Margrave Iron Mountain looked up at Serenity when he entered the room. “You have a message from Duke Lowpeak?”

The Margrave of Iron Mountain wasn’t much like Duke Lowpeak. He appeared at least a decade older than Kalo. Where Kalo was well-muscled and alert almost (but not quite) to the point of seeming nervous, Margrave Iron Mountain was soft and overweight. He looked half-asleep when Serenity walked in, but Serenity soon realized that was simply because his eyelids didn’t seem to open completely.

Serenity nodded and handed the letter to the margrave.

“Make yourself comfortable,” Margrave Iron Mountain waved towards the seating in the room. “Unless you don’t need an answer?”

The margrave was seated in the only cushioned chair in the room; although there were three wooden chairs set where they would face the margrave, Serenity decided not to sit. It didn’t seem appropriate for someone who was “just” a messenger, though he couldn’t really be certain of the protocol. On top of that, it was such an obvious power ploy, even to Serenity, that he simply didn’t want to give in to it.

Serenity smiled slightly. He could stand as long as he needed to. “I believe the request is in the letter.”

The margrave grunted softly and read through the letter. “Hm. I see, his daughter must not have sent word before she left with her betrothed. Strange.”

Betrothed? Serenity was sure Andarit hadn’t talked about a betrothal. No, now that he thought about it, that wasn’t right. She’d said something, probably back in Zenith when they were attending all of those parties. Serenity couldn’t remember exactly what.

Aide? Did you happen to record what Andarit said about a betrothal? I think it was back at or maybe after one of the parties in Zenith.

I will search but I cannot offer much hope; I was not continuously recording yet at that time.

“Do you know where they went?” Even if she had a betrothed, Serenity couldn’t come up with any reason she wouldn’t have brought him to Lowpeak or at least sent a letter to her father. She was young and the young do silly things, but it still didn’t seem like her.

Margrave Iron Mountain shook his head then leaned over towards the attendant that ushered Serenity in originally. “Fetch Elder Verit. No, better. Take him to see Elder Verit.”

The margrave clearly didn’t want to spend any more time with Serenity. Well, that was fine with him too; he needed to find Andarit, not spend time making nice with a ruler who didn’t know anything.

The attendant dipped his head in a motion that was just shy of a bow then turned and trotted out of the room. He glanced back when he reached the door and seemed pleased that Serenity was behind him. Serenity followed him through the building.

It was obvious that the building wasn’t designed for comfort. The Lowpeak manor had wide hallways and plenty of room to move around; this building had corridors where they’d have trouble passing someone else if they were carrying anything. It was enough to make Serenity wonder if the corridors were set up to be traveled in a single direction; he’d seen that before in some buildings. They certainly never passed anyone headed the opposite direction even though the attendant led Serenity through what had to be most of the first floor. Serenity couldn’t see how the entire route could fit in the building.

Unfortunately, when Serenity asked Aide to map it out, Aide’s answer was that it was actually possible this was the most direct route to wherever they were going. It never crossed itself; in fact, while there were places that the route came close to a previous path, Aide wasn’t able to find any places where they even connected as a shortcut.

He was able to answer the question of how it all fit in the building, at least: it didn’t. By Aide’s calculations, Serenity was about a quarter of a mile from the Duke’s residence when the attendant had him stop. “We are at the Iron Mountain Sect entrance. Please wait here.”

“Sure. Any idea how long it will take?” Serenity would have been completely lost without Aide’s assistance; as it was, he had a pretty good idea of where he was and how to get out if he had to. It would be fine.

The attendant shook his head. “That depends on the Elder’s choice. I do not know her well enough to predict her temper.”

The attendant opened the door and closed it softly behind himself. He’d clearly taken the time to carefully tug it all the way closed without making any noise. Serenity was a little surprised at that; he could see that it was a heavy stone door set into a wooden frame. That alone was an odd choice, but the fact that the attendant didn’t simply slam it was even more interesting. They’d passed through several doors on the way and the attendant simply let them swing or stay open, but this one was different.

At a guess, that meant the Iron Mountain Sect had power. Well, the guards had mentioned being trained by them as if that had meaning; they were probably a fighting school of some sort.

Serenity settled down to wait, with plenty of space between the door and the spot where he sat. There was no way to know how long it would be and he wanted to try to remember anything Andarit or Kalo had told him about Sects. All he could think of offhand was that they were secretive and didn’t worship the local gods, but he didn’t think he’d even asked who the local gods were. The Lowpeaks were clearly not particularly observant, since it never came up.

