The next morning everyone went to the Embercrest Hotsprings.

The Embercrest Hotsprings were known for their odd color. The water in the spring was red but harmless and good for the skin, so people came year-round to bathe in it.

Max and and the other young men of the "Adventure Club" were in a reserved hot spring bath for the next two hours. He was overwhelmed and dizzy by the heat and the yells of others weren't helping. Aster pretended to fake shoot Eric with a finger gun, and Eric flailed back into the water.

"So much blood," Eric moaned. "I'm dying!"

Everyone was making their mock murder scenes until their instructor Phoenix arrived. He was wearing the fancy black Embercrest Lodge towel around his waist, and in his hand was a lighter.

"So you all must be wondering why I chose a hot spring for this lesson," Phoenix announced.

"No," said someone in the spring. "Not really."

"WELL, I am going to let you know," Phoenix replied, in irritation.

He lit the lighter and instead of it being a small flame, it shot up into the air. Loud gasps and excited shouts came from everyone. Phoenix was showing off the power of his favorite Path, Fire, and that today he would show him how to find their own.

The fire dissipated, and Phoenix smirked.

"You want to do what I can do? You want to fight back," he asked. "Then this is the perfect place to learn."

Shamelessly he took off his towel and announced that the "best way to commune with the paths is when you're naked".

"There's no barrier between yourself and the elements," he said.

Phoenix entered the spring and looked at the closest person next to him. It was a sophomore, Zynx, a Kuraga with orange hair and purple eyes. Zynx flinched when Phoenix pointed at him and wasn't prepared for the questions he was going to ask.

"Do you think you're a Weaver," Pheonix asked.

"No! You can only be born one," Zynx replied.

"That's where you're wrong! Almost anyone can use the Ten Paths, all you have to do is find them."

"Uh, ok? So what do I do now?"

"Simple. Become one with nature and your body! Touch yourself! You can learn a lot by touching yourself!"

The entire hot spring burst out into laughter. Phoenix realized that he was surrounded by dirty-minded teenagers. He was not helping by not choosing his words carefully before he spoke.

"NO! No, you boiling rano," Phoenix shouted. "Stop it!"

Someone in the back made ribbiting noises and Phoenix ignored them.

"Check your body first for cybernetics. If you have too many certain paths are dangerous to use. Even without cybernetics, your body has limits. Work within them."

"Take me, for example," Eric said. "I can't use fire or else I'll ruin the left side of my body. It sucks because I used to be good at it. It's difficult for me to use wind because my body's too heavy, and I can't use Earth and Wood either."

"What can you do," Aster asked.

"Watch and learn."

Aster took a deep breath, his eyes turned orange, and he flexed his arms. His muscles grew twice as big, making him look quite terrifying and out of place.

"Never skip leg day," Eric said.

He did the same trick with his legs and now everyone wanted to become a Weaver. No longer was it taboo.

"Even though Eric is disabled he can still focus on his strengths," Phoenix explained. It's easier to master a few Paths than all of them. Actually, it's impossible to master all of them. Only Max can."

Max gave a little wave in the corner, far from everyone else. He was too nervous to stand next to anyone. Max was still trying to accept his new body and standing in a hot spring with naked young men was not helping his anxiousness.

"Why can only he do it," Zynx asked.

"Because he's the Stormweaver," Phoenix said.

His tone became quite serious and now everyone stopped talking over him.

"If you want to be a Weaver you must understand that he is the first and the last. Can you?"

Zynx looked at the person on the farthest side of the pool who was trying to disappear into the mist and did not believe that Max held that much power. He did want to grow a lot of muscles to impress a girl in his Biology class, so he lied and said yes.

"Yes," Zynx said. "He's the first and the last."

"Now that you've accepted that you cannot use this path, focus on connecting your body to the thickest Thread that connects your body to a Path. Water."

Phoenix closed his eyes, clenched his fists, stuck them in the red water and then brought them out. Little orbs of water surrounded his clenched fists.

"I learned how to do this when I was five. You're gonna learn how to do this by the end of today, or else," Phoenix said.

"Or else what," Zynx asked.

"Or else you don't have the possibility to be a Weaver and I won't bother helping you."

Everyone started to object. Even Eric thought that his claim was ridiculous and that he was being too tough on everyone.

"We are at the top of a mountain, in an ancient lodge, made hundreds of years ago," Pheonix shouted. "There is not a lot of electricity to get in the way of you finding a Thread. There is no excuse except that you simply can't."

No one wanted to be the only one who couldn't be up to the task of achieving what a five-year-old could do. What everyone except Eric knew, is that Phoenix and Eric were descendants of the Stormweaver, and using the Paths was literal child's play for them.

"There's about an hour and a half left on this spring I rented out for all of us," Phoenix said. "Better get to it."

Phoenix left to use the bathroom and everyone began to panic. A few them rushed to Eric for help and the others came to Max. Max did not know how to instruct anyone how to use any of the Paths, so he tried to explain how he thinks he obtained his powers.

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"Every morning I like to watch the sunrise," Max said. "I think doing that connected me with nature, even though I was in the city. Maybe I can use electricity because I was born in a thunderstorm."

"We can't watch the sunrise, it already passed," Zynx replied. "We're not gonna wait for a thunderstorm either. What else can we do?"

Max panicked and thought of the first thing that came to his mind.

"Drink... drink the water," he mumbled. "Yes, drink it."

"I am not drinking someone's ass juice in this hot spring," Zynx replied. "Are you crazy?"

"I want to breathe underwater and fly," another boy said. "I'm doing it."

He dunked his head in the water, and little air bubbles came to the surface as he took in deep, long gulps. Looks of disgust came from everyone because he was in there for quite some time. When he finally came to the surface he coughed up water and his eyes were going red.

"How were you down for so long, uh...Akvo" Max asked.

"Swim team," he coughed. "And yes, it's Akvo."

Everyone was disgusted again when Akvo stuck his head in the water. Max was regretting telling him to drink the water, especially because he farted in it earlier, but he did not want others to know he didn't know what he was doing. Akvo continued to take great long gulps, but this time, when he brought his head back up, it was surrounded by an orb of eerie red water.

"I dib ib," Akvo said, gurgling in the orb. "Lurb ab me go!"

No one hesitated now to drink the red water they had been stewing in for the past hour. When Phoenix returned, bundled in a black towel and smoking the vape he had confiscated from Tiffany, he pursed his lips in revulsion at the scene he walked in on. Most of them were sticking their heads underwater, one was throwing up into a bucket from drinking too much water, and the few that had learned how to use the Path of Water were using it to pick on each other.

"Guys, what the fuck," Phoenix said. "You're really acting like a bunch of rano now, stop."

Eric swam up to him and grinned.

"The secret to mastering the Path of Water is ass juice."

"Get out of the water," Phoenix said. "The heat is getting to your brain, hardware, and software."

Eric cackled and got out, more than happy to get away from desperate people for power and engorging themselves for a chance at it.

By the end of the hour, everyone was able to use Water, except for Max who had left early, out of guilt.