Flow. It pulsed through my veins, a living current that coursed stronger with every passing year. 27 years, most of them spent within the familiar embrace of Alaranta. Only a restless yearning for deeper knowledge had drawn me to Dram for four years. There, I devoured everything I could about the very essence that shaped our world: the Flow system.

Tragedy struck early. My last clear memory of my parents, warm and vibrant, is a snapshot from the age of nine. Flow Beasts, unchecked by human manipulation, ravaged the land. Their demise became the catalyst for my purpose.

I, Romeo Lapis, wouldn't let my world crumble again. The Flow within me, a wellspring of untapped potential, fueled my resolve. I honed my abilities, pushing them to their limit. By 25, I stood before the esteemed Chasles Academy in Kavita, Alaranta's capital, not as a student, but as a professor. The greatest academy of Flow in the world – that was my new battlefield.

The tide had turned. Humanity, through sheer grit and ingenuity, had learned to control the Flow. We carved out safe havens for ourselves, ceding only designated portions of land to the Flow Beasts. We wouldn't live in fear anymore. We were the architects of our own destiny.

Unease gnawed at the edges of peace. For fifteen years, humanity had coexisted with the Flow beasts, carving out sanctuaries fueled by the very energy that once unleashed chaos. But the uneasy truce was fracturing. Flow beasts, monstrous entities born from the uncontrolled Flow, were encroaching on human territories, once again, with increasing frequency.

The bulwark against this rising tide – the Sacred Soldiers. Imbued with the power to manipulate Flow, these elite warriors were humanity's last line of defense. Chasles Academy, the prestigious institution where I worked, stood at the heart of this resistance. We, along with other Flow academies, nurtured the potential of gifted children, shaping them into not just Sacred Soldiers, but also professors, artifact hunters, and the architects of a safer future.

The weight of this responsibility pressed heavily on me. Years ago, witnessing my parents fall to the unchecked fury of the Flow beasts had ignited a burning purpose within me. Now, the dwindling number of Flow-wielders – only three out of every thousand – cast a long shadow over our fragile peace. The time for complacency was over. We needed answers, and we needed them fast.

One day, some news hit me like a jolt of Flow – Alphonse, my elder brother by 5 years, had become a father! A niece – a chance to witness the miracle of life firsthand. I wasted no time. Before the Young Lady even reached her first birthday, I was holding her in my arms, the weight a precious responsibility.

But something about her captivated me beyond the simple joy of new parenthood. Her eyes, a startling blend of honey and emerald, seemed to hold an ancient wisdom. Not the vacant innocence of a newborn, but a flickering echo of… what? Sorrow? Power? Bloodlust? The sensation was unsettling, yet strangely alluring.

Then came the Flow. Faint, like a whisper, but unmistakable. In that tiny body, barely a year old, pulsed a nascent wellspring of power. Was I imagining it? Visit after visit, the feeling persisted. This child, my darling niece, possessed a potential that mirrored my own – the ability to manipulate the very essence of our world.

A thrill shot through me, laced with a tremor of unease. What did the Young Lady's extraordinary eyes and budding Flow signify? Only time would tell, but one thing was certain – my ordinary visits had taken on a new weight. I was no longer just an uncle; I was a guardian, a witness to the dawn of something extraordinary.

The weight of responsibility settled heavy on my shoulders. To guide the Young Lady's nascent Flow, I chose a delicate silver necklace adorned with three flawless Flow crystals. As I clasped it around her tiny neck, a flicker of warmth emanated from the stones, a silent promise of things to come. The Young Lady, wide-eyed with curiosity, reached up to touch the cool crystals, a spark of recognition dancing in her gaze.

Ordinary Flow users manifested between twelve and fourteen. Prodigies, like myself, awakened earlier, at the age of eight to ten. Sensing a faint hum of Flow in her from infancy, I believed she too might be a prodigy, awakening around nine. But fate, it seemed, had a different rhythm in mind.

Two and a half years after her first birthday, a disquiet settled over me. Alphonse and Maria's calls became more frequent, their voices etched with worry. The Young Lady, they reported, spoke of swirling mists only she could see, phantoms dancing in the air. The once vibrant crystals on her necklace now gleamed with an unsettling, milky white hue that only she could see, not her parents, not even me.

At first, I dismissed their concerns as childhood flights of fancy. But the calls continued, tinged with a rising panic. Young Lady, it turned out, claimed to have awakened. Her mind, a sponge for information, had absorbed a steady stream of Flow knowledge – from me, social media, even a popular show hosted by the flamboyant Marcus. Early speech with mature vocabulary wasn't a surprise, for her presence drew respect from the moment I met her eyes. However, this claim of awakening… it felt different.

If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

Despite the unusual circumstances – she was far younger than the typical awakening age, and the crystals remained inert – a knot of worry tightened in my stomach. I knew I needed to see her, to unravel the enigma of the precocious child with extraordinary eyes and a strangely unresponsive necklace.

