As Mirrah went behind the cottage, calling out for the boy's name, Dusk didn't think anything about it. Gerald's daugther Ava was prone to doing dangerous stunts whenever her father or mother weren't around on the ship, usually earning that kind of response from one of the ship members who caught her swinging from the masts or balancing on the tip of the bow. It usually ended in laughs and scoldings, but never any harm. So Dusk didn't think anything about it, more preoccupied with keeping himself upright on steady land. But Phsara, who Dusk felt had eyes on the back of her head or quite possibly anywhere within a 10 meter radius of the cottage, had lifted her head sharply, looking over where Mirrah had gone. She stood up, the sleeves of her robe sliding down her arms.

Dusk, who was looking for somewhere to sit, glanced over at her. "What is it?"

"Something is wrong." She started moving before Dusk could say anything.

Dusk gave the area a very brief sweep, almost afraid that some bandits were about to ambush them. That happened often in the secluded mountains didn't it? "What? What is it?" He followed after her, but Phsara didn't need to say anything. Mirrah was already screaming on the top of her lungs as she came into view.

"SOMEONE, PLEASE HELP ME!"

Mirrah was on her knees, her hands frantic with helplessness, and Wilhelm was on the ground beside her, a puddle of water soaking into the ground. Dusk broke into a run past Phsara, closing the gap between him and Mirrah. "What? What's happenin'?" He knelt down beside Wilhelm, limp and unconscious. Faint moans were coming from his lips. He looked like he was asleep, in the midst of a nightmare. "What's wrong with him?"

"I don't know! He won't snap out of it!" Mirrah's voice shook, her eyes glistening with tears. "Wilhelm! Wake up! Wilhelm!"

Dusk bent down, reaching out to touch the boy's shoulder, but a tap on his back stopped him.

"Move. Get out of the way." Phsara slid in beside Mirrah as Dusk moved aside. She pushed her sleeves up, her eyes expertly scanning Wilhelm's face and body for problems. "What happened to him?"

Mirrah fidgeted nervously. "I don't know. I just saw him passed out in the stream. I thought maybe he fell in to it or something, but he won't open his eyes or anything!"

"Did he fall asleep?"

"No..." Phsara's hand went to his wrist, then to his face and neck, her eyes fixed on his face as she spoke. "His pulse is too fast for sleep. And he's burning up." Her hand brushed against the horns fixed to his head. "What is this?"

Dusk knelt down again, leaning forward. "Are those horns? Why're they stuck on his head?!"

"I don't know! Lorena gave them to him as... as payment." Mirrah rubbed her face. "He--He must've been trying an experiment or something! They won't come off of his head!"

Dusk turned his gaze to Mirrah's flustered face. "From that lady? She gave them to him?"

Phsara shook her head. "He's in some kind of trance." She stood up abruptly, both Mirrah and Dusk turning to look up at her. "Carry him into my cottage. And quickly. Bring some of that water in as well. Use that wash basin." She pointed over toward a shallow tub laying on a smoothed tree trunk before turning on her heels, walking back toward her cottage.

Dusk gave Mirrah a glance, her face and eyes red, her entire body trembling. He couldn't help but feel a pang of pity for her. "Hey. You go get the water, I'll carry the boy in."

Mirrah nodded shakily. "O-Okay."

Dusk bent down, scooping the boy up in his arms with some difficulty then moved as fast as he could after Phsara. The boy was lighter than Mirrah was, thankfully. He didn't look unhealthy anyway. Technically, he came to the cottage healthier than both Mirrah and Dusk had, and yet seemed to be the first to pass out from exhaustion. Did he not sleep the entire night or what? Dusk eyed the little black horns on his head with suspicion, but pushed the thoughts to the very back of his head.

"Over here." Phsara poked her head out of the room that Dusk and Mirrah had slept in as Dusk entered the cottage. The room with the surgical tools. Dusk felt a shiver go up his spine, but went in anyway. He had no choice but to trust her. She seemed to have more medical knowledge than he did.

"Lay him in the cot." Phsara was moving aside several jars, tossing them carelessly onto the table as her eyes scanned the dark bookshelves for something. "Here it is." She withdrew a small jar full of speckled black and white powder from the corner of the bookshelf, snatching up a wooden bowl and a flask before making her way over to the cot.

Dusk knelt beside the cot, looking at the jar with a knitted brow. "What the hell is that?"

Phsara gave him a dirty look the very brief second she spent between pouring a liquid from the flask into the wooden bowl. She opened the jar, shaking a bit of the powder into the bowl before answering him with the tone of disdain in her voice. "It's a tonic. Sometimes, when a myr uses magic they are forced into a trance not unlike the one Haleth is experiencing right now. This tonic is to bring his consciousness back."

"But ain't he human? He's not a myr is he?"

"That's correct." Phsara didn't look up, her hand quickly whisking the solution in the bowl into a dark, thick liquid.

"This supposed to work on a human?"

"I don't know. There hasn't been a reason to try it until now."

"You don't know?!"

"It shouldn't be toxic to a human, if that will put your mind at ease." Her glare sharpened on Dusk on the other side of the cot. "Unless you have a better idea."

Dusk bit his lower lip, his eyes looking down on Wilhelm's face, twisted with fear and pain.

Mirrah entered, a trickle of water left in her wake from the basin in her trembling hands. "Here's the water."

"Thank you. You may leave it there." Phsara gestured to the foot of the cot before lifting the bowl up. "Lift his head up for me."

Dusk did as he was told, watching as Phsara poured the liquid into Wilhelm's mouth before laying the boy back down. Mirrah knelt down on the other side of the bed, next to Dusk and all three watched Wilhelm's expression with abated breath. Nothing happened for several moments, long enough for Dusk to start to feel that the medicine wasn't working. But Wilhelm suddenly took in a deep breath, his eyes snapped open. He sat up abruptly in bed, eyes wide and frantic. The movement itself startled everyone back.

