Sananga • Editor's Choice

Kael forced his muscles to relax. As he exhaled, the physical sting transformed. Behind his closed lids, the darkness shattered into vibrant, geometric patterns. He saw the faces of people he had wronged and those who had wronged him, all swirling in a vortex of intense emotion. He felt a deep, heavy knot in his chest—the "inner anger" the tribes spoke of—begin to unravel.

The liquid in the small glass vial looked like cloudy tea, but Kael knew better. He sat on a woven mat in the heart of the Amazon, the humid air thick with the scent of damp earth and woodsmoke. Beside him, a Matsés healer named Tavo prepared the medicine known as . Sananga

He stood up, his balance surer, his focus laser-sharp—the same clarity that once guided hunters to see through the densest thicket. He had come looking for a cure for his sight, but as he looked at Tavo, he realized he had finally learned how to truly see. Kael forced his muscles to relax

Kael lay back, his heart racing. He had come here seeking clarity, his modern life a blur of screens and stress that had left his vision literally and metaphorically dimmed. Tavo hovered over him. One drop fell into the corner of Kael's left eye, then the right. The world exploded into white fire. He saw the faces of people he had