Four days later, Day 11 (Monday, May 9, 2022) Undisclosed location, New Jersey, United States

Navneet and Henry sat together in the room regarding the burn pool and their daughter in it. Her burns had healed almost entirely at this point. But the water churned and frothed almost violently at this point.

The doctors had all reluctantly given up. Nothing they were doing was more effective than the burn tub. One of the doctors, a noted burn expert, Dr. Singh, had wryly remarked he had no idea what was going on but that the burn tub, filled with a cocktail of stem cells, hormones, protein, and other ‘raw materials’ seemed to be what she needed.

They had increased the amount of pluripotential cells, platelets, nutrients, and just about everything else they could think of in the tub as well as upping the nutrients in the IV feeds.

Arcsa had been forced to tell them the truth. That this was magic. That magic was returning to the world. Then he sent them off to do something in another room, where apparently other injured were.

“You’re not going to threaten them to stay silent?” Navneet remembered asking.

Arcsa had smiled and just walked away. Accompanied by a squad of heavily armed soldiers. The threat didn’t need to be spoken.

Dr. Singh had also remarked, “Who will believe us anyway? I’m going to go back to Haryana and not say a word about this. They’ll think I cracked.”

A rather brave nurse was clipping Eesha’s nails despite the agitated glowing water when her hand pulled back and grabbed the nurse by the throat, lifting her up.

Ella was drowning. Her dreams had gotten darker and darker. She had died a million ways: stabbed, shot, poisoned, decapitated, and the tortures and the pain had become worse and worse. She felt trapped, weighed down. A thousand hands grasping at her.

She wanted to scream, but she couldn’t. Where were her parents? Where was Charlie?

Something grabbed her arm, and Ella couldn’t take it anymore.

Eesha suddenly moved, and Henry and Navneet, startled, stood up. Their excitement turned into confusion and then horror. Eesha was holding the nurse by the throat, her other hand pulling the intubation tube in one motion. She stood up, naked, dripping water and effluvia.

Henry looked at his daughter’s strangely alien face, oddly blank features with her eyes glowing blindingly bright. The nurse dangled from her arm, hanging in the air, gasping and choking before Ella dropped the nurse. And then she fell down out of the tub, unconscious again.

Henry moved to help the nurse while Navneet moved Eesha to the floor, checking her breathing and yelling for help. Henry quickly jumped to the nearby bed and hit the medical emergency button.

Charlie was sitting right outside of Ella’s room. She had finally convinced the Aqrabuamelu she would not reveal anything about their location and was able to do work on a connection that wasn’t agonizing. Her and Ella’s mother had been taking turns in the room. Charlie would talk to Ella when she could and work the rest of the time.

She was following up on some market test buys she hade made before all of this had happened. The test was to see if the mysterious buyer Xu had identified was just a clever copycat. But they hadn’t bitten on the buys they had made, so she sold the positions and wrote up a quick brief to Xu.

Xu wanted her back in the office, but Charlie just said no and kept turning in superlative work. Maybe he was lonely. She would still need to bring him something interesting, especially to excuse her absence.

Then she saw doctors rushing into Ella’s room and she chased after them.

They were already lowering Ella back into the tub and the nurse was being tended to.

“What happened?”

“She woke up for a moment and attacked the nurse,” Navneet said, her voice devoid of emotion from her exhaustion. “She stood right there and was holding the nurse by the neck and then passed out.”

“It wasn’t her,” Henry said. “I think she wasn’t really awake. I saw her face and she wasn’t there.”

The nurse turned to them and said, “I have no idea what is going on here, but I quit.”

Arcsa and Bahu and another person were in Arcsa’s office when Jade arrived.

“This,” and he pointed to the string, “is an interesting mystery. Zana, tell us what you found out.”

“The house where they were taking the addicts to — the police report indicates the house was stacked with bodies in various states of rotting. Almost all of them eviscerated and their livers removed. The neighbors had been complaining of the smell and everyone assumed it was rotting meat from the food distribution center being dumped somewhere.”

Jade just looked at this new person, Zana, “Why?”

“The livers were kept in neat jars. And were glowing brightly.”

“Well that is bizarre,” Jade said and then in a moment.

““They were using the addicts to purify and concentrate magic. The weak bits that are left in this world. Somehow they found a source to capture it in liquid. The lab has part of this sample and are examining it now.” Zana said.

“We did more digging. This is not the only place it is happening. We found these sorts of ‘purification labs’ in Los Angeles, Tokyo, Shanghai, and a bunch of other major cities. There was one in London, but the Wolf Prophet and his mob shut it down.”

“The Wolf Prophet?”

“Some insane human who has gathered a cult there. He claims magic is returning and is a sign of the end of times. He may have had a brush with the People.”

Arcsa threw over a print out of news stories about the Wolf Prophet. He looked ragged and dirty, homeless. His eyes were calm; he didn’t look crazy. But he had a growing set of cultists who attacked anything he told them to. His followers had even sacked several churches.

“How does he get away with this?”

“We think he has more followers than the articles would indicate, and the British government knows it and is scared. He also may have sympathizers within the government,” Zana said.

“But… but they should arrest him!”

“They should. He is a rabid dog and needs to be put down,” Arcsa agreed, “But he is hardly the only one. Cults are sprouting up everywhere. Humans will be unable to remain in denial much longer about what is happening.”

Arcsa pulled out an article from the pile of papers on his desk, “Look here, you can see a rise in doomsday cults specifically as well as an increase in apocalyptic preaching among your more mainstream religions. There is also an increase in revived pagan rituals.” He pursed his lips, “I never thought I would see the Bacchan cults arise again, they were sordid, tawdry affairs much like your current religions - charismatic leaders abusing their followers sexually and monetarily.”

Jade wasn’t offended. After the abuse her brother had endured, she hoped they all rotted.