Post by No Face on Jan 1, 2020 0:33:58 GMT -5
Still in that rush, Liessel was returning with a knife in hand which she had no time to deliver. Felix was backing away from the window and was now looking toward the floor. Avery now had his own gun drawn, and was still near Aurelia. Tomlin was where he'd last been seen, as was Ethan. The floor gave a mighty shudder, and Liessel stumbled in surprise, the knife lost from her grasp dropped and skittering across the wooden floor boards. And just like that the shaking was gone, and Liessel was scrambling to recover what she's dropped.
There was something that just happened as Aurelia spoke the oath... He straightened his back-- he planted his feet and looked to the ceiling. Up until this point, the only bit of power he'd displayed was minor telepathy to the Flynns. Not even the Flynns had ever heard him use this-- but their interactions were brief... All of them heard it. With their ears... With their minds. All of them felt it... But it was meant for Seth. "I. SAID. NO. This woman is under my protection. You will not harm her. That is an order!" He glanced around the room. "Sit down and shut up!" To the rest of them, it had an underlying tone of obey and there was no denying it. He was using it now, openly. And then, his lip curled at Aurelia. "You're a goddamn idiot. If he wasn't trying to kill you before, this just solidifies his reasons," he snapped at her. He meant the knife she'd asked the other girl to retrieve... The look on his face was one of incredulity. "Whatever you could possibly use that knife for is a little preposterous," he muttered.
The shaking did not start again.
A curling dread, a sense of wrongness under the surface of the world, flattened, washed out, dissipated like smoke.
A whispery, dull As you wish blew across Tomlin Jefferson from somewhere else. The disinterest was sudden like the slamming of a door.
Everything just calmed. And then Tomlin spoke and Liessel jumped, dropping the knife once more in the jolt. She didn't sit at his demand, but she did look his way, stuck as she was where she stood as if afraid that moving would break the calm and quiet that seemed to return to the world around them.
Aurelia had spoken the words like she believed they were.
A prayer.
She did not deny that she was a Dark thing. But being Dark didn’t exclude her from faith despite what some might thing. Aurelia was a woman of faith.
The floorboards stopped shaking. The moment of danger looked to pass and with it a great sense of relief from her. Her shoulders slumped as exhaustion replaced the sensation of fear.
“Sit down and shut up!”
With the words came like a press against her psyche. She could feel Tomlin Jefferson’s power of influence and he would feel that power smash into a solid wall. It was old, this wall. Older than him. Stronger that the push of his command. She looked at the man as if he’d finally done something interesting.
“If Seth comes to kill me,” she said evenly. “I won’t die defenseless.” With that, Aurelia was reaching down to grab the fallen blanket. The knife as well. She bent low, eyes looking up at Tomlin Jefferson like the untrustworthy ally he was. She wasn’t quite ready to take her eyes off him. The blanket was grasped in the small curl of her fingers encased in cast. Pinched together by the limited movement the cast allowed. Aurelia could feel the small twinge of pain it caused but knew the bone was healing. The knife in her good hand.
“How long will that keep him at bay?” She asked this to Jefferson.
"Until I tell him he can do what he wants, or until he goes over my head to get to the Arbiter," he said softly. "If he comes for you, you'll want something better than a pig sticker," he told hedr He sat back down in the arm chair with a huff.
He looked at Aurelia again after he'd sat back down... "Or... Until you do something so blatantly evil or put humans or me in harm's way... That pretty much voids the order and he'll be looking for that. Watch what you do. he'll jump on the opportunity."
Avery and Felix Flynn still looked like they expected this could fall apart any second, this relative peace. The relief from what the nerves in their feet interpreted as someone about to dismantle part of the building.
Felix was the first to move, and his move was to get closer to Avery. He said, "They would have worked."
Ignoring him, Avery said, "She's not going to do anything evil. Thanks to your partner, we have to get out of here now."
Liessel was looking like she no longer took for granted the stability of the building around them. She heard the others speaking, but their words all ran together. There was one thought that worked its way through her mind, ignoring everything else until it bubbled out of her mouth, shaking with fear of the unknown and unfamiliar, "-What- was -that-?" She asked the room, looking toward the two out of the group that she knew the best: Avery, and now Felix who had moved in closer to his brother.
“Just because someone is dark, Mr. Jefferson, doesn’t mean they are evil.” She breathed the words. Along the way, her hand, balled into a fist, found the edge of the couch. The knife’s handle clutched so tightly that her knuckles began to turn white. Too much weight was leaning against it. She could feel the slow tremble start to march up her arm. The night was starting to catch up to even her.
