Too Like the Lightning, Chapter 2

Brief summary
Carlyle accidentally witnesses Bridger doing miraculous things. Thisbe and Mycroft swear him to secrecy and he agrees to help them with spiritual counseling in future.

Detailed plot summary
Carlyle, a sensayer (spiritual therapist) is introduced.

(Note that almost all characters in this series call each other 'they' and do not fall into our male or female gender categories. However, Mycroft calls people 'he' or 'she' according to his arbitrary judgment. For the sake of clarity, this summary will use the pronouns Mycroft chose, despite their inaccuracy.)

Carlyle arrives at Thisbe's house by flying car and approaches the basement door rather than the front door. Thisbe, shouting through the door, says she wants to cancel the appointment with Carlyle. This is because the toy soldiers have been seriously injured by a cat. Carlyle hears 'He's dead' and a child sobbing, and grasps that this is an emergency. He tries to help and, because of a motion-sensor accident, the door opens.

Bridger, 13, is under the table crying. The toy soldiers, supernaturally small and anachronistic, are on top of the table. They have the appearance of historical humans scaled down to the size of toys. Half of them are injured, and Pointer has just died of blood loss.

Thisbe makes a paper mock-up of a magic healing potion and hands it to Bridger. Bridger transforms it into a real magic healing potion. They use this to heal those soldiers that are still living.

Mycroft enters and tackles Carlyle. He threatens Carlyle into keeping this situation secret from the police and from the world. Thisbe suggests erasing Carlyle's memory (possibly via a Bridger creation) but Mycroft likes sensayers and empathizes with the curiosity Carlyle is probably feeling. The Major argues more rationally that Carlyle can provide useful guidance. Carlyle convinces them that he is as trustworthy as the best sensayers.

Mycroft uses his police clearance to run a background check on Carlyle, with the results being projected surreptitiously before his eyes. The identity of Carlyle's parents has been sealed from the world and from Carlyle by court order, implying that he was conceived in some particularly horrible situation. Researching further, Mycroft thinks he has discovered who Carlyle's birth parents are, and prepares to fly to Tōgenkyō to confirm.