--donation bonus week (day 3/5, post 1/5)--
She’d only managed to decapitate two of the seven, the first of which had already regenerated down to his shoulders. She fixed that real quick, then proceeded to the speaker box by the southern doorway.
“Can you hear me?” she said. “Is everyone alright?”
<“Lady Elroy...”> It was Claudio’s voice, slow and grave. <“Marcos is very badly wounded...”>
Her breath caught. Marcos? She didn’t understand. “Open the door,” was all she could think to say.
The floor groaned and split beneath the decimated banquet table. It separated straight down the center, gradually revealing the thick silver door.
She saw the gaping hole in its nearest corner.
The door pushed open from below, and Claudio’s head appeared. His expression was grim. She followed him down the ladder.
And there her son lay, bunched up in the corner next to a chunk of debris and one of the maids. His neck was twisted grotesquely. Blood gushed from his head wound. His eyes were still open, but only just, and they moved to her, holding on her, recognizing his mother.
The boy could only let out a whimper.
Mariana went to him. She could still hardly breathe, and her hands trembled as she touched his shoulder. Her horrified eyes looked at the maid by his side. The young lady had first-aid training, Mariana knew, but this was certainly beyond her.
‘Mariana,’ Shenado said. ‘I know it’s terrible, but we have to go. If we stay here, they’ll just keep coming.’
Mariana gnashed her teeth. She wanted to argue, wanted to scream, wanted to go back up there and hunt down all their reapers and kill them for good. But Shenado was right, damn her.
She stood. She went to the panel by the ladder. The number pad blurred together as she looked at it. She hadn’t cried since she was a girl. She remembered wondering if she even could cry anymore, but that was certainly not in question now. She couldn’t stop the tears or the snot or the ragged breaths and just tried to wipe her face so that she could see what she was doing.
A dark serial novel. Set in a modern fantasy world called Eleg. Mature language. Updates every night at midnight PST by ~400 words.
Now might be a good time to ask something I've been wondering for a while. In the first few chapters, it was a pretty big deal that reapers can see the aura of death. You haven't mentioned this since, well, most of the run of the story. What happened to the concept?
ReplyDeleteI'm asking because, if the aura of death represents the imminent death of someone (should no one intervene), Shenado should know what's going to happen to Marcos. Or at least have a better idea about how badly he's wounded.
Good point! i was wondering about that during the attack on the castle. All those people running for there lives and getting killed, but no reaper said anything about seeing the Aura of death on them.
ReplyDeleteThere wouldn't have been much purpose for a reaper to bring that up in the middle of a fight. Also, not many actually got killed in the attacks on Belgrant Castle. It was only when Abolish had control of it that the normal folks there were really in danger.
ReplyDeleteMaybe servants don't generate a death aura in their would be victims because they have already died and exist outside of the normal live death cycle.
ReplyDeleteSomehow I knew Marcos was going to get hurt in some way.
ReplyDeleteOr maybe seeing a prediction of their own actions when they also have the power to avert predictions like that creates a paradox, and it defaults to no aura.
ReplyDeleteAh, alright then. :)
ReplyDelete...Oh my God...that prediction I made long ago, that Helen would sacrifice herself for Lynn...that's gonna happen here, isn't it? Mariana is gonna have Shenado take Marcos as a servant. ISN'T SHE?! YOU CAN'T DO THIS, FROST! NOT WHEN SHE'S SO AWESOME! ARGH! THE FEELS! THEY HURT!!!
ReplyDelete