Make the Decision

Log Info

• Title: Make the Decision

• Emitter: Zeke

• Characters: Andelena, Dolan, Zeke

• Place: Temple of Daeus

• Summary: Dolan is in critical condition after his ordeal at the hands of Kol, and while Zeke is giving him the best of care, he has to give Andelena the choice between two methods of care that could have lasting or even lethal repercussions. Andelena eventually comes to a decision, and it appears to have worked out well, as Dolan emerges from unconsciousness successfully.

The first thing that happens, as the group enters the temple and the rush of priests come forward to figure out what's going on, is that they chase off everyone. Everyone but Andelena of course. Since she is next of kin, she alone is allowed deeper into the temple as they cart Dolan to a private room where he can be cared for. They may in fact have not allowed her beyond the waiting room, but she is a cleric and thus allowed to stand in a corner while Dolan's injuries are assessed and... A more powerful cleric called upon.

This is a blue-scaled sith-makar who though quiet in demeanor initially quickly takes charge of the room. He reassesses Dolan's injuries, and orders a tincture made to keep Dolan unconscious for at least the length of time that it takes to do what needs doing. Then, carefully targeted spells are applied, and the sith - who's name it turns out is interestingly enough Zeke - clears the room of all but one of the clerics who aided him thus far. The work has clearly taken something out of everyone present. Many spells were wrought in the space of a precious, important seconds.

Now however, Zeke turns his attention on the woman in the corner, left by herself to worry while they worked. He motions to one of the three stools in the room, for her to sit, and begins to make two pots of tea incongruously. "Thisss one musst asssk you to make a hard choisce." He begins, and Andelena may note then that though Dolan is covered with a sheet, his chest still bears the mark of daggers pressing against it.

Andelena of Selentia had removed her helmet as she walked into the waiting room, her copper-blonde mane tied back into a ponytail and drenched with sweat, but she hardly even noticed with her attention focused so squarely on the man she just snapped away from the fangs of complete and utter horror. But the rescue is not yet over, and the Sunguard hasn't relented... and will not relent, even if what she is called upon to do now is not to lift a blade but to aid in healing, although her role is mainly to watch in the event of her spotting anything that the other pairs of eyes might miss and providing valuable context to the healers that attend to Dolan.

There'd been a look in her eyes as Zeke stepped in, one of recognition, and it had followed with a reverent bow of the head. But when he approaches her and says those words, Andelena looks at him with a look reminiscent of the grave: long and dark.

"Yeah," she says, quietly with a nod, her gaze turning to the sheet-covered Brydion briefly before looking back at Zeke. "I figured there would be. What're my options, Sunguard?" It's a title said reverently, the brash bravado traded in for faith.

"There are asss you can sssee sseveral knivess placed in his chessst." Zeke doesn't sit down, he is pretending to be focused on the tea, but it's not hard to tell that his real attention is on Dolan. Watching the rise and fall of his chest with great attentiveness. "Thisss one could remove them, but he hasss lossst a great deal of blood. If thisss one doess sso, even the healing thiss one can provide will not return that blood to him. He may not sssurvive. Even if he doesss, it will weaken him a lot."

Zeke continues without hesitation. "Or, they can be left in. To be removed asss he healss. There isss risssk here asss well. That he will lossse ssensssation in hiss flessh, that he will be... upssset by hisss condition. We will be forsced to keep him very ssstill, because if he movesss with them in hisss ssskin, they will caussse bleeding and perhapsss infection until they are removed."

Andelena sighs deeply as she considers the options given to her. She casts a long, long look at Dolan again, her steel-grey eyes tracing the form of the knives underneath the sheet. There's a twitch at the edge of her lips again, like she wants to speak, but nothing immediately comes out.

A moment passes.

"Just so we're clear," she manages, finally, "it sounds like there's a higher risk of something going wrong leading to immediate death with the first option, compared to the second, which... means he might lose that sensation of feeling in his chest, possibly forever. But so long as you keep him still, it's safer."

She purses her lips together as she looks at Zeke. "Can you give... an estimate? Of how likely the outcomes are for both options? I know it's difficult to know, and some things are for the gods alone to decide, but... I just want to make a decision knowing everything that I could."

Zeke does hesitate here, Andelena is very correct, and giving some kind of estimate is difficult. He pours out some tea for himself and Andelena, the aroma pungent in the small room. It is in fact notably warmer here than elsewhere in the temple. "We are heating thisss room, becaussse we can not put blanketsss on him. Thisss increassess risssk. Of infection. Where the woundsss are, sssuch can reach hisss heart. But a death thisss way would not happen immediately, thisss isss true. Risssk isss..."

