Age: 12
February 12th, 1259
POV: Baroness Valentine Thalore
Hurry son, you need to finish your mana channels soon or you… no, I can't think about that, he'll survive long enough for me to train his brain.
That process, it will take a couple weeks for me to train his brain in such a way. It's dangerous—unforgivably so—but the only solution to a mind unraveling beneath its own brilliance. Just thinking of all the information going through his head and frying his mind is stomach churning. Everything in a ten meter radius is ridiculous. Thankfully we know what's going on with Kade since Orion bought the advanced information screen, without it we would have no idea what's happening to Kade.
I check his body and see that his mana channels are three fourths of the way complete and just by looking at them from this outside perspective, I can tell they are top class.
It's already been six hours since the actual awakening but thankfully I can use mana to keep sleep at bay for weeks at a time if needed, though the recovery will be a long one since I'm constantly healing my brain.
[2 hours later]
Finally his channels are complete and I can flood his body with my healing magic. My element is water, it's a very versatile element that allows one to specialize as a warrior or healer and still be powerful in that specialization.
Carefully I get a full scan of his body, his brain…. It's practically mush but he's still alive, barely. I give it a huge burst of healing mana and it starts to form again, different from a normal person, once I heal it just enough I finally get a good look at the structure, His neural pathways flickered like constellations in motion, thought and mana interwoven into a storm of light. After I stop healing I watch as his brain deconstructs again, this time slower than before, barely, but I can work with barely.
It takes an hour for his brain to deconstruct to the point I'll allow it. Carefully I heal it again, not fully but enough for it to change, like a muscle getting stronger over time except it's way faster and significantly harder.
This time it takes an hour and fifteen minutes for it to degrade to an almost mush like state, progress. But it will still take about two weeks for it to be strong enough to handle its own trait.
Will he be different when he wakes up? Will he remember the pain and suffering he goes through right now? I doubt it. The amount of mental trauma his brain is going through constantly is enough to fry his memory and erase the pain. Though, I do think he will remember the last day of it since his brain will be significantly stronger and approaching the optimal adaptation level, hopefully it won't traumatize him.
[February 19th]
Days pass, and the first week is over. By now I'm feeling the mental strain from keeping this up for so long but I've also seen major progress in his condition. Now his brain will only start bleeding after multiple hours of information being processed, no longer turning into mush. His brain glows brighter and more vibrant, it looks like a field of stars with all the flashing of his neurons.
The last time I healed him was seven hours ago and it's approaching the time again. I am sure it will be adapted in just another week, I don't know how this will affect him but I pray he's the same child I had.
Nobody has come into the venue save for Orion to bring me food and water. We can't move him to a safer place but this is fine, the whole area around the venue has been closed off through the Elowen family to let me completely focus on Kades healing. His brain has become injured enough for me to heal it again and I apply the technique I've now mastered. It only takes me thirty minutes of concentrated healing to bring it to the ideal state of growth.
[February 22nd]
Days blurred. The healing cycles continued, each round a brutal test of precision. From hourly repairs to half-day reprieves, Kade's brain slowly accepted the weight of its gift. Orion wove a semi-permeable eleven meter barrier with advanced mana control around the room, fine-tuned to allow oxygen flow but filter kinetic spatial data—no wind, no movement, just sterile calm.
[February 23rd]
Just as I predicted after yesterday I had to heal his brain. I know for a fact it will only need one more healing after this and I don't know how long it will take for it to be damaged again. He finally shows changes on his face from the pain but it's not terrible, he'll be fine by the last healing, his brain having adapted.
[February 26th]
It takes three more days for Kades last healing to happen and now we just wait for him to wake up. During this time Cedric had his awakening and is destined to be powerful just like Kade. He awakened the light element, Mythic affinity rank, and a trait called Radiant Reflex: a trait that passively enhances reaction time mental facilities in all light, but the effect weakened slightly in dimmer light.
Quite the awakenings Sunrest has had over two weeks, first Kades and now Cedric. These two boys will be powerful friends that's for sure.
[March 1st]
Three more days pass by and we've moved him to a restoration room in our estate.
