Control Index

I was floating.

Again.

This was kinda becoming a thing.

Anyway, the cold should have bit into my bones by now with the storm howling around me and snow whipping past in violent spirals as the sky above choked with frost and shadow.

And yet… nothing.

No sting, numbness or pain. Just stillness.

It wasn't just the cold that didn't register; I didn't even feel my body. I looked down, or rather, I thought I looked down; and sure enough, my feet weren't touching anything.

The blizzard swept beneath me in a blur of silver and white, and I hovered like a ghost. I raised a gloved hand in front of my face. My breath should have fogged the air, but it didn't.

"...Right," I murmured to myself.

"The mindscape again."

I spun slowly in place, the snowstorm roaring louder now, like the scream of some ancient creature tearing through the world. No matter how often I ended up here, it always gave me that same unsettling feeling, like I'd stepped out of existence and into a dream too lucid for comfort.

The cold used to bother me, back when I was… normal. But ever since Ronan awakened his curse?

I hadn't felt cold, not physically, anyway.

I turned my head to the left and that's when I noticed it.

A lake.

It was still and vast.

It shimmered like mercury beneath the snow, completely untouched by the storm. I blinked.

"I don't remember that being here," I muttered.

Cautiously, I drifted closer, narrowing my eyes. I held up my hand and tried to will the water towards me, like I'd done countless times with ice.

But nothing happened.

The lake simply sat there, defiant in its calmness.

Until, finally, a tendril of water rose, snaking toward my palm.

"Crack!"

It barely made it a few feet before it froze mid-air, stiffening into a jagged spiral of ice. I tilted my head studying it.

"Figures."

Still, it wasn't instantaneous. The water responded, even if clumsily.

I smirked.

"I should try that outside," I said.

I wanted to see how my hydrophilia kicked in without the cold interference around me.

The thought lingered as I drifted higher, through the ever-thickening clouds. The sky above remained pitch black; no sun, no moon and no stars.

Only that endless, suffocating dark.

Until I broke through.

Two enormous stars hung in the void above me; one burning like silver fire, the other flickering a deep, frigid blue.

They hovered opposite each other pulsating with familiar resonance.

I floated between them, awed every time I saw this. I didn't need someone to explain what they were.

I could feel it in my soul.

The two stars that signified my Second Star Rank.

Close to one of the stars and forming faintly, like a ghost being drawn into existence, was a third star.

Its light was dim but it was there.

I raised an eyebrow.

"So I'm closer than I thought…"

If that third star solidified, it would mean breaking into the Third Star Rank. More power and more control.

And maybe, a big maybe, a real chance at not dying like a background character.

Still… this space was hideous.

No sun and no moon, just two angry stars and an empty sky.

"Alright," I muttered. "Note to self: Rank up so that I can maybe add a sun or a moon."

I exhaled, closed my eyes, and pulled myself out of the mindscape.

My eyes snapped open to dim lighting and stone walls. The air was still, silent, and empty; the training chamber I had rented out. We still hadn't received our credits yet, so this was the best place to freeload.

I stood slowly, cracking my neck as I walked to the far wall.

"Sshhkt!"

As expected, an obsidian slab shimmered into view, sliding out of a hidden panel.

I placed my palm on its surface. A hum of cursed energy pulsed under my hand, and three glowing values appeared above the slab:

[Temperature: 21°C (70°F)]

[Control Index: Null]

[Power: Null]

I sighed.

"Right… reset," I muttered.

Different curses required different metrics. For a flame user, maybe it was burst radius or burn potential. For someone with sonic amplification, it might be frequency modulation or destructive range.

But for me?

It was cold. Specifically, how cold I could make a space, and how well I could control it.

I'd entered my curse data when I arrived. So the slab now measured Temperature and Control Index (CI). From those, the AI calculated an overall Power Rating.

I glanced at the CI line; it was still null.

"CI measures how well I modulate power output. Fine motor usage. Can I make a snowflake… or just a f*ing blizzard?"

I inhaled deeply.

And exhaled.

