Time Period: In the 7th year of the two knowing each other (married for three years), Emmaya is with child, and all seems to be well, until two hours after the baby is born.

Fyodor waited downstairs. By this time it was far into the night and he still hadn't heard from any of the nurses what was going on. Could something have gone wrong? Was she alright? Was the child alright? He knew it had been born at least, that's all they said, nothing more, nothing less. But of course they were alright, Emmaya was a very strong girl, as would his son be. His son. . .or daughter. He was utterly confident of this, until the nurse walked in with a grave face that is.
“Mr Bursh-kov-itch?” she said slowly, taking the time to pronounce the strange name.
“Da, that would be me,” he said. She bade him to come with her.
“Is something the matter?”
“Just follow me, please.”

“Now just sit down sir,” said the doctor, once they had come to the office. “We have some, unfortunate news.”
“Where is Chavaleh?” Fyodor asked anxiously, using his wife's mother name.
“First let me explain about the child.”
“Arais, his name is Arais.”
“Araisia. . .” muttered the nurse.
“It is a she. . .but never mind that. Your little Araisia has a lung infection, but that's not the worst of it, that can be treated. It's about Mrs. Burshkovitch.”
Fyodor's face went white.
“Is she-”
“No, no indeed. . .but she may not live out the next week. It would appear that she has been poisoned.”
“What!?”
“She has gone into a coma. We aren't exactly sure what it is, but we've linked it to a substance found in the body of Tomasz Andreiech, who was assumed to have been murdered by one of the underground gangs. I first found out about it in an article I read. This happened 9 years ago, but now with better technology we have been able to recognize what was in the substance, and several other bodies have been found with similar poisons. It seems to be the same sort of thing, but this is something that attacks the mind rather than the body, and has sent her into a serious coma.”

The eyes of the young husband flashed.
“Did you say, Tomasz, Tomasz Andreiech?”
Tomasz was the brother in law that Fyodor never met, the one whose body was found dead without a trace on it. Often had he gone to visit the grave of the man he never knew with his wife.
“Da why?”
“Tomasz Andreiech is Emmaya's brother.
The doctor furrowed his thick eyebrows.
“And you were not informed of this research?”
Fyodor shook his head.
“Nyet, not at all.”
“This is a very strange thing that you should not hear of this research. But I think perhaps whoever has done this is after your whole family. Tell me, do you or anyone you know have any connections with the gang? Or associations, perhaps?”

Fyodor shook his head, of course not! But then his thoughts went back to a young aloof boy with the sorrowful brown eyes he never really knew. But Chava did. Chava. . .loved him.
“Da, there was someone, her brother-well, her close friend to be exact. He was thought to have joined a gang, but that was four years ago. He disappeared for a week, and then his body was found by Hollin River. We aren't sure what happened to him. . .his body was-”
“Without a trace on it?”
Fyodor nodded, realizing.
“Then it was probably the gangs that killed them both-but why? And why Chava now, and how would they find us?”
“Where does your wife work? Where do you work? Perhaps there is an insider there, or-”
“My wife works on my Uncle's small farm where we live, in the hills. She is there by herself, and certainly would have mentioned seeing any suspicious characters. And I am nothing but a lingust and historian at the small University of Korim. And I used to work part time as an architect,and I do a few other things here and there, but who. . .Come to think of it, my secretary told me of an odd fellow who asked to see my records, but that was months ago.”
“Did they get them?”
“Well, yes, Korim is not very. . .particular about giving out information, it's really just my job application. . .but it has all my personal records, job abilities, experiences, next of kin. . .addresses, family situations. . .”
“So assuming that these are the same people that are after you, they know everything about you?” asked the doctor.
He nodded. “Yes, but why her? Why not go after the child if they want to hurt us? And why not just kill her? Why send her into a coma, if she knows something?”
Fyodor clenched his fists.
“All I know is this, I will find whoever has done this and they will pay, they will pay dearly. But first. . .I will not let her die!”
“There is something that you must know about this coma. It is not a normal coma, it is a Dararelan coma, which means that she has lost almost all memory of the outside world, and whatever she has left is probably fading as well. But what I'm trying to say is that in this sort of coma, the patients travel to a, a paradise of their own make, and they rarely ever find reason to leave.”
“You mean like, having a good dream, and never wanting to wake up?”
“That would be one way of explaining it, but it would be more accurate to say That her soul has traveled to a different dimension.”
“So. . .if she remembers, will she be able to wake up?”
“If she wants to, she may not want to leave, for the poison in her mind causes her to create the most perfect paradise, and if she does want to leave. . .sometimes if they try to go back, their mind creates something to trap them into staying there, the appearance of a lost one pleading them not to leave, a small child begging for help, or even a monster or dragon that hinders them from going through a door. The victims of this sort of thing rarely ever get out, because they believe they are physically blocked, even though nothing is really there. This is why it is called the poison of the mind.”
“How-how do you know all these things?”
The doctor shrugged.
“I was studying under a wizard of the healing arts when I was a boy-”
Fyodor's eyes brightened, and he nearly jumped out of his seat.
“Then you can heal her? With magic, it will be a piece of cake!”
The doctor stayed him.
“Nyet, my friend, I wish I could, but I cannot. No wizard in this day and age could heal her, and they cannot truly use magic anyway. This is something she must find a way out of. We must hope and pray that she does.”
“She always was one for fighting dragons, and often bemoaned the fact she never got to. Mayhaps this will be her chance? But there must be something that I can do!”
“Talk to her, that is the best thing you can do. Have her friends talk to her, anyone that could make her hear you, will help to wake her up. As for the rest, we must trust in her to find a way. I can tell she is a strong one. But for now, let us worry about the child.”
“Yes. . .I nearly forgot about her. Take me to them,” said Fyodor, somewhat dazedly. He wasn't in the least bit concerned about the child, and felt somewhat guilty about it. But, after all, he thought, this would not have happened if it weren't for her. Why did we even want children? It wasn't my idea, I'm sure. We should be trying to revive Chava, not worrying about some baby. That, and several other dark thoughts went through his mind. But he was a bit in shock, can you really blame him?
The nurse led him to the room and handed him a tiny infant wrapped in a blanket. Suddenly all his angry thoughts disappeared, for when he gingerly took the child(afraid of breaking the tiny thing) it neither slept nor cried, it just gazed up into her fathers face with bright glorious eyes and smiled. To his surprise he smiled back. He was a father now, and this was his own daughter, his beautiful daughter that he would raise and take care of. And he was proud of this, no longer angry. This child would be his joy not his burden.
“She has her father's eyes,” said the nurse.
“And her mother's smile,” he said, as his own smile faded and his thoughts turned to the gray faced Chava, unconscious on the bed.
“I swear you will not be a motherless child, Araisia,” he said, laying her in her cradle. Fyodor went to Emmaya's side, and took her frail white hands in his strong weathered ones.
“I have said it before, La Chavaleh, and I will say it again, I refuse to lose you, and I will make sure of that, without fail. I will protect you. . .without fail.”
Whereupon the distraught Fyodor began to weep.