Open Dead Man's Float

[Minnim]

73rd of Fall, 516 AV

"Rhysol, why?"

The scream of the woman was shrill, and it echoed through the canals of the previously serene city. Several hero-type folks rushed immediately to the scene, tearing down the alleyways with their faces stern with determination. There were a few people- the smart ones- who made off in the opposite direction, reaching for safety. And then there was Minnim, who poked his head out his doorway, a morbid grin crossing his face while he raised a brow in curiosity.

This could be interesting.

And so the Nuit made his way calmly to the edge of the canals, his cloak swishing gently around his ankles as he walked. His long strides took him there quickly, but not more quickly than the frightened, or the brave. There were already a gathering of people, leaning over the canals and reaching into the water. A woman stood nearby, her breath coming in shudders and her eyes clenched tight against the horror.

Minnim ignored the hysteric woman. She would be of no use if she couldn't talk. Instead, he moved closer to the canal, where a team was hoisting something up and out. They let the thing flop onto the ground with a heavy, wet sound. As the crowd dispersed to go find help, Minnim moved forward. He needed to sate his curiosity before the officials arrived and took his chance away. He was not disappointed.

The body was waterlogged, its clothes torn and skin wrinkled. Its mouth was agape, torn wide in a pseudo-scream, while its hands lay clenched loosely- in agony or steely resolve it couldn't be told. But most interesting of all was its face. The face was ripped directly down the side, split open wide enough to allow bugs to reside within. Just as Minnim was about to bend and touch the warped face, a voice called out from beside him.

"Stand back! We have to leave it so that they can identify the body without tampering."

There was no recognizing the face either way, but he didn't want to draw suspicion to himself. Minnim rolled his eyes silently and stepped back obediently. As if on cue, gasps whispered towards the crowd from farther down the canal.

"Another!"

"There's more?"

"How could there be so many? Where are they coming from?"

Too many bodies for the authorities to track, hopefully. Now, that would make my day.

[Evarista]

She was not alone. That thought had plagued Evarista since yesterday, ever since that strange storm started. There was something else out there. No, not the residents of the city; they didn't count as company. This 'something' was something like her. She couldn't see it, she couldn't hear it, she had no idea where it was or what it could possibly be. There was only one certainty: this force was a predator, here for the heartbeats. Just like her. What was this emotion? Rivalry? Jealousy? Admiration? Perhaps all three at once. She could not stay indifferent to this elusive force, sweeping through the city side by side with herself, extinguishing countless heartbeats in its wake. Evarista wasn't too protective of that, as there were enough heartbeats above the water to satisfy every need. It was not a competition, but neither was it collaboration. The uncertainty made her uneasy. She wanted to meet this force, not necessarily as an ally or an enemy, but as a like-minded individual. Her searches so far have proven unfruitful. The only thing she found were its many victims, left in the water with torn faces. Interestingly, the living made quite a commotion around these victims. Why would heartbeats be interested in corpses? They didn't eat corpses of their own, did they? She was fairly sure they didn't. Their reason for caring remained unclear to her. Maybe it didn't even matter. What did matter was that she could use this to her advantage. Such a practical, ubiquitous and effective bait! She wanted to reach the heartbeats, the heartbeats wanted to fish up the corpses, and the corpses came from the water... where Evarista was hiding. Yes. The lake was her sanctuary. She wasn't keen on water at all, and the constant fear of drowning was still somewhat nagging her. A smaller cousin of hers would have died quickly if it failed to find a dry surface, but her gigantism reversed the situation. When walking, the pin joints on her legs could not carry her very far. They were not made to carry the weight of her proportions, and poised to break with every step. The water, on the other hand, propped up her fragile body and protected her from the oppression of gravity. Filling her trachea with air, she could dive under the surface, moving fluidly underneath the floating buildings before finding a good place to emerge and refill the air. It did feel very unnatural, but she gradually got used to it. As an additional comfort, the chilly water was somewhat soothing the burn of her twisted djed. Indeed, the synergy was perfect. She felt a communion with this other predator, who left these corpses for her to use. Tampering with the bloated bodies below the dark surface of the lake, she had attached many strings of sticky silk to them. They almost felt like puppets as she let them continue their flotation up to the surface and out in the canals. It didn't take long before they caught the attention of the heartbeats, sparking a commotion as expected. Waiting patiently at a safe depth, she heard the heartbeats shout and flock. Many footsteps, many vibrations, many voices, the rattle of tools and weapons. How completely predictable. But not all of it. Not all of them. There was one set of footsteps where there should not be. One presence that had no right to be where it was. A source of movement, sound and vibrations... without a heartbeat. While this would give pause to most, Evarista found it obvious: there was a dead man walking. The hows and whys of it, of course, were far beyond her knowledge. Maybe it was the predator's work. An indiscernible infiltrator among the unsuspecting heartbeats, one of the corpses that should be floating in the water, one of the corpses they would never expect to walk among them. She could not let this escape her attention. However, that attention was demanded by something more urgent; the tug on one of her signal lines. One of the bodies was being lifted from the water. The sticky threads attached to it were hardly noticeable unless someone looked for them specifically, but more than tough enough to serve their purpose. A characteristic pull told her that some threads have wrapped around something; perhaps someone's ankle. The ominous presence with no heartbeat approached the corpse before stepping away again, vanishing from her field awareness. Exactly due to the lack of a beating heart, Evarista found that presence difficult to track. Difficult to follow. She didn't like that. Meanwhile, the sticky traps that she had rigged on corpse were triggered one by one. Thin fibers sticking, wrapping, securing themselves on various moving surfaces, entrapping the unwary heartbeats as they clamored around the faceless body. It was time to spring the trap. Attaching herself to the underside of a floating building platform, Evarista pulled the strings as hard as she could, anticipation of prey spurring her on, violently drawing the unfortunate heartbeats into the black waters of the lake.

