19 I hear your voice

"Is it really you?"

Martin and Davidson shared confused glances at each other after Ivanna started calling out to the unconscious man in the bed.

"What happened?" Martin quickly asked unable to contain his curiosity.

"I think I heard his voice when our aura synced," Ivanna quickly replied and then focused back on Kael.

"Can you hear me?"

She was sure that it was the same voice that she heard back at the cave. However, this time it was different. The voice she heard back then was agitated, desperate, and full of emotions. This time it was calm and void of any noticeable emotions. When the voice asked her who she was it did not have a tone of alertness in it. It was merely a question.

"A voice she says," Martin leaned against the wall lost in thoughts.

"Could it possibly be telepathy?" Davidson asked.

"I heard some clan members could read each other's intentions and strong emotions from the aura but I have never heard of projecting thoughts into minds of other people," Martin answered.

Ivanna tried several times but she did not get any answers in return. His body just lied there consistently taking struggled breaths.

"Perhaps, "martin walked towards Ivanna." he did not call you out verbally so most likely he cannot hear your voice either."

"What do you mean?" Ivanna asked but then realized what Martin was implying there.

" I have to use my thoughts as well,"

Martin was impressed by how quickly she picked up on things. An undeniable beauty with quick wits and a dignified personality. He was still having a hard time accepting the fact that she was not a God herself. Just a glance at her and she would look indistinguishable from the top gods just based on her disposition.

She closed her eyes again in an attempt to dive deeper into her own mind. She had to call out to him with her thoughts to communicate. Martin and Davidson stayed silent to prevent themselves from distracting her.

"Can you hear me?" Ivanna formed her inner thoughts. It had been a long time since she had clearly heard her own inner voice. She felt like she was hearing another person speak.

ZAP

"Yes," she heard the voice again.

Every time she tried projecting her thoughts or when she heard his voice she noticed a fluctuation in the aura. She became certain that hearing voices had something to do with the aura.

Perhaps it was not so different from our normal senses. Light energies transmit visual information to our brain. The sound energy is encoded or decoded while verbally communicating. It was possible that the human brain had adapted to utilize aura in various ways. She was quickly able to deduce that the aura might be capable of transmitting thoughts between two minds.

Her mind was momentarily distracted by the fact that she just communicated with another person telepathically. While it was a big deal, there was the more pressing matter at hand.

She realized for the second time that his voice was devoid of emotions. There was no specific humane tone to it. It rather seemed artificial.

"What do you want?" The voice said.

"There are a lot of things but how about we start with waking you up?"

"Wake up? but I am awake, I am talking right now, am I not?"

"You are lying in a bed right now,"

"Bed? What's a bed?"

Ivanna wondered if she was being joked with right now but there was not a hint of sarcasm in that voice. His answers seemed honest and his questions seemed like that of a curious child who was seeing something for the first time.

"Do you really not know what a bed is? do you remember who you are?"

"Remember how? "

"Why don't you tell me your name?"

"What's a name?"

It was frustrating because she knew that he really had no idea. She was confused. He was forming sentences just fine so what was the reason that he did not know the meaning of words so common? Amnesia? but it was not that he did not just remember his name, he had no idea what names were at all.

The unease was showing up on her face but the two men were worried that they might break her concentration if they checked up on her.

"Uh, I-why don't you settle your aur-" She stopped before finishing the sentence, he would not know what aura is either.

"There must be another way,"

"Another way for what?"

"Oh, I was speaking to myself, did not mean to let you hear that"

Ivanna was trying to find ways to communicate with him better but she was not doing a good job of it. As a means of taking a detour, she tried to get his aura to retreat by forcing her own aura into it. But her aura only dissolved into his rather than making it budge. She came to the conclusion that a pacifier would not be able to control the aura of their gods against their will even if it was basically the same aura that she was used to channeling.

Ivanna decided to get help. There seemed to be no other way to take down his barrier other than by making him do it himself.

"This isn't very surprising," The neuro expert spoke after Ivanna explained the situation.

