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Trigger Warning: Violence, maiming under the spoiler.
The long days of slow recovery left a deep pause in Scholomance’s semi-regular communications to his Negaverse contact. The necessary radio silence left him nervous, of course, due to the implications of abandonment. Cinnabar may assume that he simply shirked the communications ritual that came with the deal as well as the deal itself. She may pull all complementary services provided to him by the Negaverse out of this suspicion of abandonment, and leave him wanting for further support in his endeavors. So, when he felt certain he could maintain composure in front of others and stave off his renewed addiction, Scholomance made arrangements to nurture his Negaverse ties.
The evening felt cool in the grace of autumn, with a lilting breeze to stir away any of the residual heat from afternoon. Twilight emerged some minutes before, painting the sky in purples and periwinkles that would soon give way to nightfall. The lack of shadow left the world feeling surreal, even as he traveled from building to building for the call, and nightfall continued to claw its way up from the peripheries of the planet. The war had not yet reached its increase of activity, with most participants eating dinner or finishing jobs or prepping for the night’s festivities, so Scholomance had the few rare moments to enjoy the dusk of the day without liberal chances for interruption.
Scholomance paused only at the parapet of a bank building, where the wide platform offered ample seating. He sat with his back to one of the busiest strips in the Business District, where a plethora of popular boutique stores offered their wares on one of the main thoroughfares of the area, and continued to write as if the bustling cacophony of shoppers and employees provided little more than background noise. He composed his note carefully, though his intentions were brief.
xWhimsical Blue
Greetings, Cinnabar.
Let me begin by first apologizing for my long silence of late. I am sure you understand the need for such impromptu interludes when faced with the balance of daily life to extracurricular magical dealings. In exchange, I wanted to demonstrate for you a useful tool I came upon recently, as it affects starseeds in a way that may assist the Negaverse in its work.
If you are interested in continuing our affairs, meet me on the roof of the Niagara bank in the Business District. I will remain here for one hour from the sending of this note.
Til next we meet,
Scholomance
Let me begin by first apologizing for my long silence of late. I am sure you understand the need for such impromptu interludes when faced with the balance of daily life to extracurricular magical dealings. In exchange, I wanted to demonstrate for you a useful tool I came upon recently, as it affects starseeds in a way that may assist the Negaverse in its work.
If you are interested in continuing our affairs, meet me on the roof of the Niagara bank in the Business District. I will remain here for one hour from the sending of this note.
Til next we meet,
Scholomance
With the ring stamped into the paper, the letter wholesale vanished. Slowly he breathed a sigh, attempting to assuage his nerves while the long seconds stretched themselves before him. He would weather the time, as he said, but he wouldn’t like it.
The days have gotten too long.
The note came as something of a surprise. After so long, she’d thought there wouldn’t be another, but it was a god-send since it allowed her to call off the time-consuming searching her team had been doing in order to find this knight who had just announced a desire to see her.
After getting the note, Cinnabar had sent her captains home for the night before showing it to Schorl. It was promising, if he actually had something. Worth hearing him out, before taking him. Cin was leery of getting greedy, but there was something to be said for having two gifts for the General Queen versus just one.
Note tucked into a pocket, the general gathered herself and teleported across the city, aiming for the place Scholomance had mentioned. She landed on the roof of the bank, the rumble of voices and activity not far away a marked change from where she had been. Opening her senses gave her a sense of where the knight waited for her and she turned on her heel, leaving the lights of the city behind her to go in search of the owner of that power signature.
“Scholomance?” She called as she searched the shadows and shapes of the equipment up here, her tail swishing slowly behind her.
Schörl considered the briefly the brevity of the other General's response to the sudden note that appeared with some admiration. An hour was not long, was true, but there was no time of discussion before the other vanished, ostensibly to the mentioned bank, regarding approach and tactic. A note can be written and sent at any time. It was not so long ago many of our agents were taken. As many other occasions could be ambushes.
