Crystal; Private

[overharrowed]

FORM: Sending crystal
SENDER: Julius
RECIPIENT: Flint and Yseult (first call); Marcus and Petrana (second call)
NOTES: Directly following this (mention of poisoning in both that post and this one). If this post gets opened up to more recipients, I'll adjust the header accordingly.

[Julius does not sound great, a little slurred and short of breath, but that shouldn't be a mystery for long:]

Artemaeus tried to poison me.

[It sounds like he at least partially succeeded, but that doesn't seem to be Julius' number-one reason for calling.]

He just ran out of the Seneschal's office, I'm not currently able to pursue. Sounds like he's descending. I didn't know if I should say publicly, considering, I'll let you make the call.

Comments

[hassaran]

[ Yseult sounds like she's in motion, no time for ???-ing. ]

Have you called yourself a healer?

[katabasis]

[You know who isn't currently descending but is, by some contrivance of fate, on the central tower's staircase?]

I'm coming up.

[Faster now.]

[hassaran]

I'm coming down.

[ There is a swish-slide fabric sound followed by a couple quick steps and then another--it's possible she's sliding down bannisters. ]

We'll need to trap him on the stair.

[altusimperius]

[Hearing footsteps (and swishing?) Benedict pauses, stepping back toward the landing he just passed until he can get a better look.]

[hassaran]

[ Yseult catches some suggestion of potential movement in the glow light's shadows on the 5th floor landing and alights above, backing up and leaning carefully over the banister to try to catch a glimpse of the stair below before crouching down behind it to whisper into the crystal. ]

[katabasis]

[And below: the sound of bootfalls hurrying up the stair slows. Apparently the person coming up the stair isn't in so great a rush after all.]

[altusimperius]

[The swishing stops, and the footsteps slow, and Benedict continues to back away from the stairwell, slipping through the library door.]

Simultaneously, while they're in motion

[overharrowed]

I didn't get a full dose. I'm not in immediate danger.

[Enough that he's "not currently able to pursue," so.]

I'll handle myself, you were my first call.

[hassaran]

Appreciated. [ Sliding still. ] Once the stairs are safe we'll fetch someone up.

Any sense of his aim?

[katabasis]

[Flint, meanwhile, has fallen silent save for the sound of footfalls on the stairs and the clink of some metal clip that must jangle near the crystal as he moves. But he's traveling up stairs at speed rather than down on a railing, so a forgivable offense.]

[overharrowed]

Unfortunately, no. He wanted to talk about Kinloch and Southern Circles more generally, but it seems likely to me that was a pretext. Before that, we'd mainly spoken about his position since I became seneschal, I wasn't aware of any tensions.

[They'd hardly been close, but the attack was so unanticipated that it's hard not to look back for missed clues.]

[hassaran]

Strange. [ no offense. ] It may not be all. Alert Rowntree.

[ The swishing has stopped for the moment, distance growing between the crystal and her breathing as if she's leaned away from it, then returning, voice even softer than before. ]

I think he may be below me. 5th floor. Can you try to draw his attention down?

Second sending crystal call; private to Marcus and Petrana

[overharrowed]

Two things. Well, one thing, sort of.

[The lack of focus isn't great, to be honest, and he's aware his voice sounds a little thick. He hopes he at least sounds calm rather than shocky; it's hard for him to judge.]

Artemaeus tried to poison me. Flint and Yseult are in pursuit, but Marcus, Yseult asked for your support if you're nearby. He left my office and headed for the stairs maybe ... three or four minutes ago? Down, I'm fairly sure.

I took in a little of the poison, but I don't think I'm immediate danger. I healed myself a little and it's mainly just ... There's some vertigo, so getting myself to a healer is going to be complicated. I could use some help when Artemaeus is dealt with.

[ipseite]

Marcus, I'll go to him— Julius, don't try to get anywhere. I'll call the head healer to come through the elevator and avoid the stairs.

I'm coming at once.

( she will deal with how she feels about this development after. )

[overharrowed]

I won't move, [the lack of a protest that he's fine telling in its own right.]

[ipseite]

I'm only in my office, I'll call Healer Strange and be with you directly.

