Marcus Aldrich hadn't slept properly in four days.
Every time he closed his eyes, the same thought echoed through his mind: *Without daddy's protection, you are nothing.* The words felt foreign yet somehow true, like a splinter buried deep in his consciousness that he couldn't dig out.
He stood before the mirror in his private dormitory suite, studying his reflection with growing unease. The confident young man who'd dominated the academy's social hierarchy seemed to have been replaced by someone uncertain, hollow. Even his lightning felt weaker, crackling with less intensity than usual.
"This is ridiculous," he muttered, but his voice lacked conviction. "I am Marcus Aldrich. Son of Duke Aldrich. I don't doubt myself."
*But you should,* whispered a voice that sounded suspiciously like the slum rat's. *You've never earned anything in your life.*
Marcus slammed his fist against the mirror, spider-webbing the glass. The physical pain helped center him, pushing back the invasive thoughts. But they always returned, stronger each time.
Meanwhile, Aiden was experiencing changes of his own.
The morning after his confrontation with Marcus, he woke to find his vision had fundamentally altered. He could see things that shouldn't be visible - the emotional auras surrounding other students, the threads of influence connecting people, the weak points in someone's psyche laid bare like anatomical diagrams.
*Your sight grows clearer,* the Eye observed with satisfaction. *Soon you will perceive reality as it truly is - malleable, responsive to will shaped by divine authority.*
"I need to get ready for class," Aiden said aloud, hoping to drown out the voice with mundane concerns.
*Class? You're concerned with classes when you could reshape this entire institution with a thought?*
Aiden pulled on his uniform and tinted glasses, but even through the dark lenses, the world looked different. He could see the architecture of human behavior laid out in visible patterns, like watching the source code of social interaction.
In the dining hall, his enhanced perception made the morning routine feel surreal. He watched students unconsciously mirror each other's postures, saw the invisible hierarchies that determined where people sat, observed the micro-expressions that revealed true feelings beneath polite facades.
Sarah waved him over to their usual table, but as he approached, Aiden could see something troubling in her emotional aura. Fear, carefully hidden beneath forced normalcy.
"Morning," she said brightly, but the brightness was performance. "Sleep well?"
"Well enough." Aiden sat down, studying her with his new sight. "You seem tense."
"Just tired. Stayed up late studying."
The lie was visible to him now, written in the subtle tells of her body language and the colors swirling around her. She was afraid - specifically, she was afraid of him.
*She suspects what you're becoming,* the Eye noted. *Her healer instincts recognize the wrongness of divine power in mortal flesh.*
"Sarah," Aiden said carefully, "is everything alright? Between us, I mean?"
She hesitated just a moment too long. "Of course. Why would anything be wrong?"
Another lie, but this one tinged with sadness. Sarah was mourning the loss of someone she'd cared about, watching him transform into something she could no longer recognize.
The rational part of Aiden's mind wanted to comfort her, to explain that he was still himself despite the changes. But the Eye had other ideas.
*Show her there's nothing to fear,* it suggested. *Remove her doubts. Make her see you as she used to - her friend, her protector. What harm could that do?*
The suggestion was seductive. A few words, carefully placed, and Sarah would stop looking at him like he was becoming a monster. She'd smile genuinely again, trust him completely, never fear what he was becoming.
All it would cost was her ability to see him clearly.
"I should go," Sarah said suddenly, standing up from the table. "I have... things to do."
She left quickly, not quite running but close to it. Other students at nearby tables had noticed the tension, whispering among themselves about what might have caused Sarah Mills to flee from her usual lunch companion.
*She's spreading poison about you,* the Eye observed. *Planting seeds of doubt in others' minds. Soon the whole academy will see you as a threat.*
"Maybe that's not entirely wrong," Aiden muttered.
*Of course it's not wrong. You ARE a threat. The question is whether you'll be a controlled threat or let them corner you like a rabid animal.*
The voice had a point. Aiden could feel the other students' attention focusing on him now, curious about Sarah's sudden departure. How long before their curiosity turned to suspicion? How long before they started asking uncomfortable questions about the changes in his appearance, his behavior, his growing influence over those around him?
That afternoon brought another supervised training session, but Professor Vale seemed more watchful than before. The monitoring equipment had been upgraded, and two additional instructors were present as observers.
"Before we begin," Vale announced, "I need to inform you that several students have reported unusual experiences following interactions with you. Memory gaps, personality changes, unexplained behavioral shifts."
