"I can still heal people," Miriam began, her voice steady,
"but there's an equivalent exchange."
She paused, then continued, her gaze distant.
"After the double dungeon incident, everything spiraled. Some hunters quit entirely. What we saw that day… it was a nightmare. But a few of us managed to separate illusion from reality. The illusion was that we almost died. The reality? We were tested. That's how I saw it."
Timothy remembered that day vividly or at least, the parts before he blacked out.
He'd passed out early, completely unaware of what had happened afterward.
"What exactly did happen...?" he asked, leaning forward, his tone sharper.
"...After I passed out"
Miriam looked at him for a moment, lips parting like she was about to speak, but she held back and simply resumed her story.
"We were rescued. Somehow. It felt like a miracle. Some of us were unconscious for three days, others for over a week."
She glanced at Timothy.
He'd been one of the latter.
