She arrests him - she has a brief aside with her retainer about how she will have to find some kind of more robust legal complaint to keep holding him Lawfully, but of course she can arrest him simply because it's weird for him to be wandering around here and that's suspicious. He is informed of her wizardly powers as they apply to making sure he doesn't try any funny business, and his hands are tied in front of him and he is forced to keep up with the trotting horse.

Getting arrestnapped by a powerful countess: pretty hot.  Infinite walking (and by extension running): not hot.  Khalida relaxes fractionally and digs out her Infernal Healing notes and a rag to start brushing the charcoal off with.  "Does a- a duke, or an auditor, or some such, come by to ask about, um, arrested men?  Or is she concerned more for her own Law?"

"Her own Law. Maybe a duke, but probably not."

"Maybe a priest."

"Yeah, maybe."

"I don't expect any priests in this book. That's not sexy."

"There's sexy priest books."

"That's not sexy in this context, then."

Khalida giggles a little at the mention of sexy priest books, putting a hand over her mouth.  "If I continue to interrupt- I did not expect to find her a wizard?  One hears told that all the nobles took sorcerer brides after the civil-"  fuck fuck nope that's super politics-

"I, um, that all the nobles are sorcerers," she manages eventually. 

"Nah, some of them probably swung that but not every family," someone shrugs.

"Sometimes only the youngest has the sorcery or the stupid one has it or something. Or they're fine but they get killed."

"Halmyris requires sorcery to inherit."

"That's one place."

"Also nothing actually stops a sorcerer from being a wizard also."

"Yeah, if they're bright enough."

Over the next week or so, things settle down into the start of a routine.  Khalida and the squad go two forts west and stay over and head back, and two days off, and then two forts east and stay over and back.  Walking eight or ten hours in a day sucks but she can do it, she's done it before and didn't even have her channels then, she's fine she's not a child, and if she's dragging at the end of the day so what, so is everyone.  (Filling a cistern with two of the guys unobtrusively playing dice on the other side of the room empirically seems to make her the most approachable, somebody at Eight wants Secluded Grimoire on her way back through.)  

She picks up another two card games and teaches the squad an Osirian one; she gets better at Chelish vowels and learns several new swears.  She runs another session of the reading group and doesn't die of embarrassment, and finally finally she's both in the fort and conscious for the topology circle.  (She manages not to literally bounce, but she's probably still coming off as really disconcertingly enthusiastic.)  She learns more types of demons than she realized existed, and their disappointingly few weaknesses.  She wakes one morning to discover her courses have started in the night, with her usual sick wash of relief (and then an entirely unusual spike of panic when she remembers her normal supplies are of course back in Sothis and she really should have found more before she needed them).  She starts to get bored of Worldwound Stew.  

And then on the way back from Fifteen, after a few days of no snow and the path getting trampled down, Cabrera steps on something invisible that takes a chunk out of his leg.

Khalida's only done a few practice runs with the squad but she does have field experience, she only hesitates a fraction before calling "Glitterdust, ware eyes!" as she starts casting, the guys closing up formation around her as Lloris calls orders-

There's more shapes outlined against the packed snow.  And most of them are even less stunned than that one.

Fights happen fast.

A few moments later, some but not all of the probably-quasits-or-something are dead, Khalida's run through her oh-shit spells, and while only Cabrera is actually down so far, ("Stabilize,") pretty much everyone's gotten more or less bitten and clawed.

Khalida pulls her belt knife, feeling utterly stupid- she's literally never held a melee weapon with killing intent before, she's going to be useless, anytime a fight got this far back home she had Ray of Frost prepped because she lives in the fucking desert and she didn't think of that when she swapped it out-

Stop that.  Focus.  What you can't do doesn't matter.  What can you do.

-throw it throw it throw it-

Well.  It's not nothing.  

There's a sparkling silhouette further down the path that's shaking off the stun and getting to its feet, at least she won't hit any of her guys if she misses-

She sights down the blade, breathes out, and throws-

-and as she pushes there's a fragment of a moment of connection, less than a spell more than a feeling-

-and the dagger puffs harmlessly into the snow three feet to the left of the quasit-or-whatever-

-and the universe twists just the tiniest fraction-

-and the dagger is back in her hand.

