One moment Lianna was bouncing along in Thicket’s saddle as the morning sun warmed them, and the next, she was laying next to her mother. Her body had become smaller, and she curled up at her mother’s side. Her mother’s breathing was raspy and labored. She had listened to that sound for a while.

“Mother?” Lianna asked when she felt her mother stir.

“Ah, Lia. You’ve snuck into my bed again.” She could hear the smile in her mother’s voice. “You should be out playing with Aaron, not in this dreary room.”

Lia frowned. “You’re going to leave us, aren’t you? You’re not going to get better.”

Her mother sighed. After a long silence, she finally said, “You’re right, my love. My body is failing. If there were a way to prevent it, I would do it in a heartbeat, but sadly, I knew this day would come.”

“If you knew it would come, then why can’t you change it?” She knew she was pleading for something that couldn’t be done. She knew she was being childish, but Lianna couldn’t help it.

Fingers stroked her head with a light touch. “I could have. But then I wouldn’t have been able to meet your father, or to have you and your brother. The three of you aren’t the cause of this, but this is where the path I chose to take has led me. I do wish it were different, but I wouldn’t choose differently if given another chance to choose again.”

Lianna didn’t know exactly what her mother meant, but she could feel the love in her words. She scooted a bit closer to her mother’s side.

“One day, you’ll know all about it, but you have to be strong, my Lia. And when your turn comes to choose a path, make the choice you know you won’t regret, the one that protects what is precious to you.”

Bang-boom!

Lianna’s eyes snapped open at a loud sound ahead of her. Disoriented, she realized she was still in Thicket’s saddle, riding towards the Rithan dutchy. But she wasn’t the only one on the road.

Dust rose up into the air from where a wagon had gone off the road and turned on its side in a ditch. The sound of a horse whinnying in panic was followed by people’s shouts. As the brain fog from her dream faded and her heartbeat began to race, Lianna urged Thicket to reach the wrecked wagon faster.

“Is everyone okay?” Lianna pulled Thicket to a stop and dismounted. She approached as two men, one older with gray in his hair and one younger helped an older woman and a young girl out of the overturned wagon. Lianna breathed a sigh of relief to see that, while they were both disheveled, they seemed to be moving alright. The woman and girl moved quickly to tend to the panicked horses.

“Eh?” The older man turned to see her. “Ah, yes, I think we’re alright, just shaken up, I think. Don’t mind us, Miss. We’ll be getting back up and going shortly, I’m sure.” It seemed the man didn’t want to trouble her.

“Are you sure you don’t need–” Lianna began, about to offer to help push the wagon upright or at least to check them over for any injuries, but the older woman’s cries cut her off.

“Oh, Nevin! The horse!” Her voice was full of dismay.

The old man, Nevin, and the younger one both ran up to where the woman and girl were trying to encourage the horse to stand up. But the horse just whined as its sides heaved, clearly in distress or pain. The family fussed over the horse. The young man tried getting the horse to its feet, and it did finally try, but it was clear that something was wrong with its back leg. That leg folded up under it and the horse collapsed to the ground again.

“Oh, Papa! Poor Daisy! What will we do?” The young girl went carefully up the horse and stroked its cheek.

“This doesn’t look good. Can we make it to Mills Yard with just one horse?” The young man ran his hands through his hair.

“We can’t leave her here! Surely–”

“Hush, child. I hate it too, but you know as well as I do that a leg that wounded is just a slow death for a horse.” The woman patted the girl on the shoulder as the girl started to cry.

“One horse won’t do, not for the weight of the goods we have. And we can’t skimp on the cargo. It’s too important.” The older man rubbed the back of his neck. “Ah, what bad luck!”

Lianna, who had been standing behind them, cleared her throat softly as the family became silent, unsure what to do. It seemed these people were a merchant family that was bringing goods into Milliard County. From the direction they were traveling, they were from Rithan or at least they had passed through there. They weren’t merchants sent by Brendwald, something that was desperately needed for her county’s people right now. Though her stomach tightened at the thought, there was something she could do to help.

The family’s heads turned her way. It was clear from their surprise that they’d forgotten she was there in their anxiety over the horse’s condition.

“Would you mind if I took a look at the horse? It’s possible it isn’t as severe as it seems, and I know a thing or two about treating horses. I may be able to get her back up and at least walking for you.” Lianna smiled. Most of what she said was a lie, but without her explanation, what she was about to do might end up attracting too much attention.