For herself, while she knew the district and bank in question, she did not know it's immediate roof. As it were, a single general appearing would be the expected, ambush or no, so Schörl patted Barbary's paws in warning over her breast and double checked that she had all she wanted ready to hand- her antique case slung beneath the youma by an added strap, particularly. Then she filled a pipe and lit it. Disappeared after a breath to reappear just above street level a block away on the patio of a bar and restaurant that hadn’t yet felt warm enough to start using the extra seating. The only signatures so far what could be expected- a knight and a general. A leap to the rooftops showed no overt waiting clumps of civilians or ducking and darting youths trying to play at stealth LARP.
Schörl moved into a run, boots silenced by Barbary's field, to come at the bank from a second side.
Cinnabar did not keep him waiting for long. The knight breathed a last steadying with as he stepped out from behind the roof access portal, where the faded red brick contrasted with his stark outfit remarkably. He knew that his appearance as a knight now may startle the general or set her on edge; to combat this, Scholomance refrained from summoning the long bone whip that arrived with his upgrade. It did not, however, mitigate the grim austerity of the uniform.
“General,” he responded in polite acknowledgement. “Prompt as always. I've not been here long myself. But I won't waste your time with pleasantries - from my understanding, the ambush I pointed out to you caused significant damage. I shouldn't take away from your valuable recovery time as an organization.”
Hands laced in front of his stomach, as was his default body language in careful diplomatic situations. Fingers fidgeted against one another in their idle nervousness. As if a second thought, Scholomance broke the pose briefly to pull away the half-mask. “What I have for you today is of specialized purpose. It's a container of sorts with an interesting ability. It can hold starseeds, and perhaps that's not of much interest to you, but it also has the power to project the… Essence of a starseed, I believe, into an ethereal figure. It does not last long, unfortunately, but it could be terribly useful to the Negaverse. Imagine if you had a particularly stubborn senshi that you were interrogating. One who knew more than I about the ambush, perhaps. Would it not be fitting to remove their starseed and interrogate them thusly? I suspect it could be a very potent tool.
“What do you think, General? Does this sound of interest to you?” He paused then, and feverish hazel eyes settled on the busty general while he awaited her response. Patience was of no option here - dealing with the Negaverse entailed tricky presentation, for they innately associated him with the White Moon and their supporting knights. It wasn't terribly farfetched, either, for me expected that they had no reason to work with one not of their faction in the earlier years of the war.
The feel of a knight’s aura and not a squire’s tripped Cinnabar up briefly. Wary, she approached more slowly than she had arrived, her eyes narrowed at the clinging shadows. When the figure emerged, she felt relief, if only because it meant she wouldn’t be fighting an unknown knight tonight. Her pace turned lazy, her gait swinging, as she approached.
“Knight Scholomance… Congratulations are in order on your upgrade, I believe.” She said in greeting. She watched him sidelong, trying to appear more uninterested than she actually was. It was hard to keep her motions easy and not fall into a stalking slink. The General listened as he detailed the item he had for her, absorbing the information he chose to share. It certainly had appeal, for all that she had her eye on a different prize tonight… and she considered it.
Something that could do what he said would be useful… but was it worth going through the charade of trading for it when she could simply snap him up now and claim it from him later? Seeing his empty hands brought up questions though. If he had it on him, it must be rather small, and if he didn’t… taking him now meant a risk that he would forget. Was it worth it?
“You’ve piqued my interest… but I’ll want to see the item in action before I agree to anything.” She said at last, her slow pacing circling her around to the side of him before she even realized she had done it. Cin turned on a heel as she came back, keeping her steps easy and loose. “Do you have it with you? And what are you asking for it this time?”
Off to the side, she felt the warmth of another signature and kept her smile from curving upwards more than the polite interest she had shown thus far. Schörl was not far behind her, it seemed, and with the other General blocking escape, the capture of this knight was all but assured. After the loss of Cerussite, there was a burning need to claim something… to take and prove that it had not been her weakness that had caused that failure. She needed this small victory.
