PRL Serials

Oin is a planet that shares many characteristics with the planet Earth; they are roughly the same size and occupy a solar system within their galaxy with the perfect conditions for the formation of life. The beings of Oin are humanoid, with five fingers and toes, but their heads are bulbous and they possess nascent psychic abilities that eliminate the need for communication technology. The Ointite Monarchy is among the wealthiest in the universe because of natural deposits of the rare metal rhasd that seems to have crashed into the planet as a large asteroid during the planet’s formation. Rhasd is used in the manufacture of artificial skeletons that allow the medical professionals, called healers, of Oin to reconstruct the bodies of any species of the universe that they have encountered and studied. The health sciences of Oin are so far beyond the technologies of other sentient species of the universe that their Holy Infirmary has become the stuff of legend that permeates nearly every planet occupied by sentient species; it is the source of the tale of the Fountain of Youth on Earth because of the ancient tradition of Monarchs with healing abilities who blessed the waters.

The planet experiences more darkness than light, and the cities of Oin are designed to glow in the moonlight. The buildings are constructed of hard plastics that are lined with reflectors to illuminate the cities without electricity. Ointites do have impressive transportation technology; hover bikes and cars, jet packs and mechanical suits created by skilled artificers of different townships around the globe. 

The Queen Rowen loved relaxing under the moonlight on Oin, it is the thing she missed most as her time on Bludon stretched into decades. Her visits to Oin were often brief, but she tried to do more than just bless the waters while she was there. Her home on Oin is just outside the largest city that contains the Holy Infirmary, and she can take a bike to the city in clothing that made her unrecognizable to the city dwellers who would definitely recognize their queen, to have a drink or spend rhasd at the many shops selling fancy things that she could easily afford. 

But she knew that she was meant to be on Bludon, she knew that with a certainty that puzzled even her. When she first arrived all those years ago, she was worried about the prospects of a new Dance of Hysteria, but then the sky opened up and dropped inky darkness all over everything and she wanted to help. The Bludonians were an undeserving target of Daemon violence and she was happy to do what she could to help her friends, but the Outsiders showed up and the Needy was the most powerful being that the Queen had ever touched the mind of. Not to mention the Arcana Master, Issac Washington, whom she knew actively suppressed his immense powers though she could not fully comprehend why. Then the Mmoatia and the Aerphim came, and Bludon had all the help it needed. The Queen was free to return to the home that loved and missed her regular presence, but just when she was ready to entertain that thought, Coxx asked for her help with the Minyak disease.

It baffled her. It spread like a disease and the healers of Oin were able to easily cure it, but the effects on the infected were puzzling and made the healers question the ethics of healing the sick, and the nature of sickness. The Queen Rowen had always been a natural healer, she was born with the abilities to heal others with a touch, but when she used this ability directly, she healed by absorbing the malady into herself. The ritual of blessing the waters to indirectly heal others seeking relief was designed to protect Rowen while allowing her to fulfill her destiny of healing her loyal subjects. Rowen never used her abilities by touching someone directly, until the day that she did.

She was in the gymnasium on Fumarole with Guardian scientists and a few healers of Oin with a young, sick blu who had been born with the Minyak disease. His physiology was very different from the normal blu and the healers and scientists had spent years charting the differences. When blues with the Minyak disease contracted other illnesses that didn’t always react the same to medicines that worked on uninfected blues, the Queen Rowen brought the healers of Oin to help treat them. 

The child suffered from a rare blood cancer and the aggressive therapies that worked on uninfected blues just killed the child faster. Rowen spent a lot of time with him when he wasn’t being treated, his parent worked long hours and had trouble traveling to the gymnasium to visit with him. When many of the scientists seem to give up hope of developing a cure, Rowen spent even more time with the child.

“You’re too close to the infected blu,” Gelvin, one of the Ointite healers, said to her seriously. They had lived at the Guardian’s dormitory for long enough by that point that it felt like home and they were relaxing in one of the large comfortable chairs of the common space. “How are you going to react when he dies?”

Rowen shook her head and looked away at one of the monitors hanging on a wall that showed a broadcast of a Smiting game. 

“It is because you are so sure he is doomed that I will spend as much time with that blu as he wants me to,” Rowen said between clenched teeth. “It’s so unfortunate that he was born this way, this blu the disease made who confounds the greatest minds.”

“They are more fungi than Bludonian,” Gelvin said. “Fungi and Bludonian, like they are hybrids. It’s very strange. Taking out his blood completely seems like the best solution, maybe his fungal properties will kick into overdrive to save him. But we’ve tried that in the lab with the infected Bludonian tissue and it is Bludonian enough that it still needs blood. And we don’t have a cure for the cancer. He doesn’t have much time left.”

“Then why am I wasting my time here?” Rowen asked and she stood. 

