Elizah stood and waited nervously for Jayden to meet her. He said he’d bring her out of the situation, but she didn’t know how he’d do it.

She just wanted to make sure that he wouldn’t do something reckless, being the Prince did have its own restrictions.

She wandered her way out of the forest and walked into the centre of the town. The town was brightly illuminated, despite the time. It was getting late into the night, and Elizah knew that Micah would be worried. The man from the castle had been kind enough to postpone their deadline to the following day, after learning about the castle murder and suspension of the court working hours for the rest of that day. Still, there wasn’t much Elizah could accumulate overnight to pay.

She wandered over to an empty alley, usually home to a good number of the extremely poor. It was a dangerous pastime of hers, but her heart wouldn’t let her stop.

She walked through a few turns in the alley to reach a small slum community. She found impoverished and clearly malnourished families.

She took out a small pouch from the pocket of her apron and unfolded the cloth wrapped around the small bunch of tarts that she had smuggled from her pantry. It wasn’t much, but she knew it would bring a few happy smiles from the people.

She let her cloak hood fall off, walked into the area, and saw a smiling girl meet her there. The girl was relatively young and skinny, but she was always smiling and laughing despite her family’s pain, and Elizah found that quality admirable.

She’d spent a couple days among the dwellers there, years ago, right after Micah had been taken and Roxanne had made close accomplices with those living there.

After Elizah had moved out of the area and with her step-father, it only seemed fair that she would also give back to the children living there.

Roxanne finding her second husband was a well-known fact among the dwellers. In fact, it was the most significant memory Elizah had of the place.

Elizah handed a tiny tart to each of the children, and each of the children embraced Elizah tightly, and they all smiled.

“Auntie Liz,” one of the kids asked, and Elizah gave a fond smile, “Would you help my mama, she isn’t well, and I’m scared.”

Elizah took the little girl’s frail hand gently and walked with the girl to the small closed room. It was small, but it seemed warm and comfortable for the girl’s family.

The girl seemed frightened when she walked into the room to see her mother lying on the cot and feverishly tossing and turning.

“Little one, I’ll make your mama better, but I need you to go wait outside. I’ll call you when she’s better,” Elizah said gently, and the girl nodded and walked outside.

It was Elizah’s trick to make sure no one told her off. She always told the children to leave when she healed someone.

She raised her hand gently over the woman’s face and closed her eyes as she’d usually do to detect the problem. She then felt the darkness ebbing away from her touch and could feel the tingling pain inside the woman. There was the sensation of heat and cold around her, and the most important thing to do was to go towards the cold and bring warmth.

She touched something in her surroundings and her palm radiated as much heat as she could to the cold surrounding her palm. It drained her energy from herself, but it was going to be completely worth it in the end.

She gave one last glimpse around her surroundings when she noticed another pulsing beam coming from inside the woman.

Elizah let out a gasp and smiled, “It can’t be.”

She made her way to the second pulsing. There was only supposed to be one pulse inside a particular person, and that was their heart.

She found the warmth radiating from it and could only smile. It was a beauty in itself. The slight pulsing was emitting so much energy as heat it was remarkable even for Elizah.

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Elizah observed the pulsing light for moments in clear awe, and she knew clearly what the light was.

She slowly retracted her hand and opened her eyes. The woman was now awake and seated on the bed, looking bewildered at what was just going on.

“You’re a healer,” the woman said, with her tone both in awe and confusion.

Elizah didn’t know whether the lady would turn her over to the king and queen, so she remained silent.

Before Elizah could do anything, the woman embraced her tightly and whispered, “Thank you. You saved both of our lives.”

The woman patted gently at the small bump, and Elizah could only smile. It was surprising that Elizah hadn’t noticed the bump before.

The girl was peeking through the doorway upon hearing the voices, and Elizah let out a small laugh and ushered the little one in. “Your mama will be okay,” Elizah said, and the little girl was overjoyed.

Seeing the happiness in the room made Elizah’s heart leap with joy. She gave the mother and daughter some privacy as she walked out of the small housing region and towards the forest.

On the way, however, something caught her eye. It was one of the large taverns in the town, and for some reason, it was crowded with people watching something intently from outside.

Micah was supposed to be here, trying his luck at some money. But he wasn’t the one in the centre.

“I’ve placed my last bet. It stands at 200 gold,” the voice from the middle of the room said, and Elizah knew precisely who the voice was within seconds.

There was a collective intake of breath by the crowd. 200 gold was no joke, and not everyone could afford that type of price.

She made her way through the crowd to be drawn towards the centre. She found Jayden seated there with a couple of cards in his hands and Micah across the room. He was too focused on his surroundings that he didn’t notice his sister.

A big, burly man seated at the other end of the table began to draw cards. Jayden had no chance of winning this unless he brought out some strategy into the game, by the looks of it.

But knowing Jayden Larkspear, Elizah knew that he was smart enough to pull it off. The cards were dealt out evenly for both of them, and they were observing their cards with keen interest.

Elizah stood along the sidelines of the crowd and watched tensely as the game unfolded. It was a tough match by the looks, and this game was based entirely on strategy and deep thought.

But all soon came to an end when the winner was made quite clear. Jayden made his victory simple by drawing the tension of his opponent.

As the crowd cleared, Elizah made her way to the group’s centre and faced Jayden once the crowd around him had dispersed.

“Liz, what are you doing here?” he asked, startled by her appearance by his side.

“I needed to make sure you weren’t an idiot,” Elizah said and glared at him.

“Look, I need to keep you safe. So here, keep these and don’t worry about returning it to me, you’ve done enough for me already,” Jayden said and handed the bag of 200 gold pieces to Elizah.

Elizah looked surprised as she took the bag in her palm and felt its weight. “But--” She began to protest.

“Your caring nature has been my payment, so now I have to fill the debt. I love you, Liz, and I can’t see you hurt,” Jayden said and gently whispered in Elizah’s ear, and she laughed.

“I told you, I’m not going to respond to that until I feel like it,” Elizah said softly, but in her heart, she realised her feelings were changing.

Elizah embraced Jayden tightly before they tried to remain discreet in their exit from the spot. But the smiles on their faces would have revealed everything.