She shook the thought away, took long seconds to find herself again. The hands were reaching down, now, trying to get her to stay still.

May charged through the forest of hands like a linebacker, violin case held against her upper body.

Up to the street. She hailed a taxi. She had some money. She was careful to hold the violin case so it covered up the blood on her shirt. Her hands wiped at the blood on her face.

In shock, in numbness, she told herself that she couldn’t be late. Her mother wouldn’t want her to.

“Julliard,” she said.

“You look too young to go there.”

I’m just going to show off for someone important, not to apply.

“Julliard,” she said, instead of articulating herself. A machine, a metronome.

The taxi pulled onto the street. She was free, for better or for worse.

⊙

Delicate touches for the gear shift, one hand firmly at the wheel, March let the car coast down the length of shattered highway. She flicked on the hazards.

“Why are we stopping?” Ixnay asked.

March leaned into the wheel, pointing. Snow and dead plant life danced across the road, tracing curious paths where they abruptly turned at right angles.

“The hell?”

“Vista,” March said. “Cute kid. If she’s actively using her power, then driving into it would be bad.”

“Bad how?” Dino asked, from the back.

“It doesn’t affect us,” March said. “Our ride would turn into a pretzel around us while we stayed the same.”

She smiled, and she looked at the others for reactions. Only Tori matched the smile. Tori, the Goddess cluster’s fourth. Tori, who had a tractor beam as a power. Tori’s was a friendly smile, not one of appreciation for the novelty of the situation. Not that Tori was really the type to get excited about novelty, danger, or those sorts of things. Not often.

Fine then.

March hit the accelerator, shifting gears. She caught a glimpse of alarm on her megacluster’s faces as they sped toward the effect.

There was a paradigm shift, a sudden lurch, and she heard a yelp. From Ixnay, the baby.

“That was only ice!” she crowed, steering into the slide. The wheels found traction again.

“Ice is still dangerous!” Tori reminded her.

She had to swerve around sections of road that had broken as the ground had resettled. More wind brought more flurries of grasses that hadn’t had enough sun over the past year, gone dry over time and now scattered in even drier, windy weather. It brought dead leaves that hadn’t decomposed, dust, and meager twists of snow.