Laakari’s voice crashed against my ears as he pronounced my death. The elderly man’s valoa continued to press against my skin, not rejected, but not accepted either and my pain was quickly becoming a fading memory. However, his words stuck with me.

I’ll be dead within a year?

The words struck me harder than the warhammer. So much had happened lately, and my only option had been to run. Now, I couldn’t move, so I stayed quiet, and listened, surprising my urge to groan.

“What do you mean he’ll be dead?” Forza snapped. “There are plenty of people that practice without valoa in their bodies. Everyone does it to unlock their valoa passageways.”

“Don’t speak to me about valoa passageways, I wrote the book on them. Those practitioners don’t reject valoa like he does. They eject it. One body has no valoa. The other has valoa but is getting rid of it periodically. There’s a difference, and that difference is killing him,” Laakari’s response was steady, but unwavering. “The lights of the path strengthen our bodies and rid it of impurities by melding into our beings. When we go to sleep, there’s valoa. When we rise, there’s valoa. Even if someone tried to eject every scrap of valoa from their systems, there would still be valoa. It’s the same for every child from the moment they’re born. Except him.”

“Nobody noticed anything until now,” Forza frowned, his eyes narrowing as a hint of steel entered his tone. “Is it an attack?”

“No, this is a side effect of the contamination building up with each armament used by the viewers,” Laakari’s gruff exterior cracked for a moment, his sorrow creeping through the gap. “You’ve seen how they fight and the terrible weapons they wield, but I heal their consequences. This boy is a special case, but he may not be the last. In a dozen or so years we will find the same symptoms in the other children, valoa or no valoa.”

Silence fell at Laakari’s words.

Forza leaned against the dungeon wall and the rocks rumbled around him, expressing their discontent. They spread a soft blue glow over his devastated expression.

Nobody got angry. They just took Laakari’s words as a fact.

I couldn't accept that.

“I don’t want to die,” my voice hit the air, soft and delicate.

It shattered the silence.

“Suna?” Forza shifted toward me, his dejected expression transforming into a calm facade. “I didn’t know you were awake.”

The floor rippled and moss appeared underneath me, growing out of the rocks. It was cool to the touch, and reminded me of my mattress, except fuzzier.

“I heard what you said,” I replied. “I’m going to die.”

Forza hesitated, “Dying is a strong word.”

“No, dying is the correct word,” Laakari’s sharp voice cut through Forza’s lies. “No use coddling the boy, he needs action if he’s going to survive. Oi, you, do you know who I am?”

A withered hand grabbed my chin and Laakari’s turquoise eyes gazed into mine, sympathy swimming within his pupils.

“You’re Laakari, a healer,” I replied. “Um, I don’t know what a healer is.”

“It means I fix things that hurt,” Laakari gestured at my arm. “Look, your arms and ribs are all better now thanks to me.”

My eyes drifted toward my arm, then I gasped and looked away. It wasn’t that the arm wasn’t healed. It was. I just didn’t want to remember what had happened. As the memory returned, my muscles went limp, and a throbbing ache criss crossed over my limb.

“Ow,” I groaned, rubbing my arm.

Memories crashed into me. The chase. The warhammer. The pain. If I hadn’t been laying on the ground already the memories would have knocked me down.

Did that girl get away? I thought about the blonde urchin. She’d been terrified.

I hoped she’d escaped. The man had still been there when I’d been hit, and even without his weapon he was probably faster than a child.

“That’s the body remembering,” Laakari frowned. “Nothing I can do to prevent that, but I’ve got something that’ll take your mind off it. Tell me boy, do you want to escape the jaws of death?”

Why wouldn’t I want to live? I wondered.

“I do,” I replied without hesitation.

“Good, I can work with that. Forza!” Laakari’s shout echoed across the dungeon, startling the paragon leaning to the side. Forza pushed himself off the wall, eagerness and joy filling his expression. He clearly wanted a solution to my illness more than anyone.

“Anything you need, I’ll get it,” Forza said.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“I need you to return to your clouds. They require your help more than I,” Laakari waved his hand dismissively. “I will take care of the boy. The dungeon will be my aid and source of valoa.”

Forza pursed his lips, “I don’t think-”

“I know. You care for the boy, but you cannot do anything for him. Not here,” Laakari’s interruption was crude, but not done with ill-intent.

But something about the way he spoke was bugging me, surpassing even the pain. Laakari was saying a lot of things, but he wasn’t talking to me. No, rather, he wasn’t consulting me.

“Suna,” I said. “My name is Suna. Not boy. And I want you to talk with me.”

My words bounced off the wall, but I ignored the surprised look on Forza’s face and focused on the old man in front of me. A day ago, I would have been terrified to talk back to him, and giving him an order would have been unthinkable, but now I was in too much pain to care. My physical injuries were healed, but anguish gnawed at my mind.

I needed to be part of the solution.

“Good, Suna, speaking up is a habit I need in a patient,” Laakari said. “Look, I want to help you. I can help you. But it will be a long and painful process, and you’ll do most of it alone. Is that okay?”

“Yes,” I nodded. “I can handle it.”

Laakari shook his head, “we’ll see.”

“Then I will leave you two to it,” Forza turned around, his body glowing red with waves of valoa.

