Catherine awoke in a vat of green liquid.

Immediately, she couldn’t breathe.

She looked with her eyes; the left half of her vision was obscured by something. She pushed back the half of her face that had been cut open with her hand. The wound was sealed shut perfectly without a blemish upon rejoining the rest of her scalp.

She would drown if she didn’t find air to breathe, but she was sealed shut inside a vat of clear glass.

Catherine swam forward to the glass in front of her. She could see someone, a researcher, standing in shock at his workstation.

Catherine didn’t bother to wait for him, finding the slightest imperfection in the glass trapping her, and forcing it open with telekinesis. With the sound of glass shattering into large fragments and a great splash of preservative fluid, the sixteen-year-old heir freed herself.

Catherine hacked and heaved, sitting in a heap on the floor of the cylinder her body had been preserved in, facilitating the vacation of her lungs with her telekinetic powers as a Chimaera.

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“She’s alive!”

“Get her some clothes. Hurry!”

Such shouts could be heard as footsteps rushed closer, and Catherine’s naked body was covered with a towel.

“Her vitals are stable.”

“Princess Catherine. Are you well? Your clothes will arrive shortly. Do you require anything else?” An officer, an older man with fringes of grey hair and a coat decorated with medals, asked.

“Yes.” Catherine coughed. “Come closer.”

The officer knelt on the wet floor with no regard for soiling his clothing.

Catherine casually slapped him across the face with her right hand. The man had time to wince before her palm met his cheek, but he did not recoil.

As soon as Catherine’s hand struck, her head recoiled back just as her subordinate’s did. Her vision blurred momentarily, and a light ringing in her ear continued for a moment before it was muted by Catherine’s enhanced metabolism. Her cheek continued to sting for a few seconds.

The officer stared at Catherine in confusion and amazement.

Catherine looked right back. “Thank you. That will be all.” She said.

The Empress-to-be had known what would happen, but she’d done it anyway; she wanted to experience it, to confirm it, with her body.

He did it. It worked. Catherine thought, somewhat relieved.

It was no surprise. After all, her visions were never wrong.