Liliana - Gives a wurm indigestion

But before I can unleash my blast, the wurm skids to a halt. I'm caught off guard and the fires in my hands flicker as I lose focus. I watch as the wurm rears back and begins convulsing. I back away because when I see humans do this it usually is followed by projectile vomiting, and I do not want sand wurm vomit on me no thank you.

This wurm doesn't vomit. Instead, its chest caves in, then crumbles to dust. I watch, horrified, as Liliana steps forward out of the wurm, guts and stomach acid and viscera sizzling off her, a weird chain thingy floating in front of her face all aglow with purple light. She steps onto the sand, and the wurm wobbles then collapses to one side beside her, its innards oozing out of the gaping Liliana-sized hole, its outer shell a gray, dead color. Liliana takes a few more steps across the sand as though in a trance. Markings on her skin glow with the same purple light as the chain, and her eyes are blank and expressionless. I stare as wounds across her body seem to knit shut and wurm slime continues to dissipate as though burned off by some heat, but I feel nothing from her. If anything she seems colder and more distant than ever, an inverted star searing across the sand.

"Liliana?" I take a step forward, and the purple glow from her everything fades, and she collapses in a heap.

***

IMPACT