An air of somber silence had conquered the few rooms being used by the four women. Thanrie's health was still a concern, none of them knew if she was going to be okay.

Thanrie was still out, not having woken once since her accident. Mhyl was in there with her to take care of her, not having left her side for a moment. Chyurae was busy working with the Marauder's medical staff, trying his best to help Mhyl by running supplies, even though most of it was taken care of for him. Zyuixqs had waited just outside, always helping when something came up, clearly concerned for how Thanrie was doing and clearly wishing there was more he could do. Qheria.. Qheria was still taking it very hard. She had been trying to manage so far almost looking lifeless, and when there was nothing she could do to help, she went off on her own. She seemed so withdrawn from them all, including herself.

Lwyn was taking a moment to consider, at this point, that while she still had a lot to worry about with Thanrie, she was also really worried if everyone was going to be okay. Mhyl didn't even go to bed, had barely eaten, and was putting more effort into this than even a human should, and she's an elf. Her own health was going to suffer at this rate. Chyurae had collapsed three times already by exhausting himself, being an elf pushing himself too hard as well, but was thankfully one reason Mhyl had eaten anything at all. Zyuixqs fortunately had at least taken the time to get some basic treatment, his own burns not actually that bad. But as soon as he could feint being well enough, he was back at Thanrie's room, despite very obviously not being fully recovered. His injuries were taxing enough, he looked like he didn't even have half the energy Chyurae did. Even sitting on a chair, he looked ready to face-plant the floor, sitting using pure determination alone. Qheria, she was the only one of Lwyn's companions that had not suffered physically though this. However, Qheria still looked like she was in pure unrelenting agony.

Lwyn was hard at work making everyone a snack, considering no one had had anything to eat today so far. She doubted anyone would even bother with a real lunch. So, to help everyone, she would bring them something to keep going with. She was hard at work making a tea for everyone, something with a calm energy to it. Her Terran-self was more of a coffee drinker, but Celese had nothing like coffee. Her Celesi-self however had spent years getting good at something as simple as making tea, and herself enjoyed opportunities with it in the few chances she had. Considering local cultures, the others would all be familiar enough with this brew, though she personally wasn't sure what it was close to from Earth nor if the others even liked Terran teas. The exact leaves were new, but close enough.

In addition to the tea, she prepared some sandwiches. Thinking about Terran stuff, some egg sandwiches might have been perfect, but that would have required cultivating birds. Instead she had some thinly chopped meats cooked softly and served on a leaf bed. The meats were from some local hunts, so it was at least tender enough, but she cared nothing for which animal it used to be. She could imagine some of the local tunneling creatures being caught for this purpose, and that was enough for her. Chopped ground-squirrel was just how food worked out here, in a land less cultivated than the very medieval inn she had left behind. The leaves were almost a delicacy out here, having actually came from certain amber bushes closer to the river, similar to the low-quality delicacy tea she had made, and were known for being very healthy. If only they had access to something like a tomato, she could have made something like a cheap BLT.

"Hey, Zyuixqs, I made us a snack. I still have your's cooling a bit though, things have been hot enough as is. Mhyl is still inside, right?" Lwyn got a silent nod for her inquiry, nothing more. Lwyn pondered if she should get everyone some pillows too, everyone was sleepwalking at this point. Zyuixqs at least helped her open the door, so that she could bring stuff inside. Mhyl had collapsed, again, the door opening had woken her up. "Mhyl... Please take care of yourself. Here, I brought you something to at least help you take care of you. You should definitely have it, totally recommended. I mean, mostly because having more energy is always helpful for us elves, right?" "Lwyn, you know that stuff isn't real energy, right? But it will at least keep me more aware, so I thank you." "The sandwiches though. Doesn't proteins do the energy thing? And the amber-leaves are supposed to be really healthy too. Either way, simple, easy to eat, and will have our doctor make sure she also can keep going, right?" Lwyn handed off the serving to the very worn Mhyl. Mhyl's English tone even made her sound really tired.

On the way out, she found Chyurae had shown up. "Perfect, you need something too. I know you really really want to keep helping Mhyl, but you'll need something to help you keep going." Chyurae silently indicated what he was holding, looking for the energy to reply. "Yes, yes, yes, you should set that down for her over there. Mhyl is awake again, so she knows you came by. I'm guessing that's more of that medicine stuff for Thanrie. Now, come take a seat and relax with some nice tea." She got him setup not far from Zyuixqs, who she also brought a helping of the same snack. Both accepted it silently.

