Arin's eyes snapped open in the corner of that small, dark cabin. He gasped for breath once, twice...
He was fine. His throat didn't hurt, his back didn't burn, and he could feel both his hands firmly attached. Even the lightheadedness that had affected him was gone. He felt more awake than ever.
That weepy lady, Mira...
Well, he'd think about that later. At the moment, he had no time to waste.
Immediately, he jumped to his feet, hastened to race out of the room, and -
- BANG! -
- slammed his face hard against the doorframe on his way.
Oww!!!
What the fuuu- !
...His real-world eyes still hadn't adjusted to the real-world dark.
He scrunched up his face and ran his tongue along the inside of his teeth. Surprisingly, he still had them all.
And with that being the case, he still had no time to waste.
Arin took his childish revenge by slapping the offending frame hard, once, before racing on his way again.
He didn't bother with checking upon the awoken villagers. He could guess all too well what their condition might be at the moment.
No, what they all urgently needed, right now, was to be healed.
And so, even before he had exited the village entirely, he was calling out, 'Quick! Hurry up and get over here!'
There was a commotion in the distance, before a number of people started rushing his way. At the head of the crowd were sir Veylor and Siel.
'Senior brother Rin!' exclaimed Siel joyfully as he ran, his oversized clothes flapping around him like wings. 'You've returned already! You've -!'
Still running, the boy frowned. 'You've been hurt!?'
...huh?
Arin frowned, then swiped a hand against his face. Pulling it away, he saw a streak of blood.
Nosebleed.
Damned doorframe...
'Never mind that!' he said. 'They must all be awake by now! Healers, we need you now!'
Sir Veylor reached him first. He had been exclaiming something incomprehensible while wearing an elated expression on his face, and paused as though to reach out and take Arin's hands.
'No need for thanks.' Taking a step back, Arin commanded, 'Quickly, now! Separate the others into the groups we'd decided upon, so that they may support and assist each one of the healers. Hurry! Else the villagers won't make it through the night.'
'Oh!' The man frowned at the urgency in his voice. Then, he turned around and called out certain names, to call upon specific people from within the crowd.
The people he had called stepped forward, and efficiently started directing everyone else to follow Arin's instructions.
Some of those were probably some of sir Veylor's guard colleagues, from the city where he worked. Arin remembered hearing him say something about having reached out to them.
Within moments, nearly all of the people that had gathered there, had been divided into groups and taken past him to enter the village.
Siel, in the meantime, had stepped closer. Looking around, he lowered his voice and leaned in to ask, 'What about... that, brother?'
Arin sighed. 'It is evolving,' he answered quietly. 'It aims to pull them back in tonight.'
The younger tower magician gasped. 'No! Then we must -!'
'Carry her... it, away,' Arin sighed. 'Out of Silvershade, and as far away as possible from any other settlement, until we can figure out what to do.'
As for whether that meant they themselves would be pulled in again by something more powerful than they'd faced before, well...
He'd deal with that then.
'Yes!' Siel nodded. 'Let's be quick with it!' He took off to run into the village.
As Arin turned to follow, he suddenly remembered something. 'What about you?' he asked. 'I take it that you succeeded?'
He was pretty sure he'd seen that strange, cloaked healer-guy at the head of one of the main groups entering Silvershade.
The younger tower magician didn't respond immediately. 'Well, yes,' he said at last. 'I convinced that healer to help us. However...'
...
Hmm?
'However?' Arin prodded.
Siel remained silent for a bit again. Then,
'We shall speak of that later, if that's acceptable to you. After we've finished dealing with the more urgent matters first.'
Arin couldn't argue with that.
'Let's do that, then.'