After the End: Serenity

Three men and a woman gathered around one of the secluded picnic tables near the students’ dining hall. All four wore masks and cloaks; two of the cloaks covered instructors’ attire, while the others wore whatever they’d been able to scavenge - one was in scrubs from a man no one other than the instructors had realized was dead, while the other still wore his uniform.

Margrethe knew who one of the two students was. The man in uniform had been easy; the grudge Raymond held for Serenity was public. The other man - and more importantly, the other instructor - she hadn’t identified yet. She’d narrowed the instructor down to someone from either Trials or the Armory / weapons training area; there simply were very few from outside those areas with the muscle to be this man, and she knew the crafters well enough to be confident he wasn’t one of the few. The other instructor had been the one to gather them all, and she suspected he was the only one who knew who all of them were.

“What went wrong?” The other instructor didn’t sound upset; if anything, he sounded curious. “Did you miss? I wasn’t able to get the full story, just that Serenity was injured but survived, and that d- er, dedicated healer had him under observation yesterday and all day today.”

“No,” replied Margrethe. “I definitely hit him in the head; he fell, and didn’t get up before I had to run. I didn’t have time for a second shot. Didn’t think I’d need one, either. He shouldn’t have lived long enough for Blaze to get to him. Not at Tier 0.”

Margrethe had some doubts as to whether Serenity was actually Tier 0. A lot of his oddities could be explained if he were Tier 1 and hiding it - late Tier 1, perhaps, but Tier 1. A late Tier 1 could survive a single shot from her, even in the head - for long enough to get a healer there, at least.

On second thought, he might not be lying about his Tier. If he was nonhuman, he could be Tier 0. Especially if he was from a Death-attuned species. Death-attuned species were often harder to kill, after all, and might well start with high enough Death attunement to have Death magic, even on a nonintegrated world. Margrethe couldn’t think of any that were strong enough offhand, but there was likely something. She’d have to do some research.

Not that she could blame him for that; Margrethe herself had once been an abomination. A very different type, and one the Guild knew how to redeem - a near-human who wanted out was actually fairly common - but still, she knew that he had likely had no choice in becoming what he was. That didn’t matter.

He was unarguably an abomination. As far as she could tell, he had no intention to change that, even if he could, which meant it was her duty to kill him.

An intelligent, friendly, formerly-Pathed abomination who liked using cores - liked the most straightforward route to power. Margrethe couldn’t think of anything that would be worse, once the abomination decided it was time to kill those it had once shared its world with. Those who had trusted it. No, he had to die. Preferably before he actually formed a Core and stepped off the Paths.

Even if she had to use these fools to do it.

“Very well then,” the other instructor said. “This just means we can’t count on taking care of him from a distance. This will take several of us, so that we can hold off his sycophants long enough to actually kill him - “

Margrethe rather hoped Serenity would survive this attempt, as well. She knew she should want him to die - she knew she should hate him. But she didn’t. She rather liked him, and if things had been even slightly different, she’d have been doing her best to save him. If only he’d just been tainted. She could do something about that.

She could remember the first time she had to deal with someone who was tainted and wouldn’t accept help. He’d been an unpleasant man, but she hadn’t wanted to just kill him. So she’d let it go - but then he’d formed a Core.

He’d killed half the students in his Tutorial and two instructors before he was stopped.

She hadn’t trusted an abomination since then. If they wouldn’t accept help, they had to die. This was just the first time she’d liked the abomination. That made it immensely worse, as did the fact that she couldn’t help him.

She’d like to say it was the first time she couldn’t help someone, but it had happened before. Rarely, but it had happened, always to people who insisted they were fine. She just … hadn’t liked them, so it hadn't hurt as much as it did with Serenity.

Our Guild’s duty is the maintenance of Heaven’s Order.

We who have been brought in from the darkness are the Order’s Knives.

We stand between the Paths and the darkness of Pathlessness.

May Order stand above all, with Order’s Guild at its side.

Order’s Will be done.

See the Path.

Hear the Voice.

Act.

She had to remember.

Serenity had to die.

It was the Will of Heaven’s Order. All abominations must die if they cannot be redeemed to the Order of the Paths.

No matter the cost.