"Is this why you kept the true nature of your power hidden from us?" Selena asked, breaking the silence that had settled over the training chamber.
Hearing her question, Adrian turned toward her. She was watching him with an expression he could not quite read, while Lysandra stood beside her without speaking. Near the cultivation platform, Hestia and Lara remained beside the unconscious disciple. All four were waiting for his answer.
Selena had known Adrian since he was a boy on Earth, when everyone believed that he had awakened Echo. She had accepted that explanation herself, even as he began doing things that left far more experienced cultivators struggling to understand him. But after they entered the wider Milky Way and gained access to its records, the differences became harder to ignore. What Adrian wielded did not match what those records described, and calling every new ability another use of Echo no longer explained what she was seeing.
She was not the only one who had noticed. Others close to him had reached similar conclusions, yet none had pressed him to reveal what he was keeping private. Adrian had given them enough reasons to trust him, and they believed he must have a reason for his silence as well. Today, after watching his power suppress something that might have belonged to the Heavenly Order, Selena felt that she could finally understand that reason. How could he have explained a power like this to them when they had barely been able to believe what happened before their own eyes?
Adrian looked at her for another moment before letting out a quiet sigh. "Yes. The true nature of my power is a mystery even for me. I just did not want to give all of you something to worry about when I could not even explain it properly myself."
Hestia shook her head, her pale-golden eyes remaining upon him. "We trust you, Adrian. You do not need to explain anything you are not ready to share. But remember that we are your family. You do not have to carry every worry by yourself."
For a moment, Adrian did not know what to say. He looked from Hestia to the others, but no one added another question or urged him to continue. They simply waited, leaving the choice with him, just as they had done through all the years in which he had avoided naming the power they saw him use.
He had become so used to keeping it hidden that he rarely considered what it would feel like to speak about it openly. Even now, he could leave the conversation where it was, and they would accept his decision. But after everything they had witnessed, and after hearing Hestia speak, he found that he no longer wanted to do that.
"When I awakened on Earth, everyone believed my affinity was Echo," Adrian said. "But I learned from its Will that my power was Source, the origin of everything."
The chamber fell silent. The eyes watching him widened, and for several moments, none of them seemed able to form a reply. They had expected an answer beyond their knowledge, but even those expectations had stopped far short of what Adrian had just told them.
They had been trying to imagine a power, so strong enough to stand above the book that had appeared before them. Yet no one here had considered that the origin of everything could itself be a concept, much less something a person could awaken and wield. They had never heard of such a power or even thought to look for it.
The concepts they cultivated, the space surrounding them, and the laws they had spent their lives trying to understand would all fall within what he had described. Every explanation they had considered seemed too small now. They looked at the familiar figure before them, trying to understand how a power like that could belong to someone they knew so well.
Selena's gaze lowered briefly to the white-grey essence around his hand before returning to his face. "So that is why you chose the name Origin."
Beside her, Lysandra looked up at those words. The name had followed Adrian through everything they had built in the Milky Way and beyond it, while both women had spent years working with the ink that carried the same name. They had studied its effects, learned how to use it, and built things that would have been impossible with ordinary mana ink. Still, neither of them had ever understood what allowed Adrian to create it in the first place.
Now those familiar details began fitting together. Adrian's white-grey power had repeatedly overcome the limits they expected him to face, and even Time had submitted to it. If what he wielded was the origin of the concepts themselves, those things finally began to make sense.
"Yes," Adrian replied. "That is why I used the name. But knowing what the Source is called does not mean I understand everything about it."
The white-grey essence still covered his skin, although the Will that had emerged through it was quiet again. It had answered the book without waiting for him to understand what was happening, then withdrawn without explaining any of it.
"Its Will let me know that it was the origin of everything, but it did not explain where it came from, why I could awaken it, or how something like that could exist within me," he continued. "I have learned how to use more of its power over the years, but those questions are still there."
His gaze moved toward the empty space above the platform. "For a time, I even wondered whether the Source came from the Heavenly Order. Something must have created the rules we cultivate, and I thought learning about it might help me understand where my own power came from."
