Flame Song awoke to find herself in a soft bed with sunlight streaming in through a wide-open window. For a moment she entertained the fantasy that last night had been a dream, but then she raised her hand to her neck and found the two little puncture marks there. So, it hadn’t been a dream after all. She tried to sit up but when she did her head swam and she had to lie back down. She felt horribly weak. She hadn’t been lying there long when the door to the room opened and a young man she didn’t know stepped in.

"Oh, you're awake. That's good. How do you feel?"

"Awful," she said, surprised at how thin and weak her voice sounded.

"I'm sorry. I'm not really a very good healer. I've done what I can, and you'll be all right, but it's going to be a while."

"Is Radu okay?"

"We all hope so. But it's too soon to be sure. He was hurt pretty badly and he hasn't woken yet."

"There isn't anyone who can heal him? I thought you were a healing order?"

The man shook his head. "No. Well, not exactly. Healing is the foundation of what we do, but it's spiritual as much as physical. We do have a lot of good healers, but they're elsewhere, where they can serve others. Radu was always here to heal anyone who needed it, so we never worried about it." He looked worried now, his face drawn. He also looked very tired. "There are only two of us who can heal at all here. The better of us is seeing to him. I'm sorry. I wish I could do more for you, but blood loss is hard. I can't just make more, your body has to do it, and I don't know how to help it, other than just to give you strength."

Is that why he looks so tired? "Well, thank you for that."

"Are you hungry at all?" he asked.

She was suddenly aware of her stomach growling. "Yes! Very."

He smiled. "That's good! I'll go see about getting you some food then. There are things you can eat that build the blood faster."

"Yes, I know," she said with a smile."This wouldn’t be the first time I’ve lost a lot of blood, though…” she stopped as the memory of what had taken pace hit her again. “Though never quite like this,” she finished at last. She hadn’t really sorted out her feelings about last night. They were mixed, to say the least.

She had dozed off again when the young healer returned with her food. But she was more than happy to be woken up. He helped her to sit up so that she could eat. She attacked her food ravenously, and he smiled. "Looks like you're going to be fine."

"How long will it be before I'm back to normal?" she asked.

"Well... probably a week. Maybe a little more, maybe a little less."

She sighed. A whole week. She wanted to get up and dash out the door after her husband right now. But she knew if she did she'd just fall over. She felt incredibly weak. But then she might well have died if it weren't for this healer. “You know, I don’t even know your name?”

“Damien,” he replied with a smile. “And you are Flame Song, though you’re also not Flame Song. I didn’t believe there were two of you at first, it seemed too wild a story.”

A flicker of old pain crossed her face. That name carried quite a bit of baggage with it... She shook off the past and turned her attention to the rest of his statement. "If you didn't believe that I wasn't the Flame Song from this world, then why did you help me heal?"

He shrugged. "I'm a healer. That's what I do. It doesn't matter if someone is good or bad, when I see hurt I have to heal it. I wish I were better. I know Radu could probably have you back to full health in an instant, and all I can do is offer a tiny bit of help."

"Well thank you again all the same. I could wish I could go find my Aidan right now, but I suppose wishing won't do me any good."

"Your Aidan? Then there are two of him as well?"

She nodded. "Yes. The one that escaped from here, and the one who came with me, who's still a prisoner of my other self."

"Very strange. But... you said you're going after your Aidan. Do you not want to get revenge on the other one, for trying to kill you?"

She chuckled. "I would think that here, of all places, people would know the futility of revenge. No, I don't want revenge on him. And…” she paused, trying to find the words for her feelings. “I think if he’s still feeling what he was feeling when he left here, he’s being punished enough. I think his conscience is waking up, and that isn’t a very easy experience.”

"I've never been the kind to take revenge myself," he said. "But I wouldn't have blamed you for wanting it. I could almost want to see him taken down myself, after what he did to Radu, and to you. I guess I'm not that good after all."

"You healed me, thinking I was just as evil," she said. "That's an amazing thing, really. I don't know if I could do the same." She felt tired suddenly. She was still so weak. "I think I need to sleep," she said.

"Oh! Sorry, I should know better. Yes, you need rest." He helped ease her back down to lie flat on the bed. "I'll be nearby if you wake and need anything," he said, but by the time he'd finished saying it, she was sound asleep.