[A DeathLord has risen on Tzintkra]

[A Seat is prepared]

Serenity smiled and stopped pushing Death mana through Tasi’s body when he saw the notice; he’d been correct, and it had only taken a few hours to raise Tasi’s Death Affinity enough to break the threshold.

“How did you do that? That should be impossible. My Life Affinity’s higher than it was, I shouldn’t be able to get more Death Affinity. Not only that, my Life Affinity actually went up! What is that exercise?” Tasi turned around in his chair to face Serenity.

“Dhampir are based on two conflicting yet complementary Affinities. It’s not good to have them be too different from each other. You need both of them to go up together, they don’t block each other.” Serenity smiled. “So, about that City Manager role…?”

“...Fine,” Tasi growled. “In the morning. And yes, I can handle stuff after that so you can go home, but can you leave Hale here? I’ll need the help.”

[Path Rejected: Patience is a Virtue]

[Path Rejected: Friends are the Family You Choose]

[Path Rejected: Home is the People, not the Place]

[Path Rejected: Hiding in Plain Sight]

[Path Rejected: I’ll do it Myself]

[Path Chosen: Ruby Slippers]

[Path Choice Noticed]

[Rough location information for Invasion portals and existing Settlement Crystals has been provided by Tzintkra’s World Core]

[Earning the gratitude of a planet has been Noticed]

[Tzintkra has agreed to support two additional teleportations after your transit]

[Path Choice Quest (Branching) Step 4: Home is where the Heart is? Complete]

[Path Choice Quest Complete]

[Path Quest Stage 2 Complete]

[Path Quest Stage 3]

[Goal: Repel the invasions threatening your friends and family. Aid from others is permitted]

[Reward: Varies depending on number of invasions expelled and contribution]

[Optional Goal: Repel all invasions threatening Earth. Aid from others is permitted]

[Optional Reward: Choose the location for Earth’s World Core Interface Crystal]

[Penalty for Failure: None]

[Penalty for Abandoning Quest: Discontinuation of Path Quest, Change in Path]

“I’m sorry, Hale, but I really should check out the crafting opportunities. If it’s as good as Serenity says - why, my family could move early! And you’ve said you don’t really need me here, I’m not sure what I’d be doing, and…” Katya trailed off and hugged Hale.

It was at least the sixth time Serenity had seen her apologize for her decision to go to Earth when Hale was staying on Tzintkra. If he hadn’t already guessed they were an item, he’d have been sure now by her behavior and the way Hale reassured her each time. “It’s fine, Katya. I know your family’s important to you. We’d already planned for you to take time when you were ready to move to get a place set up for them…”

Serenity turned back to the portal. It was time to go home. Technically, they’d each be going through a different portal; Serenity couldn’t teleport anyone but himself this way, which turned out to be why he’d had to reach a Necropolis Crystal. They’d follow; Tzintkra had reassured him that his teleportation would create a temporary beacon for the other two, even though it was a very nonstandard and temporary Invasion Portal.

As he stepped through the portal, Serenity saw a globe appear in the empty space in front of him, covered in dots. There wasn’t any detail to it other than the dots, unfortunately, which made it harder to tell where the dots were physically - but they clustered in ways that reminded Serenity of Earth’s continents. He was sure he could figure this out.

[Choose a beacon to resonate with]

Serenity looked through the dots. Most were unlabeled, but a few had what appeared to be town names. He was even able to find one labeled Serenity. He looked at it and smiled; by its location and the location of the other dots he saw, it was probably out West somewhere. That wasn’t where he wanted to go.

There was a set of eight dots that he thought were probably along the eastern coast of the United States and Canada; he couldn’t trace the coast with them, but there was a closely-spaced pair that he decided was probably New York City and Washington, DC - more or less. He knew there were probably invasions in both cities; he was certain about the Washington, DC invasion and an invasion was the most likely reason for the destruction of New York City.

Should he go to Rissa or to his parents?

He knew his parents would still be in Arlington; there was no way they’d have left, especially not Lex. Serenity had told Rissa to talk to his parents. There was a decent chance she was with them; they’d been bugging Serenity to introduce them for months, after all.

He hoped he was making the right choice as he picked the beacon that was probably the one he wanted. At worst, it would still be close enough to get home, even if he had to … take a bus or something.

Raz stepped through the portal. He was tired of watching the teary goodbye; it was time to move on to the next step in his quest. He still didn’t know why he’d been told to follow the dragon, but he was certain the dragon was Serenity.

Chaos and opportunity seemed to follow Serenity. Perhaps he would be able to help Raz find a new home for Aki.

Raz would have to tell him about Aki first. He thought Aki might agree to it soon; the last time he’d asked, she’d told him to wait until she saw Serenity’s planet.

A globe with bright spots appeared. Raz looked through it and found two different points marked “Serenity”. Serenity hadn’t hinted that that might happen, so Raz tried to think of what he’d said about his home. Was it on an island, maybe?

It was hard to tell, but one of the spots had several spots in different directions, while the other one only had spots to the top and bottom, other than the one right next to it. It was a long way from it to anything to the right.

It was too late to back out and there was only one way to know. At the worst, he’d just ask someone where to find Serenity.

