For a minute I don't bother to use any of my new senses, and so I realize that the car is gone only when we come to the place where it used to be and silently stare at the spot.

"Kääk," says Tarja after a few seconds.
"Shit," I say.
"Where the hell did my sister go?" Rudy is more articulate than either of us.
"I'll tell you where they are if you promise not to hurt anyone," says Elina's voice in my head.
"Sure, whatever."
"That Sinikka that I mentioned earlier, she kidnapped them. I don't think she wants to do anything bad, probably just wants to talk to them in private. I'll give you the address, but please don't hurt her."
"OK, give me the address."
"You can see them by Sight," she reminds me, and gives me the address.

We load the groceries into a cab with appropriate curses, inform Timo about the change of plans, and give the driver the address. In the meanwhile I find the place by Sight.

Sinikka turns out to be a tall woman of about sixty, in a pant suit and with a hairstyle reminiscent of Hillary Clinton. She obviously has some strength-enhancing Skill, because she carries sleeping Katie into her house by herself and lays her down on a bed. She then carries Jamie and puts him down on a sofa in the living room.

She moves a lamp close to the sofa, sits down, takes some of his hair in her hands and starts inspecting it. She continues by looking at his scalp, eyebrows, eyelashes, and very carefully opens his fly to look at the hair there, looking rather comically disappointed at the fact that this particular area is shaved. Then she closes his pants just as carefully, gets a thermometer out of a drawer, and sticks it under his arm. Still taking care not to wake him up, she gently pulls on his head hair to get a few shed hairs, which she puts in an envelope and in a drawer after staring at them intensely for a while. She then sits down in front of her computer.

* * * Community's IRC channel

<Sinikka> I got Jamie and Katie in my place.
<Elina> No, you idiot: after they wake up, *they* have got *you* in your place. Not to mention that Mira, Rudy and Tarja are coming.
<Sinikka> Shit, when?
<Elina> 20 minutes or so.
<Sinikka> OK, I'll tell you what I found: Katie has immensely powerful chemical Skills, unintegrated.
<Lauri> So, Sinikka, how does it feel to have an active volcano in your bedroom? :)
<Else> Lauri, shut up.
<Elina> Sinikka, we know already, she called me and told me.
<Sinikka> Huh?
<Nate> Heh
<Sinikka> Jamie does not seem to have physical Skills in significant amounts, or chemical Skills at all. I think the only possible explanation for the fire is that he can channel his wife's Skills in some way.
<Diego> Holy shit. Do you know whether he can channel anyone's Skills, or just hers?
<Sinikka> No idea. Also, his hair has been dyed very dark blue a few days ago, but I took a sample of shed hairs and it looks like it's also growing naturally in that color. It's probably too early to know if he is getting some elemental Skills. Also, he seems to have some runaway healing process all over his body. He does have some self-healing Skill, but nowhere enough to have caused this, and Katie has about the same amount.
<Elina> Can you see what and where and how bad?
<Sinikka> It's hard to say what it is doing, but it's in various spots in cheeks, hands, chest, genitals and butt. He is also running a fever. 38.4.
<Else> These are sites of old injuries.
<Elina> Then he is just rehealing old wounds, it's a healing screwup that happens sometimes. Not very dangerous, but quite draining.
<Sinikka> Should I do something? I am not sure I am good enough at that. And where the hell did the healing come from in the first place? His own Skill would have taken many weeks to do all that, but this is happening in hours.
<Elina> Hard to say without seeing him, but if this is just a rehealing then rest and fluids and aspirin should do. Also food if he can keep it down.
<Sinikka> Elina, most importantly: he feeds on people.
<Lauri> He what?
<Else> Huh? There is no such thing as feeding on people.
<Nate> We got ourselves a real live vampire? Cool!
<Hanne> Nate, there is no such thing, idiot.
<Diego> I can't believe it.
<Perv> I second Nate.
<Sinikka> He feeds on people's minds - mental energy - all the time, every few seconds, while asleep. Doesn't take any dangerous or even noticeable amounts, but it's still scary.
<Elina> Are you sure?
<Sinikka> Absolutely. He's been feeding on Katie and myself ever since I got into their car.
<Elina> Are you OK?
<Sinikka> Yes, I said he is not taking much at a time. Just like taking a sip of water out of a lake, it doesn't really hurt anyone. The problem is how much energy can he suck out of a person if he wants to?
<Elina> Sinikka, for Christ's sake don't experiment.
<Sinikka> I'll try to wake him up and talk to him.
<Nate> Famous last words?
<Sinikka> Nate, I talk to politicians and lawyers every day, don't worry about me.
<Sinikka> Elina, when can you be here? Katie really needs an integration as soon as possible and I haven't got the Skill.
<Elina> My plane arrives tomorrow at 11. Sorry, should've told you. Be careful.

