Chapter 187: Chapter 178 – Secrets Hidden in Plain Sight

The strangest thoughts ran through Serenity’s mind as he hugged Rissa.

He’d proposed while wearing sweatpants and no shirt. At least he knew that clothes weren’t everything to her?

He needed pants, maybe a shirt, and a map. Plus sunglasses; he didn’t need those for the dungeon, but he’d need them later. Oh, and a bracelet or something to string a laughing coyote head charm onto. It was a gift from a god, and he really didn’t need another god to curse him.

A celebration dinner would be good too; he’d planned it all out back before everything happened, and even if he hadn’t been able to do it right, they should at least celebrate-

A tap on the door behind him made Serenity whirl to face it, picking up Rissa as he went. Her father was standing in the doorway. “Congratulations, you two. A bit jumpy?”

“Uh, yeah.” Serenity set Rissa down.

Russ nodded. “Good to see that fighting things like a Shard of Decay doesn’t change your mind.”

Serenity shrugged. “Why would it?” He’d fought worse, and probably would have to again - kicking the Sterath off the planet wasn’t going to be easy. Maybe he could recruit Russ to help with that?

He’d never even known Rissa’s father could fight.

“You’re not what I expected when Rissa said she was dating a network engineer.” Russ was smiling. “I like it.”

Serenity shrugged. “Not sure I can really claim that anymore. I’m not sure I am exactly the same person, I doubt I still have the job, and-” Serenity waved vaguely at his eyes, “-I can’t even see computer screens to do that job right now. Plus I sort of have a more important job now?”

“We all change. I’m not the person I was before I married Phoebe, that’s for sure.” Russ had a distant look on his face for a moment. “Still, I know Rissa hasn’t had time to tell you about it, and I really should talk to you about becoming her Guardian anyway. You’re already not entirely human, but...” Russ seemed to be looking at Serenity’s feet as he trailed off.

“You’re about to tell me about your core, aren’t you?” Serenity couldn’t think of anything else that would be relevant to him “already” being not entirely human.

Russ’s eyes snapped up to stare at Serenity’s face. “You know?”

“I can see it,” he admitted. “I didn’t get a good look; I used it briefly during the fight, but I don’t usually use that ability. Too many Sight abilities can interfere with each other.”

Not that he was going to admit that to Katya.

“I’m not the only one who can tell, either. I’m better at it than Margrethe, though, so you’re probably safe as long as you don’t draw too much attention.” Serenity thought that was the case anyway; it didn’t seem like Margrethe had a better way to find abnormal humans.

It was possible Margrethe wouldn’t even try to look; she’d been born with a core, from what she’d said. He thought her mandate was only against people who’d chosen to corrupt themselves. Not that she’d necessarily limit herself to her mandate. There were still times when he wasn’t sure about her.

“It sounds like you know something about it. Go ahead and take a better look; it’s not the usual way to begin the conversation but that’s because I usually have to start with ‘yes, the monsters are real’,” Russ encouraged.

Serenity chuckled, rolled his shoulders, and flared his wings. “Not exactly something I’m likely to forget, is it?” He triggered Essence Sight and took a good look at his prospective father-in-law.

Russ didn’t look like any monster he’d ever looked at before. He did have something that was definitely a core, but it wasn’t in the brain; instead, it sat on the right side of his body behind his lung, mirroring his heart. He also had a continual stream of essence flowing through his body; it seemed to enter through the lungs, settle in his core, slowly radiate out from his core to the rest of his body, then exit through his skin.

Serenity had never seen anything like it. It was possible it was normal, since he was new to Essence Sight and as far as he knew, so was everyone else, but it didn’t seem normal. “What are you doing with your Essence?”

Russ jumped. “You can see that? That’s an - even I can’t see it move.”

Serenity shrugged. “Paths do that sometimes. I’m … strong in essence magic. Not particularly skilled, but strong. So I have a related Sight ability.” He looked down at himself. There was a general movement of essence throughout his body, but it didn’t have the same one-way flow that Russ’s did. Instead, there were parts of his body where it sat, calm and ready to act, and other parts of his body, especially in his extremities, where it eddied, undirected.

There was something about the pattern that bothered Serenity, and after a moment he realized what it was. The eddies were stronger where he’d absorbed the damaged crystal lattice after calling the Nightmare Wraith. The parts of his body where his essence was ready to act immediately were where it hadn’t been as badly damaged.

For a moment, he wondered if Russ had a similar crystalline network, but he realized that he must not; Russ’s essence didn’t sit and wait, it continually moved - like the essence in the areas where Serenity didn’t have the crystal. The difference was that Russ’s moved slowly but constantly and all in the same direction - away from his core.

It looked like Russ had a method of working with essence that worked without the physical infrastructure Serenity had. Serenity suspected that it probably wasn’t as good, overall, but that didn’t matter. Which one was better alone wasn’t important when it was possible to have or know both.

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More options was almost always better. “Can you teach me that?”

Russ laughed. “That’s the usual second point. I don’t know if I can teach you my method or not; different methods work for different people. Phoebe and Rissa have to use a completely different method; they can’t even sense the magic I use, and were never able to condense a core.”

