Phantom knew that Sister Imperator would eventually have his training be put to use, but he never could have prepared himself to walk in on his Papa convulsing on the floor with Sister standing over him with crossed arms and an unimpressed face. Aether, his mentor and friend, walked in behind him and stumbled as he came upon the same sight Phantom had before.
"What..." His voice barely could be heard, his face becoming an ashen gray as he registers the sight. "Papa?! What did you do to him?"
He screams as he falls to his knees next to the seizing human and reaches for him. Sister raises her foot and kicks away his hands.
"This isn't your problem, Aether. Step away or I will force you away." For the first time, Aether looks up at her with fear in his eyes, knowing exactly how she holds the lives of everyone in the room in her hands. He scrambles away and presses himself against the wall, biting at his claws which tore at the inside of his cheek and tongue.
Phantom sobs as she finally looks over to him, raising one crooked finger to beckon him over. He walks over on shaking legs and stares at her with teary eyes. She raises her eyebrows and gestures towards Copia.
"I don't- what do I do? I've never-" He sobs, scrubbing at the tears that ran down his face. He falls to his knees and presses his hands down onto his Papa's chest, like Aether taught him.
"Feel for his-"
"No. You do not get to help him, Aether. You insisted your brother had to be summoned and I did what you asked! Now, it is his turn to prove himself or back to the pits he goes." Sister sneers at him. "Phantom, the poison I have administered to him kills within 5 minutes and your stroll here took two. So, do the math and heal him before he dies."
"He's your son! How could you do this to your own child?!" Phantom sobs, pressing his face down into his Papa's chest as he starts to push his quintessence into Copia to feel around his body for the root of the poison. He gasps as he finds it and his eyebrows furrow as he pushes harder to wrap his magik around the root. Copia convulses again and Phantom's quintessence is knocked back by the force of his Papa's own life force spasming. "I can't do it!"
Aether sobs into his palm, his fingers bloodied from his tongue and mouth. He starts rocking back and forth against the wall, whispering quiet pleas.
"You must do it, ghoul! My son will not die from your incompetence!"
Phantom screams and presses harder, his shoulders shaking as he exerts himself, his fingers starting to dig into his Papa's chest as he applies as much physical and quintessential pressure as he possibly could. He shivers as his quintessence pushes through Copia's body again, this time quicker since he already knows where the root of the poison is. He forces his essence to wrap around the damaged life force from the poison and he sinks into it, flooding it and pushing out the poison.
He screams, loud and gutturally, as pain floods his body. He throws his head back and screams through his teeth as Copia finally stills and takes a gasping breath. Phantom falls back away from his Papa and curls into himself on the floor, as pain radiates throughout his body, despite him not actually having been poisoned.
"Good." Sister Imperator nods and walks past him to the door, opening it to let in two burly ghouls to lift Copia by his shoulders and legs and bring him out of the room, with Sister following close behind and abandoning the panicked quintessence ghouls.
~
these are gonna be pretty short ngl
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