* * *

While I am trying to digest the news of Jamie feeding on people, in addition to Katie being referred to as "active volcano", Sinikka tries to wake him up. Shaking doesn't quite achieve this goal, so she takes a glass of water and throws it in his face. He wakes up screaming, throws her on the floor and runs to the bathroom to rinse his face. For a moment I wonder whether she'd used very hot water, but it doesn't seem like there is any visible burn. He looks normal, apart from having no contacts in his eyes. It's weird how a change from very dark brown eyes to very dark blue changes a person's looks, although probably not surprising considering that dark brown is a natural human eye color and dark blue isn't.

"What have you done to me?" he howls.
"Nothing!"
"Why does it hurt all over?"
"It's some kind of healing process, I thought you knew about it. Did you attempt any healing on yourself? Did anyone else?"
"Not that I know of. Can I do healing?"
"As far as I can see, only on yourself and only very slowly. This doesn't look like you did it. And by the way, forcing your way into others' mind is considered very rude."
"As opposed to kidnapping people?" he grins.
"OK, you have a point. How are you feeling?"
"It felt like my face was burning, but now it just itches. It hurts here, though," he points to the outer edges of his cheeks, "probably somewhere inside my mouth, hard to say. Is this dangerous? What exactly is it healing?"
"A botched healing sometimes reheals old scars, replacing scar tissue with whatever tissue is supposed to be there. I think that's what it is doing now. I can't say what was the original intent. It's not really dangerous, but any healing takes away some of your strength and replaces it with health, and as far as I can see you are already quite healthy and fairly weak."

He walks into the bedroom and sits down next to sleeping Katie.

"Shit."
"Exactly."

A few seconds of silence.

"We already know you can channel her energy and Skills, you don't need to keep it a secret anymore."
"I noticed when I read your mind. I'd still rather channel it somewhere far away from innocent bystanders."
"Don't! You need help. She needs help. She keeps producing more and more energy, she can't integrate it, you can't hold it, you can't pump it all out through yourself. Elina can help if she gets here in time."
"I'll call her."

Sinikka calls Elina instead, and in the meanwhile Jamie looks through the pile of mail on her table, and sends Rudy an SMS with the address and a short explanation of the situation. Sinikka explains the situation and the need to do something before Elina gets here next morning. Elina has some kind of an idea, but they decide to wait till our arrival. Then Sinikka hangs up and sits down, and it looks like Jamie and her are having some telepathic conversation. Why did she call Elina on the phone anyway? She could have had a telepathic conversation with her as well.

The taxi stops, and we get out and move our numerous groceries from the taxi to our rental car, which stands unlocked in Sinikka's yard. She is waiting for us on the porch, fear and desperation as intense as if she is facing an imminent death. Maybe she is.