[Alija]

Alija

Alija had gone for a stroll, lead for Rosco in one hand and Kial's hand in the other. The weather was light with the steady lapping of the water in the canal to her right and the towering buildings on her other side, Kial drawn to each and everyone. She smiled politely at passers-by, nodded a greeting to them, but secretly, she watched them closely, drawing away from the darker individuals.

All of a sudden, a scream broke out, Alija swiftly turning in that direction. A nervous looking man pushed past her, moving away from the noise, but there was still a grain of curiosity in her and it compelled her to ignore her instincts and march forward, dress swaying with the brisk movements. A crowd had gathered, reaching into the murky depths of the canals, and a woman stood separated, distressed and obviously the one who had screamed earlier.

Still gripping Kial's hand tight, she dragged him forward through the group, eyes trained on whatever they had pulled up from the waters. As soon as she noticed it, she wished she hadn't. Reeling back, she stumbled into people as she moved away from the gruesome sight. Someone called out that another had been dragged up, and another. Shuddering, she turned to Kial, who's face was white with horror, eyes wide with shock. This was not a place for a child. Moving her hand to her purse, she pulled out a few gold mizas, placing them in his fist. "Go, quickly, go back home. Take a ravolosa if need be, keep the dogs tight. Keep the dogs close and lock the door." He nodded quickly, breaking into a run away from the horrors. Taking deep breaths, Alija turned back towards the warped body, trying to stop herself from being revolted.

What did this? Why? She couldn't understand, nor stop her trembling.Then, all of a sudden, someone else gave a shriek, and her eyes moved upwards towards the body moving towards the canal. The figure - she didn't have time to see his face or his expression, disappeared in the darkness, Alija giving a shriek of her own at the sight. She shifted backwards, once again paying no attention to the people around her. What was that?

Training her mind inwards, the magic grew, shifting inside her until she could felt ready. Channelling it to her eyes, but then pushing it further, so auras became things to sense more than to simply observe, she let herself focus down, deep into the water, beneath all there feet.

