Even as Arin watched, the figure seemed to find what it was seeking. It raised the thin object in one hand, and then -
Squish .
- it stabbed itself in the chest with a sickening noise, then -
Squish -rip-
- stabbed itself again. There was a spurt of liquid, and that strange, thick, rusty smell Arin had noticed earlier spread out stronger. The shadowy figure seemed to wait for a moment, before -
Clatter.
- dropping the object lightly back onto the floor. Then, it collapsed into a small heap.
Soft, suppressed sobs were heard again.
Arin had watched it all from where he stood, his mouth dropped open in shock. When he'd seen the figure first stab itself, his first instinct had been to run up to it, to wrest the object - a narrow kitchen knife - from its hands.
His fear, however, had held him back. For some reason he couldn't quite explain, there was something... terrifying... about the juxtaposition; the person being crazy enough to do such a thing, while also retaining sanity enough to keep themselves quiet, alarmed him.
He didn't want to get killed in a frenzy, and be forced to leave the distortion before he'd managed to accomplish his objective.
Getting stabbed would hurt. But also, he didn't want to have to announce to the gathered healers, et al., how he'd accidentally failed within minutes of re-entering the dream, all because he'd gone snooping in the night.
... genuinely, he'd rather get stabbed than have to do that.
Still, Arin wanted to help. The figure, that had somehow managed to survive its own assaults, was starting to stir again.
Without getting any nearer, he lightly cleared his throat.
Brilliant strategy.
Good enough for alerting the figure of his presence, without requiring him to get within knife-range.
The person stilled. 'Wh-who is it?' asked a low, weak voice.
Arin gasped.
The person let out a choking laught. 'It does not matter. You... will remember nothing of this, come morning.'
Arin didn't worry about the knife anymore. He ran up to the person on the floor.
'Elara!?'
He knelt down next to her, ignoring the uncomfortable slickness of the dark liquid covering the ground. Before the girl could straighten up, he swiped the knife and tossed it into the distance. Then, he supported her up by her shoulders.
The girl must have been peering up at his face in the dark, but he found himself unable to tear his gaze away from several, bleeding holes in her bodice.
'Sir... Rin?' the girl finally asked.
'It's me. I'm here.'
The girl laughed again. 'And it does not matter. It doesn't matter! In just a few hours, you shall forget everything, all over again, and remain stuck here, in -'
'I'm not! I - I left, last night, when we...'
Arin stopped his words midway. He didn't want to trigger another warp.
'I... left, successfully. So did Siel,' was all he finally said. He still didn't know what was or wasn't going to alert the distortion, and just had to hope he was being vague enough.
The girl's frenzied breathing caught. 'But when I awoke today, you didn't - none of you could remember. None of you could remember last night -'
Arin quickly covered the girl's mouth.
He thought back to the 'Siel' he'd just seen, peacefully sleeping in bed. And suddenly, it struck him that - since he had already become part of the distortion once, and was now someone known to Elara - it must've also created a version of him that continued existing within it, even after he'd left.
The same way it had created versions of the people Elara had known, seamlessly giving way to the real deal once the real people themselves had been pulled in.
And also, the same way it had continued presenting the 'updated' versions of those people, even after they had died in the real world and 'left' the dream.
After last night, when they'd leaped off that cliff, Elara must've awoken this morning to such versions of himself, Siel, and Lana, telling her that no such thing had happened.
Telling her they'd been safe and warm in bed last night, and that everything was fine.
Telling her that she'd failed, again.
Arin sighed.
'It... It must have just been a bad dream,' he whispered, hoping she'd get it.
She did.
After a moment Elara's eyes widened. 'So, it worked? It worked! Then, then I- ? ...oh.'
She didn't say anything more. Arin didn't speak of the matter either.
There was probably no way for Elara to ever leave the distortion.