Dani's To-Do List

- continue Christmas, what else?

The sad part about reuniting with a dog is that they won't sit still. Most people want to grab on and hug them, bury their face in the dog's fur and never let go. But dogs want to move. They run in circles from sheer excitement, round and round while you try to lavish them with your love.

Jason's stuck in the middle of that problem right now. He keeps trying to throw his arms around Ace, but the dog is too hyped up to let it happen. Dani steps back and lets them have their moment, Jason furiously wiping away tears as his dog whimpers excitedly and wags his tail at maximum speed.

"You… you got me my dog?" Jason asks, from where he's trying to pet Ace and keep his face clean at the same time. "Is… is he going to stay?"

"Forever," Dani confirms. "There are logistics we can go over later, but for now, just enjoy having your puppy back." There are some rules with keeping a ghost in the mortal realm full-time. One of the most important is that Ace will need to go back to the Realms fairly often to purge his ectoplasm of the residual emotions in the mortal world.

Luckily, Lady Gotham is willing to help with that. She had kept tabs on Ace's spirit, allowing him to guard Jason's spirit-grave, and when Dani visited with her grand ideas of returning a dog to his boy, she was entirely on board. Dani will have to lend her power for Gotham to open a portal at least once a week, but Dani doesn't mind the extra task. It'll be good for her own health, too, since she'll be using her power like Frostbite asked.

"This is the best present I've ever been given," Jason says, burying his face in Ace's fur in the brief moment the dog is still. "You have no idea what this means to me, With-an-i. Thank you."

Dani does have an idea of what it means. She can feel it, the joy and peace and whole-hearted gratitude that is completely overriding his constant fury festering deep in his not-quite core. So she just smiles and watches Jason and Ace desperately trying to greet each other in their own ways.

Eventually, Ace calms down and Jason gets his hug. After a few long moments of holding his dog, Jason looks back up, wipes his eyes one last time, and then stands up. "Let's get back," he says decisively, standing back up but keeping his hand resting on the dog. It's a little awkward, since Jason is really tall and Ace is a big dog, but not that big, but it's adorable.

Jason makes a quick stop at one of the bathrooms on the way and cleans off his face. Dani can still tell he cried from the red ring around his eyes, and she knows the rest of the family will be able to tell too, but Jason doesn't seem to care at the moment. He looks almost giddy to get back, and when Dani asks him about it, he says, "Cassie, Timbo, and the brat never got to meet Ace."

Dani's never seen him so happy before. Maybe Ace really is part of his soul. With her limited empathy, she can feel the connection between them like a steel cord, strong and unyielding. Ace is fully in tune with Jason, looking up at him with soulful green eyes, tongue hanging out the side of his mouth.

Damian is waiting just inside the family room door, hands behind his back as he waits for them to return impatiently. He swings open the door, startling Dani with its suddenness.

"You've returned," he says, voice unreadable, aura burning with curiosity. "Will Todd as well?"

"Uh, yeah, he's right behind me," Dani says, jabbing a thumb behind her where she knows Jason is standing. Damian looks beyond her and his eyes widen at the sight, but Dani is more focused on slipping past him and going back to her seat next to Dick. Now that she's given all her gifts – or at least, the really important ones – she's famished. It's cinnamon roll time, baby.

"So, did Jason cry?" Tim asks, looking up from where he was admiring the autograph from the author of Dune.

"Of course. I said he would, didn't I?" Offended, Dani stabs her cinnamon roll and transfers it onto her plate, retreating to her blanket cave to nom while Jason finally gets through the door around Damian.

"Look who's back!" Jason announces, smiling wider than Dani's ever seen him. Ace nudges his way inside and barks, his tail starting to wag a million kilometers a second. "Greet, boy!"

Ace launches himself forward, first at Alfred, who's the closest, then Dick, then Bruce, wagging and licking. There's a chorus of surprised sounds as they recognize the familiar dog, followed by chaos as Ace jumps around the room to sniff everyone new.

