-Radix-
The little five year old kid walked out of my office room, and met up with the guard I had called to lead them back to their room after their first session with me. The child had been, understandably, confused and afraid after he had been taken away from his parents and put in a strange new place, after what was supposed to be just a simple test that the government made everyone take.
Almost all of the kids that I initially interacted with had similar reactions to the one I had just finished talking to. Despite them being afraid and not having committed any wrong, I was tasked with implanting a mental detection curse into these innocent children because that’s what I was told to do.
I felt like throwing up every time I implanted this curse, but it wouldn’t cause them any harm. But in reality I knew that what I was doing was mostly just a form of control arranged by those that made the laws.
I sighed and leaned back in my chair in order to decompress for a brief moment before my next appointment. I couldn’t relax and started to think about how much simpler my life would have been if I had taken the university professor position rather than this Mentalist position working in a max security prison. Ultimately I believed that I was making more of an impact where I was, rather than teaching university students that were pretty much already set in their ways.
The door to my office opened and two guards accompanied a figure encased in a black film that prevented the one inside from gaining any information while moving through the halls. As soon as I saw this scene I knew who my next appointment was even though I hadn’t bothered to check. Radiant Shadow, a MAX danger patient.
Radiant Shadow was only my second patient with a MAX danger rating. In the case of the first MAX danger patient I had, I could easily tell why they had the danger rating they were given. On the other hand, in Radiant’s case, at first I had a hard time understanding why he had such a high danger rating.
The black film encasing Radiant disappeared like it had never been there, and Radiant’s guards exited through the door. Radiant, now free, looked at me, “Yo Radix, what’s up my man?” Radiant smiled as he walked towards the seat in front of my desk and plopped down with his legs up on the arm rest not bothering with social etiquette, “It’s been, what, like three months since our last visit? Don’t be such a stranger. I was starting to think you didn’t want to see me.”
I didn’t respond to him and started to establish a mental connection to him. A mental connection for reading minds was less necessary for the moderate level patients, but for a Max level patient like Radiant it was absolutely required that I take all of the precautions I could when dealing with him.
Whether Radiant knew what I was doing or not, he remained in his relaxed position and waited for me to talk. Sometimes he would talk to me even while I was trying to establish a connection even though he knew it would annoy me, but for whatever reason he remained silent this time. His polite behavior was welcome, but also a little suspicious.
It wasn’t always like this. I remember that even the very first time I met him he had been very calm and cordial doing everything he was told. His behavior back then made it very hard to understand why he had been given such a high danger rating and I had even talked to my superiors about letting him go back home after about 5 years of failing to notice anything problematic. After some convincing on my part, Radiant was finally allowed to visit with his parents, which had been barred from visiting him for some reason.
I had thought that Radiant would meet with his parents and go home with them and everything would work out, but then during his meeting with his parents Radiant acted in a way he had never shown before. Instead of being happy with the idea of being taken home, Radiant grew slightly aggressive and almost zealously opposed the idea, saying that he was going to escape from this prison and show everyone that he couldn’t be contained. His change in behavior was sudden and gave me a sort of whiplash. It was so different from the Radiant that I had come to know.
The connection with his thoughts settled into place and I stopped my idle thoughts.
“It’s good to see you again, Radiant. I’m sorry for not being able to see you for such a long time, but I had some other things that I had to take care of. I hope you can understand.”
“Ah, well don’t worry about it. I’ve got things that occupy my time too, so I can relate.” His words and thoughts came to me at the same time, like usual, but there seemed to be something off about them? It was only a subtle feeling, but it drew my attention.
“Thank you for understanding.” I continued to talk while I navigated to Radiant’s file on my computer, “Since it’s been so long, why don’t you tell me what you’ve been up to these past few months?”
“Nothing major.” He shrugged his shoulders, “Training, exercising, planning my escape, you know just the usual.”
“Mhmm.” My brows furrowed slightly as I again felt that my subconscious was trying to tell me that something was off about Radiant.
“I mean I’m almost ten percent through my lifespan at this point. I have to make sure I’m using all of the time I have to the fullest.” He said it like it was natural, but I felt a slight bit of frustration from him while he was speaking. “Although I’ve been trying to get somebody to let me go into a dungeon, but that doesn’t seem like it’s going to work out. So all I have left is to train until I become powerful enough to escape from this place on my own.”
Radiant Was always talking about escaping and such, so maybe the feeling I had had something to do with that? I asked him, “Have you done anything different in these past three months?”
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“Something different? Why do you say that?” I sensed a hint of surprise from Radiant. He didn’t show it on his face, but I could feel it from the mental connection.
“There’s just something different about you.” I sensed that he wanted to avoid the topic, so I decided to appeal to his arrogance and goad him into thinking about it, “Maybe you’ve become stronger? You’re always talking about escaping, maybe you’re practicing something new?”
I felt a slight hint of annoyance from him as he replied, “Yeah, but it’s nothing big, just some new things I’ve been trying out.” Then I caught some of his coherent worded thoughts along with a mental scoff, ‘Like I’d tell him.’
I nodded, “Well I guess we’ll move on for now.” A bit of relief came through the connection after I said that. I began to look over Radiant’s files on my computer and noticed that a few tests were in order. They didn’t have to be done today, but given how evasive Radiant was being I decided to not postpone them, “Looks like there are some tests in order since we haven’t met for some time. Maybe they’ll show that you’ve made more progress than you think.”
