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| − | [Avir] Avir walks briskly through the streets, sidestepping the occasional dollop of reindeer dung some barbarian and his beast had left for the unwary. He is dressed in embroidered silk, well-groomed and a faint odour of perfume manages to penetrate the grit of the city.
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| − | [Avir] He had killed a man who had saved his life, and the burden is less than a feather. He glances up at Cadia's window, and a smile flickers across his face. He wraps on the door.
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| − | [ST] The Guild Headquarters rises ahead soon enough; after all, experience tells him the fastest way to get there, though hordes of refugees from the Outwall have clogged the streets. The lesser merchants of the Guild mill in the streets with small carts, selling charms of dubious value to the newcomers. A Guildswoman selling sweets is making a veritable killing. As Avir raps on the door, the
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| − | [ST] tiny window set in it opens, revealing a pair of suspicious eyes.
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| − | [ST] "Yes?"
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| − | [Avir] Avir dusts an invisible speck of dust of his sleeve. "My name is Avir. I've a message for Varun, from the Ravens. To be delivered personally."
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| − | [ST] The eyes narrow. "Yes. We are expecting you." There is the sound of a heavy bolt being withdrawn, and the guard opens the door. Avir has seen him before; a stern, humorless Haslanti with a short blond beard.
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| − | [ST] Another guard is more familiar still, an Eastern woman with her hair swept up dramatically above scuffed armor. She teases him poisonously. "Not come to visit Cadda again?"
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| − | [Avir] His gaze flicks to the stairwell and he coughs. "Maybe later. That is-" He glances at the Eastern woman. "She's not, er, mad at me, is she?"
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| − | [ST] "Oh, well, you'd have to ask her." Her smile is slight, secretive.
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| − | [ST] "Varun awaits," the humorless man offers. "Enter. You should know where his office is."
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| − | [Avir] He had seen hints of fine furnishings as Cadda drew him along to more interesting places. "I think I can make it there."
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| − | [ST] "Then go." He opens the cramped anteroom's inner door. A blast of heat and the smell of spices wafts from within.
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| − | [Avir] "You are too kind." Avir sweeps him a bow, including the Eastern woman in the gesture, and wanders into Varun's office. He walks past the anteroom and seats him self in a comfortable, over-stuffed and over-luxurious armchair. He sighs as he feels muscles he didn't now he had relaxing. "You had some business with me."
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| − | [ST] The slight man looks up from his abacus and piles of shimmering silver coins. Not bothering to rise, he simply nods at Avir.
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| − | [ST] "Once Dead are clever/Do you know why you are here[[DKMortals/SessionFortyOne/Or]] is truth hidden?"
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| − | [Avir] "Care tell me what, exactly, you want with me?" Avir asks, a little testily. He hadn't liked being promised to the Guild for unspecified..services, as if he worked with Peach in the brothel.
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| − | [Avir] "Something to do with Cadda, I'm told."
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| − | [ST] "Cadda is known to you[[DKMortals/SessionFortyOne/You]] are not alone in that," He smiles an oily smile. "But you are unique."
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| − | [Avir] "Why?" Had the merchant genuinely liked him? Amusing if she had.
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| − | [ST] "She speaks with candor. You are no canny Guildsman. Merely diversion."
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| − | [ST] "She plots against me[[DKMortals/SessionFortyOne/Harbors]] wild dreams of conquest[[DKMortals/SessionFortyOne/She]] would rule the Guild."
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| − | [ST] Varun fiddles with the abacus absently, even as his eyes bore in to Avir's.
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| − | [Avir] "Really?" Avir thinks on langurous Cadda and the smell of her opium pipe. "I wouldn't think she had the energy."
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| − | [Avir] He meets the guildman's eyes direct on. "What are you hoping she'll tell me, that your little birds couldn't hear?
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| − | [ST] "The bear sleeps all winter. But that does not save spring hares. In time, she will act." He steeples his fingers. "Guild is family. Full of lies, rumors, incest. But you are unique."
