[Node functionality is restricted due to the contested situation in the Zenith Control Zone]

[Node Restrictions: Messaging and portal functions are limited. City Owner functionality is disabled. City Features are available only under manual control. Other functions are unaffected; settings may not be changed until a new City Owner is established]

[Messaging restrictions: Messaging may not cross geographic boundaries. Messages will be retained for future delivery]

[Portal restrictions: All portal features are diasabled within the Zenith Control Zone until City Ownership is determined]

He could leave a message, maybe. In fact, he should try that, just in case.

Rissa,

Not sure when you’ll get this. There’s a massive invasion happening on Zon and it looks like the local King disabled everything to try to impede the invaders before they killed him. They’ve taken the capitol, Zenith. I’m trying to find somewhere you can come meet me but I haven’t found anywhere yet.

Serenity

[Message delivery suspended until recipient enters Zenith Control Zone or messaging restriction is removed]

Serenity lifted his hand from the node to find that he was swearing out loud. Fortunately, he was swearing in English, which none of the others understood. After a moment, he turned to face them. “We’re still within the Zenith Control Zone. Portals and messaging across a geographic boundary are still disabled.” He paused and looked at Andarit. “You might want to try messaging your father. It might let it though; it told me it wouldn’t deliver to Rissa until she entered the Zenith Control Zone, but Lowpeak might be inside. There’s no way I can get a message to Rissa, though.”

“It’s not.” Both Andarit and Ceney spoke at the same time, then Ceney gestured at Andarit as if to tell her to go ahead. “I’m surprised Celestials’ Rest is. I thought all the country nobility were outside the Zenith Control Zone.”

Ceney grimaced. “No, just Lowpeak. You know your father is a Duke while the other country nobles are Barons or Margraves? Lowpeak isn’t part of the Kingdom of Zenith. It’s part of the Zenate Empire. The Zenith Control Zone is only the old Kingdom, for some reason it didn’t change after the Empire formed.”

Andarit frowned. “It’s because of the way we joined, I know that much. We weren’t conquered and we kept a lot of the control within Lowpeak, including our own Zone. I just thought there were others.”

Ceney shrugged. “I think there are, but most aren’t. Certainly not Celestials’ Rest or Heavenfall. The Mountain might be. Lowpeak is the only one that really matters.”

“The history is nice and all, but what I’m hearing is that there’s no point in doing anything else here, right?” Serenity started shooing the others out of the building containing the portal node. There was one other thing the discussion made obvious.

Everything would work out if he could get Andarit to Lowpeak. That was where he was supposed to take her to hand her to her father; on top of that, there should be a portal node there that would let Rissa join him.

The one thing it wouldn’t solve was finding and freeing the Earthlings Djen had enslaved. He needed to do that as soon as he could, but he wasn’t sure where to start. Obviously there would be some here in Celestials’ Rest, but how would he find them and convince their owners to sell?

Even if he did free them, how was he going to get them to Lowpeak so that he could send them to Earth?

Getting in to see the Baron the following morning wasn’t a problem for Ceney and Andarit, but they weren’t allowed to bring Xarx and Serenity into the discussion. Instead, they were shown to a side room where they could wait. It was small and unfinished, with one stone wall and the rest made of wood. There was no furniture other than a half-dozen wooden chairs. Serenity smiled and shook his head; it was quite unlike the other rooms they’d passed on the way in, which were richly decorated with tapestries and fancy furniture. It was clear that this was part of the “staff” section of the spire.

As they were led in, Serenity paid attention to the other auras he could feel. Other than the maid who led them into the room, there was no one within range to overhear the conversation. Of course, there were ways to listen from out of range and Skills that would hide an aura, so it wasn’t foolproof. Still, the topic Serenity wanted to bring up with Xarx wasn’t really that sensitive. If he did anything, those who wanted to know would be able to find out anyway.

Serenity picked a chair and waited for the maid to move out of the room before he turned to Xarx. “So. You know what my problem is. Well, what they are. I’m not sure where to start. Do you have any ideas?”

Xarx leaned back. He looked like he’d be more comfortable in armor, somehow, even though Serenity had never seen him wear any. It had to be the way he moved, as though he were used to dealing with the encumbrance of armor. “The easy choice is to go to Lowpeak. That’s not what you’re going to do, then?”

Serenity sighed. “It’s not going to get any easier to find the victims. This started over six months ago; by now, looking for people who don’t know any Bridge is probably not enough.” The fact that he could tell who was from Earth and who wasn’t when they were in a group in front of him was helpful but nowhere near enough. “But you’re right, I also can’t spend too long here. I don’t think I’ll find everyone before I have to leave; even if I were somehow able to do that, I can’t send them home.”

