Things were not proving so easy for Prince Rilian. As soon as he saw Sarasael safely off, he ran back inside to the bottom of the apartment. There, the two Badgers were taking care of the wounded. Rilian immediately found a bandage shoved in his hand, and he found himself bandaging the forepaw of a Hare. The paw was cut up pretty badly…the Badger had cleaned off the worst of the blood, but Rilian could see that the bones were crushed from falling stones. Bandaging would do this Hare no good…he needed better medical care than they could provide. He needed someone to try and get the bones set, if that was at all possible…hand bones were very tiny. Sarasael could have helped, Rilian thought, as the Hare bit back a scream as he started to try and wrap the bandages around. She had that funny healing powder of hers. It was magic, and everyone was suspicious of magic, and this was definitely not the time or place for it, but it still could have helped. Just sprinkle a little on and say the words…he'd seen her heal using it before. It would have been perfect at this moment…no doubt the little hand bones would knit back together and the bleeding would stop. Instead, the Hare was left with Rilian, who knew hardly anything about medics, and the two Badgers who were trying their best but knew even less than Rilian did. Now this poor Hare was probably going to lose his hand.

But Rilian knew that as much as it would have helped to have her here, it was better that she wasn't. The Badgers were furious at what she had done, even though it was an accident. And Rilian could understand why…he'd seen her do magic before, she'd even let him try some on occasion. But he never knew that a simple miscalculation like that could blow up half a building. And as much as he was a loathe to admit, it frightened him. Magic like that was never seen in Narnia in his lifetime.

The Hare yelped as Rilian tied the bandage off.

"So sorry." Rilian apologized. "It's the best I can do right now. You need to go to a healer straightaway, you understand?"

The Hare nodded. "Tomorrow morning?"

"Tonight, if you can. Listen, there's one open down on Arctic Way. If it's not open, the healer's house is next door. Go there and tell them I sent you. Your paw is badly broken…I've stopped the bleeding but the bones need to be set." He explained. The Hare cradled his paw close to his chest and nodded, his eyes clouded with pain. "At least your arm isn't broken."

"Thank goodness for small favors." The Hare whispered. He looked at the matron Badger, who jerked her head, indicating that the Hare could leave. He did gratefully.

"What else?" Rilian asked, walking back over to the Badger matron. It was hard to get there…he had to try and squeeze past half the people who lived in the apartment who had all ran down to come see what happened.

"Clear out!" barked the matron Badger, who introduced herself earlier as Marley. "All of you who aren't injured, go outside until we figure out what to do with you! Most of the rooms are undamaged, but we just have to send someone up to check while we take care of the rest down here. Go! Go, come on now, shoo!" And the room was quickly cleared, as no one wants to get in the way of an angry Badger.

The other Badger, Madraly, had settled the young Mole onto a couch. The Mole had a concussion, and Madraly was trying to keep him awake. It was not an easy task.

"Hold on," Marley said. "There's…Madraly, that Mole, how is he holding up?"

"Not too well, mum." Replied Madraly. "I'm going to get Nirisath, that naiad who lives further down by the river, she's brilliant at healing."

"Yes, go do that, and hurry!" Marley said urgently. She lumbered over to the Mole and put her paws on the chair, heaving herself up so she could sit next to the Mole and keep him awake. Madraly hurried out the door, trying to get to Nirisath as fast as he could. "Your majesty, could you kindly help this Mole? I still have much to do."

"Of course." Rilian waited until Marley got off the chair and then picked up the Mole himself, persuading him to stay awake. Normally one wouldn't hold a Mole like this, but desperate times, after all.

The rest of the night was like this. Nirisath arrived and cared for the Mole and the other injured folk. The two Badgers assessed the damage and how much it would cost to repair it, not to mention where they'd have to find enough Dwarves who would be willing to rebuild. Then there was finding out where the people who lived in the wrecked rooms would stay, how to repay them for the loss of their belongings, and most importantly, how that the two Badgers wouldn't lose their reputation. After all, they let a magic user (worse, a female magic user) into their apartments, and she ended up blowing up some of it. People would ask questions. Magic always raised questions, especially since this girl was from another world and wasn't given her magical gifts by Aslan. It was too close to the idea of the White Witch for comfort, though this girl hadn't killed anyone and never tried to and apologized profusely for her accident, if one could call it an accident.