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| − | [ST] "Birds are fickle beasts. Take their seed from any hand. May light on any perch."
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| − | [ST] "Chirp for me at morn. Fly to her at night's falling. But you are unique."
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| − | [Avir] "Unique as any whore you could hire." Avir barks a laugh. "How easy is the path to her bed, do you think? I- it's been a while since I've been by."
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| − | [ST] Varun laughs softly. The sound is strangely high-pitched. "A path well-traveled. Nostalgia will gain you much." He leans back. Light dances across his spectacles. "And you are unique."
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| − | [Avir] "You've said that. Four times now."
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| − | [Avir] He has an inkling, from some atrophied part of his understanding, that Varun might mean something by that.
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| − | [ST] Varun nods once more. Some quirk of the tunesmiths, or some deeper hint? He offers little hints in that regard.
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| − | [ST] "Go lay with her." He waves a hand dismissively. "This should not be difficult. A plesant duty."
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| − | [Avir] It eludes his grasp. He stands. "If that's all, then..."
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| − | [Avir] "More pleasant than many," he agrees, thinking of the cold endless slog through the winter, Adder coughing himself to death and Obligatory shivering and Red pacing like a tiger. All of them taking from him, his time or his attention.
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| − | [ST] He gestures smoothly towards the door. "Yes, that is all. Go listen to her secrets. And chirp in my ear." He returns to his accounting without further comment.
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| − | [Avir] He salutes with a flick of his finger and departs.
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| − | [Avir] He remembers the way to Cadda's suite of rooms well enough, though he had often stumbled there on her arm half-drunk from drugged smoke.
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| − | [Avir] He exchanges a nod with the Haslanti guard as he makes his way up the stairs. He hesitates a moment at the door, stubbornly closed to him, and knocks.
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| − | [ST] The door is closed, but the familiar fragrance wends its way from under the door. Charms jangle as Avir knocks. There is a moment's silence. Then, a familiar voice:
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| − | [ST] "Come."
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| − | [Avir] He opens the door slowly, giving her plenty of time to know who is coming, and himself plenty of opportunity to duck back behind it if she threw a shoe. "Cadda."
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| − | [ST] Cadda reclines amongst her cushions, looking much as she did when he last saw her. A slight widening of the eyes is the only expression she allows herself before closing the ledger book before her. "Avir. I began to wonder if you had died."
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| − | [Avir] Avir shows her his stump. "It was a near thing," he admits, glancing at the grotesquerie.
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| − | [ST] Cadda draws back slightly, her rings and bracelets jangling. "Avir? What happened?"
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| − | [Avir] "Someone cut my hand off. I hope you don't mind cripples." He thumps the stump against a small wooden table. Knock on wood. "It was a mean old bitch."
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| − | [ST] "Close the door, you're letting out the warmth," her voice is as soft and velvety as ever. She seems to have adjusted to his wound rather quickly. "Meaner than me?"
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| − | [Avir] He steps inside, knocking the door closed with his foot. "Oh much. A howling mad thing." He takes a seat by her side, his smoothness not much impaired by his maimed limb. He takes one of her hands in his only remaining, and raises it to his lips. "But not half so witty."
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| − | [ST] "You flatterer," she says without much rancor, blowing a cloud of smoke into his face. "You must have angered her. Funny, that you did not worry about angering me." She lets him kiss her hand without protest.
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| − | [Avir] "You haven't cut off anyone's hands. That I know of." The joke falls flat. He blinks: the smoke stings his eyes. "Forgive me for staying away. I- " was he supposed to admit that his demon had predicted she would murder him? "...There isn't anyone else. I've been weeks in the cold, and I've missed you sorely."
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| − | [Avir] He meets her eyes through the smoke, trying for open-hearted confession. She makes it damnably difficult.
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| − | [ST] "So I..." she reaches out, her fingers slipping around his chin, and pulling his face close. "Am your last resort? Is that it? A friend told me he had seen you dallying at Nellens Ralinona's place."
