Elmera sighed...  stuck in her bunk, mostly, since they had departed the ruins and boarded the [i]Kyne's Tear.[/i]  Her thigh now throbbed dully, but it was nowhere near as bad as it had been.  Putting too much weight on it, she feared, might cause her knee to buckle under stress, so she had been keeping her walking to a minimum.  The bobbing ship was soothing, but the Dunmer woman was growing restless.  She focused what she knew of restoration magic into the injured limb, but the bolt had punctured her thigh deeply, and it took more than a moderate understanding of a magic school to heal an injury that deep.

Elmera didn't get up until she heard sounds of crashing and shouting topside.  What the hell was going on?  She slipped from her bed and stood up, using the bedposts for support.  The woman made her way to the top deck once she had belted her sword to her hip.  Once she stepped out, her eyes went wide.  The crew was scrambling to combat the attack and Elmera felt useless.  At this point, she wasn't even sure why she brought her sword with her - she wouldn't be able to effectively use it anyway.  Once she finally hobbled to the edge, she heard men barking orders to patch holes caused by ice spikes, boarding lines were being thrown out, and fighters were mobilizing.  As the two crews clashed, Elmera sneered and a sharp tingle ran down her arm, crackling as sparks formed around her hand.  As her free arm braced on the side of the ship, she tossed an Arc Lightning spell across the rail, affecting a few of the others nearby the one she struck.

Why now?  So far, she had proven to be useless to the entire company.  She was crippled in the ruins before she even had a chance to fight.  And now they were being boarded and she likely only had a couple of spells in her for defense before she was completely exhausted.  Her eyes flitted from the forward to aft on the [i]Kyne's Tear,[/i] there had to be something she could do to be more useful.  One of the ballistae seemed undermanned, she decided.  That was a good place, she'd have something to lean on, and she always considered herself a good enough shot that she could help aim at a target the size of ship at point-blank.

She picked up her pace to a nearly-solid walk to join the crew before the crews were at all-out war on the deck.  When she made it over, she placed a hand on the shoulder of one of the men on the weapon for stabilization.

"How can I help?"

"Can you help with the loading?  The bolts aren't light, but with help, we can get them in here and do some real damage."

"On it," She stated immediately, keeping more weight on her strong leg.  They had to be careful too - wasted bolts were not cheap, especially with equipment this sophisticated.  At least, Elmera didn't think so; her knowledge didn't reach so well to siege weapons.  Oh, how she wanted to be on the other side, weaving through battle and supporting her comrades with magic.  But no, she had to save her strength for healing and emergency casting.