Disruption in the Memory Space

'Acanthite...it says it's a common source of silver....used mostly in the crafting of weapons....'

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'Arsenic...commonly used in creating undetectable poisons...is also a substitute for the following....'

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'Bauxite...extremely common, refined to Aluminium to be used in almost all manufacturing processes....'

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'Benitoite...that looks like the rock that I merged with...or was it sapphire....I'll have to confirm with Mr. Melvin later....'

'It seems Benitoite is much softer than sapphire...and while also being weirdly resistant to pressure?....how would that work.....'

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'Halite?...oh, it's just salt....'

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'Linartie? It looks blue as well....'

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As the time slipped away, Emmia was finally jolted back to the real world after hearing the door open.

"Are you still reading?" Mr. Melvin asked, slightly surprised.

"Ah- yes," Emmia replied quickly, feeling surprised at herself. It was like she was in a trance, just reading the books around her. She looked around, to see stacks of books, which she had half read and half skimmed through, surrounding her.

Stretching her arms, Emmia stood up and followed Mr. Melvin out of the mini-library.

"Let's see how much you read shall we?" Mr. Melvin gave a small smile and pointed at the piles of minerals towards the other wall, his intention clear.

'He wants me to start naming them...' Emmia gulped, unsure if she could do it.

*INHALE*

"Haaa," Emmia let out a long breath, calming herself down, and then...

"That's some form of arsenic, although it could be some phosphorus compound, but it doesn't look like it,"

"The pink one is halite."

"That pile has unrefined gemstones like sapphires, rubies, garnets, and others."

"That's linarite, it has a darker blue than the ones I merged with."

.....

Emmia continued to name all the minerals and rocks with names that she knew, finally ending with, "And the two rocks that I merged with were benitoite."

Anxious, Emmia looked at Mr. Melvin to see how she had done while naming the rocks.

Mr. Melvin nodded with a wide smile.

Feeling her anxiety melt away, Emmia's breath rushed out of her body leaving only relief to fill the void. 'Ye-' Emmia's thoughts didn't even form completely before Mr. Melvin's next words.

"You were close to guessing a quarter of them correctly," he informed Emmia with the same smile, crushing her relief.

Emmia stiffened, only nodding in response.

Mr. Melvin shook his head slightly, "This is what happens if you just read the descriptions of the minerals. In real life, they have a great range of variety."

Again, Emmia just nodded. She was so sure that she had learned a lot in the room. But it looked like all that reading didn't help her at all, in fact, it appeared to make things much worse. 'I don't want to fail like this again,' Emmia bit her lip in frustration.

Taking in his student's reaction, Mr. Melvin's smile softened, "Good effort, but taking it in the wrong direction won't help anyone, especially yourself."

"Yes sir..." Emmia managed to force out.

"Now, from tomorrow, you will not leave this main room until you familiarize yourself with working with real things instead of just books."

"Tomorrow?" Emmia asked, slightly confused. There should still be time left in the day for her to start today itself.

"Seems like all that reading distorted your sense of time," Mr. Melvin gave an amused smile. "It's nearly getting dark, you should get home."

"What?" Emmia asked again, not comprehending Mr. Melvin's words.

"It's nearing nighttime," Mr. Melvin repeated with a small smile.

"Yes- I mean, I'll get going," Emmia stuttered to respond, Mr. Melvin's smile sending chills down her back.

"Thank you, Mr. Melvin," Emmia made sure to thank her teacher as she took her exit.

"Remember, tomorrow at 9 am," was the only reply she heard from her teacher.

'I really don't know what to think of him...,' Emmia thought to herself. While Mr. Melvin was helping her, she just couldn't decipher that ever-present smile that hung on his face.

'Arrghh, don't think so deep I guess, I need to focus on other things,' Emmia scratched her head and made her way out of the academic building to find it nearly turning nighttime.

'Seril must still be in the ward....what should I do for food?' Emmia thought, unsure of what to do. Suddenly, a pang of hunger struck Emmia, causing her stomach to curl inwards. 'Wow, using my gift really took a lot of my energy...'

Thinking for a moment, Emmia rummaged around in her bag and pulled out a pouch. Counting the Relins inside, Emmia thanked her lucky stars, 'Good, I have enough food to eat out....guess I'll go to Uncle Fengs.'

Humming an odd tune, Emmia set out, to secure her dinner, unaware of what was going on in her memory space.....

In the white space, words condensed from universal energy hung in the air.

'Emmia Struze'

'Mineral Merge'

Drawing some ambient universal energy from outside, a few words started to form.

'Mentor: Melvin Ho-q0*(&W*(Q&E!@(*&!@(*#&@!(*&*WR'

A crack burst forth in the pristine white memory space, spewing an inky black energy. An ominous aura filled the space around it, causing it to shudder, as if recoiling from the very energy itself. The inky energy snaked towards its target, the universal energy, and started to corrupt it.

The ambient universal energy struggled for a bit, before falling to the black energy. Having finished its job, the black energy retreated into the crack which slowly disappeared leaving the memory space as it was before.

'Emmia Struze'

'Mineral Merge'.

-----

Melvin Homes gazed at the two blue rocks in his hands. Turning them over, Melvin examined every part of the rock to see if anything had changed.

'Looks the same as before,' Melvin thought to himself. 'But...' he didn't know what, but he could feel it. Something was different. Years of experience working with unprocessed and processed minerals gave Melvin the intuition to know when something was special.

'Let's see,' Melvin thought as he activated his gift, 'Forge'.

