The Landen Village of Agio, Askavi, Kaeleer, Thursday Afternoon [Fandom Time]

[glacial_queen]

[Continued from here]

After Lucivar finished recounting the numbers arrayed against them, he pushed himself to his feet, calling in his war blade and his bladed Eyrien sticks. "I'll be outside," he growled. "Too much fear in here."

It grated against his nerves, scraped against his precarious self-control. The fact that he had wings like their attackers only made things worse--much of the landen fear in the building was directed at him.

"I've been letting a few in at a time," he continued, "opening holes in the shield to let them through. Killing ten or twenty in the face of thousands doesn't do much, but--" He shrugged. What else was there to do?

Tara	Tara raised a hand hesitantly. "I can shield," she offered. "It's -- probably not as strong as yours, and definitely not as big, b-but it might be, um, a backup to you for a little while."
Lucivar	Lucivar stopped and gave Tara a considering look. "Can you shield something like, say, this room?" he asked.
Tara	"I've never tried a whole room," Tara admitted. "The door. I could get the door and windows. Or I could make, uh ... k-kind of a little bubble thing that would just hold us."
Lucivar	"Shields over the windows and doors are good," Lucivar said. "This is a big building though, so you'll have to make sure to get everything, or decide just how much you can protect and seal that off. Can you key your shields to us so we can go in and out without disturbing them?"
Tara	Tara looked more and more dismayed as he spoke. She hadn't been considering the size of the building, or the logistics of people getting in and out, or -- anything. "I can try to get most of this floor," she said. "Maybe. It's more than I've ever done. I can't -- I can't key it at all. I'm sorry."
Lucivar	Tara might not be a witch in the way that Lucivar recognized, but he still was going to react to a female in distress. "Then, we'll use your shields later, when we don't have to worry about people running in and out," he said, his voice gruff but understanding. "Knowing there's a last-ditch shield in here makes me feel a lot better. You all may be able to last until Khardeen and Aaron arrive." Lucivar was occasionally bad at being comforting.
Tara	"Okay," Tara said softly. She regretted having said anything; all it had done was point to how inadequate her magic was in this world. But that wasn't Lucivar's fault.
Lucivar	Lucivar tilted his head slightly. That...hadn't been the response he was expected. "Look," he rumbled, misunderstanding her reaction. "I'm not trying to put all of the responsibility on you. But if I die before backup arrives, Karla's not in any fit shape to shield all these people. So far, you're the only one who's said they can shield at all, so if you're willing to step up to the line, I need to know."
Tara	"I'm willing," Tara explained. "I just don't know if it'd even be worth doing. M-most of the time if I shield it's to protect a small area for a few minutes, not ... what you're talking about." What he was talking about so casually was magic she couldn't imagine, not without tapping into dark forces -- and maybe not even then. "Do you think you're going to die?" Her tone became childlike.
Lucivar	He stuck his thumb over his shoulder, out at the Jhinka who were crawling on the shield like a swarm of plague insects. "Do you really think you'd get anywhere without a fight? I serve the Lady. If it means selling my life so you all get away? I'll do it without thinking twice." Lucivar had faced death and worse in the salt mines of Pruul. This death was almost sweet in comparison. "But if you can shield everyone in here just a little bit longer after I do, then I’ll count it good and be grateful."
Tara	Tara gave him a sidelong look, dipping her head so blondish strands fell across her face. "Thank you," she said, simply. "I'll do anything I can. Promise."
Lucivar	"That's all I can ask," Lucivar said. "This isn't your world and they're not your people. You guys are throwing your lot in with us anyway. That's...much appreciated."

Ben	"Before you go," Ben said, "how does the shield work?"
Lucivar	"It lets out psychic and energy attacks, while preventing physical ones," Lucivar replied. "Unless you were looking for an explanation of Craft?"
Ben	"Sort of," Ben said. "I saw the shield shimmer as we arrived. There has to be a way for the power I have access to to be shunted into what you're doing."
Lucivar	Lucivar looked baffled, shaking his head. "There may be, but I don't know how to do it. The shield is tied into my Jewel. You--I have no idea how your Cr--power works." Bafflement gave way to interest. "But I'm willing to try." What did they really have to lose?
Tahiri	"Just a kriffing second," exclaimed Tahiri, who'd overheard that last exchange. "Are you trying to do what I think you're trying, Ben Skywalker?"
Ben	Ben turned around and gave her a slightly guilty look. "Maybe."
Tahiri	"Have you been sucking exhaust fumes?" she demanded. "Or just spontaneously gone thermal?"