"Hooooooo…"

A rush of frost swept from my mouth. I channelled everything into that breath; my core cursed energy, the sensation of ice forming in my bloodstream, the howling void that lived behind my ribs.

The temperature gauge started dropping.

16°C.

10°C.

5°C.

0°C.

It went faster now.

−5°C.

−10°C.

−20°C.

"Ccrkkk!"

The room changed instantly. Frost bloomed across the floor, racing toward the far walls. Ice crept up the slabs like veins of crystal, coiling into beautiful, jagged webs.

My breath turned misty.

The stone walls groaned under the sudden shift in temperature.

I stood in the middle of it all, my body steady and heart pounding. I could feel my curse energy draining, but it wasn't enough.

The temperature refused to drop further.

I poured in more cursed energy. My fingertips ached, and a dull buzz behind my eyes told me I was pushing my limits.

Then-

"Drip!"

A nosebleed.

"Sh*t."

My vision wobbled, and my knees gave a slight bend. I caught myself breathing hard. My core felt empty, like an echo chamber, silent and hollow.

I looked back at the slab.

[Temperature: −20°C (−4°F)

[CI: Null]

[Power: Null]

I stared at the words. It was cold, yes, but not dangerously cold.

"Not even frostbite?" I muttered.

"I want hypothermia levels. Shivers and Desperation. This is baby snowman tier…"

The moment the words left my mouth, a small ding echoed from the slab. "Ping!"

And just like that… something changed

[Temperature: First Star Rank]

I rubbed my temple.

"gods, this is pathetic."

I glanced up at the stars that weren't here, those I'd just seen in my mindscape. I was close to Third Star Rank… and yet my actual output?

Still here, scraping the bottom.

"I know why Ronan hated his curse," I said aloud.

"But why the hell did he slack off this much?"

My cursed energy slowly recovered, inch by inch. Once the buzzing in my ears faded, I tapped the slab again, this time selecting the Control Index option.

A five-minute timer appeared in front of me.

[Begin Construct Sequence.]

I raised my left hand. The moment I did, the leather glove I wore peeled back, retracting and reshaping into golden bangles around my forearms.

A hiss of freezing air erupted from my palm.

The frost then coalesced.

First, a flurry of six-inch shards. Simple and Sharp. I spun them in a lazy circle.

Then, I shaped them into daggers; short blades of crystal-clear ice, solid to the core.

They hovered above my head like a crown.

Next, I crouched slightly and slammed my hand against the stone.

"WHUMP!"

A line of spiked ice pillars burst from the ground, each one nearly two feet tall.

Three minutes left.

I tried to make a snowflake, but it splintered before it took form.

I tried to make a whip, but like before, it didn't happen, only melting.

I tried a bow, but it crumbled mid-formation.

I growled, sweat mixing with frost on my brow.

I needed more energy, focus and Clarity.

But the timer ticked mercilessly.

5.

4.

3.

2-

"Ping!"

The display flashed.

[Control Index: First Star Rank]

I stared at it and breathed hard.

Frost coated the walls, and Ice shimmered everywhere. The room looked like a frozen cathedral.

And yet… all I got was the First Star Rank.

"Again?"

I didn't even check Power. I already knew what it was going to show.

"Was Ronan's imagination that limited?"

I paced.

"I've seen the media; games, anime, movies… the whole lot. Ice manipulators have insane potential. Blades, armour, walls, clones, constructs, storms. I know what this curse can do."

And yet all I could make were… shards.

"Was I just that stunted? Or is he that stunted?"

I stared at my hands, they were shaking with the golden bangles still faintly humming.

The cold never reached me, but the frustration did.

"Ping!"

A final chime echoed, but I didn't read it.

"No wonder Ronan died a few days from now in the book."

I closed my eyes, and all the frost around the room disappeared. The temperature also began rising, steadily climbing back to the usual room temperature.

I could drain the temperature from both myself and an object. I could also reverse the freezing. It was like math with the reversal and draining both being negatives.

When multiplied, it becomes a positive value, which increases the temperature.

'Wait, does that mean that I can also create fire?!'