He holds a tea cup out for her. "Risssk iss hard to ssay. If he movesss a lot, rissk isss greater. Will he move when he wakess? There isss no way of knowing. It may be sssafer to remove them now and have him weak, but you will have no chansse of sssaying good-bye." Zeke's voice is gentle, and there's something in his gaze that suggests that he understands this better than he ought to.

Andelena takes the teacup, but she holds it for a moment, just considering the words. The warmth of the cup around her hands, which have been stripped of the steel gauntlets she had been wearing, is a small comfort. She closes her eyes and considers it.

"In other words, the slower way is... safer under entirely perfect conditions, but we cannot guarantee perfect conditions. We don't know how much Bry will move. I don't know, either. As much as I know him... I can't speak to how he'll react on basic instinct. The man's been through something traumatic." Andelena finally pauses to take a sip of tea again, like she's trying to will herself to not contemplate what Dolan had been through.

The cup goes down to the table. There's a breath that leaves Andelena as she opens her eyes again. "I... told Dolan, before I brought him here--when he was conscious--that I loved him. If we take them all out at once and he... I won't have said goodbye, but I'll have said the next best thing before..."

The voice hitches in her throat. She shakes her head. "How much time do we have?" she asks. In other words, how much time does she have to think it over.

"Thisss one musst know ssoon." Zeke replies gently. "He will awaken from the sssleep we have given him. I mussst give him the tincture or not." He motions to the second tea pot, and remains standing.

"Thisss one hass enough time to tell you a sstory though. There wasss one, who wasss sssorely wounded in mind and body. They came back to their kith and kin, but becaussse no-one thought of what they would want - what they would need - they injured some-one very clossse to them."

Zeke's voice is gentle, and suggests more than a passing familiarity with this story. "When you make thissss choisce, you mussst think: What would my mate want? What would he do if he were awake?" He swishes his tail once. "You can not know exactly what he would do, and thisss one will not betray hisss privasscy by telling you the full extent of hisss injuriesss, but it isss besst to try and put your-ssself in hiss plassce. If you can."

There's a look in Andelena's eyes as Zeke tells the story. The more junior of the two Sunguards is a perceptive, if not always shrewd woman, and the look asks a question unsaid, but easily read: did that happen to someone close?

And it remains unsaid. For that particular moment in time. It is a thread that will be picked up later.

She draws in a breath and closes her eyes. "If I was in Bry's shoes... The bravest damn man there's ever been... and I was on that table now..." It's a murmur.

It's followed by a hand to Daeus's symbol around her neck, which has seen more than its fair share of consultations as of late. "I know losing the sensation in his chest would upset him," she answers. "He's woken up from things worse than this with things he's lost permanently that he grapples with every day. He has to deal with people's harsh gazes and it's not fucking fair."

The curse word leaves her mouth unbidden, a hint of the typical Andelena leaving her--the lioness that Selentia had lost when she was disowned by her family, the lioness that has stuck by her mate until he left her side to protect her. But she looks apologetic quickly afterward. "Sorry," she murmurs. "I just... I love him so much. And it's unfair what's happened to him. What's happened to him before and what's happened to him now. I..."

She breathes in. "I think I know what I want to do."

Zeke listens to every word without comment, without interruption. He allows Andelena as much time as she requires for this. To say what she needs to say, and think the thoughts that are inside her mind. It's necessary, and he waits hovering near the second tea pot for her decision. One that will have him either adding the tincture to Dolan's sleep, or sitting down to share a cup with Andelena. "Thisss one undersstandsss. What isss your choisce?"

"I have to give him a chance at not adding one more thing he has to deal with every day of his life," Andelena responds. "An eye, a scarred face--he already deals with those, forever. Nothing short of a miracle will fix those. I... I have to try."

Her eyes well up with tears. "I have to have faith," she murmurs, lifting a hand up to her eyes to brush them away, even as they keep coming. "I have to have faith. Take them all out at once."

Zeke moves swiftly then, pouring the tincture from the second pot and pouring it into a cup. It's less tea than he'd given Andelena. He motions her back from the bed, and nods to the other cleric in the room seriously. This cleric moves the sheets down to Dolan's hips while Zeke carefully tips the cup against Dolan's lips and works it down his throat. This will keep him unconscious for what comes next...

Which is the removal of the thin knives themselves.

