The hearing's decision came at dawn, delivered by a stone-faced academy official who handed Aiden a sealed envelope before walking away without a word.
Aiden tore it open in his dormitory room while Jamie pretended to sleep in the next bed. The official academy letterhead seemed to mock him as he read the verdict.
*After careful deliberation, this panel finds insufficient evidence of malicious intent regarding the medical device in question. Marcus Aldrich receives a formal reprimand and mandatory counseling for failure to properly declare medical equipment.*
*However, concerns have been raised regarding Mr. Aiden Cross's unconventional talent applications. Effective immediately, Mr. Cross is placed on academic probation and banned from using hypnotic abilities on fellow students outside of supervised training sessions.*
*Violation of these terms will result in immediate expulsion.*
Aiden crumpled the letter and hurled it across the room. Academic probation for being cheated against. A ban on using his talent while Marcus got counseling for nearly destroying his mind with illegal technology.
The system wasn't just corrupt - it was actively malicious.
"Bad news?" Jamie asked quietly.
"They might as well have expelled me. How am I supposed to train or defend myself if I can't use my talent?"
"Maybe that's the point."
Aiden looked at his roommate sharply. Jamie usually avoided commenting on academy politics, preferring to keep his head down and avoid attention.
"What do you mean?"
Jamie sat up in bed, his expression more serious than Aiden had ever seen. "You think this is about fair play? About following rules? This whole place is designed to keep people like us in our place. The probation isn't punishment - it's elimination."
There was something different about Jamie's voice, a hardness that hadn't been there before. Aiden studied his roommate with new attention.
"You sound like you've given this a lot of thought."
"I've been watching. Listening. Learning." Jamie stood and walked to the window, looking out at the academy grounds where noble students were already heading to breakfast. "Do you know how many scholarship students have been expelled over the past five years? Forty-seven. Want to guess how many noble students? Three, and those were for crimes that couldn't be covered up."
Aiden frowned. "How do you know those numbers?"
"Because I make it my business to know. Just like I know that Marcus Aldrich has never lost a combat evaluation, even when facing opponents with clearly superior abilities. Just like I know that certain instructors receive substantial donations from noble families every year."
Jamie turned from the window, and for a moment, Aiden thought he saw something strange in his roommate's eyes. A flicker of something that didn't belong in the nervous plant manipulator he'd known for weeks.
"The question is," Jamie continued, "what are you going to do about it?"
Before Aiden could respond, a knock at the door interrupted them. Sarah stood in the hallway, her face pale with worry.
"I heard about the decision," she said. "I'm sorry, Aiden. It's completely unfair."
"Unfair seems to be the theme around here."
Sarah glanced at Jamie, then back at Aiden. "Can we talk? Privately?"
They found an empty classroom on the second floor, away from the morning crowds. Sarah closed the door and activated a privacy charm that shimmered briefly around the room.
"I've been thinking about what you said yesterday," she began. "About limits and lines. And you're right - the system here is corrupt. But that doesn't mean you have to become like them."
"Doesn't it? They just banned me from using my talent while letting Marcus off with a slap on the wrist. How exactly am I supposed to fight back with noble methods?"
"By being better than them. By proving that power doesn't have to corrupt."
Aiden felt that familiar surge of anger, but this time it was accompanied by something else. A tingling sensation behind his eyes, like pressure building inside his skull.
"Easy words when you're not the one being destroyed," he said, and his voice carried a strange resonance that made Sarah step back involuntarily.
"Aiden... your eyes."
He turned to look in the classroom's mirror and froze. For just a moment, his reflection had shown eyes that weren't entirely his own. They'd been darker, deeper, with flecks of silver that seemed to move like liquid mercury.
But when he blinked, they were normal brown again.
"What did you see?" he asked quietly.
"I... I'm not sure. They looked different. Older, somehow."
The pressure behind Aiden's eyes intensified, accompanied by flashes of something that might have been memory but felt too ancient to be his own. Images of vast halls filled with beings of impossible beauty and terrible power. Eyes that could see through the fabric of reality itself, rewriting truth with a glance.
*Soon,* whispered a voice that seemed to come from inside his own thoughts. *Very soon now.*
"Aiden?" Sarah's voice sounded distant, concerned. "Are you okay?"
He shook his head, clearing the strange visions. "I'm fine. Just tired."
But he wasn't fine. Something was changing inside him, something connected to his talent but far beyond simple hypnosis. The power he'd awakened wasn't just his - it was something much older, much more dangerous.
And it was waking up.
That afternoon, Aiden skipped his classes and went to the academy library. Not the main reading rooms where students gathered, but the restricted archives deep underground. His probation technically forbade using hypnosis on fellow students, but it said nothing about library staff.
The elderly librarian who guarded the restricted section proved surprisingly easy to influence. A few subtle suggestions, carefully woven into normal conversation, and suddenly Aiden had access to texts that were supposed to be forbidden to students.
He pulled books on ancient history, divine artifacts, and the mythology of awakened talents. Most were dry academic texts, but buried within them were references to something called the "Fragments of the Divine" - pieces of the gods themselves that had been scattered across the world after some ancient catastrophe.
*Legend speaks of divine body parts that chose mortal hosts, granting power beyond comprehension but at terrible cost. The Eye of Truth that could see through all deception. The Hand of Creation that could reshape reality. The Voice of Command that could bend any will.*
*These fragments were said to awaken slowly within their hosts, growing stronger with each use until the mortal vessel could no longer contain the divine essence. Those who bore such fragments rarely lived long enough to master their power - the human body and mind simply weren't designed to channel the will of gods.*
Aiden read the passage three times, cold certainty settling in his stomach. The strange visions, the pressure behind his eyes, the way his hypnosis seemed to affect reality in ways that went beyond simple mental manipulation - it all made sense now.
He wasn't just talented. He was cursed.
Or blessed, depending on your perspective.
As he read deeper into the ancient texts, the pressure behind his eyes grew stronger. The words on the page seemed to shimmer and shift, occasionally revealing meanings that weren't written in any human language.
*The Eye chooses its vessel based on potential for change. It seeks those who will reshape the world, regardless of the cost.*
"Interesting reading?"
Aiden spun around to find Professor Blackwood standing behind him, but the instructor's expression was different than usual. There was something predatory in his smile, something that suggested he knew far more than he'd ever let on.
"Professor. I was just researching historical awakening patterns."
"Were you? Because from where I'm standing, it looks like you're reading about divine fragments and cursed artifacts." Blackwood moved closer, and Aiden could swear the man's shadow seemed darker and longer than it should be. "Tell me, Cross - have you been experiencing any unusual symptoms lately? Visions, perhaps? Voices? Changes to your physical appearance?"
The pressure behind Aiden's eyes spiked, and for a moment the world seemed to shift. Blackwood's form wavered, revealing something underneath that was definitely not human.
Then everything snapped back to normal, leaving Aiden gasping and disoriented.
"What are you?" he whispered.
Blackwood's smile widened, showing teeth that were just slightly too sharp to be normal.
"Someone who's been waiting a very long time for the Eye to choose a new host," he said. "And someone who can help you survive what's coming next."
The ancient power stirred behind Aiden's eyes, recognizing something in the creature wearing Blackwood's face. Something old and hungry and definitely not on his side.
But as the pressure built toward a breaking point, Aiden realized he might not have a choice about accepting help - even from something that was clearly not human.
The Eye was waking up, and he had no idea how to control what happened next.