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A series of important events happened after that but Rhea was only vaguely aware of it. Every part of her had taken a beating and her body had received the least of it. Unimportant things like being dehydrated, covered in poison, and suffering several cracked or bruised ribs were things the body could sort out with time and nourishment. The mind and soul damage was much more serious.

The man she loved was dead. Another man had merged with her in a way so intimate that his departure took a part of her away. The magic she had wielded had killed people and Baba Ginger's prediction had come true. Doing terrible things with magic had stained her. Her insides were burnt, her mind was a chaotic jumble, and her dreams were filled with the screams of villagers dying in a fire.

Rhea woke in agony. She was naked, tender from an abrasive scrubbing, and full of the types of medicines that guaranteed she did not stay alert for long. A hand pressed against her forehead and a man's voice tsked. "She's burning up. Help me to get some-" She did not get to hear what they planned to do because she had slipped away again. Villagers screamed. A little girl cried for her mother. A baby cried in its crib.

"Rhea ... what have you done?"

"I'm sorry," she called out. "I'm sorry ... I'm sorry ... sorry ..."

Pain flooded through her body and she screamed until all of her strength left her. The smell of burning flesh filled her nostrils and she knew it was hers. Then there was a blissful silence and darkness took her once more.

*****

When Rhea finally opened her eyes, she realized she could not see. No ... I can see the ceiling. But she could not hear. No ... there's a person walking ... a cough ... a whimper. She could not feel. No ... I feel heavy. My chest hurts and my tongue feels like chalk. I'm missing something, though. What ... am I missing?

"There you are," said a young woman with a motherly voice. It took a lot of effort to focus on the source of the sound but Rhea managed to see a beautiful woman with naturally curling chestnut hair and swirling hazel eyes. Rhea felt herself getting lost in the woman's strange eyes but she managed to look away when her caretaker soaked her rag in a bucket and began dabbing her patient's forehead. "That fever had most of us worried. David and James said you'd never wake up, but I knew better. I bet them all sorts of naughty favors that you'd wake up in a week ... and here you are. Are you thirsty?"

Rhea managed to make a sound that was similar to a yes but it had been almost as much effort as focusing on the woman who was talking to her. The caretaker had anticipated this, though, as she produced a water skin and helped Rhea drink. A strange sweet liquor stunned her senses back to life and it burned deliciously. "W-wha- ... what's it-"

"Wine from the healing hall," the nurse told Rhea when her words got too jumbled for her to finish.

"Alcohol?" Rhea asked as she made faces.

"What else would we give you?" the nurse asked with amused confusion. "The water around here would give you the runs and tea is too expensive. Just rest, dear. Do you think you can handle a little food?"

"Uhm ... I guess." Tea is too expensive? When is tea ever expensive? It's the most basic thing around. Rhea tried to sit up and an avalanche of pain tumbled through her chest. "Uhhh ... nooo." She wheezed as she flopped back and tried to draw in shallow breaths. Most of the pain began to return back to its original dull throbbing but some of it was stubborn. "Chest hurts," she complained when the burning refused to recede.

The nurse's face took on the expression of any caregiver doing her job and she began to slowly manipulate Rhea's bedding. "Oh, poor baby," she said as she began pealing the back bandages that Rhea suddenly realized were covering her chest. "I see," she nodded in understanding. "You just need more ointment. No problem at all."

The woman took a jar of foul smelling herbal something-or-other from the nightstand, ran her fingers through it, and began to apply it to Rhea's skin. Pain flared, met a layer of soothing cold, and then melted under the woman's touch. Something about her voice calmed Rhea's woes as practiced hands soothed the body's aches. Confusing messages began to play through her mind until she found the strength to ask the question she had been dreading.

"What medicine-" The failure to speak was aggravating and so she grit her teeth and tried again. "Why do I need that medicine? What's wrong with my chest?"

"Oh, those goons held the iron on you a little too long," the nurse said sternly.

"The ... iron?"

"The brand," the nurse told her as if she should already know. "You know ... to seal away your magic."