"So basically his brain is delegated to only function partially. His brain can only regulate basic bodily functions, to be honest, it's surprising that he was even able to communicate. Well, the most shocking thing right now is your telepathy but let's put that aside for later."

The way he was explaining things, Ivanna was getting hopeful that he knew what was happening and knew the solution as well.

"What I'm saying is that a very small portion of his brain is working right now. Judging by what you said, I'm guessing that he does not have access to the portion of the brain that stores memories. In other words, what you talked to was not him as a whole but only a portion of him. If I had to guess, It was probably just his materialized will to live. A small last strand of consciousness that keeps someone alive. That was not a person but a human being with nothing but just the basic instincts intact,"

"So what do you suggest we do?" Ivanna asked.

"I have no idea." Martin honestly answered.

Ivanna sighed and turned her head towards Davidson in hopes of getting helpful ideas. He seemed to be doing his own share of thinking at the corner.

"So if that was his will to live, It seems that he is content on just keeping his body alive and nothing more. He is trapped with his will to live as he has no more desires. Humans are driven by their desire and goals. That's what helps them move forward in life for better or worse but for him just being alive is enough at the moment. I think we must reintroduce his very being to the perks of living his life rather than just being alive."

Ivanna and Martin just kept staring at him for a moment. they were surprised because they were lost in more conventional methods. Davidson's opinion was clearly an out-of-the-box answer.

"That's quite a philosophical take on it but it does make sense," Martin said.

Ivanna pondered for quite a bit and then went back to connect her aura with Kael in the same manner as last time. She glanced at the two men staring at her in confusion and nodded at them. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes again.

"Hi again,"

ZAP

She waited for the reply after she was sure that her thoughts were transmitted. She was now able to tell when the thoughts were transmitted by sensing the fluctuation in their aura.

"Stop coming here"

Ivanna was quite surprised. Even though his voice did not sound assertive, It was an indication that he did not like being disturbed.

"So you do feel an emotion," She said.

"What's an emotion?"

"First, tell me something, Why do you want me to stop coming here?"

"I don't know,"

"There are a lot of things that you do not know, do you want me to tell you about some of them?"

"No,"

"I'm going to tell anyway." Ivanna mentally laughed because she felt like talking to a child.

"First of all, your name is Kael, That's what others call you, sound familiar?"

"No, who is others?"

"You know pronouns but you do not know people? that's interesting"

"Anyway, My name is Ivanna. well I am also called Yoonah, nice to meet you"

"Ivanna,"

"Yes"

"Ivanna"

"Oh you are just practicing the pronunciation, have you heard of me? oh sorry, You haven't even heard of yourself."

"Ivanna,"

"Anyway, I don't know the specific things I need to say to get you on board so I will just be here until you make up your mind and snap out of this"

"I said I'm already awake,"

"That is not enough, you need to go out to the world. You need to laugh, You need to cry, You need to live. You need to be happy, you need to be sad and then cheer up and carry on. That's what it means to live."

"....."

Ivanna wished that she was looking at the person she was talking to, being able to read their faces would make it much easier but there was only an unconscious body in front of her. All she could see was pitch black visualization inside her mind as she communicated.

ZAP

"Ivanna"

Ivanna was taken off guard by a sudden fluctuation of his aura. It jolted through her hands and stormed her mind. She wondered what was happening. The magnitude of aura from him had suddenly grown larger.

ZAP

"Are you happy?"

Ivanna was taken off guard again. He should not have known what that word meant but the way he asked clearly meant that he did. Once she was done dealing with the fact that he had asked a question uncharacteristic of him, the actual question struck her.

"Did he just ask if I was happy?"

"I don't know," she sent him her honest thoughts.

Zap

"Then do you also need to wake up?"

Ivanna could not contain her laughter. Martin and Davidson were taken aback by the sudden change in atmosphere as Ivanna continued her laugh aloud with her eyes closed.

"It feels warm, is this what you call happy?"

"Did you just say 'feel'?"

