Behind Seir’s living self, Imp appeared. She jabbed out with a taser, and she touched only the shadow that he left behind. It swung a punch, and she ducked, backing away as four of the ten active shadows turned on her, surrounding her.

The Undersiders were here. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.

Capricorn’s walls sprung up just ahead of where Narwhal’s forcefields were, and she canceled the forcefields.

“Thank you!” Narwhal called out. When she went on the offensive, it was with more fields and projectiles, less intent on Seir himself, and more intent on cutting through the cords that arced up into the air and down into the ground. Seir’s numbers began to decrease.

A localized storm of power came tearing at us from an angle, like a tornado, but less of a cone and more of a sphere, with a bright green tint toward the center. Narwhal had to stop her offensive to layer forcefields between herself and the sphere.

One of Parian’s stuffed animals marched out into the field just beyond the trees, and was immediately swarmed with three Seirs.

“I know I should, but—” Sveta said.

“It’s fine,” I said. After Ashley, I wasn’t about to push Sveta to test a boundary. I hadn’t known Ashley’s boundary had been as tenuous as it was. I had more of an idea with Sveta. I wanted to jump into the fray, but I wasn’t sure what I could do.

Rain groaned, to my right. I turned my attention to him—one cape was helping him to stand.

“Do you know Seir?” I asked.

“He’s an asshole,” Rain said.

“We can’t seem to touch him. He just dodged an attack from behind,” I said.

“What color are his eyes?” Rain asked, too battered and out of it to really stand or focus on the fighting.

“Yellow,” Bay called out.

“He teams up with another cape in the family, they’ll be someone in the background with glowing eyes.”

Narwhal began attacking with a different angle, aiming at one of the farmhouses. Seir’s real self twisted around to look.

Rain filled us in, in a voice that made it obvious he was still hurting from his fight with Snag. “That’s Ahrima. She gives him danger sense and boosted perceptions by giving up hers. She was supposed to be one of Mama’s helpers, she traded and paid for capes who could protect her if she needed it, but Ahrima didn’t work for her. We still kept her around for others. Get him while she’s distracted.”

Narwhal’s focus was on keeping the thinker-augment Fallen on their heels. I looked at the battlefield.

“Vista!” I called out. “Open space to the right! Keep gunfire away!”

“Yep!” I heard.