“Lori! Lori, can you hear me?”

  I could hear, but I couldn’t do anything. Couldn’t even move.

  I lay on the soft fragrant grass and stared at the night sky, where stars were lighting up one after another.

  I couldn’t see it, but I knew, I felt that the excess of my dark magic had begun to pour out through my hands and was weaving a black web around me on the ground. Very slowly for now, but if it wasn’t stopped in time…

  O-o-okay, this was getting really bad.

  Why wasn’t this Calypso calling for any of the seniors?! Some warden he was…

  “Look at me, Lori,” a deep voice sounded from somewhere very close.

  He had come close, too close. Not touching me, but almost pressed against me. Dangerous, Calypso… Very, very dangerous.

  He was either an idiot or completely out of his mind, honestly!

  However, Calypso didn’t seem like an idiot, but he definitely fit the bill for reckless and unhinged.

  Had no one warned him about the risks? Or was he deliberately tempting fate right now? If someone got too close to me in this already nearly uncontrollable state, my cursed magic could lash out so hard that Calypso would be in for a world of hurt…

  One of my wardens had to be resuscitated for two whole weeks after getting this close. Well, maybe Calypso had decided to break the record and pass out faster than anyone before him?

  Anyone before him, hm. What an amusing way to phrase that…

  "Look at me, Lori. Look into my eyes. Only my eyes. Nothing else exists. Just my eyes. Look at me."

  With a titanic effort of will, I forced myself to focus on Calypso, who had leaned over me very low, blocking my view of the panicking clouds fleeing across the sky. And as soon as I looked into his eyes, I felt as if I had been captured… as if I had been magnetized.

  Now I couldn’t have looked away even if I had desperately wanted to. Not that I wanted to. Right now I only wished for one thing: for the pain rapidly spreading through my body to end soon.

  Or for it to end me, for crying out loud. Eventually one of us had to give, right?

  I couldn’t blink, couldn’t shift my gaze even a millimeter. As if only Calypso and I remained in the whole world, and I couldn’t see and was unable to see anyone or anything around us.

  This was definitely some kind of magical intervention, I just didn’t quite understand the nature of this magic. As far as I knew, Calypso wasn’t a mind mage… Or was there something I didn’t know?

  “Look at me and listen only to me,” Calypso said in a quiet voice.

  “You are calming down now and finding the strength to put on your gloves. You’re doing it yourself, right now. You are calm, you are breathing steadily, you control your magic. It obeys you… Obeys…”

  I did start breathing more steadily, but the magic disagreed with the words about control and seemed to buck even harder.

  I felt a strong burning and painful pulsing begin in the center of my solar plexus, where every wizard’s magical Spark resides and gives them power.

  The same unpleasant burning was troubling my back, and my spine began to ache with pain, which meant the first stage of the episode was coming to an end.

  The second would follow, which I really, really didn’t want, because I feared that terrible pain to the point of losing consciousness. And it would come if someone didn’t take the necessary measures right now.

  What was this Calypso waiting for, huh?!

  Sure, I liked how he was “making eyes” at me right now, but what I needed was to be knocked out as quickly as possible and have a series of binding and restorative spells applied to me.

  In any case, while I was conscious, getting my magic under control would be impossible — this had been verified countless times by everyone imaginable.

  “You are calm. You are breathing steadily. You control your magic,” Calypso continued monotonously.

  His voice sounded hypnotic, and the headache that had begun to creep in started to diminish and quickly faded to nothing.

  But the burning in my chest and along my spine didn’t lessen. The dull aching pain was affecting my psyche and unfocusing my attention. Everything started to blur before my eyes again…

  It hurts… God, it hurts so much…

  Calypso unexpectedly leaned over me so low that he practically lay on top of me. His long hair fell like a snow-white waterfall on both sides of me, completely hiding our faces from outside eyes.

  He was close, very close… dangerously close. If my lightning orb hit him now, the damage would be serious and long-lasting.

  I wanted to scream something like:

  “Have you got a death wish or what?!”

  But I couldn’t make a sound — my throat felt like it was being squeezed in a vise. Even just breathing was hit or miss.

  “You are calm. You are breathing steadily. You are in control of the situation,” Calypso continued speaking in a quiet voice.

