EQUINOX || The Catalysts Series, #3

XI

"I believe you were a Clairvoyant."

It's a statement; not a question.

Lena's heart races at the sudden interruption, but she tells herself it's all right. It will be fine. This is expected—she has been waiting for this.

It just never occurred to her that it will be Viktas' voice floating through the system now, speaking to her.

"Yes," she answers, not as boldly and as confident as she'd liked, but still.

"So what is this?"

"It's a variation of my abilities I've discovered," Lena recites. "I see things through glass surfaces... but I recently discovered that I can transverse through them, using them as a medium."

Silence on the other end. Lena's previous reply's echoes are the only accompaniment in this cold, empty room.

It's the final day of the trials. She's gotten this far; she'll just have to get through this last day. Only then she will once again feel safe without the authorities roaming their academy grounds.

Today, she has two matching wireless electrodes over her head, connected to the detector flying over her that reports her every status.

The last stage of the trials is just another individual-based test. After this, her ability class and whatever rankings will be determined. It's also pre-made for every individual, based on their own unique abilities.

Which is why Lena is standing surrounded by glass panes today. Five prism-shaped glass builds encase her in a pentagram, and the white of the artificial light shines over her from the opening at the top. Over the last 10 minutes, they have been reading the signals from her brain as her eyes take in the visions formed on the five-sided glass surface. That's all she's been doing—passively allowing her abilities to take shape—while the technology take in the data and compute whatever the government wants to read or tabulate.

And because of the random images and swirling visions from every angle, Lena is beginning to have a migraine.

But when the automaton hovering over her flashed a signal earlier, a woman's voice over the comms system told her to activate her abilities.

So she did.

A clairvoyant isn't supposed to be able to alter their visions; the occurrences just come to them, giving them foresight. So if Lena triggers the activation of her abilities like how she did before in previous stages—willing the visions to show something she wants or a time and place she desires—it's going to raise questions about her fundamental abilities.

She may have passed the previous stages by doing so before, but she can't do that now. This is a highly monitored individual-based final test, and she knows the authorities are watching behind mere technology.

And hence the only way she can display activating her abilities is through the trick Caelus and her agreed on: her phasing through glass surfaces.

She's allowed herself to display the barest of minimum, phasing from one prism to the next.

Which brings Viktas' question as they speak.

"It does say in the registry that her abilities include being able to phase through glass mediums," a voice says, rather softly over the communications, and Lena believes they are discussing about her.

She pretends not to hear anything as another replies, "Yes, it matches with the records of Arcane Academy."

Lena paces as she waits out the void over the other end.

It'll be exactly as Caelus predicted: They learn about the development in her abilities. They are keen about it, more so about the fact of ability development than what she can actually do. They will match it with the records Arcana had falsified. And then they will let her go.