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“The first thing I ever remember wanting to be was a healer. I wanted good to come from my touch. I just…wanted to do good,” Maude said to Thora quietly. “That part of me died a long time ago once the truth of my existence set in for me, but I never stopped wanting to be good .”

Thora only looked at Maude for a moment before she replied.

“I’ve found in my time on this earth that it’s never too late to do the things ye want. I think if yer want is great enough, that’s all ye need,” Thora said to Maude as she walked to the door. “Please come find me if ye need anything, my dear.”

Maude nodded, still needing time to process Thora’s words.

She knew, of course, that she would never be the gentle healer she had wanted to be in her youth, even if Thora’s words echoed through her.

As she had grown older and her training had begun, she stopped dreaming of healing and was forced to put childish hopes aside.

She had been presented with one option for her life, had accepted it until she had seen the repercussions of what she was turning into, and had decided to fight her fate with all her strength.

She guessed a small part of her never lost that love of healing, of righting a wrong.

As she leaned back in the chair and closed her eyes, Maude thought back on the little girl she used to be and how she had wanted so much for her life.

She knew that little girl would’ve been appalled and disgusted by where they ended up in life; she would’ve known that no matter how hard she had fought her destiny, she’d ended up precisely the way her father had said she’d be.

The gods had delivered a harsh lesson, and Maude wasn’t sure she could ever recover from it.

Herrick hadn’t dared open his eyes after he had overheard Maude talking to Thora.

He had woken at her touch on his leg and had meant to say something when Thora had instead asked Maude if she was a healer.

He had never expected Maude’s response to be so quietly sorrowful.

After Thora had left, Maude was quiet for a time before she had gotten comfortable in the chair and had drifted into a light sleep, her breathing deepening into a relaxed cadence.

He had allowed himself to be carried off to sleep for a while, during which time he had his recurrent dream of red and Valkyries.

He woke again sometime later when he heard Maude get food from someone who had come to the door.

She quietly thanked the person and closed the door, walking the tray of hot food to the dresser.

Herrick felt it was safe to open his eyes now, so he tried to sit up but was ultimately too weak from the blood loss to complete the movement .

“You’re awake,” Maude said to him from the window. “Are you hungry?”

“Starving,” he replied. He tried to sit up again, but before he could fall back to the bed, he felt a strong arm behind his shoulders, helping him up.

“Don’t say a word. You look pathetic; I couldn’t just stand there,” Maude said to him before he could open his mouth. He only laughed a bit, the sound coming out a little breathless.

“How much blood did I lose?” he asked as she handed him a bowl of porridge, a wave of dizziness causing the edges of his vision to darken.

“It’s hard to say, you were as stubborn as an ass about getting here that I couldn’t see how much you were losing, but I’d say a fair amount. You won’t be getting out of that bed today.”

“ I was stubborn? That’s bold coming from the ruling stubborn ass in this room.”

Maude only lifted her middle finger to him before she sat on the long dresser and began shoveling porridge into her mouth.

Herrick chuckled and dug into the food. It was bland, but it was hot and filled his aching stomach.

Feeling a bit stronger, he leaned over his leg to inspect the damage but only saw a clean, white dressing wrapped around his thigh.

“Thora packed the wound with a poultice to ward off fevers, but I’m sure you would know if you were going to be sick,” Maude said, placing her bowl back on the tray and ripping a piece of bread in half to hand him some.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“Don’t the healers from the Kingdom of Rivers have some awareness of illness in the blood because of their water galder ?”

Herrick kept his face neutral as he remembered what she had said about wanting to be a healer in her youth.

“Yes, they do. What does that have to do with me? ”

“Well, I’d imagine if your thick head could try hard enough, you might be able to detect illness as well,” she said matter-of-factly.

“I never received training for that; I wouldn’t know where to begin.”

“Seems like a wasted opportunity.”

They sat quietly for a while before Herrick asked, “Have any of the others shown up yet?”

