Chapter 161: Varity Rhodes

I left Pender to his blocks with a chill in my gut. Karyn didn't say anything until we were all back in the living room, chatter of other witches now coming from her kitchen.

"That's the most lucid I've seen him," she said, hands wringing before her. "Should we be preparing for something new?" She had her coven leader hat on, clearly. But what did I have to tell her, what comfort to offer when my very soul shook at the thought of the marching, endless seeming army of Dark Brother coming to get me?

Boogeymen, maybe. But I'd felt their power. And my own weakness in the face of their massive touch. I had no doubt if the Order did somehow make it across the place between Universes we would have zero chance against them. Even the might of the drach seemed equal to their power, in a deadlock match I was certain they weren't used to outside the might of the maji. And the numbers of the Order eclipsed that of the first race of this Universe by multiples of ten.