09-15-2020, 11:13 AM
She slips away from Lepis and Wolfbane and their family without a word. What is there to say? Were she very good at offering comfort, she knows that Lepis would not want it from her. This is not why she came to Loess today, not why Lilliana had asked her to leave their protected borders.
Pah! Protected!
Brennen's magic had reached her, had shown her the fire and the fury, the way Beryl and Ama and Lilli stand to protect Nerine. She does not know what happens beyond that, because he goes silent soon after, but she thinks of the bay magician in the water, and the scene laid out before her, Wolfbane burning, the threat he has posed to those she holds dear dissolving into char and ash and a thick, oily smoke that makes her eyes water and sting until, if @[Brennen] can see, there will be nothing more than the bright blur of whipping flames.
Is this an end to it? Nothing is ever certain in Beqanna - Neverwhere knows this is true of everywhere, yet somehow, in this place of magic, the future seems more unclear than in others. It is the end, for now, and she leaves it at that, letting go softly of the Duplicate when there is no-one to see it fade away. Immediately, the next problem becomes clear - the fires are well out of hand here, the scrub pines and sun-dried grasses spread it like a disease.
Her steps are careful through the twisting paths, and there is no way to navigate confidently, no way to back track safely. The ground smolders beneath her feet, until her frogs are sore, but there's no stopping. Not until the screaming begins, and that brings her up short.
Ghaul?
That can't be right, yet coming around the blackened trunk of the once-red rock spires of Loess, she finds him, scalded, blistered, dead. His own are gathering around, and Neverwhere has no interest in claiming space among those mourners, but she is surprised enough to stop and watch from a distance surprised by the bitter taste of grief on her tongue. She did not realize that she had considered the dragon a friend.
How completely ridiculous.
The tight grip of her throat passes, giving way to thoughts another friend fighting desperately against her own flames in the north. Lilliana knows where she has gone - she had asked her to come, of course - but she cannot know why Neverwhere does not return running when Nerine struggles, and though using the magic so much, and at such a distance, is distasteful and risky, Neverwhere finds @[lilliana] in Nerine, and borrows her shape, one more time.
In the rubble of Beryl's attack, the air shimmers beside Lilliana, and then there are two standing side by side. The mirror approaches Lilliana, presses its muzzle against her shoulder. Clumsily, because Neverwhere does not have any real control, images attached to emotion. Wolfbane and Lepis and Ghaul and anger. Sadness (not Neverwhere's own, but what she knows the others must feel,) and relief as he dies. There's a blurred moment where the magic rebels and she does not know if anything will make sense. Neverwhere's muscles tense, her jaw clenches. Then flames, fire and confusion, creatures alive and... and some that are not, running from the inferno, running into it. @[Ghaul] -
She loses her grip on the magic.
Pah! Protected!
Brennen's magic had reached her, had shown her the fire and the fury, the way Beryl and Ama and Lilli stand to protect Nerine. She does not know what happens beyond that, because he goes silent soon after, but she thinks of the bay magician in the water, and the scene laid out before her, Wolfbane burning, the threat he has posed to those she holds dear dissolving into char and ash and a thick, oily smoke that makes her eyes water and sting until, if @[Brennen] can see, there will be nothing more than the bright blur of whipping flames.
Is this an end to it? Nothing is ever certain in Beqanna - Neverwhere knows this is true of everywhere, yet somehow, in this place of magic, the future seems more unclear than in others. It is the end, for now, and she leaves it at that, letting go softly of the Duplicate when there is no-one to see it fade away. Immediately, the next problem becomes clear - the fires are well out of hand here, the scrub pines and sun-dried grasses spread it like a disease.
Her steps are careful through the twisting paths, and there is no way to navigate confidently, no way to back track safely. The ground smolders beneath her feet, until her frogs are sore, but there's no stopping. Not until the screaming begins, and that brings her up short.
Ghaul?
That can't be right, yet coming around the blackened trunk of the once-red rock spires of Loess, she finds him, scalded, blistered, dead. His own are gathering around, and Neverwhere has no interest in claiming space among those mourners, but she is surprised enough to stop and watch from a distance surprised by the bitter taste of grief on her tongue. She did not realize that she had considered the dragon a friend.
How completely ridiculous.
The tight grip of her throat passes, giving way to thoughts another friend fighting desperately against her own flames in the north. Lilliana knows where she has gone - she had asked her to come, of course - but she cannot know why Neverwhere does not return running when Nerine struggles, and though using the magic so much, and at such a distance, is distasteful and risky, Neverwhere finds @[lilliana] in Nerine, and borrows her shape, one more time.
In the rubble of Beryl's attack, the air shimmers beside Lilliana, and then there are two standing side by side. The mirror approaches Lilliana, presses its muzzle against her shoulder. Clumsily, because Neverwhere does not have any real control, images attached to emotion. Wolfbane and Lepis and Ghaul and anger. Sadness (not Neverwhere's own, but what she knows the others must feel,) and relief as he dies. There's a blurred moment where the magic rebels and she does not know if anything will make sense. Neverwhere's muscles tense, her jaw clenches. Then flames, fire and confusion, creatures alive and... and some that are not, running from the inferno, running into it. @[Ghaul] -
She loses her grip on the magic.
