“Like I’ve said for the past two times Ed, I don’t know nothin’ about any fireman, least of all one who can start and put out fires willy nilly,” a balding man in a suit said to the elderly man who had started the fire unwittingly.

“Well he claimed he was a fireman, Tom, and knew too much about those damn Turner kids, nodding his head like he was in on the whole fire fiasco they pranked me with!” Ed shouted at Tom, shaking his finger in his face. Tom sighed and used a hand to put Ed’s finger back by his side.

“If you see him again, direct him my way and we can have this conversation again, but for now will you let me continue to address the town Ed? We have people who are currently homeless standing in the cold waiting for your tantrum to be over,” Tom patiently explained to Ed, who finally seemed to notice the crowd that had formed around the entrance to the church. To Cain’s surprise, he immediately left the steps the pair were standing on with a snort and joined the front of the crowd.

“Ahem, like I was sayin,’ I have spoken to Father Ferdinand and he had no problem shelterin’ those of you who lost their homes for the night. If anyone besides Ed has any information on the how or why that fire started, come speak to me. Otherwise, may y'all have a good rest of your night.”

There were a few awkward claps to commemorate the end of Tom’s speech, but given that it was more of a casual work email letting one know they would have to come in on the weekend, it made sense the whole town wasn’t erupting in cheer. A disturbingly large number of people started filing into the church after Tom moved out of the way, and it saddened Cain to see that, but he knew that he wasn’t responsible for the fire. He was however quickly being approached by the person that was.

“You! Fireman! Stop right there!” Ed shouted as he fast-walked towards Cain. The last part was unnecessary as Cain wasn’t moving or making any attempts to escape the nearing conversation. Tom saw where Ed was going and hurried after him to try and mitigate the damage the old man would inevitably deal if left unchecked.

“Now what do you think you’re doing, prancing about like you own the place? I’ll have you know I have friends in the force, and they can lock you up faster than you can say ‘I’m innocent’,” Ed began in a tirade. Tom shut him off with a hand that clamped down on his shoulder with a meaty thwack.

“Gentlemen, I apologize for my friend here Ed’s rude behavior, it’s not like him to aggress someone so, but y’all can understand that it’s been somewhat of a stressful night,” Tom ameliorated.

“Tom, right?” A nod. “No problem Tom, I understand that with what’s been happening people’s nerves are getting to them, no harm done,” Cain said once being given the chance to speak, offering a smile to both Tom and Ed.

“No problem? Oh I’ll show you a problem you-you damn-”

“Ed! Stop trying to rile up the man and how about you take a minute to listen to what’s goin’ on for once?” Tom chastised. “I really must apologize once again, but Ed here does have a point in that you must have been involved in the fire in some way, ain’t that right?”

“Not involved in the beginning so much as just in the end. I caught Ed running away from the fire a few minutes ago and managed to figure out how to stop it, but you might not believe me if I tell you. Hell, even I barely believe it,” Cain explained to Tom.

“Don’t listen to him Tom! He’s clearly trying to cover for those Turner kids! Why, when I see them again they’re gonna get it!”

Ignoring Ed’s outburst, Tom asked, “Well it’s been a hell of a night, I’d at the least hear you out, if you’d be willin’ to talk?”

Cain nodded and explained to Tom who listened patiently, Ed who looked exasperated, and Joe who had stood in silent interest this whole time how he found Ed, figured out he started the fire, and was able to convince him to stop the fire.

“You just...asked the fire to stop?” Tom asked Ed, a confused look on his face.

“Yes Tom, I just talked to the fire and it listened,” Ed responded sarcastically. “It was clearly some trick with smoke and mirrors and remote-controlled lighters that made it all possible!” He finished with a smug look on his face.

“Nothing electronic has been working for the past few hours, no elaborate trick like that could have happened the way you’re describing,” Cain retorted.

“The past few hours? I noticed nobody had their lights on but I thought that the fire had just blown a transformer somewhere…” Tom began but trailed off in thought.

“Well, that actually is true, I woke up because the AC in my house had turned off...alright, I’m willing to accept that you didn’t cause the fire. But if you didn’t, then who did?” Ed asked Cain, partly mollified from his own internal logic.

“Well that leads me to offer you two a strange solution: ask for your Numerals,” Cain said without further explanation.

The two suddenly seemed to be holding empty air, in a manner like they had been holding it for the entirety of the conversation. Caught up in the shock of something completely illogical and unexplainable happening to the two, Cain gave them a minute to sort their thoughts. He looked at Joe who gave him a wink and continued to stand there silently. Shaking his head, Cain left his companion to his own devices and took a look at the night sky. Familiar constellations such as Andromeda and Pisces stood out to him, but nothing on Earth was as reassuringly similar.

“Come to think of it, I never got to know your name, you mind sharin’?” Tom asked with an offered hand.

“Cain,” he answered along with a firm handshake.

“Well then Cain, you mind explainin’ what you know?” Tom asked, and even Ed looked up from his empty hands interestingly.

Cain gave the same speech he gave Joe, Brian, and Rose back at Lookout Pass. Tom and Ed listened carefully, not interrupting except for a couple of scoffs from Ed at certain points.

“And this Origin, you just used it and it changed your body? How could you just trust in this,” Tom shook a fistful of empty air, “Numeral so easily?”

“At the time I was bleeding and in pain, missing part of my leg, and was thinking of anything that would help me survive,” Cain answered calmly, not explaining what took a bite of premium human flesh from him.

“Well assuming all of this is true, and that right now is a big if, how do you propose that explains the fire Ed started?” Tom countered, drawing an angry shout from Ed.

