Susanna almost screamed when the man, Seth started talking again. She scrambled away from him in her shock before taking a closer look. When he was standing to stop the mad elf from killing her he had looked perhaps a bit pale but healthy. That could not be said of him now. There was no color left in his face and he struggled to adjust to a position where blood stopped leaking from the holes in his body.

“I am sorry too, miss. I am obviously interrupting you at a delicate moment. Normally I would never interrupt a lady, however the recent situation calls for it, there seems to a slight emergency in the air.”

This man was obviously a noble from some pure lineage but it didn't really matter to Susanna at the moment she was considering her options. These two men were dying. Even the most ignorant fool could see that however she had a choice herself. She could save them or she could let them pass into the next world.

[i]Look at him girl, he's knocking on death's door and insisting that he's got the wrong address. It's sort of sad really. I've seen great warriors grow and fall, some even by my own hand but this, a human so blind that he cannot see his own death coming. It's pathetic, we should help him.[/i]

Susanna was instantly wary, Lilith had never in the ten long years that Susanna had known her been moved by anything. Susanna could feel the sincerity in her statement. This man was dying and obviously Susanna possessed no power that could save him. The best thing she could do now was to give him a painless send off. Send him to the afterlife with grace. No, that was absurd. This noble still had a fighting chance if medical attention could be brought to him what was she thinking, kill him?

[i]So close girl, you really are one easily taken in. Though I suppose if it were anyone else that man's head would be on the ground by now. I knew I chose my vessel well. Perhaps too well.[/i]

Susanna shook her head to knock the suggestions Lilith was pushing forth back where they came from. Seth of Valeria continued to talk but Susanna ceased to listen. She knew what he was saying. Seth of Valeria used large words and elegant language as he spun his tale of sorrow in an effort to obtain Susanna's help. She tuned it out, the message was clear: Save us or if you cannot go get someone who can.

Susanna sunk into the mud. She hadn't the supplies or the medical knowledge to fix these men. There was no choice to be made, she could do nothing to help these men. She had not the knowledge and she could not return to the town for everyone there believed her a demon. No healer of that town would go to a secluded clearing with her even if she did convince them to hear her out.

[i]I can help you.[/i] Lilith? Lilith was offering assistance. Susanna turned her back on Seth of Valeria to prevent him from seeing her talk to thin air. "What do you mean?" Susanna asked suspiciously. [i]You know very well. In my repertory I have the ability to heal these men, knowledge of destruction ensures knowledge of the opposite.[/i] "What price do you ask?" Susanna asked knowing that Lilith would want something in return. "My soul?" [i]Please girl, I am not a petty Crossroads demon promoting the lives of the mortals so I can live on scraps. Besides the dark pits of the underworld already own your soul. You should know that by now, it's why you fear death so much. No for this I want something else. I want a favour. Something I can ask any time and you will carry it out. Otherwise I revoke the magic used on these and they fall.[/i]

"Alright." Susanna said without hesitation. Perhaps healing these people would do her some good when her own Trial of the Damned started. [i]This is not something to be taken lightly, I could ask you to kill or torture or summon the greatest of monsters. Do you fully understand what you promise?[/i] "Yes." said Susanna defiantly. She would regret these words when the time came.

[i]Very well then, let it begin.[/i] Lilith filled Susanna's mind with the memory of a ritual, a ritual Lilith had not performed since she had learned it so long ago. A ritual for healing the mortal form of a hellspawn. With some minor adjustment it could be applied to these dying souls.

Susanna turned around and walked up to Seth of Valeria, she leaned uncomfortably close to his face. "I can heal you and the elf but you must promise me this, no matter what you see while I heal your wounds no one ever knows. The elf is unconscious he will not remember."

Seth looked into her eyes "I promise as the last member of the house of Valeria and swear on the bones of my father that it does not."

Susanna sighed with relief. "Good, I have a dark power in me that I struggle to control and try to ignore. I am going to call on it now to repair your bodies."

A bead of sweat rolled down Susanna's face. What she was doing know was wrong in every sense of the word. She should not be using such unclean energy for healing. It just felt wrong. [i]Then let him die, he's halfway there already[/i] Lilith's comment drove Susanna on. She had to do this.

Susanna stepped away from Seth held her arms out and her eyes closed gathering her nerve. She stretched her arms heavenward and started to speak. The voice that emanated from her did not sound human, it was Lilith's voice, the sound of a demon's true nature.

"Dark gods that slumber in the earth, lend me thine power. Whether I stand in house or field or mountain or plain my need remains the same. The form that which I call my own falls from me to the stone. With the master's work so far from done, nit the flesh and cement the bone."

Black storm clouds gathered overhead in a funnel converging on the spot were Susanna stood. The wind around her picked up as lightning shot from the clouds. It struck Susanna running through her being. Strangely it did not hurt and she found the bruises on her face turned back to pink skin, her ribs cracked back into place and her muscles knitted themselves back together. Susanna stretched out her arms and the excess lightning shot from her into Seth and the elven man healing both there wounds.

As soon as the madness began it was over. The wind died, the clouds vanished and Susanna sank to the ground exhausted. "Please, Seth of Valeria, tell no one of this. I paid a very high price for your health. Do not let me burn for it."

Susanna smiled weakly at him before lying down in the mud and letting the darkness claim her. Though she had not a scratch on her body but her scars she had no energy to stands and let the world of dreams take her where they will.