They poored into the camp by the hundreds; wounded, frightened and helpless. The refugees of Horen were distraught and wandered aimlessly as the military contingent attempted, with the few men it had, to keep order in the masses.

Sasha entered the camp from the south, coming from Beldran forest as soon as she saw the smoke rising like an endless arching pillar into the sky. She knew she was risking it all when she entered, tending to those nearest her in hopes that they would not notice the unnatural softness of her touch. She stood out from the refugees in her clean robes, her long brown hair painstakingly maintained to perfection. She was stunning and wreaked of Nobility.

She walked to a boy who's arm was badly broken and took him aside as he whimpered. She put her hand on the joint, near the elbow and his eyes grew wide. 

The pain was gone, and the bone placed properly in his flesh.

"How?" He asked, feeling his arm where moments ago it throbbed with piercing pain.

"Don't ask. You were simply never hurt." She said, tustling his hair and moving on to the next person.

One of the militiamen drafted to aid the military in the camp had brushed by Sasha and peered at her with lust in his eye. "Where are you going pretty lady?" He asked, his grin revealing yellow rotting teeth.

"Not of your concern." She replied, moving quickly away from him and looking for other wounded citizens.

"Oh but it's all my concern, you see this?" He said, pulling the sword from its sheeth. "This was given to me by the duke himself, I'm in charge here you see? That means you do what I say." He took her by the arm and pulled her into a tent.

"What are you doing?" She cried, "let go of me!"

"Leave!" he yelled to the four occupants who huddled in the tent, all merchants.

They scurried out in a flash, avoiding eye contact with the large armed man.

"I will have my way with you woman, and you will stop resisting or I will pluck those pretty eyes from your head." The man said, ripping at her robes, revealing her pale flesh.

She struggled, pulling herself from his grasp as best she could.

"Oh I'm going to enjoy this!" the man continued, stabbing the clothes with his sword and ripping through it.

"Now now, shouldn't you have the Lady's permission before endeavoring to steal her purity?" A voice came from behind.

The guard spun around, his sword at the ready.

"Oh!" The man said, his sharp blue eyes trained on the tip of the sword as he raised his hands. "My how I have underestimated your speed and agility." The man said, the sarcasm dripping from his wry grin. "What're you going to do with that?"

"You're a dead man boy." The guard said, taking a step closer. "You and your pretty clothes and fancy leather. You think that'll do you any good you prancy prick?"

"How harsh your words. I have done nothing to deserve such treatment." He said, as he circled around the man slowly, his hands still up. "Nothing... yet." His features strained to a serious glare and he pushed his hands forward, small blades whisked from his sleeves, pulled from their hidden holsters by the power of his mind.

The blades plunged accurately into the mans shoulders and throat, blood pouring profusely from the small wounds.

"Do me a favor love, don't heal him." He said as he walked toward Sasha.

"I had no intention of doing so." She said, covering her naked torso with her arms.

"Ah, let me fetch you some garments." The man said, retrieving the blades as he walked past the corpse.

"Wait." Sasha said, "I can find something here, don't leave me." She said, her anxiety palpable.

The man turned from the slit in the tent and returned to her. Taking a part of her clothes and covering her bare shoulder. "My name is Theodore." He said, looking into her eyes tenderly.

"I am Sasha." She replied, smiling to him.

"Sasha my dear. You possess far more than the gift of healing. It seems you steal men's hearts as well." Theodore said, pushing a lock of her hair behind her ear. "I am a swashbuckler, usually I charge a fee for my services. But for you Sasha, I am free. If there is anything at all you need, call upon me. I hear voices in my head, those of others like us."

"I do to, I wonder if we all do." she said, getting up to forage for something to repair her clothing with.

"Perhaps. In any case, Horen is no longer safe, once we've helped those that are in need here, we must flee. But before that. I must see Marcus, the Duke. There is a message I have for him that is far more important than the state of his Duchy."

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