Tales of Magik: Imus ad Infernum circle 2
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xp_logsThe mutants find shelter in Limbo, and Illyana reveals the gory truth of her history with Limbo.
It was nearing evening by the time they made it to the caves; Illyana's legs were shaking with the effort, but they'd made it, and managed to get a fire started in an old fire pit. She knew where they were now, because she had been here before. She had learned to read English, scratched out in the dirt, on this floor and others like it.
"Okay," she said, trying to keep herself steady. It wasn't that speaking would make it real - it was already that, all the dreamlike haze crushed out of the day by the battle and the long hike - but she almost didn't know how to explain. She hadn't told anyone about it before, except Wanda, and conveniently no one ever asked about your horrifying hell experiences out of the blue. She'd had the whole walk to try to figure out what to say, and she still didn't know how to do it.
"Okay," she said again, twisting the chain on her neck between her fingers, and continued this time: "This is - we called it Limbo. It's - a hell dimension. I mean actual demons and monsters - you saw the zombies - and it's ruled by a, by someone who - is really bad. So try not to eat anything without checking or touch anything that looks weird, especially if it's cute, because it's really hard to bury bodies out here." She was perfectly matter of fact, not kidding: She had buried them, and she knew.
Miles had been on high alert during the whole hike. His spider-sense rang in his head so much that he had tuned it out and accepted the fact he would be in constant danger until they escaped. This explained why, at least, which was some small comfort. He crossed his arms over his puffed-up chest and examined the weary party. His gaze lingered on Rahne and Amadeus, still stuck in their bizarre, hellish transformations, and then turned back to their hostess-of-sorts.
"Did you bring us here?" he asked in what he thought was a neutral tone, but judging by some of the expressions directed at him, may have come off a little accusatory. More than a little, maybe.
Gabriel raised an eyebrow at Miles "Relájate," he cautioned in a gentle tone before looking at Illyana, his arms crossed. There was so much he wanted to ask, he wasn't sure where to begin. "I think the bigger question is how we ended up here. Or why. If you know, I mean."
"I don't know," Illyana said plaintively, clearly upset - both distressed and indignant, truth be told. "I mean - my powers - I can get here on my own, if I want to, which I don't. Ever. Unless I have to go a really long distance, and I just - I don't do that, I don't need to do that, it's a stupid power anyway. But I've never taken people with me, I didn't think I even could, and anyway I wasn't even trying to go anywhere! It shouldn't have happened, it shouldn't even have been able to happen. The portal was only big enough for that box, anyway." She had to pause and take a breath, both because she needed to breathe and because she didn't know what else to say. Other than that she wished she'd just stolen the box of chocolate bars the normal way, which was so obvious it didn't need to be said.
Topaz was currently nursing the magic hangover from hell, leaning over with her hands pressed against her eyes to block out light and risk worsening the blooming migraine. Okay, so she had been stupid about the fire. It wasn't like she didn't already know she was an idiot. She frowned and forced herself to look up, squinting a bit and scrubbing her eyes. "Your portals can get you here?" She confirmed, continuing without waiting for answer. "Might have had a bad interaction with my magic. It's like a vacuum - the portal sucked up the magic and it blew up, so to speak. Except instead of an explosion it just ate all of us."
Illyana stared at her for a moment, then nodded; that was exactly the kind of thing Limbo would do to normal magic. "And when it blew up, it drained me to keep the portal stable. So at least we're all in one piece, I guess." There was a cheery thought: Losing an arm to a portal accident, and then zombies.
Warren had been leaning on the mouth of the cave, arms crossed, staring out into the landscape. He was vaguely listening to everyone while he wondered why he hadn't worn more comfortable shoes. This was not Masterchef -- he didn't need to look dressed to the nines while baking. Although, he had to admit, he always looked good no matter what the situation. In the future though, he'd make sure to keep running shoes available in the kitchen. Just in case. Or maybe just around Illyana who he swore he'd never seen before until that morning.