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| − | [Avir] Curse him, whoever he was. There was a code. What happened at the whorehouse....
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| − | [ST] "Oh wipe that look off your face," Cadda says. She leans close, her forehead bumping against his. "I don't own you. Play where you will; I do, of course. However, it does leave a lady feeling rather... shunned."
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| − | [Avir] "Raven business. There's been little else in my life of late, with the damnable war." He leans his head down and kisses her at the corner of her mouth. "Of course, my schedule's freed up a bit recently..." he murmurs.
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| − | [ST] "Miss me?" She breathes into his ear.
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| − | [Avir] "Like a madman, lovely lady." His hand goes to the threads that laced her leather outerjacket together, teasing open the knot as he kisses his way down her neck. He draws back, a glint of mischief in his eyes. "Want me to show you how much?"
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| − | [ST] "Certainly. We do have to make up for lost time, after all."
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| − | ----
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| − | [ST] The little cave is thick with the smell of smoke. Having a fire was risky, especially in so confined a space, but not having one was riskier still, and the Ear who couldn't properly ventilate a fire was the kind who didn't need to be roaming the Outwall. As the sun rises, casting rosy fingers into the cave, Risa glumly rises from her watch, kicking snow into the embers.
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| − | [ST] "Three fucking days," she complains briskly, "and not a damn sight of so much as a wolf's ass. I'm starting..." Kick. Kick. Kick. "To doubt our illustrious Dead colleagues."
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| − | [Kemi] "Morning," Kemi says laconically, stretching. "Better we see nothing. Everyone goes home in one piece."
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| − | [Kemi] She scratches her ass. Manners weren't for family. "Real treat for breakfast," she says, digging around in her pack.
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| − | [ST] "Yeah, yeah, yeah," Risa responds. She is already strapping the dual hilts of her shortblades over her back. Clearly, she wants to be away. "But I think they could find somebody better suited to looking than us. If the Once Dead want to see wolfmen and ghosts behind every rock, let THEM go look for them. Hey, Old Man!" She gives the dozing lump on the other side of the fire a soft kick. "Get
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| − | [ST] up. If I'm gonna have to wait an hour for you to finish draining your bladder, I'd rather get started now."
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| − | [ST] Sven, the aging Greenman, rises with a soft groan, mumbling something unflattering in a tribal dialect. It is his job as a Greenman to monitor the health of the Emeralds, so he does not complain, but he prefers to do so in solitude, not in the presence of the Ears of the North. Particularly this pair.
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| − | [Kemi] "Don't be such an infant," Kemi says in a peaceable way, chewing on her ricecake. It was too bad Risa hadn't taken the bait. It had been riceake yesterday, the day before, and every day since Icehome.
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| − | [ST] "The least these lot could have done was leave some food behind for us."
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| − | [ST] "We're the ones safeguarding their little huts, anyway." She looks at the ricecake, groaning in a pained way.
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| − | [ST] "There is little excess in the Emeralds at this lean time of year," Sven says. He pulls a cup out of the embers of the fire, shakes it a few times, and takes a hesitant sip. "They would only be leaving them for our enemies."
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| − | [ST] Risa holds a hand up, opening and closing it to mime his speech.
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| − | [Kemi] Kemi shrugs and tosses Risa another ricecake. "What they pay us for. Pay gets you drinks and boys. Eat up. We're moving out in ten minutes. Anyone gets left behind, stays behind."
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| − | [ST] "Anyway," she says, glumly munching at the cake. "There's only a few more Emeralds left in our sector. What's the last one? Tilsaad?"
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| − | [ST] "Tanstaad." Sven hastens to prepare his baggage.
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| − | [Kemi] Kemi rolls her bedroll into her packet with an easy gesture, swings it over shoulder. "Maybe we should retire to one of these Emeralds," she muses out loud.
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| − | [Kemi] "They're peaceful. I imagine they're peaceful even when they have people in them."
