#cipher watcher

Aloth's head jerks up as he approaches; a look of alarm, and then a look of relief as the wizard recognizes him.

He's jumpy, that one.

"Edér," he says, curling one side of his mouth into a halfhearted smile. "You have finished the rites, I take it?"

"Done my best. Wasn't supposed to be me doing it, but it's not like there's a priest around who can do it proper."

The look on Aloth's face becomes apprehensive.

"And Wirtan?..."

Edér grimaces.

"Let him go, like Selene said. He's probably hightailing it out of town right about now."

Part of him is still asking himself if that was the right call, but, well... Redemption's a funny thing. You deny it to one person, you deny it to everyone. He's pretty sure someone's told him that, a long time ago.

Aloth nods and makes an attempt to go back to his reading, but then changes his mind, instead glancing at the Watcher.

"...Selene?"

She's stayed silent throughout their conversation; hasn't even looked up when Edér came over. She doesn't respond to Aloth calling her name, either.

Aloth looks back at him.

"Should we... do something?"

There's a helpless undertone to his question. He doesn't know what to do.

It's not like Edér knows, either.

It's not like he's got experience dealing with Watchers, or all those other things that Selene is. Ciphers. Godlike. Maybe some other stuff he still doesn't know about.

But it's figure it out, or let her sit here until Raedric remembers he's supposed to be purging the town and sends guards down here to slit all of their throats.

Edér thinks for a moment, then sits down between Aloth and Selene, hiding them from each other's view.

He looks at the Watcher.

"Hey," he says.

She doesn't respond, but he kind of figured she wouldn't.

Now that he's watched her for a while, the way she sits there all quiet-like is familiar. He's seen folks fall into this kind of state before, when they've seen or done something that was too much. Usually when they've just killed, or seen someone die up close, for the first time.

Selene's not new to killing, that much he's figured out already. But the visions are new, and she's just had a bad one, and maybe it's not much different.

He follows her gaze down to her hands, trying to figure out if she's looking at something in particular or if she's just lost in it.

Her hands are... well, they're blue. She's got an archer's glove on her shooting hand, and nothing on the other.

And there's dark, reddish dirt under her fingernails.

Dried blood. Old. From when they gathered up the bones. That might be what's keeping her stuck on what happened.

Edér decides to try something.

He turns to Aloth.

"Hey, Aloth. You're kinda fancy, right? Some kind of noble?"

The wizard blinks.

"I... Yes? Why?"

"Got a spare scarf or handkerchief or something? I'll give it back, don't worry."

His guess pays off; after one more second of confused staring, Aloth shakes his head and mutters something to himself and produces a small square of blue fabric that's definitely cleaner than anything Edér himself has to offer.

The rain has picked up just enough that sticking a hand out from under the arch has the handkerchief thoroughly soaked in seconds. Even more incentive from them to snap Selene out of it quickly.

Maybe they should just slap her or shake her awake or something.

He's kind of tempted to try – but not enough to actually do it.

She glows, is the thing. And he's seen her explode a skuldr's head just by looking at it. And he's not certain that in this state she won't mistake him for a skuldr.

He'd also feel kind of bad about slapping her, to be honest; she's not as dainty as Aloth, but she doesn't seem all that sturdy either.

So instead he holds the wet cloth near her hands, where she can see it, and says:

"You might wanna get that cleaned up."

There's a beat where nothing happens, and he's just about to resign himself to the fact that he will have to slap her at the risk of getting his head exploded – and then her hand moves.

It's a small movement, at first – just a twitch of her fingers, like she's lost feeling in them and now it's returning – and then she snatches the cloth out of his hand with an urgency that almost makes him jump, and begins thoroughly scrubbing the dried blood out.

Edér breathes in relief.

They haven't lost her. And he didn't have to find out what happens when you slap a Watcher-godlike-cipher-whatever-she-is.

Eventually she hands the handkerchief back to him, now much dirtier than before, and says:

Thank you.

He's looking right at her, and he can see that her mouth isn't moving. That, and her voice sounds like it's coming from behind his back, or from right between his ears.

That's –

"Are you... talking into my brain right now?"

Selene nods.

It's easier sometimes.

It's... weird. But she wasn't talking at all a moment ago, and now she's kind of talking, so he supposes that's an improvement.

"She's doing what?"

Aloth's voice, on his left.

"...How 'bout we talk about it on our way out of here," Edér says.

He looks at Selene.

"So what do you say? Where next?"

For how deep a breath she takes, the voice that comes out of her is still pretty small, like it's difficult for her to talk out loud.

"Let's wait the rain out at the inn," she says. "Then we're leaving."

"Thank the gods," Aloth mutters.

Edér nods.