Zeke makes quick work of this, pulling the knives free with quick efficiency. He does it as fast as he can without causing further damage, though more damage is unavoidable in truth. Soon Dolan is covered in blood again. The two clerics murmur to one another, but for the most part the work is done in silence and then Zeke is healing the damage. He sighs then, cleaning his claws and motioning for the cleric to return to his place beside Dolan's bedside.

Then Zeke turns his attention to Andelena. "Now all we can do isss wait. If he diesss of sshock, or blood losss... but ssso far he ssseemss ssstable. You ssshould sssit. Drink your tea." He motions to one of the two free stools.

There's not much to say of Andelena's reaction to the whole procedure. She watches. She bites her lips hard and chews on the inside of her mouth to keep from making a single noise that would distract from the procedure. But just like before with the scry... She looks. She looks at what was done to Brydion Donnely, and she remembers it for later.

When it's done, Andelena takes a stool as directed. She holds the teacup in her hands again and... she sips. Then she casts a long look at Zeke--not accusatory, not judging, more... thoughtful.

"Sunguard," she says, again in a respectful tone for her senior. "I... Please don't elaborate if it is too painful, and tell me to sod off outside if it's offensive. But it seemed like that story was something close to home."

She puts the tea down again. "I hope... the person in that story is better now. Or is getting better."

The blue-scale takes his own tea, but doesn't offer any to the cleric at the bedside. He sniffs the water as he sits down and thrums low in his throat. It's a thoughtful noise and he sits. "Thisss one mussst asssk a scertain amount of forgivnessss. The ssstory, it wasss of thisss one." Zeke nods to her, his green eyes still mostly for Dolan. Watching him breathe. His chest has been cleaned of blood, but there are scars there now. Things that could not fully heal. Too much time had passed for there to be no damage at all, but the scars are less than they might have been. "Thisss one isss better now."

Clearly there is more to the story, and he does not seem disinclined to say more, but rather as if he doesn't want to discomfort her with something that she may not wish to know.

Andelena smiles lightly at Zeke. "There's nothing to forgive," she says. "It is uncomfortable for a lot of folks to talk about what they've been through. It's easier to talk about someone else. You have to wear armor into battle, and you have to be mindful of what's best for your own head, even if you're helping other people."

She looks back to Bry on the table again and watches him too. It's while her eyes are trained on him that she says, "The worst I've ever been through is nothing compared to other people. It's one thing to walk in someone else's shoes, but it's another thing to own a pair like someone else's. You get an idea, but not the full reality. Breaking in the shoe is different compared to walking around in a new-to-you pair. Regardless, I... still try. I have to try. Otherwise, the onus of trying to heal and trying to save is put on the people who have been hurt the most, and that's an unfair..."

The junior Sunguard catches herself. "No, an unjust thing to ask. I don't know what it's like to be Bry on that table right now. I don't know what it was like for you to endure your hardship, Sunguard. Those shoes are not broken in on my feet. But if I have an idea, which I do, then I can still do what I do as a Sunguard."

Her fingers go to the symbol of Daeus around her neck again. "The rest is up to Him."

Zeke again falls to silence. It's clear that he's listening attentively however. The sith drinks his tea slowly, obviously enjoying the brew and pays attention. "The Dragonfather isss with usss indeed. That thisss one wasss here isss a blesssing. There are few in the temple who have the prayersss prepared to heal what he hasss been through." This is not a boast of any kind, but rather pure observation.

Andelena looks... a little bashful. "I didn't mean to downplay your efforts at all," she says. "You're right, though. You being here with the prayers prepared was a miracle. Your work here with Bry is..."

She sucks in a breath, batting away more tears that are welling up in her eyes with a brush of her hands. "I honestly can't thank you enough. Really. Truly. I don't have much in this world in terms of people and creatures I love. I have... two little kittens, and I have a little brother who's back in my life again, but Bry's on a whole other level entirely. It's why I agreed to marry him two times now."

The junior Sunguard looks thoughtful, looking at the platinum dragon ring on her left hand. "When he's up for it... we're getting married. We've dragged it on long enough." That's a firm conviction.

Zeke swishes his tail and shakes his head. "Thisss one wass not..." He doesn't have the words in tradespeak to explain what he'd meant so he falls silent and lets her talk about herself and the man on the bed. "Thisss one isss happy for you. Cihuua isss... Complicated, but for mossst it iss a very good thing. If you have love, you ssshould make Cihuua with-out hesssitation."