The others followed his glance. Only a short while earlier, a book had appeared in that space and changed something it called existential records, freeing Adrian's people from a trial that countless cultivators had been forced to face. They had all heard it grant permission after the presence within Adrian reached toward it.
"After seeing that book yield to it, I no longer think so," Adrian said. "If the book belongs to the Heavenly Order, then the Source stands above it. But that still leaves things I cannot understand. I use mana to draw on its power, just as I use mana to cast a spell."
"If the Source is the origin of everything, mana should come from it as well, right?" he continued. "So why do I need mana to use it? How do those things fit together? I have wondered about that for a long time, and I still do not have an answer."
No one tried to offer one. They were still coming to terms with the fact that such a concept existed, while Adrian had already spent years living with questions they had only just begun to understand.
"That is part of why I kept it to myself," Adrian said. "I could tell you what it was, but I could not tell you what having it might mean for me, or for any of you. I thought you all would worry, and I would not have answers to your questions. So I kept using it, kept trying to learn more, and never told you about it."
Hestia watched him as the white-grey essence began fading from his hand. If she had carried such an unknown power, she would have worried about what might happen if knowledge of it spread. Adrian had always been careful when his choices could affect the people around him, and Hestia could understand him keeping this secret.
She walked over to him and rested a hand on his arm. "I understand why you kept it private," she said. "I am glad you told us."
Adrian met her eyes, and she held his gaze for a moment before turning toward the others. "For now, everything that happened in this chamber stays between us. His power, the book, and what we saw it do. We can decide together if that needs to change."
Selena nodded, and Lysandra agreed beside her. Lara gave the same quiet acknowledgment from the platform. There were no arguments or requests to make an exception, and Hestia did not need to explain the decision further. The same care with which they had protected Adrian's other secrets would apply to what he had shared today.
"All right," Adrian said. He glanced at the others, then back at Hestia. "Thank you."
Her hand gave his arm a brief squeeze before she let go. Beside the platform, Lara lowered her gaze to the disciple and checked his breathing again. He had not stirred during their conversation, and the faint traces of golden mana around him remained steady.
"I will take him somewhere he can rest," she said, sliding an arm beneath his shoulders. "He will probably have questions when he wakes."
"Tell him he completed his comprehension," Adrian replied. "He does not need to start cultivating again the moment he opens his eyes. Let him recover first."
Lara nodded and carefully lifted the disciple from the platform. Hestia stepped aside to give her room, and the chamber doors opened as she approached them.
"We should get back to Mira," Lysandra said. She glanced toward Selena, who was already taking out her Origin Net node. "She is still overseeing the artifact line."
"Do you need anything else before we go?" Selena asked Adrian.
He shook his head. "No. I have kept both of you here long enough."
"You can come and help us later if you feel bad about it," Selena replied, putting the node away. "There is always work waiting for you."
"Ahem…" Adrian cleared his throat and straightened slightly. "Actually, I just remembered something else I need to take care of. You two go ahead. I will join you later."
Selena gave him a familiar look, and Lysandra smiled as they turned toward the doors. Their conversation returned to the artifact line while they walked, and Selena was still saying something to her when they passed out of the chamber. The doors closed behind them, leaving Adrian and Hestia beside the empty platform.
Adrian remained looking toward the entrance. They had questions; he had seen enough in their expressions to know that. Yet Lara had taken care of the disciple, Lysandra had remembered their work, and Selena had found a chance to hand more of it to him. They had heard the truth about his power and still spoken to him with the same ease they always had.
Hestia moved beside him, close enough for her shoulder to touch his arm. "What are you thinking about?" she asked.
"I thought all of you might treat me differently after learning about my power," Adrian admitted. A small smile appeared as he turned toward her. "I did not expect Selena to ask me to work right away."
"You should know her better than that by now," Hestia replied, and he laughed quietly.
Adrian reached for her hand as they began walking toward the doors. After finally sharing the secret he had carried since Earth, he had not expected to feel this much at ease.