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She wondered when it was she first fell in love.

The boy was her apprentice, she picked up an orphan by the side of the road, she saw a great strength and destiny in his eyes, she hadn’t planned on taking an apprentice, but the boy needed strength, with a promise for him to become a grand master in magic she took him in.

At his initiation to magic, she had explained to him the trial of magi and he decided to try for it, she had told him that she wouldn’t help him, but he would bet his life to gain strength, she gave him a smile, she was impressed, she herself had been far too afraid to take her own, her master said it was fine, as he smiled behind his long grey beard, patting her head to comfort her.

However she shouldn’t have let the boy try to do it she knew the stories of only great magi passing the trial, but she thought the boy could do it, she thought she saw a great strength in his eyes, but she was wrong, the boy was knocked unconscious by a firebolt, the elemental began to move closer, but she in her heart couldn’t let him die, to say something was one thing, but let it happen in front her was another, she fired an icicle through the elemental's chest, summoning an elemental she commanded it to run to the nearest town with the boy in hand, he would take some light damage from the elemental, but time was of the essence, the largest magic circle of the likes she had never seen was forming, with fire and ice coursing through it, a monster the size of a house came out.

She fell over her legs too tired to stand up anymore, her left arm missing, some of her ribs and hip was burnt away as well, with the last of her strength she fired her final spell, a spell she had found in an ancient ruins with both the power of fire and ice, with the last of her strength gone she fainted.

She woke up in great pain, but she was alive and something was glowing in front of her, grabbing it with her hand she inspected it, it wasn’t a core, fused elementals weren’t a natural thing, and neither was this but it seemed to be made of pure mana, then a blue light shined blinding her, and the thing was gone, but she had something else, picking up her nearby fallen staff, firing from it a pure blue light came out, pure mana a skill lost to the ages, slowly she stumbled to the town, to find the boy and a healer.

A decade had past and the boy was showing no major improvement to his magic, he had still not reached intermediate, but the boy had changed he was taller, his body was lithe and his face had changed to a handsome man, women couldn’t stare at him for long, not without their heart rate rising and her face blushing, even though his talent wasn’t great she had grown close to the boy.

She made a promise with him, when he became an intermediate magus she would follow him on his path for revenge, something she wasn’t eager to do, but she knew he had hidden talent, she couldn’t be wrong. However he had broken their promise, she didn’t like to think about it, on their parting she threw herself into the pursuit of magic vowing never to take another apprentice.

Years had passed, years she spent as a recluse, eventually she had met the man again, they reconciled, but they could never be what she thought they would be when the man was still her apprentice.

Even more time had passed and a boy had come to her tower of solitude, she could sense the ring of that muscle-brained idiot Theo, no doubt another boy who would step on the path of the sword, only coming here to learn how to fight against magic, though he asked to be taught he’d probably throw away any magic when he got his class.

She let him into her tower and saw what he looked like, he was handsome and she lost herself in his eyes, eyes that held power and desire, the heart that had been long frozen had started to thaw, she quickly regained herself, noticing she was blushing, she let him into her inner sanctum but she needed another moment, how awkward, he was looking around her fire place, if she had known she would have made it took decent, the poison bear carpet didn’t match the wyvern leather sofa at all it just felt nice on her feet, all her cabinets of junk were about there, she was in the process of reorganizing her storage, she had started a few years ago but hadn’t finished, and now all her junk was littered about, what would he think of her.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

With a calm heart she appeared behind the boy, but when he turned to face her, she almost lost herself again, she tried to explain the basics of magic to him, but she was doing a terrible job, and it was all his fault for being too distracting, she told him she was distracted by research though, but the boy was more than she expected, even with her bad explanations he was smart enough to ask the right questions, she could see it in his eyes he was genuinely interested in magic, she was wondering why he was Theo’s apprentice.

Then came the part she dreaded, the trial of magi, she could have lied about it, and she tried to, but she couldn’t lie to him, and she didn’t know why, perhaps it his innocence, he told her he was a Dhampir, most would try to hide it or otherwise be persecuted, Dhampir were meant to be beautiful creatures, perhaps that was why she couldn’t take her eyes off him or stop thinking about him, she told him that she would stop the trial if he thought he was in danger, she knew he was a blessed one, she knew he couldn’t really die, but she didn’t know for sure, she didn’t think her heart could take the sight of him dying, she knew that it if came to that she wouldn’t survive a second encounter, she was much more powerful than the first time, but she had lived a long time, and at least if she died for this boy he couldn’t hurt her.

She left the room, but she could see everything in the tower, if she was going to die, she wanted to feel her comfy bed sheets one last time, watching it was torture, she watched him draw his sword against his elemental, then she realized, she forgot to tell him physical weapons wouldn’t work against elementals, she was going to watch him die for her stupidity, no she was going to die because of it.

But then the unthinkable happened, the boy cut off the claw of the elemental, she didn’t know how, but his sword was working against the elemental, she thought this would be impossible, she thought she was seeing things, but his sword struck the elemental again, but then her heart jumped out of her chest, the beast struck him heavily, she could feel his pain from the shadow burn, she wanted to end the trial right there, but she stayed her hand and she was glad she did so as she saw him slice the elemental in two.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH”

She hadn’t realised it but when looking at the boy in her bed, she had begun to touch herself, in her most intimate places, as the fight went on she touched herself, more and more, then a wave of pleasure hit her, it was amazing, it was the best thing she had ever felt in her life, she felt as though her soul was leaving her body through that shout, panting she looked at herself, the front of her robe was drenched, she couldn’t meet him, not like this, though a part of her wanted him to see, to see everything, to see her touch herself, to see what she did to him, she wanted him to feel this way too. She reached out to him mentally, the elemental had left parts of it behind, a very rare thing, she hoped he would remember her by them and that would be the last thing between them.

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