Serenity woke up in the morning to a bedroom covered in a rainbow of glitter. When he tried to figure out why, he was struck by the realization that it was his fault. He’d been so happy about seeing in color that he’d wanted to make a prism … and had dug into the craft supplies Rissa had in the closet to turn their bedroom into a glitterbomb.
He had glitter all over everything, including himself.
Rissa was not in the room. Serenity couldn’t really remember anything past laying the glitter out in stripes, but it was clear he’d run around in it since some of the stripes were smudged. He’d been really out of it last night.
More importantly, where were his pants? He didn’t really want to shift to his chimera form while covered in glitter, and he definitely didn’t want to shift until he found pants. He was pretty sure he’d left his armor and yesterday’s clothes in the car.
They were usually in the closet … right where he’d apparently dumped all of the glitter he hadn’t used on the rest of the bedroom. Of course.
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None of his old pants fit.
At least the problem was too much muscle instead of too much fat. He’d been running to fat before.
A bit of digging later, Serenity found an old pair of sweatpants that wasn’t too terrible. They were tight at the upper thigh and calf and loose at the waist, but at least he could get them on; it was more than he could say about his jeans.
A trip to a store was clearly in his future. He wasn’t sure what the right size would be, but he was sure he was going to need a new belt.
He arrived at the kitchen table to find only a very nervous Raz. “Serenity? Do you know where a good ley line is? One that doesn’t already have a dungeon too close?”
“What?” It wasn’t the most coherent answer he’d ever given, but Serenity had no idea why Raz was asking about ley lines.
“Oh, right - Yes, Aki. I know.” Raz pulled his hand out of the pouch he so often had it in, but this time he also pulled out a dull crystal. It reminded Serenity of a dungeon core, but one that was … sick?
Serenity sniffed. It smelled faintly like a dungeon core, too. He knew he could eat it, but like the dungeon core of the Ancient Temple dungeon, he felt no particular desire to. Dungeon cores smelled very different from dungeon level crystals.
“This is Aki. She’s the - she was the core of the Sunrise Dungeon, my Clan’s dungeon. Only she’s been dying for generations. The ley line shifted, and once it was entirely outside the dungeon, she-” Raz stopped. “It doesn’t matter now. My Clan-that doesn’t matter either. I took her out of the dungeon to try to find her a new home. It needs to be soon, she doesn’t have much time left. She didn’t want to become a dungeon on Tzintkra, and-”
Raz sounded like he was about to start crying.
“We’ll find her a home,” Serenity rumbled. “What sort of dungeon was she?”
“Originally? Pretty normal, I think. Kobolds, orcs - Aki says that she likes intelligent races. They …gave her something to watch when no one was fighting them?” Raz sounded surprised as he repeated Aki’s comment.
Serenity grinned broadly. “I can get behind the idea of a kobold dungeon. Good memories.”
Raz obviously didn’t get the joke, but that was fine. He wasn’t there to see the kobold running away, screaming DRAGON as he ran.
“I don’t know where one is right now, but I’m sure we can find one. Hm. A map would be a good start, especially one that has the known dungeons marked on it, they should be on ley lines. Or I could dowse for a good spot …” Serenity could print a topographic map off Google Maps, but that would require being able to see a computer screen. He was going to need help.
Breakfast first, then he could go map-hunting.
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Serenity was still eating when Rissa ran in, carrying her phone. “Found him! Can you repeat that, Lancaster?”
“Sure. Serenity, can you hear me?” It seemed like forever since he’d heard Lancaster’s voice.
Well, it had been a while. He’d spent a lot of time in Tutorials while on Tzintkra.
“Yeah, I can hear you. What’s up?”
“One of our PR liaisons came up with a wonderful idea today.” The sarcasm in Lancaster’s voice was thick enough that Serenity didn’t think it was possible to miss it. “Apparently, the Wasp Dungeon in Central Park closed itself today to expand. So they want us to take a reporter through the upgraded dungeon as the first run of the expanded area. Because that’ll be special. Unfortunately, he floated the idea in front of the Commissioner. Who of course thought it was a brilliant idea, and told me to make it happen.”
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Serenity stared at the phone for a moment before he could respond. “That’s … special. Good luck?”
Lancaster gave a short bark of laughter. “Oh, it gets better. I was still standing there when Rissa called to let me know you were back in town, and that you’d brought a real alien with you. Naturally, the PR guy decided it would be best to show off everything at once, so you and - what was his name?”
Serenity had a bad feeling about where this was going. “Raz.”
“Yeah, you and Raz are invited as well.” Lancaster paused. “I really hate to ask this of you, but it would be really helpful if you can do an interview at the same time. I’d planned to set one up in a couple days, but this seems like a better chance.”
Serenity stood there for a moment. Bad news didn’t begin to cover this. “At least tell me the reporter we’re taking in has been through a dungeon before? And the cameraman if it’s an interview?”
