"Irene!" He called out again
Her eyelids slowly moved, then opened up.
She looked toward the sound of Nathan's voice, her gaze dazed and unfocused.
But when she recognized him, a faint smile appeared on her face.
Nathan rushed to her side and dropped onto one knee.
He carefully lifted Irene from the ground, pulling her to himself and cradling her head against his chest.
"What is it?" Nathan asked frantically. "What's going on, Irene? What's happening to you?"
This was different.
Nathan had seen Irene's physical suffering affect her Mind Island before.
Whenever the strain being inflicted upon her body became too great for her mind to suppress, that suffering would spill into this place as sensory feedback.
The garden would react, and anyone inside it could experience a portion of what Irene's mind was processing.
But this wasn't the same.
The garden itself looked sick.
There had been no sudden manifestation of pain that had caused it to become this way.