"One piece is true. That being said, if everything here is actively trying to kill us, it won't take long before we all die. Well. All of you die. I'm pro-cannibalism, so long as I don't go first, and before anyone asks no, I don't taste like chicken."
The cave echoed with Rahne's warning growl, making it louder than she had intended. "All birds taste the same," she grunted, showing off her teeth. It didn't matter that he was an adult - she had no patience for stupid jokes. Not when they were in Limbo and the implications of that certainly crowded her mind. But she could freak out about the religious aspects of this later, when they weren't hiding in a cave in yet another hellscape. "What now?" she asked the group, trying to figure out what they could possibly do and what on earth she had to do to get back to normal.
Amadeus was exposed. He was not reset, nothing had rest, and he knew from the way the others were looking at him that was open and gaping and definitely not normal. Everything could go so wrong unless he could pull himself together be who they wanted him to be, but the two halves had been neatly cleaved and he was missing those important pieces. His head throbbed from his old wound.
Fix this.
He fingered the knife he stole from Warren. "What now?" His voice was flat, devoid of it's usually intonation. "We survive."
He took in the pallor of Illyana's skin, her rapid breathing, the sweat that plastered her hair to her forehead. "How long until you have energy to jump again?"
She shook her head. "I don't know exactly," she said. "At least a week, maybe two. When I got out, away, it was - I don't remember exactly." She was beginning to think she hadn't exactly been in her right mind, those first few weeks on Earth, if her memory of them was that patchy. "We can't stay here that long. There's a, there's someone - he rules this place. Kind of a sorcerer. He can't see everything, but he'll hear about us if we're here long enough, and that would be - " Catastrophic. Apocalyptic. " - bad." She just had to think. She rubbed her face with the cuff of her hoodie, smearing dirt over the bridge of her nose.
"Okay okay okay." Miles held up his hands to pause for a second. "So you've been here before? When? How? You've gotta tell us the whole story because this is all just . . . Okay, we can figure a way out of here in less than two weeks if we know everything you know. I can't miss my stats final on Thursday."
"Demons and monsters," Gabriel said, clearly incredulous, "and you're thinking about college." He started patting his pockets, relieved to find a pack of cigarettes that he pulled out. He then looked at Illyana as he continued patting in hopes that his lighter had also made the trip. "A week or two. That how long were you here last time?"
Illyana's brow furrowed as she processed Gabriel's question, glancing between him and Miles as though trying to decide what to process first. "No," she said finally. "It was - seven years. I think. It's hard to know for sure. It's kind of a - " She was going to say, a long story, but it wasn't like they didn't have time. More like she'd only ever told Wanda even part of it, and it mostly sat, wordless, inside her head. She paused, mouth halfway open, clearly trying to figure out what to say next.
Oh. Oh my god. Rahne's eyes widened as her brain put two and two together. Seven years was a long time and 'Yana was her age, roughly - that was a little under half of her life. If she'd been human, she might have teared up but all she could manage was a soft whine. "This...ye grew up here," she said, forming the words carefully. "How? Yer..." Pausing she thought about what she'd seen, what she knew of Illyana, and said, "Yer nay from here. Nay demon. I know."
The low light couldn't disguise it; Illyana flinched, actually taking a short step back, before getting hold of herself. "Would you?" she asked, and was surprised to hear the wavering hysteria, so close to laughter, in her voice. She swallowed, hard, and dug her fingernails into the palm of her hand, just hard enough to sting. Her voice was flat and too even when she spoke again. "I was taken. When I was little. He needed a sacrifice for these rituals, so he could - I don't know. Call down the Elder Gods and become one and make Earth a living hell, I guess."
Rahne's growl was short but loud at Illyana's words as she felt a short burst of anger that almost sizzled in its intensity. "He took a wee baby to - sacrifice? Yer nay demon. I know ye. Best friend, annoying roommate sometimes, nay demon. This person is the demon." Needing to redirect her emotions somewhere, Rahne reached over and gently headbutted 'Yana in the shoulder. Hands with claws on the end of them didn't lend themselves to hugs but if headbutts worked for cats, then why not her?
