4 Phantom Mind

Within a spaceship flying towards planet South Star, Aether sat at a desk, pen in hand as his eyes stared at his monitor. The screen was split in half: one side depicted Gen sitting on a bed and fiddling with her new phone and the other side showed her phone's screen.

A faint smile tugged at Aether's lips. With smooth skin, clear eyes, and an enchanting smile, Gen was both beautiful and handsome. The two aspects somehow complemented each other, bestowing her with an irresistible attraction. It was as if she could be anything anyone wanted her to be—as if she didn't have a face. Her charm was as great as one's imagination.

Enthralled by her, he wrote the names of all the flying cars she spent extra time examining. He wondered what type of weapons she liked; he himself had a large collection of aura, magma, and plasma blades. Maybe he could show them to her one day.

The door slid open.

Aether frowned. Drake, Fenri, and Joule were supposed to be gathering intel on the recent assassination attempt or looking for leads to a decade-old disappearance of a man named Law Bender.

Instead, they were here disturbing his happy moment.

He gazed at them with cold eyes. "This better be important."

Drake scratched his head. He said, "Your Highness, we're here as your friends, not as your subordinates."

Aether tapped his desk. Whenever they declared themselves "friends," it was to criticize him. When they truly acted as friends, they would drop formalities. It was a smooth and natural transition built upon more than a decade of friendship, not this crude "we're here as your friends" declaration.

Drake coughed and elbowed Joule. Joule glared at Drake but said nothing.

Aether said, "Drake, speak."

"We don't think this thing with Gen is a good idea," Drake coughed out.

Aura burst from Aether's body, surpassing the amount he could control. The temperature within the room dropped, and frost formed on the ground, walls, and ceiling. He said, "Gen will be my wife. Period."

Something about her—her insane driving, sharp instincts, choice of weapons, or ability to withstand his aura—had made him crazy about her. His attraction to her was instant the moment he discovered she was a woman. It was faster than a beat of a heart, yet also steadier than the Great Firmament Bridge that united the North Star and East Star planets.

Aether's gaze bore into the three as they stood pale-faced. He saw no indignation within their eyes and he released a sigh of relief. They understood his inability to control his powers.

He said—to both explain to them Gen's importance and to calm his own nerves—"When I first met Gen, I was intrigued. She withstood my aura as if she couldn't sense it. I talked to her because I believed she could be the key to solving my problems. It led to making her sister my fake date. And then the assassins attacked, and I became enthralled."

He smiled; the room warmed.

He said, "She noticed the assassins before I had and calmly responded to their advances. Her driving was reckless. She had disabled her vehicle's AI and didn't watch the airways. Before I knew it, my mind was swimming with the hopes that her sister was like her. I was disappointed when Gen said she wasn't."

He laughed, and his orange eyes turned to that of midnight blue.

The frost within the room vanished, replaced by an ethereal glow akin to that of kindling flames. The temperatures soared; and Fenri, Drake, and Joule were freed from Aether's freezing aura. Their bodies quivered in reverence to his blazing presence.

"Then the unthinkable happened," Aether said, his smile as radiant as the sun. "Gen was a woman, a woman interested in men. Something snapped within me, and I fell in love."

Those were the most words Aether had ever spoken.

Joule's expression scrunched up, and he sent multiple glances at Drake. The man in question said nothing. Fenri stood stunned.

Their silence cut at Aether, as if he shouldn't have shared so much.

His smile faded.

He loved Gen, why did he need to explain it? It was what it was.

The frost returned. His three friends didn't understand his feelings. She was the first and only woman he would fall for. He was sure of it.

He scribbled a few words into his notebook, pen nib scraping the paper with each stroke. The letters left small depressions and formed the names of various daggers he thought Gen would like.

He said, "I will find a way to make her love me. She will be my wife."

"That's, uh, not exactly what we came to talk to you about," Fenri said, his expression turning awkward. He also blushed.

Aether raised a brow, hiding the many emotions within his gaze. Confusion, curiosity, fear... Fenri was one of the many men who had fallen for him. Aether had ignored it, but with Gen in the equation, he had the sudden fear she would misunderstand their friendship. A little of his aura gushed at the man in distaste.

Fenri pulled at his collar. "Um, I'll let Drake explain."

"Ha! Sacrificing me to the icy volcano, like always." Drake lifted up his hands and shook his head. "Your Highness, there is nothing wrong with you marrying Gen—"

Joule elbowed Drake in the stomach. Then he made for the door. He said with his back turned, "She won't marry you."

