The Liberation of the Mages Heart

Hurt and Comfort

Bell's tears had traced silent rivers down her cheeks the night before, the echoes of his words leaving wounds on her soul.

The fracture within her had become tangible as he spoke of their insignificance amid political intricacies, a truth she had long known but desperately hoped to avoid. Despite her yearning, the realization settled in – her feelings were destined to remain unrequited.

With puffy eyes, Bell sighed, acknowledging the harsh reality. "I'll have to face it," she murmured to herself, deciding to devote the day to the training grounds in an effort to expel the lingering negativity through physical exertion.

***

Every carrier pigeon in the castle had been mobilized to collect information from all corners of the continent regarding the recent monster movements, a task Ruth had to diligently review. This time, he welcomed every distraction from the turmoil within him.

The knights and sentries engaged in daily training, preparing for the uncertain future that loomed ahead.

Ruth's routine strolls through the council room invariably concluded in the library, where he immersed himself in work while simultaneously tutoring Maxi. The young apprentice showed undeniable progress, a testament to Ruth's exceptional teaching skills.

Belisent had been absent from their sessions in the past days. It seemed she was avoiding him, he thought. He understood; he had likely hurt her with his words the other night. Shaking off those troubling thoughts, he turned to Maxi.

"Why don't we put your learning into practice?" he suggested, suppressing the emotions that threatened to bubble up.

„I-into practice?!", Maxi felt anxiety creeping up her spine.

„You have yet to use magic on a human being. It's worth a try now that you're more or less familiar with the healing rune."

„B-but my c-control of mana is s-still unsteady. W-hat if I f-fail and something goes wrong?", she worried but Ruth tried to calm her down: „Healing magic won't cause any physical harm even if you fail. Repeated practice is the key to wielding magic. The better your mastery, the higher your speed and precision will be."

„A-alright then. B-but who should I p-practice on?"

„Mentors usually inflict a small wound on themselves for their pupils to heal...", Ruth contemplated: „But I loathe feeling pain. But we're in luck! Calypse castle is full of men just begging to get hurt. Shall we head outside?", he smirked heading out of the building. Maxi wondering where they'd go, followed obediently.

While they were on their way outside, Ruth realized that he would most likely run into Belisent on the training grounds. He wasn't sure how that would be like and bit his bottom lip.  Could it be that his subconsciousness missed Belisent, yearning for her and therefore suggested to bring Maxis healing skills to practice?

In that case, he thought, he should get wary of himself. What was a brilliant mastermind without control of the ratio within his decisions?

A maniac!

***

„Excellent!", Ruth exclaimed scanning the training grounds for a suitable test subject.

„R-Ruth...", Maxi was shivering, anxiety of failure in front of her husband, Riftan, stressing her out.

„Don't worry. Sir Riftan is training the squires today. He won't be at the knights' training grounds."

As Ruth surveyed the training grounds, lost in thought, he was startled by a familiar voice. "Ruth?", the melodic sound of that voice made him turn abruptly, his heart suddenly beating crazily.