Location: The Dungeon -- The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria
Seele had a lot of breaths to catch, and too many things to say with them. She wanted to shower her group with praises and thanks, especially to Graves for pulling her out of the dreadful position she’d found herself in at the end. Benkei too had saved her skin with that fancy rock-foolery. Were things strange? Sure. Was she in pain, and did it feel like someone had reached into her lungs and scooped the wind out of her? Yeah. But otherwise, things had gone exactly as she’d hoped they would. A slew of different, even clashing personalities working together to solve a deadly problem, and she got to be there to help.
Okay though, ow. She laid back against the wall, nursing her…unhealthy looking hands close. When Graves came to her, she meant to rise and thank him, but he seemed pretty firm that she stay put. She couldn’t pretend to understand his particular brand of magic, and while she was sure he knew what he was doing, it still concerned her to see him wound himself, especially given how serious things seemed to be.
But she didn’t protest, even when he commanded the blood onto her wounds, and the magic burned in her veins, she bit her lip and only let out the smallest squeaks of discomfort. Gradually the skin began to repair itself, and the blackness in her veins faded. It wasn’t perfect, and it didn’t relieve the fatigue, but for such an unconventional healing method, it was surprisingly effective.
As the pain faded to a dull throbbing, she found herself smiling again. She turned her hands over, inspecting the ghosts of arcane scaring, and looked up at him gratefully. “Well you’re just full of surprises, aren’t you?”
None of them were as bad as their reputations would have suggested, Seele was sure of that. No one had lost themselves to panic, or tried to leave anyone behind, or shouted anyone down. In the face of a challenge—a real challenge—people would always come together.
Gosh, she felt like singing, and she was an awful singer. Even through the strange happenings and fatigue, it would have taken a miracle to bring her mood down.
“Greetings, wayfarers from all walks of life! We entities from beyond…”
Missy listened in silence as the moderator explained what was happening to them, before they vanished into the dark. Her budding enthusiasm withered into an empty stare, in the back of her mind she felt an itch begin to spread that she would have to tear through her skull to scratch. The realization was rapid, the emotions she felt came and bloomed and died within blinks. The sensation was dizzying, sickening, and it was…familiar.
They weren’t real, it took only a moment of reflection to understand that. These emotions, the panic and confusion, the fear, all loud and hollering and then suddenly silent, like actors forgetting their lines in a play.
Like rain off a parasol. …Missy……please…
Missy closed her eyes. Seele opened them again.
The sound of Graves throwing his fist against the wall startled her almost more than the moderator’s appearance had. She blinked, looking around at the rest of them as the message would doubtlessly be sinking in. Graves fell to his knees, Alja was backing into the dark, and even Kalie fell straight into tears. This was her team. These were her friends.
There was a dissonance between her mind and movements as she got up to her feet, but she quickly reeled herself together. She reached down and placed a hand on Graves’ shoulder, and her voice—steady, she found, without even a trace of panic—lowered to a gentle whisper.
“It’s okay. We’re all here, take your time, hun.”
She looked back to the others, intent on making her way to someone else—Kalie, maybe, the poor thing—when Alja let out a horrible scream. Seele’s eyes flew to the shadows the giant of a woman had retreated to, prying her huddled form from them. Not too far away, Rael had approached Kalie, and Seele immediately noticed their tank’s collected demeanor. Had she been unfazed as well? Was she just good at hiding her fears? She supposed it didn’t matter too much right now; they needed that sort of resilience, and if Rael was able to do her part, Seele would do hers, too.
Running a hand through her hair, Seele noticed her hat was gone. Lost to the spikes, it seemed. It stalled her a moment, she felt somewhat plain without it, funnily enough, but then, maybe plain wasn’t so bad right now.
Gathering herself, she made her way into the dark, to Alja, where she found the woman balled up against the cold stone wall. Seele dropped to a crouch beside her, tentative at first about reaching out to someone who was very clearly in the throws of panic. Just to be on the safe side, Seele quietly snapped her fingers, and gave herself a small boost to her defense before she placed a hand on Alja’s knee.
…I’m…scared… …don’t…leave…me…
“Alja, sweetheart. Shhh, shh. It’s okay. Look at me,” she said softly, trying to angle herself to be at eyes with her. “Right here, hey. You’re okay. You’re okay, you’re going to be okay. I promise.”
More than once, Seele had been derided for her optimism. People had called her naïve, blind, outright stupid even, for how often she hoped for the best. It was reflex to act this way, to make promises against the odds. But Seele wasn’t acting on reflex. This wasn’t an empty platitude, Seele didn’t make those.
She made promises, and she kept them.
She always kept them.