☆...….*...….☆
The mentoring of Calix began in a room that felt as though it had been carved from the very frost of the Northern peaks. Lily had chosen a small, isolated study in the West Wing, far from the warmth of the nursery and the prying, protective eyes of the Triple Crown's guardians.
As Lily led the limping Calix into the room, she closed the heavy oak door with a click that sounded, to Calix's ears, like the snapping of a trap.
"Sit, Calix," Lily commanded, her voice devoid of the honeyed sweetness she used in front of Arion. She pointed to a high backed wooden chair that forced Calix's feet to dangle, making his injured ankle throb painfully hard.
Calix sat, his hands trembling as he clutched a charcoal stick. Lily stood over him, her shadow stretching long across the parchment. She wasn't teaching him to read. she was testing his limits. She began to speak of the duty of a shifter, filling his head with dark tales of the wars where monsters were used as shields.
"You are not just a boy, Calix," Lily whispered, leaning in so close he could smell the cold iron of her scent. "You are a vessel. But a vessel is useless if it cannot be triggered at will."
Calix shook his head, his breathing becoming shallow. "I...I just want to draw."
"Drawing is for children. You are a weapon," Lily snapped. She reached out and seized Calix's hands, her grip iron clad and painful.
The physical contact was the catalyst. In that moment, the true nature of Calix's biology, something even the Imperial Physician had only begun to grasp—manifested in full. It wasn't that the doctor had made a mistake during his birth. it was that Calix's body was a biological mirror. Upon prolonged or intense contact with a member of the opposite gender, his mana would surge, forcing a physical realignment to match or complement the energy.
Because Lily was an Alpha woman, the contact and the sheer, paralyzing fear she induced triggered the shift. Calix's frame softened, his features becoming delicate and ethereal. Within seconds, a young girl sat in the chair, her dark hair falling in waves over her terrified face.
"So," Lily purred, her eyes gleaming with a scientific malice. "The trigger is contact. And fear.So beautiful ."
While the darkness unfolded in the West Wing, Aiden and Lorcan had been following the pair from a distance. They had watched Lily lead Calix away, their suspicions high. However, when they peeked through the keyhole of the West Wing study, Lily was simply standing by the window while Calix sat at the desk. To an outside observer, it looked like a stern but normal lesson. ( cause by a witch spell )
"Maybe we're being too paranoid," Aiden whispered, scratching the back of his neck. "Aunt Lily is family, after all. Papa wouldn't let her near him if she was dangerous."
Lorcan nodded, though his intuition—sharpened by years in the Southern court, was still screaming. "Perhaps. But I don't like the way she looks at him, Aiden. Like he's a prize, not a nephew , that kinda disturbing."
Seeking a distraction from the unease, they wandered toward the Grand Library. The library was a sanctuary of dust and sunlight, filled with the scent of old parchment and jasmine.
They sat in a secluded alcove, surrounded by towering stacks of history books. Lorcan tried to focus on a map of the Southern trade routes, but he was completely lost. His heart was performing a rhythmic, fluttering dance in his chest. Every time Aiden shifted his weight, or the sunlight hit the amber flecks in Aiden's eyes, Lorcan felt a wave of affection so strong it made him feel lightheaded.
Aiden, meanwhile, was surprisingly quiet. He couldn't stop thinking about the night before—the way Lorcan had felt in his arms, the softness of his body, and that lingering, sweet strawberry scent that seemed to have permanently embedded itself in Aiden's senses.
"Lorc?" Aiden said suddenly, breaking the silence.
"Yes?" Lorcan squeaked, his ears already turning pink.
"Last night...when you were having your heat-scare... you felt so soft," Aiden said, his voice unusually low. He was utterly oblivious to the romantic weight of his words, speaking with a blunt Northern honesty. "I keep thinking about it. My muscles are always hard from training, but you...you're different, you are like jelly."
Aiden leaned closer, his blue amber gaze fixed on Lorcan's middle. "Can I touch your waist? Just to see if it's still that soft? I want to understand how an Omega's body works compared to mine."
Lorcan felt like he was going to spontaneously combust. He didn't refuse. He couldn't. "I... yes. If you want to, Aiden."
Aiden reached out, his large, warm hand sliding around Lorcan's waist, pulling him a fraction closer. The contact sent a jolt through Lorcan's entire system. He closed his eyes, leaning into the touch, his heart hammering a frantic of 'Aiden-Aiden-Aiden' against his ribs.
The moment was shattered by a soft gasp.
Celine stood at the entrance of the alcove, her favorite coloring book clutched to her chest. She had come to the library to find Calix, but instead, she found her favorite person in the world—her hero, Aiden—holding Lorcan in a way she had only ever seen her parents hold each other.
She stayed completely stunned for a heartbeat, her eyes wide. Then, the jealousy hit her like a physical blow. To Celine, Aiden was the sun around which her world turned. Seeing him share that intimacy with Lorcan—the outsider. felt like a betrayal of the highest order.
"Aiden?" she whispered, her voice trembling.
Aiden jumped, pulling his hand away as if he had been burned. "Celine! It's not—we were just—"
But the damage was done. Tears welled in Celine's eyes, spilling over her flushed cheeks. "I hate you, Lorcan! I hate you both!"
She turned and sprinted out of the library, her small boots pounding against the stone. She wasn't just going to her room, she was heading straight for the King's Study to tell their parents that Aiden and Lorcan were doing the weird hugging without her.
"Celine, wait!" Aiden shouted, panicking. He knew how their parents reacted to anything that smelled of inappropriate behavior involving the heirs. He scrambled to his feet and gave chase, leaving a devastated and blushing Lorcan behind in the dust of the library.
Back in the West Wing, the lesson had taken a darker turn. Lily had seen the gender shift and was now attempting to force a second shift back into a tiger form by using a small, sharp needle to prick Calix's arm.
"Let's see if pain triggers the beast, shall we?" Lily whispered.
Calix let out a strangled cry, his female form trembling so violently the chair rattled. But before the needle could touch his skin, the door didn't just open, it cracked open .
Kenzo burst into the room.
The twin link had been screaming in his mind for the last ten minutes. He didn't care about rules or aunts. He saw Calix—now a girl crying and trapped by Lily's iron grip. Kenzo's Alpha aura flared with a raw, unrefined power that knocked a vase off the nearby table.
"LET HER GO!" Kenzo roared, his small fists balled.
Lily flinched, her eyes widening in genuine surprise. She immediately dropped Calix's hands and stepped back, her face morphing instantly into a mask of maternal concern.
"Kenzo! Goodness, you startled me," she said, her voice smooth and lying. "Calix had a dizzy spell and shifted uncontrollably. I was just trying to hold her steady so she didn't fall. I was just about to call the doctor."
Kenzo didn't believe her for a second. He scrambled over to the chair, pulling the shaking, female Calix into his arms. He bared his teeth at Lily, a low growl vibrating in his throat.
"You're a liar," Kenzo hissed. "I felt it. I felt her fear."
Lily smiled, a cold, thin line. "You're just sensitive, little nephew. Why don't you take your sister back to the nursery? The lesson is clearly over for today."
As Kenzo carried the sobbing Calix away, Lily stood in the center of the room, her eyes fixed on the door. She had learned what she needed to know. The child was a mirror. A mirror that could be broken and reshaped at anyone's will.