Blooms of the Empyreal

Chapter 5: Lost in Translations

Mariana rubbed her eyes as looked over another text book. There was a surprising amount of small differences between the human body here on Valora compared to Earth; when she’d finally found all of the necessary medical texts located in the library, she’d taken to reading a few out of curiosity, but she seemed unable to put them down. Health had always been her focus, and she found each of the medical texts interesting. Her medical knowledge was as deep as it was wide, covering a variety of diseases, injuries, and illnesses that came with working in an emergency type residency. She was inches away from being a full doctor on Earth.

But here?

She wasn’t sure. There was so much here that didn’t not appear on Earth. For one, there was a disease just named “Intolerance.” Instead of being related to food as she had originally imagined, it was actually a sort of allergy of the skin that only happened during the worst of the winters here.

She was trying to read more in depth about this disease to see if she could put an Earth name to it, when she had to rub her eyes again. They were watering in a terrible way that made them ache, like she had just spent a whole day staring at a computer screen. She hadn't though; these books were definitely paper. Weren’t they?

She put one sheet between her fingers; it certainly felt like paper. She sighed, closed the book, and leaned back in her chair closing her eyes and allowing them to rest. She massaged a headache that was forming behind her eyes.

“My Lady Mariana? Are you alright?” the Duke’s voice, deep and silky smooth, slid into the room. Mariana jumped, opening her eyes and turning toward the sound. “If you are not feeling well, I can summon a healer.”

Mariana gasped at the sight of the Duke; he had changed into a white-on-white floral patterned jacket, and it hugged his chest in a way the showed off how broad his chest was under the cloth. Mariana found herself blushing as she looked him over. “I’m fine; my eyes just hurt from reading.”

“Of course; it takes a long time to get used to the translation rune’s way of making text readable.” The Duke smiled. “I would be best if you give your eyes a rest every few minutes while your eyes adjust.”

“Translation rune?” Mariana asked, blinking at him.

“I must have forgotten to mention it. Whatever language you spoke back on your home planet would not be spoken here; part of bringing you here was the Translation Rune. It should be on the back of one of your legs, though I am unsure where. It will look like a tattoo. It translates everything you see and hear; it makes communicating with people from other cultures and other creatures with different languages much easier. Another gift of the God of Wisdom Olec.”

Mariana opened a book and looked down at the page. It hadn’t even occurred to her to question why all these books were in English.

The Duke of Villafona stepped forward, leaning over her and pressing his gloved hand to the table next to her book. “If you focus on my fingers and then trying to look at the book out of the corner of your eye, it should show up in its original text.”

Mariana did as he wished, her eyes sliding up the dainty lines of his glove. She shifted her eyes just a little, and saw strange runes appear on the page. "Oh," she blushed deeply, overly awake of how close the Duke's hands and chest were to her.

"If I recall correctly, this book is not in a language which I know either; R'on elvish or something like that." He picked up the volume and studied the cover. "You are interested in the human body?" 

Mariana blushed again. What should have been a very innocent sentence became nearly pornographic in the silky, soft voice of the Duke, and she couldn't look at him. "I was a healer on my home planet; I was in my last months of residency before becoming a full doctor."

"I see; that is quite the accomplishment for someone as young as you are, is it not?" 

Mariana spun quickly around, her eyes locking with his, looking for even a hint of mockery. If he was making fun of her-

But there wasn't. Unlike some of the other men in her life, Mariana sense no derision in his voice, his manner. There was nothing but genuine curiosity in him. He looked so young, beautiful, and so kind. Was this guy even real?

"I suppose. Have you come to escort me to dinner?" she asked, looking down at his shoes. "I was just finishing up here and about to put all of these away."

The Duke smiled. "No need, I have a servant here for putting books away for you. Come. Let us dine together and you can tell me all about this residency you have been speaking of." He head out an arm, and Mariana used to get herself to her feet. "I know little of medicine, and would be interested to know what drew you to study it."

She blushed a little. "It's not that interesting of a story, your Grace."

"I am still interested in hearing about it," he answered gently. "I want to know everything about you."

And her blush only deepened.