  He was speaking practically into my lips. At least, that’s how it felt, because I could distinctly feel his hot breath on me.

  Calypso propped himself on one elbow while his other hand massaged certain points on my head. I didn’t quite understand which ones — the movements seemed chaotic, but Calypso clearly knew what he was doing and was following some specific sequence.

  Though my drifting brain was only registering the pleasant stroking. Nothing else. Just me, Calypso, his hands, his eyes, and his voice.

  Now I truly couldn’t hear or see anyone or anything except Calypso’s grey eyes. I looked into his eyes and at some point I distinctly saw in them, hmm, something like a spinning golden spiral…

  This strange golden gleam was definitely not my imagination. And it was hypnotizing me like a snake hypnotizes a rabbit.

  “You are breathing steadily. You are in control of the situation. Control it, Lori. You have the power to make your magic listen to you. You can do it. I believe in you.”

  Calypso kept talking, his voice calm and confident… And I felt his confidence beginning to transfer to me.

  Also, he was no longer pressing on specific points on my head but simply stroking my hair, and a pleasant pulsing warmth emanated from his noticeably hot palm. This pulsation echoed as a strange vibration in my magical Spark — I could literally feel my entire being trembling from the magical onslaught.

  I didn’t quite understand what exactly Calypso was doing, but it was as if his entire aura was gently yet insistently enveloping mine. And this strong pressure was gradually restoring my ability to move.

  At least I could even wiggle my fingers and physically felt the uncontrolled dark magic “hiding” back into my magical Spark. Reluctantly, indignantly, but still — retreating.

  “Your head is becoming clearer,” his quiet voice rang like a bell for me. “You are in control of the situation.”

  My head really was becoming clearer, my thoughts — sharper.

  And I finally found the strength to join my palms behind Calypso’s back as he leaned over me — for this I had to practically embrace him — and mentally recite the necessary spell to summon the protective gloves.

  I should mention that Calypso was taking a huge risk at that moment. If he had moved, or if I had accidentally touched him with my bare palms, Calypso would have ended up in the infirmary for at least a month — that was the best-case scenario.

  And the worst… Well, better not to think about that.

  But right now everything came together perfectly, and I gasped convulsively, feeling lightness in my body after the pain suddenly retreated.

  It worked… I did it! No, really? I did it? That fast?

  “That’s it… Good girl,” Calypso said with a smile, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear.

  “Breathe deeper, Lori. Everything’s fine. You did great.”

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  Oh, could you touch my hair like that again? Plea-a-ase! I liked it.

  God, how wonderful that Calypso can’t read my thoughts…

  “Alright, I’ll do it,” he added.

  Or can he…?

  I froze in shock, not understanding what he meant. Decided to clarify, barely able to move my tongue:

  “Do what exactly?”

  “Take you…”

  “What, right here and now?!” my panicked inner voice screamed in horror.

  Although… Why put off until tomorrow what you can do today…?

  “…as my ward,” Calypso continued, while my inner voice fell indignantly and even disappointedly silent.

  “You have great potential, and major problems with magic control… A vast field for work. It will be interesting to work with you.”

  I sighed heavily. I honestly didn’t know whether to be happy about this news or not.

  On one hand: for the first time in my life I was able to regain control over my magic myself… Well, not entirely by myself, of course, but with Calypso’s active magical intervention — but still, myself! I summoned the restraining gloves back on my own! Usually they only calmed me down with extremely unpleasant forceful methods…

  And maybe there really was a chance to save myself from myself and live like a normal person, huh? Hope didn’t just stir inside me — it reared up on its hind legs, demanding I follow Calypso and do everything he said. Well, almost everything. Within reason.

  But on the other hand… What if something went wrong, and during our close contact Calypso remembered that I was the one who…

  “What. Is. Going. On. Here?” someone asked in a booming voice, cutting off my jumbled internal thoughts.

  I groaned internally and closed my eyes, recognizing the Mentor’s voice. It was hard to gauge the level of outrage and fury from that tense voice. But the level of shock was obvious.

  I wonder, was this my first and last day at Armarillis? Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen!

  I didn’t even want to think about how Calypso and I looked from the outside. Both disheveled, flushed, in dirty clothes — in my case, the hem of my robe was torn too.

  And Calypso was practically lying on top of me, leaning low over my face. And I was practically embracing him, because I had clasped my hands behind his back to summon the gloves.

