It took almost an hour for the fire department to make it all the way out to Whispering Rock. The blaze had mostly been controlled by then, with every psychic hand available moving as much water as possible over to the building and dousing the fire. It had taken all of that hour simply to keep the fire under control; they hadn't even had a chance to really work on putting it out.

Raz's psychic water scoop kept leaking, and by the time he carried it all the way over to the building it was mostly empty. Lili was much better at it, and she stood right next to him, doing exactly what he was doing only much better. It got on his nerves, but at least that distracted him from how much he really didn't want to be anywhere near the water.

Sasha's concentration was impeccable and he was able to move large amounts of water at a time and spread it out where it was needed most, even applying enough pressure to the blaze the way a fire hose would, although he wasn't nearly as strong as one.

Milla had rounded up the campers at the very beginning and brought them all to the cabins. She stayed there with them, entertaining them and making sure they were safe. Although she was for the most part over her personal trauma, an event like this was just enough to trigger deep-set stress and anxiety, and the best she could do for the camp and herself was to stay with the children.

Nawrocki had left at the beginning to go find help. "There's not much help I could do here, seeing as I'm the most flammable of us all," he'd said. "I'll do what I can by rallying the troops!" And he'd disappeared into the wilderness before anyone had a chance to object.

Oleander saved his bunnies first, and then spent the rest of the time moving water and shouting generic drill sergeant motivational phrases at the rest of them. It was beginning to grind on Raz's nerves, but he channeled it into getting better at holding onto water.

The fire department arrived, as well as the police, and after that it seemed as if in a matter of minutes the fire was almost gone. Before the night was over, they were able to determine that the fire came from the kitchen- but not from the oven.

"That's weird," Raz said when he overheard the news. "What could start a fire in the kitchen aside from the oven?"

"I don't know," said Lili, who was still next to him. "Maybe the stove?"

"The oven and the stove are the same thing," Raz told her.

"No, they're not," Lili argued. "The stove is the top and the oven is the inside."

"Yeah, but they mean it the same," said Raz. "I mean, if the fire came from the stove, they wouldn't bother saying that it didn't come from the oven, would they? They'd just say the fire came from the stove. They'd expect that so they wouldn't bother making a big deal about it not coming from the oven when it came from the same exactly likely place."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Someone set the fire on purpose," said Raz. "It was… what's the word? Where someone sets something on fire on purpose?"

"Pyromania?"

"No, the other word."

"Arson."

"Yeah, that one. It was arson. Sasha's checking right now to see if the fire was set pyrokinetically. I'll bet this was done by the same one that murdered Ford Cruller and smashed up the forest for some reason!"

"No one murdered Ford Cruller!" Lili cried out in exasperation.

"Then how do you explain the crack in the glass, and the sudden fire, and the fact that he was still one of the greatest psychics in the world?"

"Glass is fragile, Allie can't cook, and Ford was old!"

"Glass is surprisingly sturdy, Allie's cooking is standard to excellent, and Ford was one of the greatest psychics in the world!"

"Stop yelling at me!"

"Okay!"

They stood staring each other down for a moment, suddenly out of breath. Raz then sagged his shoulders.

"Sorry. I got carried away."

"Me, too," said Lili. "So… I'm sorry too."

They both nodded, silently agreeing that they were no longer angry at each other. Lili tilted her head and looked at Raz- she didn't want to be angry at him. She was sure she was still in love with him. So she decided to take Milla's advice and just be there for him.

"I don't know what to do," said Raz, seemingly out of nowhere.

"You can't do anything tonight," Lili replied.

"I know, but what do I do?"

"Come on," said Lili, grinning mischievously. She reached out and took his hand. "Let's go back to the teacher's cabin. The other's won't be there for a while, they're still dealing with the fire."

Raz made a face and pulled his hand away. "No way," he said. "I'm not going with you if you still think I'm crazy."

"I don't care," said Lili. "I just want to be here for you."

"If you want to be here for me, you can help me solve this mystery," said Raz.

"Tomorrow," Lili promised, even though she had no intention of helping him. "Let's just have fun tonight."

Raz frowned, still suspicious. "You never want to have fun."

"It's been a while."

"I don't have any—"

"I do." She smiled. "Come on," she said. "Forget about this. There's nothing you can do tonight, so why worry?"

"I need to stay in complete focus," said Raz. "I can't afford to get distracted to the point where I loose focus on the goal. If I loose sight, I'll loose my place and spend the rest of my life tying up loose ends trying to put everything together while it unravels while I should have been already doing but I lost focus because—"

Lili leaned forward and kissed him. Raz shut up right away and returned the kiss. When they broke apart, he said, "Well, maybe for tonight…"

It was two in the morning before Sasha got a break. After the fire department had decided the scene was safe and the police had finished their report, Sasha lay down on the picnic table bench to catch his breath and catch his thoughts.

As he was lying down, the picnic table slowly leaned to the left. Sasha sat up and saw Nawrocki tunneling his roots into the ground under the bench.

"Sorry, did I wake you?" asked Nawrocki. He grinned, showing his soft little teeth.

"Where have you been?" asked Sasha.

"North on the highway," said Nawrocki. "I found this truck with this guy, but the he ran over my root and I was all like, 'forget it.'"

"The highway runs east to west," Sasha said flatly.

"Well, I have a rotten sense of direction," Nawrocki replied lightly. "It's awful dark at night."

"Where have you been all night?" Sasha asked. "Just up and down the highway?"

"I'm sorry I couldn't help," replied Nawrocki sweetly. "Have you been working in your lab a lot? That's more my department."

"Yes," replied Sasha. "Based on my current research, I'm nowhere near finding the link to other dimensions."

"That's too bad," said Nawrocki. "I coulda sworn you were. Are you going to be around here for a while?"

"Why are you asking me this?"

Nawrocki shrugged. "I thought maybe we could talk. You never talk to me anymore."

Right now Sasha wanted to be as far away from Nawrocki as possible, however, he had been around kids long enough to know when someone was up to something. Nawrocki was most definitely up to something.

"You're in a rotten mood," said Nawrocki. "It's been a rotten night. I should let you be alone to get a good night's sleep. Is there anything I can do to help you, now that I'm back?"

"Go back to the woods," Sasha replied carefully. "And keep an eye out for anything suspicious or unusual."

"Yessir," said Nawrocki. "By the way, did you find out anything interesting about the fire?"

"Yes," said Sasha. "It was started pyrokinetically."

Nawrocki nodded once. "I guess that means no one is safe, doesn't it?"

"Someone is trying to do something." Sasha looked up. The moon was out, still in it's waxing phase. It looked like a sinister grin turned on its side. "I don't know what, or why, and I don't completely understand how… but someone is trying to do something."

Nawrocki nodded once again.

Sasha looked back at Nawrocki. "You cannot tell Razputin that I said that. He would just get carried away with it, take it out of context. He's already unstable as it is, right now. I'm very worried about him."

Nawrocki made a zip-your-lip gesture. "Won't tell a soul."

"No just don't tell Razputin."

"What, doesn't he have a soul?"

Nawrocki slithered back into the ground.

"Now, there's a mind I wouldn't mind getting near my brain tumbler…" Sasha thought out loud. And he most certainly was not cracking a joke. You should know that about him by now.