Two hours later, Rissa was watching the news about the Tutorial. It looked like every news station was talking about it. She caught a clip where an older woman talked about the Trials and a sign labeled “Serenity’s Trial Guide”, which apparently went through the methods they’d worked out on how to get as many people through the Trials safely as possible.

Rissa started laughing when the woman mentioned “Rule 10: Don’t jump in the Boss Slime, it’s Bad for the Eyes”. The list had to have been put together by Sillon.

A quick check online showed that there was already an entire set of memes based on the sign. It was exactly what they’d hoped for - but to capitalize on it, they needed Serenity back.

Rissa felt happier, but she hadn’t put Sigurd away. She looked at him sitting on the couch next to her, then at the piece of paper and hide Serenity had handed her right before he left. She should call his parents, even if she didn’t want to tell them she didn’t know where he was.

• Mom:
  • Call Mom a chocolate frog. She’ll know what it means.
  • Tell her as much as you can.
  • Read her the note from Vladimir. Tell her how I got it. She’ll tell you what to do with it from there.
  • Tell her about Echo. She’d love that kid.
• Dad:
  • Mention the flying spaghetti monster as soon as possible.
  • Tell him as much as you can get him to believe. No, do that for both of them.
  • Make sure you tell him about Nightwitch and Doyle.
  • Tell him invaders are coming. They’ll probably come through portals rather than ordinary teleportation crystals, as a stage-one Tier 0 invasion. At least two portals on each coast and at least four in the middle of the country, could be more.
• Try to get them to leave the DC area before things go bad.
• Tell them I love them.

Love you ~S

Rissa pulled Sigurd into her lap, then hunted through his phone’s contacts list until she found ‘Mom’ and pressed the green Call icon before she talked herself out of it.

The phone rang twice before Thomas’s mother answered. “Thomas? What’s up?”

“Mrs. Rothmer? This isn’t Thomas - I’m Rissa, his girlfriend. He-” Rissa wasn’t sure how to continue, so she looked at the list. “He told me to call you a chocolate frog.”

There was silence from the other end of the phone. Rissa could almost make out some voices, but they clearly weren’t speaking into the phone.

“One moment, please.” The background noise stopped. Rissa waited.

The next thing Rissa heard from the phone was “Are you still there?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Lex and I are both here, what’s wrong with Thomas?”

Rissa blinked. “Lex?”

A man’s voice came over the phone. “Thomas didn’t even tell you our names? I’m his father. Bethany’s his mother. Please, call me Lex. It’s better than the mouthful of my full name.”

“Yes, please call me Bethany or Beth. Mrs. Rothmer is my professional name, and you’re Thomas’s Rissa. He’s told us all about you!”

Rissa looked back at the note written on hide. If she was supposed to fit it in as soon as possible, now was the time. “He talked about the flying spaghetti monster more than he mentioned the two of you to me, and he never said your names. I’m not sure why.”

It was tough having this conversation over the phone. She couldn’t see their expressions, so she wasn’t sure how to judge how much they’d believe. She’d start with the easy stuff. “You’ve heard about the people disappearing to a Tutorial, right? And the Statuses?”

“Yes.” Lex said only that word. It made it very difficult to read him.

“So, we were in the first Tutorial. And what you should know - you’ve heard of Serenity, right?”

“Mmhmm.” This time it was Bethany.

“Serenity is Thomas.” Rissa stopped. She wasn’t sure how much more she should say - oh! She should tell them why she was the one talking to them. “You don’t always come out of the Tutorial where you go in. I’m not sure why, maybe it’s if you have something to do elsewhere? But Serenity didn’t come out with me. He’s fine, just elsewhere.”

I hope. No, he has to be fine. The quest promised healing.

“He had some stuff he wanted me to tell you about if he didn’t end up here. This is going to take some time.”

“Give us ten minutes. For this, we have all the time you need. Oh, what’s your email? I’ll send you a meeting invite, so we can talk face to face. Or would you prefer to fly down here, we can talk in person?” Lex seemed to think nothing of flying somewhere just to have an in-person conversation.

Rissa didn’t want to leave the house right now. Not after she’d only just gotten it warded. It was safe here right now. “Online will be fine. I’ll text you my email. Talk to you soon!”

While she was waiting for the email from Thomas’s father, Rissa picked up her own phone. This was the perfect time to call her mother; she even had an excuse to get off the phone in just a few minutes.

Naturally, that was when Rissa’s phone rang. It was her mother. “Mom?”