  Around us, trees burned with magical fire like purple torches, illuminating our almost intimate pose. Because of the flickering flames, I couldn’t see clearly how many academy adepts had gathered around, but from the buzz of voices on all sides, I could conclude it was far more than a couple of people… And not even a couple of dozen, oh dear.

  Yeah, Lorelei, you’re a real genius. If you wanted to make a grand entrance at the academy, you succeeded spectacularly.

  The problem was that I hadn’t wanted to. And hadn’t planned to attract any attention to myself whatsoever.

  What can I say… Planning was never my strong suit, yeah.

  The one person who absolutely didn’t care what anyone thought about him was Calypso.

  He wasn’t at all embarrassed by the stares or our suspicious position. He calmly pulled away from me, unhurriedly checked the gloves on my hands, scanned my aura to make sure I was relatively okay.

  Shook his long hair out of his face, and only then glanced toward the Mentor and waved to him.

  “Everything’s fine,” Calypso said in such a casual tone as if nothing special was happening.

  “We had a trial training session, just a little warm-up. I agree with the wardenship, we’ll continue tomorrow.”

  Along with those words, another part of the wall of the training hall we had demolished came crashing down.

  A nervous laugh escaped my lips.

  “Just a little warm-up.”

  That was quite a way to put it. I wonder, would the academy survive if we did more than “a little warm-up”…?

  I glanced apprehensively at the Mentor, afraid to see his contorted face.

  The Mentor of Armarillis Academy was Ilforte Brandt — a very powerful supreme mage. He looked about thirty-five, though how old he actually was — only Gods know.

  Ilforte was a fairly tall man with long white hair, gray eyes, a narrow face, a long straight nose… He looked extraordinarily similar to Calypso.

  Or rather, it was actually Calypso who was almost an exact copy of him, since he was Ilforte’s son.

  I knew this perfectly well, as our parents were thick as thieves; they spent a lot of time together.

  Calypso and I had known each other since childhood too. But ever since my personal magic problems got worse, we started seeing each other only once or twice a year, mostly during Christmas holidays. But even those encounters hadn’t happened for the past couple of years.

  The Mentor was dressed as usual in a long snow-white robe with silver floral embroidery. In his hands he held a large porcelain mug, most likely filled with hot cocoa, which he loved.

  The Mentor wasn’t alone, by the way — my brother Eric stood beside him, also in a white robe, hands clasped behind his back. Both mages gazed at us with impassive expressions. At us and at the trees burning all around the clearing.

  One such tree couldn’t withstand the magical flames and crashed down before the Mentor with a thud, falling right at his feet. Ilforte didn’t flinch — he watched the dancing purple tongues of flame with a stony expression. Eric quickly extinguished them with a couple of waves of his hand. It seemed to me that my brother’s lips were slightly trembling with a barely suppressed smile.

  “Hmm… A trial training session, you say,” Ilforte drawled with feeling and turned to Eric.

  “Listen… Would you be so kind as to remind me how many minutes ago you brought Lorelei to the academy?”

  “Thirteen minutes ago,” Eric said, quickly checking his wristwatch.

  “Twelve and a half, to be precise.”

  “Hmm,” Ilforte hummed meaningfully and took a very loud sip of cocoa from his massive mug.

  “I see. I think I’ll go pour myself something stronger…”

  Just as he finished speaking, another tree crashed to the ground with an unpleasant creak, and purple tongues of flame began cheerfully spreading in all directions.

  The Mentor merely pursed his lips and closed his eyes for a second. He said curtly:

  “Calypso, when you’re done here, come see me. And you, Lorelei…”

  My heart clenched with fear for a moment in anticipation of inevitable punishment. But Ilforte only sighed heavily, surveyed the clearing burning with purple flames once more, and said:

  “Welcome to Armarillis, Lorelei.”

  He turned and walked back toward the academy, giving instructions on the way to his colleagues to start restoring the destroyed part of the castle.

  I exhaled loudly, feeling enormous relief. Well, I guess we could say the storm had passed, right?

  Meanwhile, Calypso had already gotten to his feet and was cleaning himself with spells. He glanced contemptuously at the gathered onlookers.

