Ariella's Keeper (Divinity Healers)

by Pillow Michelle M.

  “Would you speak to me like that if you knew I was dying?” the Medical Supreme demanded.

  “You’re not dying, at least not yet.” Sebastjan walked over to a monitor and began scrolling through the data. “You’re just contagious and have to stay in here.” Stopping on a screen, he enlarged a photo of a microscopic organism. “They’ve isolated the abnormality. There is nothing I can do for you.”

  “You can act in my stead as Medical Supreme Proxy until I am better. You can live at the mansion while seeing to my duties. You can even fund your precious facility. We’ll tell people I have gone on a trip to another plane for medical collection and research and you are training for your future position.”

  Sebastjan sighed. “No.”

  “No?” Walter repeated, clearly shocked.

  “No,” Sebastjan affirmed. “I have told you before. I have no desire to be Medical Supreme.”

  Walter’s pale features filled, becoming flushed. He pushed up on the bed. “Enough of this foolishness. It is your birthright, your duty to be Medical Supreme.”

  “Did you bring me here to discuss my future or your cure?” Sebastjan inquired. Ariella didn’t move as she watched the interplay between the two men. Walter didn’t answer. Sebastjan touched the monitor. “I’m sending a copy of the records to my office. If you want my help, you’ll send your private records to me as well. I’ll help you from my facility. That is all I can do for you.”

  “That’s all you will do.” Walter fell back on the bed, glaring. “You have always been your mother’s son. She too was an ungrateful—”

  “Enough!” Ariella yelled. Both men turned to her, surprised. She gave Sebastjan an apologetic look. To the Medical Supreme, she said, “You are a miserable person. I can honestly say I’ve never met a more miserable person. That said, the goddesses do not allow me to watch you die. What about taking you through the portal? Will that help?”

  “No,” Walter said. To her surprise, a snarky comment didn’t follow.

  “Then there is nothing more we can do for you here,” she said. “Your son has offered to work on this problem from his laboratory. Do you want his help?”

  For the longest time, the Medical Supreme didn’t answer. Then, when she didn’t turn her gaze away, he nodded once. The gesture was stiff with anger.

  “Very well. Then you will send the files my husband has requested.” Ariella moved toward Sebastjan and took his hand. “If you need anything else, perhaps you can find compassion with someone you didn’t wrong. But, as you look at these plastic walls, locked away like some tree from the rest of the world, know that the goddesses have laid their justice upon you.”

  “Goddesses.” The Medical Supreme snorted.

  “Call it fate, then, if you like,” she said. Walter didn’t speak again. “Remember me when the insanity of captivity creeps in on you and there is no one you can talk to about it.”

  “I never locked you up like this,” the Medical Supreme said bitterly.

  “Gilded bars are still bars,” Ariella answered. She saw the light in his eyes darken. There was some grim satisfaction in knowing he was imprisoned by a disease, jailed by his own body and unable to do anything about it. Turning her back on him, she walked away.

  * * *

  Sebastjan finished transmitting the files he needed before making a move to follow his wife. The symmetry of his father’s punishment wasn’t lost on him, especially since it was done by his own hand.

  “Sebastjan,” his father said. Sebastjan thought about ignoring him, but something in the man’s voice made him stop. “You will work for a cure, won’t you? Aside from you, doctors Lu, Swift and Fauchet are the only ones who know. I need you, son.”

  “I’m not sure you deserve the consideration, but, yes, I will work toward a cure.” Sebastjan glanced back to see his father staring at him, the man’s eyes pleading. “Unlike you, I would never willingly keep anyone imprisoned if there was something I could do to help. As you said in the past, I take my role as a doctor very seriously.”

  When he was once more in the transport, Ariella was alone. She said, “Dr. Lu went back to the hospital. Since there is nothing more we can do here, he’s wished us well on our trip home.”

  Sebastjan nodded and began resetting the transport’s coordinates. “Part of me wants to let him rot in there.”

