Long before the viewers descended onto Nahcari, humanity had been born. They were a child, innocent and weak, compared to Nahcari’s harsh and hostile ecosystem.

Then, one day, humanity discovered the paths.

Granting wonderous abilities and powers, each path was a concept walked by those few that understood and embodied them. But the paths were rife with danger, killing just as many as they rewarded.

Humanity was blind, and in their hubris, they'd failed to see that each path led to failure. Those who rose to the heavens fell just as quickly, and there was no hope in sight. Families were broken. Descendants were devastated.

Humanity had hit a wall.

That was when they appeared.

Valoa, the guiding lights of the paths. Their radiance illuminated the paths, offering safety and power. But just as valoa helped humanity, so too did humanity protect valoa.

Within their bonded companions, valoa was undergoing a change, their radiance shining ever brighter as they rose past their feeble foundations. This process of ascension was titled illumination, and with each step forward that valoa took, they would strengthen their bonded companions, and guide them further into the paths.

Illuminating even a few motes of valoa took days. Maybe even weeks.

What I'd seen had taken only seconds.

Did Cuebracabezas’ valoa just illuminate? I stared at the Minister of Enigma.

Cuebracabezas was wide-eyed as he examined the valoa I’d borrowed and returned from his body. They all shone brighter than their companions, each weaving across his being with playful vigor.

A figure appeared before Cuebracabezas, gripping his arm gently and raising it toward their eyes.

It was Forza.

“Not quite Saiph-rank yet, but definitely not Naos-rank either,” Forza’s red eyes glowed bright, his usual smile replaced by pursed lips. “Suna, absorbing another person’s bonded valoa is impossible. A fairy tale. It shouldn’t be able to enter your body, let alone clear it of impurities.”

He glanced down as my skin where rejected impurities swarmed over me like bugs.

“Not to mention the illumination,” Cuebracabezas added.

“A lot of impossible stuff is happening today,” I said, joy welling up inside me.

I glanced to my side and saw Kynari sitting on the floor of the dungeon, valoa flowing through her passageways. Her eyes were closed, but a moment later they flew open, and she smiled.

“Some of my valoa is brighter,” she confirmed. “It’s so small that I wouldn’t have noticed if I hadn’t been looking for it.”

“None of us would have noticed, if he hadn’t returned the valoa he borrowed to a simulacrum made of them,” Laakari interjected. “You’re all welcome for that revelation, but we have bigger issues.”

We turned to stare at Laakari. His tone wasn’t one of surprise, or revelation, instead, he looked dire.

The healer’s eyebrows furrowed, “Suna, I’m sorry, but I don’t believe this is the solution you’ve been searching for.”

“What do you mean?” I raised my arm toward his bespectacled eyes, showing off the ejected impurities. “This is proof that I’ve been cured. Right here, this is what we’ve been trying to get rid of for years.”

“Those are surface impurities, ejected from the top layer of your skin. They aren’t the toxins present in your passageways,” Laakari shook his head. “The valoa flowed through your open passageways, but it did not clear them, or we'd be seeing them now. I hope I’m wrong, but please, try it again. As many times as possible.”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Cuebracabezas nodded, “I’ll gladly volunteer as many times as needed.”

He raised his hand and, once again, the process repeated and Cuebracabezas’ green valoa flowed through me, invigorating and refreshing.

Absorbing valoa was instinctual, like experiencing emotions, or feeling the breeze, it simply happened. This time, I didn’t draw back, or try to stop the flow of lights entering me. I took in as much valoa as I could.

In seconds an inch of Cuebracabezas’ index finger disappeared, and only then did the process stop. The green motes danced across my passageways and whirled through my being, playful and excited.

“Phew,” I wiped away a bead of sweat from my forehead. “Nobody told me it was so tough.”

I lurched as the world spun around me, but a firm hand caught me before I could fall. Forza held me stable, his eyes filled with concern.

A faint green light reflected onto his skin from my eyes.

“Suna, what’s happening?” Forza asked.

“I-I don’t feel so great,” I admitted.

“Eject the valoa,” the paragon demanded. “Now.”