Aurelia looked at Liessel and her eyes softened. She felt so bad for involving her in this. It was an awful thing and one that she would help make right. “It was a vampire.” She said. “I will help explain all that I can, Miss. Wickham, but for right now I second Avery’s idea. We should get out of here.”
He arched a brow at every single one of them... except Ethan. What were you saying about Eli? he asked Seth. He looked around the group and stood up again... He didn't know what else there was to say... He was furious and silent. He wasnt quite glaring.... But it was just shy of it.
Ethan sighed. "Where are we going, then?"
"Come here, Miss Wickham," Avery told her quickly, extending his hand to Liessel. "Felix: help Aurelia."
He hoped to curb the just because someone is dark conversation--to crush it if he could. Avery, who tended to slide through gatherings of people as his natural habitat, found himself continually smacking up flat against this one like a bird against a window. But right now, this was not about delicate maneuvering. This was about getting out of a building that felt like it had been undermined. It was about trying to not die. He could do that.
Felix, who worked more easily in the trying to not die arena, most nights, than in the gatherings of people one, was not at all certain the trouble was over, but now there was a second trouble to deal with.
Eddie still out there, the coach with him. A storm still going. Cold still permeating. Aurelia still hurt--though... clearly, not as hurt as she had been. And wasn't that a surprise?
Felix went to her, and would do what he could to get her bundled up and going... provided she let him. That knife was in her hand.
Seth was out there. Somewhere. He did not tend to seethe. Instead, now that the damage was done, he switched modes cleanly, simply operating in the new reality. Tomlin Jefferson handed all the secrets to a potential and unknown enemy, along with hamstringing his first and best protector? Nothing to be done about it in the immediate; adjust, move on. Tomlin Jefferson was still in the room with fractured people of questionable reason, with the sun coming--such as it was? Nothing to be done about it in the immediate; adjust, move on. Of course the man would fixate on Eli. Something had happened to his priorities. Nothing to be done about it...
... but to answer, and do the job.
I repeat: I would have Whitmoor see part of it. I have it with me. You should leave your current company.
This did not seem like the best moment to ask what a vampire was, so instead she said "I'd appreciate that, Aurelia." Movement had to win out here because the house was no longer safe. That finally sunk in, and what ultimately brought her around to responding to Avery's out held hand. She had to come around the couch to meet him, which meant slipping past Felix and Aurelia, and the chair that Tomlin occupied in order to take Avery up on his offer.
Aurelia didn’t argue with Felix’s help. She let him bundle her up in the blanket and found herself leaving the security of the couch and lean against him instead. The weariness went beyond bone deep. It went beyond the need to lay down and rest. So much had happened. Finding Ethan. Seth. Those people who tried to help her. The hospital. Felix’s rescue. Being here in this apartment. Tomlin Jefferson. Seth’s return. So many things in the span of one night. Each event feeling like years apart instead hours.
Distantly, her brain was aware that some form of shock was trying to settle its way in. It was why she trembled beneath the blanket. It was why she wasn’t ready to release her death grip on the knife despite knowing they were in no immediate danger. It was what made everything else around her feel like a growing buzzing white static. Becoming aware of the settling shock made her snap focus back on the group.
“I’d appreciate that, Aurelia.”
Her eyes flickered to watch Isabell move around her and she shifted as needed to make that easier. The movement put her closer to Felix and she didn’t move back. Being close to something warm and alive reminded her that she, too, was warm and alive. And right now, she needed that.
“Felix, Avery, do you have a place in mind?” If they didn’t, then she did.
Out loud, Tom said, "Do you have my third pistol?" He stood up on his own... He slowly pulled on his coat. He began walking, superbly calm, towards the door.
Ethan was looking really confused... He was pulling his boots on. He pulled on the jacket... He began for the door, turning back to help whoever still needed it.
Avery led Liessel over toward the door so that he could quickly unhook his heavy wool longcoat, to give it to her. "This will end soon, I promise you," he whispered to her. "It will all be set right."
Somehow.
Within that 'somehow,' there would be time to talk. He'd heard, from Felix, just the outline of how he'd found Liessel, and what she had told him. It was unforgivable, his neglect of her.
Unforgivable, too, that he was trying to buy time before he had to answer Aurelia's question. Do you have a place in mind? No, no he did not, and furiously he racked his brains for one that was both safe and neutral to danger he might bring to it.