Ben	"I'm not Dad," Ben said. "I can't just wave my hand and make these kriffers go away, and I can't make a shield. Lucivar can, but he's running out of--" he gave Lucivar an apologetic look, "juice. If we can figure out how he can use the Force through me, it could buy us some time!" This might be why Skywalkers don't plan things.
Tahiri	"You have gone thermal," Tahiri announced. "Even if you could figure out how to do that, do you have any idea how fast it'll drain you to use that much Force energy, and how badly?"
Lucivar	Lucivar held up a hand. "Can I get a bit of context here?" he asked, looking from Ben to Tahiri and back. "You've started speaking a different language almost." Thermal? Exhaust fumes? Kriffers?
Ben	"Prince Lucivar, meet Jedi Tahiri Veila," Ben said. "My girlfriend." There! Context! Sort of! "She thinks I'm being an idiot." That part Lucivar had probably picked up, Ben.
Tahiri	Tahiri inclined her head in a nod of greeting, just enough to be respectful without seeming subservient. "With all due respect, Prince, he is being an idiot," she contributed unnecessarily. "I know what he's thinking about doing. I've done what he's thinking about doing, at least with other Force-users." One specific other Force-user, anyway.
Lucivar	Lucivar decided now was not the best time to inform Ben that, in his experience, females usually thought their males were idiots. On the off-chance he hadn't realized that or something. "What, exactly, is he thinking about doing, then?" he asked, trying to keep his voice from showing his amusement.
Tahiri	Tahiri put her hands on her hips and arched an eyebrow at Ben, as if to say maybe he'd better explain. Assuming he could.
Ben	Ben's boots were suddenly fascinating. "I was going to ask Tahiri for specifics on how to make it work," he mumbled. "There's a way that Jedi can link--a battle meld--but I've never done it." He winced at a Jhinka splattered against the shield. "We're running out of options," he said to her.
Tahiri	"You don't have to tell me twice. I noticed. But the battle meld is tricky," Tahiri cautioned. "It doesn't take long before every being linked into it starts losing track of what they're sensing as opposed to what someone else is. And in a situation like this, when we're already so stressed we could just pop at any moment . . ." She shook her head. "You and I could manage it, but I haven't got a clue how to make it work with their Craft."
Lucivar	"Can you two make a shield?" Lucivar asked. "Not even necessarily one around the building? But say...big enough for a group of people to get away under? One that moves?"
Ben	Ben looked at Tahiri, biting at his lip. "I don't know how," he said miserably. "At home, we have machines to shield for us."
Tahiri	"I'm pretty good with a Force wall," Tahiri volunteered, "but I don't know how big I can stretch it, and I can't exactly surround people." That took a level of finesse she hadn't mastered yet. "How many people are we talking about?"
Lucivar	"However many can get out," Lucivar answered bluntly.
Ben	"What do you think?" Ben asked Tahiri. "Working together, under fire all the way to the landing zone...maybe twenty?"
Tahiri	Tahiri glanced out, assessing their likely path, and bit her lip. "Maybe twenty," she agreed slowly. "There's just the slight problem that you and I might be next to useless for a while afterward."
Lucivar	Lucivar glanced around the courtyard, counting up the number of students from Fandom. "Twenty would get you all out," he said. "That's good enough for me. Once you get to the Coach, you can ride the Winds to Dhemlan and safety. Morton could do that."
Ben	"And you and Jaenelle?" Ben checked, doing some counting of his own. While yes, ignoring Tahiri's very good point.
Tahiri	Tahiri cleared her throat and gave him a meaningful look for that. "I'm no strategist, but I'm not entirely sure now is the time for that sort of retreat." That might be partly the Yuuzhan Vong in her talking; retreat was not what they did.
Ben	Ben looked up again. "I'm not sure if we'll get a better one," he said quietly. "Any sane enemy would have changed tactics by now. They're just committing suicide because they want someone in here just that badly." He glanced at Lucivar. "I'm betting it's not the landen."
Lucivar	Lucivar snorted at that. "Not hardly." He glanced out again at the horde of Jhinka, some of whom were still flinging themselves at the shield. "If you find the chance you get out, you take it. I don't care if you have to hit Karla and Jaenelle with a rock in their temples to do so." ...He wasn't going to answer the other half of Ben's question. He didn't really need to, did he?
Tahiri	"Don't tempt me," Tahiri said wryly, more or less resigned to this option by now, because Ben was right. "Ben can tell you that's a pretty accurate guess at my preferred methods of persuasion. All right, if it comes down to that, yes, I think we can do it."
