After the End: Serenity

Serenity tried not to let his anger overwhelm him as he listened to the woman in the chair describe how she was fooled by Eternus into trying to kill Rissa. It was clear that she was even less suited to being in power than he was, and he was fairly confident that he wasn’t suited to being a direct ruler. His policy of appointing a Planetary Manager looked better and better each time he did it.

He needed to appoint one for Earth when he returned. Whoever he picked wouldn’t have to do that much, since Earth’s governments did the true task of governance, but he still wanted the backup. Perhaps he’d choose Rissa; she was still looking for her future and that might give her both the outlet for her foresight and something useful to accomplish that she wanted.

The distraction calmed Serenity’s anger towards the fool in front of him. Yes, she was partially responsible for the attacks on Rissa, but the true mastermind was Eternus. As long as he convinced her to never attack Rissa again, his goal here would be met. In many ways, it might even be best to leave her here; she was now sensitive to the “storm winds” and that might well translate into a sensitivity to anything that might rouse Serenity’s anger. She’d probably help prevent the Memories from doing anything to hurt Serenity’s interests, and that was a good outcome.

It also meant he didn’t have to kill her. Pity was a poor reason to leave someone alive, but Serenity had to admit that when he wasn’t blindingly angry at her, he pitied Dinatha. She was clearly infatuated with Eternus and he’d clearly played on that infatuation to take advantage of her.

“Take the path into the future that you can see. It’s no longer my place to guide your steps.” Blaze’s words surprised Serenity. They sounded like he was giving her a gift, pretending as if Eternus returned her feelings and knew he was about to die. It seemed that Serenity wasn’t the only one who pitied Dinatha.

Blaze released Dinatha’s shoulder, turned, and padded silently away from the isolating chair. He gave a deep, significant nod, as if telling Serenity to make his goodbye as quickly as possible.

Serenity scrambled for words. He started with “Eternus’s” goodbye, since it was what came to mind first. “Eternus has made his choice. You have yet to make yours. Abandon this quest he set you on and the storm shall abate. If you take another step on this path, the future may be less kind to you than the past was to Eternus.”

He hoped the words would set her on the right path for the future, a path that would at least keep her out of his way. It wouldn’t be enough to really change things here, but it also wasn’t exactly his place to change an entire society that wasn’t his own. That sort of change had to come from within; the most he should do was prevent it from hurting his own people.

Blaze gestured for Serenity to follow him and led the way out into the front area. Serenity hadn’t really noticed on the way in, but Dinatha’s floor was heavily cushioned, far more heavily than Eternus’s. It made it easy to be quiet, almost like her rooms were specifically set up to deaden noise. Given the dark room and the isolation of the chair Dinatha was in, he didn’t doubt that the suite was set up that way; Dinatha must need the lack of distractions.

Rissa was clearly a better seer than Dinatha was. In some ways, that made sense; Rissa had to be better if she was going to do the same things at Tier Zero that Dinatha was doing at whatever Tier she’d reached. At the same time, it made the point of just how unusual Rissa was, or at least of how well she’d been trained.

“Get my body out,” Blaze whispered to Serenity. “If we can, we need to leave Eternus here.”

Serenity raised an eyebrow at that, but opened his Rift anyway. He kept his voice low; however much the noise was muffled, they weren’t that far from the Memory of Light. “This is easier than walking out with you still in disguise?”

It was disturbing to see Blaze’s body still on the floor. Yes, he was breathing and there was no Death-attuned mana near him, but he also didn’t look right.

Blaze nodded. “Easier to disappear, and it also means we’re leaving the right questions behind instead of the wrong ones. Once I’ve transitioned, carry me into the bathing room, the one with the tile - it should be in that hallway. Second door on the left, I think.”

Serenity nodded. Blaze had indicated the hallway that didn’t lead to the Seer, which was certainly deliberate. Serenity didn’t know why he wanted to go to a room filled with tile, which would probably amplify noise, but there had to be a reason. He had to have searched for the room in Eternus’s memory; otherwise, there was no way he’d know where it was.

Blaze knelt next to his body and set his hand on chest, then paused and whispered to Serenity. “Kill Eternus when he collapses. I’ll be back in my own body then.”

“You’d better be,” Serenity whispered back. He didn’t want to risk losing his friend, but at the same time he had to trust Blaze to know what he was doing.

Blaze smiled reassuringly at Serenity, then leaned over his body again. He closed his eyes and seemed to concentrate for a long moment, then collapsed to the ground. His shoulder hit his own body’s chin as he fell.

No, Serenity corrected himself, Eternus collapsed to the ground. Blaze was hopefully inside his own body once again. Serenity half hoped the strike to Blaze’s chin would sting; he really didn’t like this, especially not when Blaze couldn’t reassure him that he’d made the transition safely.

