"" Mirais lets out an inhuman shriek. Her jaw opens way more than the one of a normal human would, revealing a row of sharp, jagged teeth, and swirling words in Abyssal can be seen on her skin, spiraling from the clothes beneath. "" the qlippoth-spawn screams, her face contorted in pure anger.
Clutching her injured arm, Mirais sends a wave of healing energy into it.
You heal yourself, but the pain is still there. Worse even...
Regin recoils at the sound. None should scream line that. No one's mouth should do that! Demon! Well, demon spawn. Still, she had helped him (book says). He should return the favor. He casts a spell and Mirais's arm becomes coated in a slippery, greasy substance.
"Oh what the hells!" Frekhi says recoiling himself. "Are you alright? What was in there?"
"aaaaaah..." Mirais screams again when the spell just hurts her more instead of knitting the wound. Sweating, she covers her neck with the still usable hand as she breaths raggedly, silent for a long moment. "Please...please, there should be a spare mantle in my backpack. Could you...could you rip a piece of it and give it to me, please?" the qlippoth-spawn asks the others, trying as hard as she can to retake a more human countenance.
"A...a metal thing planted itself in my hand. Healing it only made things worse."
"Yea, sure thing." Frekhi will follow instructions, grabbing the spare cloth from the other tiefling's backpack, tearing it with his claws before handing it to Mirais.
Regin's gut screams at him to stop even as he goes to the Thing's aid. He readies a spell of slickness in case it's needed.
"Ah...thanks." Mirais takes the cloth Frekhi gives her: even if still twisted by the pain, her expression has somewhat smoothed, turning back to normal.
While she tries to patch her hand, the qlippoth-spawn glances at the painting, and her eyes grow wide.
Oh, by Shelyn's-
"Antelopes chasing a wolf." the tiefling points to the painting "It should be the reverse. The healing spell should have patched me up, instead it harmed me further." she pauses for a moment, letting the thought sink in. "It's best if we don't use magic in this room. As soon as I manage to move this hand, we see what's behind that door, and we can heal outside of here."
"Good idea. Let's get out of here."
From his safe position at the doorway of the room, Quentin watches in apprehension as everyone else enters and begins poking around and examining things. When Mirais discovers a hole in the floor, his curiosity is aroused. This quickly becomes horror when he sees the mess it makes of the Motherless' hand. As he listens to the others and notes the backwards painting, an idea strikes him. "Wait! This may not work, but does anyone know any harmful spells? If magic operates in reverse here, the damage may be converted to healing energy."
"I'd...prefer if you didn't try that. An hand in applying this bandage would be appreciated, tough."
Looking on at Mirais pain, blood and screams, she reacts to neither even as she looks directly on.
Confused by the events, Bebaushie stays still, alert for danger.
A confused expression covers her face as strange and new ideas are presented to her.
They, they are helping her...why are they doing that? Is this what people do? She..she isn't threatening them, or begging, she didn't make a trade? That...that's weird...and...wonderful? Are people all like this?
Mirais, pretty red head, you should stay behind me...it is safer, I think, for you.
Mirais grimaces a little after she finishes bandaging her hand, trying to open it a couple of times.
"O-oh. Thanks." Mirais replies weakly to Bebaushie, looking at her. "But I think I should be just right by you. I can hit things easier if that's the case. I'd be grateful if you could open doors instead of me, tough." the qlippoth-spawn smiles weakly, looking at her feet, before raising herself from the ground.
"Everyone ready? Want to see what's behind that door?"
The blood spilled all over the place drove pins and needle of excitement into Bebaushie's body.
The smell of blood bringing a hot flush to her cheeks and a quickness to her breath.
Carefully and as gently as she was able, she lifts Mirais's injured hand to look at it.
That looks bad, you don't look to be in good shape.
Kill her, she is weak, own her, make her yours, she is soft, SOFT,SOFT, take HER AND HER LIFE...NO. I AM NOT MOTHER, I AM A GOOD GIRL!!
You...really, should stay back some. I can take a beating, more than you right now, trust me, I can handle I lot. It's what I do.
Mother always told me I wasn't her favorite child, just her hardest to kill...
She opens the door after everyone is prepared or she is told to do so.
What...what the hell is she doing?! I-I mean, I'm not talking about being worried about me, I kind of like that, but the way she just-
Mirais instinctively recoils at Bebaushie's reaction, partly because she knew that seeing blood didn't usually have that effect on people, and partly because a part of her body was protesting at being touched by a demon-spawn: nonetheless, the tiefling allows Bebaushie to examine her hand.
The qlippoth-spawn repulsion quickly fades at Bebaushie's comment. "That' terrible..." the tiefling manages to say with incredulity as she prepares for whatever was behind the door.
How could a mother say that to her own child?
Before anyone truly notices what is going on, Bebaushie walks into the room. A second later, you all hear a snap. If anyone investigates, it seems she has hung herself, her neck broken.
