Chapter 340: Not the Sun

“Hmm…”

Riley tilted his head to the left, then to the right, as he slowly rotated the park map in his hands. He had already marked several spots in ink, little circles and lines that were beginning to look more suspicious the longer he stared at them.

Around the low table in their private poolside cabana, an assortment of food sat largely untouched. Sliced fruits, skewers, chilled drinks, desserts that were definitely not cheap. Yet no one was paying attention to any of that.

Instead, every pair of eyes was locked onto Riley.

And gradually, almost subconsciously, the Dravaryn dragons and the Hales began to mirror him.

He tilted left. So did they.

He tilted right. So did they.

He rotated the map upside down. Several heads followed the invisible motion as if the enlightenment might shift with the angle.

“Mnn…”

Riley narrowed his eyes at the markings.

“Tsk!”

The soft sound escaped him before he realized it had.

There was a brief silence.

Riley glanced around the cabana and only then noticed that nearly everyone’s head was tilted at some questionable angle.

“…What are you all doing?” he asked flatly.

Orien finally leaned forward. “We’re trying to do what you’re doing,” the young dragon explained seriously. “It might help.”

Riley blinked and slowly lifted his head. “Help what?”

“Aren’t you doing a ritual, Auntie?” the golden dragonling responded, but maintained the tilt of his head. “This is us helping. So why did you stop?”

“…”

“…”

“Well, I don’t know about that helping,” he admitted, rubbing his temple, “but this does feel like a ritual.”

In truth, he didn’t know what the hell he was doing, either. But the child might be right because, unfortunately, now that he was looking at all the markings, it was starting to look like he was out there trying to summon some demon.

Just a few more lines, and he was about to end up with something that required blood offerings and a disclaimer.

He gave a soft laugh at the thought and shook his head.

Then he paused.

His eyes sharpened.

Wait a minute.

He straightened so suddenly that a few plates rattled. “I need another park map! Somebody please give me a park ma—!”

Before he could finish, a stack of neatly folded maps was placed into his hands.

Riley froze.

He looked down at the stack.

Then up at Kael.

Then back at the stack again.

There were at least ten.

Possibly more.

He didn’t say anything, but the wordless look he gave his husband carried enough meaning to write a thesis.

“Why do you have this many?”

Kael simply shrugged and returned Riley’s gaze with a look that wordlessly said, “Aren’t you the one who needs them?”

Riley opened his mouth, then closed it because the handsome golden lizard directed his attention back to the maps.

Hopefully, he’d only need to use one.

__

Earlier, he had been certain he was on the right track.

Because really, this whole thing couldn’t possibly be a coincidence.

Heck, after everything that happened to Riley, he couldn’t possibly ignore things that looked like they were by chance.

So he was going to try again.

“Woooh…”

He let out a slow breath, as if clearing pressure from his chest before starting.

Okay. Game.

First, the areas given by the front desk. The official designated zones where magical artifacts may work, albeit weakly, inconsistently, or not at all.

He recalled the weird disclaimer but was thankfully prepared, since the server had warned him about them earlier.

The Patio near the west entrance.

The shaded smoker’s deck beside the Wave Pool Tower.

The upper deck behind the Sunburst Spiral.

The rest platform near the artificial lagoon.

The special device-friendly nook by the kiddie splash zone.

Technically, this wouldn’t be the first time he had done this since he had marked another map with the same locations. Only this time, he forced himself not to connect them.

Instead, he switched markers.

Different color. Different approach.

Now, the places the server had quietly rattled off.

Riley stood so abruptly that his chair scraped back against the cabana floor. The permanent marker squeaked loudly against the glossy paper.

Right walkway to the Odyssey Drop. Mark.

Outermost pillar of the Vortex Twister slide. Mark.

Behind the fifth Standard Cabana by the falls. A circle for that.

Tree next to the Cold Station.

Pearl Bay Buggy Stop.

Pathway in front of the First Aid station by the Leaning Tower.

Locker rooms by the Barracuda.

He was moving fast now, shoulders hunched over the table, breath shallow. The permanent ink bled slightly into the creases of the map as his hand darted from one location to another. Anyone watching him would think he had lost it.

And maybe he had.

No one interrupted.

They were all just watching.

