Adrian was left alone in the alley after Max teleported away and Eric walked off into the dark. For a moment he just stood there, silent as a statue, the cold air sliding past him in slow, quiet gusts. Today had been eventful, to put it mildly.
He'd woken up that morning in his usual bad mood, bracing himself for another lame, uneventful day like every one before it. Instead, his Aura had awakened. He'd met more strange new people in a single afternoon than he had in years, brushed up against powers and abilities he still didn't have names for, and discovered an entire dimension folded quietly beneath the one he'd grown up in.
He'd taken his first real step toward becoming something stronger. A herald of justice, maybe, someday. He could barely wait to dig into the history and the power system behind all of it.
His eyes drifted down to the stack of books at his feet, the ones he'd been hauling around all day without a break. Heavy didn't begin to cover it, but the excitement still buzzing under his skin had been more than enough to carry him this far.
Then, a new worry crept in.
What if he ran into someone he knew on the way home? What would he even say if they asked about the books? Worse, what if someone tried to steal them off him? A dozen small, unnecessary anxieties spun up out of nowhere, the way they always did once his mind had a spare second to wander.
He set the books down and shrugged his backpack off, unzipping it and starting to stuff in as many as would fit. Each one was easily a thousand pages thick, and now that he actually stopped to count, there were seven of them in total.
He hadn't really looked closely at them until now, not with everything else going on, but he noticed it properly this time: all seven were old, worn at the edges, bound in black-and-red covers, each stamped with a different symbol he couldn't place. Across the top of every cover ran a line of script in some language he'd only encountered once before today, ancient Lumenian, the same language his Aura's description had appeared in inside his own mind. He'd been able to read it then, effortlessly, like it was something he'd always known.
Now the letters just sat there, silent and meaningless.
He shook the thought off and kept pushing books into the bag. Three went in easily enough, then a fourth. The fifth barely squeezed past the zipper. After that, there was no room left at all, so he resigned himself to carrying the last two by hand.
I really wish Max or Eric had just teleported these home for me, he thought, a little wistfully, already feeling the ache building in his forearms.
He knew better, though. Meditation Aura only let a user teleport to places they'd actually been to before or at least knew well enough to picture clearly. His bedroom wasn't exactly on that list for either of them.
With a small sigh, Adrian pushed himself up, grabbed the last two books under one arm, and started walking. The weight of it all pressed down on his shoulders and dug into his hands, and if this had happened to him a few weeks ago, before any of this, he'd have been red-faced and wheezing within the first block. But his body wasn't the same anymore. Something in him had shifted the moment he'd connected to the Layer of Natural Aura, and the walk home, heavy books and all, felt almost easy now.
After walking for a few minutes, Adrian glanced down at the charm on his finger, the plain black ring resting there almost weightlessly despite everything he already knew it could do. He turned it slightly with his thumb, wondering just how much use he'd actually get out of it once he understood it properly. His mind wandered from there, drifting toward the premonitions Eric had mentioned earlier, and toward the sheer mountain of information he'd absorbed in a single day. Thanks to his world of consciousness and subconsciousness, none of it felt like it was slipping away the way information usually did. He could reach back and pull any piece of it forward the instant he needed it, clean and whole, as it had always been sitting there waiting for him.
He was still turning that thought over, half-lost in it, when the feeling hit him.
It came from nowhere, a sudden, icy prickle crawling up the back of his neck and down his spine all at once, sharp enough that his breath caught in his throat. Every hair along his arms and the back of his neck stood on end in the same instant, and beneath all of it, something deeper than thought, something wordless and immediate, screamed at his body to move. Right. Now.
He didn't decide to step to the right. His body simply did it, faster than his mind could catch up, muscles firing before a single coherent thought had formed behind them.
A heartbeat later, something white and wet splattered onto the pavement exactly where his foot had been standing a half-second earlier.
Adrian stood frozen, staring down at the small, glistening mess on the ground, his heart still hammering hard against his ribs from a threat that had, in the end, amounted to nothing more than a bird's dropping. He didn't move for a long, stunned moment, the adrenaline still coursing hot and confused through his veins with nowhere left to go.
