The next morning, I sat in my new room, adjacent to the dungeon’s blue valoa trial. I’d donned a new white robe, taken fresh from a wooden closet that had appeared in the wall. There was also a regular bed, a large mirror, a table for reading, and a separate room for showering. I even had my own door. Teshima must have created the rooms quietly because I hadn’t heard a single rumble during my sleep.
A bed of moss served as my seat.
“This dungeon will be your home for a while.”
That’s what Forza had said just before leaving for the cloud layer. I didn’t mind the change, but Forza and Teshima were both being more careful around me, and it was annoying. I was still sad, there was no doubt about that, but I wasn’t inconsolable.
My incoming death was more important than my brother’s betrayal, and I wasn’t in a mood to sit back and be passive.
I wanted solutions.
“SUNA!” Kynari’s shout reverberated across the air.
I jolted in shock and almost fell off the moss.
“Huh?” I asked.
The auburn-haired girl barged into my room, swinging my door open and striding forth over the rocks with the confidence of a paragon. Kyanri wore her usual red and gold robes, her orange eyes examining every inch of my living area, finally settling on me.
“It’s been a whole month!” Kynari stomped over to me, grabbing me and shaking me vigorously. “Where were you? I won’t forgive you if you were sad again.”
“K-Kynari?” I stared at her in shock.
The eternally annoying girl had completely slipped out of my mind, but relief flooded through me at the sound of her voice. Everything had been so serious, and somber.
Kynari was normal.
Instead of pushing her off, I hugged her.
“Gah- Suna? What are you doing?” Kynari flailed, her eyes widening. “Wait, Suna doesn’t hug people!”
Kynari pushed me away, dancing along the rocky ground. When she reached the door she stepped back, raising her arms warily in a fighting stance.
“My dad says some people can look like other people,” she said. “How do I know you’re really Suna?”
“You’re a butt,” I replied.
Kynari beamed, “Suna!”
With a skip and a bounce, she returned to the moss bed, pushing me off it and proudly taking her place at the top. I stared at her and pushed her back, and in seconds we devolved into a mess of flailing limbs and childish insults. My worries fled my mind, my emotions scattered, and I even laughed.
When Teshima finally pulled us apart, I had a smile on my face and several strands of auburn hair clutched in my fingers. This time, I’d won the fight.
“So, where were you?” Kynari asked. She moved onto my regular bed and took a seat.
“I got hurt,” I looked down at my arm. “Badly. Your dad brought someone called Laakari to fix it.”
“Oh, I know him,” Kynari’s eyes widened. “Mr. Laakari teaches me stuff through the Crossroads. He says my intelligence is unsalvageable.”
“That sounds nice,” I said.
“It is!” Kynari grinned. “He also says he won’t stop until I’m the smartest. Even if he dies trying. Which means I’ll be smarter than you are.”
Maybe really soon. I thought. If your dad is telling the truth.
“Um, are you okay?” Kynari glanced at my arm, and I realized I had been cradling it unconsciously. “I’ve gotten hurt before, in training. It’s bad.”
“I’m not hurting anymore,” I said.
A quiet peace fell over the air, but my emotions were beginning to stir again. I had a lot of things I was keeping inside me, and they wanted to be shared. But I had nobody to talk to.
“You can talk to me,” Kynari said. “I like to listen.”
I stared at her in surprise.
“Are you a mind reader?” I asked.
“No, silly,” she giggled. “Your face is all scrunched up. Like you want to say something.”
“Your dad says I’m dying.”
The words slipped out of my mouth before I could stop them. I closed my eyes, refusing to let her see my weak emotions.
Why am I telling Kynari this? She’s super annoying, and really loud. I shook my head. She’s just going to laugh at me. Or leave me. Or be sad.
A sudden impact on my chest blew my thoughts out of my mind and I raised my arms defensively, thinking Kynari had gone for a surprise attack. But no blows came. I pried open my eyes, and to my surprise there was a mess of hair and two arms around me.
Kynari was hugging me.
Oh.
The warmth was foreign to me. And as I fell into her embrace, I remembered what she’d said a moment ago. I didn’t hug people. I knew why.
My brother had never hugged me before.
“I don’t want to die,” the words tumbled out of me.
Kynari let go of me and pulled back, and I saw determination in her eyes.
“Then don’t die,” Kynari said. “Mr. Laakari is the best. He can help you.”
“That I can!”
A loud voice hit my ears, reverberating across the room.
