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It didn’t take Karen long after she woke up in her bed at home to spot the gaps in her memory. Whatever had caused them had tried very hard to paper over the cracks to leave no trace, but it had failed abysmally. Something bad had happened to her and she wanted to know what. She lay on her bed and picked at the edges of it with her own mind affinity.

“Ah, you’re awake,” her father said from where he was sat by her bed. “And stop that. You’ll hurt yourself.”

“There’s a giant gap in my memory!” she said. “Something terrible happened… but…” she trailed off and looked up at her father. “Do you know what happened?”

“Not exactly,” he said. “Lucas is still working on the others but what he’s managed to release so far suggests that the Core was lying when it said it wiped your memories because you were traumatised.”

“The Core?” Karen frowned at the sudden mix of fury and grief that mention caused. “I was in the other world? I really don’t remember that… except I’m angry at it… a-and someone’s dead, aren’t they?”

“I’m afraid so,” he agreed. “And it’s probably better that you remember it for yourself. Lucas has his hands full with the others so I’ve persuaded him and Sarah to let one of my mind experts handle removing your block.”

“Hmm… that makes sense,” Karen said. “There’d be no way for me to hide mum from Lucas. But how did you get them to go for it?”

“I didn’t really have to,” he said. “As I said, Lucas has his hands full and since I’m officially your sponsor I do have certain rights. Dealing with this is one of them.”

“So who are you going to get to do it?” Karen asked. “I mean you aren’t…”

“I’m doing it,” her mother said from the doorway. She had the same grimly determined look on her face that she’d had when she’d set the subtle wards that prevented Karen accidentally revealing who her parents really were. Given how much pain she’d been in afterwards, the expression made sense. “There’s no way I’d let anyone else do this, anyway.”

“But you’ll make yourself ill,” Karen protested. “And I thought you wanted Dad to tell your family you were alive.”

“I do, but this would be entirely the wrong way for them to find out,” she said. “And it’s beside the point anyway. If Lucas knew was alive, I’d still insist on doing it. You’re my daughter.” She sighed. “But we need to start on this now, while the others are out. Are you up for it?”

Karen hesitated. She really wanted to know what had happened but at the same time her gut was screaming no. “I’m up for it. I don’t really want to know, but I think I have to.”

“Yes,” her mother agreed. “I think we all do.” She sat down on the edge of the bed. “Let me in then.”

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