"Did you follow what was happening here?" she asks me, with just a nod for a greeting.
"Yes."
"Good."
"Yeah, don't bother telling us," says Tarja.
"It's a long story," answers Sinikka and reaches out towards Tarja's mind, a move that I block.
"In short: Katie is producing huge amounts of some dangerous energy, the cavalry is not gonna get here in time but we might be able to do something, if not we are all fucked, there is something physically wrong with Jamie but it's not very dangerous, and he feeds on people," I explain as we walk into the house. "Yeah, and Community knows all his secrets."
"What do you mean, 'feeds on people'? I haven't fed on anyone for hours!" sounds from the bedroom in a comically outraged tone.
"You feed on people every few seconds," says Sinikka. "I thought you knew that."
"What do you mean, 'feeds on people'?" Rudy also wants to know.
"He feeds on their mental energies," explains Sinikka, pointing out telepathically how every time he routinely touches people's minds he sucks out a little bit of energy.
"Ugh, I didn't know that," says Jamie, somewhat annoyed by the fact that he does it without knowing, and considerably more annoyed by the fact that the matter came out.
"But I suppose you can also do it on purpose, and you knew that?" asks Sinikka.
"Yeah."
"And you can consume both energy and Skills, so that you can use others' Skills?"

He hesitates before answering. "Yeah."
"Can you take others' Skills permanently? Make them a part of yourself, make the other person lose them?"
"Never tried, and am not planning to."
"Why not?" asks Rudy.
"I am pretty sure it would kill the original owner, and am not sure what it would do to me." Jamie is genuinely shocked at the question. I am shocked at the sudden realization that if Rudy could do that, he would at least try.
"What happens if you don't feed all the time?" asks Sinikka.
"I don't know, I didn't even know I feed all the time up until now."
"Let me rephrase: what happens when there are no people within the range of your mind-sense? Has that ever happened?"
"Yes, once, when I was climbing. I got uncomfortable and eventually went to look for people."
"How fast?"
"I got uncomfortable within a minute or so, but went looking for people only the next day. Would've gone faster but I really needed rest."
"How much energy can you take while feeding?" I ask.
"As much as I want, except that the last experiment showed that I can't always hold it all. I can also feed my own energy into other people."
"What kind of energy is it? Where does it come from? We are not talking about the regular energy that the human body uses, right?" I ask Sinikka.
"It's a form of energy used for Skills, but normals have it too. We are not sure exactly what it is, but yes, ultimately it comes from eating and normal human metabolism. Jamie - can you convert the mental energy into the regular bodily energy? For example synthesize glucose out of it?"
"Not that I know of. Why?"
"Because you need it. Have some sweet tea at least, and eat something."

The suggestion is met with general enthusiasm, and we all have tea, although Jamie refuses any solid food. I didn't think I'd live to see the day. I sip my tea and inspect the monitor of Sinikka's computer with my Sight.

* * * Community's IRC channel

<Elina> I can't believe it, we have another newbie with Skills here in Finland.
<Diego> Tarja?
<Elina> No, a man. At least I don't recognize him. He is driving a rental car out of the Helsinki-Vantaa airport right now. Look at him, does anybody recognize him? He does have the Sight. Can everyone within the Sight range check him out?
<Lauri> I don't know him.
<Else> No.
<Hanne> No.
<Perv> Out of range.
<Nate> No.
<Diego> What does he look like?
<Elina> White, about 30, brown hair, blue eyes.
<Diego> That really narrows it, I am sure. Did you try to Speak to him?
<Elina> He doesn't answer. Gotta go now, gonna try to get Jamie and Sinikka to integrate Katie's Skills.
<Diego> WTF? Is that wise?
<Nate> Can you do it?
<Elina> Gotta try, or else it's good-bye, Lappeenranta. Or at least a few blocks.
<Perv> Wouldn't it be easier to take her out of town and let her die?
<Diego> No.
<Nate> Perv, would you like to explain that afterwards to the husband who can literally eat people, or the brother who merely breaks walls with their heads and seems a bit short-tempered?
<Perv> I live far away and can afford bodyguards. :)
<Nate> Perv, would you prefer to deal with her cousin, who can take command of your bodyguards and can melt metal, or with the cousin's boyfriend, who was a very good shot even before he got the Skills and obviously can fly?
<Perv> Hey, it was just a suggestion.
<Diego> There shouldn't be so much power in one place.
<Hanne> Unless I get to be the leader. :)

* * *

WTF? I try to See Timo and indeed do See him, happily flying around Lappeenranta on a plastic blue mop, which, according to the still-attached tag, has been purchased in Anttila. The mop obviously has no lifting power of its own and has been bought purely for style, so couldn't he at least buy a broom? Sheesh. I really wish he were here, in a way, but it seems kind of dangerous, so I suppress the impulse to call him. I look around him to see if anybody notices, but either the locals never look up or the people who have seen the huge flame pay no attention to a guy on a blue mop.