"They ... sealed-" Panic fired through Rhea's limbs and she nearly flung the caretaker off of the bed. Tumbling in the other direction caused Rhea to get tangled in her bedding and hit the floor. Stumbling like a lamed cow, she clawed her way to her feet, and wobbled her way, unsteadily, to a full length mirror. There was not a stitch of clothing on her and she looked sickly, pale, and haggard. The brand on her skin was hideous. A circle with a triangle beneath was branded around the symbol of a woman. She knew its meaning. Helios, God of Light, the sun, and all that is good in the world, shone the Light of Palor down upon the woman's power and contained it.

That's what it is! That's what I'm missing! I'm blind and deaf because my sixth sense is gone! There's no magic! I can't feel the world around me! Her head swam and she grabbed the mirror to steady herself. She turned towards the nurse and focused on her with all of her strength. Nothing._She opened her mind and listened to the life around her. _Quiet. She turned her sight inward and tried to feel the damage. A hollow pit sucked at her sight and drew her into its depths.

"Damn-it! Damn-it! Damn-it!" She grabbed the mirror and stared hard into it. Mirrors were portals and wonderful focus items. Focus on a mirror should allow her to see magical energies or into the nether-world, but there was nothing. All of her intuition was gone, the auras of the people around her were blank, even the heartbeat of the world was silent.

"NOOO!" she screamed as she slammed the mirror to the floor. It shattered in a satisfying cacophony that made her want to destroy more things. She wanted to summon fire, she wanted to smash furniture and crush things until the world made sense ... but there was no will ... there was no strength. She fell to her knees, as her outrage gave in to grief, and she began to weep. "No! No! No! No ..." Her shouting dissipated into hoarse whispers of protest until everything melted into uncontrollable sobbing.

Everything that she knew was wrong. All of her skills, her life, and her love had been ruined and now ... her magic was also gone. Nothing's left ... nothing.

"Hussshhh hussshhh," the other woman in the room murmured in the motherly voice of empathy and understanding. Gentle hands touched Rhea's feverish skin and slowly drew her close enough to hold. "It's okay ... I'm here. Everything's going to be okay."

Rhea wept for Lyle ... for Peter ... for everything she had lost. An emotional squall that rained until it emptied. Eventually, Rhea curled into a ball and leaned against the other woman.

"How?" Rhea finally managed to ask.

"You're not alone," the woman told her as she drew open the neckline of her own blouse and let Rhea stare down it. "See?"

"They ... you're a witch too," Rhea finally managed to work out.

"I was a witch," the nurse told her gently. "I don't need magic to heal people, though. It's just the easiest way."

"W-what a-am I going to do?" the girl stammered as she tried to pull herself together.

"First, you're going to get back into bed." Rhea wanted to argue, but it sounded like such a good idea that she soon found herself surrounded by softness with covering being getting tucked around her. "Now, you need to eat. I'm sure you're very hungry." The woman was right. She was very hungry.

"How ... are you doing that?" Rhea asked and the young woman gave her a knowing smile. Slowly the caretaker unbuttoned her blouse more completely and let her patient's eyes focus on a much older version of the same brand.

"They can't seal all of you away." The nurse's smile had traces of a vicious power in it, and suddenly Rhea felt a spark kindling in her hopeless wasteland. "You can call me Anna. I'm going to go get you some food."

Anna stepped gingerly over the shards of broken mirror, crossed the room, and opened the door. Two broad-shouldered men stood there with cudgels in their hands and serious expressions. The nurse-witch crossed her arms and stared at them until the pair put their weapons away and looked at the floor.

"Everything is okay," she told them gently. "Please tell Joseph to bring a broom. We managed to break a mirror in all of the excitement."

"Yes, ma'am," the guards said in unison and then the door closed and Rhea was alone.

The Light of Palor was used to seal away my magic. At least they got me away from those cultists. They don't like witches but they usually don't kill us either. She tried to remember the specifics of what the Children of Helios did to witches and why but she was just too tired to keep it up.

