As we entered the main room, the place quieted down. Everywhere I looked, people stared at me. Probably wondering what I had done to warrant an escort by these two. Bert, for his part, was off to the side, watching as we passed by.

  I didn’t have to see him to know that he would be following us to wherever we were going. If not because I was in any trouble, then for the simple fact that we were finally going to get to the bottom of whether I had a power or not.

  The room itself seemed to narrow as we approached one of the halls. While at first I thought this was because I was passing out or something, I quickly realized that wasn’t the case. Not only was I not feeling lightheaded in the slightest, nor was I having any issues breathing, but when I had passed out in the past, the world visually shrinking in on me was not one of the symptoms that appeared. Now, if spots started to appear and dance around, then I would have to worry.

  Which left either magic or the building's architecture. Neither of which I could reason away. After all, while I could feel the magic as it ran over my skin or boiled in the air, there was quite a bit that I couldn’t feel.

  The walls went from a dark, yet warm, wood, to a stark white material. Not a stone, nor was it metal, but something else. A harsh cough made me realize I had stopped to try and examine a piece of the wall. With a grimace, I jumped to catch up to my advisor.

  No one said anything as we continued down the various halls and turns. At that point, I was utterly confused as to which direction the entrance was, let alone how to get out of this place. It was almost like this place was a maze or something.

  Finally, we stopped at a massive door set into the wall. Professor Ulrick lifted a hand and knocked upon the metallic surface. Dull booms reverberated through the door and into the room beyond.

  They continued to reverberate even after he stopped. As the noise started to fade, another replaced it. Gears clinked and ground against each other as the doors were forced open by some mechanism. What they revealed on the other side was underwhelming.

  Inside the room, a trio of men and women moved around the place as they did something. One of them stepped out of the flow and made their way to us as another broke off to a wall of cylinders.

  “Welcome, Professor Ulrick.” She gave the professor a light bow. “Security Chief Quinn.” For the woman behind me, she gave her a nod. “Eli.” For me, she barely gave me more than a glance. “Professor, chief, please take a step to the side as my companions get the last of the setup completed. Eli, with me.”

  What was with people ordering me around like I was beneath them? Surely they could be a little nicer to me. At least until they decide if I am worth their time or not. But what did I know? It’s not like I have ever dealt with customers before.

  Still, I followed the woman into the room. We wove our way around a bunch of cables and consoles until we reached an arch. The outer part looked solid, but the inner section had various breaks and lines that cut across the metal.

  “Stand in here and whatever you do, do not leave this spot until we tell you to.”

  “Why? What would happen?” She ignored my question. I was getting sick of people ignoring me. Without a word, she moved toward a wall dotted with odd circles with handles. With a twist and pull, one of the circles pulled free to reveal a clear cylinder. Inside of which, a massive crystal sat suspended inside.

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  Cylinder in hand, she walked a dozen feet and pushed it into a console. With another twist, light rushed down the various cables. Racing toward the other consoles before making a break toward me.

  Not knowing what to do, I took a step away from the encroaching lights just as they reached the arch. It whirred and buzzed to life as sections folded down and out. As it changed from an arch to a prison of metal and light. Then the mana ever-present in the air did something it had never done before. It froze.

  To me, the mana in the air was like the dust in a sunbeam. Always there and moving, but not really affecting anything. But, for the first time, it hung there, suspended.

  Then the various parts of the pillar shot light at me. Only, I had assumed it was light as I could feel no mana emanating from it. Oh boy was I wrong. So fucking wrong.

  Each beam of light was mana that was so densely packed that it became physical. So condensed and controlled that none of it escaped. It went exactly where it was pointed and nowhere else. And right now it was pointed at yours truly.

  I am not ashamed to say I screamed. My body — no, my soul — felt like it was being burned away. Like the mana was trying to dig as it tried to get to the center of my ooey goodness. But, unlike a certain candy, it wouldn’t take a hard bite to break through my flesh.

  Then, as if the machine had simply been warming up, the pain got worse. Something dug into my chest. It felt as though something was ripping a piece of my heart out, and there was nothing I could do about it.

  I wanted to run. To get out of here. Fuck finding out what power I had. The academy could fuck off if it thought that I would take this kind of pain.

  Then it stopped. The world went dark as the humming reduced to nearly nothing. Befudled as to what was going on, I stood there, unmoving. Something told me I should be moving. Getting away from this machine. But I couldn’t. To move was to invite pain. To move was to let them know I had survived their torture. I had to stay still.

  A tendril of some kind reached out and brushed against my brain. With it came the feeling of curiosity and a tentative question. Nothing tangible or even something I could really explain. I just knew what it wanted. Too bad I had no way to answer it.

  Something shook me as my name rang in my ears. “Eli! Eli! Come back to us! Eli! What the fuck did you do to him Betty?” I recognized the voices, but for some reason I couldn’t place who it was that was speaking.

  “Just a normal test.”

  “That was no normal test.”

  “By magic. Someone overrode our settings.”

  “What do you mean they overrode your settings?” The man growled.

  “I checked over all the settings just as the test started, yet what I am now seeing is completely different.”

  “What settings?”

  “All of the emitters and sensors were cranked to maximum.”

  “Fucking hell.” Someone yelled. “I told you to test the kid, not try and kill him.” Ah, so this is what death feels like. I wonder how long I have to wait here before I can move on. Or at least until I can get some peace and quiet.

  “What is his power?” A calm voice cut the panicked voices off.

  “That information is…” the voice cut off with a squeak. “Temporarily classified.”

  “And even if it wasn’t, you are not legally allowed to know without the student’s permission.”

  “And yet that student is required to release that information if he is to have his drone back.”

  Okay, I couldn’t handle all of this noise. With the most effort I could muster, I tried to lift my hand in an effort flip the lot of them off. Based on the reaction, I didn’t succeed.

  “Did his hand just twitch?”

  “He couldn’t be awake, could he?”

  “After that much mana flooded his body?” Someone scoffed. “There is no way. He is lucky to even be alive.”

  As though the movement was the trigger, everything rushed over me. Pain assaulted me as what had happened came back. While I tried to say, “Fucking son of a bitch,” it came out more like “kng so of a itch.”

  “Oh, fuck, he is awake.” One of the technicians called. “Quick, Betty, grab me the emergency kit.”

  “Which emergency kit?” She called from somewhere on the other side of the room.

  “The green one.” He yelled back. She let out a grunt as she pulled at something. A moment later, a pile of metal crashed to the floor, filling the place with a cacophony of noise.

  “Here.” She said as I heard something getting unzipped. Within moments, a series of tacky things stuck to various parts of my chest and head.

  “My god.” The man cursed. “His body is all over the place. His mana is nearly depleted. His blood sugar is bottoming out, yet his muscles are practically vibrating.” They were? Why could I feel it? “And his heart rate is dropping.”

  “Fuck. Quinn.” The professor yelled. “Go get Leah.” She must have hesitated as he added, “NOW!’