Ranar was slightly closer to several portals that led to Asihanya than it was to Lyka, but Takinat was not one of the easy ones. They could have cut at least a week off the trip by traveling to Eniriil then using the Asihanya portal network as much as possible, but the attacks on the cities of Asihanya meant that the safe route was to stay off Asihanya for as long as possible.

It was entirely likely that it was faster to stay off Asihanya as well. There was little actual news coming off the planet, but the rumors at the various Mercenaries’ Guild-affiliated inns they stopped at on the way were troubling. No one on Asihanya was recruiting mercenaries; in fact, many of the mercenaries that normally lived and worked on Asihanya had left.

That meant that everything was askew. People weren’t being guarded, skirmishes weren’t being fought, caravans weren’t traveling, and dungeons weren’t being delved. The situation on the ground had to be bad, but no one had any details past individual snippets that talked about cities being attacked from the air, much like Raz’s experience.

Blaze and Kerr turned out to be the best at gathering what information there was, with Rissa and Raz not far behind. It made Serenity feel a little better that Legion was just as bad at it as he was; by all rights, Legion should have been the best of them all, since Legion could be in far more places at once and talk to more people. It just didn’t seem to work out that way.

There was a little news from Stallet Center; Raz’s home city apparently still stood, but no one dared travel outside during the day. A number of other cities on Asihanya were similar, but Takinat was a distinct exception. Takinat was safe as long as you didn’t gather in crowds, didn’t attract attention, and stayed away from the Great Library.

That sounded like good news, but it worried Serenity because it meant Takinat was different and the Great Library had the attackers’ attention. Honoria was stuck at the Great Library until it was safe; Serenity didn’t think he was going to be able to convince her to leave. He wasn’t even sure he’d try; anything known as a Great Library was worth preserving. Who knew what might be there?

The closer they got to Asihanya, the newer the news became and the more detailed the stories were, but none of them changed the general overview. The only real news was that a few caravans were getting through; they had to hide during the day, camouflaging themselves as part of the countryside, and travel at night, but some were making it.

By the time they learned that, they were as close to Takinat as any other portal to Asihanya; even if they hadn’t been, they’d still have gone direct. The caravans that reached their destinations were the ones that traveled slowly and carefully; that would be easily as much of a delay as simply taking the normally longer route.

Serenity stepped through the portal into a bright, sunny day. There was no obvious sign of current attacks, but he could see the damage to the nearby buildings; even more worrying, the portal had clearly once been in a building itself. It wasn’t anymore, unless you counted partial walls and a mostly-collapsed thatch roof.

The Great Library was obvious in the distance. If there were once any buildings in Takinat even close to as tall as the Great Library, they’d fallen at some point in the past year and a half or so. The Great Library stood tall, rising a full six stories taller than any of the remaining buildings at the peak of its dome. It was the only building that didn’t show signs of damage. Instead, it gleamed in the sunlight as its polished stone walls reflected the light. There were patches of soot on the outer surface, but they all clustered near the top of the building’s dome.

Serenity shook his head sadly. He’d never even heard of a Library of Asihanya before Honoria mentioned it, yet he was certain that if it were still there when Vengeance attended Stallet Academy, he would have. Nothing like this would have gone unmentioned.

It must have been destroyed or at least badly damaged before he got this far. That was what, five or ten years after the destruction of Earth? Serenity wasn’t certain; anything that far back was blurry. He didn’t know if he had time or not

No, that wasn’t true. The library still stood, so there must still be time.

The apparently large group made their way through the streets of Takinat carefully. There was very little cover; the plant life had clearly been hurt nearly as badly as the buildings. The few people Serenity saw took one look at them and ran the other way. From the rumors, Serenity assumed that was because of Legion; for all that she maintained that she was one person, she appeared to be far more than that to someone who didn’t know the truth.

After the fifth person, Serenity decided that perhaps they were a bit too obvious and split them into groups of no more than six bodies (he didn’t count his armor or hilt as separate bodies; they wouldn’t look like people to anyone on the outside). Legion made up the majority of the groups.

The Library was deceptively far away; it took over an hour for the first group to reach the entrance. During that time, they saw two different assaults on the Library.

