The Landen Village of Agio, Askavi, Kaeleer, Thursday Morning [Fandom Time]
[Continued directly from here]
Before Mari's hand even had a chance to fall back down to her side, Karla appeared in the back door of the room. Stairs could be seen heading up behind her.
"I felt the shield go," she said, her voice hoarse and raw-sounding. "I thought--"
It took her a moment to notice the others, swaying on her feet with exhaustion as she was. Which, of course, gave them plenty of time to notice her. Bones pressed against pallid, sweat-soaked, blood-streaked skin. More blood matted her hair which stood up in little spikes where she'd absently run her hands through it, and yet still more surrounded her mouth, where dry lips had cracked and bled. The skin under her eyes was dull and tight, covered in shadows so dark they looked like bruises. She was wearing a male's shirt, haphazardly buttoned, the sleeves rolled up to show arms thin to the point of emaciation.
To anyone who had been in the other-Fandom, it was a scarily familiar sight.
She stared at her friends for a long moment, while her mind tried to process the fact that they were there, truly there. Her head tilted, as if in question and her right arm came up to point. And then, with nothing like the grace or elegance one read about in novels, her eyes rolled up and she headed for the floor.
Raven
"Karla!" Raven cried, dashing across the room to Karla's side. The horror of what she'd seen outside was momentarily forgotten as she drew her friend into her arms and immediately began healing her, taking away the injuries and exhaustion and affects of over-exerting herself. Without proper rest and food the damage would return, but for now she would be better.
Karla
"Well, that wasn't exactly the first impression I was trying to make," Karla said, her voice slightly stronger now that Raven had Healed away the irritation in her throat. She tried to struggle to her feet, a bit of new vitality infusing her limbs. "Hi everyone. Kiss kiss?"
...She had a feeling she was in trouble.
Raven
"What is going on here?" Raven said, helping Karla up and hugging her tightly. "Why are those creatures attacking? How do we make them stop?"
Karla
"I--I don't know why," Karla said. "We just came into the village after Jaenelle sensed something wrong, and found...this.” Her sweeping gesture took in the hordes of wounded, the attacking Jhinka, and the carnage in the street. “A young half-Blood male, Khevin, he'd put up a shield around this place and was trying to hold them off."
While riddled with nasty wounds, amazingly enough.
"The people here have no idea why the Jhinka attacked like this. A few raiding parties are to be expected, but nothing ever like this. As for how to make them stop?" Karla held onto Raven helplessly. "I don't know. I don't think we can."
Raven
Raven stroked her hair comfortingly. "Then we must get them away from this place," she said. But how? There were so many.
"I do not think I can teleport them all at once," she said reluctantly.
Karla
"I don't think we can," Karla repeated, looking around. "We can't move them. Even those we've already Healed are still more injured than not. We've been limiting our Craft to Healing only those injuries that are fatal and we still have more to Heal."
Raven
Raven nodded. "I will do all I can to help," she said. Then a guilty look crossed her face as she looked in Warren's direction. "But there are others who wish to see you," she said quietly. "Who need to see you. Warren has been concerned." Well, they all had, but Warren was her boyfriend, after all, and he probably should have been the first to go to Karla, not her.
Karla
But without Raven’s Healing, Karla might not have been in any state to see him. Her hand tightened on Raven's for a moment. "Thank you," she said. "For everything."
Raven
"You can thank me when we are safely away from this place," Raven said with a small smile. She squeezed Karla's hand back, then drew away so the others could speak to her.
Cassidy
When Raven pulled away from Karla, it was Raven that Cassidy followed. "Are you all right? Is she going to be?"
Raven
"She is weak," Raven said, ignoring the question about herself. "She is in desperate need of rest and food. I can heal away the effects, but they will swiftly return. We must get her -- we must get everyone away from this place."
Cassidy
Cassidy agreed with what Raven was saying. "It's not a good place."
Raven
"Do you know what these creatures are?" Raven asked, looking out a window at the shield that protected the building and the Jhinka that still tried to find their way in. "Is there no reasoning with them? Can we not make some sort of truce so that they would leave us all be?"
Cassidy
"I've never seen anything like them," Cassidy admitted. "We could try to reason with them, but I'm not sure the males would even let us try."
Raven
"If we could identify a leader, I could use my gifts to persuade him to stop," Raven said. "If there is any compassion in them whatsoever, I could amplify it."
Cassidy
Cassidy wasn't sure there was any compassion in those creatures after all of the death they had caused, but she wanted to be hopeful that Raven could convince them to stop.
"I'm not seeing any clear leader that is giving the orders to the rest of them."
Raven
"Maybe if I were to go outside...I might be able to use my gifts to somehow calm them," Raven said fretfully. She really wasn't sure she could do that against so many, but she felt so helpless to stop the violence.
Cassidy
"You are not going out there alone," Cassidy said quietly. "After all, Professor Skywalker would advise against you going into something like that alone, you know."
Yes, Cassidy. Invoke Raven's hero to get her not to do something rash.
"Therefore, if you go out there, I'm going with you. I can at least shield you while you try to find the leader."
And her logic had been going so well and been so sound up until that point.
Raven
"You will not go out there, Cassidy," Raven said firmly. "And...you are right, Professor Skywalker would be upset with me were I to do something rash. I cannot take the chance of endangering myself or anyone else by seeking end the violence in such an unsure way, especially not when my gifts are needed inside."
She looked around at all the injured crowded into the building. "There is much to do here."
Cassidy
Cassidy would have been amused about how quickly Raven had said that if she hadn't been secretly glad that her friend was no longer thinking about going out there.
"We can do more good here if we stay safe and inside and see what Karla and Lady Jaenelle might need."
