Role

Chapter 3

Upon seeing how little money Therisa had to offer, the men were quite angry.
They demanded more. Therisa told them there was no more money, none at all!
They did not believe her, and began to tear her house apart. Therisa said if
they kept it up she would scream and bring the tribunals in on them. At that
one of the men laughed, and turned to her. "Tribunals?" he said. And he
removed his mask. It was the very same Tribunal she had spoken with just a
few days prior about the deaths of her husband and parents. Suddenly it all
was clear. Of course the thieves went unchecked. The Tribunals were in on
the whole thing.
"There is no more money," Therisa said, all hope gone.
"Now that may be," said the unmasked Tribunal, "or perhaps you are lying.
Either way we will give you one more chance to deliver more to us. If you
do not... you will die."
At that, the man looked sideways to Therisa's infant son who trembled,
terrified, in a doorway. "Just like your son..." the man said quietly,
and advanced upon the child.
Therisa screamed and lunged for her son, but the Tribunal told the others to
hold her down. Therisa was forced to watch helplessly as the man kicked her
infant son to death before her eyes. The grin never left the man's face as
the baby's blood spattered over his clothing and skin and the walls of
Therisa's once peaceful home. Another indelible image which Therisa will
be rid of, which will haunt her sleep and waking thoughts.
The men left her there with her dead child, truly alone in the world.
Something in her snapped at that point... it was as if a darkness had crept
stealthily into her very soul. She felt next to nothing as she gatherd up
the broken body of her infant son in her arms and walked out of the city
into the surrounding woods. She burried his body by the light of the full
moon, and it was only later that she cried. She cried by his grave for two
days and nights, only being forced to leave by thirst and exposure to the
elements.
-----
Therisa did not go back to the city. Her parents had taught her enough
about nature to get by at first, and the rest she learned from experience.
It was not easy, but she made due and in time considered herself a person
apart from society, made to walk outside the stone haunts. She had been
studying healing after her marriage, and was working as an assistant to a
local healer in Galadon. Her experience and her closeness with nature seemed
to enhance her abilities greatly, and she continued to progress in the
healing arts.