Because half an hour later, on our way out of the cemetery, we ran into the last person I expected to see here and now — my father. He was leaning against an old oak, arms crossed over his chest, looking at us with an unspoken question of ‘So what exactly are you two doing here?’

  Zael was a short, blue-eyed man with snow-white hair in a tight braid, the tip of which dangled almost to the grass. Narrow face, straight nose, very expressive eyes, dressed in the standard black Fortemin uniform. His whole appearance gave the impression of a perfectly ordinary mage, but that impression was misleading: behind Zael’s outward fragility hid the incredible power of the First Arma, whom colleagues privately called a walking killing machine. How many dark creatures and dark mages my father had cut down in his lifetime — I wouldn’t even dare to guess. Zael was dangerous and merciless in battle, and he masterfully used his braid as a garrote in fights. My father could use anything he could get his hands on in battle — he could turn any object into a weapon against an enemy.

  The only outward sign of Zael’s power was his aura — very heavy and so dense it seemed like you could reach out and touch it, knock on it like glass. Such a heavy aura was only found in some supreme mages, and even then — far from all of them. Only the Mentor and my mom could match my father’s aura — the three of them were roughly equal in magical level.

  I had a good relationship with my father — he was always attentive and caring. But also — very strict. And I was honestly afraid of his anger.

  “What is the meaning of this, Lorelei?” Zael said in a quiet, calm voice.

  I swallowed nervously. I’d rather he yelled at me — that would’ve been easier to handle. When my father called me by my full name — things were bad.

  In a good mood, he always called me Lora, and from his lips it sounded so soft and tender, always — with love. But the stern ‘Lorelei’ from his lips sounded like a hammer on an anvil and clearly indicated my father’s level of anger. Not that he got angry at me often, but…

  Well, it happened sometimes, yeah. And his tone alone was always enough to make me shut up and go quiet — my father’s aura was so heavy and oppressive, especially when he was in a bad mood, that you wanted to crawl away somewhere and hide under a rock until the quiet emotional storm passed.

  “I was near the General Staff when, to my surprise, I sensed a flare of your magic,” Zael continued in an even voice, his piercing gaze fixed on me.

  “And I sensed it not just anywhere, but from the center of Kalacen Cemetery. What is the meaning of this, Lorelei? What are you doing here?”

  “Training,” I tried to answer in an even voice, hugging my shoulders instinctively.

  “Ah, of course. Armarillis doesn’t have enough space for training,” Zael said acidly.

  “Armarillis really doesn’t have enough space for certain types of training,” Calypso cut in.

  But Zael didn’t even glance at him and continued, speaking only to me:

  “Kalacen Cemetery is very ancient. The soil and the whole atmosphere here are steeped in fierce darkness.”

  “I know,” I said quietly.

  “You know? Then what the hell are you doing here, Lorelei? You didn’t just come here today, did you? I checked the local paths, reading your traces, and realized you weren’t actually spending time in Rauf Park like you told the Mentor every time you went further, here, to Kalacen Cemetery. What’s with all the secrecy? You know I can’t stand this kind of lying.”

  “That decision was made by me, as Lorelei’s warden,” Calypso cut in again.

  “Because…”

  “Even demons don’t venture here, but you two are having fun like you’re strolling down the Carbonan waterfront,” Zael said in a hard voice, again ignoring Calypso and looking only at me.

  “What if the atmosphere here had damaged your magic and triggered a major episode?”

  “On the contrary, it turned out to be quite safe for me here,” I objected.

  “Under my warden’s supervision, of course. All my excess magic just sinks into the ground here, not harming me or anyone else and…”

  “Lorelei, you weren’t forbidden from entering this cemetery for no reason,” Zael interrupted.

  “It’s very irresponsible of you to be so careless about the Mentor’s orders and my personal instructions. If something happens to you here and Calypso can’t help you in time, the distress signal from your artifact bracelet won’t reach me or the Mentor, and we won’t be able to come help. Did you think about that? Don’t you think you need to take security issues more seriously?”

  “And I think you really need some advice to back off from your daughter,” Calypso drawled lazily in a relaxed voice.

  Now Zael finally turned to Calypso, raising his eyebrows, and I tensed up, swallowed nervously, and instinctively stepped back, behind Calypso.

  I stared at Calypso in silence, trying to scream with my eyes ‘Are you out of your mind?!’

  Speaking to my father in that tone was very, very bold… and very reckless.

  “You dare talk back?” Zael said haughtily.

  “You think you can protect Lora better than I can?”

  “I think Lora is capable of being responsible for her own actions,” Calypso smirked.

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  “And I, as her warden, am capable of being responsible for my ward and seeing when and where she can be given freedom, and where I need to strictly limit her every move.”

  “You can’t anticipate everything, Calypso. Lora’s problem runs much deeper than it might seem at first glance.”

  “Rest assured, I’ve already delved deep enough into her problem to understand the full scale of the disaster,” Calypso answered with that same sweet smile.

  Unlike me, he was completely calm and relaxed — Zael’s anger clearly didn’t scare him. He was calm not just on the outside — I could absolutely feel that Calypso genuinely didn’t give a damn about this conversation.

  He felt confident, and his body language showed it too — his relaxed posture and haughty gaze. And while my other classmates at least felt awe in the direct presence of the First Arma, Calypso seemed to be feeling… boredom. All he needed was a yawn for full effect.

  Zael smirked.

  “You haven’t had to deal with one of Lora’s severe episodes yet, have you?”

  “I got to see an uncontrolled magical flare on the day Lori arrived at Armarillis, during our training fight.”

  “That was child’s play,” Zael said coldly.