Warren
Raven had gotten to Karla before Warren had, that was true. But she was the healer, not him, and some tiny voice of reason in the back of his head had pointed out that getting between the healer and his girlfriend who had just collapsed was probably not the most helpful move he could make, today.
He hung back for a moment, letting Raven and Karla speak, and only stepped forward when he was certain that he wasn't going to be in the way.
"God," he breathed, holding a hand out to her. "We were worried about you."
He was worried about her.
Karla
Karla laid her hand in his, trying to ignore how much it trembled. "I'm sorry," she said in a whisper. Even with Raven's Healing, her voice was still a bit sore. "I didn't mean to worry you. Any of you."
And then she was clutching him for all she was worth.
Warren
And Warren was never letting go. At least for a little bit.
"We'd thought that you'd been kidnapped," he mumbled, holding her close, but carefully so. She felt so small in his arms, so fragile. It scared him, and he had to take a moment to shake the notion that, if he wasn't gentle, he might break her clean in two. "At least you're safe."
In a manner of speaking.
Karla
Karla froze, the full implications of her actions suddenly weighing down on her. She'd known that people would be worried, be angry, but she'd never thought that they'd assume she'd been kidnapped.
Of course, looking back, she hadn't thought at all. Just acted on impulse. She'd been so caught up in her concern for Jaenelle, she'd ignored the concern others would feel for her.
"I..." Karla was at a loss for words. Her friends were here, in grave danger, and all because of her.
Warren
She didn't need to speak. She didn't need to find words. Warren could imagine at least a few of the thoughts that must have been running through her head. Between the scene of chaos going on outside, and all of them showing up here...
"What can we do to help?"
There. That seemed important enough, here and now. With everything else that was happening, at least that much was useful.
He'd gently shake her for worrying them all so much later.
Karla
"Just hold me for another moment?" Karla asked. Since fleeing the Keep, she'd had to be strong, to push herself, first to keep up with the grueling pace that Jaenelle and Lucivar had set and then to just keep going in the face of the horror that was Agio. Between that and the consequences of her actions being laid bare before her, Karla wanted little more than to curl up and cry.
But she couldn't. Even if she had the energy or tears to waste, she couldn't afford such a luxury.
Hopefully Warren wouldn't mind her being selfish a little while longer and drawing a little bit of strength from him.
Warren
"I can do that," he murmured, combing the fingers of one hand through her hair. The benefit of having wings in situations like this was that, if he folded them around her like so, he didn't need to use both arms to hold her close. "We'll get through this, okay?"
It was difficult to be terribly convincing in the face of what had gone on out there. But Karla was here and alive and in his arms. That much, at least, was helping.
Karla
Also, they momentarily blocked off the views of everything else and Karla could pretend for a moment that it was just them, somewhere else. Where there wasn't death and need and violence and hate.
"It's awful of me to think and even worse to say," Karla whispered quietly. "But I feel better knowing you're here. I shouldn't--I should wish you all back at Fandom and away from here, but...I can't help it. I do."
Warren
And here, folded up in his wings like this, he could lean forward and press his lips against hers for a moment.
"Well, I know I, for one, am not going anywhere without you."
So there, Karla. You're stuck with the Worthington boy, now.
Karla
Karla could think of worse fates. It was coming up with better ones that was going to stymie her.
"I--" She bit back whatever she was going to say, flushing a bit and looking at her shirt. Which was technically his shirt. Or had been, before she'd liberated it. "Thank you. That means...it means a lot. To me. A lot."
Ah, eloquence.
Warren
Horribly overrated, eloquence was.
"I know." And then, because in the face of eloquence and trauma, there were only so many other things that he could think to say? "Nice shirt."
Karla
"Do you like it?" Karla wouldn't be Karla if she didn't work up at least a ghost of a tease. "It was a little nicer before--" it got blood all over it "--but it's comfortable."
And still infused with his psychic scent. That had helped, a bit, in the face of everything.
Warren
"There are probably a few more like it where that came from," Warren replied, closing his eyes and inhaling. Karla smell. Much better than the stench of death that seemed to linger everywhere else. "Cleaner, too."
Karla
"Are you talking about your closet or mine?" Karla asked, clinging tightly. "I mean, the answer's true either way, but I feel like I should check."
Yes. Just a few more moments of this. Of cuddles and teasing and banter. She could go back to reality in a few minutes, be strong again in a few minutes, but she just needed this for right now.
Warren
"Pick a closet, either closet," Warren decided. "I'm certain that I can arrange to have yours stocked up with a few more like it, if you don't have a broad enough selection already."
... It wasn't as though Warren had suddenly happened upon some great button-down shirt shortage lately or anything, after all.
Karla
And Karla was careful to only take the ones with enclosed backs! She was a thoughtful shirt-thief that way.
She shook her head against his chest. "No, only a few at a time. When they stay in my closet, they don't smell like you anymore."
She really ought to pull away, to talk to the others and check on the injured. Tilting her face up to his, she asked, "One more kiss? Please?"
Warren
"One more kiss," Warren agreed, and then pressed his lips against hers, closing his eyes.
One more kiss, and hopefully she'd understand if he just so happened to be kissing her just as much for the sake of his own headspace as hers.
Karla
It made her feel better, actually. That he derived the same comfort from her kisses as she did his.
As much as she wanted the kiss to go on forever, she kept it brief. Now was not the time to linger over Warren's lips, warm and soft as they were.
There was more to say to him, so much more. But for now she simply pulled away, hoping her kisses had said what she couldn’t yet.
