[ There's a stab of pain, a warning against tampering. That, he can deal with. That's fine. And, true to the centaur's word about his expertise, it fades. The warding spells picked open like a lock. The dragon ash keeping the magic of the brand from sensing anything amiss while it's slowly dismantled.
And it is slow. It's mercifully painless after that first moment, but it's slow. It's slow and uncomfortable and for brief moments he isn't here. Isn't in this castle. He's back in the order's halls, and he's twelve but he looks like a grown man and so they pin him to the ground first and he doesn't know yet that that's a blessing, that it means that when they start to lead them all to the gallows he'll have had the most time to recover. It's a dragonborn above him, not a centaur, and the branding rod in his hand is heated with dragonfire and he can smell the burning of skin even before it touches him.
It's only for a moment. But long enough for him to do real damage, but long enough for his hand to move out of Alucard's to wrap around his neck instead. He catches it before he squeezes, hurriedly pulling it away with a breathless- ]
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And it is slow. It's mercifully painless after that first moment, but it's slow. It's slow and uncomfortable and for brief moments he isn't here. Isn't in this castle. He's back in the order's halls, and he's twelve but he looks like a grown man and so they pin him to the ground first and he doesn't know yet that that's a blessing, that it means that when they start to lead them all to the gallows he'll have had the most time to recover. It's a dragonborn above him, not a centaur, and the branding rod in his hand is heated with dragonfire and he can smell the burning of skin even before it touches him.
It's only for a moment. But long enough for him to do real damage, but long enough for his hand to move out of Alucard's to wrap around his neck instead. He catches it before he squeezes, hurriedly pulling it away with a breathless- ]
-shit. Alucard, I need- immobilize me. Now.