Nothing happened at first.
The night remained still. The air did not ripple, nor did any sudden light gather and flash within the dark kitchen. For a heartbeat, it almost seemed to Arin as though the illusion bracelet had failed.
But that wasn't possible, of course. This was still a dream. It was still his dream. And he knew what the bracelet could do.
So, he held his breath and waited.
Then something changed; the temperature of the tool around his wrist dropped. It wasn't a drastic or sharp drop. The metal only grew faintly cold - just enough to prickle the skin.
It was barely noticeable in the cold of the night.
Immediately afterwards, though, it seemed as though the very space before him was starting to shift... to warp.
Arin's breath caught in his throat. For just the briefest of moments, he feared that the distortion had caught him.
Then, the first needleworm emerged out of thin air.
It did not arrive complete. The small, slender creature seemed to unthread itself from nothingness; its narrow body resolving segment by segment. If Arin hadn't been straining his eyes, he might not have even noticed it as it appeared in mid air.
There was a barely perceivable, chitinous clack! - as the beetle's armored wings snapped into solidity.
Then, more followed. Dozens at once, then hundreds, all overlapping in the dark with a faint, shuffling, rustling sound.
Each of the thousands of needleworm beetles slipped into the world with the same unnerving smoothness, and Arin had to hold his breath at the suddenness of it all.
The walls, floors, and all the tables and barrels around the unlit kitchen seemed to now be gently undulating in the dark, as scores of the bugs covered every surface. They scuttled about, silent and restless, deforming the silhouettes with their rolling movements.
There were just as many fluttering about in a loose, drifting cloud. Their wings beat so rapidly and precisely that they produced only the faintest of whispers.
A bead of sweat rolled down Arin's temple. He was suddenly very aware of his lungs, burning for oxygen as he kept holding his breath.
But... hadn't Siel said these things hunted by following breathing?
He swallowed hard.
He'd long since confirmed that summoned beasts didn't attack the sunmoner. Besides, these weren't even really summoned beasts. They were illusions, called upon through the illusion magic stored within the bracelet.
And if something, somehow, really did go wrong, this was still just a dream. He could just... imagine... them away, couldn't he?
... Couldn't he?
In any case, Arin couldn't hold his breath any longer. He let it out in a fast whoosh, and quickly gasped in a puff of fresh, cool air to replace it.
He waited, and...
...nothing.
Right. Of course, they wouldn't care about him.
He sighed in relief to himself. In the very next moment, a single needleworm beetle softly fluttered up to him and alighted upon his hand wearing the bracelet, that he still held aloft.
Oh.
Feeling it's little legs tickling his skin, Arin just barely held himself back from swiping it off. He was the one who's summoned it. No, he was the one who'd created it.
It wouldn't attack him.
It wouldn't.
He carefully drew his hand closer to his face. The beetle, no bigger than a man's finger, slowly walked across the back of his hand, unperturbed by the movement.
Bringing it right up to his eyes, he observed the needleworm, that scarcely resembled a beetle at all.
It had a slim and slightly elongated body, with a narrow thorax that gave it a faintly segmented, almost larval silhouette. The gently tapering abdomen lent it an unassuming and delicate profile.
Folded neatly along its back were deceptively papery-looking, patterned wings with soft, drifting bands of muted color. In the dark, the markings seemed to break up the beetle's outline, and Arin discovered that his eyes couldn't quite focus on it.
Then, the needleworm turned to face him. It had a small, wedge-shaped face, and dark, glassy eyes that looked up at him.
Probably.
Arin didn't know how beetle eyes worked.
He caught a glimpse of a proboscis-like protrusion tucked close beneath the creature's head, like that of a butterfly, and the reality of what he was going to be doing struck him once more.
Still, the beetle was looking at him.
...Probably.
He felt it then - a subtle pressure in his head, like a held breath shared between himself and the tiny creature. It was - no - theywere waiting. For instructions. For... permission.
Arin nodded in the dark, at nothing in particular. Then, he lowered his head and whispered to the creature on his hand,
'Go. Kill.'
He straightened to look up at the other beetles, and continued speaking. 'Kill everyone - every single person, within the boundaries of this village. Make it quick and painless.'
Maybe he was imagining it, but the faint rustling sounds seemed to become more frenzied at his words. The vague feeling in his head persisted. He sensed... impatience, was it?
He hurried to continued speaking, adding, 'Once, and onlyonce, this is done, and every single person is dead, will you come back. And then, you will kill me too.'
In the very next moment, the needleworm on his hand raised its wings, and took off in silent flight.
All the beetles took flight.
They gathered as a dark cloud by the windows and doors, and fanned out of the kitchen with a gentle rustle; spilling into the rest of the estate, and out into the night sky.