Chapter Text
2015
Elliot was escorted through the halls of Voxtek to the CEO’s office.
An elegant space, dominated by darkened screens and dim lighting — it didn’t feel like an office. It felt like the heart of a machine.
It was the first time Vox laid eyes on the boy. Just one of countless invisible cogs in the great assembly line: sorting mail, fetching coffee, repairing hard drives. A low-level technician, someone nobody ever noticed.
But through the camera feed, Vox had sensed it in his gaze — that fear, that disbelief that clung to a newly Awakened mage.
When Elliot stepped inside, Vox O’Donnell was waiting. Impeccable as always, smiling as always, he greeted him with a slight nod and gestured to the chair in front of his desk.
“What’s your name?” he asked in a friendly tone.
“Elliot…”
“And what do you do here, Elliot?”
“Services… coffee… IT tech…”
Vox tilted his head slightly, his icy eyes fixed on him.
“And you’ve been having a strange time lately, haven’t you?”
Elliot flinched. How does he know?
“I can always tell when one of my… little lambs… isn’t well.”
“I… yes,” Elliot admitted, hesitating. “Lately weird things keep happening. Computers do things they shouldn’t. I see numbers changing on their own, screens shifting as if they’re reading my thoughts… Sometimes it feels like the world itself is… bending around me.”
A long pause.
“I see.” Vox leaned back, fingers interlaced.
“You know, I once had experiences very much like yours. Sensations, visions… But I had mentors who taught me how to control them. They called it the Awakening.” He paused, studying him closely. “Unfortunately, a terrible accident… took that from me. But not the knowledge.”
He leaned forward slightly.
“Give me your wrist, boy.”
Elliot hesitated for a moment, then obeyed. Vox’s grip was gentle, yet his fingers were unnaturally cold against his skin.
“You’re so tense…” the CEO whispered. “Relax.”
Elliot looked up… and in an instant, he was lost.
His mind emptied, his thoughts dulled. It was as if he were drifting in a void, a ship without anchor, without direction. The only reality left were those eyes, those words.
“I will be your mentor. And your master.” Vox’s voice echoed in his mind — an echo he could not resist. He nodded weakly.
“You will work closely with me, as my assistant. Only then will you find your path.”
“Work… for you,” Elliot repeated, his voice distant, as though it no longer belonged to him. His gaze was locked, unmovable, trapped in that glacial blue.
Vox rose, his smile widening.
“All I ask in return… is your loyalty.”
Elliot did not move. He stared blankly ahead, the hypnosis still heavy on his mind.
“Kneel.”
His legs bent on their own. The floor was cold beneath him as he lifted his gaze to the man before him. He saw Vox bite into his own wrist.
Dark blood began to flow.
Too dark.
Not red — almost black, thick.
The blood of a corpse.
“Now drink.”
Elliot could do nothing else. His trembling hands grasped that cold wrist and brought it to his lips. The taste of iron and sweetness burst in his mouth, followed by a violent dizziness, as though the world itself flipped upside down.
His heart beat once.
Then again.
And then — something changed forever.