The world fractured into seven simultaneous perspectives, each one showing Kael a different truth about reality.
Through Crimson vision, he saw heat, not just warmth, but the fundamental kinetic energy of molecules vibrating, faster and faster, threatening to combust everything in the chamber into superheated plasma. The councilors' bodies blazed like miniature stars, their life-heat concentrated in hearts and brains, vulnerable points where a single surge of thermal energy could boil blood and cook neurons.
Through Azure perception, he felt water, the moisture in the air, the blood coursing through veins, the tears of panic beginning to form in human eyes. He could sense the hydrogen bonds holding each droplet together, could feel how easily those bonds could be broken or reformed, how simple it would be to crystallize all that water into ice or vaporize it into steam or restructure it into something that had never existed before.
Through Verdant awareness, he experienced life, the organic structures of flesh and bone, the cellular machinery that kept bodies functioning, the DNA spirals that contained blueprints for growth. He could accelerate those processes, could age the councilors to dust in seconds or regress them to infancy or twist their growth into cancerous mutations that would tear them apart from within.
Through Platinum consciousness, he perceived motion, every air current in the room, every vibration of sound, every particle in flight. He could still those movements entirely, could create zones of absolute stasis, or could accelerate them beyond the speed of sound, beyond the speed of light, into velocities where matter itself ceased to have coherent meaning.
Through Obsidian sight, he witnessed shadow, not darkness, but the absence of perception, the blind spots in consciousness where truth hid from awareness. He could expand those shadows until everyone in the room forgot they had ever existed, could make them see illusions so perfect their minds would never question the false reality, could trap them in dreams from which they would never willingly wake.
Through Golden vision, he saw time, past and future bleeding into present, moments stacked like transparent sheets of glass, each one showing different possibilities. He could see the councilors as they had been hours ago, days ago, years ago, and simultaneously as they would be minutes from now, hours from now, or not at all if the timelines where they died in this moment came to pass.
Through Void perception, he understood space, the distances between atoms, the gaps in reality where existence gave way to non-existence, the mathematical certainty that everything was mostly emptiness held together by forces too weak to truly matter. He could expand those gaps, could increase the space between the councilors' atoms until they spread across the room in clouds of component particles, could compress them until they collapsed into singularities that would swallow the entire Academy.
Seven ways to kill everyone in the room. Seven simultaneous impulses, each one feeling absolutely natural, absolutely right, absolutely necessary.
And underneath it all, that base frequency hummed, the fundamental tone that connected and unified all seven perspectives, that whispered he didn't have to choose just one method of destruction. He could use all seven simultaneously. He could unmake reality itself, could reduce everything to pure undifferentiated energy, could achieve perfect dissolution.
"KAEL!"
The voice cut through the seven-fold madness like a blade through water. Not shouted, despite the force of it. Not amplified by magic, though it carried power that made the frequencies shiver and pause. Just his name, spoken with absolute conviction by someone who refused to let him disappear into the chaos consuming him.
Master Lyrian stood directly in front of Kael, close enough that the prismatic light blazing from the boy's skin should have been burning him, close enough that the uncontrolled frequencies should have been tearing him apart. But Lyrian's own Golden Resonance had flared to life around him, a shield of temporal manipulation that slowed the chaotic energies just enough to keep them from being instantly lethal.
"Kael," Lyrian repeated, quieter now but no less intense. His golden eyes held depths of time itself, and Kael could see reflected in them all the possible futures branching from this moment, timelines where he killed everyone, timelines where he died himself, timelines where he achieved dissolution and ceased to exist as anything more than a brief disruption in the magical field.
But there were other timelines too. Narrow paths, barely visible, where he survived. Where everyone survived.
"You're not alone in this," Lyrian said, and his hands came to rest on Kael's shoulders, physical contact that should have been suicide but somehow anchored rather than destroyed. "I know what you're feeling. I've stood where you're standing, felt what you're feeling. That pull toward letting go, toward becoming pure energy, toward ending the pain of being separate from the magic—I know it, Kael. I know it so well it still terrifies me decades later."
Behind Lyrian, Kael could see Marina and Theron moving into position, not attacking, but preparing some kind of joint working. The other councilors had been thrown back against the chamber walls by the initial explosion of power, but they were recovering, their own resonances flaring to life in defensive configurations.