Short order brought Schörl onto the same building.. The green General set her burning pipe on one corner before moving away from it. Let it diffuse ‘different’ to the knight’s instincts and subconscious should he get the idea to flee. Then Schörl stood against the sky, her cane before her and listened to the exchange while taking in the uniform from the back. It wasn’t immediately familiardepething else that had been seen. Brief purples and bones and darksome layers and an unknown creature- that knight of saturn and the bizarre place. So that and this were Scholomance.
Easy, Sinner. We have all night to play.
My ‘upgrade’. As if I just bought a new car, a new house. What a trite way to put it.
“Thank you, General,” he returned without a falter to his smile. “My wonder approved of putting my ancestor in his place. It’s led to some useful developments, not the least of which is the item I offer you today.” He took the segue as the opportunity to summon his personal item to hand - the small reliquary of gold and glass assumed a veritable weight in his spread palms as it appeared in humble response. The glowing, viscous liquid inside was clearly visible, although one could not see Scholomance’s uniform through the substance. He did not offer it to her, nor did he retract the object toward himself.
He stiffened, however, at the recognizable approach of another general. He did not hear the person, but knew their presence at an angle behind him. Elsewhere, a third person presented, their tobacco and lack of power indicating a civilian. A distraction? A General-Sovereign in disguise? Scholomance knew not, nor did it matter; all signs indicated Cinnabar’s betrayal of his careful terms.
“I must say, Cinnabar, I’m disappointed in you. I thought you understood that our terms were absolute. There must be no one else in attendance without my prior knowledge and consent. Doing so voids the transaction in limbo, and presses our relationship. This deal is off, then.” The curious reliquary vanished as simply as it appeared, and his hands were once again clasped with each other. “I implore you to review the rules of our interactions before our next meeting.
“Goodbye, Cinnabar. I will contact you again when I have a new development.” In closing, he attempted to walk between the two signatures toward the building’s parapet; he knew that, with two generals present, he stood very little chance of leaving without their express permission. He could not swallow the lump in his throat.
The item appeared in his hands as he summoned it and it drew Cinnabar’s attention immediately. It was hard to tell whether or not it did as he said, as there were no starseeds inside of it at the moment, so jury was out on the validity of the item. A schrodinger's cat sort of situation.
And then Schörl’s power signature alerted the knight to her presence and the half-youma felt her smile turn feral and hungry. He went stiff and began to fumble out some nonsense about terms and transactions, but it did little more than amuse her. Such a small man, trying to hide behind delusive concepts as though they were armor that would protect him. He would learn quickly that words were ineffective things.
She let him get a handful of steps before she disappeared from where she stood and reappeared before him, her pose relaxed with her hands still tucked comfortably into her pockets.
“So skittish, Scholomance.” Cin tsked at him as she smiled, her eyes trained and unblinking on him. “I simply wanted you to meet one of my closest friends… She also trades in unusual and rare items, and has a far better appreciation for these things than I do. It would be a real shame if you ran off without at least letting me introduce you.”
The half-youm withdrew a hand and extended it to the side, palm upwards.
“General Schörl. This is Knight Scholomance.”
Schörl approached without so much as a whisper, but not to Cinnabar’s side. She approached at a flank and slightly behind the knight, still visible with just a turn of the head over shoulder instead of needing a full turn around. Barbary’s head and mane lay down around her shoulders, so her voice could still project, “ ‘ I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream. I know you, the gleam in your eyes is so familiar a gleam-’ less frantic and painted with authority as we might with rouge. Do stay, Scholomance. “
“There’s things you can give me a hand with. Willing as you are to play both sides of the coin. “ But the green General frowned. “Though I heard ...nasty rumors. Saving face, I can understand. Playing in the Invasion seems practically partisan.”