Maude shook her head and looked out the window where the sun was at its highest point.

“I don’t know if you have any idea of where they might’ve gone,” she said to him, collecting his bowl and placing it in hers. Herrick’s mouth tightened as he ran through the possible places they could’ve gone instead and came up blank.

“No, they would’ve come here,” he finally said.

“Then we just have to be patient. They must show up here eventually. I’m sure Thora will send them in the right direction,” Maude said as she sat in the chair next to the bed once more and closed her eyes. Herrick took the break in conversation to study her once more.

She had bathed since they’d gotten here, and someone had removed his clothes when he had passed out from exhaustion and blood loss.

He was sure it wasn’t Maude, though there was really no way to know unless he asked.

Maude looked exhausted, and Herrick felt his manners start to overrule any sense he might have.

“You can sleep in the bed for a while,” he started and quickly continued at the argument forming on Maude’s face, “I mean, with me in the chair and you sleeping in the bed alone.”

He stressed the word alone a bit too much. Maude shook her head and said, “You need the rest. Besides, you are the one who took an arrow through the leg. The least I could do was take the chair while you recovered from your delirium. ”

Her face tensed a bit at her last comment, and he wondered if she was thinking about the joke he made to her about taking his pants off.

She averted her eyes and fiddled with the hem of her shawl while he lay back against the headboard and tried to recall what he had said when he was out of his mind with pain and exhaustion.

It wasn’t until he had drifted into a semi-sleeping state that he remembered that she had said she’d take care of him while he slept.

He remembered he had been pleased by it, and a base need in him had wanted to do the same for her, so he said he would take care of her, too.

He opened his eyes to look at Maude, but she had fallen asleep in the chair again, mouth slack and quiet snores rolling through the room.

He sighed and looked up at the ceiling of the rented room.

This cannot possibly end well, he thought to himself.

The hours of the day slipped by slowly. Maude was in and out of consciousness in the chair, her exhaustion evident in the tense lines on her face.

She had carried Herrick down the wall of Logi and then through the desert to Engate and hadn’t balked.

Herrick couldn't understand why she was so set on keeping people at arm’s length but then didn't hesitate to help him.

It was clear her behavior was a defense mechanism for someone who had always had to depend on themselves for survival, but what he couldn't seem to put together was why she had the speech and training of a noble who had been more than happy to be assumed a lowborn vitki .

Herrick had been paying attention to her mannerisms, and she was no lowborn girl.

There was a deeper history behind why she acted the way she did when it was clear she was a good person in her heart.

Sigurd had said she had built walls around herself, but Herrick was finding it was more of a fortress.

He was curious by nature, so he told himself that was why he was working so hard to break down her barriers, not because of whatever feeling had been lingering in his chest since she had grabbed his hand in the barren fighting pits below The Broken Bones Pub.

Maude finally woke once the sun was almost set and looked at him, quickly inspecting his state before she excused herself to the small washroom.

Needing to stand and move, he waited until she had closed the door before he made his way to the side of the bed.

He felt stronger now that he had rested a bit, sure that the galder in his blood was healing a bit faster than those who weren’t magically inclined.

Herrick wrapped the sheet around his waist and tentatively stood, testing the weight on his leg.

The washroom door opened before he could take a step, and he waited for Maude to intervene, but she only stood there and watched as he tentatively moved.

She had removed her shawl, which she usually kept wrapped around her, and stood only in her sleeveless shirt and leggings, his necklace still hanging around her neck.

Herrick felt good enough to keep trying but, ultimately, his body forced him to slow down and his leg gave out.

He was bracing himself to hit the floor when he felt Maude rush toward him and catch him before he could fall.

She had placed her hands under his arms and around his chest to stabilize him while he had gripped the backs of her arms. They both tried to catch their breath, but when Herrick looked down at Maude, he realized how close they were.

His heart took off at a rapid pace as she looked up at him, her dark eyes sparking with heat.