As I sat on Regalis's bed, after having searched his room for the thousandth time, I took in several deep breaths.

The Prince's seal. Where could Regalis have kept it?

I could send a letter to the camp, asking Regalis for it, but then, he would most likely be interested in the reason I needed it. And I didn't want to let him know the situation at hand.

Ingrith feared Judge Tyrion and his wife. And for the fact that the Judge's wife came from a powerful family in the Capital, with ties to Randall, was enough to make Ingrith plead with me to resolve this matter quietly.

And now, that I thought of it, there was wisdom in her fear. In six months time, I won't be here. If I handled this matter in a way that would publicly offend or disgrace the Judge and his wife, they could later take it out on Ingrith and her loved ones again, this time, in a worse way.

Where could this seal be? I looked round the colossal ritzy room.

The seal would've the symbol of a dragon, denoting the royal family of Armalith, so, where was it?

Could Regalis have it on him? And perhaps, always travelling with it?

I shook my head. Regalis didn't seem the type to be fixated on carrying something that would always announce that he was a royal.

As I sat there pondering, the rest of my coversation with Ingrith on that fateful day, raced through my mind.

"My baby will be coming soon. In a few months. She won't survive, if all we can both live on, is a sack of grain.

I need good meals. So, please help me with my fields. Make them able to bear food. The river behind the house, please heal it. Let it flow again. So that my child and I may have constant food and water as she grows up".

I looked at the land in her compound. Nothing grew on it. Even the fields right outside her home. The plants on them were completely withered.

Konstanza tiptoed, whispering "my lady, this land around her house can't be healed. Several Gifted healers have tried to heal it in the past but nothing worked. That's why here, is a perfect place to punish one who breaks the law".

But, she didn't break the law. She was being bullied! If Ingrith also came from a powerful family, loyal to Randall, could the Judge's wife have had the courage to treat her this same way? I hissed.

I felt Ingrith's pulse once again. Being a Gifted healer heightened my medical skills.

Her pulse was irregular. The beat of her heart, and that of her baby's showed signs of trouble.

They were not feeding well. Not drinking enough water. Not eating fruits.

I touched her belly. It was good she'd feared for the baby in her womb. 'Cause if she had not, and chosen to remain here like this, she'd have miscarried in a few days. All from lack of proper nutrition.

I placed my right hand on her belly, the left, on her forehead, as I sent healing weaves to both her and her foetus.

Be healed. The scars on her forehead cleared. And the fresh wound, disappeared like she had not recently had contact with a branding iron.

Obtain strength to live. Be healed. My hand remained on her belly. After a few seconds, I removed it.

And as soon as I did, I almost fell.

"Lady Xemein!" Konstanza held me.

"I'm fine. I'm fine" I replied.

The healing I just did, on her unborn child, put a strain on me.

I smiled at Ingrith. She and her baby didn't deserve to die for a 'crime' that they didn't even commit.

"I'll be here again tomorrow" I promised, as Konstanza and I left her home.

My duty may not be to Ingrith, and her child. Nor to anyone in the North of Armalith, however, what doesn't change is this. Ingrith was a human being. A pregnant human! And for that reason alone, I shouldn't even contemplate turning my back on her.

I only hoped this issue won't in anyway involve Randall.

I stood up from Regalis's bed. Looked round the room once again. Where could his seal be?

The next morning after I left Ingrith's place, Konstanza and I returned, carrying baskets of seeds we intended to grow.

On her field once again, I gazed at the withered plants there, she attempted to cultivate.

Was it that this land here was naturally not fertile? Or was it magic?

"My lady. No crop has been able to survive on these fields for eight years now" Konstanza said "many healers and Gifted farmers have tried, all to no avail".

Will I be able to help Ingrith? The thought sped through me.

Several healers and Gifted farmers, from both the North and South, tried to heal here, before Ingrith ever came here, yet their magic made no difference to the fields.

However, what I chose to put my faith on, was that I was not just a healer, but also a Feeder. We were rare. So, I wasn't surprised, that no one considered calling a Feeder to help with this land.

Over the next few days, I quietly Fed on the barrier magic surrounding the air and soil of the field. Although, it took me hours, absorbing every unnecessary magic I felt in the environs. I believed it was worth it. Results came from tireless efforts.

Afterwards, I touched every portion of the land. Willing it to be healed. Ingrith desperately needed this, for her and her young to survive.

Days after ploughing, the seeds were planted.

And the portion of the land, where a stream once flowed, I touched with my healing hands too.

And so, the wait began.

To see if I'd find the seal.

To see if the plants would grow.

To see if the stream would begin to flow normally again, once rain fell once more.

"My lady, think not of it, you've tried your best. Not every plan can succeed" Orabella, Konstanza's grandmother said, days after her birthday, and I still had not found the seal. Nor seen the portion of the land that used to be a river, show sign that it could 'hold' even a jar of water.

Hence, I doubted my Gift. Several times. Doubted it was what, could help Ingrith.

But, I chose not to focus on it. And instead, think of the goal. The survival of Ingrith and her child.

If the Judge's wife hated Ingrith that badly, then, she'd live at the outskirts of town, but, she must not live there, starving away slowly, with a babe at her breast.

For the fields, I could say I've done everything I could possibly do as a mortal. Now, the rest was up to the favour of the gods. Will they smile upon us or choose to resist my magic?

Each morning, Konstanza set out to Ingrith's land to check if the plants had started to grow. While I continued searching every nook and cranny of Regalis's massive room for the Prince's seal.

And each day, from Konstanza and Orabella, the same news returned. No growth. No progress.

And from my side, the news was, no seal. No end in sight for the branding of Ingrith and her loved ones.

My spirits plummeted.

And so, on the eighteenth day, after a night of thunder and storm, and heavy rainfall, (a night which I spent, thoroughly searching for the seal. This time in the rooms Regalis's closest friends used. I found the seal, in Ashton's room! Hidden in a safe box, buried under the flooring).

I screamed!

And screamed!

One would have thought it was me who would no longer be branded.

"Yes!" With this, I could write a letter to the Ministry of Justice, ordering them to desist from practising the old law of branding, else, I visit them, with the full wrath of my infamous lightning Gift.

Haha! I laughed. Wow! It paid, having a husband who was feared.

With the stamp of Regalis's seal on the letter, it was as good as the Dark Lord, standing in front of them to yell 'stop this! Or I destroy you!"

And then, I dozed off. Peacefully. For the first time in weeks. For on my watch, no four months old baby was brutally branded with a scalding iron.

Exhausted. I felt my eyelids close.

My Feeder Gift may not save the land around Ingrith's home, but at least, with the little power this marriage has brought me, I changed at least one thing!

I grinned. Slowly drifting off.

And I could not possibly have lay in my bed for an hour, when I was roused from sleep with heavy knocks banging on my door.

"My lady! My lady!"

Who is that, banging this incessantly on my door early this morning?

I opened the door, to reprimand the intruder. And give him or her, a piece of my mind, when I received the best news that filled the dry wells of my Gifted soul.

"My lady! My lady!" Konstanza screamed.

"Ingrith's plants are growing!"

"And for the first time in eight summers, the river behind her home now flows!"