Dinah
Dinah joined the Conga Line of Concern and said, "If you wanted me to visit here, you could have texted demands. I'm okay with being held hostage if there aren't actual enemies in the mix." Through the hug she sent, You look half-dead. You have got to rest now, okay?
Karla
Karla gave her a wobbly smile. "Well, I knew how much it would cost to lure you in with honey-pears."
*...There are still so many.*
But Karla couldn't deny that she had no more Craft to spare.
Dinah
Sadly, they'll be there when you wake up. And later there would be a Conversation about how things got this bad. "Got that right. Now that I have my own tree in my room." She sighed and tightened her arms around Karla. "Everyone else gets to hug you too. And after that, I am finding you a quiet blanket to collapse on, and not letting anyone near you for six hours at least."
Karla
*I don't think we have that kind of time,* Karla sent, her psychic thread strumming with heartache. *Lucivar barely has any strength left. He's wearing his Birthright Jewels--and not even his ring anymore. Just his necklace. We're running out of time.*
Dinah
You will sleep if I have to knock you out for an hour. Dinah took a breath. "We have that much time," she said aloud. "Is there any reason those guys are attacking, or is this just what they do?"
Karla
Karla shrugged and shook her head. "I don't know much about them. They're a landen race with wings and they've had an ongoing feud with Eyriens for centuries. I mean, they're raiders and scavengers, and most villages in Askavi know to watch out for them...but never in these kinds of numbers. Lucivar will probably know more than I."
Dinah
"I'll ask him." Dinah hugged her again, and rubbed Karla's arms, trying to get some warmth into them. Sleep. As soon as the hug-and-scold is done. I mean it.
Karla
*Do you really think I can?* Karla asked, shaking her head. *I'll rest, though. I promise.*
Where 'rest' was defined as 'sit at that table for awhile and figure out what can be done without Craft,' of course.
She appreciated the attempt to warm her up, though. She was cold; so very, very cold.
Dinah
Nightmare material, yes... You rest, and after this? We talk.
Dinah hung onto her for a minute, hating how cold Karla's skin felt, and determined to find a way to warm her up.
Karla
If we survive. That thought, Karla kept behind several shields and just nodded. "I have a feeling I'm going to be on the receiving end of several 'talks.'"
Ender
"I should've known you'd rustle up some trouble for Ben to run straight into," Ender said, but he didn't leave the comment lying there long enough to invite a response. "How are we for resources?"
Something in Ender wanted to fight. He was very good at repressing that now, but it left him otherwise without much in the way of helpful tools.
Karla
Karla gave Ender a tremulous smile for the sally, but it faded quickly. "Not much," she said. "No food, no water. This was a meeting house so there were some blankets and linens, but we've been tearing most of those up for bandages. I'm almost out of spidersilk for stitches and we're running low on Healing supplies, too. There are some herbs and teas that might be helpful, but not much without water to brew them in. No weapons, save for what people have brought."
She waved a hand at the people around them, hoping the movement would cover up how badly it shook. "And somewhere around five hundred injured." Her voice cracked. "Less than fifty of them are children."
Ender
A lot of dead bodies.
But those wouldn't do them any good right now.
Ender nodded. "How much power do you have left?" he asked. He wasn't gentle now, or particularly easy-going in his bearing. "And everyone else?"
Karla
Karla snorted. "Not much," she replied honestly. "I'm almost at my breaking point. Of the three of us, I'm the weakest."
She didn't feel vaguely ashamed by that admission, no, not at all.
"Lucivar has a little while left," she added. "He's on his Birthright Jewels, but they should last us a little longer. I have no idea about Jaenelle, though. Odds are, her body will give out before her Craft does."
Ender
"So I'd be correct in assuming she's more than a little bit unpredictable," Ender said. He was trying to put it into perspective. "Interesting."
Karla
"You have some idea of what Saetan's capable of, right?" Karla asked. "Or, at least, you've assigned him some level of power in your head?" She didn't wait for his answer. "Picture thirteen of him. That's about Jaenelle's relative strength."
Ender
Ender leaned back.
"Good," was all he said. "We'll need it."
He pursed his lips. "I'm sure you'll have an army of people trying to get you to sleep and eat," he said, "So I won't bore you. I need to go find Lucivar and Jaenelle, though-- you'll be all right?"
Karla
Karla gave Ender a ghost of her usual unsure-but-game smile. "I'll be fine, once I get past all the people trying to get to me to sleep and eat," she said. "Maybe a little better once I get the chance to do one or the other."
You know, assuming they all survived that long. But details.
"I don't think Jaenelle's seeing anyone but the wounded right now," she added, a little reluctantly. "But Lucivar's been mostly out in the courtyard."
Sookie
Sookie's inner turmoil over what she'd done -- how close she'd come to the edge -- was shoved aside as soon as she saw Karla. As soon as she was close enough and Karla was available for a hug, she went in for one, trying to keep her own emotions shielded away. "Scared us sick, sweetheart. What can I do to help you?"
Karla
"I don't know," Karla said, almost near tears at the enormity of it all. "There's so much to do...People to Heal, Jhinka to fight. I don't even know where to begin."
Sookie
Sookie made little hushing noises and stroked Karla's hair. "We took care of some of those Jhinka for you," she said, not really elaborating. "And you're not gonna be much use if you run yourself ragged, babe."
Karla
"I think I ran past ragged right into threadbare," Karla murmured, aware of how awful she looked. And felt. "I don't suppose you brought along any coffee?"
Because that's exactly what Karla needed right now. Caffeine.
Sookie
"I left it in my other pants," Sookie said with a small smile. "'Sides, you really think I'd give you something that'd keep you awake? I'm half-tempted to try Emma's little trick on you."