Andelena looks at Zeke for a moment as she sort of analyzes his response. "Sunguard," she says. "I... get the impression you have a lot to talk about. And I'm not normally a pry-into-people's-business person, but..."

She smiles lightly. "Especially not from a senior Sunguard. But you seem like you have knowledge to impart. Wisdom, even. And, honestly, I could use a lot more of that. More friends, too."

Zeke finally looks away from Dolan, at Andelena. "Thisss one doesss, but you may not wissh to hear it." He glances toward the cleric at her side and then at her once again. "Thisss one hasss sseen injury like hisss before. Thisss one ass thisss one sssaid; will not dissclossse all of hisss injuriesss, but he hasss been... through a lot. You can sssee thisss?" He motions toward her clerical vestments with one hand. "Then you know that he will be changed. That he will have ssscarss in hiss mind. They may make him... different from the man you wisshed to make Chiuua with."

Andelena looks back at Dolan, considering Zeke's words. It's another one of those long moments in a conversation that's been full of them for quite a few reasons. But a look down to her ring gives her a nod.

"I've already seen him changed," she says. "He's different from the farmboy I fell in love with when I was a teenager. Then... the demon. When I found him next, he was different, but his love for me was still the same. I fell in love with him again."

Her gaze softens as she looks at Brydion, watching him breathe. "I know that this will change him. I know that things will change. And... there are things that won't. For those things... nothing has changed, but nothing will stay the same."

A little breath leaves her. "Call it naivety. I know the possibility exists, but... I have faith in him. I love him. Despite everything, I love him."

There is a small amused noise from the sith. "That isss love. Love isss naïve." He sits back on his stool, finishing his tea and looking at Dolan. "He ssshould wake sssoon. Then we will know more how he will be." It seems that Zeke takes this as a good sign.

As if on cue, there's a stir from the bed. It's not a good noise, though, not a stretch or a blink. No, it's a whimper. It's a shift in the bed, as one struggling. And then, it's an out-and-out scream as Dolan bolts awake, adrenaline and abused muscles prompting him to sit bolt upright in the bed, looking around with his lone chocolate-brown eye wilder than his hair.

Immediately the cleric beside the bed moves, pushing Dolan back down onto the bed with care, but also strength. "Hey there." The man says, pressing the one-eyed man backwards.

Andelena nearly jumps from her stool as Dolan screams. There's a split-second where the tension that she's been quietly carrying is wide and bright on her face, a flash of alarm. But very rapidly, the expression disappears, and she gets carefully to her feet.

Unlike the cleric attending to him, Andelena walks over, calmly and serenely. "Bry, I'm here," she says, with all the warmth in her heart, all the sun in her soul. "You're in the Temple of Daeus. Sunguard Zeke is here."

Those sunlit words go unheard as the cleric pushes his shoulder back to the bed, and that lone chocolate-brown eye is wild, terrified, seeing something that is not there. "No! Get away from me, you bastard! I've had enough of your toys! No more! Please!" It's virtually a desperate scream that becomes a scream of pain as he tries to wrest himself free of the restraining cleric's hands and a sharp *pop* ensues.

He falls back to the bed, then, breathing hard, that lone chocolate brown eye staring at something that only he can see, the left arm unconsciously flung out towards the wall.

Andelena is patient. She's seen something like this before. She knows now isn't the time to to embrace him tenderly--especially not with the nature of his trauma. She continues to stay nearby at the foot of the bed. "You're here at the Temple of Daeus," she says again, soothingly. "I'm Andelena, your fiancee. He can't hurt you here."

She casts a look up to Zeke, hoping he's able to aid here, before she looks back down to see if Dolan did dislocate something--since it sounded like he did.

Zeke is slow to his feet, rising upwards laboriously. He thumps the cleric holding Dolan down on the head with his quarterstaff and the cleric looks at him bristling. "Let him go. He will hurt him-ssself more if you do not. Better that he re-injure him-ssself, than that you do it for him." Zeke says this strictly and the cleric abides, stepping back and Zeke's green eyes follow him for a moment. He notes Andelena's words, and calmly pours out another cup of tea. He holds this out to Dolan, wafting the scent toward the man. It has a very pungent minty aroma. "Sssaa. You are in the heart of the Dragonfathersss handsss. Ssssmell and know your-ssself."

