have brought back the memory.

“Then they bound us with our own wings to the temple. Bound us to the service of the Eternal Church. Most of us died soon after that, but not all. Today, I’m the last. No one else knows what happened here; knowing would not help them when they move on, as they always do.” Evan glared at Ekari. “So what are you going to do, Priest-Investigator? Now that you know how I feel about your precious god?”

Lykandeon was an idiot.

There were no two ways about it. Sure, he’d probably gained some power by co-opting an existing temple’s personnel, but he’d done it in the worst way imaginable, making them hate him even if they couldn’t do anything about it. The fact that it hadn’t already bitten him in the ass was simply luck; Serenity suspected that it probably had, more than once, and that Lykandeon probably had no idea why things went wrong. He didn’t seem like the most involved of leaders.

Serenity was almost as surprised as Evan when Ekari giggled. “Sorry. I was worried for all the wrong reasons. You see, I’m not actually a Priest, and we’re not here because of the Church of Aeons.”

Evan frowned and looked intently at Ekari then Serenity. “Your holy aura does seem rather weak, but it’s there, and his is absolutely strong enough. One of the strongest I’ve seen.”

Serenity blanked for a moment before he realized what was probably going on. Not only did he have the ability to call Tek whenever he wanted to, Aide was a direct creation of hers. Serenity also had Tek’s blessing for his last evolution; any or all of those might be what Evan was seeing. “I’m no priest, but I think I know what you’re seeing. I have talked to a few other gods over the years, and there’s one who I have a closer relationship with than most. I refused to be her Champion, but I think you could call us allies. I certainly don’t worship the local deity; as far as I can tell, he’s an asshole.”

Serenity didn’t even actually worship Tek, though he knew Aide did. Perhaps that was enough? Serenity wouldn’t have thought that all that would give him a “holy aura” as strong as what Evan indicated, but he couldn’t think of what else it could be. Admittedly, he wasn’t even entirely certain what a holy aura was; he knew that priests were annoying because they didn’t depend solely on their own resources, but he didn’t really know what that meant beyond the mechanics of how to deal with them.

When Serenity paid attention again, Evan’s gaze was on Ekari.

Ekari seemed to be suppressing her own anger. “It probably is his power you see on me. I was bound. I’ve been unbound, but that’s recent and I may not ever be entirely free of what he did to me.” She paused, then reached into her pocket and pulled out Ita’s token. “Ita, can you send Blaze to me and Serenity? I want his advice on some old injuries. It’s not urgent, but as soon as he can get here.”

Ita didn’t reply out loud, but Ekari relaxed and nodded to herself before looking up at Evan. “Blaze is our healer. He’s one of the best healers I’ve ever seen; if anyone can do something about your wings or your binding, he’s the person to talk to.”

Evan didn’t even react. Serenity suspected he didn’t know how to react to that; he’d undoubtedly long given up any hope of having his wings back, after all.

They’d shared enough secrets that Serenity now understood many of the oddities of the church; it was different because it wasn’t built for Lykandeon and it wasn’t well maintained in the worship areas because the people who “should” have been maintaining it didn’t actually worship him. Serenity wasn’t certain how Evan had gathered enough people who were like-minded to make that true, but it didn’t change the fact that that was the only way everything added up.

It was clearly the reason there wasn’t a Portal Node at this particular church. There were enough churches without one that it didn’t stand out, but Serenity was certain this one would never get one.

It also explained why Denise and Aaron were treated so differently from the other abducted victims. Serenity hoped that different treatment extended to all of the Earthlings here.

Serenity nodded to himself. What was one more secret now? It wasn’t like he was going to be able to keep it from Evan or Denise anyway. “As you may have guessed, we’re here for the Earthlings. I want to send them home; all we have to do is get them to a Portal Node and I can open a portal for them to take back to Earth. I can also open one for the rest of you if you have a place to go.”

There was an odd glint in the old priest’s eye when he turned to Serenity. “At home, maybe, but very few people can open portals on Lyka and even then they have to be approved before they open and can take only a few people.”

Serenity bared his teeth at the priest. It could probably be called a smile, if the one naming it was generous. “Not mine. The only way he can stop me from opening portals is to stop everyone from opening portals. I can’t do it if it’s not a Portal Node, but if it is, I can open a portal to Earth.”

Serenity expected Evan to protest and ask why Serenity was different, but he didn’t.

Instead, Evan nodded. “I can’t leave the temple, but I will send anyone with you who wants to go. I will pass them into your hands; another flier is the best I can ask for in these dark days.”

Serenity shook his head. “Is that because you don’t want to leave or because you’re bound here? Bindings can be broken; don’t give up if you don’t want to.”