[b]Redana![/b]

It is your Auspex they turn against you. 

A golden strobing sequence of lights is projected into your eyes, shifting and morphing trails of light and it catches the [i]attention[/i] of your Auspex in a way you have never felt before. It feels like your eye is awake and curious by its own will rather than yours and as it focuses in on the golden light it tries to drag your whole self into its curious contemplation like a whirlpool.

"Anomaly scan finalized," wheezes the Magos as she drags the projector towards you. "The Extrasensory Organ is intelligent, with its own memories and will, which allowed the subject to interface with the Regret at an intellectual remove. This data indicates the value of the Extrasensory Organ and the importance of its immediate removal. May Hermes smile upon this surgery."

The Magos' back unfolds into an arsenal of terrifying medical implements. When you walked the streets of Tellus you heard people whisper that Hermetic doctors were skilled enough to steal a woman's kidneys as swiftly and painlessly as a thief might pick your pocket. And worse, with the Auspex disabled by that strange light, you feel yourself coming untethered and skinking back into the depths that you briefly emerged from...

And then the light switches off.

The shattering beam from the [i]Yakanov[/i] goes dim. You're back in the jungle, back in the present, back in the Alcedi compound. And while the Coherent are here in force they are [i]very[/i] outnumbered by the hundreds of awakening Alced. 

That could be it, if you wanted. You could stand by and watch as the enraged Alced tear the Coherent apart in a fit of vengeance. It would cost you even less than a thumbs down in the arena, Redana Nero.

[Damage your Auspex]

[b]Alexa![/b]

"Now?" said the Master of Assassins, sweeping her hair backwards to loop it into a ponytail. "Honestly you'll probably wind up wishing I killed you. I'll try again, of course, Demeter [i]hates[/i] taking chances, but you'll be just as dead if I spend the next few months curling my eyelashes. Urgh, [i]helmets[/i]!"

"Helmets are sensible," said Artemis.

"And elegance is the opposite of sensible!" said the Master. 

"I like sensible," mumbled Artemis, putting her hands in her pockets.

"But yes, even if you somehow slip through my fingers - and in fairness, it has happened a few times - you're still just as doomed. Lord Aphrodite, in his wisdom, has quite literally cut the entire galaxy in half in a rather spectacular fashion. Like the explorers of ancient days you are sailing directly off the edge of a flat world - and I can say from first-hand experience that there, in fact, be dragons."

[b]Vasilia and Dolce![/b]

The world no longer resists you. In a moment you are together again. Scorched and broken and bitten and bloody, soft and sad and filled with heartache. For a moment there's quiet and stillness and so very much to say.

[b]Bella![/b]

For a moment Mynx's presence is huge; she fills the room like a sensory supercomputer smelling for blood, listening for your heartbeat, scanning for injuries, tensing to wreck violence on anything that might threaten you.

But she senses that you're not mortally injured and that there are no targets. And she breathes out. She [i]relaxes[/i], fuck her. How can she still relax after everything?

"Bella, you're okay," and her voice is filled with [i]relief[/i]. Like things are better, like this even counts as okay. "You're okay! Oh, Hera and Aphrodite, thank you for keeping her safe! This whole station was a trap set by the Master of Assassins, but I'm here now and I won't leave your side again."