Eight Intertwined

144 - Regression

The next few hours were a blur. 

Alfyn took Timothy back to the heart of town while the rest of the travelers opted to return to the inn to nurse their own wounds. Daphne was still there waiting for Alfyn, and she practically collapsed when she saw that her son was alive, albeit heavily injured. From there, she led Alfyn back to her home, and in a matter of hours, Alfyn worked as hard as he could to bring Timothy back from the brink. It was far easier to save Timothy than it had been to save Miguel, and Alfyn did his best to not think about that. It would only make him feel worse, especially since he was the reason all of this was happening in the first place. 

Once Timothy's injury had been stitched together, Alfyn turned his attention to brewing tinctures to relieve the pain and accelerate Timothy's recovery. He placed them on the countertop alongside written instructions for what to do next. Daphne listened with tears in her eyes, and she burst into open tears when Timothy finally stirred awake. She cradled her son to her chest, and they cried into one another's shoulders like they had nothing left save for each other. Alfyn wouldn't have been surprised if that was true in the slightest, but he said nothing of it as he headed for the door and started back towards the inn. 

Alfyn let his mind go numb and empty as he entered the inn and walked back toward the two rooms where the travelers were staying. He could hear activity from inside one of the rooms, and when Alfyn opened the door, he saw all of them had gathered together in a single room. H'aanit and Ophilia were tending to Cyrus and Olberic respectively, Ophilia's magic doing most of the heavy lifting while H'aanit finished off the injuries with what she had learned from Alfyn. They were all exhausted, but they still gave it their all. 

Primrose was sitting on one of the other beds, Tressa leaning up against her side all the while. Tressa's ankle had been wrapped up tightly, no doubt thanks to the steady hands of Olberic and H'aanit, but she was still forbidden from walking until Alfyn could take a closer look at it. Primrose threaded her fingers gently through Tressa's hair in a bid to calm her down, and it was working, albeit only barely. No one wanted to be the first one to talk after Alfyn's return, and he couldn't blame them in the slightest. 

Therion was still asleep on the bed in the far corner, and Alfyn approached him slowly before pulling up a chair and sitting down next to the thief. Alfyn bit down hard on his bottom lip with hopes that it would help him to fend off the persistent images racing through his mind of Therion scrambling away from him when he tried to help. H'aanit had only been able to get Therion back to town because he passed out as soon as she picked him up. When Therion tried to get away from Alfyn, there had been genuine fear in his eyes, and somehow, that was far more terrifying to Alfyn than it had any right to be. Had him killing Miguel earned him Therion's fear and ire somehow? Alfyn couldn't even blame him if that was the case. He just wanted to understand. 

Alfyn pressed his hands gently against Therion's ribcage, doing his best to not jostle the thief around too much. He had known from the instant Miguel threw Therion against the tree that he had at least a few cracked ribs, and that was assuming they weren't outright broken. Therion's ankle had been wrapped up just like Tressa's on account of the damage it had sustained. Alfyn could see the darkened reminders of handprint-shaped bruises across Therion's neck, and for some reason, the sight of those soon to be scars made him feel worse than most other things had that day. 

Alfyn did his best to shrug it off though, instead turning his attention back to healing Therion. He could feel the eyes of the rest of the travelers on him, and while Alfyn hated having so many people staring at and watching him, he couldn't do anything about it. He had to focus on the matter at hand. He had to heal Therion. He wasn't in critical condition or anything, but Alfyn still wasn't going to leave him to suffer if he could avoid it. Alfyn had brought enough suffering that day, and he refused to let it get any worse than it already had.