“Wait,” Gelvin stood, too. “You know I’m not just trying to upset you. This is all very concerning. The healers on Oin are so worried about the risk of this infection making its way back to Oin. They really want you back and guarantees of Oin’s protection from this thing. They are ready to preemptively vaccinate the entire planet…”

“Do not let them do that,” Rowen said and she stared at Gelvin seriously. “I don’t want to hear that an Ointite vaccine for Minyak is being developed. We do not need it and I do not want to risk infecting any Ointite out of carelessness. We have been studying this for a long time, but we still don’t know enough. We will not infect Ointite with Minyak, we will continue to be extremely careful.”

“Give that speech the next time you are on Oin, my Queen,” Gelvin said. “I don’t mean to sound aggressive, but there is no way for me to do what you are saying, you are the one who has to go to Oin to convince everyone that their fears are unfounded. Otherwise, they will look for anything to feel guarded.”

“Do you think Minyak is truly benign?” Rowen asked. “It seems that it is.”

“Living organisms exist because of symbiosis with microscopic organisms, we are buzzing with life that keeps us alive. Maybe Minyak is that now.”

Rowen nodded thoughtfully and waved at Gelvin as she went to the gymnasium to be with the sick child. 

“Rowen!” the young blu said with as much energy as he could muster. The gymnasium is large, but the healers and guardians had created a room around him out of portable walls. There were tubes and wires running between the child and the many monitors around him. 

“It is good to see you Adar, you seem very strong today.”

Adar nodded and Rowen reached for the print out from one of the monitors. Adar always put on a strong face, but she could see that he was rapidly deteriorating and he would not survive the night.

“I couldn’t wait to see you,” Adar said. “My mother was here earlier and I told her that she should get some sleep ‘cause you would be here to keep me company. Will you tell me more about the Monarch Trials? I wonder if the King Kafir and his wife were guilty of the deception that the Queen Ravelith accused them of. Did they really steal from the other monarchs ?”

Rowen suppressed her concern for Adar, there was nothing that she could do for him but make his last hours of life enjoyable.

“The Queen Ravelith was known to be very paranoid,” Rowen said and wiped away a tear that she hoped Adar had not seen. “In that time, all of the Monarchs were prone to paranoia. Valuable items were going missing from the courts of the Monarchs and only another Monarch would know the true value of the stolen items. If not for the Queen Ravelith and her sound logic, the Monarchs may never have realized that the threat to their cherished keepsakes were being stolen not by a common thief, but by another Monarch. And after studying all of the clues, the Queen Ravelith’s prime suspects was the King Kafir and his wife…”

“Because the King Kafir was mad that the Monarchs care more about their valuables than the people they were meant to steward.”

Rowen smiled and couldn’t help but cry and she turned her bulbous head away from the blu and grabbed more papers from the monitors.

“You really like the stories of the Monarchs. Ointite children find it quite boring, but I guess tales from another world are more exciting. I am eager to tell stories to Ointites of the Guardians and brave blues I have met here.”

“So was it King Kafir?” Adar asked eagerly, then he coughed and blood spilled from his mouth and down his brown green skin.

Rowen moved to wipe the blood away and she couldn’t control her tears. 

“Don’t be sad,” Adar said weakly, like his voice was fading. “When you’re sad, your skin is sad. I like when you’re happy and the color in your skin swirls around. When you talk about Oin it’s even prettier.”

Rowen was truly touched by the young blu, and she didn’t think about the consequences when she lay her bare hand on his forehead. She didn’t care what would happen to her, as long as Adar would live, and he did, cured of the Minyak disease and his blood cancer.

Rowen collapsed as her body was inundated with the maladies she had taken from Adar. But in actuality, Rowen collapsed because her mind was inundated with visions from Minyak. 

She was immediately taken from Bludon back to Oin. When she woke in what she thought was the Holy Infirmary, she was alone in a large, sterile room. 

“Hello?” she called, looking around for the healers who should have been fussing over her. 

“You’re not awake,” a man said as he entered the room. He seemed familiar even though she did not exactly recognize him. He was a large man, but he had the look of an Earther, and dark skin that was almost as black as his fancy clothing. 

“What is happening?” Rowen asked with alarm.

“You are as dead as you can be, your majesty,” the man said with a bow. “One such as yourself is just beyond my grasp, but until you recuperate your very damaged body, we can speak here. Tell me, what is the Minyak disease on Bludon? Is it what I think it is?”

“Owuo,” Rowen said, “you’re death. Why do you want to know about the Minyak disease?”

“Because I do, and you will want to cooperate. I am on the side of the living for a time, and I suspect that the disease will cause something horrible if left unchecked. I have seen what it can be in another existence and that was not nice for anyone involved.”

“It is bad, but what can we do?” Rowen asked with concern. “Eventually everyone on Bludon will be infected and by then, the darkness will have moved in. Bludonians will be rabid and bloodthirsty and they will bring destruction to our universe.”

“You saw this?” Owuo asked.

The Queen Rowen nodded. “I think it is too late to stop it.”