The silence following Amara's question stretched uncomfortably, everyone's eyes fixed on Jade's burning face.
"We could try makeup," Niamh suggested hesitantly. "Something to make his features less... striking?. Or you could readjust the disguise?"
"Or different clothes," Lio offered. "More masculine styling? Bulk him up somehow?"
"A mask?" Amara said, though even she sounded uncertain. "Or—"
"It's too late for any of that," Jade interrupted, his voice still slightly strangled from embarrassment. "This is how everyone already knows me. If I suddenly show up looking completely different, that's going to raise more questions than it answers."
Selene turned to face them fully, her expression puzzled. "Wait, what do you mean 'disguise'?" Her emerald eyes moved between Jade, Niamh, Lio, and Amara with growing confusion. "What are you all talking about?"
The room went quiet again, but this time with a different quality—awkwardness mixed with realization.
"Selene..." Niamh started carefully. "You've never seen Jade's true appearance."
Selene blinked. "What? But I see him every day. I've seen him for ten years."
"You've seen him with Spectra's Band active," Niamh explained gently. "An artifact that masks certain... features. Jade's been using it since we arrived in Nexus, the night before we met you."
Understanding dawned across Selene's face, followed immediately by intense curiosity. Her eyes locked onto Jade with the focus of a predator spotting prey. "You mean to tell me that you've been holding out on me? For ten years? Jade, I thought we were family!"
"We are family," Jade said, taking an instinctive step backward as Selene advanced on him. "The artifact is just—it's for protection—"
"Show me," Selene demanded, her voice taking on that tone that meant she would not be denied. "Right now. I want to see."
Jade looked to Niamh for help, but she just smiled apologetically. "She's going to find out eventually. Might as well be now."
"Fine," Jade sighed, reaching up to touch the necklace hidden beneath his shirt. "But don't—"
"STOP!"
Everyone froze.
Lio had jumped to his feet, one hand raised dramatically like he was stopping an oncoming army. His expression was dead serious, almost comically so.
"What?" Jade asked flatly.
Without answering, Lio began moving toward the door with exaggerated stealth—knees bent, arms out for balance, eyes darting around the room as if checking for enemy surveillance. He looked absolutely ridiculous.
Amara pressed a hand to her mouth, shoulders shaking with suppressed laughter.
Lio reached the door and tested the handle, then—apparently satisfied it was unlocked—threw the bolt with a heavy clunk that echoed through the room. He pressed his back against the door, breathing out a dramatic sigh of relief.
"Okay," he said seriously. "You can undo it now. We're secure."
Jade stared at him. "Are you done?"
"I'm protecting the realm from your devastating beauty," Lio said with utmost solemnity. "Someone has to ensure the structural integrity of this mansion remains intact when you unleash your true form."
"I hate you," Jade said.
"You love me," Lio corrected, grinning now. "Now stop stalling and show us the goods."
Niamh was trying very hard not to laugh, one hand covering her mouth. Amara had given up entirely, giggling into her hands. Even Jade felt his lips twitch despite his embarrassment.
"You're all terrible," he muttered, but reached for Spectra's Band with his mind.
The artifact responded immediately to his mental command, its concealment dissolving like mist under sunlight.
The change was immediate and dramatic.
Jade's hair shifted first—the silver-white strands rippling like liquid as they transformed into silvery-blue, the color of moonlight reflected on water. The elaborate braids Niamh and Selene had woven remained, but now they seemed to glow softly, each strand catching the light like captured starlight. The waves cascaded down his back like a river of lunar light, ethereal and impossible.
His eyes changed next—the simple silver irises splitting, revealing the dual pupils that marked his Divine Soul talent. Silvery-grey overlapped with golden-purple in each eye, the colors shifting and swirling like galaxies trapped in crystal. They seemed to 'see' more, to pierce through surface reality into something deeper.
And his features—already beautiful—somehow became more. Not different, exactly, but refined to an impossible degree. Every line, every curve, every angle perfectly balanced in ways that shouldn't exist in nature. His bone structure seemed carved by divine hands, his skin luminous as moonstone, his presence radiating an otherworldly quality that made the air itself feel different.