Then it clicked.
That was a premonition.
Excitement chased the leftover fear out of his chest almost instantly, a grin tugging helplessly at the corner of his mouth even as his pulse was still settling. He remembered what Eric had told him, about premonitions and how wildly they could vary. Some were fast and fleeting, gone in an instant. Others lingered, heavy and undeniable, impossible to ignore. Every pathway carried its own particular flavor of it too, triggered by different situations, shaped by whatever domain that pathway held authority over.
He was the Apocalypse pathway. His own premonitions, he now understood firsthand, warned him specifically about unlucky, harmful events heading his way. At Nova rank, the weakest rank there was, the odds of a premonition actually triggering were slim at best. Slightly better than most other pathways at the same rank, maybe, since Apocalypse also carried some quiet authority over probability and possibility itself, but still rare enough that this had genuinely caught him off guard.
And weak, too. This kind of premonition only had the strength to flag small, minor dangers, nothing more. If someone far above his current rank had actually meant him harm, it likely wouldn't have triggered at all. It might not have even been able to, not against someone strong enough to simply suppress it outright, especially another Apocalypse pathway user with enough rank behind them.
There was one exception across every pathway, he recalled, one shared premonition every Aura user carried regardless of their path: a raw, universal sense for danger. Even that, though, came with its own quirks and variations depending on the user.
The world of Aura really is complicated, Adrian thought, shaking his head slightly, the grin still tugging at his mouth. But that's exactly why it's going to be so much fun figuring all of it out.
He turned back toward home and kept walking, and thankfully, the rest of the walk passed without any more surprise run-ins with bird droppings or anything else.
An hour later, he finally reached his street. The sky had long since gone fully dark, night settling heavy and complete over the city, the moon hanging pale and quiet overhead, washing everything in a faint, silvery-blue light. Adrian was tired now, properly tired, sweat clinging to the back of his shirt, his arms aching from the weight of the books he'd carried the whole way. All he wanted in the world at that moment was to drop the books on his desk and get into a hot shower.
He climbed the last few steps to his front door, reaching out toward the handle, already half-lost in thoughts of hot water and clean clothes.
Then, from somewhere just to his right, a voice cut through the quiet, low and eerily familiar.
"You are finally here."
His heart pounded fast, hard enough that he felt it in his throat, and his body jumped back a full step before his mind had caught up with the movement. He clenched his jaw, using every scrap of willpower he had not to let out the scream building in his chest.
His gaze snapped toward the darkness beside the front door, the little shadowed corner where they usually kept their umbrellas. His breathing came fast and shallow now, chest rising and falling in short, uneven pulls.
"Hahahah!"
The laugh rang out first, high and delighted, before the man himself stepped forward out of the shadows.
Adrian recognized him instantly, and recognizing him somehow made it worse.
The man was tall, taller than average by a good margin, with a slight, almost fragile-looking thinness to his frame that didn't match the sheer presence radiating off him. He wore a sharp red suit with a black tie, immaculate despite standing in a dark alley corner for who knew how long. His hair sat somewhere between red and black depending on how the moonlight caught it, and beneath it, his eyes were fully black, no white visible at all, swallowing the light rather than reflecting it. Thick white makeup coated his face, a painted grin stretched permanently across his mouth, wide and theatrical, the kind of smile that belonged on a stage rather than a person. A black half-top hat sat perched at a careless, deliberate angle on his head.
His hands were sheathed in black gloves, fingers unnaturally long beneath the fabric, disappearing further into shadow the longer Adrian tried to focus on them, as if the darkness itself preferred to keep them hidden. His smile, up close, wasn't warm at all. It was the kind of smile that made your skin crawl the longer you looked at it, friendly in shape and deeply wrong in everything underneath that shape.
It's him.
Adrian's mind supplied the memory before he'd even consciously reached for it. This was the same man who'd handed him that circus flyer on the street a few days ago, the one for the show happening this coming Friday. He remembered trusting him completely in that moment, without a shred of hesitation, chatting easily with a total stranger like it was nothing.
I didn't even question it. Not even once.
