As Rosethorne slowly awoke, reality seemed distant, somehow. She tried to open her eyes, but discovered they were still swollen closed. All she could see were random sparks of light behind her eyelids that flickered in time with the small bursts of pain.

To fight down her slowly rising panic, she took inventory of herself. She realized she could hear now, and smell, and touch. She felt calmer now, but still wary. The last thing she remembered seeing were two evil, primordial-looking snakes that rose out of the darkness to strike into her eyes, grimly hanging on. After that, being as reliant as she was on her sight, things seemed dreamlike.

Reaching out with her hands to feel the area immediately around her, it didn't feel like a place she was familiar with. She did feel overheated though, and soon discovered why - a large blanket was spread over her, which she carefully pushed away from her, leaving the much thinner and more comfortable sheet over her still. She felt her face, and felt a bandage over her eyes. She quickly took a tactile inventory of herself, and discovered bandages in several places, all of which matched what she remembered of those...snakes. But where was she now? Who had put the bandages on her?

Carefully inhaling and smelling the area around her, she detected scents of tea, and a small hint of lavender from her own skin. She narrowed her eyebrows as she tried to figure out why. Slowly, hazy memories came back to her. The bright light she could feel, but not see causing the snakes to angrily slither out of her. The feeling of arms around her, picking her gently up, and the regular jarring as the person who carried her ran. Yes, things were becoming slightly less hazy now.

She remembered the events of the previous night more clearly now, though it was strange to remember things without her sight. She fought down her rising panic once more, as being blind horrified her. She took a few deep, slow breaths, and her heart rate slowed down once more. She lost herself in the events of last night, trying to learn what had happened. Exactly what had happened was still hazy, but she knew that her Essence was right - she had been rescued, just as he had predicted.

Although she had felt the tiny hope that Kale would be the one who would have rescued her, she had hidden away the hope from herself, considering it a pointless exercise. After all, what would he have gained from rescuing her? Besides, she had made it a point not to rely on anyone for anything, lest she be let down, as she had been in the past. She came to believe as she was being tortured that since she couldn't escape, this was her fate; she deserved nothing else.

However, here she was, in his cabin. She heard his soft, regular breathing from across the room. His breathing almost sounded heavy enough to be considered light snores, but not quite. She experimentally moved, and found that her right thigh as the most heavily bandaged. Still feeling the black ichor fighting her body's natural healing process within the space where part of her bone should have been, she winced as she felt it lightly. Remembering her stomach, she felt it as well, discovering that it had been bandaged just as carefully. As she breathed and moved, she could feel the black ichor swishing around below her lungs, trying madly to devour her from within. Her body was holding off the decay strongly, but it would be quite a while before she was healed completely.

She felt around until she found the edge of the bed, and slowly swung her body around until her legs were over the side, feeling the cool, polished hardwood under her bare feet. She sat upright, ignoring the sharp pains in her lower chest from the ichor that seemed to intensify as she moved. She set her hands on the edge of the bed, and straightened her arms, preparing to stand. She stood easily enough at first, but the pain from her legs flared and awoke, causing her to collapse.

She felt arms around her, catching her before she hit the floor, and a chuckle from behind her. Her body tensed as she tried to identify the person, but relaxed once she heard his voice. "You could have just waited, you know."

He moved his arms a little more around her waist as he sat behind her, and stood slowly, helping her do the same. He drew the arm of hers closest to him around his neck, holding his other arm around her waist. He helped her to move slowly a short distance, and then helped her sit in a cushioned chair. She tried replying, but her throat was still swollen, and all that came out was a rasping squeak.

A warm cup was pressed gently into her hands. She brought it to her nose, and inhaled, smelling a rich, earthy tea. She heard his voice in front of her once more, speaking in soothing tones. "The tea should help relax your throat, and help you to heal."

She tasted it experimentally at first. It wasn't burningly hot, just pleasantly warm as it gently flowed down her throat. It tasted of many things she couldn't identify, but it tasted pleasant. Calming. She tasted it again, trying to identify the many tastes that seemed vaguely familiar. She tried speaking experimentally again, hearing her voice come out as slightly hoarse and rasping. "How long was I asleep?"

He refilled her cup before replying. "You were asleep almost ten hours. I take it that's a long time for you?" She heard him taking a sip as well. Somehow, she felt...comforted by his presence, in a way she couldn't explain readily.

Rosethorne took another slow sip before replying, beginning to enjoy the taste of this nameless tea. "I haven't slept ten hours straight for a very long time." This earned her a chuckle.

Moving her head down, Rosethorne began to feel a bit embarassed. She was quite unused to doing what she was about to do. "Thank you."

