Eugeo wakes up, feeling groggy and disoriented, and having the strange and yet inexplicably strong
feeling that he was dead. Deciding it must've been a nightmare, he tries to get out of bed but is
stopped by something gripping his arm. He turns to see that that "something" is Tiese.
Confused, he studies his surroundings and realizes that this isn't his bed back at the academy but
Quinella's bed. Quinella is nowhere in sight, but Eugeo DOES see Fizel and Linel curled up on his
other side. Stunned, he gently shakes Tiese awake and is further surprised when she seems to
happy and relieved to see him awake that she bursts into tears.
Suddenly worried, Eugeo asks how long he's been out, and it stunned to learn that he's been out for
X days. He tries to get up, but feels strangely weak and, hearing him, Alice comes in and pushes him
back down. She tells him that he needs time to heal after Quinella cut him in half. She realizes, too
late, that she should not have blurted that out, and Eugeo, recalling it, asks how he survived.
Alice says that she was only semi-conscious at the time but she knows that Kirito managed to heal
Eugeo. However, it sounded like he wasn't sure it worked, because she recalls him saying "Hang in
there" or "I might need more Sacred Power" or something truly odd like "Maybe RATH can help me
save him". Either way, when he went to the "crystal tablet" afterwards, she heard a terrible
screaming and, when she woke up...
Eugeo, feeling his heart sink, forced himself out of bed and sees Kirito lying on a rough cot with
Selka, Frenica, and Ronye fretting over him. He seems awake, and yet utterly unresponsive. Eugeo
tries to speak to him, but it doesn't help.
Eugeo asks if anybody knows what's wrong with him, despite knowing it likely won't do any good.
Fizel and Linel, now having joined them, say they've examined his blood (which gives Eugeo chills)
and say that he's not poisoned and Selka and Frenica have already restored his Life, yet nothing's
changed.
Feeling terribly helpless, Eugeo asks Alice what happens next. Alice admits she's at a loss, given
that Cardinal was killed in the battle. She DOES say that Bercouli was in earlier and that he says the
Dark Territory will likely notice that Quinella is dead soon and use the opportunity to invade. Eugeo
concedes the point and asks what can be done. Alice grimly admits that Kirito asked the same
thing, and she doesn't believe the Integrity Knights could hold if the Dark Territory invaded in full
force.
Eugeo says he recalls seeing a huge armory in the lower levels of the Cathedral and that, if the
weapons and armor inside were used to arm the people and they were trained, then maybe that
would help. He is relieved when Alice agrees with the point.
Eugeo noticed Alice's missing eye, is properly horrified, and asks what happened. Alice tells him
that her right eye exploded when she resolved to defy Quinella. Eugeo, recalling his decision to save
Tiese and Ronye from being raped even if it meant defying the nobility had the same event, wonders
what the connection might be. Then, surprising the whole room in so doing, he kisses Alice's closed
eyelid and says he's sorry she had to go through that. But, she tells him it was probably for the best.
Strangely, Eugeo could swear he feels several glares pierce him as he kisses Alice's eye.
Still, sensing that he can't do anything to help Kirito at the moment and feeling terribly exhausted,
he decides to settle back into the bed and try to rest. Given that Quinella brainwashed him the last
time he was in that bed, he'd nonplussed at using it, but he sees no other furniture in the room. As
he settles into the bed, he is VERY surprised when Alice, Tiese, Selka, Frenica, Linel, and Fizel all
join him.
Eugeo is briefly at a loss for words, but manages to ask just what they're all doing. He is promptly,
and curtly, informed that they've been tending to him and Kirito day and night for X days. They're all
very tired, and they are NOT going to drag themselves down a hundred floors.
Eugeo points out that this is...rather improper. Tiese seems bleakly amused that he's worried about
propriety after standing up to a pair of nobles, and Frenica is quick to echo the sentiment. Fizel and
Linel add in that they think it's funny how he'd turned as red as a boiled ham and that they could all
use a laugh right now. Selka simply says she missed him.
Resigned, but not unhappy, Eugeo settles back against the pillows and, knowing that tomorrow is
going to be a trying day, he decides to simply enjoy the moment. He reflects that, when (he refuses
to use the word "if") Kirito recovers, he'll never let Eugeo hear the end of this. Noticing that Ronye
has climbed into Kirito's cot as well, Eugeo reflects that at least he won't be wholly unarmed when
that contest comes.