"Wilhelm!" Mirrah leaned forward, attempting to lock her eyes with Wilhelm's. "Wilhelm! Are you okay?

Wilhelm looked around the room, a look of fear in his eyes for a brief second before locking eyes with Mirrah. He almost looked like he had just woken up disoriented. "Mirrah...? Where..." The relief was short-lived however. He lowered his face, his hands rising up to grasp his head. "Ugh...!"

Mirrah leapt up, grabbing his shoulders, as if the motion itself would keep him with them. "Wilhelm! What is it?"

Dusk was on his knees as well. "Is it not working? What's goin' on?"

Wilhelm bent his head down, letting out a moan of pain. "Agh! My head!"

Phsara leaned forward, pushing away Mirrah's arms. She attempted to put her hands around Wilhelm's face, watching his eyes move underneath his eyelids. "No, I think he's falling back into trance."

Dusk was almost frantic with idleness. "If the horns are doin' it, can't you just pull 'em off?!" He reached over to take the horns in his own hands.

Mirrah wrapped an iron grip around Dusk's arm, her tear-streaked eyes wide with warning. "You're just going to hurt him, idiot! Don't you think I tried?! They're stuck on his head!"

Dusk shook her off, but didn't argue back. Wilhelm fell back into the cot, his hands still wrapped around the horns and his entire body tense. The boy let out another moan of pain as Phsara leaned over him, checking his pulse again. "Hey! Can't you just give him some more of that stuff?"

Phsara shook her head, a concerned look on her face. "It won't do any good. He just slips back into the trance."

"Well, what about a stronger tonic? Something more potent?"

Phsara glanced at Mirrah only for a second, her mind in a different place even as she spoke. "It isn't recommended for myrs to take a stronger dose of the tonic, I doubt it is any different for a human." She stood up abruptly, moving back over to the shelves and racks of jars without another word.

"We should jus pull his horns off!"

"No! We don't know what that will do to him!"

"Well, we ain't fresh on ideas here!"

"No, don't touch his horns." Both Mirrah and Dusk turned to Phsara who was busy pulling out more jars and tossing them on the table, along with bundles of papers and notebooks. The woman paused, her eyes fixed on a page in one notebook before she continued to speak. "If they are the cause of this trance, removing them may bring him out of it, but it could also damage his psyche. It's far too dangerous."

Mirrah turned to face Phsara fully. "What about a doctor? Is there a doctor who can help us?"

"Are you kiddin'? Ain't we way up in a mountain? Ain't no doctor gonna climb all the way up here! We don't have means to call one anyway! Haven't seen another soul wanderin' around let alone a messenger!"

Phsara threw one glance over her shoulder at the two, tossing a towel at Mirrah. "Dip this in the water and put it on Haleth's head. And stop squabbling. I can't think straight with so much noise." She turned about, fishing a candle and a lighter from a drawer before pushing the various jars about on her table.

Mirrah dipped the towel in the basin before crossing to the other side of the bed to do as she was told. Dusk merely looked back at Phsara, a frown on his face. "You got somethin' else to help him?"

Phsara snatched up a scalpel and a needle hanging on the wall, proceeding to pass them through the flame of the candle. She hesitated before speaking, as if choosing her words carefully. "I'm not positive it will be effective. But if his consciousness is having difficulty surfacing, then perhaps it will work. It has never been used on a common myr, let alone a human." She glanced over her shoulder, as if gauging the other two's reactions.

"If it works, it works, right?" Dusk glanced over at Mirrah, but she didn't say anything, only continued to swab Wilhelm's forehead.

Phsara paused for a moment before continuing to grab pinches of herbs and pour drops of liquid into a stone bowl. She fished out something from a jar full of liquid, a powerful stench filling the room. The smell made Dusk cringe. "It's not that simple. This is not merely some medicine that one can take and get better. It is more a treatment than a cure, and it is not well liked by other myrs for various reasons." She paused, evaluating her words before adding in a low tone, "No one outside my family uses it and even I would hesitate."

Dusk frowned, pushing himself to his feet. "Get to the point."

Phsara let out a light sigh. "What I am making is a drug that allows my family to control the spirits of certain... familiars. It links the spirit of the familiar with another, an anchor if you will, and forces the familiar's spirit to remain on this spiritual plane. If it is for a human spirit, I believe the consequences will be minimal. But again, this has never been tried on humans." She began to grind the concoction in the stone bowl, adding water from a tall flask.

Mirrah looked at Phsara's back, brow knitted. "...Are you saying that we can keep Wilhelm's... spirit... with us? That he can stay conscious?"

"That is correct." Phsara turned around, the stone bowl in her hand. "But in order to do this, I will need one of you to be the anchor."

"What?"

"One of you must use your spirit to anchor Haleth's down. It is not a one time process. It will need maintenance drugs, mainly on Haleth's part, and there will be side effects. I cannot say of what kind." She paused, lifting up the scalpel, glowing a soft red from the heat of the flame, then fixed her eyes on Mirrah. "The process also requires a bit of blood from the anchor as well."

Neither Mirrah nor Dusk said anything. The concept itself was enough to confuse Dusk. Anchoring spirits and spiritual planes? Familiars? Blood? The hermit had an air of mystery about her, but now it seemed to border on occult. He still didn't quite understand why he couldn't just pull the horns off the boy. And now there was talk of unknown side effects? He didn't even know Wilhelm more than a day. Dusk looked over at Mirrah, unwilling to go through with the process yet unwilling to say so. He merely hoped Mirrah's answer would be the 'No way' that was echoing through Dusk's mind.