“The healer?” “Mr. Laakari!”
Kynari and I spoke at the same time.
“The one and the same,” Laakari said.
He entered the room with the certainty of a young man in his prime and wearing a decrepit grey coat suited to an elderly man with an addled brain. His eyes fell on me, a smile on his lips, and he gestured grandly.
“It’s time to stave off death itself my boy!” Laakari said. “Come, come, don’t look at me like I’m a maniac. My war band does that enough already. Wake up. Stand tall. Be firm. You too, Kynari.”
I scrambled to my feet, straightening my back, and I saluted him. Then, I looked down at my hand in surprise. My body was obeying his instructions instinctively. Kynari giggled beside me, but Laakari ignored our antics, slamming his equipment onto my reading table and I’d expected him to prepare tools, or maybe even a weapon, but instead he took out a giant book.
The healer turned toward us with a flourish.
“Suna, have you ever seen this book before?” Laakari asked.
I shook my head and glanced to my side, Kynari’s eyes had widened at the sight of the book, her arms trembling in fear.
“No,” I replied. “It looks big.”
“It is big,” Laakari smiled. “This is the guide to valoa passageways, a standard textbook in Teshima Academy. All the students have a copy. Most of them never read it. Kynari here is an expert. I’ve made her read ten pages already.”
“Don’t read it. It gives you headaches,” Kynari whispered to me. “It’s a magic brain punching book.”
The elderly healer shook his head, the ghost of a smile on his lips. He opened the first page and it unfolded into a diagram. When it was fully unfurled, it was almost as big as me.
It was a map of a person.
Several lines and dots were scattered across the map, often intersecting like puzzles. I didn’t know any of the words written inside, so I focused on the ones that looked the most important.
“Valoa passageways,” I read the title at the top of the diagram. “What are those?”
“They’re how you’re going to survive,” Laakari said. “So pay close attention.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Then he turned toward Kynari and frowned.
“This is a private matter, Kynari, I appreciate you being here for Suna, but I need to talk to him alone now.”
“No, I want her here,” I said. “She’s my friend.”
Kynari looked at me in surprise, her lips breaking out into a wide grin.
“Yeah, I’m his best friend. My dad says so.”
“She’s a normal friend. I will have millions of better ones in the future,” I said. “But I want her to stay.”
“Very well,” Laakari hid a smile. “However, this won’t all be fun and games. If either of you feel uncomfortable, please let me know.”
Kynari and I nodded, and we bent forward to listen to his words.
The walls creaked as Teshima leaned in with us, the entire room folding into itself. The radiance of the valoa within the walls intensified, the motes of light spilling out into the air and swirling across our surroundings, making it easier for us to see.
“I’ll keep it simple for now. These dots you see on the diagram are valoa passageways, and there are one hundred and two of them,” Laakari said. “All of them are blocked. But people unlock them. Think of them like rooms in this dungeon. Accept they’re in your body.”
“One hundred and two rooms inside my body?” Kynari’s disbelief was clear. “That’s more rooms than Teshima Academy. Maybe.”
I scrunched my eyes as I tried to imagine that.
“Yes, perhaps that's the best comparison for you two.”
Laakari pointed at the entrance to the dungeon room, and a wall slammed down, startling both of us.
“Every passageway in your body is like this room, completely locked. But, if you open one…” Laakari gestured and the dungeon wall rumbled, crumbling to pieces, and opening up the entrance again. “Tada! Your valoa can now walk through it just fine.”
“Ohh,” I stared at the crumbled wall. “But I don’t have valoa.”
“Yes,” Laakari’s lips curved down, forming the shadow of a frown. “Unlike other people, you don’t need to worry about which passageways you open. You need to focus on what is blocking them in the first place.”
“What’s blocking them?” I asked.
“You have impurities where others do not,” Laakari pointed at Kynari. “Let’s take young Kynari here. The black sludge she spat out during her absorption ceremony was the impurities gathered in her passageways. This is because when valoa entered her body, it removed them and replaced them.”
“You were at the ceremony?” I asked, aghast.
My cheeks flushed red with shame and embarrassment. The healer had seen the worst moment of my life firsthand.
“I was at the back,” Laakari smiled. “Do not worry, I don’t judge you. However, it is clear that you are a special case. Your passageways contain impurities, toxins, and all manner of vile contamination,” Laakari shuddered. “With each unlocked passageway you will expel some of them, buying you time and letting your body heal.
