Master of Minds, Master of Me

“Your Highness?”

I raise my gaze when the doctor approaches me, and I see Master Loneflare behind him.

“I brought you something light to eat. I think we’re past the hard part now. The surgery went well, so your left hand should recover. But it will take time.”

“Thanks, Doctor…?”

“Oh, I do apologize. How sloppy of me. I’m Doctor Neil Elrindel. I work as a physician here at the Mage Tower.”

I smile brightly. “I am forever thankful to you. May I call you Neil?”

“Of course, Your Highness. You are the Crown Prince after all. Call me whatever you want.”

“And please, just call me Felix.”

“That I can’t do, Your Highness. I would never dare to call someone of your status simply by name.”

Of course not. But it was worth a shot.

“So, since you’re both here, are you finally going to tell me what’s wrong with me?”

“I’ll let Master explain that. I’ll leave you two to talk.” He puts the tray on my lap and exits.

He brought me soup. And honestly, I’m starving. That makes this simple soup look like the best feast ever. I sink a spoon in and take a sip, and it tastes even better. Goddammit, it’s good. I start to devour the soup as I see my savior walking closer. Soon I hear his calm, emotionless voice.

“You have a third mana affinity inside you.”

I choke on my soup, totally caught by surprise. He really just gets right to the point. No complimentary chit-chat, I see.

“Third affinity? That can’t be. I have always possessed water and electricity mana. And no one can have three affinities.”

“Well, you do. I have never seen anything like that either. Usually everyone is born with one affinity. Those who possess two, the second one lies dormant within the body. And usually some event or strong feelings make the dormant affinity wake up. And you were abnormal from the beginning. You were the first one able to use both affinities from the start.”

That’s true. It was considered a miracle when I was born. My father was super proud of me. And of course, I took a little pride in myself too.

He continues to explain. “So apparently you also had a dormant affinity hiding there. And whatever happened yesterday woke it up. The human body can’t contain three affinities. Two can coexist inside the channels, live in harmony. But three? Absolutely not. The affinities are fighting with each other, trying to drive one out so they can claim the space for themselves."

So I really do have three affinities?

“Do you know what the third affinity is? And if three affinities can’t coexist, what can I do about it?”

“It’s illusion mana. And you have two options. One: you can just try to learn to control the battling mana inside you. Find some calming factor in your life that makes you able to calm the raging mana. I can help you with that. Of course, my case is different, but the basic mechanic is somewhat similar. So I can help you to some extent, but you need to figure out yourself what calms you best. Of course, you are the first one to have this problem. So there is always the possibility that handling three different affinities is just impossible, and you just end up dead.”

My face drops. Why does he have to say it so bluntly? I thought the Master of the Mage Tower was very polite and friendly. He seems nothing like the rumors.

And illusion mana? I only know a few people who are able to wield it, so it’s not very familiar to me. Most of the illusion mages are here in the Tower.

“And the second option?”

I hope that one doesn’t have the risk of dying.

“I could try to remove the third affinity.”

“Remove it? You can do something like that?”

“Don’t know. Never tried. But I’m pretty confident I could do it. Nothing is impossible to me. But of course it’s unknown whether your body would survive the process.”

That doesn’t sound good. I have a bad feeling about what he’s about to say.

“And if it doesn’t survive?”

“You end up dead, obviously.”

“Well that sounds just fantastic. If you had to guess, how likely would my body not survive?”

He clearly thinks for a while. “I would say maybe a 30% chance of not surviving.”

“In that case I take the first option.”

He looks a little disappointed. Umm… why?

“Why do I have a feeling that you’d rather me pick the second option? Do you think my chances of surviving would be greater in that?”

“Yes, I would rather make the second one true, and no, it’s not greater in that.”

“Why then?”

“It would be rather exciting to try to remove an affinity. It would serve as a great experiment.”

I think my brain malfunctions for a second. Does this person think of me as nothing more than a test subject?