“Well if the Elements affect the body in some way, then as crazy as this sounds, I’m thinking that the Ordinals might be some kind of...superpower,” Cain said, cringing internally from how such unserious words were being used in a serious conversation.

“Thick skin, creating fire with your mind, well this night can’t get much crazier, can it?” Tom began to laugh, finding something about this amusing.

“So you’re telling me that I started the fire because I wanted fire, and stopped it because I no longer wanted it? What kind of madness is that!” Ed accused Cain.

What kind of madness indeed. This whole night had been madness from the moment Cain crashed his car up until the very last word Ed just uttered. And the madness didn’t seem to have any inclination to let up. The same way Cain trusted in his intuition with putting Origin in his Arc, he trusted his gut now. And it was telling him to summon fire. To summon heat. But not the kind of raging, uncontrolled fire that Ed summoned. Something local, something controlled, but also something that would provide undeniable proof that his words rang true. Cain gave in to the madness, just for a second, just for a quick snap of the fingers.

And hovering above his thumb was a small wisp of flame. A small little thing, the likes of which would come out of a lighter. But there was none in sight, just his hand and the tiny glimpse of magic floating above it.

Tom stopped laughing, Ed lost his semi-permanent look of superiority he sported during the whole conversation, even Joe lost his silent cool and widened his eyes at the sight. Cain didn’t know it would work. He had no way of knowing. But he felt it would work, so he just snapped his fingers and wanted there to be a little flame above his hand. And so there it was. He didn’t feel any heat from it even though it was all but touching his skin.

“Wha-but...huh?” Ed spluttered.

“Alright Cain, you’ve convinced me. We’ll take all of what you’ve said as true and work from there. But now I have something else I’m worried about. All them people in the church, all them people back in their homes, how many of them do you think would do the same as Ed if they get cold? How many do you think will also cause fire to appear?” Tom let the implications of what he was saying sink in for a moment before continuing.

“I don’t know y’all, and y’all don’t know me, but as Mayor of this here small town I’m asking you two gentlemen to help me round up the town again and show them what you showed me. Help me prevent another fire from starting. Help me save them,” Tom pleaded.

“You don’t need to ask so seriously, of course we’ll help you Tom, right Joe?” Cain asked his friend, trying to encourage him to say at least one word.

Joe grunted in response. Cain dismissed his flame with a thought in annoyance at his friend continuing to refuse to participate in the conversation.

“Bless you, bless you both. Y’all hurry up now, might be a small town but there’s only four of us. Get the townsfolk to help you call their neighbors if you can, it’ll speed it up. That all goes for you too Ed, get those hands knockin’ on doors!”

At that, the four of them split up and began to go in different directions of the town. Tom however, went into the church, presumably to make sure nothing wrong happened until the town gathered for the second time that night. Cain saw Joe run off and internally promised to have words with him about the lack of backup with Tom and Ed.

The first couple houses Cain visited were empty, and only on the third did he get a response. A man with sideburns opened the door slowly, only opening as far as its door chain allowed. After seeing Cain’s face, he closed the door and re-opened it fully after an audible click. The man was in his pajamas, something quite normal at this time of night, but was holding a crowbar, which was not so normal. The man caught Cain staring and explained, “for protection, you know?” Cain did not know.

“Protection from what?”

“From the wolves? Hey, I don’t think I’ve seen you around here, you’re not a local are you?” The man said, suspicion in his voice.

“That’s right, I’m from out of state, but Tom asked me to get everyone back to the church, something new has come up,” Cain explained.

“Something else? We’ve already woken up once, if it isn’t something as big as a fire I’m going to give Tom a piece of my mind,” the man started muttering.

“Oh don’t worry about us, we’ll get going soon. You have more doors to knock on, right? Ha!”

The man waved Cain off and he took his cue to leave. Over a dozen people left the house a minute later, far more than could normally fit inside. Considering the empty houses and the crowbar, families must have all crowded into one nearby house for safety. Cain and Joe must have missed that part of the speech, only walking in on the argument between Tom and Ed. He found it strange that there wasn’t that much panic however. Spontaneously erupting fires, dangerous wildlife prowling on the townsfolk, the failure of every electronic in at least a 20 mile radius, and everyone was calm and collected. It was suspicious.

The rest of the town was equally as empty, with only a couple families having elected not to go to another’s house for the night. Most had various kinds of weapons they were holding when they streamed towards the church, and some even elected to help Cain gather the rest of the town. It probably took a scarce half hour to go through the Southern part of town, below the I-90 that intersected it. Frank would have been proud of the teamwork and camaraderie the town showed off while gathering itself. Cain was only mildly impressed and thankful others were helping him with the work.

The street surrounding the church was far more crowded this time around, meaning that a good portion of the town had already when Cain and Joe showed up. It showed amazing organization on the town’s part to operate so smoothly without electronic communication. Cain made his way through the crowd to the entrance of the church, where Tom was comforting a family. Excusing himself when he saw Cain approach, he began to address the town, with the final stragglers coming within earshot alongside Cain.

“I know y’all just want to go back to your homes and sleep in your beds, but tonight has been somewhat of an emergency. Well, we actually have some information about the fire which I decided must be shared now, and couldn’t wait until the morning. I’d like to introduce Cain, who has volunteered to explain what is going on, and give a demonstration. Cain, if you will.”

“Thanks Tom. Ahem, hello everyone, thanks for dealing with all of this and being here when we called. I’d like to explain what is going on in general, and more specifically how tonight’s fire started, and how we can avoid it happening again. Now, you may not believe me…”