THE ASHES OF LIGHT ✔

Chapter Nineteen: Valencia

The sun rose and the group set off once again. Everyone was eager to get home, though it was obvious that Dad was especially eager after spending so much time in Gaiwei.

"I have so many questions for you, I don't even know where to begin," Valencia approached Dad, feeling oddly shy.

"That's understandable," he nodded, looking over at his daughter with pride. "I'm proud of how quickly you've adapted to all of this—and I'm sure you're wondering why I never brought you here."

Valencia nodded, "That's definitely one of my questions."

"I thought that every child deserves to grow up with both of their parents if it's an option," Dad explained, looking ahead with a stony gaze. "If you were to grow up in Gallomia, you would never be able to see your mother again—or at least not often. I thought it would be best for you to live in the regular world and for me to visit as often as I could."

That made sense. Even still, Valencia felt a twinge of resentment towards Dad for purposely depriving her of a life full of Light Manipulation. That brought her to her next question.

"When I was in Gaiwei headquarters, your handcuffs were made out of a dark metal. Maythus suggested that it might be Shadow Manipulation, but wouldn't explain what it was," Valencia said.

Ashton looked over at her with obvious worry. "Whatever you do, never ever practice Shadow Manipulation. It is similar to Light Manipulation, only exactly the opposite—you harness the energy in the darkness in order to use your ability. It's highly addictive and once you start using it, it begins to slowly kill you—something that we now call Shadow Disease. There's no known cure." He gazed wistfully, as if he wanted to add more but couldn't.

Valencia was able to put two and two together. Dad was a healer, so of course he would try and find a cure that didn't already exist.

"That's what you went to Gaiwei for, right? To try and find a cure for the side effects of Shadow Manipulation?" she asked.

Dad looked surprised as his eyebrows shot up, "You catch on quickly." He ran a hand through his grayed hair, sighing slowly. "I thought I was onto something—and I was. That's why when Gaiwei found out what I was researching, they wanted me to stay with them and give them the cure."

"Did you find it?" Valencia asked, curiosity filling her eyes.

Before Dad could answer, they were interrupted by Kane.

"Sorry for breaking this up, but I really need to talk to Ashton for a moment," he said, giving Valencia an apologetic look.

"It's fine, we'll catch up later in the Infirmary," she smiled, stepping back to allow them some space. Valencia couldn't resist staying within earshot, straining to catch whatever the two were saying.

"They're experimenting with Shadow Manipulation," Dad talked in a low voice to his friend, "and I know, that's kind of obvious, but what they're doing is a whole new level of it."

"Like what?" Kane asked, looking over in curiosity.

"Like making it safe to use. Creating physical objects that you can touch. The scariest part is, they're also creating incredibly lethal weapons made of the shadows," Dad shuddered, his eyes glossing over as he reminisced about his time in captivity. "That's why they needed me—I was researching the cure for Shadow Disease, which they were in dire need of since they used Shadow Manipulation to create their weapons. On top of that, none of their healers had the same amount of power as I do, and they needed the best of the best for the kind of experimentation they were working on."

A moment of silence fell between the two as Valencia struggled to take in the information.

"You spoke in past tense, as in they're now done with the experiments?" Kane questioned, looking unnerved.