He looked less like a person and more like a work of art given life. Like something that belonged in myths and legends, not standing in a bedroom wearing casual clothes with braids in his hair.
The silence that followed was absolute.
Selene's jaw had dropped. Her eyes had gone impossibly wide. She stood frozen, staring at Jade like she'd never seen another living being before in her entire life.
Then she gasped.
Not a delicate, ladylike gasp. A full-body, whale-breaching-for-air gasp that made her entire frame shudder. Her hands flew to her mouth, then her chest, then reached out toward Jade before stopping halfway as if afraid touching him might shatter the illusion.
"Oh my gods," she breathed. "Oh my gods. Jade. JADE. You—I can't—what—"
Words failed her completely. She just stared, her emerald eyes filling with tears of what might have been joy or shock or aesthetic overload.
Jade felt his face heating again, the flush visible even on his luminous skin. "Selene, please don't—"
But Selene was already moving, crossing the room in three quick steps and grabbing Jade's face between her hands. She turned his head left, then right, examining him from every angle like he was a priceless sculpture she was appraising.
"How?" she demanded, her voice pitched high with emotion. "How is this possible? I thought you were beautiful before but this—this is—" She made a strangled sound. "There aren't words! Words don't exist for this! We need to invent new words! 'Beautiful' doesn't cover it! 'Gorgeous' doesn't cover it! You're—you're—"
"Selene," Jade said, his voice strained. "You're kind of holding my face too tight—"
"I've been living with you for TEN YEARS," Selene continued, not loosening her grip at all. "TEN YEARS and you've been hiding THIS?!" She looked at Niamh accusingly. "You KNEW! You knew and you didn't tell me!"
"I was respecting Jade's privacy," Niamh said, though she was smiling warmly at Selene's reaction.
"Privacy?! PRIVACY?!" Selene's voice went up another octave. "This face is a crime against privacy! This face is a gift to humanity that should be SHARED!"
She turned back to Jade, and he was horrified to see she was actually starting to drool slightly in her distraction. Her face was inches from his, eyes roving over every feature with manic intensity.
"Your eyes," she breathed. "They have—there are two—the colors are—" Another strangled sound. "And your hair! It's blue! BLUE! How is your hair simultaneously silver AND blue?! That's not possible! Physics doesn't allow this!"
"Selene," Jade said desperately. "You're—there's saliva—"
"And your FACE!" Selene's grip tightened. "Look at this bone structure! These cheekbones could cut glass! This nose is PERFECT! These lips are—are—" She made a sound like a dying animal. "I can't handle this! My heart can't handle this! Kael's going to be so jealous that I saw this and he didn't!"
"I think we're losing her," Lio observed from his position by the door, grinning widely.
"Should we intervene?" Amara asked, though she was laughing so hard she had tears in her eyes.
"Give her a minute," Niamh said, her own laughter barely contained. "She's processing."
"Processing?!" Selene shrieked, finally releasing Jade's face only to grab his shoulders and shake him. "How am I supposed to PROCESS this?! This is—you're—I'm going to have a crisis! A full existential crisis about beauty and art and the nature of reality itself!"
Jade caught Lio's eye, his expression screaming for help.
Lio just grinned wider and gave him a thumbs up.
Traitor.
"Selene," Jade tried again. "Can you please—"
"No!" Selene declared, pulling him into a crushing hug that pressed his face against her own. "No, I cannot calm down! I refuse! This is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen and I've seen sunsets! I've seen auroras! I've seen Kael shirtless after training!" She pulled back to look at him again, hands on his shoulders. "And you're MORE BEAUTIFUL than all of that!"
"That's... very flattering but—"
"Flattering?! FLATTERING?!" Selene looked like she might actually combust. "Jade, darling, sweet boy, light of my life, you could start WARS looking like this! Empires would FALL! People would write POETRY! Bad poetry! SO much bad poetry!"