He didn’t need to tell me twice. I waved my hand and imagined the valoa leaving my body. To my surprise, that worked. Green lights filled the air, streaming back into Cuebracabezas, each of them brighter than before, but not as radiant as the first batch.

They were beautiful, but I didn’t have time to focus on them. My entire world was spinning, and my muscles were starting to twitch, and spasm. I reached a chair just as a wave of nausea hit me, and a single groan escaped my throat.

I heaved and a flood hit the dungeon floor, disappearing as Teshima cleaned it a moment later.

It wasn’t impurities. It was just my lunch.

“Out of the way, this is my job,” Laakari said.

The healer pushed Forza aside, grabbing my arm and inspecting me thoroughly from head to toe. Light blue valoa flew out of his palm, washing over my skin and stopping the spasms.

Laakari’s frown deepened, then a familiar look of understanding dawned on him.

“What’s happening to me?” I asked. I could tell he’d figured out my issue.

“You’re a newborn,” Laakari smirked.

“And you’re a young man,” I shot back. “Which is a terrible insult. I don’t understand it at all.”

“I wasn’t insulting you. I meant it literally. Your body isn’t used to the foreign substance, so it’s trying to eject it,” Laakari said. “This is why we wait until people are six years old to conduct their affinity test. If your valoa channels weren’t unlocked you’d be doing a lot more than spewing out your innards.”

Laakari gripped my head in his hands, twisting it into different angles and mashing my cheeks together.

“Do you have a headache?” He asked.

A faint ache pulsed across my temples, separate from the usual pain I felt.

“Yeah,” I tried to nod, but the healer wouldn’t let me go.

“Interesting, no, don’t move,” Laakari gestured toward the others. “Kynari, could you eject a tiny portion of your valoa into Suna?”

Kynari skipped up to us, glancing at me in concern. I gave her a shaky smile and gestured at her to follow the healer’s instructions.

Laakari was a hard ass, but he always had my survival in mind.

“A tiny bit, then,” Kynari said reluctantly.

Unlike the rest of us, she hadn’t unlocked the valoa passageway in her palms. So, her valoa flowed out of a passageway on her arm, located in a muscle Laakari called the flexor digitorum profundus.

Her valoa coalesced into a small flow, and she directed it gently into my skin. I watched it carefully, my stomach still doing flips from the last batch I’d taken in.

The stream of red lights bounced off my skin, and I watched them wriggle in surprise.

“So, injecting it won’t work. What if you try to take it, Suna?” Laakari asked.

I focused on absorbing Kynari’s valoa and it flowed smoothly into my body, the nausea once again rising in my stomach. This time Laakari was ready for it, his valoa washing over me and healing me of my nausea.

A few seconds later the red valoa flew out of me, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

“How is your head feeling?” Laakari watched me carefully.

The faint headache became an energetic pain and I winced, “worse. Definitely worse. Ow.”

“Interesting,” Laakari hummed.

He released my head and stepped back, and the others gathered around us. Teshima’s walls rumbled curiously, and Kynari was a bastion of confusion, but Forza and Cuebracabezas were looking at Laakari.

“You know what’s happening,” I said.

“Possibly,” Laakari replied.

He didn’t look happy.

I took a deep breath, “every day, I suffer. Your words can't make it worse. Tell me the truth, Laakari, will this help me live? Or at the end of it all, will I be dying anyway?”

A troubled look crossed Laakari’s features, and he let out a deep sigh. I could tell he was trying to find the kindest words to use, but kindness had never been his forte.

Finally, the elderly healer shook his head.

“No. It won’t help you.”

“How can you say that?” Kynari shouted immediately. “We don’t even know what’s happening.”

Her fury rippled across the air, stopped only by Forza as he gave her a gentle pat on the head, and a stern look. She looked like she wanted to object, but when she saw the healer’s expression she stopped.

Laakari looked as upset as I felt, “you are not absorbing valoa naturally, Suna. You are using a path ability, or rather, the ghost of one.”

A path…ability? My thoughts ground to a halt. But people under seventeen can’t activate abilities. Unless…

“I reached the half-step stage?”

My anger turned into surprise. Then joy. If what Laakari was saying was true, then I hadn’t just absorbed valoa.

I was on the verge of walking a path.