Breaking news from the Nation’s Capitol! A Washington DC police patrol car was attacked by four kangaroo aliens! A search is on to find where they came from and where they’re hiding!

Serenity examined the closet carefully. No matter how hard he tried to ignore it, the air in the closet kept distracting him with the taste of a rich caramel. He normally liked caramel, but this was annoyingly cloying, especially when mixed with the pine flavor; Serenity didn’t like the taste of pine at all. Serenity wrinkled his nose and backed out of the closet. “Nothing here, either, unless he was wearing caramel-scented aftershave. I could understand the pine, but caramel?”

“Caramel? Pine? What are you talking about?” Phoebe stared at Serenity from the other closet in the room. It was probably supposed to be the master bedroom, but Rissa had always used it as a storage area, and it looked far emptier without the boxes.

“The closet, it tastes of caramel and pine.” Serenity stopped, realizing what he’d just said. He stuck his head back in the closet. No appreciable smell, really, but definitely a strong taste of caramel with a hint of pine.

He took a deep breath and let it out, then concentrated on trying to find magical traces. He was looking for any trace of the thief that might make the tracking spell easier, but the thought that the closet tasted of magic was worth investigating. Rissa wasn’t entirely sure which artifact was where, but she was sure there had been artifacts in both closets and most of the boxes. Could one of the artifacts have been leaking magic?

It took some concentration, but eventually Serenity noticed a dark brown sludge that seemed concentrated on the floor of the closet; the only thing that distinguished it was that it was in color. It wasn’t like using his Essence Sight; it was closer to looking at a spellform, but the only time he saw a spellform in color was when he used Mana Sight, which he didn’t have.

Or did he?

How was he seeing spellforms? They didn’t have a physical presence, and that was all his Eyeless Sight could see. Yet every time he knew he was presented with magic, he could see it, like he was using a primitive form of Mana Sight. Similar to how his Sense Raw Magic was Basic. He should have realized something was up when he got full-on Essence Sight instead of Basic Essence Sight.

Serenity knew what using Mana Sight should feel like. It was a lot like his new Essence Sight; it was simply a different focus. He accidentally slipped into Essence Sight twice; each time, the brown sludge disappeared and he had to start over.

Eventually, he felt it click into place properly. The brown sludge was a thick mist, with shapes in it, but it appeared to be the residue of something sitting there for years. There were other traces of color around the closet, and at the doorframe there was a hint of green that seemed fresh. It tasted of pine.

[Use of Mana Sight without a Path Skill has been Noticed. Additional Paths are opened]

Serenity held the sight active as he exited the closet again. The entire room was coated in different magical smears and residue. Oddly, tiny weak bits of the same fresh green pine-flavored magic were scattered all over the room; some even seemed to linger in the air, rather than having settled on a surface.

That probably meant they were new. The only reason there could be that there was as much magic in the room as Serenity could see what that Rissa didn’t clean the storage room often; disturbing remnant magic like this would make it dissipate into the atmosphere.

Phoebe was no longer in the room. Serenity wondered absently where she’d gone, but didn’t pay that much attention to her absence as he stared around the room in wonder.

Serenity hadn’t known that there was this much magic on Earth before the Voice arrived. If this was all here, sitting in a storage room, then there must be more out there. Clearly there were things he didn’t know. It was probably all part of the reason the Great Factions came to Earth, once they could.

It fit with the little he’d learned recently of Rissa’s family’s “second job”. They stood between humanity and - something. It wasn’t clear what. It’d been one thing after another, and he still hadn’t had a chance to bother Russ for details.

Serenity followed the traces of green magic out of the room and down the hall. If this was the thief’s trace, he’d been all over the house.

Serenity followed the sound of voices to the kitchen. There were signs of the green magic; it looked like the thief touched all of the doors and drawers, even though the kitchen wasn’t particularly disarranged.

Phoebe and Russ were there, but Rissa wasn’t. They didn’t seem to have noticed him.

“No, still nothing. We’re going to have to depend on Serenity’s spell. I really don’t want to go through that again; remaking a spell may suit Red but it was a lot of work. It was like casting several different spells in a row, even though they were just pieces.” Phoebe faced away from Serenity and definitely hadn’t realized he was there.

Russ glanced at Serenity then looked back at his wife. “Give the man some credit, he remade a spell in only a few hours and it worked.”

Phoebe shook her head. “Oh, it’s impressive, I just don’t want to cast another spell like that.”

“Have Rissa do it, then. I know she’s not old enough traditionally, but she’s clearly got the mana for it, and you know that’s the reason-”

Phoebe’s voice overrode her husband’s. “She also needs a Guardian. You may think that Serenity’s good enough, but so what? Another mage can’t guard her on the Roads. She needs a warrior.”

It was time to speak up. “But I am a warrior. Even if I weren’t, I wouldn’t let that stop us.”

