Serenity watched the takeoff from Tzintkra from the large Observation Room. He would have been willing to take Stojan Tasi into the small one, but the Vrak wouldn’t have fit even if Serenity were willing to have an unknown quantity like it in the more private parts of the ship. The large Observation Room was the better choice.
Serenity still wasn’t certain why he agreed to bring a Vrak on the Death’s Wings. No matter how eager the talkative Vrak, Brightleaf, was to see more of the universe, the plant-creature was still all too likely to cause issues if the dryads of Berinath found out it was there.
In some ways, that was a reason he agreed. It definitely wasn’t the full reason, but it was probably part of it. He couldn’t quite get the Dreaming Tree’s first prophecy out of his head.
Norn-twisted fate laughs as youth’s safety brings joy for the mother and dread from all else. Death’s kind hand can halt the trade yet the price is peace and that will not be paid.
The last line, “yet the price is peace and that will not be paid” didn’t really make that much sense if he was the person setting requirements. He simply wouldn’t set a price that required peace, not to protect Berinath and certainly not to protect Earth. It also didn’t make sense if it was Stojan Tasi, because Serenity could override him.
No, the only way it made sense was if the dryads had to allow something they truly hated to act on their behalf. Tzintkra Itself was an option, but Serenity didn’t quite understand how that would work. Perhaps if he created a ritual or something it might work; alternatively, the world’s spirit might be able to do something. That didn’t seem to make that much sense against the White Tiger, however.
Until he met Brightleaf, Serenity didn’t have any other ideas. Now that he’d both met them and knew what they did to save Tzintkra, however, it made far more sense: what if the prophecy wasn’t about stopping the White Tiger but was instead about saving Berinath after it was damaged ? It didn’t say either way, but in that case, everything hung together.
The Mimir somehow redirected the White Tiger towards Berinath. Serenity was fairly certain he’d have to deal with them at some point; this was the third time he’d run into their actions and all three were bad. Of course, the two attacks on Rissa were enough; the attack on Berinath was simply an additional reason to act earlier. He wasn’t quite certain what he was going to do yet; he didn’t know enough.
The White Tiger would dig a tunnel, then leave a cub behind to eat the core until the cub “awoke.” Once that happened, the White Tiger would return and retrieve the cub, leaving Berinath damaged.
The damage to Berinath would be severe; that had to be what “dread from all else” meant. Berinath wasn’t a hospitable world; the dryads depended on the mana and resources produced by Berinath’s dungeons and her World Core. It could be disastrous if the World Core were damaged and the likely damage to dungeons would only make it worse.
Serenity wondered if the nascent dungeon he’d left behind had opened yet. Probably not; it wasn’t open before he left Berinath for Tzintkra.
Serenity was still certain he was Death’s kind hand, but the phrase “halt the trade” was confusing. Could it mean “stop the damage to the core from harming Berinath?” If what it meant was that he could bring Vrak to Berinath to help the core the way they helped Tzintkra’s, that might make sense - it would stop the “trade” of the dryads’ despair for the White Tiger’s happiness.
It was also nearly impossible, since Serenity didn’t think the dryads would ever willingly allow a Vrak on Berinath, no matter what that meant for their core. They simply wouldn’t trust the plant-creatures.
In many ways, Serenity hoped he’d finally deciphered the prophecy, because it meant it was a self-defeating prophecy. The fact that he heard it sent him to take the actions that would prevent it from happening. Berinath would never be so damaged that it would need the assistance of a Vrak.
Which made it odd that he’d allowed one on the Death’s Wings.
Yes, the prophecy mattered, but Serenity didn’t think it was the deciding factor. Instead, it was something about the way Brightleaf asked to follow him. It seemed to want to see more of the world or worlds. It was curious, and that somehow reminded Serenity of Jenna. He wasn’t sure how a plant-creature that looked like an oversized thorn while it was sleeping and a tuft of spiky grass when it was moving around reminded him of Jenna. Maybe it was something in the voice?
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
Serenity was fairly certain that whatever it was, it would get him in trouble with Rissa in the future for spoiling Jenna too much. He didn’t like telling her no for any reason.
Once they were completely out of the atmosphere, Serenity went to find his daughter. She was on the ship, but he didn’t know exactly what her schedule for the day was. Maybe she’d be interested in some more wall painting or something else she could do with her Dad.
Stojan Tasi and Brightleaf stayed behind to watch as their world shrank in the distance.
Serenity made certain that Brightleaf stayed on the ship when he took Stojan Tasi to meet World Shaman Senkovar. He’d originally intended to take his City Manager to meet Foremost Elder Omprek, as the dryads ought to be able to help restore Tzintkra and were far more numerous than the World Shaman, but the discovery of Vrak in Tzintkra’s core changed matters. That was still an avenue to explore, but it would need to be done cautiously.