“Unless I heard wrong?”
Scholomance drew to a halt out of the implied imperative. He waited restlessly, as if halted mid-step, though his gaze strayed from Cinnabar and settled on Schörl in a manner nearly transfixed. The flat feline decorating her shoulder posed an additional hazard - two generals and a youma proved far too much for a single knight to handle if their meeting skewed sideways. Neither made a move on him just yet; he wagered he still had time to save face. He knew not how, aside from acquiescing to social demands.
“I recognize you,” he answered back to riddle, his voice neither soft nor harsh. But how she behaved and sided amongst a ghost’s best wishes was hardly a predictor of how they would interface beyond that scenario. Scholomance worked with the Negaverse at length, he assumed that knowledge traveled their ranks unimpeded, and in no way did he act directly against Schörl. He protected a pair of twits from receiving a caning, but beyond that…
Scholomance adjusted his facing so that both generals remained in his periphery, as he transected the invisible line between them. His attention remained on Schörl for her white blonde hair, her high arched brows, her imperious requests. “What can I help you with, General?” For posture’s sake, he folded both hands over his stomach and squared shoulders.. Bone curled on bone. “I’m afraid a deal is out of the question, but-
“I see.” His expression soured beneath the mask. “I haven’t laid a finger on any of your forces, General. Not officers, not corrupted senshi, and not youma. You’ll understand, I hope, that I needed to see the sunken remains of the Knights’ Academy for myself. The opened portal was a convenient ticket in, while I cast myself in the role of support. If you don’t believe me, I challenge you to find a single eyewitness that had been hurt by me or watched me attack one of your own.” He waited in earnest, gaze ever swapping between the pair.
The chill of the evening grew suddenly apparent.
Cinnabar’s brow lifted, surprise shifting across her face for a moment. She hadn’t known that Schörl knew this knight, but in the end, it didn’t really matter. It didn’t change anything.
“I’m afraid I have a difficult time understanding this strange position you put yourself in…” The half youma rumbled. “You claim to be neutral, but you have no problem aiding the enemy when they invade our sanctuary to ambush us unaware. I was there, at the invasion. I fought alongside our General Queen Laurelite. You might not have put a physical hand on any of ours, but I saw you use your magic on her. Whether or not it caused her physical damage… you still raised a hand against us.”
It was difficult to resist the urge to pace like a tiger behind a fence and Cinnabar’s tail lashed in flicking sweeps behind her legs as she remained still and solid on her feet. Her hands clenched and relaxed, but she kept them tucked into her pockets, the smooth sides of her stolen starseeds sliding across her skin with the motion.
She wanted to take him, now, but Schörl’s presence forced restraint on her. Maybe the Black Lion could weave her web about him and they could claim both him and his shiny new toy, but it for sure would not happen if she lunged in without thinking.
“Fingers and magic is splitting hairs in super-natural war, isn’t it? Your challenge of witnesses is met, I believe. Use of magic to interfere is an attack. So where does that lead us, in our civility of meetings?” Schörl chuckled, offering out her hand as for shaking at a introduction.
“You’ve been contacting my colleague with information. Information brokers play many sides...but not in a partisan way. You’ve broken that. You offered a pretty trinket tonight. Is it worthwhile compared to your starseed? Or...to your Self? You’d best make your case to Cinnabar why she should keep you as you are, dealing in honest information. Instead of…”
“Inviting me to your party. I’m a collector, you see. Old things. I brought some along to show you from an old war. Maybe even like the one you brought.”
“I want what’s best and most useful for all of us.”
Scholomance accepted the offer hand, stepping forward to grasp it firmly. He did not, however, wear any look of pleasure for the act. A handshake while under interrogations felt far more like spite than a legitimate, formal introduction.
