Eventually, the shock had to wear off. Lucas turned away from the door and back the mess the Elder had made. The mess that had been his patient...

Lucas turned away from that as well. It would have to be dealt with at some point, but he just couldn't right now. In his perception, the distortion in the ambient mana caused by the corruption had begun to fade around Walt's body, so at the very least things weren't getting any worse. It would hold for a while.

He drifted around the room aimlessly and started checking up on the other patients once more, just so he had a task to keep his mind from wandering. They were fine, he'd already done all he could for them for the time being, so he finally settled beside his mother's cot and sat on the floor against the wall.

...Why? He didn't even know what was going on, he just killed the man as soon as it looked like things were taking a turn for the worse...

I hate him. He talked so loftily about the world having too many fighters, and how violence was sooo bad, but look how quick he was to resort to it himself.

One thing was clear, after this situation, he had lost all trust in the village's supposed defender. That man's word now counted for less than dirt to Lucas. He should be tried and exiled, just like Regan had been. But that wasn't possible. Even as Lucas mentally raged, he knew no one would ever get rid of the [Mage] responsible for maintaining the walls. It wasn't fair, but he knew Elder Falon would face no repercussions for his actions at all.

Lucas stewed in those thoughts for what felt like a long time until he pointedly moved on to something else. Luckily, the effort wasn't so difficult. Circumstances had distracted him from contemplating the vision he received whilst unconscious, but now he had time for it.

The first thing that came to mind, before even the cryptic conversation he'd held with some being in the void, was the blond woman's face. She was important--when the vision began to unravel, it was her memory that spoke to Lucas, urged him to wake back up. Whatever their relationship was in his past life, she had clearly been significant.

And she called him Adam--her Adam. Unless there was some sort of language divide, and he didn't think there was since the rest of the vision used the language he knew and understood, then that had been his name.

Adam. Then the voice called me legacy.

Out of everything the voice had said, that was the one thing he thought he understood most. It was about his past life, and for some reason, it had gotten this being fixated on him, helping him. So it had said, anyway. Lucas still wasn't sure how exactly it had already helped him, and so wasn't too optimistic about receiving it once more.

A rustling sound brought Lucas back to the moment, and he looked over to find his mother rousing. She rolled onto her side in his direction with a furrowed brow, groaned and opened her eyes, sighting him immediately. "Lu?" she asked, the remnant effects of her brief time unconscious having left her groggy and confused.

Lucas cracked a small smile. "Hi, mom. Are you feeling okay?"

"Why wouldn't I be feeling..." the recent events seemed to come back to mid-sentence, and suddenly she was wide awake, her eyes opening wide. Mary sat up quickly--too quickly, and she had to hold her head for a moment--before she started to look herself over, somewhat frantically. Lucas got up from the floor, slowly closed the distance and wrapped her in a hug.

"I'm...I'm okay," she stuttered. "How am I okay, Lu? What happened?" She looked into his eyes with great confusion, and asked, "You jumped down, didn't you?"

Though it was phrased as a question, on this one thing, her confusion faded away. It was possible that she hadn't been immediately knocked out when the shield-bearer fell and pinned her, Lucas realized. If she remained conscious for even a few moments after, she would have seen Lucas clash with that first goblin.

He couldn't lie to her about this, but he never intended to in the first place. Lucas took a deep breath and began recounting the events from his perspective, starting from the moment he left Belinda, to when he left the wall and stood between the defenders and the monsters, all the way to when he woke up in this very room and did all he could to save the last of them, only finding partial success.

The only thing Lucas didn't feel he could share was the vision he'd had while being knocked out himself. He didn't yet know what to make of it all and for now, it wasn't important.

When he got to the part of his recounting where the Elder killed one of his patients, Mary took one look at the bloody and destroyed cot and pulled him closer. She wrapped him in a tight embrace and physically prevented him from looking in that direction as well.

"I'm sorry, Lu. I'm sorry you had to go through all that," she spoke softly, as if speaking louder would something indefinable to break.

"I'm not. I stopped them. I kept you all safe," Lucas proclaimed, "and I'd do it again if I had to."

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Neither of them said anything more, they simply held each other for who knows how long. When they eventually separated, his mom held him at an arm's length and cupped his cheek with one of her hands. "Son, you are an amazing person, and I have no doubt you will do great things one day. Know that I am proud of you, but it will always pain me to see you go through these things. I love you."

"I love you too, mom," Lucas answered.

Mary nodded, then after a moment, she stood up from her cot, never once losing hold of his shoulder. "Why don't we get out of here, huh? We should probably see how the village is responding to all this, and let them know that the rest of these people will be okay."

Lucas nodded in agreement and followed along as she ushered him towards the door. He didn't fail to notice that she kept him out of view of Walt's cot as well, but he couldn't get upset at the coddling. Honestly, he was grateful.

