Discoveries

"Long story, don't ask," Icarth cut in, too tired to explain.

"I'm curious," Emmia protested.

"Then stay that way."

"Oh come on, you're no fun," Emmia grumbled.

Icarth rolled his eyes, "here hold him for a while. I'll go to the back and change."

"Your shift is over?" Emmia asked with big eyes, mostly staring at Jade.

"Yea...I don't think we'll be having any more customers today," Icarth replied slowly as he carefully handed Jade to Emmia.

"Wait a second...I just thought of something," Emmia asked as she delicately placed Jade on her lap.

"What?" Icarth asked despite his instincts warning him not to.

"Isn't this a restaurant?" Emmia asked.

"Yes....and?"

"And it's Uncle Feng's shop restaurant..." Emmia continued.

Icarth remained silent as he could feel the conversation drifting to something he didn't want.

"How did Uncle Feng allow Jade inside?" Emmia asked with innocent eyes.

Icarth twitched.

"He agreed because I asked him nicely," Icarth answered stiffly.

"Really? That's interesting ...I could've sworn that Uncle Feng wouldn't allow pets...." Emmia scrunched her brows trying to recall an incident where a customer had tried to bring in a pet during rush hour.

"Nothing like that," Icarth's eyelids twitched as he headed into the kitchen to avoid further questioning.

"Uncle, I'll get going, Mia's here," Icarth called out to Feng who was replacing all the utensils in their proper positions.

"Alright Ica, and make sure to clean your apron, I don't want that blasted rabbit fur getting everywhere," Feng warned Icarth while sliding a knife into its sheath.

"Yes Uncle," Icarth nodded, deciding it was better to take the apron with him and clean it in the dorms. 'Oh yea, I should leave these here,' Icarth thought to himself as he placed some money discretely on top of the counter as he passed by.

"Bye Uncle, just give me a call if you need help," Icarth waved goodbye as he joined Emmia.

"Good night Ica, Mia!" Feng called out from behind as he watched the twins leave with each of them waving goodbye.

"Haaah," A long sigh left Feng as he stared at the counter where Icarth had placed the money. Icarth had tried to be stealthy, but it was pretty easy for Feng to notice. But he still chose not to say anything.

A myriad of thoughts swirled around his head as the weight of his responsibilities could be seen taking its toll on his tired back when he went to collect the money from the counter.

"I can only hope that this horrible luck will turn around...." Feng muttered to himself looking at his empty shop.

 -----

Icarth walked beside Emmia as the two made their way towards their house, with Icarth carrying Jade once more.

"How much did you pay?" Emmia asked as she fished inside her bag for her wallet.

"320 relins," Icarth answered. Wincing, Emmia still took out the same amount of money and handed it to Icarth.

"Mmm, thanks," Icarth mumbled.

"Haah, it's okay, I know how it must be bad for Uncle Feng's shop," Emmia zipped up her bag.

Icarth didn't say anything and just nodded.

"Hey...." Emmia called out after a while.

"What?" Icarth asked his sister, his red eyes shining in the street lights.

"...nothing," Emmia decided to say in the end.

Icarth too chose not to say anything.

'Argh, I hate that he can still read me like a book, but I can't,' Emmia clicked her tongue.

Stopping at the front door, Emmia turned around to Icarth who had stopped at the gate.

"Aren't you going to come inside," Emmia asked a hint of hope entering her voice.

"No," Icarth's answer came out immediately.

"...alright," Emmia said as her heart twisted. "Good night."

"..good night," Icarth replied as he started to walk back to the Nova Academy, back to his dorms.

"Haaaaaaah," Emmia sighed as she shut the door behind her.

"I can't even talk to him properly," Emmia mumbled, as she slid down against the doorway.

With a small thud, Emmia leaned against the door, bag thrown to the side as she just contemplated her life.

-----

"You're here early," Mr. Melvin raised an eyebrow as he looked at Emmia over the stack of papers he was holding.

