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  It was exactly two weeks after the Bruchette bombing that the people responsible for the attack came forward.

  I was at Kathy’s, watching a story about a magnitude 8.2 deep sea earthquake in the south Atlantic Ocean which had caused tsunamis from the west coast of Africa to the east coast of South America. The news had been covering it almost non-stop for three days when the screen spat out static for a couple seconds before a person’s silhouette, backlit like you see on anonymous interviews, faded into view. I stared at the screen in disbelief as the figure ominously stood there silently for three seconds, wondering what the hell kind of Hollywood nonsense was happening.

  “I am a member of Merahasin Desiru. We represent the peoples from the lands you know as Indonesia and Brazil, whom you call the Yedrimor. We are responsible for the destruction of the French government building in Bruchette two weeks ago. Our singularity bomb was detonated in response to an attack on us by that government on the third of March.

  "Our goal was to demonstrate that we are not helpless. We attempted to contact the President of France beforehand, but he was unwilling to talk or even admit there was an attack on us; therefore, we saw retaliation as the only means of communication. We did not intend it to kill and are saddened that people had to die. Understand that, had we actually intended to kill people, we would have detonated our bomb at sunrise, which would have destroyed the entire city instantly.

  “Let this be a warning. Do not attack us. Do not attempt to take our lands from us. Unlike in the past, we are able to return fire now, and will not hesitate to do so should you kill more of our people. But know that we will only attack if first provoked.”

  The video fizzled out in static again, and the news returned to a stunned-looking reporter behind a desk who made some sort of apology for the interruption, quickly followed by a commercial break while the news organization supposedly figured out what they were going to say about the announcement.

  I looked to Kathy, not knowing what to say myself. Kathy sighed and lay back against her pillows.

  “It was bound to happen sooner or later. I’m just surprised it wasn’t sooner,” she said to the ceiling. Hearing the tone of her voice, Shadow bounded in from the front room and onto the bed, curling up at Kathy’s side to comfort her.

  “What?” My brain was still trying to process what I had just seen and heard, starting with the fact that Yedrimor were real. There’d always been theories about whether there were intelligent people of some form or race living inside the Amazon or under the seas, and if there were, why they hadn’t tried to make contact with humans.

  Theories abounded. Maybe they think we’re too unsophisticated, since we can’t use magic during the day. Maybe they’re turned off by our early attempts to destroy their home and refuse to have anything to do with such uncivilized people. Maybe they would be unable to live in a place where magic doesn’t work all the time. Maybe they just don’t exist at all and people only imagine they see mystical creatures in the forests and waters. Maybe they’re aliens.

  “War, my dear,” she smiled grimly at me. “The Yedrimor just declared war on us.”

  “No, they didn’t,” I stammered. “They said they’ll only attack if we attack them first.”

  “But they also made a claim against France that nobody has heard anything about. And they threatened us with a bomb that they say can wipe out an entire city. Nothing like that has existed since all the nuclear warheads were disarmed fifty-something years ago.”

  “That’s still not declaring war.”

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “I know that, but the governments of the world won’t see it the same way. All they’re going to see is a major threat, an unknown threat, with the power of mass destruction. You can bet that from this moment forward, they’re going to devote all of their military resources to preparing for a major war, and all their research toward figuring out what kind of bomb was used and how to recreate it for their own use.”

  I rubbed my forehead in frustration. “Do you think they can? Build their own… what did they call it? ‘Singularity bomb’?”

  Kathy shrugged. “Depends how it’s made, I suppose. If they’re really from the magic lands, maybe they have magic we can’t even begin to imagine. Maybe they have talents we don’t. We don’t know anything about them or what they can do.”

  “Do you really think it can do what they say? Destroy a whole city?”

  She shrugged again. “I only know what I saw happen to that building in Bruchette. It disappeared without a trace. I wouldn’t be surprised if it could take out a whole city if it wasn’t contained. But I’m no magiphysicist, so I couldn’t really say.”

  I closed my eyes for a moment and just breathed. It felt like the bottom had just fallen out of my world. War? Between Yedrimor and humans? Had we really started it, or were they making accusations to cause strife between the human governments so they could… what? Take over?

  The news returned, with Teresa at her desk, apologizing that the video had made it unexpectedly onto live television, and explaining that contacts at other news organizations were reporting the same thing had happened to them.

  “What’s Merahasin Desiru?” I asked, as the reporter highlighted the key points from the announcement while waiting for approval to re-broadcast the video.

  “I’ve never heard of it,” Kathy said, seeming unconcerned.

  “Why do you seem so relaxed about all this?” I asked. It still felt like my stomach and everything around it had disappeared from the face of the planet. The world hadn’t had a major war in almost a hundred and fifty years, despite humanity’s unintentional attempt at it early in this last century. And nowhere in history had a war included the magical peoples of the Amazon or Indonesia.

  “I’m almost ninety,” Kathy’s voice brought me back to the present. “I won’t be around long enough for the war to affect me much, if it happens.”

  “You have another good fifteen or twenty years,” I reprimanded her. “You’re not that close to death.”

  “Ah, sweetie. I’m chugging along fine, but I don’t really want to live that long. My body is giving out on me, even if my mind isn’t.”

  I frowned, but didn’t really know what to say to that. It was true that people could often live to be over one-hundred, some Restoratives even into their fourth decade past that, but Kathy was right. She probably wasn’t going to make it that long. That’s why I was there, to help her with things she couldn’t do herself anymore.

  “I am worried for my great-grandbabies, though. I don’t want them growing up in a world filled with war and death.”

  I smiled in what I hoped was a reassuring way at her. “I’m sure they’ll be fine no matter what kind of world comes out of this.”

  Kathy chuckled. “Ah, to have the optimism of youth again.”

  I smiled and turned back to the TV. “Well, we can still hope it won’t come to that. Maybe there won’t be any war. I’m always willing to put my optimism toward that outcome.”

  For the rest of the day, and several days after, all any news shows talked about was the Yedrimor being real, the singularity bomb, and who Merahasin Desiru was and what they might really want. The newscasters interviewed government officials, scientists, famous authors of books about the Amazon and Indonesia – pretty much anyone they could get hold of who might have any possible legitimacy on the subjects.

  When I got to my European History class that afternoon, it was all anyone could talk about there, too. I picked a seat in the room away from the groups of people clustered together exchanging information and theories, and sunk down into the chair. The novelty of the news had worn off for me a number of hours earlier, and I was left with an ache when I thought about how I would have liked to talk to Mikael about what happened and knew that I couldn’t.

  When the teacher arrived, he cut all conversations short and insisted we were going to learn about history today, not current events. I half paid attention to his lecture about the decline of the Roman Empire and made sure I took enough notes to remember the key points for later, when I would catch up on the reading I’d procrastinated on. I hadn’t had much motivation to do my homework lately, but had managed to get enough done to at least keep up in my classes.

  By the time I got home, I was thoroughly entrenched in my depression again. My cats greeted me excitedly, and that cheered me up for a while as I played with them. But when they went off for some cat naps, I was left to myself again, staring at my virtual reality computer, knowing Mikael wouldn’t be there for me to talk to.

  I reheated some leftovers and ate about half without any appetite. When I realized that all I was doing was picking at what was left, I sighed, put it back in the fridge, and crawled into bed. I tried distracting myself from my thoughts by reading and fell asleep with my clothes on and magelight shining.