BREAKING NEWS

A new wormlike parasite has been found in New York City! It’s said it can take over your body and pretend to be you! Is it the alien invader we’ve all been looking for?

Tune to Channel Six for exclusive video of the discovery!

EARTHQUAKE IN THE CARIBBEAN

Scientists are puzzled by ‘miniature tsunami’

“We were lucky. An earthquake of that magnitude should have resulted in a much larger wave. The warning systems functioned properly, and-”

DRAGONS IN THE SKIES

Flights near Heathrow were diverted yesterday after radar detected a group of extremely large birds over the airport. One of the pilots claims that he saw them, and they had “wingspans bigger than his plane” - which is an Airbus A330 with a wingspan of over 60 metres!

Inside the “isolation” rooms, everything was quiet other than the occasional conversation between people who hadn’t yet decided if they were being kept for their own safety or simply out of fear. Everyone wanted to go home, but instead they had a thoroughly unappetizing dinner and an uncomfortable bed.

The only good news was that their cell phones still worked fine; Serenity wasn’t carrying his, since he couldn’t see it anyway, but everyone else was (other than Raz, of course). Russ even carried a spare battery and charging cable; in the other pair of rooms, only Nat had a battery or cable, tucked into her camera carrying case. Rissa and Lancaster had left theirs in their cars. Lancaster could use Nat’s cable to recharge his phone, but Rissa’s wasn’t compatible.

Even so, she had quite a bit of charge and even after she spent a while on the phone with Serenity’s parents, she was able to have a long conversation with Serenity.

Outside the rooms, things seemed quiet on the surface, but emotions were anything but quiet. Worms were sealed up and hand-carried to other locations, even when that meant long flights. No one wanted to trust that they wouldn’t be damaged in shipping and escape, and hand-carrying was faster anyway.

People were called into work from vacation, even people who’d never expected to be called in for a public health crisis.

Everyone in Made’s circle of family, friends, and coworkers was interviewed to try to find out where the worms came from.

Made herself lay unconscious as she was put through test after test. Eventually, Doctor Brigham concluded that the initial results were correct: the majority of the Hegemon Worms that came into the hospital were outside her body, on her clothing. It required exceedingly invasive surgery to extract the few that were left, but leaving any was judged more of a danger than the surgery.

The majority of the worms left inside her body were dead. The ones that weren’t were sluggish, other than the only worm - living or dead - that was found in her brain. It was several times as long as any of the others and aggressively attacked the surgical team as they tried to carefully remove it.

There was significant damage to her muscles left behind from where the worms had inhabited and puppeted her, but little damage elsewhere; the majority of the other damage was to her brain. Some did seem to be from the worm’s flailing as they tried to remove it, but that was limited; the majority of the damage was older.

It was fortunate that this was the hospital that was called to the first Tutorial; there were a number of magical healers on the staff. They were able to stop the bleeding and prevent further damage. They thought they’d even reversed much of the recent damage.

None were good enough to deal with the internal scarring. Made wouldn’t be the same when she woke.

If she woke.

It was nearly a full day before anyone came in to see them, other than to drop off food and a new set of clothes. At breakfast, Rissa asked about Serenity and Lancaster. No one had realized they’d been missed both times, and two more sets of scrubs were located and delivered quickly.

Serenity decided to wear the shirt from the previous day under his armor instead of damaging the top.

It was a full day after they were isolated that they started being released. First, they were handed masks and goggles, then they and their stuff was misted with something caustic before being washed off. Even Raz could only identify it as ‘nasty-smelling and a bit burny’. They were then each individually put through a full-body MRI; they weren’t released until the scans were examined by Doctor Brigham.

By the time they were all free, no one wanted to do anything more difficult than go home.

No one other than Raz, that is. “Can we do the divination now? I, Aki-” Raz looked downcast, almost defeated.

Serenity wanted to help Raz, but he still couldn’t cast spells; any time he tried to use magic of any sort, it was like a painful cramp. Serenity thought it was less painful than the day before, but he wasn’t sure if that was true or simply the fact that he wanted it to be true. “Raz, I can’t cast the spell. I can’t use my mana…”

“Can you use mine?” Raz clearly didn’t want to accept no for an answer.

