Fil groaned softly as he started to come to. He wasn't quite sure what had happened, though he had a few fuzzy memories of pain, and then running through the woods until he collapsed in a clearing. He didn't know why he had been hurt though, or why he was in woods in the first place. All he did know was that his whole body hurt like he had been dragged naked through all ten hells, and his head hurt even worse.

He could hear someone moving about near him, wherever he was. Whoever it was moved quietly, and from the sound of it, was very close to him. As he heard the person move even closer, he decided to risk opening his eyes to take a look at his surroundings. He had prepared himself for almost everything that he could think of, and he didn't think that any sight could surprise him. But the sight that greeted him when he opened his eyes was something that he had not considered, and it was quite disturbing. For, he could see nothing, just blackness.

At first he thought maybe he was just somewhere very dark. But when his eyes didn't adjust at all after waiting a bit, he realized that that wasn't the case. He tried to lift his arm, to wave it in front of his face, hoping that he might be able to see that, but he something warm pushed down on his arm.

"Please don't do that," a female voice said. It was a low voice and tinged with worry, but full of energy and life. From that voice, Fil guessed that the person he had heard moving about was a young woman. "I just finished healing you, and I couldn't forgive myself if you went and made everything worse again."

Fil stopped trying to raise his hand, and he heard the young woman sigh, relieved. He pondered why he couldn't see, not sure what could have caused it, though he knew that whatever had caused his unconsciousness had surely caused this blindness as well. The woman seemed to be a healer, from her words, but either she hadn't noticed the blindness when she had healed him, or she couldn't do anything about it. He frowned at the thought of something that a healer couldn't take care of, and then he frowned more at not being able to see where he was, or who this young woman who had helped him was.

"Are you all right?" the young woman asked, her voice full of concern. "I...I can tell that something's still not quite right, but I'm not sure what. You had a cut right here." She touched his forehead with one slim finger, and he could feel the power that she held quite clearly. She was quite an accomplished healer. "There was a sliver of magic in there, but it disappeared when I took it out, and it did something before I could stop it. I'm really sorry."

"You don't need to apologize," he said. He realized then that this woman was younger than she sounded. She also seemed to be a little insecure. "I'm glad you healed me. Thank you."

"Oh, no, it was nothing," she said quickly. She started to probe his leg with a surprisingly gentle finger, most likely checking on her work. "But really, is there anything wrong? I know there's something wrong in your head, but I can't tell what it is. I felt it increase when you opened your eyes though."

"I can't see anything," he said, and he felt her finger freeze, in mid prod. She left it there for a few moments, but her finger was poking into his leg, and it started to hurt. "I don't suppose you could stop that, could you? It kinda hurts."

"Oh, I ‘m so sorry!" she exclaimed, pulling her finger back abruptly. "I was just startled. You really can't see anything?" Fil nodded. "Oh my, this is bad. I knew that sliver had done something, but I've never dealt with something like this before."

She was talking to herself by then, pondering out loud what to do about his lack of vision. It was clear from her words that she was still quite young, and not very experienced. She was also human, which he knew from her fingers, with their blunt, flimsy fingernails and no sharp claws at all. Humans had only the barest magic, and so a human healer would not have much experience at all with healing magical wounds.

As the young healer thought out loud, Fil realized that she would most likely end up poking around in his head to try and heal the damage the magic had done. In that event, he would need some strong shields up to protect himself. He wasn't sure which side this girl was on, Moloka or Naroba. Either way, he didn't want her to find out just what he was, and that meant shields.

He was just starting to put up shields when he heard noises coming from farther away. They sounded muffled, as if there was a door and/or walls blocking them. He guessed that they were coming from a room or hall outside of whatever room he was in at the time. The healer stopped talking suddenly, and then, to his surprise, she pushed him down the bed, so that his head was beneath the blanket. Then she climbed in next to him, and he realized that he was completely naked, even if she was clothed.

"I'm really really sorry," she said as she got into the bed. "The elders are coming to make sure we're in bed, and if they find me out I'll be in really big trouble. Same if they find you. Please, just be quiet. They won't notice you if you don't move or make any noises."

She had just finished her hurried, and from the tone of her voice, quite embarrassed, speech when Fil heard the door open. He didn't hear anyone enter the room. As far as he could tell, whoever was there had just opened the door, and was standing there. Then, just as suddenly as the person had come, he heard the door close, and the healer sighed in relief. She felt quite warm next to him, though he knew that he was as least as warm from just blushing as she was. She practically jumped out of the bed, stammering another apology.

"Oh Light, I'd forgotten that you were naked!" she exclaimed, her embarrassment clear in her voice. "I'm so so so so so sorry!"

Fil stammered a comment to the effect that he didn't mind it too much, though right after he said it he couldn't remember what he had said. All he could think was that he was quite glad he was in his fully human form. He was too busy thanking the Ones on High that he had a human form that he completely missed the next thing the girl said.

"Hey, are you all right?" she asked him, her voice tinged with worry.

"Huh?" he asked. "Oh, yeah, sorry. I was just thinking about something."

"Who did this to you anyway?" she asked. "You were covered with cuts, all over, like you had been slashed."

"I don't remember," he said, though he was fairly certain that it had been the Moloka. He couldn't think of any reason that his own people would attack him that seriously, no matter how much they hated him for what he was.

"Oh," she said. "Well, it's going to take me a while to figure out how to counteract what that magic did to you. I don't want to let you go until then either, so you'll have to stay here, in my room. I can't let you out of the room, because if I do the Elders will find you, and we'll both be in trouble. They'll probably throw you out, and I can't let them do that, not while you're not completely healed. And I'll lose all of my status from being the Healer's apprentice."

"You don't feel like just an apprentice," he commented, remembering the power that he had felt in her hands. "You have a lot more power than any apprentice I've ever met."

"I...I'm really just a youngling," she stammered uncomfortably. "The Elders don't know that I have you here, and if they find out they won't be happy. I'm not supposed to have contact with outsiders because I'm only a youngling..."

"If you say so," he said, shrugging slightly. He assumed that she was just from a very odd human society. After all, he'd been told of odder things that humans did. Powerful adults who still claimed to be children would be one of the more normal things he'd heard of among the oddest of the human societies he'd been in contact with before.

"I...I really need to get to bed now," she said, sound nervous. "It's late, and I'm supposed to be sleeping right now. I have duties in the morning, so I really should get that sleep too. But...I only have one bed, and you're in it."

The girl's voice had gotten fainter and fainter as she said more. By the end Fil was straining to her hear last words. She sounded so embarrassed that he imagined she was bright red. This would be a problem, since she seemed shy enough that she would never consider sharing a bed with a male.