“Even though there’s a high risk of me ending up dead?” I ask, not sure why. I think the answer is pretty obvious.

He just shrugs his shoulders. “I’m pretty sure not even the Royal Family would blame me for causing the death of the Crown Prince if you yourself would volunteer for the experiment.”

Okay, this man is obviously nuts. But somehow his emotionless and ignorant attitude toward me makes me chuckle. It's new and refreshing.

“Please, just call me Felix,” I say, probably more out of habit, knowing he’s probably the last person to ever call me by my name.

But to my surprise, he just nods. My eyes widen with shock.

“Really? Will you really call me Felix?”

He furrows his brows at me, like he doesn’t understand my question, and just nods again.

“I thought you would be the last person in the whole world to agree to call me by my name,” I explain my confusion.

“Felix is much shorter to say. I’m lazy like that.” He says nonchalant.

I just burst out laughing, genuinely amused by this weird, cold, blunt person standing next to me. His face starts to look annoyed when I can’t contain my enjoyment, so I cough and try to suffocate it. Once I have quieted down he continues talking.

“We will keep you here for one more day, making sure your body and mana are under control. Before you leave tomorrow, come to my office. We’ll discuss the details about your mana training then.”

He turns to leave.

“Sure. And I almost forgot, can I call you Theodore too?” I ask with a bright smile.

“No.”

My face drops. What?! Did he just say no?

“Wait!” I yell as he almost closes the door. He stops and turns toward me.

“What?”

“So you’re okay with calling me Felix, but not me calling you Theodore?”

He nods and slams the door shut.

I just stare at the closed door, frozen. No one ever denies me from calling them by first name, since I’m the Crown Prince. I outrank them all. So this is the first time for that to happen. And also the first time someone actually did agree to call me Felix. So I have no idea whether I should be happy or mad. Or both?

But for some reason my lips are curved into a smile. I do have a feeling that I’m going to get along just fine with that weird cold person.

---

I’m totally out of breath. What psychopath makes someone who just got out of a hospital bed climb up twenty-four floors? I’m barely able to stand up from my wounds and bandaged all over my body. I knock on the door, feeling a little victorious that I didn’t collapse on the way here.

“Come in.” His cold voice penetrates through the door.

I open the door and see him sitting behind his desk, papers all over it. He doesn’t raise his head to meet me. So I just walk toward him and flop onto the closest chair.

“You do realize that I almost fainted during the climb?” I ask him.

He answers without lifting his gaze from the papers. “I thought that if you could not manage to come up here, your body would be worthless to even try to train containing the mana. So it would be better for you to just end up dead on the way.”

“Woah. You really don’t save your words. I thought Master Loneflare was a polite and charming person.”

“You already saw me on the battlefield, so I thought it would be useless to try to keep the facade on with you anymore.”

A facade? So does that mean he really acts charming in public like everyone says? What an odd person. I like it.

“Okay, so what are the details we need to discuss?”

“First I need you to sign this.” He hands me a contract. “I need to be sure you don’t tell anyone about me wielding dark magic.”

Oh right. I kind of forgot the whole thing. Since it’s illegal and I’m the Crown Prince, I should probably be furious about it. But I’m not. I’m not sure why, but I don’t think he is evil in the way that I should fear him. I skim through the contract, but it’s pretty simple. Only saying that I can’t tell anyone about what really happened when he rescued me and nothing related to his dark magic. Understandable.

“I have no problem signing this, but I do have something I require from you too.”

He leans back in his chair lazily, just watching, clearly expecting me to keep talking, so I do.

“I want you to sign a contract too, where you promise not to tell anyone about my third affinity either.”

“Why?”

“You said it pretty clearly that there is a high risk of me ending up dead. If I can’t contain three affinities, I presume my body will end up exploding. If people know that I might be a ticking time bomb, that surely pushes some people to support Duke Callum with his desire to take the throne away from me. I don’t want any bad rumors circling because of this and affecting my future.”