Currently myself, Orion, and the Elowen family sit and wait for Kade to wake up. I don't know the exact time he should wake up but from checking his mental facilities he is just sleeping, he should awaken by the end of the day or sooner.
I look to my left into Cedric's eyes. They have changed form their previous hazel color to a rich golden color, safe to say they are beautiful about the same as Kades eyes pre awakening but we don't know if those have changed or not.
[Before Kade's Moving]
I float in a sea of noise — not sound, not really. It's more like the shape of sound. The soft scrape of dust. The swell of breath before it's exhaled. The subtle weight of footsteps pressing into the floorboards. Everything is too clear. Too close. Too much.
The pain comes in waves — not sharp like a blade, but molten, like my mind is being smelted and reforged in a forge I can't escape. Something deep inside me knows this pain was once worse, unspeakably worse. But my memories have burned out around it, blurred into shadows. Maybe my brain shielded me. Maybe it had to.
I can't move. Can't speak. But I can feel everything. The air? Alive. I feel every curve, every motion. The exact shape of my mother's mana wrapping around my body like water through glass. The soft ripple of Cedric's breath. The tension in the floor where someone shifts their weight. Every inch of space within ten meters is alive inside my skull — not with sight, not with sound — but with presence. It's impossible to describe. Like watching a storm from the eye — calm in the center, but with infinite motion all around me.
Then… it stops. A healing wave washes through my mind — familiar, steady. Mother's. The agony recedes, and clarity replaces it. For the first time, the world doesn't drown me. It sings to me. My thoughts sharpen. My perception stabilizes. My mind — no longer melting — begins to see.
Not like eyes see. Not color or shadow. But form, density, pressure, rhythm.
[Kade Awakens – March 1st]
The world within ten meters belongs to me.
Every shift in air, every vibration in the ground, every bead of breath caught in a throat — it's all mine. Not to see, but to understand. The chair behind me is old and slightly tilted. The tea on the table ripples once — someone exhaled. The door stands open by less than half an inch. I know this without opening my eyes. And then I do open them.
Warmth floods my chest — arms around me, soft and trembling. My mother. Her tears fall onto my cheek like rain on stone, but I don't flinch. I know that weight. I felt it before I felt anything else.
"Woah, do you see his eyes? They're such a cool dark purple," Cedric says. My eyes? They changed?
"You're right, Cedric," my mother says, voice raw with exhaustion. "They're deep purple that brightens outward. His pupils even have a violet rift in them."
Violet rift? I focus — not with sight, but with my trait. Instantly, a perfect image of my eyes forms in my mind. The detail is sharp, impossibly so. But when I try to do the same for Cedric — nothing. Static. His shape resists. Strange. Maybe I can only turn that clarity inward. I suppose it would be overpowered otherwise.
It's still strange — seeing people without looking at them. I don't need to turn my head to sense the twitch of Cedric's fingers or the pulse in my mother's wrist. I don't need to ask if someone's lying — I can feel the tension in their posture, the heat in their breath, the density of space twist around them.
"How long was I unconscious?" I ask, my voice hoarse.
My mother exhales slowly, then replies, "Seventeen days. You awakened the Space element, a Mythic-rank affinity, and a trait called Spatial Visionary — which lets you feel everything in a ten-meter radius. But it nearly killed you. Your brain couldn't handle it. It took me sixteen days to adapt you to the trait. I don't know the long-term effects. That's for you to discover."
Seventeen days. So I missed Cedric's awakening. I turn toward him — or rather, let my awareness settle on him.
"What about you?"
He grins, trying to hold back his pride. "Light element. Mythic affinity. And my trait? Radiant Reflex. Boosts my reaction speed and processing power in light. The brighter it is, the faster I am."
Typical Cedric — grinning like he beat me at something. But instead of bitterness, I feel relief. I don't want to leave him behind. We're still equal. We're still us.
I pause.
There's a memory at the edge of my mind — not quite clear. Like watching someone else through fog. The pain, the silence, the burning. It doesn't feel like mine, not really. Maybe that's for the best.
"Well," my mother says, standing, "your post-awakening training begins in a week. Time to prepare for the academy entrance exams."
Right. The academy. Magic. Real spells. Real power.
I'm different now. Stronger. But how strong? I guess I'll find out.