"How is this possible?" Tim demands in surprise as he tries to keep his face from getting slobbered on. It's very difficult with Ace climbing his way into Tim's lap, seeking his undivided attention.

"Dani!" Dick exclaims, looking at her with impossibly large eyes. "How did you bring Ace here?"

"He's Jason's gift," Dani mumbles around a mouth of sugary goodness. Alfred pointedly clears his throat, so Dani swallows her mouthful and answers more clearly, "He's my gift to Jason."

"But… aren't there rules against that?" Tim wonders, leaning forward to grab a napkin and wipe off Ace's affections. The dog in question has moved to fully inspecting Damian, who greets him back as warmly as he does any new animal. Titus has raised his head to watch, but seems unconcerned with Damian being so close to an unknown animal. "Otherwise, wouldn't everyone be able to do something like this?"

"Only the dead can spend time with the dead," Dani explains with a hapless shrug. "Jason's part-dead, so he has rights to spend time with other souls of the dead. In this case, Ace."

At his name, Ace bounds over to Dani. She gives him a double pat on the top of his head, and then he goes off to meet Cass.

"But is he allowed to be here, on Earth?" Dick stresses. "And America in particular; isn't there a whole government dedicated to eradicating ghosts?"

"Yeah, but he's got a special collar." She points out the piece of tech hanging around Ace's neck with her sugary fork. "He isn't giving off any kind of ectoplasmic signature, and he can't use any ghostly abilities. He's mostly a regular dog right now, but with green eyes and no heartbeat."

"You didn't answer Dick's first question," Bruce points out, fixing her with an analytic stare. Dani shifts under its weight. "Is Ace allowed to be on Earth?"

"I got permission," Dani confirms. "As long as Ace isn't interacting with the living realm using non-living abilities, he's completely legal." Then Dani shrugs. "And if he does end up being illegal, it'll be my responsibility to deal with it."

"Will he have to go back?" Jason worries, uncharacteristically anxious. At his voice, Ace wiggles out of Cass's loving embrace and trots back to his human, panting. Jason lays a hand on Ace's head, centering himself.

"Nah, I'll just get scolded," Dani answers. By the eyeballs, no less. And let's be honest: who really cares what they have to say anyway?

"By whom?" Tim wonders.

Dani glances at him, then back down at her plate. "Ghost management."

"The King," Dick concludes.

Dani hums noncommittally, but she knows that's essentially an agreement. "Can we open the rest of the gifts now?"

"After you got Jason a ghost dog?" Tim asks. "I feel like we should spend more than a couple of minutes on this topic."

"Why look a gift horse in the mouth?" Jason retorts. He sits back down in his spot, Ace immediately leaping up to curl alongside him.

"Because gifts like this come with a price," Bruce answers. "And there's no telling what it will be."

"Actually, I can tell," Dani interjects. "I already paid the price." Everyone's eyes are suddenly on her, sharp and worried. She laughs a little at their intensity, quick to explain, "It wasn't anything bad. I exchanged favors, is all. Chores I've already completed."

"It can't be that easy," Tim says, as though he knows anything.

Which, fair. If Dani was anyone else, she wouldn't have been able to achieve this. At least, not with a lot more grief. As it was, she's responsible for any trouble Ace gets into… not that he could possibly get into more trouble than Dani herself does. If Danny wasn't the King and also a budding engineer talented enough to rework one of his parents' specter deflectors into a functional dog collar, and if Jason weren't also technically classified as an ectoplasmic being, Dani wouldn't have gotten away with this.

No one looks ready to let this go.

"I believe that Miss Dani has explained herself sufficiently," Alfred says, voice firm. "She has gifted Master Jason something wonderful. Rather than interrogate the young miss, we should thank her, trust her judgment, and enjoy the gift." He turns warm eyes to Ace, who wags when the older man's gaze lands on him.

The Bats exchange glances, save for Jason, who ignores them, and Damian, who seems fairly unconcerned with the whole issue and has returned to his seat.

