Cindy sat on her cot trying to figure a way to escape. Rochelle had been moved from her cell a day before. The guards, the two large men, who brought her here, came at night. They would check on her and then leave. A woman brought her food twice a day and a group of men cleaned her cell once a day. They never talked or looked at her. Each had the same dreamy and frozen look on their faces. She tried to talk to the young woman who brought her food. She was a brunette and she looked to be the same age as her. But when Cindy tried to speak to her she didn't say anything. It was like talking to a robot. Except, Cindy thought, the last time she brought her breakfast and Cindy said, "Hello." She gave her a small nod.

The next day another person was brought into the jail. It was an older man who had a beleaguered look to his face. He didn't understand why he was brought here. The two burly guards pushed him into the cell.

"I should not be in here. I am an American citizen."

Cindy noticed the man had a magical rope tied around him like she did when she first came here.

"Get in there," the jailer said. "The Council wants to talk to you."

Cindy, for the first time, noticed the bars of her cell glowed a little. The man's cell also glowed. These prison cells were made for magical people like her.

They placed the older man in the cell directly across from her own prison. He grabbed the bars and shook his head. He wore a torn up blue suit with a stained white shirt. He looked as if he was a teacher or professor at a college.

The man saw her and said, "Hello."

"Hi," Cindy said.

"How long have you been in here?"

Cindy was not sure but she said, "I think for several days."

"Great," the man said. "I don't understand why they bound me in this rope. I can get out of it without trouble."

She said, "The rope is for your magic. What can you do?"

"How did you know?" The man gazed at her and then squinted. He absently placed a finger close to his head like he was pushing up the frame of glasses. "It's funny,” he said. “I had to wear glasses since I was a teenager and then after the earthquake I have perfect vision. Sorry, I have not introduced myself. My name is Robert Lang."

"My name is Cindy Paulson. And to answer your former question I knew you have magic because I have magic myself. And this is the reason why you are not in a trance like the others."

Robert said, "I can read minds and also talk to animals. It was odd at first. I survived those Grog creatures by listening to rats and mice."

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Cindy nodded. "I seem to affect water and use it as a weapon."

"Wow, I would like to see that."

They were silent for a while.

Cindy said, "What did you do before the earthquake?"

"I, well, it's hard to explain."

"Tell me. We have time."

"I worked for the government. I analyzed and created reports for threat assessments on the American people."

"Are you with the CIA or Homeland security?"

"Well, it does not matter. I officially worked for NSA but I directly reported to certain high-ranking officials. But all this doesn’t matter now."

"Did you know this was going to happen?"

"No. But there are layers of secrets that I am not supposed to know."

"But you do."

"Cindy, how do I know that you aren’t here to spy on me?"

"You’re paranoid," Cindy said. "You have to trust me. I would not be part of a government cover-up."

Cindy gazed at him and looked away out toward the jail cell's window. The only thing she saw from here was an alleyway and a partially destroyed wall.

Robert said, "Well, I don't have any choice. They will probably torture me and get the info."

She shook her head. "You don't understand. None of that matters. Look around you. People are changing into beasts and we have magic, real magic."

Cindy fell silent. She looked down at her hands. If she could use her magic, she could free the people enraptured by the Council. She knew she had the power to do so and looking at Robert she could see he was thinking the same thing.

She said, "We need to help these people. They are trapped by beasts."

"The Council," Robert said.

"Yes," Cindy said. "You knew about them before."

Robert sighed and then nodded his head. He looked around the cell.

"Before all this happened I was reading a top secret report about something underground. Some type of government facility that housed some type of energy. And this Council was trying to find it."

She gazed at him and saw not a regular person, but a man who was the keeper of secrets, who only spoke to clandestine circles not divulging anything, but Robert had a wary look to him as if the years had not been kind to him.

He said, "I didn't pay attention to this at first. We had other terrorist reports more pertinent to my superiors. But I noticed the CIA and NSA were devoting a lot of men and time to find this Council. I thought it was odd."

Cindy wanted to ask him questions, but she feared if she did he would stop talking.

"I could have stopped this, all of this."

"No, you couldn't," she said. "The earthquake was a natural happening."

Robert said, "You had a necklace, a stone that glowed."

"What? How do you know about that?"

"I accidentally found and opened them. But I am getting ahead of myself. I knew you were one of the Alpha mages. I don't need to read your mind to see your magic."

"Wait, you knew all this was going to happen?"

Robert shook her head. "Alas, I did not know. I was visited by somebody, but you would not believe me if I told you."

Cindy said, "If you told me it was aliens, I would believe you. All the crazy things that have happened are like being in a Grimm's Fairytale."

He said, "It was not aliens, but they were mistaken for aliens for eons. I was visited by the elves."

"Elves, you mean people with pointed ears like in Lord of the Rings movies?"

Robert shook his head. "Well, they don't have pointed ears. But they are taller than us and they look different."

"So, why did they visit you?"

"I have asked myself that question many times in the last few days. I think I was the only person who could find the stones."

Cindy sat back on her cot, wondering what was going to happen next.