"What he did to me, the ritual?" Illyana's face and voice were bleak; she dug at the collar of her hoodie and, with a clank of metal on metal, pulled out a pendant on a long chain. "It takes takes part of your soul and cuts it out and replaces it with - whatever demons are made of. Corruption or something." While she was speaking, she held up the pendant by the chain, so that the three stones inset into the points of an etched star flashed in the firelight, casting shadows on two empty slots. "But I was lucky. Nobody else ever survived the first time, and I made it through three."
Amadeus's eyes were drawn instantly to the pendant, eyes darting over them, calculations and notes being made at an inhuman speed inside of his brain. Notes that would be stored for... a later time. As for Illyana's story, he said nothing, but his skull ached in sympathy.
Miles stood in stunned silence as Illyana recounted her tale. Demons and monsters were one thing. Child abduction and torture and sacrifice took this up to eleven. Any ire he might have felt towards her for not being immediately forthright was instantly transferred to the thing that had abused her so. He fought back the urge to punch the cave wall in frustration.
Topaz took everything in silently, still hiding her face in her hands. She knew enough about Limbo to know what kind of hell it was, and what it would do to any of them to spend too much time there. That wasn't something she wanted to think about. "You said a week or two," she muttered into her hands, her brain turning over the information. Finally she looked up again. "Any way to speed that up? A power source or something?"
She wasn't trying to be heartless. She could only imagine what kind of hell this had all been for a child. But Illyana didn't need pity or anger. That was a waste of time. What she needed was to get the hell out of here as fast as possible.
Illyana focused on Topaz, grateful to change the topic; she was embarrassed. "It's just - finding something safe." She rubbed her face again, resmudging her nose; but then her head snapped up. "There's a place," she said, uncertainly. "It's - I don't think it's too far from here. Maybe a couple of days. It belonged to someone good. I think it might still have enough power to get us home."
"You think." Warren was getting increasingly annoyed by this whole situation. Some random pipsqueak who he had no connection to had transported him across time, space, religion, whatever to a literal hell dimension. He had a business to run, a life to lead. Turning around, he addressed the crowd, much like a politician would. "I'm an important person. I can't be gone for too long, my empire will crumble and I have no desire to be poor for the rest of my life. Do any of you realize how much I am responsible for in a day? This is ridiculous." He huffed again. "This whole experience has impacted my life in a very negative way. I don't even want to think about the mess I'll have to fix when I get back."
Topaz turned her glare to Warren, gaze ice cold. She shifted through her memories, trying to find a moment of pure, blood-chilling terror that she could use for a reference. She finally settled on the moment she had watched a zombie claw its way out of her mother's grave, and pushed her way easily into Warren's head, writing over any annoyance he felt with that terror. "Sit the fuck down, wing boy," she said stonily. "No one gives a shite."
A shudder entered Warren's body, filling his stomach with revulsion. He gagged slightly, and shook his head. The situation was getting so horrific, his body was turning against him...or maybe it was being around everyone in the room. With the exception of Miles, he disliked/had no opinion on everyone there, and clearly it was getting to him. Without a word, he stalked off inside the cave. There were lots of little side caves to explore, and with his eyesight, he didn't need the light. He just needed to get away.
Gabriel, true to form, ignored Warren's bullshit. "I'm sorry to put you on the spot," he addressed Illyana, and it was as sincere as he'd been since they'd arrived. "But any details about the dangers here would be good. We need to be prepared. Can't get caught off-guard by that zombie attack."
Amadeus ignored Warren as well. Their survival did not depend on the man throwing a temper tantrum, and if he did not pull himself together, Amadeus would be more than willing to make sure he did not get in the way. "Anything you can remember, no detail is too small. It can mean the difference between us living and dying." If it was meant to be reassuring, it definitely was not.