The youngest Wayne pipes up, "I agree with Alfred. I wish to continue."

With no small amount of reluctance, and a side-glance from Dick that promises Dani will definitely be elaborating later (ha, good luck with that –), Bruce turns to the next gift.

This one is to Cass from Alfred. Inside are two beautifully knitted beanies and a soft crocheted blanket in purples and pinks. Cass fawns over them silently, showing them to each of the family members and giving Alfred a kiss of gratitude on the cheek.

Things continue like that for a while. Tim gets camera gear from Bruce, while Bruce receives "World's Okayest Dad" memorabilia from Dick. Jason gives Damian a pair of hunting daggers that the ex-assassin critiques until Jason swings a pillow at his head. Damian drew portraits for Dick and Jason, and gave Tim a bamboo training staff, saying he should "go back to the basics".

Damian is a troll. Apparently Tim is one of the best bo staff fighters in the world. The whole gift is an insult… but it's also a beautifully crafted, intricately carved, durable training staff. Tim accepts it for what it is and gets into a brief pillow fight with the younger boy, but Dani catches him admiring the staff's handiwork while Damian is distracted with something else.

Jason fawns over his first edition Uncle Tom's Cabin, enraptured with Dani's story on how she got it.

Dick gets new gymnastics equipment and the odd board game. Tim got him a photo book filled with family pictures.

Dani's presents are interspersed between everyone else's, a pile from each family member where most of them got one or two from each. Dick looks completely unapologetic from his own pile of gifts, quoting that the Waynes have pretty much everything, and there's no point in getting a ton of gifts for everyone that can just buy whatever they want. There were some very lucrative presents in the past, especially the first few with Damian, but now it's Dani's turn to get showered with gifts.

Dani doesn't feel bad about it at all, not like she would have if they'd just been giving her them on any normal day. Dani's presents are more than enough to make up for them, after all. She bent the laws of life and death to give them their presents.

Cass gets Dani Broadway tickets to see Hamilton, which she promises the younger girl she'll adore. She explains that it will be a girl's day out, with Steph and Barbara, and they'll spend the whole day in New York trying things out before and after the show.

Cass also collaborates with Tim on a combined gift of scrapbooking materials. Tim snuck some camera piece into her bag of tech before she went to Danny, and then installed it in a nice camera. As a backup, he included a film camera. Cass gave her stacks of scrapbooking supplies: colorful cardstock and books of stickers and fancy tape and all kinds of other things. She must have cleaned out an entire section of Hobby Lobby. One of the books has already had a couple of pages filled out – decorated with the polaroids Dani'd taken so far, along with a playbill from Cass's Nutcracker show.

Tim also gives her several fantasy and sci-fi series for her bookshelf, along with the maps that went with the world-building in them.

Alfred gives her a set of different teas, all from around the world. She can't wait to try them all, and with a warm smile, the old butler hands her a second gift: her very own tea set. She's going to learn how to brew her own tea!

Dani didn't expect to be given a gift from Bruce, but he promised he'd indeed gotten her one – it was just in a random room for storage to prevent her from seeing it. Apparently, it's too large for under the tree.

At that declaration, Jason pipes up with his own gift. He tosses Dani a rectangle box in brown paper, which she excitedly tears open. Inside is a leather jacket and fingerless gloves, a pattern of stitching embroidering the undersides of the arms and down the jacket's length.

Dani gushes out her gratitude as she admires it.

Jason smirks. "What are you waiting for? Try it on."

She's not going to argue that. She slides her arms in and situates the jacket over her back, pulling it snug to test its fit. It fits perfectly, of course; no one in this family does things by half-measures.

"Try the pockets."

With Jason's suggestion, Dani shoves her hands in the pockets, finding a small hard object in the right one. She pulls it out to reveal a key with a little ghost keychain. "What's this a key to?" Dani asks, tilting the cartoony ghost to better admire it.

"You didn't," Dick says, aghast.

"What?" Dani demands, excitement rising in her at Dick's exasperation.

