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Inner Sanctum First Floor | 11:00 AM | Third Day
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rational!" She retorted, pointing at him. "Perhaps you''ve become comfortable over the course of the past two hours, but need I remind you that the last time we left the briefest window for them to act, they took one of our classmate''s life. I''m frightened for Lilith and her mother, but we need to act prudently for _everyone''s_ sake!"
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prudence?"
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Dead meat?" Seth echoed incredulously. Off to the side, Kamrusepa''s expression flattened slightly, as if she was suddenly embarrassed to be associated with this level of inhumane apathy, despite her own feelings.
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And I was feeling kinda proud of myself for coming up with that idea on the spur on the moment, too.
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gone, and not being even able to verify what happened.
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Su!" Kam said, so taken aback she almost sounded hurt.
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gods."
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I were the culprit, the most logical course of undermining that would have been to use Mehit and Lilith''s absence to divide us.
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was a sound, albeit a quiet one, coming from further to our north. It was a... Scuffing, or maybe a scraping noise, so regular that you could mistake it for a machine if you weren''t paying attention. But hearing it closely, there was an organic quality to it as well, something twitchy and labored.
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Futilely clawing, I should add, since they barely had claws to begin with, producing only weak scrapes and making no progress towards their presumed goal of tearing through. It felt like a grotesque echo of the sort of behavior you''d see from a dog excited at the front door as their owner returned home, their movements unceasing and hyper-focused in a manner that was clearly unnatural. They didn''t seem to notice, or were at least apathetic to, our presence.
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Goddammit. I knew we should have tracked them down first..."
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that,- you doofus. I mean-- Why are they throwing themselves at it instead of going through a window, or something?"
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Pretty sloppy work, by Neferuaten''s standards, I thought. She probably realized how pointless the whole idea was.
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really hard to kill, above everything. Even without using Thanatomancy, I can''t imagine that''d change."
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here," she said, glancing to the sides to make sure we were following along. "That should lead to the broadest scope, highest impact shot you can get without starting a fire. If we spread out our targets a bit, that should be enough to cook these things'' innards in one go."
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notably, it was still moving.
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Oh gods, I thought incredulously. -Did she really find a way to screw it up?
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threw itself at me with the power of its front ones alone at startling speed, the jaws of its poisoned serpentine mouth opening wide.
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feel it trying to crane its neck around so it could bite my wrist, and ended up whipping it in whatever direction was opposed to that action, its head flying back and forth as I threw its body in varying directions.
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hell, Ptolema?" I asked, with more anger than I''d normally have in me. "Why didn''t you shoot?"
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So it was no-one''s fault. Even though nothing had come of it, that still irritated me, somehow. I wanted to blame and yell at somebody for having to go through all that.
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Still, a different part of my mind thought. I''ve never seen Ophelia like that before, especially when everyone else was practically falling apart. And why is she even carrying around anesthetic syringes?
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still don''t have time. Let''s go inside."
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He''s panicking. That was how a lot of younger healers reacted when forced into difficult medical situations without access to the Power. There had been tests I''d taken at the Academy, or before that at the House of Resurrection, based around that exact premise. Anyone at that level of education had obviously had some amount of straightforward medical training - advanced first aid at minimum - and were theoretically qualified for a situation like this, but the fact was that, when you got used to treating flesh and blood as something you could swing a stick around and have dance to your bidding, retaining that information felt redundant... Let alone seeking out practical experience. It''s one thing to know how the body works and how problems are fixed or at least forestalled, but quite another to perform the physical feats that go in line with that training.
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above this stuff. That playing with needles and bandages was for those without the intellect or will to get that far.
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fascinating to watch her work with her hands. Except for the tiny movements in her fingers directing the needles in perfect arcs through the impossibly tiny entry wound, her whole body went so still that she might as well have been a statue. It was impressive from a standpoint of sheer physical elegance, like viewing a professional dancer.
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That doesn''t mean I''m strong! I internally protested, but realized otherwise that this wasn''t the time to make a stink about something like this. So, my lips tightening, I stepped towards the child.
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me. I felt a horrible spike in my gut, and I knew, somehow, that I was exactly the one it was looking for.
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So I''m not hallucinating. It''s real.
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enough unpleasant surprises in the past minutes, there was one more. A shrill sound, loud enough to make everyone in our whole group jump. We were lucky that nobody accidentally pulled a trigger.
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