Raz decided to accompany them to the edge of the dungeon; he wanted to know how big it was. He’d stay with Aki and the others would return the next day with supplies.

The walk out of the dungeon had them all on guard, but they didn’t see anything dangerous.They heard some frogs calling from near the water, but that was all. Even if there were already monsters, Serenity could understand why they hadn’t seen any; what low-Tier monster would willingly attack a dragon?

Well, there were some. Most monsters were more cunning than that, though.

“So, what type of dragon are you?” Rissa put her hand on Raz’s shoulder as they walked. “I wasn’t able to get a great look at you in the dark, but you don’t seem to be one solid color.”

“Type of-? OH! I didn’t check.” Raz stopped still, clearly looking at his status. “Huh. That’s odd. It doesn’t say Dragon. It says I’m a Sun Draykin with a draconic bloodline.” He looked down at himself. “I sure look like a dragon.”

“You weren’t a Sun Draykin before?” Rissa looked up at Serenity and winked. He had no idea what that meant.

“No. Oh, the scale pattern? I’m from the Sunrise Clan. Our founder was Sunrise. She was the first person to Bond with Aki, she created our dungeon. It was supposed to be amazing when it was new, eight levels deep and filled with all sorts of monsters. The-”

Oh, that was what the wink was for. Rissa wanted to get Raz talking. At least he sounded more cheerful now.

The end of the dungeon wasn’t obvious; Serenity didn’t realize they’d reached it until he felt the general weakness that came from being in the low-magic environment of Earth. His mana and essence were still stuck, which was an improvement. Serenity wondered why going into the nexus had helped; maybe he needed to spend more time in high-magic areas to heal?

“OWWW.” Raz’s exclamation of pain was loud. Serenity turned and saw the draykin sprawled on the ground. “That hurt.”

Rissa was already at Raz’s side. “You don’t seem injured. Does it still hurt?”

“No, it was just for a moment. Huh. I’m not a dragon.” Raz stood up.

“I’ve heard of dungeons that transform people that enter,” Serenity offered. He’d been in several; some were a lot of fun, while others - well, he wasn’t going to go through the one that turned you into a bug again. He’d hoped for something fun, like a praying mantis, even though most people ended up as ants or beetles, but he’d somehow ended up as a spider, and if there was something worse than fighting a spider, it was fighting as a spider.

Spiders weren’t even insects!

“It didn’t transform the two of you,” Raz countered. “But ... maybe that’s because dragons are powerful? Or because I have a draconic bloodline? But you do, too.”

That was a good point; it probably should have also transformed Rissa, if it were that sort of dungeon. “I don’t know. Maybe? But I bet you’ll be a dragon again when you go inside.”

“Yeah.” Raz actually sounded happy at the prospect. “I bet it’ll hurt, but - as long as it’s not permanent, I can get used to it. Being a dragon is … well, it’s freeing, you know? Except for the whole tripping part.”

Serenity chuckled. “I wouldn’t know. It’s probably better when you’re not a hatchling.”

Raz nodded vigorously. “I guess it’s time. I’m going to try to figure out how to sense the edge of the dungeon before I head back to Aki; I don’t want to accidentally step outside.”

That seemed wise. “Good luck.” Serenity waved, then took Rissa’s hand to walk with her in the beautiful night. The rest of the walk was slow; it was good to have time for just the two of them.

When they arrived back at Rissa’s house, the front door was open. Serenity and Russ checked the house before they let Rissa and Phoebe enter; it was clear that the place had been ransacked, but no one was still there.

A quick inventory revealed that only the artifacts Rissa had stashed in the spare bedroom were taken. The electronics were all still there, and everything else seemed to have been moved rather than stolen. Rissa couldn’t be certain if all of her jewelry was still where it belonged, but none of the pieces she actually cared about were missing.

“My house isn’t safe.” Rissa sat on the edge of the couch, rigidly holding herself upright with her arms wrapped around themselves. Her hands were tense enough that they left white marks in the skin above her elbows. “I knew something was going to happen, but I didn’t expect this."

It was the third time she’d said something like that since she sat down. Serenity sat down next to her, folding his wing around her shoulders, over the blanket. Russ was making some of her favorite chai; hopefully, the warmth and comfort would help.

“Are we going to report the theft?” Russ handed a mug of tea to Rissa and another to Serenity. He seemed to be watching Phoebe at least as much as he was watching the two on the couch.

Serenity took the tea with his hands. It was really convenient to be able to hug Rissa and use both his hands at the same time. He didn’t think he was in shock the way Rissa was. He was just trying to comfort her.

He didn’t object to the chai. He liked it; perhaps not as much as Rissa did, but it was good.

“I don’t think we should,” Rissa’s mother stated. “If we report it, what can the police do? None of what was stolen is going to end up somewhere they’ll find it, and it’s not like we need a police report to file insurance. It’s going to be up to us to recover the pieces or destroy them. We need to keep them out of the wrong hands.”

