“Penny and my mom have been helping me deal with the deluge of requests for information about the cassandra sangue. This is going to be even more work. My mom and dad are working the barge to bring supplies to the island side of the village; my brother is moving as much as he can on the ferry. So if Penny wants to take this on, may the river bless her. I’m trying to get everyone warned in time to prepare.” Steve paused. “You think we’re going to lose power lines as well as phone? Well, no way for you to tell, is there? Uprooted trees can take down lines and knock out power in a whole area.”

Thinking about the cards Meg had selected in answer to a question, Simon looked at Vlad. To some degree, they would all feel the storms, but he had no reason to believe that the Intuit villages would face Namid’s teeth and claws, so why frighten Steve with too much truth?

<We should tell him something,> Simon said.

Vlad leaned on the counter. “It’s possible that power lines will come down if the storms become severe. But those can be fixed. The loss of communication between regions should be thought of as long-term, and the Intuits and terra indigene should consider how to compensate for that.”

They watched Steve consider the implications, and saw the moment when he understood, as they did, that the shape of Thaisia was about to change.

“What about radio?” Steve asked. “What about television? Those are forms of communication.”

<Do you think the Elders considered those?> Vlad asked Simon.

<No,> he replied. <And there’s no reason they will. It’s easy enough for the Elementals to silence those things if they become troublesome.>

“If used with care, those forms of communication probably will remain intact,” Vlad said.

“All right.” Steve rubbed the back of his neck. “I’ll head to the River Road Community now and make sure all the people working on the houses get everything closed down and secure. We’re using the old industrial building to store supplies except for food. Oh, and a couple of the new residents arrived yesterday. A Roy Panthergard? I gather he’s an enforcer for the community?”

“He’ll deal with problems if any come up,” Simon said vaguely. Steve could figure out for himself the end result of a problem meeting Roy’s claws. “Who else arrived?”

“Two pairs. They both said they were Lynxgard, but then one pair said they were Bobcats and the other said they were Lynxes.”

“A gard name can be specific to one form, but sometimes it serves as an umbrella for terra indigene who took their forms from related animals,” Vlad explained. “Beargard includes all kinds of bear forms. Panthergard includes what humans would call panthers, cougars, mountain lions, jaguars, leopards, and probably a few more names.”