An ethereal forge materialized around Melvin fitting in perfectly with the room around him. Melvin's forge, which was formed with universal energy, covered every corner of the room and overlapped with his actual blacksmithing room. Heading to the forge, he threw the two rocks into the flames. Burning brightly, universal energy used itself as fuel for the flames and melted the rocks. Reaching for his tongs, Melvin withdrew the melted rocks and examined them now.

'Interesting,' Melvin gave a small smile, his eyes flashing in the light of the flames. 'Maybe I should make something for Emmia..' he decided that his student needed a gift to help her with her training. 'After all, it looks like she's going to be a big help in the future as well.'

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Emmia shivered a little in the evening wind as she walked the streets.

'Quite cold today,' Emmia thought to herself, rubbing her palms to provide warmth against the cold.

'I should start wearing a jacket....'

'Wow..the city really does look less crowded than before.'

'The overall environment is a little dimmed as compared to before...'

'I wonder how the shops are doing, is Uncle Feng's shop running alright?'

'I hope Luna and Seril get better soon...'

'I wonder what Ica is doing...' Emmia's thoughts finally wandered to her brother.

'I just can't understand him nowadays.'

'I miss talking with him....' Emmia felt a slight ache in her heart. In simpler times, when it was only the two of them, they would tell each other everything, in fact, most of the time, they wouldn't even have to speak to understand each other's intentions. Now? Emmia barely spoke with her brother outside the academy, 'Well, I guess we can only talk if we meet each other. I never see him outside class, sometimes he's not even in class.'

"Haaah," Emmia sighed as she adjusted the bag on her back. Absorbed in her own thoughts, Emmia reached Feng's Foods before she realised it herself.

Walking inside, Emmia dropped her bag on the ground next to her chair and plopped down herself. Exhaustion finally setting in, Emmia stretched her sore muscles as she decided to wait for either Uncle Feng or Shui to call out for her.

'Ahhh, I'm too tired to even start a conversation at this point...' Emmia put her head down on the table, resting on her forehead.

A few moments later, Emmia felt a pen poke into the crown of her head. 'Ah, it's probably Shui,' Emmia thought to herself. Too lazy to raise her head, she replied from the same position, "Shui, Number 2 please."

"Is that how I look when I act like that?" A familiar voice sounded above Emmia, prompting her to raise her head in surprise. Emmia blinked as she stared into the eyes of her twin brother whose eye color was so similar yet subtly different to her own.

"Yes it is," Emmia responded to her brother's question as she rested her chin on the table. "Now go get my order Ica~"

'Ah yes, the rush you get when you force your sibling to bend to your orders,' Emmia thought with a smirk as she watched Ica roll his eyes as he headed back inside. Seeing him disappear inside, Emmia closed her eyes as she waited for her food. A few minutes later, the smell of hot food wafted to her nose as Icarth set the plate down on her table.

"When's your shift ending?" Emmia asked as she finally gathered enough energy to lift her head.

"Mmm, soon," Icarth murmured as he sat down next to Emmia.

"Aren't you on your shift?" Emmia asked raising an eyebrow.

"Haaah, not much of a shift if you ask me," Icarth ran his hand through his blond hair.

"Mm, you're not wrong. Recently the city feels less emptier than before," Emmia commented while digging into the food.

"Yea... business isn't really doing too good right now," Icarth lowered his voice while glancing back at the kitchen where Uncle Feng was whistling away while cleaning the counter.

"Where's Shui, I thought it was her shift today?" Emmia asked, trying to change the topic into something not so depressing.

"She's back home. Apparently, her extra lessons with her mentor are taking a lot out of her," Icarth accepted the spoon that Emmia outstretched to him.

"Ahhh," Emmia yawned as Icarth ate a few bites. "Guess I'm a little tired too."

"Why?"

"I'm going to Mr. Melvin for help with my gift," Emmia rubbed her cheek trying to hide her embarrassment.

"I see....try not to overdo it," Icarth replied after a pause.

"I don't think you should be the one to tell me that,"

"Not really like you have any other choice except to listen to it from me. You could hear it from Seril too I guess," icarth handed the spoon back to Emmia.

"Seril..." Emmia poked at the food at the mention of their big sister who had taken care of them since they were little.

"...what happened?" Icarth asked, his concern outweighing his ego to be indifferent.

"She's hurt...from her job...I don't know how," Emmia added in installments as silence descended upon the table.

"She's fine now," Emmia reassured her brother after a long pause.

Icarth blinked slowly, not saying a word in response.

"Ica-" Emmia started.

"No," Icarth cut off Emmia.

"You didn't let me finish," Emmia protested.

"I don't need to. My answer remains the same," Icarth replied coldly.

"But-but, Seril is sorry about it...." Emmia tried to say.

"No. Nothing she says will excuse what she did," Icarth glared at Emmia, silencing any other arguments from her.

Another silence descended as Emmia lost her appetite to eat the rest. Tilting her spoon towards Icarth, Emmia asked without saying a word, 'Do you want it?'

After a brief pause, Icarth took the spoon and started to finish the rest of the food.

Watching her brother eat, Emmia let out in a soft voice, "But I miss you...."

Icarth continued to eat, pretending not to hear, his thoughts a mystery to Emmia.

Finally, with an empty plate in between the twins, Emmia couldn't take it anymore. Something had been bothering her ever since Icarth had sat down next to her and she finally broke and questioned her brother, "Ok, I planned on ignoring it, but why is Jade sleeping in your apron?"