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[indent][indent][indent][color=gray][sub][right][color=#dc143c][b]Location:[/b][/color] The Dungeon -- The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria[/right][/sub][/color]
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Once the adrenaline- the [i]rage[/i]- had faded, Graves could barely stand. Pain washed over the whole of his body, submerging him from head to toe. It dug deep- rooting itself in the depths of his bones and refusing to leave. It took all he had not to collapse in a heap once the battle was done; he tried to hide his limping as he joined the rest of the party around Kazuki. It was a brief yet all too welcome respite. Kazuki's healing was different than Graves's. His was a warm summer's light. It was a dance through a field of flowers. The snapping of bone and the scarring of wounds hurt just the same, sure, yet it was...duller. More easily swallowed.

When Graves healed himself it hurt nearly as much as the injury itself. Like he was reliving each stab, each bite, each cut again and again. 

[color=dc143c]"You play well,"[/color] he muttered once Kazuki set his lyre aside. A welcome reprieve, to be sure.

Then the talk of strategy began, and it was time to work again. They could hurt each other now in a way that had never been possible. Benkei's earthen constructs, Alja's ice, Kalie's...weird shit- it was all too dangerous to use without careful planning. Graves didn't say anything. He was pissed off that he'd been hit but he knew it wasn't worth getting into. They couldn't afford to be at one another's throats when they stood on the precipice of death. One wrong move meant the end of any one of them.

He looked to Rael, who's decision to play the big damn hero had nearly caused her to plummet to her own demise. If Seele was just a second too late, if she'd ran just a little slower...Graves shuddered. He wondered what it felt like. The pain he knew, sure, but what followed? Was it the cold embrace of the void? Or would Rael have woken up on the other side just long enough to feel the peripheral tear her mind asunder?

[i][color=dc143c]'Do you die twice?'[/color][/i]

Graves tried best he could to shake the thought from his mind as he stood back to his feet, slipping his armor back on. He would know soon enough himself.
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