Karla
"I'll sleep just as soon as we get out of this," Karla promised, keeping the thought if we get out of this, tucked behind shields. "Probably for a whole day. Maybe two." She tugged Warren's shirt back up, it kept falling over her shoulder. It had been too big even before she'd lost all that weight. "Then maybe challenge Bobby to an all-you-can-eat contest or something."
Sookie
"I'll cook," Sookie offered, reaching out to try and fix the shirt. "I've started promising Bobby pie if he makes it home safe on his trips. I'll do the same for you. We get you out of this, sweetheart, and I'm baking you whatever you want."
Karla
"You're too good to me," Karla said, eyes filling up with tears. "All of you. Too, too good."
Sookie
"No such thing," Sookie assured her, smiling a little wobbily. "Besides, you got stabbed for me. I owe you one, honey. We're gonna all get home, and we'll be fine, and I'll make you a pie made out of cakes."
Karla
"A pie made out of cakes?" Karla asked, giving a hoarse, almost choking laugh. "Do I have to share?"
Sookie
"Nope," Sookie promised. "All yours. But it's contingent on us getting you home safe and sound."
Jack
Jack stared for a long moment. Karla looked like some of the most terrible things he'd seen in his childhood, women so out of their mind with addictions they were more walking corpses than--
There was no point in dwelling. He shook himself out of it.
"If you didn't look so awful I'd be yelling at you right now," he said crisply. "I'm missing a deadline on a paper for this."
The look in his eyes made it clear what he meant was closer to I was worried, what can I do? than anything he'd actually say
Karla
Karla's hand automatically went up to her hair to give it a self-conscious pat. Feeling how stiff it was with blood, she made a face and dropped her arm back to her side. "Always so full of compliments, Jack," she said, trying to give him a smile. ""Besides, you didn't want to write that paper anyway.
Jack
"I have to feed your rapacious ego, don't I?" Jack asked. "And ... oh, probably not. Besides, I wouldn't be a proper college student if I wasn't asking for deferments now and again."
"Do you think," he added carefully, "we can make anything better?"
Karla
"I don't know," Karla said, reluctantly choosing honesty. She didn't have the energy to spare to come up with something else. "There's so much to do and so little time left."
Jack
"I'll find a way to make myself useful," Jack promised. He didn't think poking at Karla in this state would do any good. "As much as I can. For now, I'm just glad to see you."
Karla
"I'm glad to see you too, Jack." Pathetically so, in fact. Almost as much as she wished him a million miles away, where he would never have to see anything like this. She reached over to give him a hug. "Thank you."
Tara
Tara stood back awkwardly, waiting for Karla to be free. She didn't want to be a strain -- Karla looked strained enough.
Finally, tentatively, she reached out for a hug. "Honey," she said softly. "I'm with Sookie. Tell me what to do and I'll do it."
Karla
Karla certainly didn't look like she considered Tara to be a strain. Not with the fierce hug she was giving the other witch.
Well, Karla had intended it to be fierce. There wasn't a whole lot of strength to back that up. But there was a lot of clinging to make up for it.
"Mother Night, I wish I knew," she whispered. "There's just so much to do!"
Tara
"I brought my stuff for locating spells," Tara babbled, returning the hug. "But you're located, so that's not what we have to do, so ..."
Karla
"If you could locate us a way out of this mess, I'd be forever grateful," Karla said, trying to joke. "Otherwise...whatever you can. We have no food, no water, there are injured people everywhere, the Jhinka rule the skies and we can't even get a message out. Any one of those you feel like tackling, go right ahead. We'll appreciate your help with any of them."
Cassidy
"Karla!" Cassidy hadn't been in that other Fandom, but seeing her friend looking like this scared her.
Karla
"Kiss kiss," Karla said, tiredly. And then really noticed who was talking to her. "Cassidy! You shouldn't be here! It isn't safe!"
Not too tired for hypocrisy, apparently.
Cassidy
Cassidy just raised an eyebrow at that. "You were in trouble. I came to help." She spoke the words like it was perfectly normal for her to run into a dangerous situation. "You're my friend and a Sister, Karla. I would not stay away."
Even if she probably would get snarled at later by Araon. Again.
*Tell me what I can do to help, she sent on a Tiger Eye thread.I have a few supplies and some teas that can be made up.
Karla
Of course she would. And then he'd probably send a snippy letter to her parents, even though they would have no idea what he was talking about. Though his Offering gift might finally be sent along with it.
*Supplies would be wonderful,* Karla sent, grateful. *Though we have no water for the teas.*
Cassidy
Later, Cassidy would tell Karla just what she thought about her now older, bossier cousin.
*I have some bottled water, but not a lot. We'll stretch it as best as we can. I also brought bandages and other things we learned about from Dr. Pierce.*
Karla
*Thank the Darkness,* Karla sighed. *We've been resorting to tearing up bedsheets and petticoats. Anything you can offer will be come in handy, I promise.*
Cassidy
*Just tell me where to start.* She looked her friend up and down. *I know better than to ask you to rest now that we're here, but you will drink one of the teas.* It was rare for Cassidy to try to use a firm, Queen voice with anyone, but she was worried, damn it.
Karla
*I--* Karla was all set to insist she was fine, thank you, except then she realized she was being stubborn for the sake of being stubborn and she really didn't have the energy for that. *--will,* she said, sagging slightly. *Not much, because your few bottles must go to five hundred people, but I will.*
Cassidy
*We will make it work somehow, Karla,* Cassidy assured her with determination humming along the thread. *We will.*
Somehow.
[NFI, NFB, I bet you know where I'm going with this...This section warning free. Text adapted from Chapt. Thirteen of Heir to the Shadows. Uhh, very loosely adapted. List of previous entries can be found here. Yeah, I got nothing more to add.]
