#;salus

Or: No, Salus, I'm making something special for dinner

      { electio (noun, fem.); election of salvation }

                         { salus (noun, fem.); safety, health, well-being, salvation }

      It still rung in his ears. Would that noise ever stop?                   What a rush it had been. From silence, peace, apathy, boredom, everything dropped so very quickly. 

      It had collapsed. Right beneath him. Right around him. And left him alive.

                          ----almost as the only one.

When he'd held Lahar, his fingers greedily digging into the fabric of his jacket, clinging to that last spark of hope one felt when denial overcame acceptance of reality, there was neither apathy nor stubbornness present. None of the usual feelings made even the briefest appearance. Only despair, lack of knowledge what to do or how to help. It all went away so quickly-- quicker than he could cope with.

      They had insisted that all survivors were to be reported and put into beds, watched and nursed. 

                     Doranbolt stated there had been none.

       He'd known that he wouldn't be fine, quickly accepted that his weakness would make him give in and done so before he'd even had the chance to try and resist. 

                                It still r u n g in his ears.

     So very loudly.

                                 A high-pitched noise.     Run, Doranbolt.

               He had to sleep. A day or two had passed, and he'd managed to sneak Lahar past the officials to nurse him at his own home. His bedroom was occupied by his colleague alone, white sheets fitting the bandages around the rune mage's upper body and arms. He was alive. He'd make it. 

                                     But he almost hadn't.

Doranbolt was more affected by the event than might occur at first glance. His mind seemed to refuse to work in its prior patterns, so casually and set on entirely different things than it was after the incident. There was a soft ringing haunting him time and time again, words echoing through his mind when he closed his eyes, a pain in specific spots popping up again at the most unseeming times throughout the day. Perhaps, the councillor thought, he deserved as much. All that was happening seemed to pile up on his shoulders, made breathing harder whenever he attempted to get rest. Only when he felt his body refuse to work any longer did his eyes fall shut-- and he'd awake thanks to visions that irritated and startled him. That scared him.