While Avery's braincells flashed like a lightning storm sorting thin remaining possibilities, Felix told Tomlin: "We have it. I can't get it for you just yet."
Because Aurelia was leaning on him.
Footsteps--rapid, hard soles splashing in water--outside, up the stairs, then coming closer along the outer level-- ... preceded a loud knocking on the door, high up.
Instantly, Avery's eyebrows rose, his expression going from dismay (with a mind for the gun) to relief-- "That's Eddie!"
"Right is relative," she answered Avery her voice almost a whisper and meant to stay between the two of them, having followed with him to where the wool long coat was hanging, "let's get it set to -safe-" a glance was cast toward where Tomlin was. She still didn't ultimately know what to make of the guy, but her first impressions of him were not good. In fact, her impression of the entire situation wasn't good and somehow the magnitude of that seemed to make her problems seem dwarfed in comparison. This needed attention because it was the here and now. -Her- problem was behind her -- it was behind them. Not that it didn't matter, it just didn't matter -at that moment-. The weight and warmth of the wool coat was welcome as it settled over her shoulders. Once on, she'd draw it close about her, working on fastening the buttons along the front, giving enough of a pause in the middle of that to thank Avery for his care. And then, 'That's Eddie!' Avery's relief was shared. Another familiar face had arrived.
Eddie was here! Thank, God. There was a relief in the third man's arrival. It was like finding the missing piece of a three part puzzle - despite the fact he was not a Flynn. She relaxed like the others had.
"I know somewhere safe." She said to the room. "Its just inside of the city."
Tom walked to the door and gave Felix a nod. Give it to me when you can. I just wanted confirmation you had it and it wasn't lost somewhere laying on a street.
Ethan looked relieved, but also confused... He kept looking to Tom for guidance, but Tom wasn't giving any...
Seth would find Tom out on the street a moment later, not going to the carriage or the car that Eddie probably had with them... He headed down the street. Even as he told Avery-- Seth has something he wants me to look at... I'll find you. We still need to finish this conversation.
Liessel was so calm. Avery could tell she was scared, but that calm was real all the same, or seemed so. It felt like her panic had been on the surface, and beneath those foam-tipped waves had run a deeper current, perhaps immune to the mayhem of blowing winds. A very small smile on his lips, and he nodded to her.
That was when the footsteps--that was when the particular rapid knocking--that was when--
Eddie!
Avery pulled the door open. Eddie, like everyone else, brought a little of the storm in with him when he came quickly through, trying to shake water from his shoulders and back before he fully did so. His hat was sopping; he nearly brushed up against Liessel but stopped in time and tipped his drooping hat to her out of reflex ingrained in him since he'd been old enough to stand. His surprise at seeing her there made him look like he'd been slapped, and he took in the room.
He recognized everyone, of course. It was good to be in the know. Despite that familiarity, and that reflex that brought a little normalcy to the second, he was rushed. "Half your building's out under the veranda next door! Saying there's been an earthquake! Get your coats on!"
Aurelia's offer was there at the same time, hitting from the opposite direction.
To Eddie's surprise, rather than snapping into an emergency exit, Avery looked strained and glanced toward Aurelia. "Somewhere neutral is in ord--"
But Tomlin was--
--leaving?
"Good God, let's get to the coach--Eddie, can you help Felix with Miss Dumitru?"
It was all rapid fire, too quick for even deft minds to really grasp fully. It was the first moment that Eddie, for example, registered that Aurelia Dumitru, who he'd last seen in an agony of casts and bruises, was upright, awake, and leaning on Felix rather than being carried by him.
Eddie was a man of good build, square, grizzled jawline, grey-flecked hair under an old newsboy cap when it wasn't in his hand. Right then, he wore a coachman's slicker, and underneath were layers of rough tweed and a thick scarf.
Eddie knew Avery well, and in his opinion, when Avery looked strained things were bad. Felix often looked strained, so his calm/strain ratio was less telling. Avery, who projected an air of always being on top of things, tended to defend that illusion to the point of his own exhaustion, and that meant something. In short order, Eddie decided he was taking them to a place he knew whether Avery approved or not. He did pitch it, though, as he did his best to help Aurelia into Felix's coat and assist her out.
Avery snapped it up like a starving crocodile.
That told Eddie a lot, too.
Right then, with such a dense contingent of people to see to and navigate, Eddie asked no questions.
