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Shara is getting very tired of this horse and this forest and the map which has clearly marked hills and rivers and nothing labeled adventures via which to satisfy picky artifacts sold wholesale here. Kayam doesn't seem to mind, but Kayam's more patient than her to begin with, and Kayam's horse is more placid - Shara would trade but she's supposed to be gentling this one as long as she has a long consecutive while to do it in.
Her horse veers off left. Shara steadies it - but looks left, why not, to see what's distracted the horse.
Well, that's one hell of a garden. It's got residual magic over it - the raveler's equivalent of lint, nothing Shara can mess with while the plant raveler's not actively working on it, but there is definitely a plant mage here.
The house has the same property.
And so does - something else.
Three different kinds of raveler-residue over the same property. All recent, though the house, requiring no active maintenance, less so than the garden and the - other thing.
Shara raises a hand; Kayam comes to a halt while Shara squints.
And then the unfamiliar something inside the house flares and Shara gets a very clear look at what's making the third kind of lint.
She promptly loses her breakfast onto the excuse for a trail they're riding on before she can even think about interfering with its work.
"Whoa, milady, what's - what's wrong, were the rations bad -?" asks Kayam
Shara shakes her head. "Some kind of raveler I don't recognize in that house. They're - I don't even know how to describe it. Raveling people."
"...The way you say that I somehow don't think you mean like healers do."
"Not like healers do," shudders Shara, swigging water. "Raveling their - feelings, I guess. There's people in that house and I don't know if there's a thing keeping them all together except the magic."
"Could... you... stop them, if they tried to do it to us?" asks Kayam slowly.
"I think so. I was caught off guard - there, they're doing it again, I can't reach from here but I can see the stitching. I think I could counter it."
"You think."
"If it was coming at me, absolutely - I'm less sure I'd grab it in time if it was aimed at you. It doesn't feel long-range, though."
"Okay. So - what do you want to do, milady?"
Shara thinks.
"Tie up the horses. You hang back here and watch through the window. I'll - knock on the door and see if I can fix the problem by talking. When I've figured out who it is, if I've decided they can't be reasoned with or I'm worried they're going to keep raveling at me until I'm too tired to stop them - I'll let off a flashball and you fold straight in - don't walk through the garden, it'll turn on you if the plant mage wants - and then I guess you kill this particular raveler. Maybe their work will dissolve when they die and the others will be okay."
"What if their work, um, does not dissolve when they die, as a for-instance?"
"Then," says Shara, "we'll be in a house with a bunch of people who just watched us kill their best friend, and you will fold us back to our horses smart-quick and we will run away very fast, but at least no one else will get - mindraveled."
"This sounds a bit more dangerous than your usual sort of idea," says Kayam.
"It's pulling double duty," says Shara, and she dismounts, and approaches the house, and knocks.
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try_me
Zeviana can't see, she's just as blind as the rest of them - but she's the one with actual combat experience. She follows the voice, the new one she doesn't recognize, and moves to knock the owner's teeth in. With her eyes closed, because she isn't going to be blinded again.
pleating
Kayam needs to keep enough energy in reserve to get her and Shara out of here. Moving them out of the path of the blow - when she's just going to need to charge back in to properly stab the target - is costly.
Changing the path of the punch -
Through Adarin's shredded shield goes Zeviana's fist. Kayam tries with her knife again.
This time it hits. There's a wet, choking sound.
Jony and Tima are clinging to each other and crying. Everyone else is screaming, some of them Chelasi's name, and rubbing their eyes.
Changing the path of the punch -
Through Adarin's shredded shield goes Zeviana's fist. Kayam tries with her knife again.
This time it hits. There's a wet, choking sound.
Jony and Tima are clinging to each other and crying. Everyone else is screaming, some of them Chelasi's name, and rubbing their eyes.
try_me
Zeviana's fist meets Chelasi's face. She opens her eyes with a triumphant smile -
- and then through the spots and blurred vision she sees who she punched. Then she sees the blood.
"No," she says, and then she's trying to stop the bleeding and it's - there's too much blood, just everywhere. She can't. There's no way. She tries, anyway. "No!"
