Shangri La Pt. 1

139: Recover

While both pairs were now on their travels heading back to the East, it's time to see what's been going on currently in the East. The very same night Izumi and Katsuki left the West, in the East, it was already getting to night time and a certain greenette–the Emerald Dragon–had just decided to get some information. 

This information is something she has been curious about since she arrived at the palace and was 'greeted' by the Empress. 

'If that wannabe Empress doesn't want to tell me what's going on exactly with the Emperor, then I'll just have to look for myself.' Emra thought after making a brief map in her head of touring through the palace to learn its entire format.

Now that it's nighttime, a good portion of the soldiers have started to change shifts and exchange with other soldiers in the process. So while none of the soldiers were truly paying attention in the middle of the change, Emra managed to sneak into the Emperor's chambers by going above and to the ceiling. 

'Let me think, the Emperor and Empress do not sleep in the same room, especially if one is sick and bedridden. But this isn't just some bedridden sickness, the Emperor is stuck in a coma. Not just that, but when I approached these chambers, I could tell that there wasn't a large portion of soldiers like there usually are for an Emperor. Something tells me that this isn't just some simple coma he's stuck in either, someone could be behind this.' Emra thought as she crawled through the ceiling until she stopped. 

She carefully pulled out a small knife from her pocket and started to carve out a square just big enough for her to peek her head in first.

After carving the small square, she pulled the square out of place and started the inspection above. 

'Let's see if he still has his gem.' she thought as she took a deep breath and slowed her breathing down. 

In seconds, the greenette's vision changed and all her surroundings turned black and white, but when looking at the unconscious Emperor, she could see a golden aura floating around him. This aura flowed around his body, but Emra could easily tell that the aura wasn't as strong as it should be. 

'It's not strong, so either the Emperor went into a coma because his gem isn't strong enough anymore... or something else caused him to become so weak. Time to get a closer look.' she thought as she carved a bigger hole in the ceiling and then dropped down onto the ground without making a single sound.

She approached the lying Emperor and knelt down next to him. 

"Apologies for me having to do this, but I must know the cause." Emra whispered as she first started by resting two fingers onto the center of the Emperor's wrist. 

'Just as I thought, his pulse is slower than it should be, almost like it was frozen. But checking the pulse isn't the only thing I should do, let's just hope this works like I want it to.' she thought as she lifted her hand off his wrist and then pressed her entire hand onto the Emperor's chest–where his heart would be–and closed her eyes to focus all her senses onto this man's body. 

Using her other senses to look into the man's body and see his organs and everything working right, that still didn't answer the question of what was wrong. But after searching more and more–inside his body–Emra's inner sight could see some dark purple aura resting and swarming around the Emperor's heart. Her eyes burst open to understand just exactly what the reason for him staying in a coma could be.

'This... So it really was–' 

"Open the doors immediately!" a voice from just outside the chambers echoed.