Legends of Belariath
Viceregine
Vice honestly cannot remember a time when she was not a healer. even as a child, she was tending to injured animals, skinned knees of other children and suchlike. An army brat, she was always hanging around the army healers asking questions and getting in their way. Finally, they gave her small jobs to do. Bathing the wounded, cleaning and rebinding wounds, occasionally assisting with setting of broken bones, that sort of thing. Eventually, the healers began to notice something: Wounds she cleaned tended not to turn foul. Bones she helped set tending to knit sooner and stronger. Patients she fed and bathed, well, they were just better off in general than others.
The difference was small, but as she grew older, the "Vice touch" as it came to be called grew more pronounced. The army healers told her Ma and Pa that she had a genuine gift for this work. Then one day, there was a battle. A big one. Her side didn't lose, but it didn't exactly win, either. This was an all hands on deck affair, and Vice was thrown into duties and tasks she had only observed before. There were hundreds of wounded pouring into her field hospital, hundreds. She threw herself into the work, feeling more alive than ever before. And then it happened. While easing the suffering of a dying man she felt something *shift* in her head, felt/saw a shimmering warmth flow along her fingers into the wound...which closed up, healed a weeks worth in seconds. It only happened once that day, and didn't happen again for several more days, but she did it. She saved that man. She had taken the among the worst that a battle could throw at her and found out that she could handle it. She became a true Healer and never looked back.
That war ended shortly thereafter, but peace did not mean the end of her work. Her father was a career soldier, but Army life was not fully to her taste. She became a wandering healer, no formal training but with vast field experience for one so young. And her semi--magical powers continued to grow. She had possessed an uncanny knack for telling what was wrong with someone even before her wound healing powers appeared, and had long had a knack for curing/easing infections. Before long she was able to stem, even reverse the tide of diseases that harmed the entire body, not just wounds. But what really brought her a small degree of fame was poisons. There were many country wise-woman antidotes for poison. -state Those brews and blends prepared by Vice were both potent and reliable. And this, of course, attracted official attention.
Back to the Army she went. Very much against her will, but not against her grain. An army kid through and through she fell back into old habits War was coming, and soon. She didn’t bother about why, as a peasant girl, nobody really bothered to tell her anyway. The army expanded rapidly, when war came, there were many, many green untested troops in the Ranks. By comparison, Vice was already a veteran.
The war was short and brutal. One city state against three, hard odds to beat. Defeat was total, the penalties dire. The walls were razed, the city torn down, all land divided among the neighbors, all citizens sold into slavery. Those that didn’t get away, that is. Vice is certain that he father is dead, almost certain that her eldest brother is as well. Her two younger brothers and Mother, she knows they are alive and well. They were the last time she saw them at least. She was marked for special attention from the conquerors. The land she is from is poor n magic, mages of any sort are rare, healers even rarer. They wanted her badly and she took advantage of that, showing herself to pursuers to draw them away from the group of refugees her family was with
She ran hard, fast and long, ending up in Nanthalion. She has made a new life, with friends, lovers…and enemies. Very recently she has suffered a great spiritual loss, brought about in part by r own lactions. Her healing gifts are gone, and may never come back. A bitter blow but not the first she has taken in her life. She has friends galore, and a family of sorts with House CD. She will get through this, and thrive.