Serenity shrugged. “That’s because they use mana, not essence. I’m not entirely clear about the difference; they’re definitely related but they act just a bit differently. Essence is what makes monsters, and it seems more … physical, somehow. The thing is, mana can be used to do a lot of the same things, but … generally it’s temporary? Maybe that’s part of the difference, rather than how physical it is?”

Even a “permanent” magical effect required a continual mana source, after all. Most items used cores, but some used their wielder’s mana or even atmospheric mana. Regardless of the source, if they were left without it for too long, the effect would dissipate.

Serenity hadn’t thought of it that way before. It would explain why permanent changes to a creature like what the curse back in the Shining Caverns did seemed to require essence, even though mana could do almost anything with the right Affinity and intent.

Russ shook his head, smiling a little. His smile faded as he started to speak. “That can wait. You’ve clearly got a good start, so it’s not as urgent with you as it is with most newcomers to the pact. So the important question is: Will you protect Rissa, and take care of the things she tells you need to be done? Sometimes it’s not pleasant, and often it’s not obvious why things need to be done. That’s the problem with working with a Seer. You’re helping everyone, even if we don’t always know why it’ll work out that way.”

All of the merriment that shone on Serenity’s face disappeared at Russ’s serious tone. “Yeah. Yeah, I was expecting that. It sounds like there’s more going on than I knew, and I knew a lot.” Serenity took a deep breath as he looked at the future only he knew fully. “There are a lot of problems coming in the next decade. The next couple of years will seem bad, but compared to ten years from now, it’s nothing.”

Russ nodded. “Good.” His mouth quirked in something that couldn’t quite be called a smile. “Hopefully what you know about and what the Seers see will be aligned.”

“I don’t believe in destiny.” Serenity decided to get that out of the way first. “I don’t believe in a fixed future. I’ve already changed it. So I’m not going to act as if what’s seen has to be. I’m not going to just trust what people say about the future. I-”

Russ held up a hand in a “stop” gesture and Serenity trailed off. “I understand. Seers explain when they can, but sometimes they can’t look too far ahead for … well, for reasons. That’ll be a long conversation, and you’ll need to talk to Phoebe for that. I’m not asking for absolute faith. I think you’ll be-”

“Go away, Dad.” Rissa’s voice reminded Serenity she was there. “I’d like some time with my fiancee. You can talk to him later.”

Rissa closed the door in her father’s face as he muttered something about getting a ritual prepared.

It was several hours before Serenity was available to deal with any of the things he needed for the rest of the day.

He didn’t mind the delay. At all.

Russ took Serenity to the store - the same mall where they’d fought the Shard of Decay. Serenity borrowed some sunglasses until he could buy his own and covered up as much as he could with his cloak’s illusion and a ball cap. It was enough that no one seemed to really notice, beyond a few stares at his hair color.

Pants were relatively easy, but finding a shirt was not. He tried some Y-back T-shirts that he thought might work; if he could have gotten them over his wings, they probably would have.

It wasn’t until they were heading out of the store that he saw some odd shirts on a mannequin and stopped to check them out; they were “backless workout tops”, and had a strip of cloth low on the back and a pair of straps to go over the shoulders. They could’ve been made with wings in mind.

They were in the women’s section and he had to get the largest size they had, but they worked better than anything he’d found so far other than his armor, so he bought all of the shirts that were large enough. He’d wear clothes from the wrong section if they fit.

He might buy them from Amazon next time, but this time? Having fitting clothes was more important - for his comfort, if nothing else. He wanted a shirt to wear under his armor. A cheap, comfortable shirt was best; there was a good chance it wouldn’t survive a serious fight.

The bracelet wasn’t hard. Serenity wanted something nice; wearing the gift from a god on a cheap chain seemed insulting, and insulting the Trickster was definitely not something Serenity wanted to do. He didn’t really want to wear the charm at all, but didn’t think he had much of a choice.

The first jewelry store didn’t have what he was looking for, but the second one did. It was even on sale. Serenity wasn’t sure what to think about that, but he bought it anyway, attached the charm, and put the bracelet on. There were a number of other loops available for other charms; maybe he’d have Rissa pick out one for him soon.

As he was thinking that, he noticed that the bracelet had gone from slightly loose to snugly fitting his wrist. When he checked, he saw that the clasp had vanished. He shook his head but didn’t say anything. Coyote hadn’t done anything that was actually a problem yet, even if he had played tricks that Serenity was sure Coyote found hilarious. It was better to stay on his good side.

The map was unexpectedly the hardest thing to get. Neither Serenity nor Russ was sure where to even get a map, but they decided that a tourist information center was probably their best bet if they didn’t want to just print it out.

There wasn’t one in the mall, and after Russ spent a few minutes searching on his phone he decided it would be easier to use Google Maps and a printer. One phone call to Rissa later, they ended up buying a laser printer, paper, scissors, and tape. The maps would have been far cheaper, but this way they could get exactly what they needed at the scale they needed.

As they were finishing up, Russ’s phone rang with the news that the Wasp Dungeon was apparently open again. Could they go tonight?