"The dissolution feels like peace," Lyrian continued, his voice steady despite the forces raging around them. "Like finally coming home after a long journey. Like solving a puzzle you didn't know you'd been working on your entire life. It feels right in ways that being human never quite has."
"Then why fight it?" Kael heard himself ask, his voice distorted by the seven frequencies speaking through him simultaneously, creating harmonics that shouldn't be possible in human speech. "Why hold onto this painful, limited existence when I could be everything? When I could finally belong everywhere instead of nowhere?"
"Because belonging everywhere means belonging nowhere," Lyrian said simply. "Because pure energy doesn't have friends. It doesn't have dreams or hopes or the capacity to choose anything at all. It just is, eternal and unchanging and utterly empty of meaning." His grip on Kael's shoulders tightened. "You came to this Academy because you wanted to learn, to grow, to become something more than what you were. But dissolution isn't growth, it's the end of growth. It's choosing to stop being a person in exchange for becoming a force of nature."
"Maybe being a force of nature is better than being a person who destroys everything he touches!"
The words burst from Kael with physical force, and the frequencies around him surged in response. The chamber's remaining windows exploded outward. Cracks appeared in the crystal floor. The air itself began to shimmer with heat-distortions and frost-formations simultaneously, reality unable to decide which frequency was dominant.
"You haven't destroyed anything," Lyrian insisted, his temporal shield flickering but holding. "You're in pain, you're terrified, and your power is responding to those emotions. That's not destruction, that's reaction. There's a difference."
"My parents are in a healing facility because of what I am! The dormitory exploded! People might be dead!" The frequencies cycled faster, building toward something critical. "Everything I touch turns to chaos!"
"No." Marina's voice joined the conversation, calm and certain despite the danger. She and Theron had completed their working, Kael could feel it now, a net of Azure-Obsidian hybrid magic spreading through the space around him. Not attacking, not constraining, but... catching? "Everything you fear turns to chaos. Your power isn't the problem, Kael. Your belief that you don't deserve control over it is the problem."
"I don't even know how to begin controlling this!"
"Yes, you do." Theron's voice was quiet but absolute. "You touched the base frequency in the Observatory. You felt how it connects to all seven standard frequencies. You know the path now, you just have to choose to walk it instead of running from it."
"I can't..."
"You can," Lyrian interrupted firmly. "And I'm going to show you how. But it's going to be uncomfortable, possibly painful, and definitely terrifying. Do you trust me?"
Did he? Kael had idolized Master Lyrian since childhood, had come to the Academy partly because of the hero's example. But trust was different from admiration. Trust required vulnerability, required believing that someone else could see you at your worst and still choose to help rather than destroy.
"I don't have much choice," Kael managed.
"There's always a choice. You could surrender to the dissolution right now. You could flee from the Academy and hide, hoping your power never manifests again. You could even beg us to kill you before you hurt someone else." Lyrian's golden eyes held infinite compassion. "But I'm asking you to choose the hardest path, to trust that we can teach you to carry this power without being consumed by it. Will you make that choice?"
The frequencies were still raging, still building toward cascade. Kael could feel the dissolution calling to him, promising peace and belonging and an end to the constant fear. But he looked at Lyrian's face, at the scars hidden behind temporal manipulation that spoke of his own near-dissolution decades ago. He looked at Marina and Theron, at the net of magic they'd woven not to trap him but to catch him if he fell.
And he thought about his friends, Zara with her impossible inventions, Finn with his nervous brilliance, Luna with her gentle strength, even Aldric with his complicated honor. People who had chosen to stand beside him despite not understanding what he was.
"Yes," Kael whispered. "I'll try."
"Good. Then hold onto something, because this is going to hurt."
Lyrian's hands blazed with Golden Resonance, not the gentle shields from before, but concentrated temporal manipulation focused to surgical precision. In an instant that somehow lasted both forever and no time at all, Lyrian reached directly into Kael's consciousness and grabbed the base frequency that connected him to all seven standard resonances.
And then he pulled.
Kael screamed.
It felt like being turned inside out, like having his soul extracted through his skin, like every nerve ending in his body firing simultaneously. The seven frequencies that had been raging through him didn't stop, instead, Lyrian was forcing them to separate, to become distinct again, to stop bleeding together into unified chaos.
Through the agony, Kael felt Marina and Theron's net activating. Azure healing magic flooded his system, keeping his body from tearing itself apart under the stress. Obsidian shadows wrapped around his consciousness, preventing his mind from fracturing under the impossible strain. And Lyrian's temporal manipulation wove through it all, giving Kael's perception enough time to process what was happening despite everything occurring in fractions of seconds.