"Eat something," - says Sinikka to Jamie. "Trust me, you need it."
"I cannot. Biting and chewing hurts too much."
"That's not good."
"No shit? We'll deal with this later. What do we need... for Katie?"
"Hold on a second."

Sinikka talks telepathically to Elina for a minute.

"You'll have to do it," she tells Jamie, "and Elina is gonna show you how. She needs direct telepathic contact to your mind, and to Katie's. Mira and I can provide it. If you don't mind?" she asks me.

In fact I kind of do mind being in some big psychic configuration with two Community people whose motives are not completely clear, Katie who apparently can explode in a huge fireball any second, and Jamie whose motives are more trustworthy, but whose methods certainly aren't. But it's not like I've got a lot of choice here, is it?

The idea is that Sinikka and I open our minds to Elina, Jamie opens his mind to me and somehow makes Katie open her mind to both Sinikka and himself. I guess only Jamie and Elina will be doing any real work, Sinikka's and my job is just to relay telepathic messages and look at whatever Elina wants us to look at.

"Gotta warn you, I am pretty fucked-up," says Jamie.
"Tell me something I don't know."
"Before you start browsing through my sex life, remember that all people seem normal until you get to know what they do in bed."
"Except you. Don't worry, I have stuck a purple didlo with flashing eyes up your ass before, there is nothing that can shock me."
"You'll be surprised."
"I did not need to hear that," says Rudy.
"Where did you buy it?" asks Tarja.
"42d street, between the 7th and the 8th," Jamie and I reply simultaneously. He gives me a high five.
"Maybe you guys shouldn't be here?" I ask Rudy and Tarja. "It might be dangerous, maybe you better go to the cottage now?"
"She is right, Tarja," says Rudy. "Why don't you go, I'll stick around here."
"Shut up."

We all go to the bedroom where Katie is asleep on the bed, her mind disrupted, more black fire that ever. Jamie lies down next to her, Sinikka and I sit down on the floor. Rudy and Tarja stand in the doorway.

Jamie opens his mind to me, and I look around curiously. I have always wondered whether all his mental problems stem from the rape and torture in Angola when he was 20, and to what extent his usually manically cheerful disposition is a mask. I'd known him for 7 years or so before Angola, but I was too young then to assess anyone's mental health, even my own.

Wow. What I see is stranger than anything I imagined. I mean, I suspected that at least some of his anxiety disorders might be congenital, but I could never imagine what it does to a young child to be able to order his parents around as he pleases. Especially a child who was suffering from anxiety disorders in a way that made him wish for more outside control over him. And especially with having Karen as his sister, and for some reason being unable to order her around.

No sexual perversion can probably compare with the weirdness of having Karen for one's only parental figure, especially since there were two real more or less normal parents in the family, and especially since Karen was only two years older than Jamie. Except that... eew, I really didn't wanna know...

"Told ya. Stop being so shocked and open your mind to Elina."
"Jamie... I am so sorry." I open my mind to Elina and she establishes contact.
"That's OK."
"That's so totally not OK. Especially since now she is expecting a child of her own."
"Don't worry, it's gonna be OK. The memory that horrified you so much was from when she was 7. She's learned quite a lot in the 30 years since then."
"Does it bother you when I look through your mind like that?"
"No, it feels warm."

Considering what we have to do right now, my concern about Karen's future kid is indeed more than a little misplaced. I watch as Jamie gets Katie to open to him and then to Sinikka. She is semiconscious in some kind of trance. Elina gives him orders through me; I don't quite understand what they mean and can see only some of what he does in Katie's mind.

