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The shockwave rings out from the staff that's just been broken over the simulacrum's knee. Mark, just outside of the blast radius, turns to meet Miri's eye as the wall of force washes over her and the look of pain that lights up her face is unbearable. As she crumples to the ground, lifeless, he hears an anguished, piercing scream and he doesn't realize it's coming from him until his legs have carried him to her body.
When he lifts her in his arms, with strength he was unaware he possessed, he sends a frantic message to the Clerics back at the gate, and begins using everything in his power to get her there in under a minute. He exhausts all of his magical abilities to Dimension Door them both thousands of feet. Then he RUNS. He runs like he's never run before, until he can see the Clerics, waving him down. And knowing he won't make it, he digs deep to use the last remaining fumes of his magic to Vortex Warp her body, crashing it into the ground in front of them.
The mere moments it takes for him to reach them — just as they're shoving the diamond into her slackened mouth and reciting the words he's heard her use so many times before — are endless.
He has been hurt before. He has seen pain before. He has seen death, and he has caused it. But it has never felt like this. His heart is twisting, from the exertion of running when he's not used to it and the emptiness that is filling his chest cavity the longer she remains unmoving. He doesn't have the breath to scream but he is screaming internally, in a harsh voice that he barely recognizes as his own. Streams of expletives and nos and it's not fairs and bargaining, so much bargaining, with whatever might care to listen.
He is bent over, his hand clutching at his side, taking big gulps of air, when Miri takes her own first new breaths. Soft little pulls of air that begin to fill the lungs inside her again and signal that this nightmare was just a flash. That it was not his new reality. It was merely a blip. One he need not think on further.
Mark falls to the ground beside her, lifting her head into his lap, as someone graces her with a healing spell.
When she opens her eyes, he's there, staring down at her, rocking her gently. His arms wrapped around her tightly.
"I've got you. You're okay." Over and over in her head, the bond made immediately. The only words he knows. She nods, a barely perceptible movement. He feels her relax in his arms and she drifts into sleep. He does not move, only holds her closer.