The abandoned laboratory where Elisa and Isabella worked together had always been a secret refuge for both of them; there, they could be themselves without fear of judgment or strange looks. The walls were covered with blueprints, notes stuck with tape, half-assembled prototypes, and old machines that Elisa had recovered from scrapyards across the planet. The place smelled of metal, ink, and ideas.
That day, however, the atmosphere was different.
The reason was in the center of the table:
a black hat, cold and unfathomable like a hole in reality.
Elisa walked around it like a scientist standing before a miracle and a danger at the same time.
"There is nothing… absolutely nothing," she said, rubbing her head after checking Aetheris' historical records for the eighth time. "Not in the forbidden texts, not in the anomaly archives, nor in the ancient star maps. This hat is completely unknown."
Isabella, sitting on top of a toolbox, hugged her knees uneasily.
"What if it doesn't belong to this world?" she asked in a low voice.
Elisa glanced at her.
"It's possible. But that only makes me want to study it even more."
Isabella smiled softly.
That was the Elisa she knew: brilliant, stubborn, untamable.
That stubbornness which caused rejection throughout the rest of the planet awakened admiration in her.
"What about the analyzers?" Isabella asked.
Elisa pointed toward a corner of the laboratory.
Three machines were completely burned out.
Another was completely broken, on the verge of failure.
"Every time we try to scan it, something 'breaks.' It's not that it fails… it's as if the hat doesn't allow itself to be analyzed."
Isabella swallowed.
Because from the very first moment she had held it in her hands, she had felt it behave differently around her.
As if the artifact could see her.
As if it recognized her.
"But maybe… Can I put it on for a second?" Elisa suddenly asked.
Isabella hesitated. Not because she didn't trust her, but because she was afraid the object might hurt her.
But Elisa looked at her the only way she knew how: with that mixture of excitement, hunger for knowledge, and a spark she had always possessed since they were children.
Isabella gave in.
Elisa took the hat with both hands.
She took a deep breath.
And put it on.
When she did, a faint vibration passed through the air.
An almost imperceptible pulse.
Like the recognition of a code…
or the echo of a sleeping heart.
Isabella straightened in her seat.
But the pulse immediately faded.
Elisa opened her eyes.
"I don't see anything. I don't feel anything. It's… like having a rock on my head," she said in frustration.
Isabella tried to laugh, but the truth was more complicated.
She had seen things: the expansion of the universe like a great map, glowing lines connecting galaxies, pulses of energy that didn't exist in any record. For almost a second, she even seemed to see herself but… different, with an appearance that seemed divine, with a rage that made her destroy her planet, with a greed that turned her into a devourer of worlds, and with a gluttony that annihilated creation. But everything vanished in a sigh, as if something prevented the object from making contact with Elisa, almost as if it had a seal.
When Elisa took the hat off, she did so with an almost defeated expression.
She handed the object back to Isabella with a sigh.
"It seems you're the one who… synchronizes with it. Maybe it was made for you."
Isabella opened her mouth to contradict her, to tell her that it wasn't like that, that she didn't know why the hat reacted to her, that she hadn't sought it out…
But Elisa was already walking toward her tools, pretending that she didn't care.
The two remained thoughtful for a while, now that they had more doubts than answers, and Elisa had an idea that even to her sounded absurd.
"I think it would be a good idea for you to announce it. I know it sounds crazy, but because of your name and reputation, the planet will very likely at least give you the opportunity to analyze it."
Isabella was surprised by Elisa's proposal, and although she tried to say no, Elisa told her that it was the only way they might be able to discover more about it and what it was capable of. Besides, if Isabella was the one who presented it, people would probably not assume the worst about the object.
When Elisa said that last part, she lowered her gaze with a hint of sadness. Isabella comforted her, saying that even though everyone thought the worst of Elisa, she would always think the best of her.
"All right, I'll announce it, but I'll make sure everyone knows that the credit belongs to both you and me. And you'll see, if everything goes well, it will be for both of us. I promise."
