“I’m what now?” Charles asked the now empty doorway.

  Looking down at his hands, he noticed the small bag that was thrust upon him.

  “What the What?”

  Closing the door Charles headed back to his bed.”I'm sure somewhere in there that crazy woman said something about the path…. Like THE Path? With a capital P? Its not like crazy people just show up and actually sponsor kids for the path…. Right?”

  Sliding back into bed, bag still in hand Charles started to drift off to sleep before sitting bolt upright and opening the bag.

  “I have to check, i mean, if it's real, and it can't be real, anyone who CAN sponsor for the path would know better how to approach a potential sponsee…. Right?”

  Inside the bag were several papers held together with a clip, a plastic card, and a stone of some kind.

  Sifting through the papers for a note,or any form of explanation inside of the bag, he read their contents.

  The papers in the clip were train tickets to a town called “Valley harbor”, a seaside teleport city and the closest city to the playpen. At the bottom of the papers was a note in sloppy handwriting: “The tickets are for a departure tomorrow afternoon, don't be late. Listen to the staff when you get there.”

  There was nothing else in the bag aside from a small red feather embroidered on the inside.

  Charles’ world was shook. Barring all this being an elaborate prank from higher tiers and powers beyond his ken, or more likely a hallucination from the long repressed trauma of seeing his mother’s death, his issues had just been solved…. But why? Who would bother, how could anyone at that level even know I exist? In a flash Charles remembered his father telling a story about one of his friends from his time on the path, a kid with a detrimental talent who was sponsored by high tiers who seemingly fell out of the sky, in that story they had been for more subtle and gotten to know the guy, but Charles couldn't care less if his “mysterious” benefactors were too lazy to be subtle, they had solved his delving issue and far more. Charles was set!

  No sleep came that night , despite knowing he would need to, Charles could not sit still. The first 2 hours were spent on a mix of packing and lying down and pretending to try to go to sleep.

  The next morning he got up and dressed early, packing his few sets of clothes and the small dagger he had won in a company raffle last week. Leaving to get to the train station two hours early, he swung by his now previous place of employment, he let his manager Jack know he would no longer be working there. Much to Charles’ relief Jack wasn't mad at all, congratulating him and wishing him well, despite quitting without notice.

  After arriving at the train station and waiting for what felt like eternity Charles settled into his solo sleeper cabin and got comfy for the 2 day ride to his next transfer.

  About an hour after getting settled there was a noise outside the door to his cabin sounding a woman softly squeaking out “Owch owch owch”, followed by a sharp rapping knock on his door.

  Standing Charles moved to the door and cracked it open, uttering a confused “Hello?”

  Standing in the hallway was a woman with shoulder length red feathers as hair, and she was holding another woman by her wolf ear, the second woman Charles recognized as his sponsor.

  “Charles, if you have a moment we need to speak with you.” the woman said.

  “Uh, come in?” Charles returned in more a question than a true answer, but he moved aside regardless to allow the women entry.

  “My name is Helen, and this,” she gestured with the hand still holding the other woman by the ear, ”is Arya. She owes you an apology for her failure to conduct the sponsorship scouting in the proper fashion.”

  “Sorryyyyyy!!!!!” Arya said, the word turning into a yelp as she moved and the pain of her ear spiked.

  Charles’ stomach dropped like a box of rocks, internally he panicked “I knew something was wrong, it shouldn't be that easy, sponsorships dont just fall from the sky, they are here to rescind the offer.”

  The lady, Helen as she had called herself continued, ”The proper process involves being vetted for a few months, close observation, and a careful psych eval to see if the prospect has what it takes to at least survive on the path, as well as the drive to excel. Instead what my friend here did was decide that because i sent her and her brother to check you out, that you needed no vetting and simply threw the sponsorship at you and ran off to eat at my restaurant.”

  As if on que a man in a black suit with a purple tie appeared holding another man in a fireman's carry, and dumped him on the spare bed before giving a deep nod to Helen and vanishing.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Helen then took a deep breath and said to the now deposited Bowyer,” Anything to say for yourself?”

  “Sorry Aunt Helen!” Bowyer said, bowing his head “we goofed off instead of doing what you asked us to, and its not fair for the kid.”

