'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 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 a distortion's range to take care of the affected villagers.
More importantly, they would also avoid whatever repercussions one might face for not following procedure and summoning the Empire's officials sooner.
And, considering the seriousness of the emphasis placed upon destroying a potential distortion, 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 any 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 a mention of the distortion?'
'I didn't think you'd want me to,' said the man. '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, and ensured that every single one of Silvershade's residents would be saved from the dream.'
...Fantastic.
So she was probably still yapping away.
Arin suddenly glanced down at Siel, only to see his starry-eyed gaze trained upon him.
'There was no battle,' he said quickly. 'No heroics. There must've been a misunderstanding, from the stress of it all.'
All he'd really 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 something was wrong, dammit!
Sorry he wasn't actually his effortlessly cool senior brother!
'But it is true that three villagers witnessed sir Grif mention the distortion, and fight to maintain it, while we were still within the dream. She must be one of them,' Arin sighed.