Daniel sends for Thacia because Leah is dying. Even though "there (is) nothing that she could do for Leah now...he (knows) that she would care".
Leah had been doing so well before Daniel violently berated her when she revealed to him that a young Roman sentry had been talking to her over the garden wall. Leah, who had lived in total seclusion since the trauma of seeing her parents die when she was a little girl, had begun to work joyfully and efficiently around the house and show curiosity about the world. She had even begun to accept the bar Hezron children as visitors and friends, allowing Joel to come briefly into the house to address her, and Thacia to visit, and to laugh and share as young girls normally do. All that ended when she told Daniel about the Roman soldier. Although the relationship is completely innocent, Daniel, consumed by his lifelong hatred of the Romans, flies into a rage. Leah, terrified, withdraws into herself once again. Her withdrawal is total, and she becomes ill, and is now near death.
Daniel is horrified at what he has done, but cannot overcome the demons of hate which drive him. He knows that if Leah dies, she will have "perished by the sword he had meant for Rome...(and) she would not leave a single person on earth save himself who would know or care". Then, suddenly, he remembers that this (is) not true. Daniel remembers that Thacia and Leah have been friends, and "he be(comes) convinced that Thacia should know". He finds a bit of broken pottery and scratches a message to her that Leah is dying, and sends young Joktan to Capernaum to deliver the message (Chapter 24).
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