Chapter 58: A Flicker of Hope
"Does she think I’m stupid?" Matthew muttered, pacing near his bed. "Like, I’m actually going to just eat some weird floating marble because she said it’s fine? Yeah, no thanks."
She’d vanished after that little exchange. Poof. Gone. Probably annoyed that he didn’t swallow her ghost wisdom pill like a good boy. Since then, he’d been left with the bare-bones crash course she was forced to rattle off before floating away.
Matthew looked down at the spirit stone in his hand.
"So I just... think about absorbing it, and it works?" he mumbled, turning the stone over between his fingers. "Just... absorb it. Right. I’d done it before, so it should be the same this time as well."
According to her, he’d already gone through what was apparently called an "awakening." Normally, it was something that happened to Nexian kids between sixteen and twenty-one.
Anyone who didn’t awaken by then? Sorry, but they would have to become a permanent benchwarmers for the rest of their life. Apparently, Nexians have unique DNA but it’s rare and some are simply not carriers, especially the ones born from one human parent.
This also meant that only someone with a Nexian parent had a chance of becoming one. That made Matthew pause. He had never met his mother or her side of the family, so he had no idea if she was a Nexian. As for his father, they were never close—he didn’t know much about him either.
Matthew sat on the edge of the bed, still staring at the stone. "Eighteen. I had awakened at the age of eighteen," he said under his breath. "She said that’s normal. Normal. As if anything about this week has been normal."
He rubbed his temple with one hand.
"So... headaches, hunger spikes, random strength boosts... that’s not power. That’s my body freaking out. Great. Fantastic. Apparently, I’m not built to handle being a Nexian. Not yet."
Apparently, the solution is quite simple. Exercise. Of course, it is. The Ghost Girl said all Nexians started physical training from childhood. Having a strong physical body is the key to a smooth, painless awakening.