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When they teleported to Matthias, they found themselves in a secluded corner of a town park. Lydia wasn’t sure where and the trees and shubbery blocked her view of the skyline so she couldn’t tell.

Her father and Lyrrekka were kneeling by an unconscious young man lying on the grass. They seemed uninjured, however, and there was no sign of any attackers.

“What took you so long?” Matthias asked. “You’re lucky we didn’t need you after all. Emms didn’t send his best fortunately.” He scowled. “Or maybe not – he must be saving them for something.”

“Your coordinates weren’t clear,” Sarah replied. “It took us a few minutes to sort out where you were and who to bring. I take it that it was a trap?”

“Yes,” Matthias said. “But not for us. Emms must have realised that Simon was planning to defect and sent people to stop him. Lyr and I managed to see them off, but the kid needs a healer.” He bit his lip. “Hopefully Emms will think they managed to erase Simon’s memory of where Drew is. Hopefully he’s wrong about that.”

“A mental attack?” Sarah hummed to herself. “I can deal with the physical damage but I’ll need Lucas and he and Nerezza are working on Marian right now. But let’s get him back to your place so I can start patching him up.”

Sarah hurried off with Simon as soon as they arrived back at the house. Matthias went to checked on Sonia then headed down to where they were keeping Marian. Lydia followed him, curious as to how it was going, and couldn’t help grinning when she realised Karen and Daniel were doing the same.

Nerrezza was kneeling by the unconscious woman, her eyes closed in deep concentration as she cradled Marian’s head. Kadoran was kneeling opposite her and also appeared to be meditating. Lucas was sitting on a nearby chair looking pale.

“They showed me the state her essence was in. How is she sa-” He broke off and shook his head. “Well she isn’t sane, is she? How is she functional? They’re right; it can’t have been an accident. Someone deliberately flensed her essence.” The mental image he projected was esoteric and Lydia had no idea how to interpret it but from the way her father hissed, he understood.

“What? How?” His face became determined. “Let’s go and talk to Tara and Carl. While we’re out searching for Andrew they are really bursting through that barrier.”

“They’ll need help,” Nerrezza said without opening her eyes. “I took a pass at it and could barely dent it.”

“We’ll talk to Sarah once she’s finished with Simon. Which is why I’m down here: can you spare Lucas? Something’s come up that we need him for.”

“We won’t need him for at least half a day,” Nerrezza said. “Even unconscious she can sense us, you know. I’d say she was very close to being one of you. Her sister as well.”

“Really?” Matthias stared at Nerrezza. She opened her eyes and smiled at him.

“Yes. I can’t tell for sure with her essence in this state, but it feels that way. And it would explain why Tara-iatia has two resonant children.”

“It wou-” Matthias stiffened. “But wouldn’t that mean… no, that makes no sense. He couldn’t be.”

“Her son?” Nerrezza asked. “He probably could but it’s by no means certain. It’d be hypocritical from what I’ve picked up about him from her mind and she’s unaware of it if he is.”

“It would explain how he has so much more power than expected,” Matthias admitted. “But it’s hardly worth speculating until we can find out.” He turned back to door. “Let’s get everyone together.”

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