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nearby
transports, caught in the wake of the energy blast, lost control
and swerved into each other. Storefront windows shattered
everywhere —
    Karinna stay back
    — but very few in the crowd had retreated…and
Caren sensed something wrong. Something so very wrong. They weren’t
protecting those nearby. They weren’t helping anyone who’d been
caught in the shockwave, but slowly moving forward. Goddess, this
was like St. Patrick’s all over again! She began pushing her way
through the crowd, Poe close behind. She was not going to let this
happen again.
    The smaller man refused to give up. He was
raving inside despite his laboring breath, hobbling gait and his
nearly useless left arm. I am Mendaihu Gharra! He staggered
forward again, stopped suddenly, and glanced at Caren.
    Smiled...?
    She felt his needle thin wisp of sensing a
second later, and shivered. She pleaded for him to stop, but he’d
already turned back, ready for another round.
    The large man frowned, then let out a quick
laugh and nodded at his foe with all the conviction of a man
looking forward to killing his prey.
    Call me Saisshalé, he said.
    Caren felt that voice within her
chest...a trembling restraint. Someone behind her gasped at mention
of that name, and she felt hatred. A deep and primal hatred, and a
choking disgust so visceral she felt it in the pit of her stomach,
the bile rising to her throat. She knew who this man was, hated him
with every fiber of her spirit. She should not be feeling this way,
not against anyone, Shenaihu or Mendaihu, and especially not
against someone she’d had no knowledge of. She was Protector, not
Warrior. She was —
    Karinna, the small man said. Peace
Love and Light to you.
    Caren opened her mouth to speak, but nothing
came.
    Gordan Milainikos , she’d sensed from
the man’s brief connection. He nodded slightly in her direction.
Caren found herself staring at him, knowing instantly that he was
there for a reason, and to tell her...
    Tell me what?
    “It's almost time,” Gordan said between
breaths.
    The nuhm’ndah laughed at him. “Not nearly, jinko .” He lashed out, grabbed a fistful of Gordan’s collar,
and yanked him off his feet before he could react. Gordan flailed
but connected at nothing. You’re not even close to the
truth, the nuhm’ndah said within. He grabbed Gordan’s neck with
his other hand, and stepped into Light —
    Gordan! She cursed aloud and sent
another strand of sensing energy, but it was no use; it was already
lost to the chaos. She reeled it back in and started moving forward
again.
    “He's in the next alleyway,” Poe said,
keeping pace with her.
    “You saw them?”
    “Sensed them exit.” His face was a ghostly
pale. He'd recognized something about that nuhm’ndah, that
Saisshalé...something she’d missed first time around.
    She heard and felt another tearing of the air
from around the corner, shorter and louder this time. Caren knew
that sound, remembered it from her childhood. A small yet powerful
crackling of air, the sound of someone powerful, stepping back out
of Light. The crowd...again, something wasn’t quite right. A
recognizable pang that anyone could taste from a mile away. An
extremely thin balance between Mendaihu and Shenaihu, between
primal love and hate. She spread another gossamer wing of energy
over them, reading them all at once, and recoiled in horror.
    They were all cho-nyhndah, just waiting to
fully awaken. Wanting answers and receiving few. Open,
directionless souls with Mendaihu blood, waiting for inspiration.
And growing angrier by the moment.
    “Balance,” she said, and called out. Gordan.
    Agonizing seconds passed before he answered. He wants her, Karinna.
    Her hands balled into fists. The One of
All Sacred?
    He wants to stop her , he grunted. But without her, we may all die.
    She frowned deeply into the air. Gordan,
what are you talking about?
    Gordan let out a wail. Ahhh Goddess.
Karinna we’ve got to k — grrk....graaAAAAH—
    A knife of