Lunara followed Farkas through the doors of Jorrvaskr and looked around the mead hall in awe. She'd never seen a hearth that big before. She hadn't realized she'd stopped to stare until Farkas cleared his throat from a stairway across the room.

"Oh, uh, sorry," she mumbled, hurrying to catch up. They entered the living quarters and she practically had to run to keep up with his stride as they went toward Vilkas' room. Kodlak was sitting in a chair near the foot of the bed when Farkas walked in, Lunara on his heels. Kodlak's eyes widened in surprise but he said nothing to Lunara. He tilted his head towards her in greeting and gave Farkas a 'let's talk outside' look as he stood to leave the room. Farkas patted Lunara's shoulder and nodded and then went to find Kodlak out in the hallway.

"Where is Danica?" Kodlak said. His voice wasn't angry, although he wasn't pleased either. "She's delivering a baby on one of the farms outside of town. The temple was empty and Lunara was the only one there. Now she's here." Farkas shrugged. "She definitely doesn't have Danica's skill, but she cares for him, so I think that matters for something." Kodlak looked thoughtful.

"I hope you're right," he said at last, then he and Farkas both returned to Vilkas' room.

Lunara had set her satchel on the floor and knelt by the edge of the bed as the door opened and Farkas and the older warrior reentered the room. She looked up and smiled briefly and then turned to her patient. She took a deep breath and let it out to calm her raw nerves. Tilda had removed the tunic Vilkas wore to better apply the healing potions. Lunara tried to ignore the chiseled shape of his torso and focus on the problem. She moved his arm and tried to lift the bandages from his chest, and he moaned and tried to pull away from her. "Shh, shh, it's okay. I know it hurts, let me help," she murmured, keeping a grip on his arm. He calmed some and she reached for the bandages again, this time she was able to remove them.

She had never seen anything like this. The wound itself was about as wide as two of her fingers and it was deep. It had what looked like burn marks in a starburst pattern with the wound entrance at the center. It's following the veins, she noted, continuing her examination. She could see the burns seemed to shimmer in the candlelight with flecks of silver. She had never seen a poison that looked like that. She placed the bandages back on the wound and patted his arm. She rummaged around in her pack and found the book she'd been reading earlier in the day. She flipped through it until she found the section on silver poisons and skimmed the page until she found what she was looking for. She shut the book and turned to Farkas, who was drinking something out of a pewter cup.

"Is he a werewolf?" She asked, with more force than she meant to. Farkas spit out his drink and Kodlak coughed. Her eyes narrowed as she stared at the two of them down. "Shor's balls," she said, narrowing her eyes at them. "Is or isn't he?" Farkas looked at Kodlak and shrugged.

"What does it matter, exactly?" Kodlak said, keeping his tone neutral.

"Oh, for the love of Mara," she turned on him, "If you think that if you tell me he is I'm going to run screaming out of here and tell all of Whiterun what he is, then you have seriously misjudged my character," she spat, and then regaining her composure, added, "sir."

Kodlak smiled then. "No, I don't think I have misjudged you. But I ask again, why does it matter?"

He was testing her, and she knew it. She shot a look of fury at Farkas who had the decency to look a little sheepish. She rolled her eyes and said, "It matters because different antidotes behave in different ways and silver poisoning is extremely potent in lycanthropes versus a normal human being with a metal allergy." She looked at him again, and Kodlak nodded in approval.

"I think you have your answer then." She nodded and turned back toward Vilkas.

There was an empty bottle of the healing potion Tilda used on the wound on the table beside the bed. She picked it up and sniffed it, then ran her finger along the inside of the bottle and licking the droplets off her fingers. The bitter taste of imp gall and scrib jelly coated her tongue. A good start, although it needs redwort flowers and roobrush. She set the bottle down and took out her mortar and pestle from her satchel. She rooted around and found the ingredients she needed and went to work mixing a stronger poison cure.

Several minutes later, the potion was finished, and she took a fresh bandage from her satchel and poured some of the mixture onto it. Then she started murmuring softly to Vilkas and she lifted and removed the old bandage. He moaned but didn't try to move. That was the easy part, he's not going to like what comes next. She motioned for Farkas to hold his shoulders and Kodlak followed suit and grabbed Vilkas ankles. She spread the wound open and poured the potion into the hole in his scream that erupted from the unconscious warrior was unlike anything she'd ever heard before. He thrashed on the bed as the other two men struggled to keep him still. She hurried to place the clean bandage over his wound and once he'd stopped thrashing the other two let him go.

"It'll take about an hour for this potion to work, if it does," she said to Farkas. "Why don't you go get something to eat and I'll let you know when it's time to check him again." Farkas started to protest, but Kodlak nodded in agreement.

"Yes, son, you've done everything you can do here. Why don't you get some rest and food and let Lunara do what she needs to? I promise to come get you the minute there's any change." Kodlak said and Farkas nodded and left the room. Kodlak remained seated in his chair and Lunara ignored him. She was still kneeling beside the bed as she took Vilkas' hand in her own and started praying to any divines listening for guidance. She stared at his face, trying to memorize it. If he died, she never wanted to forget what he looked like. Stop it! If you start thinking that way, he will die. She brushed a damp lock of hair from his forehead. She jumped when Kodlak cleared his throat. Lost as she was in her own thoughts, she had forgotten all about him sitting there.

