Orphaned Seed
Copyright© 2026 by Fantasylover11
Chapter 11: Adult Node
Noah turned eighteen in a room that didn’t belong to anyone.
He woke before his alarm, as if his body had been waiting for the date to arrive. The overlay hovered over his ceiling with its usual quiet certainty.
DATE: 2026-09-02
No confetti.
No achievement badge.
Just the same clean font that had been counting him down for months.
His mother made pancakes because that was the only tradition she trusted. She kissed the top of his head like he was still small enough to be held in place.
“Eighteen,” she said softly. “Okay.”
Noah forced a smile.
He didn’t tell her his eighteenth birthday came with clauses.
By noon, he was in Mara’s car headed toward the offshore townhouse.
The trees along the road blurred into late-summer green, and the ocean smell returned as they neared the coast.
Noah’s stomach stayed tight the entire drive.
“You don’t have to do this today,” Mara said finally.
Noah looked at her.
“I do,” he said. “If I want the truth.”
Mara’s ring tapped once against her knuckle. “Good. Ask for it.”
The safehouse office was small and deliberately bland: a desk, two chairs, a third chair set back as if someone had planned for an audience.
Dr. Sommers sat in that third chair, hands folded, expression mild.
Noah sat across from Mara at the desk.
Two contracts lay between them.
The first was labeled PHASE B TERMS.
The second was a thinner sheet with a signature line at the bottom.
Noah stared at the paper until the words began to blur.
“This is the adult version,” Mara said. “You are eighteen. Guardian consent no longer applies. Neither do some protections.”
Noah’s throat tightened.
“Tell me what changes,” he said.
Mara didn’t flinch. “When you’re a minor, Meridian has to treat you as a liability to be contained. When you’re an adult, Meridian can treat you as an asset to be deployed.”
Noah felt cold spread under his ribs.
“Deployed where?” he asked.
“Ravenport,” Mara said. “The hidden track. The Veiled Annex, RU’s sealed training wing under the library.”
Noah looked at Sommers.
“And if I refuse?” Noah asked.
Sommers spoke gently. “If you refuse the university track, we lose the ability to keep you inside institutional protection.”
“Protection from who?” Noah asked.
Mara’s gaze sharpened. “From the people who will try to classify you as theft.”
Noah’s hands clenched into fists under the table.
“Crownline, old-money ladder royalty,” he said.
Mara nodded once.
Noah forced his fingers to unclench.
“I asked for honesty,” he said. “Full truth. What can you ask of me now that I’m eighteen?”
Mara’s mouth tightened as if she’d expected the question and still hated it.
“We can ask you to take risks,” she said. “We can ask you to keep secrets that ruin you if they surface. We can ask you to sign agreements that bind your future.”
Noah stared.
“And what can you do if I don’t?” he asked.
Sommers’ gaze held his. “We can remove access,” he said. “We can cut support. We can report you as unstable. We can make you easy to find.”
Noah swallowed.
“That’s a cage,” he said.
“It’s a world,” Mara corrected. “The cage is whether you learn to live in it.”
Noah leaned forward, forcing himself to keep his voice steady.
“Then here are my terms,” he said.
Mara’s eyebrows lifted slightly.
“No coercive Presence work,” Noah said. “If you want me to learn Presence, it stays on the right side of consent. No techniques intended to override choice.”
Sommers’ eyes softened by a fraction.
Mara’s jaw tightened.
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