[portalling]

( a uniquely modern, familiar experience he never thought he'd have in thedas: standing in an elevator, shifting restlessly from foot-to-foot, jittering in impatience as it grinds its way upstairs far, far, far too slowly during an emergency.

finally, doctor strange is let loose on the sixth floor. there's some kind of chase happening beneath them in the stairwell, but he enters the seneschal's office without knocking. he sees petra, who summoned him with maybe most alarming crystal message he's received this week, and he shoots her a quick businesslike nod — and then he's instantly by julius' side, reaching for his wrist, fingers pressed to count the other man's pulse. )

Poisoned? ( he asks, voice crisp and calm, but with that faint edge of 'what the shit is happening'. )

[overharrowed]

[Petrana has seen Julius look worse, but it's not great. He's a little pale, and the pressure of his hand on Petrana's is not as strong as it usually is. Still, his expression is focused with a grim edge. He nods at Strange's question as the doctor feels his pulse (a little sluggish, but steady).]

Delivered in a sip of wine. I didn't notice any taste strong enough to overcome the wine's own flavor, but the effects were fairly immediate: the vertigo and some weakness in the extremities. Healing magic has helped with the latter but not the former, but I'm not ... I know field healing, basically, I'm not a specialist.

[With his free hand, he gestures to the carafe that Benedict left when he bolted.]

He poured us both a glass from that, but he feigned drinking his. His lips were dry, after.

[luaithre]

Aye,

[ is a small, fleeting thing to say. There'll be time for more, soon enough. ]

[ipseite]

Strange is here.

( so that he can not worry — or at least wall off the worry behind the healer is here until he's not himself urgently needed elsewhere. )

later;

[luaithre]

[ A brisk crystal exchange confirms that Julius and Petrana are to be found, still, in the former's office, and it's still some time, several minutes more, before Marcus is able to break away

(double checking where he'd initially scattered everyone in his division, returning to conversations, assurances, preliminary plans, and soaking his hands in water to remove demonic ichor, though there is nothing for the inky arterial spray up the sleeve, soaked into his collar)

and the sound of his footfalls echo in outside the door. He does not appear as frantic as he might have done if this were his first port of call when his crystal had shone, but still, harried, the sheen of sweat at his hairline, down the back of his neck, an intensity to an otherwise neutral expression. ]

[ipseite]

( with julius no longer needing more urgent monitoring than petrana, hovering, is going to insistently provide anyway— marcus finds them alone, petrana rising from where she has been all but glued to julius's arm (and her crystal) when he joins them in the office, more inclined to hold out a hand to him than to immediately move away from julius— )

A demon, then. Not Artemaeus.

( —as if they are picking up a conversation, mid-stream, and might as well be.

it solves the mystery of motive rather neatly, although it raises a myriad of other questions; the picture frustratingly incomplete. )

Are you alright? If we need call back Strange—

[overharrowed]

[Julius has his own sheen of sweat, though his color is markedly better than it was before Strange's help. The vertigo has eased and feeling is coming back to his hands and feet. Now it's more that his stomach remains perilously unsettled, and the general full-body malaise that goes with that sensation and the ache of his body fighting off whatever poison didn't bind to the charcoal. His expression flickers to relief when Marcus returns, but he doesn't risk standing.]

He can't have gotten far, he's only just left.

[A demon is hardly good news, under the circumstances, and he can't help but notice the stains on Marcus's clothes. Imagining the struggle that caused them.]

[luaithre]

I'm alright,

[ has that distracted, dismissive quality that would mean nothing if he was injured, but for what it's worth, he is moving without any hint of tenderness or any attempt to conceal something, and none of the stains sunk into his clothing are the fresh bright red of human injury, but the near-purple black of demon gore.

It's good that Petrana stays sitting, stays in place. He would like them both to be. He takes her hand, a tight grip, while his other goes out to cup around the back of Julius' neck, higher up through sweat-damp hair, giving him a brief looking over before ducking down enough to nudge a kiss down against the crown of his head. ]

They'd already had it subdued when I got there [ is to both, mumbled in place before straightening back up ] so it wasn't such a fight until the end. How are you? [ is to Julius, still holding Petrana's hand. ]

[ipseite]

( her fingers lace through marcus's, the tightness of her grip speaking volumes — her other hand rests, still, at julius's elbow, possessive and protective both. she doesn't press the issue of summoning strange back, satisfied enough with having them both near, in view. whole, if

wobbling at it, in one case. she'll let julius speak for himself, though it's clear she's on the edge of an assortment of words. some of them might even be pertinent, useful. )