When Aren wakes, the rain has stopped. The crater is gone.
But his skin burns faintly with light, and his heart beats to a rhythm that isn't human.
He stumbles home, dazed, his right eye shimmering faintly gold.
Everywhere he looks, he sees threads — flowing lines of energy connecting machines, walls, even the air itself.
He hides it from his mother.
From everyone.
But Lira sees anyway.
That night, she touches his cheek and whispers, "Whatever you've become, don't let them see it. Promise me."
He nods, though his reflection in the window looks back with starlit eyes.
---