The night before my birthday, I accidentally overheard part of a conversation between my father and the Mentor at our estate.

  It was late, but I couldn’t sleep, and I was going to grab some water from the kitchen. But I never made it to the kitchen that night — it was already occupied by Eric, our father, and Ilforte, talking quietly.

  I froze in the hallway when I heard my name in their tense conversation. What I overheard was the last straw that broke my facade of calm.

  “…the gloves are holding back her darkness, keeping it from reaching her heart. But we don’t know how long that will work. Her body can’t handle her power, so what should be healing touches turn deadly… Her magical Spark is constantly working at maximum capacity, even at rest. It’s wearing out thousands of times faster. You know what that leads to…”

  “How long does she have, Il?”

  “About two years… Maybe three at most… No more.”

  “And there’s no chance at all?”

  Ilforte sighed heavily. I couldn’t see his face, but I imagined him frowning and pressing his lips together.

  “So far I don’t see any way out, Zael. I’m constantly searching, never stopping looking, but I haven’t found an answer yet. Right now I don’t know how to help Lorelei fully heal… How to extract this darkness from her. There’s too much of it… So much, it’s like she’s some kind of greater demon, but she doesn’t have a demonic structure to her magical Spark, to her body, you understand?”

  “You and Elza have a very powerful union of two mighty mages with your own specifics. Before Lori, you only had twins: your combined magic with Elza creates a very powerful effect, and that kind of power simply can’t physically fit into a single child of your love, so you always had twins, three sets of them. Between two children your dark and white magic was distributed relatively evenly. With a bias toward one side for each, but still it was distributed.”

  “But with Lorelei, everything went to her alone. And usually that’s amazing when it happens… But in her case, the concentrate is so powerful it doesn’t fit in just one Lori. And the especially aggressive darkness actively pushes outward. So her light side, a completely stunning and unique gift of healing any magical Spark with a single touch is simply suppressed by the dark power that Lori can’t properly contain. And the gift starts working wrong. Snuffing out Sparks instead of healing, and it has a random effect.”

  Ilforte was silent for a moment, then continued:

  “This results in painful episodes with bursts of uncontrolled magic, and affects the breakdown of her physical form. Her body simply can’t handle such constant strain and starts to ‘break down.’ I still don’t understand what to do about all this… All we’ve managed to do is suppress her problem temporarily with the gloves and some supplementary potions. But that’s not a cure, it’s like putting a band-aid on a broken leg. And what to treat it with I don’t know…”

  “Tomorrow Lori turns eighteen, and by my estimates, after she comes of age, her power will start rapidly increasing, and the episodes will get worse. Her physical form will keep breaking down, the pain will intensify. How long will we be able to help her cope with this? I don’t know. And how long will she be able to endure? Also a question… So… For now the worst-case scenario is the most likely outcome, Zael. I’m sorry…”

  Father didn’t respond, there was just a dull thud, like a fist hitting the wall.

  Maybe they talked about other important things, but I didn’t stay to listen… I tiptoed back to my bedroom, cast silencing charms on my room, and let my emotions out.

  I cried for a long, long time from helplessness and self-pity…

  I wanted to live. So badly! I would have been ready to give up magic completely just to keep living. I’d even asked the Mentor once about that possibility, but he just shook his head, saying you can’t just flip a switch and turn off your magic at will. I knew that perfectly well myself, but…

  So that day I snapped. Lost it, yeah. Ran away from home at dawn, piling on every concealment charm I could so none of my relatives could find me. Swiped a couple of powerful artifact bracelets from my father’s study that helped me move without leaving traces. I covered my tracks well — they couldn’t find me for a whole day.

  I spent that day under the motto ‘now or never.’ I decided — today’s supposed to be my celebration, and I’m going to spend it exactly how I want, and I won’t deny myself anything!

  I did so many things that day… But my thoughts kept returning to one thing — Calypso.

  I thought — well, if I only have two or three years left to live at most, then I have to, I must reach my personal forbidden fruit at least once in my life.

  I knew Calypso would be at Rauf-Pool on the summer solstice — I’d overheard bits of conversation from the di Vern-Rodinger brothers before, that they’d be going there to party together. Finding Calypso in that club was like finding a needle in a haystack, but I managed it. By that point my head was lightened by a couple glasses of fire punch, I’d thrown all my shyness aside and brazenly went after Calypso myself.