"I wasn't doing anything else," Emmia replied politely.

"Alright," Mr. Melvin gave a smile and led the way down to the training room. Opening the door, he motioned for Emmia to sit at the center of the room.

"So what have you decided to work on now?" Instead of instructing her, Mr. Melvin asked her a question to see what Emmia would say.

"I want to study about minerals, but that wouldn't help me....so I'll start by merging with a few ones in a row," Emmia took her time to respond.

Mr. Melvin's smile widened, "At least you have a clear mind on what to do. Now go ahead with it, I'll be doing my work here."

Emmia gulped and nodded. 'Damnn, why did I have to say that...' Emmia cried internally as she headed to the piles of rocks.

'I mean my answer is correct...but,.....it's not easy," Emmia picked up a brown rock the size of a fist which looked similar, 'I think it's..... Sandstone? Or some iron ore.....or Scoria....or.... argh, let's just get on with it,' Emmia stopped her wandering thoughts and gripped the rock tightly.

Gritting her teeth, Emmia activated her gift and watched in pain as the rock merged with her hand. 5 seconds passed, and the pain subsided. Emmia let out the breath that she was holding and stretched her arms to get a feel.

"How do you feel?" Mr. Melvin asked, seated leisurely at his desk.

"I-...Not much different really," Emmia admitted. It really wasn't too different than if she was unmerged. In fact, now that Emmia observed closely, whatever rocky patches of rocks that would usually grow were extremely small, almost negligible.

"The rocky armor that forms.... it's too little," Emmia muttered.

"And what do you think is the reason," Mr. Melvin smiled.

"I used a small rock?" Emmia answered with the first reason that came to mind.

"Any other reason do you think?" Mr. Melvin asked without any change in his smile.

"....no?" Emmia answered after racking her brain.

"Okay, then unmerge and merge with a new rock about the same size as the one you used, this is how you test your hypothesis," Mr. Melvin's smile grew ever so slightly.

Emmia shivered slightly and nodded. Unmerging with the rock, it reappeared in her hands, just as small as before. Dropping the rock on the ground a little away from the pile, Emmia picked up another rock, this time a fairly large gemstone-looking thing, it was a spectacular color of red. A ruby. Emmia stared at the gemstone, the vibrant stone being reflected in her own ruby-red eyes.

Clenching the gemstone tight, Emmia activated her gift. Almost unprepared, an extreme wave of pain washed over her, causing her to nearly scream.

'NO' Emmia shouted in her head. She would not scream. Not this time. Digging her nails into her palm, Emmia bore the pain for 5 long seconds after which she collapsed immediately after the pain receded.

'At least she didn't scream this time,' Melvin nodded ever so slightly in approval.

"ARghh," Emmia involuntarily groaned as she opened her eyes. Her entire body felt stiff as she tried to sit up. Soon her memories floated back up, reminding her where she was and why she was there.

"Mr. Melvin," Emmia called out.

"Yes?" Mr. Melvin looked up from the sketch that he was analyzing.

"How long was I out?" Emmia asked apprehensively.

"About 10 minutes," Mr. Melvin answered with a smile.

Emmia's eyebrows shot up.

"Wait, just 10 minutes? Last time it was like 2 hours right?" Emmia asked incredulously.

"Well, your growth can be attributed to two things," Mr. Melvin started with the same smile on his face.

"Your gift is finally catching up to where it should be. Think of it like this, if you put a hot object in a cold room, it will cool down faster than placing an object of room temperature in the same room. It's the same principle if you understand," Mr. Melvin explained.

"So....it's just because my gift has an extremely large room to grow that I'm improving so much?" Emmia asked uncertainly.

"Yes."

"That means I can get stronger in time for the exam?" Emmia asked excitedly.

"Yes and no. This fast rate means you will hit a wall for your power much quicker," Mr. Melvin poured cold water on Emmia's enthusiasm.

"But..." Emmia trailed off, not finding any flaws in his argument.

