Training didn't start with instructions.
It started with silence.
Arjun made Eli sit with him on the overpass just before dawn, when the city was at its quietest. Fires had burned low overnight, leaving only embers and smoke that clung to the air like guilt. The territory beneath them slept fitfully, a collective tension Arjun felt as a low hum along his spine.
Eli sat cross-legged on cracked concrete, hands clasped tightly in his lap. He hadn't slept. Arjun could feel it—the jittery edge, the nervous anticipation, the way his awareness kept brushing the Conduit field like a tongue worrying a sore tooth.
Nyxara stood a short distance away, wings folded, eyes half-lidded. Watching. Always watching.
"Before we do anything," Arjun said quietly, "you need to understand something."
Eli nodded too fast. "Okay."
"You don't take power," Arjun continued. "You don't pull. You don't grab."
Eli swallowed. "It felt like it was leaking. Like if I didn't catch it—"
"That's the lie," Nyxara interrupted coolly. "Power always feels wasted to the untrained."
Eli flinched but didn't argue.
Arjun exhaled slowly. "What you felt wasn't excess. It was flow. You intercepted it."
Eli looked down. "I didn't mean to steal."
"I know," Arjun said. "Intent matters. Outcome matters more."
The phone vibrated softly in Arjun's hand.
SUPERVISED NODE: INITIALIZATION POSSIBLE
WARNING: IMPROPER GUIDANCE MAY RESULT IN CASCADE FAILURE
Nyxara smiled thinly. "Charming."
Arjun ignored her and focused inward.
The Conduit field unfolded in his perception—not as a web this time, but as a layered system of currents and resistances. The territory was no longer a single mass pressing against him; it was a series of pathways, some smooth, some turbulent, some fragile enough to collapse if mishandled.
Eli's presence registered as a raw node—sensitive, receptive, unshielded.
"Close your eyes," Arjun said.
Eli obeyed.
"Don't reach," Arjun continued. "Just listen."
Eli's breathing slowed, though tension still coiled in his shoulders.
Arjun extended a controlled strand of the Conduit toward him—not power, not relief, but structure. A boundary.
Eli gasped softly.
"What do you feel?" Arjun asked.
"Pressure," Eli said. "But… organized. Like lanes."
Nyxara's eyes narrowed slightly. He's adapting faster than expected.
"Good," Arjun said. "Now imagine yourself standing in a river."
Eli frowned. "A river?"
"Yes," Arjun said. "You don't stop it. You don't divert it. You don't drink the whole thing."
Eli's lips twitched despite himself. "That would be bad."
"You let it pass," Arjun said. "And if you need water, you cup your hands. You don't dam the flow."
The Conduit responded—subtly but decisively. Eli's node stabilized, the frantic pull easing into something quieter.
The phone chimed.
SUPERVISED INTERACTION: STABLE (LOW LOAD)
NODE ADAPTABILITY: ABOVE AVERAGE
Eli opened his eyes, amazement flickering across his face. "It's quieter."
"Yes," Arjun said. "Because you stopped shouting at it."
Nyxara turned away slightly, hiding her expression.
Word spread faster than Arjun wanted.
It always did.
By midday, people were watching the overpass again—not openly, not intrusively, but with the same subtle attention Arjun had learned to recognize as interest turning into expectation.
Marcus noticed it too.
"You're becoming a school," he said quietly as they walked the perimeter.
Arjun winced. "That's not the plan."
"Plans don't matter," Marcus replied. "Patterns do."
They passed two patrol members arguing in low voices. The argument cut off the moment Arjun approached, both men straightening too quickly.
That bothered him more than if they'd kept fighting.
Nyxara leaned in close. "You feel it, don't you?"
"Yes," Arjun said. "Something's shifting."
"Power doesn't spread evenly," she said. "It pools."
The phone vibrated.
SOCIAL GRAVITY: INCREASING
SECONDARY NODES: FORMING (UNREGISTERED)
Arjun stopped walking.
