“So what’s the secret?” Phoebe’s reaction made Serenity intensely curious.

“It’s supposed to open a Guardian to the Guardian’s magic by first opening the Guardian’s Node, then connecting all Guardians together by letting you travel to the Guardian Sea. That way, Guardians can call on the aid of others even if they aren’t there, and learn from each other and Guardians of the past. The first part works. The second …”

Russ took a deep breath, then let it out. “I can’t use the second. I was lucky that Phoebe’s father was still around to teach me. Whenever I go to the Guardian Sea, I’m overwhelmed. I’m told that’s not normal, but it’s all I’ve ever known.”

Serenity was puzzled. That didn’t sound big enough. “So why is it traditional to not tell people about it? Why is Phoebe so upset?”

Russ sighed. “It’s traditional because of the Guardian Sea. It requires a little energy from each Guardian to maintain it - more, now that there are fewer Guardians. And because the connection to the Sea isn’t one-way.”

Serenity looked at Russ doubtfully. “So what does the Sea do?”

“It gives each Guardian something. It’s supposed to be something that the new Guardian wants intensely, but something that only directly affects the new Guardian. For me, it helps me keep my mental protections up so I’m not fighting that all the time; I still remember the weight, even though I don’t feel it anymore. It affects the Soul Blade and armor, which should help you, and the water I had you drink comes from the Sea itself; it’s good for purification and protection. The Sea is neutral to helpful, and doesn’t have a mind of its own. But other Guardians can walk the Sea, and they can follow your stream to you. Supposedly we’re all after the same goals, but not everyone believes in the same methods, and - well. I’ll be teaching you defenses. New Guardians don’t normally need them immediately but you’re not normal.”

“Is your Node your core?” It bothered Serenity that he wasn’t sure what the terminology meant.

“No - well, sort of. It’s where I pull magic from and it’s my connection to the Guardian Sea. My core formed around it when I condensed the magic into a physical form, but the Node isn’t physical. It’s where my magic comes from … you have a core, don’t you have a Node in it?”

Serenity wasn’t sure where his magic came from, mana or essence. He knew it was stored in and around his body, but other than when he took in external sources, he’d never found an origin for it. “I don’t think so? I think the body just produces it, like any other form of energy.” Not that his seemed to be producing any; he was still where he’d been when he went to bed.

Russ shrugged. “I’m not a magical scientist or anything like that, I just know what works and I use it.”

Serenity nodded. He could sympathize with that. He wanted to know more mostly because it would be useful, not for its own sake. “I’m with you. On not knowing more, at least; I’m not sure I’m with you on going through this Guardian ritual. It doesn’t sound worth it.”

“It was for me. If all it had done was quiet the voices, that would have been enough. The magic and everything else was a bonus. I know not everyone gets a boon that large, though, so I can’t say what it would be for you.” Russ shrugged. “Think on it and tell me what you decide. It’d make you easier to introduce to the community, because a Seer’s Guardian is well known. It’s not required, though.”

Serenity stared at Russ. Mental protections helped him quiet the voices? “You’re a natural telepath?”

Russ nodded. “Runs in the family; my side, not Phoebe’s. Rissa is too, I thought you knew?”

“I knew she had a touch of empathy.” He’d known about the empathy for years, and (after she broke up with him), he’d figured out that was why she’d been so upset when he suddenly remembered his future - or perhaps came back in time. He’d been a mess, and apparently he’d felt very different - like a different person. He was doing better now, mostly. He’d even talked to Rissa about it, and she’d told him that he felt mostly like her Thomas again.

He wasn’t happy about her abandoning him, but at the same time he could sort of understand it. He’d felt like he was a different person; how could he justify blaming her for feeling the same way? It was over now, and what it told him was that they both had things they needed to work on. That part wasn’t news.

Russ nodded. “As long as she shields, that’s all that gets through. She’s weaker than I am, but better at shielding. I’m not sure she even knows how to stop shielding anymore. It’s for the best; it’s far more trouble than it’s worth.”

Serenity wasn’t sure that was true; Mind specialists were dangerous and powerful. On the other hand, he supposed he didn’t know what trouble it brought; he did have a Mind affinity, but it was only active when he used it. Rissa’s and Russ’s were always active. Serenity knew he wouldn’t have liked being stuck in a room where people were always shouting; was it like that?

“So, do we want to track the thief or the stolen artifacts?” Serenity looked at the others. “You should know that the thief was using magic. I can’t tell what kind; it was a deep green and tasted like pine, but I’m not sure what that means.”

“The thief,” Phoebe stated confidently. “We’ll find the artifacts when we find him.”

Rissa shook her head. “No, the artifacts. They’re what matters. That’s why I was collecting them. Most of them aren’t that bad, but the Horn of Lugalla or the Hammer of Pain, never mind the Warlord’s Gong? They can’t just be let loose.”