North Bridge above the River Rapids. A giant frigging mark.

He paused only long enough to inhale deeply before placing the marker down and switching his grip.

Now he would connect them.

Slowly, he drew a line from one staff preferred location to the next. Not the official ones. Not the front desk-approved sites. Just the ones he practically paid for earlier.

One line.

Then another.

Then another.

His hand slowed.

His pulse did not.

The lines began forming something unmistakable.

He straightened slightly, staring down at the shape taking form beneath his hands.

He wasn’t even a respectable artist out there, but even he could tell this wasn’t particularly random.

The areas provided by the server were practically distributed along the circumference of a circle, like some sort of inscribed polygon.

Definitely not accurate given the kind of landmarks he received. But it was distinct enough to make his stomach drop, especially when the damn thing practically met full circle.

Then, as if belatedly processing everything, the plotter effectively startled himself.

“!!!”

Riley’s eyes widened so abruptly that he nearly knocked over a plate of sliced fruit as he yanked the map up and held it out for everyone to see.

“Look,” he said, breathing a little unevenly.

They leaned in.

There was a long pause.

Most of them just stared at the aggressively colored markings without any clear sense of what they were supposed to be seeing.

Kael was the first to speak.

“Are those the places the server gave you?” he asked, voice calm but focused.

The ex-mortal nodded so fast it was almost concerning. “Yes. Exactly those.”

The golden dragon’s gaze shifted slightly. “Then what about those other dots given by the front desk?”

Riley inhaled sharply and pointed to the earlier markings. “See, I think that’s where I made a mistake earlier. I kept forcing all of them to connect with each other, but I don’t think that’s how it’s supposed to go.”

He ran a finger along the outer line he had just drawn. “Also, the front desk locations are probably management-designated areas that mainly focus on working with the park’s current layout.”

His expression sharpened as he became more comfortable with the idea that had been forming in his mind.

“In a sense, I think we could consider them as offshoots.”

“Then are they useless?” asked the dragon lord as Riley switched to the other marker again, carefully tracing over the boundary he had formed earlier.

Hmm… not exactly.

Riley narrowed his eyes at the map on the table.

What truly led him to this conclusion was not just the pattern of the staff’s preferred sites, but the absence of something. Even in the landscaped zones, even in open decorative spaces that should have been harmless, none of the front desk-approved points crossed into the region he had just enclosed.

Not one.

He finished the last connecting line, absentmindedly adding the short strokes radiating outward from the boundary instead of connecting those together.

Because what if the two categories weren’t exactly unrelated, but just related in a very particular, yet oddly familiar way?

When he stepped back, Riley couldn’t help but look proudly at the map he just drawn on, but apparently, someone had a different opinion.

Liam blinked. “Big Brother, is that the sun?”

“…”

Riley felt he had a lot to say. But he couldn’t get them out because, next to his brother, was one dragonling who needed to be heard lest he explode.

Orien stared at the map, visibly offended. “Those squiggles can’t possibly be the sun.”

He sounded genuinely aghast.

Riley dragged a hand down his face. “It’s not the sun.”

There was another pause, heavier this time.

It was his mom who finally asked gently, “Then, son, what are we looking at?”

Riley lowered the map slightly and turned to Kael, eyes bright with expectation as if silently asking him to confirm that he hadn’t lost his mind.

To his credit, the golden dragon lord studied the drawing without scrunching his face.

“A leyline,” he said.

Relief flashed across Riley’s face.

“Not just a leyline,” he corrected quickly, unable to keep the excitement from creeping into his voice. “This has to be an isolated closed loop leyline!”

“!!!”

The children reacted immediately, mostly because the adults looked stunned, and that was usually a sign that something important had just been said.

So they cooed appropriately.

But after a few moments, Orien, who couldn’t wait anymore, had to finally ask, “Well… what’s that supposed to be?”

Riley pressed his fingers to his forehead before reaching out to ruffle Orien’s hair.

“It’s a very interesting thing,” he said, tone light but eyes still locked on the map.

Then he straightened, folding the paper with sudden resolve.

“But more importantly,” he added, glancing toward the direction of the park’s interior, “I’m going to the Dolphin Pavilion.”

He looked around at everyone and grinned.

“Anyone else coming?”

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