Volume II - Episode 52 Where: Cologne, Germany When: 1 month and 5 days after E-Day, 3:38 pm "E-Day," Monika said. "You know, I've heard that term a few times lately. We have a different name for it in the military." "What's that?" Cathy asked. "The Holocaust. The genocide of all non-spellcasters." Cathy chewed on that for a little while. "You know, I've been meaning to ask you about that. You guys - the Hexenjägern - you aren't spellcasters. Well, I assume you're not. No, you can't be, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to burn those soldiers. So...how did you manage to survive E-Day?" Quite unexpectedly, Monika took Cathy's hand and placed it on her upper left arm, just above the elbow. "Can you feel it?" "No, I...wait, yes! It's like a small hard lump, under the skin. What is it?" "It's a Spellbane implant. Everybody in the Hexenjägern Division has one." "So spells don't affect you?" "Exactly. It's also so that the soldiers can identify spellcasters. You all have an aura around you; did you know that?" "I've heard. I've never tried Spellbane myself, though." "If you like, I can bring some later so you can try it," Monika said, smiling. "You should be able to see your own aura. So...does the Academy know what caused The Holocaust? I mean...E-Day?" "No. There are some theories. A few people think it was some rogue witches' coven trying to destroy the world. Some people think it was a cosmic event...like a solar flare or something. The Rector thinks it had something to do with Gorod Drevnih. But nobody knows for sure." "Are they looking into it? Are they investigating?" "I think so. To be honest, I'm not really sure what's been going on back there. Rob and I have been on the road for a few weeks." "On the road?" "The Rector asked for volunteers to go out looking for students. Rob and I signed up to help." "What do you mean 'looking for students'?" "All of the spellcasters - students, staff, ex-students, ex-staff - basically anybody the Academy knows about who would have survived E-Day. The Administration Department created lists of everyone who was believed to be still living in Europe and distributed them to search teams. Rob and I were one of the search teams. We have forty people on our list, from everywhere from Germany to the Ukraine." "How many other search teams were there?" "About seventy teams in all." "Wow. And were all the lists as big as yours? Or were some of them bigger?" "They were all about the same. Overall, there were about three thousand names on the lists." "Wow! That's a lot! Did you find everybody on yours?" "No! Not even close. We're not even halfway through." "What did you do with the people on the list once you found them?" "Basically we just told them that there were survivors gathering at the Academy, and invited them to head over there if they wanted to." "And did they all accept your invitation?" "Most of them, yeah. Some didn't. Some people were happy to stay right where they were." "So is that what brought you to Cologne? Was somebody here on your list?" "Yeah," Cathy lied, carefully avoiding the subject of the murdered search team and the anti-Hexenjägern operatives. "We came here looking for a girl named Krystal Beaufort." "Did you find her?" "Yeah, at the apartment building where the Hexenjägern found us. But she was already dead by the time we got there. By the way, we picked up another girl while we were there. A German girl. I think her name was...Klaudine? No, Klaudia! Do you know what happened to her?" "She was only lightly injured in the car crash," Monika lied. "She just had a few cuts and bruises. She has been taken to another facility in Cologne where she will be questioned, and then she will most likely be released." [CONTINUED IN FIRST COMMENT BELOW]