Quoted By:
The gull was not there for very long, so the amount of Strangeness present in the gutter is limited, but in spite of what just happened, you are still trying to be thorough. It does not take overly long to get the salt situated into the little mounds, but after the showing you have just had, you take the extra time to make sure that the mounds are appropriately spaced, and that there is no loose salt between the application sites. As a final precaution, you move the pound bag of salt as far away as you can, while still leaving it close enough that you can reach it. With all of your preparations here concluded, you check one last time to make sure that the stones that you are about to kneel down on are clean and clear of the Strangeness. Satisfied, you reach out and touch the mound furthest away from the pound bag, and after a moment to clear your head and your lungs, you initialize the cast.
Unlike your three previous attempts in this alley, in this attempt, there is serious strain. As soon as you start, there are these sharp pains through your heart, and the wind is knocked out of you with such force that you actually start coughing and spluttering. You tremble and shiver, and without intending to, your finger withdraws from the targeted pile prematurely, well before the reaction there could ever have hoped of reaching completion. Swearing under what little breath remains to you, you reconnect with the pile, trying to brute force what remains of the cast into a sustainable condition. Alarmingly, the strain is much milder than it was just seconds ago, which could indicate that the Strangeness is becoming more inured against Salt-Remediation. Desperate not to repeat your mistakes, you push the cast to limits, but when the increased load does not correspond to increased strain, you fear that you have frayed this spell as well.
Still, you are not willing to give up while the spell is still limping along, so you use your off hand to set up a bridge to a new pile for the reaction. The hope is that if the cast could somehow make it across, you might be able to resuscitate it, by treating it as if it was a brand-new cast. is dangerous – if you are in contact with the target when the spell is ready to bridge, it is possible that the cast moves into you instead of the new intended target … and while you are still more than a little Strange at the moment, the last thing that you want to be right now is Remediated. But as this is your best bet of saving the cast, you take the risk – willingly.
In the end, it turns out you were in no real danger. Despite your best efforts to throttle it up, the magical reaction was simply not in a state where it was capable of moving to a new target – intended or otherwise. At this point, you are not even mad at yourself. You are scared. Maybe getting this alley back to a mundane state is not a matter of life and death, but what if it was? You need to be able to perform these spells at a moment’s notice.