“What do you need to tell me?” Her mother always started these conversations with something like that. It was annoying. Rissa had tried to get her mother to wait for the phone to ring, but her mother would always reply either “You’ll understand when you’re my age” or “Be glad I’m not your grandmother; she’d write me letters replying to things I hadn’t written yet, and they’d arrive the same day as my letter went in the mail!”

“Rissa, you need to tell me if you want me to know.” That was different. Rissa almost wished it had been the usual conversation, but knew that was just her trying to distract herself.

“Mom … yesterday was my Death Day.”

“Oh no. How long - wait, yesterday?” Rissa’s mother sounded worried, then incredulous.

“Serenity - he saved me. Three times. The last time was in a Timescape. Three different threats, I Foresaw two of them.” Rissa stopped. She was crying. Why was she crying? “I almost messed everything up. I pushed him away, I almost-”

“What about Thomas? Do he and this Serenity get along? If Serenity is your Child of Time, you’ll be spending a lot of time with him, you don’t want your love life to get in the way.”

Rissa laughed through her tears. “Thomas is a part of Serenity. It’s complicated, but it’s fine now. There’s a lot to tell you. Someone tried to kill me over that formation base. I don’t even have the other pieces! And then it was vampires. And then another, well, she’s not a seer. I’m not sure what she is. She didn’t seem to be at the level of one of the Fates, but she could change things in the Timescape. She called down a lightning storm. She was angry I kept not dying.” Rissa somehow felt a lot better already.

“Change things in a Timescape? Are you sure she wasn’t one of the Fates? I’ve only seen people who could do that twice, and both times it was someone on that level. A Fate or a Norn, it doesn’t matter, they’re bad to run into. What did she look like?” Rissa could hear her mother’s concern.

“A woman holding a rapier. You know how the Timescapes are, they don’t always have details. She was shorter than Serenity, but not by much. I couldn’t make out many details. I remember the rapier was ornate, but I don’t know why I thought that. She tried to kill me, but Serenity stood in the way and she stabbed him instead. Her sword vanished and the timeline that led to that Serenity snapped. I think that’s what happened, at least. She was angry and said my thread should have been cut. She didn’t attack again, just called down lightning to stop me from looking farther. She was definitely powerful, but not as powerful as the Ladies of Fate.” Rissa thought back to the experience and shivered. It somehow seemed worse now than it had at the time.

Her mother clicked her tongue. “Either not one of the Three or she had a different limit placed on her. Have you gone back to the Timescape since then?”

Rissa shook her head, forgetting her mother couldn’t see her. “I haven’t dared.”

Her mother sighed. “That’s probably for the best, you should take someone with you when you go. Your Child of Time would be best, but I can come as well. Do you need to come home? You can bring the artifacts you’ve collected. They should be safe here.”

“No. I need to be here. Here is where Serenity will look for me when he gets back. And he will be back. He has to be.” Rissa hoped she didn’t sound as desperate as she felt.

“Back? Isn’t he with you? I know you were living with him. Surely you haven’t scared him off.” Rissa’s mother’s voice shifted as she teased her daughter.

Rissa suppressed a sigh. She must have kept her anxiety out of her voice. “No, he had some problems at the end of the Tutorial. He’s taking care of them now, he’ll be back when he’s done.”

“Should we come visit you, then? Your father isn’t a Guardian for nothing, we’ve always worked well together.”

Rissa wasn’t sure if her mother was offering out of real concern or just to reassure her, but it wasn’t a bad idea. If nothing else, once Serenity got back this would be a pretty safe place. Rissa didn’t know what her mother’s Death Day was, but if Serenity could protect Rissa from hers, maybe he could also protect her mother.

An email popped up on Rissa’s phone. It was labeled ‘Meeting Invitation’ so it had to be the one she was waiting on.

“Yes, please come. I have to go now, I’m supposed to be talking to Serenity’s - er, Thomas’s parents. I need to tell them what’s happened.”

“Fine, but when we get there you’re going to get to explain what you mean by the Tutorial. See you soon. Love you!”

“Love you too, Mom. And check the news, the Tutorial is pretty widely known.”

Rissa didn’t check her phone during the talk with Thomas’s parents, so she didn’t see the texts from her mother until later.

Your Serenity is the one making the news? Wouldn’t have expected that of your Thomas. Good choice girl, your Da was like that when he was younger.

We’ll be there in three days, best flight we could get and still have time to find someone to watch the house.

Lillene

Rissa's conversation with Thomas's parents will be mostly offscreen; otherwise, it would just be a repeat of what you already know. We'll meet them when Serenity gets back to Earth.