Recovering

When Jayde opened her eyes, she found herself in the familiar medbay unit. Jayde head felt as though it was filled with cotton wool. Recalling the battle with worms, Jayde panicked thinking about the state of Reiko and Yinxin. Using her bond she immediately reached out to the two to find out how they were.

Finding the two sleeping in her pet space, Jayde tried to use her magical senses to check on their condition, but as she activated her magic, severe pain stabbed through her mind. Groaning in pain, Jayde lifted her hand to head.

Gods that hurt, she thought.

"Jayde you awake, how are you feeling?"

Hearing Isha's concerned voice, Jayde turned in the direction of his voice.

"Isha, what happened, how did I end up here?" Jayde asked her voice husky, as she struggled to sit up.

"Whoa," Isha said as he reached over and gently pushed Jayde to lie down.

"You are still very weak. The damage you sustained was pretty severe," he said frowning at Jayde.

The small effort to sit up had drained Jayde, she felt bruised and battered. Isha picked up a small glass of ice chips and fed Jayde a couple of spoonfuls while he related what had happened.

"After the fight, you teleported directly here, you were in a critical state. Thank the gods, you gave me the authority to use the market system on your behalf so that I could use your points to get the medbay to heal you. You have been in a coma for six days."

"Six days," Jayde whispered, "then I have missed the assessment."

"Sorry I meant six days here, it has only been just under a day outside."

Hearing that she only lost a day, Jayde was relieved. Isha fidgeted as he debated with himself to give Jayde the rest of the bad news or to wait until she had regained some of her strength.

Noticing that Isha seemed uncomfortable Jayde asked: "So what is my current condition?"

"Ahem," Isha cleared his throat, "the Demonic Nematomorpha were a lot more powerful than we expected, their psionic attacks cause massive amounts of damage to your brain."

Brain damage, Jayde thought in horror.

"How bad, Isha?"

"There were numerous micro intracerebral hemorrhages [1], as well as diffuse axonal injuries[2] in multiple areas. The medbay was able to repair most of these injuries, but your mental block has been decimated." Isha stated matter-of-factly.

Isha then went on to explain exactly what the damages were as well as the repairs the medbay had made.

"Thank the gods then isn't too serious" Jayde breathed.

Isha smiled grimly at Jayde. Seeing his look Jayde realized that he had more bad news.

"What else Isha?"

"Jayde while most of your injuries have been healed, you won't be able to use your magic for at least another week, you are also going to have to rebuild your mental block from scratch."

Running his hand through his hair, Isha took a deep breath before saying, "Also their psionic vampiric attack, diminished your cultivation."

"What?" Jayde exclaimed, she recalled that she had felt her magic being drained, but she didn't realize that the attacked actually lowered her mage rank. Just as Jayde was about to activate her magic to see how much cultivation she had lost, she remembered the severe pain she had felt when she had tried that earlier to check on Reiko and Yinxin.

Isha said that I can't use my magic for a week, that must be the reason why I felt so much pain earlier when I tried to activate my magical senses, she thought.

"What is my current class now?" Jayde asked with trepidation.

His gazed filled with sympathy Isha answered Jayde question.

"You are currently Knight of the 6th class."

"But you will be able to cultivate soon, and it won't be long before you regain back all that you have lost." Isha was quick to reassure Jayde.

"Hmmm," Jayde nodded her head slightly, while she was unhappy that she had been reduced by seven ranks, it wasn't too serious. She had been worried after she promoted to Bishop of the 1st class, that she would have attracted unwarranted attention when she attended the assessment at Damonia Institute of Magics.

She had even contemplated asking Isha if there was some way that she could enter the Mid Realm, skipping entering Damonia, even though she knew it would have been extremely dangerous for her to enter the Mid Realm on her own.

For someone at her age, it would be safer to transfer from the Lower Realm to the Mid Realm, either through a clan or by performing well at one of the magical schools in the Lower Realm and being transfer to their sister school in the Mid Realm. At least now she didn't have to worry about that issue.

And while it had put her back, remembering the sister and cousin of the previous soul, Jayde comforted herself that at least she was more powerful than them, so compared to someone her own age, she would still be considered very powerful.

"Isha is there anyway for you to check on the condition of Reiko and Yinxin?" Jayde asked, she was really concerned about her two friends.

"I already have, both of them are fine, just exhausted." Isha said reassuring.

With Isha confirmation, a huge stone that had been weighing on Jayde heart lifted.

"You should rest, you need to regain your strength, you still have ten days here before you have to leave to make it in time for the assessment," Isha said.

Jayde agreed with Isha, knowing that was he was saying was logical. She needed to recover her strength back as quickly as possible.

Jayde spent the next three days in the medbay, mostly she slept. When she was awake Isha would visit with her for a short time. Jayde also puzzled over the strange dream she had when she was in a coma.

She had bought up the issue with Isha, after discussing it, both of them decided to must have been a side effect of the damage done to her brain, although Jayde thought that her mind must be severely f*cked up to have come up with such a disturbing dream.

After three days, Jayde had recovered most of her physical strength and left medbay to finish up recuperating in her own home.

She had been home for a day when Yinxin and Reiko woke up, both of them were overjoyed that Jayde had recovered, although sad that she had paid such a hefty price for defeating the worms.

Although Jayde still couldn't use her magic she could summon the two from her space, Yinxin was anxious to see her children. Isha had been babysitting the three wyrmlings the whole time during Jayde recovering, and although he spoilt them rotten the three wyrmlings wanted their mother and aunty Jayde.

When Reiko and Yinxin appeared Jayde stared at Reiko in shock.

"What the hell happened to you Reiko," she asked stunned at the changes in Reiko.

He had grown nearly a foot in height and the muscles on his body were much more defined, he looked extremely powerful, but the greatest changes where to his wings and the golden runes engraved into his black fur.

"..."

Reiko was confused at the shock looks on both Jayde's and Yinxin's faces. Turning his head he looked over his body and tried to see what the two were seeing. Seeing his multiple colored wings Reiko froze, his thoughts swirled so fast in his brain that he couldn't follow them.

I must be seeing things. Reiko thought in disbelief.

[Jayde quickly tell me are my wings different colors?] he asked hesitantly.

"Yes, and you are covered in golden runes."

At Jayde confirmation, Reiko's back legs collapsed, and he fell clumsily onto his arse, sitting there with a dumbfounded look on his face, he looked quite adorable. Yinxin couldn't help letting out a snort of muffled laughter at the dazed-looking shadowbeast.

[It can't be] Reiko said stunned.

Concerned at Reiko's strange behavior Jayde rushed over to him.

"Reiko what can't be?" she asked.

"I think I can answer that," Isha said as he walked up to the trio with the three wyrmlings following behind him.

--

Notes

[1] Intracerebral hemorrhage is when there's bleeding inside of your brain.

[2] A diffuse axonal injury (sheer injury) is an injury to the brain that doesn't cause bleeding but does damage the brain cells. The damage to the brain cells results in them not being able to function. It can also result in swelling, causing more damage. Though it isn't as outwardly visible as other forms of brain injury, a diffuse axonal injury is one of the most dangerous types of head injuries. It can lead to permanent brain damage and even death

Quote of the day

Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. --Pablo Pica