The knife hits her on the side and she falls, ow ow ow cough cough cough

And the stuff on the floor is burning her knee, what ow

She scoops some of the burning floor liquid with her hands and throws it at Tomas.

It splashes off his pants.

He tries to wrap around Nico and muffle him. "Shut up if you want to live."

If he's a spy from the Lei Empire or Freedom Democracy, engaged in war, attacking him with disiniuria is legal, but he might not be...

Lin is Kef police, but not a jailor.

Ow

Is Tomas using his size for that? Yes!

Tomas now has much less air in his lungs.

Nico stumbles and starts to fall, and Tomas catches him. He stops screaming, but he is really not listening. He's squirming and kicking and coughing.

Also, there's fire now. Just kind of... All around Nico.

Aaah! Okay, if Nico is escalating to lethal force, she's going to end this now.

(It doesn't change their legal status, since Tomas used disiniuria first, but she cares about not killing people.)

She wants to pull the blood out of Tomas's carotid arteries, but she can't see well enough to aim. She gets - nothing - nothing - some blood - nothing - blood - bile - nothing - air - air. Drat, she can't find Tomas any more.

Because he has hurled himself, still holding Nico, into the puddle on the floor and is rolling around.

He runs out of fire pretty quickly, after only two or three seconds. He's panicking. It hurts a lot- Someone attacked him with poison and is shoving him around- He could burn green for a burst of healing but- 

He actually tries to do that for a moment but can't focus enough to make himself do it. It's not a natural action. It's not like sticking your hand into fire, which you can do by accident or without paying attention, and more like poking yourself in the eye.

He screams again instead and shoves light sparkles out in all directions.

Lin crawls forward, flailing her arms. Augh.

Is that a head?

Yes, but he rolls to the side.

"Shut up shut up shut up. What's wrong with you, stupid useless kid." He gets his knife hand free, rolls back toward Lin, and slashes.

Aaah her hand - she flops down onto the floor.

When the acid touches the wound in her side, she screams.

"Listen." He jabs the knife a little into Nico's side. "Be quiet, be still, don't make any lights, and you get to live. Thanks to your little tantrum, we're both pretty badly burned. How about you try thinking for a change? We're going to leave now, nice and quiet. I'm going to let you up, are you going to behave?"

Knife.

A knife touching him.

Even his dad never did that.

He might be about to die. The only time this ever happened before was when he was alone in the woods, and saw a bear. And-

He's going to be fine and Lin is going to be fine, if neither of them die right away. He has green. It'll take weeks but they'll be fine. If they don't die.

Why isn't anyone showing up to help? There's been three screams!

He looks at Lin through watery eyes and tries to figure out if she's about to die, or just hurt.

He'll have to burn green, if she's about to die. Or if Tomas stabs him. He never wanted to burn anything again. If he keeps doing it, if things like this keep happening, he'll run out forever.

Black. He still has some. But what good is that?!? All it does is make things tougher, or hold things!

Or stoneshape. Metal is a lot like stone, right? Maybe he can melt the knife... Maybe he can make his shirt tough and get away...

(On the outside he's crying, and trying to be quiet and still anyway.)

She's whimpering; not weakly and not getting weaker.

"Good kid." He hauls himself up, gasping as he tugs on his burns, and hauls Nico up after him. "Under my cloak, nice and quiet."

"Sniff the catmother's grave, what's happening?!"

"Hey boss, caught some thieves, taking this one to the Magistrate now. Sorry for waking you up."

He's distracted!

Nico thinks about his black points and the knife and wants it gone wrecked ruined. He's never done it before, but a lot like white and translation, it should do something.

And then with a wailing sob he punches Tomas in the crotch, just like Dad taught him to, and goes for the door.

The knife splinters into soft shreds.

What.

Tomas is wearing a cup.

"Come back here!"

"Woah, Tomas, you're not looking great."

"Oh shut up, he's getting away!"

"And it's not your job to chase him. That's illegal."

One of the tengu's bodies scrambles in the front door. "What's the emergency? I see three injured."

"Make way, beakbrain!"

He stumbles into the wall near the door head-first and falls over again.

He recognizes that voice! The bird! They're probably police!

"Lin's hurt and I can't see! I have to get away!"