Kodlak regarded her with curiosity. She didn't seem the least bit upset or nervous at all to find out that Vilkas was a werewolf. He had no idea what to make of her perceived lack of reaction to the revelation. Danica didn't even know for certain, he reasoned. If she did know, she would have mixed the stronger potions for Tilda to use on their occasional mishaps. The question on his mind now is what would she do with the information now that she had it? He cleared his throat again and she looked at him, not letting go of Vilkas' hand.

"I wanted to thank you for coming to help. Farkas said you're not as skilled as Danica in the healing arts," Kodlak said and her eyes narrowed at him, waiting for him to say something insulting.

"I'm not. I've hurt more than I've helped on most occasions I've had to use actual magic to help someone. Two days ago was the first time I've managed to heal someone other than myself since my sister and then my best friend died, and that was just a child with a small thorn scratch," she turned her gaze back to Vilkas. "My potions do seem to help though," she added.

"Let us hope so," Kodlak said.

A comfortable silence filled the space as the rest of the waiting time passed. Lunara stood up and murmured soothing sounds to her patient as she lifted the bandage to check his wound. It had improved slightly, but not nearly as much as it should have.

"Shor's balls," she muttered to herself, once again forgetting that Kodlak was still in the room.

"What is it?" He asked.

"Well, whoever sent for Danica is correct, something else is wrong," Lunara said. "That potion should have cured the poison. All it did was slow it down. I'm going to need to examine the inside of the wound."

"And how do you plan to do that?" he asked.

"I'll need him held down so I can use my fingers to see if there's anything still lodged in his chest. If there's still an arrow tip or something in there it very well could be the reason he's not responding to the potions. Before I do that though, I'll need to mix another potion to have ready for once I get it out."

Kodlak nodded and stood up. "I'll get Farkas."

"If there is anyone else you can get, I'd bring them as well. If you thought he thrashed when I poured the potion in it, just wait until I'm knuckle deep and rooting around in there," she said.

Kodlak's face broke into a grim smile.

"Understood," he said as he left the room. Still murmuring softly to Vilkas, she set to work on mixing another potion.

Kodlak returned several minutes later just as she had finished corking the potion vial. He was followed by Farkas, who introduced the other three men as Skjor, Torvar, and Athis. Torvar and Athis nodded and mumbled hellos, and Skjor said nothing, just glared at her through his one good eye.

The five men moved the bed out to the center of the room where everyone could fit comfortably around it. Lunara grabbed the bottle of distilled alcohol out of her bag and poured some into her hands. No need to worsen the chance of infection, she thought. When she was finished, she nodded to Kodlak, who instructed the other four men to keep Vilkas pinned no matter what. They all nodded in agreement and readied themselves. Lunara took a deep breath and plunged two fingers into the open wound.

Vilkas screamed like he was burning in the flames of Oblivion and Lunara supposed for a moment that's probably exactly how it felt. FOCUS! She screamed internally. She moved her fingers as gently as she could, but he continued screaming. He was growing weaker against the hands that held him and she could feel his pulse slowing. She moved her fingers again, deeper this time, and found it. A shard of silver was embedded in his rib. She managed to get her thumb in the hole as well and gripped the shard between her fingernails. She jerked it free and dropped it on the bed next to them. She reached for the potion but then realized blood was pouring from his wound. She pressed the old bandage to it, but it didn't help.

"No, no, no," she muttered, running through a mental list of things she brought with her to stop bleeding. She motioned to Farkas, "There's a health potion in my satchel, pour it down his throat. It'll buy me a few more minutes," He nodded and did as she instructed. The bleeding slowed but didn't stop.

Damn it to Oblivion! I can't lose him now! I need some help! She prayed with a fervor she didn't know she possessed. A flash from what she thought had been a dream came into her mind. "Some who will save your life...others who you will save." What in Oblivion was that supposed to mean? She felt a wall in her mind burst open like a river dam and a surge of energy flowed through her. She concentrated on pushing the energy through the hand she had pressed to his wound and into him. Tendrils of light the color of moonlight engulfed him, and his bleeding slowed. She used her teeth to uncork the cure poison potion she'd been holding in her other hand and lifting her hand slightly, poured it in the wound. She kept focusing her energy on him until she almost collapsed on the floor next to his bed. Farkas let go of Vilkas and caught her as she stumbled, but she managed to stay upright. She checked him over for signs of bleeding but that had stopped. She covered the wound with the last remaining clean bandage. His pulse was steady now, and she breathed for the first time in what felt like hours.

The other men released their grip on Vilkas and returned his bed to the original position. Lunara sunk to the floor with her back propped against the bedside table. Skjor, Torvar, and Athis bid their leave. Kodlak and Farkas sat down on the two available chairs in the room. Lunara leaned her head against the table and closed her eyes. Shor's balls, she was exhausted. In her state she didn't realize that Farkas was speaking to her. She blinked and tried to focus her eyes on him.

"I'm sorry, what?" she said.

"Do you need anything? Water, ale, food?" He repeated the question.

Her features creased into a tired smile and she thought about asking for a bottle of wine but instead she said, "I'll take some water and I would love some food." She closed her eyes again, but heard him exit the room, happy to be useful. She had almost fallen asleep when Kodlak spoke to her. "You saved him, thank you."

She opened her eyes and looked at Vilkas first, then at Kodlak. "Don't thank me yet. Thank me when he's awake." Kodlak nodded once and said nothing. She closed her eyes and had just about drifted off to sleep when Farkas returned with a flagon of water, a bowl of stew he had managed to sweet talk Tilda into making for the stranger in the hall, and a half loaf of bread he'd swiped from one of the tables upstairs. She accepted the offered items gratefully and, not realizing until that moment she was starving, began to eat.