Chapter Fifty-Two: to adapt and survive

Four months after the nomads first find Danny, they realize what is wrong with her. They only realize this after she's 'runaway' from another orphanage. The nomad's pile of green dust is significantly depleted, and Danny spends three days coughing out some of said green dust.

"A broken semblance," is what they call it.

Because Jet is the one who originally decided they take her in, she gets 'placed in his care'.

(In other words, she becomes his problem.)

Jet's wife, Emberly, looks after the young girl and teaches her everything she can. When Danny is almost a year, and can finally say the letter 's' in words without a lisp, she asks about her condition. Emberly is the one who sits her down and answers.

"When someone goes through a trauma, it fractures their aura," Emberly explains. "Eventually, an aura heals. However, if a trauma continues and the aura keeps getting hurt, it will take a long time to heal. If a man and a woman have damaged auras, and they have a baby, the child will have a fractured aura."

Danny believes it's a nice way of saying Danny's parents were spiritually damaged people when they conceived her.

"Having a fractured aura-" here Emberly pauses, gaze turning sad. If Danny hadn't proven her ability to understand heavy topics, the woman never would have continued. "Your body is trying to kill you every time you use your semblance."

Explains why Danny has no air in her body when she teleports. Danny still asks about it.

"Green dust replaces the air in your body when your semblance activates," Emberly tries to explain. "Your aura wants you to survive, but there isn't enough of it to safely use your semblance. You have only been able to move from place to place without thinking because you subconsciously know where to find the dust to heal you. Your semblance moves you, but your aura absorbs the dust into your body to be activated."

Danny doesn't completely understand, but she tries to follow. It's new world, with new things to learn.

"So you must promise me to never use it without a destination including green dust to heal you."

Danny promises.

The young girl asks why they would keep her around, knowing she has a broken semblance.

Emberly lies to her face and answers that they didn't want her to end up dying if they teach semblance practice in the orphanage's school.

Jet straight up ignores her when she asks him.

It's Maybelle that answers, after the woman's had a few too many shots.

"The Askans Nomad was created after the Great War, to help teach all those new born kiddies, with their broken semblances. I love the irony. All those kids named from the arts, the music, the things that their parents fought for, and the kids were damaged members of society. Ha! A whole generation, and no one could protect themselves from the big bad world, and the big bad problems their parents conveniently didn't fight."

(Grimm. Danny will learn later that there were a lot of Grimm after the war.)

The small girl, still being called 'kid' by what is supposed to be her family, makes a promise to never rely on her semblance. She thinks maybe, if it's not too much work, that she'll prove you can have a spiritual debility and still be a functioning member of Remnant's society.

She has her whole life to figure out how to do that, so she isn't worried.


A/N: Thanks for reading!

Thank you, xenocanaan, for your review! I hope you enjoyed the chapter!

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