King Caspian and his queen were over soon, coming in through the throng of people into the main entrance where Nirisath was busy with the Mole and Rilian stood by watching and waiting for whatever other orders Marley was going to give.

The Queen stayed closer to the Badgers and proceeded to help Nirisath, while Caspian went over to his son, looking very grave and worried.

"I'm hearing stories already." He said, not even bothering with formalities. "I've heard that this girl of yours did all this. They're calling her a witch and said she used magic to blow it up and heal herself, and that she's gone now and no one can find her. Is this true?"

It had only been a few hours and already word was spreading across Cair. "She didn't do it on purpose. It was just an accident." Rilian said.

"But you're not denying that she did it?"

"I'm…" He wanted to deny it, wanted to protect her from the words and rumors that would be spreading and from the wrath of anyone in the area and in Cair. He didn't want anything bad to happen to her, not his Sara. "There's an explanation, if you'll be willing to listen."

"Perfectly willing." King Caspian said, looking squarely at his son.

Rilian explained the whole thing the best he could, though it wasn't a very good explanation because he understood virtually nothing about ingredients and all the powders she made and how they were made. But he was very clear that it was an accident and she didn't mean any of it and wanted to help fix it if she could. He emphasized that as often as he could.

The king believed him, knowing his son wouldn't lie. But it still wasn't a good thing, that such a disaster would happen here with this new girl so quickly. And where had she gone? She wasn't even here to talk about what she did.

"This isn't going to be easy." King Caspian said, running his fingers distractedly through his hair. "First we have to take money out of the royal treasury to fix this apartment up, and also to supply the ones who lost their homes with new temporary places to stay and compensation for their damaged goods and injuries sustained." Caspian sighed. It was nice having seventeen years with no trouble. "We'll be able to do it, yes, but it will take some time. And I don't know what to you about that girl of yours."

"She's not mine." Rilian protested, but was silenced from a look from his father. Caspian and his wife weren't fools, and they both could tell how their son and that girl looked at each other. "She's just a friend."

"Nonetheless." Caspian replied. "Rilian, I want you to go immediately back to the palace and wait for us there. Your mother and I will be here some time, and it would be easier for you to just go back home and wait there until we fix things here the best we can."

Rilian opened his mouth to protest. He had to talk to the Badger still and persuade them that Sara didn't do anything wrong. He told her that he would. But Caspian gave him one of those looks that fathers give that make their children know to do exactly what they said, the moment they said it.

"Yes, father," he replied, bowing slightly and then going to leave.

Rilian found himself on the crowded street with everyone asking him questions as to what was going on. He waved off their questions by saying he had to go back to the castle now on the king's orders and that his father would be able to answer any questions they had.

He had no choice but to return home. You didn't disobey your father when he gave an order like that. It would be too risky to try and visit Sarasael now, not to mention everyone would notice. He went home as quickly as he could, making his way through all the more secret passages of Cair Paravel so he wouldn't be found and bothered by anyone. He didn't want to have to explain everything to more people. It would be around all of Cair by tomorrow morning.

Rilian reached his room at the end and locked the door, bolting it shut. He didn't feel like anyone bothering him right now, and that included his parents.

This was ridiculous. And it wasn't supposed to happen. Sarasael wasn't a bad person; he'd just have to convince them of that. They would believe him in the end. But this was going to make things much harder. He loved Sara more than he thought he would at first, she was everything to him and he'd do all he could to protect her. He was eventually going to ask her to marry him…she said she didn't know how long she'd stay in this world, but judging from what she told him, it was going to be awhile. And in Narnia, people married young. And if she had to go back then so be it…it would be a good thing, then they could spend time in each other's world. That would certainly give him a broader perspective of things. His father being the first to sail to the Eastern edge of the world, and he, Rilian, being the first to visit another world and live there…

It would all work out in the end. Narnia had a tendency of doing that, having things work out. Even the Hundred Years' Winter did, and no one thought it would ever end. Plus, it was only one incident and could have happened to anyone. So it would be fine, Rilian thought. Right now everyone was just panicking.

