Aftermath

When I finally regained consciousness my eyes remained closed, for even though the sky was dark and the moon was out, the light from the crackling fire sent a sharp pain through my head. I listened as I shifted slightly finding myself wrapped in my blanket and my pillow set beneath my head. A warm hand lay on my head briefly before being replaced with a damp rag.

I felt my hair being brushed to the side and I began to feel the warmth of the body on the opposite side of the fire. I flickered my eyes open briefly, but only got more pain and a blurry figure. The blurry figure seemed to let out a gasp as they most likely noticed that I was awake.

"Rhys, Rhys are you okay?" The soothing voice of my mother Alice entered my ears, but it was hoarse as if she had been crying.

"Mother? I'm okay, my head just hurts really bad. The light hurts my eyes." I rasped out noticing that my voice to seemed strained and crackling like hers. She let out a soft sigh and I felt her hand rest on my head and then a warmth spread through it and I could feel the pain lessen. My eyes blinked as the objects around me came into focus.

The fire to my right with the rest of the party sat around watching us, Adam was rousing my dad from his own sleep. He quickly made his way to me and mother with red eyes and a distraught look, I turned and saw mother has much the same look and I imagine I wasn't much different.

"How long… how long have I been out?" I asked tentatively and they looked between each other before looking down with as loving a smile as they could produce.

"Only about 5 hours. We expected you to stay asleep a full day if not 2." Mother said softly as she resumed stroking my hair, Angela's voice spoke up from the side of the camp next.

"Conjurer's back lash is no small thing, you need to be more careful in the future little Rhys." I could hear the concern in her slightly breaking voice. I imagine they probably all feel responsible for not only my condition, but… Arthur's as well.

"He's gone… isn't he?" I mumbled with immense sorrow as I felt my eye begin to heat up and tears pooling at the rims. I saw the downcast heads around the campfire as they all nodded solemnly in near unison, and mother's breathing hitched.

"But we still have you." Reynolds tried to comfort, and it worked if only a little as Alice smiled. I sat up and pulled them both into a hug, though without strengthening myself with mana it looked more like I was just tugging on their shirts. They understood my intent though and enveloped me.

"Rhys?" My father hesitantly asked. I pulled back from the hug and looked up at him.

"Ya, dad?" He looked from me to the others before gathering whatever resolve he needed for his next question.

"What… what was that magic you used yesterday." My eyes went wide with realization. It hadn't registered at the time what had killed the bandits before I blacked out, but now it was clear.

"It was my other magic. I can control shadows." Feeling that my core was mostly recovered as was my head I reached out to some shadows and used them to lift up a piece of burning wood from the fire. I held it up for only a few moments before it wobbled and I lost concentration, dropping the wood back into the fire.

Gasps filled the atmosphere as everyone thought deeply about what I had just done. They had never seen or even heard of someone capable of manipulating shadows, not to mention that I was a healer already. If my shadow magic could be considered deviant magic, then that would mean I was a 4 year old with dual deviance. And one of them was healing, one of the most sought after magics and now a completely new one that they hadn't heard of.

"I think I've had enough for one day." Mother said as she stood, me and father rose with her and left for the wagon that me and Arthur had been riding in this whole time. I looked back to see them watching us with sadness in their eyes and guilt on their faces. I knew my parents didn't blame them, and even I didn't blame them, but that didn't stop the Twin Horns from blaming themselves.

We huddled into the wagon with our blankets and pillows, me sandwiched between Reynolds and Alice and the 3 of us went to sleep.

As if a slap to the face we reached the gate that would teleport us to the Xyrus square within just a couple hours, well before noon. The mood had remained somber and aside from only the most necessary calls was anything said. Mother hadn't left the make shift bed in the back of the wagon and I only left her side when we reached the city.

It was an interesting sight to say the least. Stalls of merchants hawking their wares lined the outer edges trying to entice travelers and then store fronts line the streets that webbed from the square. We only stopped briefly at the adventurers guild for the Twin Horns to make a report before we continued forward. We were heading to a friend dad had made some years ago, a man by the name of Vincent Helstea, who had a wife and a daughter.

Mr. Helstea was a small time noble who apparently runs a popular auction house in the area. He had told Reynolds that he always had a job spot open for him if he ever needed it and I would say we currently did. The loud stamps of the feet of the lizards alerted the family inside the Helstea Manor to our arrival. First we were met by a butler who father talked with.

