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Chapter 20 - Chapter 20: The Source

Chapter 20: The Source

The text from Leo hung in the air between them, more threatening than any direct confrontation. *Break the brain.* Eleanor's face, which had been relaxed and smiling moments before in the dim light of the movie theater, was now tight with a fresh, cold fear. She understood the implication immediately.

"They're going to try to make you look crazy," she whispered, her voice barely audible over the rolling credits.

"Or break me under pressure," Elias replied, his tone flat. He felt a strange calm settle over him. This was a familiar battlefield—the mind. They had just declared war on his home territory.

The next day at school, the new campaign began. It was subtle, insidious. In Physics, Mr. Henderson paused while handing back graded tests. "Excellent work as always, Eli. Almost… unnervingly excellent." He said it with a smile, but his eyes held a flicker of something else—doubt.

In the hallway, Chloe Sanders 'accidentally' bumped into him, her laughter a little too sharp. "Sorry, Eli. You're just so… intense all the time. It's like you're not even really here."

The words were casual barbs, designed to isolate and pathologize. They were painting a picture of him as an unhinged prodigy, a pressure cooker waiting to explode. He saw the strategy clearly: make everyone around him question his stability, and when he finally reacted, it would be proof of his instability.

He met each comment with a wall of unnerving calm. He thanked Mr. Henderson politely. He told Chloe it was no problem. He was a rock in a stream, letting the current of their whispers part around him.

But the true test came during his lunch period study hall. The school guidance counselor, Mrs. Albright, requested to see him. Her office was a soft, beige room that smelled of potpourri and quiet concern.

"Eli," she began, folding her hands on her desk. "I've been hearing some things. From teachers, from a few students. They're worried about you."

Elias remained silent, his expression neutral.

"They say you're under an immense amount of self-imposed pressure. This… business of yours. The incredible academic leap. It's a lot for anyone to handle, let alone a senior applying to colleges." She leaned forward, her voice dripping with synthetic warmth. "Sometimes, when we're under that kind of stress, our minds can play tricks on us. We can start to believe we're capable of things we're not. We can create… narratives."

He saw it then. The masterstroke. Robert Miller wasn't just trying to make him look crazy. He was laying the groundwork to discredit every one of Elias's achievements. His business success? A delusion of grandeur. His perfect test scores? Potentially fraudulent, driven by an unstable mind. His relationship with Eleanor? An unhealthy obsession.

It was brilliant. It was a attack on the very core of his identity in this timeline.

"What narratives are you referring to, Mrs. Albright?" he asked, his voice perfectly level.

She smiled a pitying little smile. "That's what I'm here to help you with, Eli. I'd like to start seeing you for regular sessions. To talk about this… pressure you're under."

He knew what that meant. A few notes in his file about 'paranoia' or 'grandiose ideation' from a school counselor would be enough to torpedo any college application, regardless of grades. It was a bureaucratic kill shot.

He stood up. "Thank you for your concern, Mrs. Albright. But my mental health is fine. The pressure I'm under is external, not internal. And I have it handled."

He walked out, leaving her with her pitying smile frozen in place. The encounter had been a warning shot. The real assault was coming.

He found Eleanor after school by her car. He told her about the meeting, his voice stripped of all emotion.

Her reaction was not what he expected. The fear in her eyes was gone, replaced by a blazing, protective fury. "They want to break your brain?" she said, her voice low and fierce. "Then we'll just have to prove how unbreakable it is."

She opened her backpack and pulled out a thick, bound report. On the cover was the title: "Digital Bridge: A Case Study in Adolescent Entrepreneurship & Systemic Educational Improvement."

"I've been working on this," she said. "It's not just a business plan anymore. It's evidence. It documents everything—your proposal to Dr. Evans, the revenue split for the school, the testimonials from the teachers you trained, the tax records from Croft and Associates. It's a paper trail a mile wide that proves you're not delusional. You're a visionary."

Elias stared at the document, then at her. She had not just been his logistics officer. She had been his archivist, his historian. She was building a fortress of facts around his reputation.

"They're attacking your mind," Eleanor said, her jaw set. "So we'll attack back with the one thing they can't argue with. The truth."

For the first time since Leo's text, Elias felt the cold knot in his stomach begin to loosen. He was not in this alone. He had an ally who was not just fighting for him, but fighting with the same strategic, long-term thinking he possessed.

The enemy was marching on the capital. But the capital's defenses were stronger than they knew. The king had a queen, and she was ready for war. The battle for his mind had begun, and the first counterattack was already on the page.

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