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outsiders sometimes have trouble dealing with them.”
    I nodded. “We just call it tall man syndrome.”
    She laughed again. “That works too.” Her attractive, narrow face sobered and she looked down at her hands, which were twining nervously in front of her on the desk. “I’m sorry about Darma. Apparently she didn’t tell you?”
    I shook my head. “So it’s true? She was fired?”
    Doctor Lee winced. It was obvious she hadn’t wanted to fire Darma. “I’m afraid so. I tried to fight it but the board insisted. She was devastated. She loved her work here.”
    I nodded, thinking I knew the answer to the next question but needing to ask it anyway. “Doctor Lee, when did this happen?”
    “A couple of weeks ago.”
    About the time Darma moved back home to castle Phelps.
    “I knew she wouldn’t tell you. She was always so secretive. And this...” the woman’s expression clearly showed her pain. “She wouldn’t be proud of this.”
    “What happened? Why was she fired?”
    Doctor Lee’s triangular yellow eyes found mine and they were filled with regret. “She did the only thing the board couldn’t forgive in this facility. The one thing we warn against from the first day you join us. She used magic to heal a patient.”
    It was good I was sitting down because otherwise I would have fallen right on my ass. “Darma?” I couldn’t keep the incredulous note from my voice.
    Doctor Lee didn’t seem to notice. She was buried in her own thoughts. “It was a mistake of course. Darma knew the rules better than anyone. But you know how she’s always denied her magic. Unfortunately that meant she wasn’t properly trained in it. She didn’t mean to heal that child, I’m afraid her compassion got the best of her.”
    I was speechless. My sister didn’t have any magic. The whole family had accepted that decades ago. If she had magic now, where had it come from?
    Doctor Lee took my silence as anger. Strong emotions could sometimes block a Venusian’s telepathic power and apparently she was unable to read what was in my mind. She looked up with an apology in her eyes. “I treasured your sister, Mx. Phelps. I want you to know that. If I could have stopped what happened I would have done it. I tried. I really did.”
    I nodded. “It’s not that. I don’t blame you,” I said and she relaxed slightly. “It’s just...I wasn’t aware that my sister had magic.”
    Doctor Lee nodded. “None of us were. Until it started popping out in strange ways a few weeks ago. It started as small things. She would look at her cold coffee and it would suddenly be steaming. Or she’d drop something and it would suddenly be back in her hand. I don’t think she even knew she was doing it at first. But when she realized she became very nervous and irritable.” Doctor Lee looked up at me. “I know you understand her fear of magic.”
    I nodded.
    Doctor Lee sighed. “She fought it with all her will. I watched her and read it in her thoughts. She was ashamed that she had magic and just wanted it to go away. But instead it grew. No matter how hard she fought it.”
    I shook my head, confusion written across my face. “I can’t believe it. Darma with magic. It’s beyond everything I’ve ever known about my sister. I can’t see it.”
    “It was too much for her, Mx. Phelps. One day a young girl came into the unit. She was a stage four and had only minutes to live. Darma couldn’t deal with the death of one so young. The girl had been mauled by a demon. Darma healed her with just a thought.”
    She stared silently at her hands for a long moment, stifled by the painful memory. When she finally glanced up, her triangular eyes were filled with fear. “Why, Mx. Phelps? Why is the dark world declaring war on us? I’ve never seen so much violent activity. We’ve been working overtime with all of the attacks.”
    I frowned. “I don’t know, Doctor Lee but I intend to find out.”
    Then she said something I hadn’t considered.