"Don't fight it!" Lyrian commanded, his voice somehow audible even through Kael's screaming. "Let the frequencies separate! They're not meant to exist as one homogeneous force in a human consciousness, they need distinct spaces, distinct pathways!"
Kael tried to obey, tried to let the frequencies pull apart, but his instincts screamed against it. The unified state had felt so right, so natural, like coming home. Separating the frequencies felt like tearing himself into pieces, like voluntarily breaking something that had finally been whole.
"It hurts because you're trying to keep them together!" Marina's voice carried the force of decades of healing experience. "Your consciousness is fighting the separation because unified resonance feels like belonging. But Kael, listen to me, that belonging is a lie. It's your mind mistaking dissolution for unity. Real belonging means maintaining your boundaries while connecting to others. It means being distinct and separate and still part of something larger!"
The Azure healing in his system surged, and suddenly Kael could feel what Marina meant. The frequencies weren't supposed to merge into undifferentiated power. They were meant to remain separate but connected, like seven instruments in an orchestra, distinct voices that created harmony without losing their individual characteristics.
He stopped fighting.
The moment he released his desperate grip on the unified state, the seven frequencies snapped into separate pathways with an audible crack that echoed through the chamber. Crimson rooted itself in his solar plexus, hot and fierce. Azure settled in his heart, cool and flowing. Verdant sank into his gut, steady and growing. Platinum filled his lungs with every breath, light and mobile. Obsidian nested in the shadows at the base of his skull, dark and perceptive. Golden sparkled behind his eyes, bright and temporal. And Void... Void hummed in the spaces between all the others, absent yet essential.
Seven distinct frequencies, each one separate but connected to the base tone that unified them without destroying their individuality.
The prismatic light blazing from Kael's body flickered once, twice, then stabilized into something that almost looked controlled, seven colors that swirled around him without fighting for dominance, without merging into the chaos of unified dissolution.
Lyrian released his grip and staggered backward, his face pale and sweating. Marina and Theron let their net dissolve, both of them breathing hard from the effort of maintaining such complex magic under impossible conditions.
Kael collapsed to his knees, gasping and shaking but alive. Still himself. Still separate and distinct and human despite the forces singing through his body.
"That," Lyrian said between ragged breaths, "was the most difficult temporal surgery I've performed in two decades. Please try not to require a repeat performance anytime soon."
"What did you do?" Kael managed, his voice hoarse from screaming.
"I forced your consciousness to differentiate the frequencies instead of blending them together," Lyrian explained, accepting a cup of water that materialized from Marina's gentle Azure working. "Think of it like this, a child learning to speak doesn't hear language as distinct words at first. It's all just noise, undifferentiated sound. But gradually, they learn to separate the noise into words, the words into meaning. I did something similar with your resonance perception, except much faster and significantly more traumatic."
"The seven frequencies are still there," Kael said, feeling them more clearly than ever before. "But they're... organized now? Like files in a library instead of papers scattered everywhere?"
"Exactly." Marina knelt beside him, her hands glowing with diagnostic Azure light as she checked him for damage. "Before, you were experiencing all seven simultaneously with no structure, no hierarchy. It was like trying to listen to seven conversations at once and understand them all perfectly. Now you have distinct 'spaces' in your consciousness for each frequency. You can focus on one without the others overwhelming you."
"Though you'll still be able to access all seven," Theron added, emerging from the shadows where he'd been recovering. "That's both your gift and your curse. Most resonance users can only hear one frequency clearly, the others are like distant radio stations they can't quite tune into. But you have seven perfectly clear channels available simultaneously. The challenge is learning which one to listen to at any given moment."
Master Thorne approached cautiously, his expression a mixture of relief and continued concern. "Are you stable, Mr. Thornwick? Can you feel the individual frequencies without them bleeding together?"
Kael took inventory of himself. Yes, he could feel all seven frequencies distinctly now. The Crimson heat in his solar plexus, the Azure flow in his heart, the Verdant growth in his core, the Platinum breath in his lungs, the Obsidian darkness in his mind, the Golden light behind his eyes, the Void spaces between everything. They were all present, all accessible, but no longer screaming for attention simultaneously.
"I think so," he said carefully. "It's like... I can feel seven different songs playing at once, but I can choose which one to focus on instead of hearing them all equally loud."
