Bane

Ava has gotten used to the solitude of being a contact healer, but when she is stolen before she can get to her next assignment, she is up for sale to a very specific clientele. The folk of Nafki need her for her healing abilities, but the raiders who stole her want her for her ability to create a toxin for any species she has ever healed. Her talent successfully helps pause the plague rippling through the population, but once she has a grasp on the dark elves of Nafki, she knows that being used as a weapon to kill them is the next step in the plan.

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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.

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 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 plague struck the population, infected entered the cities and those who were clear left for the hills and wild areas. The theory was that those who were ill would be unable to fend for themselves in the wild and it would be easier to contain and make folk comfortable in the larger cities as well as keep them supplied with food and water. The pathogen was quick to show signs fortunately but slow to kill.

They might have a chance to save most of the population if this healer was as effective as the exotic provider advertised. It didn’t sit well with him that he was entrusting his people to a slave, but if she were trained as a healer, he would take any help she could give. They were going to be landing in one of the worst-hit areas, and if she wasn’t able to stem the tide of death, they would all be joining the infected within days.

“Where am I?”

A shadow moved on the far side of the room. “You have been sold to us for the purposes of stopping a plague.”

Avaneer blinked rapidly. “Sold? I am a trained contact healer of the Citadel under contract to the Alliance. I can’t be sold. It is illegal to own me.” She scrubbed at the back of her neck and climbed out of the pod.

“Nevertheless, you are here now, and we need your help.”

He stepped into the light, and she fought the reflex to rub her eyes. She had seen pictures of the dark elves of the Admaryn before but never one made of a hard, glittering black. He appeared to be made of jet and mother of pearl, but his skin flowed and flexed as he moved.

She sighed, “Fine. I will help, but when I am done, I want to contact the Alliance. They will be looking for me and finding me on a strange world with no transfer order will cause your government problems.”

He blinked. “Just like that? You agree to help just like that?”

Ava laughed and moved toward him. “Of course. My particular skills are only of use if I can use them. What do you have here?”

She began to walk toward the door, her robes swaying.

“Where are you going?” He moved astonishingly quickly to block her from the door.

“I thought to go in search of my patients. You would not have brought me here if they were not nearby.” She smiled brightly and extended her gloved hand. “I am Avaneer Leftiss, by the way.”

He looked at her hand and paused.

“I wear the gloves so that I don’t gain a resistance to everything. It is a hazard of my occupation. The gloves are quite safe. I even wear them to sleep.” Ava couldn’t stop a snort. “I wear everything to sleep. The only time I am dangerous is when I am naked and that only occurs in the shower.”

He took her hand and pressed a kiss to the back of her knuckles. “I am Kondr Lytan, Prefect of Nafki North.”

“Is Nafki the city?”

“No, Avaneer, it is the planet. We are a sparsely populated world, but our cities are beyond compare.”

Avaneer smiled up into his sapphire blue eyes. “If the rest of the population shares your characteristics, I am amazed that anything could harm you.”

He released her hand and opened the door. “We were as surprised by it as you are.”

“The sick have been asked to remain in the cities. We have kept them informed as to our efforts to bring in a healer, and now that you are here, the other cities will send their ill to us.” He carefully shepherded her down a wide set of stairs, and she could hear folk below, speaking in low tones.

“What can you tell me about the illness?”

“I will leave that for the doctors who have remained. They have been investigating it for two weeks now.”

“Are we going there now?”

“We are. Your rooms are on the third floor. Patients are housed on the first, and the medical staff are working on the second.”

She nodded and followed him down the hall with the definite scent of medicines wafting in the air.

To avoid accidental contact, she folded her hands together and shifted her sleeves to cover them. Folks didn’t try to touch you if they didn’t see your hands.

A door had the marker of
Research and Treatment
on it, and it was through that door that they went. There was a quiet desperation to the occupants of the ballroom. Row upon row of cots lined the walls and formed aisles where the attendants moved back and forth, carrying meals and trays.

“Oh my. Where is the head physician? I need a briefing as quickly as possible.” Seeing the pain and devastation that the illness was causing, she wanted to be of use before it got out of control completely.

Kondr waved over an attendant and spoke quietly to her. She nodded her glossy black head and whispered to him. He hesitated for a moment before he returned to Ava. “This way. He has been struck by the plague that he was treating.”

She was led past fifty beds, and finally, she passed through the curtains attended by a woman in a pale gown. The woman’s emerald eyes lit with hope, but she let Kondr and Ava pass.

“Oh, my.” The man was wearing nothing more than a minimal loincloth and a rainbow of splotches with yellowish edges covered his body.

The man sat up and smiled weakly. “Are you the healer?”

Ava sat next to him and stripped off one of her gloves. “Let’s see, shall we? If I can affect any change in you, you can tell me everything about this pathogen. Now, where is your heart?”

The man chuckled. “A healer who doesn’t know where a heart is. This isn’t going to end well.” Despite his words, he indicated a position on his chest two inches below his sternum.

Ava removed her other glove and tucked both under her belt. An immediate healing would take a lot out of her, but if she could heal him, this would give them a better start for affecting a larger cure.

