The Healer (The Order of Intergalactic Peace #1) - Kelly Lucille Page 0,1
structure. Unless you lived in the wilds beyond the walls of the established cities you were lorded over by the capricious families handpicked and backed by the OIP. Tyranny at its finest and almost as hard to swallow as the subpar rations given to everyone outside of the small handful of families who controlled everything.
If she had been anything but what she was, knew what she did, and lived the life of poverty she witnessed in Freefall, she might even have given in to the temptation herself. In her case though the same reasons that would tempt her the most was also what made it impossible. She was a healer, and that was more than just a designation in her case. A soldier she would never be, just ask her father.
So she hid as much of herself as she could when she ventured into any of the cities and she lived quietly and alone save for the occasional visit from her father, or brief healing trips to towns. She was grateful for whatever it was about her power that made the animals that usually would have been the true threat to her leave her be.
She kept her secrets, hid access to the home that her and her father had carved out of a mountain and told herself that a little loneliness was a small price to pay for her freedom. Because she knew, had always known, that if it became known a healer of her power was on Earth more than a Fleet Destroyer would be deployed to root her out. Like the Hunter Designation of her father, Healers were rare. A healer as powerful as herself, the thing of legends.
Because of the culling, the conscriptions and the harsh living conditions found on Earth, even in the cities, it was rare that any new powers were discovered outside of the OIP. Those that were outside of that particular sphere of influence usually fell under one of two categories, either too weak to bother with, or they had already joined the second most powerful faction in the universe. The Rebellion.
She and her father were in neither, and because of it they existed on the edge of a dangerous line. Serenity was under no illusions that she would have survived free as long as she had if her father had not been who and what he was. Hunters, even those of low power, which her father was not, were feared even more than healers were revered.
Sought after by both the OIP and the Rebellion their enhanced senses and beast like drives made them ideal soldiers for search and destroy missions, and for those with the control for it, the elite guard. But first you had to find them. In the wild no one could find a true hunter if he did not want to be found. Or forced him into anything he didn’t want to do. That included giving up his children or dying in wars not of his making.
Which led to the other reason she was still free and prospering in her little sphere of influence. Among the small tribes of survivors outside of the military held cities left on Earth her father was legendary, and everyone had learned the hard way that ‘the healer’ was protected by him and was to be left alone. Even speaking of her had gotten more than one person hunted and skinned alive, left as a message for the rest.
All of it led to her being little more than a benevolent ghost to the towns. A whispered legend of hope quickly followed by a stifled waft of fear.
Most people believed she was nothing more than a myth, but those who had met her or heard from someone in the know, posted pleas for assistance on the city gates for everything from help in finding love, to curing infertility. Most she had no problem ignoring. The others, the poor, the young and the truly desperate, those she helped as many as she could. All the while staying in the shadows.
Serenity wondered where her father was now. It had been months since he last visited and would probably be longer still. His very nature made staying in one place nearly impossible. He had managed to stick around until she was old enough and trained enough to see to her own day to day safety, and she always knew he would return for her if he sensed danger or stress. Otherwise she saw him rarely.