"That's significant progress," Lyrian said, though his expression remained grave. "But Kael, you need to understand—what just happened was a temporary fix, not a permanent solution. I forced your consciousness to organize the frequencies, but maintaining that organization is going to require constant mental discipline. The moment you panic or lose focus, they'll start bleeding together again."
"And next time," Marina added gently, "we might not be able to pull you back. The more often you touch unified dissolution, the easier it becomes to surrender to it. Eventually, the temptation will be too strong, and you'll let go willingly."
The weight of those words settled over Kael like a burial shroud. He'd narrowly avoided death, or worse than death, but the threat wasn't gone. It was just... postponed. Waiting for the next moment of weakness, the next surge of panic, the next time he lost control of the seven frequencies singing through his body.
"The dormitory explosion," Kael said suddenly, memory flooding back. "My friends, are they..."
"Finn Stormwright, Luna Shadowmere, and Zara Emberforge are all accounted for and unharmed," Master Thorne said quickly. "Finn was in the aerial practice courts when the explosion occurred. Luna was in the healing halls volunteering. And Zara..." He paused with an expression that mixed disapproval and grudging admiration. "Zara was apparently in her workshop building unauthorized experimental equipment and therefore wasn't in her room."
Relief flooded through Kael so powerfully that the Crimson frequency in his solar plexus flickered in response, heat surging through his body before he consciously tamped it down. The effort required to suppress even that small manifestation was exhausting.
"What about other students?" he asked. "The message said there were casualties"
"Three students sustained injuries from the explosion and subsequent fire," Thorne replied, his voice heavy. "Two with minor burns and smoke inhalation, one with more serious trauma from structural collapse. All are stable and expected to recover fully, but it was..." He paused. "It was very nearly a tragedy, Mr. Thornwick. If the explosion had occurred two hours earlier when students were sleeping, or two hours later when they'd have returned from classes, the casualties would have been catastrophic."
"So whoever set the explosive timed it specifically to avoid mass casualties," Marina observed. "They wanted destruction and terror, but not an actual massacre. That tells us something about their goals."
"It tells us they want Kael alive," Theron said darkly. "A dead boy can't be exploited. But a terrified boy who believes himself responsible for others' suffering? That boy might do anything to make the attacks stop, including surrender himself to whoever's orchestrating this."
The words made horrible sense. Kael felt sick, and the Azure frequency in his heart responded, he could feel it trying to manifest, trying to purge the nausea through healing magic, trying to help. He forced it down with effort that made him shake.
"Magistrix Seraphina Vex," one of the councilors said. She was an older woman with robes of deep green, clearly a Verdant master of considerable power. "She was seen near the fountain before the void-crystal message appeared. She was also reportedly in the vicinity of the dormitory wing in the hours before the explosion."
"Being near locations isn't proof of guilt," another councilor objected, a man with platinum-silver hair whose robes marked him as a Platinum representative. "We need evidence of direct involvement before we can move against a student, particularly one with Seraphina's family connections."
"Her family connections are precisely why we should be cautious," the Verdant master countered. "The Vex family has been advocating for stricter control of 'dangerous' magical manifestations for decades. If Seraphina is acting on their behalf"
"Enough." Master Thorne's voice cut through the developing argument. "We can debate politics later. Right now, we have a student in immediate danger and an Academy in crisis. I'm implementing emergency protective protocols effective immediately."
He turned to Kael. "You will not return to your previous dormitory. You will remain in secured faculty quarters under constant guard. You will not attend regular classes until we can guarantee your safety among the general student population. Your private training with the three Prismatic masters will continue, but in locations with enhanced security measures."
"You're putting me in protective custody," Kael said flatly.
"I'm keeping you alive," Thorne corrected. "There's a difference. You're still an Academy student with full rights and privileges. You're just an Academy student who sleeps in a room with wards that would give a siege battalion pause and who can't take an unsupervised walk without risking assassination."
"That sounds exactly like imprisonment with extra steps."
"It sounds like keeping you alive long enough to master your abilities," Lyrian interjected firmly. "Kael, I understand the desire for normalcy and independence. But someone with considerable resources and no apparent moral boundaries is actively trying to hurt you and everyone around you. Accepting protection isn't weakness, it's pragmatisn."
Before Kael could respond, a commotion outside the chamber drew everyone's attention. Raised voices, the sound of running feet, and then the door burst open to reveal a guard with wild eyes and trembling hands.
