Darkness surrounded Ari. In the inky darkness, currents of white streaks cut through, each one carrying a particular voice to it.
'She is not fit to be born into this family.'
'Agreed, she is too weak.'
'Even at the age of 5 she still hasn't activated her gift.'
'What a disgrace....'
When Ari felt her surroundings, she found herself in a small box unable to move a single muscle. Every time one of the voices spoke, it felt as if a knife stabbed through Ari's body. She knew that everything that the voices said was true, but there wasn't anything that she could do to change that fact, could she?
'I propose to have her removed from the family registry!'
A chilled cold washed over Ari as terror seized her. If she was expelled from the family then how would she survive?
'Oh! Don't you think that's a little too drastic?'
As the voices conversed, the inky darkness roiled and rumbled soundlessly. The white streaks of light became more chaotic and encompassed more and more of the space.
'On the contrary, I think it's a very light sentence in the face of the amount of disgrace she has brought to our family.'
'Hmm, what you say does make sense....'
'Alright I'll have it brought to the attention of the family head-'
*sob*
Seeing the other voices agree, a soft sob escaped her mouth. Although she had tried to hold it down, it was nigh impossible not to react to their consensus of expulsion. Now that they had agreed, it was only a matter of time before she was expelled.
'What was that sound?'
'Is someone there?'
'No one could have been here....except Ari!'
'ARI! I know you're there!'
'Come out this instance!'
In this instance, the white streaks of light were no longer streaks. Almost resembling thick roads at this point, the solid white strokes broke up the inky darkness until there was almost no more darkness left.
'ARI!'
'ARI!'
'ARI!'
The voices shouting her name grew with the intensity of the white roads of light in the inky darkness. Finally covering the entirety of the darkness, Ari awoke with a start to a light flashing in her face.
"Ari, are you ok?" A fellow nurse asked her after seeing her co-worker's pale face.
"Ah?" Ari let out unconsciously while blinking and shying away from the pocket flash star in the nurse's hand.
"Oh sorry," Seeing Ari's reaction, the nurse pocketed the light-producing device and backed away.
"I woke you up because you are required in your assigned patient's room immediately." The nurse explained to the bleary Ari.
"W-what? What h-happened?" Ari asked while still trying to wake up.
What Ari heard next thoroughly snapped her awake.
"I don't really know, but it seems that the patient has woken up.
-----------------------------
Going back to just after Ari left Emmi'a ward, Luna was still standing in front of Emmia's bed, her expressionless face hiding anything and everything from everyone else.
Seril sat with a subdued aura surrounding her while she observed Luna.
'Interesting girl...'
Seril's eyes glowed with an imperceptible light as she finished analyzing Luna.
'What a powerful gift,' Seril inwardly thought after seeing Luna's internal network of universal energy. Seril had used her own way to get a glimpse into what Luna's internal pathways looked like.
'Fine lines form the chains...and then these chains wrap around her body...I see that's how she can display strength disproportionate to her body size,' Seril sorted through the data in her head that she had gathered from Luna.
'And the way the chains are positioned are interesting as well...' Seril continued to make observations as well.
Unbeknownst to all this, Luna just gazed at Emmia's wracking her brain to try to find a way to help her.
'Her vitals are all stable and physically she is fine,' Luna repeated in her head for the nth time.
'So then it has to be something related to universal energy,' Luna concluded once more from her first statement.
Feeling the universal energy around her, Luna didn't feel any abnormalities around Emmia at all.
'Not good, my level of viewing universal energy isn't high enough,' Luna thought bitterly after seeing her rudimentary view of the universal energy surrounding her.
'I can't find anything if I keep going like this....but that nurse already checked Emmia's internals with her gift so even if she couldn't see it, then I have no way.....' Luna fell into a well of self-loathing until a thought struck her.
'Wait...I may not have that level of understanding of universal energy, but I can use my gift.....and what am I supposed to do with my gift?' Luna fell back into contemplation.
Her gift was more of a physical gift restricting physical aspects. She could merge it with her body easily enough and use it to control her weapon. She had also learned to seal things inside her own body to prevent them from harming her.
'Maybe I can use my gift to seal something inside Emmia? But if I don't know where the problem is...and it's most likely not physical so I don't think I can.....'
Luna's eyes widened in shock as a realisation hit her. Unconsciously Luna's countenance started to show changes. A qualitative change started to take place around her causing her aura to manifest itself. Seeing this, Seril stayed silent as it was very rare for someone to get an epiphany.
'My gift is restrictions.....so it's easy enough to seal physical things....the principle is the bigger it is, the harder it is to seal...'
'But what's wrong with me trying to seal or restrict non-physical things.....like emotions.....'
Luna bitterly thought about how she always failed to express herself.
'It's always like moving through water when I try to talk to anyone....maybe it's been a problem with my gift all along.....'
Luna felt a ray of hope hit her, illuminating her deep inside the ocean where she was stuck inside.
'Then if I can increase my control over gift, then I should be able to lift the restrictions on my emotions?...Or something like that..' Luna thought with uncertainty.
'Nevermind, I'll figure it out later.' Luna shelved the thought and re-focused on what she had been thinking just before her tangent.
'So I don't have to limit my gift to physical things....but that still doesn't give me a hint on what I should do here...'
'I don't want to restrict something like universal energy or all gifts...' Luna thought with concern. While she had just figured out to use her gift on non-physical things, she felt that she could only do broad things with it.
'I definitely don't want to try doing precise things on Emmia when she's like this...I might accidentally restrict some life-saving equipment or something.'
'Then what does that leave me with....' Luna thought helplessly. Without realising already an hour had passed during her contemplation. Seril gazed at Luna shocked to her core. Luna's aura had gone through a qualitative change in the past hour and was still changing. Currently, Luna was in a trance in which her understanding of something was rising.
'So quick!' Seril thought as Luna's aura fluctuated once more. It had only been an hour before the first fluctuation now it was fluctuating once more, indicating another change in Luna's understanding.
Completely immersed in her own thoughts, Luna felt frustration building.
'It's still no use even if I can target non-physical things.'
'My understanding of universal energy isn't high enough for me to pinpoint the issue in her body.'
'And the main thing is that I don't know what kind of issue is preventing Emmia from waking up so I can't carelessly apply my gift.'
'Arhghhhh, I still need more time to practice...to improve...but how long will that take?'
'Professor Melvin's course is 1 year, so even if I'm talented at it, I would still need half a year....'
With each thought Luna's frustration mounted at her helplessness. She could finally see a way to help Emmia yet, she was too weak to apply any of the methods.
'This gift is useless.' Luna cursed suddenly.
'Why is it all about sealing...Emmia is already sealed in a coma right now.'
'I need to get her out of it...I wish I had a gift that would free people from confinements...like unlocking Emmia from her coma.'
'It doesn't even help me see what's the cause of Emmia's coma'
'If only I could see what sort of restriction was placed on Emmia....'
'Wait.' Luna's aura soared.
'Emmia's in a coma....she's currently restricted by something and unable to wake up. That means...I should be able to see what sort of restriction is there while using my gift....'
Luna's obsidian black eyes cracked slightly, a new resplendent color filling in between the seams. But the cracks were still too fine and small to be noticed, yet they existed. A mark that symbolized Luna's increased understanding of her own gift.