Serenity didn’t know what those artifacts were or what they did, so he didn’t know how bad having them disappear really would be.

Russ waited until both finished speaking before giving his opinion. “We can probably only follow one at a time. Hopefully they’ll be together or one will lead us to others, but we can’t count on it. So either we need to follow the thief or we need to pick one specific artifact to look for.”

Rissa looked back and forth between her parents, then sighed. “Then we should go after the partial item, the stained glass one.”

“The one with the attached bowls and the metal depressions that look like they’re supposed to hold something? Why that one? You don’t even know what it does.” Russ sounded honestly curious, rather than accusing.

“It’s the one that guy was supposed to steal, before the Tutorial started. So it’s the one they knew was here - and it’s the one someone thinks they can use. Which means it may not be with the others, but it’ll lead us to whoever’s behind this. It won’t just be sold off to someone else or stuck in storage.” Rissa looked at her hands. “I’ve had it for two years. If someone’s coming after it now, then…”

“Then either they just found out where it is, or they’re almost ready to use it.” Serenity completed his fiancee’s thought. “That sounds like a plan to me, but you’ll have to tell me where it was, so I know which to trace.”

Rissa’s enthusiasm at getting her way waned abruptly. “It was in one of the closets. I think. But I’m not sure which one.”

Serenity looked at her parents. “It’ll take a little extra time, but I think we can figure it out. I want to try teaching Rissa to make her own spells anyway. I can probably cast a spell, but I might not be able to hold it long enough to find anything. I still have very limited mana. Better than yesterday before we dropped Raz off, but it’s still not recovering correctly.”

“A few hours shouldn’t matter,” Russ stated. “Or at least, if they do, they probably already have. Phoebe?”

Phoebe shook her head. “I can tell that we need to find the person behind this. I don’t see why or what his plan is, and if I push any harder, it’ll lock us into the future where we don’t find him. Or her. I can’t even tell which path leads us there. It sounds reasonable to follow what we know he already wants, but I don’t know how much time we have.”

“Right, then.” Serenity stood and headed towards the storage room.

He’d taught what he thought of as the magic basics in the Tutorial - Affinity use, basically. Affinity and Intent plus mana. It was the foundation of spellcraft, but it wasn’t proper spells. It couldn’t do anything that didn’t completely fit within your Affinity, and it required serious concentration.

Neither Rissa nor he had a Divination or Tracking Affinity, so they needed to use a spell that would use the portions of what they did have to make it work. For Serenity, he’d have used Arcane Affinity and SpaceTime; Rissa was going to mostly be using Time and Arcane. She didn’t formally have an Arcane Affinity, but it was like gaining your animating affinity; if you could use magic, you had an arcane affinity, even if it didn’t show on your Status.

Serenity set up a tiny spellform. It was simply intended to glow slightly, as a proof of concept; it barely used any mana at all, which was important since his mana still wasn’t regenerating. He wasn’t surprised by the first major hurdle to teaching Rissa the type of magic he used: she couldn’t see the spellforms. Time’s Eye had Basic Magesight, but what that meant was that she could sort of vaguely see when he gathered the mana to make a simple spellform. She couldn’t see any of the fine structure at all.

Well, Mana Sight was a sight-based ability; that’s what Linked Sight was for. Serenity held the tiny spellform and reached out to touch Rissa. It was simpler that way.

The moment he set up the link, before he even had a chance to share his vision, Serenity felt nearly all of his essence and mana rush across the link and into Rissa. The spellform went dark and Serenity swayed on his feet, feeling weak. His Essence Sight and Mana Sight were both running, since he’d planned to share them with Rissa, and he could see that the amount of mana that had swept over the link was several times her available mana, even though it was well under half his normal pools.

He could also see that it didn’t go into her mana pool. Instead, it seemed to envelop her entire body. Serenity felt an echo of the Intent from the moment in the dungeon, and it suddenly made sense: the reason his mana hadn’t been recovering was that he was maintaining a spell that used the mana as fast as it was produced.

It had clearly affected Raz, as well; his mana and essence had stopped bottoming out continually when Raz’s Species changed. Serenity didn’t know if that meant the Species change had canceled the spell or if the Species change was a result of the spell; in many ways, it didn’t matter.

What mattered was what it was doing to Rissa.

She groaned and fell forward as the magic released her. “Are you-” She was crying.

“My back. It hurts.”

Serenity looked at her back and saw a lump. He tried to keep his suspicion in check as he lifted her shirt to relieve the pressure, only to find out that the shirt wasn’t the problem.

Rissa had a tiny pair of wings, far smaller than Serenity’s. They were tangled in her bra, pushed into a strange position. Serenity didn’t have the patience to fiddle with the bra clasp; fine work like that was far more difficult with claws, anyway.

Cutting the bra where it bound her wings, however, was quite simple.