"Masters! Another attack—but not against the Academy!" The guard struggled to catch his breath. "The village of Millhaven has been hit again. The entire settlement is on fire, Crimson flames that won't respond to Azure suppression. And there are reports of Void ruptures appearing throughout the village, swallowing buildings whole."
The world seemed to tilt sideways. Kael's vision blurred, and all seven frequencies surged in response to the shock. He felt Lyrian's hand on his shoulder immediately, temporal stabilization preventing another cascade.
"My parents," Kael whispered. "You said they were being treated at the capital"
"They are, and they're safe," Thorne assured him quickly. "But Kael... your entire village. Everyone you grew up with. The attacks aren't just targeting you, they're destroying everything connected to you. Every place you've lived, every person you've cared about."
"This is a message," Marina said grimly. "Surrender yourself, or everyone you've ever known will burn."
The silence that followed was absolute. Kael could feel the frequencies inside him responding to his emotional state, Crimson flaring with rage, Azure drowning in grief, Verdant withering with guilt, Platinum howling with helpless fury, Obsidian darkening with despair, Golden fracturing through multiple painful futures, Void expanding to swallow all feeling entirely.
And underneath it all, that base frequency hummed its eternal song, dissolution is easy, it whispered. Let go. Stop fighting. Become energy and never feel pain again.
"No," Kael said aloud, forcing the word through clenched teeth. "No, I won't let go. And I won't surrender to whoever's doing this."
He stood on shaking legs, facing the assembled councilors and masters. "You said I need to learn control? Then teach me. You said I need protection? Then protect me. But I'm not hiding while people I love are being terrorized because of what I am."
"Kael..." Thorne began.
"I'm not asking for permission." The seven frequencies inside him stabilized into something that almost resembled control, not perfect, not comfortable, but deliberate. "Someone wants me scared and helpless. Someone wants me to believe I'm too dangerous to exist. Well, I'm done believing that. I came to this Academy to learn how to use magic. So teach me. Teach me how to use these impossible powers to fight back."
Master Lyrian studied him for a long moment, then smiled, the first genuine smile Kael had seen from the legendary hero. "Now you're thinking like a Prismatic Resonator. Very well, young Kael. If you want to learn to fight, we'll teach you." His expression grew serious. "But understand that learning to weaponize Prismatic Resonance is even more dangerous than learning to control it. The nine who died during the war? Three of them died in training accidents before ever facing an enemy."
"I'll risk it," Kael said with more confidence than he felt.
"Then your training intensifies immediately," Marina declared. "No more gentle introduction to base frequency sensing. No more theoretical discussions about organization and control. If you want to be a warrior, we'll forge you into one."
"Assuming you survive the forging," Theron added darkly.
Master Thorne looked like he wanted to object, to insist on more cautious approaches and proper procedures. But after a moment, he simply nodded. "Very well. But the protective custody stands. You'll train in secured locations, you'll sleep in warded rooms, and you'll have escorts whenever you move through the Academy."
"I can live with that." Kael paused, then added, "Can I at least see my friends? They're going to worry if I just disappear."
"Supervised visits in protected locations," Thorne agreed. "But Mr. Thornwick? Choose your words carefully when you speak with them. The fewer people who know the full extent of your abilities, the safer everyone remains."
As the council meeting began to dissolve, councilors departing to deal with the cascading crises, Kael found himself standing alone with the three Prismatic masters. Lyrian, who had saved him from dissolution. Marina, who had held his consciousness together when it threatened to fracture. Theron, who had guided him through the darkness of his own fear.
"Thank you," Kael said quietly. "For not letting me disappear."
"We've all stood where you're standing," Lyrian replied gently. "We know how seductive the call of dissolution can be. But Kael?" His golden eyes held infinite compassion and infinite warning. "The fact that we pulled you back once doesn't mean we'll be able to do it again. Next time, the choice to remain yourself will have to come entirely from within. No external intervention, no temporal surgery, no Azure healing nets. Just you, deciding that being Kael Thornwick matters more than becoming infinite energy."
"I understand."
"Do you?" Marina asked softly. "Because it's one thing to understand intellectually and another to understand in the moment when dissolution is singing its sweetest song. In that moment, when every fiber of your being is screaming to let go, will you remember why being human matters?"
Kael thought about his parents, injured but alive. His friends, who had chosen to stand beside him despite not understanding what he was. A village full of people who were suffering because he'd dared to dream of something more than the limitations he'd been born into.