I can see bits and pieces of her mind though - Elina encourages me to look there - and they are quite surprising too. I'd never had Katie for a hero-worshipping type, but the central figure in her mind is, quite literally, a larger-than-life shining hero on a white horse - her father. At some point in her life she realized that she doesn't need her man to measure up the that shining hero-image - hence Jamie - but she still doesn't understand that she doesn't need to measure up to it herself, either. This is really very hard on her, but the idea of uncle Leo in shining armor makes me laugh. In real life he is a gynecologist and a nice enough guy. I think the closest he'd ever got to horses, white or of any other color, was when he drove Katie to her riding lessons when she was a kid.

When she was very young she'd always changed her men like gloves and never showed any emotional attachment to them, and I'd always thought that Jamie managed to earn a permanent place in her bed and become her first love by the sheer awesome power of his willingness to let her experiment sexually as she pleases, and his ability to make really good lasagna and Thai curry, but in fact he is her second love. Her first love was Faye, and it was totally unrequited. Heh, I never knew she liked girls. Is everybody really bisexual? I have always thought this was propaganda.

I check Jamie's mind on this subject. No real bisexuality here. Bi-curious, though, and tried it twice voluntarily with a man, without getting any real sexual satisfaction from it. Gaah, both cases were with my cousin Lior! Now that's something I really didn't want to know! I'd always known that Lior is bisexual, but I really, really didn't need the visual image.

"Me neither," comments Elina.

The most amazing thing is that he is quite happy (Jamie, not Lior, although now that I think about it, probably Lior too), fucked-up childhood and all the other horrors and permanent traumas nonwithstanding. Or at least usually happy and generally satisfied with life, at the moments when people are not trying to kill him and his wife is not going insane and his jaws are not sore and his friends are not pissed off.

Back to Katie's mind: she really has killed those four evil henchmen, and is having trouble reconciling herself with it. Unlike myself, she cannot console herself that she did not know what would really happen; deep inside, some part of her truly believes that wicked thoughts cause evil in the real world, and that thinking it was sort of like doing it intentionally to begin with. I think most people are prone to this kind of superstitious thinking to some extent; in her it is much stronger than in most people.

This is what Jamie is trying to fix, with Elina's instructions. The work is quite intricate and takes a lot of energy. Of which he doesn't have much.

"May I feed?" he asks.
"Don't feed on Katie. You can feed on everybody else," says Elina from the safety of her home in Rovaniemi. I flip her a telepathic middle finger.
"You can feed on me if you have to. Just don't eat all of me, you know," I say.
"When have I ever eaten you? Uhmm..." He feeds on me without any visible effort or pain on either side. I just feel weaker, and his mind feels stronger. I can see him feed on Sinikka too, and continue his work. There is a very strong sense of urgency in his feeding.

Elina tells me every once in a while to look at some particular memories of Katie in Jamie's mind, and in my own, and I get a feeling that she is comparing those with some points of Katie's mind that Sinikka shows her. I can't remember the first time I saw her, and Jamie helps me with the memory retrieval: it was when she was 4 and I was 3 and her parents were visiting my parents in New York. We had an argument on whether we should play with Legos or with a toy truck. I am not sure how this is helpful to the task at hand, but then I am not a psychiatrist.

Katie's and Jamie's first meeting is much easier to retrieve; they shared a desk in the third grade. Katie's heavy metal hobby, and do I really have to go through all the songs she is fond of? Her relationship with her parents, through my eyes and Jamie's. Her feelings for Faye. Her fiery jealousy when Jamie got Faye and she didn't. Extremely deep-seated guilt about Faye's death, and about wishing death on Jamie at the time. Not because she really had anything to do with it, but because something in her, again, is having trouble distinguishing between wishing evil and doing evil. Shit, is she gonna hate me for knowing it all now? Are we all gonna hate each other? Is there any privacy anymore?

"We are done for now," says Elina after a while. "She'll need a more professional job later, but this is not an emergency anymore. You can all relax now, and somebody bring Jamie some sugar."

I close my mind to everyone, and see Katie sitting up and gasping in alarm. Jamie is lying on the bed, silent and motionless, his eyes dilated to the point that there is no visible irises of any color, just huge black pupils, glazed, his skin very pale and sweaty.

