[crow]

He had to admit that her words had a certain logic to them; now they did know, indeed. But this wasn't the way he would have chosen to test that particular hypothesis, and what if something had happened? ... were things he definitely didn't say to Annette, who wouldn't have cared, probably.

Well, he supposed that if he'd been fighting it and able to hold it off as long as Annette did, maybe he'd be more confident too. He doubted she was worried about being ambushed and dying on the spot, at least.

[crow]

"Okay, well..." Maybe it was time to just move on. Henry felt nervous about this whole thing, but the spell was holding for now, so his mind turned to other matters. It was partly out of necessity. He felt like if he let himself brood on the matter any further, he was going to think of something really unpleasant, from which there would be no return. "What is this? Have you ever seen anything like this before?" Henry was still just a newcomer to this place.

[crow]

Annette was the one who had been here longer, though even she hadn't been here as long as Callum... or Rory or Malory, for that matter, apparently. But beyond that, Henry realized he also didn't know the exact hierarchy of seniority--- not in age, necessarily, but experience--- between Annette, Ling, and James.

Maybe there would be time to ask later. In the meantime, it was more important to figure out what they were dealing with, if Annette had that kind of knowledge.

[crow]

If he was hoping for intel though, he was sadly disappointed. Annette shook her head. "I've never seen anything like this," she said. "It's not a Soldier, it's not..." She considered it again, the frown deepening over her features. "At least, I've never seen the Plague do this. But maybe that's what it is."

"D-Do you think that's what's making Ling sick?" Henry ventured.

"Probably. We haven't seen anything else though. Better keep our eyes peeled," Annette said, scanning their surroundings as she spoke.

[crow]

Trust her to keep her head at a time like this... But Henry couldn't take his eyes off the strange creature. Part of it was that it was his spell, or whatever this was, that was keeping it in check, and he didn't know what would happen if his attention wandered. He didn't know how long it took for this stuff to wear off, or whether it was depleting any sort of resource to keep it going... There was so much he didn't know about his own powers.