Fantasy RPG Forum - Standing Trials

When she had discovered that she was pregnant, Faith had been delighted, terrified, excited and a whole plethora of emotions. As those emotions settled down and became a constant state of nervous anticipation, she had started to think about work. In the early stages, while she was still clear and able to think about it, Faith had decided that she was going to continue to work in Zi'da, volunteer and maintain her studies.

She had been, she thought with a slight and wry smile, delusional. Here she was at the end of Vhalar, about to enter the third trimester of her pregnancy and she was exhausted. Faith had been tired before, many many times. As a slave, sleep had not been a right but a privilege and something that Jamal had controlled very carefully. Yet, even then she had not felt like this.

So, a few trials ago, Faith had gone to speak to Galena. She'd discussed the possibility of cutting back her shifts at the Order and Galena had been clear. There would be no cutting back, there would be stopping and that was that. Faith wanted to argue, to say that she could do more of this, or that, but she didn't and couldn't because frankly all she felt was relief. Padraig was going to be leaving in two trials, if she wasn't working anywhere or at all at that point, he would be happier she knew and frankly, so would she.

This, therefore, was her last shift. Until after the baby was born, that was. Faith put her hand down to her stomach; she seemed to be swelling each trial just lately and her bump was no longer small and neat but instead, as she had once said to Padraig in Rharne, she was all bump and bosom. The shift had been a quiet one and Faith was packing up her things, those items she kept here and so on. She'd be going home within the break, Padraig insisting on walking her home because of the howling wind and icy conditions. She'd told him that there was no need, she was much less likely to get blown away at the moment, for all that she looked like a balloon.

It would be strange, Faith thought, not being here as a member of the Order but as a patient. Galena was a calm and compassionate midwife and Faith was grateful for the regular check ups that her mentor insisted on her having, they kept a close eye on her, it must be said. Faith sat down with a sigh and wrapped her hands around the cup of tea she was drinking, looking down at them with a frown. The scars on the palms of her hands were a criss-cross of silver veins, mementos from the kidnapping. Her thoughts were drifting, she realised and then she heard the shout.

As it always did, it sounded calm and almost like the person shouting was just informing them. "Incoming!" Faith breathed in and considered that she should have known better than to think her last shift would be quiet. With less than a break before she went home, of course the call went out. Incoming meant one thing and one thing only. Multiple casualties, severe wounds. So, the young woman heaved herself off the chair and made her way in to find out what the problem was.

Multiple casualties and severe wounds.

There wasn't a call for worse than that, and so Faith was expecting bad and, in truth, bad was what she got. There was blood, a lot of it. A group of the Elements were bringing in people. Faith counted six of them, although there wasn't time to stop and do more than guess. She turned her gaze to them, then looked at Galena, who was assessing, the injuries. While Galena decided who went where, Faith moved over to one of the injured. A human man, not elderly but with enough streaks of white in his hair that she would guess his age to be in his fifties. Whatever had happened, his entire left side was covered in abrasions and deep puncture wounds. What had caused this, she wondered, but he wasn't going to tell her, he was unconscious.

"They were attacked out on the waters," the Elements Troop said as he lifted the man on to the bed. Faith looked up at him and smiled, her expression somewhat tight. "Give me your hand," she said, taking hold of said hand and she clamped it on to the patient's side, covering the worst of the damage. "Hold, hard." The man was bleeding and she needed to deal with that first. That would involve a lot of stitches and she knew that she was working against the clock. He was loosing a lot of blood and Faith thought that he might well end up dying just from blood loss. But she had to do her best.

So, the outwardly calm young woman got to work. First things first, stop the bleed. She worked as quickly as she could, the swell of her stomach making things more awkward for her, but she worked around it. By the time Galena got to her, Faith was covered in blood and fighting hard against this man's body. She looked at Galena and her face was pale and her expression grim. Galena said nothing, but she moved to help. Faith gave her a grateful nod, because she needed another person here so that one of them could get stitching up these wounds. Currently, it was a losing battle and she needed to turn the tide.

