WHEN: 1943 SEPT 27th, morning
WHERE: The tunnels beneath Windgrace Manor
WHO: Niles Roesler and Dinah Windgrace
--
[07:37] Niles Roesler (ohsoincoherently): They had developed a bit of a habit of forgoing forewarning by now. Niles trusted well enough that the lady of the house or one of her handmaids would let him know if it were a bad time so when he meandered over to the Windgrace manor porch there was little hesitation. He was dressed for flight - something like a bomber jacket and more casual shirt beneath, heavier trousers that cuffed over boots. Occasionally the ship and that personal craft of his needed closer inspection for operations after all and today was one of those days. Niles brushed himself off from the walk and announced himself to staff on hand. He waited for them to return with news of their lady but his mind open and searching; if Dinah were nearby, likely she could pick up on the presence and the knock that came along-with if she so chose.
[07:40] Dinah (dollihead) was pondering through her books, the pendant curled around her wrist so the emerald rested against her palm. the books were spread about her in a vast circle, complete with another, her notebook, which was written in the mismatched latin, deep speech and english. She lifted her head at the 'feel' of the knock and she turned to look towards the ceiling with a smile.
<"I'm below"> she sent him, picking herself up from the ground and dusting herself off.
it had definitely taken some getting used to, seeing again without the ever-present little golden crab on her shoulder, but now he was in some well earned rest back in the jewelry box.
[07:50] Niles Roesler (ohsoincoherently): Below. Niles nodded and waved off the staff before pivoting to make his way toward the tunnel entrance. Below meant rituals and magic, the need for some serenity and decorum but that didn't discount the need for basic human comforts. A half-step from the porch he paused, tilting his head toward the feel of Dinah's own thoughts. < Would you like anything from the house? Someone's made scones, > he offered and in either case, hands empty or with a little care package from the Windgrace kitchen he ventured downward to join her.
He'd forgotten how low the ceiling was coming in. Niles scuffed his forehead once before stooping to clamber down through the reaching roots and low clearances, eventually straightening up into the main chambers and stretching his neck. < Goodness that really is much easier as a snake, > he mused, taking a few steps across the stones but waiting, generally, before encroaching too far into the sanctum. Hunter was here after all... he could be heard skittering along the cavern ceilings, inquisitive and observant but by and large leaving the two be beyond a chittering clack of teeth in the direction of the main room to signal to Dinah where their guest might be.
[07:57] Dinah (dollihead): Amusement followed the question for scones and she chuckled, shaking her head though she knew he'd not see it from above the ground
<"No, thank you. i'm fine."> she wandered around in the main chamber, stretching her limbs from where they'd deadened from long periods of lying on the cold stone on her literary hunt. She laughed again and headed towards where Hunter suggested that the doctor would be.
"To be fair, most of those who come down here aren't nearly so tall as you are, doctor." she said playfully as she approached. "Perhaps one day we will need to make something more...impressive for the entrance way but for now, it's mostly hidden. I prefer it that way. Harder for strangers to drop by unannounced. I don't want to have to put Hunter on a diet" she added, glancing up towards the walls and ceilings to see if they were being watched. it was always so much harder to see where he was down here where he could blend in better.
"My sight came back. I had meant to write and tell you but i've been distracted. I hope this is a social call and not anything dire occuring on the surface?"
[08:11] Niles Roesler (ohsoincoherently): They were indeed being watched. Hunter clung to one of the roots that sprawled across the ceiling, nestled in the crook either rabbit or bat-sized depending on the angle. He watched them carefully, attention rapt and almost expectant - but he said nothing. Niles did not seem bothered by the Eldritch spawn's presence. He closed the distance to Dinah and offered a hand, palm-upward to take one of her own. His eyes remained on her face but the appreciation of her still relatively new form washed through their telepathic connection. "Congratulations. It must be a bit of a relief even as helpful as Helios was," he replied, intent on taking her hand and pressing a little kiss to the back of it if she allowed him. "It was a social call but a necessary one it turns out. What better way to get important updates than in person?" He paused, tilting his head to get a better look at her new eyes. "They're lovely, by the way."