Before Mari's hand even had a chance to fall back down to her side, Karla appeared in the back door of the room. Stairs could be seen heading up behind her.
"I felt the shield go," she said, her voice hoarse and raw-sounding. "I thought--"
It took her a moment to notice the others, swaying on her feet with exhaustion as she was. Which, of course, gave them plenty of time to notice her. Bones pressed against pallid, sweat-soaked, blood-streaked skin. More blood matted her hair which stood up in little spikes where she'd absently run her hands through it, and yet still more surrounded her mouth, where dry lips had cracked and bled. The skin under her eyes was dull and tight, covered in shadows so dark they looked like bruises. She was wearing a male's shirt, haphazardly buttoned, the sleeves rolled up to show arms thin to the point of emaciation.
To anyone who had been in the other-Fandom, it was a scarily familiar sight.
She stared at her friends for a long moment, while her mind tried to process the fact that they were there, truly there. Her head tilted, as if in question and her right arm came up to point. And then, with nothing like the grace or elegance one read about in novels, her eyes rolled up and she headed for the floor.
Raven
"Karla!" Raven cried, dashing across the room to Karla's side. The horror of what she'd seen outside was momentarily forgotten as she drew her friend into her arms and immediately began healing her, taking away the injuries and exhaustion and affects of over-exerting herself. Without proper rest and food the damage would return, but for now she would be better.
Karla
"Well, that wasn't exactly the first impression I was trying to make," Karla said, her voice slightly stronger now that Raven had Healed away the irritation in her throat. She tried to struggle to her feet, a bit of new vitality infusing her limbs. "Hi everyone. Kiss kiss?"
...She had a feeling she was in trouble.
Raven
"What is going on here?" Raven said, helping Karla up and hugging her tightly. "Why are those creatures attacking? How do we make them stop?"
Karla
"I--I don't know why," Karla said. "We just came into the village after Jaenelle sensed something wrong, and found...this.” Her sweeping gesture took in the hordes of wounded, the attacking Jhinka, and the carnage in the street. “A young half-Blood male, Khevin, he'd put up a shield around this place and was trying to hold them off."
While riddled with nasty wounds, amazingly enough.
"The people here have no idea why the Jhinka attacked like this. A few raiding parties are to be expected, but nothing ever like this. As for how to make them stop?" Karla held onto Raven helplessly. "I don't know. I don't think we can."
Raven
Raven stroked her hair comfortingly. "Then we must get them away from this place," she said. But how? There were so many.
"I do not think I can teleport them all at once," she said reluctantly.
Karla
"I don't think we can," Karla repeated, looking around. "We can't move them. Even those we've already Healed are still more injured than not. We've been limiting our Craft to Healing only those injuries that are fatal and we still have more to Heal."
Raven
Raven nodded. "I will do all I can to help," she said. Then a guilty look crossed her face as she looked in Warren's direction. "But there are others who wish to see you," she said quietly. "Who need to see you. Warren has been concerned." Well, they all had, but Warren was her boyfriend, after all, and he probably should have been the first to go to Karla, not her.
Karla
But without Raven’s Healing, Karla might not have been in any state to see him. Her hand tightened on Raven's for a moment. "Thank you," she said. "For everything."
Raven
"You can thank me when we are safely away from this place," Raven said with a small smile. She squeezed Karla's hand back, then drew away so the others could speak to her.
Cassidy
When Raven pulled away from Karla, it was Raven that Cassidy followed. "Are you all right? Is she going to be?"
Raven
"She is weak," Raven said, ignoring the question about herself. "She is in desperate need of rest and food. I can heal away the effects, but they will swiftly return. We must get her -- we must get everyone away from this place."
Cassidy
Cassidy agreed with what Raven was saying. "It's not a good place."
Raven
"Do you know what these creatures are?" Raven asked, looking out a window at the shield that protected the building and the Jhinka that still tried to find their way in. "Is there no reasoning with them? Can we not make some sort of truce so that they would leave us all be?"
Cassidy
"I've never seen anything like them," Cassidy admitted. "We could try to reason with them, but I'm not sure the males would even let us try."
Raven
"If we could identify a leader, I could use my gifts to persuade him to stop," Raven said. "If there is any compassion in them whatsoever, I could amplify it."
Cassidy
Cassidy wasn't sure there was any compassion in those creatures after all of the death they had caused, but she wanted to be hopeful that Raven could convince them to stop.
"I'm not seeing any clear leader that is giving the orders to the rest of them."
Raven
"Maybe if I were to go outside...I might be able to use my gifts to somehow calm them," Raven said fretfully. She really wasn't sure she could do that against so many, but she felt so helpless to stop the violence.
Cassidy
"You are not going out there alone," Cassidy said quietly. "After all, Professor Skywalker would advise against you going into something like that alone, you know."
Yes, Cassidy. Invoke Raven's hero to get her not to do something rash.
"Therefore, if you go out there, I'm going with you. I can at least shield you while you try to find the leader."
And her logic had been going so well and been so sound up until that point.
Raven
"You will not go out there, Cassidy," Raven said firmly. "And...you are right, Professor Skywalker would be upset with me were I to do something rash. I cannot take the chance of endangering myself or anyone else by seeking end the violence in such an unsure way, especially not when my gifts are needed inside."
She looked around at all the injured crowded into the building. "There is much to do here."
Cassidy
Cassidy would have been amused about how quickly Raven had said that if she hadn't been secretly glad that her friend was no longer thinking about going out there.
"We can do more good here if we stay safe and inside and see what Karla and Lady Jaenelle might need."
