Her thoughts were all over the place. Alabaster and Boris took notice of it. Amy sat at the deck, choosing her shift on maintaining the barrier a little longer just so she remains undisturbed as Ramiro continues to keep his eye on Viola. She is deathly pale and admittedly, she has been neglecting keeping an eye on everyone because she believed that they would do fine without her but clearly not.
Viola is in a coma.
Through Ramiro, she could see her parents. In a sense, this situation must remind them when Viola almost died as a baby. Amy cannot remember it, but she knows that she is worried for her.
"Have you found the doctor that treated Amaryllis?" Her mother said, surprising the trio.
Her father held her in his arms, "No, but I'm still searching."
She turns to Boris who is listening in. He is already busy enough, so she is overjoyed when he said, "I'll go." He even said it in a resolute voice too.
"Go," Alabaster said in the same tone,
"I have the mannequins to take care of things for me. The research will be put to a temporarily stop but it won't be an issue. I will need to pack though so I will be there in about a day."
Amy clapped her hands in relief. She trusts Boris and luckily her parents do too.
*
Back at the academy, everyone is worried and even Rufus, with his poker face, is visibly worried.
"I don't understand. I could see she's being sick, and I tried to heal her. I don't understand what's going on?" Melissa said in a distressed tone.
"Seriously, what is with these sisters getting sick?" Leon said in disbelief, "First, it was Ryllis and now Vivi. Vivi is most likely gonna be held back."
"If she wakes up in time then she will be able to catch up." Nathaniel assured him.
"What exactly happened? What kind of thing is she going through that her purification power and healing power won't be able to fix?" Sabina said.
Rufus is deep in thought and silent the whole time. The whole thing is undoubtedly suspicious but before he could say his peace, the door to the lounge opens. One of the professors popped in the room.
"Miss Orlando, you are needed to the headmaster's office immediately."
Confused yet concerned, she quickly heads out leaving everyone else as equally as curious. When someone is sent to the headmaster's office even if she isn't in trouble, it might mean that they are requested for something.
*
It took a while for her to come back, and she didn't come back to their remaining classes for the day. In fact, she hasn't come back until late at night.
"Guys! Melissa's back!"
Everyone in their year came running to where she is. Melissa is visibly troubled. Her naturally moony eyes are basically full of fear and whatever she is going through, it must come as a shock and is still processing it.
"My cousin came here to pick me up. He has a royal decree for me to immediately return home tomorrow."
Everyone is shocked. Violet just left home not too long ago and now suddenly; she is also leaving. What the fuck is going on here?
"There is a plague at the Orlando Duchy. There are already casualties and if I don't go then the plague will keep spreading."
Leon looks especially concerned, "If you need anything, just ask."
She nodded with a gracious smile before hurriedly leaving to her room and pack.
Everyone was silent before someone finally said it, "I smell a plot." Nathaniel said, breaking the ice and there was a murmur of agreement amongst everyone.
*
Boris examined her and told their parents the truth. Someone has drugged her with a mineral with fatigue symptom tied to her powers when consumed regularly causing prolonged deep sleep, drowsiness, memory loss, cognitive impairment and eventually a coma. Luckily the drug is not dangerous nor life-threatening. She will however be unconscious for a few months and now that he knows what the cause is, he can flush it out of her system and advises servants that she gets moved around and massaged regularly so that she won't wake up with her body in atrophy.
Amy listened in and began writing letters. The first one is to Rufus. The next one is to her father. Boris has heavily hinted that there is something going on in the school. Whether or not he has figured it out is a mystery. Amy would send a letter to him with an excuse that she has seen a seer in one of the islands telling her that her sister will be ill, and that the culprit is in the academy devising something evil. The last one is to Melissa as she will need help dealing with the plague and that she should investigate the cause if the Orlando's haven't already and that whatever is happening to Viola is going to happen to everyone.
Amy is sure that they would be able to handle this but admittedly, they did so poorly. Alabaster always kept reminding her that they have to learn how to handle situations like this themselves otherwise they're never going to learn and even comforts her in the fact that the God will never let them die so early when nothing truly has happened yet.
With a groan, she stopped to take a shower but stop to check the map to see where they are. They have visited nine islands and only one of them is fruitful. Alabaster theorized that the whole map would reveal more than what the landscape would look like and maybe something more intricate or secretive as the story did show that.
There is nothing she wanted more than to speed this up, but they are far too deep into this. Amy knew more than what she let on and she is just sitting there. But this is a lesson they need to learn. In this genre, hardship builds character. Otherwise, they would never grow into the people they are meant to become. It was quite evident when she handled the Ripper. She proved herself to be spectacular but the others, they seem small in comparison and a part of her blames herself. She prioritized on the Ripper more than their growth and now she is gonna regret it even more that she's not gonna do anything about it.