And eventually panic would cease.

Sarasael didn't leave her room for five days. The news spread around the city by the end of the second, and Ralfur came up to ask her about it. She answered shortly, not wanting to say too much lest they end up being afraid of her too. Ralfur eyed her warily but didn't do anything more. He and Bormin had gotten a letter from the prince saying she had to stay there, and she couldn't be that bad if she was a friend of the prince. Rilian was a good kid, all of Narnia thought. A bit boring, but generally a good kid.

Sarasael was mostly grateful that she saved her powders from the building's destruction. She couldn't make any more communication powder here, two critical ingredients didn't exist in Narnia, so she had to use it sparingly. Which meant she couldn't throw it in the fire and try to talk to Hylaea right now and ask for advice…besides, what advice could Hylaea give anyway? If the same thing happened in Tahalset, everyone would just say, oops, terrible mistake on your part, pay for damage repair. Then they would move on. That was the way it was done there.

Of course, she thought grimly, this wasn't there.

There was a knock at the door. Oh, damn, was it Ralfur again? What did he want?

"Who is it?" she called.

"It's just me." She heard Rilian's voice reply. He didn't announce himself like he usually did…that, she felt, was a bad sign. But it was Rilian, he had finally come to see her! That made her feel immediately better.

"Oh, hold on!" she hadn't been expecting him, and as a result looked as messy and disorganized as she felt. She yanked a brush through her blond curls in an effort to get them less tangled, and while it didn't help all that much, at least it got them lying closer to her head than before, and giving her more the appearance of a girl instead of someone who stuck her finger into a light socket. With that done, she threw on a jacket over the dress she wore to bed last night. Half her clothes she left in the old room, and they were probably either destroyed or thrown out. She only had two dresses and a jacket, and knew she'd have to go out and buy new clothes soon. That would involve leaving…but what was wrong with that? She didn't do anything wrong.

Sarasael opened the door, giving Rilian a grateful smile for finally showing up. He went in and closed the door. Before he could say anything, she threw her arms around him. He did the same, enfolding her in his arms and running a hand over her tangled hair.

"Five days," she whispered. "It's been only five days. I haven't left at all, I didn't know what they'd do to me if I did. Oh, this is so stupid!" she exclaimed, pulling away from his embrace. "I don't understand this! Why am I so afraid to leave? They're not going to do anything. I didn't do anything."

Rilian sighed. "I know you didn't."

"What about them?"

"It's…getting better." He answered hesitantly. "Everyone's alright…Nirisath the naiad helped heal them and it's no problem. We gave them money to rebuild, and it's under way."

"What are they going to do with me?" she asked helplessly.

"Er…" Rilian paused. "Well, I managed to convince my parents that you didn't do it on purpose and were honestly sorry. They want to talk to you, and when that's done, they eventually want you to pay for the damage yourself."

Sarasael collapsed into a chair in relief. That was it. Paying for the damage would be a lot and take awhile, but that was no problem. She could do that. "Do they want me to write out apologies to everyone too?"

Rilian looked blankly at her. "Why would they want that?"

"Oh nevermind. Something they do in my world."

"Oh."

"Am I allowed to stay here?" she asked then.

"Of course, there's no reason why not. And I've managed to get a job for you."

"Really!" Sarasael sat up in her chair, looking eagerly at Rilian. "What's that?" The prospect of a job was exciting. Sure, Hylaea already had one, but Sarasael was now the first to have a job in another world. Then she'd make enough at the job to pay for the damage and they'd forget all about it.

"You know Nirisath the naiad? She's a great healer and lives on the outskirts of Cair, by the Great River. She mostly works by herself, but there's been several outbreaks of pneumonia and she needs an extra hand. I told her that you were great with herbs and plants and did some healing, and she said she's willing to take you on as an assistant and pay you for it. It won't be a lot, but you'll be able to pay back before you know it."

"Work with a naiad? Rilian, that's brilliant!"

"Aw, it's nothing much." He said with a grin. "Nirisath's terribly nice, you'll like her. And they'll forget all about this before long when they see you helping with healing and stuff."

