Eric Andrews walked carefully ahead of his wards as the trail they were following began to fade. He had a very bad feeling about this - about everything in his surroundings. He began to wonder if they hadn't journeyed so far as to be leaving the confines of the world itself. Such worries were irrational, of course. He was supposed to be going this way.
  He stopped suddenly, motioning for Alexis and Chrystle to stay where they were. Voices, barely discernible from the background wind, were audible in the distance.
  "That thing will be back soon, we've got to leave him and seek shelter!"
  "Have you no sympathy, Eileis? How many times has he saved your life? We've got to do something for him...."
  "He wouldn't want us to all die, Jon!"
  Alexis stepped forward, looking at the elder Andrews quizzically. "What is it?"
  Before Eric could answer, Chrystle spoke up. "Someone's hurt...." Apparently her hearing was just as good as that of her brother's. "Eric, we should help them."
  Slowly, Eric shook his head. "We can't chance it, not out here. It could be just a ploy by highwaymen to lure people in." He didn't think that to be the case, but he didn't want to take any chances. His nerves were afire in warning, and Andrews had long since learned to trust his instincts.
  Carefully, Chrystle stepped forward and took her brother's hand. "Eric... you need to help them." She looked up into his eyes imperatively, trying to get her message across.
  Eric's stomach fell. His sister was telling him that these people had something to do with him -- he was supposed to help them in some way, much as he had helped Alexis. Vaguely, he wondered if they were going to join him as the former slave had. He wasn't at all sure he liked that idea - more people meant he was more conspicuous, not to mention that he'd have that many more wards to keep watch over.
  He stood silently for a moment, gathering his resolve. If his sister said he needed to do it, then he would. "This way." he said to the both of them, and walked toward the source of the voices, visible only as spots on the horizon.
  It only took them a few moments to arrive - Eric and Chrystle had been moving rather quickly, and Alexis seemed winded by the pace. She didn't say anything, however, and the elder Andrews was too distracted to offer her consolation or slow down any. As they came close enough to the other group to see, Eric felt an urge to cover his sister's eyes, but resisted it. She had seen much worse than this.
  A man, approximately ten years older than Eric himself, lied on the ground, unconscious. Blood was still flowing out of a gash in the warrior's leg, pooling on the ground. Sitting to his side was the owner of the first voice he had heard - Eileis, he could only assume. She appeared to be a warrior herself, as she was wearing some creation of chainmail bearing a sigil that Andrews was unfamiliar with. The other - Jon - was unarmed, and was wearing no armor at all. It was the latter that first noticed Eric's group.
  Jon looked up from his bleeding mentor, directly into Eric's eyes. The young man scrambled to his feet, uttering something incomprehensible - a warning, Eric assumed - to the woman as he scrambled behind her.
  Eileis was up and had a short sword in her hand almost faster than Eric could register. Obviously, this woman was more skilled than the man, and was the self-appointed guardian of the two. She spoke up sharply. "Who are you? Keep your distance, I'm warning you! If you've come on the behalf of that - creature - then I'm afraid you'll have to turn back. We'll not be traveling with you." The anger on her face - probably over the injury of her mentor - told Eric that she would be more than willing to fight to the death, should she determine that he posed a threat.
  "My name is Eric Andrews." he said, his voice level and calming. "This is my sister, Chrystle." He indicated his sister, who was currently behind him. "This is Alexis, a fellow traveler." he motioned toward Alexis, standing to his side. "We come on behalf of nobody - we are merely travelers who heard you from some space off, and wish to help."
  The woman took a moment to evaluate them, then slowly resheathed her sword. "I am Eileis, and the alert scholar behind me is Jon. The man injured here -" with that, she knelt again at the fallen warrior's side "is Cain Alzen, blademaster. He was - is - my teacher."
  Moving slowly, he came to the side of the fallen warrior, searching his mind for something that he could do to help the man. Nothing came - his training had focused almost solely on killing, not healing.
