whately twins land on valdemar
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"Oh, awesome!" 

She eats the rest of her breakfast hurriedly--this is not a woman who will willingly waste food--and then goes over to hug each of Vanyel and Tylendel in turn. 

"I'll be back before you know it," she promises. 

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Vanyel in particular hugs her back tightly, not letting go for a bit. :I know you'll be back soon but I'm going to miss you anyway: 

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:I'll miss you too. I don't really want to leave. But this is important, and sometimes doing unpleasant things is necessary.: Thoughtful pause. :You'll be--able to think about things this time--when I get back, do you want to watch me do the alchemy? I can explain what I'm doing, and more people who can do it is better.:

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:Sure! That sounds really interesting actually: 

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:Cool.: 

She pecks him on the cheek and, once he releases her, dashes out to go find the coffin. 

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And Vanyel will go out riding with Tylendel and their Companions, and play games with Mardic and Donni, and generally try to keep himself busy and distracted enough that he doesn't have room to miss Lucy, or feel irrationally scared that something is going to happen to them while she isn't there. 

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Lucy keeps the decoy coffin wrapped up and invisible as she rushes towards her destination. 

Avoiding making enough noise to be perceived clearly no matter how invisible she is takes care, and slows her down enough to make her clench her teeth and pointedly avoid calculating how much more ground she would be covering if she didn't have to be discreet. 

Despite what Donni said, it takes more than a day. It took their group of six about a week to get to Haven the first time. Lucy in natural form is faster than a Companion, and they weren't exactly bolting at breakneck pace the whole way, but Lucy is still significantly less than halfway there when the sun drops behind the horizon and the traffic on the road thins to nothingness and she can abandon near-silence in favor of just avoiding sounding like a gatling gun made of cannons. She makes much better time this way. 

By the time the sun rises again, she hasn't made it there, but she has made it off the main road. She compares her current progress with their schedule on the way to Haven, and slows enough to be quiet again; it's much less likely that she'll be heard without all the constant traffic of the main road, but even with her enhanced hearing there's no guarantee she'd realize there was a witness before they heard her, and she can't make the swap until nightfall anyway. 

The acrid smell hits her, and she wrinkles her nose. She doesn't have trauma about it, and she can tolerate smells that would make a hobo puke, but now that she's met Tylendel and doesn't have Vanyel to worry about...

This is a sad place. 

Well. She's going to fix it. She's made a good start, and she is at this very moment working to fix something adjacent, and she's going to fix all of it in time. 

She makes her way to the keep, and the graveyard, by a circuitous route that keeps her out of the way of people. She's totally justified in what she's doing here but it's still a little awkward. 

She lurks there among the dead until the sun goes down, until the sounds of human activity she can detect are few and far away. 

She pries into the earth, carefully, oh, so, carefully. She probes beneath the soil until she finds the telltale wooden shape six feet down. She wraps her tentacles around it, engulfing it completely so that even if the coffin disintegrated no part of the body would escape her grasp, and slowly tugs it out of the earth. When it reaches the surface and the ground is pried open as far as the coffin will push it, she holds it open as she finishes extracting the real casket, and pushes the empty decoy into the place beneath the earth where it lay.

Once the transfer is complete, she examines the site as best she can in the darkness, poking the slight discrepancies back into place. 

She waits there until dawn, uses the improved lighting to check to make sure she didn't miss anything, and then takes off again as swiftly as she quietly can. 

It is shortly after noon of the next day when she reaches the palace again. 

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In which case she'll find Savil and the others all in the suite, eating lunch together. Vanyel has been sleeping okay, with a somewhat higher rate of panicked half-awakenings in the middle of the night, but none of the really bad nightmares. He's back to not being very hungry, today, but Tylendel is occupied trying to shove food into him anyway. 

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Lucy stashes the casket in the alchemy lab, washes off traces of soil at the pump, and comes around to greet everyone. 

"Hey! I'm back. It went off without a hitch."

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Vanyel and Tylendel both leap up to greet her. Vanyel gets there first, and throws his arms around her. :I'm really glad you're back: 

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She hugs him back. :I missed you. It's good to be back.: Muscles she hadn't realized were tense relax as she luxuriates in the human contact, the feeling of family home safe good that embracing her friend brings. 

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Tylendel hugs her as well. "Thank you so much for doing this. I don't know how to repay it." 

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"It's not about repayment. You're my friend, and I want to help you."

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"...I know. But I still feel like I owe you - everything - and I haven't done anything for you, really." He looks into her eyes, smiles crookedly. "Friends helping each other goes both ways." 

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"That is super fair. I mean, I really really appreciate the hugs, but I can see how it's not quite on the same level. I'll let you know if anything comes up."

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Tylendel nods, then lets go of her and drags Vanyel back to the table. "Finish your food, ashke. Lucy, he hasn't been eating enough today."

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"Don't tattle on me," Vanyel mutters. 

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She giggles. 

"Do you know where the alchemy lab is so I can meet you there or do I need to show you?"

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"I know where it is," Savil says. "I can show them – well, whoever wants to come. Does it seem all right to you for 'Lendel to watch...this?" 

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"...I think if he wants to he shouldn't be stopped but it would be super understandable to not want to. Uh, I wasn't planning on opening the coffin before incinerating it but I am extra not planning on it if he comes."

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"Please don't? Why would you do that?" 

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"I wouldn't! Just. If you show up I would consider adding a few extra nails just to be sure."

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Tylendel shivers. "...I think I won't." 

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"That is so, so valid." She hugs him. 

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Vanyel gives Tylendel a worried look. "Lucy, how much of it are you going to want me around for, if I do want to see how it works?" He doesn't really want to be spending all day apart from Tylendel the whole time. That feels...wrong. 

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