Ghost Wounds, a second terminal episode
Lucan lunges at you, his ghostsilver sword a gleaming blur. But you’ve seen him fight before, and though he is the best swordsman you know, you remember his opening moves. You dodge past the thrust, spin, and snatch two of the clay flasks from his belt.
You squeeze your eyes shut and fling one of flasks to the floor.
Even with your eyes shut, you still feel the glare of white light through your eyelids. A chorus of pained groans rises from Croanna’s enslaved victims, and you hear Rycurgus bellowing enraged curses at the top of his lungs. You open your eyes, and see the mass of enslaved Imperial Guards, nobles, and magi shuffling around, blinking their eyes, and bumping into each other. Lucan stands a few feet away, sword raised in guard, eyes bloodshot and watering.
You step in close, twist his sword arm behind his back, and trip him. Lucan falls, his sword arm pinned beneath his back, and you drop your knee into his stomach, holding him in place. He’s a lot stronger than you, but you’ve got better leverage, and he can’t throw you off.
You pin his left elbow in place with your other knee and drive the ghostsilver dagger into his mindreaver. The bronze bracelet shudders, writhing like a dying thing, and the ghostsilver dagger grows hot in your grasp.
Twelve seconds. That’s how long Rhazion said it would take to safely remove the mindreaver.
Croanna shakes her head, and the soulsieve on her wrist flashes with green light. Then Siona’s own bracelet flashes, and she shudders, her hands flying to her eyes in sudden pain.
The ghostsilver dagger sinks deeper into the bracelet.
Croanna looks at you, the malicious glee gone from her eyes, replaced with a cold and deadly purpose. She pulls something that looks like a copper meat fork from her belt, albeit a meat fork carved with silver symbols, and points it at you. A blue spark flashes between the fork’s tines, growing brighter and brighter.
Then the mindreaver falls from Lucan’s wrist. Awareness floods into his eyes, and he looks at you in alarm. “Caina…”
At that very moment, a sheet of snarling blue lightning erupts from the Croanna’s fork and slams into your chest, blasting you off Lucan and flinging you into the wall. Your limbs jerk and writhe uncontrollably, and you feel your heart stop.
It does not start again, and blackness swallows you soon after.
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