Lucivar	"Hey, if it works, I'm not about to complain," Lucivar said. If the situation wasn't so dire, he'd make a joke about their heads being hard as rocks anyway, but his capacity for humor was much diminished.
Ben	"We'll keep the option in mind and wait for our chance," Ben said, giving Tahiri a look full of Skywalker stubbornness. "For now, though, where would you like us to focus?"
Tahiri	Skywalkers. (Speaking of people with heads hard as rocks.) Good thing Tahiri was used to that; she just sighed very quietly. "Yes, just point us at where you need us."
Lucivar	"Depends on where you think you'll be most helpful," Lucivar said. "I'll probably let a few Jhinka into the courtyard in a bit, so feel free to help me with them." He glanced back at the horde of injured. "If you'd rather, there's plenty of people who could use your help in here. Whichever you're best suited for."
Ben	"Jhinka," Ben decided. "I'm not great with healing."
Tahiri	"And he's better at that than I am," Tahiri agreed. "So I guess we're courtyard-bound, then?"
Lucivar	"The more the merrier," Lucivar replied dryly, trying not to look as weary as he felt. "My bedside manner sucks."
Ben	Ben noticed the tiredness, but it wasn't exactly polite to comment on it. "We'll try to buy you some time."
Tahiri	Buying time. Like they'd done for Anakin at Myrkr -- Tahiri clamped down on an instinctive flinch. "As much as we can," she promised instead, trying to keep her voice firm. "Come on, Ben."

Bobby	To the casual observer, it probably looked like that was exactly what Bobby was doing: observing. Staring out at the Jhinka assaulting the shield. Anyone who knew Bobby, on the other hand, would likely be able to connect the look of focus on his face and the columns of ice that appeared outside the shield, enveloping a handful or two of the attackers at a time. It was difficult, controlling the ice from this distance, but stepping outside the shield wasn't really an option, so it would have to do.
Lucivar	Lucivar came over, assuming that Bobby was indeed sizing up the enemy. "Thoughts?" he rumbled.
Bobby	"Tactics aren't really my strong suit," Bobby said in a distracted tone. He'd complained about it at the time, but now he was grateful for Professor Xavier's seemingly endless lessons on things like geography. Understanding how aquifers worked was extremely useful at times like this. "Mostly I'm thinking we're outnumbered, but then, we've been outnumbered before and come through. I'm hoping our luck holds with that." He narrowed his eyes, and one of the Jhinka who'd been pummeling the shield flailed, then stilled in mid-air and started to plummet, hitting the ground and shivering violently.
Lucivar	Lucivar looked at the Jhinka and back at Bobby. "Interesting," he murmured. It was half-comment, half-request for further information.
Bobby	Bobby had known the chances of coming out of this without having to explain himself to somebody were extremely low. He didn't know Lucivar all that well, but he figured a man who sported a pair of wings, who came from this world where people used magic- Craft- openly, wasn't going to condemn him for having abilities of his own. "I have a... unique relationship with water," he began, almost conversationally.
Lucivar	"Water," Lucivar said, turning a puzzled look Bobby's way. He didn't doubt the young male had done something but he still wasn't seeing what water had to do with the fallen Jhinka.
Bobby	"I can freeze it, to be more precise," Bobby continued. "And bodies? Contain a lot of water."
Lucivar	And just like that, Lucivar understood exactly what Bobby was doing. And approved. "Interesting," he repeated, smiling just a bit. "How much fine control do you have? Can you say, freeze the water vapor in their lungs?" Lucivar was getting Ideas.
Bobby	He nodded, returning the smile with a grim one of his own. "Or the blood to their brains. It's a very painful process. For them."
Lucivar	"I would imagine," Lucivar said, stroking his chin thoughtfully. "I've never thought about using a cooling spell in quite that way before." Bobby, you totally get to be part of Lucivar's cool kids club. Good job!

Jono	Jonothon didn't trust himself not to get in the way, back inside amongst the wounded. Between that and a resonating notion of pain that was too overwhelming to ignore, he'd decided that outside was probably the best place to be, attempting to make himself useful out here. But the shield was probably going to be detrimental to his usual, more tried and true method of attack. His eyebrows furrowed a bit. Clearly, he was going to have to get creative, then. If anyone were to notice a few of the Jhinka jerk violently in mid air before dropping like stones while clutching at their heads, that would have absolutely nothing to do with, say, a carefully aimed private psionic link, projecting a howl so telepathically loud that it would have left most people completely delirious with bleeding ears and a migraine headache for the better part of a month. Jono could be a bloody bastard, even without making use of the flames.
