Cetnaru spasmed in Dryda's arms, and the circle around them shrunk. "You're going to be okay," she whispered, heart thumping in her chest.
Somewhere, people screamed. Dryda couldn't see, hidden in this cove of metallic barriers. Kwayo had gone out first, then Ana and Teremki.
Their pain echoed inside her skull. She flicked off her connection between them, muting the dissonance. Would the billowing ribbons take her next, or Verspri?
"It's...not listening," Cetnaru gasped, his body shifting between toddler-aged and nearly ten. "It's furious. It wants to dance, but she's stronger this time. She's not alone anymore."
Dryda bit her lip, her periphery looming with the shrinking circle. "Will this set you free of it?"
"Run," he whispered. "I--I?--was able to make a portal over..." he lifted a hand, pointing weakly. His eyes rolled back into his head, body going limp, and the billowing waves crashed towards them.
Dryda jumped, body turned woody, mind braced for the impact. Her shoes hit the ground.
Nothing happened.
Wait, that wasn't true. The chaos circled about her, a seeping undertow tugging at her awareness. Yet, she could hold it at bay. For a little.
Dryda sprinted, Cetnaru's body flopping in her arms. He had passed out somewhere around seven years old, and she gritted her teeth at his limp weight. Cloth ribbons coiled up and struck for her bare legs, but she dodged them and kept running. The ribbons tugged at her shoes, pierced through her socks, the pain making her vision blurry. It hurt. It wanted to suck her into the screaming dissonance. But she could swim through the hurt. She'd done it before, hadn't she?
I can do it again, she shouted. She glimpsed the portal, barely as tall as her, a golden circle pressed against the wall. It tilted in her vision, spiraling like an eddy of deep water. I can do it again, she repeated, every barrier in her mind crawling into place. This was less like a light switch, flicking off a connection to another's thoughts, and more like a brake. A brake squealing in protest, a train barrelling towards a cliff, the brakes wouldn't stop the train of agony lurching towards her, she yanked harder on the brakes crawling into place to block out the pain--
She stumbled forward, thumping to her knees. Dust billowed around her, and she sunk to her back, Cetnaru clutched in her arms. "Don't make me do that again," she breathed, limbs shaking.
"Dryda? Is that...you?"
She tilted her head behind her. The sun reflected off shimmery rocks. Where had Ella come from? Where had...her head pounded. "It's me," she coughed.
***
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Verspri pushed the others' thoughts away, blinking through the pain.
"Does someone want to explain why Kwayo just dove into the smoky ghost thing?" Tamy asked. "Or was that our plan, too?"
