A sudden surge of power crashed through Orion's tiny body, raw and unrestrained. His vision flooded with light, gold spilling through the darkness like liquid fire. His pupils burned, molten and alive, until his entire gaze shimmered with an ethereal brilliance.
Holding him, Marn froze.
Her lips parted slightly, the half-formed words dying on her tongue. Her eyes met his, and the world seemed to stop. The faint creak of the wooden floor. The hum of the wind outside. Even her heartbeat.
Everything fell silent.
She wasn't even afraid. She couldn't be. It was as if time itself had caught her in its grasp, holding her suspended within his gaze.
Orion watched her, fascinated. His golden reflection danced in her pupils, and he felt it - the pull, the connection. Power coursed through him like a second pulse, and his will pressed outward, heavy and absolute.
'So this… is what it means to dominate,' he thought.
It was intoxicating. He didn't need to lift a hand, didn't need to move a muscle. All it took was his gaze, his will, and she bent beneath it. He felt her mind falter under the weight of his command, her presence shrinking until it was entirely within his grasp.
But that power came at a cost. His chest tightened painfully, and his vision began to swim. He could feel his Ether draining, drawn into his eyes like air rushing through a crack in glass. In seconds, half of it was gone.
'Damn it, this drain…'
Still, he pushed through, his determination steady. The control, the sheer sense of command - it was unlike anything he'd ever felt. Not even in his past life had he wielded such effortless authority.
He didn't have long.
The glow in his eyes pulsed once more, and in his small, high-pitched voice, he forced out a single word.
"Forget."
The sound came out fragile and childlike, yet it carried something beyond sound - intent. His will wrapped around the word, binding it with the last flickers of Ether he could muster.
For a moment, nothing happened. Marn remained still, her wide eyes unblinking, her body unmoving.
'Did it fail?' Panic prickled at the edge of his mind.
Then, she blinked.
A shuddering breath escaped her lips, followed by a tremor that rippled through her frame. Her brow furrowed as confusion took hold, and she pressed a hand to her chest, beads of cold sweat trailing down her temple.
"What was I… doing?" she murmured, glancing down at Orion, who lay perfectly still in her arms. "Did you want… some fresh air, Orion?"
Orion's lips twitched into a tiny, satisfied smile.
'It worked.'
He let out a baby-like grunt, nodding clumsily, the motion almost comical. Marn chuckled softly, her nerves dissolving.
"It's too cold and dark right now," she said, shaking her head. "I'll take you around the courtyard tomorrow. For now, it's back to sleep."
She carried him back toward his cot, humming lightly as if nothing had happened. The faint light from the oil lamp flickered across the room, illuminating the mess of faintly glowing residue left where his Ether had surged.
Her brow creased. "What in the world is all this…?" she muttered, frowning at the strange gunk and faint scorch marks near the cot. But before she could investigate further, soft footsteps echoed from the adjoining room.
Selene.
Orion's mother appeared at the doorway, her long pale hair loose around her shoulders. Her movements were sluggish, unsteady, as if each step cost her more than she could afford.
"Marn?" she asked weakly, voice barely above a whisper.
Marn spun around. "I'm so sorry, my lady! I didn't mean to wake you-"
But Selene smiled faintly, the gesture fragile yet warm. "It wasn't you," she said softly, though her tired eyes said otherwise. "Bring him here, he can sleep with me tonight."
Marn nodded quickly, relief flooding her face. "Of course, my lady. I'll clean up his cot tomorrow."
She handed Orion over gently. Selene gathered him in her arms, her touch light as snow, her skin cold but her presence radiating comfort. She lay back on the small bed, cradling him close.
Her breathing was shallow, weak. Her heartbeat, faint. Orion could feel it against his cheek - a fragile rhythm, one that trembled with exhaustion.
It made him… uneasy.
Not because of pity. He wasn't used to emotions like that. It was something else - an unfamiliar, unwelcome tug in his chest.
He forced the thought aside, focusing instead on the lingering warmth in his eyes.
'I can control people once I make eye contact,' he reasoned silently. 'Only when I infuse Ether into my eyes. But one use drained me dry, so that's my limit for now.'
He analysed the experience, methodical even in this new body. 'It's not absolute control. More like influence, suggestion. Mental Dominion - that's what I'll call it. Depending on the target's willpower and what I try to make them do, the effort needed would likely change.'
His tiny hands clenched against the fabric of his mother's robe. The possibilities stirred something electric inside him.
'There's more, too. My eyes aren't just for domination. They see Ether and can even interact with it. They're attuned to it somehow. I can draw it in, feed it into my core.'
The thought filled him with an excitement so intense it almost startled him. In his old life, nothing had ever come close to this feeling - not medicine, not killing, not even survival.
'Controlling Ether feels like discovering a new limb I never knew I had. A whole new world to dissect and master.'
His heart pounded with exhilaration, but the exhaustion hit a second later - heavy and merciless. The power he'd wielded had stripped him bare. His eyelids drooped, and the world around him blurred into warmth and shadow.
As sleep claimed him, his last conscious thought flickered through his fading mind.
'The Eyes of Dominion… I'll master them. No matter what it takes.'
Then, in the faint glow of moonlight spilling through the shutters, the child who had just bent another's will drifted off peacefully in his mother's arms...