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| − | [ST] "YOU can retire to them, sis," Risa says, pulling a face. "Find a nice guy like Sven, settle down, raise a fine crop of seed grass. I would prefer to live somewhere where I don't have to shovel the snow off my house for several hours every morning." She frowns, and blows a few strands of dark, errant hair off her forehead. "So... Gem, I guess."
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| − | [ST] "Tanstaad is perhaps two days east of here," Sven says when the trio emerges from the cave, voice muffled through his bundled clothing. He squints his eyes against snowblindness.
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| − | [ST] "Fuck the hare," Risa mumbles. Growing up an orphan in the League had left her almost horrifyingly irreligious. "Think we could take the gliders?"
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| − | [Kemi] "No." Kemi glances at Risa. "The old man can't use them, and I don't like these drafts. Lets start walking."
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| − | [ST] "Always has to be the hard way, huh, Kem?" Risa gives a grunt, and starts down the difficult slope in front of them. "Shoulda joined the corpses after all."
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| − | [Kemi] "Corpses are dead. Always. Predictable." She blinks, her slow smile coming to her lips. "Hard way is the path of Virtue. I know how much you like the virtuous ones."
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| − | [ST] "Yeah, they stir the heart like the sweetest poetry." She slips, trips, and winds up sliding the last few feet down the slope on her rump.
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| − | [ST] "The elite of the North," Risa says as she gets up with a groan. Even old Sven has a chuckle at that one.
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| − | [Kemi] Kemi just shakes her head as she passes her.
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| − | ---
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| − | [ST] Two days later finds noonday sun shining across the expanse of snow near Tanstaad. In the distance, the Emerald's shielding curtain wall of rock rises up from the rolling country. Breath steams in air as the trio look.
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| − | [ST] "Finally," Risa says. "I need a bath." She sniffs. "And so do you. Sven's hopeless."
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| − | [ST] Kemi sees them first, a trio of figures, bent low to the ground, racing across the snow away from the Emerald. It takes a moment for them to reveal themselves to her eye. They're too large and bulky for even Haslanti, the heads strangely shaped, seeming to point forward... wolfmen!
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| − | [Kemi] "My fleas and I are old friends, now. Who wants to part with old friends?" Kemi is still amiable and relaxed. "Don't look now, little sister, but I think you're going to get your excitement for the day." She jerks her head to the wolfmen.
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| − | [Kemi] "Beastlings."
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| − | [ST] "Damn," Risa says. Her hands dart to her back, coming down with her twin short swords. "Do we let 'em go? I don't think they've seen us." She scoffs at her own question a second later. "Who am I kidding?"
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| − | [Kemi] Kemi crouches down in the snow. "Don't want a fight if we can avoid it," she says mildly. She squints at the beastlings. "Better to confirm the corpses' story. Best to find if those wolflings are running from...or running to."
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| − | [Kemi] "Could be an army in that Emerald."
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| − | [ST] The wolfmen keep running, drawing near. As they race past below the Ears of the North concealed on the ridge, Kemi notices that they are only lightly attired. Two of them, the smaller ones that are lagging behind the leader, are not even armed. They pay the concealed Haslanti no heed.
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| − | [ST] One of them is leaving a trail of blood in the snow.
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| − | [Kemi] Kemi makes a sign to her sister. The sign is 'stalk.'
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| − | [Kemi] Wolfmen weren't the only creatures that could play wolves and deer in the snow.
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| − | [ST] Risa gives a tight nod, cocking her head back at Sven. Her fingers flicker. 'Slow.'
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| − | [Kemi] Kemi eases in by Sven. "Stay here," she breathes in his ear, then runs low to the ground behind the ridge, her sister swift and silent behind her. Her sister runs on as she takes her bolo from its place at her waist and swings it carefully. They had played this game before.
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| − | [Kemi] She aims for the bleeding one. With luck, the others would just leave it.
