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Just a guy named Joe......
He cannot spare the strength to smile, but he is content. The strain of prolonging the effects has been well worth it, and the arrival of Echo only underscores the effect he has been building toward achieving. Already he has eased his concentration away from the peripheral details of the illusion in favor of heightening the mountings feeling of unease within the she-creature. In her fright she changes form, taking on the bearing of a tigress – a creature of fang and claw. And instinct. Her instincts tell her to fear and be ready, and her instincts shall be rewarded.
The moment is at hand. Indeed, it is rare to have so perfect an opportunity against so formidable an opponent. He can ill afford to expend himself on so dangerous an enchantment as this. But art, especially art that is great has a price.
The ear hears the voice of Larry Silverfall as he shouts an order. But apart from the hearing of the ear another voice speaks in quiet decision, the words are those of glib confidence but the tone is neither glib nor warm. “Let’s dance, baby girl.”
The eye of the onlooker sees the hand of Larry Silverfall move outward and snatch at shadows. But unseen the slender fingers of another hand stretch outward and these fingers seize not shadows but grasp instead the fears and suspicions of the lycanthrope. Physically the arm which reaches is weak, but there is no breaking the grasp of its fingers. The eye sees Larry move and manipulate the shadow as if he were drawing back a curtain. And all the while unseen fingers draw open the curtains of instinct and thought that the deepest fears, those phantoms and nightmares that dwell beneath wakeful confidence, might step forward.
Nanashi grows stiff. Joseph ceases to trouble himself with the details of the seeming he has produced – its elements will continue to move for some minutes yet and then they will dissipate. The artwork, however, still remains incomplete, awaiting those final few brushstrokes. Her ferocity is great, so bestial and intense as to verge on the overwhelming, but he will not abandon so fine an undertaking so close to the point of completion. He seizes her hatred and pulls at it seeking the fears that lurk within it until at last he finds their object. She stiffens.
The onlooker’s eye sees only that Larry Silverfall has parted a curtain of shadow and that the lycanthrope has grown still and her eyes have widened in hatred. And terror.
Nanashi sees, however. She sees that one whom she hates and fears above all others. She sees her brother and sees within his eyes a hatred that burns with more fury than even her own. It has come this, she realizes. All of this was but a trap to leave her vulnerable before the angry hatred of her brother. She does not realize how correct she is.
Her spirit is great and her will to live is strong. She roars an angry challenge and leaps at his throat, hungry for his blood, but his movements, the movements of her own terror and frightened instincts, are much more swift than the movement of her body. The scent of her own blood reaches her nostrils even before she feels the burning pain in her throat.
The ear hears a roar and the eye sees her leap. The ear hears her gasp of pain and the eye sees her movement arrested and watches her collapse onto the floor. There is a rattle in her throat and then she is still. As still as the dead.
To the ear that is careful and attentive in its hearing, another sound might just be heard arising from somewhere beneath the sights and smells and sounds still so active in this place. The sound of knees hitting the floor and of the labored breathing of an artist pushed beyond his own limits and who needs to gather his strength before he might sign his work.
ooc: The spell is Phantasmal Killer. Nanashi is not dead – Joseph did not have enough in the tank to finish her, but she’s out of action for at least a couple days – this is not the kind of thing one just shrugs off. Determining the extent and effects of any emotional trauma is in Larry’s hands.
As a result of his exertions Joseph has lost 1 point of constitution permanently.
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