Serenity stepped firmly out of the shadows, searching for the person wearing the burgundy he’d seen. Unintentionally but usefully, his step echoed in the quiet room and he saw a man spin around.

He stumbled when he spun and Serenity grinned. “There’s no need to be jumpy. I’m not planning to hurt you.”

Of course, Serenity left it unspoken that he could hurt the other man. Implications were better sometimes, even if he thought he might have missed it himself if his thoughts were elsewhere. “What’s your name?”

The man in the burgundy robe with black trim drew himself up so that he was standing stiffly and tried to look formal. The effect was slightly ruined by the fact that his right hand shook, but Serenity wasn’t going to mention that. “I, I’m Young Eternal Lacian. Who are you and what are you doing here?”

“I’m a customer,” Serenity stated. He didn’t really want to give away his name; Serenity was far too famous with anyone who’d been through a Tutorial. Someone might have mentioned it. “Are you working here now? I saw Djen himself in the past. Would you let him know I’d like to talk to him?”

What he said probably wasn’t important, as long as it kept Lacian from noticing Tirmanak. That shouldn’t be difficult; Serenity hadn’t found him yet, and he knew to look. He couldn’t obviously look away from Lacian, but his general look around the room as he stepped in hadn’t shown him anything. Perhaps he’d see Tirmanak when he did whatever his plan was.

“I can’t do that,” the obviously out of his depth acolyte started, then seemed to remember what he’d been told to say. “This business is closed by order of the Eternal Church; please take your business elsewhere.”

Serenity tilted his head to the side. Maybe he could learn something more here than he’d expected. “The Eternal Church? I don’t know anything about it. Can you enlighten me as to what it is?”

There was a moment where Serenity thought Lacian wasn’t going to answer, then his gaze became fixed and glassy and his mouth spread in a wide grin. If the acolyte hadn’t been clearly extremely nervous a moment before, it might have looked welcoming; as it was, the word that came to mind for Serenity was creepy.

“The Eternal Church is a place of welcome, a place where anyone can find a home among fellow believers. We follow in the steps of the Great Light in the world, the True Eternal One Lykandeon, and seek to join him in his Eternal perfection. All are welcome under the banner of the Eternal Church; seekers and the lost, ordinary craftspeople and fighters, mages and workmen. Come join a …” The clearly memorized speech halted as Tirmanak’s hand appeared, resting on Lacian’s head.

“Sorry for cutting this short, but I couldn’t pass up such a perfect opportunity.” Tirmanak turned from Serenity to face Lacian. “What were your assigned duties here?”

The acolyte answered woodenly. “Stay here and guard the door. Tell people the business is closed by order of the Eternal Church. Prevent people from entering. Do not use force unless it is necessary.”

Serenity could almost imagine the white-robed priest they’d fought snapping those orders out as he headed into the building. The fact that they’d used a different door to enter was probably the only reason they hadn’t run into the acolyte on the way in. Things might have been different if they had; certainly it was likely that the priest would have been aware of their presence.

Tirmanak shook his head sharply and tried again. “Why did the group of you come here?”

“To investigate the missing slaves.” Lacian gave the same wooden delivery, even though the words showed a little more thought.

Serenity felt frustrated at getting information they already knew. If Tirmanak felt the same way, he didn’t know it; he simply moved on to the next question. “Why are the slaves so important?”

Lacian’s face stretched back into that creepy grin. “Slaves? The Eternal Church does not deal in slavery. All who serve the church do so because it is their choice. Any slave collected by the Eternal Church will be offered freedom, joining us in our search for Eternity in service to the One True Eternal.”

That didn’t really sound like freedom to Serenity. Especially not when the choice was “serve us or remain a slave”. He expected that they usually dressed it up prettier than Lacian was managing, but that was what he got out of the statement.

Tirmanak shifted his question. “Why are the people that were supposed to be sent from here to the Eternal Church so important?”

The grin faded off the acolyte’s face and he answered impassively once again. “They were to undertake the Grand Sacrament to Eternal Lord Lykandeon, but a piece is missing.”

Serenity thought he preferred the wooden delivery to the one with the creepy smile, but there really wasn’t much to choose between there.

Tirmanak’s follow-up question was exactly what Serenity would have asked. “What’s the Grand Sacrament?”

“The Grand Sacrament is performed on particularly momentous occasions. I do not know why this one is being performed.”

Serenity moved away from Lacian’s line of sight. The acolyte’s eyes didn’t follow him.

“What does the Grand Sacrament accomplish?” Tirmanak approached the same question with slightly different words.

“The Grand Sacrament rededicates us to service to our True Eternal Lord.”

Serenity couldn’t tell if that answer meant anything or if Lacian was simply repeating a platitude.

Tirmanak shook his head and rephrased the question again. “What do you know about the role of the people who were supposed to be sent from here in the Grand Sacrament?”

“They were to undertake the Grand Sacrament to Eternal Lord Lykandeon, but a piece is missing.”

