Other editions of book Ajar Soul

Emily finds Sier the Diplomat lying by the duck pond, and he's not willing to call for help. Rated PG. 59pp. Zhea~ Year 7842Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.I felt Kirir’s mind searching holos for me, and it gave him a headache. There was one man who looked a lot like Sier. Maybe his brother? “Eae eae! You held my bae! You saved him twice!”“Saved him? But, he died—“ I got upset. We’d spent days together. I lost a job staying at Friends caring for him. He couldn’t give his name because they tortured him but I looked like the woman who did it. I was the only person who could hold him and give him any comfort. He got better, but his heart gave out. That was Sier?“Daughter, when a zheien is to die, a healer puts him in stasis. At times, another healer can save a man, or the healer who put him in stasis can gain skills to heal him, or healers gain tech that saves a life! Father Of All allows whom He wills, to live. A healer only tries to do the will of the Father. This loving Father put my bae in your hands, twice, to save!” He waved up a yellow-skinned healer. “Jis, tell me of my bae!!”When the healer saw Sier his blue eyes turned black. “O, I have great sorrows for you, Kirir! Bring your healer near. I dreaded this day.” The man wept, and a pretty lady ran to hug him. He turned white from yellow. “Sier has many problems with him. I hid from his file so he could die on Earth in honorable work. He came injured from Earth, and his healer died, so I saw him. Pirad took him from stasis. He begged us to return him there! With time, he trusted me. His heart is weak, this you know, but slavers also knew. They gave him mild herbs with benau, which changes effects. They had nae pleasures from him, though they violated him many times. But, a slaver healer trained him to keep his heart’s rhythm by manipulation through his telepathy.”Kirir gasped. “How can one do this? Surely he injured his telepathy—““Eae, and his control wavers when he is exhausted. When he smells fostok, there is bellsong. I see on his file they gave him heroin. Emily’s treatments are very well, but when he wakes, upset can easily kill him. Any happiness can easily bring bellsongs, and he dies in the shock, among us.” Jis wiped tears off his face. “Sleep cures his exhaustion, but when he gains strength, he lives nae long.”I trembled. “Can I train him not to use his telepathy like that?”Jis cried loudly. “Daughter, if he nae, his heart ceases! Pirad can nae heal it. He lives in shame, or he nae lives!”I’d seen zheien come in affected by something that made ‘em euphoric, and they had bellsong. That’s what zheien do instead of making love, and if they know they did that in front of people, they die of the shame. Two of them, and they didn’t get revived in Rainbow.Kirir got upset.I took his hand. “Can you marry us? If we marry and go someplace alone, maybe he can handle that.”“You can nae live in isolation! It is torture—““I’ll have Sier, and he’ll have me. That’s not isolation. If he’s alive, there are other things to try.”“Do you love my bae?” His blue eyes turned black.I stammered. Remembered the things he talked about as I held him, on that bed. Memories he shared with me, places he’d gone, people he knew, how lonely he was! Tears flowed down my cheeks. “Yes.” He liked the things I told him about me, and I’d told him a lot more than I ever did anyone, even Healer Asha.Kirir waved up walls around us. Sat his son up. “Sier, wake. For your life, wake.”Slowly, his eyes blinked. He cried.“O, dear bae, I am most sorry for this pain. Look. Emily waits. Wish you to marry her?”His blue eyes stared at me, and his sorrow rumbled on my arms. “I am violate, Fa—“I held his face in my hands. “I’m Earthan. Sier, I love you. It doesn’t matter."