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Heron felt some gratification when the discomfort started again. Having a hypothesis confirmed was something truly satisfying.

Kur noticed almost immediately without him even having to open his mouth. He came over and sat next to him as Tira left at a quick walk. Heron had to admit, it felt nice having a close friend who cared about him like this. Of course his friends back home cared about him, but as the eldest in his small friend group he had to be the most mature. Here though, he was the youngest. Without a doubt.

Not surprising when of his friends here two of them weren't human. After all a sixteen-year-old human was not gonna be as old as a full grown elf, or even a half elf.

Anyway the symptoms did not get past the pain in the stomach before it started lessening. Tira must have caught up to her. The two females were back not too long after. Elswyth immediately made a beeline for him and fussed over him like a worried hen. As she did so Heron noticed Kur giggling to himself out of the corner of his eye. He was not sure why the elf was giggling, but did not really have a chance to ask right now with Elswyth holding his cheek as she inspected him.

"I'm fine." Heron finally managed to say as she loosened her grip on his cheek, "Seriously, El. I'm alright."

"I still think this was reckless," She grumbled. But she finally released him.

He sighed to himself. Yeah, he was not too surprised by her actions. He shook his head and glanced at Kur, "So, what do you think?"

"It does appear to be the case. I don't think this could at all be a coincidence. Especially since it stopped as she came back. Appears like the two of you really are bound together." Kur sounded strangely happy as he said that last sentence. Heron was a bit confused about it.

It wasn't that he was upset or anything about being bound by some weird magic to Elswyth but why did Kur actually sound happy? That confused him. He decided not to ask though. It might have just been a natural inflection and not actually meant anything.

"El?" Heron instead asked, "Did you notice anything odd?"

"After a bit I found myself thinking I wanted to go back to you. My brain started making all sorts of excuses." She shrugged, "Though that might not actually mean anything. I didn't want to leave your side in the first place."

Heron felt a bit embarrassed by that overly honest reply. He cleared his throat, "So, how far apart can we be before we start experiencing side effects?"

They figured it out to be a few rooms over at most. Then they moved onto the important thing to discuss now.

"How do we get rid of this?" Heron said, "This might not be life threatening or truly dangerous, but it isn't exactly something we can just leave. I mean, I'll have to go home eventually and-"

"If I need to I can follow you." Elswyth said with a shrug, "It wouldn't bug me too much."

"I don't know how to remove it." Kur said, "There may not be a way, but I will see what I can find out. There are several spells that are similar in effect, and I can see what is known about trying to have them removed. That would probably shed light on the subject."

"Thank you." Heron smiled at Kur, "I'll help you look of course."

"I figured."

"Seriously though," Elswyth said, "Its not that big a deal. I don't plan on letting you that far away from me anyway, so…"

"Its better to get it off, anyway." Heron said with a sigh. He decided not to argue that he didn't need her constantly hovering around him.

Kur said quite calmly, ignoring this little exchange, "Anyway, I'm sure even if we can't get it completely removed we can find a way to make it less inconvenient."

As it was it could have been worse. They could have been forced to stay in the same room. That would have been more than just a little inconvenient. This was workable with. Not ideal certainly, but Heron could not find it in himself to complain.