However, normally when a passageway is cleared, most of the valoa inside is expelled, and the rest moves on to the surrounding passageways. In your case, you will expel some of your impurities, and most will move to the next passageway.”
I glanced at the diagram, and then back at him.
This is confusing.
Kynari’s eyes had glazed over beside me, focusing only when she heard her name. Laakari stepped back, giving us time to think, and a few minutes later I nodded my head in understanding.
“So, each one is harder to unlock?”
“They are the same level of difficulty,” Laakari sighed. “It is the consequences of their unlocking that grow direr.”
“Consequences?” I asked.
“Pain.”
The word reverberated across the room.
“Pain?” Kynari spoke first. “But pain is bad. We don’t want pain. Right, Suna?”
I didn’t agree with her straight away.
Pain. I repeated the word slowly in my mind.
“Like my arm?” I asked.
“Valoa is painless to remove, but difficult. Impurities are easy to remove because your body wants them gone. But it is not painless.” Laakari stared at me, his gaze telling me that he was no longer in a jovial mood. “Each passageway will buy you a little over a month of life. In the end, if you unlock them all, you could live until you are eighteen.”
“That’s so old,” Kynari said.
“Yeah,” I agreed.
I was already six years old, and I had lived for ages. I couldn’t even imagine living eighteen years.
But to get into Teshima Academy I need to be seventeen. So maybe it’s not that long. The thought crossed my mind.
“I will guide you in unlocking your first passageway personally, however as I do with Kynari here, I will use the Crossroads to teach you for the rest,” Laakari said. “In fact, your friend will be invaluable.”
“Yeah, I am very valuable,” Kynari nodded. Joy filling her features. “See, Suna, I told you I’m better than you.”
Laakari bonked her gently on the head, and she squealed. A moment later she let out a sniffle of indignation. Her pride was wounded but she was otherwise unhurt.
“Kynari will be invaluable because the journey is a lonely one. Also, she can help unlock your passageways if there is an emergency or if you’re incapable of moving due to the pain. What you will both need to learn is how to knead your passageways, making sure to take your time to unlock them.”
He wrote a series of sentences on the wall.
Valoa passageways:
The 102 valoa passageways are one of several paths of progression for the body. Each one increases the flow of valoa through the body and therefore how much valoa may be accessed for ability use at any one time.
Because every new open passageway improves the flow of valoa through the body, they also improve the rate at which valoa containers are refilled. They also improve how quickly valoa can be injected into other people (such as in the case of medics). This is because injection of valoa happens through valoa passageways.
Note: Opened passageways do not improve the absorption rate of valoa. They only improve how quickly absorbed valoa can flow into the body’s valoa containers. Both are equally important, but different. A person who has a low absorption rate may train their passageways to make sure they can equal the input of a higher absorption rate enemy.
1. Unlock 9 passageways a year.
2. Too slow, you risk growing too weak to stave off death.
3. Too quickly, you risk crippling yourself permanently from the pain.
Map of the valoa passageways:
Head (3 total valoa passageways): Frontalis (1), and temples (2).
Neck: (2 valoa passageways): Platysma (1), and sternohyoid (1).
Eyes (2 valoa passageways): Orbicularis oculi (2).
Lips (1 valoa passageway): Orbicularis oris (1).
Chest (6 total valoa passageways): Pectoralis major (4), and pectoralis minor (2).
Back (12 total valoa passageways): Trapezius (2), dorsi (2), rhomboid minor (2), rhomboid major (2), and erector spinae (4).
Abdomen (8 total valoa passageways): Obliques (4), rectus abdominis (2), and transverse abdominal (2).
Shoulders (2 total valoa passageways): Deltoids (2).
Arms (14 total valoa passageways): Biceps (4), triceps (6), and flexors (4).
Hands (2 total valoa passageways): Adductor pollicis (2).
Upper Legs (anterior: 8 total valoa passageways): Pectineus (2), quadriceps (4), and sartorius (2).
Upper legs (medial: 6 total valoa passageways): Adductor longus (2), adductor magnus (2), and gracilis (2).
Upper legs (posterior: 8 total valoa passageways): Semitendinosus (2), semimembranosus (2), and biceps femoris (4).
Lower Legs (anterior: 10 total valoa passageways): Tibialis anterior (4), fibularis tertius (2), extensor digitorum Longus (2), and extensor hallucis longus (2).
Lower legs (Lateral: 2 total valoa passageways): Fibularis longus (2).
