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A/N: This week’s Whisper will be up on Saturday. Sorry it’s late, peeps.

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Matthias was sitting at the kitchen table chopping carrots when they returned. He listened to Sarah explain what had happened with a frown. “”Baby stuff? We can get some, yes, but the egg is that close? I thought it would take weeks or months.”

“So did I,” Sarah said. “Takilyan says that it varies depending on the strength of the individual. He says Tarian will likely hatch in weeks as well.” She looked over at Lyrrekka, who was cooking something that smelled wonderfully meaty.

“Yes, Estara said the same thing,” Lyrrekka said. “But in his case he won’t hatch until his heart friend is ready to be born – which will be fairly soon, actually. He might hatch after, but never before.”

“What are you cooking?” Andrew asked.

“It’s going to be venison casserole,” Lyrrekka said. “Alaryia-miria was kind enough to send us a pile of meat. Enough for every family for a few days at least. Goodness knows we need something to get our teeth into after the last couple of days.”

“Yeah,” Matthias said. “I really don’t think she could have done anything better to ingratiate herself with the families.” He gave a wry smile. “And you know, I don’t think she was even thinking of the political advantage. She was just concerned for us.”

“What’s the situation here?” Sonia asked.

“We had to send a team out to an explosion, “ Matthias said. “A boy in Glasgow. It all went smoothly but we had to dose him with the antidote and have a healer fix him up.”

“He was infected with that damned bug?” Sarah asked.

Matthias nodded. “We haven’t handed him over yet because the centre isn’t ready. Next week, they say.”

“I don’t like the speed with which they’re setting it up,” Sonia said. “Have we decided who’s staffing it yet?”

“I’m going to be in charge,” Sarah said. “And we’ll be sharing teachers and drafting in some of the retired ones to help. At least we’ve got them to set it up nearby.”

“Anyway, we think the next wave of emergences is starting so from tomorrow morning the kids are back on alert and tomorrow should be the last day of the meeting. We seem to have things sorted, finally. We just need to sort out a rota for the rescue teams.”

“And next week we start school here.” Andrew sighed heavily. “I’m going to miss my friends.”

“You should write to them,” Sonia said then frowned. “After you’ve checked they and their parents are still alive.”

“I’ll check Facebook,” he said.”It’s quicker.”

“Most of them are embers as well,” Matthias said. “So we’ll need too keep an eye on them.” He grinned at Andrew. “I noticed a while back that you have a way of attracting embers, Drew. It’s odd.”

“That is unusual,” Sarah said. “It might come in useful if it’s not just coincidence.”

“It’s not,” Sonia said. “Embers actively seek him out even though they don’t know why.”

“Really?” Sarah eyed Andrew in a way that made him a little uncomfortable.

“Sal!” Apparently it made Sonia feel the same way because she spoke before he could say anything.

Sarah’s eyes flicked to Sonia and she grinned. “Don’t worry, Sonia, I’m not going to start experimenting on him without his permission. But it is interesting, isn’t it?”

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