"yes"

"Well, they say happiness is contagious."

ZAP

"Ivanna"

Ivanna felt very lightened up. She had not felt this way for a long time. She had no interactions with people this way before. She had not talked about feelings even to Janine, her only friend. An unexplainable feeling of comfort and warmth filled her heart confusing her further as to what was happening. The dark aura that had only given her chills and unexplainable fears somewhat felt very comforting as Kael's body began to emit his aura. For some reason, Ivanna also felt as if her very soul was being probed by the aura. Withing her mind she felt as if a pair of eyes were staring at her trying to rummage through her emotions and secrets.

"As always," Kael's voice rang inside Ivanna's head but a little different this time around. There was a strange sense of familiarity as if he had been calling her name for a long time and knew her very well.

"Your voice always soothes my mind,"

Ivanna opened her eyes as the devices around her started making abrupt noises. Martin rushed to look at the monitors to see what was happening. He took quick glances at a few of them.

"His vitals are going down."

Amidst Martin's panic, Ivanna finally noticed something as she saw Kael's aura flare up and vanish in a single moment.

"Doctor," Ivanna called out in shock. "The barrier, it's down."

Since his aura was keeping his body barely alive, there were no reinforcements left after the aura disappeared. His organs began to fail and the body was heading towards death.

Martin quickly channeled his aura and signaled Ivanna to step away. Ivanna hurried away from the bed allowing Martin to take charge. His right aura hand covered Kael's body with a green aura and with his left arm of the aura he placed the green sphere on the top of his chest. After a few seconds, the whole bed was inside a sphere of green aura that was rotating at a constant speed.

Martin took a glance at the monitors as the devices stopped making the sounds gradually. After confirming the readings from the monitor Martin moved away from the bed and turned towards Ivanna and Davison with a smile.

Two hours later Marcellus and Yahiko arrived outside the door to the ward where Kael was being kept. Through the small glass partition in the door, they could see the room glowing in the green light. Davidson opened the door for them with a stern look on his face that immediately reminded the two of the trouble they had caused in the dome. Marcellus nervously smiled at Davidson and carefully entered as if he was tiptoeing, Yahiko imitated him unintentionally. Ivanna was sitting next to the bed and Martin had already left to attend to other matters.

"What is this aura?" Marcellus asked looking at the green sphere.

"It's what's healing him right now, power of a god here at the headquarter," Ivanna answered as Davidson did not speak. He really looked like an angry father right now.

Yahiko peered into the sphere to look at Kael. He was in much better shape compared to when Ivanna and Davidson had seen him first. Martin's power was accelerating his recovery at an impressive rate.

"So that's him?" He asked even though he already knew it.

"When is he going to wake up?" Marcellus asked as he found himself a bench to sit on.

"We were told that it will take two days," Ivanna said and continued her train of thoughts.

There were still a few things she did not understand. She did not understand what made Kael take down the barrier. She was not even sure if Kael's consciousness was able to retrieve its lost portions at the end. She was pondering if Kael was trying to scavenge through her memories. She was worried if he got to them. A cold shiver ran through her spine as the thought of her memories made her think of the things that she had decided to bury in the graveyard of her memories a long time ago.

The three men failed to notice it, Ivanna was desperately trying to contain the dread wrecking havoc inside her. She desperately tried to remain calm to prevent herself from hyperventilating. She turned away from the men to look at the window but direct bright light from the bulb pierced her eyes. Tears rolled down her eyes and she immediately covered them with her palm.

"Miss Ivanna, Is something wrong?" Davidson noticed her trembling body but her face was turned away so he could not tell if something was really wrong.

Ivanna did not say anything for a moment. Her trembling body completely froze and then she took a deep breath. When she turned around, her face was decorated with a smile that seemed very authentic. With a face like that nobody could guess the wretched state, she was in just a few seconds ago.

With a heavy heart, a lump in her throat, and her mind on the verge of a breakdown she further widened her smile and said with a cheerful voice,

"There's nothing wrong at all."