Emma	Emma stepped up next to him, eyes already unfocused and glowing slightly as she pulled the ambient psionic energy in the air to herself. "Good," she said simply, reaching out with her own talents and adding more Jhinka minds into his links. "Better."
Jono	Emma, Jono supposed, would be Emma, no matter where in the timeline she fell. He glanced at her for a moment, and then nodded a little as he realized that more minds were being opened to him. Any other time, he might have protested vehemently to using his power this way at all. But this seemed to be... a bit of an extenuating circumstance. Thankful in some vaguely perverse sort of way for the fortification to his own psionic assault that she provided, Jono loosed another howl. Today, he wasn't holding back.
Emma	'Extenuating circumstance' was one way to put it, although she wouldn't argue with Jono actually using his powers for once. Emma called it 'people trying to kill them,' which meant the kid gloves were off. She continued feeding new minds to Jonothon, subtly boosting his range with her own. "You can hit them a little harder, darling. I don't think anyone is going to object."
Jono	Jonothon cast Emma with another glance at that. A little sideways. A little frightened of the damage that the two of them together like this were capable of. ... Maybe a little excited by it, as well. But he nodded. No words, still. No need to waste so much as a flicker of the psionic energy that he had available to him. Just a nod. And this time, instead of simply a howl, he unleashed a scream that was, to the mind, what Sean's scream was to the ear. The Jhinka who dropped from the sky this time didn't manage to grab at their heads, first.
Emma	With her finesse and his raw power, together they could easily obliterate the minds of hundreds of these creatures. Not all six thousand -- not yet, not at their current power levels -- but in a few years, they would be astonishing to behold. It was exhilarating. "Tell me when you're ready for more," she murmured, crafting a telepathic siren-song to lure more into their trap. "Pace yourself, Jono. We aren't going to run out of playmates anytime soon."
Jono	Another nod, then. Still no words, but he did put a hand to the side of his head, allowing himself a moment to recharge. He was about as likely to run out of power as the ocean was to run out of water, but the power that he had to throw around at any one given moment was finite all the same, like running seawater through a funnel into a pail. The fact that the pail was always refilling itself didn't change the fact that for a few moments, it was still sitting somewhere dizzyingly near empty. Actually, if Emma would give him a moment, he was going to take a seat on the ground, now. He could project another attack from down here just as well, and it would be far less likely that his legs would buckle underneath him as a result. He could feel her power at work, could see more of the Jhinka swooping into their range, could pick out each and every one of their minds if he wanted to, one by one, look inside of them-- He didn't want to see inside of them. He simply held up three fingers. Two. One. And again, he screamed.
Emma	Emma moved to kneel behind him, so that Jono wouldn't have to worry about accidentally crushing her if he managed to topple-over while sitting. She placed her hands on his shoulders, giving the link between them more solidity thought physical contact. He didn't need to see inside of them, and she gently swatted him away with her gifts, even as she lined up their next targets in her mind's-eye. Jonothon didn't need to look, didn't need to feel guilty, not now. Emma would take care of the aiming, and he could focus on his part. Three. Two. One. Again.
Jono	And a scream, a howl, something that was distant and fierce and invisible, that he didn't have to see the aftermath of if he shut his eyes, crackling hot white and orange with the same raw psionic power that made up the rest of him. It was automatic, now. Mindless. Rest, reach, grab, attack. Stronger every time, more confident, more lethal. If he didn't look, maybe it wasn't happening. Scream after scream, Jhinka falling from the sky by the dozen. It was dizzying, pushing forward that much power, causing that much damage with his voice. Knowing that this was what they were capable of. Again. Even though he was sitting down, it felt as though the ground had just been pulled out from underfoot. Again. His nose started to bleed. Again.
Emma	"ENOUGH!" Emma was yelling in his ear, trying to physically shake him. "Jono! I said to pace yourself!" "If you burn out while we're linked, you'll take me with you. And I am not in the mood for that nonsense!"
Jono	Yelling. Jono opened his eyes, aware almost distantly of that yelling, and then far more suddenly aware of the shaking. It went very nicely with the spinning in his head, really. Something vaguely comparable to a red-hot icepick to the brain. //I...// He couldn't exactly argue. He lifted a hand to his face, wiped the blood from his nose, and turned his gaze toward the ground. She had said so. And he knew full well just how much it took out of him, using so much power at once. //That was...// He lacked words. Odds were high that this was mostly because eloquence was put to better use by people whose heads weren't spinning so shortly after losing themselves to wave after wave of a power that most people couldn't so much as imagine. And now it was sinking in around the edges of his consciousness just why he put so much effort into hiding from it. //Sorry.//
Emma	"If you practiced more and quit hiding from it, you wouldn't be having this problem now!" Emma yelled, deliberately smacking him against the back of his head. She'd take away the pain and nausea and such in a moment. Emma was Making A Point. "Get your head together, Starsmore. If you're going to break down, get in the building and sing for the wounded or something. Otherwise take a breath, suck it up, and we'll start over."
