Mark Chance
Boingy! Boingy!
Elsewhere...?
Elisa Cameron hears the snap of her neck the instant before she dies.
But then she's awake again, which can't be right if she's dead. Her neck is indeed sore, as if she'd wrenched the muscles doing something too strenuous, but her vertebrae certainly aren't broken. She feels the chill of smooth stone against her bare legs and sits up with a start.
Elisa is in a large chamber, at least twenty feet to a side with a high, vaulted ceiling covered with bas-relief carvings of strange serpents and grim tigers. Colorful paper lanterns like those she's seen hanging in Chinese restaraunts are suspended from the ceiling by thick cords. They illuminate the room. She sits on a thick slab of dark green stone resting on the floor. The walls, floor, and ceiling are made of the same rock. Someone has changed her clothes. Gone are her heavy winter clothes. In their place, she wears a skimpy, revealing white outfit, a sort of cross between a cocktail dress and a nightgown. A large, white cape hangs from a peg on the wall near the arched opening leading out of the room into a hall.
Silently, head bowed, a shrunken, hunch-back in a dour, black robe seems to glide into the room. His hands are concealed in the voluminous sleeves of his robe. His bald pate shines in the lantern light. He doesn't lift his wizened face to Elisa, but keeps his eyes trained at foot-level.
"Ah, you are awake. I am Gujin. The Master has instructed me to attend to your needs."
Elisa Cameron hears the snap of her neck the instant before she dies.
But then she's awake again, which can't be right if she's dead. Her neck is indeed sore, as if she'd wrenched the muscles doing something too strenuous, but her vertebrae certainly aren't broken. She feels the chill of smooth stone against her bare legs and sits up with a start.
Elisa is in a large chamber, at least twenty feet to a side with a high, vaulted ceiling covered with bas-relief carvings of strange serpents and grim tigers. Colorful paper lanterns like those she's seen hanging in Chinese restaraunts are suspended from the ceiling by thick cords. They illuminate the room. She sits on a thick slab of dark green stone resting on the floor. The walls, floor, and ceiling are made of the same rock. Someone has changed her clothes. Gone are her heavy winter clothes. In their place, she wears a skimpy, revealing white outfit, a sort of cross between a cocktail dress and a nightgown. A large, white cape hangs from a peg on the wall near the arched opening leading out of the room into a hall.
Silently, head bowed, a shrunken, hunch-back in a dour, black robe seems to glide into the room. His hands are concealed in the voluminous sleeves of his robe. His bald pate shines in the lantern light. He doesn't lift his wizened face to Elisa, but keeps his eyes trained at foot-level.
"Ah, you are awake. I am Gujin. The Master has instructed me to attend to your needs."
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