Sam helps Frodo curl up in his cloak as best he can beside the fire, then lies down next to him. Frodo still looks cold and miserable, but also so exhausted he might fall asleep any moment anyway.

Samora drapes her Cloak of Resistance on top of Frodo and sits down by the fire on the opposite side from Strider, staring into her own patch of darkness.

Marc is not inclined to argue with the man who knows what's happening and has a reasonable-sounding plan, but it's still very... something... to have a stranger so flatly telling him what they're going to do.  Well, they'll be traveling together for a long while, they'll have time to get used to each other.

Still, all three of them sitting up all night is a little ridiculous.  "Do you also not need to sleep? It was midday for me, I might as well keep watch.  Unless you're worried to leave the two of us unwatched."  He doesn't sound insulted by the possibility, though it doesn't seem very practical for a fortnight's travel cross-country.  Unless the man indeed doesn't sleep.

"I want to stay alert tonight," he murmurs. "We may be watched more closely than we seem."

"I can watch until dawn and then I need spend an hour in prayer," Samora whispers back. "I'll be able to walk with the rest of you during that time, but not fight or be fully alert for danger."

It makes him feel at home, that someone else prays at dawn here.

"What will you do if we're attacked then?  Or what should we do for you?"  It goes without saying that he will do anything he has to to keep her safe.  She is a woman and a priestess – not of his god, but of someone so clearly aligned to light and protection that he is treating her similarly without conscious thought.

(His god does not have priestesses, nor his homeland women in armor.  It is a strange thing.  But one it is clearly not for him to judge, in a strange place like this, and doubly so if it's a god's intervention.)

"The tradeoff is that if I stop praying I have to stop preparing spells and can't start again, so I won't get my full set for the day, and fewer the earlier I'm interrupted by attacking or getting hit. When it's worth it for me to stop and join a fight anyway . . . probably depends on the price and availability of diamonds in Rivendell. How confident are you we can't be overheard here?"

(She can tell that Marc has started fully treating her as a party member in a way that Strider hasn't yet, and is making sure to signal that she's fine with both of those. She also suspects she's accidentally given Marc the impression she's nobility, but maybe this is just how he treats fifth-circle priests and she's not used to it because he's foreign and she mostly interacts with people who've known her since she was second circle, and there's no polite way to clarify that's robust to being wrong. She'll find an excuse to mention her parents at some point.)

"The wraiths have strange senses. I doubt greatly that they could hear a whisper at the distance they must now be keeping, but anything that can wait for dawn should do so. There are many diamonds in Rivendell, though I know not what help that may be to us here or there."

"I'll explain in the morning, then." And if they are attacked during her prep then she'll prioritize her own survival above the hobbits', and let them all think her a coward for an hour.

Marc has some diamonds on him, but it sounds like at night is not the time to bring this up.

He will sit up for a while, just in case, but follow Strider's advice to get some sleep after an hour or two.  It is usually a good idea.

Aragorn keeps watching for a few hours after that and then very deliberately and in a manner undetectable to anyone more than a meter away from him falls asleep sitting up.

And then wakes instantly to full alertness as the sky begins to lighten several hours later.

That's a neat skill. As soon as the first sliver of sun becomes visible over the horizon, she kneels, draws her sword, and begins to pray, mostly about the tradeoffs involved in escorting weaker allies and ways she can demonstrate trustworthiness to Strider no, that's the wrong goal actually, she needs to give Strider an accurate picture of what classified information she should and should not be told and of how to interact with her in general, bearing in mind that he has never met an Iomedaean and may not have a concept of Law at all similar to hers.

She ends up with:

Fifth circle: Dispel Evil in the domain slot and two Breath of Life.

Fourth: A Sending to tell her party she's alive, Blessing of Fervor and two Holy Smites, and a mental note to ask about diamond dust in case Frodo needs a full Restoration.

Third: Searing Light in the domain slot, two Remove Curses, two open slots for two more Remove Curses, or Create Food and Water if she gets lucky with the first two.

Second: Bless Weapon (probably for Strider), three Align Weapons, two Lesser Restorations, and a Marching Chant.

First: three Protection from Evil, two Comprehend Languages in case Marc and Strider want to have a conversation without her, and an Ant Haul for whoever ends up carrying Frodo.

While that's happening, the hobbits eat a quick breakfast and pack up their camp. Frodo is still too weak to walk at anything like the pace they need to make; a discussion ensues about how to get enough of the baggage off the pony that Frodo can ride it all day.

Marc is too out of his accustomed schedule to be up with the sun, but does wake, quickly and quietly, the moment anyone starts making noise.  Walks back and forth briskly for a few minutes to warm up, whispering the sunrise prayer under his breath.

He'd like breakfast too, if he's offered it, but-- do they have enough supplies for two more people for the journey?  Or one, Samora said she doesn't need to eat, although perhaps she might like to if there's enough.  He asks how they intend to deal with it before eating anything, tries to do two people's worth of camp chores, volunteers to carry Frodo's weight in baggage.  (Strider is more oriented and a better woodsman than him, and should be unencumbered for scouting; the hobbits are small and do not look very sturdy; the idea of asking the priestess to carry anything does not occur to him at all.)

Samora has nothing of her own to pack up, since she never took her armor off, but is basically useless as regards helping everyone else. When they start walking, about twenty minutes before she finishes, she follows, still holding her sword in both hands and with a distinct lack of situational awareness.

They are not attacked during this time.

Excellent. "Right then!" Samora chirps, sheathing her sword, "Anyone got a reason I shouldn't just start trying the fancier healing magic on Frodo and see what sticks?"

Aragorn wants to finish that tactics conversation from last night, but not more than he wants Frodo functional as fast as possible. He's looking worse than he was when he went to sleep, if anything.

Sam isn't going to say anything but she should hurry up.

Hearing nothing apart from Sam's loud subtext, she matches pace with the horse and puts a hand on Frodo's knee. "Remove Curse."

Her magic fights against something for a moment, then breaks through, and Frodo sighs with relief and sits up a little straighter on the pony.

"Thank you."

First try, woo! "Do you think you're basically alright, or alright except for having been stabbed and another Cure will fix you, or like there's still something more than regular being-stabbed going on?"

How would he know? He's never been stabbed before. "It still hurts, but it's not so cold anymore."

That sounds like the response of a guy who hasn't been stabbed much and doesn't know what it's supposed to feel like. Hmmm. Lesser Restoration and then a Cure spell, to make sure he can get the most out of the Cure? Or Cure and then only try a Lesser Restoration if that doesn't work? Cure first means a first circle spell if she's right or a second and two firsts if she's wrong; Lesser Restoration first means a second and a first either way. So Cure first would be the safer bet, except she can tell from the way he's sitting on the horse that he's not just in pain, he's also weaker than he's used to being. She'll try the Lesser Restoration first and then a Cure.