Light spilled forth from a hole in the dungeon’s ceiling as Teshima opened a hole in its ceiling for the paragon to fly through.

“Wait.”

My voice reverberated across the dungeon room, forcing Forza to pause. He glanced back at me, confusion in his eyes, and he stepped down, the red glow dying.

“I don’t know what happened yesterday after everything went black,” I said. “What about the girl?”

“Girl?”, “Yesterday?”

Forza and Laakari spoke at the same time, glancing at each other. The elderly man sighed, gesturing for Forza to take over.

“Suna, what girl are you talking about?” Forza asked.

“The girl,” I frowned. “Umm.”

I trailed off, then shook my head. My memories kept slipping away as I thought back to the moment I was hit. They didn’t want to remember the pain. Instead, I focused on the evening as a whole. I described the events as best I could, both adults listening intently to my story.

When I reached the part about my arm breaking, I stopped, realizing I’d gotten through the whole tale.

“And that’s it,” I finished. “Did you catch all the people chasing me?”

“We didn’t find a girl your age, but I can tell you that the Journeymen rounded up almost everyone involved in your attack. Only two got away. An Enigma path traveler with a communication-type ability, and an Insight path traveler with an influence-type ability. Both were on their first step of their respective paths.” Forza’s concern had deepened with each word I’d said. “We’ll find them soon, Suna. Don’t worry.”

“Influence-type,” I repeated the words. “The other people were being mind controlled.”

Forza stiffened as I spoke, “yes, how did you know that?”

“Earl said it, and then he put a gold shroud on me to protect me. It made me smarter for a bit, and faster,” I said. “Also, the people chasing me were acting weird.”

I don’t feel any less smart now, though. I thought.

“An intelligence boost…Uncommon, but not unheard of,” Laakari tapped his chin pensively, his eyes glimmering with interest. “The path of challenges would be involved with the shroud, but the intelligence would have to come from the path of Enigma.”

“We’re not here to discuss shrouds,” Forza interjected. “Yes, Suna, they were being controlled. Normally, any person with an influence-type ability would be investigated beforehand to see what they’re capable of. However, with the war ongoing, we can’t spare all the people we need to do the checks, and this woman snuck through the cracks.”

“And now you can’t find her,” a shiver ran down my spine. “But she can’t have gotten too far, not in a few hours.”

Forza’s posture shifted awkwardly, and I paused.

“Suna, your injuries were severe. It hasn’t been a day since the attack. It’s been a month,” he said.

A month? My eyes widened at the revelation.

“What about my brother?” I asked.

The floor rattled as I asked my question, anger spreading through the rocks that made up the dungeon. Forza and Laakari exchanged glances, their expressions unreadable.

“There’s been…a big change. Your brother won’t be able to see you for a while,” Forza tried to keep his voice calm and controlled, trying to avoid scaring me. “I think it's best we discuss it later.”

“I want to hear it now,” I said.

There was an inkling in my mind of what he was going to say, but I wanted to hear it from him.

Forza knelt in front of me, placing a hand on my shoulder and resting the other on the rocky ground.

“You were hit very hard, Suna,” Forza said. “Hard enough that we didn’t know what would happen. I needed to go back to the frontlines until you were cured, but Teshima was here. Also, Laakari didn’t leave your side at all during the first week. And when he did, he was very surprised to hear that…”

Forza hesitated, but I gave his muscular arm a gentle pat, letting him know I was okay.

“…You have been declared dead. And for your own safety, we’ve let everyone continue to think so. Even your brother.”

My brother thinks I’m dead? But I’m not dead!

Anger was the first thing I felt. Then it was quickly replaced by confusion. I had questions. So many questions.

I wasn’t sure which to ask first.

A pause extended among us as the two adults watched me process the news, unsure of what to do. Finally, after five minutes of silence, they stood up, their movements drawing my attention and putting a stop to the cascade of questions and thoughts that were paralyzing me.

Forza was the first to speak, “a night of rest will do us all some good. I have to leave for the cloud layer, but I’ll be back soon.”

“Yes,” Laakari agreed. “Rest is vital right now. We can always start the treatments tomorrow. Suna, try not to move from here, just for now. The dungeon will provide everything you need.”

I didn’t reply, but I gave them both a wobbly smile and nodded my head. Forza left through the ceiling, and Laakari walked into Cuebracabezas’ room. The moment they’d exited the space the walls shut tight behind them, closing off any entry.

“Thank you, Teshima,” I said. “But I want to be alone right now.”

The walls rumbled, then went silent, and my smile vanished.

Earl had made me smarter, just for a bit, but in that time, I had figured out that something was wrong with the people chasing me. I had also figured out something else. Something so horrible that I had immediately thrown it to the back of my mind. But Forza’s reaction to my question about my brother had confirmed the suspicions I’d been pushing aside.

The letter. The table. The drinks. And the Crossroads stream. Even the two path walkers that had gotten away. All of them pointed toward a conspiracy. No, they pointed to the reality of my troubles.

My brother had tried to kill me.

Emotions flooded through me as I accepted the fact. After the difficult day, or rather, month, my anger and fury were all tapped out. Sadness was the only thing left inside me. I couldn’t fight it, so I did the only thing I could.

I shoved my head into my arms, and I cried.