In many ways, matter powers are the least possible of all the powers. The ability to transform one substance into another without some sort of heat or chemical reaction defies the fundamental basics of physics. It defies reality so completely that an afflicted’s ability to use matter powers is hindered by any kind of education in the physical sciences.

  - Dr. Richard Yollard, Chairman of the advisory committee for the Department of Surveillance and Supervision of Afflicted (DSSA), "On the Origin of Afflicted” (Subject to Restricted Ownership under the Safety Act.)

  Prologue

  President Gabisile Abebe leaped aside as a pillar crashed down inches from where she stood. She fled down the street behind the burning Presidential Palace as Cape Town went up in flames around her.

  Less than an hour ago, she had presided over her country from that very building. Now she was a fugitive.

  South Africa struggled after the Event, but Gabisile brought them back to civilization. She’d gathered the country’s strongest mentalists and led the people out of darkness. They beat back an invasion of afflicted from Botswana. They started a new African Union. Her country had become the first African superpower.

  It all fell apart in less than an hour. The mentalist attack on the ruling council was swift and decisive. The city had exploded into war as foreign afflicted attacked key military and civil points.

  Just yesterday Cape Town had been all well-tended shops and clean streets, powered by afflicted-run technology. Now a frightened populace cowered in shadows while the all-powerful acolytes of an ancient god swept through the city and brought them to heel.

  The god’s name was Anu, and if Gabisile knew that if she couldn’t escape, she would be made to kneel before him like everyone else.

  Gabisile ran down a side alley. Two policemen stepped in front of her. Hope surged, then she noticed the emptiness in their eyes.

  She reached into their minds but found nothing. They had no thoughts to manipulate. They advanced on her. She pulled a small pistol from her waistband and opened fire. Both policemen fell and she ran on.

  If she could make it to the countryside she could disappear.

  A man leaped from atop a building and landed with a thud in front of her. Her mentalist powers vanished. She raised her pistol but his power surged and it flew into the darkness.

  She drew back against the wall of the building as he stepped towards her. He was barefoot and clad in green robes untouched by filth.

  “You bear the gifts of Anu,” he said.

  Gabisile shivered. She was aware of the way her torn clothes left her exposed. She knew what came next. She wrapped her arms around herself.

  The man frowned. “It’s not your flesh the master desires. Those beasts who call themselves men would be castrated if they touched one of his priestesses. Join him and enjoy a world more beautiful and safe than any you ever imagined.”

  “And if I don’t?”

  “Then you’ll be converted or killed, as the master wills.”

  Gabisile gathered her will and spoke. “You’re speaking of a world where there is no free will. I’ve dedicated my life to opposing politicians who feel this way. If I die, I die with my will intact.”

  “We'll see,” the man said. He held his hands together as if in prayer and pulled them apart. A rope grew from his palms. Invisible force spun her around and he tied her hands behind her.

  Gabisile couldn’t hold back tears as she was shuffled down the street. Their destination was the rail station. People moving through the streets ignored them. She tried to read the minds around her, but her powers were still gone.

  She was pushed into a boxcar packed with people. Claustrophobia threatened as bodies pressed her from every direction. When they slid the door closed, there was nothing but darkness, sobs and the smell of human waste.

  Gabisile lost track of time as the train moved. Her sense of terror built with every rhythmic clack of the train on the tracks. When they arrived at their destination they were formed into a line of filth-caked humanity.

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  The line snaked past a pit piled with bodies. One by one, people in the crowd were taken through a door. A few emerged clean and wearing robes. Most were dragged out and tossed into the grave.

  Gabisile's turn came. She was shaking so hard she could barely put one foot in front of the other. Her clothes had been torn further and she felt shame that anyone should see her in such a state.

  Inside was a man floating a few inches from the ground with his legs crossed in lotus position. He wore white robes and had a beatific smile.

  “Are you Anu?” Gabisile asked.

  “I am his servant. You may call me Vang. Anu has set me here to judge you, child.” Gabisile couldn’t place his accent. It was something halfway between Russian and British, though his features seemed more East Asian.

  “What are you doing to these people?” she said.

  “Those of the blood who will not serve have no purpose and their fate is of no concern.” He gestured. “You have an opportunity to be something greater.”

  The man floated toward her and put his hands on either side of her head. She could feel the dirt retreating from his touch.

  “You’re honest,” Vang said. “That is good.”

