Jess took her hand and lead the way over the cot where they both sat. Neal handed the bowl over to Arie then looked around her at Jess.

"When did you eat last young lady?"

Jess blushed and looked at the floor.

"I thought so. Make sure she doesn't move while I get you some food." He nodded toward Arie, who scowled at him and gave him a rude gesture. Neal chuckled to himself as he moved off to get more food. A few moments later he came back with a bowl and a chunk of bread for Jess. In seconds the little girl was biting into the food and tearing into it as if she hadn't eaten in days. Arie noticed Neal watched Jess out of the corner of his eye for a moment then he nodded to himself as if he was satisfied with her reaction. They ate in silence for a long moment before Arie worked up the courage to speak.

"How were things here?"

Neal grunted. "I've seen worse." When he saw Arie wince he was quick to add, "There were no deaths here. Just a lot of wounded and those who got infected. It helped that there are so many healers here. Normally it's just me and maybe one other person. Which means your plan to gather healers together and begin teaching them helped a lot. You saved many lives today."

Arie snorted. She hadn't healed anyone today. Not with her Gift anyway. That she had been using to clean up and contain the mess of the battle.

"I don't feel like I helped anyone today. I feel like I'm always cleaning up the aftermath of this thing. Putting people back together instead of actually stopping the source and people are still dying." Despite the fact that she had sworn to stop it.

Neal was silent for a long moment before replying softly, "The first lesson of healing is that you cannot save everyone. But that doesn't mean we can't damn well try." His gaze traveled over the room before he sighed, "I'm going to get back to work." Before Arie could move or so much as speak he said, "If you move from that spot before you have finished resting and eating I'll sick Kel on you. Then your morning practices will really be hell."

Arie scowled at him, but went back to eating. She could have sworn that Jess giggled beside her, but when she turned to look at the girl she was stuffing her face with bread soaked in stew. The two of them ate in silence for while. When Arie was a little more than halfway done with her food she heard someone call her name. Both her and Jess looked around as a ghost came through the wall beside them. It was the ghost Ben; Obi's friend. The sight of him had a fresh wave of guilt washing over Arie, that was instantly pushed aside when she saw his expression. He looked confused and more than a little shaken.

"There you are. I need help. I found a ghost."

That gave Arie pause.

"When did they die?" She was worried she had missed something. If that was the case the whole city could be in danger.

"During the fight at the docks, but he doesn't believe he's dead."

Arie opened her mouth to ask more about the ghost when the rest of Ben's sentence sunk in.

"What?"

Ben looked worried. "He doesn't believe that he's dead. He called me crazy and keeps insisting he needs help. When I tried explaining he was dead he simply screamed I was crazy and that someone needed to save him."

Arie scrubbed her forehead. "I can't force him to believe he is dead."

"But you can't leave him there either, it's not good for him to hang onto life that he doesn't have."

Arie conceded that it was true. If he hung around too long he could hurt his loved ones or cause them stress on top of dealing with the fact that he was dead.

"Let me eat and then I will see if I can convince him to at least go stay with the rest of the ghosts. Then his family would be safe, and maybe he can come to terms with his death being around the others."

Ben sighed in relief and Arie couldn't help but feel a pang of regret. Ben was a good and caring person, who didn't deserve to have his life cut short and be left as a ghost. She watched as he wandered over to Obi who was sitting a few cots down from her. Arie also noticed a few of the patients near her looked at her suspiciously. They clearly thought she was losing her mind talking to the air about ghosts. She just hoped they didn't think her too strange or look too closely at her. Beside her Jess suddenly gulped down her food and scampered away to help some of the healers. The spot she vacated was filled almost immediately by Lerant. Arie felt the blush creep across her face. Her food was very interesting, she realized. After a brief moment of not quite awkward silence they both asked,

"Are you alright?"

"How are you?"

Out of the corner of her eye, Arie noticed the blush swamped his face before he looked at his feet. She glanced back at her food and couldn't help the smile that pulled at her lips. "I'm alright." She admitted, "Mostly I was just cleaning up the mess." Arie couldn't help the note of bitterness in her. Warmth enveloped her hand. She looked down at his hand.

"We'll stop this, Raoul, the Riders, the Own," he shrugged and sheepishly admitted, "Kel and Neal will too, they're a good sort."

There was a lightness in her chest when he said those words, and Arie knew he meant them. He and the others would do whatever was in there power to help her stop this. It was a strange feeling to have so many people with the desire to help her.

"Thank you." She swiped at the suspicious moisture in her eyes. Arie needed to distract herself so she didn't sob right there. "Have you eaten?"

Lerant nodded, "Raoul sent me to remind you that you have dinner obligations with Lord Imrah. Apparently if he has to suffer, you get to suffer along with him." The boy grinned but at her sour expression he added, "It's not so bad. Imrah isn't bad for a higher noble. Besides him and the Lord will need and want updates from the attack from you. If you don't someone else will have to."

He didn't have to tell Arie how that could be bad, especially after she had had trouble with one of her students earlier. Arie sighed, that felt like so long ago now, but she knew she would have to deal with it. Better she herself makes the reports rather than trust someone else who might be biased against her.

"I'll be there, but I have something I need to do first. So I might be a little late."