Thanrie was in no condition for her own food, being unconscious and everything made things rather hard. Fortunately, the medicines were supposed to help with that, so Mhyl would take care of it. Lwyn knew she would have to take it easy too, switching rapidly between all three of her known languages so freely was making her light-headed. Well, it probably wasn't just that.

Finally, she brought Qheria a serving. Qheria was also hiding in a room, but was defiantly in no danger of sleeping. This would be considered a bigger problem when you account for the fact that she hasn't slept yet at all, not even overnight. After everything that happened, Lwyn was positive Qheria was simply not letting herself sleep. In her case, the tea was less about having energy to keep going, and more to have the calm energy to start up at all. She was just sitting there on the bed, staring into her own thoughts and fears, like she wasn't even alive. "Qheria, I brought you something to eat." Qheria also said nothing, but she didn't move either. Lwyn wasn't even sure if she heard. "Qheria?" Lwyn startled Qheria with a tap on the shoulder, so she indicated her gift again. "Food's here." "Oh, thanks." Lwyn finally got a reply from Qheria, but it felt dismissive. Qheria didn't even look at what was brought.

"Don't worry, I'm sure everything is going to be alright. We just need to wait for Thanrie to wake up." "How can you be so certain she even will wake up? Where do you even get that hope from? Mhyl is good, but working miracles is asking for too much. The odds at this rate really aren't looking that good." "So will you just give up then?" "Give up? You make it sound like there is anything left. We shouldn't have came here, this whole thing was a big mistake. Now Thanrie has to suffer for it." "Nothing was a mistake, and no one should give up. Look, there is two ways things can go from here. Either she makes it and everyone is going to need you to be strong so that you can lead us forward from this mess, or she.. won't.. and we'll still need to keep going. Thanrie had worked so hard to help us get this far, and if we did lose her, I wouldn't want to disappoint her by just giving up. There is really no other choice, we have to be ready to keep going, and we're counting on you.." Lwyn was trying hard to comfort Qheria, when suddenly Qheria bashed the wall in frustration.

"I can't. I can't do it. It's too much for me. I can't keep going like this." "Then don't, keep going in a way that's much better for you. I mean, this isn't the Qheria I know at all. She's much more brave and creative, with wild ideas that always carry us forward no matter how uncertain we are. She lets nothing stop her, ever." "I can't anymore, it's too much." Qheria's stubbornness was clearly working against her in this situation. Lwyn gave her a tight hug. "You keep saying what you can't do, but you're forgetting, you aren't alone. I'm sure we can do it together. Mhyl is working super hard right now too, but I'm sure she's got your back. Heck, even Rhyde has shown up twice now, once today, asking how you were doing, and you know how critical that guy can be. The only one who has lost hope in you, is you."

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Lwyn wasn't sure what else she could do to help. "Just please do me a favour, and have some of this stuff before it gets cold, okay?" "... fine, fine." At Lwyn's insistence, Qheria finally glanced at the snack that was set aside for her. Lwyn still wasn't sure if she actually would, but she wanted to trust her friend, so she left it at that. She closed the door behind her as she left, giving Qheria more space to work the matter out with herself. She went to have some of the leftover tea for herself, finding she wasn't actually alone.

"I see you've been hard at work yourself. Walking around with a mask that shows you have plenty left, while in truth being nearly ready to hit the floor." Yuxzn was, after all, quite the tactician, and was quick to spot things that weren't being revealed. Lwyn couldn't hide anything from him. She helped herself to some of the tea and started mumbling into it. "Things are going so wrong, I'm so worried." "You keep working to stay strong even in the most trying of times, it's actually impressive that you haven't broken down yet. Most people I know, probably even Rhyde himself, would have broken long ago. In truth, his concerns for Qheria.. he's not even keeping up anything close to his usual pace. Just remember, you need to look after yourself too, don't just ignore your own feelings." Yuxzn himself, though he didn't mention anything either, was fairly worried too. It was why he had came, himself.

Presented with her own release, tears took to Lwyn's eyes. Yuxzn was right, after all. He tried to give her a shoulder so that she could unburden herself of extra tears.

Eventually, Lwyn set to clean up. Yuxzn noticed some of the medical staff had arrived, to do more work, and went to attend to them. Lwyn went back to Qheria's room, to recover her stuff. The sandwich was still there, but it was partly eaten, along with some of the tea. Qheria had fulfilled her promise, Lwyn knew she could believe in her. Lwyn passed her a silent smile as she recovered the dried remains of the snack, which Qheria noticed, herself returning a fake smile with down-turned eyes. She brought the remains into the food area, finding Zyuixqs and Chyurae had already cleaned up after themselves, although she suspected it was all Chyurae's work. Only Mhyl's portion remained to be recovered.