She could almost see the questioning look in his eyes, before he replied in a curious tone of voice. "For what?"

She took another sip of her tea as she tried quickly to order her thoughts, finding them to be much less willing to follow orders than soldiers would have been. "For...the bandages. The tea." She spoke much more quietly now. "For saving me."

With her eyes sightless as they were, it was easy to imagine the gentle smile on his face as he replied. "And being willing to let you pretend to be a leech?"

Unable to keep a straight face, the corners of her mouth quirked upward. "I tried to be gentle, but thank you for that as well."

Hearing him chuckle quietly about it, she was thankful he wasn't angry about it, as he seemed to have had a strong aversion to it before. She took another sip of her tea as he replied once more. "Well, I figured you wouldn't have asked unless you really needed it."

She nodded as she finished the last of her tea, feeling her body warming pleasantly. She heard a splash of more tea being poured into her cup, in answer to the question she was about to ask. But why was he taking care of her like this? Why was he helping her? She decided she needed to know. "I'm quite grateful for you saving my life, but why did you save me? Why would you go to the Deadlands to just save me?"

The small splash of liquid being poured into another cup told her that Kale was refilling his own cup, as well. She couldn't blame him; this really was good tea. He paused for a while, apparently having the same difficulty putting his thoughts into words as she had. Or, more likely, he was deciding what parts to tell and what parts to leave out, as he had done in the past. "Part of it was that you were attacked and taken, right before my eyes. You had just saved my life, so it seemed fair to save yours right afterward, especially because what happened to you seemed far worse than what might have happened to me."

He paused for a moment, sipping his tea before he continued. There was a note of...sadness in his voice. "Besides, what happened to you shouldn't have happened to anyone."

Rosethorne's eyebrow quirked, even though her eyes were closed. "I find it amusing that you were willing to brave the Underworld, and even brave the Malfean Labyrinth itself, and yet you're having a hard time telling me all your reasons."

She couldn't see his face, but somehow, she got the feeling he was looking sheepish. "I think it's because I'm having a hard time dealing with the other reasons myself."

Deciding that this was the time for bluntness, Rosethorne took a sip of her tea, and asked him point blank. "Is it because you have feelings for me?"

She heard him take another sip of his tea before answering. "I find you attractive, yes, but also a little scary. In time, I could call you a friend, but I couldn't think of anything else until that point in time."

Rosethorne nodded slowly, as she discovered that this rather comfortable chair rocked back and forth. It seemed pointless to rock in place like this, but she found it oddly comforting. It made her stomach feel less queasy, for some reason. Her eyebrows narrowed as she tried to figure out this latest puzzle, being frustrated slightly at not having all the pieces. "If it's not that, then it must have been a very good reason for you to be willing to save a woman you barely know. What have you to gain by me staying alive?"

There was another pause, in silence this time. She heard him take a slow, deep breath. When he replied, it was in a soft, distant voice. "Most of it is because I remember you by a different name, long ago. Unless I'm missing my guess, you and your parents used to live around here, when you and I were both very young."

Her mouth dropped open in surprise. She thought furiously, remembering old memories. They seemed so distant, like they had come from another lifetime. A few memories surfaced of her as a little girl, playing with a boy about her age. A boy with unruly hair, who teased her, which caused her to promptly chase him through the forest, laughing all the while. Yes, she had another name then. But that name had been eaten by the Malfean. That name, along with her past, was dead to her as if it had never happened.

Noticing that he hadn't said anything while she remembered, she had to reply. She felt a little sad herself now. "I remember. But both that name and the little girl you knew are dead now."

Hearing him snort in derision, she smiled slightly. Even as a child, Kale had snorted like that when she or anyone else did something silly. "Alright, if she's dead now, she's still moving, sitting in my chair, and drinking tea."

She smiled slightly. "Is that your main reason for saving me both times? Because you remembered me as a childhood friend of long ago?"

"No. I saved you the first time...because the Essence within me told me you were...because she told me it would be a good idea, and I'd later find out why. Once I heard you speak, and saw you move, I remembered you. That's why I saved you the second time." His voice was gentle, and a little sad.

Her eyebrows narrowed once more. "Your Essence told me I was...what?"

She heard a sigh come from him, and a slight creaking of the wooden chair. He was leaning back, she guessed. "She knew there was already a sense of familiarity between you and I, but she wouldn't tell me what it was at first. However, she said that the Essence within you was...a good friend of hers."

Rosethorne was silent for a few moments, letting this new information fall into place, and hopefully form something cohesive. "Allow me to see if I understand. You saved me at the canyon the first time, after I had you shot at, because your Essence said she was a good friend of the Essence within me. You saved me the second time because you remembered me as a childhood friend, even after having not seen me since we were five and six years old?"

