Hello again… thanks for hanging on despite the delay in chapters. Finduilas, thanks for your review as always. I'm glad you like Calandra… and your crystal ball isn't all that wrong, you know… ;)

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Chapter IV. Night at the temple

The helpers from other villages were sleeping at the temple that night. When Matteo, Calandra and the rest of the men reached the Temple of Lathander late that evening, there was a mother with a sick child crying in the chapel.

Matteo had rushed forward before thinking, used to being the healer of the group, but Calandra caught up with him. She sank on her knees besides the child.

"What happened, Marisa?", the priestess asked.

"He went in the forest, he said he was going to pick blueberries… I'm scared he ate the bear's poison."

"This is easy to treat, Marisa," Calandra said, putting a hand on the mother's shoulder and smiling warmly. "I will stabilize his state for tonight, and will pray to Lathander, that he will grant me the power to heal him tomorrow."

"Dawnbringer," Matteo said. She turned to him. "I have a Cure poison and Cure disease spell in memory at this time. Would it suffice?"

"Yes, most probably," the priestess answered.

He turned to the mother, Marisa. "I am a warrior-priest of Helm, a humble knight of the Order of the Most Radiant Heart. Would you allow me to heal your child, milady?"

The woman opened wide eyes and nodded frantically. Matteo crouched down besides the child. It was a little brown-haired boy. He was feverish and delirious, showing all signs of food poisoning. If Valygar spent more time in the villages teaching the kids how to recognize toxic plants, this wouldn't be happening, Matteo thought with an edge of anger. But he reminded himself that the ranger was taking actions elsewhere, despite his protection of the De'Arnisse lands. His status with Nalia was also unofficial enough, even years after his wife's death, otherwise it would not be the De'Arnisse lands anymore. So he couldn't spend all his time in the villages.

Matteo cast his Cure poison spell. Immediately the child calmed, but he was still feverish and unconscious. Matteo then cast his Cure disease and the fever disappeared. The child was very pale, but his eyes fluttered open and looked up at Matteo.

"Oh, thank Lathander!", Marisa exclaimed before she took her son in her arms, and held him on her heart, tears flowing down her cheeks.

"Mom, mom… don't squeeze me…", the boy said as he squirmed. Marisa let go of him, smiling through her tears.

"Come down, little boy. You have to drink water and rest now," Calandra said, her sweet voice deeply soothing.

"Yes, Dawnbringer Calandra," the boy nodded his head gravely.

Calandra sent one of the acolytes to bring back a little water.

"Who are you, Sir?", the boy asked, turning his gaze on the half-elf. "Are you a new dawnbringer?"

"No, little one. I am a priest of Helm, and a knight of the Order of the Most Radiant Heart."

"I thought knights were supposed to wear shiny armour," the boy said, his tone definitely disappointed. His mother let out an indignant gasp and caught him in her arms, putting a hand over his mouth. The boy started to squirm as she was apologizing:

"I am sorry, Sir, truly I do not know what crossed his mind…"

Matteo burst into laughter. "You can let go of him, I am not offended in the least."

"Apologize, Mikal," Marisa murmured as she set him back on his feet.

"Sorry, Sir," the boy answered, shuffling his feet.

"It's alright, Mikal. Now, if you are a good boy, drink your water, sleep well and do everything Dawnbringer Calandra tells you to do, I will show you my shiny armour tomorrow. What say you?"

"Really? Oh, that would be so nice! I've never seen a shiny armour before, just the dirty ones of the guards and rangers of our Lady De'Arnisse…"

The boy was silenced again by a look of his mother. Calandra hid her laugh behind her hand. Matteo merely smiled. It would have been funny to see Nalia's or Valygar's faces when they heard her guards or his rangers looked dirty.

"Now, be quiet, and let Calandra care for you."

"Yes, sir."

Calandra healed him first, but he was still looking thin and drawn. Finally she started another spell and Matteo was a little surprised. The restoration was a difficult spell, and it was also very demanding. It would help the boy to sleep better, but for what it took out of the caster, maybe it was not warranted in this case.