Lower Legs (posterior: 12 total valoa passageways): Popliteus (2), tibialis posterior (2), flexor digitorum Longus (2), flexor hallucis Longus (2), Soleus (2), and gastrocnemius (2).
Feet (4 total valoa passageways): Plantar aponeurosis (2) and flexor digitorum brevis (2).
I have no idea what any of those are. I stared at the mountain of words in wonder.
But the part where I could die, and the part where I would be in pain sounded bad. Very, very bad.
“And if I do this, can I live?” I asked.
“My dear child, I said you weren’t going to die. I didn’t say you were going to live,” Laakari shook his head. “For the first few years, you won’t even be able to move. Every moment will be recovery, and that recovery will be torture. But the pain will not be the worst of it. No, it will be horrible, but it is also unavoidable. What will weigh on your mind is what can be avoided. The choice.”
“The choice?”
Laakari paused, “I can’t believe I have to say this to a child.”
For a moment the healer looked like he held the weight of the world on his shoulders. Age and wisdom intermingled to form a harrowing picture of a man who knew too much and understood that he would experience more.
“I am talking about the choice to undergo the cycle again. Every time the pain stops, and the anguish disappears, you will need to unlock a new passageway, and start it all again. Each time you will ask yourself whether it is better to live in torment or allow yourself to perish. And each time your answer will be less certain.”
The healer gave me no leeway, and no false hopes. Only cold, hard facts. My heart felt like it had been plunged into icy cold water and Kynari stiffened beside me, putting aside her snivels, and turning her fearful gaze toward me.
She looked as scared as I felt.
“I…I need to think about it,” I didn’t give him an answer straight away.
“Take your time, I will be here.”
Laakari left, but I hardly noticed. His words had spooked me. They filled my mind and drained my energy. But they also gave me a glimmer of hope. Pain was bad. Life was better.
Three days later I had made my decision.
****
Kynari and I sat on two separate beds of moss put into my room by Teshima. Since our talk with Laakari, she came in every morning, and only left once Teshima forced her to go to bed. For once, I didn’t mind her company. It helped distract me from the things the healer had said.
She glanced at me, questions and worries on her mind, but she didn’t speak. She was too afraid to. I didn’t blame her. I was as well, even if I didn’t show it much.
The moment I thought of the elderly healer, he appeared.
“Young man, I’m afraid I can’t wait any longer for a decision. I must go back to the cloud layer today,” Laakari had a solemn expression as he entered my room. “Do you want to unlock your passageways, even knowing what will happen to you?”
Kynari and I stayed seated, and the healer didn’t mind. We wanted to be at ease, and all of us knew that today was a day when comfort was necessary.
“Mr. Laakari, I have made a decision,” I said. “Please, help me unlock my passageways.”
“Of course, I’ll help you,” Laakari said. “Do you have a preferred starting point?”
Whichever place I picked would be the healthiest part of my body, so I’d been looking over the diagram for the last three days. To my surprise, Kynari did more work than I did. She studied the map furiously, even when I knew she was getting a headache.
In the end, she’d pointed out a single passageway.
“This is the best for punching,” Kynari had said. “Which makes it the best for fighting.”
I held out my right hand.
There was a single valoa passageway in my palm, the only one in my entire right hand. It was one of the exit passageways, the start of a line.
“A good choice,” the healer nodded.
Laakari placed his hands over my palm, his fingers digging slightly into my skin.
“Are you ready?” Laakari asked.
Thoughts cascaded through my mind, a jumble of emotions accompanying them. No matter what I feel, I can handle it. I want to stay in Teshima Academy forever. And train. And I want to play with Kynari. And I want to ask my brother why he did what he did. Most of all, I want to live.
Nothing could be more painful than the strike of the warhammer against my arm. Or the pain of my brother’s betrayal. But as Laakari clasped his hands over mine, I realized my body was trembling.
Then five tiny fingers clasped my free hand, and I looked to my side to see Kynari’s face filled with determination.
A single nod was my response.
“I’m ready.”
****
One month after the startling news of the discovery and death of the first pathless person spread across the world, the students of Teshima Academy heard a faint scream. It traveled through the hallways and across the classrooms, harrowed, and raw.
The howl pierced through their rationality and touched deep onto primal nerves, burrowing into their souls, and imbedding itself into their dreams.
None could escape its chilling embrace because what haunted their nightmares wasn’t a simple cry of pain. Or a maudlin plea for help.
It was pure agony given form.