'He's awake?' Arin exclaimed.
Shit.
'He still hadn't recovered enough to use his talent and set beasts upon me,' Siel said. 'But the moment he noticed me nearby, he began screaming like a madman, blaming us, calling the two of us -'
'"Murderers"' said the healer with a small laugh.
Shit. Shit!
'And I, being nearby, chose to lend a hand by forcing the man to fall asleep again,' continued the man. 'However...'
'The damage was already done,' Arin finished grimly.
Damn it all!
'Thereafter, there was understandably some confusion,' said Siel. 'And I was just about to explain matters in the manner we'd planned to together, but, well...'
'Someone else, who had also awoken early from their slumber, made a mention of the distortion.'
...
Of course they did.
Arin ran a hand down his face.
He'd already known they'd have to come clean about the cause of the strange sleep; the villagers deserved to know about the distortion.
He had, however, wanted to present it as something that neither he, nor Siel, had been aware or certain of until much later.
He'd wanted for them to pretend that the moment they'd realized the fact, was also when they'd promptly set out to destroy it.
That way, the invited healers and volunteers wouldn't blame them for endangering their lives by having them enter an area within the distortion's range, as they had done in order to take care of the affected villagers.
More importantly, the two of them would also be able to avoid whatever repercussions there might be for not following procedure by summoning the Empire's officials sooner.
And, considering the seriousness of the emphasis placed upon destroying such distortions, even to the extent of ignoring any innocent lives that may be affected along the way...
Arin was willing to bet the repercussions would be something far beyond his and Siel's abilities to deal with.
'We have to go,' he said.
'Go... Leave? Run away?' asked Siel.
'No, no.' Arin furrowed his brows, mind racing. 'That, we cannot afford to do.'
'Oh, good! Because if we were to do such a thing, we'd lose out all of the earnings from the completion of this assignment!' the boy exclaimed.
...That's what the kid was worried about?
Arin shook his head. 'Anyway, we need to go clear things up immediately.'
Turning to the cloaked healer, he asked, 'Did you also force sleep upon the person who made mention of the distortion?'
'I didn't think you'd want me to,' said the man in response. 'She was countering the village head's hateful spiel, recounting tales of the 'heroic sir Rin', who had supposedly dragged his battered body through battle, just to ensure that every single one of Silvershade's residents could be saved from the dream.'
...Oh, great.Not.
Also, good to know she hadn't been stopped, and was probably still yapping away.
Arin suddenly felt a gaze upon himself, and glanced down to see Siel's starry eyes trained on his face.
?!
'There was no battle,' he said quickly. 'No heroics. There must've been a misunderstanding, from the stress of it all.'
Really, all he'd done was have his hand bitten off in a moment of carelessness.
He didn't want the kid to know the details, or he'd definitely figure out that something was wrong, dammit!
'But it is true that three villagers witnessed sir Grif mention the distortion,' Arin sighed. 'They heard him defend it while we were still within the dream. She must've be one of them.'
'Anyway, let's go see what's happened.'