[08:16] Dinah (dollihead) drifted closer and reached for his hand with the one that didn't have the pendant tangled around it, smiling at the kiss to her skin, and she tipped herself forward a little to press a similar kiss to his cheek.
"it is, a big relief. I was beginning to worry that it would never come back. it's a little...difficult to get used to again.." she blinked, studying him intently with a smile on her face.
"please excuse the absolute calamity of library mess. you've caught me mid...well.. several projects, as it stands. I rather lost track of time again." Di smiled sheepishly.
[08:23] Niles Roesler (ohsoincoherently) smiled widely when she kissed him. He did not lean down to her but one hand did move to rest on her waist - support and encouragement for the little peck of affection before fading away to let her step back as she pleased. "I'm sure. Take your time. Ocular nerves can be dizzying to get accustomed to after losing them for a while." At her apology he turned to survey the mess of the place with a little laugh. "Oh it's no calamity. Even Dashrix I'm sure doesn't work with everything neatly aligned in his labs. Might I inquire after the projects? Or if I could be of any assistance?" he asked, a curious cast of his mind inquiring as he skimmed over the books visually, as if asking her for little hints of what they might be without her having to verbalize full explanations.
[08:33] Dinah (dollihead) bobbed her head, though she made a thoughtful noise in her throat "well, my sight is...different now. a little keener than it was" she admitted. at least, a partial admittance. "it's definitely very different than seeing through helios's cameras." she grinned, though she looked back towards the books.
"well." she gestured with her free hand. "These ones, i've been translating a book of shadows that one of the crewmen had on the Atlantia. One of the other fae basically extorted it out of drystan, despite our supposed 'alliance', which.. definitely gives me a reason to be irritated at them. and these ones.." she gestured with the other hand, reaching her pendant hand up to peer at the emerald-biting, leering skull. "I have been trying to find a way to repress my healing. just.. in a very localized sort of way. A lot of the books to do with... inability to conceive are due to a physical defect. I have no such defect, quite the opposite, but it's still frustrating, and so.. I've been planning on trying to work a ritual with this" she dangled the pendant between both hands.
"have I ever shown you this before?"
[08:41] Niles Roesler (ohsoincoherently) hummed right back. "Keener? A gift then, in addition to simple restoration of what once was." He nodded, not prying though the curiosity was there. He turned it instead to the books, nodding as she recounted what they were. Mention of the 'other' fae had his eyebrows raising. "...I imagine from the group in the Wylds. A Lord and his Sithen, some of whom I've met," he mused with a little wave of his fingers. "Must be very careful entering into agreements with Fae, my dear. Wily, crafty things, all... tales of their mandated Honesty aside."
His lips curled into a smile. There was something sharper in his mental probing like a feel for the strings of a contract, of the binding of words that the Fae could often write upon a person through clever-enough conversation. He did not hide the effort from her nor did he dwell on it - whatever he found, the feeling passed and he moved on, attention turning to the pendant and its ghoulish features. "You've mentioned it but mostly it's been tucked away for safe-keeping," he answered. Niles stepped close still, reaching out a hand but not touching the thing, merely feeling, sensing before pulling back again. "For good reason. It feels terrible. I imagine holding it isn't too pleasant either. The medical man in me would caution againt using something like that to further the goal of... I assume, bringing about new life."
[08:48] Dinah (dollihead) bowed her head "A gift. Drystan and I gave our eyes again to the pool. and we grievously misused a vast quantity of the powder of ibn ghazi. my sight came back after that." she said softly, but she clicked her tongue with irritation at the mention of the other fae.
"the 'queen' of them. wants children by drystan in exchange for the book, which by rights they should have given to us anyway under the terms of our previous agreement to work together to banish the fog. I was careful with my wording when I made the arrangement. Assistance, and a blanket assurance that any that bear my blood would be safe from their...shenanigans. I was quite certain to say 'any who bear my blood' and not just 'my relatives'" she smiled wryly. She didn't prevent the probing, happy enough to let him scrutinise.
