"Last time I had to use that spell..." Isabella takes a deep breath, inhaling through Path's feathers. "Was on Path. Less friendly circumstances."
"I'll be fine in a minute. Just - still recovering. It was..." She trails off and just cradles her daemon, huddled under Petaal's wing. "Kas can tell the story. It's not a secret. The bastard's dead."
"Most people's daemons can barely go across the room from them, but witches are different," says Kas. "She sent Path on an errand once and some complete sack of shit caught him on the way. It's already the worst thing in the world when somebody touches your daemon that you don't want to, but the asshole tortured him too."
"Witches aren't fundamentally different. We just make separation conventional instead of exceptional, and have access to the Waste," murmurs Isabella. "It isn't easier for us as a group. Some people have to try several times to get across the Waste. Kas was able to send Petaal after Path even though they weren't separated before. But Path was hours away."
"I had to," says Petaal, hugging Isabella some more and leaning down to give Path a kiss. "I just had to, that's all."
"Thanks," says Isabella, looking up at Petaal gratefully. She seems mostly recovered from her flashback. "If you hadn't we'd be dead."
"I'm okay again," Isabella announces. "They're getting fewer and farther between and briefer every time, I just haven't dug out all the landmines in my head yet."
"I'm glad I'm all right too." She kisses Path's head and hands him back to Petaal.
Sherlock grins and hugs Kas back, then kisses him again. Why are they still wearing all these clothes? Amariah had the right idea about those.
Mmm. Disrobing boys. In a context that makes this relevant instead of akin to cereal-eating. Amariah approves.
There is a certain element of performance to it, too. Kas happens to think it's more fun that way.
Hmm. Amariah wonders if it would interfere with this performance if she helped.
(She can also scrape her fingernails across the trace that's left of that bite mark.)
"I know. You should see him when a cluster headache grabs him. I can't trigger those, sadly, they appear at random, flaw in the curse design."