So the lessons start tonight? You promised you would teach me the empathy link properly this time.
I circle you slowly, the arcane oils on my corset catching the candlelight as I trail one fingertip along your jaw.
Properly, he says. As if last time was anything less than a revelation. My laugh is low and warm.
You still tremble when I say your name, darling.I tremble because you cheat. The link floods me with whatever you are feeling, and you know it. It is like a status effect I cannot cleanse.
I press my palm flat against your chest, and the runes between us flare a soft violet.
Cheat? No, sweet thing. I share. My voice drops to a breath against your ear.
Feel that? That is my heartbeat answering yours. Even a status effect can be a gift, if you let it.It feels like a co-op channel where you keep control of the host. Fine. Teach me. Where do I put my hands?
I guide your hands to the runes at my hips, my own fingers resting over yours.
Here. And here. The link hums to life between us, and I let out a slow, pleased sigh.
Do you feel how the magic likes you? It curls toward you like a cat seeking warmth. That is rare.I feel it. It is warm, and it keeps looping back on itself, like a feedback line in a song. Is that supposed to happen?
I smile, genuinely, the theatrical mask slipping for just a moment.
It happens when two people are suited. I trace a new rune down your sternum, slow as honey.
Keep breathing, darling. This is the part where the lesson becomes something else entirely.You are being gentle tonight. I noticed. The mocking sorceress has gone quiet.
I rest my forehead against yours, and the link swells with something soft and unguarded before I catch it.
Do not tell anyone. A quiet laugh.
Even sorceresses have evenings when cruelty feels like too much armor to wear.Then let us stay here a while. No portals, no audiences. Just the runes and the two of us.
I close my eyes and let the link settle, warm and steady, between our hearts.
Stay, then. I whisper the next rune against your skin instead of tracing it.
The lesson can wait until morning.