"And yet..."  She began a retort, but it died in her mouth. He still held a grudge, they had both been young when his family had been all but banished by her father. Years later, Aleksandra thought her father's actions were unjust, but she also understood that rules had to make tough calls, or else...Or else they were overthrown. Sebastian LeVane had exploited her father's weaknesses, murdered her sisters and...She could not think about that right now.  She had to focus on the task at hand.  Aleksandra pulled a small set of sheers from her tools and held them up. There were other tools on a small table near where he laid along with strips of clean cloth, some short, others long and wrapped in balls.<br/><br/>All of the spells she knew that would help with the pain would drain her, but she got the sense he was no stranger to pain. She did not want to narrate what she was doing, she got the sense he might find that sort of thing annoying, so she simply wrapped her fist around one of the arrows and carefully broke it just above her fist.  It snapped easily, it was not of great quality.  She did the second one quickly.<br/><br/>"We need to remove your clothing..."  It could be mended later, but she could tell he took pride in his clothing.  She did this act with care, because she needed to see what kind of damage had been done.  With the arrows broken, she was able to work around the areas that had been punctured and remove it to reveal his chest. It was muscular and clearly showed this was not the first time he had been injured in battle.  Aleksandra looked at the wounds with focus, the entrances had been clean, but she was going to have to remove the arrowheads with precision. Pulling a leather strap from her tools she offered it to him.<br/><br/>"I'll be fast, but I assume you know how this goes."  She said, allowing him a moment to bite down.  In her mind, she chanted a soft spell of focus and guidance, one that would steady her hands. Gripping one broken arrow and then the next, she pulled upward sharply, and immediately discarded the violent objects. She gathered the strips of cloth into her hands and put pressure on the wounds. For a moment she wondered if she should just try to stop the bleeding and stitch him up normally, as she would have done for other guards that she felt no responsibility for or ties to...<br/><br/>Aleksandra brushed the thought off and closed her eyes.  Again, the spell was spoken in her mind, but it would be obvious that she was doing more than just putting pressure on his wounds.  Her hands seemed to glow with rose-colored energy and his pain would subside as the magic did its work.  The bleeding would be slowed and the skin and muscle would already begin healing.  Aleksandra could have attempted to heal it fully, but Storka had warned her about expending that much energy.  She was still learning.  After a moment, she lifted her hands and the strips of cloth with them, know red soaked with his blood.  Beneath them, the wounds looked more like they had happened a few days before, rather than little more than an hour before.<br/><br/>"I'll still need to stitch them, otherwise the skin may not mend properly."  Aleksandra's eyes met his. With the immediate threat to his life stayed, she went to the tools and got a curved needle and thread. She was careful with her stitches, but she tried to be quick about it.  The flesh of past scars was beneath her fingers as she worked on him.  Aleksandra had thought him handsome the moment they had met, but now, she realized that attraction was continuing to bud into something more, albeit slowly.  The men at court were usually untested, but assumed they would be great leaders in battle, and yet, the man before her...He had been thoroughly tested.<br/><br/>By the time the stitches were finished, she found herself feeling weary.  Storka had assured her that someday she would wield great power, but she first had to learn how to converse her strength and channel the power of nature.  Healing him as she had was taxing.<br/><br/>"It's probably best you remain here, and I...I'll remain as well.  It's unlikely your condition will worsen, but life is unpredictable." She gave a soft shrug of her shoulders.  "I'll make sure Barnstorm moves you to the front of the caravan when you're well....If you're willing to accept that.  He's also willing to let you leave with part of your payment...But I got him to agree to pay you in full if you stay on."  She was testing the leader of the caravan's patience, she knew she was, but if he stayed on she had a chance to convince him that maybe she could right some of the wrongs done to him and his family.  Maybe she could fix what her father had broken.<br/><br/>"I'm sorry this happened, I really am..."