Closed | A Dying Light

[notathreat]

WHO: Ellie, Viktor
WHAT: An old signal tower is in need of repair.
WHEN: Early Harvestmere
WHERE: North of Hercinia
NOTES: Simple task not as simple as advertised.

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[notathreat]

Ellie's vision swims, tears from the too-bright light. She sweeps them off with her forearm, waves back with her own glimmering anchor, and just breathes.

As if on cue, they sew the hole in the world up together, drawing it inch by intense inch. The arc of light twists between the two of them with the Rift in the center, and unlike before when it had burst back apart with the force that had stunned all those demons, it feels like they're getting somewhere. Like it's not fighting them the way it had before.

The corpses around them dissolve into light, flow back into the Rift and disappear, leaving nothing but dark stains -- and Ellie shuts her eyes to shield them from the light as the Rift explodes like a firework, light winking out to leave nothing but the smell of scorched air behind.

Catching her breath, Ellie crosses the room, pauses briefly at the mark on the floor where the anchor was. She'd normally collect the residue, but maybe Viktor wants to see it for science reasons. Instead she crosses to him, holding out her hand to help him up.

"... shit," she says shakily. "Good one."

[grindset]

When the rift bursts, Viktor is memorizing figures to record in graphite—not easy in such low light, but he manages, cupping his fingers against the page to direct the glow of his numbed and tingling palm as he writes. All the numbers are down by the time Ellie nears him on the stairs. There'll be more to gather soon enough—as Ellie correctly guesses, he will want to examine the residue where it lies.

His hand shakes, too, until it's clasped tight. It takes great effort to rise, and two tries, the first a false start. Once on his feet—and, he hopes, without drawing attention to how promptly he does it—he finds the tower wall for support. It'll take him a moment to get himself situated, satchel and unfamiliar crutch and all.

"That was... a lot." Speaking softly, because it's very dark, and so quiet after the rising, shredding howl of the rift. "Are you OK?"

She seems it, obviously she can handle herself and then some, but—

[notathreat]

Ellie pats his shoulder; normally it'd be more of a clap, but she doesn't want to send him falling over.

"Almost shit myself when the Rift exploded and stunned them," she confirms, a little shaky as she looks back on the room, then reaches out to offer her arm to help him down the last few steps. She's utilitarian as she does it, in the unthinking way of someone very used to supporting someone else.

It takes a second for her to place the familiarity, and her heart sinks a little as it lands on Tommy. Fuck.

"What about you?"

[grindset]

The offer is met with a wave, subdued to the politest nonverbal refusal he can offer. He's got it, or has at least decided he's got it, and that dovetails nicely into,

"I'm fine."

He isn't, really—not even in secret, he looks absolutely and overtly terrible at this point—but what else is new? They're both still in possession of their requisite pieces, capable of moving around and reasoning, and thus they still have a job to do.

"Research says the likelihood of a sealed rift re-opening in the same spot is low." He says this as he reaches the bottom of the stairs, gets both feet on the level stone with visible relief, and allows himself barely a moment to feel it before moving on. "So we should be good to leave it overnight."

Please, he means, let's not sleep in the tower.

[notathreat]

Ellie closes her eyes for longer than a blink but lets him. It was easier to ignore when they were closer to strangers than people who have had to rely on each other for safety and support.

Fuck it, though. It's none of her business if Viktor wants to waste his energy on stairs.

It's not the time to bring it up.

So Ellie turns to follow him, heading to the center of the room and past the residue left there to kneel down next to it, open up her pack.

"Yeah," she mutters. "This place gives me the creeps."

She hitches her bow across her shoulder to avoid knocking it on the ground, then ends up staring at it. The fade-crystal that's been worked into the sides of the bow's body are glowing faintly, like it's reacting to the sister-material left behind by the Rift.

"... oh shit," she mumbles, running her thumb along it. "That's cool."