The public announcement came a week later.
Isabella, pressured by her family —prestigious and highly influential in politics— presented the hat before the planetary council.
The initial reaction was fear.
An object that disrupted machines.
An artifact impossible to study.
An unquantifiable power.
But the prestige of the Solarium family, Isabella's reputation for seriousness, social standing, and the girl's natural charisma changed everything.
Her parents spoke in her favor, and the oldest scientists supported the research. The institutions considered the hat's potential useful for exploration, defense, and expansion.
Within weeks, Isabella was declared:
"Bearer of the Celestial Artifact."
The first person in modern history to use an unidentified object with official permission.
The news celebrated her.
The families admired her.
The leaders sought her out for meetings and strategic decisions.
She was a brilliant figure.
An image of hope.
Elisa accompanied her to the announcement.
She applauded.
She smiled.
She congratulated her from the bottom of her heart.
But…
among the lights, cameras, and praise…
a silent shadow began to form inside her.
A small voice.
Hidden.
Painful.
I wish I were like her…
But she quickly shook her head to drive those thoughts away.
They weren't fair.
They weren't healthy.
They weren't her.
Or at least, that was what she tried to believe.
Over the following days, Isabella began training with the hat.
She learned to use it carefully, in moderation.
Unlike other versions of herself in other routes, this Isabella was very controlled, very cautious.
"Every time I use it, I see more things," she confessed to Elisa one night while they drank tea on the observatory terrace. "It's like… like I can read the natural flow of the universe. I don't know how to explain it."
"And does it tire you out?" Elisa asked, trying to sound neutral.
Isabella shook her head.
"No. On the contrary. I feel… light. As if something were filling me from within."
Elisa lowered her gaze and then glanced at the hat.
Because she only wanted to feel that once.
Just once.
Not out of ambition.
Not for power.
Out of simple curiosity.
Out of a simple desire to understand.
But the hat had not recognized her.
Not even a spark.
And while Isabella moved forward, while she was invited to council meetings and scientific missions, while she was celebrated as a prodigy…
Elisa remained "the strange girl" who was only there because Isabella had intervened on her behalf.
They told her without saying it.
In their looks.
In the silences.
In the comments they made when they thought she couldn't hear.
Even so, Isabella did not forget her.
"I don't want to move forward without you," she told her one afternoon, taking her to the new laboratory they had been assigned. "Thanks to you, I learned to dream about this. I wouldn't be here if it weren't for you."
She used her influence to give Elisa research positions, access to resources, and authority over projects.
But even with all of that…
The looks of the others spoke louder.
The people of the planet tolerated Elisa…
but they did not accept her.
Elisa's presence, her problematic past, her reputation as "the girl who questions too much," remained a shadow that was difficult to dispel.
Many looked at her coldly.
Others with distrust.
Some with silent contempt.
And Elisa felt it.
Every day.
Every minute.
Even when she was beside her friend.
The truth was simple:
Isabella was the bearer of the miracle.
Elisa…
wasn't.
One afternoon, while Isabella was attending a meeting with the stellar council, Elisa remained alone in her laboratory.
She looked at her hands.
Thin.
Stained with ink and oil.
The hands of someone who had always built, but had never been seen.
"I can do it," she whispered. "I can change this world too."
She sat in front of the table.
She turned on holographic screens.
She unfolded old blueprints.
She opened documents containing her past ideas.
"I'm going to create something worthy of me. Something that even the council will have to acknowledge."
A new light appeared in her eyes.
It wasn't pure ambition.
Nor hatred.
Nor evil.
It was…
the exact mixture of desire, insecurity, and comparison.
The perfect seed of Envy.
And so, in the silence of the laboratory, Elisa took up her tools.
And began to build.
It was the first step.
The first heartbeat.
The birth of an envy she still didn't understand…
but which, from that moment on, had already begun to grow.