She nodded again though at the mention of the pendant and she peered down at it again.
"When I used it the first time it was very powerful, but also took a lot from me. I was wondering if i might be able to make it more...tempered. though you are correct about the intention of the rite. it IS terrible, you're very correct. but if i can find a way to make it feed from me and not anything else, then it might be...manageable. at least for the time required"
[09:00] Niles Roesler (ohsoincoherently) stiffened up. It was nearly imperceptible, a little twitch in his jaw and settling of his shoulders that betrayed the slight reduction in ease. "A line of children, Fae-blooded and Eldritch-blessed?" he asked, something like wonder and something like trepidation in his voice. "If Drystan means to carry through with his own arrangement I think it may be best to know what terms that Queen defined. Care, nurturing after the birth for instance. And any obligations he may have inadvertently agreed to as their father." Niles put the train of thought from his mind before his focus wandered too far down it.
"But of course you were careful. You're a clever woman and no middling pixie would be able to snare your will to its means I'd think," he said instead, beaming at her. "Has it yielded anything helpful - the Book? From what Risley tells me the Fog can be... moved, momentarily. He sees it sweep off in pockets sometimes, as if something were driving it away on the seas... but it always returns."
Speaking next took some time. Some thought. Standing more or less beside her, Niles let a hand lift and rest on her upper arm, careful with the play of fingers over the jewels that were embedded in her skin. "...Dinah, you really would like a child of your own, wouldn't you? Whatever it takes?" he asked quietly.
[09:09] Dinah (dollihead) did indeed notice the little tensing in his frame and she cocked her head to one side.
"I suppose he does indeed mean to carry on with the plan. Not that it should have been necessary in the first place. As far as I recall.. it has been a little while since we spoke of it and I was rather cross...the children will be raised amongst them though I believe drystan will be able to access them as he pleases. I am not certain I will want to" she pondered. She smiled again and she nodded though.
"but of course. All the old stories said you have to be careful what you agree to with the fae" she smiled faintly. "hence the specification of those who share my blood. that would include you these days, and the shard, but considering how fast-and-loose they've played with the original agreement, i'm not sure they'll hold with the arrangement" she looked down to the book
"I still need to translate some of it. I am fluent in the latin and the eldritch text, but I am not quite as fluent in hebrew." she frowned in some frustration "But risley is right. I moved it briefly with weather control but it came right back again"
As his hand lay upon her arm, she looked away from the book towards him and she nodded.
"I suppose all things considered it's quite a silly preoccupation." she murmured. "most of the time, it's led by jealousy more than anything else but. Yes"
[09:18] Niles Roesler (ohsoincoherently) huffed. "Well I doubt Drystan would hold it against you if you didn't. Depending on the interaction between him and that Queen, what relationship that exists between him and those children is entirely unpredictable." He spoke knowingly, it seemed. But he shook his head, waving a hand again. "Well... I am grateful for the protection. Formal, traditional types don't tend to care for others not of their Court and while I'm quite sure the names and rumors I've heard bandied about aren't terribly much to worry over - one can never be too careful. Bridge to cross when it's come to I suppose." That and the Fog tucked themselves away to the back of his mind.
Niles' hand slipped to her forearm and he pulled gently, urging her to face him fully so his other could find the side of her face. Fingers stroked away the locks of hair with care not to poke at her other eyes. "Jealousy is as valid a driving factor as any other human emotion, isn't it? Whatever the spark... I'm sure the child - or children would be well cared-for. And the process of success a testament to your own growth. The Elders quite love your family. They'd not let the line simply fade away."
[09:26] Dinah (dollihead) smiled faintly and she nodded. "I already made it clear i was displeased. I can't say I think much of any of that little cluster on this account. It's not even as if they'd have been able to read the bloody book at all. I suppose it's somewhat an annoyance that drystan has been...commodified in this manner but he made his own decision. It's definitely given me a reason to reconsider any further involvement"
His little tug on her arm turned her, and she lifted her dark eyes up towards his face, tilting her cheeks a little towards his fingers.
