Starting Point

The silence after my statement felt heavy, almost as if it could be touched. In this dimly lit library, surrounded by the scent of old paper and ozone, I had, in a way, shifted the balance of power. I was now like a Pandora's box offering to be opened, but on specific terms.

Dales Verneth didn't move. His eyes, usually calm yet firm, narrowed, dissecting every word I had spoken and the intent hidden behind them. He was a commander, a man used to holding control. Now, that control might have felt threatened by the strange knowledge I revealed and the writing on the blackboard behind me. I could see his calculations, or at least I could guess. On one side, the risk of letting an anomaly like me grow. On the other, the reward of knowledge capable of altering the foundations of their world and influencing far more than they could predict.

A pragmatist like him would always take the path with the greatest yield, as long as the risks could be managed. I had positioned myself as a manageable asset.

"Rabbit hole," Dales finally repeated, his voice low. "Rabbit holes often hold unexpected predators, Welt. Don't play dumb."

"All valuable knowledge is guarded by predators," I said flatly. "The question is whether you want to hold the chain or only hear its roar from a distance."

He stared at me for a long time, as if time itself stopped. Then he let out a deep breath, releasing some of the tension in the room. His decision was made.

"Very well, Welt Rothes," he said as he turned back to his desk. "You will have your academy. The Royal Clockthon Military Academy, Esoteric Studies Division. Emergency enrollment will be arranged. But do not misunderstand, you will not be an ordinary student. You will be a Fravikveidimadr special project. Every lesson, interaction, and step of your progress will be monitored. Weekly reports will reach my desk. Consider yourself our investment, and we protect our investments very carefully."

I nodded. "Understood."

"Grisa will escort you to your new quarters. Your lessons start tomorrow." He sat down, picking up his pen as if this entire exchange was nothing more than a minor note on his schedule. "You may leave."

I turned and walked out of the library. Grisa was waiting outside. Her expression was as stiff as ever, but I could sense the change in her gaze. Her professional suspicion now mixed with something else, perhaps distrust, perhaps even a trace of fear. I was strange, and I was also a puzzle her superior had just confirmed as something far, far beyond their expectations.

She escorted me silently through the sterile white corridors. We reached a steel door unlike the others. She opened it, revealing a room more like a small apartment than a cell. A neatly made bed, a dark wooden desk, a chair, and an empty bookshelf fixed to the wall. A small wire-meshed window looked out at a brick wall across from the building. Not a prison, but more of a comfortable cage.

"Toiletries and a change of clothes are in the wardrobe. Meals will be delivered three times a day. Do not attempt to leave this room without permission," she said formally before closing the door, leaving me alone.

I immediately inspected the room. No cameras in plain sight, but I assumed every corner was under surveillance. I tapped on the walls, checking their thickness. Solid. The window wouldn't open. The cage was well-designed.

I sat on the edge of the bed and closed my eyes, directing my focus inward. I felt the space within my body, the aperture of my nadir circuit. It felt like a hollow dark sphere, its surface covered by a thin membrane of dim light pulsing faintly. The Essence of the Void I had absorbed swirled like a miniature ocean of deep indigo. Its level hadn't yet reached half the aperture's volume, perhaps forty percent. This was the limit of this child's body, the limit of my newly born innate talent. Each drop of this essence was the accumulation of my new life's potential, a distilled soul. I had to fill it, expand it, raise it to the next tier.

Hours later, a tray of food slid through the slot at the bottom of the door. Bread, meat stew, and a glass of water. Simple, but nourishing. Beside the tray was the first stack of books. I picked them up. The titles were exactly as I expected: An Introduction to the History of the Cledestine Kingdom, Fundamentals of Mechanical Physics, Eastern Continent Geopolitics, and a slim book titled Basic Theory of Oneiromancy.

They were testing me, probing the limits of my knowledge. I gave a faint smile. Let them try.

The next morning, after breakfast, my door opened. It wasn't Dales or Grisa. The man who entered was old, perhaps in his sixties, with thin white hair combed neatly to the side. He wore a spotless white lab coat, and his eyes behind thick glasses were cold and curious, like those of an entomologist studying a rare specimen.

"Good morning, Subject W-01," he said, his voice dry and without emotion. "My name is Elias. I will be overseeing your development and observation."

"My name is Welt," I replied.

"Names are scientifically irrelevant labels," he countered, placing a metal case on the desk. "Function matters far more. Today, we establish a baseline."

He opened the case. Inside were no books or writing instruments, but wires, metal pads, and a strange device resembling a helmet made of copper wire. I didn't resist as he placed pads on my temples, wrists, and chest. I only studied the design of his equipment, trying to infer its purpose from its shape.