Only the conversation didn't last long as Vincent had came to see who was visiting him, and then realizing who it was. As he stepped out a beautiful woman stepped into the doorway and a little girl stood just behind her. They must be his wife and daughter. I watched everything from inside the wagon through lazy eyes, meeting new people meant talking. Especially children who I quickly deduced would be paired with me while the adults discussed "big people" things.

So here I was sitting across a small table with a teapot resting in the center, surrounded on its left and right with small sandwiches and then a small teacup upon a saucer. A maid stood off to the side and gave me a few discerning looks before deciding that I posed no threat. I did pull off a rather nonchalant aura, with my half open eyes and slumped posture.

The little girl across from me didn't seem to notice my indifference to everything or she didn't care. Perhaps taught since she could speak how to entertain guests.

"It must have been wonderful to travel so far through that beautiful scenery." She said wistfully as she gazed out the window, missing the small wince I gave but my audible reaction was the opposite.

"Mhm." I mostly hummed as I took another sip of the refreshing tea. Even when I was living in our home in Ashber we didn't have drinks with such flavor, living on nothing but water and milk. The girl, now known as Lilia, continued on for a good hour content with just hearing my mumbles or other various sounds that indicated I was paying attention. You'd be amazed how much a persons could continue a conversation even if you only provide the very basics of a response.

But eventually he was saved by the voice of his mother.

"Come, Rhys. Mr. and Mrs Helstea are taking us to the rooms we'll be staying in." I set my teacup back down on the saucer and gave a slight head nod to Lilia as I stood up and followed beside mother. We followed the back Tabitha Helstea up a set of stairs and then took the left hallway that had doors lining each side. Father was behind us still chatting with Vincent when we finally reached the first room.

"This can be Rhys' room." Tabitha said as she gave a gentle smile to us. Mother rested her hand on my shoulder as she turned to me.

"Will you be alright by yourself?" She asked with worry, but I just gave a brief nod. She hugged me and kissed the crown of my head and turned and walked into the room to find my stuff that I had brought put away orderly. The books Arthur had brought were placed on a small bookshelf, my pillow seemed to have been washed along with my blanket and laid folded at the end of the bed.

A small wardrobe had a door open revealing my scarce few clothes hung within. My wooden sword and Arthur's broken one were lying on a desk. He had thrown it down after deflecting an arrow one of the bandits had shot at us, so it seems someone retrieved it for me. My dagger that was a present from Jasmine rested beside them inside it's sheath.

The room was as large as the living room back at our home in Ashber and even had a connecting bathroom.

"The maids and butler have filled your tub with hot water so that you can bathe before you go to bed. Just leave your dirty clothes outside the bathroom door and they will retrieve them and wash them." I absentmindedly nodded my head to Tabitha's words as I headed to the steaming bathtub.

We had had warm baths at our old home, but never hot baths. I would be sure to enjoy this experience, being lazy takes a lot out of you after all. It's not for everyone, but there may have been other reasons I needed a bath. One whiff of myself and I was reminded of the 3 week journey in the hot summer sun down dirt paths. I shut the door to my bedroom, grabbed a change of clothes and stripped out of my dirty pair as I headed for the tub.

My tired and sore body sunk into the hot water that i felt was too hot at first, but endured as I wasn't about to complain. My skin quickly pinkened from the heat, but I paid it no mind as the dirt and weariness of the journey washed off of me. It almost was enough to take my mind off Arthur, but I couldn't help but wonder what had happened.

Did he fall off that cliff in the book? It would be protagonist thing to do to seemingly survive a fall that would kill anyone. He'll probably get some kind of crazy power boost too while he's trying to make his way back to us. I could only hope that my line of thinking wasn't misguided hope for my new twin.

I sunk to my lips in the hot water as I looked at the solid wood ceiling. I didn't come to this world to deal with all these tragedies, not that I chose to come here either way. Whether he's dead or not shouldn't change the way I want to live my life. I'll continue this life the same way I planned to. Become more proficient in healing and my shadow manipulation, and live the lazy life.

It may seem cold to not try and find my little twin brother, but I'm being realistic here. If he's alive it's not like I have the strength to go and find him, plus if this is how the real story went then he will find his way back to us on his own. And if he's dead… well then it wouldn't make much difference if I found him.

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Not sure but probably a little time skip next chapter.

See ya then