“Who dares to-” The first words spoken by the priest were angry, clearly spoken before he got a good look at Ekari, because his next words were surprised. “Priest-Inspector? The last inspection wasn’t very long ago, we weren’t expecting another for months, maybe years.”

Serenity stepped around the door so that he could see the priest. He was a surprisingly large man, clearly once strong but now running to fat; he wasn’t wearing his outer robe, but he was wearing everything that would normally go under it. Couch rather than a chair sat on the far side of the table; Serenity could see where a robe had fallen at the priest’s feet. Had they caught him literally napping?

“Priest, what is your name and position in this church?” Ekari’s voice didn’t have any give.

Serenity wondered what had annoyed her so much before he remembered that the Head Priest for Steadfast Seventy-three was supposed to be female and this was supposed to be the Head Priest’s office. Something was going on; the Sub-Priest they’d met earlier, Vinal, had recognized Priest Kiilitha and called herself “her Sub-Priest”. This man had expected the only person to disturb him to be Vinal. Something wasn’t adding up.

He wasn’t certain he’d have caught it if it weren’t for the odd way Ekari asked the question. He might have when he got the name, but he wasn’t certain.

“Priest Kiilitha, Head Priest of this church.” The priest looked indignant about being asked. “Who else would be here?”

Ekari didn’t react to the discrepancy. “And why haven’t you reported in for the past three months?”

The priest seemed startled at that. “I have! All of my reports have gone through the normal channels.”

Serenity wanted to believe that Ekari’s face showed disbelief at that, but he couldn’t see her face. “Are you certain? I personally pulled the message logs. There have been no messages on the Eternal Paths from Steadfast Seventy-three, whether they came from this church or not.”

“Eternal Paths” was the name the Eternal Church used for the message function of City Nodes. It was generally usable only by priests; Serenity could still remember Rourke’s surprise that Serenity could use them. Apparently Rissa was on the allowed list because no one had bothered to remove her, but he wasn’t; his access was apparently not something that could be blocked that easily.

The priest actually looked slightly relieved at the question. “They don’t go over the Eternal Paths, they go the normal route through the Lower Ways.”

Ekari took a deep breath, then let it out. “How long have you, Priest Kiilitha, been the head of the Steadfast Seventy-three church?”

The priest took a moment to think. “Ah, four or five years?”

Aide helpfully supplied that the actual time should have been five years and seven months. Serenity was glad he’d handed that part off to his assistant.

“Close enough. A bit short, but close enough. So. Would you care to explain why you sent the messages over the Eternal Paths for more than five years, yet are now calling the Lower Ways the normal route?” Ekari’s tone of voice didn’t reveal it, but Serenity could see her shifting to keep her weight centered and her body able to move quickly. She was expecting a fight.

“Ah,” the priest was clearly scrambling for an answer. “It changed?” His eyes darted along the floor, looking for something. Serenity followed the priest’s vision, but he couldn’t tell what he was looking for yet.

“Or perhaps you aren’t Priest Kiilitha and don’t actually know the protocols for being Head Priest,” Ekari accused the man. “Did you even know that Priest Kiilitha is a woman?”

The priest’s eyes widened, then he lunged for something under the table; Serenity couldn’t see what it was from his angle, but he was pretty sure that the priest wasn’t just diving for cover. He almost missed the priest’s muttered “Was a woman.”

Serenity dove under the table, headed for the priest. He’d just heard the priest confess to murdering another priest, and they were here in the guise of investigators from the Inspectorate; there was no way this wasn’t a fight now.

A green bolt of light hissed its way through the air and hit Serenity’s right shoulder. It burned straight through his armor and burrowed deep into his flesh, burning its way all the way to his bone before it petered out. There was a mean intent behind it, anger or insane rage; Serenity felt a strange resonance, but he knew enough to suppress it. It helped that there was nothing righteous about the light; it was more like a cornered animal that did not know what it fought, only that it must strike.

A moment later, he crashed into the priest. The first thing Serenity wanted to do was take the light-weapon away from him; it was clearly how he intended to fight, which meant that he’d be weaker without it. It was certainly nasty enough.

There was little the others could do easily with the table blocking the way to the two who wrestled for control of a gun, but Serenity was far stronger than his opponent even though he was less massive. The priest pretending to be Priest Kiilitha managed one more shot, which grazed Serenity’s leg armor before impacting somewhere behind him, before Serenity yanked it away from him, probably breaking a finger or two in the process.

Serenity tossed the gun behind himself towards his allies; they could take care of it while he handled the fake priest. Hopefully it wouldn’t fire when it landed, but he couldn’t afford to leave it where the priest might grab it again or tie up a hand holding it; tossing it away was the lesser risk.