Something was there. Alija gasped, feeling her concentration flicker, but she focused on the aura and on the magic, focusing further, harder. Some monster, surrounded by chaos. What she expected, but that was it. She forced her way into the aura, trying to make sense of it, of some part of it, but it was just chaos. Every second, when she thought she felt something or had gripped onto some clear, precise part of it, that part almost disappeared, slipping out of her grasp and fading to almost nothing.

Shifting her focus from the monster to the human figure, the one she could understand, she let her mind settle. He was alive - she could feel the heartbeat racing in his chest - and he was struggling. It was fear that stopped her leaping straight in after him, followed by common sense. "Someone help him!" she yelled, knowing that she couldn't let him go, not like that. Someone else could do it, that would work. The aura slipped away and the emotions of those around her came to life: fear, shock, and a hope, not for the man, but another hope. She dropped them too, trying not to focus on it all. But she couldn't, not quite, the hope lingering in her mind. Why wouldn't it go?

Her eyes searched the group for her target, settling on an old man. He didn't have the same life force to him as the drowning man. Perhaps it was his age. Perhaps something else. She didn't care. Finally managing to suppress the magic, she marched up to him, drawn by a strange reason. "Help him, please!" she half demanded, half whimpered, "There's something down there, something monstrous."

[Minnim]

The chaos around him was almost comforting. He had been so bored of late, so sick of the day to day, that he had considered raising some hell of his own, just to find some fun. But here, he had been thrown a bone, a treat of sorts from Ravok itself. And it was delicious.

The screams around him like a lullaby were interrupted momentarily by a bout of shocked silence. Minnim looked about in search of the cause, casually. And there it was, in plain sight; a man was drowning in the canal, struggling for his life. He wasn't speaking, though whether he couldn't or wouldn't, it wasn't known. Minnim watched in morbid fascination as the man struggled. Why didn't he just give in? It would be so much faster, easier, sweeter. Wouldn't he love to just give in to death, be taken away from his horror, pain, and tedious living?

Mortals are so curious.

Especially so was the woman approaching him in a ferocious march. "Help him please! There's something down there, something monstrous."

Minnim tilted his head as he looked at her. She appeared normal- that is, not of exceptional status or skill- and yet she spoke with the same conviction that an official might. Where did she find her gal, he mused.

"Was the mention of something monstrous meant to persuade me?" He asked aloud. Although it wouldn't have been a lure to any sane person, it gave Minnim a slight thrill. Could there be something powerful down there? More importantly, could he harness it?

But in order to maintain his current level of control, he couldn't let his eagerness show. He quickly composed his face, moving from a faint smirk to a passive gaze.

"I don't fancy risking my health, really. And besides," He gestured to the canals loosely with crooked fingers. "It isn't like I could swim well enough to retrieve him anyway. You're hysterical. Go home, and be glad you're not the prey."

The water flushed back and forth as the man gave a last desperate kick before disappearing under the surface. He would come up again, Minnim was sure, but his condition when he did so was up for debate.

"Risk your own life, if you're so keen on saving a dead man."

[Evarista]

