it's like a trigger getting ready to shoot (part LXXIII)

(Roleplay entry. Continued from Part LXXII.)

The Duchess walked into the clinic, stumbling over a stray bit of cabling, and by the time she looked up, Zack stood in front of her.

"Ah..good day, Miss Emilly!"

Emilly widened her eyes. "Didn't mean to interrupt, just was checking out what you'd done. It looks wonderful!"

Zack smiled. "Why, thank you--no, it's fine, I was just resting a bit."

Emilly nodded. "That's perfectly fine." It was, essentially, his clinic, after all, even though it was on their land.

"Did you manage to find a solution for the...creature on the rift's border?" he asked.

She sighed. "It's...yes? But..." She shrugged. "You put the dome up, and we were very thankful, but by the time I went to investigate, it had managed to thin it enough to try to slip under the base?" She looked down, seeing it again in her mind's eye. "Couldn't quite manage. But, then, Deebs shot the dome a lot, and...it phased into the science lab."

Zack blinked at her. She shrugged again.

"We ran down to try to kill it there, it grabbed me and phased through into the arcane library, next floor down, and THERE we finally did it in. I...think."

Zack nodded in understanding. "May I take a look?"

She nodded. "Yes! The rift room, or the library, or...?"

"Let's go take a look at the library, first."

She led him to the port, told him to hit the button for the public study, and showed him down the stairs across the hall, opening the door to the arcane library.

"It's in here. We don't have everything in here yet, the main library still has most of the works unsorted, but we're planning to bring anything of an arcane or occult nature to these shelves."

She pointed in the middle of the cluster of chairs, where the dark rug covered the floor. "It landed in the center of that rug.

Zack took a look at the rug, kneeling. He gently moved his hand over the fibers. "It did not leave any trace of fluids, or remnants...?"

She shook her head. "That was the odd thing--the energy bolts from the Prometheus cut the tentacle beasts outside into chunks."

Zack frowned, standing back up.

"And the one Lina killed inside Steam, she burned to ash. This one?" She shrugged again. "It just--there was a screech, a bright light, and then--gone."

The doctor thought for a moment. "Either...it was an illusion, or--a clone of some kind, maybe?"

Emilly shook her head. "Couldn't have been an illusion, it grabbed Justine in the tower. And me in the science lab!"

"It is possible...but it would take a very powerful, and skillful, illusionist to do so."

The Duchess furrowed her brow, looking at the rug. "Does the dark carnival come in the spring..." she murmured.

Zack's eyebrows shot up. "Oh, boy, I hope not--"

She nodded, expression sober. "I do too." She looked up at a comm signal. "Oh, shoot, Justine needs me to pick up some things at the Haven store. We're consolidating assets."

She looked down, brushing at her skirts, a bit more form-fitting than she'd worn on Haven, previously. "Think I can get away with this, briefly? Otherwise I'll have to change into something that won't make Cody's eyes pop out of his head, or something."

Zack chuckled. "I would suggest you take some time to change, my lady. Just to not...turn the eyes too much, and look more professional."

She nodded. "You're probably right. I'll go do that." She looked up, her head turning unerringly towards the location of the rift in the tower. "You can probably vanish the dome, though it does me that the combination of the beast's powers, and Deeb's blasting it, lifted it enough for the thing to reach through..."

Zack nodded again, looking concerned, and Emilly went off to change and transport to Haven.

(Continued in part LXXIV.)