[Whether fortunate or not, Ion seems to stand up well enough and the pain from before seems to have not returned. Still, he can't exactly hide the wince he makes as he stands, having been expecting much worse. He accepts Luke's help to continue up the stairs without complaint, and once they reach the top, he\ll even pull away and stand on his own.]

Thank you. I suppose I was sitting there longer than I realized and thought my legs might have fallen asleep... I didn't want to risk falling. [Which... could explain the pain he felt earlier, perhaps. Maybe this really was nothing?]

[Of course, now that they're out of the dim stairwell and in the slightly-more-lit hallway, it's probably a lot more apparent just how pale he looks right now, even for Ion. It's not a lie when you want to believe it yourself, right?]