A flash of light. A groan of pain, rapidly turning into relief. That was how hours of tedious magical healing ended, as Rhian healed her patient. He wasn't one of her children. In fact, before now he had sneered at her and her children as they walked by. 'Monsters and freaks, governed by their whore of a shepherd!', he would call out. Rhian had repeatedly held back her children from seeking vengeance. Words would not hurt her, and she could see by his lifeforce that he would do nothing more than shout insults. He was too attached to life to risk anything else.He would be one that would never be converted, she could tell. But he came crawling to her when death seemed to be knocking at his door. He threw away all his pride and claims against her, to cling to life. She could have rejected him, let him die. But then she would have been no better than him, and how can such a person take care of all of her children? So she accepted him into her makeshift healing room, and set about healing all the ails that were killing him. Minutes turned into hours, and she lost track of time as she steadily hunted down and fixed everything she could in his body. 

When she was done, she sent him on his way. He left, leaving only a humble thank you. [i]Three days. Then he'll be back to screaming insults.[/i] Rhian thought idly, sighing. Standing, groaning herself as she stretched muscles that had shifted very little in the past several hours, the Priestess of the Damned glanced behind her at Zek. Her silent guardian stood in his usual place, next to the door, in his rusted armor with his fanatically well kept mace. Years ago, she had found him nearly dead in an alley. nNked, brutally burned, beaten, and stabbed, his tongue cut out, death seemed certain. Yet she refused to give up on him. Saving him had been the longest and most strenuous act of healing she had ever done, and ever will do. Six whole days, stopping only briefly to eat, drink, and take care of necessities. When she was done, they both collapsed into a deep sleep. He awoke before she did and left soon after finding out who healed him, via written notes.

When Rhian has awoken and heard the news, she shrugged, thanked her nameless Gods for giving her the strength to save him, and continued on her way. Not everyone would embrace her Gods. She had learned this at a young age. But Zek had defied all expectations and returned, wearing rusted armor and carrying a gleaming mace. From their written conversation, Rhian gathered that he had sworn a debt to protect her life from all harm, that his armor was rusted and never to be cleaned because of his previous sins and failures, and that he would never leave her side. After a few weeks of trying to get him to stop being only her bodyguard, Rhian had given up. Now his presence was as familiar and welcome as her own magic.

"Well, come on Zek. Lets see if there's anything interesting going on around the town. Sleep is a long way off for me, and I know you're just going to follow me on my rounds." Zek merely nodded his rusted head, a slight screech being the result of this movement, and followed her out the door. "Probably will stop by the job board, just to see what's going around the town that might affect us. Do you think there are good chances we'll meet one of the children, or convert another? Or do you think it's more likely that someone will be stupid enough to try and rob or mug us? I'm placing my money on the latter, I'm afraid. Not all of the Damned are my children." She continued like this, amicably talking to him about everything from the weather to the likely hood of seeing a thief get caught, as they walked to the middle of town. Interesting things always happened there.