"Yes," he said with quiet certainty. "I'll remember. Because being human means having people worth staying human for."
Theron's rare smile was like shadows parting to reveal unexpected light. "That's the right answer. Hold onto it. In the battles ahead, it might be the only thing keeping you anchored to this world."
As they prepared to escort Kael to his new secured quarters, an Azure message construct materialized beside Master Thorne, a sphere of crystallized water that held compressed information in its molecular structure. He touched it gently, and Kael watched his expression shift from focused to shocked to something approaching horror.
"What is it?" Lyrian demanded.
Thorne looked up, his face pale. "Millhaven isn't the only village being attacked. In the last two hours, seven other settlements across the kingdom have been hit, all of them places where Kael has family connections, however distant. Cousins in Riverside. His mother's childhood home in Thornhold. His father's brother's forge in Ironpeak." He met Kael's eyes. "Whoever is orchestrating this has researched your entire family history and is systematically destroying every location that has even the slightest connection to you."
"That's not possible," Marina breathed. "Coordinating that many simultaneous attacks across such distances would require enormous resources, multiple powerful magic users, and..."
"And political connections high enough to know Kael's complete background," Lyrian finished grimly. "This isn't just Magistrix Seraphina Vex acting alone. This is organized, well-funded, and operating with information that should be confidential."
"The Harmonic Order," one of the councilors who'd remained said quietly. She was an older woman with Obsidian Resonance, her robes marked with the symbols of the Academy's intelligence division. "They've been quiet for years, biding their time, but this bears all their signatures. Coordinated attacks, targeting bloodlines they deem 'impure,' using the chaos to send a political message."
"What message?" Kael asked, though he already knew the answer.
"That Prismatic Resonance is an abomination that threatens everything pure-blood magical families have built over centuries. That allowing you to exist sets a precedent for tolerating other forms of 'contaminated' magic. That the Academy and the kingdom must choose, eliminate the threat you represent, or watch as everything connected to you burns."
The words hung in the air like a death sentence.
"They're trying to make me so toxic that the Academy has no choice but to expel me," Kael realized. "They're systematically destroying any reason I'd have to fight to stay here. Family, friends, home, they're taking everything until all I have left is the option to surrender."
"Or to strike back," Theron said darkly. "Which may be exactly what they want. Give you no choice but to unleash your full power in retaliation, prove their point that you're too dangerous to exist, and justify whatever brutal response they've planned."
"It's a trap within a trap," Marina agreed. "Surrender and you disappear forever. Fight back and you give them the evidence they need to hunt every Prismatic manifestation for generations. There's no winning move."
"Yes, there is." Kael's voice was steady despite the fear coursing through him. "I learn control so perfect that I can help people without giving them ammunition. I master these frequencies so thoroughly that I become undeniable proof that Prismatic Resonance doesn't have to mean chaos and destruction." He looked at each of the three masters in turn. "You did it. You survived the war, mastered your abilities, and became heroes instead of disasters. Teach me to do the same."
Lyrian's expression held both pride and sorrow. "That path nearly killed us, Kael. Multiple times. And even now, decades later, there are days when the call of dissolution is so strong we can barely resist it. Are you really prepared to spend the rest of your life fighting that battle?"
"No," Kael admitted honestly. "But I'm going to do it anyway. Because the alternative is letting them win. And I didn't come this far, survive this much, just to give up now."
The three Prismatic masters exchanged glances, some unspoken communication passing between them. Finally, they nodded in unison.
"Then tomorrow," Lyrian declared, "your real training begins. Not gentle introduction. Not careful theory. Full immersion in the chaos of Prismatic manipulation, with all the danger that entails."
"Tomorrow," Kael agreed.
As they escorted him toward his new secure quarters, through passages that existed between normal space and required Void manipulation to access, Kael felt the seven frequencies inside him settle into an uneasy equilibrium. Not controlled, not mastered, but acknowledged. Seven distinct voices that he was learning to hear separately instead of as one overwhelming chorus.
And underneath them all, that base frequency hummed its eternal song. The call to dissolution, to belonging, to peace.
Someday, Kael knew, that call might be too strong to resist.
But not today.
Today, he would remain Kael Thornwick, frightened, overwhelmed, but determined to prove that being impossibly complicated didn't make him impossibly broken.
Even if that determination killed him, it would be a better death than surrendering to the void.