THE ASHES OF LIGHT ✔

Chapter Thirty-Four: Red

Red's head dipped as she began to doze off, sitting upright in a chair near the entrance to the Infirmary. Maythus had left a few minutes ago, off to who-know's-where, and she was left all alone in the building.

She was startled awake as the door swung open, Valencia rushing in with a troubled look on her face.

"Hmm? What?" Red asked, looking around wildly as the sleepiness left her body. She forced her breathing to slow. Red hated being startled.

"I have something you need to see," Valencia said, her voice solemn. She reached into her coat and pulled out a large bundle of what looked to be a dish towel. Valencia slowly unwrapped it, revealing a syringe.

"What is this?" Red asked, stepping forward to inspect it.

"Someone tried to attack me," Valencia answered, causing Red's head to snap up in surprise.

"What? Are you okay-"

"I'm fine," she nodded. "Luckily I had a dagger with me, and he ran off. But he dropped this before he left—he tried to inject me with it."

Red picked it up. The syringe contained a dark liquid—darker than anything she had ever seen before.

"Do you know what it is?" she asked, holding it up to the light to get a better look. The light changed nothing in it. The liquid remained pitch-black.

Valencia shook her head, "No idea. But if I remember correctly, wasn't my dad injected with something?"

Red's eyes widened. Valencia was right. If this was what Ashton was injected with, then maybe Red would be able to create a cure.

She continued to stare at the substance in front of her.

"It's so weird," Red commented, "It's like there's no light at all going through it—I've never seen anything like it."

Valencia nodded and Red noticed that she looked hesitant as she spoke, "Do you know if there's a way to channel using Shadow Manipulation? It may be possible to create a liquid that way."

"Sure," Red shrugged, "but in all the cases I've seen it, the shadows have been blended in with the light. It's safe to touch and stronger than any other material—but with those objects, it still reacts to light. This one..." Her voice trailed off.

"Almost as if they used Shadow Manipulation by itself, without adding in light to the mix," Valencia suggested.

Red nodded. "Exactly," she frowned, "but I didn't think that was possible."

Her mind was reeling with possibilities. How did they do that without getting injured? Or were they injured in the process, and that's how they realized it could be used as a weapon? How did they decide on an injection? Red was craving knowledge and she was burning up inside knowing that she couldn't get it. Maybe this was similar to what Ashton had gone through—only he ended up going to Gaiwei to pursue more information.

"Wait a second," Red gestured for Valencia to stay in the main area as she jogged up the stairs to her office. She grabbed a large stack of Ashton's notebooks and with only a little strain, brought them back down to where Valencia was waiting.

"Here," Red sighed, placing down the books on one of the beds with a huff. "This is all of Ashton's research. I'm sure we can figure out some sort of cure in here."

Valencia's eyes darkened for a moment, but nonetheless, she reached out to grab a journal.

Red grabbed the journal labelled with Shadow Manipulation, although she knew that she wouldn't find any more answers there. She had flipped through the journal so many times that she had practically memorized all of its contents.

She held up the ripped page from the Genetics book, her eyes darting between the research in front of her and the dark syringe off to the side.

"Hold on, I have an idea," the gears in Red's mind were visibly turning as she stepped back from the table, tying knots in her apron as a way of dispersing her nervous energy. "The syringe. Inside is a liquid, completely made of shadows, yeah?"

Valencia nodded.

"What's the best way to combat darkness?" Red asked, thinking out loud.

"With light?" Valencia suggested, though her expression remained emotionless.

"That's right," Red pondered, pacing back and forth, "so it's possible we could create light as a liquid, but I doubt that would be enough to heal the body entirely—it would just help get rid of the shadows. But if we combined channeling with healing... though I'm not sure how..." Red's voice trailed off, as she continued to think.

Their research was interrupted as the door swung open, Kane hurriedly striding in.

Red blinked in shock. His dark hair was wild, as if he had been sleeping and was abruptly awoken. His typically small eyes were flung wide open, as if he had drunk far too much caffeine. Instead of being in his usual guard uniform, Kane was dressed in what looked to be pajamas.

"Kane?" Red asked, frowning.

"I was attacked," he growled, shaking his head in frustration. He held up a syringe, identical to the one already lying on the hospital bed. "I was able to get rid of the attacker, but I can't believe... in my sleep... not even dressed properly..." Kane's sentences began to strewn into each other as he continued, gripping at his messy hair.

"Hey, hey, calm down," Red stepped forward, grabbing his arm. "I'll go get you a sedative."

"No," Kane shook his head. "I'm fine. I just needed to make sure you saw this." His eyes wandered over to the table, where the first syringe already was. He frowned. "Although it looks you've already seen it."

"I was attacked too," Valencia nodded.

"It's definitely concerning that you both were attacked," Red frowned, looking between the two of them. "Valencia and I were just discussing possible cures to the injection."

"There's something I should tell you guys," Valencia finally piped up, deep lines of worry appearing on her face. She reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a vial, filled with a liquid, glowing substance.

Red's face dawned with realization, "Is that-"

"Yeah," Valencia nodded. "Made from channeling and healing, just like you had guessed."

Kane frowned, "How is that possible?"

"I have a rare genetic mutation that allows me to have multiple abilities," Valencia explained, hesitating at first. "I can channel and heal."

"You waited this entire time to say that?" Red felt hot with anger as she stared at Valencia. How long had she had the cure? How many lives could they have saved? How much time could they have saved? How hard would it have been to speak up when she first discovered it?

"I'm sorry," Valencia mumbled, scratching at her arm. "I didn't think-"

"That's right, you didn't think," Red snapped, unable to resist the annoyance that filled her voice. She picked up the vial of light, examining it closely.

"We can discuss this later," Kane interrupted, frowning at the argument that was forming. "Right now, we need to worry about Maythus."

"Maythus?" Red asked, confused.

Kane nodded, "If Valencia and I were targeted, I suspect that Maythus is a likely target as well. I'm going to go see if I can find him, just to be safe."

"I'm coming with you," Valencia nodded, beginning to walk towards the door.

Red sighed, but nodded as well, "Come back as soon as you can. This is something we need to work on—all of us, together."

If the glowing vial in front of her really was the cure to Shadow Disease, could it cure whatever substance was inside of the syringes? Red stashed away all three liquids in a cabinet, carefully wrapping them in gauze, both to protect them from breaking and to hide them.

She glanced out at the window nervously. Red had been left alone with arguably the most dangerous weapon, and a seemingly impossible cure. If given the choice, Red would give her life in order to protect them from more attackers.