"It's a key to your new ride," Jason elaborates, folding his arms and giving her a little nod. "I parked 'er down in the garage, next to that mountain of car boots you have growing down there."

"You got me a car?!"

"Motorcycle," he's quick to correct.

Dani leaps to her feet, giddy with excitement. "That's even better! Can we ride it right now? Will you show me how? I'm going to look so cool!"

"A motorcycle, Jason?" Dick disapproves, shaking his head. "Those things are so dangerous."

"Somethin' tells me With-an-i doesn't have much to worry about."

Dani nods her head. "Yes, I am very durable. Can we see my new bike now?!"

"Todd's gift is not your last," Damian interjects, drawing Dani's attention to him. She completely forgot about the rest of the gifts in that moment, but she feels bad at forgetting Damian's, so she sits back down. He sniffs. "And it is certainly not the best."

"I'm guessing you'd like to go next," Dick says, his mood improving as he shifts to the next gift. "Go ahead, I know you've been waiting. I'll go last."

Damian nods. He looks at Titus and says simply, "Retrieve." The dog gets up immediately and bounds off the cushion, trotting out of the door and down the hall. Dani watches him go before turning back to Damian.

"Titus will bring the second half of your gift," he informs her, stooping down to the tree to pick up another rectangular gift, though it's slimmer than Jason's. He hands the meticulously wrapped gift to her, signaling she should open it.

Dani tears into it, finding an unassuming closed black box. She sets it down on her lap and opens it to reveal a line of wickedly sharp blades, made of black metal with hilts wrapped in what feels like cotton fabric.

"First a motorcycle she's not even old enough to drive, now weapons?! What are we teaching her here?" Dick bemoans, throwing his arms up in the air. He's smiling, though, so Dani doesn't pay him much attention.

"What are these?" Dani asks, picking one up to admire it. The small blade is more heavy than she expects, though it feels perfectly balanced in her hand.

"They are a type of dagger used for throwing," Damian tells her. "I have taken the responsibility upon myself to teach you how to properly wield them."

Dani nearly leaps back up in excitement. "That's so cool! I've always wanted to learn to throw knives! It's always looked so cool!" Dani pushes the box over to Damian with a huge smile. "Would you try one? How good is your aim?"

Damian scoffs, pushing the box back towards her. "I have my own set," he tells her. "Choose a target."

"Damian–" Bruce starts, but he's completely overridden by Dani's delighted shout, "Take down the tree ornament!" She decided a few days ago when they were decorating the tree that she hated having ornaments that were shaped like a tree. It's so dumb to put a tree on a tree. And this one is made of wood, which makes it even worse. Tim put it on because it made her mad, but now she would see it destroyed.

In a flash, a streak of black leaves Damian's hands, cleanly cutting through the string holding the ornament on one of the branches. The knife imbeds itself into the wall behind the tree, quivering a little with the force Damian threw it with. Another knife, thrown a millisecond after the first, catches the ornament in its center and pins it to the wall just below the first.

Dani erupts into cheers and applause, which Damian postures at despite the disapproval rolling off of Bruce and Alfred in waves. "I can do that too," Dick pouts.

"Everyone in this family can do that, you're not special, Dickie." Jason withdraws his own knife, though this one looks more like a serrated knitting needle. "Any other ornaments, With-an-i?"

Dani considers the remaining ornaments, but Bruce is quick to interject, "No more flying projectiles. You know the rules."

"Tt."

"I don't live here anymore, old man, I don't have to listen to you!" Alfred clears his throat, and Jason slumps back into his seat, the needle-like knife disappearing from where he'd drawn it. "But I do have to listen to you. Sorry, Alfred."

Dani cackles in delight. There's a small woof from outside the doorway, and Damian climbs to his feet.

"Come," Damian orders, gracefully stepping around the mounds of wrapping paper to meet his dog halfway.

