Chapter 60 CHAPTER 60
The next morning, Erin was chipper, even though her sister was still going to die.
Worse, they're all going to leave her alone in quarantine to save themselves as they're being sent to the Capital.
But it was for the best; the Principal was moving a bunch of people, and if they didn't come along now, they would be left behind.
It left a pang of sadness in me, but I watched her dance as she got dressed, always bringing a positive vibe to every room she found herself in; yet, I could feel the undercurrent of sadness she was hiding.
When she finished dressing up, the last to finish for the first time since I knew her, I was close to tears.
I pulled her into a hug as she tried to leave and this time, it was her turn to pause and wonder if I was having a mild stroke.
Hugs weren't my thing but for Erin, I'll do anything to help.
And just as I'd predicted, she burst into tears.
“She loved flowers. Green, red, blue, whatever colour, she'd light up whenever I brought them for her on my way back from the bakery. She was obsessed with it and since she was sick, my brother Soren has been putting… flowers on the window from the other end. He says he always sees it next to her when he goes to see her the next day. She's going to die without seeing me ever again. She's going to die without seeing a fresh flower again. She's going to be in pain and no familiar face, or any at all will be there with her.”
She wasn't crying, but I was. Sobs wracked my form, the sadness so pungent I could have held it in my hands.
“Come on Erin, warn her before you do that!” Akua snapped at Erin while pulling me away from her.
“I'm sorry I wasn't thinking, it just… I'm so sorry Alira.”
“Don't touch her!” Mira grunted, “We'll meet you in class. Try not to transfer it to anyone else. She's stronger than anyone I've ever seen, others might not be able to process it this way.”
“Okay. I'm really sorry Alira, I wasn't transferring intentionally I promise.”
I didn't a single bit of what was being spoken about, and I couldn't ask, I was fighting a strong wave of sadness, one that was justified.
But still, too much.
“Come here,” Akua led me to her bed, immaculately dressed as always, “take deep breaths, find your Chi, and let her work out the knots.”
It was difficult to listen, Erin's sister was crying, screaming, begging for flowers, and her elder sister who smelled like daisies and fresh bread, couldn't get any of the things she wanted.
In my head, bugs fell from the sky, the window opened and instead of flowers, more bugs poured in, eating at her skin.
I felt a hand slam into my back, hard.
“Find your Chi Alira!” Mira screamed, “Akua go and get the healer!”
“Wait,” I called, fighting the memories that kept trying to spiral in my head, and instead, followed Master Florian's directions, taking in deep breaths until I found it. “It's here,” I whispered, rubbing the spot in my elbow, where it had moved to.
“Awesome, keep rubbing it. Mira, get warm water.”
I obeyed, slowly spreading fragments of power through my body but instead of going to my head, it was spreading through all my other body parts.
It even avoided my heart where it hurt the most.
I was groaning painfully when Mira ran back with a bowl of steaming hot water.
“But she said warmly,” I squeaked.
“You're a dragon kin Alira, hot means warm,” she grumbled as she pulled my hand and tried to dip it in but it wasn't fitting in well.
So she poured it on my arm.
I opened my lips to scream but it got stuck in an ‘oh’.
It didn't hurt at all.
Instead, I felt the knot loosen, and quickly, my chi began releasing ropes of energy through my body rapidly.
Like white blood cells fighting pathogens in the human body.
Soon, I felt it, everything seeping away, the sadness, the images, the vivid imagination, all flowing away and leaving me hollow and empty.
“How do you feel now?”
“I don't… I don't feel anything.”
“Sorry, that's gonna take a few days to dissipate. Except you have a love interest already?” Mira smirked, her blue scales reflecting the sun from the windows.
“No, I'm not interested in that at the moment,” I stated, my voice void of any emotion.
Even though a certain memory called me a blatant liar, I know why I keep running away from it and that's not going anywhere any time soon.
“Well, a lot of boys are very interested in you,” Akua winked, a smile on her face strange to me, “maybe you should pick one of them to relieve yourself. That Asher boy has been getting more desperate. Hasn't he proven himself?”
“He gives me weird energy, I don't know how to explain okay?” I grunted, standing up from the bed and picking up my school bag alongside. “Can we go? I doubt Erin is feeling any better after whatever this was.”
“You're not angry at her?” Mira frowned.
“Why should I be? She didn't know what she was doing, or was she lying?”
“No but to give someone else your feelings like that, it's forbidden. She knows that, it's one of the first things her species is taught. You could have died.”
“From sadness?”
“Yes, something as overwhelming as that saps your Chi, overpowers it and Stars forbid, breaks it in pieces. Who are you without your chi?”
“I didn't have it until I got down here and Master Florian unlocked it for me.”
“Oh, that explains why I didn't believe you were one of us from the onset. Let's go then, remember to tell her you're not upset. She's probably gathering more sadness to feed you again right as we speak.”
Mira opened the door and I walked past, smiling at her gratefully.
I felt nothing, so I tried to think of what I should be feeling, so I don't come across as weird.
But I didn't know how to react to these two being nice to me, it wasn't sudden, over the weeks, they've been softening up, treating me with less harshness.
But coming to my rescue and saving me from impending harm, without any extra personal reason like when Mira saved me from Kovar, that was extreme.
But I was grateful for it, the rest of the day would have gone way worse without someone looking out for me since Erin was out of commission.