Chapter 13. Got Something to Say?

  [Lorelei]

  “Magic is back!” an inquisitor said happily when we came up to the living room.

  “Everything works! Magic works!”

  In his excitement, he made a few passes with his hands, and conjured tree leaves swirled around him in a green vortex.

  Elza nodded.

  “It should have returned almost immediately after the circle was closed and the victim was burned. We sealed the void that was pulling magic into the pentagram, feeding it. The external currents have stabilized, and now they can serve as conductors for white magic again.”

  She turned to me and asked quietly:

  “How are you feeling? We were dealing with some very dark stuff, the overall energy was heavy, it could have affected how you feel. Is your magic acting up badly?”

  “I’m holding up fine,” I smiled.

  “My back hurts a bit, and my legs too, but that’s pretty much normal by now…”

  “Why do your legs hurt?” Elza cut in.

  “Show me exactly where. No, take your shoes off, how else am I supposed to look?”

  “Can we do this later?” I mumbled, glancing at Calypso.

  The last thing I wanted right now was to show off my bare feet in front of him. I had no idea if he might remember my tattoo.

  But arguing with Mom was pointless, so I had to show her right there. I sat down on a chair, taking as long as possible with the clasp on my shoe. Calypso, as luck would have it, was watching me ve-e-ery closely, his eyes glued to my feet the entire time Mom was examining me.

  “What inte-e-eresting tattoos,” Calypso drawled with an unreadable expression.

  “I fee-e-el like I’ve seen them somewhere before…”

  “They’re just standard protective ones, nothing special, you could’ve seen them anywhere,” I waved him off, tossing my hair.

  I was lying through my teeth, but I kept my poker face. Didn’t even miss a breath — go me.

  Well, what? The tattoos really were protective, the kind that helped ‘ground’ my magic a bit. See, I wasn’t even completely lying.

  And don’t get nervous, Lori. Don’t get nervous, I said!

  “It seems like the same kind of pain you have in your back,” Elza sighed, finishing her examination.

  “It’s all because of the concentration of darkness that can’t find a way out… And today the external fluctuations were very strong too, so it’s no wonder you’re not feeling well… Honestly, I’m amazed you made it through the whole day without an episode… Was that your doing?” She turned to Calypso.

  “I believe the aura merging helped Lori,” Calypso said carefully.

  “I have a few ideas about why that is, how it could be developed and used to help Lorelei, but first I need to discuss some details with my father. And here he comes.”

  Ilforte approached us, but in response to his son’s questioning look, he just shook his head, putting an arm around his shoulders and patting his back.

  “We’ll talk tomorrow, I don’t have time right now. I’m about to teleport to the General Staff for an emergency meeting of the Inquisition’s Supreme Council about this whole situation. It’s serious, can’t be delayed. So you’re free for today, you can head back to the academy.”

  “Could Lorelei and I go to Rauf Park now?” Calypso asked.

  My heart skipped a beat at the mention of the park, which was near the Rauf-Pool club where I’d wiped Calypso’s memory a year ago.

  ‘It’s a coincidence, Lori, just a coincidence,’ I repeated to myself like a mantra.

  Calypso continued:

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  “I’d like to stick to the schedule and not deviate from it if possible, if we want to achieve results as quickly as we can. Consistency is key here. And we’ve already fallen behind the schedule I put together today.”

  “Good spot for meditation,” Ilforte nodded.

  “But not today. Today we’ll still be combing the entire city for any traces of rogue dark forces, and I think it’s too dangerous to leave you unsupervised. You almost died today as it is, and I’ll never forgive myself if I let you go off on your own now and something happens to you again… No, not today. So your schedule will need some adjustments. You can go to Rauf Park tomorrow, after Lorelei takes her teleportation exam in the morning.”

  “But theoretically, the same situation could repeat tomorrow, or the day after, or whenever. You can’t anticipate everything and protect us from everything.”

  “I can’t,” Ilforte sighed.

  “But today I’ll feel better knowing you’re heading to Armarillis now and staying there at least until tomorrow. That’s an order from the Mentor, and it’s not up for discussion.”

  Calypso sighed, clearly disappointed.

  “Well, there’s no point trying to convince you to let us go now, is there? Fine then, tomorrow we’ll spend the day at Rauf Park, focusing on meditation techniques.”