Titus comes through the door, a basket in his jaws covered with a white cloth. If Dani isn't mistaken, the cloth is… moving? Instinctively, Dani tunes in her hearing to the basket, catching the sound of a tiny little heartbeat. No way…

Damian takes the basket from Titus and turns to Dani, offering it over to her.

"Is that –" Tim starts.

Dani yanks off the covering. In the cushion padding the bottom of the basket, a golden haired puppy is snuggly curled up against one half of the basket, nose tucked into its tail.

Dani's mouth drops open. Voice hushed, she asks, "You got me a puppy?"

"She is a pure-bred golden retriever," Damian confirms. "Golden retrievers are more mild-tempered than most breeds and more easily trained. She will be an adequate enough first dog for you."

Gently, Dani uses the pad of her finger to pet along the puppy's tiny snoot. The dog's nose twitches, and her eyes blink open, bleary with sleep. Her mouth opens in a wide yawn, showing off two tiny rows of teeth and a small pink tongue.

When the dog's eyes meet Dani's, she gently whispers, "Hello, puppy." The tiny thing wags her tail and then shifts around, getting to her paws so she can pad over the cushion to sniff Dani's face.

Dani is obediently still while the puppy inspects her, paws on the edge of the basket so she can stretch up to sniff her entire face. After a few moments, the puppy gives her a tiny lick on the tip of her nose.

Dani's heart hurts. This tiny creature is the cutest thing Dani's ever seen.

The puppy gets a little overzealous and takes a step further off the basket into open air, tumbling out of the basket. Dani is quick to catch her, cradling her close to her chest and letting the basket fall to the ground. The puppy starts wiggling, so Dani sets her down and watches as the tiny dog starts exploring the area with her nose, tail wagging furiously. She falls off Dani's lap face first into the couch, then climbs to her paws and starts crawling all over Dick. The room's occupants – including both dogs – watch with rapt attention as the dog sniffs Dick's hands, licks them, and continues on.

Reluctantly, Dani tears her gaze from the dog to look at Damian. "Does she have a name?"

"She is your dog," Damian replies. "You name her."

Dani's terrible at naming things. But when she looks back at the curious little puppy, somehow she just knows. Is it a ghost thing? A Dani thing? She doesn't know, but the name couldn't be clearer to her if Damian had already decided on one and told her what it was.

"Seeker," she says. As if she already knows her name, the puppy looks back at Dani, clambering over Dick to get back to her. Dani scoops her up and stares her right in the face. "Your name is Seeker."

The puppy wiggles in excitement.

"I can't believe you got her a dog," Tim says, holding a hand to his head as if this pains him. "We've tripled the Manor's canine population in less than a day."

"I don't live here," Jason points out.

"We have more than enough room for a puppy," Dick points out.

"You hate CeCe, Tim?" Dani demands, holding Seeker close. "How could you? She's just a lil guy!"

"I don't hate your dog," Tim denies, confused.

"Only the lowest of scum turn their backs on a baby animal," Damian says coldly. Dani giggles, growing more familiar with Damian's particular brand of humor.

"I can't win," Tim sighs, slumping down and putting his head in his hands. He turns soulful blue eyes to Dani. "Help me, Dani."

Dani cradles Seeker close and feigns a look of betrayal. "How could you, Tim?"

"Ugh!"

Damian gives Dani a short nod of approval. "Danishara and I are the perfect team. You will always fall short, Drake." He watches Tim's recovery from despair into irritation dispassionately before turning to Dani. "We will train Seeker twice daily. Titus will assist. Until she is properly house trained, she will remain in the barn with Bat-cow…"

Damian keeps rattling off rules while Dani listens attentively. He has a six month schedule planned out, from the sound of it. He's about to retrieve his planner for it, actually, until Dick interrupts.

"Hey, she still has my gift to open, let's not forget!" He wags his finger at her. "And I've saved the best for last."

"I thought no gift could be better than a motorcycle," Dani says, petting Seeker's little head with two fingers. "And then I got a puppy. Can you really top that?"

Dick hesitates, looking at the little puppy as she starts licking the pad of Dani's thumb. "Well, I'll give it a shot."

