Dreadlords Death Lotto

[Lumen]

Lumen didn't hesitate as she ducked into the smoky-filled storage unit. THe strange, white missed burned immediately on contact. And she held her breath but felt it make her eyes water and sting. Waving a hand to create some sort of clear path for vision, she spotted Proctor Palahniuk...was he groping Evie?

Lips thinned.

But Evie was alive. Struggling.

“GET. OUT.”

Lumen didn't need to be told twice. With her vision quickly going, she took hold of Proctor P's arm and threw it over her shoulder, leading him back outside in to the fresh air. Coughs wracking her own lungs. Any exposed skin around her pajama shorts and bandeau turning an angry red. Eyes watering and burning. It might've been the poison but she swore she heard Proctor P mutter with a disappointed whisper as he coughed.

'You're not Caeso.'

Once they were free from the poison and shed, Lumen released the proctor and collapsed onto the lawn.

Everything hurt.

 

[Evangeline]

Skidding could be heard as Proctor D'Amour slid to a halt in the quad. She winced for a moment, the old war wound still uncomfortable to run on, and took in the situation.

Initiate Diemut and Kristen looking worse for wear but alive, Proctor Goetsch collapsed under their care (whether due to her own powers or otherwise, she could not say); Initiate Adagio pulling Proctor Palahniuk from a storehouse billowing with white smoke; and the storehouse itself, of course, likely the spot Ebersol was if Initiate St. Kolbe's brief, sputtered testimony was accurate.

A few more taps into her acceleration and Evangeline had moved the coughing forms of Lumen and Palahniuk to the safer distance that Kristen and Caeso were at.

"Look after them, I'll be right back to help the two of you," The Pirian Proctor ordered and assured the two noble initiates.

There was only one safe direction the smoke could travel, one path where she could assure no one else would be hurt. West by southwest. She knew this only because she knew the quad's proximity to the campus's edge, and because she'd been involved in approving renovations in the area. At this time of night, no one should have been around.

The proctor gripped a broom. As crude as it was, the school didn't exactly just have giant fans like those made in Dornoch on hand. The largest wedge shape she could think of on short notice was this simple tool she'd grabbed from a supply closet on the way here. It would have to serve, even if the effort she'd have to exert to make it work would be great.

Eva positioned herself appropriately to the storehouse and swiped the air with the broom. Then again. And again. Faster, faster, more and more, until her upper body became a blur. A great gale began to whip the quad in front of the proctor, a localized tempest that started to blow the smoke away. Evangeline could only hope that Goetsch was doing her job in pacifying Ebersol, or the former Second Level would be doing nothing but exhausting herself.

 

[Zinnia]

Zinnia caught her breath, drank her water, and pulled herself to her feet. The night's labors weren't yet finished, and her friends likely still needed her. The gold-eyed girl began the long jog back to the western quad.

---

Panting once more, Zinnia arrived after several minutes to the site of what looked like a storm blowing away a wildfire. She steeled herself and ran for her friends.
"Hey! What can I d-do, how can I h-help?"

 

[Everleigh Ebersol]

Proctor Palahniuk laid beside Lumen confused as to were it all went wrong. He could hear a roaring wind but he wasn’t sure if that was because his ears were damaged if a windstorm had decided to sweep over the Academy as well. He croaked, heaving. No amount of air he got seemed to be enough. He was exhausted however, so exhausted that he couldn’t even complain.

Too worn out and beat up to even complain in his head or to dream about having his own bachelor pad in three years across from the fountain of Anireth.

---

Evangeline had rid of the poison. Marianne was successful in taking over Everleigh’s body. But there was one problem that the proctors couldn’t solve, at least by themselves. Marianne slowly stood up, realizing that she could see nothing. At first she assumed it was because of the poisonous mist in the storage unit but realized that no matter how much she blinked or rubbed at her eyes, all she saw was black with a gray glare glazed over it.

She held up her hands, took a step forward and almost tripped.

“Evangeline.” Marianne would drop honorifics for now, especially with how hard it was to make her words carry outside to the second level dreadlord. “I have her under control. I need to be close to my body. You’ll have to knock her out. Preferably after I leave. Everyone should go to the infirmary.” There was a pause and finally, Marianne added. “I can’t see. She blinded herself.”

---

 

[Kristen Pirian]

"Nuisances," said Head Nurse Ingrid, shaking her head irritably. She had a concoction in her hand and she poured for Kristen and Caeso a cup each of it—and it was sure to be bitter tasting. "All you had to do was pay attention. Follow instructions. Use your head. But no. Once again your thick-skulled inadequacies have troubled me. Gotten me up at this godsawful hour."

She was further annoyed by the fact that one of the other nurses could have easily handled this, but instead the alarm over the incident at the quad had seen Ingrid herself summoned. Maybe for the injured Proctors it was warranted, but for these two? Pah.

Ingrid handed Kristen her cup, and then one to Caeso as well. Kristen drank it all in one go as instructed...and it was bitter and foul-tasting.

Kristen and Caeso were sitting on beds adjacent to one another. Their stay in the infirmary wouldn't be very long, and, as misfortune would have it, both would be ready for the day's classes and training before breakfast.

When Ingrid had left them to their recovery, Kristen spoke up. Inadvertently, she was imprecise in her question. "Do you think she's alright?"

"Whomever you mean by that makes no difference. There is no 'she' who has not suffered unnecessarily tonight." He gave an irritable and dismissive wave of his hand; tonight, this morning, whatever, he wasn't in the mood to trouble himself overly much in the distinction. "Even Proctor Ebersol herself."

Kristen's mouth opened in preparation for a response, and indeed it was upon her tongue simply waiting to be breathed into the air, but she stopped herself. A reluctant acceptance of what Caeso said came over her, and she looked away, down at her feet.

And they left it at that.

 

[Lumen]

Lumen stared at the ointment that Nurse Ingrid had deposited on her lap. Her skin still burned and tingled and it was an angry shade of light pink. Her throat also burned when she swallowed. Sighing, she stood up from the bed she'd been earlier made to sit on and pocketed the ointment, not putting it on yet.

Lumen leaned against the wall with one shoulder as exhaustion caught up to her, eyes looking over at Kristen and Caeso. Then to Zinnia. Tawny-eyes flickered to each of them, uncertain.

"Are you all...will you be okay?"

Repentance in her tone and a failure to hide her worry for her friends.