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Somehow, through skill and dedication, you manage to get some sleep that night. Waking with the sun's first light, you rise from your bed and start to dress with slow, unhurried movements. More than once, you catch yourself glancing aside to the silver cuirass sitting by your bed. With the sunlight flaring off the polished steel, you can well imagine the impact it might have on an uneducated native. A little flashy for your tastes, but it should fit under your uniform jacket easily enough.
You're halfway through buttoning up your shirt when a knock at your door rings out. You open the door, expecting to see Alex with a new message or some other trivial matter, but instead you see Elle waiting. She freezes, eyes dropping low to the sliver of bare flesh visible through your open shirt.
“I'm sorry, I'll come back later!” she yelps as she turns away, only to hesitate before turning back, “No, I can't. I'll lose my nerve if I don't say this now.”
“Well, come in and say your piece,” you tell her, stepping back and holding the door open, “Do you mind if I get dressed while we talk?”
“Um, yes. Please do,” Elle insists, her cheeks flushed a deep red, “I'm... worried. About you.”
Automatically, you glance down at the cuirass sitting by the wall. Saying nothing, you hurriedly finish buttoning up your shirt and look back to Elle. Finally, she's able to meet your eyes again.
“I had a dream about you,” she admits, wincing a little at her own words, “In my dream, you were walking into the web of a great spider. I don't think you realised how much danger you were really in. That spider, it... it thought that it was so clever, but deep down all it wanted to do was eat – to eat and eat until there was nothing left.”
“Now, are we talking about a dream,” you ask carefully, “Or a prophecy?”
“I think the line between them is finer than we think,” Elle answers, “But if it is a prophecy, I don't yet know what it means – what, or who, the “spider” really is.”
It might be easier, you think bitterly, to write up a list of all the people it couldn't be.
“You're putting yourself in danger, Isambard,” Elle says frankly, “I know how important this is to you, and I won't tell you to stop. I... don't have that right. My only involvement here is, well, is you. I mean, um, you and everyone else – I've made so many friends since this all started.”
“And a few enemies, maybe,” you remark.
“I try not to think about that, but-” she pauses, “Now I'm just getting distracted. What I meant to say is, I want you to be careful, very careful, about what you're doing – and why you're doing it.”
“I'll be careful,” you promise, before repeating, “I know my limits.”
“Good,” Elle replies with a soft smile, “You keep doing that, and I'll keep watching your back. If we do that, I'm sure that we'll make it through okay.”
[1/2]