Raz picked the spot on the right.

Katya waved goodbye to Hale and stepped into the portal. She was going to miss him!

She didn’t really pay attention as a globe with white specks appeared in front of her. It had to be the way to follow Serenity, so she knuckled her eyes and started looking. The moment she saw one labeled “Serenity”, she picked it.

It was the western option, but she didn’t know there were two.

Serenity knew the travel would take some time, but this time he wasn’t interested in studying the SpaceTime distortion. He suspected the Voice was listening, and he had some questions that needed answers.

Are you there?

[Yes]

Why did you send me to Tzintkra? Don’t just say it was a quest reward or to save my life, there were other ways you could have done that. Why Tzintkra?

[Tzintkra]

[Tzintkra needed help. I hoped you could solve each others’ problems]

[Tzintkra eventually extinguished itself in the other timeline. It died in pain I could not help. Perhaps your choices will change that. At least you dealt with the woman who dealt the mortal blow]

Is that why you left me near the Last Refuge of the Deathless?

[No. That was an opportunity]

An opportunity for you to shape my Path?

[Perhaps]

Serenity took that as confirmation. He’d already been pretty sure the Voice was pushing him; it helped explain the Voice’s near-panic when his Evolution started to fall apart.

What would have happened if you hadn’t?

[You mean what happened the first time past when you arrived? Raz and Greyvine died. Garrett was fully possessed by the Deathless, but still could not leave the dungeon. Hale, Katya, and Zan died a day later when they entered]

[The dungeon killed many more people before it was classed as an “impossible” Tier dungeon and ignored because it didn’t send out monsters and wasn’t worth clearing to anyone who might actually be able to do it. The Heart of the Deathless was not recovered before the planet fell apart, yet it did not fail. It was centuries later before it was found]

I knew I helped there, I didn’t realize it was that much.

[Sometimes it does not take much. How much impact that actually is has not yet been determined]

[There is hope for the future, now. More people may come to Tzintkra]

What do you mean?

[There is a reason Tzintkra has so many dungeons. When they are used, they help stabilize the damage; perhaps even heal it]

What else changed? I know Hollis would have alerted the Shining Caverns to the curse, so that shouldn’t be that different.

[More than that]

[Desinka bit Rakyn a day after you met them. He retrieved the dreamstone from the Healer’s Hall and started delivering it and the one you now hold to different Guilds and other organizations]

[That only lasted a few days before Desinka went mad. Stojan Kenna gave directions to Rakyn, but had Desinka drink from Rakyn instead of supplying enough blood, and it wasn’t enough]

[Rakyn hunted her down, then killed her other victims before killing himself. There was no Bloody Red vampire plague. Without his action, there would have been]

[Hollis died without becoming conscious. Pelni Sukaj escaped while he was dead]

[Hollis rose as a mummy and remembered his past, but the city was not alerted until three days later than in this timeline. The difference was enough, especially since there were no curse-breakers with enough power to combat the spread remaining in the main city. They came from the outlying caverns, but not enough or fast enough]

[The cursed were killed and the bodies burned to prevent them from returning as undead. Almost everyone lost a friend or a relative]

[Hollis led Guildmaster Irene to the warehouse. She was able to identify the dead man as Stojan Kenna. That was enough for the grieving people of the Shining Caverns to declare war, even without the approval of the City Lord]

Serenity shivered. He’d spent days breaking curses and doing the best he could. Even so, he hadn’t realized it had made that much of an impact.

It was incredible the amount of difference a few days could make. Serenity could remember times when he’d been just barely too late as Vengeance; this time, he’d been in time, instead of too late.

[Outside organizations such as the Convocation of Stars and the Mercenaries Guild stepped in and helped cleanse the city before they launched a major attack on the Necropolis. The attack was beaten off, but there was significant damage to the Necropolis in the process]

[Pelni Sukaj’s sponsor Tibral Unalgos blamed her. He didn’t accept that it was outside her control and killed her for her actions, which were worse than failure since she was discovered. He was still blamed for the failure and Stojan Kenna’s death. Stojan Aith killed him for it]

[At some point during this, City Lord Stojan Tasi was killed. Even I don’t know when other than that it happened during the fighting in the Necropolis. Irene, the former Guildmaster of the Mercenaries Guild, took over as Shining Caverns City Lord. Her primary assistant and City Manager was appointed from offplanet by the Convocation of Stars]

[Yngoliat Hale stepped back into full control of Rising Phoenix after the death of his son Ynsarac Hale; Rising Phoenix survived due to the Etherium they made during the war. It took decades for them to truly rebuild]

[Use of Tzintkra as a training planet for anyone other than necromancers declined. The Shining Caverns became essentially a minor holding of the Convocation of Stars]

Serenity could remember what happened after that. When Vengeance visited Tzintkra, he went to the Necropolis and barely heard about the Shining Caverns. The war must have been long before that; they simply weren't considered important.

Serenity was amazed at how much he’d affected without doing anything more than putting one foot in front of another and trying to do what someone needed to.

It was a huge change, and exactly the sort of change Serenity wanted to make on Earth.

It gave him hope. All he had to do was the same thing he’d done on Tzintkra.

End of Arc 3