“That’s our line of thinking,” I said. “But I don’t think anyone in this room is going to say that they’re super happy with the way things have gone in the last couple of hours…”

“I’m not super happy, but I’m happy we’re hanging out and doing something together,” Kenzie said.

“…And it started because she surprised us with what she’s capable of. However major, minor, or insignificant the influence might be, let’s avoid future surprises. Capes keep tricks in their back pockets. Especially ones as effective and powerful as she is.”

“Noted,” Natalie said.

“If she could affect regular people, she would have,” Sveta said. “She would have a population under her thumb. From what we’ve heard reported about her and her world, that’s not the case. It’s something she has to struggle against. That’s our reality: people don’t like parahumans, even when the parahumans didn’t do anything to deserve that dislike. I think all of us here have seen that in some form.”

“Okay,” I said. “Very probable, but yes, while there are powers that discriminate to be parahuman only, there are rare cases where people with the potential to get powers can be included in that group.”

“If I could have triggered, I think I might have last night.” Natalie’s voice was quiet. She touched her shoulder. “I think I’m safe, but thank you, Victoria.”

I opened my mouth to say something about how triggers didn’t necessarily work that way—that the popular thinking was that the reason they were so hard to provoke was that the trigger event needed to match the power that the person was primed to get. That someone could have a trigger of abject loss and heartbreak and not get a power, only to get one a few days later because they were threatened with bodily harm, or because their agent was waiting for a trigger event involving fire.

But I was grasping at straws, clinging to the science and the chances of danger. Was the risk really that great, that Goddess’s power included those with potential, that Natalie had that potential but mercifully hadn’t realized it, and that Goddess’s influence would also work through a recorded video?

“What’s going on with you, Victoria?” Sveta asked. Her face showed something closer to pity or disappointment.

My eyes dropped to the ground. “I don’t like this.”

“I don’t like this either. I wish we could be on the same page about why we didn’t like this.”

I nodded.

“Sveta,” Byron said.

“Hey,” Sveta said, still in that small, sad voice, as she looked at him. “I don’t want you as an enemy either, Byron. I feel like I haven’t even gotten to know you.”