"Whether you can truly use your gift to its best, is entirely up to you. Because you need all other skills along with a strong foundation for your gift to be strong," Mr. Melvin finished up his explanation.

Emmia nodded slowly, trying to digest his words.

"But you said that there were two reasons?" Emmia asked after a short while.

"The second reason is that a gift is a part of you. Fortunately, it can be exercised. Now what do you think happens when you keep running 10 laps around the arena for a week?" Mr. Melvin asked Emmia a question.

"You....you will get used to it?" Emmia answered uncertainly.

"How?" Mr. Melvin asked again.

"Your legs get stronger?" Emmia answered after thinking for a while.

"Good, that's correct," Mr. Melvin clasped his hands together. "So when you overexert your gift and let it rest after, then what happens to it?"

"It...gets stronger?" Emmia's eyes widened.

"Correct. And since your gift is still in its infant stages, the room to grow is tremendous," Mr. Melvin stated. "In fact, I presume that your gift is the weakest so far in your entire class, hence you have the most room to grow right now," he added.

Emmia's lips twitched, as she tried not to frown at the statement.

'It's fine... after all, it's the truth....' Emmia thought to herself in her mind.

"Now do you understand what you have to do for the next few days?" Mr. Melvin asked with the ever-present smile adorning his face.

Suddenly, Emmia felt that the smile was directly from Hell itself.

"Continue to merge and unmerge with various minerals," Emmia answered sullenly.

"Again, don't worry about collapsing, although try not to faint every time," Mr. Melvin 'reassured' his student. "Now, what do think was different this time?"

"Well...." Emmia started out, before stopping to actually observe her own body. Large patches of red could be seen shining on her arms, and after tapping her legs at a few places, Emmia confirmed that the rock armor had extended to her legs as well.

'What...? Why was it so different this time...I used a rock of the same size..but....'

Mr. Melvin watched patiently as Emmia worked through her thoughts.

'Maybe, it's because I used a gemstone?...no, it can't be that biased...what's different between a gemstone and the brown rock.....'

'mmmm, maybe-'

Emmia looked around and found the previous rock that she had merged with. Examining it, Emmia tried to apply pressure on it. Suddenly, a red patch on her hand glowed as the brown crumbled under the pressure.

Shocked, Emmia just stared at her hand, unable to understand what happened.

"It's the property of the gemstone that you merged," Mr. Melvin helpfully supplied.

"So it's not just for armor?" Emmia asked wide-eyed.

"How would I know?" Mr. Melvin gave a small shrug. "That's for you to find out, isn't it?"

Emmia nodded vigorously, and then remembered, "What are the properties of the ruby gemstone?"

"It's called an Amplification Stone, a ruby variant. It basically takes in a force and increases its effect. This particular gemstone increases strength," Mr. Melvin explained with a small smile.

"What do you use these things for?" Emmia asked, brimming with curiosity.

"Most of the time, they are inlaid into custom weapons. We can't mass produce these things as they are not that common. Although I've heard another use for these is in machinery," Mr. Melvin continued slowly, satisfying Emmia's curiosity.

Emmia on the other hand, was one step away from letting out a 'Whoaaaa', out of amazement.

"Now, what were you doing?" Mr. Melvin decided to stear the girl back to her original task.

"Oh! right...I was...." Emmia stared down at the powdered rock, trying to see if what she thought was true.

"Yes! This rock...it's mostly just dirt and sand and gravel....the actual mineral part is pretty less..." Emmia started to state out her theory.

"And what do you think your gift does?" Mr. Melvin prompted.

"I think it creates a rock armour based on the concentration of the rock that I absorb...also that I can't just merge with dirt," Emmia added at the end.

Mr. Melvin nodded with a smile, "Good. Now, start getting on with the other questions that I wrote down. Oh, and don't forget to ask your own and test them out."

"Yes..." Emmia nodded with a mixture of excitement, aprehension, and curiosity at finding out more about her own gift.