He hoped the ones he’d sent from Zenith had made it. Sure, he’d opened a special portal to get them to Earth, even to the city they requested, but that didn’t mean they were able to get from wherever it opened in that city to their homes. It was the best he could do and at least he’d warned them before they went. There was absolutely no reason for him to feel guilty about not helping more. He’d done enough.

He needed to worry about the ones who were still on Zon instead, the ones he wasn’t going to be able to send through a portal.

Xarx shrugged. “If you can’t do it yourself, hire someone to do it for you. From what you said, they’re being counted as debt-slaves but they didn’t actually have any debt, correct?”

Serenity nodded. “A few were marked down as criminal slaves, but not many. No note on what the crime was supposed to be, though.”

“It’s easy, then. At least, as long as you can afford it. Get yourself a lawyer; I’m sure there are some here that know the ins and outs of the debt slavery business. There are rules; money’s the best way to make sure they’re enforced.” Xarx leaned back in the chair and closed his eyes. “Ask Ceney to recommend someone when you get out. She probably knows someone.”

There were lawyers here?

No, of course there were lawyers here. Every civilization had laws, and that meant there was a need for people to handle them once a settlement was large enough.

It would probably cost more to handle with a lawyer than on his own, but it would save him time and that was extremely important. He just hoped the lawyer would take monster cores as payment; he definitely didn’t have enough kopeks, and he wasn’t certain if he could access his Etherium or not.

If he could use monster cores, he would; the exchange rate here was simply too good to pass up. If he needed to use Etherium, though, he’d try. Using taxes from Earth to pay for freeing kidnapped Earthlings and sending them home seemed like a good use of the Etherium.

Serenity sighed and pulled up his Quest screen. He didn’t expect any surprises, but if they were expected they wouldn’t be surprises, and he’d probably end up showing the Quest to whatever lawyer he found that he was willing to trust with the mission.

[Tutorial Trouble: There is a problem in the Tutorial. Students are being directed to incorrect locations at the end of the first Phase. Assist the Voice’s investigations, find the responsible parties, and arrange for appropriate punishment]

[Step 1: Find out how it’s happening in the Tutorial] [COMPLETE]

[Step 2: Investigate on Zon] [COMPLETE]

[Step 3]: Investigate the Eternal Church’s involvement] [ONGOING]

[Optional Goal: Put measures in place that will prevent the same scheme from working in the future] [COMPLETE]

[Optional Goal: Recover the lost Earthlings and return them to Earth (if desired)]

Huh. The Quest had advanced since the last time he checked it. Nothing it said was a surprise, even though it had moved on; all it did was confirm that he’d tracked the cause of the kidnappings past Djen to the Eternal Church. It didn’t say anything about the Eternal Church’s invasion of Zon; that could be because it wasn’t related or it could be because he didn’t yet know they were related.

The Voice wanted people to find things out on their own, even when it knew the answers. Serenity suspected that wasn’t the case this time, however. The Voice probably didn’t know the answers yet. It had been too helpful already for him to start assuming it was withholding information now. It wanted him to succeed.

Ceney didn’t have one recommendation for a lawyer; she had four, all in Celestials’ Rest.

Maerite was the first one she mentioned, a lawyer leading a one-woman crusade against unlawful slavery. She was supposedly famous, but that was really all Ceney could say; she’d never met Maerite. Ceney suggested that mentioning that he was currently employed by the Lowpeaks might help.

The second lawyer on Ceney’s list was one she knew a lot about and had worked with repeatedly. Bernet was the man she went to when she had issues of any sort in Celestials’ Rest. His specialty was dealing with people who claimed she’d sold them something other than what they bought or promised something she hadn’t. Serenity wasn’t entirely certain things split up the way they did on Earth, but his best guess was that Bernet dealt with business law. Ceney suggested him more because he might be able to recommend someone to Serenity than because she thought Bernet would want to handle the situation.

Innat was the third person on Ceney’s list. She wasn’t actually a lawyer; instead, she was an organizer. At first, Serenity thought that meant event planner, but while Innat did plan events, that wasn’t why Ceney recommended her. Innat was someone you went to when things got too big for you, whether that was an event or building a building. Innat was expensive, but she wouldn’t just help anyone; you had to catch her interest.

Ceney had only worked with her once, the first time she’d put together an expedition to travel into the dangerous lands beyond civilization. Innat would know what was needed after the people Serenity was trying to free were freed to take care of them until Serenity could send them home.

The last person on Ceney’s list was almost the opposite of the first. While Alanok was also a lawyer specializing in slave law, his specialty wasn’t freeing slaves; it was finding you a way to gain or keep the ones you wanted.

From what Ceney said, he was also a very nice man, at least to non-slaves, and he deeply believed that what he was doing was not only just but that it was necessary. Serenity wasn’t sure what to think about that.