Page 45 of Out of Sight

“Wait, so is Achilles a giant?”

“A few generations ago. He has it in his veins.”

“So, you are here because...”

He smiled. “Because the emperor met the chaos mage, and she sent scrolls along to him with a profile. The scrolls began to arrive fast, and he just did an all-call for anyone who could manage magic. We applied. He sorted through the tidal wave of applications, selected a few of us to arrive in tiny batches, and began exporting mages to your world.”

“And you guys just did it?”

He glanced at her with a grin. “Women with power are scarce in the empire, and your world is building them along with the men. If it can create the empress’s mother, it can do amazing things. Being part of a bright future is something all of us agreed to. So as we find partners, more will be authorized to arrive, but there will never be more than ten unattached imperial mages in your world.”

“But you have families.”

“Communication has been arranged. I have two sisters and one brother.”

“Nieces or nephews?”

He chuckled. “Two of each. My brother was the one who suggested I put my name forward. Too much power, not enough ambition for him. He was right. A quiet life with the chance at a powerful partner was intriguing.”

“That is... not as horrible a reason as I had imagined.”

He smiled and worked on his project, pulling the top into a point. “So, what was the worst part about being energy?”

She swallowed. “Knowing that my family acted just the same when they knew I was there. I have lived my life as a non-event. Wasn’t an alpha, wasn’t an omega, wasn’t interested in flinging myself into matrimony, and didn’t want to go work for family. I erased myself before I ever got cursed.”

He leaned back as the shining oval rotated more slowly now. “That must be painful.”

“It is. There is personal guilt and an incredible feeling of being abandoned.”

“Well, three more hours and we can go to Mik for your appointment.”

Lucia smiled. “She’s delightfully crazy and a very good trauma counsellor.”

He stopped his project. “You have seen her before?”

“Yes. I used to sit in on her sessions, trying to gain what I could out of them.”

“Why?”

“I tried to kill myself a few times. It didn’t work, but I did try.”

Yorwell exhaled slowly. “May I ask why?”

“Religions have a purgatory. A place in between heaven and hell, life and death. A limbo where I waited for judgment. After several years, I thought I was done being judged, and I just wanted nothing. Silence. So I set out to try and kill an energy being. It didn’t go well.”

He exhaled again. “I see. How are you feeling now?”

“I have hands and feet and can talk to my cousin and aunt while I am eating cookies. I can look through people’s correspondence if they put it in electronic format.”

“And scope out showers.”

She inclined her head. “I didn’t perv on guys nearly as much as I indicated, but when I was watching you, and you were really enjoying that shower, I figured out it was probably not a great thing to be doing.”

He smiled. “So what are the real numbers?”

She held up three fingers.

“Really?”