The One

Confession

"Did you prepare all that I asked you to?"

"Yes, I've found the herbs and stored them in my animorbis."

"Very well."

Having said so, Nasr hoisted himself up and rose to his feet slowly. He rose slowly, but there were still stars in his eyes when he stood. He took a moment to get used to being up, then turned to face his apprentice—the fated one.

"But...what...are you...doing?" Feray asked. Her question came in broken chunks, a reflection of her horror. That horror in itself proved that she had no need to ask in the first place.

"Do you trust me?" he asked instead.

"Of course I do, but..."

"You know what I am doing, Feray. You have known for a while now...if you intended to stop me, you would not have waited until today."

"But..."

She kept her eyes on him until he moved to press a spot in the cage—the other side of where the needle was. Upon his touch, that section of the cage flipped, resulting in the needle being inside his cage...so that he could touch it himself.

"Why do you hesitate? It is because you trust that I would not put myself through dangers I cannot overcome that you said nothing about this, is it not?"

"Well, yes, but..."

The fact that Nasr was speaking about it so easily made it even harder for Feray to gather the message she had wanted to convey. It was as if this was what he had planned all along—long before he told her about the spell, long before she even met him for the first time.

"But?"

And if he knew what she meant to say, he clearly did not intend to say it for her; nor did he plan to ignore it altogether simply because he knew. He also understood, then, that she needed to say those words herself.

"I just don't want to see you hurt," she said quietly. "I know that saying that is useless, since the alternative is to have someone die instead."

Nasr chuckled. "This is the most mortal you have acted yet. Then, perhaps I shall offer you some comfort—as one does for their fellow mortals at times like this. Though, be mindful that I have not once in my entire life tried to do any such thing."

His wording would be considered strange to anyone else, but Feray giggled. "That sincerity is enough to reassure me. I do trust that you know what you're doing."

"It is a pain that even a sorcerer may not stand...but I am the dark sorcerer that was one millisecond away from being the grand sorcerer. Furthermore, this design..." he said, pointing to the needle without touching it, "...shows that it was her intention—and message—in the beginning: learn to love, or die trying. From the start, I was the only target of this needle."

"...and she forgot all about this."

"Even as the caster herself has forgotten the true purpose of her spell, the spell will remain the same. This is the justice of standard magic."

Feray nodded. She stepped forward, walking as close as she could to the cage. "What do I do?"

"Listen very carefully, my apprentice: whatever happens next, teleport first and instantly to your home. If the spell breaks, take me with you and immediately transfer us to your animorbis; stay there and do nothing—no matter what happens—for the next five minutes. Then, if I should meet my end, and if you have any respect and care for me at all, burn my body to ashes and think not for a second about resurrection," Nasr instructed, slowly enough that Feray could catch every word, but quickly enough that she wished he would stall, if only a little.

The girl closed her fists and opened them again, as if that would prepare her for what was to come. "I love you too, Nasr Palmentere," she declared, unfazed as she stared right into the man's eyes. "I couldn't have had a better mentor."

She thought her own heart stopped in the next second that followed—it was, indeed, only a second. Nasr pricked his own finger on the needle without the slightest hint of hesitation. In the next instant, all of these things happened all at once: the cage broke apart, cut neatly into five sections; the chains vanished; Nasr fell; Feray made a dive for him and caught him just before he touched the ground. She did as he instructed, teleporting the both of them first to her home and then her animorbis. All this was executed with utmost precision and without a word. As soon as the cage broke, she noticed, the ground began to shake—and it wasn't just the cage, or even the dungeon; it was the entire school.

The next five minutes passed agonizingly slowly. The dark haze-like magic that belonged to Nasr filled the space, at the same time being returned to and leaking out of him. Since they were in her animorbis, however, it stayed in that space, unable to escape. Her animorbis held in all the power that the cage and chains released, and that power made her whole world quite literally pitch black.

In her arms, Nasr trembled, though he made no sound. His touch was sometimes hot, and then ice-cold. At times, he held his breath; at other times, he gasped for air. These disarranged reactions sent Feray into a spiral of wild confusion, and it was against anything Nasr had ever stood for. There were a few times, in fact, when she thought he'd stopped breathing altogether. During those times, she called for him in urgency, and he opened his eyes again. As it was to her call that he woke, he naturally met her gaze, and she found herself alarmed at the pleading look in his eyes, a kind of desperation she never could imagine in those eyes even if she tried.

That look, she reminded herself, was probably what Odessa had wanted to see. Perhaps Nasr had known it, and perhaps that was one of the reasons why he'd been specific when he asked her to bring the both of them to her animorbis. He could no longer trust his sister, but he trusted Feray.

At last, Nasr fell limp in her arms. Still she held him there, not knowing whether the pain would linger. After what seemed like forever—just when she almost went to check for his pulse again—the dark sorcerer wrapped his own arms around her. His temperature had returned to normal, and he sighed deeply.

"Thank you, Feray." This was the first thing he said.