Chapter 22. Of Lollipops and Formulas

  “Got anything sweet?” I asked plaintively as I approached the serving tables in the dining hall early that morning.

  I’d slept terribly last night, my head was pounding, and I’d woken up feeling so wrecked it was like someone had dragged me out of bed but forgot to actually wake me up.

  Yesterday I’d stayed so late at Calypso’s bedside in the infirmary that I ended up falling asleep right there, holding his hand and maintaining our energy connection. I woke up in the middle of the night with my head buzzing and barely managed to drag myself back to my room, trying to get at least a little rest, because during energy transfer the body doesn’t rest even in sleep — it’s like it’s working in overdrive. So by morning I felt completely wrecked. No, my magic was in relatively good shape, but physically I felt like I’d been running a marathon half the night. And unfortunately, not the kind of marathon Calypso usually put me through at night.

  My head ached and I desperately craved something sweet, so I was eyeing the dessert dishes lined up neatly on the serving tables. Vorjania, our local cook and supreme ruler of the dining hall, eagerly began telling me what was available for breakfast today.

  “How about cheese pancakes with strawberry jam? Want something sweeter? Then I highly recommend this ‘Magnolia’ dessert. It has a delicate floral aroma with notes of vanilla and almond, chocolate sponge cake and light mousse. And this dessert is called…”

  “They’re called ‘straight to my ass,’” I grumbled.

  “Give me all of them.”

  I piled a whole ten different kinds of puddings onto my tray, intending to eat them all myself. Even the enchanted jam dish wasn’t running away from me across the table today, for once — it just sat there obediently, only spinning in place but letting me calmly ‘extract’ the ginger-lemon preserves from it. With each pudding I ate, I felt better, and my headache soon faded after that sugar hit.

  Ah, the joys of being a dark mage!.. A mage’s diet is closely tied to their core magic, because proper nutrition serves as good support, and vice versa. For example, the darker a mage’s magic, the more they’re encouraged to eat meat and sweets, and for us girls, none of it went to extra pounds — it all got converted to magic. White mages, on the other hand, were advised to go easy on meat and eat more fruits and vegetables. My brother Eric, for instance, a white mage through and through, was actually a vegetarian. He said it really did make him feel better and had the most positive effect on his magical energy.

  Anyway, I was guilt-free enjoying my desserts and chatting with my classmates. Well, mostly I was quiet and just listening to the others at my table.

  At some point, Grey, sitting across from me, raised his eyebrows in surprise, looking somewhere behind me, broke into a wide grin, and exclaimed loudly:

  “Cal!! Hey, look, Cal’s back with us!”

  I turned around and smiled at Calypso, who had entered the dining hall and was heading our way. His progress was slow because Fortemins kept coming up to him, greeting him, clapping him on the shoulder, and expressing their joy at seeing Calypso out in public and in good health.

  He really did look great. Dressed impeccably, long white hair loose as usual, his gaze carrying its typical condescending arrogance. Overall, Calypso looked so energetic you’d never guess he’d spent more than two weeks lying around like a vegetable.

  I was incredibly happy to see Calypso back on his feet, safe and sound — I wanted to throw my arms around his neck and kiss him senseless. I barely managed to suppress that urge and gripped my lemon dessert dish tighter instead.

  Everyone had been asking me about Calypso daily — there were a lot of curious people. News of exactly how he’d saved me, and that Elza herself had treated him afterward, had spread through the academy at lightning speed, so in the eyes of all the academy’s adepts, Calypso had gained a few ‘points.’ But he himself didn’t seem to care. When you’ve had one foot in the grave, you start looking at a lot of things differently.

  Approaching our table, he greeted everyone, exchanged handshakes with Grey and Iranor, gave Kes a curt nod, and turned to me, urging me to come to our joint training session.

  “Training?” I nearly choked on my raspberry pudding.

  “What the hell kind of training in your condition?!”

  “Perfectly ordinary training,” Calypso shrugged.” “No excessive strain and strictly within Armarillis’s dimension, but I’ve already been cleared to train.

  “You’re an absolute lunatic,” I said with feeling.

  “Would it kill you to give yourself a proper break…”

  “No time, Lori. Your magical imbalance won’t fix itself, and I intend to solve your problem as soon as possible. And I’m already feeling fine.”

  ‘And that’s largely thanks to you,’ Calypso added through a mental message only I could hear.

  ‘You’ve been generously and carefully powering me up every day, acting exactly like a full Guardian would for her Fighter. Last night you completed the process. So I recovered quickly precisely because of you, my spectacular girl.’

  Out loud, he added:

  “So I’ll be waiting for you in the small training hall. Today we have a calm meditative session planned. And I need to study certain aspects of your aura for further work.”