Unimpressed by Warren's appeal to her nonexistent understanding of schedules, deadlines, business, or adult life in general, Illyana didn't even notice him leave, focused instead on Gabriel and Amadeus. "I mean. Demons. Usually - it might not be too bad right now, but there are always demons around. I've never seen the zombies before, so I don't know if they're new or just bad luck. And we'll have to get across some ruins and stuff, which is usually where there are nests."
"Is this place safe to stay the night?" asked Miles. "We should get some rest. Maybe sleep in shifts, have some people on watch duty. Figure out an escape route in case there's more monsters. My spider-sense is less than helpful here, I can't keep track of it all. Oh, and stay close together. Wandering off alone is the number-one cause of death. Where did Warren go, anyway?"
Rahne wanted to not care because Warren was a stupid person who shouldn't have the right to be a functional adult but she wasn't that keen on someone wandering off and being eaten by ... whatever was actually out there. She pulled away from the group for a moment and breathed deep, eyes half closed as she concentrated on Warren's scent. "Close," she announced after a moment. "Stupid rich boy not far. Can get if needed." From the baring of her teeth, it was clear that Rahne really did not want to get him.
Topaz rolled her eyes at Warren's temper tantrum and scoot back to lean against the wall, making herself comfortable. It was going to be a long night with this lot.
“Shifts are a good idea,” Gabriel said with a nod. He wasn’t sure how effective anybody here would be. The group was getting too emotional. Too heated. It made him feel he had to be placid or stoic, which was so not his vibe. Especially given Illyana’s revelation. “And let’s try to map out a plan. Best as we can be prepared for the next thing.”
"I don't need to sleep," said Amadeus. "If everyone wants, I can just keep watch."
"I can cast wards," Topaz said, ignoring the twinge in the back of her head. She was going to burn out fast. "Probably a mile or so out? At least give us some warning before something tries to kill us."
Miles nodded. "Good idea, anything that gives us an edge. Still, shifts." He glanced at Amadeus. "Two pairs of eyes better than one. We've all trained for stuff like this. I mean, not being stuck in Limbo, but, you know, survival. We got this."
It was nearing evening by the time they made it to the caves; Illyana's legs were shaking with the effort, but they'd made it, and managed to get a fire started in an old fire pit. She knew where they were now, because she had been here before. She had learned to read English, scratched out in the dirt, on this floor and others like it.
"Okay," she said, trying to keep herself steady. It wasn't that speaking would make it real - it was already that, all the dreamlike haze crushed out of the day by the battle and the long hike - but she almost didn't know how to explain. She hadn't told anyone about it before, except Wanda, and conveniently no one ever asked about your horrifying hell experiences out of the blue. She'd had the whole walk to try to figure out what to say, and she still didn't know how to do it.
"Okay," she said again, twisting the chain on her neck between her fingers, and continued this time: "This is - we called it Limbo. It's - a hell dimension. I mean actual demons and monsters - you saw the zombies - and it's ruled by a, by someone who - is really bad. So try not to eat anything without checking or touch anything that looks weird, especially if it's cute, because it's really hard to bury bodies out here." She was perfectly matter of fact, not kidding: She had buried them, and she knew.
Miles had been on high alert during the whole hike. His spider-sense rang in his head so much that he had tuned it out and accepted the fact he would be in constant danger until they escaped. This explained why, at least, which was some small comfort. He crossed his arms over his puffed-up chest and examined the weary party. His gaze lingered on Rahne and Amadeus, still stuck in their bizarre, hellish transformations, and then turned back to their hostess-of-sorts.
"Did you bring us here?" he asked in what he thought was a neutral tone, but judging by some of the expressions directed at him, may have come off a little accusatory. More than a little, maybe.
Gabriel raised an eyebrow at Miles "Relájate," he cautioned in a gentle tone before looking at Illyana, his arms crossed. There was so much he wanted to ask, he wasn't sure where to begin. "I think the bigger question is how we ended up here. Or why. If you know, I mean."