Tirmanak tried different questions, but that was all of the information he was able to pry out of the acolyte. There was nothing on what the “missing piece” was or what exactly the Grand Sacrament did or what the slaves’ role in it would be. He couldn’t even find out exactly when it would be performed; apparently the preparations could take years, but that was all Lacian knew.

Serenity tried to pay attention, but the questioning became repetitive very quickly. His attention was focused again when Tirmanak slapped the young man in the back of the head and he fell bonelessly to the ground. Chances were good he was still alive, but it was possible he wouldn’t survive for long. It was also possible he’d be fine; head injuries were tricky that way.

“Good work catching him in that mental trap,” Tirmanak complimented Serenity. “How did you guess that he was imprinted with a message to people interested in the Eternal Church?”

Serenity chuckled and shook his head. “Pure dumb luck, I’m afraid. I asked the question hoping he’d say something useful or interesting.”

Tirmanak’s grin didn’t waver. “Luck is always useful, and it certainly was interesting. Well, let’s get going.”

Serenity didn’t say anything about where they were going or how until they were well away from the almost certainly unconscious acolyte. When he opened his mouth, Tirmanak held up a hand, then glanced around. Serenity followed his eyes and didn’t see anything or anyone watching them. Apparently satisfied by the lack of people around them, Tirmanak pulled the flyer out and enlarged it so that they could climb in.

Once the cover was closed, Serenity asked the question he’d put on hold. “So, are you heading back to the house?”

Tirmanak nodded, but his words weren’t as positive. “Just to get you there; then I’ll be heading to the offplanet portal. I don’t expect anyone official to actually look into this; the business is probably beholden to a noble or a Court, so that’s who will investigate. Since we left Djen alive, it’s hard to say who he’ll point the finger at. That means I should try to be off-planet before they have time to try to trace me. You should be fine with your disguise, but mine isn’t as good.” Tirmanak flashed Serenity a grin. “Not many daa’il on the streets around here, after all.”

Serenity nodded. “That’s too bad, but not a surprise.” A grin quirked up one corner of his mouth before he added, “As long as I don’t have any more surprises like that Tier Six. I wouldn’t want to fight him alone.”

“I expect that you and Duke Lowpeak could manage it,” Tirmanak noted. “He’s not up to my Tier, but he’s strong and sturdy, while you have some very interesting tricks. There’s a reason he’s called Lichbane, you know.”

“He earned that himself?” It was Serenity’s turn to be surprised. “Liches are really uncommon at low Tier. I assumed it was inherited.”

“The stories aren’t mine to tell, but he might tell you if you ask.” Tirmanak frowned. “Unfortunately, he really hasn’t improved since then. I think it’s the planet, but he won’t listen to me about leaving. It’s better for the planet that he stay, but it means he’s going to die here. If he’d agreed to leave, I’d have proposed him as a potential Hand decades ago.”

Serenity could sympathize. “It’s always sad to see friends die, but sometimes something is more important. I don’t think Kalo feels that way about Zon, but I think Duke Lowpeak feels that way about his duchy.”

“He does,” Tirmanak agreed.

That was the last thing Tirmanak said before they reached the Lowpeak residence several minutes later, having taken a route that was circuitous but far less so than the one they’d taken on the way to the hiring Hall. “Here’s a rough map that will get you to the Guild Hall on Ranar. Please stop by as soon as you can once you finish up your Quest; I’ll owe you some regalia, and I’d like to introduce you to everyone. It’ll also be a good time to familiarize you with the support we can give you on future Quests.”

Serenity nodded but didn’t commit himself to a timeline. He didn’t know what the future would bring and, if it was anything like his past, his guesses were likely to be wildly inaccurate. “Before you go, is there anything you can tell me about the Eternal Church?”

Tirmanak shrugged. “I don’t have much on them; Kalo may have more. What I can tell you is that they’re a century or two old; it’s not clear when Lykandeon Ascended, and in fact it’s not even certain if his Church was established before or after that. About twenty years ago, Lykandeon became effectively the Planetary Lord of Aeon; that’s when he renamed it. All of the other Lords are his priests; his Eternal Church more or less owns the planet. There are occasional nasty rumors and he threw out most of the Guilds since they wouldn’t swear fealty to him, but that’s common in single-ruler planets, especially Godly ones. All I can tell you is that in the past twenty years there have been no requests for a Knife and no Quests from Order’s Voice for a Hand. That’s unusual but not unknown.”

Tirmanak was right; that was useful background information, but it didn’t help him plan anything. What it told him was that any information Tirmanak did have was probably at least twenty years old and therefore unreliable.

Serenity nodded. “Thanks for the background. It gives me some sort of idea what I’m looking at. I think I’ll deal with Zon before I move on to Aeon; finishing up here should be easier.”

After all, he had Djen’s real books. He simply had to figure out how to turn that into slave recovery.