Felicity collapsing had been enough to snap Nevin’s focus in her direction. Her words echoed in his head as he scanned her body rapidly, eyes flicking across her form as he tried to search for some sign of damage or trauma. But he couldn’t see any sign external injury - which meant either she’d been damaged internally, or… the problem was in the young girl’s head. Considering how she had collapsed earlier while trying to talk about her deceased brother there was a very good chance that it was somehow related to that. He couldn’t say for sure though, and he wasn’t about to lie to the little redhead.
“Easy, easy, easy there snowflake.†Nevin shut out the rest of the world around them as he cradled the teen in his arms and threads, lifting her up into the air as her body shook with tremors. The more he looked, the more similar to her earlier memory relapses this seemed. Something had triggered her falling into a memory, or stirred one inside of her, and it had once more left her devastated. Crimson, the poor child couldn’t even talk with people right now without running the risk of triggering one of these events? He had to get her back inside, to somewhere safe so she could actually rest and try to rebuild her shattered mental equilibrium.
“Come on little snowflake, let’s get you to a bed.†Carrying the teen and the golem core, Nevin strode back towards his shop. This was easily the most blatant Nevin had been about using his threads in public - not even Eteri had managed to get him to stroll through a town carrying her, though he had no doubts that she would be absolutely thrilled if he decided to do that. He ignored the slightly shocked looks from people he passed, some of them surprised by the threads, the others -a small minority that was aware of the red tendrils- shocked with him openly using them as he walked through the town streets.
But he had to. While the core was not necessarily extremely large, it was constantly lashing out with magic, trying to latch onto anything that it could. It was only by keeping the thing cocooned up in his threads that Nevin was able to keep it from reforming the golem that he and Felicity had dealt with before. As Nevin kept it wrapped up he could feel it condensing, retracting inwards on itself, and he was forced to constantly tighten his threads to keep the thing from slipping free. And on the other hand, he had to make sure that the young redhead in his arms didn’t slip and fall either. While he had full confidence in carrying her, one thing did prevent him from just doing that normally.
Felicity was shaking every so often, trembling violently as she curled in his arms and threads and sobbed. While Nevin didn’t think another memory had stricken her at the moment, he did not want to run the risk of another running through her scattered mind, and cause her to lash out or to spasm, and fall to the ground. While the girl was certainly durable enough to be perfectly fine from such a fall, the older redhead still did not want her hitting the ground. Jars to her body might make the turmoil in her head worse.
Nevin was pulled from his thoughts by the arrival at his front door. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. A thin cord of threads separated from the ones around Felicity, and dropped into his pocket. He fished out the key, then unlocked the door and opened it. A shove with a shoulder, and the door was open fully, and he carried his two burdens - one far more precious than the other - inside. Kicking with his foot shut the door once Felicity and the core were inside, then a deft twist with his threads had the door locked from inside. The key was dropped back in its place, and Nevin turned and started towards the back of his shop.
He needed to work on the core, and keep an eye on Felicity at the same time. Once more, he was thankful that he had had the foresight to install a cot in his workshop downstairs. Carrying the girl and the stone down the ladder was a bit difficult, and he ended up having to lower the core down below him, while he held Felicity up in the air above him. It was awkward, but at last he managed it. Downstairs, Nevin noticed something odd.
The core had stopped trying to grab onto the earth and dirt around it. He thought that a bit strange, considering that they were now underground once more. Did it have to do with the fact that they were in his workshop? Nevin had liberally been working his magic in this place for some time - was that enough to impregnate the stone around them with power, enough to shut down any attempts at using it to form a body once more? It seemed so. Nevin set the core down on his workbench, then focused his attention on Felicity as he gently laid her out on the cot once again.
“There, little snowflake, we’re safe. We’re safe.†He murmured the words under his breath as he unfurled the threads from around her. Of the two of them, he was the one worse off physically. While he let Felicity come back to her senses, Nevin set about making a simple healing tonic. For him, a blood-based one was far better than his normal herbal concoctions. He kept glancing at the girl, then the core, making sure he wasn’t about to have a panicking girl or a golem on his hands once more as he worked.
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