Where there was an air of indignant anger, there was suddenly distinct feeling of satisfaction, and pride. The chill receded, [color=black]she[/color] was content to listen. So was Besca, evidently, and Dahlia if the speed of her return was anything to go by. They both seemed utterly baffled, looking at her as though she’d torn off her face to reveal some stranger beneath. A glance passed between them, not of malice, but confusion—then, acquiescence. 

“[color=gray]Uhm…[/color]” Besca stuttered, averting her eye the moment Quinn’s turned to her. “[color=gray]A week. It would have been longer, these were originally doubles-duels; Casoban set the terms to bench [i]Yule[/i] though, so now Helburke is using that to bench [i]Dragon[/i]. Now it's a one-on-one.[/color]”

She paused, hesitating to ask if Quinn was certain about this. Then she felt guilty. An outburst of bravery, warranted or not, wasn’t going to squash her worry for the girl’s safety. 

“[color=gray]That’s not enough time, Quinn. I don’t see how it [i]could[/i] be. If we dropped you down [i]today[/i] to draw out your weapon you’d still only have a handful of days to practice with it—and most of that would be in sims, anyway.[/color]” She mustered up a bit of her own courage and looked her dead-on. “[color=gray]I meant what I said; I’ll figure something out. We could get you sick, maybe. We could…I don’t know, we could tell’em you fell into a coma or something, get Follen to put you down for a couple days ‘til Casoban forfeits.[/color]”

Dahlia joined her, putting a hand on Quinn’s shoulder. “[color=skyblue]She’s right we can…[/color]” she began, but nothing came to her, so she just shook her head. “[color=skyblue]You don’t have to do this. I…we don’t want you to have to do this.[/color]”