  ‘Owl. Tonight I’ll be your owl!’

  ‘Well then, tonight I’ll be your rabbit, since you caught me…’

  I laughed, leading him to the dance floor and thinking that Calypso had no idea how spot-on he was, and that tonight I really was a kind of owl who’d caught her rabbit.

  He danced like a god… His hands slid suggestively over my hips, and his eyes burned right through me. Oh, those eyes of his!.. That’s when they finally looked at me not as ‘just a friend,’ but as an alluring woman. As his prey… Which I was more than happy to be.

  Although, that night Calypso was really the prey. I think he must have been blown away by how forward I was… Though he definitely liked it.

  Alone, he was… exactly what I’d imagined. Even better, so much better. A blazing fire of passion and sensuality that belonged to me alone that night. The way he kissed me, god… I’ll remember those mind-blowing kisses for the rest of my remaining, however short, life.

  Calypso probably had no idea that I gave him my first kiss… But my lack of experience was more than made up for by enthusiasm, boldness, a girl’s infatuation, and a wild desire to drown in pleasure and give, give so much affection and tenderness…

  Oh, I was generous with emotions. I was determined to get everything I wanted from that night and have no regrets about it afterward.

  Calypso was probably also blown away by my innocence combined with my total fearlessness… Though he didn’t really show it and quickly got his composure back. He was so attentive… and did everything to make sure I felt good.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  I didn’t feel guilty about having to mess with Calypso’s memory to erase his recollection of me.

  Why did I erase it? I got scared… Of his unknown reaction, and just… He didn’t need to remember anything about me. There was no point. We only had that one night, and there was no shared future, and there was nothing to regret — I got what I wanted, and I should just leave — that’s what I told myself as I left Rauf-Pool, leaving Calypso tied up in the room.

  Later, though, after the emotional high wore off, I spent a long time berating myself with mental screams of ‘What have I done?!’

  But that came later, when I’d calmed down, processed everything that happened, and admitted that tying up Calypso and wiping his memory wasn’t exactly a great idea. To put it mildly. And that if my secret got out, I’d be in for it big time. Also to put it mildly.

  But at that moment I was simply happy in my own way, walking wherever my feet took me, enjoying the soft pink dawn…

  My parents found me later on the waterfront, when my concealment charms started wearing off.

  No, they didn’t scold me for running away like that. They were understanding and talked a lot about how much I meant to them, that they’d do everything to heal me…

  But I was only half-listening, to be honest. I listened and smiled at my memories of the best birthday of my life, burning memories that I intended to keep to myself and not share with anyone.

  My treasure — and mine alone.

  On one of the staircase landings on the way to my bedroom, I ran into my older brother Eric. He was walking toward me, and his face brightened when he saw me. Eric smiled more with his eyes than his lips, like now, but this ‘smile in his eyes’ was unmistakable.

  “How are you?” he gave me a half-hug, looked me over head to toe, and nodded approvingly, clearly having scanned my aura and confirmed it was intact.

  “Fine,” I smiled.

  “Going to rest, I have my teleportation exam in the morning, I need to be in shape.”

  “Umm, Lori, you know, you won’t be able to take the exam tomorrow,” Eric shook his head.

  “Your warden withdrew your application.”

  “What?” I was stunned, and my smile instantly vanished.

  “What do you mean? Withdrew it how? When?”

  “An hour ago, according to the log,” Eric said, checking the notebook in his hands.

  “But how?” I kept asking, my heart beating like an outraged bird in a cage.

  “Why would he? I don’t understand… This has to be a mistake! Why would Calypso withdraw my exam application? The Mentor himself told me today that I should take the teleportation exam tomorrow morning!”

  “The Mentor is the Mentor, but in this context your personal warden has more authority,” Eric said evenly.

  “And without his approval, you won’t be allowed to take the exam.”

  He looked at me sympathetically and added:

  “I don’t know the reason, but you can ask Calypso himself. He should be in his office right now, it won’t be hard to find him and ask.”

  “Oh, I’ll ask him alright. I’ll ask him so hard he won’t know what hit him,” I growled angrily, clenching my fists and feeling magic starting to crackle in them from rage.

  “Where’s this damn office of his?”

  Eric told me where to go, and I turned in the opposite direction, intending to descend on Calypso like an angry fury.