- and then through the spots and blurred vision she sees who she punched. Then she sees the blood.
"No," she says, and then she's trying to stop the bleeding and it's - there's too much blood, just everywhere. She can't. There's no way. She tries, anyway. "No!"
in_tatters
Adarin feels cold. He blinks away the spots, trying to clear his vision, as he picks up the shredded remains of his shield. He failed. Chelasi's dead. He doesn't even understand why, it just seems so - random. That they specifically targeted her, so - systematically.
"Why?" he half-sobs. "She did nothing to you!"
"Why?" he half-sobs. "She did nothing to you!"
"No. Shit, she must've worked more like an artificer -"
in_tatters
"What? She wasn't a - you just - what did you think she was doing? She hasn't hurt anyone in her life!"
Shara backs up so she's back-to-back with Kayam, in case someone lunges for them, but maybe she can afford to explain.
"I'm a metaraveler. You saw. She was something I've never seen before, raveling people, raveling you, and I might have thought it was worth seeing if she had all of your permission to do it until she tried to grab me."
"I'm a metaraveler. You saw. She was something I've never seen before, raveling people, raveling you, and I might have thought it was worth seeing if she had all of your permission to do it until she tried to grab me."
try_me
"What do you mean raveling people?!" hisses Zeviana, giving up on trying to save Chelasi. She's gone. Now, the woman is looking like she is ready to lunge for them.
"She was making you like her, like each other, and I thought it might wear off if she died, some ravelings do, but this one - didn't," says Shara.
try_me
"Making us like her? She doesn't need to do that, she's - she was great, you're lying!" she cries, getting up and getting ready to lunge -
in_tatters
- Then Adarin makes a sweeping motion towards Kayam and Shara. They're both protected. He knows Shara can tell, so he doesn't explain himself.
"Vi. Stop, we're not murderers, we should hear them out -"
"Vi. Stop, we're not murderers, we should hear them out -"
try_me
"Maybe you're not! They just killed Chelasi, I think murdering is kind of fucking called for right now!"
Shara places a quelling hand on Kayam's arm, since Kayam can't tell they're shielded and was making to escape.
"I would've tried to talk it out with her but she tried to make me like her pretty much as soon as I said I was a raveler. Didn't three mages in the house seem like a lot to you? Until you realize it was four."
"I would've tried to talk it out with her but she tried to make me like her pretty much as soon as I said I was a raveler. Didn't three mages in the house seem like a lot to you? Until you realize it was four."
"We were out riding around and I could feel her giving somebody a - booster."
pleating
"There's a puddle of puke where she was when that happened," mutters Kayam, "and this is the thanks milady gets?"
try_me
"Hey, you just stabbed my - I thought she was my friend. Yes this is the thanks you get for killing someone with no explanation!"
in_tatters
The shield raveler is currently not doing anything. He has a blank expression on his face, staring at Shara. The shield is still around her and Kayam.
"There wasn't time to explain. It took me at least twice as much energy to undo her spell as it took her to cast it. She would've gotten me before I could get out more than a sentence or two."
try_me
Zeviana doesn't have a reply to that.
Instead, she turns and kicks Chelasi's corpse. "You were using me to get to my brother?!" she screeches. Then she kicks the corpse again.
Instead, she turns and kicks Chelasi's corpse. "You were using me to get to my brother?!" she screeches. Then she kicks the corpse again.
Anlon, previously paralyzed with horror, flings himself over Chelasi's body, heedless of the blood.
"How could - how could you just assume - we were happy," he chokes out at Shara.
"You were manipulated," says Shara.
Anlon shakes his head and gathers Chelasi up into his arms, weeping.
"How could - how could you just assume - we were happy," he chokes out at Shara.
"You were manipulated," says Shara.
Anlon shakes his head and gathers Chelasi up into his arms, weeping.
try_me
"... Seriously, Anlon? You're siding with Chelasi?! She spent - three years lying to me and my brother and magically manipulating our opinion of her and -" Pause. "... And probably you, too. All of you."