Chapter 11: Everbright (7)

Natalie led Noah to a dormitory room in the barracks where a young girl John's age was waiting with glazed eyes. The girl's focus was on a spear left propped on the other side of the wall. She hardly reacted even as Natalie cleared her throat and made her and Noah's presence known. 

"Raelyn, you have a visitor." 

The little girl, Raelyn Kelart glanced up at Natalie then at Noah with a vacant expression, not saying a word. She was a fair child with bobbed red hair that parted on her left temple and fully covered one eye. 

Blankets were wrapped around her, only her head peeking out from the bundle to resemble a cocoon. The icy blue of her pupils lacked any interest in the world, as if she'd completely given up on everything. 

Natalie sighed while gesturing to Noah. 

"Can you let this child try helping you?" She asked. "There's a chance he could be different from the others." 

Raelyn's expression wavered for an instant, but she quickly lost interest and rolled to face her back to them. "No," she said with a voice that sounded like soft bells. 

"Raelyn, don't be stubborn. It's better to try than not," Natalie advised. 

Noah could tell that Raelyn had her own circumstances, but could not infer a deeper meaning in contrast to Natalie who frowned at Raelyn's silence. It was atypical of her usual behavior. 

Natalie knew Raelyn's exact circumstances. 

Walking up to Raelyn, Natalie firmly gripped the end of the blanket, and unrolled it in a single swift motion, popping the petulant little girl out. The girl's eyes bugged out in a panic as her figure was revealed in an oversized white gown. 

She was a normal nine-year old, but her arms were like sticks, the skin practically outlining the bone. 

As soon as her arms were exposed, Raelyn's face tightened in fear as she grew exceedingly conscious of them. Weakly, she grabbed at the blanket Natalie had taken in an anxious bid to hide the deformity. 

Her arms weren't always like that. 

Raelyn had been set to go under the Spear Knight's tutelage in Aletera's capital before her arms began to weaken. Even if she tried, she could no longer hold onto her own spear. 

It was nothing less than a tragedy that inevitably landed Raelyn at Amaranth. 

Healers could not help her because what she was suffering was neither an injury nor sickness. It was a genetic disease. Healers healed on the principle of heightening the body's recovery ability several fold, but what if the body's natural condition was abnormal? There would be no effect. 

The muscles in Raelyn's arms were partially atrophied in a condition similar to modern day muscular dystrophy. Noah was unfamiliar with the term, but it wasn't as if he hadn't heard of people who suffered from similar conditions. As the muscles deteriorate, the ligaments stiffen, leading to a loss of mobility and flexibility. 

"The Raelyn I heard about wasn't this timid." Natalie lamented the injustice. Children were the most impressionable, and rejection had led to reclusion. "Aren't you a Kelart?" 

Raelyn flinched, pursing her lips and staying quiet for a moment before anger finally made its way onto her idle expression. She simmered, but even that wouldn't last as depression returned. She slumped, voice growing choked. 

"Are you here to just make fun of me?" Raelyn murmured, eyes wetting. 

"I apologize," Natalie said nothing else. Whether treatment worked or not, Raelyn was the only case Natalie could think of as an appropriate test regardless of personal feelings. 

In the silence, Noah glanced at Natalie who stared right back before sitting Raelyn in front of him. 

From the start, Natalie had given Noah a seemingly impossible patient for any healer. 

Logically, it made sense. If Noah could do nothing for Raelyn, then how could he be able to do anything for Duke Everbright? However, the pity Natalie directed to Raelyn spoke volumes for how little she considered the chance of success.

It irked Noah. Polite as she had been, he couldn't help but view Natalie's intentions as shrewd. 

But that was a child. A child whose feelings were evidently bordering on unstable. 

If Noah failed here, how much more mental strain could Raelyn take after countless failures in her treatment? 

A feeling welled within Noah that dwelled within a part of everyone described by a single word. 

Compassion. 

"In the name of the Father." Noah slowly made the sign of the cross. 

In his experience with John, he'd noticed the potency of his light intensified when exalting the Holy Father's name. No, more than that, its level surpassed his own capabilities when his thoughts, actions, and sentiments aligned not with himself, but for the sake of another. 

The teachings of the bible, and the words of God seemed to act as the standard. 

Selflessness over selfishness. 

The blessings of a kind heart over the greed of monetary possession. 

"Thy kingdom come, and thy will be done." 

The sigils of the cross over the back of his hands illuminated. Dim at first, they began to shine brighter and brighter, white ethereal feathers appearing and dancing in the air. 

"?!" Natalie's expression blanked the moment a warm light began to emit from Noah's hands as previously described. It was just, the feeling of sanctity could never properly be conveyed; the domain of light forming a sanctuary. 