"Explain," Aether said. His eyes locked onto Drake.

"What he means to say is...you're...well...you're really bad with women. I mean look at what you're doing!" Drake pointed at the monitor. "There's no romantic bone in your body."

Aether tapped his notepad. On his computer screen, Gen had rolled over onto her stomach and was gazing at her phone. This time, she was reading the news on the latest Nightingale model, the one Aether had gifted her.

He smiled, and a warm feeling bubbled within him. He wanted to rub her head and buy her another flying car.

Drake said, "This is exactly what we're talking about. A proper prince won't spy on a woman."

Aether frowned.

Drake sighed. "If she discovers it, she's gonna hate your guts, and you'll never succeed in romancing her."

He replied—but only because he knew he needed their help—"I want to know more about her."

Drake slapped his own forehead. "Then ask her yourself."

Aether wrinkled his brows. He feared that if he talked to her, her opinion of him would drop. He sensed she didn't like him, but he didn't know why. What had he done to displease her?

"Or, you can ask her sister," Fenri commented.

Aether liked neither of their ideas. Why couldn't he gather information the same way he did so of his enemies? Plant a bug of some kind and spy on their every action.

As he gazed at his monitor, Gen left her current page. She typed a string of letters into her search engine.

HE'S RIGHT, the entry read, startling Aether. He jolted up in his chair and waved at Drake and Fenri.

NO NEED FOR THAT. I CAN SEE YOU

"Gen?" Aether asked, scrutinizing her figure still lying on the bed. She was scrolling through her phone, not typing. His two companions walked around his desk, confusion on their faces.

NOPE

"Who are you?"

PHANTOM MIND

Drake sucked in a breath of air while Fenri ran for the door. Aether didn't need to ask; the man was retrieving Joule, who had the most experience with computer security and hacking.

A fruitless endeavor, Aether thought. Phantom Mind was leagues better than Joule. He was a top-closs super-hacker. And super-hackers were aura-breakers with an ability that allowed them to dominate the web.

No one knew what Phantom Mind could and couldn't do. Security sectors only found relief in knowing that he was insane and lacked goals—but Aether found that tidbit untrustworthy. He believed everyone had secret agendas no matter how crazy they themselves were.

A star prince didn't keep his life without being skeptic.

He tapped at his desk and sent a glance at each camera in the room: the obvious one in the upper-left corner, the hidden one behind the fake fern, and the one attached to his monitor. He wondered which one was compromised—or maybe they all were.

Aether asked, "Did General Bluelight send you?"

NO. I HATE POLITICS

Drake scoffed. "You're here to collect dirt, aren't you?"

"Drake," Aether said, scorning his friend for his rude outburst. The last thing he wanted to do was to anger the hacker.

If the hacker decided to crash their ship and hurt Gen in retaliation... Aether didn't know what to do. A sudden sense of helplessness overcame him. He could gamble with his own life but not Gen's.

I'M NOT NOSY. I FOLLOW A CODE

"Please enlighten us," Aether said.

I'M OBEDIENT AND WELL BEHAVED

"Enlighten us," Aether repeated, but it was almost a question. He had no idea what ran through the minds of super-hackers. It had taken him years to understand Joule, who was barely considered one. There was something discordant about the minds of aura-breakers who possessed certain skills, especially those relating to either the psyche or one's intelligence.

I DON'T OBEY YOU

The door slid open, revealing the return of Joule and Fenri. They stood behind Aether.

Joule closed his eyes, activated his aura break, and said, "Don't know. I can't pinpoint his motivations. He's hacked the mainframe but hasn't looked into any of our files."

His response was within Aether's expectations.

I HAVE ONE GOAL

"Will you share it?" Aether asked as aura seeped from his body. He didn't like lowering his head to others, especially not one who could hurt his newfound love.

I'LL TELL YOU ON ONE CONDITION

"I agree," Aether said, thinking only of Gen.

THE GIRL YOU SAID YOU LOVED, LEAVE HER ALONE

Aether's aura exploded, this time willingly. The monitor froze then shattered into shards of ice. Freezing, the desk's wood buckled and cracked.

There was a beep, and Aether heard a voice over the intercom, his own voice: "That's not nice. No deal."

The room went silent except for the grinding of Aether's teeth. He cursed, swearing he would tear the man to pieces if he ever met him in person. How dare he try to keep him from Gen?

He stormed from his office and marched down the hallway, boots clinking as he headed towards Gen's room.