He gets up and picks up a thin present. When Dani takes it, she notices it's barely heavier than the envelopes she gifted to some of the others. Suspicious, Dani reluctantly hands Seeker off to Cass, who'd materialized over Dani's shoulder and was obviously waiting for a turn to hold the lil' dog.

Carefully, since it's obviously a piece of paper, Dani opens the edge of the gift and withdraws a thick piece of cardstock.

In bold letters at the top, the paper reads: Certificate of Adoption.

Dani's whole thought process grinds to a halt. She skims over the paper – her name, filled in as Danishara. A date of birth for March in the year she would've been born, had she really been thirteen. And then there's the guardian information, listing Richard John Grayson.

"You… want to adopt me?" Dani asks, voice quiet.

Dick nods, a soft smile on his face. "We don't have to assign a label to it. I'll just be your guardian. But this way, you can be a part of this family legally. They haven't been submitted yet. There's still a little information missing, and I wanted to make sure this is something you want." He crosses the room and kneels down in front of her, looking up at her with those shockingly blue eyes. "Dani, you're my family in every way that counts. That will never change. Everyone here is your family too. This" he gestures at the papers "is just another way of proving it. It will give you an identity, and we can get you a birth certificate and a passport, a credit card and a bank account, and everything else."

He's trying to convince her.

And sure, maybe a few months ago, she would've needed convincing. In August, this might have felt like a trap; a way to pin her down and keep her here so she can't run away. But she's holding this piece of paper, something that shouldn't really matter when it comes to family, and she's so happy she could cry.

Drops of water fall on the papers and Dani jerks back, now aware that she's actually crying. "Is it ruined?" Dani panics, thrusting the paper back at Dick. "I didn't mean to get it wet!"

"It's a copy, don't worry about it," Dick says, but takes it from her anyway, gently setting it aside. He scoops her into his arms and holds her close. "Are these happy tears?" he wonders into her hair.

Her freshly braided hair.

Dani has a place to sleep at night. Delicious food several times a day, usually catered to her tastes. Tea with Alfred in the afternoons while he tells her stories. Movies with Tim while he needles her about her past, desperately curious. Walks with Damian as he lectures her on how to properly care for a cow. Games with Steph and Cass, the three of them trying new board games until there's an entire room in the Manor dedicated to holding them all, the game closet long outgrown.

And Dick. His hugs, his smiles, his warmth, his constant worry and concern for her safety. Who brings her treats and shows her how to do backbends and is always trying to make her feel welcome.

They're her home. She's safe here. She's happy here.

She never realized how lonely traveling is when you have no place to go home to, no people to share your adventures with. She wants to see the world. She wants to experience everything.

But she doesn't want to do it alone.

This might have once felt like a shackle, but now she's feeling it as it truly is: a warm embrace, always ready to catch her and welcome her home.

"Of course they're happy tears," Dani cries, holding him tight. "Of course I'll be your family."

She starts crying in earnest then, and Dick is joined in the group hug by everyone else in the room, all clambering to offer her their warmth. Even Damian, though he stays on the fringes, like a guard dog in front of his human's bed.

Dani got her family a lot of gifts that made them cry… It's only fair that they get to do the same.

In addition to all the touching gifts, Dani ends the day with an overhaul of other trinkets. Dick, in addition to her adoption papers, includes a fancy light-up globe; a heavy and intricate set of navigation tools like a pirate's eyeglass, a sextant, a compass, and a telescope; map making supplies; and a series of clothes, all geared towards adventuring.

Bruce's gift included a large cartography table that he and Dick carried up to her room while Jason was showing Dani her new motorcycle (they couldn't drive it yet, since it was super snowy, but he promised to take her in the cave system later that week). The table is made of thick mahogany wood, with a million different drawers and compartments. The back of the desk is full of long square boxes that are for her to put in rolled-up maps. It's perfect for map-making, as well as scrapbooking with all the materials Cass gave her.

