They walked past the aging librarian without comment, and stepped onto the relatively empty streets of the New York neighborhood.

The world has changed greatly in the past three years. It had started relatively unnoticed by most of the world. Mullein's family had noticed strange things afoot. So had a small number of Europeans. But overall, the events that began about three years ago were kept relatively quiet, in the beginning.

Mullein's parents had been planning a trip to Ireland. Research for her Mother's latest paper. Their flight had been repeatedly cancelled...

For months.