Healer

By Kat Francis

A/N: This story is mine and so is the plot.

DISCLAIMER APPLIES TO ALL CHAPPIES

Chapter One

Chaos In The High

Sirens stirred in the blackness of night. People rushed out as the silvery glow from the moon vanished behind the gray masses of clouds. Over the crest of the hills, horses stood with warriors proudly on their backs. Suddenly, they came charging to the village that was now in a panic.

Amongst the chaos, a woman with blond hair had just gathered her daughters out of their beds and to the hideout they had made only the previous weeks. Together they walked out to the mass streets and into the place hidden by shadows where they crowded together and whispered in prayers.

Above them, the sounds of shouts and yells racked the air and hooves sounded on the ground. Their prayers stopped but continued in their head, waiting for the bombardment of the attack to fizzle out and leave them to their wrecked home and community.

Slowly, like time was frozen, the woman with blond hair dared to drag herself from beside her family and walked out into the community that had just been attacked. It seemed like hours before the two children started to worry, since she had not yet showed up. Just like their mother, they rose from their hiding spots and looked around.

"Sissy," cried the youngest one with silver hair that shone brightly in the impenetrable darkness. Her cornflower blue eyes lit up with tears as before her was the mother, blood spilled all over her newest outfit of yellow and dirt tattered in her hair. "Mommy! Wake up! Mommy!" She shook and shook the elderly woman, yet no response came from her. "Mommy, don't go yet. Please, don't go!" She clasped in tears on her mother's stomach.

"Dearest Serenity, please do not cry. I will be right here for the rest of your life. I will be with you forever and there is still a plan for you and your sister. In my pocket are two necklaces. The one that is for you has a jewel in it. The other is shaped like a butterfly, that one is for your sister. Treasure them, my daughter." With that, her mother's pale pink lips closed in words and her eyes stared blankly at the smoky sky. Serenity lay over her mother's stomach, crying until finally she fell asleep, her sister soon joining her.

Yet, in both their minds, one word echoed: Revenge.

Four Years Later

"Gather up the slaves! All of them are to be beaten until one spills who caused this destruction!" Stormy blue eyes looked upon the slaves who had gathered around him as his horse reared in happiness at the wind that shook his brown mane. "May the Gods have mercy on your souls," he whispered from pale red lips before he and his horse reared off into the darkness.

Gathering all the strength left in the limb limps, one of the slave girls threw herself at the horse before it disappeared. "Please, sire, do not beat them! I did it! They didn't do anything but hid my secret! Yet, it wasn't me who was sent out to do it! I had no choice! They would kill me!" Tears burned in her green eyes as she tried to hide the smirk that was escaping her lips. Slowly, the horse turned around and the man looked at the slave girl with eyes of pity, mixed with the pride of the hunt.

"You dare wish your life for all these people. Claiming you are the one that killed my brother! You are foolish!" He dismounted, his black boots thumping hard against the ground. "You, slave, are nothing compared to what would poison the King himself. You are worthless to even live!" With that, he slammed the foot he had picked up and dropped it onto the servant's hand. Yet, in surprise, he missed and stumbled back as she raised her head and looked at the brother-King.

"Sire, I dare say that I was the one who not only poisoned the King, but I cut his throat and stabbed his heart while he was alive. I was the one who burned his foot and the clothes on his body before the guards arrived. I was ecstatic as I looked upon him withering in pain, moaning as the Gods took his soul from this world. You are just like him too!" She laughed and then spat in his face, her brown hair covering her smirk as she heard him bellow in rage.

"Wrench! How dare you defy the law that has kept you safe! You are not worthy to even be born in the next world or the world after that. You are dead!" The ringing of the sword coming out of the black case sung in the air. Time relapsed, as the greed in the man's blue eyes was great and burning. Yet, on the servant's face, a smile played on the petal pink lips. Everything sped up as the man crumbled, his eyes opened with the greed that had taken his heart, the tinged black blood smothered on the ground.