It takes a hot minute. It does. Dolan relaxes almost the instant the cleric's hands are removed from him, but simply stares at the ceiling unblinking for several breaths, breathing hard, eyes wide, but eventually he slows down, sniffing as a measure of sense returns to his eyes. The fear is still there, along with no small measure of pain, but that, at least, he seems to be able to deal with. "I - I can't see." He blinks, then tries to turn his head to the right, a thing that also appears to hurt since he lets out a small gasp. His voice is hoarse. "Shit. Where's Andie? Did she get out?" He sounds like he's about to sit up again.

"I'm here, Bry." Andelena's still at the foot of the bed, still speaking to him calmly. "We made it out of there. Don't sit up; you just popped your shoulder." She can't quite speak for Verna and Serene, as she's been here at the Temple the entire time, but she is otherwise speaking true.

Zeke slowly - very slowly withdraws the tea. "Do not move Dolan." He instructs, setting the tea down. "We can move you, but we ssshould fix your ssshoulder firsst, and it may be uncomfortable for you for uss to move you." He explains this slowly, clearly trying to make sure that Dolan understands every word. He looks at Andelena. "Doess he not normally have thisss eye misssing? It wasss healed, sso thisss one asssumed it an old injury."

"Yeah. I know." Dolan's breathing is a little faster. "He played with it like a toy. He put it back when he was done." Clearly, it hurts quite a bit, but he just nods, and tries very hard to still himself. Mostly even succeeds. "Andie, do you have my eye? And who's - is that Sunguard Zeke?" He at least appears to know the sith-makar. "Yeah, it's old, but - I can't see. Put it in and I'll be able to see." He keeps trying to turn his head so he can see Zeke, and. then turning it back, as if turning his head too far is painful.

"Yes, he wears an artifice eye," Andelena responds to Zeke. "He gave it to me before he left with Kol."

Then she turns to Dolan. "Yes, it's Sunguard Zeke. I don't have your eye with me right now, baby," Andelena says, soothingly. "I brought it to Verna so she could scry and find you. She has it at the moment--I'll get it from her when I can. I brought you straight here and I haven't left yet. Plus, nobody besides an incredibly select few are allowed in here with you."

Zeke shifts, leaning over the bed so that Dolan can look at him without turning his head. "We will have to touch you to put the sshoulder back in place. It would be bessst if we can sssit you up, and then turn you ssso that you fassce thiss sside of the room. Isss thissss acceptable to you?"

It takes Dolan a moment or two to digest that, and the one eye blinks slowly. It's almost like he's trying to run through a mental assessment. "I - I - let me try." He doesn't seem to want to be touched, but he slowly starts to push himself up, with his right hand only, holding the left tucked close to himself, and gets maybe six inches before he collapses back on the bed again, squeezing his eye shut. "Fuck. Ow. That was a mistake."

"Okay, baby. Go get it as soon as you can. That and - can I have my holy symbol back? Please?"

Andelena winces as Dolan tries to sit up. "Take it easy for now, honey," she says. "I'll get with the Mourner soon. Your holy symbol is with her, too, but you can have mine for now if it'd bring you comfort? Otherwise, I can help Sunguard Zeke with the shoulder if you're willing."

There's nothing but kindness and compassion in her voice, just as always.

Zeke watches the man move with care, shaking his head at the cleric who inches toward Dolan. Then he returns his attention to the man on the bed. "If you wissh to move, you will have to allow usss to help. We will do ass you sssay, but thisss isss not sssome-thing you can do your-ssself." His voice is calm and even, if Dolan were sith, he'd know that Zeke was exuding calm.

Dolan closes his eyes and is silent for a minute, clearly thinking. "I - Andie, can you help? I hate this being blind shit. Just keep talking. I can hear you and it kind of tells me where you are, okay?" His eyes are still closed, but he opens them now. "When we're done, is there anything to eat? I - don't know how long I was there but he didn't feed me. Just water."

"Yeah. I can keep talking," Andelena replies, smiling wider as she listens to him. "I'm sure that there'll be something to eat, although it'll be light stuff for a while. I'll try and figure out how to make you breakfast here at some point." The line is said affectionately, and with a little bit of a smirk. It's the only food she knows how to make halfway well.

"You were gone about two days," she goes on to say. "Betting you haven't eaten in longer. Body can go without food longer than water, but that's still a lot of time to go without anything to eat." The last is an obvious fact, but it's also pretty obvious at this point that she's doing as her man asked.

Zeke waits patiently, hovering as Andelena starts talking. Still, he doesn't touch Dolan. Not yet. "Thisss one iss going to touch your right ssshoulder. It isss not currently injured, ssso it ssshould not be painful, but it may feel tenssse." He speaks just loud enough to be heard around Andelena's words, but he still doesn't move yet. "Nod if thisss isss acceptable."

