Elmo was glad the fight was over, as well as the fact that no one had looked to him about what to do next. Not that he didn't have any ideas, it was more that he really didn't want to have the spotlight put on him. Otherwise someone might realize he hadn't joined in the fight. Even though he hadn't had any way that he could reliably contribute, with how poor the lighting was, he was pretty sure that the others would have expected him to have joined in the fight.
Though, he supposed that it wouldn't have hurt to have his presence noticed a minute earlier, with the bombshell that Heather lobbed into the discussion.
"How did you revive him?" Elwin demanded, sounding more interested in the method than he was about Owen's wellbeing at this moment.
"Uh, that would be me," Elin said, sounding a little hesitant. "He died, but I was able to use one of my spells to bring him back, since he hadn't been dead for very long."
"When did you get that kind of spell?" Kim asked, her question almost a yelp with how surprised she sounded.
"Uh, about that," Elin said, her voice growing smaller, the more apparent how uncomfortable she was became. "I actually got it a while ago, but I didn't want any of our enemies to know that I was able to use that."
Elmo nodded, even though no one was paying any attention to him. Elin's explanation made sense to him, since if Stanley and his group had known, then they might have actually let Harold know so that he'd have gone after her first. Potentially making it to where she'd have been dead already, likely by Harold's hand, and unable to have brought Owen back to life. It might be a slim possibility of having that happening, but it was still there. One that would have really been lousy for Elin, especially. Not to mention how Kim would likely take it as well.
As Elin made her revelation, there was a flurry of questions that were shot at Elin, so much that Elmo couldn't make out most of them and he doubted Elin could as well. The only two he was able to make out was from Kim and Patrick.
"Why didn't you tell me about this?" Kim asked, her tone a mixture of alarm and indignation.
"Any other secrets you're holding onto, little one?" Patrick laughed, clearly not as upset as everyone else was about the fact that Elin had withheld this information from them. Even as far as Elmo could tell, even Jonas was a little annoyed by this fact.
"Well, Elin wasn't the only one holding something back," Heather said, her small voice somehow able to cut through the roar of the complaints from everyone else. Elmo wasn't sure how she did it, but he certainly would like to have that skill, assuming that it wasn't somehow connected to her system, at least.
Heather took a deep breath as everyone else turned to look at her, their expressions making it look like they might tear Heather apart depending on what she said, even though Elmo was mostly sure that they wouldn't do that. Not to one of their group.
Mostly sure, that is. Elmo wasn't going to say that he was an expert on how the others in their group would react, but he at least had a pretty good idea of what could potentially set them off and surprises like this, even if it made them annoyed, weren't going to do that.
"I have a miracle skill," Heather confessed, looking like she was ready to bolt if someone dropped so much as a pin. "It takes a price on me depending on how big of a miracle it was."
"Hold on," Sonya interrupted Heather, making Heather jump and look like she might run and not look back if she got the chance. "Why didn't you mention this skill to me? And when did you get it in the first place?"
Heather blushed. "I actually got it from the first boss fight we had in the dungeon. I wasn't conscious when the battle was won, but when I did regain my consciousness, I chose the skill because it was available." Heather paused for a moment before adding, "It's also not one that I'm in control of. It helps create positive outcomes, but typically it wears me out. Much like how I slept for so long after Harold failed to kill me."
Jonas was already nodding, looking less annoyed with Heather than he had seemed to be with Elin. "Yeah, I can see that. It explains how Sonya got away from the dragon with so little damage to her, when her foot got trapped in the stellar bear. Then it also explains how Harold was killed in such a way that seemed like it'd be more of a possibility of occurring than something we would likely have put money on if we were doing a betting pool about it."
Kim looked at Jonas, looking annoyed with him now. "Why do you have to bring gambling into this? You're liable to corrupt both Heather and Elin with talk like that."
"Actually, I remember some of the other students in one of my classes were making bets with a bookie," Heather remarked. "I only became aware of it when the teachers caught them and announced to the school that that sort of thing wouldn't be tolerated."
"How did they get caught?" Kim asked, looking stunned at the revelation.
Heather merely shrugged. "I haven't a clue as to how it was discovered. I'm not even sure who it was that had been involved with it."
"Let's get back on topic, okay?" Bart said, sounding like he would rather talk about anything other than that. "We were talking about Heather's… uh, miracle skill, right?"
"Yeah," Jonas replied, sounding as if that word alone made him in charge somehow. "So, what's the extent of what this skill can do?"
"Hold on," Sonya said, a warning in her voice. "You didn't say why you didn't tell me why you kept this skill from me."
Heather looked at the ground, as if she couldn't meet Sonya's eyes. "I… guess it was because… it just never came up?" she answered, sounding almost like she wasn't sure herself. Just that it had occurred and she hadn't questioned it.
"You can figure that out later," Elwin interjected before Sonya could say anything more. "We should focus instead on what we're going to do from here. Especially with knowing about these skills."
"Um, well actually I don't know when my skill will activate," Heather replied. "Just that when it does, I have to pay the price of whatever it is that comes with whatever the skill has happen."
"Why would you choose a skill like that?" Elwin demanded, sounding more confused than angry, even if it hardly seemed much different than when he is angry. "Couldn't you have picked something that was more… reliable? Something not so random?"
Heather shrugged. "I picked it because it seemed like it might be useful." Heather's voice seemed almost like she was trying to disappear in front of them, like she was being made smaller than she was solely from being in the spotlight right then.
"Leave it be," Owen groaned, making Elmo wonder how long he'd been awake. "Just because she doesn't have control over it, doesn't mean it's incredibly useful. If she didn't have it, then she'd likely have been killed by Harold, not to mention the rest of us, since we'd have had to have gotten incredibly lucky to have been able to take him out with how fast he was able to move."
"I wasn't saying she shouldn't have picked it," Elwin replied, sounding more defensive than Elmo would have expected. "I'm just wondering why she'd picked something that wasn't something she could control."
"Like I said," Heather replied before anyone else could, looking around like she was daring anyone to interrupt her while she spoke, making Elmo admire her more than he had already. "It seemed like it would be useful. I didn't expect that it'd knock me out or kill me as a result."
"Wait, are you meaning literally kill you, or figuratively?" Patricia interjected, sounding concerned.
Heather glanced at Elin. "I'm not sure, but I think Elin used her spell on me before, back when Sonya crash landed, but she won't tell me if she did or not. So, I can only speculate about it."
"Wait, you think you died already?" Sonya asked in alarm, glancing at Elin herself.
"Maybe?" Heather replied, sounding more sheepish than she had a moment ago. "I said I wasn't sure and Elin wouldn't confirm if it happened or not."
"Let's move on," Patricia said, stopping the discussion from the direction it was heading. "We still need to figure out if we're going to stop for the night or continue on and risk another of those… worm things to attack us."
"Why don't we stop," Elwin sighed. "If Elin can revive one of us from having been killed, I doubt it's something that can be used very often. Which means if we are to have the best chance at this, we'll need to let her recover her MP or whatever so she can use it again if we need it."
"That's actually well thought out," Jonas remarked, sounding as surprised as Elmo felt. "Though, I would have thought that you'd have been interested in continuing on anyway."
Elwin scowled at Jonas. "That's because I still think we should continue on, but at the same time, what if we weren't going to make it before Stanley and his group finishes whatever they were up to in the first place? Then we'd only be that much more worn out and give them that much more of an advantage. I'm not going to give them that if I can help it."
Jonas nodded as if he agreed with Elwin, but Elmo had a suspicion that Jonas was merely placating Elwin and had his own thoughts on why Elwin had gone through such a change.