"My Engineers say this ceiling could go at any moment." Dreyfuss heard teh words, and the familiarity of the voice caused little markers to jump up and wave in the back of his skull, but he ignored them, to find Irene and help her to save her immortality.
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Mondragon watched as Jaisen simply got up and moved away from him across the...what looked like an old ballroom floor. HE shrugged and realized the man must still be in shock; as he remembered, he always threw himself into a battle body and soul, and ofteb emerged surpris3 dthat either were strill attached.
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Jaisen had seen something that looked like an old daguerrotype image, on the mantle of a long-disused fireplace, the mirror above it cracked and shattered from either the fight, or years of neglect; He just had not had the time to work his way over to it during the fight, being preoccupied with blasting that Quee--he stopped as he picked up the daguerrotype, his mind and brain finally catching up with that part of the past as related to current events, and he remembered...
Gods, did I do that? no, surely not! it must have been my imagin... where's my sword? He looked across teh room, and saw it where it had fallen, still GLOWING RED!? he looked down at himself, then, and saw what had been done to his clothes; he was not naked, by any means, but his clothing looked as if all of it had been burnt, and metal items on his belt and elsewhere looked as if they had become hot to the point of plasticity and dripped downward...
He shook his head violently, and suddenly remembered the daguerrotype, which depicted...what? He turned it in his hands, and nearly dropped it in fright. The picture showed something that might have been Irene, if she had fallen into an erupting volcano, and then had been dragged through a cutlery drawer by a team of wild horses. Yikes, he thought, This must be it. He stuck the silver-framed icon into the inside pocket of his now-threadbare coat, and started following the others out, looking for Irene. He glanced back and saw her, and called, "Irene! I THINK I HAVE IT! and she hurried over, and asked him to describe it to her. He kept the daguerrotype safely in his coat pocket where she could not see it and ruin the spell, and described every horrific detail. Finally, she nodded her head. "that's it," she said.
"Hurry, then, lets get out of here, our rescue party says the ceilings going to fall." Dryefuss said, urgently, and they exited a bit behind the others, just as teh ceiling caved in, chasing them through the short corridor with stinging clouds of dust and small debris, to emerge, Dreyfuss' arm around his cousin's shoulders to shield her, in the dust-clouded doorway. Itwas apparently a surprise to everyone that they had escaped tehcave-in., to judge by the cheers that erupted at their entrance...