"Sugar," say several telepathic voices simultaneouly, one of those Jamie's own. Rudy is in a total panic mode, and Katie, Sinikka and I simultaneously request sugar and water, which Rudy and Tarja run and get from the kitchen.

Against my expectations getting Jamie to swallow presents no difficulty at all, and he immediately returns to the land of the people who have visible irises and can speak with their mouths. Which he uses to ask for more sugar.

"You don't have any real problem with sugar metabolism, do you?" asks Sinikka as Katie feeds him the sugar and the water.
"Not that I know of. What the hell was this?"
"Using Skills in energy-intensive ways also uses up your body's energy in ways that cannot be easily replentished by feeding on mind-energy," explains Sinikka.
"Can't my body burn fat or something?"
"Have you ever even looked at yourself in the mirror?" This is an exaggeration, he is thin but certainly not zero-fat thin. "Anyway, you can't burn fat as fast as you need to for this. The people who genuinely have physical and chemical Skills also have the metabolism that can provide the energy. You don't. Remember that the next time you decide to borrow something."

He nods weakly.

"Do we need to get him to a hospital?" asks Rudy. "Or some kind of a healer with Skills? Where is the nearest one?"
"The nearest one is Elina. He doesn't need a Healer, he needs a damn pizza."

At the sound of this magic word Jamie's mind perks up and conjures an image of a big pizza with cartoonish amounts of ham, shrimps, pineapple and garlic.

"I still can't chew anything," he sighs.
"Have some more tea," says Sinikka. "If you can get up, we can all go to the living room and have tea there."
"Do you have honey? And milk?"
"I have honey, and milk is not recommended in your current delicate state. Yoghurt might do you good, although you are probably gonna have a diarrhea no matter what."
"Just what I needed at the end of this lovely day."
"Hope Timo found us a cottage with two toilets," says Rudy.

I try to See Timo. He is in the cottage already, making himself some coffee. A quick look around the cottage shows only one toilet, but I better not share this information with Rudy.

I decide to see for myself how Jamie is feeling. There is a bit of that sick feeling that you get when you go exercising on an empty stomach, a somewhat sore feeling in said stomach, and really sore jaws. I try to check how Katie is feeling, too, but she doesn't let me. There is no black fire, though, and that's what counts.

She hugs me and says thanks. We all move to the living room, and Sinikka brings us tea. After mixing three banana yoghurts with honey and eating them, a combination that in my opinion should make even a perfectly healthy person sick, Jamie suggests we should call Elina.

"Hi, and thank you," he says, putting her on speakerphone.
"Glad I could help. Are you OK yourself?"
"Uhm, no. Most sore places are better now, but my face hurts pretty bad. What is this rehealing thing? Is it dangerous?"
"It is a common accident of Healing, and a not-so-common accident of misusing elemental powers. Basically, just heals old wounds to their pre-wound state. Not dangerous, usually, just annoying."
"Usually?" asks Katie suspiciously.
"It can be dangerous to a person who is missing really big parts of their body, like an arm or a leg. Because the body uses the rest of itself to grow it. But Jamie is not missing any big parts, or even small ones as far as I can see."
"Isn't it a good thing to heal the old scars perfectly?" asks Jamie excitedly, looking for old scars on his hands and not finding any.
"Not always. First of all if you have some new wounds you might want to do them first. A sensible Healing of old scars usually involves doing it slowly enough that it does not make you sore or sick. Besides, there are things that you might not want as they naturally were."
"What exactly does it regrow? Does it regrow tumors?"
"Not unless one had them as a small child. Those accidental Healing processes also don't regrow any sexual things that one properly acquires as an adult, such as breasts or beard follicles, but they can be regrown by a purposeful Healing. However, Jamie - if you had your tonsils or appendix out, they are now back in."
"Oh, shit!" groans Jamie. "Now I know what this is. I am growing wisdom teeth. Four of them."

He is not amused, but the rest of us are.