"I have no doubt that any children in our house would be very well cared for. there is the singular advantage of our parents being quite as they were, we have a very clear example of what NOT to do." she smiled faintly. "we are the youngest line. many of the others that came before us, they either were killed by something else, or themselves, when the years got too much to bear. but we are also the strongest line. I simply shan't let it fade out"
[09:34] Niles Roesler (ohsoincoherently) stroked a thumb across her cheek as he listened to her speak. Only when she was done and smiling and affirming her desire did he reply with a simple, "We'll have to see to it then." The Glamour fell easily from his eyes, the blues and greens shooting through with red, mottling appearing beneath his skin as he drew upon his own Aetheric energies to reach for the pendant she held in her hand. Lengthy fingers closed around it as she held it, his other hand sliding to rest a palm against her abdomen to anchor himself to thought processes and end goals.
When he came into contact it was at first in effort to exert will, to connect and control whatever magical source was held in the gaping skull. When he found a living creature inside contact became curiosity became connection - and swiftly they were drawn into a swirling black, minds pitched into a vortex of cold and chill and dark. The cavern walls were gone from perception though their bodies remained where they'd been standing, Hunter's alarmed croaking fading to the heavy silence that filled the pendant's abyssal interior.
Niles appeared in his true form there, standing in smoke on a barely-lit platform next to Dinah. His wings fluttered briefly but caused no wind. "...perhaps I should have asked for background," he murmured quietly to his companion as something stirred in the shadows around them - briefly a face, briefly a body, angular and spiked and hungry.
[09:40] Dinah (dollihead) smiled at the touch of his thumb and she turned her cheek a little to kiss it, nodding mutely. She sidled herself against him, tucking herself close against his jacket, wings buzzing in anticipation. she squeezed his hand again, Taking a deep breath, and then the cold.
She sucked in a sharp breath, only absently aware of Hunter's warnings as her mind dipped into the elevated mental plane.
She too appeared in her true form, far happier in this shape so there was no need for the flickering human-monstrous shape that she had been before.
"be careful" she whispered, instead of cringing in fear, she tried to draw herself up in the face of the beast that she had seen before, that Hunter had negotiated with before.
"We spoke before. briefly." she murmured, turning to try and spot where the face had gone again. "powerful, and hungry, this one"
[09:53] Niles Roesler (ohsoincoherently) kept an arm around her, curled around her abdomen with his palm just below her belly button. Grounding, in this plane and the physical. He stood when she did, straightened to face the creature as it manifested and stalked towards them. There was heat from its maw, a burning contrast to the cold as it spoke. Fiery eyes defied the chill that surrounded it to stare them down.
"You have desires... I can grant them," it rumbled. Its face circled them in the mindscape and Niles turned to keep it in his field of view, pivoting Dinah along with so as never to have the beast at their backs, so to speak. It was the principle of the thing anyway.
"For a price," Niles answered and his grip on Dinah tightened. Despite sharing the mental space his mind seemed barred from her own - occluded, shrouded by interference as they spoke. His voice was strained - increasingly so the longer they remained. "You are no djinn, no fae, no wayward spirit. But an abyssal, a demon. You barter in souls and flesh." Turning to Dinah he asked quietly, "Do you know its name?"
[09:56] Dinah (dollihead) worried at her lip with her teeth, sharp enough to prickle her skin with blood, and she watched it as it moved, like Niles, she always turned to keep a steady watch on it. The only eye behind her was in the tail, after all, and the more eyes she could keep on it, the better.
"Always a price" di agreed quietly, though at his question, she shook her head. "I was going to search it's name before. when I asked if it wanted releasing... it declined" she murmured, frowning a little at the 'locked out' sensation of his mental walls being up. she squeezed her fingers a little tighter, watching the demon. "I hadn't looked since"
[10:10] Niles Roesler (ohsoincoherently) nodded but his face was creased with a frown. "Then it won't be wanting freedom," he grumbled, disappointed at the easy offering being squarely off the table. The demon chuckled as it circled back to the front, squatting there on haunches with spike-tipped knees.
