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Shrike's Heart (#1)
The woman before you is beautiful—fair of features, with lovely golden skin and luxurious long black hair, petite. You have the immediate and distinct impression that she's just let go of your hand, and she steps back, and smiles.
It's not quite a happy smile.
"I'm sorry," she says. "There's just nothing I can do, as things are. But the way is there; it just needs to be lit."
You open your mouth—maybe to say something, or to express confusion—but you have to cough, and taste something metallic, spattering black blood onto the ground in front of you. Then you realize—blood seeps from opening wounds in your arms, your chest, your stomach, your face. It rims your eyes and trails from your nose and you feel like you're dissolving—
—and you fall through the ground like it's the surface of a lake, and go down, down, down.
> Wake Up
It's not quite a happy smile.
"I'm sorry," she says. "There's just nothing I can do, as things are. But the way is there; it just needs to be lit."
You open your mouth—maybe to say something, or to express confusion—but you have to cough, and taste something metallic, spattering black blood onto the ground in front of you. Then you realize—blood seeps from opening wounds in your arms, your chest, your stomach, your face. It rims your eyes and trails from your nose and you feel like you're dissolving—
—and you fall through the ground like it's the surface of a lake, and go down, down, down.
> Wake Up
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[he holds out his hands for the boy.
the knife is held in his jacket.]
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How is your stamina? Can you do first aid? There is no need for us both to carry the boy, one of us ought to look after the man.
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and shakes his head slowly.]
Take the kid.
[he doesn't think this guy's gonna make it.]
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[ he nods curtly and then goes to take the boy ]
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and then he looks at the man.]
You're not gonna make it half a day.
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If I don't... maybe I won't.
[ he at least manages to wipe the trickle of blood from his mouth. ]
What if... he... what if he wants to see me, when he wakes up. Don't know where Mother is. Have to... try.
Wasn't it your... your people, who did this.
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Y'know. Maybe.
[and then, he takes his knife...
and stabs him in the heart.]
You're more likely to see your mother and brother this way, though, than trying to make it half a day's walk.
[that he's reasonably sure they won't make either.]
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And then his eyes dull, and he goes slack. ]
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IT'S FINE.
Anyway, he's gonna catch him. if the name of the game is being respectful to the dead, he's gonna bury him close to his brother, wherever shu took him.]
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You feel so fine you get a +1 willpower from taking the voices' advice.
Anyway, you go to follow. ]
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What.... why... We were going to fix him......
[ no they weren't but SHE WAS GONNA TRY
HOW COULD YOU DO THIS ]
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Can't save everyone, kid. And a death to that kind of wound isn't any kinder than torture. Come on.
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and also freaking the fuck out ]
He killed him.... he really.... he....
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[jay is a realist about him]
All you were gonna do is ask him to suffer to satisfy yourself.
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He asked for help! You didn't even try to help him first! The person who wanted to satisfy themself--was you!
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out of the reed bed you go? ]
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The boy should get to lay in the soil of his hometown, rather than getting forgotten or left victim to the looting that might happen following the battle. Shu is going to head into the ruined town to find a place to lay him to rest ]
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The small town isn't far away—maybe better called a village. It's clearly seen a bit of a hardscrabble existence, which has just now more or less come to an end. The thatch roofs of most of the buildings are on fire, and a few civilian corpses lie in the main thoroughfare, disregarded.
There are a handful of buildings not on fire, but that's not likely to last long. Somewhere on the other side of the main road, there's the remnants of farming fields. ]
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To the fields. The ground is less likely to be hard, and maybe something can grow from this in the future. ]
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and he's gonna join you in burying him with his brother.]
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Shu turns at him ]
What— happened to him!?
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Even if bile burns at the back of his throat, this uncomfortably reminiscent of something he will not allow himself to ever forget ]
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after a while, someone joins you. ]
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