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| − | [Kemi] The bolo flies from her hand, the two weighted balls spinning rapidly on their cord. It wraps around her target's legs, binding them together just as she'd wanted, and the beastman falls with a yell.
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| − | [ST] The wounded wolfman is lagging behind the others already. It gives a howl of surprise as Kemi's bolo strikes it, winding around its legs and dropping it in the snow. The others look back briefly. The unarmed creature continues to race forward, but the one with the axe turns, hastening back, its glance falling on the two Haslanti near its fallen comrade.
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| − | [Kemi] Neat as ever. Kemi races forward, drawing her sword.
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| − | [ST] The wolfman darts through the snow, furred legs kicking up drifts of snow. The axe in its grip is bloody and pitted, dark hair caked to the blade by gore. It bares yellowed fangs, leaping at Risa with a howl. It swipes its filthy blade low, attepting to disembowel her.
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| − | [ST] "Ha!" Risa crows, deftly deflecting the blade. It goes sailing over her shoulder in a sunbright flash.
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| − | [Kemi] Kemi leaps at the wolfman, her blade flashing in an arc as she takes advantage of the beast's overextension.
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| − | [ST] The wolfman stumbles back, snarling. "You fools! You know not what you do!"
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| − | [Kemi] Blood flies from the gash she leaves on its shoulder. "Peace, beast. We just want to talk," Kemi says without passion.
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| − | [ST] Risa, betraying such intentions, darts forward, stabbing wildly, but her weapons are turned by the thing's thick pelt.
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| − | [ST] "No," the wolf howls. "No talk!"
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| − | [ST] The creature bends low, slavering into the snow, and comes up with a massive two handed blow at Risa.
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| − | [ST] "Oof!" Risa staggers back, winded.
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| − | [Kemi] "Just tell us what's going on," Kemi says, glancing reproachfully at Risa. "That's all we want care about, really."
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| − | [ST] With a growl, the wolfman turns, and lowering its shoulders, races away, not even turning around for the axe. The one felled by Kemi's bolo continues to howl in the snow.
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| − | [Kemi] "Stay," she tells her sister sternly tromping to the one in the snow. She lays the tip of her sword on its nose. "Shut it, wolfboy."
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| − | [ST] The creature groans softly. Red froth bubbles from its muzzle. Risa looks at the retreating wolf with a glare, sticking out her lip. "I could still catch it!"
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| − | [ST] Hesitantly, Sven pokes his head up from the sheltering rocks.
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| − | [Kemi] Kemi draws her sword away a little. "Now talk. What were your running from?"
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| − | [ST] The creature coughs. "Demon... d-demon..." Its entire body shudders. Kemi can see that its fur is matted to it with blood and sweat. More of the former is appearing with every second, staining the snow around the beast. It may be mortally wounded.
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| − | [Kemi] Kemi frowns. "Demon? What do you mean? An anathema? You're descended from an anathema, aren't you?"
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| − | [ST] "She is NOT anathema," the creature snarls. It lurches, as if it wants to lunge at her, but it doesn't quite make it, collapsing back with a groan. "Demon. Huge. Killed us... killed us all."
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| − | [Kemi] "Ah, just how big?"
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| − | [Kemi] Maybe it was a good thing. Maybe this wolf queen woman wasn't as big a problem as everyone thought.
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| − | [ST] The wolfman gives one last lurch, and stops moving, eyes glazing over.
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| − | [ST] "Well..." Risa says after a moment. "This makes me feel just great. So we go home now?"
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| − | [ST] "We'll tell the Knitting Circle that there's a demon in the Emerald, problem solved."
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| − | [Kemi] Kemi ignores her, looking thoughtfully out at the Emerald. "We have to find out what it is."
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| − | [ST] "No we don't, sis," Risa argues, but only halfheartedly. She kicks at the snow. "I have a bad feeling about this one, okay? Just like I had a bad feeling about breaking into that one house, and look what happened."
