Blood from Stone [AU]

[Varric]

"BethHelene." The order, such as it is, is given all in one blurt of noise as Varric rushes into the ritual room. Part of him wants to marvel, to wonder, to demand answers about Helene being alive. Part of him just wants to rest, to go somewhere quiet and dim but warm and open for the next day or two. Preferably with Helene. And Beth, Merrill, Carver and Liz nearby. Most of him, the vast majority of him, is focused on the ritual, on the problem. Helene is alive. Good. Marian is in danger, bad. Fix the bad. 

[Bethany]

Beth's eyes widen and she starts to say something but swallows it to focus on Helene. Rushing to ner, she kneels next to Helene. "Are you hurt?" Without waiting for a reply, she begins to cast a diagnoses spell.

[Helene Dakesh]

Helene shakes nir head, trembling in Beth's arms. Home (Safe) Varric

[Marian Hawke]

Marian looks peaceful, lying there in the mists. Whatever they're doing -- consuming her? -- they seem to be passing through her body, into and out of it like she's no more solid than the air around them. Could she be an illusion? No; she sits realistically enough on the ground, casts a shadow in just the right way. Not impossible to fake, but harder. 

[Carver Amell]

Carver rushes to the doorway of the panic room, hands clenched into fists. Marian, no, not again, please, Vangal, no-- "What can I do?" he manages, voice rough.

[Varric]

Varric is silent a moment, studying the lines on the floor. "Black crate, white numbers. Seven, Three, Eight. Back left wall. Heavy." More inelegant than a stone sword but... If I can insert more diamonds into the circle to absorb more of the energy (gold, steel, purple: outsider energy. Thank you Vigile). "Hurry."

[Carver Amell]

As Carver races away, Varric notices something odd -- the mist is going into the body, but it's also coming back out. He would have expected the energy to be overloading the body, going in and in until the body breaks apart from the strain; barring that, he'd have expected it to be condensing into a solid form, creating the new outsider. But it's just... stuck. 

[Varric]

Why would... step back (assumptions kill). What do you know, what are you seeing, what are you guessing?  No deaths (at least four points of confirmation required to accept), no outsiders, swirling lights in divine colors, no explosions or.... dust. So. What else. Think. Negation seems to have occured, and yet no sign of where the energy went (wait- went?). Shite. Recalling... Never clearly stated that the energy used to create physical bodies for outsider use in this dimension would be visible once released. So... Shite. Need to figure out how to determine if visible light is conceptual energy or (why has no-one named this?) pseudo-shell energy. Diamonds can hold either (but only one) but... but the later is more dangerous by far. So. Assume p-shell energy present but undetectable without aid and work from there. And... And if the lightshow is conceptual energy, then... then how would that interact with mortals? 

"That concerns," he mutters as he furiously reads the runes and glyphs as fast as he can, trying to spot any changes or damage to the circle.

[GamesMaster]

No changes. No damage. As Carver returns with the diamonds, Varric is just determining that everything on the ground looks exactly how he'd expect -- the physical diagram is entirely perfect. There's a melted heap of orichulum, clearly having been overloaded by the sublimation of ectoplasm into arcana, just as expected. Which means, of course, that the invisible arcana is in the circle, held at bay by... what?

Sometimes, when things are mid-ritual, when waiting for the last step, arcana seems to hold itself in abeyance, ready to react but not yet doing so. That's the Vancian theory behind how spellcasting works: the prepared ritual gathers arcana inside the caster, but the arcana is inert until the final word is spoken, completing the ritual. If there was a word to be spoken, it would need to be Marian speaking it. 

And Marian isn't conscious. If Marian is dead, will it rest here forever, waiting for someone to disturb it? A bomb makes a piss-poor final resting place, but how would they get her body out without blowing it?

[Varric]

Alright. Nothing is on fire right now, so take a moment. Think. Plan. What needs to happen? In what order? Think it through. "Step one... stabilize. Crate here, open. Need... need red case, white hand. Says 'repair' both sides." Make sure it doesn't explode (as best I can). Then figure out how to either defuse, complete or substitute in. 

[Carver Amell]

Carver digs for the case, handing it over. "Is she going to be alright? What is that shit?"

[Varric]

"Shit? Oh, lights? Probable... souls. Devil, Vigile. Conceptual energy or essence. First thought was p-shell energy. Ahh... energy used to form outsider body. P-shell bad, now, wild, dangerous. Conceptual... weird." He shrugs, not slowing in his work. "Need hands. Open yellow packets. Clay- chicken egg size. Wrap diamonds." Carver jumps to it, clearly glad to be helpful, even if it's just as Varric's hands.  That being handled, the dwarf moves over to the point outside the circle closest to Liz.  He scowls. "Ritual seems to... waiting. Needs input."

[Carver Amell]

"So, do you just... tell it the right words? To make it end and let her go?" asks Carver, as he reaches to hand him the clay. 

It's understandable if Varric doesn't hear him, however. He may be a touch distracted by the sound of his long-dead mother's voice:

Varric?

It's a memory -- a time he startled her. But it's also fresh, whispering as if just behind him, in his ear. Along with it comes a feeling he'd long since forgotten: the feeling of being warm, safe, protected in her arms. 

[Varric]

"What the-" Varric stills, running a quick self-assessment, including his positioning. "Hold! No moving."

[GamesMaster]

His fingertips -- his pinky finger is a scant centimeter above one of the lines. He's perfectly aware of it, of course, he knew it would be, but that level of encroachment is usually fine. He isn't crossing the line, merely a hint above it. But that puts him in, so far as things are determined, contact with the circle -- and thus, with the ritual.

It should be fine. He's not disrupting anything. But he's hearing things, and that's supremely weird.

Hello, Failure. That's not a memory, but he knows that voice too: it's his own, the imp that lives in his head and tells him how this is his fault, how he failed his family and his kids.