Old Scars, Chapter 5: Part 3.3

Page 115

Panel 1: A long, long time ago, in a birthing room, we see an exhausted Louhi in bed; hair disheveled, sweat pouring down her face. You can see the midwife coming in, holding baby Maarika wrapped in a beautiful light purple blanket.

Panel 2: Louhi takes the infant in her arms, flashing a loving smile at the newborn. You can see a trail of tears going down both her eyes.

Panel 3: We jump to seven years later to find the child walking out of school one day with tears in her eyes, holding what looked like a gorgeous sculpture that is now broken into multiple pieces. Louhi had a similar set of teary eyes as in Panel 1.

Panel 4: She bends down to Maarika's level for a conversation to explain what had happened. Through all this, you can see flickers of flames piercing the very top of her head.

Panel 5: Cut to a shot of their house days later, showing the two of them working together on another art piece along with her other daughters; the love between all of them more than evident at this point.

Panel 6: We jump to a similarly framed shot, albeit with only one of the older daughters. This time, they're focused on studying philosophical and scientific texts in front of them. You can see on the floor piles of sheet music from earlier.

Page 116

Panel 1: Maarika reaches the age of 14, and moves in line along with other similarly aged girls who are dressed in finer gowns to judge their quality for the male heroes who happen to come into town.

Panel 2: On Maarika's turn on the stage, we see her speaking authoritatively to the audience with power and precision and heart. On her side, you can see the colors start to shift from bright to dark as she speaks.

Panel 3: Cut to Louhi in the audience looking on with a great deal of pride for her daughter and the beautiful work she's presenting to the (less than enthused) locals in the audience.

Panel 4: Later on, at the end of the performance, we see the joy replaced by shock and anger; the flames above her head higher and more intense than we saw in the previous page.

Panel 5: Cut to a shot of her and an authority figure on Pohoja in the middle of an argument. The flames from Louhi shoot out in the direction of the authority figure, blocked by an invisible wall save for the male symbol faintly visible.

Panel 6: Close-up on Louhi's face; the flames above her head reaching a peak about the whole situation. It remains this way...

Panel 7: ...until she sees Maarika walk up with a saddened look on her face, moments after the argument's end. At this point, the flames are dashed by the rain of sadness.