When he stepped back, he resumed the earlier position of hands folded over stomach. “By being down there, I thought it best and most useful for all of us if I returned alive. There was… A certain air about your General Queen that all but assured me of her fury toward anyone non-Negaverse - including me. It wasn’t an easy encounter to navigate by any means. I thought, at the time, that if I helped the princess avoid a lethal blow, then her continued standing meant a guaranteed decoy while I tried to figure out how to slip past the golems blocking my way. I imagine it’s no different than if I was drinking my own urine while stranded at sea - it’s an awful band-aid fix to an awful problem, but it was the best move to make at the time.
“So, Cinnabar, I offer my sincere condolences if my actions offended you or the Negaverse. It was not my intention to breach our contract, but I felt I was assured that there’s little point to a contract if I was dead by the hands of your General Queen. If you consider that a hand raised against you, consider it more in the vein of ‘hold on’ than ‘stop’.” He paused then, gaze drifting between Cinnabar and the newly-introduced Schörl. He felt he liked her even less with her continued speaking.
He blinked slowly at Schörl, his jaw tensing subtly. “So the usefulness of my wares is being levied against my life? Very well. Unless there’s some kind of unique property to each and every starseed, I imagine the little energy boost given when my starseed is eaten will assist through one battle, or one wound. The phylactery I’ve shown you works through more than one starseed, as I’ve found. You could drop a seed inside and have the owner watch helplessly as their body is mutilated. Constant use versus single use in these applications should be warrant enough. For corrupting me, you’re gambling a hard play on what I already know. You’re getting a soldier who isn’t very good at fighting, versus an information broker who has very useful magic. I’ve demonstrated before that I am willing to sell the use of that magic for the right favors, and have done so in the past.
“I admit that my actions were a mistake. Apologies, Schörl, but I have no use for old war antiques as a knight, unless they’re involved in the price of forgiveness. What say you, Cinnabar?”
”What do I say?” The half youma hummed as she gave into her need to pace and began to walked first a few steps one way, and then a few back the other, her eyes still trained on the knight.
“Metallia’s will, as I understand it, is the subjugation of all. Everything, under her command. What isn’t, should be destroyed, until nothing can challenge her rule.” She said, her hips swinging with her loose steps. “I never liked leaving you to your own devices… off a leash, there is no way to control which way you might decide to side at any given moment. Maybe one day you stand beside us and cast your magic in our favor, and the next, you’re using it against us. Claim you did it to protect yourself, but I tend to think the General Queen had enough on her plate that one little knight would not have been worth going after.”
“I’m not convinced any more that letting you roam free is in our best interests. You bring me toys and in the meantime, you’re supporting our enemies. Personally, I could live without the baubles to have another solider, fit for combat or not.” She said as she spun on a heel, pacing back the other way. “You can learn how to fight, and even if you don’t, there are plenty of roles someone with an agile mind can fill. Information and Infiltration could use another in their number. And what if you do save all those memories? There is a great chance you’d bring us all that information with you and we wouldn’t have to do this silly dance any more… but even if you didn’t, how much do you really have now that’s so very important, hmm?”
As she neared the centerpoint of her arc, Cinnabar abruptly changed direction and came towards him, sidling to put him squarely between her and Schörl as she crowded into his space.
“I’m tired of beating around the bush. You have a choice to make. Join us willingly, or give me a better reason to keep you alive than ‘sometimes I will give you trinkets and use my magic for you’.”
”I wasn’t about to challenge her rule,” Scholomance objected, “and I don’t care if she takes this rock and everyone on it. I’ve no interest in fighting that. I’d be just as well off if left to live in Scholomance itself.” He eyed her, arms finding their way to cross over his chest, but he knew the crux of his argument rested on ‘would’ rather than ‘can’. Cinnabar asserted that Metallia must dominate until no one ‘can’ challenge her rule, which intimated that nothing of free will would be left without chaos. He would have to join or die eventually.
That eventuality just became now.
