Chapter 9: Wounds

Much like the previous evening before he'd gone to bed, Reynir felt like he had pins and needles in his entire body. The only reason he was fighting his current impulse to go back to sleep was that Tuuri, who had reappeared just a little earlier despite Lalli still being asleep, was feeding him his lunch. At least, his stomach wasn't rebelling in addition to this. If Tuuri's hands were occupied with feeding him, her voice was entirely occupied with explaining something to Sigrun, Emil and Mikkel in Swedish. From what Reynir could tell, their responses to what Tuuri was telling them were evenly split between bewilderment, asking questions back and more neutral reactions. At some point, the feeding seemed to be done, and Tuuri made him lie back down:
-I was explaining them why you are not feeling well, so you won't have to. You need to rest.
He slid right back into the covers and was soon asleep.

Almost as soon as he had woken up, Lalli had been given food. Contact was made with headquarters as he was finishing the meal. Since Lalli was going to be awake for the rest of the day anyway, it was decided to start the first leg of travel to a destination that had been chosen while he was asleep by having him lead the way after looking at the maps. A conversation with her "uncle" finally completely convinced Sigrun that Reynir was a mage, something that Tuuri hadn't quite managed to do. As he was about to head outside, Lalli saw Mikkel tending to a large number of gashes on Sigrun's left arm. He asked Emil what had happened, and almost regretted doing so. He had noticed the stiches on Reynir's sleeve through Tuuri's eyes, but had dismissed them as him having probably gotten his sleeve snagged somewhere. That had been close. Too close. And Sigrun's arm had gotten badly injured in the process. It was happening again. He was going to need some time alone to deal with the thoughts that were emerging in his mind. But he also needed to get crew as far away from those ghosts as he could.

Lalli finally got the resting time alone that he needed while Mikkel was preparing dinner. Once it was done, Emil came to Lalli with his bowl, then stayed by his side and started talking.
-Could you please stop talking or leave?
-Only if you tell me why you seem in such a bad mood. I was trying to cheer you up.
If Emil was supposed to become the person with whom he could share this kind of thing. Might as well find out how well this worked out now. He told him that troll had attacked Reynir and hurt Sigrun because he had missed it. Emil went silent for a while before answering:
-You were tired. You missed only one. I know it attacked Reynir but… it was still only one.
-Reynir could have been scratched.
-He wasn't.
-Sigrun is hurt.
-Don't worry. She keeps saying it's not bothering her too much.
Unfortunately Lalli knew all too well what such claims could actually mean. Stupid Onni. It hadn't even been a troll. Just a plain old animal that could have become dinner if they hadn't been so tired. His arm and mouth almost moved on their own:
-Go away.
Emil had dropped his own bowl when Lalli's had hit him. What had he done? He hadn't meant to do that. Onni had been the one to lie about how badly he was hurt. Emil had nothing to do with it. And there was no way he could guess, unlike when he had complained after showing the kitten its family's grave. Had he just ruined everything?

The next morning, Lalli waited for the food to be ready away from everyone else, came to pick up his bowl when it smelled ready and ate as far away as he could from everyone else while still being able to alert them to any danger approaching from his side. He wasn't going to be able to face Sigrun and Reynir for a while, Emil was probably not going to be his friend after all and he loathed Mikkel's sense of humor, so he might as well eat alone for the rest of the mission, and only have Tuuri's physical manifestation interact with the others. Because of this, he actually welcomed the fact that he now needed to take a day scout's shift one day out of two and catch up on the missed sleep on the days he did not. Reynir was fortunately getting better, but both he and Lalli had discovered that whichever healing process he was undergoing happened much faster if Reynir was in Lalli or Onni's area rather than his own. Since this resulted in them frequently sleeping at the same time, Lalli had decided to try befriending him instead in hope of enabling Onni to leave. That idea turned out to be the worse he had ever had. Not only did Reynir keep rubbing him the wrong way despite the fact that his approach to human interaction really wasn't that different from Emil's, but Lalli could tell Onni was starting to like him. The point was to sever Onni's connections to the world of the living, not to create new ones. Because of this, Reynir was told to no longer enter Lalli or Onni's space unless he really needed to as soon as he has recovered enough to no longer be bedridden.