  “Can I at least finish eating?” I sighed, looking longingly at the remaining desserts on the table that I would have happily devoured.

  This was the result of the enormous energy expenditure over the past few days — I was constantly hungry and couldn’t seem to get full no matter what I ate. Sweets helped.

  I expected Calypso to start grumbling and rushing me as usual. But instead, he placed his hand on my shoulder and stroked it in a way that was decidedly not warden-like, saying unexpectedly softly:

  “Of course you can, you should even. You’ve lost so much energy lately, you need to replenish it. By all means, including food.”

  And then he suddenly leaned down, gently brushed my long hair aside, and pressed his lips to my neck. Firmly enough to definitely leave a small mark on my skin, like a personal brand.

  I froze for a moment, flushing with inner heat, sitting there with a spoon in my mouth in complete shock, not knowing how to react or what to do. I have no idea how I didn’t choke on my pudding or swallow it along with the spoon. I came pretty close.

  But Calypso wasn’t waiting for any reaction. In the dead silence that had fallen over the table, he simply told me:

  “Take your time eating, then come find me. I’ll wait,” after which he turned and strolled unhurriedly toward the dining hall exit, grabbing a couple of sandwiches from the serving tables on his way.

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  I continued eating my pudding, very intently scraping it out of the bowl. I was trying my hardest to look normal, as if nothing special had just happened. As if Calypso hadn’t just ‘marked’ me in front of everyone, clearly signaling that we were together — as if it had been someone else, some ‘ordinary’ guy who’d approached me.

  Damn, if it had been Kes or someone like him — anyone else! — people definitely wouldn’t be staring at me like this. But Calypso was a prominent guy with a very specific reputation, and according to the girls, he’d never shown anything resembling tender emotions toward anyone in public. And now… oh…

  Patricia was the most shocked of all — she was sitting right across from me, and her jaw had literally dropped. Patricia had also been eating raspberry pudding, which was now dripping onto the table from her raised spoon, but she hadn’t even noticed. She kept staring alternately at me and at Calypso leaving the dining hall, looking like she’d been simultaneously run over by a steamroller, doused with ice water, and set on fire.

  “I don’t understand… But what about me… What about me?” she finally said in a funny, offended tone.

  You have no idea how hard it was for me not to burst out laughing right then, looking at the confused expression on Patricia’s face.

  Sorry, sweetie, but Calypso’s interested in me, not you.

  Remembering all of Patricia’s complaints about how ‘that Brandt is just impossible to get close to!!’ I was practically purring with satisfaction.

  Well, I got close, huh. Mine, he’s mi-i-ine! Oh, something dragon-like was waking up in me…

  Grey, sitting next to Patricia, reached into his pocket and with a loud rustling sound pulled out something like a candy on a stick.

  “Here,” he held out the treat to Patricia.

  She looked at him in confusion.

  “What is it?” she asked warily.

  “A lollipop. Just a lollipop.”

  “What do I need it for?”

  “You can go and nervously suck on it in the corner,” Grey shrugged innocently.

  “It’s only a lollipop, not Calypso, but since the latter is obviously taken…”

  While I was choking with laughter along with the other classmates, Patricia jumped to her feet and snatched the lollipop from Grey’s hand, waving it threateningly in the air like a proper bat. Grey immediately realized things were about to get ugly and instantly bolted, getting as far away as possible from the enraged classmate.

  “You know where I’m going to shove this lollipop?!!” Patricia shrieked, chasing the cackling Grey around the dining hall.

  “Oh ye-e-eah, baby, show me what you’ve got!..” Grey taunted, howling with laughter while simultaneously fleeing from the furious Patricia into the main hall.

  I don’t know how far he’ll get from her, but thanks to him — he definitely defused the tension.

  While my classmates were dying laughing at Patricia, Mia, sitting next to me, turned to me. Unlike the others, she looked very serious and wasn’t trying to join in the laughter. She seemed to be focused on something else entirely.

  “Hey, Lora… How did you, like… pull that off? What did you do to catch Calypso’s attention?” Mia asked me with the most serious expression.

  When I raised my eyebrows questioningly, she immediately started waving her hands and babbling:

  “Oh no, don’t take it wrong, I didn’t mean to offend you, I don’t mean you’re not worthy of his attention or anything like that, you’re a great girl and all! It’s just, well, Cal is so… principled, it’s impossible to get close to him, look how long Patricia tried and got nowhere… Did you put a spell on him or something? Maybe there’s some ritual for attracting guys into your life?”

  “Of course there is,” I nodded seriously.

  “How could there not be rituals? This is Calypso we’re talking about, you can only lure him with rituals. I pulled off such a ritual, whew!! He just couldn’t resist.”