The string gave resistance as Evarista pulled them, showing that her trap has found purchase. One of the heartbeats that once stood on the walkway above was now down to the water surface, struggling to keep himself afloat. The more he struggled, the tighter the webstrings tied around him, until a decisive pull from the spider snatched him underwater suddenly. The winding of the fiber brought him into her fold, a thick trail of bubbles left behind in his wake. On a dry surface, this man might have had a chance to escape or even fight back, but underwater he was helpless as her jaws closed around his face. A successful hunt. However, there was one thing that spoiled the experience somewhat. That nagging feeling of someone watching. How was that possible? The dull senses of the heartbeats could never detect her down here, she had thought, but apparently she was wrong. One of the heartbeats that gathered above moved strangely, as if following to Evarista's own movement with its attention. The thought of a possible coincidence was blown away once that same heartbeat moved to approach the second anomaly on the scene; the heartless vibrations. The two of them were planning something, no doubt about it. That couldn't be allowed. The prospects of luring them into the web traps were small, but that wouldn't be necessary. If you cared so much about this heartbeat she nabbed, they could have him back. Well, some of him, anyway. Still holding the man's head as an anchor, Evarista tied a sloppy string harness around each of his limbs, using her many long legs efficiently. Once done, she began to turn each harness like a handle, twisting the limbs grotesquely, around and around until the flesh and sinew tore. A dark cloud of nectar was released into the water around her as the victim's limbs were separated from his body. He has still been alive all this time, and only now came his death throes as he screamed silently into her maw. This is a technique she had thought of the previous day, and now was a good time to practice it. When preying on the heartbeats, she discovered that while their lives were rather fragile, their bodies were rather tough. She turned out to be not strong enough to pull or cut off any limbs when attempting to dismember the prey, but twisting them off at the joints was more than doable. It was always enjoyable to find a practical and effective use of force and leverage, all to minimize effort during everyday chores. Such efficiency appealed as much to her inner animal and predator, as it appealed to her inner lazy couch potato. True satisfaction. More importantly, now she had a pair of arms and a pair of legs to play with. While there was some nice meat on them, but she had a better use. That suspicious pair on the walkways has earned a good slapping, but simply bursting out of the water and attacking them would probably end poorly. There was something much less risky she could do, and it was somewhat more amusing to boot. Even after the transformation, the girl has retained her humanoid sense of humor, though it was easily crude enough to fit her current form as well. Using her legs and strings for leverage again, she gathered potential force in each of the limbs, before aiming them at the conspiring pair and catapulting the projectiles away. Hurling things from underwater was a clumsy process, and the forces involved were far less than lethal, but causing injury was not her objective. The mere gesture to offend was satisfying enough. Slapping them with a dead man's hand; kicking them with a dead man's boot. It was a hint. A hint that she didn't like being watched, that she suspected they were watching her, and that they had better stop and desist that nonsense. Carrying that silent message, the severed limbs burst out of the water one by one, spinning towards the nuit and the aurist in a grisly boomerang as they left a trail of blood and slime in the air.

[Alija]

Date

The man was a little curious at her words, Alija finding herself reaching out again, trying to understand what he was feeling. She had no control - soon, she would have to return home, have some relaxing tea, and get control over her magic. But now, she let the tendrils of his feelings drift out, confusing her own. Any normal person wouldn't be persuaded by the sound of something monstrous, like he said, but his aura yelled excitement, at once shifting attention to the canal and whatever lay in it. He liked the thrill. So why wasn't he doing something about it?

Giving a loud grunt of frustration, the aurist shook her head at his suggestion. She couldn't go home, not while there was something out there. It better leave them all alone. Including Kial. Her mind toughened as she thought of him, reminding herself that he was so small, so alone. If that monster touched him... Bursting to action, Alija found herself driven by that motivation. There was rope, tethering a ravasola to the land, but she didn't care. A ravasola couldn't live or die - a person could. With all her strength, she threw it forward, to where the man slipped underwater, just out of reach. Something gripped it for a second, and she felt her heart leap with happiness, but then the tension dropped, and she saw the shape move deeper. Dragged away and her auristics flickered back on, hitting her sharply. Just as before, she found the chaos monster, and found herself pulling the rope back in fear. The man was there too, floating, dead. Just like the other one, the one without the heartbeat.

Ravok terrified her, with its chaos monsters and undead people.

Something flew out of the water, Alija leaping to one side to avoid it. She stumbled into the old man, knocking him hard, before staring shocked as another one was hurled out, spraying her with the foul smell of blood and slime. An arm. Whatever it was down there knew they were here. Either that, or it hadn't found the whole man tasty.

Struggling to hide her disgust, the aurist moved back, practically on the floor at that point. Her whole body trembled, and her eyes moved from her companion to the canal and back. "What does it want from us?" she barely managed to cough out, eyes moving to the limbs, "We need to do something. You're interested, I know you are. Don't lie. You want to know what that thing is. I do too. I want to stop it." She shivered again. "Do you know anything, anything at all?"

[Minnim]

At first he thought she had heeded his words and turned for home. He was not disappointed. He always had worked best alone.