“I don’t think you know what I do in my free time, Cinnabar. I don’t spend it helping the enemy, I can tell you that. But this is all mincing words to you, isn’t it? By having free will, I have the choice left to me to help the enemy, and as long as that choice remains, you won’t be satisfied with any answer I give. Unless it’s ‘yes, sign me up for the Negaverse’, nothing will do. You’ve already decided that nothing I can offer you will be enough unless it’s my life or my complete indentured servitude.” Yet she came to a stop, faced him, and marched forward. Now pinned, Scholomance knew his only choice was forward. He dallied too long in trying to maintain his precarious alliances. Eyes narrowing, he looked to her. Cinnabar was the bigger threat for combat, but he knew too little about Schörl. He knew enough to not trust either.
“If you’re going to turn this into an exercise of ‘how to enslave Scholomance in the most convenient way possible’, then my reason to you is this: you’ll have made a far worse enemy of me in this little ploy of yours than if you just let me continue as I am.” He did not wait for a reply; instead, he sprang into a run forward, with the aim to drop off the side of the building before reactionary teleportation could stop him.
His words washed over her and it was like a wave breaking over rocks. She wasn’t moved. If anything, she was amused.
She was an obvious threat, and he still tried to talk, as though words were his swords and he could slay her with him. He would have done better to appeal to Schörl with them, Cin mused. Schörl had patience for them, and as he had said, she did not. Maybe there was some long term plan that could have manipulated this situation to its benefit, but she’d never been good at playing the long game. She lived too much in the moment, focused on here and now rather than there and tomorrow.
“Your squawking is tiresome.” She rumbled, her voice mixing with a low, feline rattle that came from deep in her chest. And then he was off and running, pelting for the edge of the building and supposed safety. Cinnabar watched him for a breath, the sudden movement and fleeing prey calling up instincts she hadn’t been born with, but rather gained with the horns and the scales.
Fleeing prey was meant to be chased, and she had no intention of letting him escape.
Cin disappeared from where she stood and reappeared with ease feet away, a small pop of displaced air announcing the movement. She took a quick step forward in a long stride and threw her weight into the fleeing man, a hand snapping out in a reach for his throat. He was fast, but so was she. Excited, she snarled through bared teeth, her knuckles locking up as she pushed free her claws to catch and hold.
Scholomance did not expect to move far, but he expected to make it to the precipice of the building before one of the pair caught him. Instead, Cinnabar’s body slammed into his and the force of her inertia struck him to the ground. A hand about his neck quelled any attempts to crawl himself further, else he wanted to choke himself to death. Now he found himself woefully short of his goal, with the ledge just outside of fingertips’ reach. He yearned for it nonetheless, and held his ring to lips in hopes of finding help. Gehenna sprang to mind immediately, and he spared no second thought to calling the accomplished knight.
While he wanted to speak, naught but a strained gurgle came from his throat. Bits and flecks of speech eked out as he abandoned searching for the ledge, and instead tried to pry at Cinnabar’s grasp. “Gehenna -- Scholomance. Need help… Two generals-”
“Ahhh ah ah shhhhhhh, “ Schörl wasn’t worried about his escape the moment he moved and Cinnabar flickered hot. She shifted forward in pursuit, but watched their limbs and motions as the knight was taken down, but not silenced. Her cane lifted and thrust out at his mouth, like a stick to bite on but heedless of loosening his teeth to get it between them, while she reached for his wrist to grip in iron hold. “Barbary! Come! I want this hand steady.”
Speech interrupted when cane struck his mouth. His throat ached under Cinnabar’s iron grip. They think to pry my ******** ring off and corrupt me. Gehenna, I hope you’re listening to this-
The Youma obeyed, woodle-running in it’s floppy way to wrap and ply it’s strength against the Knight’s arm and core. It’s lion jaws bit round his wrist and one paw pushed and stabilized against the roof beneath them all. Schörl switched her own attention to prying his ring finger up from the rest, to dislocate the joint and free it from his direct control- a contorted monument with a pretty, magical decoration that he’d turned to in desperation. “Shhhhhh, Scholomance.”