She could picture him nodding. "Yes."

Her eyebrows narrowed again. "Things can't just go back to how they were then, Kale. You can't magically turn back time to suddenly and happily have the girl you once knew as a friend once more. Too much has happened."

Her ears heard him chuckling drily. "Yes, I'd guessed that, seeing as unless my memory's suddenly going bad, you were the living child of a merchant and his wife. I see you again two decades later, and you're leading an undead army. I gathered that quite a few things changed, yes."

A smile appeared on her lips. "You haven't asked what happened since the day we moved away yet. Why?"

"For one thing, as you said, you're quite a bit different now than you were then. I figured you'd tell me once the time was right."

She narrowed her eyebrows again. "Don't you care what happened?"

Hearing the light scrape of the chair against the floor as he moved his chair closer to her, she looked blindly in the direction she thought he was sitting in now. His voice was closer, but softer. "Of course I care what happened, Aya. You were a happy, quick-minded girl last I saw you, replaced now by a somber, cold warrior of the Abyss, no less. But just because of that, because of the many, many changes that must have happened between then and now, you'd need to trust me again before you felt comfortable enough to tell me. For that, I'm willing to wait."

Rosethorne shook her head. "Don't call me by that name. As I said, that girl and her name died, eaten by the Malfean you just saved me from."

He sighed somewhere nearby. "Sorry. It's still just taking a little getting used to."

She paused for a moment, sipping a bit more of her tea before replying. "You're right, many things did happen. But Kale, you need to let the little girl you once knew die in your heart, as she's died in mine. Is that also why you saved me? So you could help me to live long enough to hear what had happened?"

"That was part of it, yes. But I'm not going to let you die if I can possibly help it. Not after I've found someone in my life that hasn't been taken from me after all. You have to understand - before I found you again, I thought that everyone I've ever cared about had died, in one form or another."

Rosethorne finished the last of her tea, the last of her sleepiness disappearing with it. "So you saved me the second time for selfish reasons?"

She could almost hear his jaw drop. "What the...Are you saying you'd rather I let you stay down there to die? To forget that I met you again?"

If she had her eyesight, she would have been staring at the floor. "Maybe it would have been better that way. I deserved to die, Kale. I failed as a general, as a warrior, as a retainer for my Lord. Perhaps...perhaps I would have been better off as an Essence to help my successor."

Hearing him snort again, she turned sightlessly to look at him questioningly. "I'm not taking you back. If after you've healed, you really want to go back, then fine. I'll help you to live, but I will not help you to die."

She shook her head. "Why do you selfishly want to keep me around, Kale? You saved me to keep a childhood memory alive."

He took a sharp breath. His voice sounded annoyed. "Yes, I selfishly tried to save someone I care about. What makes me feel so frustrated is that you don't seem to feel the same way." He sighed, pausing for a few moments, continuing in a calmer voice. "Can you honestly tell me that you'd be happier back in the clutches of that...that thing, rather than being alive and knowing you have a better chance of living?"

That caused her to sigh softly. It would be so easy to give into the darker thoughts swirling around in her mind, but the dream she had while in the torturous contraption came back to her. She felt trapped between two opposites. "I don't know."

Kale was silent for a while, probably thinking as she was. "Until you do know, I'll be here to help you." She heard a soft chuckle again from him before he continued. "And before you say it, since I know you're going to, you're not a burden. Please stop thinking that you are."

She closed her mouth, slightly shocked that he knew. Was it that obvious? "I'm...unused to being taken care of. By anyone."

Hearing him stand, she turned in his direction questioningly. He gently took her cup, and held her hands in his. She wondered slightly at the warmth from his hands. "Come on. I need to change your bandages."

She stood shakily, and he slowly helped her walk back to the bed. Hearing him walk over and open a drawer, and walk back, she relaxed onto the pillows. Her mind was awhirl with so many conflicting thoughts and feelings. Feeling him gently remove her bandages and more gently wash the parts of her body they had covered, she had the sudden thought that though she wasn't used to being taken care of, it was preferable to being treated so impersonally by a chiurgeon. His hands and touch were gentle, though swift. He was finished putting on new bandages almost before she knew that he had started.

Relaxing into the pillow, a wave of tiredness overcame her. She felt warm, and comfortable. Before she drifted off to sleep, she heard his voice whisper to her. "Don't worry about the future now. Just worry now about getting better. Sweet dreams."

She fell back into dreams, feeling comforted by the feeling of knowing he was nearby.