Avon stood there blinded. He was scared, his heart was beating fast..
'Was there something in the drink? Am I blinded permanently? WHY CANT I FEEL MY EYES!
No,no,no...I need my eyes! I won't be able to do anything! My music my art, my studies....my life is gone if I'm blinded...I need my body to be fully functional! No,no...this can't happen..'
Avon's personality, it seems normal on the surface because masked his raw thoughts deep beneath so that an introvert and socially awkward person can fit into the society in some manner.
But in reality, he was a very possessive and decisive person. He prided himself for his talents obtained through hardwork and was extremely possesive of his belongings.
Ever since childhood, if his figurine had even one broken unfixable part, he would feel that the entire figurine was wasted, he blame himself for not taking proper care.
He needed things to be perfect all the time but in reality nothing is perfect. So he always compromised. Whenever he looked at disabled people, he would look at them with admiration, because he knew for a fact that if he was to ever miss any part of his physical self, he would simply not want to live in that body. But to Avon his body is his only physical identity and is uniquely his. He would never like any artificial extensions to it.
To put it simply, he would lose his will to live if his body was permanently damaged.
Now that very fear was taking over. He was extremely scared. He would rather die than before forced to live disabled. This was a twisted part of his personality that only he knew.
Giving up on his life was not something he could afford right now, he had too many responsibilities.
Hence the fear to continue blinded took over.
'Wait...they should have something to heal me right? Steela! It's so advanced...there must be something....'
Lost and nervous in his thoughts he didn't hear Zia whom he had called out so desperately just a few seconds ago. She placed a hand on his shoulder and asked again,
"Little brother what happened, why were screaming my name?"
Avon was startled as a hand was on his shoulder out of nowhere. But he felt relieved once he heard her voice.
"I can't see sister....help me. I have been blinded after drinking this, p-please help me. Is there any way to heal my eyes.."
He was sweating buckets and his voice was getting weaker and weaker because of how nervous and scared he was.
Zia was shocked upon hearing this and immediately took the glass from his hand and smelled the liquid.
She couldn't notice anything but looking Avon's demeanor and the fact that he was facing somewhere else while talking to her made it obvious his sight was lost.
She decided to calm him first.
"Little brother, calm down. I am here to help you. We will find out who did this and how to heal you, so don't worry.
There are many healing techniques out there in the world. Eyes can be healed too. So please calm down. I am here with you."
She placed her hand on his shoulder again.
'So they can be healed...'
Avon felt began to calm down as he had some hope now.
"Little brother, they will admit us into the academy within a few minutes by individually calling us and handing us our identity tokens. If we miss this they might cancel our admission. I will help you receive it. The sect has the best doctors in the world so they should be able to help you inside. Come with me now."
She held his hand softly and led him. He walked behind slowly. It was very different from normal walking. He didn't know where he was going. Upon her pulling him he would know to change his direction...it still hadn't sunk in..he was actually blind right now.
She led him to the venue and stood beside him all the time. She also stored the drink in her spatial ring.
Inside she was very worried and sad for Avon, but she showed none of it outside.
The sect elder announced again,
"I will now begin the admission ceremony, but before that, all the participants welcome the sect wing masters. They are the second highest authority in the sect, with sect master at the top. They will observe the ceremony and may invite some of you to join their wings. The one on the..."
One by one he introduced the sect wing masters but Avon paid no attention. No one would choose a blind student like him. He had to get healed first. Right now he only wanted to go inside and see the doctor first.
Then slowly based on their leaderboard ranking the participants were invited on the stage to receive their identity tokens, this was also the last chance for the participant to choose if they want to enter the sect or not. Because after this, since the sect will provide them with resources and education and shelter for free, they cannot exit whenever they wish to.
For the little while Zia went to collect her token, Avon was very anxious and when she came back, she held his hand again.
When it was Avon's turn, Zia led him to the stage.
Looking at what was happening everyone was shocked and conversations could be heard. Afterall from the way Avon was moving it was obvious he was blinded.
"What happened to him?"
"Why is he acting blind?"
"How did he get blinded? He was fine till now!"
"What a waste of the sect's resources"
Avon's felt his insides churning hearing all this and got very nervous. He couldn't see the reaction of this wing masters but they were observing everything with a neutral face. But disappointment could be seen on the faces of some wing masters.
The elder quietly handed over Avon's token to him and Zia led him off stage. After the admission process was done, the participants were shown their droms. Zia took a note of the locations of both their dorms and directly headed to the main building while leading Avon.
It was almost night now that the test was down and everyone was told to rest in their dorms.
Avon sat on a bench and was waiting for Zia. She came back holding a map.
"I got the map of the sect. It is quite big to be honest. Let's go to the nearest infirmary."
Saying so she lead Avon to the location on the map.
He was awfully silent the whole time just following her. His face expression was that of a broken person's. She and Avon had become good friends so she couldn't bear seeing him in that state.
Soon they appeared in front of an infirmary.