Serenity shoved Eternus off Blaze, then let his shield Skill expand across the still apparently unconscious Memory of Blood with his mana. Without a shield of his own or any conscious resistance, Serenity could probably have managed to kill him with pure Death mana manipulation, but using the Skill was easier and more reliable. Using it would also help his control, which was always a positive.

Serenity delicately controlled the shield Skill to only kill Eternus himself, not anything else; he didn’t want to directly kill any of the cells in Eternus’s body and he definitely didn’t want to kill the natural bacteria that lived on and in a human body. That was one of the easiest ways to slow down the visible appearance changes after death, and that definitely wasn’t what Serenity wanted to have happen to Eternus. If anything, he’d prefer if the man’s body rotted faster than normal, but that wasn’t something he could directly affect.

It was difficult to kill Eternus only because of how very precise Serenity was. That made it good practice.

When he knew Eternus had ceased breathing, Serenity picked up his friend and moved over to the other hallway. He still hadn’t heard anything from the Memory of Light, but it really hadn’t been very long. Serenity was halfway through the door into the tiled bathing room when he heard a panicked shout from behind him.

“Eternus! No - what happened? Are you all right?”

Serenity slipped the rest of the way into the room, reminding himself as he went that quiet was more important than fast. The Memory of Light was clearly distracted and they hadn’t seen anyone else in the suite; they ought to be able to hide in here while the Memory of Light dealt with Eternus’s death. There would almost certainly not be a search, since the Memory of Light knew who had been in the suite and knew that the only person was Eternus himself. There was no evidence of foul play; they’d probably assume a heart attack. That was unlikely in someone in good health but not impossible.

In fact, the Memory of Life was almost certainly running for a healer right now. A good healer could heal the problem, restart the heart, and send the patient back on their way with few issues, much the same way a hospital on Earth usually could as long as the patient made it to the hospital fast enough, with the added benefit that the healer could actually heal the damage that caused the heart attack in the first place and potentially also heal any secondary damage. At least, a healer as good as Blaze could do all that for a normal heart attack.

Not even Blaze could heal Eternus. The likely verdict would be that they hadn’t gotten there in time; no matter how short a time the Memory of Light knew it was, there was always that chance that it was too slow.

There were things that could interfere with Blaze’s plan - a necromancer raising Eternus to ask what happened to him was a good example - but Serenity didn’t expect any of them. A necromancer would be highly disrespectful of the Memory of Blood, so the Memory of Light would block it. The Memory of Mastery would likely also block it for his own reasons.

In fact, Neal was probably the best insurance Serenity had for keeping the Memory of Blood’s assassination secret. He’d helped and he wouldn’t want that known, whether or not he wanted Serenity and Blaze caught. Serenity didn’t really think he cared.

Serenity checked Blaze once more and found that he was still unconscious, but it seemed more like a normal sleep than the utter stillness of before. That was probably a good sign.

Serenity lifted his attention from Blaze to the rest of the bathroom and quickly decided that the “bath” in “bathroom” was accurate. The entire room was tiled. A ceramic tub, more like a jacuzzi built for a group than a simple tub, filled one corner of the room. It was clearly filled by the spouts set into the wall just above it.

Beside it was a trio of nozzles set high into the wall. They weren’t shaped quite like modern shower heads, but Serenity recognized them as a different version. They each supplied water at a different pressure, meaning that you could stand under a warm rain or wash your hair and use the water’s pressure to clean the soap out, simply by switching which nozzle the water came out through. Serenity had never looked into the necessary enchantments but he’d used them quite frequently in his past. It wasn’t the same setup as the palace on Aeon, but it was similar.

There was no toilet or sink. That would be in a different room, based on the exploration of Eternus’s suite. The only other thing of note in the room was a tiled cabinet hung on the wall well away from the shower area; that probably held things like towels and soap.

There was also no place to hide; anyone who looked into the room would see Blaze and Serenity without any trouble. Perhaps he could hide Blaze in the tub? That might work; Serenity could shift into his Sovereign form and lurk near the ceiling next to the door; he probably wouldn’t be seen there.

No, even better. He could hide at least part of himself in the tub, over Blaze. That way, he’d add to the dimness in the area and help a casual glance overlook Blaze as long as he was next to the wall of the tub nearest the door. Nothing he could do would stop an active search from finding Blaze, but even something small might help a casual search.

Serenity headed to the cabinet to get some towels, then used them to give Blaze a cushion in the tub. They’d make it more comfortable and hopefully also keep the ceramic from pulling all of the warmth away from him as he slept. The last two towels went over Blaze; they were almost the same white as the tub and might also help prevent him from being seen.

His precautions probably weren’t necessary, but Serenity had nothing else to do, so there was no reason not to do what he could.