“Two hours.” Rissa spoke into her phone as she came down the hallway, “Two hours is all we can spare. Unless you have a crew that wants to do the interview at Pelham Bay Park? We’ll be there- no, nothing’s wrong with the park. It seems to be a new high-magic zone.”

Rissa pulled out the chair opposite Serenity’s and sat at their new kitchen table. “Yes, electronics work there. It doesn’t behave like a dungeon, it’s not closed off.” She paused, listening to the voice on the other side. “Fine, six then. We’ll meet your team at the golf house.”

Once she hung up the phone, Rissa tossed it on the table. “Why don’t people call you directly?”

Serenity shrugged. “I guess they think I won’t answer? I admit it is kind of a pain to work a phone these days.”

“Hah. You mean you just don’t bother to answer unless you know who’s calling.” Rissa’s skepticism was obvious.

She was correct. “So, who was that?”

“One of the news directors with channel six. After the last interview, they’ve apparently wanted to do another, but of course everyone’s been preoccupied with the Hegemon Worms.” Rissa paused, then seemed to change gears. “How is that going by the way? I think you said you thought you’d have all the worms in the city under control by this morning?”

Serenity sipped his coffee. It was hot and black, neither of which seemed to matter as much as he remembered. It also wasn’t as good at waking him up. “Yeah, got the last one to visit an urgent care before bed last night. I’ve been working on releasing the dominations this morning.”

Rissa leaned close to Serenity's face. “You look exhausted.”

“Ehh.” Serenity waved the concern off. “You know I haven’t been sleeping well. The memories-”

“You said you were going to clear the rest out last night.”

“I did!” Serenity protested. “It’s just … by the time I was done, it was … well, it was half an hour ago.”

Rissa nodded and stood. “Then you’re going back to bed.”

“I need to get this done.” He really did. He’d put off dealing with the people the Hegemon Worm Queen had dominated but not infested for several days while he sent the people carrying worms in to have them taken care of, because he’d thought the domination wasn’t directly damaging. He was less confident in that now. He could feel the dominated fighting back, injuring themselves in the process. He needed to get them free.

“Sleep first. You make mistakes when you’re tired.”

Serenity glared at Rissa. He was perfectly capable now, even if he was tired! He was -

He was about to throw a tantrum like a three-year-old who didn’t want to take a nap. Serenity deflated with a sigh. “Fine.”

As they walked down the hall, he pulled up his Status and shared a line with Rissa. “I think you’ll like this one.”

Rissa read through it and turned to him with a smile. “No names?”

Serenity shrugged. “I don’t remember what they were. Other than Liam’s, at least, and that’s with my own memory.”

“Did you just lose them or is something more different?” Rissa’s eyes ran over the empty space that was clearly filled with the information for her, as though it would tell her something.

Serenity shrugged again. “Haven’t tried it yet.”

Rissa nodded. “Show me, then.”

Serenity shifted. It was oddly easier than it had been, more like a practiced motion than something he had to think about. It made it obvious that it wasn’t a normal Path Skill; those just happened, without any thought.

A moment later, he was standing there. It didn’t feel like much had changed. He was wearing clothes instead of armor, didn’t have wings, and he could see in color. Oddly enough, he did feel the technology-static from Rissa’s phone; he hadn’t felt that before when he shifted to not-Liam.

“Huh. You don’t look at all like Liam, but you also don’t really look like yourself.” Rissa tilted her head to the side, then straightened. “I bet no one will really notice the eyes or ears though, so you can probably pass as human.”

“Be easier than my chimera form,” Serenity agreed. “It’s not as comfortable, though.”

“It’s not as you. Still, c’mon.” Rissa tugged on Serenity’s arm, pulling him towards the bedroom.

Serenity didn’t even take the time to undress; he simply cuddled up against Rissa and fell asleep.

---

When Rissa and Serenity arrived at the parking lot, they found Natalie Freeman waiting for them.

“No reporter this time?” Serenity would be just as happy to answer questions for Nat. If anything, he’d prefer it; he knew she was competent and had a good head on her shoulders.

Nat chuckled. “He’s on his way. Went to the wrong parking lot. Twice. It’s like he’s never been to this park before.”

Both Rissa and Serenity chuckled at that, knowing it was probably true. It was a lovely park with all sorts of things to do, but there were a lot of New Yorkers that just didn’t go to the park.

“So before he gets here, I heard this was going to be a nature walk with questions?” Nat pulled out her camera, but her attention was on Serenity.

Serenity nodded. They’d settled on calling the Dragons’ Lair Dungeon a “high magic area” since it didn’t announce itself as a dungeon and there weren’t any dangerous monsters. It didn’t act like people on Earth would expect a dungeon to act. Surface dungeons were strange, and calling it a “high magic area” was probably more descriptive anyway. “Yeah. There’s a triple nexus; I thought we’d walk out that way and see what we find. Wildlife grows faster in places like this, and sometimes strange things happen, like new species. I’m really looking forward to seeing what biologists think of that.”