Well.

OKAY THEN.

She scoops up Cabrera's sword.

Her second shot also goes wide, but she doesn't seem to be any worse at throwing the sword than the dagger, and the third one hits, slowing it enough that Ferrer can finish taking it down before it gets another swipe in.

That feels like her last one of whatever-that-was, but meanwhile her squad (being armed and armored competent martials who've been doing this for years) have taken out the remaining demons, and nobody else seems to be down.  She does one last scan for anything else moving and then drops to her knees to check on Cabrera.

He turns out to be doing better than she thought- the Stabilize wouldn't have done anything- still mostly conscious and trying to put pressure on his leg himself, but he's gone grayish and his breathing is ragged and there is really a lot of blood on the snow instead of inside him.

She reaches for Mending with one hand, adding pressure from a better angle with the other, and closes her eyes, trying to focus.

Clerics can take a prepared spell and, instead of using it for its intended purpose, pull it apart for the divine energy fueling it, not the way broken or malformed wizard spells flare into undirected violence but smoother, channeled to pour positive energy into a single target.  (Or negative, if you're evil and trying to harm instead of heal, or patch up the undead.)

It should be simple.  There should be a way to tug just yea much and let it unravel, like aiming Prestidigitation at heating or cleaning or coloring something. 

(If he dies, he goes to hell.)

It shouldn't be taking this long to find it.

She needs to get him back on his feet, there could have been more of those things outside the radius of the Glitterdust, they've got more than an hour ahead of them even at their normal pace and if they run into anything else everyone's going to need their hands free to fight-

(If he dies he goes to hell.)

It can't be just Good gods that give it out, she's seen Abadarans do it.  Is it only Good clerics?  Is she some kind of bizarre sword-throwing divine sorcerer?  

(If he dies he goes to hell-)

He's counting on her, they're all counting on her, why can't she do it-

She drops Mending and lets go of his leg, pushing up to stand and scrabbling for her little wooden mask with bloody fingers, and calls down the power of Nethys to fix this-

Cabrera lurches to his feet, leaning on Lloris to do it but steady once he's up.

Okay.  Okay.  She scans the rest of the group- they were all still up earlier, the channel didn't deal with all the injuries and a couple look nasty, but some of them are fine now- and quietly hands Cabrera back his sword. 

And there's the post-fight shakes, polite of them to wait until after she was done FAILING AT healing.  She bites down on the inside of her cheek and stoops to collect her dagger, even though she's going to embarrass herself if she tries to sheathe it right now.

"Hey. We're all up," says Lloris. "Walk it off."

Right.  This is normal.  She can be normal.  Even if she suddenly wants to scream and scream until Someone actually fucking cares that is not how it works and never has been and never will be.

Four and a half miles to go.  She can start walking.

Once her hands have mostly stopped shaking, she puts her dagger away and starts Prestidigitating the blood and demon goo off everyone as they go.  It'll take a chunk of time, but she'll be done long before they reach the fort.

Then they will look presentable when they present themselves for Detecting. In they get.

She only had the divine Mending today so the various rents in various coats will have to wait for some other wizard- aaah shit, the evening channel was supposed to be hers.  Hopefully nothing festers overnight. 

...do they have to do some kind of report. she doesn't want to do a report she wants to curl up where nobody is looking at her.  She is in fact capable of being responsible and can do a report.

Lloris can do the report.

Then Khalida will take the out and just go sit in the cistern room and stare at the bricks for a while. 

This will not leave her unattended forever.

oh no the report found her

"Hi.  Um."  She pushes herself to her feet and leans on the rim of the cistern.  "Can't- do the evening channel."

"I heard. It is not more urgently needed here than it was there. Create Water."

That unlocks a little knot of tension she hadn't realized she was holding, which is stupid, what was she even afraid of.  She stays looking at the cistern instead of Artigas.  "Create Water.  Create Water."

"There-  I-"  Breathe.  "Create Water."

"What does it feel like?  To- to break a spell for healing?"