  "His leg...." Chrystle said, her voice distant. Eric wished she didn't have to look at the scene, but there was nothing he could do now.
  "Are you a healer?" Eileis asked of Andrews, her face anxious.
  "He is." Chrystle said again. Eric tried not to show his surprise at his sister's answer, but simply went with it. Hoping that Chrystle knew what she was saying, Eric nodded.
  "Well, then... is there anything that you can do?" Eileis's voice seemed on the verge of desperation.
  "I think so." Eric said. Still only half knowing what he was doing, he put his hands over the gash in Cain's leg. Closing his eyes, he concentrated. "Be healed...." he whispered, his voice nearly silent.
  There was a flash of brilliant pure light in his mind as suddenly he felt power cascading through him. It was the same power that let him command those who listened to him - he knew this instantly. It was also the same power that told Chrystle when there was something that Eric had to do, the same power that guided Eric on his own quests, and, perhaps most frightening of all, it was the same power that had brought him and his sister back to this world. The Goddess was working through him now, just as she had been every time he ordered someone, just as she had when Chrystle told him that someone needed him. She was doing so directly now - the power flashed through his mind, down his arms, and into the injured man's legs.
  Then it was over. The power, gone as though it had never been, and Andrews was returned to normal. His eyes slowly opened as he moved his hands, still slick with blood, from Cain's leg. The gash was gone - in fact, no sign of it remained.
  Eileis' eyes widened, as did Jon's. "That was simply amazing!" Jon commented. "If only I could do something like that!"
  Eileis looked back up at Eric. "Thank you.... We couldn't have moved him ourselves without hurting him more, and Jon hasn't yet mastered his arts enough to do anything. Without you, he would certainly have died. Please, I ask you, stay here tonight."
  "Very well...." Eric replied, not liking the idea of staying, but knowing somehow that he was supposed to.

  It wasn't until later that they got to speak together, really. Certainly, Alexis and Chrystle spoke, mostly to Jon, but Eric and Eileis were busy moving Cain into a tent of his own, and then setting up the camp for the evening. Once the fire had been set, however, conversation flowed freely. Alexis retold the tale of how Eric had saved her from slavery, again from the Tyrant Knights sent out to find them, and once more from the siren beast. She embellished in spots, but never did she reveal his past. The two newcomers were amazed with the tale.
  Jon especially, it seemed, was interested in Eric's abilities. "Such magic, it's been lost to people for so long! It's only been recently in my region that people are starting to relearn these arts." the young man said, obviously overjoyed. "I've been studying for most my life, but I've yet to learn anything of real use." he looked downcast for a moment, until he faced Eric again. "But you! If you don't mind me asking, how did you come by such abilities? They're truly amazing."
  Before Eric had to invent a convincing lie, Eileis did it for him. "He's a healer, stupid!" the woman interjected. "The healers never forgot their magic. True, I've never heard of one so proficient as our new friend here, but it must simply be that he's a natural at it."
  Eric nodded, as that was quite a bit better than any lie he would have invented on his own.
  Eileis leaned forward then, looking toward Andrews eagerly. "So, do tell. I suspect that we're on similar quests here. Cain, he was training me when one of the healers approached him to come on the quest. And Jon... well, Jon's an old friend who wanted to come along. I didn't know that the healers had sent one of their own, however. So, are you out here to do the same thing we are?"
  Eric had no clue what she meant. Apparently, healers were an organized group in her area, a group that had never lost magic, as well as being a group that went around dispatching quests to people they deemed worthy. He suddenly felt out of his element. "Just so that I may be certain," he said carefully, "what exactly is it you were sent to do?"
  Eileis smiled. "Surely you know that, unless you're doing something completely different. Ah well - our quest is a simple one. We're to travel to the far East, where the great Evil was defeated before, and destroy it."
  Eric felt a shiver overcome him as he forced himself to ask: "Which great evil?"
  Eileis laughed. "You must be testing me - all the healers know this story. We're out to fight the Nemesis, of course!"
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