Mareen watched the blood pouring out of the arm dispassionately. She slowly gathered the green warmth and pushed it down the arm. She felt the warm energy move move through the arm heading for the injury.

Just as when she was a child, she moved the fuzzy light to the worst of the injury first by instinct. The warmth slowly knit the artery back together, before starting on the muscles. As she watched the skin pulled itself back together.

Once the wound closed the world came rushing back. She staggered under the noise, as the exhaustion that struck her like a wave. The soldier was rummaging through a bag on the table, searching for something among his supplies.

While the soldier searched, Burraach and his friends had rushed forward. The group pushed at each other to better see what she had done. Monsters the lot of them. So bored they want to watch me die.

Marreen was too tired to care what they thought, and kept her arm locked in front of her. I am happy to disappoint them.

The soldier found what he was looking for, and quickly stood upright. He grabbed her arm and pulled a wax sealed jar from the bag. The jar opened with a press of his thumb. He shoved the now open jar toward the bloody tear in her dress sleeve when her freehand grabbed the jar.

“The blood stopped already.” Mareen’s words made the soldier’s eyes go wide. She felt the pressure on the other side of the jar lesson. Pushing the jar gently away, she stuck her fingers into the cut on her sleeve and pulled. The fabric tore revealing her unmarred skin.

She heard a collective intake of breath for the watching crowd, followed by murmuring. “Is this a sufficient healing skill?”

The solder looked back and forth between her face and forearm. He slowly released the grip on her wrist and set the jar down on the table. Picking up her dagger from the table he asked, “Can you do that again?”

I do not remember dropping that. She look at the dagger, and nodded. This is going to be rough I am not sure I can do that again.

She reached out to take the dagger. Instead of returning it to her, he pulled is sleeve up and made a shallow cut along his own arm. “Show me.”

She gently touched his arm near the cut pushing the green warmth out of herself. She herded the warmth past old scars to the fresh cut. The warmth repairing the damage to the shallower cut faster than it had the injury to her own arm.

Feeling the cut close, she started to pull the warmth back only to feel something tugging at her. Working by instinct rather than any true control she felt the energy begin to flow from her. She followed the feeling, up the arm and neck into his knee. There was something wrong with it. The bone had broken then not healed correctly. Without thinking the warmth surrounded the piece of bone reshaping it to a smooth form.

Suddenly the energy stopped flowing out of her. Unsure what happened, but feeling she was done she pulled her attention back to herself. The soldier stood frozen his eyes wide.

The soldier’s shocked face was staring at her as her world went dark.

…

Mareen came to staring at a canvas tarp. She shifted on the pile of straw to see the soldier staring at her relief on his face. “How are you feeling?”

“Tired,” she croaked. She tried to sit up, but barely failed to lift her back from the straw before she fell into it again.

“Hey, none of that. You scared me enough already.” He placed a hand on her shoulder his eyes filled with concern.

Clearing her throat she tried again, “Where am I?”

“In a wagon headed to the capital. You said you wanted to leave the village. This is the least I could do.” He replied as, she recognized the soft rocking of the floor beneath her.

“So I can join the campaign?” She her chest swelling, Is it finally over? Am I finally free of that place?

“If you want. I do not know what you did, but when you healed the cut you also helped my knee.” He rubbed the side of his knee as he continued. “This is the first time it has not hurt in years. I owe you. When you passed out, I commandeered a wagon to take you to a healer. Since you are up now I can ask. Do you need a healer?”

She shook her head, “I just need rest.”

He nodded clearly relieved, “Then I have one more question for you. What do you want to do? I owe you more than I can even explain. If you want to go to the army as a healer, you will do it with the best recommendation I can give. If you want to do something else, I will help anyway I can. You need only tell me. In the meantime rest, and think about it.”

[healer’s POV]

What is wrong now?! No matter how much I use me skill, he seems to get worse. He stared at the injured man who had started to take a turn for the worse. At first it seemed minor, but with each attempt the healer could tell he was weakening. What did that witch do?! Now my healing is only making it worse.

He glanced back to the woman, laying on his other side. She had thankfully stopped muttering and fallen into a deep sleep once the wagon reached the worn path leading to Wall.

Goddesses preserve me, he began, throwing all hope in skills as he started praying…