Page 68 of Infala: The Priest's Temptation
At long last, they headed back. This time they ate dinner together, taking their food on the roof once more. Then both returned to their respective chambers for a well-deserved slumber, happy in the knowledge that the following day, and their whole lives, lay ahead of them.
CHAPTER THIRTY
“They want to dowhat?”
Elder Soparo cocked his head a fraction, studying the startled human woman a moment.
“I understand your surprise. You have come a long way, Ella. And the medical technicians from not only our sect, but also representatives of several neighboring cities with whom we share interesting case studies, all wish to witness your examination and results first-hand, nothing more.”
This isn’t normal. What’s the deal here?
Ella kept her concerns tightly under wraps, a pleasant expression plastered to her face regardless of any worries she might be feeling.
“Right. Of course. I suppose I must be an interesting patient.”
“You are. And a teaching opportunity. While our records do contain documentation of treatments of severe burns, as well as the repair of damaged runes, yours is not only a unique case for the degree of damage to both, but also your near-miraculous recovery.”
“What do you mean? I thought your medicines and machines were supposed to do this,” she replied, gesturing to her flawless skin as well as the pristine runes now etched into her flesh.
“They can heal superficial damage without issue and can reconstruct most races’ bodies with a degree of efficiency. But you? Seeing you heal in your time among us has amazed our medical staff. They feel quite privileged to have treated you.”
“Could have fooled me,” she grumbled. “Sorry, that was uncalled for.”
“Not at all. You have caused quite a disturbance with your presence. It is against our ways to have a woman in our midst, and I would be remiss to pretend that I was any less put off by it than the others.”
“I sense a but coming.”
“Butyou are an anomaly, Ella. It seems your race, so new to the Dotharian Conglomerate, responds far more favorably to certain healing salves and processes than most. And with your planet being only recently added to the conglomerate, there is still no data about your kind yet in the realm’s systems. It’s a bit strange, but if it is located at a distant peripheral system, the distribution of data can take a lot longer from the fringes than the internal mesh network of integrated systems.”
“Oh, yeah. Earth is way out there. Really far in the weeds.”
“Weeds?”
“Sorry, Earth saying. We’re off in the boonies—I mean, it’s in the fringes. A peripheral, as you said.”
Soparo nodded sagely, pleased his assumption was correct. At least, so far as he knew. “As I assumed.”
“So, when exactly will these other doctors be here? I usually meet with Draikis before I head to the archives.”
“Ah, yes. Nilkis has said you have been studying a great number of ancient texts.”
Ella brightened up at the mention of her passion project. “Yeah, there’s so much to learn. And I’ve found some really fascinating things. Surprising, too.”
“And you are able to read them? The old texts?”
“Yeah. Nilkis said it’s a fluke of the translation runes. Not typical, but it happens on occasion. I guess humans are just exceptionally attuned to your particular language.”
“But the old tongue is difficult, even for our own.”
“I know, that’s the wild part, right? I had no idea those texts were any harder than the other ones. It’s all a foreign language to me, after all. But the rune really does its job. And whatever your Skrizzit did to fix it seems to have amped up its power. Plus, the boost this one gives it,” she said, tapping her chest.
Elder Soparo’s eyes widened slightly. “Your Infala? It was only just reconstructed after your injuries. But connecting to your other runes already? That seems unlikely.”
“Like I said, this is all new to me, but it feels like that’s what it’s done.”
Soparo stared, his brow furrowed.
“Uh, or I could be wrong,” she quickly added. “Like I said, you’re the experts.”