  “Can you tell me?” the elf asked eagerly, pressing her hands to her chest and looking at me.

  Oh, these gullible elves…

  “You have no idea how much I need a ritual like that…”

  “What do you need it for?” Margarita, sitting nearby and joining us for breakfast today, snorted with laughter.

  “I just do,” Mia answered seriously, pursing her lips.

  “Things aren’t working out for me with guys… Maybe a ritual will help?”

  “You need one, you say…” I sighed.

  “Okay, look… Actually, you’d better write this down. Writing? Great. So… At midnight on a clear night, you need to go outside to the academy's courtyard and start dancing by the fountain…”

  “Dance what?” Mia asked immediately.

  Damn, she was actually writing in a little notebook.

  “The dance must come from deep within your soul,” I said importantly, licking my dessert spoon.

  “So the dance should be individual, the main thing is to make it as erotic as possible…”

  “Why?!”

  “Don’t get distracted and don’t ask unnecessary questions, just write.”

  “Okay… And what should I wear?”

  “What kind of question is that? Naked, of course,” I said importantly.

  “Are you sure?!”

  “Absolutely. And while dancing, you need to quietly chant the sacred words…” I lowered my voice to a conspiratorial whisper.

  “What words?” Mia asked, also very quietly, her already big eyes growing even rounder.

  “‘Loneliness, go away, let a sweet stallion come dance with me today!’” I intoned importantly, shooting a glance at Margarita, who had choked on her sandwich.

  “Why a stallion specifically?” Mia didn’t understand.

  “Well, not a jackass. I don’t recommend a jackass, you’ll have nothing but trouble with him later… Anyway, when the stallion gallops up to your summoning dance, mount him immediately.”

  “What, right there in the garden?!” the elf gasped.

  “Of course,” I nodded with a straight face, trying not to crack up and winking at Margarita, who had nearly slid to the floor, shaking with silent laughter.

  “You need to seal the effect on the spot, so to speak. Otherwise the ritual won’t work at full power.”

  “Well… okay,” the elf said thoughtfully, and the tips of her long ears twitched amusingly, as if fluttering with excitement.

  “I’ll try it… Thank you, Lora!!”

  “Always at your service. Oh, and I almost forgot: don’t forget about the omelet technique. That special recipe we discussed recently.”

  “I have to make an omelet too?” the elf said in surprise, making a note in her notebook.

  “Are you sure that’s relevant?…”

  “An omelet is absolutely fire,” I said knowingly, raising a finger.

  “Made properly, it's always relevant.”

  After which I tried to leave the dining hall as quickly as possible before I exploded from barely contained laughter.

  I headed to the small training hall where Calypso was already waiting for me, sitting in the middle of the empty hall in a meditative pose and stretching his wrists. He smiled brilliantly when he saw me and waved for me to sit next to him.

  “You’re quite the shameless troublemaker, Mr. Warden, you know that?” I said cheerfully, sitting down across from Calypso and rubbing my neck, where the reddish mark from his kiss-bite was still visible.

  “Am I? Just possessive,” Calypso said with an impassive expression.

  I shook my head, my smile threatening to exceed the boundaries of my face.

  But I didn’t pursue the topic and tried to switch to our lesson, especially since Calypso had already started explaining the technique for a new meditation.

  But today it was extremely difficult to focus on meditation. My thoughts kept returning to the scene in the dining hall, and I kept smiling at my own thoughts, eyes closed, sitting in a meditative pose and listening to Calypso’s measured voice as he sat behind me, crossing our hands in a specific way.

  Though I soon lost the urge to smile when my damn warden fell silent and instead started covering my shoulders and neck with kisses.

  “Is this also part of the new meditation methodology?” I whispered, biting my lower lip.

  “No. I just couldn’t resist your neck.”

  “Mm, gone vampire on me?”

  “We-e-ell, almost…”

  Today I was wearing a dress with three-quarter sleeves and a skirt just below the knees. And Calypso pulled down the zipper of my dress, baring my back and covering every newly exposed inch of skin with kisses.

  “I love this tattoo of yours,” Calypso said softly, tracing the owl design on my back with his fingertips.

  And I loved when he kissed me like this… Goosebumps ran across my skin from his tender yet heated caresses.

  “I take it that meditation is cancelled?” I licked my lips nervously, my breathing quickening as Calypso decisively began sliding the dress off my shoulders.

  “It can wait. But I can’t, because I’ve missed you like crazy and I’m dying to show and prove I’m back to my old self…”

  Well, what can I say… He proved it very, very thoroughly, and I definitely liked it. Can every meditation practice start with caresses like these?..