That wasn’t new, though. It was her first good view of it, and it kept getting more intense, but what had drawn their attention and brought everyone to the rooftop was the cloud of rainbow shimmers that hung over one part of the city. She’d heard about what it was, she’d seen pictures. When everyone at the Zayin settlements had still been getting set up, that same cloud had swept over them. Nobody had been able to get a message to them to warn them. They’d fled, but communication had been all over the place, a few people had been left behind, most of the others hadn’t fled far enough. The storm had swelled in size, and it had encapsulated every settlement in Zayin. It hadn’t been a large area, but it had still been mostly everyone, and it had included the portal the rest needed to get back.

Bye bye Zayin. Entirely at Sleeper’s mercy, now.

Presley really wanted to say something about how the situation there seemed an awful lot like the situation here, but people were talking, she wasn’t sure she could get a word in edgewise, and she was even less sure that it would help anything. It would just make people more scared.

Unnerved, her stomach twisting with anxiety, Presley looked away from the lights, and looked at the faces of the people around her, all gathered on the rooftop, watching the distance.

It was like a fireworks show, the way it was so dark but the distant lights shone on their faces. There was emotion, except the emotion wasn’t amazement or awe.

A woman she didn’t know began to cry. Children as young as five turned their heads, watching, as the cries became loud sobs and inarticulate words. Other adults stepped in, distracting children, or intervening, putting themselves between the younger faces in the crowd and the woman.

Some other adults. There were still others who looked like they were on the verge of crying themselves, and were only barely keeping from going over the edge. Like when a kid in a school play hurled and set off a chain of puking kids.

Except, like, not funny at all.

“Come on, guys. Let’s get inside where it’s safe,” announced a heavyset man in overalls who looked like Santa, if Santa was a trucker.

The younger kids obeyed, with kids as old as ten seeming to take some assurance in that. Parents jumped at the chance to herd their kids away from the sight. Presley hung back, glancing at some of the other older kids and teenagers.

Inside wouldn’t be any safer. This was big, and the closest thing they had to reassurance was that they didn’t know exactly what was happening.

Presley’s dad was one of the people who’d drawn closer to the woman, who was having a full-on freakout now, her kid standing by awkwardly, wide-eyed.