  Rage was rapidly boiling inside me, and the fire punch was still making itself felt, egging me on, fueling my outrage. As I approached the office, I didn’t even notice that my hands had started literally sparking with lightning, and the door flew open on its own from the energy surge.

  I didn’t know what Calypso was thinking, but I was about to let him have it.

  The office was a long, narrow room, most of which was taken up by a very long table. It was probably a spare conference room, but now almost the entire table was covered with blueprints, diagrams with complex calculations, and the floor was practically carpeted with crumpled and torn papers and even a broken cup and saucer.

  It looked like someone had been working very intensely here, discarding various options. Quite emotionally discarding them, judging by the shattered cup; and the flasks lying on the floor had clearly been swept off the table in frustration.

  It was still bright outside, but the room was dark, the windows covered with heavy crimson curtains, and the light was very dim.

  The office was lit only by a single dim lamp, and because of the crimson glow from the curtains, the atmosphere was rather gloomy. I’d even say — aggressive.

  At the far end of the office stood a piano, being played by someone sitting in a large dark leather armchair. The back of the chair was so tall and wide that it completely hid Calypso behind it, but the white-gloved fingers flickering over the keys made it clear it was him.

  “So what’s this about?” I demanded loudly, slamming the door shut behind me.

  Calypso faltered for a moment but immediately continued playing.

  “Hmm? What exactly don’t you understand, Lori?” Calypso purred, keeping time with the rather ominous melody he was playing.

  I didn’t know, by the way, that Calypso could play piano. Music ran in my family, and almost all my brothers and sisters could play various instruments — musical education was expected in our family. But music had never really clicked for me. Studies and combat training had always interested me much more.

  In another situation I probably would have frozen in place, mesmerized, watching Calypso’s fingers dance skillfully over the keys, but right now everything inside me was seething with anger, irritation and desperately pushing to get out.

  “Why did you withdraw my application for tomorrow’s teleportation exam?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Calypso replied in a flat voice.

  “Are you messing with me?” I said loudly, feeling lightning bolts crawling not just down my arms now but through my hair too.

  Without thinking, I found myself jumping onto the table — it was the fastest way to get to Calypso directly, avoiding the broken cups and flasks on the floor that were hard to see in the dim office. And, well, probably it was my instinctive desire to be ‘above’ Calypso.

  “I’m messing with you? Aren’t you getting things mixed up?” he said.

  He finally deigned to turn toward me in his chair. He was still wearing the same black pants and eye-catching crimson shirt.

  He sat with one leg crossed over the other, one arm resting on the soft armrest, watching as I strode rapidly toward him right across the table, my heels clicking sharply.

  I think with my lightning-sparking hands and hair, plus the cloak of my robe billowing behind my shoulders, I looked pretty fierce and impressive.

  But Calypso seemed more amused than anything.

  He managed to look up at me from below as if he were looking down. His smirk was impossibly smug. And that look of his practically screamed ‘go on, go on, what do you want to say to me, what are you going to do to me?’

  “There’s nothing wrong with my teleportation, what’s the problem?!” I was shouting.

  “You’re just being difficult for some reason and won’t let me… So that I… So that what? What’s the reason? Ugh, whatever, right now you’re coming with me and confirming my application in front of me, or else I’ll…”

  I jumped off the table and advanced on Calypso menacingly, intending to… Well… I don’t know… Grab his shirt and shake the soul out of him, at least. I was in a combative mood, and the fire punch somewhere inside me was only adding to the drama.

  But I stopped dead, frozen just a step away from Calypso, when I heard his next words.

  “Or else you’ll what? What are you going to do to me?” he sang with an utterly smug smile.

  “Tie me up and run away again?”

  “What?..” I was floored, instantly losing all my fire and not yet fully processing Calypso’s words.

  He looked at me from under his brows so predatorily that my heart skipped a beat and my stomach dropped to my feet. The lightning in my hair and hands fizzled out on its own — from the sudden spike of adrenaline, no doubt.

  Meanwhile, Calypso was slowly pulling off his gloves, taking his time, methodically freeing finger after finger, watching with amusement as I instinctively backed away, bumping against the table.

  “Well?” Calypso asked in a deep voice, pulling one glove off with his teeth.

  “Got something to say? Cat got your tongue, Owl?”