"You were going to let him strike me, were you not?" the servant girl asked as she looked up into silvery blue eyes. "Once again, though, you have surprised us all." Turning off her knees and standing beside her comrade, she faced the faces of at least ten thousand servants. Sorrow struck her face as she seen these people before, before this had happened, and yet, at the same time, her face bestowed them with happiness.

"You are free, now, thanks to my comrade. Let the word spread that soon there will be a change in the world. Everyone shall be free from the hollow grip of the King. We shall be free and forever free without the restraint of chains on our feet or hands. Tomorrow, look at the sun and the moon and be blessed to the Gods and Goddesses. Shout it to the next person and hope that it reaches the castle. We are free!" With that, the uproar of hope went through the servants as their chains slipped off their hands and feet and the wind brushed their skin like a caress from the Heavens.

The sounds of boots licking the stone tiles of the Sun ward mimicked the sound of an army approaching on top speeds. Gathered in discussion were the Prince and his four generals as they strode through the bedecked doors of the Conference Room. Everyone who was already sitting stood up and bowed as the Prince took his seat at the head of the table. After he had sat down the rest followed. Then, the meeting started up in a pandemonium.

"General Gray, I didn't ask how our borders with Anima was, I asked what happened to the slaves down in the camp," the cobalt blue eyes of the Prince fired in rage as the general blabbered away. "General, this is your last chance to answer me."

"W-w-we do not know. Lord Randal was found died, an unusual mark on his back. We think that someone must have freed the slaves and killed him."

"Please explained to me how someone could kill my uncle?" the Prince asked.

"Prince Endymond, your uncle was the most careless general in the army. For all we could know, one of the slaves could have killed him and gathered the keys."

"Yet, you said there were unusual markings on the back where the wound was. Explain that," asked one of the Prince's generals.

"I want the person who is doing this to my people! I want him now and I don't care if he is harmed." With that, Prince Endymond left the conference room with his cape flapping behind him.

Gathered into a tent of silk and satin sat three girls, each deep in thought. Their clothes were dirty and they smelled of much sweat and grim. Each outfit that they wore was brown, their feet bare and their faces were filled with dirt, as was their hair. Slowly, the one with brown hair opened her mouth and spoke.

"Today was a day of success, do you not agree Minaitia?" she asked as she looked to the blond who sat to her left.

"I do. You played a crucial role in it though. Without your acting skills, who would know how would we have saved those servants," Minaitia laughed as she patted her friend's hand. "Besides, Litanitia, I don't think Serena would let someone kill you, yet."

"Thanks for the confidence, Minaitia! Now I will not trust Serena for a long while. Speaking of which, where is she?"

A bluish hair girl spoke up. "She and Reianita are out with the servants. Serena is doing what she does best and Reianita is praying and offering beds."

"Why does Serena seem to get more distant each day? Like, last night, she was out wondering in the desert and was just blank, like nothing was there. She is starting to worry me," a black lock girl said as she entered the tent.

"I have noticed the same thing, Reianita. She seems more…cautious too. I think she knows something is going to happen yet she doesn't want us to know about it. It scares me sometimes," the same blue hair woman said.

"Have you all discussed about me before like this?" the said girl asked as she walked into the tent. Her blond-silver hair laid delicately on her shoulders and her blue eyes moved over the ashamed faces. "There is nothing to worry about. I have…I need just a little space for a lot of things that are weighing on my mind." She turned and went back to the entrance. "Tomorrow we will leave. There is another camp about three hundred feet up from here. They have already heard of the defeat of this camp so we have to be careful." Her eyes scanned over the girls. "Amitia, it is your turn to play the killer." The blue hair girl blanched as the other left the room and the girls consoled her.

"Is this her plan of revenge?" Amitia asked as she sobbed into the shoulder of her comrade. "She knows that I cannot kill. I can only make potions and herbs that heal not the opposite."

The dawn broke over the sand dunes with a fast pace, heating up the land as they tracked to the north. Each day they were getting closer and closer to their goal, but each night they were becoming more afraid of what was planned. They knew nothing of what their leader thought, nothing of what was going to happen next. Their worlds relied on the person that talked to little and knew so much. Even the sister of their leader didn't know what was going on in her sister's head. Each, though, respected the girl who had achieved and seen so much.

