Chapter 7: A Feast of Lies
They found most of Gatetown behaving strangely. Nausea curled low in his stomach and he was grateful when Alisaie arrived with Kai-Shirr, using their arrival as an excuse to go stand by Alphinaud. It wouldn't be nearly enough, not when they planned on entering in the first place, but at least Alphinaud had witnessed his first reaction to Gatetown. Alphinaud sent him a worried look but he shook his head and gave Kai-Shirr his attention. Kai-Shirr was more than happy to fill the group in on what had happened, telling them how all but a few had started acting weird after Vauthry returned.
Y'shtola returned at that, interrupting anything more Kai-Shirr had to say with, "There's something I need Ryne to see." She pulled out a serving of meol and his stomach churned horribly. He turned away, facing Alphinaud without looking at him. "This was among the townsfolk's food stores."
Alphinaud's hand closed around his upper arm, concern full in his expression when Echo'a managed to focus on his face. Kai-Shiir replied, oblivious, "Oh, that's just meol. Eulmore doles the stuff out."
"No! It...it couldn't be…" Ryne said, snagging his attention as tightly as it did everyone else's. Even Alphinaud half turned to give her his attention. "I─ I know what it is." He closed his eyes, begging the nausea to release its chokehold on him. "It's sin eater. Meol is made out of sin eater."
Gravel scraped at the palm of his other hand as his legs gave out and he was quickly reunited with what little was in his stomach. Alphinaud knelt in the dirt at his side, a hand on the back of his shoulder as the other remained secured around his arm helping him to stay upright. Alisaie called his name and the sound of crunching gravel grew louder before it stopped at his side, her hand finding the back of his other shoulder for a brief moment before she drew back enough to offer him some water. She held it for him as he drank which was probably a good thing. His hand shook even while latched around her wrist.
"So it is," Y'shtola said into the silence.
He sent Alisaie a weak smile in thanks and only got a very concerned look back. She held onto his wrist as he turned his attention back to Y'shtola, allowing his grip on her wrist to stay. Neither of the twins rushed him to his feet and he was grateful for that.
He was also grateful for the fact that Alphinaud had placed himself between him and Y'shtola in such a way that, had Y'shtola still been holding the meol, it would have been out of sight. He was hesitant to listen to Y'shtola's explanation but the nausea barely lingered now that he had emptied his stomach. It probably helped that she never outright named the stuff, allowing him to pretend the thought of consuming sin eaters wasn't still bouncing around his head.
He got back to his feet as he listened to everyone speculate about meol's origins, more or less steady even though his knees complained from the mistreatment. Both Alphinaud's and Alisaie's hands lingered on his back and on his arms. He even gained a concerned glance from both Thancred and Urianger in the midst of their talking but Ryne's worried gaze lingered nearly as long as the twins' touch. He offered her a gentle smile hoping it would be enough to ease whatever concern she bore. She sent back a tight smile in turn but the worry didn't ebb.
Y'shtola met his gaze briefly as they all moved to storm Eulmore and he found empathy and compassion in her otherwise neutral expression. The reasons for those emotions, though, he was left to speculate as there was no time for idle chit chat. Into Eulmore they flung themselves, doing their best to not harm the denizens at Alphinaud's behest. When they made it to Vauthry, they found the man gorging himself. It was all he could do to not be sick again, settling his gaze off to the right so that Vauthry was nothing more than an odd collection of moving colors at the edge of his vision. Alphinaud briefly touched his arm before stepping forward and spoke out in a last attempt at getting Vauthry to see right. Ryne shattered that hope when she named Vauthry the last Lightwarden.
Following after the fleeing Vauthry was their only choice and it didn't take long before the denizens of Eulmore to step up to the challenge of solving how exactly they were going to do that. As soon as the Ladder was mentioned, the entire populace seemed to thrum with new life and it wouldn't be long long before they had the Ladder working again.