  “Fortunately, severe episodes are rare for her, but they do happen. And they can happen at any moment, any time of day. What will you do if one happens here, in this zone, where you can’t even call for help quickly?”

  “Obviously, in that case I intend to handle the problem myself.”

  “And if you can’t handle it yourself and can’t help?”

  “If I can’t help her, then you certainly won’t be able to either,” Calypso said firmly.

  “Look at you, so cocky,” Zael snorted.

  “You think you know so much about dark magic that you can talk about it in that tone and anticipate its surges many steps ahead?”

  “I think I already know more about dark magic than you do,” Calypso smiled dazzlingly.

  “Since I managed to protect Lori in an anti-magic zone and save her from kernals in what seemed like a hopeless situation, I’m certainly capable of anticipating all possible scenarios and taking responsibility for my decision to train with Lori specifically at Kalacen Cemetery. Because I consider it necessary and right in our case. The First Arma he’s not first in every area of magic, right? I hate to disappoint you, Your Firstness, but you’re behind me here.”

  I mentally groaned and facepalmed.

  Everyone, meet my warden — he has a death wish.

  Right now my father was looking at Calypso with ve-e-ery keen interest. I didn’t know what was stronger in his gaze — surprise that some ‘young upstart’ was talking to him in that tone, or the desire to shut said ‘young upstart’ up so he’d never make another peep.

  I was expecting an emotional storm after Calypso’s words, but Zael just snorted and said coldly:

  “Bold, I’ll give you that. But if you’re so bold, why didn’t you tell all this to the Mentor and decided to hide the real location of your training sessions from him?”

  “I don’t feel obligated to report my every move to the Mentor or anyone else,” Calypso replied just as coldly.

  “A Fortemin reports to the Mentor at any age, if the Mentor requires it,” Zael countered.

  “That’s why he’s the Mentor of Armarillis Academy: to demand full accountability.”

  “I think if my father has any questions for me on that matter, he’ll ask me himself, and I’ll answer him myself.”

  Zael narrowed his eyes, staring unblinking at Calypso. Calypso calmly stared back, also unblinking. They just looked at each other, and I had a wild urge to turn on my heel and run away screaming from these two Fortemins.

  “What are you hiding? What are you and Lorelei doing here? What forbidden thing do you need to do, that you have to hide in this sketchy cemetery away from prying eyes?”

  “We meditate a lot, train a lot,” Calypso shrugged.

  “Working on stabilizing Lori’s magical Spark. You can see for yourself that she’s making progress. It’s not a quick process, but we’re on the right track…”

  “That’s not an answer,” Zael cut him off.

  “All of that could be done in Rauf Park and on the Armarillis training grounds. But you insist on Kalacen Cemetery the only place where your magical fluctuations can’t be detected. So what are you really hiding, Calypso? I doubt you chose this place just for fun.”

  “Quite right, I chose it after a lot of thought and calculation. Stabilizing Lori’s magical Spark can cause various uncontrolled flares, and here, if things go south, Lori can’t hurt anyone. A completely safe environment for her. No random bystander will get hurt.”

  “Except you,” Zael snorted.

  “Oh really? If Lora loses control, you won’t like it either.”

  “I am absolutely certain that I’m capable of controlling our sessions so that Lori can’t hurt me,” Calypso said.

  And not a word about shadow magic and developing our battle bond, heh. He technically answered honestly, but didn’t actually reveal anything. And it was precisely our bond with Calypso that primarily gave him absolute certainty that I couldn’t hurt him.

  “My gut tells me you’re lying to my face without batting an eye.”

  “Then you have perception problems, what can I say,” Calypso shrugged indifferently.

  I closed my eyes for a moment, mentally calling on the gods, begging them to shut Calypso up.

  “You know, sometimes I really want to kick your ass,” Zael said, spreading into a smile that promised nothing good.

  “Try it, Your Firstness,” Calypso spread into an equally venomous smile.

  “Just don’t get burned.”

  “Watch your mouth. Or else…”

  “Or else what?” Calypso perked up.

  “Now I’m actually curious. What will you do to me?” he abruptly dropped the formal tone.

  “Run me ragged on the training ground in revenge? I’m very resilient, I don’t complain about physical exertion. And so far no one’s managed to run me so hard that I’ve ever truly been dead tired. Use your magical gift to influence my emotions? I’m a mind mage myself, those charms don’t work on me. Lock me in solitary? It doesn’t hurt me there. I can mentally shield myself from the harmful effects of solitary’s magic on consciousness, and I’m not afraid of being alone. Stand me in a corner? Give me a public flogging? I won’t feel any shame, I'll even enjoy the attention, let them all admire me. So what will you do to me? Nothing,” Calypso smiled dazzlingly.

  “Because I operate on a different value system.”

  “For every force there’s a counterforce, Calypso,” Zael said coldly.

  “Exactly,” Calypso said pointedly with a sly smile.

  “Ever occur to you that I might just be that counterforce?”

  He didn’t wait for an answer and tapped his index finger on the face of his wristwatch.

  “I’m sorry, but we need to stick to the schedule. We have evening training coming up, and we still need to eat dinner. So we’ll have to cut short this most riveting conversation and get back to business. Come on, Lori,” Calypso turned to me.

  “We’re behind schedule, we need to hurry.”

  He confidently took my hand and pulled me along, toward Rauf-Pool, not looking at Zael again. I hurried after him, glancing guiltily at my father. I thought he’d say something else, stop us and issue some ultimatum… But no, he just watched us go, looking at Calypso with extreme interest.

  In complete silence, broken only by the rustle of grass under our feet, Calypso and I walked toward the park exit. I thought I heard an approving chuckle from my father behind us. Then again, maybe I imagined it…