  “You’re too good of a man for that.” Ariella reached for him, but a light smoke filtered into the transport. Frowning, she covered her mouth and looked as if she would speak. Sebastjan felt his limbs become heavy before his whole world went black.

  * * *

  Ariella blinked, stirring against the thick mattress beneath her body. It took her mind time to focus, but once it did, she shot up on the bed. The smooth walls of the chamber held no decoration, nothing that would set it apart from any other room on dimensional plane 187.

  “Hello?” she called only to hear her own voice echo back. “Sebastjan?” Then shivering, she whispered, “Medical Supreme Walter?”

  What had Supreme Walter done? Why was she here? Was his illness just a trick to control Sebastjan? And, when it didn’t work, did he poison them both with the smoke-filled transport? Dr. Lu had been alone with the unit while the Medical Supreme spoke with them. He would have had time to sabotage their vehicle.

  “Sebastjan!” she called louder. Ariella rubbed her arms. Her heartbeat sped and the sudden tension caused her stomach to tighten. What if they’d been separated? What if her words to the Medical Supreme about his own just imprisonment caused him to react to her insolence with a new prison home?

  Breathing hard, she went toward the door. It slid open, allowing her out of the room. A long, empty hall with doors lined up on each side stretched before her. She slowly walked toward the end, glancing from side to side.

  Touching the smooth, metal wall, she leaned around the corner. The adjoining hall was wider and split into two directions. A couple of doctors with electronic clipboards strode down the hall. They both glanced at her as they passed, but didn’t speak and didn’t try to stop her.

  An arm wound around her waist, jerking her back. She gasped, instantly moving to fight.

  “There you are,” Sebastjan said. “The computer said your room door had opened and that you were finally awake.”

  Ariella turned in surprise, hitting his arm. “You scared me. I thought your father had drugged us and carted me off again.”

  “The dose must have been too high for you. Everyone else has built an immunity to the sedation.” He placed a kiss on the tip of her nose. “I had to carry you to our room—not that I minded.”

  “What happened exactly? One second, we’re getting ready to drive. The next I’m blacking out.” Ariella glanced around the empty halls.

  “You mean transport sleep?” Sebastjan asked. “It’s an automatic transport feature to make long-distance trips more tolerable. But now that I think about it, you might never have had occasion to use it. No wonder you slept so long.”

  “Where are we?”

  “Come. I’ll show you.” Sebastjan threaded his arm in hers and led her down the hall. “This is my research facility. I know it’s not a mansion, but—”

  “I don’t need a mansion,” Ariella assured him. “I’m just happy to be out of the last one I lived in. You could move me to a tiny one-room house for all I care.”

  “I was going to say, but…” He paused as he reached the end of the hall and swept his hand over a scanner next to a narrow door. As the door slid open, a wave of cool air hit them. It carried the scent of nature and the loud roar of falling water. Yelling, he finished, “But I hope you’ll find this place has its charms.”

  Ariella stepped out onto a balcony platform. A cool mist hit upon her face from a nearby waterfall. She smiled, lifting her hand. The air smelled like air should smell, not sickening sweet with sterilizers. “We’re on a different plane, aren’t we? The trees aren’t behind windows.”

  “No, we’re in a perception room.” He li
fted his hand to the wall. The waterfall and balcony disappeared, replaced by metal grate floors and walls. “We’re helping to test them before they’re offered to the population. The technology was traded though the Divinity portal. We call them relaxation retreats. I thought, perhaps, you might want to work with a couple of the developers to maybe make a scene from your home world. We could use the input of someone who wasn’t born here. Several of the scientists keep trying to change the smell of the air.”

  Ariella nearly teared up at the thoughtfulness of the gesture. She nodded. “Yes, I would love to recreate my home world very much.”

  Sebastjan pulled her close to him. “You know, I meant what I said on Staria. I was not suffering from the drinking sickness.”