With Galena's help, that began to happen and Faith started, after a prolonged period of not thinking it likely, to believe that she might keep him alive through the night. Faith stitched, the wounds being too deep for the raft and she tried to make sure that she did it in such a way that the bleeding was absolutely minimised. The temptation, of course, was to rush but that led to sloppy work and sloppy work lost lives. No, she was as quick as she could be whilst still being effective. Effective was the most important. Using the healing power granted to her by Moseke, and with a prayer of thanks to the Immortal for that, Faith worked. She was careful not to over use the healing power of her blessing, aware that to do so was to invite further tiredness and, whilst adrenaline was a wonderful thing, Faith knew that she was close to the edge in terms of her physical limits so she did not push it.

Because she knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that it was going to be a long night.

Stitching closed the wounds was the beginning of it, she knew and as Faith turned her attention from his side and to his arm, she sighed. "Galena, I need to..." To what? To amputate the arm, she was about to say but Faith frowned slightly. "To see if I can save this arm." Galena looked at her in some surprise. The young woman was heavily pregnant, covered in blood, pale and tired looking and yet, Galena recognised the expression on Faith's face. She had worn the same expression when told that Lightbane had no cure, when Galena had suggested that maybe the Rot couldn't be cured. She had it now.

"Alright, what do you need?"

Faith pinched the bridge of her nose and thought about it. What she needed was to go home, to rest, to put up her feet and bring down the feeling of heat and swelling in her lower legs. She knew that, but this was someone's life, not her discomfort. And if she gave his care over to someone else, he'd lose the arm, Faith was sure of it. So, she had to stay, she had to try. "I need to know his blood type. Get him prepared for surgery while I compare his blood with ours?" Galena nodded and Faith collected a sample of the man's blood. Then, she took it, studying it carefully, smelling it and watching it, then comparing it in reaction to the blood of Galena, the other cloaks here.

"You're a match. Are you willing?" Faith asked Galena when she went back in there a few bits later. Her mentor looked at her and she breathed in slightly. Galena knew what Faith did, but being attached to this strange apparatus and having her blood drained? She had to admit, it did rather make her feel a little nauseous but she nodded her head in agreement. Faith either didn't notice or didn't care about her reticence, so she just got on and attached the blood infusion apparatus up. Galena winced as the needle went into her arm and then smiled in some irony.

Once that was set up, and Galena was in a position where Faith could keep an eye on her, she turned her attention to the arm. It was in an awful state and she was going to have to try and salvage what she could. It was a long shot, Faith knew, but equally, she knew that she had to try.

It was like a jigsaw that crumbled when you touched the pieces, Faith thought. She was trying to reattach and hold sinew, muscle, tissue and even bone in places, but for everything that she put in place, five more things simply fell away. There was so much to do and she knew that she needed to get this done, reconstructed and put back together. There was just so much damage and, as she looked at what she was doing, checking Galena and stopping the blood flow as needed, Faith pulled herself back together and got back to it.

But it was just too damaged.

"Sometimes," Galena said, her voice soft, "it's the hardest job we have." Faith looked at her, mentor and friend and she knew what she was talking about. "Accepting the inevitable?" Faith asked. Galena nodded. Now, now that she'd tried it and tried again, Faith knew that there was no way that this arm was going to be saved. She breathed in and realised that a wave of dizziness hit her. With a quick movement, she pinched her arm to make sure she was awake. "I have no choice. I'll have to amputate." Galena looked at the earnest young woman and nodded

"Someone else can do that, you know." Stubborn, determined and not prepared to not see it through, Faith shook her head. She would do it herself, see through what she had begun. So, she turned to get the equipment and as she reached out for the first of the tools, she realised that her hands were shaking. That wasn't right, she had to stop and think.

And in that moment, Faith first faced and then accepted another inevitability. She was pregnant, exhausted and this was her last shift before she left to go home and rest before the baby came. She didn't need to do it, she just needed to have done her best and sometimes, that meant handing over to someone better equipped and better able.

So she stepped back and let the other medic take over. She had to. It was only right and fair. It was time, Faith realised, to walk away for a while and that was a place she'd never really believed she'd be. But she was and so the young woman went to meet Padraig, who had been waiting an age, and then, from there, they made their way home.