“There are a few reporters who’ve gone through. I’ll make sure it’s one of them that goes in. I’ll have to ask about the camera. Thanks, man.” Lancaster hung up.
Breakfast didn’t seem that interesting anymore, so Serenity decided he was done. Where had he left his armor?
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Serenity’s armor was still in Rissa’s car. He took one look at the back seat and winced; he hadn’t realized it at the time, but he’d been digging in his claws while climbing and there were holes in the seat cushions where he’d climbed.
A glance at his armor told the same story; the upper legs and chest had punctures. It was clear the armor was slowly repairing itself, but he wasn’t sure it’d be done before the Wasp Dungeon was open again. He’d just have to hope it was slower than he was afraid it would be.
It wasn’t that much better than his scales against physical damage; in fact, Serenity suspected it wasn’t quite as good as his scales. The primary benefit of the armor these days was against elemental damage. Still, any armor was an extra layer of protection; it didn’t have to be as good as his scales to help, and his arms didn’t have scales below the elbow anyway.
The real boon was that his boots were undamaged. He must have slipped out of them when he shifted; they sat on the floorboards. He didn’t think he’d left any scars from his claws in the floor this morning, but he’d have to check when he went back inside.
The clothing he’d been wearing the previous day was a loss - well, the pants were. He might be able to salvage the shirt, but he wasn’t hopeful; he wasn’t sure it would have survived a washing machine after cutting the back open for his wings whether or not he’d clawed it in a couple places.
He needed pants, maybe a shirt, and a map.
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“There you are.”
Serenity turned away from his damaged armor to face Russ Latimer. “Yeah?”
“You did well yesterday.” Russ’s gaze turned away from Serenity. “I know Rissa thinks you’re her Child of Time, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be a Guardian, too. You seem suited for it. You’ve probably guessed it, but yesterday was a test as well as something we legitimately needed to deal with. I wasn’t expecting a full-fledged Shard of Decay, that wasn’t really fair for a first mission.”
Serenity stared at Russ. What was the man talking about? He did have Child of Time as an Evolution, but how did he know that? And what was a Guardian?
“I’d hoped Rissa said something to you. It’s not really fair of her to agree to marry you without telling you about the family.” Russ sounded concerned and a little irritated.
“Wait. Agree to marry me? I haven’t even proposed yet.” There had to be a misunderstanding somewhere.
“Then why is she wearing your ring? I asked when we got here and she said it was yours.” Russ sounded confused, but he couldn’t be more confused than Serenity was.
“It should still be at my apartment, I was going to pick it up on the way home from work on the day-” Serenity broke off. It wasn’t the day Rissa was killed. “On the day of the Tutorial. Only I was late leaving and Macho rang the doorbell and I never made it back to my apartment.”
Serenity headed off to find Rissa. How had she even found the ring?
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“Rissa?”
Rissa turned around to face Serenity. “Hm?”
“Your father says you told him you’re wearing my ring?” Serenity tried to ask it as gently as he could, but Rissa still jumped as her hand went to a cord around her neck.
She pulled the cord out from under her shirt and Serenity could see that the only thing on it was indeed the ring he’d bought for her as an engagement ring. It was just a simple silver colored band with a small amethyst set into the band, but it was a unique look. Serenity knew the band was cobalt; he’d picked it out, even though it had meant he couldn’t buy a premade ring. He’d thought it would be worth the wait.
It still might be. “Where did you get that?”
“Huh? It was with your other stuff when I got back from the tutorial. I don’t know why you brought it into the hospital?” Rissa half-stated and half-asked. She pulled it over her head and handed it to him, cord and all.
“It was at my apartment.”
Had the Voice decided to move the ring? But why would it do that?
“You know, it’s odd.” Rissa turned to her bedside table and pulled out a jewelry box before Serenity could ask what was odd. “There was a charm in the box as well. It was under the backing, so I didn’t notice it until later.”
She opened the jewelry box. Serenity could see a small charm with a ring on it, like something that would be added to a charm bracelet. The charm looked like a dog’s head. No, wait. It looked like a coyote’s head, and it was clearly laughing. “Coyote.”
It wasn’t the Voice’s fault. Serenity didn’t know why Coyote would have moved the ring, but maybe he thought it was funny? Serenity wasn’t a god, and he didn’t pretend to know why a trickster god did things.
Either way, it was a good time to ask. He took the jewelry box from Rissa and took the charm out of it. He wasn’t sure if Coyote intended it for Rissa or for Serenity, but he was sure Coyote would make it clear if it was supposed to be Rissa - and either way, he wasn’t going to leave it in the jewelry box. It went into the pocket of his sweatpants for now.
He untied the cord, set the ring in the box, got down on one knee, and asked “Will you marry me?”
He was rewarded with a giant smile and Rissa repeatedly saying “Yes” as she threw her arms around him.