"I don't know," Illyana said plaintively, clearly upset - both distressed and indignant, truth be told. "I mean - my powers - I can get here on my own, if I want to, which I don't. Ever. Unless I have to go a really long distance, and I just - I don't do that, I don't need to do that, it's a stupid power anyway. But I've never taken people with me, I didn't think I even could, and anyway I wasn't even trying to go anywhere! It shouldn't have happened, it shouldn't even have been able to happen. The portal was only big enough for that box, anyway." She had to pause and take a breath, both because she needed to breathe and because she didn't know what else to say. Other than that she wished she'd just stolen the box of chocolate bars the normal way, which was so obvious it didn't need to be said.
Topaz was currently nursing the magic hangover from hell, leaning over with her hands pressed against her eyes to block out light and risk worsening the blooming migraine. Okay, so she had been stupid about the fire. It wasn't like she didn't already know she was an idiot. She frowned and forced herself to look up, squinting a bit and scrubbing her eyes. "Your portals can get you here?" She confirmed, continuing without waiting for answer. "Might have had a bad interaction with my magic. It's like a vacuum - the portal sucked up the magic and it blew up, so to speak. Except instead of an explosion it just ate all of us."
Illyana stared at her for a moment, then nodded; that was exactly the kind of thing Limbo would do to normal magic. "And when it blew up, it drained me to keep the portal stable. So at least we're all in one piece, I guess." There was a cheery thought: Losing an arm to a portal accident, and then zombies.
Warren had been leaning on the mouth of the cave, arms crossed, staring out into the landscape. He was vaguely listening to everyone while he wondered why he hadn't worn more comfortable shoes. This was not Masterchef -- he didn't need to look dressed to the nines while baking. Although, he had to admit, he always looked good no matter what the situation. In the future though, he'd make sure to keep running shoes available in the kitchen. Just in case. Or maybe just around Illyana who he swore he'd never seen before until that morning.
"One piece is true. That being said, if everything here is actively trying to kill us, it won't take long before we all die. Well. All of you die. I'm pro-cannibalism, so long as I don't go first, and before anyone asks no, I don't taste like chicken."
The cave echoed with Rahne's warning growl, making it louder than she had intended. "All birds taste the same," she grunted, showing off her teeth. It didn't matter that he was an adult - she had no patience for stupid jokes. Not when they were in Limbo and the implications of that certainly crowded her mind. But she could freak out about the religious aspects of this later, when they weren't hiding in a cave in yet another hellscape. "What now?" she asked the group, trying to figure out what they could possibly do and what on earth she had to do to get back to normal.
Amadeus was exposed. He was not reset, nothing had rest, and he knew from the way the others were looking at him that was open and gaping and definitely not normal. Everything could go so wrong unless he could pull himself together be who they wanted him to be, but the two halves had been neatly cleaved and he was missing those important pieces. His head throbbed from his old wound.
Fix this.
He fingered the knife he stole from Warren. "What now?" His voice was flat, devoid of it's usually intonation. "We survive."
He took in the pallor of Illyana's skin, her rapid breathing, the sweat that plastered her hair to her forehead. "How long until you have energy to jump again?"
She shook her head. "I don't know exactly," she said. "At least a week, maybe two. When I got out, away, it was - I don't remember exactly." She was beginning to think she hadn't exactly been in her right mind, those first few weeks on Earth, if her memory of them was that patchy. "We can't stay here that long. There's a, there's someone - he rules this place. Kind of a sorcerer. He can't see everything, but he'll hear about us if we're here long enough, and that would be - " Catastrophic. Apocalyptic. " - bad." She just had to think. She rubbed her face with the cuff of her hoodie, smearing dirt over the bridge of her nose.
"Okay okay okay." Miles held up his hands to pause for a second. "So you've been here before? When? How? You've gotta tell us the whole story because this is all just . . . Okay, we can figure a way out of here in less than two weeks if we know everything you know. I can't miss my stats final on Thursday."
