October 28, 2006[]
At Whateley[]
The Sweetheart deal with James breaks up to the tune of mocking laughter.[2]
Ayla gets to the bottom of her list. Beltane tells her how her ectoplasm works - it's a variety of MATD that actually does what she wants, but she can't use it on anyone else. Sara and Fey get right down to it and use a Circle of Reading. Ayla's BIT has already been messed with, possibly several times, and some of the changes apparently aren't magical. Possibly Dr. Hammond . Really no joy. She spends some time with several of the Thornies, and then goes to a Golden Kids meeting. Traduce, who is responsible for this meeting, managed to mess everything up totally.[3]
At ARC : Merry wakes up. She's now in a cell in ARC's Red Section, under the care of a team that consists of Kerry , a nurse; Kam , an overly large Samoan who is a major telekinetic and orderly; and Chris , a telepath and minor therapist. The section head is Doctor Otto , who is not supposed to be her therapist. Kam gets her untied and on the bed where she wakes up. Doctor Otto has a few suggestions for how to fix her shield.[4]
Merry's first therapy session with Doctor Michaels does not go well - for Dr. Michaels. Kam stuffs her back in her room, although she manages to bug his PDA to send messages and plants some minor nasties in the local data center while he does it.[4]
Merry gets out of her room through the door that they haven't fixed properly yet, and does a bit of sabotage. Then she has a session with Chris. Chaddy tells him a bit about the H1 summer camps. Then Chris runs into Mai. Merry sleeps a bit while another doctor tries to poke around in her head a bit. Then she has a session with another doctor who may or may not be named Jacob. Merry gets the better of him. That's followed by some tests, and finally a session with a doctor who tries to find out what she's afraid of. He eventually triggers her fear of snakes. Merry's scream triggers every sensitive for five levels.[4]
At Cincinatti[]
Lady Jettatura, Dark Claw and the decrepit Major continue preparations for a Halloween that Cincinatti will never forget.[5]