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| − | [Kemi] She unwraps her bolo from the cropse as she thinks out loud. "Sven would be useless. He can creep home. We can take gliders....fly over the city...." She turns at Risa, her grin crooked. "Where's your sense of adventure?"
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| − | [ST] "Must have left it at home..." but after a moment, she grins, and calls up. "Hear that, Sven? You get to go back to Icehome!"
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| − | [ST] The old Greenman makes his way down the slope with difficulty. "Forgive me, but I must see the Emerald. Is something wrong?"
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| − | [Kemi] "Huge ass demon. Apparently. That's what this creature said it was running from." She nudges the corpse with her foot. "We're going to check it out. Our thought was, you skiddally on home and tell mum we died bravely."
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| − | [ST] "Demon? In an Emerald? Psh." He spits in the snow, scratching at his beard. "I'll be the judge of that. It's my job to tend them. If I don't have a look now, Emerald won't bring in a harvest this year."
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| − | [Kemi] "No people, no harvest. Go."
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| − | [ST] Anger mars Sven's features. "Fine. You'll answer for this to the Green Council." He turns on his heels sharply. "May Hare shield you."
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| − | [ST] He stalks off without further comment, shoulders down. Soon enough, he's just a dot on the horizon.
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| − | [ST] "I hope the grumpy old bastard runs into another knot of wolfmen," Risa says with a scowl.
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| − | [ST] "...oh, all right, not really. But we're well shut of him."
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| − | [Kemi] "Right." Kemi is already unstrapping her glider. "Bet we'll beat him home, too. Tough old man, but slow."
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| − | [ST] Risa unstraps her own, unfolding its overlapping structures of feathersteel and lashing them securely.
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| − | [Kemi] Kemi settles herself under her own glider wings and drags it over to the edge of the ridge. "Second person to see the demon digs the scat-pit?"
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| − | [ST] In only a few moments, she has the glider assembled and ready to go, an elegant thing of canvas and feathersteel. "Sounds good," she says, setting off at a run.
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| − | [Kemi] Kemi runs after her, launching herself into the air a bare second behind. As always, there's a moment of heart-stopping terror before the wind lifts the glider, the scruture creaking as the air lifts it swooping into the air. Kemi laughs. Subtlety made the glider fast; she tilts it slightly, gathering an updraft that sends her soaring upwards and over Risa. "Too slow!" she shouts down.
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| − | [ST] "I'll show you slow!" Risa dips slightly, then pulls up, bringing her glider almost even with Kemi's. The pair streak east towards the Emerald.
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| − | [ST] Soon the curtaining rock wall passes by below, the thermals from the exposed rocks giving the gliders a lift. The Emerald stretches out before them.
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| − | [Kemi] Kemi swoops in a long circle, skimming an arc near the entrance. She was fairly safe; the demon could hardly be big enough to snatch her out of the air, and it was damned hard to hit a glider with an arrow. "Further in!" she shouts. "Where the settlement would be!"
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] Snow has piled up on the streets of the settlement below, an orderly cluster of thatched houses surrounding a tall central meeting house. Towards the far end of the Emerald is a pine forest, the snow-shrouded trees shielding the ground from view. Blood spatters the snow near the entrance to the town. Bodies lie below, crumpled and broken.
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| − | [Kemi] Kemi's glider dips lower, dropping down for a closer look.
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| − | [ST] Risa follows. There seem to be a dozen or so bodies, all of them wolfmen. It's difficult to tell, exactly, as many have been rent limb from limb.
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| − | [Kemi] "No demons so far..." Good news. Something had been there, though. She climbs a thermal. "Scout the rest of the Emerald?
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| − | [ST] "Not much more to see, unless you wanna land." Risa's tone makes it clear that she doesn't.
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| − | [ST] From below, as if wafted on the breeze, comes the sound of soft sobbing.