Serenity was still trying to come up with anything at all about the Iron Mountain Sect when the door opened. Serenity looked up, when he saw the attendant leading a woman who seemed to be in her forties towards him, he sprang to his feet. She might appear young to be an “elder”, but Serenity suspected that simply meant that she was of a relatively higher Tier.

She was slightly shorter than Serenity, with dark hair and heavy muscles. They weren’t the muscles of either a bodybuilder or a dancer; instead, they were the muscles of a woman who fought. Serenity took a close look at her hands; even at a distance, he could see the calluses where a sword would rub, which meant that the sword was probably her preferred weapon.

The woman’s aura washed over him moments after he stood. That wasn’t particularly polite, but Serenity could understand it. She was trying to figure out who he was. At the same time, it gave him permission to extend his aura to feel her.

She was roughly mid-Tier Five, at a guess. She could be as high as low Tier Six if she had relatively unbalanced attributes. That was common enough that Serenity couldn’t be entirely certain, especially not since he’d jumped to Tier Eight in attributes. His sudden increase made judging the difference a little weird.

“Elder Verit?” Serenity wasn’t sure how this conversation was supposed to go, but he was certain that that was what Margrave Iron Mountain called her; he was also certain that this was either Elder Verit or someone else at the same rank. There was no way a Tier Five (or maybe Six) was anything other than high ranking here. “I hear you might know something about Andarit’s whereabouts?”

Verit stopped for a moment; she seemed surprised. When she moved forward again, she seemed guarded, as if she expected to be attacked and wanted to be able to defend herself. “You are not just a messenger. Who are you and why are you here?”

Perhaps he should have hidden his Tier. It wasn’t something he often thought about.

No, being open was more useful. It got her attention, didn’t it? It would be worse to be too easily dismissed.

“My Name is Serenity. As for why I’m here, I was Andarit’s guard for a while in Zenith and on the way to Lowpeak; her father asked me to find her and make sure she is safe. If you want titles or anything like that, I don’t have any that are relevant here.” Serenity knew he’d almost slipped and said an inadvertent falsehood; he’d almost said he didn’t have any that were relevant on the planet. That wasn’t true. Even so, the fact that he apparently ruled Mornmot was definitely not relevant in Iron Mountain.

Verit stared at Serenity for a long moment before she spoke. “I think you believe that. That makes you dangerous, but it also makes you trustworthy for some things.” Her eyes narrowed for a moment. “Serenity. That Name is familiar. Tell me, were you recently in a Tutorial?”

“It’s been a few months. Why do you ask?” How could that possibly be relevant? For that matter, how did she even know about it? Where could she have heard his Name? If Andarit had mentioned him, he didn’t think she’d have mentioned the Tutorial and he couldn’t think of anyone on Zon that would have been able to tell her about it other than Andarit and Kalo.

“Does the name Entherys mean anything to you?”

It took Serenity a moment to put the dots together. Entherys hadn’t been important for a very long time, all the way back to the very first Tutorial. He’d tried to get Serenity killed and Serenity had gotten him banished from the Tutorial and his Instructor position. “He was from Zon?”

Verit nodded thoughtfully. “He is, and I believe that he is important to the question you have asked. I will say more, but before that, follow me. I need to judge your skill. I would say that we should spar, but I do not believe that that would tell me what I need to know.”

Serenity couldn’t believe his luck. Someone he’d run into so long ago and thought he’d never see again was somehow important to why Andarit had vanished?

No, on second thought he could believe his luck. It wasn’t really luck at all, was it?

Dammit Tyche.

For a moment, Serenity thought he heard a woman laughing in the distance.

Verit was already walking away, so Serenity followed her. She led him to a simple arena with a packed dirt floor; even before he actively checked he could tell that there were ancient runes protecting the room. Unlike the ones he’d seen in the Palace at Zenith, these were in decent repair. He didn’t have time to examine them in detail before Verit started testing him, but he did take a moment to quickly record all that he could see. He could examine them from the pictures later. It would be less accurate but it would be something.

What followed was an extensive review of his melee fighting style with several weapons as well as unarmed. Sometimes it was at speed, but most of the time it was slow so that they could both see what was happening. Verit was clearly skilled; she even noticed that he was used to having claws when he fought unarmed, though she mentioned it as “clawed gauntlets”.

Serenity thought he was probably better trained than Verit; he certainly knew more weapons, though she was definitely better with her preferred sword than he was right now. If he had a couple of years to practice, that might not be true, but while he hadn’t lost his fighting skills, the ones he didn’t regularly use were definitely rusty.

Verit still seemed impressed.