They weren’t what Serenity had expected. He’d expected to see a flyer of some sort with someone on it casting spells, or maybe a large creature using its own native magic and Skills. Instead, he saw a creation that reminded him of a biplane, with a distinctly larger upper wing that extended farther forward than the lower wing. At this distance, he couldn’t make out much detail, but it was very obvious that the creation used something reminiscent of the methods of Earth rather than the methods of almost anywhere else.

Serenity only knew of one planet other than Earth with notably high technology, and they were nowhere near Asihanya. There was no reason to assume they were attacking, but he didn’t know who else to look at.

On the other hand, this seemed extremely simplistic for what he knew of their technology; he couldn’t remember the name of the planet, but he could remember that he’d considered them different but just as advanced as Earth. This looked more like Earth technology from before World War Two than modern technology.

It made him wish there was some way to get air power of his own here. Modern Earth tech would almost certainly make short work of these jokers. Unfortunately, even if he could somehow figure out how to get fighters and fighter pilots to work for him, he had no idea how to get them to Asihanya.

A modern fighter was big, while a cargo portal was only about ten feet wide. Even then, a cargo portal was exceedingly expensive to open. Serenity was fairly confident that even with the amount of Etherium he was getting from Earth, bringing fighter airplanes to Asihanya was not in the cards until and unless he managed to figure out how to do a portal spell as a ritual.

Instead, he was going to have to fight them with the tools he had or could obtain here on Asihanya. That meant that he was going to have to explore the city and see what was left of it. Takinat was supposed to be “relatively” intact; perhaps there was something here he could use.

If nothing else, maybe someone knew where the planes were coming from. If they were anything like Earth’s historical biplanes, they had seriously limited range. No one had talked about larger planes that might be tankers or planes meeting in the sky; Serenity hoped that meant that there weren’t any. He couldn’t remember when the first tankers were used on Earth, but he knew it was some time after the first aircraft.

On the other hand, if they were somehow magically powered, that might or might not apply. Even some way to store fuel that made it not take up weight or space would help.

Still, they had to be coming from somewhere. It seemed highly unlikely that they wouldn’t land periodically for supplies and rest if nothing else. There had to be a base somewhere on Asihanya. It probably wouldn’t prove to be all that far from Takinat. Serenity just had to find it. Unfortunately, that was easier on Earth than Asihanya; Earth was far more densely settled and had far better communication.

The third attack started when they were only a few hundred feet from the Great Library. Serenity halted to watch the closest view he’d have; after a moment, he expanded his shield into an umbrella over the group. It wouldn’t hold nearly as well like that, and it wasn’t tuned to protect against bombs in the first place, but he was the only one with a shield and it was better than nothing.

The plane came nowhere near them. Instead, it dropped two bombs that exploded on the far side of the dome. Serenity was surprised there were only two, but he didn’t let it take his eyes off the plane.

As it passed overhead, he saw a symbol emblazoned on the bottom of each of the lower wings. It had to be the symbol Raz mentioned, the one Grandma Tillon told him about in her message.

It hadn’t seemed familiar then, but it seemed incredibly familiar now when he saw it in person. It wasn’t just a symbol; there was more to it. It was a rune. More accurately, it was a collection of runes. It looked simple but it was anything but simple in the sheer detail shown on the wing. Perhaps that was why he hadn’t recognized it before; the detail just wasn’t there.

Now if only he could remember where it came from and how he knew it. Even knowing which groups used it would help, as would knowing what it meant and what it could do.

It didn’t have anything to do with how the plane was flying. Serenity was aggravated that he couldn’t say how he knew that, but he did. He knew what it was, and flight, lift, or power was definitely not its purpose.

Maybe he could find something in the Library. He was certain Honoria would have already looked, but it was a very large building and she probably wasn’t looking for a rune. If she had a place for him to start, that would be great; if she didn’t, maybe he could help her find one.

Serenity chuckled to himself. Maybe he’d need to go find the Runemasters’ Guild sooner than expected. If there was one in Takinat, surely someone there would have recognized it.

“Serenity?” Rissa’s hand rested on Serenity’s shoulder. “We should head in now that the plane is gone.”

Serenity shook himself. He really needed to stop losing his surroundings like that; it could be dangerous and was a very bad habit. The obvious threat might be gone, but there could be another.