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| − | | |
| − | [Kemi] "You stay in the air, then. I'm going to see what's there." She dips her craft down, then down again, landing it lightly on a roof. It was stupid, maybe, but curiosity had always been her covert sin. She grins and waves at her sister, still hovering uncertainyl.
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| − | | |
| − | [Kemi] She scratches her cheek and looks around, ears pricked for the weird sobbing.
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] The sobbing seems to be coming from a building that fronts on the square at the center of the small town, facing the massive structure. A blood-splattered signboard swings outside, marked by a faded image of a pony.
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| − | | |
| − | [Kemi] Kemi slips lightly from the roof and moves quietly to the inn, taking care to minimize her noise. She ducks her head under the swinging sign and peers past the open door.
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| − | [ST] As Kemi approaches the in, she kicks something in the snow. It shifts slightly. It's then that she notices the lump at her feet, and dozens more around her. Black blood covers the walls of the inn. Within, a slaughterhouse. The walls have been painted with blood and gore. Corpses lie scattered in terrible disarray. One body, torn in half, hangs from the chandelier overhead, probably the
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] most fancy piece of decoration in town. Tables are splintered, overturned.
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| − | [ST] Blood and spilled ale mingle on the floor, frozen into one crust. The hearth is dark and silent. The crying comes from within, behind the bar.
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| − | [Kemi] She should run. She should run, get her glider, and not come back. No one would blame her if she ran.
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| − | [Kemi] But curiosity bites and nibbles at her toes. She could swear the creature- the crier- whatever it was- could hear the pounding of her heart. She steps carefully, silently into the room, edging her way along the side of the wall so she could see behind the bar.
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] A woman crouches there, her blond hair plastered against her with blood, her clothing shredded and torn. She cradles a dark-skinned corpse in her arm, sobbing softly. She does not seem to have noticed Kemi's arrival at all.
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| − | [Kemi] "H-hullo?"
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| − | [ST] The woman's cries stop. She cringes back against the bar, mewling in terror as she sees the other woman.
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| − | [ST] "St-stay aw-aw-away."
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| − | [Kemi] "Who are you? What are you doing here? Did you kill these people?" She stays back, sure enough. She wasn't dumb.
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] "No, no, no, I didn't, I didn't, it was her, it was her, it was HER," the woman cries wildly. "The wolves came, and we hid, and she- she- killed everyone down there, everyone. I ran, hid... hid here, under the floorboards, and she... I..."
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Everyone," the woman sobs. "Even Broc. He stayed here for me. He worked for the guild." The woman cries again, harder.
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| − | [Kemi] "She? Who?"
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Her husband, too. He fought off the wolves, but- b-but..."
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| − | [ST] From outside comes a horrible splintering noise, a high, warbling scream. Risa.
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| − | [Kemi] Kemi runs outside. That stupid girl! She had told her to stay high! "Risa?!"
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] The shattered ruins of Risa's glider slump atop the meeting house. Her broken form is curled on the ground below it, a pitifully small bundle in the snow.
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| − | | |
| − | [Kemi] Kemi runs to her. "Risa- what happened?" she couldn't have fouled up her landing so badly. She goes to her knees beside her sister.
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] Risa doesn't say anything for a moment. Her eyes stare blankly up at Kemi, her breath coming quickly and shallowly. "Sis... it hurts."
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] It should hurt. Kemi can tell just from looking that both her legs are broken. Then, she realizes that Risa's left arm is gone, torn completely from the socket, busily gushing blood. Risa barely notices.
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| − | | |
| − | [Kemi] "J-just hold still." Kemi's eyes blur. They were both children again, and Risa had fallen off the roof of her first burglary. "We'll get out. You'll see..." There was no time. No time at all. She peels off her outshirt pushes it against Risa's gushing arm socket. It's soppy with blood almost immediately. Kemi didn't know any medicine and Risa wouldn't stop bleeding, and she couldn't stop crying.
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| − | | |
| − | [Kemi] She presses her awkward pad. "No...Hare, no, please don't do this..."