  “Well, what are you staring at?” he said in such a tone that if I were one of those onlookers, I would have wanted to sink through the floor.

  “Move along. You have your business, we have ours.”

  Well, the adepts scattered in all directions in an instant after that. Only those remained whom the Mentor had ordered to help restore the garden. The purple flames were quickly extinguished, and now druid mages were working on restoring the damaged trees. We’d certainly given them extra work, that’s for sure…

  As for me, I wasn’t rushing to jump to my feet just yet. There was still weakness in my body, my head was spinning a little. So I carefully sat up on the grass, massaging my temples and noting with surprise that I felt reasonably okay.

  Usually after a flare-up of my magical Spark I take a very long time to recover, but now the sensations were completely different, new.

  “Hey… What kind of trick did you just pull on me?” I asked Calypso.

  “You were subtly influencing my consciousness, weren’t you?”

  “Not very subtly,” he sighed.

  “I still have a lot to learn before I can do fine work. It’s still pretty rough.”

  “Are you a mind mage?” I asked warily.

  Damn, that would be bad. Mind mages can poke around in memories and read thoughts if they want to…

  “Not exactly,” Calypso shook his head.

  “I can’t read memories, that’s not my thing. I just have this magical gift, the gift of suggestion. It’s still in development, but I try very hard to improve my skills every day. As you can see, I managed to briefly suggest to you the idea that you could control your magic.”

  “And will it always be like this now?” I asked anxiously.

  “It’s not that simple. But we’ll work on it together. I’m sure I’ll find some way to deal with the problem. That’s why they offered me the position as your warden.”

  I couldn’t hide my sigh — one of both relief and disappointment.

  Relief, because Calypso, thank heavens, couldn’t read thoughts, which meant he couldn’t easily sneak into the back corners of my memories. That was something.

  And disappointment that my catastrophic problem couldn’t be solved just like that, with mere magical suggestion.

  While I was also getting my clothes in order, Calypso gave instructions:

  “You have a free hour until lights out. I suggest you spend this time in the dining hall: catch your breath and eat a hearty dinner. Very hearty, because you need to recover overnight, and you’ll need to spend a lot of energy tomorrow.”

  “Stuff myself at this hour?” I said doubtfully.

  Calypso smirked.

  “You’ve spent so much energy that if I were you, I’d get up in the middle of the night to eat again just to recover in time. Practical sessions with our group are tomorrow morning, and they’ll be risky, so you need to be ready for anything. No one’s going to cut you any slack.”

  “But… I’m not allowed at group practical sessions,” I said uncertainly.

  “I don’t have permission…”

  Not that I was against it. On the contrary! I was all for it, with both hands and feet!

  It’s just that Eric had warned me that for now I would be practicing separately from everyone else, only with my warden. And for group sessions, I needed written permission from the Mentor, which I didn’t have yet.

  “You will attend practical sessions along with everyone else,” Calypso said firmly.

  “Just strictly under my supervision. I said no one’s going to cut you any slack. Especially not me. As your warden, I see fit to do it this way.”

  “But the Mentor’s permission…”

  “I’ll have it in fifteen minutes max,” Calypso said confidently.

  “Because I want it that way. I’ll talk to my father. I’m sure he’ll listen to me and agree with my arguments.”

  “Don’t tell me you’re going to use your suggestion gift on him!!”

  Calypso chuckled.

  “Oh please, Lori, he’d have my head for that. And besides, it’s fundamentally impossible, since you can only subject someone’s will through suggestion if they’re weaker than you. And I’ve still got a long, long way to go before I reach my father’s level,” Calypso sighed.

  “I don’t even know if I’ll ever become as powerful a mage as him. I dream about it, but right now even reaching half his level is a major challenge for me… Well, as they say, time will tell.”

  He walked off toward the castle, and I just watched him go for a while.

  And you know what? Pfff, I wish I had his problems.

  While someone was dreaming of becoming at least half as powerful a mage as his father, I simply dreamed of solving my magical problem and starting to live a normal life.

  Even without magic, if need be…

  Because so far it had brought me nothing but trouble, and there was no end in sight to these problems.

  If anything, the clouds over my head were only gathering thicker with each passing year. And at the current rate, I had about a year and a half to two years left to live, at best.

  So yeah, I wish I had your problems, Calypso… I wish I had your problems…