"Flesh for flesh, life for life," it answered with an uncurling of a black-taloned hand. Flesh bubbled from its palm, forming a mass that even in the low light visibly bore the reddish streaks of growing blood and fleshy tissue. The lump of flesh slopped to the ground and shuddered, quivering before growing a set of pudgy little arms and legs and beginning to crawl its way over. "Feed it," said the demon and Niles made a face.
"...I'm afraid that's far too vague," he said sought to interpose himself between Dinah and the crawling creature. His eyes settled on the demon itself, focusing as he reached to extend energy and effort. Dinah felt the barrier around his mind fall in the effort of forcing connection that could lead to control.
[10:16] Dinah (dollihead) nodded again in silence at Nile's assumption that it wouldn't want freedom. "Not until the veil breaks" she agreed after a few moments, watching the demon as it moved.
"Feed it?" she looked down at the creeping lump of limbs and veins that wriggled it's way closer to them.
"...feed it what? Feed....*that*?" she squinted down at the smaller figure and as Niles put himself between her and the creature, she reached up to touch her fingertips to his back.
"I agree. It is far too vague." she conceded. "there shan't be any sort of agreement, nor feeding, until we have specifics"
[10:28] Niles Roesler (ohsoincoherently) twitched beneath her touch, tense and wiry and on edge. He did not speak to her, focus consumed in whatever effort had his eyes locked to the demon before them. There were signs of the struggle between the fallen Sidhe and the pendant's occupant, ripples in the space around them in flares of heat from the demon itself, wriggles beneath Niles' skin as the corruption in his own veins responded to a similar energy of a different source.
On the floor the flesh mound grew. It developed a head, bald and smooth out of which molded humanoid eyes, a button nose, rosy little lips. It tottled at them in more the image of a human child than the discarded meat it had first been formed as, reaching pinkish hands at Dinah. "Mama? Mama?" it cooed, wide eyes wet and dark.
[10:33] Dinah (dollihead) removed her hand as it clearly distracted Niles, though she peered past him to the demon. It hadn't spoken.
But the fleshmound did.
She frowned a little and stooped down to the floor, though she didn't reach out for it. She looked from the 'baby' to the demon, and up to Niles again.
"you didn't tell me" she said quietly "What I need to feed it." flesh for flesh. life for life. Whose life?
she murmured quietly, looking back to the 'child' in front of her. There was a brief flicker of disturbance in the mental space around her, echoes from a dream she'd had. The tree, the apples rotting away to pus and slime when she'd tried to touch them.
"...would. this child...be yours?" she asked uncertainly, looking towards the demon with narrowed eyes.
"...I could find someone. people come down into the temple all time time. I could. I would just need to find someone. If I used the ring it would be easy"
[10:47] Niles Roesler (ohsoincoherently): The demon shook, raising a hand and slamming it down onto the billowing shadows at their feet. "FEED IT" it roared, agitation increased as Niles reeled backward, reaching a hand out to grab Dinah both for stability and more grounding. He was sweaty, strained - he shook his head.
"Your soul, your life - and however many others you want," he rasped out as the flesh child lurched closer, clutching its hands at the two of them. "One child, one soul. Two children, two souls. They would not be your children Dinah," he cautioned but this revelation did not sit terribly well for the devil that had wanted to keep such details closely under wraps. He leaned forward, both hands clutching at the ground, flesh spilling from between the gaps and flooding toward them on the platform. More mounds sprouted from the wave, each growing limbs, eyes, mouths - all of them approaching at an slow but incessant crawl.
The child nearest them leapt, clutching for Dinah's midsection in an attempt to bite its way inside, slowed by the sure squish of the doctor's clawed hand in the back of its skull as he gripped and attempted to pull it off. "We have to leave!"
[10:52] Dinah (dollihead) glared up towards the demon as it reacted with such anger, reaching a hand towards the arm that Niles grabbed her with to help him stand. When he specified what he had seemingly discovered from the creature she tried to stand.
"Then absolutely not" she gasped in surprise as the 'baby' tried to latch onto her, the crystals in her skin becoming more jagged and the tail scything around to try to spear the 'child' and cast it aside, or in the very least, prevent it from biting at her.
