A Light Shining in Darkness 2

Written almost entirely in Japan, interestingly enough. Not sure if that made any significant change in my writing. I do know now, though, that I really want to see Bethany and Marian Hawke in yukatas. More notes at the end. Enjoy!

Some notes:

1) Leliana's hoodie is a programming joke, which I've got sumenya to thank for. It's read "hip hip array".

2) I'm probably expanding the urgency of the rifts here a bit from the game, where they never felt like a real threat. In a modern setting, they'd probably be a bit more dangerous due to how interconnected and volatile our civilisation is, and I'm still upping the number of rifts. Bethany better get to work soon, eh?

3) As I've stated before, I'm using the unit thaum with the appropriate SI prefixes to measure mana and magical energy. Assume that 1 MP in game = 1 kT here. I'm not entirely sure on the proportions of the Vyrantium bomb -- Fat Man and Little Boy, the atomic bombs detonated over Nagasaki and Hiroshima, had a blast yield of 21 respectively 15 kilotons (kt). By contrast, the experimental Tsar Bomba -- to this date the most destructive device constructed by man -- had a theoretical maximum blast yield of 100 megatons, which is a LOT more. Thaumic weapons underwent similar developments as far as their blast yield or explosive force is concerned, but retained a fairly constant magical energy. No one likes marching into a bombed city to discover you've grown an additional toe, your mate's skin gone green and things are falling in the wrong direction. I'd like your thoughts on this.