Chapter 66: Another Session
“Close your eyes, and take a deep breath. Don’t think. Don’t focus on a particular thought. Let your mind wander. You might feel some pain around your neck, but that’s normal.”
Valens placed his hand on Selin’s forehead as he focused on the Resonance. The woman tightened and shivered under his palm, but he expected that much. Dealing with mental illnesses had never been easy for any Resonant Healer since it wasn’t entirely possible to explain the details of the procedure to a patient in a way that would make them comfortable.
The matters of mind are elusive, and dangerous in nature. Delicate matters, indeed.
This was especially true since the carriage bumped into an occasional hole along the way, and the wheels groaned loudly, which didn’t make for a good place for operation.
They had left Brackley early in the morning with the first lights of the day after Captain Edric persuaded Father Harmon that the evil in the mines had been dealt with and wouldn’t be coming back. He didn’t go into the details and told Valens to keep their journey a little secret since discretion was essential in these cases.
Valens didn’t remember much of it as it was a night of cheap booze and dirty jokes, of roaring laughter and songs he didn’t know, yet was forced to sing along when cornered by a crowd of grateful miners. He would cherish the time he’d spent with them, but not the taste of that wine. It took him an ungodly amount of lifemana to deal with the resulting hangover.
Still, there’s one thing I’m now sure of. The Church doesn’t want people to learn the various horrors hiding in these lands, and I think I’m somewhat of the same mind with them.
He’d thought when he met with the Templars and learned their ways that the Church was keeping everything a secret to enhance its presence upon the public, to show them while horrors were a dime a dozen in the Broken Lands, here they could do nothing as long as the Divine Orders stood strong.
But now, Valens could see there was more to that practice. What could a Miner do even if he knew there was a Remnant Terror hiding inside the very mine he worked for months? What could a Nursemaid do even if she was informed that any moment a shadow could take her soul?
If everyone knew the entirety of the matter, then it would be an interesting sight for sure. Chaotic too, but interesting nonetheless. However, I still think they should’ve at least made an educated guess that their discretion sometimes would give birth to certain problems.
Valens guessed it was the crux of the problem here.
You tell too much to people, then you’d have thousands of them panicking. You tell too little, then they’d think the world is all bright and sunny. You have to find a balance between the two, but is there truly a balance to be found? All of this… even I’m not sure how to deal with it.