My brother's house materialized before me in a blur. The door swung open, revealing a sight that sent a jolt through me. Young Lady, barely four years old, stood in the center of the room, her gaze locked on mine. Those eyes, once pools of innocent curiosity… No, they were never pools of innocence… From the very beginning, they were the eyes of a predator, and they now held a depth that sent shivers down my spine. It wasn't just the intensity; it was a glimpse of raw, unfettered terror, as if she'd witnessed horrors beyond imagination.

But terror wasn't the only emotion swirling within her. A tremor of excitement, almost manic, ran through me. My dear niece, defying all expectations, had awakened. Here she was, a toddler with the power of Flow coursing through her veins, years before the typical age. Why? What triggered this anomaly?

As a Harmonizer, analyzing Flow was second nature. I reached out, my senses probing the intricate circuits within her. A gasp escaped my lips. They were overloaded, crammed with an obscene amount of Flow, a swirling vortex threatening to burst its confines. This toddler, my tiny niece, was a paradox – a captivating enigma brimming with raw, untamed power.

The necklace, once a beacon of hope, offered a chilling revelation. The crystals, previously inert, now pulsed with an unseen energy. Her claim about sensing Flow in the atmosphere? It was true. And she wasn't alone. In my entire life, I'd only encountered another with this ability. But the truly terrifying aspect wasn't her connection to the unseen. It was the aura emanating from her Flow – suffocating, a predatory hunger that sent chills down to my bones. Otherworldly. Malevolent. A darkness, unlike anything I'd ever felt. Just what was up with this niece of mine?

With her parents' hesitant nod, I began to assess her Flow. A simple task first – transferring a sliver of her energy into an empty crystal. The Young Lady, her brow furrowed in concentration, held out a hand. A moment later, the crystal pulsed with a now familiar ebony light. Success. Too much success.

A bead of sweat trickled down my temple. The disquiet gnawing at my gut intensified. As the tendrils of Flow drained from her, a jolt of surprise shot through me. The emptiness in her circuits was fleeting. Within seconds, a fresh surge of power replenished her. This was impossible. A Flow user's internal reserves, once depleted, could only be restored through time or by letting someone transfer some neutral Flow into them. There were no shortcuts.

The Young Lady, oblivious to my growing unease, tilted her head. "Maybe it's because I can feel the Flow everywhere," she chirped, a hint of pride in her voice.

I forced a smile. "An interesting theory," I hedged, my mind racing. The other dude who was able to see Flow in the atmosphere, a wizened stupid old hermit, possessed no such accelerated regeneration. In fact, his Flow reserves dwindled faster than most. So her explanation felt hollow, a flimsy justification for a phenomenon that defied everything I knew about Flow manipulation.

The immediate concern wasn't the regeneration. No, a more pressing question gnawed at me. Could the Young Lady exchange Flow? Could she bridge the gap between herself and an external source? With a heavy heart, I proposed the next test – an attempt to exchange Flow with an ordinary stone.

Ever eager to please, she reached out a hand and held a stone, a tendril of her ebony Flow connecting with the stone. A moment of tense silence followed, then a flicker of success. The stone pulsed faintly, a testament to the Young Lady's unique ability. But my relief was short-lived.

As that wisp of Flow drained from her, her reserves replenished with unnatural speed. This time, however, there was a consequence. The stone, overloaded with her ever-flowing power, began to crack and groan. Heat emanated from it, a harbinger of impending disaster.

"Crap," I muttered under my breath, a sick feeling twisting in my gut. Sorry about that, Alphonse, Maria. With a deafening boom, the stone shattered, sending shrapnel flying across the room.

The Young Lady, thankfully unharmed, well her hand got burned, but I thought it might be more than her hand! She blinked at the destruction with wide, curious eyes. Flow exchange was out of the question for her, then. But could she absorb Flow? The very thought sent a shiver down my spine. Was she going to grow up with restrictions to her manipulation, since she was unable to master Flow exchange? Or… Was it actually the literal opposite… Was she somehow immune to the limitations of Flow manipulation? Could she absorb the very essence of the elements one day?

One thing was becoming horrifyingly clear – the tests hadn't revealed just the Young Lady's unusual regeneration; they had unveiled a potential monster in the making. The questions swirled in my head, unanswered and terrifying. But at least I knew one thing for certain – the world had never seen a Flow user quite like her… Maybe, just maybe, the young lady was the answer needed to protect humanity!

Yup, a monstrous revelation loomed before me! It became undeniably clear to me that I had a pressing task ahead – convincing her parents of the necessity to guide their daughter towards a path beneficial for our country. Her fate was sealed; she had to enroll at the prestigious Chasles Academy of Flow. Fortunately, as her uncle and a faculty member there, securing a scholarship for her would be well within my capabilities. The potential consequences of leaving her immense power untrained or allowing it to fall into nefarious hands were too dire to ignore.

I cannot stress this enough: the Young Lady was a force to be reckoned with, a formidable and potent entity! A monster, to say the least!