Content Warning: This section features discussion of racism, racist slurs, violence, suicide, child death, and physical abuse.

Doro visits Emma after two years of allowing Mary the freedom to grow what she now calls the Patternists. They now take up a sizeable portion of Forsyth, with 1,500 members and a large population of “mutes”—non-telepathic people who are conditioned to serve them. Doro tells Emma that he is going to tell Mary to stop growing them, and Emma says that he needs to kill her. She knows that Doro cannot control the Patternists, and they no longer fear him. He admits that they’re growing powerful, taking over the local government, and that he does not want to kill Mary. Doro feels left out and explains his attachment to Mary: He wants to see what he could be if he were telepathic.

Seth recruits seconds, the actives who help latents through transition. One day, as he prepares to recruit seconds, he gets into his car and feels a gun on his neck. Seth uses his telepathy to disarm the man and learns that he is the estranged husband of a latent he brought from New York.