Serenity felt a lot more relaxed as he climbed back up the stairs at the dungeon’s exit. He might not have gotten the workout he wanted, but he had gotten some food and time with good company instead. It helped.
The good feelings were a little hurt when he headed out of the Guild building, only to receive a scolding from the receptionist for not checking in with her before heading down. The problem wasn’t whether or not he could handle himself, or even the fact that he’d gone down into the dungeon; he was on the list of people she’d been told to give priority access to. Instead, the problem was that she could have sent others into areas he’d cleared.
There were other people in the dungeon when he entered. Serenity had simply reflexively avoided them. They hadn’t come down to the kobolds’ living area, anyway, so most of his time in the dungeon wasn’t anywhere near anyone else.
Serenity knew better than to say that, of course; it was easier to promise that he’d check in before “heading into the dungeon” in the future. He knew that the entire area was a single dungeon, but Becca Taylor clearly didn’t, at least not yet.
Serenity was still shaking his head bemused at just how fierce Becca was about making sure her job was done right when he got to his house in Aki’s dungeon. Rissa and Jenna hadn’t arrived yet. Rissa was still trying to decide if she wanted to base out of her old home, Aki’s dungeon, or A’Atla. Serenity was fine with whatever decision she made, as long as she made sure he knew where he was supposed to sleep at night.
Raz was just outside the house, sunning himself in the last bit of sun before it set. “It’s good to have you back. Do you think you’ll be staying for a while?”
Serenity paused. He wasn’t sure. “It’s up to Rissa. I can visit more often, at least.”
Raz stretched out a wing, then nodded. “Aki asked me to talk to you about something on the fourth floor, but it can wait until you’re done with your father-in-law.”
“We’re done for the day, but I guess it is getting late.” Serenity hadn’t really paid attention to the time, but it was a good thing he’d eaten with the kobolds; it was well past dinner time, at least on A’Atla.
Raz chuckled. “Russ is inside, waiting for you. I assumed you knew.”
Serenity shook his head and wondered what Russ wanted. “Thanks for saying something.”
Russ wasn’t just inside; he’d taken over the table in the dining room with a map covered in what looked like painted coins. When Serenity walked in, he was comparing the map to something on his phone; Serenity saw him move one of the painted disks a couple of inches. It was clear he’d been here for a bit, because there were well over a dozen of the colored tokens scattered across the map.
“What’s the map for?” This wasn’t what Serenity expected when he heard his prospective father-in-law was waiting for him. He’d expected either an invitation to dinner or questions about how he and Rissa were doing. Questions about Jenna would also make sense, but Russ and Rissa talked regularly; Serenity was pretty sure Russ got his updates about his granddaughter that way.
“I’m hoping you see something I don’t,” Russ answered and leaned back in his seat. “This has all the marks of a plan, maybe even a ritual, but it’s one I can’t figure out. I know you know rituals I don’t, so maybe you’ll know this one.”
The map wasn’t just New York City, instead, it covered a good portion of the northeast US and part of Canada. Serenity could see where the rest of the map had been folded to get it out of the way. Most of the markers were in the coastal cities, but there were a few deeper inland. There were smaller maps of the cities, which placed the markers more accurately, but as far as Serenity could tell they generally matched the larger map.
“Red is where we found Solomon vases,” Russ clarified. “Green is the land that Locust Holdings was paying Mr. Michaelson to buy. The black ones are incidents I believe were caused by either the vases or people affected by their contents, while the purple ones are spots where I’ve seen magical residue that I couldn’t tie to anything else. I doubt it’s all related to this, but I don’t know what it is related to.”
Serenity examined the maps carefully. At first, they didn’t tell him anything, but there was a nagging familiarity. It wasn’t a spell or a ritual, but perhaps it was the process of figuring out how to cast a ritual over a space? In that case, it was missing several things; he needed elevation maps, not street maps. “You’re missing the ley, lines, too,” he muttered. “I only have the ones in the city; do you have more?”
Russ shook his head. “I know where a few are, but not most of them.”
“Dungeons, then, and City Nodes. Those are on leys; they should give an idea.” Serenity pulled up the information and the two of them got to work.
Elevation was the hardest thing to add; Serenity really would have preferred using a scale model instead of a map. They’d almost finished when Serenity realized that a scale model was an easy thing to manage if he was willing to look at it on a screen instead of on paper: it was well within Aide’s capability to take everything they’d laid out and place it over a digital model of the actual ground surface.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
It was nearly midnight local time when Aide finally finished. Russ had left an hour earlier with a promise to return in the morning with breakfast. Serenity wanted to look over the result, but even more than that, he wanted to sleep. He could handle it in the morning.