"Demons and monsters," Gabriel said, clearly incredulous, "and you're thinking about college." He started patting his pockets, relieved to find a pack of cigarettes that he pulled out. He then looked at Illyana as he continued patting in hopes that his lighter had also made the trip. "A week or two. That how long were you here last time?"
Illyana's brow furrowed as she processed Gabriel's question, glancing between him and Miles as though trying to decide what to process first. "No," she said finally. "It was - seven years. I think. It's hard to know for sure. It's kind of a - " She was going to say, a long story, but it wasn't like they didn't have time. More like she'd only ever told Wanda even part of it, and it mostly sat, wordless, inside her head. She paused, mouth halfway open, clearly trying to figure out what to say next.
Oh. Oh my god. Rahne's eyes widened as her brain put two and two together. Seven years was a long time and 'Yana was her age, roughly - that was a little under half of her life. If she'd been human, she might have teared up but all she could manage was a soft whine. "This...ye grew up here," she said, forming the words carefully. "How? Yer..." Pausing she thought about what she'd seen, what she knew of Illyana, and said, "Yer nay from here. Nay demon. I know."
The low light couldn't disguise it; Illyana flinched, actually taking a short step back, before getting hold of herself. "Would you?" she asked, and was surprised to hear the wavering hysteria, so close to laughter, in her voice. She swallowed, hard, and dug her fingernails into the palm of her hand, just hard enough to sting. Her voice was flat and too even when she spoke again. "I was taken. When I was little. He needed a sacrifice for these rituals, so he could - I don't know. Call down the Elder Gods and become one and make Earth a living hell, I guess."
Rahne's growl was short but loud at Illyana's words as she felt a short burst of anger that almost sizzled in its intensity. "He took a wee baby to - sacrifice? Yer nay demon. I know ye. Best friend, annoying roommate sometimes, nay demon. This person is the demon." Needing to redirect her emotions somewhere, Rahne reached over and gently headbutted 'Yana in the shoulder. Hands with claws on the end of them didn't lend themselves to hugs but if headbutts worked for cats, then why not her?
"What he did to me, the ritual?" Illyana's face and voice were bleak; she dug at the collar of her hoodie and, with a clank of metal on metal, pulled out a pendant on a long chain. "It takes takes part of your soul and cuts it out and replaces it with - whatever demons are made of. Corruption or something." While she was speaking, she held up the pendant by the chain, so that the three stones inset into the points of an etched star flashed in the firelight, casting shadows on two empty slots. "But I was lucky. Nobody else ever survived the first time, and I made it through three."
Amadeus's eyes were drawn instantly to the pendant, eyes darting over them, calculations and notes being made at an inhuman speed inside of his brain. Notes that would be stored for... a later time. As for Illyana's story, he said nothing, but his skull ached in sympathy.
Miles stood in stunned silence as Illyana recounted her tale. Demons and monsters were one thing. Child abduction and torture and sacrifice took this up to eleven. Any ire he might have felt towards her for not being immediately forthright was instantly transferred to the thing that had abused her so. He fought back the urge to punch the cave wall in frustration.
Topaz took everything in silently, still hiding her face in her hands. She knew enough about Limbo to know what kind of hell it was, and what it would do to any of them to spend too much time there. That wasn't something she wanted to think about. "You said a week or two," she muttered into her hands, her brain turning over the information. Finally she looked up again. "Any way to speed that up? A power source or something?"
She wasn't trying to be heartless. She could only imagine what kind of hell this had all been for a child. But Illyana didn't need pity or anger. That was a waste of time. What she needed was to get the hell out of here as fast as possible.
Illyana focused on Topaz, grateful to change the topic; she was embarrassed. "It's just - finding something safe." She rubbed her face again, resmudging her nose; but then her head snapped up. "There's a place," she said, uncertainly. "It's - I don't think it's too far from here. Maybe a couple of days. It belonged to someone good. I think it might still have enough power to get us home."