They exited the room and suddenly found themselves in a dim, nondescript hallway. Despite its overly-unassuming appearance, Lucas actually recognized it as part of the guards' base in the village center--he'd been here fairly recently to train with Eugene and Quinn, after all. He led the way to the front of the building and out, into the open evening air.

The village center was all but abandoned. At this time of day, that wasn't terribly unusual, as most people would be finishing up their business and returning home to their families, but when Lucas looked around, he didn't even see more than a couple people down the branching paths.

"Where is everyone?" he asked aloud. "Do you think they've all hidden away in their homes?"

"Maybe some of them," his mom shook her head, "but if I had to guess, I think we'll find most of them in there."

She pointed to another building nearby--the Elders' meeting hall, and Lucas watched as one of the few stragglers still around disappeared inside.

"Come on, let's get in there," Mary started marching over, and Lucas quickly followed close behind.

The only reason this building was used was when an important gathering occurred. Right now, that could only mean the village was discussing the attack earlier in the day, and what it all meant. That was not something they should miss.

They made their way across the square and soon were at the door. When Mary opened it, they were greeted with a solid wall of bodies completely blocking the way forward. The person that had entered just before, having not made it more than two paces into the building, looked over her shoulder at them and offered a greeting.

"Hey, I thought everyone in the village would have been here by now," the woman said. A moment later she started and quickly looked between the two of them, her gaze eventually resting on Lucas with a hint of shock and something else he couldn't quite place. "It's you," she nearly whispered.

Her demeanor was beyond strange, and as Lucas tried to place her, he instinctively used [Identify].

[Laborer]

"Do I know you?"

She emphatically shook her head, but didn't offer up any further answer verbally.

"What's going on, here?" Mary interjected. "Are they discussing the attack?"

Her question broke the [Laborer] out of her odd daze, and the woman turned back to Lucas's mother after giving him one last glance.

"Well, yes, the Elders are discussing the attack--but it's really about their fate, from what I heard."

"Why is there concern over the Elders' fate?" Mary's face scrunched up slightly in confusion.

"No, no," the [Laborer] corrected, "not the Elders. The guards that went out to hunt down all the goblins, Commander Iltani and all them."

At that point, their conversation had drawn the attention of a few of the other people stuck in the entrance to the hall. A nearby man leaned over conspiratorially and said, "I hear they are talking about abandoning them and fortifying the village."

"We all heard that, Roberto," the [Laborer] said, "cut the drama. This is serious."

Roberto threw his hands up in a dramatic display of innocence. "No drama here, just letting the [Healer]s know." At his own words, he paused and gave the two of them another glance. His eyes gravitated toward Lucas, and a moment later he looked shocked.

"We need to be up there," Mary spoke out impatiently. To both of their surprise, Roberto and the [Laborer] woman immediately pushed to the side and made room for them to press forward, earning some brief complaints from the other people around them.

"Please, go ahead of me," Roberto eagerly waved them on.

"Me too," the woman said.

Lucas's mom nodded her thanks and did just that, letting go of Lucas in the process. He followed close behind her just the same. Together, they kept pressing forward through the crowd. More than once, the people they cut ahead of took issue with their actions, but once they recognized either of them, all complaints ceased. Lucas got more than a few strange looks through all that.

They made it into the meeting hall proper and kept pushing through toward the Elders' table, but the crowd proved more stubborn here, where they could actually witness the meeting proceed or even take part, and less willing to be pushed aside, no matter who was doing the pushing. A voice called out to them over the murmurs of conversation.

"Lucas! [Healer] Mary!"

Lucas looked to the right and saw Harry forcefully pushing through the crowd toward them. He made it to their side and immediately grabbed onto Lucas's upper arm. "Come on, I've got a spot up close."

Feeling somewhat awkward at his sudden appearance, Lucas didn't answer him right away, but his mom wasn't so slow.

"Thank you, Harry," she said. "How long has this been going on?"

"The meeting hasn't properly started, ma'am," Harry replied while leading the way. He brought them to a spot that was indeed mostly clear, with only a number of [Hunter]s and a few guards in the area, before he faced them and spoke more. "The Elders have been here for a while, I think, but they're one short and decided to rope in the other villagers before any decision is made."

"A decision on what?" she asked with audible dread.

Harry paused and grimaced, shot a look over to the Elders' table, then looked her directly in the eyes. "The rumor's true, ma'am. They are deciding holding a vote on whether to mount a rescue for the missing guards, or abandon them and fortify the village."

Lucas was about to spit out an instinctive objection, but the moment his mouth opened, he was interrupted by a supernaturally loud pounding. At the center of the table the room was focussed on, Elder Marcel slammed his fist down a few more times and produced a supernaturally loud and carrying noise. Lucas watched as a wave in the ambient mana accompanied the more obvious effects of the Skill, and effectively silence the crowd.

"Thank you," the short man spoke up and sat down, "I will now officially call this meeting into action. We have a crisis to deal with."