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“You want me to clarify Marian’s vision,” Tara asked. “That’s going to be hard with just one to go on. I generally need at least two or three. Unless…” She trailed off and narrowed her eyes thoughtfully. “Her vision was related to what he’s doing right?”

“Yes,” Matthias said. “Why?”

“Because those torn sky visions seem to be as well. It’s possible they are related enough for me to clarify them together.” She hesitated. “They are still proving opaque. This could be the key.”

“So you’ll try?”

“Of course I will,” she said. “But I’ll need to borrow Sarah and Sonia as well. I need as many people with related visions as possible.”

“I’ll ask them,” he said. “But I can’t imagine that they’ll say no.”

“How is Marian?” Tara asked. “I was shocked when I felt her wake up.”

“She’s a wreck,” he said. “I think she hates herself now. It’s not hard to see why – she may have been broken and pushed but she wasn’t actually controlled.”

“I’d imagine. It wasn’t entirely her fault but she bears some responsibility.” Tara frowned. “I still don’t understand how they changed her opinions so radically without controlling her.”

“Cleverly,” he said. “What bothers me is how long Mitakrian would have needed to study her to know where to apply the pressure.”

“What are we going to do with her?”

“We’re not sure yet,” he said. “We don’t exactly have the ability to imprison her and it would be unethical to kill her at this point, but what she did can not be left unaddressed.” He sighed heavily. “I think we’ll have to work that out after we stop whatever Emms is doing. I’m sure we’ll come up with something appropriate and ethical.”

Tara nodded. “That’s what I thought you’d say. Go get her and the others and let’s sort out this premonition before we run out of time. I’ll get Collette and Martin ready.”

***

Lydia was with her mother and aunt when Matthias arrived to ask them to help. Both women quickly rose to their feet but Lydia stayed sitting, since she didn’t think she’d be needed.

“Come on, Lyd.” Sonia tugged her to her feet. “We’ll need an anchor who has premonitions but hasn’t been having these visions. You can do that.”

“Er… sure,” Lydia said. “What do I have to do?”

“Don’t worry, you just have to hold us. It’s very simple. I’ll let Tara explain since she’s the expert on clarification.”

Tara had Martin in her lap and Collette was sat on the floor beside her leaning against her leg they arrived.

“Tara!” Marian sounded so relieved when she saw her that Lydia stared at her in surprise. “Thank goodness. You can find out what this means. I know you can.” She seemed to hesitate a moment. “And you need to take over running the family if you haven’t already. I certainly can’t do it any more.” She shot an apologetic look to Carl who was sitting in the corner. “Sorry, Carl but you just aren’t suitable. Your affinity spread…”

“I know. I wouldn’t want it anyway,” he said. “Tara’s welcome to it.”

“Good.” She gave him a sad, strained smile and looked back at Tara. “Shall we do this? It’s a while since I’ve needed anyone else to clarify one of my visions.”

“I know.” Tara’s smile was equally strained as she waved Marian to sit down by her feet on the other side from Collette and waved Sarah and Sonia into chairs. “Could you two merge while I’m getting my family’s side together? It’ll be easier to blend that way.”

“Of course,” Sonia said. “Lydia’s going to be our anchor. Can you explain it to her?”

“Ah! I don’t often have to use one since I’m usually the anchor myself but it’s probably a good idea in this case.” She smiled at Lydia. “It’s quite simple: you just sit half in and half out of the merge to help keep everyone stable when visions start flying around. Sit down and I’ll explain while they’re merging.”

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