But then the defiant creature had stumbled back into his view with a rope, tossing it into the water and toward the dying man.

Minnim came up behind her, watching over her shoulder as the rope was tugged briefly and then, inevitably, released. Her face fell, and he couldn't help but pity her. She really had hope, didn't she? He thought sadly. He almost felt a movement to reach out and rest his cold hand on her shoulder, or to offer her a few hypnotic suggestions of comfort. This lapse in judgement was quickly interrupted by the explosion from the water.

An arm swung towards them, bringing with it watered-down blood and fatty flesh. The woman fell backwards, stumbling into him and bringing him crashing down as another limb flew out.

Minnim sat for a tick, stunned. His arm stung. What had happened? A brief inspection told him that he had busted open his elbow in the fall. It was nothing serious; it would be healed soon enough. But now the creature had injured his pride and his vessel, and that made it personal. Minnim brushed a droplet of ichor off his elbow quickly before standing up.

The woman rambled and her face was painted with her fear. Minnim did not listen to the nonsense. At least, not until she said the words "don't lie". That caught his attention.

"You want to know what that thing is. I do too. I want to stop it."

Minnim nodded mindlessly. Yes, he did want to know what it was. He was curious and wouldn't deny it. The level of risk he was willing to go to seemed to be different than his partner's, though.

"Do you know anything," She begged, "Anything at all?"

Minnim took a step back and watched the water for a moment, keeping an eye open for more limbs. His mind turned the idea over, considering. Did he know anything? He knew that Ravok was not normally a place of danger, but whether it was a lapse in security or an exceptional infiltrator was beyond him.
He knew that these bodies were of great concern to the city. He knew they were terrified. Otherwise, he was in the dark, so to speak.

"I know nothing." He concluded. "But I can only assume that it is trying to terrorize us. A scare tactic. That is something only the weak have to use. Perhaps it is not so powerful."

He turned to face her, a grin spreading with rotten teeth and his eyes alight with inspiration. A heavy black tongue tapped his outer lip in habit before he spoke.

"Perhaps it is so ordinary that we are overthinking it. We could be using classic tactics."

With that, Minnim rushed over to where she had deposited the rope. "Let's go fishing." He declared. So he began to tie the rope around one of the bodies that had come up warped, but not dismembered. It still had some meat left.

Perfect bait.

[Evarista]