“You can really save Daisy?” The girl asked. Hope blossomed on her face as she scrubbed her tears away with the back of her hands.

“Ah, dear…,” the older woman looked from her daughter, to the horse, to Lianna, clearly torn and not truly believing anything could be done.

“It won’t hurt to have me take a look, will it? It can’t be worse than what you fear now, right?” If they wouldn’t let her try, then that would be that, but Lianna knew they seemed desperate enough to try anything, so she pressed on. “But I really do think I can help her.”

“Papa, let’s let this woman try. It can’t hurt, can it?” The young man pleaded with his father and gave Lianna an uncertain smile.

The older man sighed. “I hate drag you into our troubles and bad luck, Miss. If you say you can help her, I’ll let you try. She’s a good horse, and our arrival at our destination with all our cargo is very important. Please, see if you can help her leg.” The older man bowed his head low. The rest of the family did so as well.

“No need to bow. I’ve already offered freely to help you.” Lianna approached the horse and the family made room for her. She went straight to the back leg that had given out under the horse earlier. As soon as her hands touched the leg, the horse flinched.

“Shhh, there’s a good girl.” The young girl petted the horse and spoke to it softly to calm it.

Lianna could tell right away that the leg was badly broken. The sensation of tension and heat, like a knot that was burning, showed her where the break was. The feeling radiated a long way down the leg. A splint wouldn’t do.

If I hadn’t been riding along the road and heard them crash… But there was no use thinking about that. At least she was here and could do something to ensure some honest merchants made it to Mills Yard.

“I’m going to massage it a bit. I think it’s just a bad sprain and the shock of the accident, not to worry!” Lianna kept the smile on her face and was relieved to see that the older family members began to show some hope in their anxious expressions. Now, to do this quickly and leave as quickly as I can.

Lianna pinned the horse’s foot between her knees and knelt down in a more stable position. Her hands lightly ran over the leg to pretend she was massaging it, but really she was concentrating on the hot, tight knots that she felt. She pulled at them with her gift. It wasn’t long until the tension began to ease and the heat was pulled into her hands. Almost immediately, heat began to concentrate itself in her left leg. When her hands no longer felt any heat besides the natural warmth of the horse’s leg, she stopped and stood up.

“Give her a minute or two to calm down, and then try to stand her up again. She should be good enough to walk, though I’d wait until tomorrow to try to go any faster.” It was another lie. The horse was fully healed right now, but she didn’t want them to know that right away. It was too suspicious.

“Really! Oh, thank the Goddess!” The young girl hugged the horse’s head, overjoyed.

“If what you say is true, I don’t know how to thank you for alleviating our fears!” The mother bowed her head to Lia again as the two men also nodded in agreement with her words. 

“I didn’t do much,” Lianna said. “I’m just glad everyone was okay. I’m sorry to leave you to right the wagon on your own, but I really do need to be going. Not much time to get where I’m going, I’m afraid.”

“No, you’ve done more than enough. We appreciate it.” The older man smiled at her just as the horse decided to try its legs and stand. Its legs held as Lianna knew they would.

While the family marveled at their horse that was now on her feet, Lianna slipped away. She pulled herself up onto Thicket and headed down the road. Her leg was already burning as if it were on fire. She gripped the pommel with white knuckles, looking back over her shoulder to make sure she was no longer in the family’s line of sight before she let herself lean forward in the saddle and press her eyes shut against the pain.

She forced herself to take deep breaths in and out. And just as she expected, she felt pain explode in her left leg as if it had been broken in two places. Sometimes she had several minutes till the pain hit, and other times, there was little time. Stars danced behind her closed eyelids, but she kept breathing through it even when her breaths nearly became cries

Lianna could feel Thicket turning his head to look back at her. Perhaps he was worried about her. But thankfully, the pain began to ease after several long moments. About a hundred breaths later, her entire leg ached, but at least it didn’t feel as though her bone had been shattered any longer. It was finally bearable.

She sat up in the saddle and wiped the cold sweat from her forehead and neck. And I’m really thinking about trading the use of this curse to Duke Rithan so he’ll protect the county and my family? The question passed through her mind, sounding like she was asking if she was still sane to be thinking about using her ability to heal at all. And she had thought to offer to heal the duke himself from the effects of the future assassination attempts he would suffer at Brendwald’s hands. The pain from healing a fatal wound would likely be so much worse.

But the answer to that question was obvious. Of course she would. She had already chosen this path. It was the only one that could possibly save her family and her own life as well. If I have to experience this to change our fates, then so be it.