  “Just keep an eye on Lorelei while you’re there,” Elza said, squinting at Calypso.

  “Watch her closely. Don’t take your eyes off her. Remember, you’re responsible for her, outside the academy Lori needs to be supervised. If you slip up and Lori gets hurt because of you, I’ll rip your ba…”

  “Mom!!” I exclaimed loudly, drowning out the rest of her sentence.

  “What?” Elza raised an elegant eyebrow, her expression perfectly innocent.

  “I was just giving him fair warning. Appreciate my generosity. I’m actually a very honest and sweet conversationalist, in case you haven’t noticed. But for some reason not everyone appreciates that.”

  “Don’t worry, Lady Elza,” Calypso said with a charming smile, shooting a glance at Ilforte, who was choking on silent laughter.

  “I very much appreciate your generosity. And I’m capable of being responsible enough to remain a man for the rest of my days, avoiding your punitive mission.”

  “I’m counting on it,” Elza smirked.

  Mom walked us outside and made sure we teleported specifically to Armarillis.

  “Don’t push Lori today, give her a break until tomorrow,” Elza told Calypso.

  “I don’t like how unstable she is today, she might have an episode tonight. Better to wait it out. Just rest, you've both already burned through your limits given everything that happened.”

  Calypso nodded reluctantly. He didn’t argue with Elza, and was smart of him not to.

  He opened a teleportation vortex, and I stepped through right behind him. Solo teleportation was still strictly forbidden for me — because of my magical imbalance, I hadn’t been allowed to teleport alone before. Though in the last six months I’d made huge progress in that area.

  So tomorrow I was supposed to prove my skills on the exam. I couldn’t wait.

  “Did you just make up that schedule thing to impress the Mentor?” I asked Calypso as we passed through the gates into Armarillis’s dimension and strolled leisurely across the green lawn toward the castle.

  “No, of course not, I really did put together a schedule for our sessions, which will be on top of the group training with everyone else. I told you: nobody’s going to go easy on you, especially me. You have a very serious magical conflict going on, and if you want to figure out what’s causing it and get your magic fully under control as soon as possible, you’ll have to work at least twice as hard as everyone else.”

  “I’m ready to work ten times harder, as long as it actually makes a difference,” I sighed.

  “That’s the right attitude. Well, we’ll start working on that tomorrow, since today went completely sideways and I’m not allowed to run you through drills on the training ground. Too bad,” Calypso sighed.” I had big training plans… I'll have to put them off until tomorrow, since your mom strictly forbade me from pushing you today. I’m not about to cross Elza.”

  “But you crossed your father,” I noted.

  “With all those shadow magic experiments of yours…”

  “That’s my father. I can get away with going against him if I’m careful. But crossing your mom? I wouldn’t recommend that to anyone.”

  I burst out laughing.

  “Oh come on, she’s really sweet and kind if you don’t make her angry.”

  “Well, that’s because she loves you. She definitely doesn’t have those warm feelings toward me, so if I step out of line, she really will rip off what she threatened to,” Calypso said with a wide smile.

  “And you know, I’d rather not say goodbye to that part of my body ahead of schedule. It’s not exactly useless, as far as I know.”

  I was laughing out loud now. When I finished, I asked:

  “So, we’re heading to Rauf Park first thing tomorrow?”

  “Yeah, no one will bother us there, and it’s the right setting. Have you been there?”

  “To the park? No. I’ve been to Rauf-Pool, but not the park. I haven’t really been to many places in Forland,” I shrugged vaguely.

  “Especially alone. Let alone other cities, countries, or worlds.”

  “Why not?”

  “I have really serious problems with my magic,” I sighed.

  “There’s too high a chance I might accidentally hurt someone. So people are always careful with me. Any outings happen exclusively with one of my relatives, and luckily I have so many of them that finding someone to babysit me was never an issue.”

  “Babysit… That sounds pretty bad.”

  “Well, it is what it is,” I smiled crookedly.

  “But there are different kinds of babysitting. You’re basically going to babysit me tomorrow too.”

  Calypso chuckled. Then said thoughtfully:

  “Hmm, so you’ve been to Rauf-Pool? Haven’t been to many places in Forland, but you managed to check out the most popular dance club for mages. Inte-e-eresting choice.”

  I bit my tongue in annoyance, cursing myself for being such a blabbermouth. What was I thinking, running my mouth like that?