Once they got Ethan, Aurelia, and Liessel into the coach--and it would be cramped in there, with five, deference given to Aurelia due to her injuries--he'd send the exhausted horse south.
That animal was going to Heaven when it went, Eddie was certain. Poor thing. He'd have to make certain it retired to a nice, green field in the country after all of this.
There was something that just happened as Aurelia spoke the oath... He straightened his back-- he planted his feet and looked to the ceiling. Up until this point, the only bit of power he'd displayed was minor telepathy to the Flynns. Not even the Flynns had ever heard him use this-- but their interactions were brief... All of them heard it. With their ears... With their minds. All of them felt it... But it was meant for Seth. "I. SAID. NO. This woman is under my protection. You will not harm her. That is an order!" He glanced around the room. "Sit down and shut up!" To the rest of them, it had an underlying tone of obey and there was no denying it. He was using it now, openly. And then, his lip curled at Aurelia. "You're a goddamn idiot. If he wasn't trying to kill you before, this just solidifies his reasons," he snapped at her. He meant the knife she'd asked the other girl to retrieve... The look on his face was one of incredulity. "Whatever you could possibly use that knife for is a little preposterous," he muttered.
The shaking did not start again.
A curling dread, a sense of wrongness under the surface of the world, flattened, washed out, dissipated like smoke.
A whispery, dull As you wish blew across Tomlin Jefferson from somewhere else. The disinterest was sudden like the slamming of a door.
Everything just calmed. And then Tomlin spoke and Liessel jumped, dropping the knife once more in the jolt. She didn't sit at his demand, but she did look his way, stuck as she was where she stood as if afraid that moving would break the calm and quiet that seemed to return to the world around them.
Aurelia had spoken the words like she believed they were.
A prayer.
She did not deny that she was a Dark thing. But being Dark didn’t exclude her from faith despite what some might thing. Aurelia was a woman of faith.
The floorboards stopped shaking. The moment of danger looked to pass and with it a great sense of relief from her. Her shoulders slumped as exhaustion replaced the sensation of fear.
“Sit down and shut up!”
With the words came like a press against her psyche. She could feel Tomlin Jefferson’s power of influence and he would feel that power smash into a solid wall. It was old, this wall. Older than him. Stronger that the push of his command. She looked at the man as if he’d finally done something interesting.
“If Seth comes to kill me,” she said evenly. “I won’t die defenseless.” With that, Aurelia was reaching down to grab the fallen blanket. The knife as well. She bent low, eyes looking up at Tomlin Jefferson like the untrustworthy ally he was. She wasn’t quite ready to take her eyes off him. The blanket was grasped in the small curl of her fingers encased in cast. Pinched together by the limited movement the cast allowed. Aurelia could feel the small twinge of pain it caused but knew the bone was healing. The knife in her good hand.
“How long will that keep him at bay?” She asked this to Jefferson.
"Until I tell him he can do what he wants, or until he goes over my head to get to the Arbiter," he said softly. "If he comes for you, you'll want something better than a pig sticker," he told hedr He sat back down in the arm chair with a huff.
He looked at Aurelia again after he'd sat back down... "Or... Until you do something so blatantly evil or put humans or me in harm's way... That pretty much voids the order and he'll be looking for that. Watch what you do. he'll jump on the opportunity."
Avery and Felix Flynn still looked like they expected this could fall apart any second, this relative peace. The relief from what the nerves in their feet interpreted as someone about to dismantle part of the building.
Felix was the first to move, and his move was to get closer to Avery. He said, "They would have worked."
Ignoring him, Avery said, "She's not going to do anything evil. Thanks to your partner, we have to get out of here now."
Liessel was looking like she no longer took for granted the stability of the building around them. She heard the others speaking, but their words all ran together. There was one thought that worked its way through her mind, ignoring everything else until it bubbled out of her mouth, shaking with fear of the unknown and unfamiliar, "-What- was -that-?" She asked the room, looking toward the two out of the group that she knew the best: Avery, and now Felix who had moved in closer to his brother.
“Just because someone is dark, Mr. Jefferson, doesn’t mean they are evil.” She breathed the words. Along the way, her hand, balled into a fist, found the edge of the couch. The knife’s handle clutched so tightly that her knuckles began to turn white. Too much weight was leaning against it. She could feel the slow tremble start to march up her arm. The night was starting to catch up to even her.
Aurelia looked at Liessel and her eyes softened. She felt so bad for involving her in this. It was an awful thing and one that she would help make right. “It was a vampire.” She said. “I will help explain all that I can, Miss. Wickham, but for right now I second Avery’s idea. We should get out of here.”