Jason and Tim help her fill her bookshelves with classics, fantasy, sci-fi, and mysteries.

Damian helps her set up a spot for Seeker for once she's house trained, then helps her settle the puppy into the barn in a nice warm bed that Titus will watch over (no matter how much Dani begs, Damian adamantly refuses to let her keep the puppy inside. Dog training, apparently, is for humans as much as the dogs).

Steph drops by later in the day, decked out in a purple Santa get-up, smiling wide with a handful of presents. She and Dani exchange gifts: Dani gives her a music box with her grandfather's lullaby in it, as well as the sheet music for Beethoven's lost symphony, where Steph gives her a huge scratch-off map for the younger girl to keep track of her visited countries on along with some harder to find records and a vinyl of a musical called 'Epic' that Steph swears she'll adore.

Alfred makes his grandmother's cookies, and they all have a fresh batch. They're much better than his grandmother's, in Dani's opinion.

Dani even helps Dick fill out the rest of the adoption papers. She gives him her birth state – Wisconsin, which she knows will drive the whole family insane – and chooses her surname: Grayson-Wayne. She'll leave off the Wayne for the most part, but Dick conviced her that adding Bruce's last name to her own is something of a right-of-passage in the family, so Dani agrees to it easily.

Danishara Grayson-Wayne.

She can't stop smiling.

Dani really doesn't believe the day can get better. Her heart is so full.

But then, when she finally retires for the night, worn out from all the excitement, she enters her room to find one last present.

It's a simple black box with a white bow holding a letter to the surface. Dani can feel it emanating ectoplasm from a few feet away, and her interest is fully piqued.

Dani unravels the bow and opens the envelope, which turns out to be a fancily-folded piece of paper.

Little One, it reads, in Frostbite's typical spiky handwriting.

It missed you. Since you returned it, it has not settled. I do not presume to understand the machinations of ancient powers such as these, but I believe you may be its chosen wielder. This Christmas, I relinquish ownership over to you.

The Far Frozen has guarded it since our civilization was established, but I understand we were only protecting it until it found its true owner. Guard it well. Its power is immense – and it is now yours.

There is greatness in you.

Visit soon,

Frostbite

Barely daring to hope, Dani opens the box.

It's the Infa-map.

With shaking fingers, Dani picks it up, the muted colors becoming bright and all-consuming. It feels like walking back into the Manor after a long day. It feels a bit like home, a bit like the thrill of adventure. Dani holds it close, overwhelmed by the weight of this precious gift.

The map glows brighter before dimming completely, vanishing into Dani's core. It's a strange feeling, something both foreign and instinctually right at the same time. Like a little blanket around the power in her chest, something steady and sure.

Hadn't Danny mentioned something like this, once? That the Crown and Ring were stored away in his core, ready for use?

And… there was something else, too. A map and… something else. Dani can't tell what it is, but she feels its presence as a separate entity from the map, a second weight that isn't quite right, but is still familiar, in her core. She wonders what it is. She's so overwhelmed by the power she can't really think about it.

She's the Keeper of the Infa-map.

Infa-map? Is that its name? Urania, Janus, Asral. So many names come to mind when she thinks of it. What is it? What is its name? It longs to explore. To adventure. To experience. To document the world on its infinite surface and draw itself to new places, new worlds. Dani could give that to it. She would, because it was her Obsession, the same as its, and together they would venture into worlds unseen, unknown–

But not yet.

Dani comes to herself on her hands and knees, gasping into the carpet beneath her. She can feel the presence of the map returning to dormancy, settling within her, content for now. She's aware of its presence like she would a second heartbeat, pulsing behind her actual heart with a gentle warmth.

Abruptly, Dani bursts into uncontrollable giggles.

Princess of the Infinite Realms, Keeper of the Infa-map.

Looks like her title isn't just a technicality anymore.

I've been waiting for this forEVER. And yet, I don't have the time to write all my thoughts out.

So you guys just make all your own opinions about the whole chapter, and I'll formulate my thoughts for next week, how's that?

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