Serenity quickly duplicated one of his knives as he dove back at the priest; the other man was unarmed and seemed less trained, which meant that a knife gave him all sorts of options. It was only a Tier One knife, but unarmored humans weren’t usually all that much tougher without armor at Tier Three or Four than they were at Tier One; their fastest toughness increases generally came from armor and magical shielding, regardless of Tier. A Tier One knife might be broken by his strength but it wouldn’t be useless.

The other man squirmed, trying to get past Serenity towards where he’d thrown the gun, coincidentally leaving himself completely open. Serenity crashed into him, partially pinning him with his weight and setting the knife against the man’s neck. It wasn’t even close to the best option if he wanted to kill, but Serenity wanted to take the man alive and letting him feel the cold metal against his throat should help with that.

The priest didn’t seem to have noticed; he kept struggling.

Serenity leaned forward and used his free arm to knock the man’s head against the ground, then held it in place while he pressed the back of the knife against the man’s throat. If he used the sharp side, there was entirely too much of a chance he’d misjudge the pressure and cut his throat open. “Surrender. You’ve lost.”

It took a moment, but the man seemed to recognize his defeat and stopped fighting. He didn’t say anything; he simply looked at Serenity.

“What were you hoping to accomplish anyway? It’s not like our disappearance wouldn’t be noticed.” Serenity didn’t understand why the man had even tried to fight. He might not have been able to talk his way out of it at that point, but escaping would probably have been possible if he’d grabbed the light-gun and kept it hidden. They wouldn’t have expected something that could melt its way through locks or maybe even walls; Serenity didn’t know what its capabilities were.

“If I kill you, I can return home. It gives me time.” The words made sense but the tone of voice didn’t; it sounded almost like the man was singing. “Time to plan, time to run, time to escape.”

A high pitched noise came from behind Serenity. He didn’t know what it was, but he knew he didn’t like it. He made a quick decision and stabbed the man in the knee; he wouldn’t run fast with one of his knees out of commission and Blaze could always heal it. It was unlikely to kill quickly.

The man screamed. He clearly hadn’t expected Serenity’s response.

Serenity backed out from under the table and turned to see what was going on. It didn’t take much searching to see that the gun wasn’t where Serenity had thrown it; instead, it was lying in the hallway. It glowed with a bright green light and was the source of the noise.

Serenity had just enough time to wish he’d tipped the table over for cover instead of turning to look when it exploded with a bright green light but no apparent force.

The entire room and all its contents were awash with green light. It seemed to come from everywhere, not just the location of the explosion.

He felt something reach out to him, something that felt just like the stone that pretended to be Gaia; a voice speaking wordlessly to Serenity as if he were a son yet this was not his mother. Serenity felt an impulse to react with anger and shift, but suppressed it. Going all rage-y would not help the situation, even if there were enough room for a Greater Wrath Demon in the room.

Which there wasn’t.

He limited himself to words. “You are not Gaia. Who are you?”

“Lyka.” The voice was Ita’s; Serenity watched as she hopped into view. “Lyka is strong here, stronger than I’ve ever felt her. Lyka, I told you I would introduce you to my Lord Serenity. He is here., he can feel you as well.

Serenity glanced around. Everyone other than Ita, Blaze, and Serenity seemed to be frozen. Blaze was checking Ekari; of course he’d check her first. That thought brought an ironic smile to Serenity.

The not-Gaia presence projected emotions instead of words. Anger, fear, pain, and a plea for help joined with the thought that it wasn’t always like this. Serenity didn’t know how he split those things apart but he knew they were there. Serenity wondered why Earth and Tzintkra could speak but Lyka couldn’t. Was it simply that they were older worlds?

Tzintkra was higher Tier than Lyka, and Earth had once been higher Tier at all. Perhaps that was the real difference.

“I’ll do what I can, Lyka. I’m going to be dealing with the man behind it all soon; a few weeks, probably. When you block the light from your sun away from Aeon.” Serenity felt like he was speaking to a child, so he tried to simplify his language. It wasn’t something he was good at.

Anger, remembered pain, and hope.

The light was already dimming; Serenity felt the connection fade then vanish. He shook himself and examined the spot where the gun had been.

It was still there. There was a slight green tinge to the flooring near it but other than that it looked like nothing had happened.

Ekari, Kerr, and Sillon were all moving again. The false Head Priest wasn’t. Serenity took a good look at him, then leaned over and checked for a pulse.

It was faint but present.

“Mild poisoning,” Blaze declared. “If I didn’t know better, and I don’t think I do, I’d say you somehow took about a quarter of a dose of greendust.”

He was clearly talking to Ekari, but something about the way Blaze phased his statement struck Serenity as extremely odd. “You’re saying you think the gun actually released greendust?”