As soon as her projectiles were away, Evarista focused her attention on gauging the targets' reactions. Her little joke seemed to hit the spot as the nosy heartbeat jumped to evade, knocking down the dreadful cold vibration. The no-heartbeat wasn't invincible, then. Maybe her worried were unfounded? Still, she couldn't let go of the unease, and the annoyance that she couldn't properly reach anyone on the walkways without exposing herself to danger. And now she was all out of things to throw, too, which was a shame. Following up the initial volley might have gotten her a chance to knock someone down into the water, where they would be at her mercy. The spider paused in some frustration, trying to think of what to do next. The pause wouldn't last, as she suddenly realized that something was wrong. After a moment of confusion, she finally identified the source of the discomfort: she was running out of air. She's been down here way too long, and she wasn't exactly a fish. The admittedly respectable air reserve in her belly was wearing dangerously thin, forcing her to temporarily abandon her plans and scurry to the surface. Of course, she couldn't simply float up and take a breather in the crowded canal immediately above her; she had to find a quieter place... and fast. Moving with alarmed urgency, Evarista let go of the skull hereto stuck between her jaws, and reached for the nearby floating building platform. Her thin legs and somewhat inflexible body made plain swimming difficult, so she had learned to use hard surfaces for traction, and was now scurrying across the underside of the platform to get away from the commotion. However, in her hurry, she forgot to eject her string traps. The faceless corpses still floating in the crowded canal were still rigged to her legs with long lines, and her sudden departure roughly pulled them all underwater, including the one Minnim was working with. After some frantic struggle and flailing, the spider finally freed her limbs of the trap lines, abandoning her faceless bait to float up to the surface again. Along with that, the limbless body of her own victim would float up as well, his face incidentally torn off in the exact same manner. Soon, her emergency escape lead her to a quiet alley with no heartbeats in the vicinity. Climbing up on the wall halfway out of the water, Evarista inhaled sweet air again, letting i whistle through her trachea. A contraction of the muscles made small jets of water squirt out before her belly inflated with a new air reserve. Once again, she had to remind herself that while she had eight legs, she wasn't an octopus, and should probably not pretend to be one so nonchalantly. This whole reverse-fisherman game was not something to get carried away with. What's this? Two heartbeats were about to turn the corner of the alley. Was she followed? Almost thrown into a panic again, Evarista let go of the wall and slipped underwater again, gauging the vibrations of the approaching threat. A ravosala rounded the corner, driven by an adult heartbeat. The passenger was a child. The soft and alluring rhythm of a child's heart was unmistakable to Evarista, immediately rousing her appetite again and filling her with glee. What a pair of fools. People have been disappearing for quite a few days in these isolated alleys, and the city has already noticed that going through them was acutely hazardous. Except for this ravosalaman, who apparently didn't get the memo. Forget that, he was letting out his voice. Was he singing? No, he was whistling a tune? What a provocation. Driven by a surge of predatory aggression, Evarista approached the ravosala from below. Supporting herself on the nearby wall and using the length of her legs for leverage, she brought her talons up and around one corner of the slender boat, securing them there with a snap. A single forceful tug flipped the ravosala over, eliciting shocked yelps from the heartbeats on it. Evarista wasn't much interested in the adult, however, ignoring him entirely as caught the falling child into a silk hammock, already stretched out for him between her spinneret and one of her talons. A few rounds of wrapping secured the little fellow to the underside of her abdomen nicely. The rhythmic tremors of his raising heart told her that he was afraid, but not harmed. Not yet, anyway. Now, she just had to find a good place to dine on. Pulling her prisoner along, she clambered along the wall until she was up on the roof. This building wasn't particularly tall, but the roof was nice and flat, so she might as well get to it... but wait. Something seemed familiar. No, she has definitely came across this kid before, but where? It took some mental effort and a thoughtful examination of his beat, but eventually she got. This was the kid that accompanied that nosy heartbeat who dared look for her in the canals and had a conspiracy with the walking dead. As soon as she remembered that, irritation began rising again. She still hadn't gotten back at those two properly, but now the golden opportunity was squirming right underneath her. She hadn't paid the kid any mind before, as he departed the scene soon after his arrival, but somehow he has found his way back into her possession. Involuntarily, she remembered a certain young heartbeat who has been in the exact same position. However, unlike that one, this one didn't elicit any feeling of attachment. No, he was to serve as the ultimate bait. The fishing resumed, but now instead of coming at her victims from below, she'd be coming at them from above. The vertical mobility she had in this city definitely made the game more interesting. Lugging her tightly wrapped package along, she headed back to the corpse canal, this time across the rooftops. It didn't take long to get back, as she never went very far away to begin with. Peeking from behind a chimney carefully, the spider observed the still-crowded canal disapprovingly. There were too many people there, but the cold vibration and the nosy heartbeat haven't managed to leave the scene yet. Excellent. Without exposing herself, Evarista rolled the silk package over the edge of the roof, dangling it like a puppet at the end of a scarf. The boy's mouth was unobstructed, so he would be able to attract the desired attention easily. The disagreeable duo would have to stop staring into the abyss and look towards the skies now. Huhu. Having made sure that her display didn't go unnoticed, Evarista winched up the bait quickly and began retreating, staying out of sight but spreading a trail of silk in the air behind her, so that the targets knew where to follow her. The number of armed heartbeats in the canal was limited, and they were quite preoccupied with the floating corpses. Perhaps, against their better judgement, they would come to meet her in a more private location. Finding a quiet dead-end alley, of which there were conveniently many around this part of town, Evarista set down the wrapped-up boy on the walkway and dove into the water, though not before rigging the entire walkway with countless barely-visible tripwires. This is where the real hunt began.