"What does forming mean?" he asked.
Nyxara's gaze hardened. "It means Eli isn't the only one who felt the door open."
The second node didn't announce itself.
She didn't collapse. Didn't panic. Didn't pull.
She watched.
Arjun noticed her because she didn't look at him when he passed. Everyone else did—fear, awe, resentment, curiosity. She kept her gaze on the ground, posture relaxed, breathing steady.
Too steady.
That night, Arjun felt the Conduit field bend around her—not drain, not surge. Curve.
He stopped mid-step.
Nyxara felt it too.
"There," she said softly. "That one."
They approached without haste.
The woman was sitting alone near a fire, sharpening a knife with slow, precise strokes. Mid-thirties. Lean. Scar on her left cheek that hadn't healed properly. Eyes sharp, assessing without being obvious.
She looked up as they stopped in front of her.
"You're going to ask," she said calmly, "so let's skip the pretending."
Nyxara smiled dangerously. "By all means."
"You feel it too," the woman continued, eyes flicking briefly to Arjun. "The current."
Arjun's jaw tightened. "How long?"
She shrugged. "Since yesterday. Maybe earlier. Hard to say when you don't have words for it."
The phone buzzed.
UNREGISTERED NODE: CONFIRMED
CONTROL LEVEL: UNKNOWN
Nyxara's wings shifted slightly. "You didn't pull."
The woman shook her head. "Didn't need to."
That was worse.
"Name," Arjun said.
"Mara," she replied. "And before you ask—no, I'm not interested in draining anything. I just wanted to understand the shape of it."
Nyxara laughed softly. "Curiosity is rarely innocent."
Mara met her gaze without flinching. "Neither is fear."
Arjun stepped in before the exchange escalated.
"You should have come to me," he said.
"Yes," Mara agreed. "But I wanted to see what kind of man you were first."
"And?" Arjun asked.
Mara smiled faintly. "Careful. That's dangerous."
Nyxara's eyes gleamed. Oh, I don't like you.
The phone chimed again.
NODE DIVERGENCE DETECTED
RISK: COMPETING INFLUENCE (LOW → MODERATE)
Arjun felt it then—the truth settling like a weight in his chest.
Eli was a conduit.
Mara was something else.
A focus.
"You're not pulling," Arjun said slowly. "You're anchoring yourself."
Mara inclined her head. "If that's the word for it."
Nyxara turned sharply toward Arjun. "This is what I warned you about."
"I know," he said quietly.
He looked back at Mara. "You need oversight."
Mara raised an eyebrow. "Do I?"
"Yes," Arjun said. "Or you leave."
Silence stretched.
Mara studied him for a long moment, then stood, sheathing her knife.
"Fine," she said. "I'll play by your rules."
Nyxara's smile was all teeth. "Good. Because I don't."
That night, the territory felt different.
Heavier.
Not unstable—directional.
Arjun sat alone again on the overpass, Eli a short distance away, practicing controlled listening under Nyxara's watchful gaze. Mara remained below, surrounded by a small cluster of people who hadn't even realized they'd gravitated toward her.
That was the problem.
The phone vibrated softly.
NETWORK STATUS: MULTI-NODAL (EMERGENT)
WARNING: CENTER-OF-GRAVITY CONFLICT POSSIBLE
Arjun leaned back, staring at the fractured sky.
He'd wanted to share the burden.
Instead, he'd created centers.
Nyxara joined him, voice low. "You see it now."
"Yes," Arjun said. "Power doesn't just flow."
"It organizes," she agreed.
"And if I clamp down?" he asked.
"Then you become Dominion," she said simply.
Arjun closed his eyes.
He could already feel the future branching—paths tightening, choices sharpening.
"I won't cage them," he said.
Nyxara smiled slowly. "Then you'll need to outgrow them."
Below them, the territory slept.
Above them, something ancient watched with renewed interest.
Because power that spreads is dangerous.
But power that begins to organize itself?
That's how wars start.