  “The part where you said you think you love me?” Ariella asked.

  “I know I love you.”

  “I love you too, Sebastjan.” Ariella leaned into his embrace. “Are there security monitors in here?”

  “Yes.” Frowning, he glanced around. “Why?”

  “Can you turn them off?”

  “Yes.” A slow smile curled on his mouth and lit in his eyes.

  “Then lock the door and make the waterfall come back.” She pulled his face to hers. “I want to show you just how in love with you I am.”

  The End

  See what happens on plane 187 in the next Divinity Healers series installment

  The Series Continues…

  Seducing Cecilia (Divinity Healers 2) by Michelle M. Pillow

  A first look at Chapter One!

  City of Asclepius, Country of Chiron, Dimensional Plane 187

  Dr. Gerard Fauchet tried to hide the spark of jealousy he felt when he looked at his childhood friend, Dr. Sebastjan Walter. Sebastjan nodded politely as his father’s guests moved through the receiving line to congratulate him on his new marriage. The son of the Medical Supreme, Sebastjan had lived an easy life. His family had money, position and political power. Medical Supreme Walter was easily the highest ranking official on the planet and he was in charge of allotting all of the planet’s medical research funding. To a world obsessed with medical advancements, research funding was like air and bodily sustenance.

  Gerard focused his attention on his friend. It wasn’t Sebastjan’s birthright or money or power or position that made the pang of jealous filter over Gerard. It was Sebastjan’s new wife—Ariella. A true, exotic beauty, Ariella came from an alternate dimension of reality. Ever since Gerard heard about inter-dimensional plane travel, he’d become obsessed thinking about it. He never really wanted to be a doctor. It was just what everyone on his plane had to become. He much rather spend his days reading and learning about culture and history than studying one of the over abundantly available medical books that filled every home and office.

  Like most nice homes in Asclepius, the front room of Supreme Walter’s mansion was overly sterile, each surface hard and unwelcoming but for a few engraved curls and wisps decorating the borders. Marble and metal blended together with great square columns to form self-sterilizing walls. However, the Medical Supreme did have a vast array of items collected from other parallel universes. Gerard found himself staring at them, wondering about those other worlds. What kinds of places were they to dedicate so much time to books that told unreal stories and to creating things of elegance and beauty for the mere sake of elegance and beauty?

  When he looked at Ariella, he thought of all the things she knew—non-medical things, small facts that would mean nothing to her but would provide endless fascination for him. The women on his plane talked like doctors, thought like doctors, were mostly doctors. Not Ariella. She was a Sans, a non-doctor. Sans Ariella. And the very idea of her captivated him.

  “Dr. Fauchet, how good of you to come,” Sebastjan said.

  “How could I not?” Gerard answered his friend. The loneliness that welled within him as he looked at Ariella became almost unbearable, so he hid it behind a playful smile and flirtatious wink.

  “Couldn’t miss my reception?” Sebastjan asked, skeptical.

  “I couldn’t miss the Medical Supreme’s summons,” Gerard corrected. “You didn’t think everyone was here to see you, did you?”

  Ariella gave a short burst of laughter at the insolent joke.

  Gerard winked at her but continued talking to Sebastjan. “Apparently, I am to host two off-plane dignitaries coming here to learn our secrets. However,” he turned his full attention to Ariella, “while I am here…”

  He wasn’t a fool. All the thoughts running through his head would never come to fruition. Though he found her very pretty, he didn’t know her, not really. He would leave the mansion and perhaps only cross path with her a handful more times in his life. Her tiny secrets would remain hers as she lived out her days as a doctor’s wife.

  “Sans Ariella,” Sebastjan introduced, “my childhood playmate and local lawbreaker—”

  “That is distinguished gentleman and dignitary host,” Gerard corrected.

  “Dr. Gerard Fauchet,” Sebastjan finished.

