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[ENTER THE PALACE]
[You find yourself with a sensation like floating in water.]
[Above, the sky is dark. You can occasionally see things shifting, like gusts of wind, or perhaps waves of water. Is it…even a sky above you? Or is it some kind of giant ocean? Whatever it is, you can’t make it out very well. All around you, you appear to be floating in what appears to be water. It looks like a great, wide ocean of…space in every direction around you, with stars and lights twinkling in the distance. It looks like water and feels like water, but it doesn’t make you wet. You can reach your hand into it and pull some out, the purple and violet water and the tiny points of light inside it will even rest in your hands if you cup them to carry it, but once you’re not trying to hold it anymore, it’ll flow off of you, not a single drop remaining behind. You feel something similar if you go underneath the surface. The “water” doesn’t touch your eyes, mouth or nose when give the chance, it merely drifts around you, allowing you to breathe and see unabated. And you can see for a great distance, the twinkling stars illuminating the ocean of space all around you. Though perhaps less dark and empty, it feels every bit as vast as the sky above. You feel like you could swim forever and never reach the edge.]
[It’s quiet, here, with little noise around you but the starry ocean’s waves crashing back into its surface. It’s peaceful. In another situation, it might even be comfortable.]
[Above, the sky is dark. You can occasionally see things shifting, like gusts of wind, or perhaps waves of water. Is it…even a sky above you? Or is it some kind of giant ocean? Whatever it is, you can’t make it out very well. All around you, you appear to be floating in what appears to be water. It looks like a great, wide ocean of…space in every direction around you, with stars and lights twinkling in the distance. It looks like water and feels like water, but it doesn’t make you wet. You can reach your hand into it and pull some out, the purple and violet water and the tiny points of light inside it will even rest in your hands if you cup them to carry it, but once you’re not trying to hold it anymore, it’ll flow off of you, not a single drop remaining behind. You feel something similar if you go underneath the surface. The “water” doesn’t touch your eyes, mouth or nose when give the chance, it merely drifts around you, allowing you to breathe and see unabated. And you can see for a great distance, the twinkling stars illuminating the ocean of space all around you. Though perhaps less dark and empty, it feels every bit as vast as the sky above. You feel like you could swim forever and never reach the edge.]
[It’s quiet, here, with little noise around you but the starry ocean’s waves crashing back into its surface. It’s peaceful. In another situation, it might even be comfortable.]
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she doesn't stop casting, but she slows... hesitation. her gaze slides past to the hole in the wall. does it lead deeper? ]
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[But this person is in between you and the hole.]
Come on, come on, I don't have all day, I've got destroying to get back to. Come on! I'm giving you to the count of three to do something before I do it myself!
One!
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she already knows the answer to that. so. she stops casting, but only for an instant. ]
Two.
[ and, instead of doing literally anything to this woman, she Thundersteps ninety fucking feet through that hole.
or, i mean. she tries to. sorry Jeff. ]
/2
[She reaches out and tries to catch Sprezzatura as she passes her and that blade almost catches Sprezzatura on her way past, before a thunderous BOOM from the spot she just vacated rocks the immediate area, knocking her aim off just enough for Sprezzatura to get past her, into the hole and into the starry water, where she can start to swim away....]
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[The woman spins on her heel, plants her feet, draws her arm back and HEAVES the glaive at Sprezzatura's back as she escapes, aiming right between her shoulder blades.]
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but.
she doesn't know how to dodge underwater. ]
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That was a cute little trick you pulled. But just like the rest of them...
You're going to end up just like her.
[She pulls the glaive out of Sprezzatura's back and lets her drift away, carried by the flow of the water.]
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the starry ocean pulses, pinpricks of light coalescing and blurring across Sprezzatura's as she floats.
that fast. that fast. you fucking joke. ]
/?
[Before unconsciousness completely takes her, she can hear a voice, very faintly.]
Oh, good lord, she really did a number on you, huh.
[And she can see two glowing points of yellow above her.]
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[…]
[…]
[…]
[CH-THUNK]
[You feel a jolt run through your entire body, jarring you awake and making you take in a sudden, deep breath and sit up straight. Immediately followed by falling back down. You once again feel like you’re floating in water.]
done
[Your vision is blurry, but gradually returning to you. If you have glasses, they’re being held out to you. One way or the other, your vision clears up and you can see a woman standing above you, arms crossed, glaring down at you…]
[With a pair of glowing yellow eyes.]
Don’t force yourself to get up too quickly. Your body is still recovering.
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Miss... Nessa?
[ no. the golden eyes. shadow. ]
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That's my name, don't wear it out.
[She doesn't seem to have picked up that Sprezzatura has noticed anything is...off.]
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...
[ turns her gaze back towards the ceiling. only semi-conscious, she forms a fist ]
White-haired woman.
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Well, you missed this part, but, let's just say you and I have something in common, now.
She got the drop on the others while they were viewing that memory. I hoped since you snuck around it, you might have a better chance, but it went just about as badly as I thought it would anyway. Don't feel too bad about it. She's basically invincible right now.
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She killed them—?!
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[A burst of fresh soreness shoots through Sprezzatura's chest as she tries to list herself up.]
Ah. Be careful. Like I said, you're still recovering. It's going to take a bit more time for it to fully sync up with your body.
['Sync up'?]
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[ one hand goes to her chest, pressing hard on her sternum. what on Toril... ]
What are you...
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[She’s pointing at your chest. Whatever you were wearing has been pulled open or outright discarded (well, neatly folded and placed a short distance away). There’s no wound on your chest, but where you were attacked…
…there’s now a small glass sphere, embedded in your chest. Looking at the stars twinkling inside it, it may be a familiar sight to you, but…the one you saw before, in the memory, was purple. This one is a faded white-gray color.]
I have to admit, it was a bit of a rush job, but, well. You were bleeding all over the place, so I skipped the heated seats and the seatbelt covers.
/2
kneejerk, a crawling kind of horror. a feeling of invasion. her body—her body, unmarred by all but the most inevitable of scarring, her body, the one thing she could always control—
in Wei Wuxian's palace, it had been different, with those marks. this is physical, a real, inorganic thing pushed halfway into her. she goes to touch it, touches only close to it, instead, and feels revulsion shiver through her. ]
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What is this.
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[She lets out a small breath.]
It's called the Voidheart. It's a piece of magic that acts as a conduit between the Void and reality. The real one is, anyway. I made a facsimile of it to stabilize you. Normally, the real thing is...
[And she pulls down her collar, revealing, approximately the same place the glass bubble has been placed in Sprezzatura's chest....just a hole.]
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surges up and grabs her, half to keep herself from going down again. ]
Why did you give it to me?
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The one inside you is a copy I made to stabilize you. The real one...
Well, I guess that dovetails into why you're here.
The real thing is this palace's Treasure. And it's hidden somewhere in here. And as you can see, things aren't going too well with it unaccounted for and her running around.
[She gestures at the state of the courtyard. It is badly damaged, to say the least. Pictures and statues are torn or destroyed, the floor, walls and ceiling all have chunks missing, scorch marks, blade marks…it looks like a tornado and a bomb got into a fight in here.]
[Not that the emphasis was necessary since Sprezzatura already saw Esmau blow a hole in a wall once.]
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/2
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