Even fifteen minutes later, Arc still felt like his head was stuck inside of a bell.
The constant ringing was drowning out the small conversation that Merri and Kelvin were having as his recently soiled diaper was replaced.
He could pick out the occasional 'Sorry' as the rather inexperienced Kelvin worked his way through the procedures involved in cleaning a baby, but as to what they were actually talking about? Arc was simply not in a condition to be able to tell.
All he knew at this point was that his ears hurt and his plan had failed.
It honestly wasn't the biggest deal, but to have his very first step towards freedom foiled not by a failure on his part but due to the gross incompetence of one of his guardians irritated him to a great degree.
'I can't believe I shit myself.'
-----
Merri finished with the mess that was Arc's lower half far swifter than Arc was led to believe.
"I am concerned about his ears Zerrin. A child as young and vulnerable as him should not be subjected to explosive noises like that." Merri made her concerns known, interrupting the brief bit of banter they were exchanging in the midst of the diaper change. "I think we should test him a bit to see if there is anything I need to mix up for him. Help me out would you?"
"How? He's a baby! He wouldn't be able to understand even if he could hear us." Zerrin could not help but question how this could be done.
"Who said he needed to understand? All that needs to happen is for him to react." She grabbed Arc and sat him on her lap facing towards her. "Snap your fingers to the left or right of his head to see if he reacts."
She paused to look for affirmation.
"Do it gently too, chances are his ears are still sensitive."
To Zerrin, this was a fairly easy task. Or it would be, if he wasn't nervous he would be scolded for doing it too loudly. He was seeing a brand new side of Merri today, one of intense anger, and he wasn't quite sure how to act around it.
*thid* *thid*
"A little louder than that please."
*thick*
"Louder."
*tick* *tick*
"For the love of all things holy just do it like you normally would."
*snap* *snap* *snap*
"Thank you. Keep that up for a bit while I watch him. If I tell you to do it louder make sure you do it slow. Use some Xan to keep it consistent if you have to, this is important."
Turning her gaze away from the sweating and slightly uneasy Zerrin towards the dazed Arc, she took mental notes about how his eyes seemed unfocused and he paid no attention to her even though she was directly in front of him.
*snap* *snap* *snap*
Zerrin's rhythmic snapping did not seem to attract his attention either, cause for concern.
"Slowly increase please,"
*snap* *Snap* *Snap*…
"Now vary tempo,"
*Snap* *Snap* *Snap* *Snap*…
"Aaaaand stop."
-----
A few minutes had passed since the end of Merri's examination without so much as a word from either her or Zerrin. Her phase of extreme anger had long since passed, in it's place was an expression of exhaustion and slight dismay.
"It would appear that I won't be getting any sleep tonight... haah." She all but collapsed in one of the maroon chairs in the room. "I'm gonna throttle that moron the next time I get my hands on him."
"So what's the verdict?" Zerrin could not help but feel anxious in the face of his angry crush.
"There is a very high chance on there being damage to his ears." She took a moment to calm down. "I don't know where exactly the injury is, nor can I ask him where he feels the most pain. Given his lack of focus and responsiveness, I would hazard a guess that some of the Xan nodes in his ears are damaged."
"... But those will heal, won't they?"
"Yes, but he is in a vital stage of his development. Who knows what will happen should they not be repaired quickly."
"What, pray-tell, might happen?"
"Once again, I can't be certain, but he could have troubles hearing and protecting himself from sound based techniques in the future. Hell, he could even grow to have mismatched ears." She almost wanted to laugh at the thought. "I'm going to be up all night making a salve to assist his healing, but first I need to head to the market to get the materials. I'll be borrowing some money from Kelvin to cover the costs. Can you fetch me ten gold, forty silver, a handful of bronze beads and a spatial bag from the vault please?"
"Why not take twenty gold instead?"
"I don't want to wait for the vendors to split change."