The Deodekoi catches her by the throat. She cannot resist her. Blood, breath, [i]life[/i] flow beneath those claws and only fragile skin stands in her way. She picks her up and hits her with a planet. She squeezes, past blood, past breath, prying from her soul yet deadlier weapons. The auto surgeon’s bands lash so tight around Vasilia she cannot move. She cannot scream, and her lungs will burst. Her blood is fire. All she can smell is her, her, her, and no one else. No one else was [i]allowed[/i] so close. Snarls and silence fending off the bright Alcedi. Keep away! Keep away from her treacherous, useless, poisoned heart! The long nights alone, and always alone, for she must be, she must try to get used to it, in case, in case,

Eyes rolling back

Helpless to

Can’t move

[i]Ah-![/i]

Bella squeezes tighter. Bella cuts off air and adrenaline. Bella raises her claws, heedless of the pathetic swipes of her prey. 

A spray of mud flies between them, straight for the eyes of Bella’s helmet. Vasilia does not see the strike that bats it away.

She smells it.

A pod concealed in the mud shreds to atoms, and a burst of cloyingly sweet chemicals - cheap imitations of Demeter’s work - diffuses through the rain around them. The pressure releases, just by a hair. Enough to gasp, and see a shadow-grey figure standing over her. They duck a spear-thrust from behind them, sweep out their assailant’s leg, and a Kaeri bowls headlong into Bella, flying much too fast to turn aside. In place of a nightmare, a soft, familiar weight falls on her chest, wrapping his arms around her as far as they can reach. And a voice strives to rise above the chaos of the melee:

“Jump!”

Her arm falls and strikes the earth. And she goes tumbling weightless through the air, a flurry of Kaeri racing to follow, and her Dolce hanging off her. Alive, for the moment.

[Rolling to Overcome: 3 + 3 + 2 = 8. Spending a bath bomb from Dolce’s supply of household tricks as a Price for acting against a threat to the world. Taking the partial success.]