Nat looked dubious. “What do you mean?”

“Earth’s always had magic. It’s less powerful than other places, but it’s here. It’s growing now, but if magic can create new species, who’s to say it’s not involved when that happens normally? Maybe it’s one of the reasons evolution happens.” Serenity shrugged. “I’m sure random chance and mistranslations play a part, too, but magic could make it easier and more likely to be useful.”

Nat’s camera was out and facing Serenity. “Do you think there’s a real chance of that?”

Serenity nodded. “I think we’re going to find out that Earth’s more magical than we knew. The thing is, magic follows intent, so people who don’t believe will tend to drive down its function. Huh.”

Serenity stopped. He hadn’t thought of that before. What if part of the reason Earth was such a low-magic area with only minor magics possible was because people didn’t believe in it? That would certainly allow for some significant growth when the Voice arrived and more people started believing.

Serenity wasn’t certain if Earth’s magical growth had been unusual or not, but it was certainly true that the few surviving Earthlings were all powerful people compared to their contemporaries on similar planets. He’d always assumed that was simply because they were the fraction of a percent who survived; they had to be the best or they’d be dead.

Maybe that was the truth, or maybe Earth wasn’t what he’d thought it was. It was the only planet he knew that was destroyed so early, after all; there had to be a reason.

“What are you thinking?” Nat’s question pulled Serenity out of his inward focus.

“Oh, just wondering how fast we’ll grow once more people believe in magic. It should make magic more powerful, but I don’t know how much.” There were a lot of people on Earth; Serenity couldn’t remember another planet with so many people packed together. “What effect do our dense cities have?”

Rissa smacked Serenity on the shoulder. “You’re supposed to be giving an interview, not getting lost in speculation.”

“But the reporter’s not-” Serenity stopped. There was a man headed towards them instead of the golf house. It had to be the reporter; he even carried a microphone. “Right.”

“Good evening. I’m Jeff Rosenthal, I believe you’re Serenity and Rissa Latimer?” The man’s voice was perfect for a news anchor, deep and smooth but without the New York City accent. He would have fit in anywhere in the country.

Rissa responded before Serenity could. “Yes, I’m Clarissa Latimer and this is my fiancee Thomas Rothmer, also known as Serenity.”

Serenity was startled for a moment, then chuckled. Rissa had always been the more outgoing of the two of them, and it was nice to see her stepping back into the role.

The reporter covered his surprise and managed to put out a hand towards Rissa with only a moment’s surprise. “Nice to meet you, Miss Latimer. You know, I don’t think I’ve heard. What do you do?”

Rissa smiled politely as she took his hand. “I’m a stock investor. Fairly successful overall, but it takes a lot of work.”

“A day trader?” Jeff’s smile began to look a little forced.

Rissa shook her head. “No, an investor. I do sometimes trade quickly, but most of the time I expect to hold a stock for at least a week. Quick trading - that’s really for algorithms now, and the big companies can do that better than I can. My niche is looking for places where a stock is misvalued, and where I can expect it will move significantly in a few days or weeks. It takes a lot of knowledge of why the price is where it is; there’s an entire synergistic analysis I have to perform that includes the overall market, the news following, and the individual sector as well as the company itself. It also helps to know if there are any major contracts in the works or new products coming out - of course, everyone does that analysis. There are only a handful of stocks that I’ve owned for years, but … well, I admit that I’m still not willing to get rid of the Ico stock I bought a month after its IPO.”

Serenity was surprised at that one. He’d never heard Rissa mention owning any Ico stock, especially not Ico stock bought when the price was low more than twenty years earlier.

“You own Ico stock?” The reporter seemed just as surprised as Serenity was.

Rissa shook her head. “Doesn’t everyone these days? They’re such a large part of the market now. I invested the money I got for my sixteenth birthday. Most of what I bought I’ve cashed in, but I kept the Ico stock to remind myself that gambles can pay off if you do the research first.”

Serenity suddenly wondered how much money she’d gotten for her sixteenth birthday. It couldn’t have been that much … could it?

Rissa grinned impishly at the reporter. “You’re not here for me, but I thought I’d make sure you don’t think I’m here because Serenity is famous. We’ve been together for years.”

“And it can’t be the money,” Serenity stated. “She makes more than I do; I’m just a network engineer.”

The reporter grinned and shook his head. “I see why Nat said to be ready for surprises. I know where you work, Mr. Rothmer. Your boss wouldn’t tell me your salary, but “just a network engineer” is not how she described you.”

Serenity shifted uncomfortably. He knew he needed to get used to the attention and he’d been doing well so far, but the reminder of his job made him remember how uncomfortable the attention could be. “I’m not certain I work there anymore. I haven’t been in for a couple weeks.”

“Your boss said you’re on leave. Something about you never taking your vacation.” The reporter was clearly thrilled to pass along the news.

“I should call her…” Serenity mumbled to himself before pulling his attention back to the present. “That’s not why we’re here. We wanted to walk through the high-magic area with you and I believe you had some questions for me, ones that Made didn’t ask?”