Aiden kept his expression neutral. "I'm sorry to hear that, but I'm not sure what it has to do with me."
"The incidents all occurred after conversations with you, Cross. That's concerning given your talent specialty."
*They're building a case against you,* the Eye warned. *Gathering evidence to justify expulsion or worse.*
"I've been following all the restrictions," Aiden said. "No direct hypnosis outside of supervised sessions, no reality manipulation, basic enhancement only."
"Perhaps. But there are forms of influence that don't require obvious hypnotic techniques." Vale activated the monitoring equipment, which immediately began displaying energy readings much higher than they should be. "Your power levels have increased dramatically since your last evaluation."
The other instructors exchanged meaningful glances. Whatever they were seeing in the data wasn't reassuring them.
"We're going to need to adjust your restrictions," Vale continued. "No talent use outside of these supervised sessions. Complete prohibition on any form of mental influence, direct or indirect."
*Complete prohibition,* the Eye repeated mockingly. *They might as well ask you to stop breathing.*
"That seems excessive," Aiden said.
"It's necessary for everyone's safety, including your own. The readings suggest your talent is undergoing rapid evolution. Until we understand what's happening, containment is the safest option."
Containment. They were treating him like a dangerous animal that needed to be caged.
*Because that's exactly what you are to them,* the voice whispered. *A threat to their comfortable order. They'll keep restricting you until you're powerless, then discard you entirely.*
The session proceeded under heavy scrutiny, with Aiden performing only the most basic exercises while the equipment tracked every fluctuation in his energy output. But beneath their detection, the Eye was working - studying their methods, learning their weaknesses, preparing for the day when subtlety would no longer be an option.
As the session ended, Vale pulled Aiden aside for a private conversation.
"I'm going to be frank with you," the instructor said. "Whatever's happening to your talent, it's accelerating beyond anything we've seen before. The energy patterns don't match any known hypnotic applications."
"What are you suggesting?"
"I'm suggesting that you might not be dealing with a normal talent evolution. There are... other possibilities. Dangerous ones." Vale lowered his voice. "Have you been experiencing any unusual symptoms? Voices, visions, changes in perception?"
The direct question caught Aiden off guard. Vale knew more than he was letting on, possibly suspected the truth about divine fragments.
*He's fishing for information,* the Eye observed. *Probably has theories about what you're becoming. You should find out what he knows.*
"Just some fatigue from training," Aiden lied. "Nothing unusual."
Vale studied him for a long moment, clearly not believing the denial. "If that changes - if you start experiencing anything out of the ordinary - you need to tell someone immediately. What you're describing sounds like the early stages of something we've seen before. Something that didn't end well."
After Vale dismissed him, Aiden made his way back to the dormitories through corridors that felt increasingly hostile. Students moved out of his way without quite seeming to notice they were doing it, responding to some instinctive recognition of predator and prey.
In his room, Jamie was sitting on his bed with an expression Aiden had never seen before - cold calculation mixed with something that might have been pity.
"Bad day?" Jamie asked.
"Getting worse by the hour." Aiden collapsed onto his own bed, exhaustion hitting him like a physical weight. "I think they're planning to expel me."
"Probably. The question is whether you'll let them."
There was something different about Jamie's tone, a confidence that hadn't been there before. Aiden studied his roommate with his enhanced perception and saw something that made his blood run cold.
Jamie's emotional aura was completely absent. Not hidden or suppressed - simply not there, as if he wasn't entirely human.
*Interesting,* the Eye observed. *Your roommate isn't what he appears to be either.*
"What did you just say?" Aiden asked carefully.
Jamie smiled, and for a moment his features seemed to shift in ways that didn't follow normal human anatomy.
"I said the question is whether you'll let them destroy you," Jamie repeated. "Because I think we both know you have other options."
The thing wearing Jamie's face stood up and walked to the window, looking out at the academy grounds with ancient eyes.
"The time for pretending to be normal is almost over, Aiden. Soon you'll have to choose - be the victim they want you to be, or become the predator you were meant to be."
*He's right,* the Eye whispered. *The choice is coming whether you want it or not.*
As night fell over the academy, Aiden lay in bed listening to the not-quite-human thing that had been masquerading as his roommate. Outside his window, he could hear the sounds of normal student life continuing obliviously.
But nothing was normal anymore. The divine fragment was changing him in ways that went beyond simple power enhancement, and apparently he wasn't the only one hiding inhuman nature behind a mortal facade.
The question was how many other masks would come off before this was over.
And whether any trace of the boy from the slums would survive when they did.