[Alija]

Date

Terrorise them... she ran the word through her mind, finding herself agreeing with it more and more. Those limbs - they were sent on purpose. No creature would throw them up, unless it wanted to scare them. And the direction of the limbs, straight towards her and heartless. Both had reason enough to worry the creature. Whatever it was, it was clever.

She disagreed with the next thing he said, however. It wasn't weak. It was chaos itself, impossible to see, impossible to understand. Something to do with Ravok, to do with Rhysol. She didn't know how, but fishing... Alija didn't like the idea. It was one thing trying to stop the creature or help someone. This was baiting it, this would make it much angrier. Maybe next time, it would just be throwing limbs. Maybe they would be the ones to go under.

But some curiosity inside her compelled her, the woman moving to help him anyway. Her hand was stopped mid-knot by a scream, a scream of her own name.

Flicking her head upwards towards the sound, Alija caught sight of something she didn't want to see. Kial dangled there, wrapped in silk like a tiny fly, yelling her name out, yelling out for anyone to help him. Unable to help herself, she screamed a reply, "Stay calm! I'm coming!", before dropping the rope, jumping up and on her heels to follow. Whatever it was up there - she couldn't see clearly, and she hated it - was baiting her. That creature, whatever it was, was in control. It was fishing them, rather than the other way round.

"When you said let's go fishing, I was hoping we wouldn't be the fish," she muttered to the man with no heartbeat, hoping he would join her. He had no reason too, and it was clearly dangerous. But he had to, because Alija couldn't do this alone. That was the only reason. "I have to help that boy. I'm his guardian, he needs me to protect him."

Then she snatched onto the aura, not caring anymore about the headaches, and the blurriness her vision was coming to. It was just within reach, and she started to run, following her pounding heart which raced with Djed and felt things aura as a presence. Then she halted, suddenly. The aura of the creature had shifted downwards, but she couldn't tell where exactly. Underwater, at least. But something, something similar to the aura, lined the walkways.

Focusing harder on that, Alija struggled to control the magic and focus only on that one thing. It wasn't one thing, but lines, lines of auras stretched across the walkway. The aura was dreadfully chaotic, so it had to be from the monster. Letting go of her magic, she slumped down, trying to take deep breaths and relax. Her vision had definitely gone blurry, as was her hearing. It was all there, just... not clear. Like she was underwater, listening to everyone.

But it was clear enough to see Kial, wriggling and screaming in the silk package he was bound in. This was a trap. Any fool could tell her that. Alija turned, hoping to spot the man without a heartbeat, or any, for that matter. If she did, she pointed to where she had sensed the lines, asking them to examine for her. She could barely make out the walkway, let alone something tiny. "There's something there. From the creature."

[Minnim]

Minnim scowled when he realized what the monster had planned. The trap was obvious to anyone, of course, but at the same time, it was irresistible to the caretaker. Minnim sighed when she moved toward the trap, but nonetheless followed.

As much as he would deny it, the danger was alluring.

He would, however, let his partner take the lead.
When she stopped before the alley, her eyes slipping in and out of focus and perhaps consciousness, Minnim waited patiently. He wasn't sure exactly what she was doing, but she seemed intent on it, so he would let her do her thing.

Suddenly, she slumped, letting out sudden deep breaths as if she was just surfacing from a nightmare. "There's something there." She gasped. "From the creature."

Minnim glanced in the direction she pointed. Although he couldn't see the individual pieces from where he stood, he could make out a faint blur over the alleyway. Like mist, it was nearly imperceptible and Minnim's bare eyes were too weak to truly navigate it.

If it was a trap, though, then it was likely that moving it would trigger something. So what they needed was a decoy. Leaving the woman where she stood, Minnim moved towards the alleyway. He checked briefly to see if the woman followed (although it really didn't affect him either way) before dragging the rope up to the entrance, balling it in his hands, and tossing it into the alley.

Minnim was not the most muscular, so the rope flopped not far from him, but hopefully it would be far enough to trigger the wires, and trick the monster into springing its trap.