Aeotha had certainly never had someone suggest such a thing of her. It was normally her idea and such an idea was normally rejected outright. Part of her felt a bit reluctant just because Skandra wasn't against it outright, and he'd suggested it, but the rest of her was fine with being bait. She still felt weak, and was ready to do something that would help. She took the crank and began to crank it as fast as she possibly could. Once he'd left her alone Aeotha only doubled her efforts. There was no hesitation, should there have been? She was thinking again. Such a dangerous thing to do as she rose higher and higher. Possibly inches and feet closer to her own death.
What if Skandra didn't come in time? What if he was already dead before she got high enough?
She didn't like being separated, but she wasn't afraid of death in the way that Uaine had been. Aeotha welcomed death. She welcomed the opportunity to meet her maker, to greet her friends and family and ask for forgiveness. She should have stayed in the desert. She should have argued with Eibhear. Aeotha knew that dying in that desert would have been a much easier ending for her. It would be easier to be dead than to exist like this. Stuck with a mixture of feelings for a dead man who married a friend. Half of her life spent between dwelling on the past and trying to make a brighter future. With no clear path in either direction.
Aeotha changed hands and put all of her strength into turning the crank. Her injured hand felt as if it was going to give out on her. She tightened that hand into a fist at her side and felt the warm wetness there. It couldn't close or even begin to heal with all of this work she was putting it through. Climbing ropes, fighting immortals and turning a crank. The healer inside of her warned her of using it too much, that it could get infected with who knows hat here in some otherworld. The rest of her didn't care anymore. She was almost there now. She could hear something, voices maybe. She was too busy thinking and trying not to look ready to pounce.
If Skandra didn't make it in time she would be forced to fight whoever it was that was up there.