"We will measure your passive Essence output, cerebral wave fluctuations, and skin galvanic responses to various stimuli," he explained while connecting the wires to a small console that emitted a soft hum. "Do not interfere or attempt to manipulate the process. The machine is sensitive enough to detect such attempts."

I stayed silent. He thought I was his test subject. He didn't realize that in my mind, the roles were reversed.

For the next several hours, he exposed me to a series of stimuli. Flashes of light at varying frequencies, low-pitched sounds barely audible, abstract images flickering on a small screen. I could feel the machine reading my body's responses. I allowed it. I gave it the data of a normal child, suppressing every fluctuation from my nadir circuit.

"Interesting," Elias muttered, studying the console's graphs. "Your physiological responses are extremely controlled. Almost no measurable emotional reaction, like a psychopath perhaps, or someone who no longer understands emotion."

I gave no response.

"Now for the more interesting part," he said. He pulled a black crystal about the size of a clenched fist from his case. Its surface absorbed light, and I could sense a faint cold aura from it. "This is a Dreamstone. It emits frequencies that resonate with the subconscious, often inducing dreamlike or hallucinatory states in sensitive individuals. Touch it."

He placed the stone on the table in front of me. I knew this was a test of my "Oneiromancer" claim. They wanted to provoke the drum echoes Dales had witnessed.

I set my hand on the cold, black stone. I closed my eyes, feigning concentration. I didn't wait for the stone to act. Instead, I deliberately released a single droplet of Void Essence from my aperture, not into the stone, but into Elias's console. The release was almost imperceptible, like a drop of ink in the ocean.

Bzzzt.

The console's screen flickered briefly, displaying a string of numbers and random symbols before stabilizing. One of the dials shook violently for a fraction of a second.

Elias stiffened, his eyes locking onto his machine. "What was that?"

I pulled my hand away from the stone, opened my eyes, and put on a puzzled expression. "I don't know. I only saw a flash of black stars."

Elias didn't look at me anymore. He was busy checking his machine, pressing buttons and adjusting dials. "Anomalous reading: unclassified Essence energy surge. Duration: 0.02 seconds. Irreplicable."

He looked back at me, his curiosity now shifting into insane scientific obsession.

"An intriguing phenomenon! Spontaneous fluctuation at the fundamental Essence level. We will continue this tomorrow."

He quickly packed his equipment and left without another word.

I was alone again, and I had succeeded. I had given him what he wanted, an anomaly consistent with the profile of a Oneiromancer. Something they could study and analyze, something that made me valuable. I had secured my position as an asset, not merely a threat.

Raven's Nest was no longer a prison. I could now call it my laboratory. And I had only just begun my first experiment.

Over the following weeks, this routine continued. Mornings with Elias and his machines, feeding him carefully controlled anomalies. Afternoons and nights devouring the books they provided. I studied the Five Great Kingdoms, the Hundred-Year War against the Northern Barbarian Tribes, the rise of the Essence Wardens' Order, and the power structure of the Church of Three Gods. I learned their steam-based physics, basic alchemical chemistry, and the biology of Essence creatures. Each book was a new window, each fact a potential weapon.

I also trained in the silence of my room, learning to draw Essence of the Void from the air despite its low concentration. I condensed it drop by drop, gradually raising the level of the ocean within my aperture. From forty percent, to forty-one, then forty-two. The progress was slow, but I ensured it was steady.

One afternoon, a month after my arrival, Dales Verneth came to my room in person.

"Everything is arranged," he said curtly. "You will begin your studies at the Military Academy tomorrow. A new identity has been prepared for you: Welt Rothes, an orphan from a remote province discovered to possess rare talents by one of our scouts. A standard cover story to mask the truth."

He placed a dark gray uniform on my bed, the academy's emblem stitched on the collar. "Lieutenant Grisa will be your escort and primary contact outside. You will report to her daily. You will stay in the dormitories like the other students, but your room will have additional 'security features.' Do not do anything foolish."

"I won't," I replied.

"Good," he said. "Elias reports promising progress. Continue being a useful asset, Welt. Because in this world, useless things tend to be discarded."

He turned to leave, then stopped at the doorway. "One more thing. At the academy, you will learn about the world, but remember this, the world they teach you is the filtered version. The real truth is far darker and far more complicated. Your task is to learn both, the version they give you and the one they hide. Understood?"

"Fully, Captain."

He nodded and left.

I picked up the uniform. The fabric was coarse, but it carried the weight of the expectations from Raven's Nest. This was the next step. I had escaped direct oversight within Raven's Nest. Now I would be sent into a larger and far more varied environment. A forest filled with noble heirs, true prodigies, and agents of other powers.

The game was about to truly begin.

And I was ready for it.