The feel of being back in his human form was odd after being both the dragon and the Sovereign, but Serenity wasn’t certain he’d actually shifted forms while he was in the Well of Souls. Instead, it was more like the Well had been a weird mindscape, symbolic rather than real. It probably said something that his human form wasn’t one of the two Serenity had used there, but it was nothing Serenity didn’t already know; however comfortable being human was, he no longer considered it to be his actual shape.

There was no cell coverage. Serenity hadn’t expected any but it was still worth checking. They were, however, at a ley line nexus on Earth; he could feel Gaia’s presence like a warmth in the distance. That was better news than he’d expected. Serenity had expected that they’d be on Suratiz. He could deal with almost anywhere on Earth.

:Rissa? I made it through the Well. I think I’m behind my parents and we’re all still on Earth. No idea where; it looks like we’re underground but that doesn’t help. Under a mountain, maybe?: Serenity hoped their mindlink worked at this distance, but since it worked between Lyka and Aeon it really ought to work anywhere on Earth.

:Good news! Ita’s ready if you need her to make a portal; I’ve been trying to get her to relax until you checked in but she hasn’t been willing to. I guess I need to tell her to stay ready.: Rissa paused as though her attention was pulled elsewhere for a moment. :I’ve gotta go. Jenna just woke up; let me know when you find your parents. Once you’re done making sure they’re okay.:

Serenity grinned at Rissa’s confidence. :Will do. Love you!:

:Love you too!:

When the dust cleared enough, Serenity could see that he was in a large stone dome. There were three door-sized exits, though none had a door; other than that, the dome seemed featureless. It was the sort of “featureless” that told Serenity it was created with a Skill rather than simply being carved; the stone had no obvious grain or layering; indeed, it looked more like a brown concrete than like stone. That was typical of fast construction using Skills. No effort other than the shape had been used to make it look nice and it was entirely likely that the dome shape was functional rather than aesthetic.

By then, Blaze was indeed standing next to Serenity. He gave the room the same considering look that Serenity did, but his attention was more on the floor than the ceiling. “It looks like some small animals come through here periodically, but I’m only seeing two sets of footprints large enough to be your parents.”

Serenity followed Blaze’s hand and saw the same thing: lines of disturbed dirt just about the right size for two humans that ran from near where Blaze and Serenity stood to where the dust petered out near one of the three doors.

“It’s a direction.” Serenity hoped it was more than that, but he didn’t want to get his hopes up yet. Just in case. He didn’t know who or what else could have left those lines, but he also didn’t know where he was. He’d been disappointed too often in his very long life to immediately assume that his greatest hopes were true.

Serenity headed towards the opening anyway. Just because the trails could mean something different didn’t mean they did and he really, really wanted them to have been left by his parents.

The other side of the opening was a long corridor made of the same fake stone as the dome. It was dusty, rather than covered in inches of dirt, but Serenity could still see trails that could have been left by people headed down the corridor and into the various openings. The problem was that there was no single trail; all of the openings seemed to have been explored and it wasn’t possible to tell how often because of how disturbed the dirt was.

The first dozen rooms were small. Each one had some old, damaged stuff in it, but Serenity didn’t take the time to figure out what it was; it looked like someone had already done that but there was no one present now. Some of the lumps were obvious, chairs or tables, but most were just heaps of dirt-covered junk. None of it was magical now if it ever had been.

Aide’s display held the number 15 when Serenity finally found a different room, but Serenity’s attention was not on the display any more than it was on the relatively large size of the room. Instead, his eyes were fixed on a bright blue-and-red dome tent.

Serenity headed directly for the tent, only to find out that it was empty.

Well, empty of people. There was a pair of sleeping bags that had clearly been combined to form a sleeping space for two. The one on top had embroidery in the corner, a large R with a smaller L on one side and a B on the other. Serenity remembered the sleeping bag; he’d given the pair to his parents a few Christmases ago, back before Lex became Secretary of Defense and camping vacations were put indefinitely on hold. Serenity smiled uncomfortably; his parents were fine, but did they have to make it so obvious that they still slept together?

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Serenity let the tent flap fall, hiding the evidence of his parents’ continued physical affection for each other. Now that he knew they were fine when they reached this point, he could relax a little and see if there were any clues to where they actually were right now.

There was a moment right as the tent flap fell where Serenity could have sworn he saw Curio settle in on his parents’ sleeping bags. Serenity could completely believe that of the shadowcat; Curio liked soft warm things and sleeping bags counted as both. The fact that they were Serenity’s parents’ bed wouldn’t matter to him.

