Narda looked at the thing Lyta brought with her, trying to guess what it was. It looked like one of those toys peasant children cobbled together. Whatever it was, it must have some sentimental value to the young woman, and so, too, did this house, no matter how squalid it looked or how ill-treated she was under its roof. Ysaryn lashed out at the mother, saying what Narda had been wanting to shout at them from the moment the mother and stepfather opened their mouths. 

Daryll ignored the fact that she didn’t take his handkerchief, picking it up and stuffing it back into his pocket. “Don’t worry about the Empress. She’s tougher than she looks—er, well, actually, she might be exactly as tough as she looks. You’ll see what I mean,” the scholar said, beaming at her in the hope that this helped put her at ease. “I do have to ask, though, and I know you probably don’t have all the answers, but did this ability to move objects around come at the same time as the sleepiness around the town? I noticed we don’t feel it as much around this house, but Narda and I feel it strongly outside.”

“Speaking of which, look,” Narda said, gesturing out the broken windows. From that vantage point, everyone who was outside seemed to have fallen asleep on their feet. Some were slumped against walls, posts, crates, others looked to have crumpled mid-step. “What in the gods…?”
“Hmm.” Daryll looked out the window, then at Lyta, head cocked in curiosity. “I don’t know. Even if Lyta doesn’t know how to control things, putting people to sleep and sending objects flying about seem to be two very different things.”

Narda strode out the room, elbowed her way past the husband and wife, who were still grumbling at Ysaryn. “Oy, mayor!” she called out, but the man had already left them, along with his guards. The giantess growled. Now that she was closer to the door and the farthest from the room, she could feel that sleepiness tugging at her. “Hrmm.” She turned back to Ysaryn. “We better go. But something is not right here. If the town goes back to normal after we have removed Lyta, then that would answer our questions about this lethargy. But if the sleepiness persists, Lyta is not the problem.”