“ Hold this cane in his mouth, love?” Cinnabar outweighed him already, but the creaking of her muscles under her leathers spoke of plenty more than weight to bear against his struggles. The green General left off with her weapon to reach for wooden case at her side. Opening one side and one latch revealed a large saw like implement, a smaller thing like a steak knife, and a pair of...wire cutters? All shining and pillowed in sterile gauze. “It’s just a misunderstanding. We’ll clear it right up. “
They landed hard, with the half youma on top, but any pain she might have felt was ignored in favor of the rush of the pounce and catch. The feline grown rolled from her throat and just for a moment, she had a strong urge to plunge her hand into his chest and rip out the shining star she knew hid there. Hunger roared through her, cramping up her stomach, and she could taste the strange sensation of the released energy of a broken starseed on her tongue. She might have even shifted as though to bring her hand up, but then a cane shoved into her vision, cracking against teeth as the butt of it filled the knight’s mouth.
Schörl, calm as ever, and reacting to that desperate attempt to call for help before Cinnabar had even realized it was happening. The fuzzy form of the flat lion crept closer on command and she shifted slightly, recalled to herself and what they were doing. He was not meant for food… he was going to be her new captain, to replace the one she had lost.
The hunger still demanded, but she forced it down as she reached for the cane with her free hand. Straddling his hips as she was, his throat in one hand and a cane in his mouth in the other, she was confident in her ability to hold him like this. It was unlikely he knew how to escape from such a pin… and Schörl had something planned, that much was hinted at by the case she opened and implements inside.
“You brought toys with you.” Cinnabar rumbled her approval as she flicked her gaze to the blonde, boldly eyeing the lean body she knew was under that sharp, impeccable uniform.
“Schörl is very clever.” She said as she turned back to the knight under her, her tone conversational. “I’m curious to see what idea has come to life in that pretty head of hers. Her ideas are always so much fun.”
The impact to his jaw left his teeth buzzing and numb, then the pain flooded in and filled all lack of sensation left behind. He groaned beneath the cane, now wrenched backward into his mouth like a bit. His neck craned back with the force of Cinnabar’s grip. He knew not whether to claw at the hand on his throat or the cane in his mouth. Shifting beneath the general, Scholomance fought to simply bring himself to rise under the added weight, but found that he couldn’t bring his legs under himself with Cinnabar’s in the way. Nothing worked, he was pinned, and had no choice but to groan out his disapproval and slicken the butt of Schörl’s cane with spit and flecks of blood.
Then he heard the pop, and his vision wavered with the distinct spike of pain that came with it. He groaned terribly against the cane. He knew, then, especially by the angle of it, that she popped his ring finger clean out of its socket. Even looking at the damage caused him to dizzy dangerously, and he knew that if he stared for any length of time then fainting was a certainty. The only way he could escape their machinations was to stay conscious, though the insistent pulse of hurt from his left hand demanded his attention.
Scholomance chanced another glance in its direction and caught the gleam of polished tools being unwrapped. He knew no names for them, but he recognized their function immediately - cutting tools, with the wire cutters being most familiar. Did they intend to snip his ring straight off, then? She needn’t tell her youma to hold him steady for it, especially if she didn’t care about damaging him -
Except, he realized, this wasn’t about taking his ring. Not in the plainest sense - not in the frustrating and complicated manner he thought of initially. No, what point was there in taking care against breaking the skin of the enemy to steal their priceless artifact? Why destroy the ring or wrench it about, when one can simply take the whole finger?
His struggles renewed then, speed and urgency flooding his veins to their fullest, as he thrashed and jerked and fought against all restraints applied against him. The pain no longer mattered in the face of greater, more permanent agonies. His groans of protest grew to raw shouts against the pain as he hoped that, somehow, Gehenna would know his location.
Somehow, Gehenna would know to save him.