“Uhh… No, that's not necessary. It’s nothing really.” Radiant showed a very brief and slight amount of shock on his face before it went away like it was never there. Internally, however, Radiant seemed to be holding back a cold sweat.
I reached into my desk and pulled out a device that was used to check for Skills. Radiant tensed up a little after I pulled it out. Seeing this, I said, “Hmm, you probably already know what your Skills are, right? I mean with your divination abilities and all, I probably don’t need this to check your Skills, you could just tell me yourself.”
Radiant hesitated but only briefly before responding, “Yeah, so there’s no need for you to check my Skills with that. I’ll just tell you.” I felt a slight sense of relief in Radiant’s mind as he thought I had given up on checking his Skills.
Getting the confirmation I needed, I got up from my chair with the device in my hand. The device was a clear ball, that is if it weren’t for the many magical circuits and wires running throughout its structure. Most Skill checking devices wouldn’t look as fancy as this one, but an old friend of mine made this one for me, and it was more advanced than most other Skill checking devices as well.
Seeing me get up with the device, Radiant’s face twitched ever so slightly, “Hey, Radix? I thought you said there was no need to check my Skills?” I could detect a hint of worry coming from Radiant.
“Well we haven’t met in three months, so I need to check your Skills regardless.” I walked out from behind my desk with the orb resting in my hand, “Just hold the orb so I can take a quick look.”
I felt Radiant steel himself and focus as he slowly reached to take the orb from me. At the same time, I felt a miniscule almost imperceptible fluctuation from Radiant as he grabbed the orb. As soon as he held the orb the magical circuits lit up and showed a display of Radiant’s Skills in the air.
The display briefly wobbled ever so slightly before it stabilized and Radiant quickly analyzed the display. I heard Radiant audibly click his tongue, and I could feel a sense of bitterness coming from his mind.
As I took a look at the display I could immediately tell why he was upset.
[Active Skills/Powers 3/3]-
(Skill: Counter Divination; Level 7)
(Skill: Complex Divination III; Level 242)
(Skill: Maintain Composure; Level 86)-
[Inactive Skills/Powers 5]-
(Skill: Plan; Level 42)
(Skill: Acting; Level 39)
(Skill: Pain Tolerance; Level: 10)
(Skill: Physical Recovery; Level: 60)
(Skill: Calculate Probability; Level 85)-
He had a new [Counter Divination] Skill, and not only that, it was level 7 in only 3 months! Even if Radiant had gotten this Skill right after our last meeting there was no way for this Skill to be this high level. I mean level 7 was a preposterous amount of level growth, way higher than even prodigy rates of growth.
I knew before that Radiant was somewhat of a savant when it came to divination, but for that to apply to counter divination as well was alarming. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what he would be capable of if he was free in society and not limited in what he could know within this prison.
“Is there anything you want to say about this Radiant?”
“Nope.” He folded his arms like he didn’t care, but I could feel a wave of annoyance coming from him.
“Don’t be too disappointed. You would have to be at a much higher level if you wanted to actually make use of your new skill.” I took back the orb from Radiant and walked back towards my seat, “Given that you only have until you’re twenty two to escape from here, I don’t think that this new Skill would’ve done you much good even if it went unnoticed.”
“Yeah, whatever.” At this point Radiant seemed to stop being polite and reverted to his usual self, or at least his usual self when he interacted with me.
After the meeting with his parents, Radiant had started to act more openly hostile towards his situation, and stopped his acting.
After almost letting Radiant go free back then, I started to slightly understand one of the reasons Radiant was given a MAX danger rating. He was a master of deception and manipulation, along with savant levels of divination magical abilities. Thankfully he had made a mistake and slipped up in his disguise due to his young age and lack of experience. Allowing everyone to see his true self for the first time. Radiant himself seemed to know he had slipped up back then, because he stopped even trying to maintain his previous façade and now openly showed his true self.
At the time I was relieved that my mistake hadn’t ended up allowing such a dangerous person to go free, and I still held some of that relief to this day almost 12 years later. However over the years some of my fear towards Radiant faded as I realized that he was a Behemoth that hadn’t been allowed to mature. He was easily dealt with now that we knew exactly what we were dealing with, and had stunted his social manipulation capabilities.
“Haaa.” I sighed as I sat down in my seat, “Radiant, let me be honest with you. You’re brilliant and are certainly a capable individual, but your understanding of the situation is completely out of tune with reality. There’s no way you’re going to escape from this prison if you haven’t already at this point. Why don’t you give more consideration to the offer of being contracted with the government.
“I know that you hate being controlled by others, but the only other option is to be completely mind controlled after you turn twenty two. If you voluntarily contract with them you’ll retain at least a little bit of control.” I could feel the heavy disdain coming from Radiant, “Just give it some more thought. Alright?”
“Whatever. Let’s just get the rest of the tests over with so I can go back to my room.”
“Teenagers…” I shook my head. This was exactly the reason why people weren’t considered an adult until they were fully mentally developed. “Alright let’s continue.”
At this point I doubted that I could do much else to help Radiant. If he was set on maintaining his delusions of escaping, then there wasn’t much I could do about it. It was ultimately up to him what path he would take, not me.