  “A great pleasure,” Gerard said, his playful eyes studying Ariella’s face. “And it was only one tiny law fourteen years ago. There was a medication mishap, it was hot and it was only the male chairmen who complained about my nakedness. I swear I am a reformed man.” Sebastjan cleared his throat. Gerard laughed, not showing a single second of remorse at having been caught flirting with the new bride. Leaning into Ariella, he whispered, “An even greater pleasure to see you’ve managed to make Sebastjan jealous over you.”

  Ariella blushed. Sebastjan frowned at them. Gerard bowed his head and moved on.

  “What? No present?” Sebastjan mumbled after him. Gerard laughed, but didn’t turn back around.

  * * *

  New Order Society, Dimensional Plane 303

  Dr. Cecilia Markos stared at her foot, absently following the lines of her citizen number with her eyes. “One. Zero. Eight. Seven. Five.” She didn’t need to read it to know it. The tight, neat script had been inked into her flesh the day she was born. It concealed the new implants the government instated as an enhancement to the anti-chaos movement.

  One. Zero. Eight. Seven. Five.

  Those numbers were everything—her money access, her doctor credentials, her purchasing rations, her identification. Everyone living in the New Order Society had a designation. It was the only way a society could thrive. There had to be order to chaos.

  It seemed strange then, that she would be going to a place where those numbers meant nothing. A tiny shiver of fear washed over her. A few months ago, she’d never dreamt that visiting an alternate universe was possible. Now, she was to be one of two women going to a new world—another plane of existence, another reality, their world but not their world.

  An entity called Divinity Corporation had mastered the science of inter-dimensional travel and, two years ago, they had made contact with Cecelia’s plane. Already a few of her people had gone through the portal gates to new dimensions. When Politician Shinclus first approached her, she’d thought he’d needed medical attention. The existence of the portals weren’t common knowledge amongst her people. But, she’d since seen it for herself. She watched as people appeared out of nothing, carrying strange objects traded from other realms.

  A few short months and so much had changed. All the waiting and planning, reading and studying, worrying and pretending not to worry had all led to this day. Today, she would be traveling to an alternate reality.

  The New Order Society plane was only one of four-hundred-thirty-six mapped dimensions used by Divinity—each as different as the last. Some had vampires and werewolves, some had faeries and gnomes, and some had humanoids so alien her dimension’s species were hardly compatible. Many of them, like hers, had never even heard of dimensional travel or portals. Some societies were obsessed to the point of compulsion and some so brutal they enjoyed watching gladiators fight to the death. One thing many of them seemed to have in common was chaos. Utter, uncontrolled ch
aos. New Order Society thrived on anti-chaos—no unconformity, no inappropriate behaviors, and absolutely no crime.

  Looking at an alternate reality was supposed to be like seeing your world had history changed. There were many similarities. Languages were relatively similar. Some people had the same appearance, but were not the same people. Certain events like natural disasters could be shared. People were human-like in appearance and functions, though she had been told of a race of people that didn’t have toenails.

  Cecilia wiggled her toes, wondering what they’d look like without nails. Then, sighing, she stood and reached for her best one piece suit. Red material belled around the legs and led up to tightly-fitted hips and a looser bodice. The sleeves were long, falling past her hands. She brushed her hair back from her face, trying not to think about the fashionable crimson red streak she’d been forced to get rid of. Apparently, this medical plane she was going to didn’t have the same fashions. In New Order Society everyone sported a bright streak of color in their hair. Just because they were orderly didn’t mean they couldn’t be fun, too. Well, that and the streak proved the wearer had been to their mandatory grooming appointment by the lack of a line of demarcation where the new growth came in.

  Taking a deep breath, Cecilia pulled on her boots, whispering, “It’s only for a couple of months. It will be fine. It’s only a couple of months. I’ll be able to make it back. Everyone else has made it back home.”

  Despite her words, she wasn’t so sure.

  Coming 2013

  Divinity Series

  Divinity Warriors

  Lilith Enraptured