Sarasael laughed with the relief of it all. Things were working out again, she knew they would. She didn't even know what she was doing, hiding in her room and sulking and being all melodramatic these past few days. Well, that was done with. Now she'd walk outside and have a real job and it'd all be fine.

"It was my mother's idea, actually." Rilian said, picking up a spoon on Sarasael's desk and looking at it. "She heard Nirisath needed someone and put your name in. My father was really angry after what happened…you should have seen him, even I was scared. But mother's great like that, she managed to calm him down and talk him into this. Nirisath's already accepted you, and she says you start work tomorrow. It's a respectable job and my parents are fine with it. It'll make things better, you know, and soon people won't be worry about this anymore."

"You're right," she said, sitting down and waving her hand in the air. "Absolutely. I'm good at fixing things, you know, and so are you, and then this will all be settled."

"It will be,"

And they both believed it, and that seemed enough.

Nirisath crossed her legs and sat in the chair, the foam at the edges of her hair spraying the floor. She regarded Sarasael critically, her sharp eyes missing nothing.

"Hold out your hands." Nirisath ordered.

Sarasael obeyed. Nirisath leaned over and took her left hand, flipping it over. "Mm. Yes, you do have healer's hands, that's certain. How steady are you in case stitching is needed?"

"Stitching?"

"Yes, you know, particularly deep gashes need stitching." Nirisath replied.

"Oh. Well. In my world, we don't…stitch."

"What do you do, then?" Nirisath prided herself in being open to new ideas. She got some particularly good ones from Archenland when they had one of their best healers visit a few years ago. And even some Calormene ideas…though most of those were barbarian and outdated…worked pretty well.

"We use magic." Sarasael replied. "But not the bad sort you're probably used to hearing about. Just magic to help with healing."

"Ah." Nirisath folded her hands in her lap. "I've heard of healing magic from some of the Lone Islands. There was a magician out there, he probably did some of that. I'm going to want to see you demonstrate some of that healing magic before giving you an answer on my ideas on that. Until then, how well do you know anatomy?"

"I know that." Sarasael answered. "See, I have a book that has anatomy in it." Sarasael pulled her book out of the belt pouch and handed it to Nirisath. "It has in it the information I need the most. Usually just school related stuff or magic I need to know or ingredients. But sometimes there's anatomy in it."

Nirisath opened the book. "Anatomy of a tapir. Useful if we had tapirs in this area."

"Which…we don't?"

"Hardly." She flipped a page. "Dwarves we do. And Squirrels. Hm, this is rather useful." She handed the book back to Sarasael. "So I see you know enough anatomy, but you rely heavily on magic in terms of regular healing. That can come in very useful for most injuries I think, but you must also remember that a lot of Narnians are afraid of people from other worlds using magic. So you're going to have a lot to learn." Nirisath said briskly. "Otherwise, I hear your knowledge of plants is exceptional, and that will be a great asset to me. For your first task, I want you to go out and fetch me an adequate amount of fennel, marigold, and three decent sized slabs of willow bark. When you're done, you'll show me some of that healing magic you talk about. After that, we'll get you started on proper techniques in stitching wounds. Go, there's not a lot of time, hurry!"

Sarasael just finished scribbling down what Nirisath wanted on a piece of paper when she was chased out. Nirisath lived actually just outside of Cair, not too far from the Great Wood. Fennel, marigold, and willow…were there any willow trees? There had to be, or Nirisath wouldn't send her out there. Or would she?

Finding the ingredients took most of the day. The willows were actually on the other side of the river, and so was the fennel. The marigold she didn't even find at first and had to ask the help of an Eagle to find it. When she got back, the first thing Nirisath did was yell at her for taking too long, and then say that the willow bark was too young but it would have to do.

Nirisath was a harsh taskmaster, though a brilliant one as well. She was kind and wonderful to her patients, but like any naiad she had the temperament of the water that she came from…soothing at times, and at other times, raging and destructive. She wasn't one for laziness, and half the time after a day of work Sarasael was too tired to do anything other than collapse in bed and sleep straight through until morning.