Rhea woke up when Anna sat on the bed. A few men retreated out the door and then closed it. A large bowl of soup was settled into Anna's lap and the smell of it caused her patient to try sitting up once more. "I can do it," Rhea protested but Anna furrowed one chestnut colored brow and watched her with eyes that seemed to change color the longer she looked. A serious pout jutted out Rhea's lower lip, but her nurse slid a spoonful of soup past the pursed lips and the fight went right out of her.

Several spoons full of liquid delighted the senses but Rhea soon felt her eyes getting heavy again. Anna said something but sleep took her patient out from under her before any sense could be made of them.

Time passed. There was no way to know how much, but eventually Rhea sat up in bed and looked around the sickroom. Only now did she realize it was a bedroom and that the door was only a few feet away. Somehow all of her senses had been convinced that she was in a large room with many beds in it. Or maybe I was before and then they carried me in here? I don't know if they could have done that without waking me up ... but I felt like I could have slept through a kidnapping ... so ... maybe I did.

The simple effort of rotating her body, standing, and pushing the shutters open seemed monumental, but she managed. Soon, there was moonlight streaming in and something that was loosely related to fresh air was coming into the room. A deep breath told her that this air had not seen its way through a tree in a long time. City air was something Baba Ginger had mentioned. "It's rugged, like a well-worn traveler who knows all of the worst taverns in town." What does not kill me makes me stronger, Rhea tried to remind herself, but she was not sure she believed it.

Sore muscles really wanted to go for a walk, but there was not enough strength for that, so she settled for something smaller. Using the chamber pot without assistance was one of the stranger victories the young woman had ever taken pride in but she decided she would have to work her way up to the bigger tasks. After that, she moved to a full length mirror which stood in the corner. Wait a minute ... didn't I break that thing? She looked down at the floor and cautiously shuffled to make certain there was no broken glass waiting to greet her. She made it without incident but then she stared into the reflective surface.

The woman who stared back at her was a wretched thing. The mane of brown hair, which she had always called unruly, had gone completely native and now resembled a collection of untamed bushes. Cutting it off might be more pleasant than actually untangling it and the rest of her was not much better. Rhea's green eyes were sunken into her skull, as were her cheeks. The skin around her hands gave her a fantastic view of the veins and bones inside and she was almost afraid to check out the rest of her parts.

Eventually she worked up the courage to do so, and her heart sank as she thought of all the lost work she had put into being strong and fast. I'm going to need to start over. Nothing about that is going to be fun. She took a breath, held it, and then let it out slowly. "Well," she told herself, "no time like the present."

*****

By the time the sun finally peeked through Rhea's window, she was covered in a thin layer of sweat and panting like she'd spent the whole night with Lyle. The memory hurt but not as badly as she thought it should. I wonder just how broken I am inside. Did I grieve too hard? Is there enough left for me to love again?

Two knocks drew her attention but the door opened before she could invite the intruder in. "Oh!" Anna started and then she smiled. "Good morning!"

"Good morning," Rhea said tiredly, suddenly glad she had rummaged up some ragged clothed and put them on.

"Been up long?"

"A bit," she admitted.

"Well that's good." Anna encouraged her by putting on a bright smile and then closed the door behind her. "Were you exercising?"

"Sort of," Rhea said with a huff. "I've been just lying there for so long that I decided I needed to move again. So I've been stumbling around the room for a while."

"A good start," Anna said and she nodded encouragingly. "There's a lot more work coming. Are you ready?"

"What are we going to do?" Rhea asked with distaste on her face.

"Well," Anna started and then she put on the look of giving a person terrible news, "I'm afraid we're going to need to get you a bath."

"A ... bath?"

"Big-time." Anna nodded seriously. "You smell like a horse stall that hasn't been mucked out in a while."

"Oh," Rhea said and then, after a sizable delay, she chuckled.

"There it is." Anna beamed. "I knew there was a smile in there somewhere."

"I'm sorry," Rhea told her as she leaned against the wall. "I'm restless ... but I still feel like the ground around a town's square."

"Yeah, sickbeds are never fun," Anna agreed with an empathetic nod. "Makes you glad you're alive, though."

"Thanks, Anna," Rhea said tiredly. Then she took a deep breath for courage and popped the question she had been dreading. "Uhm, Anna ... where am I?"