Chapter 31

All throughout the day, Lady Emmi was imparting knowledge of this world I was now an inhabitant of, as well as plying me with food and drinks. Lady Emmi told me in no uncertain terms that I should refrain from speaking as well as spreading out my aura. Again, I had forgotten how much more vulnerable I felt when I was unable to even 'see' the outlines of things and people.

She told me that in this world there are many kingdoms. Ours was made up of a group of enormous islands which has been joined together by a series of incredibly large bridges. I couldn't help but think back to the bridges we crossed when coming to the imperial city and couldn't argue with her assessment. Those bridges were marvels to behold.

Each island had it's own name and a ruling family. They were placed under the protection of the Emperor with the understanding that they would follow a basic list of laws set up by the very first emperor. One story goes that they other kings from the other 11 kingdoms submitted because of the incredible power that the first emperor controlled. Other stories are of wars between each other or wars with other continants. Lady Emmi said she wasn't sure the real reason for the willing submission, but also mentioned that the royal families from the other kingdoms are always found in the imperial city on their second birthday. I felt that she was hinting at something, but wasn't able to understand her point.

I think Lady Emmi kept up the steady stream of information to make sure I didn't try talking, but thanks to Lady Emmi's chatting, I was able to learn about my dad and what he does. I learned that when an emperor ascends the throne he essentially deputizes his most trusted and strongest men and women to be his eyes, ears, and sometimes his sword. The Emperor started ruling with 25 guardians and was down to 19 due to 'sad events' as Lady Emmi put it. She wouldn't go into more detail and I couldn't ask...yet.

After a simple dinner, Lady Emmi took me outside. The air felt clean and refreshing. It felt so comfortable that I just wanted to lay down and sleep here. I could almost feel the plant life breathing around me and the I could sense clean water nearby. I wasn't really sure how I could sense these things. They were almost more tangible than when I was using my aura to guage my surroundings. My eyes teared up at the overwhelming contentment I was feeling, but unable to express even if I could speak.

"Why are you crying? Are you sad?" Lady Emmi asked; clearly misunderstanding my tears. I simply shook my head no before gingerly walking forward.

"Are you hurt?" She asked and I again shook my head no. I smiled at her to let her know that I was really ok and then gestured my hand and arms outward indicating overthing hoping she would understand that it was this place that was overwhelming.

"Alright," Lady Emmi said, seeming to understand what I was trying to convery "why don't you sit down and I'll explain more about the process we call cultivating. We are gathering outside energy to nurish and strengthen our own using our elemental gifts as mediums. Some people call these gifts, Sprites, but it's not like we can tangibly see them, so I'm not entirely sure where this name comes from." The last part of Lady Emmi's statement shocked me. I clearly remembeer them and they looked similar to cute little toddlers. I could totally understand why they would be referred to as sprites.

"Right now as the moon is rising is the perfect time to cultivate your healing ability. It's still best if you don't use your aura, but you should be able to eventually feel the different elements in the air and draw them towards you".

As Lady Emmi was speaking I pictured a vacuum attached to my skin that was sucking away from my skin instead of towards it and connected the 'hose' to my insides where the multicolored caves were residing. At first I didn't feel anything except the gentle breeze that was blowing across the garden. Then I noticed what looked like miniscule dust particles that were similar colored to the lights at the ceremony. Instead of being the bright colored and glowing, these were dull. Following Lady Emmi's instructions, I began to let the dull dust partlicles inside me and watched in fascination as they made their way to the cooresponding color sprite. Being outside, most of the sprites had a least some dust particles going into their caves, all but the red cave and the silver cave. The red cave was actually the brightest and the silver cave appeared to be the most lifeless. It made me sad to see it like that, but I knew I would need to wait until tomorrow when I could speak to find out why the difference.

We stayed outside for several hours until the moon was fully in the sky and then Lady Emmi picked me up and brought me back to the warm room. I was thankfull that it was the same room. I was way too tired to try and figure out another layout right then. I fell fast asleep, eagerly anticipating the next day when I would finally be able to talk for the first time in more than one year.