Organizing rationing is helpful, he likes to organize, except it also comes with it the growing fear of how in danger they all really are. With the foraging of some mushrooms and hunters like Geralt there, they might be able to not starve, but the water is going to be a bigger concern. Istredd started doing it to distract himself from anxiety, feeling like he was accomplishing something, but it only highlighted the situation.

More people there could up their chances of escaping, or it could mean less people looking for them, and more people that he can fail. It's unreasonable to think of it that way, but Istredd's only recently started to have a communal mindset. He feels responsible for everyone in Thorne now.

He is just taking a break, trying to remember his breathing exercises, it is so rare for him to be in a state like this. Most people in Thorne would report him to be an unwaveringly level man, calm when others are not. Istredd is scrambling to keep that. His bright blue eyes snap open when he hears Steve speak and it does startle him. He scrambles a little bit backward, but he doesn't have far to go.

"I wasn't." He recognizes the man who keeps making the speeches, of course. "Just ... meditating."