Kael looked from his grandfather's steady hand to the delicate teacup it held. The cup was a pristine white, so thin he could almost see the light through it. It looked like a gentle breeze could shatter it. In his hands, it felt like it would turn to dust.
He took a slow, deep breath, trying to calm the frantic pounding of his heart. The power thrumming through his body was like a wild animal in a cage, and he was being asked to pet a butterfly with it. He stepped forward, his feet feeling heavy and clumsy on the polished floor.
"It is just a cup, Kael," Valerius said, his voice soft and encouraging. "Do not fear it."
Kael reached out his hand. He tried to will his muscles to relax, to drain the immense power from them. But his body felt like a tightly coiled spring. As his fingers got closer, he could feel the slight warmth radiating from his grandfather's hand. He focused on that, trying to ignore the 216 points of strength screaming in his arm.
His fingertips made contact with the smooth porcelain.
Crack.
A tiny, hairline fracture appeared on the surface of the cup, spreading from where his thumb touched it. Kael flinched and pulled his hand back as if he'd been burned. He stared at the crack, his stomach sinking. He had failed. He hadn't even tried to grip it, and he had still broken it.
Valerius looked at the crack and then back at Kael, his expression unreadable. "Again."
He turned and picked up another identical teacup from the side table. He held it out in the same way.
Kael swallowed hard. He felt a flush of shame. Thorne was watching him, his face a perfect mask of neutrality, but Kael felt like a failure. He took another breath and reached out again. This time, he focused all of his mental energy on being gentle. He imagined his hand was made of smoke. He tried to touch the cup with the lightness of a falling leaf.
His fingers brushed against the porcelain. He held his breath, expecting to hear another crack. For a second, there was nothing. Hope flared in his chest. He slowly, carefully, began to close his fingers around it.
CRUNCH.
The teacup didn't just crack this time. It collapsed into a dozen pieces in his grandfather's hand, the sharp sound echoing in the quiet room. Kael stared in horror at the white fragments. He had used even less pressure than before, but the result was even worse.
"I… I'm sorry," Kael mumbled, his face burning. "I don't know how… It just happens."
"It happens because you are fighting yourself," Valerius said calmly, dusting the porcelain shards from his hand. He walked to the table and picked up a third cup. "You are thinking, 'Don't break the cup. Don't be too strong.' You are focused on what you don't want to happen. Your body is full of power, and it doesn't understand 'don't.' It only understands action."
He held out the third cup. "This time, do not think about not breaking it. Do not think about your strength at all. Look at this cup. Think only about what it is. A cup. Your goal is to hold it. Not to 'gently' hold it, not to 'carefully' hold it. Just… hold it. Clear your mind of everything else. Focus only on the goal: The cup will be in your hand. That is all."
Kael looked into his grandfather's eyes. They were serious, but also kind. He took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. He tried to do as he was told. He pushed away the fear of breaking the cup. He pushed away the awareness of his own terrifying strength. He looked at the simple white object.
His goal was to hold it.
He reached out his hand for a third time. His mind was quiet. His focus was absolute. His fingers touched the cup. They wrapped around it. He felt its perfect smoothness, its light weight. He lifted it from his grandfather's palm.
It didn't break.
Kael stood there, holding the teacup in his hand. It felt as solid and real as the iron girder in his hovel, yet he held it with a steadiness he didn't know he possessed. A huge wave of relief washed over him, so powerful it almost made his knees weak. He looked up at Valerius, a wide, disbelieving smile spreading across his face.
Valerius smiled back, a deep, proud smile. "You see? Control is not about weakness. It is about focus. That is the most important lesson you will ever learn. Remember it."
Later that night, Kael lay in a bed that was softer than anything he had ever imagined. He had been shown to a large, simple room with a window that looked out over a starlit garden. After a lifetime in the Sump, sleeping in a real bed, in a clean room, felt like a dream.
But he couldn't sleep. His mind was racing, replaying the day's events over and over. The Awakening. The rankings. The teacup. His power. He knew his grandfather was right to be worried. The chaotic growth might have stopped, but the power he already had was immense. And tomorrow, despite what his grandfather believed, Kael knew it would multiply again. He had to keep that a secret. It was a terrifying, lonely thought.
He opened his System, the familiar blue screen appearing in his mind. He looked at his affinities again.
[Affinities: Aether (Divine), Void (Abyssal)]
Thorne had said Aether was a support element, used to boost strength. Valerius had said Void was unheard of. But Kael felt there was more to it. He had a feeling his System knew more than it was telling. On a whim, he focused his thoughts on the screen.
'System,' he thought, testing the idea. 'Can you explain my affinities?'
For a moment, nothing happened. Then, new text began to scroll across his mental vision.
[Request Received. Processing.] [Displaying information for 'Aether Affinity.']
[Aether is the fundamental element of Creation and Energy. It is the raw substance from which mana is born and the energy that binds the universe. The current world's understanding of this element is primitive. They use it as a low-grade energy source to enhance physical attacks or reinforce their bodies. This is a deeply inefficient use of its power.]
[True Potential of Aether:
Energy Source: As pure energy, Aether is the most potent fuel source in existence. It can power spells and abilities far beyond the limits of normal mana.
Creation: In its highest form, Aether can be used to create matter, energy, and even life from nothing. The user's only limits are their imagination, their control, and their available mana.]
Kael stared at the text, his mind reeling. Create anything? The people here, the strongest Awakened, were using the ultimate cosmic power source like a simple battery, and they didn't even know it.
Before he could fully process that, the text changed.
[Displaying information for 'Void Affinity.']
[Void is not a single element. It is the synthesis of all possibilities. It is the container for all other elements. A user with the Void affinity has the innate potential to understand, learn, and master every other form of elemental magic.]
[Examples of Contained Elements: Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Ice, Lightning, Light, Shadow, Gravity, Space, Time, Life, Death, Blood, Metal, Wood, Sound, Mind, Corruption, Poison, and all other conceivable elemental forces.]
[The Void allows the user to combine these elements to create new, unheard-of effects. It represents infinite potential.]
The list just kept going. Kael's breath caught in his throat. It wasn't just an unknown element. It was every element. He had the potential to control time, to command life and death, to bend space to his will.
It was too much. The information was so massive, so world-altering, that he felt a wave of dizziness. Just a few days ago, his biggest worry was finding enough scrap to trade for a bowl of soup. Now, he was learning that he held the power of a god in his very soul.
He closed the System, the text fading from his mind. He lay back on the soft pillows, staring up at the dark ceiling. The teacup had been the first step. A small lesson in controlling his body. But now he understood that he would also have to learn to control this. The power to create. The power of everything.
The weight of it all felt heavier than any iron girder. He was no longer just Kael from the Sump. He was Kaelen, the heir to a powerful family. And he was the host of the Sextant Protocol, a System that was remaking him, day by day, into something the world had never seen before.
He closed his eyes, the exhaustion of the day finally catching up to him. He knew the sun would rise in a few hours. And with it, his power would escalate once more, taking him another step further into the unknown.