So close, and with so little warning -- the rocket launcher had frankly been a surprise -- Virginia had nothing to do but shield, and even that wasn't enough in the face of a stone-powered missile. The explosion rocked the dream, shook the cohesion of the landscape, and, perhaps more pertinently, felled Virginia herself; when the smoke of it cleared, what remained was a charred body, prone and barely recognizable and certainly not moving.

Hard to tell if that shadow of Malicant really had been bested, or if it was playing possum, waiting for a dropped guard, but Raine could feel no more movement of mana from that source, and it felt, for a moment, like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

Moving on.

The fact Jacob's brother was talking again suggested he'd found another weak point, that this accusation too was true, or close enough to true to rattle Jacob. Well. His name might well be Cain, by the repetition, but that might also as easily have negative connotations attached; Raine would hold with the way he'd introduced himself, save the other for getting his attention if necessary.

Still, she was going to need a few seconds uninterrupted for the arte she had in mind. That left little room for attracting his brother's attention, either, so loud denials in the spirit of Lloyd were right out. "It's never too late," Raine murmured instead, soft. The ground beneath her feet started to glow, and in a moment more so did she. "If you can keep him talking for just a little longer..."