“Are you ready?

“You can call me Rathos. Most call me Dr. Rathos.” He squinched his eyes shut.

“This won’t hurt, but it also won’t give you immunity. It will simply buy us enough time to synthesize a cure using my talent.”

Kondr was standing out of the way, and Ava didn’t blame him. With this much disease, it was amazing that he came in to guide her. Most would have remained at a safe distance, but he was different. He was both brave and determined, which were oddly endearing in the face of a plague.

Ava rubbed her hands together and placed one on either side of his heart. She washed his blood with energy, and as she sat there, the marks of the disease faded to mild discolouration.

“Amazing. That is amazing. How many more folks can you heal like this?” Kondr was next to her, staring at the healed black flesh.

Rathos shook his head. “She didn’t heal me, precisely. She reset my body, washed away the active pathogen and put me in the state of a person who was never exposed.”

Ava smiled and removed her hands, replacing her gloves. “Excellently deduced. I will need to have a piece of infected tissue inserted under mine to begin to create a cure, in theory anyway. Can you synthesize what you need from plasma?”

Rathos smiled and got to his feet. “We will see. First, we will find a compatible donor cell, and then, we will insert it within your tissue.”

Ava got to her feet, looking up at Kondr. “So, phase one is complete. I can flush anyone we need to keep alive, but they will still get the infection.”

Rathos swept back the curtain, and the woman who had been waiting flung herself into his arms with a sob. Rathos held her tightly and smiled over her head to Ava. “My wife. She was worried.”

Ava smiled wistfully and folded her hands back in her robes. “Get dressed, Dr. Rathos. We have work to do.”

She worked with the medical staff and Kondr kept nearby. When light dimmed and lamps were flipped on, they continued to try to isolate the pathogen.

Kondr made himself useful and helped the staff feed and care for those who were in the final stages of the disease.

“So, what are your folk? I haven’t met your species before,” she asked Rathos while they worked on typing a suitable sample.

He chuckled. “A designed race descended from the Admaryn. They called us the Admorik. We were changed for the purpose of inhabiting heavy-gravity worlds. Our birthrate is low, but life expectancy is high under normal circumstances. This is the first major pathogen to strike in centuries.”

Ava shrugged, “Is there any idea where the origin point was? Where it started?”

Rathos frowned. “It has been traced to a farm in the north, but there was no obvious point of origin.”

“Are there any patients from that area here?”

Rathos paused and spoke to one of the attendants. She checked the patient records and nodded. He turned back to her. “Yes, there is one, but she isn’t doing well.”

“Can I speak to her?”

The attendant smiled and said, “Please, come this way.”

Kondr came along when he saw she was moving down the aisle, and he whispered, “Where are we going?”

“To see a survivor from the initial infected area. She is near death, but I can wash her to help her out.”

They entered a room that was quiet with a low light and soothing music. The attendant was respectful as they walked through the room with the twenty folk waiting to die.

The woman that they were led to was introduced as Madame Lytan. Ava sat at her side and winced at the discolouration that covered every inch of skin. She removed her gloves and placed them on the woman, repeating what she had done to Dr. Rathos.

“What are you doing?” The woman’s eyes were blind, but her voice was strong.

“I am setting you back to the point before the infection spread. It will buy you some time and allow you to answer some questions.”

The woman smiled as her skin began to darken once again. “I wished that I could have seen my grandson once more. He was away on business, you know.”

Kondr knelt at her side and touched the woman’s diseased hand before Ava could stop him. “I am here, Gran.”

Ava closed her eyes as he touched the still-infected skin. He had just guaranteed himself a place in one of the sickbeds.

“Kon, I am so happy to hear your voice. Why are you back?”

“I brought a healer, Gran.”

Ava worked hard to scrub the disease from Madame Lytan, but she was tired and it was awkward. “Madame, I need to know what you saw or heard from your friends and neighbours when the first infected person was seen.”

Madame Lytan laughed, “Call me Eeli. There was nothing to see. I have been blind for the last century. But, I do remember folk talking about a falling star, a crater and when we all went out to look, there was a cool mist that touched my skin.”

Ava was shocked. “Did the medical centre look for it?”

“I am a blind woman. I probably felt the first fog of night. I told them where to find the crater, but no one could.”

Kondr asked, “Where was it, Gran?”

“The valley hollow where you lost your third tooth. Forty paces from the wide oak.” She smiled, and her face was taking on the dark, smooth skin of their species.

Ava’s hands started shaking, and Eeli pressed her hands over hers. “You can stop now, dear. I will last a few more days, and you can use that to take my grandson back to our home before he succumbs to his act of affection.”

Kondr was confused. “What?”

Ava relaxed her hands and removed them from Eeli’s skin. “I have bought you a few more days, Eeli. How long does it take to get there?”

Eeli laughed. “You are in the North Prefecture. The site is three hours away.”

Ava put her gloves back on. “Then, I suppose that I have a trip to make. Kondr, can you escort me before you turn every colour in the rainbow?”

He pressed a kiss to Eeli’s forehead. “I can and I will.”