Audrey Ross woke up alone in a bedroom she did not immediately recognize. It took her about three seconds to remember where she was and for her mind to go over the events of the st few days, a smile growing stronger on her face with each detail recalled since she had been called in to investigate the murders of Michael Ungnaught and his housekeeper ssh girlfriend Kim Mendoza; How she reconnected with her old friend Malcolm Eisenstein, and felt the odd spark that she had always suspected existed between them still smoldering; how this led to her meeting some eccentric characters who were involved, to varying degrees, with the game Malcolm, his roommate David West, and their old friend Carol Bishop were fans of.

  That led to darker thoughts - how they had been tailed by a strange man with a bizarre knife and two apparent monsters in his employ, and how that led to an encounter with two even more dangerous monsters, one posing as a federal agent the other actually being one. That thought made the smile waver slightly. She did, then, recall how the aftermath of that battle led to her finding absolute proof that David West really was some kind of magic user who truly had found a way to another world. This proof had come with her discovering that she had special powers too, she could see the paths between worlds and travel across them; somehow, this discovery had also led to her once blue eyes suddenly becoming a bright green; her smile reached its broadest point, accompanied by a happy sigh when she thought about how this change in her eyes had made her somehow irresistible to Malcolm, and that was what led to her being in his bedroom.

  She also realized she could smell cooking, and slipped out of bed. For a brief second she thought she saw something in the heavy rains outside but dismissed it as her mind pying tricks on her. She realized she was naked and walked over to Malcolm’s closet. He had several bathrobes (most, she suspected, obtained at hotels he went to for tech or game conventions) and grabbed one. She put it on, cinched it about her waist, and headed out to greet her friend and lover.

  “‘Morning,” she said as she emerged.

  “Closer to noon than morning, my dear,” the man cooking in the kitchen replied. She was pleasantly surprised at the thrill that went through her as he said that. “I will have a brunch assortment ready in about ten minutes. I do not have champagne for proper mimosas, but do have orange juice,” he added.

  “Ten minutes? Let me go get a few things and feed my cat” she said.

  “You have a cat?”

  “Yeah, Pickles. I’ll be back soon!”

  He looked over to question her further as she opened his robe. As it fell to the ground, he realized that this was the first time he had ever seen her naked body in good lighting, and he immediately prayed to God that it would not be the st, as she vanished in a soft green glow.

  Though he was alone, Malcolm spoke to his roommate anyway: “David, you may have nded a goddess, but I have won the jackpot,” and resumed preparing food.

  Almost exactly eleven minutes ter, Audrey reappeared. To his mild disappointment, she was fully dressed, but also carrying two of the modules and the book that D. Erik Hendrix had given them after their game night earlier that week, and a small sack

  “That was exhausting but kind of fun. I think Carol kept the book about the Two to read herself because only the other two and that Gods of the Realms book were there in the guest room.”

  “How long has it been since I told you how amazing you are, Audrey?”

  “Ages. Last time was one AM I think. Oh, unless right now counts?”

  He just ughed and began setting out an array of breakfast and lunch foods. “This one is kosher and that is real bacon,” he said as he set out two ptes; he did not say anything else until the full array was in pce, then added: “if you want, we also have at least two boxes of cereal and some oatmeal I could cook up?”

  “This will be more than enough, dear heart. Now, where is that orange juice? I had a bottle of champagne given to me at my st birthday that I needed an excuse to open and this seems perfect.”

  They chatted idly as they ate. “I always forget about your skills as a cook. Though I have not forgotten how well you can sing. Always wondered why you never pursued that as a career,” she said as they were almost done eating.

  “I discovered computers. Just love pying around with those detailed electronics and then telling the electronics how to work in broad terms - then turning it all over to guys like David to refine the raw code, design user interfaces, and make it all ‘look pretty,’ I guess,” he replied. “Seems almost to be a bit of magic and definitely a touch of artistry involved. How did you decide to become a cop?”

  She was surprised by the question, paused for a moment, and then answered: “My freshman year in college, there was a guy named John Adler in three of my csses. He was a ‘police legacy,’ with his dad’s great grandparents meeting as police officers, and each male, along with a few of the women, in each generation since all getting jobs in w enforcement. He wanted to transition to the crime b and needed a degree for that, so was back in school. We dated a few times, and he told me I was wasting myself as an English major because I had all the skills of a great detective,” she reted, and then paused as she let the full memory come back to her. When she resumed, she said: “granted, he said that because I managed to discover evidence that he had been cheating on me…”

  Malcolm tried not to ugh at this, but their eyes met, and they both lost it.

  When she recovered, she said: “anyway, I took his advice, transferred to the Police Academy, made it through in near record time and became the second youngest woman, tied for fourth youngest person, to make it to Detective in the city.”

  “And are still humble bragging about it?”

  “Nothing humble about it; I am ft out bragging,” she admitted, proudly.

  He ughed. “See? It really is your mind that attracts me. The fact that it is inside an absolutely gorgeous package is a very nice bonus though.”

  “You will give me a swollen head,” she said.

  “Oh, I know that feeling,” he leered, and then burst out ughing.

  “You are awful,” She ughed back. Then they just sat there for a few seconds, their eyes pying over each other, neither feeling a need to say anything more.

