I met his eyes. "I wasn't supposed to experiment with my abilities without supervision. You told me to rest. To stay in the nursery. To not test my new powers alone."
"And you broke that rule because?"
"Because I wanted to." The confession came out smaller than I meant it to. "I woke up with all this power singing through my veins and I couldn't just lie there pretending to be tired. I wanted to see what I could do. Wanted to play with it."
"That's not the whole truth." His eyes flashed silver briefly. Through the bond, I felt his recognition. His certainty that I was still deflecting. "Try again. Why did you choose to break it?"
The real answer stuck in my throat. But his gaze didn't waver. Didn't soften. Just waited with infinite patience for me to stop performing and start being honest.
"I wanted to test you," I whispered. "Wanted to see if you'd actually follow through. If the rules were real or just words. If you meant what you said about consequences or if it was all just—just theory that would disappear the first time I pushed."
Through the bond, satisfaction crashed over me like a wave. Warm. Certain. He'd known. He'd felt it when he'd given me the instruction. Had watched me agree while already planning mischief. Had expected exactly this confession.
"There it is." He didn't smile but something in his expression softened fractionally. "You needed to know if I was reliable. If my structure would hold when you tested it. That's honest. That's real."
My eyes stung. I blinked hard.
"Then you'll get exactly what you asked for." He gestured again. "Tell me everything you did. Start from the beginning. Leave nothing out."
I took a shaky breath. "Before I came here, I’d never seen electric lights. They’re amazing. And my powers . . . I feel like I’m part of it all. So, I made the nursery lights dance. Pulsed them in patterns. Made them flash in sequence around the ceiling."
"Did you damage them?"
"No. They're designed to turn on and off. I just did it with my mind instead of switches."
"Continue."
"I found corridor lights throughout the citadel. Made them flicker. Created a wave pattern that rippled through the peripheral lighting on multiple floors." My face heatedwith remembered glee. "I heard staff wondering what was happening."
His expression remained neutral but through the bond I felt his assessment. Noting the bratty pleasure in my voice. The deliberate mischief.
"Damage?" he asked.
"None. Just brief flickers."
"Continue."
"The lightning sculptures in the grand hall." I couldn't quite suppress my grin. "I made them move. Gave them extra power so the static displays became dynamic. Made them respond to each other like they were having a conversation."
"And you heard staff discussing whether to contact me about the malfunction."
"Yes." My grin faded slightly under his steady gaze.
"Continue."
"The communication relays." My voice went quieter. "The ones I helped redesign. I just wanted to examine them. See how my electrical signature interacted with their frequencies. I wasn't going to transmit anything. Just test the resonance."
"You made them sing loud enough that staff heard them throughout the citadel."
"I matched their harmonic frequencies. All three at once. It was beautiful, mathematically. The way they interlocked and amplified—"
"Did you damage critical infrastructure?" His voice sharpened slightly.
"No. I pulled back immediately. Returned them to standby mode."
"And then?"
I swallowed hard. "The storm-warning system. I just wanted to understand how it worked. Followed the current through thesensor network to see how they communicated with the central processor. I didn't mean to trigger—"