Jono	Jono actually wasn't certain what stung more. The swat to the back of his head, or the statement about singing... Followed shortly after by the one about taking a breath. No, currently, it was the smack. Above and beyond the rest. Which left him running one hand through his hair and trying to get his bearings all over again. //I'll need... a moment.//
Emma	She'd picked all those words on purpose, and Emma was quite satisfied with herself. Not that she was going to let Jono know that. That would be mean. Or something. "Relax," she said, brushing up against his mental barriers with her powers. "I can take away the worst of that, if you want." A push here, a nudge there, and his head would quit hurting quite so badly.
Jono	//I would... appreciate that,// Jono replied. Lord, he was back to talking as if he didn't know his way around his power at all, words at a time, picking and choosing and shoving them forward while everything reeled. //Difficult to... to focus... just yet.// Obviously. //I'm sorry,// he said again, once it began to more clearly sink in just why she was angry with him. He could have hurt her, too. And then what use would either of them be? //I wasn't... I mean... I just stopped... thinking.// Just power and noise. Everything had been power and noise.
Emma	The brain really was quite a beautiful organism, when you got down to it. Emma slipped right in, following the disjointed, broken signals to their source, and picturing herself pulling down the volume on a CD player. Readjusting, muting, but not completely turning off the signals that let Jono know he'd gone too far. "Better?"
Jono	//Much.// Enough for him to think straight, at any rate. That on its own was plenty. Not being able to so much as piece together a sentence did not a useful Jono make, after all. //Thank you.// He sat in silence for a moment more, and then finally looked up. //If you trust me to give it another go, we can put a timer on it. Few minutes between each. T'recharge. T'keep my head in it.//
Emma	"Lucivar is still keeping them out, for now, so take the time that you need." Emma eyed him warily. "Do I need to hit you again?"
Jono	//Twice as hard if I do it again,// Jono replied, lifting a shoulder. //Make my teeth rattle.// If she was allowed to tell him to go sing for the wounded, he was allowed to make use of some good old-fashioned self-depreciating humour. //I'll be more careful this time. Clear my head between each go of it. It won't happen again.//

Kennedy	Kennedy was really kicking herself now for not bringing Joni, but she'd hated the idea of losing her prized crossbow in someone else's world. It killed her a little to say what she was about to in front of Lucivar, given what had happened the last time she'd been here and he'd kicked her ass, but now wasn't the time for it. "I can shoot," she said grimly, holding up the hand-crossbow that wasn't going to do much good at this range. "I could use a little more firepower than this, though."
Lucivar	Lucivar examined the bizarre weapon. He'd never seen anything like it, though the purpose itself was easy enough to figure out. It looked like by pulling the triggering mechanism below, one could fire something long, sharp, and nasty at an oncoming foe. "More firepower?" he asked, the word also unfamiliar. "What do you mean?"
Kennedy	"This is a great little weapon," she said, "but it's not gonna do much more than piss them off at that distance. It doesn't have the draw weight to--" Right, no weapons-geeking on him now. Kennedy sighed and rubbed a hand over her face. "Screw it, just give me enough room to swing a sword."
Lucivar	"Do you have one?" Lucivar asked. "Because the only one I have is my warblade and I'm not about to share." Sorry, he was a touch possessive about that. "I've got some bladed sticks, however."
Kennedy	Oh, now she looked mildly affronted. "Duh, I've got a sword." Kennedy tapped the pommel of the blade sheathed across her back. "Your warblade's completely safe from me. Really." The establishment would like to apologize for someone's incorrigibility.
Lucivar	Lucivar just saw that as a sign of a kindred spirit. "Good. Gonna remember some of those moves I taught you?" he asked with dry humor.
Kennedy	Kennedy liked dry humor. She could dig that. "What makes you think I ever forgot?"
Lucivar	"Then I'll try to leave some of them for you the next time I let a few in," Lucivar retorted with a wink.
Kennedy	Kennedy unsheathed her sword and gave him a tired but game smile. "I think we have ourselves a deal, then."