Near the end of the first week of travel, as he was looking towards the rest of the crew due to hearing an unusual noise coming from their direction while Tuuri was inside the tank, he noticed something odd. Why was Emil sitting mid-way between him and the others? He was tempted to ask via Tuuri later, but finally decided it was best to leave her out of this. During the following meal, Emil was a little closer to Lalli, and a little closer again during the meal after that. Lalli figured out Emil was trying to do, and decided to let him.

When Emil reached the point where he was now sitting right next to him, Lalli was in the mood to talk to him again. He somehow fond the strength to explain that Onni had once downplayed the seriousness of a wound he had received, even though he didn't get around outright admitting when it had happened. Sigrun's wound was being treated, at least. The chances that things would end that badly were currently low, especially compared to the circumstances in which Onni had gotten hurt. Emil understood what had happened a few days ago, and they exchanged a few apologies before finally agreeing that they had both done something they hadn't meant to. This time, Emil made sure Lalli didn't mind talking before starting a new conversation.

-Hey, Onni, there is that strange place that appeared over there. It looks a lot like the place I dreamed about a couple weeks ago. I went inside and it felt kind of familiar. I came here to make sure, but now I know it feels a lot like your place. I think there's another dead mage in there. Can you please come with me? My dog doesn't want to, Lalli is awake and I don't want to go alone.
Onni sighed, both because he was actually curious and he would have probably gone there for the sake of Reynir's security even if he had not wanted to. He was, however, going to talk with Reynir and make sure they both had the same definition of necessity once they would be done with this.

Onni didn't know whether the woman was a mage or not, but she was definitely a ghost who had managed to hold onto most of her old self for eight times as long as he had, and claimed her job was to help souls find the afterlife. This was enough to make her potential help for Lalli and Reynir's ghost problem, provided one of them could find her in real world. It was sadly a long shot, as he was literally the only magical extension of Lalli's mind that didn't systematically transmit information to him, and Reynir had absolutely no say in the expedition's route. All Reynir would really be able to do would be to keep his eyes peeled for the place, in case it just happened to be on the route they were following anyway. The old lady insisted on knowing what was keeping Onni, since she had explained her own reasons.

Both Onni and the Old Lady seemed to have forgotten he was present. After being told about Lalli's situation, Reynir had known he was unlikely that he would find out the specifics about how Onni and Tuuri had died, and honestly hadn't wanted to know anyway. Now he knew. But he could also tell Onni probably really needed this conversation, so he didn't dare leave before the other mage was ready.

Once they were back in Onni's place, Reynir couldn't help asking:
-Onni, do I risk keeping you from going? Is this why Lalli kicked me out once I got better?
-I won't lie to you and claim it's not a factor. But it's for your own good as well. It would be cruel to let you get attached to me only to have me leave.
-How are you different from everyone else on the crew, exactly? Lalli is trying to rely less on Tuuri as well, if I understood correctly. Any one of the others could get mortally wounded by a troll tomorrow for all I know. And even if we manage to make it back home, I probably won't be seeing any of them for a very long time once we part. But in the meantime, we only have each other to interact with. So I don't mind becoming friends with you only to see you go. But I do mind a little if it ends up being the only thing keeping you here.
Reynir's word brought Onni to a realization. Even though he wanted to leave, it may impractical to do so while they were still on the expedition and the crew could use every bit of help it could get. Most of the factors keeping him bond to his world were out of his control, and leaving too early was one of the last things he wanted to do. Maybe he did need this. One bound on which he had some control, and that he could sever when the time would be right. But he also knew he could not let Reynir know this.
-Don't worry, you're not keeping me for going. No offense, you're not a bad person, but I don't exactly consider you a friend either. I'll just remind you that crossing that sea too often is dangerous, so you still need to avoid coming to see Lalli or myself for no good reason, even if we are right next to you.

Lalli had scouted the way to the hospital that they had been trying to reach for the past two weeks the previous night. By the time he came back, the others had finished with their breakfast and Mikkel had set a few cookies aside for him. He'd eat later, after reporting to Sigrun, so he didn't have both that and the approaching ghosts on his mind. Good news, Sigrun asked him to go to bed almost as soon as his report was finished. Bad news, it was because she wanted him to come explore the hospital with her. She also mentioned that he would get to rest as much as he wanted once they left the hospital.