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"Exactly," Anyan said "There’s power hidden in Rockabill--great power It would be slightly masked by Nell’s presence And if it is the power fron, we haven’t truly recognized it But still it calls to us, power to power"

We all sat in silence for a few seconds, conte Anyan’s words It’s not every day that you discover your "choices" ht have actually beenby forces outside of your control

"So what’s the power?" I asked, eventually

Anyan shrugged "We don’t know, exactly But that nursery rhy strong And sootten all that froue"

"No," Anyan said "Blondie’s been chasing up thisus She wanted to use us as her invitation into Rockabill She’d narrowed down her search to places like Rockabill--coastal cities with disproportionately large concentrations of supernaturals, and had been going down the list"

I frowned,at the word "list"

"Why didn’t she just introduce herself?" I wondered out loud

"I asked her that She said that she needed to know she could trust us before she told us what she wanted If she’d just knocked on Nell’s door, Nell would have booted her into Canada, as a powerful stranger So Blondie wanted to suss us out, make sure ere on the level, tell us what she wanted, and then use our help figuring out if Rockabill really does house the power the nursery rhyme talks about If she’d just told us, and ere both evil and really sitting on the right site, she’d have had a hard tiht of the ti Yeah, she seemed on the level, and I could see that Anyan and my other friends clearly trusted her But why?

Before I could air hts: "But then you were attacked," she said, solemnly

"Yes And Blondie thinks they’re connected," Caleb rumbled

I looked up sharply "What?"

"Think about it," Anyan said "Blondie’s not the only person as looking for that "

"What does the war have to do with it?" I asked, confused

"What does every war need?" Anyan asked, clearly rhetorically I’d noticed that the barghest, while nor speech Unfortunately, he wasn’t talking to a cabal of ists, and we liked to mess with him So before he could finish his own question, we’d jumped in to "help"

"A punchy code name?" I hazarded

"Fabulous uniforms!" Iris blurted out

"Bulletproof jockstraps," stated Caleb, getting into the spirit of things Iris had obviously brought out the playful side of the normally serious satyr No wonder he liked her so

In thein the circle--including the kelpie, with her eye-level pony view--all turned as one to look at the satyr’s package Undaunted, he reaffirmed his opinion

"Definitely bulletproof jockstraps"

"Yeah, ue"

"And an army," I added, helpfully

"And food Don’t armies march on their stomachs?" said Areed