"Go ahead." Dolan's words are terse, but he nods and lets his eyes go to the ceiling, waiting. "I - I don't remember the last time I ate. Maybe while we were shopping? I remember that. We were shopping. You probably need to take care of the cats," he remembers suddenly.

Andelena chuckles a little. "It's okay, baby," she says, still warmly as ever. "Patches and Spot are fine. I left them food before we left to come help you. I'll duck out a little later, and I'll give Patches extra kisses just from you later."

There's a sort of sparkle in her steel-grey eyes as she talks. "I'll make sure they don't do anything to the apartment while you're recovering here, either," she says. "I'm on cleaning duty until you can come home." The comfort of being able to talk to him like this is evident in her face and her eyes--finally a sense of relief settling in. It's Dolan. He's here. She succeeded.

Zeke moves just as Dolan gives his permission, sliding one claw under Dolan's shoulder and across his newly-healed back. The sith-makar bears up the weight of the other man, pulling him into an upright position as smoothly as he can. It's not strictly fast, because he doesn't want to jostle the injured shoulder, but it's not slow either. Once Dolan is upright, Zeke keeps one claw on that shoulder to keep Dolan upright. "Andelena, can you keep your hand here while thisss one ressssetss the ssshoulder?"

GAME: Dolan rolls will: (20)+10: 30 (CRITICAL SUCCESS)

The room goes spinning around Dolan as he is pulled into an upright position, and he tenses himself, waiting for agony that - doesn't come. Scales on skin is a wholly new sensation, and the claws nudging his skin don't hurt - leaning against Zeke is surprisingly - different. Memories of a different skin, cold flesh - a shudder ripples through him, but he pushes it firmly out of his mind, instead cracking a joke. "You're cleaning? Oh no." There's real affection, there, but something trying to fight through a spinning room to focus. "Can you bring my pack here? Or at least the totems? If nothing else - the Daeus one?" There is a curious clarity in his words.

"I brought the totems with me. I left most of the rest of your pack at home," Andelena says, a little bashfully, but with a grin. "I knew I was fucking up somewhere, but I was in a scramble to take only the stuff I thought would be important to bring. No wonder why you always pack for me, Bry. And... do most of the cleaning."

She retrieves the totem of Daeus. "I'm coming in with the totem, Bry--just hold your hand out and I'll put it in for you."

"Wait a moment." Zeke counters. "Wait until hisss ssshoulder iss sset." Zeke moves across Dolan's vision to his other side, still holding Dolan's arm with one claw. "Thisss one isss going to touch your dissslocated ssshoulder. It may be unpleassant. Thisss one will be asss ssswift asss posssible. Do you undersstand."

GAME: Dolan rolls will: (17)+10: 27

Relief floods Dolan at seeing the totems, and he fairly sags, using his good arm to help hold himself upright. He's closed his remaining eye, his head dropped towards his chest. "Do it," he hears himself say. "It's not going to stay for shit. He - he had me hanging from it. It comes out on its own." He's starting to breathe faster as the memories flood him. "I'm going to teach you to pack a bag one of these days, baby. It's not like we're not going to go back out again."

"I know, I know," Andelena says, still smiling bashfully. She doesn't move from the foot of the bed since Zeke's going in to fix the shoulder. In the meantime, she keeps talking about the mundane, because it's helpful sometimes to have a distraction for what's to come. "There's a lot I still have to learn from you, but that's part of the joy of being with you, Bry."

The sith-makar takes Dolan at his word, resetting the shoulder immediately with a pop. "We will ssstrap thissss ssshoulder to your chessst." There's no way of knowing if Dolan will hear or understand the words, but Zeke says them anyways, trying to comfort the other man with knowledge of what will be done to take care of him. He nods to Andelena. "You may give him the thing now."

Dolan's only answer is a pained scream as the shoulder pops back into place, far, far too easily, and slumps against whatever or whoever is supporting him, blacking out as he is rocked by a combination of pain and dizziness that leaves him completely unresponsive.

"Bry!" Andelena says out of pure instinct once Dolan slumps down. The totem is put away quickly back into her bag, and she immediately goes to try and help Zeke make him comfortable.

Once he's settled, Andelena finds herself making another cup of tea, sitting back on the stool by the corner of the room. She watches him rest, and she puts a hand to the symbol of Daeus that's around her neck.

"I had faith," she murmurs, a smile finding her face. "I have faith."