Monthly Mental Stabilization
1224 Words
Cassian let out a soft chuckle, set his glass aside, and shifted into a more relaxed position.
“What are your plans going forward?”
I hesitated, then answered cautiously, “I… want to earn some money, then leave Y926. Maybe see other planets.”
“Earn money?”
As if he’d heard something amusing, the corner of his lips lifted slightly. His eyes rested on me, carrying a faint hint of amusement.
“The half Aegis Prime took from me—wasn’t that enough for you?”
I lowered my head, pressed my lips together, and said nothing.
Cassian didn’t seem to care whether I answered.
Then, he, said,
“Come here.”
I froze. “Ah… what?”
He lifted his hand and lightly patted the empty spot beside him on the sofa.
“Sit here.”
Every alarm in my head went off at once. I stiffened, glued to my seat as if I’d been welded to it, not daring to move an inch.
What… is he trying to do?
Cassian didn’t look annoyed. Instead, he simply stood up and walked toward me.
He was tall to begin with—once he stood, the sense of pressure dropped instantly, like an invisible shadow closing over me.
Before I could react, he was already beside me. Then, as naturally as if it were nothing, he sat down—close enough that I could almost feel the heat coming off him.
Instinctively, I tried to spring up and move away, but before I could—
A hand was faster.
His fingers closed around my left wrist, a light tug pulling me straight back into the sofa.
“Don’t move.”
His low voice sounded right by my ear, edged with a hint of warning.
My heartbeat instantly lost its rhythm. I looked up at him, trying to keep my voice steady.
“Mr. Virex… what are you doing?”
He looked down at me, tightening his grip on my hand.
His long fingers slowly slid between mine, interlocking with mine, one by one.
“Doing what needs to be done.”
My mind blanked for a second.
What… does that even mean?
No matter how I turned it over, it didn’t sound right.
This is only our second meeting, isn’t it? Isn’t this moving way too fast?!
My thoughts were still a tangled mess when his other hand came up and cupped the back of my head.
I instinctively tried to pull away, but I couldn’t move at all.
Then he leaned in.
His forehead pressed against mine, a cool touch settling between my brows.
Before I could react, a strand of mental force surged in, invasive and direct, slipping through the point of contact and reaching straight for my mindscape.
It was only a thin thread of it, but the violence coiled beneath it, the aggression barely held back, the almost overflowing hunger to consume, stood in stark contrast to his outwardly lazy, indifferent demeanor.
Danger.
Every hair on my body stood on end.
Mind is the last place you let anyone into. Letting someone else’s mental force inside—what’s the difference from opening the door to a thief?
Almost on instinct, a barrier snapped into place around the outer edge of my mind, sealing tight—locking that invasive strand firmly outside.
“Don’t resist.”
His voice brushed against my ear, carrying a command that was almost impossible to defy.
“Split off a thread of your mind. Let me in.”
I clenched my teeth.
Don’t resist? You’ve got to be kidding.
I ignored him completely. My mental shield trembled slightly—then held, forcing his presence back.
But the moment the two forces truly made contact—
“Mm—”
A muffled sound slipped out of me before I could stop it.
At almost the same time, a low, restrained sound came from him as well.
The next second, something strange, impossible to describe, detonated from that single point of contact, racing through my entire body like an electric current.
A tingling numbness. A shiver.
And beneath it—something dangerously close to losing control.
My limbs went weak all at once.
Even my breathing fell out of rhythm.
That strange, deeply unsettling sensation sent a sharp prickle across my scalp. Instinctively, I started struggling, trying to wrench myself free from his grip.
“Don’t move!”
The hand at the back of my head tightened abruptly. His voice turned rough, his breathing faintly uneven.
“This is the adjustment phase for genetic matching— a once-a-month ‘mental stabilization.’”
I froze.
He went on,
“Each session has to last no less than ten minutes. Aegis Prime monitors it. Miss one… and there will be mandatory penalties.”
“What kind of penalties?” I asked before I could stop myself.
Cassian’s voice carried a trace of something like helplessness, still low and hoarse.
“It varies. The more common one—forced disclosure of the match.”
My heart skipped.
He continued, his tone calm to the point of indifference:
“Your ‘non-compliance with a sanctioned match’ will be publicly announced across your personal interstellar network account and major public platforms, in a rolling notice. Your coordinates included. For a full month.”
My brain short-circuited.
Forced disclosure?!
A rolling announcement?!
For a whole month?!
What the hell—this is precision targeting.
For someone like me, who’s planning to run at any moment, that’s basically slapping a sign on my forehead that says,
I’m right here. Come get me.
Broadcast to the entire universe.
And people like Cassian—federal major generals, high justiciars, tycoons, top-tier scholars, rising political figures,
All sitting at the very top of the pyramid, getting publicly flagged by Aegis Prime for failing to comply with “mental stabilization,” complete with real-time coordinates?
Just imagining that scene made my scalp tighten.
This isn’t even about embarrassment anymore.
At their level, their movements are highly classified. Once their coordinates are exposed, the consequences could be… severe.
No wonder someone like Cassian would personally show up to “check in.”
But the tiny flicker of understanding I’d just managed to scrape together,
Collapsed instantly in the next second.
Once a month.
And I have five matches.
Which means, I have to go through this five times a month? This… face-to-face mental contact?!
A curse slipped out before I could stop it.
Cassian Mini Scene
Her mental barrier was a pale green—gentle, alive.
The moment it brushed against me, the unrest inside my body began to settle, little by little, as if smoothed over by something impossibly soft.
A sense of calm I had never known before spread through me.
The comfort was almost intoxicating.
I watched her, the fine, soft down along her cheeks, the way her long lashes trembled without pause, the tiny bead of sweat clinging to the tip of her nose, and a word surfaced in my mind, unbidden.
Cute.
I had never imagined that the blending of mental forces with another person could feel like this.
That deep, bone-level ease and quiet brought by the contact, it surpassed any stabilizer I had ever used.
It was… dangerously easy to lose myself in it.
Perhaps Aegis Prime had its reasons after all.
- Writer
- chap_listContents
- likeADD