"Do take some calcium supplement for the next few weeks," says Elina.
"Is it forever now? I mean, if I have them pulled, will I grow new ones tomorrow?"
"Not until you screw up a Healing again."
"I didn't do it! I didn't know I could!"
"He doesn't have enough Healing Skill for such a major screwup," comments Sinikka.
"Can I really heal people? Even grow out severed limbs and stuff like that?"
"Only yourself, really - and maybe others just a little bit - and only much slower than this. Mira and Katie have this Skill too, by the way," Sinikka adds for Elina's benefit. "This is a rather common Skill. Being able to heal others properly or to heal oneself fast is quite rare."
"Can you see all the Skills in people?" asks Rudy.
"No," answers Sinikka, "but I can see you'll be able to fly. Don't start practicing anywhere too high, though. You might be able to fly too, Mira," she tells me, "but not as well as him."

A fat white cat crawls out from under the sofa and climbs in Katie's lap. Rudy is annoyed that the cat didn't choose him.

"By the way, boys and girls," says Elina, "growing out a new limb takes 6 to 8 months, and also takes all your strength during that time, so try not to lose any limbs. And if you do, reattachment is a much better choice, you can make a reattached limb work properly in a couple of weeks."
"I'll write it down in my calendar," says Jamie. "Try not to lose any limbs. Why is my stomach sore, by the way, and how can I heal it?"
"That's what always happens when you screw up with the chemical Skills, you kill the digestive bacteria. It can't be healed with Skills, it will get better by itself. You do realize that you can avoid pain by shutting down input from the affected nerves, right?"
"Yeah, I just didn't do it because I wanted to know if something new happened."
"I think for now it's quite safe to do it," says Sinikka.
"Can I use the healing Skill to fix the weird eye color?"
"Yes," says Elina, "but it will take a few weeks, and wait until you regain your strength. You can fix the hair color, too, but of course only the new growth. You can make it grow very fast, too, but do eat enough protein if you choose to do it."
"I think I'll keep the hair blue for a while. Why did it turn blue, anyway? The wiki says it might have something to do with elemental Skills."
"Are you getting some elemental Skill?"
"Not that I know of. How should I know?"
"You'll notice. In any case people sometimes get weird color changes without elemental Skills, and the other way around. Both are rare."
"OK. I really want my normal eye color back."
"For fuck's sake," sighs Sinikka, "you have the glamour Skill, you can pretend to be a giant wolf, you can have whatever damn eye color you please."
"Won't be real, though," points out Jamie, but changes his eyes to brown that very instant.
"One more thing," says Elina. "I need a telepathic connection to all of you for a sec, to show you one guy."

Sinikka provides the connection, and we see a man driving a car. About thirty, brown hair, blue eyes, British-looking if I absolutely had to guess but could be from anywhere in Central or Northern Europe, driving a car.

"Do any of you know him?"

A chorus of "no".

"Hold on, I'll ask Tarja too," says Jamie and conjures a visible illusion of the man's face. Tarja is highly amused, but doesn't know him either.

"He is a guy with Skills and apparently with Sight that none of us have seen before. He arrived to Helsinki-Vantaa airport about an hour ago and is now driving eastwards. I suspects that he wants to see you guys."
"We'll see when he arrives," says Rudy.
"Do you think he is dangerous?" asks Tarja.
"All we know is that he appeared out of the blue and does not respond to us."
"This probably doesn't mean hugs and puppies," I say.
"Might be one of the people who gave me the offers of world domination," suggests Jamie.
"I think we know all of those," says Elina. "Just for curiosity's sake, what did you tell them?"
"That if I decide to go for it I'll assemble my own team."
"Good man. Anyway, let's keep tabs on the guy. If it seems like he is going for Sinikka's place, it would be probably better that Sinikka joins you guys in your cottage, OK?"
"Sure," agrees Katie.

After proper goodbyes we finally leave. In the car I hand Jamie an envelope.

"Here's a hair sample Sinikka got from you, I stole it from her desk."
"Heh. Thanks."
"She can probably get DNA samples from the cups we used, if she wants," say Rudy.
"Why do you think I decided to help her with the dishes? Loaded them all in the dishwasher and pressed the button," grins Tarja.
"Right! I was wondering what's with the sudden attack of domesticity," Rudy hugs her. "That's my girl!"