If Ness were not so terrified of raw lyrium's mutative effects on Rifters, she'd be absolutely fascinated by the situation they all find themselves in. Lyrium veins that behave like veins, pulsing as if alive, vibrant and vital—she'd be pressed right up to them, rambling a mile a minute about what they are, what this means, searching out Viktor and Jayce to ask their thoughts, lamenting her lack of writing implements for note-taking...

But Sarrux looms too large a specter in her mind. Her skin still itches with phantom mutations and her dreams still turn to nightmares too often for her to get too close to the cavern walls now. She stays in the middle of the group as they travel down the cavern, positioned as far from the veins on either side of the cavern walls as she can get—which is not far enough for her comfort. With every step they take further into the dark she becomes more certain she can feel herself Changing: her skin itches, her eyes twitch, her hands ache.

Ness digs a knuckle into her eye, hard, rubbing at the socket and wincing when it hurts. Spots dance in front of her eye so bad she can barely see, so it's no surprise when she bumps directly into the back of whoever was walking in front of her, though she can't quite tell who it is through the spots.

"Pardon me, um, Scoutmaster," she guesses, reaching out to steady both herself and her unfortunate victim.