"Oh gods," Jade muttered, closing his eyes.
"You can't hide this!" Selene continued, her voice taking on a manic edge. "You can't cover this up with an artifact! This is a gift! A blessing! The universe made you this beautiful for a REASON and that reason is to make the rest of us feel inadequate about our own faces!"
Lio was laughing so hard he'd slid down the door to sit on the floor, holding his stomach. Amara had collapsed onto the bed, tears streaming down her face. Even Niamh had given up all pretense of composure and was giggling helplessly.
"I need to sit down," Selene announced, though she didn't release Jade. "I need water. And wine. Mostly wine. Do we have wine? We should get wine. Kael keeps the good bottles in—no, focus Selene." She shook her head sharply. "Jade. JADE. Look at me."
Jade, still trapped in her grip, opened his eyes. "I'm looking."
"You can't go to the tournament like this," Selene said with absolute seriousness. "You'll cause a riot. An actual riot. People will fight each other for the chance to breathe the same air as you."
"That's why I use Spectra's Band," Jade said pointedly. "Can I please activate it again now—"
"NO!" Selene's hands tightened on his shoulders. "Not yet! I'm not done looking! I need to memorize this! I need to burn this image into my brain so I can describe it to Kael later in excruciating detail and make him jealous that he missed it!"
"Selene—"
"Just one more minute!" She grabbed his face again, turning it to catch the light. "Look at how your skin glows! GLOWS! Like moonstone! Like—like—" She was actually crying now, tears streaming down her face. "It's too much! Beauty this profound shouldn't exist! The universe is TAUNTING me!"
"I think she's broken," Lio managed between gasps of laughter.
"Completely broken," Amara agreed, wiping tears from her eyes.
"Should we help him?" Niamh asked, though she made no move to intervene.
"Absolutely not," Lio said. "This is the best entertainment I've had in months."
Jade shot him a look that promised future revenge, but Lio just grinned unrepentantly.
Finally, Selene seemed to wind down, her manic energy giving way to something more manageable. She released Jade and stepped back, pressing both hands to her flushed cheeks.
"Okay," she breathed. "Okay. I'm calm. I'm composed. I'm—" She looked at Jade again and made another strangled sound. "No, I'm not. I'm not calm at all. How are you REAL?!"
"Selene," Niamh said gently, moving to put an arm around her friend. "Breathe. In and out."
"I'm breathing!" Selene protested. "I'm breathing and looking and trying to understand how this boy's face doesn't violate several laws of physics and possibly some religious doctrines!"
Jade, seeing his chance, quickly activated Spectra's Band again. The concealment washed over him like a veil, returning his hair to silver-white, his eyes to simple silver, his features to their "normal" impossible beauty.
Selene made a sound of protest. "No! Bring it back! I wasn't done—"
"You were definitely done," Jade said firmly, taking several steps away from her reach.
"But—"
"Done," Niamh said, squeezing Selene's shoulder. "You can look again later. Right now, you need to calm down before you hyperventilate."
Selene opened her mouth to argue, then seemed to realize she was, in fact, breathing rather heavily. She pressed a hand to her chest. "Okay. Yes. You're right. I need—I need to sit down. And process. And possibly have that wine."
She moved to the chair by the window and sank into it, staring at Jade with an expression that mixed awe, shock, and lingering disbelief.
"Ten years," she said faintly. "Ten years you've been hiding that. Jade, darling, I love you, but I'm also slightly angry with you for keeping that secret."
"It was necessary," Jade said, his face still warm from embarrassment. "And now you understand why."
"Oh, I understand," Selene agreed. "I understand perfectly. You were absolutely right to hide it. If people saw your true appearance, they'd—" She shuddered. "I don't even want to think about what they'd do. Especially at the tournament with millions of participants."
"Which brings us back to the original problem," Amara said, her laughter finally subsiding into occasional giggles. "Even with Spectra's Band, Jade is too beautiful to convince people he's a beta. And we can't exactly make him more disguised without changing his appearance completely, which would raise suspicions."
...