Ender	Ender wasn't a fighter. He wasn't one of the people who had as much as the strength of body to survive more than a few seconds out there - nevermind the fact that there was a voice in the back of his head screaming at him about not wanting to hurt anyone. But they were here, now, finding Karla in the middle of a siege. Sieges, he knew, were deadly: the only thing you could hope for was to wait it out until your opponent lost interest. At least according to the history books. There were no sieges in space. It was too big. He'd never encountered one like this before. He kept his eyes shut as Lucivar spoke, thinking. Poking around the possibilities. They didn't have to save this town-- just the people in it. That might give them a loophole. His eyes flickered back open. "What's the closest safe place from here?" he asked, forcing his voice to stay quiet, submissive. He didn't want to get drawn into being in any position of power, not again, but at the same time it felt impossible.
Lucivar	"Depends on who you're asking for," Lucivar said quietly. "For you? I'm assuming you came in on a Coach, since not all of you can ride the Winds. Get out of the village, grab a Wind, you'll be miles away in minutes." He jerked his chin towards the injured landens. "Them? There's no where they can get to in their condition. There's a Blood village, about a day and a half away by horse, but..." Even if they could sneak them out past the Jhinka, how many of them would survive the trek?
Ender	"I have no intention of leaving just yet," Ender said, following the line of his gaze, "Though I'm not a knock'em'down powers kind of guy, unfortunately." He rubbed at his elbow. "They don't need to get to a village; they just need to get far enough away that the Jhinka can't find them-- but we'd need some way to convince them we were already gone." He was talking at that pace that people used when they were thinking out loud, though he was doing so on purpose.
Lucivar	"Karla's in danger of shattering the Sapphire if she so much as tries to float something over to her," Lucivar said with a growl. Someone was going to get a few extra rounds with sticks in the near future, oh yes. "But Jaenelle might be able to help with something like that. She's a Black Widow, illusions are a specialty of the caste. Though she's not going to stop what she's doing until every landen in the building is Healed."
Ender	"She'll have to," Ender said, brusquely. "Whatever we do, we don't have the energy available to take care of everyone immediately and run a chance of getting out of this." Already he could feel it draining him just a little bit, but he ignored it.
Lucivar	"You feel like telling her that, you go right ahead," Lucivar said, raising an eyebrow. "I'm not even saying I disagree. If I had my way, she and Karla both would be long gone." Lucivar would feel bad about abandoning the landens, but not enough to lose sleep over it. "But she's a Healer and they get stubborn about things like that. You want to make your case to her though? You've got my blessing."
Ender	"I'll let you know if I come out of it alive," Ender said, glancing past Lucivar and into the hall. Underneath his 'easy-going' Fandom persona, he had stubbornness to rival mountains. Much to everyone's frustration.
Lucivar	"Still walking would also be a bonus," Lucivar said, giving him a half-grin. "In all seriousness, though. You find some way to get them out, you'll have the SaDiablo's gratitude." His, too, but Lucivar was kind of betting he'd be dead by then.
Ender	"Thank you," Ender said, his attention already turning elsewhere, "But gratitude's not what I'm here for. Good hunting." He began to move-- then stopped, and shot Lucivar a single glance. "Don't get killed," he added, matter-of-factly. "We can't afford it."
Lucivar	Lucivar barked a laugh. "We might not have much of a choice, boyo. Don't worry. I'm not going to die doing something stupid."

Dinah	Dinah was watching them above, wheeling and blurring. She looked over at Lucivar. "I hate the idea of killing them. Except." She took a breath. "I have a new ability since the last time I was here. A sonic scream. It should stun some of them out of the air, at least, and I don't know-- I don't think we have to drop the shield for it." She shrugged, then quietly said, "It's worth testing, anyway."
Lucivar	"I don't," Lucivar rumbled. "I've been fighting Jhinka for centuries. Mindless scum. They'd rather take than build, and destroy whatever they can't take." Lucivar, your prejudices are showing. "But you have something you want to try that won't require me to drop the shield? Go for it. Just remember, every Jhinka you don't kill now is just going to get back up and try to kill you later."
Dinah	Maybe they'd see what she could do, and back off? At least for a while? "We just need breathing space for a plan, now." Dinah's jaw set. "I have to give them a choice to leave, Lucivar. They're people. Horrible people, but still. I barely understand what's going on here, and killing's permanent. I'll do it if they don't take a warning. I can't do it without one. We're not that desperate yet." Soon, though.
Lucivar	"Because those piles of dead Jhinka along the perimeter of the shield don't make for an excellent warning of what will happen if they don't back the Hell down," Lucivar rumbled. "Vermin like them don't understand warnings. But I'm not about to stand in the way of anything that might work. So feel free."
