Noah came up behind Tai. She knew she should apologize or thank him or something, but she couldn’t bring herself to let Leah go.

Noah put his hand on Telly's shoulder. He and Noah always got along. Telly was the most headstrong of her brothers, always getting in trouble, always falling into or over something. He had more broken bones than the rest of her brothers put together. "Did you see a band of light, like a thick thread of light?"

"That was the lightning!" said Leah triumphantly.

Telly nodded. "Something shot down from the ship," he said. "Or maybe up from the city. I wasn't sure. But when it did, the sky was so bright it hurt my eyes." He paused and looked around, seeming to take in the whole scene. Father Seelah was running about, agitated, talking to the rest of the fire brigade. It occurred to Tai that someone might have still been inside.

"And Sister Alli?" Tai asked. "Did she come out to watch you?"

Telly nodded. Tai felt some of the tension release from her shoulders. Father Seelah's older sister should have been the only other person in the house. "Go on, Telly," she said.

"I am," he said, annoyed at her interruptions, then turned back to Noah. "So then the light, it bounced out in every which direction. I think it singed the top of that building too," he said, pointing to where Tai thought she could indeed see some black marks on the tops of the building. "But the house is the tallest," he said with a shrug. "So where it hit, it burned. Really bright."

Noah nodded. "It was the ship," he said. "The same phenomenon that lit up the inside of Elixr and fired into Sark. I think whatever happened there, something like it happened here. Like the ship itself triggered something in the auric that reached out—"

He stopped as Father Seelah came rushing up, the lines of tears running down his face now clear. "He's gone," he said dumbly.

"Who?" Noah asked.

But Tai knew. She could feel it in the air. She knew it the second that Father Seelah had appeared, a cold foreboding going with him.

"He ran back in," he whispered. "For the children." He shook his head. "Why wasn't he at the ceremony? I told him." He trailed off. "I told him to be there. Why did he stay behind when I told him…"

He looked up at Tai, practically pleading for her to explain how this could happen. "My boy," he said, dissolving and collapsing in Noah's arms, sobbing uncontrollably. "My boy," he wailed, the sobs wracking his body.

Tai felt her own legs weaken. Caleb loved to play hero. She'd always picked on him for playing tough. But he wasn't tough. He was scared.

She looked back at the burning house, struggling to understand what Caleb had done. Tai fell to her knees now, tears brimming freshly in her eyes. "Oh, Father," she said, putting her arms around Seelah, hugging his back. "I'm so sorry, Father."

Suddenly Seelah's body went stiff, and he turned his head up slowly, a look of pure rage and hate there the likes of which Tai had never seen before on his face, or on any face. She was almost staggered backwards by it.

It was a hidden look, only for her, which no one else saw. Noah, behind Father Seelah, reached over and grabbed him by the shoulder. Just like that, the look disappeared, replaced by sobs that wracked his body.

Tai stared for a moment, until she realized Noah was studying her; then she managed to get her wits and join in comforting Father Seelah.

But she couldn't shake the image in her mind of the fury in Seelah's face. Did he blame her? What did she do?

Her thoughts were interrupted by another member of the academy rushing up. "Father Seelah," he said, clearly oblivious to the pain the father was in.

Tai tried to hold the man back. "The Father has enough for the moment, can't you -" She almost said take this to the head of the watch, before the thought of it reminded her of Caleb bragging about his position, real or imagined. "Can't you take this to someone else?"