----------------------------------------
Death was convinced that Human couldn’t hold her liquor worth a damn. She’d disappeared into the crowd at least half an hour ago, giggling. Surely she was capable of looking after herself? Human wasn’t exactly young, after all. She might act that way sometimes, but that was like any Beast God; they were all things that their Beasts were. That meant young and foolish was just as common as old and wise. Death felt a little responsible since she was the reason Human was on Earth at all, but Human was the one who decided to “go clubbing” and the one that picked the location.
The one thing that Death could say for certain was that Human was in no more danger of actual alcohol poisoning than Death herself was.
Death didn’t really want to look for Human; she was enjoying the benefits of being in a more defined form herself. One of the benefits was being limited; it made her much easier to surprise. She was no more - or less - human than her Incarnate was, right now, and it was interesting to see the world from his perspective.
Or if not from his perspective, then from the perspective of a shorter, slighter, female version of him with slightly different features that actually succeeded at looking outwardly human. Death was still amused that Serenity couldn’t manage that; he’d been born human. It wasn’t like the appearance was particularly difficult to assume.
Death took another sip of the drink; she’d never had one before, so she was slowly working her way through the various options. It would take a long time, but time was never something Death felt short on.
“Is this seat taken?” A human man with short dark hair stood close to Death, at the end of the booth.
“I don’t think she’s coming back,” Death admitted. “Would you like a drink?”
The man slid into the booth across from Death. She took the time to get a good look at him. He was shorter than Serenity, but almost as muscular, with dark brown hair and a wide, sun-browned face. He was in relatively good health, other than a slightly malformed heart valve that probably wouldn’t kill him for at least another twenty or thirty years. He was fairly average for the humans Death had seen on this planet, with decent but not perfect nutrition in childhood and a general lack of interventions beyond that. His highest chance of early death was a car accident, closely followed by a monster attack; the incipient cancer Death could see wouldn’t be a problem until well after the heart valve stiffened too far to work properly.
“I was going to ask what you were doing here alone, but it sounds like you didn’t mean to be,” the man stated with an easy smile. “What do you think of the place? I don’t think I’ve seen you here before.”
Death shrugged. “That’s because I haven’t been here before. It’s interesting, but I don’t think I’d have picked it. The people are repetitive, the food is only okay, and the only thing to do, really, is to drink. Well, drink and listen to the band if you can hear them over the people talking. The drinks are interesting, at least.”
The man blinked a few times. Had he not expected a real analysis of the experience?
Death looked away from him, her eyes searching for Human again. Where had she gone? Death wasn’t certain if she was worried or annoyed, but she knew there was no reason to be worried. Her annoyance would probably win out; Human was the one who suggested the place, why had she vanished?
“So, uh, what do you do for a living?” The man was clearly not sure what to say next.
This would be a good opportunity to practice her talking skills if Death wanted to. She wasn’t sure she did. Still, he probably deserved an answer of some sort; he had asked, after all. “Kill things.”
It wasn’t a perfect answer, but she didn’t really have to make a living. She wasn’t alive any more than she could die. She was pretty sure that wasn’t what he meant, though, and saying she killed things was sort of accurate. She was Death, after all.
“You’re a delver?” The man sounded surprised. “You don’t look like a delver.”
Death turned back to the annoying man sitting across from her. “What does a delver look like? If you’re going to keep bothering me, you can leave.”
“Fine.” The man slid out of the booth and walked away. Death noticed that he seemed to try to lose himself in the crowd. He didn’t try the same question at any of the other booths that he’d tried at hers.
Death shrugged and went back to watching the crowd. It would be time to order another drink soon, if she wanted one. She wasn’t sure she did; she was only here because Human had invited her and Human had vanished.
The annoying man had pretty well ruined her mood, too. Yeah, it was time to go since she couldn’t find Human. She was a Beast God; she could take care of herself around her Beasts.
Death slid out of the booth and made her way to the front exit. There were a few people gathered around the door outside; they seemed to be smoking cigarettes, which were apparently not allowed inside. Death could see why; they weren’t good for people at Tier Zero. They weren’t nearly as bad for Tier Twos like these people, but there were a lot of Tier Ones and even two at Tier Zero that Death had noticed inside. It was nice of them to keep the smoke limited to people it wouldn’t bother as much.
One of them dropped his cigarette and grabbed her arm. Death thought it was the annoying man from inside. She started to shake him off, but she felt something hard press into her side. “Don’t make any noise. We have your friend. Come with us and everything will be fine.”
Well, that explained why Human disappeared.
The man was obviously lying. Death didn’t have to be able to read humans to know that. The question was what she should do about it. She could kill him here, but was that the right choice?
What would Serenity do?
As soon as she phrased the question that way, the answer was easy. Serenity would play along with the man until he knew what was going on, then kill him. He’d make sure Human got out safely, then kill everyone else who had a hand in this. He might make some exceptions depending on why it happened. It seemed like a good plan, so Death let the man lead her towards a black van that was parked nearby.