Matteo had yet to discover the scope of Calandra's self-sacrifice.

Calandra chanted the last word to her god and he granted her power. She laid her hands on the boy's chest, and suddenly he looked better. But Calandra was not. She swayed slightly at the end of her spell, but took an iron grip over herself, and willed herself to be steadier.

She asked that the boy slept at the temple that night, in case some other illness would resurface later. The mother was given one of the free cells normally reserved for monks. The child would sleep in one of the alcoves, where Calandra could keep an eye on him.

Matteo retired to one of the alcoves to pray to Helm. He thanked the god for the power that allowed him to help people, and asked humbly that power be granted to him still the next day, that he might continue the great work in His name. He also gave a thought to his mother, brother and sister, and especially his father. Finally he thanked his god for letting him meet a wonderful young woman by the name of Calandra.

When he got out of his alcove, he was thinking to himself that he should get back to the dormitory to shine a little his armour for the next morning, lest Mikal found it dirty. His train of thoughts was interrupted when he saw Calandra sleeping, sitting on the floor, her head dandling from side to side, leaning against the stone wall.

Matteo sighed. Of course she couldn't hope to watch over someone after casting a Restoration. For a second he caressed the idea of lifting her in his arms and carrying her to bed, but he didn't know her nearly well enough for that. But he felt the longing nevertheless. He had this longing to know someone, to be so close that it felt like the other was completing you, and that you were completing the other. It was a little strange to him, this sudden loneliness and the desire that she would become this person, that he would know her enough to just walk to her and carry her to bed like it is the most natural thing in the world.

He took a while to acknowledge what he was feeling, as he looked at her in her sleep. She was very beautiful, even in those dull grey robes. She looked very peaceful too, and it was like a wave of quiet inside of him to look at her so peaceful in her dreams.

After a while, he slowly walked over, and woke her up gently with a hand on her shoulder. She opened confused eyes, and looked at him.

"Calandra, go to sleep. I'll watch over him."

"You still have work tomorrow, you can't…", she started to protest.

"So have you. You have cast a restoration, you need some rest. Now go. I assure you that I will watch him."

Finally she nodded and made her way towards her room behind the altar. Matteo gathered the pillow and cover she had brought for herself. He lay on the stone floor on his back, a little amused at sleeping on the ground when there was a bed waiting for him nearby, and set his head on the pillow. Then he set his internal clock to wake him in twenty minutes, that he might check Mikal's state, and fell asleep. He went through the night just like that, waking every twenty minutes to check on the boy. It was often useful for priests to be able to sleep despite the watching over.

ooooo

Matteo spent three days working at the mill. He spent two nights talking with Calandra in the main room of the temple until a very late hour of the night, when they could almost not make sentences anymore because they were too tired. Then they were both going to bed and falling immediately in a very deep sleep and pleasant dreams. They had not kissed again, but Matteo was getting used to holding her hands.

After those three days, however, Matteo had to go back to the city and his duty to the Order. The next morning, he stood in armour in his room, ready and packed, and was trying to find the nerve to go outside and tell Calandra goodbye. Finally he strode out of the room just in time for the end of the morning celebration.

"Oh, you are a shiny one indeed," Calandra said with a mocking smile when she reached him. It was somewhat easier that she was smiling, even if she knew that he was going away.

"Order regulation 37, subsection 3, 4th article," Matteo joked.

"I see," she answered exaggeratedly.

They stood in silence for a second, uneasiness growing, until Matteo said:

"I… I have to go back, but I promise I'll write to you."

"And I will write you back."

"And I will wait impatiently for your answers."

There was another silence. Matteo realized he might have made his farewells before he put his armour on… now he couldn't possibly hug her, wearing his Blue Dragon Scale.

Finally Calandra made a step forward, lifting herself on tiptoe to plant a soft kiss on his cheek. He allowed his hand to linger on her back for a second, his eyes closed and every part of his body imagining her contact.

"Goodbye, Sir Matteo," she said.

"Farewell, Dawnbringer Calandra."

He turned and left the temple, his heart delighted by her assurances that she would answer his letters, and at the same time inexplicably heavy.