With a faint ‘click’ and another ‘clack’, the door sprung open. It creaked, but the steady pitter-patter of the rain against the windows drowned out the sound–it had been pouring all night. The Voidling crept inside the occupied building and took a look around; it was quiet, but not empty. She could hear the steady breaths and snores coming from behind the wall to her left, and a quiet heartbeat coming from upstairs. Silently, the skilled thief snuck through the living room and headed upstairs, where the person she was looking for was rumoured to be sleeping. Throughout all of this, she could feel a slight ache in her right shoulder, and warm blood trickling through the poorly applied bandage.

She wasn’t exactly in her most glorious state, but that didn’t matter much. Nuala was injured, and she needed a healer. The hospital wasn’t an option for the Voidling, who hated being looked at by knowing eyes and doctor’s offices were filled with curious and nosy humans. Her identity wasn’t a secret anymore (at least not since she’d joined Daeva Eye), but that didn’t mean she had to provoke interaction either. So instead, Nuala did what she always did in these type of situations: she broke into an unsuspecting healer’s home and demanded to be cured.

The woman was sleeping upstairs as expected, and once the thief had entered her room she slowly approached the bed and pressed her hand onto the raven-haired woman’s mouth. She awoke immediately and her bright, emerald eyes shot open with panic. Luckily she was fairly weak and clearly caught off-guard, because when Nuala signaled her to keep quiet she obeyed immediately. "I need two things from you: for you to shut up and to help me with something. Can you do that?" The girl quickly nodded.

Rania’s day had been rough; there had been an immense amount of work at the Marigold Hospital and even though she’d technically already quit her job, the staff had called the Paladin back in, desperate for her assistance. There’d been an accident at a nearby mine and a dozen of workers had suffered major injuries – for a small town like this, that was quite a lot. Rania was happy to help, but fixing such large wounds and injuries always tired her out. She knew that it was important to practice and hone her skills, and once she returned to Magnolia (or wherever her next travel took her) she’d most certainly focus on that. But for now, all she wanted to do was to sleep it out.

Unfortunately, today simply wasn’t her day. She was awoken roughly by something being pressed against her mouth and when she opened her eyes and stared into the face of a complete stranger bearing a wild appearance with strange, glowing markings on their face (and a ridiculous amount of physical strength), the poor girl almost choked and her body froze. The other woman (she assumed that’s what this person was) signaled her to be quiet, and then rudely demanded her assistance. It took her a moment to collect herself, but even in her sleepy state Rania knew that there was only one thing an intruder could possibly want from her: her magic. She nodded quietly and moved to turn the light on.

“You’re injured,” she whispered as quietly as she possible could in her shocked state and immediately slid out of bed and pulled the strange-looking female beside her. Much to her surprise, she silently accepted the treatment. Her shoulder was bleeding and after inspecting the wound for a bit and cleaning it out, Rania came to the conclusion that this one had been hit by a poisoned spear or arrow of some sorts. And while the wound itself wasn’t healing well, the purple-haired lady seemed fine, which was the real mystery here. But Rania decided that now as not the time to be nosy. “I think I can fix this, just hold still,” she demanded and pressed her hands against the woman’s shoulder.

White light poured out and the stranger squirmed in pain. Oddly enough, her magic (which was usually very competent) wasn’t working that well and it took her almost an hour to close up the wound and cleanse it. Throughout the entire ordeal, neither of them spoke.

A Sorceress of Light, and a Paladin no less. Not the Voidling’s first choice, but her proficiencies would come in handy regardless of her elemental alignment. Unfortunately Rania’s magic carried out the expected side effects and the Voidling was forced to suffer throughout the entire hour that it took her to close up the wounds. Her dark race didn’t go well with light magic, even if it was of healing nature and during some points it felt that the black-haired human was doing more damage than good. But after an hour of excruciating pain, it was finally over and the wound had closed up. “Excellent job, little human,” the rogue praised her and looked at her shoulder in the mirror.

This one could have gone terribly wrong. She would have to be more careful from now on.

“You have done me quite the service today and I won’t forget about it. There will be a reward for of course, but for now it’s best if you go back to sleep,” said Nuala and flashed the healer a wicked smile. The girl was pale, even paler than the Voidling herself, and Nuala wondered why she looked so meek and tired. All that healing and usage of mana and magic must have taken a toll on her. “Just remember not to tell anyone about our encounter,” and with that being said and done, Nuala disappeared into the night. She would leave a bag of jewels at the kitchen table for Rania to pick up in the morning. It was a ridiculously generous sum, but the girl had earned it.

Rania was baffled; the other woman was obviously not normal. There was something about her aura, the vibe she gave off and also the way she looked that was alien and strange. Her movements were sharp in spite of the injury and her body was toned and muscular. If Rania had to take a guess, she’d assume that the stranger who’d broken into her home at night was no ordinary human – if she was human at all. But it didn’t matter for Rania was kind enough to help anyone, even those who invaded her home at night without invitation. She could only assume that this one had her reasons for doing so. When Rania began the process of healing, she used her magic to pour it into the woman’s body and close up the wound, but it took longer than expect. It appeared that her body was rejecting the magic and that made the whole thing last even longer.

When they finally finished, the Paladin felt even more exhausted than before. She could only hope that the stranger had no evil intentions, but as soon as the job was done she stood up and gave her a few oddly supportive words. She even spoke about a reward, although Rania wasn’t exactly in the right space to worry about money nor – nor did she care. All she wanted was to take a nap and when the woman demanded that Rania kept quiet about this, she simply nodded at her. “Yes, yes, I know. I won’t tell anyone. I’m sure you have your reasons for going about this the way you did. Goodbye.” With that said and done, the other one simply vanished into thin air, without a trace. This shook Rania back to reality for a second, but she was shortly overcome by fatigue and tiredness once again.

Rania went back to bed almost immediately and when she woke up the next day, the whole event almost seemed surreal–except it wasn’t. When the young woman walked down into the kitchen to prepare breakfast, she spotted a large sack of jewels sitting there on the table, waiting for her. And when she began counting the money, she almost couldn’t believe it. She had left her a little fortune! “That’s for sure the most generous client I have ever had,” she muttered under her breath and shook her head.