Kenzo's earliest memories in Voltraxia weren't of toys or lullabies. They were of floating iron pebbles, walls that pulsed with ambient energy, and strange orbs that taught while they sang.
He was barely a toddler when the sparks began.
It started one quiet evening in his learning chamber—a gravity-neutral room lined with soft walls and arcane tech built to nurture awakening children. The chamber's core—a hovering crystal known as a Kaidros Node—glowed softly above him, projecting fractal diagrams and color-coded waves. Most children giggled or cried when exposed to it.
Kenzo reached out and felt it.
Not just its light.
Its charge.
It tickled his fingertips, like static clinging to skin. He tilted his hand, watching as tiny flakes of metal on the nearby table shifted toward him—like they were listening.
And then—
Zzzzap.
The spark leapt from his palm to the node. It flared with blue light. Alarms chirped softly, but no one panicked. House Voltraxia had long prepared for strange awakenings.
"Fascinating…" murmured his overseer tutor, a floating AI construct named Oralis. Its voice was cool, genderless, but carried a reverence rarely directed at children.
"Magnetic control at two standard deviations beyond predicted curve. Cradle-level magneto-field generation… with no emotional trigger."
Kenzo stared at his fingers, which still buzzed from the discharge. Something had changed. Not in the room—in him.
It wasn't just fun or exciting.
It felt natural.
By age two, Kenzo was moved to a guided curriculum on Essencia Fundamentals.
He sat in a half-circle with four other Voltraxian children—all older, all scions of elite sub-families. Each held a floating glyph slate while Oralis's projection hovered in the center of the room, weaving diagrams of energy and flesh.
"Essencia," Oralis began, "is the primal life-force that flows through all living things. Most beings cannot sense it. Fewer still can manipulate it."
The children nodded—or drooled.
Kenzo absorbed every word.
Oralis continued, projecting a glowing humanoid silhouette onto the center table. "When a being awakens, their Soul Core ignites. This catalyzes their unique Essencia Signature, shaped by personality, mental wiring, and sometimes—bloodline."
"Voltraxians," the AI added, "possess randomized Science-Based Essencia Expressions. Gravitas, Quantum Reflection, Kinetic Redirection… these are common."
The projection morphed, showing swirling electromagnetic fields.
"But magnetic-field manipulation is… unprecedented. Until now."
All eyes turned to Kenzo.
He looked down at his hands. The faint current dancing beneath his skin had become a steady presence—like a second pulse.
That night, alone in his room, Kenzo sat quietly, staring at the Kaidros Node on the ceiling.
He reached out—not with his hand, but with his will.
The floating iron cubes on his desk quivered… then spiraled upward.
He grinned.
He was beginning to understand it.
The next day, his mother visited.
Lady Arinya Voltrax—a regal, poised woman with silver tattoos running down her forearms—had little time for sentiment. But when she entered Kenzo's chamber and saw the pattern of levitating metals around him, her expression softened.
"You're learning faster than I expected," she said, kneeling beside him.
Kenzo blinked. "I feel… the pull. Like I'm part of it. Is that… the Essencia?"
"In part," she replied, placing a hand gently over his chest. "What you feel is the Voltrax Field—our house's inherited sensitivity to the structure of physical law. Gravity. Time. Energy."
Kenzo looked up. "Why did I get magnets, then?"
Lady Arinya smiled. "Perhaps the universe needed balance."
Then her tone turned serious.
"But understand this, Kenzo: the gift you carry is not just rare. It is volatile. Magnetism is the invisible hand that shapes galaxies—and rips them apart. If you lose control, you won't just damage this room… you could tear the molecules from someone's bones."
Kenzo stared at his palms again. That buzzing pulse no longer felt playful. It felt dangerous.
"I'll control it," he said, solemnly.
Lady Arinya paused—then nodded.
"I believe you will."
From that moment on, Kenzo trained with a silent intensity. While other toddlers played with light spheres and haptic games, he was channeling microcurrents through metal rods and sensing changes in polarity from meters away. He could bend tiny nails into spirals, fuse sand grains into glass, and alter a compass's direction with a flick of his fingers.
But most of all—he listened.
To the fields.
To the hum between atoms.
To the promise of a power that was still growing inside him.
Kenzo wasn't just a gifted child.
He was a force in the making.
And the cradle was only the beginning.