He grabs a paper and starts writing it with ink. I just keep staring at him while he works. I guess that means he agreed with me. And soon he hands me another contract, labeled only with my name on it.

“I included some basic rules about mana lessons in there too. Like how often and where. I will also give you this.” He hands me a communication stone. “You can contact me with it if you feel like the mana is starting to get too rampant inside you. So I can try to settle it, like I did back in the cave.”

I stare at the communication stone. They are extremely rare since very few can make them. Or at least in the way that they cover long distances. But I shouldn’t be surprised that this amazing beast in front of me is able to do just that.

“And what do you want in return for all of this?”

“I stated that in the contract.”

I turn the page and halt as I see what he wants.

“You do realize how huge a sum of money this is?! I’m not sure if the Royal Family can even afford this!”

He just shrugs his shoulders. “Would you say your life is less valuable than that sum?”

I squint my eyes at him. What a sly way to put that into words. This one is one sneaky mage. The problem is that I want to hide the fact that I have a third affinity even from my father. If I need to pay this large amount of money, I have to ask my father about it. I don’t have money like this.

“Well, how about monthly payment?” I suggest. “The problem with your ridiculous request is that it needs my father’s approval. And I don’t want my father to know about my mana problem.”

He rips the paper from the rest of the contract and burns it and starts to write a new one. So is that a yes? After a short while he hands me the new paper.

I halt even more when I see his new suggestion. It has a monthly payment method but the eventual sum is even bigger than in the previous one!

“You sleaze! The sum is even more ridiculous.”

“If you pay only monthly, it will of course contain interest.” He leans in his chair, looking so smug.

I slump my head to his desk, feeling frustrated. He is impossible. He is going to suck me dry from helping me.

“Felix.”

I raise my head when I hear him say my name. It feels good to hear.

“I promise, in a few years this Tower will be much greater than it is now. But in order to do that I need money. But in time, this Tower will be even richer than the Royal Palace and the whole country will want our services. So I assure you, Felix. Being close to me will benefit you and the empire in the long run.”

Goddammit I like this man. And I don’t doubt his words at all, not even one bit. My smile brightens as I visualize our future. Felix and Theodore, best friends forever.

I stand up in excitement and write my name on both of the contracts with a huge smile.

“I can’t wait to be working along with you, my friend!”

His face distorts into an annoyed one.

“We are not friends, Felix.”

“Sure we are! We shared a very emotional moment in the battlefield.” I raise my hands, acting all dramatic.

“Only emotion I remember is your death screams when I burned the spike stuck into your shoulder.”

“I don’t mean that. I mean the part where I am almost giving up life, sinking in sorrow. Just waiting for my doom in that cold harsh cave. And then my savior appeared and made me believe in life again!”

“I am not your savior. Stop the act, Felix.”

Of course I don’t stop, I’m on a roll here.

“You carried me all the way to safety so heroically. And we discovered how we can both benefit from each other. The perfect duo.”

“I only want your money.”

“Shhhh! Don’t point out useless details.” I glare at him before returning to my dramatic act. “Common interest connected us. Leading us to be best friends forever. Felix and Theodore. Theodore and Felix.”

“We are not best friends. And don’t call me Theodore.” His voice drops dangerously low and suddenly the whole room turns pretty damn hot.

“Okay okay. Just friends then. Since we have only known each other for a short while. Babysteps, I understand.”

“No friendship.”

I see his eyes slowly turning red, reminding me of his rather scary presence on the battlefield. I take that as my cue to leave. I slowly back down toward the door.

“Well… Since the contracts are all done and signed, I will show myself out.” I open the door and slide through it. “See you later, bestie!”

I slam the door shut and hop down the stairs, suddenly feeling pretty energetic despite my injuries. Or maybe it’s the survival instinct kicking in. I’m pretty sure I feel his heat radiating into the stairs too. But I ignore it. I’m sure he will warm up to me eventually. In a less literal way.