  When Malcolm tore his eyes off of her, he began gathering up dirty dishes. “So, any pns for the rest of the day?

  She smiled. “After we clean up, while I would like to do nothing more than curl up on the couch and read those modules looking for clues about what is going on. However, I discharged my firearm in city limits so really should at least call into the station to get an incident report started, if not go down there and fill one out.”

  “Wow, you fill out a lot of paperwork!”

  “Over half the job is making reports - verbal or written,” she admitted. “Probably part of why a former English major makes a good detective,” she added as an afterthought.

  “That and being at least as brilliant as she is beautiful,” Malcolm replied.

  “Only in your eyes, my love,” she replied.

  He ughed at this. “Oh, come on - you have never had a shortage of guys looking to go out with you!”

  “Says the guy who was being hit on by the soup dy…”

  Malcolm suddenly looked thoughtful. “When I was at the family reunion…was that only a week and a half ago? Feels like a lifetime…. Anyway, while I was there, my parents talked me into doing something that I had not done outside of the shower since college or sober and in public since high school - singing. When I was done, one of the women on the catering staff came up and ft out asked me to dinner the next day. She was cute so yeah, I said yes, but she was a bit too handsy for a first date, if you know what I mean?”

  “Lord knows I’ve been there myself,” Audrey admitted.

  “But the weird thing is two of my cousins seemed to also become very interested in me - to the point where it made me uncomfortable. And I was not sure, but it felt like the steward, er, no they prefer to be called Flight Attendants, don’t they? Was flirting with me the whole flight home. Thought she was just being polite, but now…. Weird.”

  “You are a total cutie. And the few times I have heard you sing, well, I think you probably could have made a career of it. Seriously.”

  Malcolm seemed lost in thought for a moment, then said: “and then Henax or Hendrix or whoever he is specifically mentioned that we should read up on two of the gods unique to Dungeoneers - Cyrannon and Bel-Shar. Cyrannon is the god of the arts, primarily music. Bel-Shar, Mistress of the Greenways, is the deity of ‘safe journeys’ who resides at the center of the multiverse and oversees the Grand Labyrinth of Reality.”

  “So, she would be my, ah, patron deity then?”

  “I guess,” Malcolm replied. “Hey, we could always make you a character…”

  She looked at him and said: “I already have a character. And he is quite a character at that…”

  Malcolm was a little embarrassed at how long it took him to realize she was referring to him.

  “Okay, you got me,” he said, ughing.

  She gave him a look that made his mouth water and replied “Why yes, I certainly do…”

  She held his gaze for several seconds before he remembered he was holding a dirty frying pan in one hand. “Uh, I, well, I should get these dishes taken, ah, care of,” he stammered.

  She ughed lightly, and said: “I suppose I should report in to the station, get the ball rolling on the incident reports.”

  He cast a longing gnce at her, then looked away and said: “Please do. I’ll be a few minutes.”

  She smiled and sat down on the couch with her phone in hand, and called the station.

  “Fourth precinct, Sergeant Perriman speaking. Where should I direct your call?”

  “Hi Alex, this is Detective Ross. I should have called this in yesterday, but things moved too fast. I was forced to discharge my firearm to end a confrontation.”

  “So Internal Affairs. One moment.”

  She heard dishes cnking and spshing around in the other room while she waited on hold.

  Finally, another voice came on the line, a woman’s voice she did not recognize: “Internal Affairs, Lieutenant Maxwell speaking.”

  “Hi Lieutenant, this is Detective Audrey Ross, badge number 149. Yesterday afternoon, at approximately seventeen hundred twenty hours, I was involved in an altercation and forced to discharge my service weapon, twice.”

  “You should have reported this st night. Were there any casualties?”

  She hesitated before answering. One of the bodies had decayed rapidly and the other would likely be mistaken for roadkill. “None to my knowledge. A bit of property damage, mostly to two motor vehicles, but nothing beyond that, at least that I am aware of.”

  “And why was this not reported yesterday?”

  “It happened at a friend’s house. When it was over and I made sure that none of my friends were injured, well, that took some time and, to be honest, I was too tired to deal with this.”

  “Understandable but it will have to be noted.”

  “I understand.”

  “I need the location of this incident.”

  Audrey gave Carol’s address.

  There was a pause at the other end. “This appears to be the second time you reported using your sidearm. Good. Ah, interesting, we have three other reports in that area from st night. You did not see any wild animals there, did you?”

  “There was a rge boar. It seemed to be the cause of the initial disruption leading to the incident.”

  “As there were no casualties, you will have seventy-two hours to finish the formal report. I will see to it personally that a preliminary is on your desk before I leave tonight.”

  “Thank you,” Audrey replied, about to hang up, but the voice on the other end was not done.

  “One more thing; if we receive reports of casualties at that address, unless we also receive proof that the events are not connected, the timeline accelerates, and the report will be due by the end of the day today.”

  “Understood. I will keep my phone on and charged, just in case,” Audrey replied.

  “Thank you for your understanding. And if you ever consider switching departments, from your record, we could definitely use someone like you in Internal Affairs, Detective Audrey Ross. Have a good day “

  And the connection ended.