Chapter One
Fire was hypnotic, even on an alien world so far away from home. Avaneer Leftiss poked the logs with a stick and watched hot, lavender sparks fly. The small cottage she had been using on the high-gravity moon was behind her, giving her comfort on her last night before being rammed into a box and shipped to her next assignment.
In the distance, she could see the lights of the town she had just been visiting, and a strange sort of aching pride took her over. It was her destiny to travel from world to world, passing along cures that percolated in her bloodstream and handing them over to those who needed them.
For tonight, she could pretend that her friends had just left her, and she was spending a night of solitude before being sent by special container back to the high-gravity Alliance base on Rhetek.
As she stirred the fire, a smile of nostalgia rippled through her. Camping with her family had always been a pleasure, and this night, under the strange sky with the huge planet looming above her, she felt closer to home than she had in a long time.
Absently, she started to sing a tune she had learned on Gezia. Instead of being in Alliance Common, it was in the ancient language of that world, and it echoed what was going on in her heart.
The song was about a woman who had to commit ritual suicide, but instead of dying, the gods lifted her in the air and transformed her into the goddess of broken hearts. She watched over young women whose lovers chose family honour over love, just has her lover had done.
Her work was so dedicated that the gods gave her dawn as a sign that despite the grief and darkness that reigned over her heart, a new day would start with or without you.
When she finished her song, she extinguished the last of the embers and returned to her solitary cabin.
One night’s sleep and she would be on her way once again.
“Is that the one we are looking for?” A figure in the shadows looked to his companions. One of them nodded.
“She is the bane. Anything she is infected with will be cured within her body. She is ideal for the people of Nafki. They just don’t know it yet.”
A round of low laughter followed while they circled the cabin and prepped the gas. Contact with a being of her nature was not wise. While most of her kind were strictly healers, a few could hold the original pathogens inside them and use them when under attack. That was not something they wanted to test.
Silently, they reached her cabin and slipped a tube into a crack under the window. Once the gas had saturated the small space, they would take their prize and get off this world.
Kondr of Nafki looked down at the container. Lights slowly cascaded up and down the sides. “Are you sure this is the one we need?”
The seller grinned and bowed with a flourish. “She is precisely what you need for that plague ravaging your planet. She can cure what she touches. Alliance certified.”
Kondr couldn’t see her inside the container, but the lights were definitely indicating life. “She is rated for higher gravity?”
There was no sense in coming to the black market to buy a healer for Nafki if she wouldn’t be able to move or breathe the moment she was decanted.
“She is. One thing though, you can have her at a reduced rate if you promise to return her when you are done with her. She is a commodity that can be sold over and over if she is properly handled.”
Kondr straightened. “My people are dying. What is the price?”
The vendor stood straight, and they got to business.
Kondr was under strict instructions not to open the containment unit until they landed on Nafki, but he admitted a certain draw to the woman inside.
Janiv and Norfe were flying the ship, which left Kondr next to the large capsule. The three of them had been off world when the plague struck and communication with their home told them what they needed to bring home in order to cure those who had not yet succumbed.
When the
Fire was hypnotic, even on an alien world so far away from home. Avaneer Leftiss poked the logs with a stick and watched hot, lavender sparks fly. The small cottage she had been using on the high-gravity moon was behind her, giving her comfort on her last night before being rammed into a box and shipped to her next assignment.
In the distance, she could see the lights of the town she had just been visiting, and a strange sort of aching pride took her over. It was her destiny to travel from world to world, passing along cures that percolated in her bloodstream and handing them over to those who needed them.
For tonight, she could pretend that her friends had just left her, and she was spending a night of solitude before being sent by special container back to the high-gravity Alliance base on Rhetek.
As she stirred the fire, a smile of nostalgia rippled through her. Camping with her family had always been a pleasure, and this night, under the strange sky with the huge planet looming above her, she felt closer to home than she had in a long time.
Absently, she started to sing a tune she had learned on Gezia. Instead of being in Alliance Common, it was in the ancient language of that world, and it echoed what was going on in her heart.
The song was about a woman who had to commit ritual suicide, but instead of dying, the gods lifted her in the air and transformed her into the goddess of broken hearts. She watched over young women whose lovers chose family honour over love, just has her lover had done.
Her work was so dedicated that the gods gave her dawn as a sign that despite the grief and darkness that reigned over her heart, a new day would start with or without you.
When she finished her song, she extinguished the last of the embers and returned to her solitary cabin.
One night’s sleep and she would be on her way once again.
“Is that the one we are looking for?” A figure in the shadows looked to his companions. One of them nodded.
“She is the bane. Anything she is infected with will be cured within her body. She is ideal for the people of Nafki. They just don’t know it yet.”
A round of low laughter followed while they circled the cabin and prepped the gas. Contact with a being of her nature was not wise. While most of her kind were strictly healers, a few could hold the original pathogens inside them and use them when under attack. That was not something they wanted to test.
Silently, they reached her cabin and slipped a tube into a crack under the window. Once the gas had saturated the small space, they would take their prize and get off this world.
Kondr of Nafki looked down at the container. Lights slowly cascaded up and down the sides. “Are you sure this is the one we need?”
The seller grinned and bowed with a flourish. “She is precisely what you need for that plague ravaging your planet. She can cure what she touches. Alliance certified.”
Kondr couldn’t see her inside the container, but the lights were definitely indicating life. “She is rated for higher gravity?”
There was no sense in coming to the black market to buy a healer for Nafki if she wouldn’t be able to move or breathe the moment she was decanted.
“She is. One thing though, you can have her at a reduced rate if you promise to return her when you are done with her. She is a commodity that can be sold over and over if she is properly handled.”
Kondr straightened. “My people are dying. What is the price?”
The vendor stood straight, and they got to business.
Kondr was under strict instructions not to open the containment unit until they landed on Nafki, but he admitted a certain draw to the woman inside.
Janiv and Norfe were flying the ship, which left Kondr next to the large capsule. The three of them had been off world when the plague struck and communication with their home told them what they needed to bring home in order to cure those who had not yet succumbed.
When the
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