Serenity had to think about that. He’d intended to use an actual long-built spell, not quite a ritual technically, but only because he wasn’t creating a reusable circle to do it in. That would confine it to the present time, and -

Time. As the Voice had reminded him the previous night, he had two Oracles available. “Rissa, do you know how to cast a divination?”

When she shook her head, her father intervened. “Phoebe does. She’s not particularly good at it, but I assume you know the setup? That’s the part she needs help with, usually.”

Serenity blinked. She had issues with setup for a divination? That was the easy part, the part that didn’t require having a feel for the magic or the area.

A moment’s thought told Serenity why that made sense; she must not have had the opportunity for training, but she was an Oracle. Whatever form of viewing through Time she had, it must work similarly to a divination.

“Yeah. I can handle the setup. I’ll need Rissa’s help?” Serenity turned to Rissa, to see that she was already nodding.

“You said you would when we talked about it yesterday. I’m happy to help - but I will hold you to your promise to teach me what you’re doing!” Rissa leaned against Serenity and gave him a side-hug. She’d clearly missed him, even though they’d only been apart for a day.

“Will you need any fresh stuff? I can have Phoebe pick it up on the way.” Russ seemed to be deliberately not looking at his daughter and her fiancee. It made Serenity grin a bit.

The question was puzzling. “Fresh stuff? What do you mean?”

“All of the divination rituals I’ve seen have needed fresh-picked herbs, generally something like mint or rosemary, though I saw horseradish used once. No one’s ever been able to tell me why, just that it’s needed. I think they’re pulling the rituals out of old grimoires, then playing with them until they work. Most of the time I understand they don’t work immediately, and sometimes they have bad side effects.” Russ looked towards the entrance to the parking lot. “Oh, never mind. She’s already here.”

“That sounds like it’s to shape the caster’s Intent, to anchor you in the Now of the search. It’s certainly one way to do it, but only necessary for completely rote casting-” Serenity stopped. If they were pulling rituals out of ancient grimoires and “playing with them until they worked”, they were doing completely rote casting. “I’m surprised no one’s called one of the Angtk!th or created a Forbidden. Rote casting of unknown spells using unformed intent is dangerous.”

“Don’t know what those are, but they’ve probably happened. That’s a good bit of what we do, clean up after messes of one sort or another. I’d rather have a weak summoning gone wrong than an escaped Decay Shard. I’m still not sure we got it all; I’m worried that was a distraction. Decay does that.”

Russ opened the door to Rissa’s car, then looked back at Serenity. “Does that mean you know how to build rituals, instead of adapting existing ones? No one’s been able to do that in centuries.”

Serenity nodded, then climbed in the car. It was a tight fit with five adults, so Rissa sat on Serenity’s lap instead of trying to fit in the middle between Serenity and Raz.

Phoebe kissed her husband. “Glad you’re all safe.”

She reached into the back, holding a glasses case. Rissa took it from her and opened it. “Sunglasses?”

Phoebe replied as she drove out of the parking lot. “For Serenity. It’ll be easier if he hides as much as he can. There’s a heavy cloak for Raz in the back; it’s better to look like adventurers headed to the dungeon right now than like yourselves.”

“Why?” Raz questioned Phoebe. “We didn’t have to last time.”

Raz sounded more out of sorts than Serenity could remember him sounding before. Him speaking up was a surprise; Raz was normally fairly quiet, and this was on the way to achieving what he wanted. Perhaps he was nervous? He did seem worried about Aki.

“You didn’t see the news? There was a demonstration in front of the dungeon this afternoon. I expect some of the crowd’s still there. I’d tell you to look like ordinary people, but this is the only way I can think of to hide you. The good thing is that the news footage was mostly of that annoying reporter. The interview that was supposed to air was completely preempted, but anyone who was watching could still know he was there. Hiding you’s mostly a precaution.”

When Raz didn’t say any more, Phoebe changed topics. “So, why are we going to the dungeon? I know that we are, I just didn’t see why.”