Nirisath found the idea of magic interesting when she saw what Sarasael could do with it. But for the most part she dismissed excessive use of magic for healing as "dependable," which in Nirisath's terms meant something that people would end up depending solely on and not know anything else. "Eventually," Nirisath said after shutting Sarasael's belt up in a closet and locking it. "You'll only use that for healing and not know what else to do. And then someday you'll have something that won't respond to your magic and will have no idea what to do. Nice, but not perfect. Brew the willow bark tea right now, this Beaver has a nasty headache. Dam building all day, poor thing."

Sarasael learned more about the plants and herbs of Narnia under Nirisath's direction than she learned studying at Cair. Even the best of Tahalset doctors could learn something from Nirisath. She was, in Sarasael's eyes, the best healer there ever was, even if she worked Sarasael near death every day.

"So, enjoying your job?" Rilian asked on one of the rare nights Sarasael had off. Nirisath was feeling generous and gave her one night off. Nothing more for the next month, but one night ought to be sufficient, now go do something productive and leave me alone.

"Mrf," Sarasael answered into her pillow which she was lying facedown in.

"Mrf?" Rilian replied. "Is that a good answer?"

"If by 'mrf' you mean ridiculous and evil and making me do absolutely everything and biting off my head while she talks all sweet to the patients, then yeah, she's totally mrf."

Rilian laughed. "Nirisath isn't evil."

"No, but she's going to kill me with all this work before long. And I've already given all I've been paid to the royal treasury, is it any good at all?" She asked, raising her head from the pillow and propping it on her hands to look at Rilian sitting on the end of the bed.

"It's done something, yeah." Rilian answered. Not that much, but he didn't want to say that. "Before long it'll be fine."

"That's good. Because I don't know how much longer I can put up with going out into the Great Wood to fetch things. Fetch…things. Even in school I didn't have to do that!"

"But I bet Nirisath is better than any of your teachers." Rilian said with the usual assurance of things in his land.

"She's different." Sarasael shrugged. "And knows a lot more about different things. Really, she's just as good…she'd do really well at my school if she wanted to come."

"Maybe she will."

"What? Her? Never. She loves her patients too much here." Nirisath did; when she wasn't yelling at Sarasael to do something, she was doting over her patients.

"But I'm sure she'd love the opportunity to go visit a new world and learn what they do there." Rilian said.

"That's true." Sarasael admitted. "She's all into foreign cures and stuff. She even has some Calormene stuff written down, she showed me that once. And she saw my magic."

"Is she against that?"

"No, she just doesn't think it's very reliable. But whatever, at least she's not scared of it."

"Nirisath's not scared of anything." That she agreed with. The day Nirisath was afraid, that would be the time to panic. "Once you've established the connection between our worlds, she can go there too, right?"

"Right." Rilian talked about that like it was a sure thing. That any day now, Sarasael's world would call her up and say, oh look, we've done it! We've finally found a way to walk between the worlds easily! And that Sarasael would be established as the ambassador between worlds, and Rilian could finally see the infamous Mayharran Girls' School and meet Hylaea, and everything would be settled. She didn't believe it, but…it was a possibility. If she dismissed that even vague possibility, it would be abandoning hope forever.

There was a loud clap of thunder outside and it made them both jump. Then the rain began again in earnest. Damn rain, Sarasael hated it. Because Nirisath would send her out to look for herbs in the rain and ugh, then her shoes would get all muddy and her hair would frizz out even more than it usually did. It pounded against the roof and ran down the window panes.

"I have to get back now." Rilian said, standing up. "With the rain and everything. Parents don't like me out when it rains." He added, rolling his eyes. "Rain is just that bad, right?" What he didn't want to say was that his mother didn't like him spending that much time with Sarasael. She's a good friend, his mother said. But that's it. She didn't agree with this excess amount of time together…it made her nervous. Of what, Rilian didn't know. But Caspian agreed with her.

He still hadn't told her of their relationship. He guessed he wouldn't for another year yet, and when he did…oh, they'd hate it, yes. But it would have to be done.

"Yeah, how stupid." She agreed. Maybe he'd be able to stand up to them eventually. Even her parents weren't that bad, and they were more overprotective than anyone she knew, what with her being the only girl in a family of boys. Too many brothers. "Well, when the rain stops, maybe."

"I'll be back, don't worry." He promised.

"I won't. I know you will."