Back then he'd been an ordinary human, blind to Auras, blind to any of this. Now he wasn't. Now he had knowledge, real knowledge, and with it came the sinking, visceral understanding of exactly what he'd walked away from that first meeting without realizing. He'd felt the pull of a Deceiver Pathway relic firsthand since then, felt exactly how effortlessly it could bend someone's trust without them ever noticing the strings.
A Deceiver Pathway Walker...
He'd thought about this man once or twice on the walk home, some vague, idle curiosity about the circus and its strange, too-charming host. He never once imagined he'd actually run into him again this soon. Certainly not standing outside his own front door in the middle of the night.
He didn't know why the man was here. He didn't need to know why to feel the wrongness of it crawling under his skin. His gut had already flagged this man as dangerous the very first time they'd met, some instinct he hadn't known how to listen to back then. Now, with real Aura senses behind him, he could feel the pressure radiating off the man clearly, heavy and suffocating, unmistakable.
Auri Nova.
The rank alone was enough to make his stomach drop.
How could he not panic? How could his legs not shake?
He was weak. Painfully, obviously weak, still fresh, still barely a Nova himself. No one was close enough to help him. He hadn't even unlocked his Meditation Aura yet, couldn't reach out to anyone even if he wanted to, couldn't call for Eric or Max or anyone else who might actually stand a chance against something like this.
And Lily is inside.
The thought hit him like a physical blow, worse than anything else circling through his mind. If he ran, if he tried to bolt, would that just make his sister a target instead? He didn't show it much, rarely talked about it out loud, but he loved his sister more than almost anything else in his life, and the idea of her being caught in whatever this was terrified him far more than anything happening to himself.
His legs trembled visibly now, a fine, involuntary shake he couldn't fully hide no matter how hard he tried to plant his feet.
If it comes down to it, he thought, jaw tightening, I'll fight. Even if I can't actually do anything to him. Even if it's pointless. Better to go down swinging than to be used as some pawn in whatever game this man was playing. He was young, still burning hot with the kind of reckless conviction that hadn't yet been properly tempered by real fear of dying, the kind of conviction that made grand, foolish promises to himself in moments exactly like this one.
He had no way of knowing that Visie had already quietly tied his senses to Max's and Eric's through her own Aura, a thin, invisible thread meant to alert them the instant real danger touched him. If he'd known that, some of the ice in his chest might have thawed just slightly. But no one had told him. He stood there now with only his own fear for company, certain, in this moment, that he was entirely alone.
The clown said nothing more for a long stretch. He simply stood there, perfectly still, head tilted at some faint, curious angle, watching Adrian's face, his stance, the small, betraying tremor in his legs, cataloging every flicker of reaction with an attention that felt far too patient, far too pleased, for someone who had done nothing yet but say four quiet words and laugh.
His brows slowly furrowed as his face showed a confused expression as he realized something. He took a step back and laid his hands to his sides, showing that he had no weapons and meant no harm.
Just this one action made Adrian's wariness and panic subside a little. He subconsciously started to relax.
The clown began to move, small deliberate shifts that seemed casual and were anything but. His Aura pressure eased back, folding in on itself until it barely registered at all. His palms opened, empty and visible. He angled his body slightly, no longer facing Adrian head-on but something gentler, less confrontational. His smile softened too, curling at the edges into something almost warm. And with each small motion, the gap between them shrank, unhurried, one slow inch at a time.
Adrian felt his wariness draining away almost against his will, his shoulders loosening, his breathing steadying, some quiet, persuasive voice in the back of his mind insisting that none of this was actually dangerous at all. A strange, unearned warmth bloomed in his chest, something disturbingly close to trust.
This is the Deceiver Pathway's uniqueness, some distant part of him recognized, even as the rest of him melted further into ease.
He'd learned about uniquenesses today, in theory. He'd even told himself, somewhere on the walk home, that simply knowing about this pathway would be enough, that reminding himself not to trust anyone from it would keep him safe.
How stupid was that.
Knowing a thing existed and being able to resist it were not the same skill at all, and he was starting to understand that now, too late to matter. He was a child standing in front of a veteran who'd used this exact trick more times than Adrian had been alive. What did he actually have to fight it with? A single day's worth of borrowed knowledge against a lifetime of practiced manipulation?
