Constance stopped as Luna chewed into her, her hand on her chest as she initially recoiled away, perhaps concerned that the fists at Luna’s side wouldn’t remain there for much longer. Constance felt that Luna had no right to be upset; she shouldn’t have been listening in on their conversation in the first place. Straightening herself out to her full height, Constance folded her arms and gave Luna the look of a woman whose patience was quickly running away. Maybe they should just come to blows and get it over with. See who learned more in the gutters. Find out what her bite was really like. 

“All you want is to be awful to me. Jealous little…” Constance mumbled under her breath, out of earshot of the others, as Luna stormed off. She turned to Raymond and Juliette, faking an amused smile and giving an exaggerated shrug to the couple. Not that it really was necessary; they appeared to be off in their own world. Whatever. Luna had stopped and turned to the others, apologizing for her rudeness. Not to Constance, but to the others. Yet she took it in stride, turning that same plastic smile to Luna as she brushed past the nurse to catch up with Collin, but not before she loudly said, “Apology accepted.”

The simmering tension was thick when the group crammed into a taxi, packed together tighter than sardines and stewing in just about as much salt, but the heat from the sun had since sapped all of the fight out of Constance and a temporary ceasefire was formed. The wine she had earlier only made the heat more unbearable. She held onto her hat as she leaned out of the window, even the wind too hot to find enjoyable; occasionally she would push against the person next to her or groan, utter a complaint about the heat, or how the driver should go faster, or how they should’ve stopped for mimosas. Mostly, however, she just stayed silent, her eyes watching the ground move below them as she fanned herself with her hand. 

It was the shadow of the obelisk and not the obelisk itself that Constance saw first, the darkness blocking out the sun and offering some reprieve from its onslaught. She traced the shadow to its source, gasping at the sight of the behemoth tower. It looked larger than the obelisk back home, and there was something about it that filled her with a quiet unease. As they piled out of the car, Constance craning her neck in an attempt to take in full sight of the tower’s majesty as she walked around to stretch her legs, Edward asked, “D’you all think Geralt is inside?”

“Who?” replied Constance without batting a lash as she followed them inside.

It happened before she even had time to take in the entirety of the room: the shrill screech, Edward dropping the cube with a curse, the shockwave, the door vanishing and casting a darkness throughout the room that was only interrupted by the pulsating lights from Edward’s cube. Constance head whipped back and forth, looking to the locals and swallowing hard as she realized the looks on their faces were just as confused and bewildered as hers. She threw her hands up in front of her face and reeled back as the large rock crashed into the floor, shouting in surprise as debris smacked against her arms. 

The second crash sent her off balance, and a pain shot through her wrist as she caught herself as she fell backwards. It would’ve been embarrassing if she wasn’t so worried about not dying at the moment. Edward did not need to shout for her to get moving; she was already scrambling towards the staircase, finding her footing when she was about halfway there and almost losing it again when she hit the first step. Constance barely bothered to stand herself upright as she began to bolt up the stairs, hugging the wall in case there was another violent shake that would throw her off balance and into the ever growing abyss below them.