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“Not good,” Sarah said. “Every single one of those kids and several of their parents were infected. I’ve killed the bug and given them the antidote but it’s going to take a couple of days to get all the damage healed.” She rubbed her forehead. “They’d definitely been targeted to get to Andrew, which means that Xantaria knows your secret identity.”

“Not surprising,” Matthias said. “She was watching Emms and he apparently saw through me as well. It is a little worrying, though. We’ll need to check on Lydia and Dan’s friends as well.”

“Not Kaz’s?” Sarah asked.

“I never had many friends at home,” Karen said. “Most of them were here, since I spent a lot of time here. Having said that, it might not be a bad idea to check everyone as they get back to school. We have no idea how they are infecting people initially, so they could have targeted us as well.”

“That’s a point,” Matthias said.

“Yeah,” Sarah said. “That’s a good thought. We’ll get Dad to arrange check-ups for all the returning students.”

“And we should check your few friends at home, Kaz,” Matthias said.

“Yeah,” Karen agreed. “Though I don’t think any are embers. I would have noticed. I doubt it would have quite the same effect on nulls.”

“No, but it won’t be pleasant,” Sarah said. “And it might accelerate the effects of the tear on them as well.”

“Ugh,” Karen said. “I’d hoped they’d be okay. I’ll check up on them as soon as I can then.”

“No one’s going to be okay if we don’t stop that thing,” Matthias said. “Did the dragons ever investigate it from the other side like they were going to?”

“Not yet,” Naria said. “They’re putting a team together; should go out tomorrow. Actually, in the message Ystelyan sent me earlier this evening, he asked if you wanted to send someone along? There’s so much going on I nearly forgot to mention it.”

“We probably should,” Matthias said. “Any volunteers?”

“Not me,” Andrew said. “There’s too much on my plate already.”

“I’d like to,” Lydia said. “I’m kind of curious about the void.”

“I’ll go too,” Sonia said. “My knack for spatial stuff will help with the analysis.”

“You and Lyd it is,” Matthias said. “Naria, send a message to Ystelyan asking what time they need to be there.”

Naria nodded and began forming an imp. “Anything else I need to pass on?”

“Mention that Xantaria seems to be targeting our family specifically,” Sonia said. “Maybe someone will have some idea why.”

“I will.” Naria closed her eyes for a moment before releasing the imp. “Do you want me and Andrew to unravel our bond some more tonight?”

“We’ll see what Lucas says,” Sonia said. “But I suspect we’ll just check that the bond isn’t reverting tonight and leave it a day before unravelling it more. You’re both still too tired for more work today.”

“Is that safe?” Andrew asked.

“Well, it’s slower than we’d like but wearing you out isn’t worth it.” She got to her feet. “Let’s go talk to Lucas and see what he thinks.”

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