#uru-viel

The two stare at each other, aware that Noemi was right. It was nice to imagine though.

“I’ll go first.” Hannah says. “Just to be safe.”

Noemi glares, putting her hands on her hips. “And why are you in charge? I’ll go first.”

“I know how to take a punch.” Hannah points out. “And give one. Lemme go first.” She pauses, an edge of fear in her voice as she says, “Please.”

Noemi wants to argue but Hannah had turned and is already climbing up the rock wall, slowly and carefully. Her hands turn dark with dirt, and on jagged stones on the wall Noemi sees traces of blood likely from Hannah’s hands. Noemi is careful to avoid the jagged stones and reminds herself to check her friend’s hands later– and rip her a new one for being so careless. She never took good care of her hands, surprising for a writer who wrote like her life depended on it.

Hannah pauses just shy of the leveled ground, peeking over. She lets herself ease back, craning her neck to look down to Noemi. She puts a finger to her lips.

There’s the brief realization that Hannah’s upper body strength shouldn’t have allowed such a journey, and neither should have Noemi’s, but they’ve made it anyway. She writes it off to Hysterical Strength and watches Hannah crawl over the edge before popping back around to urge Noemi up, glancing back frequently for anyone coming back.

Noemi takes Hannah’s hands, allows herself to be hauled up. She collapses on Hannah, pressing her face to her friend’s shoulder with a huff of exertion. Hannah pats her back, still a little distracted by the way her head tilts and her jaw works, trying hard to be quiet.

Noemi peels herself off of Hannah and they stand, moving to crouch behind a wall. It was a mess. Fires scattered around, the smell of charred flesh, twisted corpses screaming in agony towards the sky. They seemed to be in what was once a large building. A shadowy figure with eyes red as rubies is in the center, and an elderly woman in religious garb is held aloft. Demonic beasts and wraith-like creatures surround the duo, men in suits of armor dispersed amongst them.

“Someone!” The woman cries, weaker than the other times. “Help me! Please!”

Hannah’s hold on Noemi’s arms tighten reflexively, smearing over the white arms of the letterman jacket. The stains would never come out. Noemi glances back and sees Hannah has really, truly gone pale with shock, mouth gaping in surprise.

Noemi is prepared to ask ‘what’s wrong’ when the women once more begs for help and Noemi’s heart tugs, something reckless unfurling in her. She sees the same thing in Hannah, dampened by a sudden fierceness Noemi recognized when little kids were bullied or an animal was in need. The strange scent of electricity crackles and blue flickers in the green-brown gaze of her friend. Noemi doesn’t know how, but she knows Hannah has her back for whatever happens next and, assured of the assistance, comes out from behind the wall.

Noemi moves into the midst of the people, Hannah at her back. Her skin tingles with power that flickers off Hannah’s clothes and from her eyes, a warning to not come closer.

When her friend learned magic, she’d find out after this. Though seeing as Hannah was Wiccan, and tended to believe in fairies and dragons, it was no surprise if the young woman did find true magic.

“What the fuck is going on here?” Noemi demands angrily, totally aware she didn’t typically have the ovaries for such stupidity.

The old woman sighs in relief and yet pain. “You must go! You must warn the others!”

“Aw, fuckin’ christ.” Hannah says behind Noemi, Southern accent thickening in her worry. “This’s really happenin’.”

“There are intruders,” the shadowy figure says, waving an imposing hand. “Kill them.”

An arc of blue strikes the ground in front of Noemi, dispersing a wraith that had come from the floor and lunged at her. She falls back into Hannah’s hold as the tiny woman spits, feral and feline-like, “You won’t fucking touch her, you bastard!”

Noemi doesn’t remember what comes next, but there is fighting and lightning and ice. And there is a bright green light that she reaches for and Hannah’s distant yell of, “NOEMI! DON’T!”

The screaming has to have been hers.

Back from the dead with not an update for Rowanbirch Manor: Home for Dead and Lost Souls or Willful Kismet but instead another WIP! Say hello to the work of @amusewithaview and @neverending-shenanigans talking too much about Dragon Age: Inquisition and me dragging @uru-viel into it. If you can’t tell, she’s never played and I just started. Suffer with us on what I’ve fondly named The Dragon Age AU From Hell.