Night 72: Secret Stairs

[ninelivesonce]

[from here]

The door rumbled open, and Taura hurried in, her stunner and flashlight aimed side-by-side up the moving staircase. The light in here flickered; it did bad things to her night vision, and it wasn't like they could hide on the way up.

"When we get up there, we move, yeah? We need to put together the layout." Searching each room would be nice, but they were strong, armed, and could handle an ambush. Finding a lot of dust and some hallways wouldn't cut it.

Comments

[freewill]

Castiel had noticed the gem that was embossed into the back of Kratos' hand, though he had never thought to ask about it. He'd always assumed it was some kind of decoration, maybe an indication of rank, rather than an enhancement.

It was difficult to imagine that a stone would be capable of giving a human that kind of power. Everything that Kratos described were aspects that Castiel himself had -- or at least, that he was supposed to have, when he wasn't limited.

But Kratos was right. Though he might share some of those abilities, it did not make him an angel. Which meant that it wasn't quite as egregious that Kratos had kept it from him. Castiel imagined that Kratos had felt awkward about admitting to it when he was speaking to the real thing.

"I understand. Where I come from, no such technology exists." In other words, it had been easy for him to get the wrong idea in response to Lloyd's words. "Is that what makes you capable of healing as well?"

[forsworn]

"That's fortunate," Kratos said shortly, and he sincerely meant it. Exspheres were terrifying things; he would have never used one if he could have helped it. Unfortunately, the war had seemingly necessitated that level of inhuman power, and by the time he'd thought of discarding his Crystal, he had become helplessly dependent on it.

By now, they had reached the top of the escalator, and strangely enough, the door to the first teleportation pad was locked. For a second, Kratos was at a loss, but then it occurred to him that perhaps this was the purpose of the keys they'd found (although why they hadn't needed any last night was now a mystery). As he fumbled for them, he took the time to address Castiel's follow-up question. "It's not. I underwent a different procedure to gain the ability to cast magic." He found the keys, inserted them into the lock, and pushed the door open. "Neither was pleasant."

[to here]