He arched a brow at every single one of them... except Ethan. What were you saying about Eli? he asked Seth. He looked around the group and stood up again... He didn't know what else there was to say... He was furious and silent. He wasnt quite glaring.... But it was just shy of it.
Ethan sighed. "Where are we going, then?"
"Come here, Miss Wickham," Avery told her quickly, extending his hand to Liessel. "Felix: help Aurelia."
He hoped to curb the just because someone is dark conversation--to crush it if he could. Avery, who tended to slide through gatherings of people as his natural habitat, found himself continually smacking up flat against this one like a bird against a window. But right now, this was not about delicate maneuvering. This was about getting out of a building that felt like it had been undermined. It was about trying to not die. He could do that.
Felix, who worked more easily in the trying to not die arena, most nights, than in the gatherings of people one, was not at all certain the trouble was over, but now there was a second trouble to deal with.
Eddie still out there, the coach with him. A storm still going. Cold still permeating. Aurelia still hurt--though... clearly, not as hurt as she had been. And wasn't that a surprise?
Felix went to her, and would do what he could to get her bundled up and going... provided she let him. That knife was in her hand.
Seth was out there. Somewhere. He did not tend to seethe. Instead, now that the damage was done, he switched modes cleanly, simply operating in the new reality. Tomlin Jefferson handed all the secrets to a potential and unknown enemy, along with hamstringing his first and best protector? Nothing to be done about it in the immediate; adjust, move on. Tomlin Jefferson was still in the room with fractured people of questionable reason, with the sun coming--such as it was? Nothing to be done about it in the immediate; adjust, move on. Of course the man would fixate on Eli. Something had happened to his priorities. Nothing to be done about it...
... but to answer, and do the job.
I repeat: I would have Whitmoor see part of it. I have it with me. You should leave your current company.
This did not seem like the best moment to ask what a vampire was, so instead she said "I'd appreciate that, Aurelia." Movement had to win out here because the house was no longer safe. That finally sunk in, and what ultimately brought her around to responding to Avery's out held hand. She had to come around the couch to meet him, which meant slipping past Felix and Aurelia, and the chair that Tomlin occupied in order to take Avery up on his offer.
Aurelia didn’t argue with Felix’s help. She let him bundle her up in the blanket and found herself leaving the security of the couch and lean against him instead. The weariness went beyond bone deep. It went beyond the need to lay down and rest. So much had happened. Finding Ethan. Seth. Those people who tried to help her. The hospital. Felix’s rescue. Being here in this apartment. Tomlin Jefferson. Seth’s return. So many things in the span of one night. Each event feeling like years apart instead hours.
Distantly, her brain was aware that some form of shock was trying to settle its way in. It was why she trembled beneath the blanket. It was why she wasn’t ready to release her death grip on the knife despite knowing they were in no immediate danger. It was what made everything else around her feel like a growing buzzing white static. Becoming aware of the settling shock made her snap focus back on the group.
“I’d appreciate that, Aurelia.”
Her eyes flickered to watch Isabell move around her and she shifted as needed to make that easier. The movement put her closer to Felix and she didn’t move back. Being close to something warm and alive reminded her that she, too, was warm and alive. And right now, she needed that.
“Felix, Avery, do you have a place in mind?” If they didn’t, then she did.
Out loud, Tom said, "Do you have my third pistol?" He stood up on his own... He slowly pulled on his coat. He began walking, superbly calm, towards the door.
Ethan was looking really confused... He was pulling his boots on. He pulled on the jacket... He began for the door, turning back to help whoever still needed it.
Avery led Liessel over toward the door so that he could quickly unhook his heavy wool longcoat, to give it to her. "This will end soon, I promise you," he whispered to her. "It will all be set right."
Somehow.
Within that 'somehow,' there would be time to talk. He'd heard, from Felix, just the outline of how he'd found Liessel, and what she had told him. It was unforgivable, his neglect of her.
Unforgivable, too, that he was trying to buy time before he had to answer Aurelia's question. Do you have a place in mind? No, no he did not, and furiously he racked his brains for one that was both safe and neutral to danger he might bring to it.
While Avery's braincells flashed like a lightning storm sorting thin remaining possibilities, Felix told Tomlin: "We have it. I can't get it for you just yet."
Because Aurelia was leaning on him.