Warren
Raven had gotten to Karla before Warren had, that was true. But she was the healer, not him, and some tiny voice of reason in the back of his head had pointed out that getting between the healer and his girlfriend who had just collapsed was probably not the most helpful move he could make, today.
He hung back for a moment, letting Raven and Karla speak, and only stepped forward when he was certain that he wasn't going to be in the way.
"God," he breathed, holding a hand out to her. "We were worried about you."
He was worried about her.
Karla
Karla laid her hand in his, trying to ignore how much it trembled. "I'm sorry," she said in a whisper. Even with Raven's Healing, her voice was still a bit sore. "I didn't mean to worry you. Any of you."
And then she was clutching him for all she was worth.
Warren
And Warren was never letting go. At least for a little bit.
"We'd thought that you'd been kidnapped," he mumbled, holding her close, but carefully so. She felt so small in his arms, so fragile. It scared him, and he had to take a moment to shake the notion that, if he wasn't gentle, he might break her clean in two. "At least you're safe."
In a manner of speaking.
Karla
Karla froze, the full implications of her actions suddenly weighing down on her. She'd known that people would be worried, be angry, but she'd never thought that they'd assume she'd been kidnapped.
Of course, looking back, she hadn't thought at all. Just acted on impulse. She'd been so caught up in her concern for Jaenelle, she'd ignored the concern others would feel for her.
"I..." Karla was at a loss for words. Her friends were here, in grave danger, and all because of her.
Warren
She didn't need to speak. She didn't need to find words. Warren could imagine at least a few of the thoughts that must have been running through her head. Between the scene of chaos going on outside, and all of them showing up here...
"What can we do to help?"
There. That seemed important enough, here and now. With everything else that was happening, at least that much was useful.
He'd gently shake her for worrying them all so much later.
Karla
"Just hold me for another moment?" Karla asked. Since fleeing the Keep, she'd had to be strong, to push herself, first to keep up with the grueling pace that Jaenelle and Lucivar had set and then to just keep going in the face of the horror that was Agio. Between that and the consequences of her actions being laid bare before her, Karla wanted little more than to curl up and cry.
But she couldn't. Even if she had the energy or tears to waste, she couldn't afford such a luxury.
Hopefully Warren wouldn't mind her being selfish a little while longer and drawing a little bit of strength from him.
Warren
"I can do that," he murmured, combing the fingers of one hand through her hair. The benefit of having wings in situations like this was that, if he folded them around her like so, he didn't need to use both arms to hold her close. "We'll get through this, okay?"
It was difficult to be terribly convincing in the face of what had gone on out there. But Karla was here and alive and in his arms. That much, at least, was helping.
Karla
Also, they momentarily blocked off the views of everything else and Karla could pretend for a moment that it was just them, somewhere else. Where there wasn't death and need and violence and hate.
"It's awful of me to think and even worse to say," Karla whispered quietly. "But I feel better knowing you're here. I shouldn't--I should wish you all back at Fandom and away from here, but...I can't help it. I do."
Warren
And here, folded up in his wings like this, he could lean forward and press his lips against hers for a moment.
"Well, I know I, for one, am not going anywhere without you."
So there, Karla. You're stuck with the Worthington boy, now.
Karla
Karla could think of worse fates. It was coming up with better ones that was going to stymie her.
"I--" She bit back whatever she was going to say, flushing a bit and looking at her shirt. Which was technically his shirt. Or had been, before she'd liberated it. "Thank you. That means...it means a lot. To me. A lot."
Ah, eloquence.
Warren
Horribly overrated, eloquence was.
"I know." And then, because in the face of eloquence and trauma, there were only so many other things that he could think to say? "Nice shirt."
Karla
"Do you like it?" Karla wouldn't be Karla if she didn't work up at least a ghost of a tease. "It was a little nicer before--" it got blood all over it "--but it's comfortable."
And still infused with his psychic scent. That had helped, a bit, in the face of everything.
Warren
"There are probably a few more like it where that came from," Warren replied, closing his eyes and inhaling. Karla smell. Much better than the stench of death that seemed to linger everywhere else. "Cleaner, too."
Karla
"Are you talking about your closet or mine?" Karla asked, clinging tightly. "I mean, the answer's true either way, but I feel like I should check."
Yes. Just a few more moments of this. Of cuddles and teasing and banter. She could go back to reality in a few minutes, be strong again in a few minutes, but she just needed this for right now.
Warren
"Pick a closet, either closet," Warren decided. "I'm certain that I can arrange to have yours stocked up with a few more like it, if you don't have a broad enough selection already."
... It wasn't as though Warren had suddenly happened upon some great button-down shirt shortage lately or anything, after all.
Karla
And Karla was careful to only take the ones with enclosed backs! She was a thoughtful shirt-thief that way.
She shook her head against his chest. "No, only a few at a time. When they stay in my closet, they don't smell like you anymore."
She really ought to pull away, to talk to the others and check on the injured. Tilting her face up to his, she asked, "One more kiss? Please?"
Warren
"One more kiss," Warren agreed, and then pressed his lips against hers, closing his eyes.
One more kiss, and hopefully she'd understand if he just so happened to be kissing her just as much for the sake of his own headspace as hers.
Karla
It made her feel better, actually. That he derived the same comfort from her kisses as she did his.
As much as she wanted the kiss to go on forever, she kept it brief. Now was not the time to linger over Warren's lips, warm and soft as they were.
There was more to say to him, so much more. But for now she simply pulled away, hoping her kisses had said what she couldn’t yet.
Dinah
Dinah joined the Conga Line of Concern and said, "If you wanted me to visit here, you could have texted demands. I'm okay with being held hostage if there aren't actual enemies in the mix." Through the hug she sent, You look half-dead. You have got to rest now, okay?