Phoebe spun around in her chair, shocked, but Russ was smiling. Well, at least one of Rissa’s parents was on his side.

“So tell me. What does being a Guardian mean?” Serenity pulled one of the chairs out from under the table and sat down facing his future in-laws.

Phoebe sputtered but Russ seemed to have his words planned. “We have to step back a bit. Normally, I’d be explaining magic here, but I don’t think you need that. There’s an entire hidden world in the shadows, magic and magical creatures and dangers. You know something of it, since I know you were aware of Rissa’s foresight.”

Serenity shook his head. “The foresight, yes, but all of it? No. It seems to be more extensive than I ever thought.”

“Compared to Earth’s population, there aren’t a lot of people who use magic of any kind. There are a lot of kinds. I bet that in a few years, we’ll disappear into the population without much of a ripple.” Russ had an odd look in his eyes. “Perhaps that will finally mean the end of the curse.”

“There isn’t a curse.” Phoebe interjected. “It’s a tradition.”

“Mmhmm.” Russ clearly didn’t agree with his wife, but wasn’t going to argue. “It’s Phoebe’s family; they can trace themselves in a line of female Seers back to ancient times. Family legends claim that many of the female seers or oracles of the past were part of the family. What we know for sure,” Russ put up his hand to forestall a comment by his wife, “is that over the past few generations, the first child has always been a daughter, and she’s always been a seer.”

Serenity nodded. There weren’t any big surprises there.

“There have been few sons, and none has had a talent for magic at all - they simply can’t see it. It’s as though it doesn’t exist. Their future exists and can be seen, but-” Russ broke off, seemingly in pain. Serenity remembered that Rissa had at some point mentioned that she had a younger brother she didn’t speak to much, even though when she mentioned him it was fondly; it sounded like a painful topic for her father. Could that be why Russ considered it a curse?

“That’s not relevant. So, the Seers. Each has found a Guardian before they settle down for good; male or female doesn’t seem to matter for the Guardian. Some have been the Seer’s husband, like me, while others have simply been a close friend. Supposedly, at least.” Russ paused, so Serenity nodded.

“There’s dangerous stuff out there, like that Shard of Decay. Sometimes it comes after the Seer, since people think of Oracles as all-knowing. Guardians started as guards, but it’s become more than that over the years. For the past few centuries, it’s become traditional to seek out trouble, find it before it finds us. Normally, we’d be trying to hunt down where that Shard came from. If there’s something out there that can drop Shards like that, it needs to be stopped. But someone who knows enough to steal artifact fragments is even more dangerous than a Daemon of Decay, if that’s even what it is.”

Phoebe elbowed her husband and muttered “Off topic.”

Russ shook himself then started again. “Guardians specialize these days. I’m from a family with a different set of talents, which shaped my understanding of Guardians’ magic. It’s not the same as most magic users. We don’t do spells or rituals or anything like that. We simply … do things. It sounds closer to those Path Skills, at least in how it works.”

Serenity didn’t think it was. In execution it might be, but Russ had a core, and he didn’t use mana; he used essence. It was probably closer to how monsters did things. Of course, there shouldn’t be any monsters on Earth … or should there? If people could develop a core, it was likely that animals could, too. Perhaps some exceptional examples of animals were truly monsters and no one realized it.

He wasn’t going to say that, though. It didn’t change anything for Russ, and it would only be an insult to call him a monster. It did make the point that people weren’t that different from other animals, without the Voice. Serenity didn’t think that was a bad thing; it simply was.

“You can do that; I’ve seen you. You only did a little during the fight against the Shard; I thought I’d have to train you, but in the dungeon - well, it’s clear that I can probably help you with technique, but you know the most important part.”

Phoebe elbowed Russ again. “Get to the point.”

Russ gave Phoebe a dirty look. “Fine. There’s a ritual. It does a few things. The first is that it ties a Seer and her Guardian together - they can talk silently, even share senses with practice. That’s a side effect; the reason for it is that it allows the Guardian to accompany his Seer into the Timescapes. It’s supposed to be based on the way a Child of Time and his Seer are connected, so that piece may not be necessary for you. The second thing it does-”

Phoebe elbowed Russ again. This time, he turned to her directly. “I’m not going to have my son-in-law pushed into it unknowingly. I don’t care if that’s the tradition. I’d have accepted, probably, but it would have been my choice.”

Phoebe pushed her chair away from the table and stood up. “I can’t stop you now. You know I didn’t-”

She turned and walked away. Her hands were clenched into fists and she seemed to be trying to control herself.

“She’s big on tradition,” Russ explained. “I understand why it started, but I think this one’s a bad tradition. She’ll get over it, probably even come to the conclusion it was the right decision. She just needs time to think about it, and I’m not giving her that time.”