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Sophie would like it on the record that, when she accepted the job, she didn't know that the Librarian had to do so much bloody politics. She could be out healing the sick, like Natan in his day. She would love to be out healing the sick. Instead, she's in one of the innumerable studies of Hush House, searching for a book for Hokobald, even though she wishes dearly that she could toss him out on his shiny arse. She doesn't mind helping out Yvette, or Arun, or really most of the others. It's just Hokobald in particular who should really go fuck himself. But it is her duty to remain strictly neutral, and she takes that duty seriously. So she'll find his damned book, and watch like a hawk while he reads it. And should he happen to violate that neutrality himself, well, she might have a few things in her pockets to introduce him to. (Swaddled Thunder isn't casual to make, nor the Rubywise Ruin in case of violence. But she's made them enough to feel they're replaceable, at least.)
...oh, that's beautiful.
Luto probably doesn't need the song, if she's going to get that much use out of the effect. Sophie keeps humming it anyway. An extra bit of craft rarely goes to waste.
It does not get near her family because it has no arms and then, a moment later, no legs (or, really, any animating force at all.)
(She's not even breathing hard. She could do this all day, or at least until Sophie's magic wears off.)
That... sounds bad.
Will swords even work on a pile of rocks. Actually she should ask that out loud. "Is your sword sharp enough to cut stone?" she calls out.
Luto glances at Ridaya. (She didn't miss that tone of fear, and she's never seen a stone golem before.)
"It will work, Luto's sword is magical, but - not as well. And - stone golems are very tough, can hit hard, and are immune to most magic... They're very slow, though. We can outrun it." What spells does she even have that will work here - Black Tentacles is not going to work well, that thing is way stronger than skeletons, but it is slow...
If it's slow...
"...Ridaya do you have Grease? Sophie, how long will this last?" She's already stepping forward, though, sword pointed straight at the golem.
"Thirty seconds from when I released the thread. I do have one more, and a song that can make you stronger."
Glitterdust will work? Luto laughs.
"If it's blind or on the floor, I can kill it in thirty seconds, with this power." She strides confidently forward.
She hasn't got this far by doubting.
Who is she kidding, she doubts everything.
She certainly won't get any farther by doubting. She pulls the thread on her second and final winning move.
It cannot! it is now blind, which is a bit of a problem.
It still attempts to attack the area where it last saw the swordswoman intruder as it finishes its charge, and to apply its slowing magic to her.
It will not be doing either of those things!
She shrugs the magic off, effortlessly dodges the blow, and steps backwards as she moves her blade through four perfect cuts across its body, cleaving a huge chunk of stone out of its chest.
Right???
...she casts Grease, but she's not even sure it's necessary, if Luto can do that.
The golem certainly doesn't think it's necessary! (It doesn't really think at all, though.)
The subjective experience it may or may not have isn't very pleasant. It is blind, and also it has fallen because the ground has mysteriously become mostly frictionless, and also -
It's being artfully cleaved apart.
Luto dances around the flailing attempts the golem makes at striking her from the floor, lashing out further with her sword than seems like should be physically possible and always striking it exactly where and how she wants it.
Chunks of stone fly off it with each blow, until, a mere two moments later, she brings her katana down with one final terrible stroke, and the thing shatters.
It is terrible that, with Sophie here, Ridaya should not fly over and make out with Luto even though she really really wants to
Sophie's giggling sort of manically, by the time it properly goes down.
"Nobody told me it was fun," she says. "Getting in fights."
"It's usually more difficult!" Luto says, panting only a little bit. "Sophie, that was unbelievable, I've never felt anything like that, it was like I could just choose to have every strike land exactly how I wanted it to." Her eyes are shining, her gaze intense.