Two days had passed since the attack on Accord Island. There were so many questions I had regarding it, so many answers I needed to find. What I knew for certain was that Accord Island was gone and the shockwaves were felt around the world. While the devastation was more limited than I might have expected, given that there had been a massive energy-generator tapping directly into the Sun via a magical conduit in the basement, something I preliminarily attributed to Tailong, due to the brief appearance of a dragon, wrapping around the explosion before fading away.

In hindsight, I also concluded that Fey’s insistence on that magical circle had something to do with that energy-tap, though it was only an assumption from very limited data, and that the spear had served as a conduit. Or it had been coincidence and I was speculating widely off base, something I could not rule out, not with the sparse amount of data I had.

Something I had even less reliable data on was the portal and what I had seen through it. Mrs Greene, in what I could only describe as a lounge-room with a spear in her hand. If it had been a dream, I would assume that my subconscious was trying to tell me something, but it had been through a camera and there was a recording of it, it had not been a figment of my imagination. Sadly, the recording was of incredibly low quality, to the point that I was quite certain I had seen better images of the bigfoot, making its evidentiary value nil.

In some ways, it fit, an organisation that saw itself as the heirs to the third Reich, wielding a weapon created by the Mad Painter, there was a certain logic to it. At least if one assumed that the Scourge could be controlled, that it was more than a chaotic force of nature. It was a hypothesis Galatea was spending quite a bit of computing power on, trying to find a pattern in the previous attacks of the Scourge, looking for hints.

But no matter what their prior attacks might mean, the attack on Accord Island had been the first in a series, during the last two days, there had been dozens of attacks, all around the Globe, two of them in India. None of them had been on the same scale as the one on Accord Island, but the death-toll of those sudden attacks, without the Guild to coordinate a defence, was staggering, easily surpassing the initial attack. And even now, politicians were bemoaning the loss of the Guild, all while calling for a strengthening of their national Powered organisations, in order to effectively fight the new attacks.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“What are we doing now?” Anath quietly asked, looking at me to make a decision. I had told her what I had seen through the portal and she could read the political trends all around Europe as well as I could, understanding that the attacks caused people to unite, especially under a strong, authoritarian banner. A banner like the one raised by Mrs. Greene, with dozens of ‘new’ Powered flocking to it, likely trained in facilities similar to the one Anath and I had raided two years ago. A banner that was picked up all around Western Europe, raised in solidarity to shield the people from the monsters that lurked in the dark.

“We need to stop them.” I could only reply, knowing that saying the words was easy, accomplishing the task was far from it. With only two people, it would be impossible.

“Do you have a plan? Or do we just march in and tell the bad guys to stop being bad?” there was a bit of snark in her voice, even as she gently squeezed my hand to take the sting out of her words.

“We, Galatea and I, need time, time and space to rebuild.” I admitted, getting a nod in response, before she leaned forward, resting her head against my shoulder.

“I was worried you’d want to immediately charge out and take revenge for your mom. Please, don’t be rash.” her words and embrace reminded me that, while I had lost my mother, Sophia was still with me. And if I were to be stupid, I would lose her, too.

“No, I have some ideas. I think we will prolong our stay in India for quite some time, while Galatea and I make some plans. We need a base and we might need an army.” I admitted, plans spinning up in the space shared between Galatea and me.