"Even the paint lies when truth is too dangerous."
---
The Great Hall was silent. Empty. Dust danced in rays of late sunlight cutting through stained glass.
Jayden stood in front of the painting—an oil portrait of Chancellor Hugo in his prime, seated on a marble throne, eyes almost lifelike. It had always been there, towering over every ceremony, every pledge, every punishment.
But now, it was just a locked door pretending to be art.
He slid the key Hugo left into the frame's lower ridge.
Click.
The frame unlatched with a heavy breath. Behind it… steel.
Jayden peeled it open. A hidden compartment, lined with velvet.
Inside: a single black file.
Subject 001: Project Ochieng.
-
Jayden laid the file on the ceremonial table.
Tielen and Maggy hovered behind him, breathless.
He opened it.
The first page was a genetic map.
"Gene fusion? Enhancement markers?" Tielen murmured. "They engineered you."
Jayden turned the page.
His birth photo.
Not in a hospital.
But in a lab.
> "Subject born of genetically selected embryos. Real name: Ochieng Alpha.
Identity reassigned to: Jayden Omondi. Reason: Fit for command, adaptable, emotionally resilient."
Original twin, Beta Ochieng — terminated.
Jayden clenched his fists.
He kept turning.
A letter from his father—Bernardo.
> "Son, if you're reading this, then you've unearthed what was never meant to be known. Forgive me. You were not born from love, but from desperation. The world needed a leader. We created one."
---
Maggy stepped back, tears on her cheeks. "So... you're both Ochieng and Jayden?"
Jayden looked at her, and for the first time, his voice broke.
"I don't know who I am anymore."
Tielen tapped the table.
"Maybe you're both. Maybe that's what makes you more dangerous than anyone else."
Jayden nodded slowly.
"No more hiding."
He took a marker and, on the file's cover, scratched out "Subject 001."
And wrote:
Jayden Ochieng.
---
Far away, in a dim-lit chamber, a council of shadowed figures watched the surveillance footage from the Great Hall.
"He's found it," one muttered.
Another nodded grimly. "Then the Final Protocol must be activated."
"Should we erase him?"
"No," the lead figure replied. "We welcome him home."
They raised a glass.
"To the return of Jayden Ochieng—the erased heir."
---