Hours later, the destructive nature of a bloody afternoon was finally replaced with the tranquility of the night. The remaining villagers who survived the attack were cleaning the mess around the hamlet; discarding debris, mourning and burying the dead, and already attempting to plan and rebuild parts of their village. While the denizens were busy restoring the area, Cyrene was hard at work restoring her brother’s health. Immediately after the fight, she brought him to her room and rested him on her bed. She used the limited medical knowledge procured from her brother to apply plenty of bandages and curative ointments to strengthen the healing effect. After an hour of vigorously attending to his wounds, she finished. Her room was left a mess with scattered bloody rags and empty medical supplies. She took a seat beside her bed, watching her once-pained brother sleep peacefully on her mattress. A shroud of sorrow blankets her eyes when she gazes over at the unusual blade she brought back; the weapon sits in the dark corner of the room. She turns her attention back to her brother. Cyrene gently clasps her brother’s hand, rubbing her thumb softly against his knuckles. 

And just as she settled for a moment, Cyrus moved in his bed. 

"Mmrgh..." 

His eyes slowly open. His blurry vision begins to focus, his eyes are greeted by the sight of his sister. 

"Cyrene...?" 

Cyrene welcomes her brother with a melancholic smile. 

"You're okay...!" 

Cyrus shifts in his bed. He tries pushing himself up by his elbows, groaning through each inch his body moves. 

"I'd hardly call this okay...!"

His body suddenly collapses, his muscles tightening and face twisting. He holds in his bodily cries through the grinding of his teeth. 

"Rrrgh!" 

"D-don't move so much so much!"

Cyrus strains himself to turn his head to his sister. 

"What of the villages? And the villagers?" 

“All of the villagers are cleaning up nicely," she said gently. "You should be doing fine if you rest up, but knowing you, you'd probably be up the next day like nothing happened..." 

"As much as I'd wish for that to be, I took quite a beating. I don't know how much time it will take for me to recover..." 

The young woman eyes her brother's wounds. 

"Why do you have to be so careless? You've always come home beaten up, but this is the worst it's ever been."

"Please. You worry too much. And what of that man in the cloak?" 

She takes a deep breath and then exhales. Her mind recollects her encounter with the peddler. 

“When you told me to go into town to look for a new weapon, he ended up giving me one for free, but after I went to the Cliffside to kill another monster, he was there again. He did something to me… something that was like the explosion you talked about with our mom and dad,” she says, briefly glancing at her brother. "When I came to, he was gone; even after I searched the town for a bit when I was done fixing you up, I couldn’t find him hiding anywhere.”

She raises her left arm and eyes the palm of her hand. 

"I don't know what he did to me, but when I was protecting you, a sword popped up in my hands. I tried to make it show up earlier, but it doesn't want to show up..." 

Cyrus's mind and body felt weak and lethargic, unable to fully grasp what she was saying. 

"A sword appeared in your hand? What sort of nonsense are you talking about?" 

She opens and shuts her hand. 

"It's weird... it doesn't even sound possible, but it felt right; I don't know how to explain it. Still, it doesn't excuse him for what he did...!"  

Her voice trembles. She clutches her brother’s hand more tightly while closing her other hand.  

"That weird guy... that merchant... every time I think about him, how he almost got you killed... how he ruined our village..."  

A slight hint of fear within her voice transforms into a hard rage. 

"I'm not gonna let him get away with that...!" 

Cyrus' eyes hover from her sister's hand to her angry face. 

"And what are you thinking of doing? Making chase?"

She nods. 

"Yeah! Of course I will!" 

"Absolutely not! You're in no shape, physically or mentally, to chase after some stranger!" 

"That stranger hurt you, and I'm not gonna let him get away with that!" 

Her grip lessens. She looks back at her brother, a tenacious resolve suddenly possessing her.  

“I know he went to the Silent Grotto, so that's where I'm going! I don't care how many monsters I have to go through; he’s not getting away with what he did to me, to you, or our home! And once I'm done, I'll come running back, I promise!" 

A wave of exhaustion blankets her brother's face, causing Cyrene to pay close attention. 

"Cyrene, please... do not chase after this person. If he's gone, then he's gone. Leave him be. As long as he doesn't come back, I couldn't care less where he went. As long as you're safe."

"But Dad!" 

"I still need your help recuperating from my injuries, but ff it's bothering you that much, you can at least check the premises if he's still lurking about. But do not follow him. If you see him, inform the villagers, then return here. Do you understand?" 

Cyrene's pouty face reeks of a child being told what to do. 

"Cyrene..."

"I understand..." She finally answers. 

Cyrus chuckles. 

"You've a bit of fire your mother used to have. Just make sure you don't burn those around you." 

"I'll try not to."

Cyrus motions to Cyrene with his hand.  

"Come here."

Cyrene moves in closer to her brother. He leans forward with the energy he can muster, laying his hand on the side of her head before kissing his sister on the forehead. 

"I love you."

Cyrene keeps her head down, a tad flustered. 

"I love you too." 

She stands and heads to the doorway. Before leaving, she gets another look at her brother.  

"Good night."

A soft smile forms on her face before shutting the door, enveloping her room in total darkness. 

As Cyrus drifts off into sleep, Cyrene wastes no time. She leaves her home posthaste. Right outside his window, she rushes toward the Silent Grotto. As the cool night sky shrouded the valley in its shadow, the huntress dived into the unknown, willing and eager to hunt another monster.