Footsteps--rapid, hard soles splashing in water--outside, up the stairs, then coming closer along the outer level-- ... preceded a loud knocking on the door, high up.
Instantly, Avery's eyebrows rose, his expression going from dismay (with a mind for the gun) to relief-- "That's Eddie!"
"Right is relative," she answered Avery her voice almost a whisper and meant to stay between the two of them, having followed with him to where the wool long coat was hanging, "let's get it set to -safe-" a glance was cast toward where Tomlin was. She still didn't ultimately know what to make of the guy, but her first impressions of him were not good. In fact, her impression of the entire situation wasn't good and somehow the magnitude of that seemed to make her problems seem dwarfed in comparison. This needed attention because it was the here and now. -Her- problem was behind her -- it was behind them. Not that it didn't matter, it just didn't matter -at that moment-. The weight and warmth of the wool coat was welcome as it settled over her shoulders. Once on, she'd draw it close about her, working on fastening the buttons along the front, giving enough of a pause in the middle of that to thank Avery for his care. And then, 'That's Eddie!' Avery's relief was shared. Another familiar face had arrived.
Eddie was here! Thank, God. There was a relief in the third man's arrival. It was like finding the missing piece of a three part puzzle - despite the fact he was not a Flynn. She relaxed like the others had.
"I know somewhere safe." She said to the room. "Its just inside of the city."
Tom walked to the door and gave Felix a nod. Give it to me when you can. I just wanted confirmation you had it and it wasn't lost somewhere laying on a street.
Ethan looked relieved, but also confused... He kept looking to Tom for guidance, but Tom wasn't giving any...
Seth would find Tom out on the street a moment later, not going to the carriage or the car that Eddie probably had with them... He headed down the street. Even as he told Avery-- Seth has something he wants me to look at... I'll find you. We still need to finish this conversation.
Liessel was so calm. Avery could tell she was scared, but that calm was real all the same, or seemed so. It felt like her panic had been on the surface, and beneath those foam-tipped waves had run a deeper current, perhaps immune to the mayhem of blowing winds. A very small smile on his lips, and he nodded to her.
That was when the footsteps--that was when the particular rapid knocking--that was when--
Eddie!
Avery pulled the door open. Eddie, like everyone else, brought a little of the storm in with him when he came quickly through, trying to shake water from his shoulders and back before he fully did so. His hat was sopping; he nearly brushed up against Liessel but stopped in time and tipped his drooping hat to her out of reflex ingrained in him since he'd been old enough to stand. His surprise at seeing her there made him look like he'd been slapped, and he took in the room.
He recognized everyone, of course. It was good to be in the know. Despite that familiarity, and that reflex that brought a little normalcy to the second, he was rushed. "Half your building's out under the veranda next door! Saying there's been an earthquake! Get your coats on!"
Aurelia's offer was there at the same time, hitting from the opposite direction.
To Eddie's surprise, rather than snapping into an emergency exit, Avery looked strained and glanced toward Aurelia. "Somewhere neutral is in ord--"
But Tomlin was--
--leaving?
"Good God, let's get to the coach--Eddie, can you help Felix with Miss Dumitru?"
It was all rapid fire, too quick for even deft minds to really grasp fully. It was the first moment that Eddie, for example, registered that Aurelia Dumitru, who he'd last seen in an agony of casts and bruises, was upright, awake, and leaning on Felix rather than being carried by him.
Eddie was a man of good build, square, grizzled jawline, grey-flecked hair under an old newsboy cap when it wasn't in his hand. Right then, he wore a coachman's slicker, and underneath were layers of rough tweed and a thick scarf.
Eddie knew Avery well, and in his opinion, when Avery looked strained things were bad. Felix often looked strained, so his calm/strain ratio was less telling. Avery, who projected an air of always being on top of things, tended to defend that illusion to the point of his own exhaustion, and that meant something. In short order, Eddie decided he was taking them to a place he knew whether Avery approved or not. He did pitch it, though, as he did his best to help Aurelia into Felix's coat and assist her out.
Avery snapped it up like a starving crocodile.
That told Eddie a lot, too.
Right then, with such a dense contingent of people to see to and navigate, Eddie asked no questions.
Once they got Ethan, Aurelia, and Liessel into the coach--and it would be cramped in there, with five, deference given to Aurelia due to her injuries--he'd send the exhausted horse south.
That animal was going to Heaven when it went, Eddie was certain. Poor thing. He'd have to make certain it retired to a nice, green field in the country after all of this.