"You think." Warren was getting increasingly annoyed by this whole situation. Some random pipsqueak who he had no connection to had transported him across time, space, religion, whatever to a literal hell dimension. He had a business to run, a life to lead. Turning around, he addressed the crowd, much like a politician would. "I'm an important person. I can't be gone for too long, my empire will crumble and I have no desire to be poor for the rest of my life. Do any of you realize how much I am responsible for in a day? This is ridiculous." He huffed again. "This whole experience has impacted my life in a very negative way. I don't even want to think about the mess I'll have to fix when I get back."
Topaz turned her glare to Warren, gaze ice cold. She shifted through her memories, trying to find a moment of pure, blood-chilling terror that she could use for a reference. She finally settled on the moment she had watched a zombie claw its way out of her mother's grave, and pushed her way easily into Warren's head, writing over any annoyance he felt with that terror. "Sit the fuck down, wing boy," she said stonily. "No one gives a shite."
A shudder entered Warren's body, filling his stomach with revulsion. He gagged slightly, and shook his head. The situation was getting so horrific, his body was turning against him...or maybe it was being around everyone in the room. With the exception of Miles, he disliked/had no opinion on everyone there, and clearly it was getting to him. Without a word, he stalked off inside the cave. There were lots of little side caves to explore, and with his eyesight, he didn't need the light. He just needed to get away.
Gabriel, true to form, ignored Warren's bullshit. "I'm sorry to put you on the spot," he addressed Illyana, and it was as sincere as he'd been since they'd arrived. "But any details about the dangers here would be good. We need to be prepared. Can't get caught off-guard by that zombie attack."
Amadeus ignored Warren as well. Their survival did not depend on the man throwing a temper tantrum, and if he did not pull himself together, Amadeus would be more than willing to make sure he did not get in the way. "Anything you can remember, no detail is too small. It can mean the difference between us living and dying." If it was meant to be reassuring, it definitely was not.
Unimpressed by Warren's appeal to her nonexistent understanding of schedules, deadlines, business, or adult life in general, Illyana didn't even notice him leave, focused instead on Gabriel and Amadeus. "I mean. Demons. Usually - it might not be too bad right now, but there are always demons around. I've never seen the zombies before, so I don't know if they're new or just bad luck. And we'll have to get across some ruins and stuff, which is usually where there are nests."
"Is this place safe to stay the night?" asked Miles. "We should get some rest. Maybe sleep in shifts, have some people on watch duty. Figure out an escape route in case there's more monsters. My spider-sense is less than helpful here, I can't keep track of it all. Oh, and stay close together. Wandering off alone is the number-one cause of death. Where did Warren go, anyway?"
Rahne wanted to not care because Warren was a stupid person who shouldn't have the right to be a functional adult but she wasn't that keen on someone wandering off and being eaten by ... whatever was actually out there. She pulled away from the group for a moment and breathed deep, eyes half closed as she concentrated on Warren's scent. "Close," she announced after a moment. "Stupid rich boy not far. Can get if needed." From the baring of her teeth, it was clear that Rahne really did not want to get him.
Topaz rolled her eyes at Warren's temper tantrum and scoot back to lean against the wall, making herself comfortable. It was going to be a long night with this lot.
“Shifts are a good idea,” Gabriel said with a nod. He wasn’t sure how effective anybody here would be. The group was getting too emotional. Too heated. It made him feel he had to be placid or stoic, which was so not his vibe. Especially given Illyana’s revelation. “And let’s try to map out a plan. Best as we can be prepared for the next thing.”
"I don't need to sleep," said Amadeus. "If everyone wants, I can just keep watch."
"I can cast wards," Topaz said, ignoring the twinge in the back of her head. She was going to burn out fast. "Probably a mile or so out? At least give us some warning before something tries to kill us."
Miles nodded. "Good idea, anything that gives us an edge. Still, shifts." He glanced at Amadeus. "Two pairs of eyes better than one. We've all trained for stuff like this. I mean, not being stuck in Limbo, but, you know, survival. We got this."