  *Smack* Helen bonked the man on top of his head with a wooden spoon that had appeared seemingly out of nowhere. ”Right off with both of you!”

  The now thoroughly berated brother sister duo vanished without a trace.

  After a long pause Charles worked up the courage to ask,” So I can't join the path?”

  “What, no I'm not in the business of ripping hope from the hands of children. Of course you can join the path, I just wanted those two to apologize to you for screwing things up. Normally sponsors and sponsees take some time to get to know each other, do some training, and work on forming a relationship, while in the long run that's not a critical part of the path, it is important to set expectations for life on the path.”

  Joy shining like a rising star in his heart, Charles asked “so I really can join the path Ms. Helen?”

  “Please call me Aunt Helen, most everyone I know does, but yes, your spot on the path is already locked in, one of the few things Bowyer and Arya did right was your paperwork, as long as you want to try your hand at the path, the spot is there for you.” she replied.

  “It seems like the path is my answer to where I'm at in life, and who wouldn't want to be a pather if they already wanted to be a delver!” he replied.

  “Well, I’m glad you decide to accept, and I hope to see you make it far on the path, now, too much contact with a sponsor can be bad for you as a fresh pather, so expect to hear from me when you fall off the path, or when you reach tier 5, until then pace yourself, and take care.” with that she vanished.

  —--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  A week and a half later, Charles stepped off the final train, arriving in Valley Harbor, his last stop before the play pen. Above the crowd he saw a floating illusion of the words ‘Charles Ald’mac & Jenna Price’ in large red letters. Making his way over he saw a Girl of about his age with jet black hair in a pony tail to her waist and an older woman with electric yellow hair cropped short and a large sword the size of a surfboard on her back.

  “Charles?” the woman asked, looking him up and down.

  “Yes ma’am.” he replied

  “Good now that you are both here, my name is Ki, tier 15, and I'm the second in command at the playpen here, that means when you have big problems you come see me, got it?”

  Both the kids nodded

  “Now, if you will both follow me, ill take you to the boat and we will head to the island.”

  As they walked Charles introduced him self to the girl, “I'm Charles, nice to meet ya.” he offered her his hand for a shake.

  “Jenna.” she replied, giving his hand a shake, before returning her attention to Ki, focused entirely on their guide.

  “Now,” Ki said, “I'll be giving you both a quick rundown as we head to the island, firstly, you are both sponsored for the path already, that means most of the paperwork is simplified for you, you will be permitted a delve slot once every three days, you ‘can’ request more slots, but I don't recommend it. You will find those two days useful for training, trainers can be hired at a steep discount here so i recommend it highly, also for relaxing and recovering, even if a delve goes well, it still takes energy, and builds stress, when i was a pather I pushed to delve as often as i could, that was a huge mistake, without taking time to train and consolidate my gains i ran into a wall at tier 4 and nearly fell off for it. Do not repeat my bad habits, i tell you this now so you can do better than i did. One moment.”

  As the boat they were on was speeding to the island KI walked up to the bow and drew her massive sword, getting in a ready stance, there was an eruption of water and a large shark came sailing through the air towards the boat, striking it with the flat of her blade the shark was sent flying off towards the horizon.

  “Sorry about that, its wing shark season here on the coast, they are mostly a nuisance as they throw themselves at boats. Now, where was I? Oh yeah, so when we get there the first place to visit is the admin building, there you will sign the official papers and be made a pather in full.”

  —-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Exiting the admin building Charles felt good, he was on the path, with a delve slot for the day after tomorrow at noon. But first, the training hall was calling, the man at the desk in the admin building had told him there were free training rooms for pathers in the building next door, and Charles was excited to give it a shot.

  Dagger in hand, Charles booted the training dummy and set it to tier 1, getting in a low ready position, as soon as the training aid moved forward he dashed to the side, ducking the strike the aid sent at him and stabbed at the aid’s exposed back. *Ding* there was a chime and the training aid lit up, indicating a kill.

  “This dagger isn't bad, but i need something with more range, sabers were what I got the best marks in at school” Charles mused. There had been an intro to melee combat class at his old school, and he had taken it, getting top marks in his class. “I need to check out the shops in the morning.”