CW: self-sacrifice, death. Optional monster bone construct, body horror. Note: adapted quotes from Gideon the Ninth
The world vibrates around you—you, your necromancer Harrowhark Nonagesimus, and Camilla Hect, possibly the most badass woman and cavalier you've ever met. A six inch wall of bone stands between you all and whatever makes the WHAM WHAM WHAM noise against the barrier. Harrow's covered in blood sweat, pouring down her painted face.
Each of you have a terrible plan.
Harrow's: Take the Sixth, get into a brace position, and I’ll break you through the wall. Bones float. It’s a long drop to the sea, but all you have to do is survive the fall. We know that the ships have been called. Get off the planet as soon as you can. I’ll distract her as long as possible: all you have to do is live.
Camilla's: Let me out. I can provide the distraction. The other plan isn't going to work. If we could hold her off and wait on the shore, yes. But we can't.
Yours: You pace, studying the space you are boxed into. The dead leaves. The cracked flagstones. [...] The powdery grey drifts of bone. The iron spikes on the railings. [...] "Nav," Harrow says, "what are you doing?"
"The cruelest thing anyone has ever done to you in your whole entire life, believe me," you say. "You'll know what to do, and if you don't do it, what I'm about to do will be no use to anyone."
You turn and squint, gauging the angle. You judge the distance. If you do it right, you can fall forward, right on the iron spikes.
Which plan do you choose? The correct ending, the one that plays out to complete the memory, the one where anyone lives at all, is the last, but you can play out the others in battle against a lyctor and her construct—both so powerful that one of the best necromancers of her generation and two of the best cavaliers are child's play. Harrow with bone nearly unconscious, Camilla with twin knives and a bad arm, and you as Gideon with her broadsword and a bad knee.
How to Save a Life
Note: adapted quotes from Gideon the Ninth
Each of you have a terrible plan.
Harrow's: Take the Sixth, get into a brace position, and I’ll break you through the wall. Bones float. It’s a long drop to the sea, but all you have to do is survive the fall. We know that the ships have been called. Get off the planet as soon as you can. I’ll distract her as long as possible: all you have to do is live.
Camilla's: Let me out. I can provide the distraction. The other plan isn't going to work. If we could hold her off and wait on the shore, yes. But we can't.
Yours: You pace, studying the space you are boxed into. The dead leaves. The cracked flagstones. [...] The powdery grey drifts of bone. The iron spikes on the railings. [...] "Nav," Harrow says, "what are you doing?"
"The cruelest thing anyone has ever done to you in your whole entire life, believe me," you say. "You'll know what to do, and if you don't do it, what I'm about to do will be no use to anyone."
You turn and squint, gauging the angle. You judge the distance. If you do it right, you can fall forward, right on the iron spikes.
Which plan do you choose? The correct ending, the one that plays out to complete the memory, the one where anyone lives at all, is the last, but you can play out the others in battle against a lyctor and her construct—both so powerful that one of the best necromancers of her generation and two of the best cavaliers are child's play. Harrow with bone nearly unconscious, Camilla with twin knives and a bad arm, and you as Gideon with her broadsword and a bad knee.