When they found the World Shaman, Senkovar was close to the spaceport watching some dryads play a game that involved a ball, some vines, and some lines drawn in the dirt. As far as Serenity could tell, the ball had to be carried across one or more of the lines, but it had to be held away from the body where the vines could be used to remove it from the carrier’s grasp.
Tripping or otherwise interfering with the ball carrier was fine as long as it was only the vines that made contact; the ball carrier could run into other people but couldn’t be tackled. Serenity couldn’t quite tell what the scoring system was, but it seemed to be individual rather than team-based. It was quite an interesting game and made Serenity wonder if it was teaching whip use as much as anything else.
When the game eventually ended, the vines were each taken by the people using them, while the ball was carried away by an older dryad that accompanied one of the players. It was charmingly informal.
“Serenity,” Senkovar greeted his descendant. “You came to find me?”
Serenity nodded. “I want to introduce you to Stojan Tasi. He - perhaps this would be better inside.” Before he got very far into the introduction, Serenity realized that mentioning Tzintkra in public was probably not a good idea.
Stojan Tasi laughed, then gestured towards the spaceport before starting to head towards the Death’s Wings. “Serenity mentioned that you know something about worlds. I manage a world that was badly damaged, with both the surface and the World Core impacted. Serenity and I just checked out the World Core and …” Stojan Tasi shook his head. “It’s bad. I think it can recover with time and care, but that’s based mostly on the fact that it’s still there. I know I can recover the surface; it’s slow but it is already recovering in places. I want to speed it up, but damaging the world farther for speed isn’t a good trade. Serenity suggested that you might be able to help.”
“Do you know what that sort of help requires?” The World Shaman was clearly back in his professional facade, rather than the doting grandfather that periodically showed through for Serenity.
Stojan Tasi shrugged. “No, but it’s still worth asking. You tell me what you can do and what it will take and I’ll figure out if it’s something we can manage and afford.”
Senkovar tilted his head slightly. “Tell me all about it, what shape it’s in and what you can of how the damage happened. I can’t fix things from here, but I can at least start planning and give you an estimate of what it will take and what you’ll need to do for me in return. The more accurate you can be, the better; if there’s something you can’t or won’t tell me, just say that. Knowing what you can’t tell me is far better than thinking I know when I don’t.”
Stojan Tasi shrugged. “It’s Serenity’s world. If he trusts you to know everything, so do I.”
The World Manager’s explanation was interrupted by their arrival at the Death’s Wings. Serenity heard the beginning of it, but there was no need to listen to things he already knew so he headed to his next stop: one of the fabrication rooms. Now that the maps existed, he needed to figure out how he was going to integrate them with the ritual. He wasn’t a divination expert; there was probably a standard way to do it, but he didn’t have it. He was going to have to brute force it.
For the ritual to work, he needed either a detailed map that covered the entire world or a series of maps that went from full detail to the level where he thought he’d be able to find the White Tiger, since that was his divination target. A full detailed world map would be far too large to fit within the divination ritual, so he was going to have to either plan to repeat the ritual or find a way to have maps that became more detailed during the ritual.
Serenity’s first thought was a series of paper maps that got more detailed; he could stack them up and have the ritual select between them as it went. He’d seen that done and while it added complexity, it wasn’t too bad if there were only a dozen or so maps in total; it could cover a city down to enough detail to find an individual building if the city wasn’t too large. While he could technically do that for Berinath, it was a poor answer to getting the level of detail he wanted and it came at a high mana cost.
His next thought was to use a mapping program on a tablet, but when he tested it, the magic didn’t seem to register the map on the tablet at all. It ought to, but he couldn’t figure out why it didn’t. That was exactly the sort of thing his Magitech Affinity was supposed to help him with, but he couldn’t figure out how to make it work.
Serenity went to Tek for help, but all she was able to do was ask him to tell her when he figured it out; she understood the technology piece but she was even worse at interfacing magic with it than he was, at least for now.
Simurgh couldn’t help with integrating the tablet either. She could suggest ways to more thoroughly search an area, but spells were completely outside her knowledge base. Serenity was close to giving up and redesigning the ritual to a tiered approach when she asked if a topographical map would work. They had a material that seemed to be a type of plastic that could be shaped to a limited extent by embedded electronics to make a scale representation of terrain. Its most common use was for games, but it could be adjusted in minutes and she hoped that it might work since it wasn’t just a display but actually resembled the terrain.
It was worth a try.