The Glowing Feather

Kim was expecting Elin to show up shortly, as it was about the time when she should be recovering enough MP to deal with another person who had a devourer eating away at their inteeligence. Only, she didn't expect Elin to come rushing in looking so excited.

While she knew Elin could be rather naïve at times and sometimes couldn't really read the room, the fact that she was so excited at this time told Kim that something had happened to get her this way.

Whatever it was, she could at least be certain that it wasn't anything that had been going on. Especially since Elin seemed more depressed than anything about how slow dealing with the parasite infection had been going.

However, she was torn at checking to see if Elin had enough MP currently to treat the next person or what it was that had gotten her so excited. Partly because she'd like to be able to share in the excitement, especially with how dull the days had been dealing with this infection.

"Guess what, Kim?" Elin said before Kim could even begin to consider which to decide to ask her lover.

"You've decided you want to carry my child?" Kim asked, immediately wishing she could take that statement back.

Why did I ask that? Kim berated herself internally.

"What?" Elin asked, clearly confused.

"Nothing," Kim said quickly, hoping Elin wouldn't notice her embarrassment.

Fortunately, Elin seemed distracted by whatever had gotten her so excited in the first place that she didn't pay Kim much mind. Which for some reason Kim felt a little disheartening.

"Anyway, I found this!" Elin declared, holding out a feather.

Kim didn't try to take the feather from Elin, she just merely looked at it as Elin held it out.

The feather at first didn't seem all that remarkable, aside from its unusual coloring, which looked like a fire that was just starting to die down, when it stopped being tended to. Kim wasn't sure what to make of it other than that. Although, she had to admit that it wasn't something that she'd ever expected to see.

"What's gotten you so excited about that?" Kim asked, feeling like there had to be more to the story with Elin this worked up.

"When I found it, it was because I noticed it was giving off light," Elin replied, her excitement continuing to go strong.

Kim looked back from Elin to the feather again, looking at it closely. If she hadn't seen what she had in this world already, she doubted that she'd have believed what Elin was telling her. Especially since the feather didn't seem to be giving off any light at the moment.

Although, that might be because they were in a well lit area, so if the feather did give off some light, it might not be so apparent when seen by other light sources as well.

"Why don't we talk about that later?" Kim asked, suddenly remembering what they were supposed to be doing at this moment anyway. "Have you gotten enough MP to cast Treat again?"

"Huh?" Elin asked, her mind clearly elsewhere still. "Oh, yeah." Elin reached out to touch the next person's shoulder absently, her gaze still on the feather. "Treat."

Kim frantically drew her short sword, surprised at how Elin used her treat spell. She hadn't even waited until Kim had drawn her sword before casting the spell. So, while she'd been in time to deal with the devourer as it came out, it felt like a close thing to Kim.

Fortunately, aside from the man who'd now collapsed from having the devourer leave his body, which had been rather typical of these sessions, there wasn't anyone else around to have witnessed this incident. Which meant that Kim didn't need to come up with an excuse or explanation for the way it had been handled. At least before she pulled the explanation out of Elin.

Another thing that had surprised Kim was that Elin hadn't even checked her MP, so Elin couldn't have known that she would have had enough MP to use her seplls, as such, Elin couldn't have known that she wouldn't have ended up putting her thorugh that same ordeal when she tries to use more MP than she has available.

"Are you okay, Elin?" Kim asked, starting to wonder if maybe this was from another parasitic infection.

She hoped it wasn't but Elin hadn't been this careless with her MP since the last time she'd had to endure the effects of over extending herself with her spells.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Elin replied absently. "Why?"

"Well, because you didn't even check your MP before you used your magic to cast Treat on him," Kim said, waving her hand at the man whose body was laying on the ground. "You just used your magic, and didn't even seem concerned about any possible backlash from not having enough MP for it."

Elin looked at Kim blankly for a minute, though Kim couldn't tell what she was thinking, but still waited patiently. She had a feeling that Elin would need a little longer than she had, given she suspected that Elin hadn't fully recovered the intelligence that she'd lost. Which meant that she might not be as sharp as she had been previously, not that she'd been the sharpest too in the shed to begin with.

"What would happen?" Elin asked, sounding rather confused, which Kim couldn't help but feel alarmed about.

"You already had it happen twice to you," Kim said, unable to suppress the thought that things might be worse than she'd expected.

Elin stared at Kim for another minute, Elin's apparent unconcern for herself pulling at Kim's patience.

"Oh yeah," Elin said as if she'd just remembered something interesting. "That did happen."

Kim now felt torn. She knew that she was supposed to carry the man to where they set up a 'recovery' area for those who had gotten the parasite removed, but at the same time, she didn't want to leave Elin like this. If she took the man with her, then she wouldn't be able to make sure that Elin followed her.

Sighing, she decided that she'd have to get the man to where she was supposed to take him quickly and then search for Elin if it became necessary. While she hoped it wouldn't be, she didn't expect Elin to follow her the entire way.

"Stay with me and we can talk about that feather later, okay?" Kim said, hoping that mentioning the feather would keep Elin's focus on staying with her.

"Sure," Elin said calmly, though her eyes reflected excitement and mischief.

Kim shook her head, unsure about what was behind the excitement, but she didn't want to deal with that right then. It wasn't that important, so she pushed it to the back of her mind.

Then after she picked up the man and threw him over her shoulder, she started walking towards the part of camp that someone had decided to put the recovery area in.

Why it wasn't right by where they were treating the parasites, Kim couldn't say. All she knew was that it was rather tedious. Nor did it help that she was only one fast enough to dispatch the devourers before they could fully get away. While she didn't mind being the one to do that, it seemed to them become her responsibility to carry the people after they'd been relieved of the parasite.

As Kim stepped out of the tent, she looked around in the twilight. No one was around, which wasn't that surprising. Most of those who hadn't been infected were too skittish to get around those who had the devourers in their heads, though that could explain in part why it was so far to carry the people as they get treated.

As Kim heard Elin leave the tent behind her, she noticed the added light around them. So, Kim turned to Elin, to ask her to return the lamp back to the tent. There wasn't a need for it, as if nothing else, they had the campfires that gave enough light for them to navigate their way through the camp.

"We really don't need the lamp," Kim said as she turned around. "If you want to put it out that's fine, but you should at least leave-"

Kim stopped when she saw that it wasn't a lamp that was in Elin's hand, but rather the feather that was giving off the light. It wasn't a bright light, but Kim got the same sense of brightness from it as she looked directly at it as she got when she would stare at a dying campfire.

"Neat, huh?" Elin asked, the excitement in her voice matching the intensity of excitement reflected in her eyes.

"Uh, yeah," Kim replied absently. She was about to ask more about the feather, but then the man on her shoulder started to slide off and she remembered with a start exactly what it was that she had been in the middle of doing.

"Look, I have to deal with this useless piece of baggage first, but then we'll be talking about that feather," Kim told Elin.

"I can wait," Elin assured Kim.

Yet, Kim doubted that it would be as simple as that. In the back of her mind, she recalled about how the announcer had stated that materials had accidentally been released early. Which meant that this feather could potentially be one of those 'materials' as there weren't any other specifics given.

While the feather was interesting enough, she couldn't help but wonder what exactly this feather might mean.