Phoebe leaned back in her chair. “More than that, how much can we trust them? We don’t even know who our opponent here is; no one should have known Rissa had the foundation piece. For all we know, they could have connections with the police. They did break in after I left to pick you up from the hospital, after all.”

Serenity’s thoughts flashed to Raymond. He’d seemed convinced that Serenity was the bad guy, that he was somehow framing Macho. Was it possible that he’d been connected to whatever was going on? No, that didn’t make sense. Macho hadn’t known who hired him. It was far more likely that Raymond had a connection to Macho. Still, that showed that it was possible for outsiders to have connections to the police that weren’t obvious, even if it was only to a single officer.

A single person in the right place could have told someone when they were allowed to leave; it didn’t have to be a police officer. In fact, it probably wasn’t; as far as Serenity knew, the only involvement the police had had with the confinement was that Lancaster was also stuck in it. It was probably someone at the hospital or maybe one of the people working on the Hegemon Worm problem.

What were they going to do about the Hegemon Worms?

Serenity wasn’t even sure what they knew about the Hegemon Worms at this point. He expected that Lancaster was looking into it; he’d have to ask what the news was. Serenity wasn’t sure how he could help with the problem, but if there was a way, he wanted to know.

He really disliked the idea of the Hegemon Worms. He could accept them using nonsapient animals, probably, but sapients? No. That was just wrong.

Serenity felt Rissa shiver and grab the tip of his wing, as though it was his hand. It wasn’t exactly comfortable; she was holding it too firmly for that. It wasn’t painful, so he pulled his wing tighter around her shoulders. That seemed to be what she wanted. Rissa pressed harder against his side and turned to face him, hitting him in the chest with her half-full mug of chai.

“-Lancaster?”

Serenity suddenly realized the conversation between Rissa’s parents had continued while he was distracted. Perhaps he wasn’t dealing with the situation as well as he thought he was, after all. He went to take a sip of his own tea and realized the mug was empty.

He looked up at Russ. “What did you say? I wasn’t listening.”

He surprised a smile out of Russ. “I asked if you thought you could trust your police friend, Lancaster. We’re trying to decide what to do, and it’d be helpful if we had more of an idea where to look, but we don’t know this city.”

Serenity thought for a moment. “It depends on what we’re asking him to do, I think. I’m pretty sure we can trust him not to be in someone’s pocket, but he could probably be tricked. I don’t think we can trust him to cover for us if we do something illegal.”

Lancaster struck Serenity as a very rules-oriented sort of person - doing what’s right but also tied to the rule book. That was fine; it meant Serenity knew where he stood with the man, and how far he could trust him. He’d trust Lancaster a good bit farther than many people he’d known over the-

Serenity cut the thought off. He needed to stop thinking of himself as the Final Reaper. That might not be fully possible, but he intended to try.

That reminded Serenity of his earlier thought about Raymond. Hadn’t he and Lancaster been partners? “We should ask him how he ended up with Raymond, the other cop in our Tutorial. I’m pretty sure he was in league with Macho, or … maybe just believed him? Something anyway.”

Phoebe and Russ exchanged a look Serenity couldn’t read, then Phoebe spoke softly. “Rissa? Can you call Lancaster and ask him to come by when he’s not working? It’s better if we talk to him when he’s not on the clock. Maybe invite him over for dinner?”

Serenity nodded at that. “I can cook. Oh! Also ask him to let us know if there’s been any news on the Hegemon Worms. I don’t know what happened while we were in quarantine, but I bet he’s been finding out.”

The call went to voicemail.

Serenity turned back to his future parents-in-law and asked the first thing that came to mind. “What’s next?”

“What’s next is food.” Phoebe raised an eyebrow at her husband and he sighed and stood up. “Russ will cook. While he does that, do you know a divination spell to find someone who’s been in a house recently? I could do it if they left something behind, but without that I don’t have the resonance.”

Serenity blinked. That was an awfully specific request. “Find someone? You mean their current location?” At Phoebe’s nod, Serenity thought for a moment. For that, you really needed an anchor or something else that would represent them in the spell, something accurate. It would be much easier if all he had to do was find where they entered the house.

Well, maybe that was the answer. “I’m not sure I can directly find someone … but I think I can put together something that will let us follow them. Sort of like a bloodhound, only with magic.”

“Will the magic traces fade? How long after they come into the house can you trace them?”

Serenity considered the decay, then shook his head. “It’s not really time, it’s how many people, especially new people, come to the same places. If they go through a really busy place, it could get lost.”

“In the morning, then. It’s very late and we all need a good meal, then some rest. Most places aren’t that busy now, and we’ll be better for it.” Phoebe nodded sharply.