Hugo pressed the scalpel against his sternum, just below the collarbone. The borrowed lab was empty this late, and the Fracture Jade lens sat on the metal tray beside him, glowing faintly in the dark. He'd spent three years mapping the soul's structure, charting how Jade fragments bonded to living tissue. Now he'd see if the theory held. The Grace family courier had left the lens in a black briefcase two hours ago, no questions asked. Hugo made the incision. Blood welled up, but he kept his hand steady. He lifted the lens with surgical tweezers and pressed it into the wound. The jade burned as it sank beneath his skin, then locked into place against bone. Pain shot through his chest, sharp and electric. He reached for the suture kit but stopped. The surgical tools on the tray lifted into the air without him touching them. They hovered there, responding to his thought, to his will. The needle threaded itself. Hugo exhaled slowly as the tools moved in precise patterns, stitching the wound closed while he watched. The research had worked. His soul had changed. He tested the new ability with the briefcase. It slid across the stone floor toward him, then rose to eye level. Hugo rotated it with a thought, watching it spin in the air. The control was precise, nothing like the crude Jade experiments he'd cataloged in Foundation reports. This was direct manipulation of matter through will alone. He set the case down and looked at his reflection in the darkened window. The bandage showed through his open shirt, a white square over his heart. Three years of research, six partnerships, endless donor meetings, all for this moment. He could feel the lens inside him, warm and alive, connected to something fundamental. The soul wasn't just observable anymore. It was malleable. And he'd only begun to understand what that meant. But the power pulsed outward without warning. The statue in the corner—some old marble piece of Rhea—lifted off its base. Hugo tried to pull back, to control the surge, but the force was too raw. The statue slammed against the ceiling and shattered. Chunks of marble crashed to the floor around him, dust rising in clouds. He pressed his hand to his chest, feeling the lens throb beneath the bandage. The connection was stronger than he'd calculated. The lens didn't just respond to his will. It amplified it, fed on it, turned thought into force that wanted release. Hugo stared at the broken pieces scattered across the lab floor. He'd unlocked something in his soul, yes. Now he had to learn what it would cost him.