breezeshadow | HC Bingo Card

forced soulbonding	loss of powers
abandonment issues	WILD CARD

A small card from

hc_bingo. The soulbonding one will be interesting -- such a concept doesn't really exist in Malanee beyond the creepy quasi-necromancy shit Sybille does. I can totally see it being a thing in the Sheep universe though.

Here's an excerpt from a story fresh hot the press for loss of powers:

Mahli tightened his grip on his walking stick, the Rezten street visible in his mind. Rose May was slumped against a wall, eyes wide open in pure horror, staring at nothing. He surrounded her mind, then pushed out a telepathic shield, sending Meander and the malevalent force out and away from her.

Meander snapped out, and Mahli briefly saw the man collapse into a heap in the academy. But the other force barely moved, and Mahli could feel it pressing against him, trying to get back in.

Who are you? Its voice dripped blood into Mahli's mind, claws scraping against his skull. She is mine.

There was no point in responding; it wanted him to, and so Mahli refused. He could see that Nur had arrived and was handling Rose May, whose pulse was so weak that Mahli feared even keeping contact with her. Her mind was a raw, pus-ridden burn, and that damn force still wanted in.

So Mahli traced it, finding a massive shield. Child's play.

In a blink, Mahli went into it. He felt the shield pulse, and the malevalent force swept entirely back to its lair, startled and angry.

It was dark, the air full of the red, thick ooze that made up this force's telepathy. He heard angry chittering, and a human child choked down a cry. He heard claws scrape against stone.

Nur. I need you.

Something spoke an unfamiliar language to him, but he could feel the surprise. They had not expected him to break through the shield. They were, judging by the sounds, coming toward him. Mahli suspected they were trying to be stealthy, but Mahli had spread his telepathy out, feeling out the size of the cavern, and who was in it. Six children, mostly girls, and a single vampire, approaching him.

Go, Mahli.

Mahli traced to Nur's position, saw her in the street while an unknown person stood over Rose May. He visualized the other vampire standing next to him, and blinked.

Nur appeared beside him in the cavern, looking around. By then, Mahli had found the shield, and the vampire, realizing there were now two of them, was advancing.

Mahli shattered the shield with a strong push, and the enemy vampire shrieked, collapsing into the dust. Mahli leaned into his walking stick, sucking in a breath -- even as the shield fell and Nur moved into action, he could see the other vampire recovering and dodging her charge. He was powerful -- breaking the shield had hurt him, but not enough to incapacitate him, and he danced away from Nur's attack, shouting something in the unknown tongue.

Apparently Nur understood it, judging by her pause. The vampire took the opportunity to invade her mind, but Mahli pushed him back out. The vampire shook his head, then charged at Nur, raking her with his claws before pouncing and enveloping her in his wings.

The tussle lasted a few seconds before Nur pinned him down, snapping her wings to either side. Mahli felt hatred radiate towards him, and the other vampire vanished--

Spreading out a barrier, the other vampire landed on it above Mahli. Before he had a chance to react, Mahli grabbed him mentally and threw him into one of the walls of the cavern. The room shuddered, stone falling from the ceiling and skittering across the floor. Nur launched across the space, pure fury and justice--

Not again.

Yep, it's the Rose May attack again, from Mahli's perspective. It's been an incredibly long time since I wrote from Mahli's POV, and back then I didn't have the chronic pain issues I do now. So it's going to be interesting writing Mahli without his telepathy around to augment his broken body.

The excerpt is quite rough so my apologies for the word repetition and typos. Writing these telepathy fights is a bit of a pain. The second part is post-fight and deals more with the prompt's premise so hopefully it'll be less of a broken record.

Tschuess.