The goddess could feel the captain's suspicions on her, but for a moment, she decided to wait, especially as she felt other human presences coming from outside the tent. The scream must have been audible. At least that made finding the captain convenient, albeit it would now make things difficult. She needed to have him alone.
An even shorter soldier came in abruptly from the tent flaps, his cheeks red with exertion. Running here, no doubt. He looked at the goddess in Seth's body and then at Evan, also uneasy but with more confusion. What had these two expected to find here, she wondered? Had all the men screamed or just this one?
The goddess supposed that the last body she inhabited here had been in the infirmary. Surely that wasn't a coincidence.
"Are you... What... You..." the boy said, horribly confused. May as well help him out. Seth was still begging the goddess to return to the dream in the background of her mind, but she still managed to search through his memories. What did he know of what these soldiers were afraid of?
Little to nothing, the goddess realized, and finally said, "Whatever it was came for me." The goddess picked up the amplifier with Seth's fingers, pulling it out from beneath his undershirt, "But I suppose this worked."
"Thanks for all your work on the charms, Xavier," the captain said. Ah, so it was this one who had come up with the idea. Interesting choice.
Another figure approached, this one a familiar woman. She must have been one of the other captains. The goddess had seen her in one of the soldiers' dreams before she had entered Seth's.
Seth, who was now rolling around in the grass of the dream, clasped his arms around himself and started stroking gently up and down the sides of them, his lips beginning to form the syllables of her name, "Deh... Dehal..."
The goddess withstood a shiver.
"The other scream tonight?" Evan asked the woman.
"Same as the others. Maybe a little worse," the woman said, shaking her head. "He wasn't wearing his charm."
Ha! Did they think the amplifiers would protect them from her? Hadn't they only made this whole process easier?
With a look of discomfort, the woman spoke again, "I'll go to the infirmary tent to check on the other man again." That must be Ramanujan. There was a pull all the way back past Seth's dream and into the ritual circle where that man lay, slowly regaining movment and beginning to reach toward her...
The female captain left, and Xavier turned to Evan, saying, "Well, this just keeps getting weirder, huh? At least the charms seem to be working. Maybe more people will take them seriously now." The boy rubbed at his hands, and the goddess looked at the floor, trying to figure out exactly how Seth would behave. The goddess finally decided to throw a rather intimidating smirk at the boy, who looked from Seth to Evan and asked, "Do you need me to do anything else?"
"Go let anyone gathered outside know that Seth had his charm on him and is doing all right. I'll stay with him a while and see what else he can remember."
Perfect, the goddess thought, waiting for the lieutenant to leave and Evan to turn his attention her direction. Her smirk remained, at least until the captain sighed.
"Hi," he said simply, and Dehaljadrun had the feeling he was immediately referring to their previous embodied interaction. Hell, why not start there?
"I'm starting to wonder if you say anything else," the goddess said, shifting Seth's body back and lifting her left eyebrow. The captain fell quiet and looked the soldier over, deepening the goddess' expression. Gods, his gaze felt good, even in a body that wasn't strictly hers. And hell, even this body wasn't half bad, toned as it was. Seth clearly had a much worse self-image than was accurate.
De... Dehal...
"How is Seth, really?" The captain shot out, his anger at her flaring. Wonderful, they were certainly on the same page now.
"Present and accounted for, sir," the goddess said, her voice thick with delicious sarcasm. "Expect he's quite...
De... Dehal...
"...preoccupied at the moment. He's a strong one, it seems."
"He's a good soldier," Evan agreed. "And he's one of my men. I'd really like him back." The goddess laughed. He was going to have to do better than that.
"And if I don't give him back? What are you going to do? Slice his body through with your sword?" She could not help crossing her arms as she nodded toward the flash of metal at his hip. Surely, she could lead him into some kind of deal from here.
"Nah," Evan said with a shrug that was dramatically casual, followed by a smirk of his own as he looked down at where her gaze had dropped. "I doubt that'd accomplish much..."
De... Dehal...
"...just saying something I'd like to get out of this little chat. How bout you?"'