"i'm with you" she agreed, her voice rushed and hurried as she gripped onto his arm. "We need to go, now"
[11:00] Niles Roesler (ohsoincoherently) tossed the carcass of the child aside after Dinah speared it, the lifeless mass thumping into the flesh wave coming after them and seeming to be subsumed by it. The others encroached, swelling both from the added meat and the visceral rage at one of their own being cut away. Wrapping his arms around her Niles beat his wings, enveloping them in color that melted into a whirl.
When they woke they were laid upon the books, the doctor lounging beside her and leaned over her with a concerned smile. His hand stroked at her face before resting on her shoulder, no sign of the struggle that had ensued on its features. "Dinah?" he asked quietly, a soft chuckle following that filled the intimate space. His body was pressed against her own. "You must be overtired. You were miles away."
[11:08] Dinah (dollihead) had felt one more potential avenue slip away from her as her tail had found flesh. One more scrap of hope just flitted away into the wind. She had felt Niles put his arms around her but she felt cold. Hollow.
though she found herself on the floor, she didn't answer.
She didn't move, uncharacteristically not leaning into his touch, though she was aware in the back of her mind that he'd spoken, she was more aware of the blackened bite on her abdomen that wasn't healing, the almost burning sensation of the pendant still wrapped around her wrist and tangled in her fingers.
Something was wrong.
Her lips parted a little to try and speak, but nothing but a crackling sort of 'ts-sss' hissed out between her teeth.
[11:11] Niles Roesler (ohsoincoherently) kissed her, tenderly upon the forehead. "Dinah. Come back to me. I... are you nervous?" he asked, that other hand lowering now. It stroked fingers over her collarbone, dipping down the divut to her sternum. His lips moved along with it, ghosting over her jaw, down the line of her neck. "We'll take it slowly," he murmured to her. His palm found her breast and kneaded, his weight shifting to settle himself more atop her then aside.
[11:16] Dinah (dollihead) still hadn't moved, even as he kissed her. had she even blinked? she wasnt sure. She felt disconnected.
move already
"ts..sss... nn-" she finally found her jaws parting though she hadn't bid them to, but in more of a bared-tooth warning than a smile or...any sort of expression. Like a skull stripped of it's skin.
Something was wrong. terribly wrong.
She didn't feel it when his hand touched her, she could sense his skin on hers but no sensation, like her body had been numbed.
she wasn't there
Something flickered in her eyes. Not the usual darkness of her own eyes, but something akin to the eerie fire that the demon's visage had shown. She couldn't warn him. She couldn't scream out, her own mind locked out of her body as one hand reached up to close a fist tight against his shirt, her mouth moving towards his throat...
..to bite, hard, as much flesh as she could tear in one mouthful.
[11:21] Niles Roesler (ohsoincoherently): Reality snapped back into being in an instant. Color, sensation, the head of blood, the dank of the cave around them came to her at once as gouts of red sprang out over her face. The doctor let go of her immediately, falling back to the ground with wide eyes, green and blue and shot through with blood. Clawed hands clutched weakly at the open hole where the front of his neck had once been, the wriggle of a worm-like nervous system spasming in the gap. What was once a Sidhe was laid out before her, bleeding terribly on the cavern floor. A wave of heat rose from that hole, swirling black fire that rushed out of the body to join similar tongues that left her own. Coiling, it returned to the pendant that now sat on the ground nearby.
[11:32] Dinah (dollihead): The bite had been just enough, the blackened bitemark leaking pus and corruption as her body fought to regenerate it.
blood. blood. so much blood. she could taste it, feel flesh in her mouth.
Whilst the flames had left her, the corruption leaking from the bite still burned into her. She couldn't stop herself as she felt herself shifting onto her knees, almost as spiked as the demon had been, crawling towards him.
She couldn't warn him. she couldn't help. She tried to force herself from the distant, locked out part of her mind to cast her healing magic, to extend her own regneration as she had before, but it did nothing.