As they tracked through the heated sands, they felt the tension give to something that they were all uncomfortable around. The plight of smoke was in the air and the hope of something had diminished in the night that had passed. The silvery girl raced forward, her stead panting underneath her as she tried to find out what was the destruction. Yet, as they came up beside her, they knew that they were sat into a trap. Around them, an army surrounded, arrows, guns and weapons poised at their bodies, waiting for them to make the mistake. Their leader muttered under her breath and they did not know what had been said but the people around them faltered slightly before the turned their eyes to someone else.

"It seems to me that you have under estimated my plans, Prince," the leader called out to the one that everyone in the army was looking at. "You have done to much thinking and haven't truly thought."

"You do not know such a thing, milady. How about you politely come with us and we will see that your friends are not harmed since you already confessed?" the voice came from the darkened male. "We will treat them with honor, but you will not get that privilege."

"How much of a fool do you think I am? I have yet to confess to anything and you are thinking too much that I will say something to get me thrown into the dungeon that is waiting. My friends, they have nothing to do with anything and you have already thought that through. But, my Prince, have you thought everything?"

The male glared at her from beneath his armor. In return, the vixen smiled in gratitude as the atmosphere became tense. The ladies behind her wore grim faces and the army fidgeted around him. All of them knew that this wasn't the first time that these to had met. "You have already stated that, milady, but I want to ask if you have thought your chances through. A thousand men surround you and there are only five of you. You are all ladies-"

"That your men won't hurt no matter how much of a beating they get. You see Prince, your gentlemen's mothers would beat them in two if they found out that your men beat five women of noble breeding up. Your mother would do the same." The girl smiled as the Prince's glare darkened and his face changed somewhat.

"You pride yourself for your conniving, do you not?" He laughed a little, though no humor came out from the words. "You just want to feel the fact that you think you have me out witted in my own game."

"Oh, so now it is your game? At first, and still, I thought it was I who dragged you out into the heat of the day. Besides, that is what passion is about."

"You speak lightly of what you already know." He made a movement and the girl glared. "See, you are on the defense, knowing that you are not going to win. I still hold true to my word that you confess and your friends will be set free. However, you will suffer for the acts you have committed."

"You seem to fail to recognize something, Prince. I have lifelines and you don't. I could have million of men that you can't see whereas you only have a thousand or so. I could have something up my sleeve that would wipe out the thought of the gentleness of your mind. Have you thought of that?"

He merely laughed at her words and she muttered something under her breath. A light came out and attacked him but he had already sensed the impending doom. Words flew out of his lips and the light withered away and his chuckle only darkened. "You do know that I have already thought of it. I still am curious how five ladies can bring down all the people in the world. Still, I will keep to my promise if you confess."

"I would rather burn into Hades then confess to what you know that I did not do. You would have a better chance of humiliating me and seeing me crack then you do to see me confess to a crime that you insult me with. My friends have nothing to do with this and it is your own foolish pride that got you into this mess in the first place."

"My foolish pride?" The air around them thickened and the others backed up. From somewhere the other ladies were held captive and she knew that she was by herself. Generals of the Prince had taken what she had used and now it was up to her to get herself out of her pit of despair. "You say that I was the one who got myself into a mess that concerns my family? You say that I have the pride that got the mess here in the first place? You overestimate me, my dear lady. If it is humiliation and cracking that should take place, I say that you will be the first one to go under."

"Is that a wager?"

He shrugged. "Take is as you will."

The woman smiled and he grinned. "You let my friends go and leave the area and we will see how far your humiliation will go."

"Serenity no!" came from behind her and she closed her eyes. The Prince merely laughed as he looked behind the woman who he now knew the name of.

"It seems that your friends will come with us instead." With that, he treaded over to her and grabbed her hand. "Also, my dear Serenity, it seems that this will be a final test to see where you will finally place."

"Never with you."