You wake up from your slumber to find yourself in a room full of other people sleeping. They seem out for the count, breathing slowly and shallowly. The room around you is lit by several lanterns hung on the walls, making the shadows in the room dance to a tune you cannot hear.
For a moment, Mirais completely freezes in place.
After a long moment, completely in a daze, she detects magic, she looks around her feet, at the door, and at the small room, before wobbling into the room where Bebaushie is.
"Must...must be another one of those tricks. Bebaushie? Are you here?" the tiefling asks around the room, even if her broken voice was already betraying what she was really thinking.
Not like this...
Moving to the other tiefling body, she takes it into her arms and start examining it. As she notices Bebaushie's broken neck, Mirais feels something warm on her hand. Moving it to her eyes, Mirais notices tears start streaming down her face.
"Oh..."
Wh-why am I crying? It's not like I knew her-NONONO. I can't think that!
"Aaaaaah..."
No, it's not even that I can't think that, it's that I don't think that. She...she was my friend, a-and maybe...
Mirais starts to sob as she draws Bebaushie's corpse closer to her.
We didn't I was the one to open that door? I can't do anything with this hand like this anyway. If only I hadn't been a stupid, damn, idiot and hadn't stuck it in there we she wouldn't have...maybe we would have...
The qlippoth-spawn sobs grow louder and louder as her tears fall on the demon-spawn lifeless body.
"Nooo.." Frekhi takes a claw and cuts the dead tiefling down. "How did this even happen? She was in there for a second."
Well, that solves that. I'm not going in there. Regin proclaims.
Quentin blinks, unsure of how to process what just happened. "I don't think I like this place very much. But at least we don't have to worry about her losing control and murdering one of us, now. She seemed to be quite unstable."
Mirais turns to Regin and Quentin, blinking with incredulity.
"That solves that? That solves the tiefling growls at Regin, still holding Bebaushie's corpse close to her. "And don't having to worry about her 'losing control'? ? A girl just died in front of you, and the first thing you think about is 'good riddance she was a psycho'? Are you insane? What kind of are you?" the qlippoth-spawn tear-filled eyes glares at the half-elf and the dwarf, her expression filled with hate.
However, it's an expression completely different from the one she had while cursing the maker of the trap: it now was filled with grief, anger, and much more humanity.
Regin looks slightly confused for a moment. I simply meant that the problem of the room's contents was solved. I meant no disrespect toward the dead.
Rose sits quietly, thinking. "Perhaps here is not the place to mourn... Considering she went in alive and came back..." She gestures towards the door.
"W-what do you mean?" Mirais asks puzzled to the doll. Gently laying Bebaushie's corpse on the ground, she moves on shaky legs to the door Rose is pointing at.
"She was odd, but she didn't deserve this. She didn't deserve to die like this."
"We can't leave her here."
Regin sighs and says in a grandfatherly voice, Listen, son, this just became a very real fight for survival. Mourn the dead later. Right now, we have a Pathfinder to find and a building to exit.
"I can't argue with that. But that doesn't mean we ignore what just happened here. If we do, we're no better than the a~*$#$~ who created this place."
I'm not saying we ignore it. I'm saying we ignite it. From the outside.
"Yea you're right. We need to get out of here too."
Rose carefully hops down from the dwarfs shoulder, using his clothing to make it safely. She walked over to Mirais and gently put a cold, porcelin hand on her ankle.
"You all have to get out of here. But first, you all have to get out of this room. It isn't safe here. We need to stay clear headed. When all is said and done, I will try to do something for her."
Mirais falls silent for a moment, before slowly nodding to Rose. "Ok. Just give me a minute." the tiefling says weakly, before going back to where Bebaushie is. Kneeling down, she closes the tiefling's eyes and starts praying for a couple of minutes.
Having finished, the qlippoth-spawn wipes her eyes, and gets up on her feet.
"Let's go."
You can't tell anything other than they look to be in a deep sleep.
Quentin looks confused. "I'm sorry. Was that inappropriate? We're in a very dangerous environment, and you're all total strangers to me. Should I not be concerned when one of my groupmates isn't in complete control of herself? Social norms are not my forte, so I hope I did not offend."
"She was a little odd, but she wasn't the bad guy. Whoever put us in here is. I just hope she's at peace now." Frekhi will drag the body out of the room atleast as the group leaves.
"Social norms my-" the qlippoth-spawn mutters under her breath.
After making sure that everyone is out of the inverse room (and that Rose is safe on Regin's shoulders), she exits too and closes the door behind her.
Walking a little closer to the kitchen door, she tries once again to heal her wounds.
Let's hope that this works...
With that, Mirais' skin begins to crack, tear and bruise. Though it seems like she attempted healing magic, this must not have been the case, for she soon drops unconscious.
Regin helps in surprise. It wasn't just that room? He wants to help, she's only a kid, after all, but he's no longer sure if he can help. His skills lay mainly with the arcane, and the arcane was currently going crazy. He could trust himself to not accidentally kill instead of help.