This time it was her turn to be more astride him, the scythe-blade of her tail making short work of his shirt but it was her teeth that came to meet the softer parts of his abdomen, sharp and numerous, tearing and biting, leeching away his magic.
And she couldn't stop it. Helplessly shrieking in the back of her own mind, her eyes at least betrayed that she wasn't there, streaming tears across her bloodstained cheeks.
[11:35] Niles Roesler (ohsoincoherently): The body beneath her stilled under the assault. The limbs went limp first followed quickly by the spasms of muscle groups as she rent into his flesh. It was the wriggling that was the last to quell, those fibrous nerves laying themselves down into the bleeding flesh almost to disappear into the fluid that pooled in each wound. His eyes never shut. They remained wide and staring, flecked with the blood and viscera of her meal as the Aether-rich body nurtured her needs, responding to the desire to heal - but her body's own and not her stll-distant mind's effort to mend the damage done.
[11:40] Dinah (dollihead): She had once said, in anger, that she would cut out his heart and eat it. Now, as she tore it apart with her teeth, she tried to reach him, still shut out and locked out of her own body.
<"im sorry, im sorry, it isnt me, niles, it isnt me, im sorry">
as the aether was absorbed into her, she felt her body rejecting the last of whatever it was the demon had inflicted upon her, the wound scabbing and healing in moments. With a sensation of jerking upwards into her body, like being half-asleep and suddenly awake, she found herself sitting on the ruins of his chest.
"...n-niles?" she whispered, her voice thick, mouth coated in blood and gore. He had healed from this sort of thing before. she'd seen the damage inflicted by her twin. "niles.. im s-sorry. it wasnt me.." she pressed her hand to the empty cavity where his heart had been, attempting to fleshcraft it back into place.
[11:42] Niles Roesler (ohsoincoherently): The body did not respond. Worse, perhaps there was no mind to grasp at, no tenuous sense of Aetheric presence left in the flesh that laid on the cavern floor. She could mold the flesh she discovered - make it move and shape it like clay but repairing the structural damage did not gain her a reply.
[11:46] Dinah (dollihead) stared at him as he wasn't there.
empty.
dead.
no.
"no. No no no nono. you've healed from worse. why aren't you healing? you fell out of the sky... y-you've healed from worse." she whispered desperately, reaching up towards his cheeks and tapping them.
"Where are you?" her voice became more urgent, and she pulsed healing magic into him. Trying to kick-start it? whatever it would take.
"wake up. Wake up...Niles, wake up..."
[11:51] Niles Roesler (ohsoincoherently): He was still warm. Bodies tended to be for a while, after all. He didn't flinch when she tapped his cheeks nor did any throb of life return to the rest of him with that healing pulse. It was as if the magic were being sapped away, largely ineffective. Behind her on the ground the pendant pulsed once with a dull red light before going inert.
[11:59] Dinah (dollihead): he was gone.
and it was her fault.
just like paris
Dinah sobbed, hunching herself over what was left of his chest to cry against his bloody, ruined collarbone.
"don't leave me!!" she cried out, face muffled against his bloodsoaked jacket.
She couldn't leave him here. She wouldn't just leave him here.
but she couldn't... just...leave him. Let him leave her.
Tears still freely flowing across her cheeks, she forced herself to stand. She felt sick, raw flesh sticking in her throat and causing her bile to rise but she fought it, gripping his jacket and pulling, dragging, struggling to pull his lanky frame deeper into the tunnels, leaving the tell-tale stripe of crimson in her wake.
There was only one thing to be done.
It took her too long, huffing and panting inbetween shoulder-wracking sobs as she pulled him closer to the font of Yog-sothoth.
don't leave me
please don't leave me with nothing
her hands and her tail moved before she had any conscious thought, bringing the blade to the wreckage of his throat. it didn't take a lot to take his head, not really. The pool could have the rest but... the head. She couldn't lose that. She couldn't lose him.
The rest of the body was difficult to pull up the stairs, harder than just dragging it had been, but she eased him over the edge and fed it into the swirling, illuminated waters before curling herself around what little she had left of him, and cried.