Serenity didn’t open the flap again to check. There was no reason to; Curio would be fine.

Outside the tent, there was a pair of chairs at a table that had clearly been salvaged from somewhere else and pieced together; there was some odd magical residue that made Serenity guess that they’d found some sort of magical tool that could either make or (more likely) repair furniture. It had probably been designed to do something else, after all. There were also some things on the table that had to be salvaged plates, mugs, and silverware; none was modern but it looked functional.

Lex and Bethany had clearly set up an eating area, though Serenity didn’t see any cooking or restroom facilities. Those were necessary, which told Serenity that there was a good chance that was where his parents were. Wherever that was.

He hoped there was food and water; he still hadn’t seen any sign of how long it had been since Lex and Bethany visited their campsite, which caused another round of worry in Serenity. All he had right now was that it was unlikely they would have spent effort on a table, chairs, and place settings if they didn’t have food and water handled.

While Serenity checked out the tent, Blaze scouted the rest of the room. When Serenity turned to look for his parents again, Blaze was crouched, staring at the ground near another exit. “Do you see something?”

“This looks like the most recent trail,” Blaze answered. “It’s just a couple hours old, but I’m only seeing one person. The last trail with two at a time was two days ago.” Blaze paused just long enough for Serenity’s heart to leap into his throat. “The single trails aren’t all being left by the same person. It looks like there are two. They’re simply not always traveling together. Unless there’s someone else here, I’d say your parents are fine.”

Serenity took a deep breath then let it out slowly. He hoped Blaze was right but he couldn’t escape the fear of being just barely too late. He closed his eyes for a moment. He wasn’t too late. He wasn’t going to allow himself to be too late.

Even if he was too late, he knew how to fix it now. But he wasn’t going to need to. He would make sure of that.

Serenity opened his eyes again. “How do you … no, I don’t need to know how you know how old the trails are. I just need to know if you can follow the most recent one.” Bringing Blaze was a good idea for more than one reason. He’d thought of Blaze’s healing but he hadn’t considered the rest of the man’s past.

“Practice. Lots of practice. You can’t get a Skill to help without almost knowing how to do it without one; all the Skill does is add a little precision.” Blaze flashed a grin at Serenity. “Yes, I can follow the trail. They’re not even trying to hide.”

With that, Blaze stood and headed out the exit. Serenity was right behind him.

Blaze moved at a slow walking pace, his eyes on the ground. Serenity knew how to track, but he wasn’t as good as Blaze. It was a skill he’d used only occasionally and simply never practiced the way Blaze clearly had; during the part of his life where tracking would have been useful, someone else took care of it. That still seemed like the right approach to Serenity. Even with all the time in the world, one person couldn’t do everything.

Blaze led the way through another corridor made of that remarkably bland fake stone. Serenity was beginning to wonder how anyone found their way around when he noticed a rectangular discoloration high on one of the walls. A more careful look showed the same shape, more or less, every twenty feet or so. At a guess, there had once been some sort of location printed on the wall. Serenity wasn’t certain if it had been painted there or simply glued up, but either way it was illegible now, with only a barely visible stain left.

Blaze turned left at the seventh opening, which seemed to be another corridor, then right almost immediately. They walked for a good ten minutes before Serenity finally heard talking.

His parents’ voice. Both of them. He couldn’t make out what they were saying, but they sounded happy.

Serenity started to run. It wasn’t far but at the same time it seemed like they were a long way away. He finally skidded to a halt at the entrance to another large room; this one was even larger than the one where Lex and Bethany had set up their tent. It was dominated by a polished stone spire, but Serenity ignored that. His parents stood next to the spire; both faced the entrance he’d come in by. They must have heard him because they both looked shocked.

“Serenity?” Bethany recovered first. She always had; she was adaptable and good at handling surprises, while Lex planned and tried to avoid being surprised in the first place. “You made it back? Did you finish up everything you needed to with that Library?”

A swarm of emotions swirled through Serenity as he tried to figure out how to respond. Anger was chased by joy and relief was covered by fear. He couldn’t be certain what he was feeling, but whatever it was, it was strong.

“And you’re safe,” Serenity whispered. He hadn’t meant to whisper, but the words didn’t come out the way he expected. Instead, his voice wavered. Serenity tried to take a step forward, but he couldn’t quite manage it. He felt frozen with raging contradictory emotions.

It took both Bethany and Blaze to chivvy Serenity back to the tent; Lex didn’t quite seem to know what to do any more than Serenity did.