Uniquenesses are the authority of a pathway made real. You don't out-think that just because you've heard the word before.
If this man had wanted him dead, Adrian understood dimly, he would already be dead. No effort required.
The clown seemed to sense the moment had finally ripened, and he spoke at last, his voice smooth, unhurried, faintly amused. "You needn't be frightened of me, Adrian." He tilted his head, the painted smile widening just slightly. "Didn't dear Mr. Eric already tell you I'd be waiting?"
Adrian blinked. The memory surfaced slowly and heavily, Max's parting words in the alley finally clicking into place. A bodyguard.
His whole body straightened at once, embarrassment flooding in hot behind the fading fear. He'd nearly screamed. He'd been bracing to die on his own doorstep. What a first impression to make.
A normal person, in this moment, might have paused to wonder whether the man was simply lying to him now too. Adrian didn't. The thought never even had the chance to form.
"No, no, think nothing of it," the clown said, waving one gloved hand lazily through the air, his grin stretching wider still, something faintly delighted flickering behind his black eyes. "The fault was mine, mostly. I do so love an entrance. Terrible manners, really, springing out of the dark at a boy who's had quite the long day already. You must forgive me. I simply couldn't resist."
Adrian shifted his weight, still faintly sheepish. "It's fine. Really." He looked up properly now, studying the man in front of him with fresh eyes. "So... you're an Auri Nova of the Deceiver Pathway. And you're going to be my bodyguard?"
"Bodyguard, companion, humble servant of your continued survival," the clown said, spreading both arms wide, gloved fingers fanning out like he was unveiling something grand rather than answering a simple question. "Call it what pleases you. Details, details."
He gestured toward the door with an exaggerated little bow, sweeping one arm out ahead of himself.
Adrian turned and started walking, still processing all of it, and glanced back over his shoulder as he reached for the handle.
"What should I call you?"
Behind him, the clown's voice dropped into something low and almost fond, edged with a strange, private delight, as if the question itself amused him more than it should have.
"Mr. Clown will do quite nicely."
It was obvious the man had no intention of giving up his real name, so Adrian let it go and stepped inside.
He turned right into the dining area and saw Lily sitting at the table, a book open in front of her, one hand idly turning a page. He froze for half a second.
How is Mr. Clown supposed to hide from her? She's right there.
But then the clown simply walked past him, unhurried, and pulled out the chair beside Lily as if it were the most natural thing in the world, settling into it without a sound.
Lily glanced up at that exact moment. Something flickered across her face, like she meant to ask him something, some question half-formed on her lips, but it never came out. She just looked back down at her book instead, turning another page, entirely unbothered.
She hadn't reacted to the clown at all. Not a glance, not a flinch, nothing. As if he simply wasn't there.
Adrian crossed the room slowly and took the seat across from them, eyes flicking between his sister and the man sitting calmly beside her, waiting for something, anything, to make sense.
Before he could get a single question out, Mr. Clown began speaking, his voice smooth and pleasant, folding his gloved hands neatly on the table in front of him.
"Allow me to properly introduce myself. I won't be sharing my real name, and I'd be ever so grateful if you didn't go digging for it either."
He tilted his head slightly, the painted smile never wavering.
"I am an Aura user of the Deceiver Pathway, Auri Nova rank, under Lumenia's banner. My gift is the Fooling Aura. It lets me fool others, their senses, their minds, their very bodies, however I please. I've already used a touch of it on your dear sister here, in fact. Right now, as far as she's concerned, I don't exist. She can't see me, can't hear me, and as for you? She simply believes you're sitting here quietly, alone, not speaking to a soul."
Adrian's stomach turned faintly at that, though he wasn't sure why yet.
"I've been sent here on assignment," the clown continued smoothly. "My priority, first and always, is your safety. Your bodyguard, if you like the term, is sworn to protect you even at the cost of my own life, however unlikely that outcome may be. In Mr. Eric's absence, I'll also serve as something of a guide, a teacher, answering whatever questions you have about this new world of yours."
His black eyes glimmered faintly under the dining room light.