Lerant shrugged, "Want me to come along? Then I don't have to tell Raoul you might be late." There was a very hopeful note to his words.

It was on the tip of her tongue to refuse, but the more she thought about it the more she realized it would probably be a good idea to have someone with her for what she planned. communicating with ghosts wasn't inherently dangerous, but she had heard stories of them latching onto someone Gifted and draining their power and energy. She liked the idea of being defenseless in this city much less than having Lerant look at her funny while she talked to ghosts.

"Please."

Lerant looked pleased as he settled in to wait for Arie to finish her food. She regretted that she needed to move her hand out from under his to eat, but the warmth of his hand lingered on her skin. She finished her food, double checked all her patients were taken care of, then left Jess in Neal's care, before turning to leave with Lerant while Ben lead. As they walked through the streets Arie realized Lerant hadn't asked where they were going or what they were doing. She glanced at him, he seemed content to just to stroll beside her. His trust was almost disturbing, he didn't even seem surprised when Arie stopped in the center of what had been a battlefield hours earlier.

Even though she had purged the water of the harbor of any blood or taint, the smell of smoke and blood permeated the air. The smoldering ruins of the boat that had snuck people into the city lay at the bottom of the harbor. But it seemed Ben wasn't interested in that, instead he moved off towards one of the buildings that had taken damage. It took Arie a moment to find the ghost. He was laying down and leaning against a broken wall. The shadows hid him fairly well.

He was a man in his early forties. His clothes were grubby and looked soaked, meaning he was probably a fisherman or he worked on the docks. Faintly Arie could hear his moans as he clutched at his stomach and chest. Over and over he made a sobbing strangled noise as he shook, he didn't even notice his body had been taken away hours ago. Instead, any time someone passed closed to him he would beg them for help. Most people didn't react, but Arie noticed some shivered and walked faster when they passed too close to him.

"Please keep people back." she asked Lerant before she walked up to the ghost.

The dead man's eyes locked with hers and he knew she saw him. "Please, please help. It hurts. It hurts so much."

Arie crouched down beside him and whispered in a soft soothing voice that she had learned from her mother, "Shush, shush, it's alright, I'm a healer, let me see what happened."

A look of relief passed over the man's eyes as he removed his hands from his stomach. Arie struggled to control her face when she took in the wound. It was a ragged stab wound, as if the person had pulled the blade back and forth and twisted it around. The wound looked vaguely star shaped. Arie suspected the man had bucked viciously trying to get away from his attacker, but it only made the damage worse. But Arie was more concerned by the fact that the ghost still had his wound. When a person became a ghost they were their souls, the body no longer matter; it was just an empty shell. It was almost like he was so convinced of his life that the wound had transferred to his incorporeal form. So, Arie wondered, how do you fix something that is made by belief alone. Warmth spread from the token her father had given her; encouragement. She looked this man in the eyes and saw his need and more frighteningly his trust.

"Please hurry."

Arie nodded and laid her hands over the ghostly wound. She reached into the well of power inside her and let it travel down her arms and into her hand. Arie channeled the warm safe feeling she had when her mother had been alive. Her magic would only glow and transfer that feeling of being safe, but from the look on his face it was working. Pain receded from his expression and his body relaxed against the wall. He looked down at where he had been hurt only to discover it was gone.

"Thank you kind lady." He started to stand.

Arie realized he intended to leave and go back to his home, but if he did he would not be welcomed back like he expected. If he was lucky his family wouldn't notice him, but if he wasn't then he could potentially harm them. She could not let him go back to that kind of hell, but she doubted he would believe her if she said he was dead. Arie needed to think quickly.

"I have healed you, but there was magic on the blade that stabbed you. If you go back to your home no one will be able to see, hear, or be able to touch you. It's why no one came to help you sooner." Arie prayed he would believe her. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Ben's disapproving look. Apparently he didn't think she should lie to this man, but if he didn't believe Ben; who was a ghost too, there was no way he'd believe her.

The ghost blinked. "What will I do? My mother is sick, I'm the only who can care for her. I-."

"I will happily check on your mother, and help her as I have helped you. Give me her name and here you live and I swear I will look in on her in your place. I just need you to go with my friend here." She gestured to Ben. "He can take you to a safe place where others have been cursed like you."

The man eyed Ben. "But he said I was dead."

Arie shrugged. "The curse has made you ghost like." She felt like misleading this man was unkind, but maybe if he spent time with the other ghosts he would be able to come to terms with his death. "Most people can't interact with you."

"You can." His desperation tugged at her heart.

"Yes, it is my burden to help those who were affected by this magic."

The ghost sighed, and Arie saw the exact moment that the man decided to trust her. He told her his name Noah, and his mother's name was Edith. Their home was only a few streets up from where they were now. Noah glanced at suspiciously Ben, but eventually the two ghosts walked up the road together. Arie waited for them to get around the bend before she got up and dusted herself off.

"So what was that?"

Arie looked over her shoulder at Lerant. "There was a ghost here who didn't realize he was dead. I healed him, convinced him to go with another ghost, and promised to check in on his family." Arie watched his expression which never seemed to change. After a while Lerant shrugged,

"Let's go see this man's family then."