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Something grabbed me, sis. It jumped. It was big. It..." Risa coughs. Blood is everywhere. She gasps for breath. "You have to run... now... please."
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| − | [Kemi] Kemi shakes her head blindly. "I'm not leaving you, silly. I won't."
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| − | | |
| − | [Kemi] She should have listened to her. She should have listened to her, turned, and ran with the blood wolves. This was all her fault. She was supposed to be the mature one, the one who knew better...
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Heh. You've- you've gotta dig the scat pit." Risa's free hand claws at the earth wildly.
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| − | | |
| − | [Kemi] "You stupid jerk." Kemi reaches down to grip her sister's hand hard. "I love you."
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] "Sis, remember that... time you stole the rich girl's doll... and I... told you the hair was the wrong color... and you... went... back. You... always were, too nice to me. You-" And her breath stills, her eyes staring blankly at nothing.
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| − | | |
| − | [Kemi] Kemi doesn't let go of her hand. "You stupid..." she whispers. "How dare you? How dare you leave me like this?" Tears streak down her face, and she rubs at them with the heel of one hand. She should stand up. She should go and run away from the monster. But it all seemed so..pointless now.
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] There is a heavy, ponderous sound, the crunching of something approaching through the snow. Something BIG.
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| − | | |
| − | [Kemi] Kemi turns her tear-streaked face to look at it. "You killed my baby sister. You son of a bitch."
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] The thing that rises there is huge, over ten feet tall, its skin a series of interlocking plates like an insect's exoskeleton. Four massive arms branch from it, a cluster of writing tentacles at their ends. Dots on its armored surface open and close, winking. Eyes, dozens of them. Four massive breasts hang pendulous in front of it, leaking blood. It moves forward ponderously on six legs.
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] Twelve more unfurl from its belly, razor sharp. Four vertical mouths gnash hungrily.
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] It doesn't look fast, but it must be, or else it could never have caught Risa.
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| − | | |
| − | [Kemi] Kemi just looks at it, too ravaged by horror to react. Behind her, when the creature cannot see, her free hand creeps into her pack. She pulls out a firedust cannister and a long, cylindrical tube. "I'll see you in hell, demon."
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] The creature moves closer, slavering, oblivious.
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| − | | |
| − | [Kemi] She raises the firedust cannister in both hands and smashes it against the ground. Fire blossom out around it, engulfing Kemi in fire. When it touches her backpack, the bag...explodes, signal flares lancing this way and that across the town and into the sky. Red for emergency, green for survivors found...then blue, yellow, purple, half a dozen colors at least.
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] The flares glitter as they reflect in the creature's many eyes. Its progress is not arrested for even a moment. As it falls upon the immolated Kemi, Sven turns to see the signals exploding behind him and hastens to rush away as fast as he can.
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| − | | |
| − | [Kemi] The explosion melts the snow and blasts a the outhouse of the Prancing Pony halfway across town. It lands upside down in a fishing pond. An inferno rages as the creature daintily lowers its head to chew at the first corpse.
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] The creature takes its time, supping. It is hungry, but it is never sated. After a while, it becomes aware of the quiet, horrified sobbing in the building behind it. It is the work of a moment to rip away the facade of the Pony, forcing itself within.
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] The woman within throws her arms up to shield her face, screaming.
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] "You can't! You can't! Please, please, I know you, I KNOW YOU! You-"
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] Greta's words are cut off as a pair of jaws snap closed, shearing off her head. The creature feasts. Sated at last, it curls up on the floor, and sleeps.
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| − | | |
| − | [ST] It dreams, strange dreams of lives past and lives to be, of pain and lonliness and agony beyond measure. Fear, shaking, and a bright red sun, burning but warm, calling it forth, changing it. And as the thing dreams, it changes. Chitinous flesh freezes, dies, sloughs away to reveal what is at its center. A woman, naked, sleeping soundly and untroubled in years. Shinza rolls over, clutching the red pendant to her neck comfortingly, and dreams.
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