"I'll be with you everywhere you go from here on. Watching. Making sure nothing happens to you. As for why you need protecting at all, I couldn't tell you exactly. That's above my station. But if I had to guess, I'd wager it has something to do with your ties to the Blackbell family."
Adrian nodded slowly, absorbing all of it, his mind already racing ahead to a dozen new questions.
Then, without warning, his thoughts wobbled.
The room tilted, softened, blurred at the edges like a photograph left out in the rain. Mr. Clown's voice reached him from somewhere distant now, trailing behind everything else.
"Also, do remember. I quite enjoy a good prank now and then."
For one brief second, his vision cleared again, and he saw that the chair beside Lily now sat empty. Teleported away, he thought distantly, already turning to check on his sister instead.
Lily looked up at him.
She was wearing Mr. Clown's face.
The painted grin stretched impossibly wide across her small features, black eyes gleaming with manic delight, utterly, horribly wrong, stitched onto a face that should have been hers.
Adrian screamed.
The world lurched. Color and shape reassembled themselves violently around him, and when his vision finally steadied, he found himself standing exactly where he'd started, right in front of his own front door, hand still hovering near the handle.
None of it had happened. Not the dinner table, not Lily, not the introduction, none of it. An illusion, start to finish, and he'd walked through every second of it believing it was real.
He turned, breathing hard, and there was Mr. Clown, standing precisely where Adrian had first spotted him in the shadows, one gloved hand pressed lightly over his mouth, shoulders trembling with the visible effort of holding back laughter.
Adrian's face twisted with fury, humiliation burning hot beneath it, and he opened his mouth to scream at the man properly this time.
A hand cracked across his cheek before a single word made it out.
Whack!
His little sister stood there in the doorway, glaring up at him with the kind of fury only a genuinely terrified younger sibling could manage, arms crossed tight, cheeks flushed red from either anger or the cold, possibly both.
"Where have you been all day?!" she screamed, the words tumbling out fast and loud, months of pent-up worry apparently unleashing all at once. "I was waiting for you and looked for you for hours! I even went and asked your friend Marie, and nobody knew where you were! Do you have any idea how worried I was?! And now you're finally home, and you've just been standing here, not saying a word, not responding to anything; I've been snapping in your face for like a full minute! Have you been doing drugs or something? Mom and Dad aren't even home, Adrian!"
Adrian's hand was still pressed against his stinging cheek, eyes wide, staring at his sister as she'd just started speaking an entirely different language.
Wait.
Wait, wait, wait.
Was any of that real? Was ANY of that real?
His mind scrambled backward, trying to reconstruct where reality had actually ended and the illusion had actually begun- the dinner table, the introduction, that grinning, wrong-shaped face that had definitely not belonged to his sister- and came up with nothing solid to stand on. His cheek still throbbed faintly where the slap had landed, the one clear, undeniable proof that at least something here was real.
"Okay," Adrian said slowly, voice cracking somewhere between disbelief and the beginnings of hysterical laughter, "quick recap. In the last five minutes I got fake-introduced to my new bodyguard, watched your face turn into his face, got slapped back into reality, and I genuinely don't know which parts of the last hour actually happened. Also, drugs? That was your first guess? Not tired, not overwhelmed, drugs?"
"WHAT ELSE WAS I SUPPOSED TO THINK?!" Lily shot back, though something in her glare had started to soften into confusion now too, her eyes darting between her brother's dazed face and whatever exactly had just come out of his mouth.
Beside him, Mr. Clown finally lost whatever thin control he'd been holding onto, breaking into loud, unrestrained, borderline unhinged laughter, doubling over slightly, one gloved hand smacking against his own knee as he cackled without a shred of shame.
Adrian shot him a flat, exhausted look, too drained to even properly muster the anger the moment probably deserved.
At least, he thought, glancing down at his empty arms. A small flicker of relief washed over him; the maniac in the top hat had actually followed through and teleported the books to his room as he'd said inside the illusion. Small mercies, apparently. If he'd had to deal with all of this while lugging seven ancient, thousand-page tomes around, he genuinely might have just lain down on the porch and given up on the whole day.