Karla
Karla gave her a wobbly smile. "Well, I knew how much it would cost to lure you in with honey-pears."
*...There are still so many.*
But Karla couldn't deny that she had no more Craft to spare.
Dinah
Sadly, they'll be there when you wake up. And later there would be a Conversation about how things got this bad. "Got that right. Now that I have my own tree in my room." She sighed and tightened her arms around Karla. "Everyone else gets to hug you too. And after that, I am finding you a quiet blanket to collapse on, and not letting anyone near you for six hours at least."
Karla
*I don't think we have that kind of time,* Karla sent, her psychic thread strumming with heartache. *Lucivar barely has any strength left. He's wearing his Birthright Jewels--and not even his ring anymore. Just his necklace. We're running out of time.*
Dinah
You will sleep if I have to knock you out for an hour. Dinah took a breath. "We have that much time," she said aloud. "Is there any reason those guys are attacking, or is this just what they do?"
Karla
Karla shrugged and shook her head. "I don't know much about them. They're a landen race with wings and they've had an ongoing feud with Eyriens for centuries. I mean, they're raiders and scavengers, and most villages in Askavi know to watch out for them...but never in these kinds of numbers. Lucivar will probably know more than I."
Dinah
"I'll ask him." Dinah hugged her again, and rubbed Karla's arms, trying to get some warmth into them. Sleep. As soon as the hug-and-scold is done. I mean it.
Karla
*Do you really think I can?* Karla asked, shaking her head. *I'll rest, though. I promise.*
Where 'rest' was defined as 'sit at that table for awhile and figure out what can be done without Craft,' of course.
She appreciated the attempt to warm her up, though. She was cold; so very, very cold.
Dinah
Nightmare material, yes... You rest, and after this? We talk.
Dinah hung onto her for a minute, hating how cold Karla's skin felt, and determined to find a way to warm her up.
Karla
If we survive. That thought, Karla kept behind several shields and just nodded. "I have a feeling I'm going to be on the receiving end of several 'talks.'"
Ender
"I should've known you'd rustle up some trouble for Ben to run straight into," Ender said, but he didn't leave the comment lying there long enough to invite a response. "How are we for resources?"
Something in Ender wanted to fight. He was very good at repressing that now, but it left him otherwise without much in the way of helpful tools.
Karla
Karla gave Ender a tremulous smile for the sally, but it faded quickly. "Not much," she said. "No food, no water. This was a meeting house so there were some blankets and linens, but we've been tearing most of those up for bandages. I'm almost out of spidersilk for stitches and we're running low on Healing supplies, too. There are some herbs and teas that might be helpful, but not much without water to brew them in. No weapons, save for what people have brought."
She waved a hand at the people around them, hoping the movement would cover up how badly it shook. "And somewhere around five hundred injured." Her voice cracked. "Less than fifty of them are children."
Ender
A lot of dead bodies.
But those wouldn't do them any good right now.
Ender nodded. "How much power do you have left?" he asked. He wasn't gentle now, or particularly easy-going in his bearing. "And everyone else?"
Karla
Karla snorted. "Not much," she replied honestly. "I'm almost at my breaking point. Of the three of us, I'm the weakest."
She didn't feel vaguely ashamed by that admission, no, not at all.
"Lucivar has a little while left," she added. "He's on his Birthright Jewels, but they should last us a little longer. I have no idea about Jaenelle, though. Odds are, her body will give out before her Craft does."
Ender
"So I'd be correct in assuming she's more than a little bit unpredictable," Ender said. He was trying to put it into perspective. "Interesting."
Karla
"You have some idea of what Saetan's capable of, right?" Karla asked. "Or, at least, you've assigned him some level of power in your head?" She didn't wait for his answer. "Picture thirteen of him. That's about Jaenelle's relative strength."
Ender
Ender leaned back.
"Good," was all he said. "We'll need it."
He pursed his lips. "I'm sure you'll have an army of people trying to get you to sleep and eat," he said, "So I won't bore you. I need to go find Lucivar and Jaenelle, though-- you'll be all right?"
Karla
Karla gave Ender a ghost of her usual unsure-but-game smile. "I'll be fine, once I get past all the people trying to get to me to sleep and eat," she said. "Maybe a little better once I get the chance to do one or the other."
You know, assuming they all survived that long. But details.
"I don't think Jaenelle's seeing anyone but the wounded right now," she added, a little reluctantly. "But Lucivar's been mostly out in the courtyard."
Sookie
Sookie's inner turmoil over what she'd done -- how close she'd come to the edge -- was shoved aside as soon as she saw Karla. As soon as she was close enough and Karla was available for a hug, she went in for one, trying to keep her own emotions shielded away. "Scared us sick, sweetheart. What can I do to help you?"
Karla
"I don't know," Karla said, almost near tears at the enormity of it all. "There's so much to do...People to Heal, Jhinka to fight. I don't even know where to begin."
Sookie
Sookie made little hushing noises and stroked Karla's hair. "We took care of some of those Jhinka for you," she said, not really elaborating. "And you're not gonna be much use if you run yourself ragged, babe."
Karla
"I think I ran past ragged right into threadbare," Karla murmured, aware of how awful she looked. And felt. "I don't suppose you brought along any coffee?"
Because that's exactly what Karla needed right now. Caffeine.
Sookie
"I left it in my other pants," Sookie said with a small smile. "'Sides, you really think I'd give you something that'd keep you awake? I'm half-tempted to try Emma's little trick on you."
