“Antitheotical to Cheit’s own belief system. But Cheit’s doctrine is one that accepts any sub-sect or branch religion that is willing to agree to a set of fundamental truths. The Fallen, with some strained interpretations, fall in line with that.”

“Is that where they went?” Mayday asked.

“Some,” Defiant said.

“The new self-described Thomais branch and remnants from the attack on the compound made a break for the wilderness. End of Days phases things into desolate alternate worlds—we think they gathered supplies and used a tech-augmented version of his power to escape into another world. They’re migrating to a settlement that isn’t part of the Megalopolis and they’ll emerge there. If we get information, we will reach out to interested parties.”

“Right now we’re trying to shore up what’s missing now that the Wardens are—I don’t want to say dead. We have no reason to believe they’re dead,” Defiant said.

“Out of the picture,” Dragon’s voice was soft.

There weren’t many people here who hadn’t felt some loss when the Wardens’ HQ had disappeared. Teams had called it a base of operations, worked with staff, or lost team members.

“Yes,” Dragon said. “We’re available. We’ve already reached out to some of you, and we’ll reach out to others soon—our focus is split and we do have to concern ourselves with things beyond the city.”

There was a kind of attitude shift across the crowd. On a level, I could get it. That things were sinking in. On another level, I felt like we were already seeing it, and that it shouldn’t be a surprise—even to the point that I was really kind of pissed that people were only just now getting it.

“This is about survival,” Dragon said. “We’re in this together. That’s the gist of it. Talk to us if you need more information. We will coordinate as we develop tools and gather information that helps with this problem.”

That marked the end of the speech.

Discussions started around us.

“The war’s finally reached us,” Sveta said.

Natalie and her friend drew closer. I had my arms folded as best as I could with my sling on.

“This is for real,” Natalie said. “They’re talking about this like there’s a very real possibility we might lose.”

“We might,” Capricorn said, putting a hand on her shoulder. He’d put an emphasis on ‘might’, but it didn’t feel like enough emphasis to change the meaning of his statement.

He was usually better about wording and presentation.

Leaving it up to me to try to rally the troops. “We’re tenacious. We made it this far.”

“Says the girl from Brockton-survived-Leviathan-Bay,” Cryptid said.

“Crypt,” Sveta said. “Show a little tact. That wasn’t a good period of time.”

Weld was making his way to us, but he was getting questions from every group he passed, and he wasn’t able to disengage or dismiss as fast as they came.