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Snippet #2668051

located in Sanctum City, a part of Gatewatchers, one of the many universes on RPG.

Sanctum City

None

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Selena Stone Character Portrait: Cedric Valentine
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"Sele...Selena I-"

Cedric's voice annoyingly broke through the peaceful silence Selena had been enjoying.

Silence?

Her eyes shot open, and she glanced around. In an instant, her mind returned to reality.

How long?

Wincing at the pain, Selena rolled onto her stomach and forced herself up off the concrete. Resting on her knees, she surveyed the destruction. Much of the building was in shambles, along with the parking garage they had exited through. Several feet away, Cedric lay in a bloody heap. Selena could still feel his pulse but he was unconscious and losing a lot of blood.

"So much for asking nicely." Selena let loose a heavy sigh as she forced her exhausted body to it's feet. She didn't have the strength in her to save Cedric without invoking the nameless energy of the void beyond the gateways. Looking at the bloody body next to her, she weighed her options. No one would question her if she said he was already dead, and few would miss him. Selena turned away from him and took a single, pained step away before stopping. A memory flashed across her vision, of the corpses of her family in pieces surrounding her. The shock of it dropped her to her knees, and she let out a scream, though her weakness cut it short in a fit of coughing. "I know the cost. I don't need to be taunted."

Selena sighed and shook her head, and began muttering in an unearthly language. She reached to the ground and retrieved a shard of glass. Carefully, she let the sharp edge sink into her left wrist, letting free a stream of blood to trickle down her arm. Then, after dabbing her right index finger in her pooling blood, she began drawing a pattern on her left palm. The pattern. The same one formed by the mutilated bodies of her family fifteen years prior. The moment she finished, the blood on her hand ignited, searing the pattern into her flesh. Unnatural pain, beyond that of the searing blood, wracked her body. An overwhelming feeling of dread came over her like a thick blanket of snow over a forest. She felt the twisted energy scratch at the inside of her skin, a nail-on-chalkboard like sensation that ate away her her from the inside. She could feel it inside her chest and behind her eyes. It ceased being pain. It was no longer fear. It was simply wrong.

The gateway she had closed earlier sparked and crackled to life, and Selena raised her left hand so that the pattern burnt into her skin faced the reopened gateway. A beam of energy, originating at neither her hand nor the gateway, or perhaps at both, twitched into existence. It was the color of a last desperate breath, of extinguished hope. Looking at it hurt. It wasn't supposed to be witnessed by any living being. Selena struggled to remain conscious as the alien light illuminated the streets, yet somehow leaving them darker. Though it lasted perhaps thirty seconds, it felt as if she had been there for days. When it finally sputtered out of existence with a disturbing click, Selena fell to her knees. The gateway closed once more, it's energy stolen, and Selena brimmed with power. It ached inside of her, like her very core had been wrung by a thousand giant hands. In the back of her mind, she could still feel their clammy embrace. She shuddered, and rose to her feet.

"You owe me." Selena's voice was tired, but it echoed with magic, somehow creeping it's way into every nook and cranny before withering into the wind, despite her whispering tone. She knelt beside Cedric and passed her left hand over him, allowing her blood to drip onto his wounds. Her mana, reinforced by the eldritch mana she had stolen, crawled into Cedric's blood, latching onto the cells in his body like a million tiny parasites. She had no doubt that it hurt, even in unconsciousness, and knowing the sort of unnatural pain that came with eldritch magic all to well, she felt an inkling of pity for him. That was an experience she wished on only very few, and certainly not Cedric. Although the man that had done this was well on his way to getting on that list. At her command, his body twisted as the bones were forced back into position. Flesh knitted itself together, while the blood Selena had let fall on Cedric formed new flesh to replace what was lost, closing the hole in his side. Reaching out through the blood, Selena felt Cedric's pulse, weak but still there, and let out a sigh of either disgust or relief. Selena herself didn't know which.

Alone with only unconscious Cedric, Selena found it unnerving that she sensed another presence. No pulse, but then again, she didn't expect it to have one. It was here, but it really wasn't. She could feel it, like a chill at the base of her spine. It was taunting her. She knew the cost.