Karla
"I'll sleep just as soon as we get out of this," Karla promised, keeping the thought if we get out of this, tucked behind shields. "Probably for a whole day. Maybe two." She tugged Warren's shirt back up, it kept falling over her shoulder. It had been too big even before she'd lost all that weight. "Then maybe challenge Bobby to an all-you-can-eat contest or something."
Sookie
"I'll cook," Sookie offered, reaching out to try and fix the shirt. "I've started promising Bobby pie if he makes it home safe on his trips. I'll do the same for you. We get you out of this, sweetheart, and I'm baking you whatever you want."
Karla
"You're too good to me," Karla said, eyes filling up with tears. "All of you. Too, too good."
Sookie
"No such thing," Sookie assured her, smiling a little wobbily. "Besides, you got stabbed for me. I owe you one, honey. We're gonna all get home, and we'll be fine, and I'll make you a pie made out of cakes."
Karla
"A pie made out of cakes?" Karla asked, giving a hoarse, almost choking laugh. "Do I have to share?"
Sookie
"Nope," Sookie promised. "All yours. But it's contingent on us getting you home safe and sound."
Jack
Jack stared for a long moment. Karla looked like some of the most terrible things he'd seen in his childhood, women so out of their mind with addictions they were more walking corpses than--
There was no point in dwelling. He shook himself out of it.
"If you didn't look so awful I'd be yelling at you right now," he said crisply. "I'm missing a deadline on a paper for this."
The look in his eyes made it clear what he meant was closer to I was worried, what can I do? than anything he'd actually say
Karla
Karla's hand automatically went up to her hair to give it a self-conscious pat. Feeling how stiff it was with blood, she made a face and dropped her arm back to her side. "Always so full of compliments, Jack," she said, trying to give him a smile. ""Besides, you didn't want to write that paper anyway.
Jack
"I have to feed your rapacious ego, don't I?" Jack asked. "And ... oh, probably not. Besides, I wouldn't be a proper college student if I wasn't asking for deferments now and again."
"Do you think," he added carefully, "we can make anything better?"
Karla
"I don't know," Karla said, reluctantly choosing honesty. She didn't have the energy to spare to come up with something else. "There's so much to do and so little time left."
Jack
"I'll find a way to make myself useful," Jack promised. He didn't think poking at Karla in this state would do any good. "As much as I can. For now, I'm just glad to see you."
Karla
"I'm glad to see you too, Jack." Pathetically so, in fact. Almost as much as she wished him a million miles away, where he would never have to see anything like this. She reached over to give him a hug. "Thank you."
Tara
Tara stood back awkwardly, waiting for Karla to be free. She didn't want to be a strain -- Karla looked strained enough.
Finally, tentatively, she reached out for a hug. "Honey," she said softly. "I'm with Sookie. Tell me what to do and I'll do it."
Karla
Karla certainly didn't look like she considered Tara to be a strain. Not with the fierce hug she was giving the other witch.
Well, Karla had intended it to be fierce. There wasn't a whole lot of strength to back that up. But there was a lot of clinging to make up for it.
"Mother Night, I wish I knew," she whispered. "There's just so much to do!"
Tara
"I brought my stuff for locating spells," Tara babbled, returning the hug. "But you're located, so that's not what we have to do, so ..."
Karla
"If you could locate us a way out of this mess, I'd be forever grateful," Karla said, trying to joke. "Otherwise...whatever you can. We have no food, no water, there are injured people everywhere, the Jhinka rule the skies and we can't even get a message out. Any one of those you feel like tackling, go right ahead. We'll appreciate your help with any of them."
Cassidy
"Karla!" Cassidy hadn't been in that other Fandom, but seeing her friend looking like this scared her.
Karla
"Kiss kiss," Karla said, tiredly. And then really noticed who was talking to her. "Cassidy! You shouldn't be here! It isn't safe!"
Not too tired for hypocrisy, apparently.
Cassidy
Cassidy just raised an eyebrow at that. "You were in trouble. I came to help." She spoke the words like it was perfectly normal for her to run into a dangerous situation. "You're my friend and a Sister, Karla. I would not stay away."
Even if she probably would get snarled at later by Araon. Again.
*Tell me what I can do to help, she sent on a Tiger Eye thread.I have a few supplies and some teas that can be made up.
Karla
Of course she would. And then he'd probably send a snippy letter to her parents, even though they would have no idea what he was talking about. Though his Offering gift might finally be sent along with it.
*Supplies would be wonderful,* Karla sent, grateful. *Though we have no water for the teas.*
Cassidy
Later, Cassidy would tell Karla just what she thought about her now older, bossier cousin.
*I have some bottled water, but not a lot. We'll stretch it as best as we can. I also brought bandages and other things we learned about from Dr. Pierce.*
Karla
*Thank the Darkness,* Karla sighed. *We've been resorting to tearing up bedsheets and petticoats. Anything you can offer will be come in handy, I promise.*
Cassidy
*Just tell me where to start.* She looked her friend up and down. *I know better than to ask you to rest now that we're here, but you will drink one of the teas.* It was rare for Cassidy to try to use a firm, Queen voice with anyone, but she was worried, damn it.
Karla
*I--* Karla was all set to insist she was fine, thank you, except then she realized she was being stubborn for the sake of being stubborn and she really didn't have the energy for that. *--will,* she said, sagging slightly. *Not much, because your few bottles must go to five hundred people, but I will.*
Cassidy
*We will make it work somehow, Karla,* Cassidy assured her with determination humming along the thread. *We will.*
Somehow.
[NFI, NFB, I bet you know where I'm going with this...This section warning free. Text adapted from Chapt. Thirteen of Heir to the Shadows. Uhh, very loosely adapted. List of previous entries can be found here. Yeah, I got nothing more to add.]