Lionhearts ||Skephalo||

57

Assu rests her hand on the stone near Bad's body. She studies the runes that encircle him, and then glances to Morou.

"You're sure you understand them?" She asks, and Morou nods.

"All you need to do is focus hard, Az. You're not a mage and you've never trained to be one, I just need you to lend your energy to me so I can conduct the necessary mana to keep the seals intact for the moment." Assu's arm aches where the bolt had been. Lum removed it and bandaged up the injury neatly.

She reluctantly relaxes her guard, hearing the clinking of the shingle-like tiles of the chapel clicking distantly under other piglin's hooves. Morou takes her hand, and links the rest of the limited amount of mages and...mage adjacent, piglin, that were available. They focus, bringing the mana through the circle and then forcing it out, into the runes, crudely reinforcing the magical glyphs with additional ones.

They wipe off their brow, and glance around to the other piglin.

"It's kind of crude, but it's all I can do for now," they shrug, and there's nods and murmurs of unease all around. Assu stares at the body as Morou begins to direct the others who had assisted, sending them to varying areas of the chapel to prepare for certain things. She feels their hand on her shoulder before she comes back into her surroundings. "Assu? You aren't like, hurt, right?"

"No, I'm rather alright," she dismisses, "I just...I have doubts and stuff, Ru. Like...what if it doesn't hold? What if Phil doesn't know how to seal? What if he gets mad at me for disobeying and taking Bad out of there? And...what if that thing that did this to him gets loose?" Morou studies her downcast expression, and brushes her wayward tufts of fine fur out of her eyes.

"We can only hope, Az," they remind her, "We cast our lot with this boy, and to be fair to your decision on our behalf, it's not like we had much choice. You and I both saw the rifts his magic was causing— if we had let it go further, the whole Nether could've been endangered. Had we left him in his cell, the seal would've broken, and unleashed only who knows what— or they would've killed him in his state, whatever it is."

"Suspended animation?" Assu mutters, "Comatose? I dunno. But...I guess I'm a little scared."

Morou blinks at her, and their gaze softens with a gentle affection. Assu is no military trained leader, they remind themselves. She's just a girl in a situation where she took a leadership role for the good of those she cared for. That went well, a bitter little voice pipes up as they recall Stolfas's fate. Ignoring that, they pat her head gently, causing her to flinch rhythmically with each pat.

"Hey, it's okay to be scared. You aren't trained to be a big bad powerful sow who knows how to make all the right sacrifices and shit without blinking at all. You just gotta remember that we're doing our best, and if that's not enough, we died at our best!" Their optimistic morbidity draws a weak chortle from Assu, and she turns with them, seeing Lum wandering down the stairs.

"I'll keep watch in here, I guess," he says, uncertainly, and Morou nods gratefully.

"If that body moves an inch scream like you're being shot up by a Ghast," they teasingly tell him, and he nods solemnly.

"I've never been shot at by Ghasts but I'll do my very best to imitate them. When he moves." He blinks at them with a smile, gold eyes batting languidly as he rests his hand on the hilt of his sword.

"If." Morou says, a bit of alarm in their tone. "If he moves. Not when, don't jinx us."

They take Assu's hand, and begin leading her down a hall, chatting softly about the library they'd been exploring before she arrived.