As she approached what was being used as the medical room, she found a large crowd collected outside. It made sense though, the medical staff did just arrive didn't they? It was a misfortune of bad timing, but not much of a problem. She noticed that Zyuixqs and Chyurae had gone inside with the others, which was going to make that room incredibly cramped. She could hear people talking inside, but had no idea what was being said. She was patient enough though, it's not like there was any hurry.

Eventually, Yuxzn alone left the room, looking stunned. This was reason to be alarmed, Lwyn rushed to him to get an update. "Did something happen? What's wrong?" "Wrong? Well, I guess nothing. Thank you, above everything, I should keep in mind that this isn't a bad thing." Lwyn was left confused as Yuxzn took a moment to compose himself. "Yes, well, after everything you've done, you should definitely be one of the first to know about this. Qheria too, probably. So it seems Thanrie will be fine. That's the good news at least, but what is mind blowing is taking everything behind that into account. Our experts had just taken time to look into her.. the injuries she's had.. shouldn't have even healed in under a week. At the rate she's recovering, they think she might be up by tomorrow. Something else is going on, something we don't understand. I'm hoping you might have an idea."

Well, that was certainly good news, but being found by a miracle didn't make any sense to her either. "That does sound really weird. Not that I'm going to be upset at getting found at the lucky end of a good fortune, but I have no idea what could cause that. I mean, we've been having a lot of good luck technically for a while now, but even that I wouldn't call extraordinary or anything. Perfect luck wouldn't have had us captured, and wouldn't have had Thanrie hurt at all. Nothing really unusual ever happened as far as I saw, though I guess we should ask Mhyl later, she was there the whole time." "We already asked her, she hadn't noticed anything at all. Either way, I'll keep working, you should let Qheria know the news." Lwyn had no idea what would have caused anything weird, and was almost more willing to just suspect the 'experts' had over-estimated the problem. Still, it was very curious. Yuxzn was right though, Qheria would want to hear about this.

Lwyn rushed off to Qheria's room. At the flurry of motion, Qheria also turned up in alarm. Lwyn calmed her down and repeated the situation. "See, I told you everything would work out. Everything is going to be okay, now. So now it's your job to be okay by the time Thanrie finally gets up, got it?" "I guess we did get a miracle after all." Lwyn and Qheria were both left wondering at their good fortune. Qheria at least made a quick nod, as Lwyn left her to herself again. They were going to be okay after all, hopefully.

Lwyn made her way back, to Yuxzn still perplexing over the matter. In that short time, he had found new questions for her. "The families that are looking for you, what do you know about them? Anything unusual?" "Uh, other than being some of the most important people ever, no?" "I was just going over one of our other unresolved mysteries. When the four families had shown up, they had helped us take out some of the Destroyers. Having faced some yourself, you've seen what that's taken. We had let them know about how we had been dealing with them, and without making use of any of our equipment, they had suddenly just walked in and taken out four in an instant, and another four quickly after. One and one each. Even with your related knowledge and familiarity for ourselves.. they took out eight like they were nothing. More so, our scouts saw nothing, it had happened too fast. It was something we couldn't make any sense of, and this yet again is something happening beyond normal capabilities, with no witnesses." Yuxzn had not yet shared this part of the event with their group. With the connection made, he had asked to see what Lwyn knew, but Lwyn it seems was also innocent of the details behind this mystery.

"Knowing you, you'll keep an eye out for anything else strange. Please let me know if you figure out anything, and I'll let you know if anything related turns up. Maybe eventually we can figure this one out together. This could still be an important discovery, it could be of significant help in all of our efforts." Yuxzn was counting on Lwyn's dependable curiosity to uncover more details. Lwyn herself was very perplexed on what possibly could have been brought to be that useful, especially for people who knew nothing of what would be out here. A sword would be useless against a tank, but they didn't have much better than that. None of this made sense at all.

As Yuxzn had other things to attend to, he had to be off, leaving Lwyn to her thoughts. The others had left Mhyl to resume caring for Thanrie. Zyuixqs once again was seated outside, and Chyurae had disappeared. It was like everything had reverted to how it was earlier that day, except the gloom of the room was fading. Lwyn was determined to make a decent dinner for them to enjoy later that day, after missing out on meals today.. everyone would need something. Her idea would take a couple hours, but she had time for a plan like that. It wasn't a celebration, she was saving THAT idea for when Thanrie could join them. And when things were better, maybe they could all talk about this latest development. The others were actually family of important people, maybe they knew a few things about this stuff.

Regardless of Thanrie's state, the day still ended like it had begun, and the night passed much like the last had. Until they saw Thanrie better for themselves, no one was going to rest.