Dinah	Dinah's jaw set again. Maybe it was stupid. She could hope, though. Had to. She stepped forward to the edge of the perimeter, not looking down at the corpses. Took a deep breath, let it go. Then another. Turned, and felt the scream build, and aimed her voice upward at the tightest knot of Jhinka, not even sure if it would penetrate the shield or send her to her knees with the force of the backlash. "Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee--!"
Jhinka	The sonic scream burst through the shield with no problems; it had been meant to stop physical attacks, not those wrought purely of energy. The cry hit those Jhinka directly in front of the shield. Blood spurted from eyes, ears, noises, and those afflicted Jhinka began to panic. Several turned on their fellows. A few more flew directly into the shield, howling with madness. Most of those broke their necks, sliding down the outside of the shield, with heads bent on awkward angles. One seemed to catch hold Dinah's eyes as he slid.
Dinah	Dinah's jaw shut with a snap as she watched, frozen. Closed her eyes. Opened them again. The look on the face of the who'd fallen across the dome was going to stay with her a very long time. I wanted to know... Now I do. She turned away, stomach in knots.
Lucivar	Lucivar settled his hand on Dinah's shoulder, keeping her faced away from the fallen Jhinka warrior. "It might give them pause," he said comfortingly.
Dinah	"You think?" Dinah asked, voice sounding flat to her own ears. She was still staring upward at the fighting Jhinka, tearing each other to pieces. She followed Lucivar's hand and hugged herself. "...I'll do it again. If we need to." She swallowed. "At least we know it can get through the shield?"
Lucivar	No, Lucivar really didn't think. The Jhinka would fly screaming into their own deaths and not bat an eye. Normally, Lucivar would have to even grudgingly admire that kind of courage. In the Jhinka, however, he called it simple hate-fueled insanity. "It's one more weapon than we had before," he agreed.
Dinah	"There's so many of them. And only one of me." Her shoulders hunched as she sat down on a rock. "I don't know what my limits are. Physically, I mean. I've never had to try this before." Dinah's expression turned bleak. "I don't want to waste it if it's not going to make a difference. Is that stupid?" Or cowardly? Except that she looked at Jaenelle and Karla, burning themselves to skeletons, and that didn't seem sane or helpful either.
Lucivar	"It's hard to say what's going to make a difference," Lucivar said softly. "Will they run? No. It's not in them to do so, and even if it were, they have the advantage. Are they going to win? Probably. There are something like six thousand of them and maybe twenty of us. Can you kill three hundred Jhinka? Can each of your friends?" He shook his head without waiting for her to answer.
Dinah	Dinah looked down at her hands, feeling nauseous. She'd killed-- twenty or thirty, she wasn't sure which, with her first Cry. Do that fifteen or twenty times? God. She was fairly sure she didn't have that in her, and it would only kill a fraction of them, and ... "Okay. We definitely need a better plan than fighting them off." She swallowed. "I'm ready to do that again as a diversion, or a ruse, though. If we need to drive them somewhere, it would seem to be-- effective." She closed her eyes. "I am so not a soldier."
Lucivar	"Your friend Ender?" The question was more on Ender's name than whether they were friends. "He has an idea to get everyone out, I think. You might want to talk to him about how your gift can be useful." Lucivar would be happy to get everyone out. Overjoyed, even. He just didn't think it would happen and so was keeping his focus on the Jhinka and how they could be destroyed.
Dinah	"God, I hope so." Dinah braced herself and got up. "Okay. I'll talk to him." She paused and pointed at him. "And maybe you should take a small break? Just to re-group? You're running on fumes, dude."
Lucivar	"I'll have a bath just as soon as we have water available," Lucivar told her. Then grinned, letting her know that even if the joke didn't fully translate, he understood the intent. "I can rest when I'm dead." He meant that quite literally.
Dinah	Dinah rolled her eyes at both sallies, and smirked before turning away. She might have been singing Macho Man as she walked over to Ender, though.
Lucivar	Mother Night have mercy, Lucivar almost thought they might be able to work something out. Dinah was as stubborn as a Sceltie pup when she got her teeth in something, be it a honey-pear or the idea that they’d all make it out of here alive. If the Darkness was kind, maybe they even would.
Dinah	After her ... 'experiment', Dinah wandered over to Ender at Lucivar's suggestion. "Hey," she said, subdued. "Did you see?" She looked away. "Lucivar said you were working on a plan. I don't know if it helps, but. I'll do that again, if it will."
