AFIRE: fight for the Earth begins✓

18.3 XAN

The story so far:

---- Aija is a Volunteer at the Pristine School at Innermost. She works along with Zuri and Ze, who are her friends. Aija witnesses a strange event one night – light emanating from Rez's body. The kidnapper is after her soul, next, but he leaves her alive and goes away. Another man finds her, he wants to take her somewhere else - Aija though wary of him agrees. Aija learns of the existence of the aliens – the Ytai. Also, about the R'ies and H'eon, Harvesting and Àvo from Etrie. Etrie tells her that the man, who Harvested Rez (Thieron), will now go after her. He tells her that the spy/kidnapper's name is Luka. Etrie asks her to work along with him. Aija agrees to work along with Etrie on Harvest Stopping Missions.

---- Gale work is getting to Goldstar. Iyler too seems to be distancing herself from him. He leaves after a disagreement with her about his secret identity. Vincent, who worked at the Research Centre, talks to him at the Dining Hall. Goldstar is flustered by him when he asks to accompany Goldstar to the South Land. Goldstar is rattled by his argument with Iyler. She doesn't visit him, though he is leaving for the South Land. On the South Land, Goldstar meets Prince Irih'va of Ierne's Hi'er Empire. The Prince offers him help if ever he needs it. He also tells him, "You are in for heartbreak. And then you will do something great. A storm will provide you respite from the scorching heat." He gets information that the Leadership is blaming the Gale for the blast at the Research center.

---- Ze is restless as he takes care of a class. He finds out that a student of his is in the hospital for an unknown sickness. The boy Xan's friend Vaughn asks him to visit Xan at the hospital as Xan would really appreciate it.

---- Ze fights with his mother, again, about his powers. He leaves home and goes to the hospital to visit his student Xan. 

---- Ze finds something strange as he reaches the hospital and decides to check it out. 

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****18.3 - Xan****

He listened to the soft beeps of the machine and pressed a small button next to his left hand. He felt drunk on the pain medication (is this what being drunk feels like? he thought), yet he seemed to be in more and more pain as time passed.

He had sent his parents back home by force – they needed rest too. His siblings had visited him that morning, and it made him happy.

Xan* opened his eyes and looked out the window. The sky was bright, and a few clouds were rolling by. He stared at the white fluffy clouds. There seemed to be so much peace outside. It was unfair, he thought, as he lay on a Hospital bed gripping to the last shreds of life. Everyone told him he would be fine, but Xan had come to accept that time, and the world would move on without him very soon.

He didn't remember much but knew that one moment he was talking to Vaughn*, and the next, he had woken up at the Hospital, excruciatingly in pain.

One day he had told his mother that he was sorry. He had felt like saying it. His mother had told him to save that sorry for another day when he actually did something wrong. He felt guilty for making his parents roam from work to home, to the Hospital; especially since they had a lot of work at the Institute.

Vaughn visited him every day, and Xan felt awful for making Vaughn go about Innermost to school, music practice, and the Hospital. But, Vaughn's presence gave him so much comfort. Vaughn had been a constant in his life, and having that part of him at the Hospital made him calm.

Not once had he asked Vaughn not to come and not once had Vaughn skipped a visit. Vaughn read a book out loud for Xan every day, which helped him take his mind off his pain for a while.