a slightly dim and not quite stormy afternoon

iamnotpolaris

Emily follows! Two healers is more efficient than one on several levels.

The huddled people get out of the way, revealing about a dozen people lying on the ground in various states of unpleasantness. Some are unconscious, some crying. Only one is visibly injured, a man with a huge bruise on one side of his face; the rest, apparently, had encounters with the walls.

A boy somewhere between eight and twelve years old follows them across the room, having apparently been waiting beside the former doorway while they blasted their way in.

iamnotpolaris

...Yeah, bruise man is the lowest priority here. Emily begins healing the rest, dotting one and healing them before moving on to the next--it probably wouldn't leave her nonfunctional to sympathetically heal several people at once who had been walled but she's not eager to try it.

whatamithinking

Edie does likewise, although she does note the kid who was beside the doorway. "Are you the person we were talking to?"

"Yeah. Are they going to be okay?" he asks, frowning in concern.

whatamithinking

"Physically, yes. Mentally--they've been through a traumatic experience. How well they hold up depends a lot on them." She glances at him again. "...How much of this did you organize?"

"Some," he admits. "We weren't sure Janine made it - her team came back unconscious."

whatamithinking

"She did, thankfully. She's at our house right now." Healing someone by Si Vales Valeo doesn't take a long time--they're down to bruise guy. Edie heals him. Edie catches Emily's eye, and glances meaningfully at the kid.

iamnotpolaris

"...You think so? Yeah, I can see it. Mercurial Metal Manipulation." A tendril of probably-steel, presumably from one of the guards, flows over and forms up into a rectangle about the size of a business card with an email address engraved on it. She hands it to him. "Give us a ring in a couple of years, okay? It's always best to have a mentor when you're just starting out."

"...What?" he says, warily accepting the card.

iamnotpolaris

"Edie thinks you're getting magic when you're old enough. I don't disagree."

"...I'm not a girl," he points out, in case they hadn't noticed.

whatamithinking

"Not everyone who gets magic is. Magical Boys are rarer, but they exist."

"I guess," he says dubiously.

whatamithinking

"You'll see. Was that everyone who was hurt, or just the worst?"

"Anybody else injured?" the kid calls into the crowd, and a few people come forward with bumps and bruises and one twisted ankle.

whatamithinking

Twisted ankle gets dealt with first because that could actually be an impediment, but healing for everyone. "Is there any particular reason that any of you know of for not just getting out right now?"

General headshaking.

whatamithinking

"I'll go in front and my sister can take the rear in case we run into guards."

The kid nods; so do several other people. The kidnappees organize themselves into a procession and prepare to follow Edie through the maze.

whatamithinking

Unfortunately they can't keep the sides covered, but she is very careful about looking both ways whenever they cross an intersection.

There are no conscious guards waiting for them on the way. A few unconscious ones.

whatamithinking

Thane of the Inevitable Tide

Probably the other girl, then.

They make it out of the horrible spacewarped maze safely. ...And that would presumably be the assassin's distraction!

"Hi. The distraction, I presume?"

from-midnight-waters

"You must have met Star," says the short girl standing at the maze entrance holding a pair of honest-to-God lightsabers.

Her costume is very reminiscent of the assassin's, but with a slightly more elaborate design, a colour scheme favouring deep blue rather than black, and paired moon and sun symbols instead of a set of stars. Also, she is glowing with a fierce silver-edged golden light that silently sings of help and healing and heroism.

whatamithinking