Ender	"I'm working on a plan," Ender agreed, turning towards her. "Though I only have a fraction of an inkling about what we have to work with. We need to fool the Jhinka into thinking we're already dead -- it's the only thing that might buy us enough time to get all of these people out." Ender didn't feel remotely interested in making the Blood/landen distinction.
Dinah	Neither did Dinah, since she didn't see the point to it. It wasn't like anyone wanted to leave them. They were the whole reason be there. She frowned, crossing her arms, glad to have a mental puzzle to work on instead of the emotional one of how to cope with all the death and pain in the building behind her. "That's a really good idea. A drug, or something, maybe? Make it look like we pulled a Jonestown, rather than face them?" She looked up. "No, that won't work. We couldn't move them all fast enough. Let's see, all the powers of everyone who came in from Fandom...."
Ender	"If we were just going to use that, we'd be running to Emma to see if she could rustle up a large-scale illusion," Ender said, "But we're not. We have more resources than that-- Jaenelle being a particular ace in the hole. The only problem is that we don't know exactly how much control she has, or what she's capable of, and according to Lucivar she refuses to leave the wounded. I'm planning to talk to her." He gave Dinah a glance. "You'd be useful helping us clear the way if we're going out through the back door, as it were," he said. "You have powers, right?" He'd picked up a few stray details within the chaos of everything going on, but not enough to piece together anything conclusive about Dinah. Yet.
Dinah	"She probably could-- I just have no idea how well it would work on these guys," Dinah said, nodding upward. Then she grimaced. "Jaenelle ... good luck with that. Karla exhausted herself trying to keep up with her." She folded her arms, and tried to focus. "I have strong telekinesis, which I have good control over. And a sonic scream." She bit her lip. "I checked, it can get through the shield without taking it down. I can direct it forward, but I can't do much more than that, aside from vary the intensity a bit." From earth-shattering to just ear-piercing. She looked over at the dead bodies she'd caused at the edge of the shield, and bit her lip. "I'll do it again, but I don't know how many times I can do it. I've never tried to push the limits. It usually takes out whatever's in front of me."
Ender	"Any remote chance you'd be able to dig through the ground with either of those?" Ender asked, thinking. Powers to kill enemies, they had plenty of, and entirely not enough: practical powers, on the other hand, were vastly underrated.
Dinah	Dinah took a breath, brow furrowing, then nodded. "Actually, yes. The telekinesis can do that pretty easily, and it's nowhere near as powerful. I've practiced that, digging holes under the feet of people I was fighting. The Cry-- yeah, it can do it. I don't know how deep, or how far. What do you have in mind?" Anything that meant she didn't have to kill dozens of people was a plan she preferred.
Ender	"We need them to think we're dead long enough to get out," Ender replied. "They're fliers - their orientation goes north, west, east, south, and up. Which means we just have to think around them." The enemy's gate was down, and all that. "If you can't get far enough, at least we might be able to burrow deep enough that they'll think we've vanished."
Dinah	She nodded hard, still frowning, trying to calculate in her head. "Through water, I've seen the shockwave go at least a hundred feet. Through soil-- I don't know. Less. Half that? I can try it, although... I'll need *some* kind of cover, or else it'll be noticeable when I'm doing it. The sound and dust. Even a smokescreen will help, something simple." Dinah cocked her head. "Unless you were thinking of doing it under the building?"
Ender	Ender shot her a look. "Just avoid bringing the house down," he said, which answered that question.
Dinah	She grinned a little in relief. "If the soil's soft enough-- I can at least get an area big enough to hide everyone, I'm sure of it." Or maybe a real tunnel, something to get them far away... "And I'll try for more."
Ender	"This depends on whether Jaenelle will be able to pull it off," Ender noted. "Don't do anything until I get back to you." He studied her. "When I do, don't 'try' anything. Just do it. If we don't get out of here, everyone's dead." No pressure.
Dinah	Dinah felt all the blood drain from her face, then looked over at Lucivar, who'd been pouring all his energy into the shield. Because Ender was right, there was no point in doing it half-way, if... If there was no other option after that. She swallowed. It was still a better plan than killing fractions of Jhinka for no result. Light-headed, she nodded. "I'll wait until you say."
Ender	"I'll be back," he said, and slipped away to look for Jaenelle.
Dinah	Dinah sat down and concentrated on breathing calmly. Waiting.

[Same alphabet soup goes here. Warning for violence. Again, still mostly 'inspired by' events in Chapter 13 of Heir to the Shadows. Part two of two; for master post list, please go here.]