"Warn me about what?" Kenspeckle demanded, given Sanguine's voice was loud enough for the professor to overhear--by design or otherwise. Gabriel didn't get a chance to answer, though; he heard the faint echo of Scarab replying, and then Kenspeckle's response to that.
The professor's voice was filled with fear. Not uncontrolled, but terrified nonetheless.
"No. Never."
"Then you don't leave us much choice, do you, professor?" Scarab said with a sigh. Gabriel heard the scrape and thunk of something in the door being opened, Kenspeckle's shoes on the stone as he pulled back.
"Gabriel!"
The plea, the terror, in the professor's voice cut straight to the Archangel's heart. Without his meaning to, Gabriel found himself pressed up against the door, biting his lip and trying to see past Sanguine's laughing face.
"I can't," Gabe called miserably. Kenspeckle knew he couldn't. He couldn't afford to reveal too much of his power, and that's what it would take to spare Kenspeckle this. Gabe couldn't. He could only wait for the opportunity to exorcise the Remnant, the damned soul, they intended to put inside him.
"If it makes you feel any better, professor, it won't be in you for long," Scarab told him. "You're just an old man whose mind we need, after all. Your friend over there is younger, stronger, and a mind-reader to boot. I'll give you a moment to say your goodbyes now."
A fission went through Gabe--of awareness, of irony. He almost smiled. As it was, he was caught by Sanguine's face on the other side of the door's barred window, very near, and couldn't be sure the man missed the sudden relief in his eyes. There was an equally heavy pause down the corridor.
"You've--promised it Gabe?" Kenspeckle's voice was strangled. Only by virtue of the fact that Gabe could sense the man's soul did he know that the professor was trying not to laugh with a hysteric sort of relief and irony in turn. He was still going to suffer; he was still going to build the weapon he'd sworn he never would.
But he'd be free, afterward. Even if they killed him, he'd be free.
Gabe ducked his head to hide the twitch of his lips at the professor's sudden, intense curiosity to see something being smote. After a moment he looked up again into Sanguine's gaze, his expression carefully blank and yet unable to suppress the ironic humour in his eyes.
"I'll see you later, professor," Gabe promised.
"After you've strained yourself and need my expertise all over again, no doubt," Kenspeckle muttered, still afraid and yet inexplicably--to Scarab and his people--calmer than before even in the face of what they'd do to him. "Well?! Are you going to torture me with loss of my own mind and body or not? Let's get this over with; I haven't got all day!"
no subject
The professor's voice was filled with fear. Not uncontrolled, but terrified nonetheless.
"No. Never."
"Then you don't leave us much choice, do you, professor?" Scarab said with a sigh. Gabriel heard the scrape and thunk of something in the door being opened, Kenspeckle's shoes on the stone as he pulled back.
"Gabriel!"
The plea, the terror, in the professor's voice cut straight to the Archangel's heart. Without his meaning to, Gabriel found himself pressed up against the door, biting his lip and trying to see past Sanguine's laughing face.
"I can't," Gabe called miserably. Kenspeckle knew he couldn't. He couldn't afford to reveal too much of his power, and that's what it would take to spare Kenspeckle this. Gabe couldn't. He could only wait for the opportunity to exorcise the Remnant, the damned soul, they intended to put inside him.
"If it makes you feel any better, professor, it won't be in you for long," Scarab told him. "You're just an old man whose mind we need, after all. Your friend over there is younger, stronger, and a mind-reader to boot. I'll give you a moment to say your goodbyes now."
A fission went through Gabe--of awareness, of irony. He almost smiled. As it was, he was caught by Sanguine's face on the other side of the door's barred window, very near, and couldn't be sure the man missed the sudden relief in his eyes. There was an equally heavy pause down the corridor.
"You've--promised it Gabe?" Kenspeckle's voice was strangled. Only by virtue of the fact that Gabe could sense the man's soul did he know that the professor was trying not to laugh with a hysteric sort of relief and irony in turn. He was still going to suffer; he was still going to build the weapon he'd sworn he never would.
But he'd be free, afterward. Even if they killed him, he'd be free.
Gabe ducked his head to hide the twitch of his lips at the professor's sudden, intense curiosity to see something being smote. After a moment he looked up again into Sanguine's gaze, his expression carefully blank and yet unable to suppress the ironic humour in his eyes.
"I'll see you later, professor," Gabe promised.
"After you've strained yourself and need my expertise all over again, no doubt," Kenspeckle muttered, still afraid and yet inexplicably--to Scarab and his people--calmer than before even in the face of what they'd do to him. "Well?! Are you going to torture me with loss of my own mind and body or not? Let's get this over with; I haven't got all day!"
Maybe it was inappropriate. Maybe not.
Gabriel still laughed.