Natalie found her breath tightened, her body leaning forward. 

Yet the light wasn't Noah's attention.

He glanced up, and there before him was his Guardian Angel, her palms overlapping with his and solemnly pouring divine light through his hands. 

He'd thought she'd left since Noah could not see her when he'd woken up, but she'd always been by his side. 

What was the difference between then when he couldn't see her in the slums, and now? Noah didn't even have to think, it was faith. 

When he first used God's Light, it was with doubt and uncertainty, but ever since the first earnest prayer, a part of him had begun to believe. And that belief, that faith, was the turning point. 

He stared at Raelyn, ignoring Natalie whose interest had skyrocketed beyond aloof indifference. 

Before Noah, all he could see was a vibrant soul weeping for salvation. 

Though the choirs of the angels would not sing for a single wayward soul, the Lord's grace was all-consuming. 

The vague image of Noah's Guardian Angel nodded with the faintest traces of a warm smile tracing over her face. 

Deep within him, a part of Noah seemed to understand even through vague interpretation. For simple injuries and sickness, the light's glow would be sufficient, but for deep seated conditions and mortal injuries, another aspect was required. 

The parable of the Leper. 

The parable of the blindman. 

Both instances had a similarity.

It was Faith. 

"Will you believe in me?" Noah asked Raelyn.

Raelyn stared at the warm light of Noah's palms with a vacant expression. "Believe?" 

"Yes, believe." Noah repeated, showing the light of his hands. "This radiance is the Lord's miracle. It banishes the dark, comforts the weary, and cures all injury and disease. It is the word of God."

Natalie hummed while listening in the background. 'God? The false deities that never answered? Yet this light…?' 

"Then, yes," Raelyn nodded her head with more emotion than she'd shown from the beginning. Like Natalie had said, it was better to try. The light had given her hope. "B-Believe. Please help me." 

Gently, Noah clasped Raelyn's frail hands and let the light shine ever brighter. From the start, there was never a need to plead in the Lord's infinite mercy.

"Be healed." 

Submerged in the tranquil light, Raelyn's shriveled arms began to undergo a visible change. Forearms broadened, biceps filled out, and mobility gradually returned to normal as if it were all a lie. 

In the end, the angel nodded at Noah, before vanishing as the light in his hands faded. 

Blankly, Raelyn inspected her arms, rotating her shoulders non-stop until she started sniffling. Vainly, she wiped at her eyes with her hands, and then registered that she was wiping her face with her hands, and could no longer stop the tears.

Noah tousled Raelyn's hair in the same way he did with John and Leah. "It's okay to cry," he comforted her. 

"Hic..awe…waa-hic." Raelyn sobbed, constantly wiping at the tears trickling down her cheeks. 

Noah nodded, backing away to give Raelyn privacy before he suddenly noticed Natalie no longer as indifferent as before. 

"Y-You." Natalie grabbed Noah by the wrist, leading Noah out of the room as her neutral expression gradually broke into a fluster. "We must see the lady." 

It was here that Noah dug his heels into the ground and refused to budge, prompting Natalie to frown. 

"No," Noah politely said, before he pulled his hand away, rubbing at his wrist. "If you want my help, I've already given my conditions. If you were the one who slipped the note through the door, then you must have already heard them." 

Natalie did, but she hadn't considered that Noah would be this stubborn. Like Annette, she could see no demerit in achieving the impossible. 

"Whether I help or not, doesn't affect me." Noah insisted before he noticed the sharpness in Natalie's gaze and grimaced as he had an idea about what she was thinking. "Forcing me is possible, but are you willing to risk offending the healer? Do to yourself what you would do to others." 

Natalie's brow twitched, half amused, half irked.

Noah's attitude, demeanor, and overall impression in no way resembled a slum boy. Rather, the blemishes, dirt, and disheveled hair were merely the results of having lived in the slums, but didn't consider if Noah was raised in the slums. 

Natalie had observed Noah continue to try to fix his messy hair, and clean lingering dirt on his clothes as they had walked; actions that clearly denoted a standard of cleanliness that beggars did not have. 

At this point, Natalie was certain. 

"You're noble, aren't you?" Natalie said while looking over Noah and considering his known circumstances. "Or at least, you were." 

Noah's expression remained neutral, if a little deflated. 

"What would it matter now?" He asked. 

Natalie had an answer, but Noah refused to walk the path of a Fallen Noble regaining their nobility when he'd never fallen in the first place. His was a case of treachery. He'd sooner beg for scraps than crawl back to those that had turned their backs on him, John, and Leah. 

"My name is Noah of Amaranth." 

That was his current identity, the one needed to protect siblings. 

"My brother and sister will be looking for me, so please excuse me."

Noah left without another word.