  Gabisile tried to speak but all that came out was a choked sob.

  “I have questions for you. I’ll know if you lie to me.”

  Gabisile nodded.

  “Why do you reject your God?”

  Gabisile looked up and steeled herself. “There is no god. Anu is just another person with powers.”

  “Would you like to see the truth?”

  “Show me whatever you want, but don’t expect to convince me.”

  Vang smiled. “Another honest answer.”

  A vision filled Gabisile’s mind of a God arriving on Earth to guard over humanity as they learned and grew from primitive tribes into cultures in the fertile crescent. An idyllic scene emerged. Anu walked among his people. He gave some of them gifts, like those Gabisile herself had gotten.

  Then the demons came. They rose up and blocked the source of Anu’s power. They caged him. Society devolved into chaos - rape, war, murder, pristine ecosystems pillaged for their resources, filth running off from cities, more wars, more degradation. Technology made it worse, fouling the air and filling the seas with poison.

  Inside his cage, Anu watched and grew angrier. He chipped away at the wall that blocked him from his power for thousands of years until he broke through.

  Gabisile saw the new light spreading over the Earth being absorbed by all the people there. It passed through some of them with no effect. It drove some of them mad. But a few, like Gabisile herself, were filled with that power.

  Anu was free, but the demons still opposed his glory. They sought to banish him from the Earth.

  Gabisile’s sight returned. Vang floated before her.

  “One question matters now,” he said. “Do you desire in your heart to help Anu restore the Earth and its people to the bliss they once knew? Or will you turn away?”

  Tears rolled down Gabisile’s face. She knew that if she refused, she would die, but that wasn’t the reason she would accept. She’d seen a brother die of cancer. Her mother had been murdered in a home invasion. She’d seen hard working people forced into lives of poverty.

  She was tired of it all even before the Event. She was tired of trying to talk world leaders into doing the right thing. She was tired of watching people make terrible decisions, of politicians rejecting sanity out of fear of losing power.

  “I will serve Anu,” she said.

  Vang smiled. “You speak true.”

  Warmth washed over her. The rest of the grime disappeared, replaced with the softest robes of blue. All the aches and scars of her life melted away as a power filled her. Her mind cleared. She was now part of a network of Anu’s mentalists. Her family.

  She could sense a new source of power in her. The power to manipulate energy. She raised herself from the ground and floated next to Vang.

  She was home. Anu’s desires were her desires, and they were the desires of all her brothers and sisters. There would be no more arguing with politicians in palaces.

  “The Master has a plan for this world,” Vang said. “All of the pieces are in place. Anu rules almost over almost every part of the world.”

  A vision of scenes played through Gabisile’s mind – Parliament in London, the Kremlin in Moscow, the National People’s Congress in China … all filled with Anu’s followers. Only the Americas remained unclaimed.

  An image came to her. A snake in paradise. A man with red hair and mean eyes - enormous, vile, and detestable. He crackled with dark power.

  She could feel the distaste of her thousands of brothers and sisters for this man, and their desire to find and kill him. He was an evil to be wiped from the earth.

  “This is the one who stands in the Master’s way,” Vang said. “He is an aberration – physically and mentally armored in ways we are unable to discern. He is the only threat to our plans. Everything is in place, but we cannot risk moving on America until he is eliminated. “

  Faces played through her mind – agents of Anu hiding in plain sight. Thousands of them, all in key positions of leadership, ready to move on Anu’s order.

  “You are able to hold more of Anu’s power than most,” Vang said. “More even than me. You are blessed, my sister.” Gabisile could feel the love in his words, and she let it wash over her. He kissed her on the forehead. “You are the weapon He will use to eliminate the demon Unglesby. Once your task is accomplished, you will sit at Anu’s right hand.”

  Gabisile hesitated. If this demon was such a threat, why didn’t Anu strike him down?

  Light filled her mind and a voice spoke. It wasn’t Vang. It held the wisdom of ages and the compassion of saints.

  The demon sprang from the sins of my children and you must prove yourselves worthy of my salvation through its destruction. The task will be difficult, but you are my most worthy child.

  Gabisile lowered her head, shamed by her doubt. She floated out of the room. She glanced at the line of filthy captives, and she couldn’t believe she’d been one of them. She could hear their thoughts. Most would be found unworthy to carry his gifts, but some would be her brothers and sisters.

  She floated out of the room and ascended into the sky. She would not fail her people.