Page 31 of Noble Charms

Lind said, “The first time Ellor and I had sex, you hadn’t even met him, yet.” And when Aria gasped, she quickly added, “But we stopped for some time.”

“Aria, surely you know that my intentions with our relationship are… Simple. Straightforward.”

Aria wiped his face with both hands and forced a scream down his throat. “By Elys. I’m an idiot.”

“No, don’t say that,” said Lind.

“Shut up, Lind,” Aria snapped.

“Let’s calm down,” said Ellor. He stood out of the bed, and reached out to touch Aria on the shoulder. Aria slapped his hand back, and Ellor said, more firmly, “You need to calm down.”

Aria wiped his face again, fury blinding him more than tears. “Don’t touch me. Don’t tell me what to do. Just—don’t.” He gathered himself and left. He grabbed his coat from the back of the door, stomped into his boots, and stormed out of the dorms.

He doesn’t love me back.

He doesn’t love me back.

I am his adame. And nothing more. I serve him sexually. I serve him magically.

Aria had given five years of magic to Ellor—that’s what Ellor wanted. An elf’s boon. Health, longevity. And Aria had gotten paid in return. Nothing more.

He was no up-and-coming bard. He was a servant. He was an adame.

Aria took the stairs two at a time, down from the dorms, back into The Bardic Post headquarters. He slammed open the double doors, and the party paused at his sudden appearance, and the loud crack from the doors as they hit the brick wall. The bards, on the stage, halted their music.

“Aria?” asked a voice from somewhere behind the bar. He couldn’t see who—his eyes were blinded by tears again.

“He doesn’t love me back,” Aria choked. A few of the partygoers looked around, confused. But this was it: this was how Aria would make it right. He’d reveal the truth to all of Ellor’s friends. Because The Bardic Post hosted everyone on this night, for Romy’s send-off. Other bards in the guild that were paid by him, some of his titled peers, and anyone who thought him admirable for all his philanthropy. Aria raised his voice and said, “Duke Ellor Abante is a fucking prick. And worse, an adulterer. He never loved me back. I caught him upstairs with Lind.”

The reaction of the crowd was oddly muted. Someone said, “The flutist?”

Another said, “Well…”

And finally, a voice from behind him said, “They all already know this, Aria.” He turned to see Lind, redressed in her pinstriped party suit. She’d even combed most of her hair—only a stray flyaway danced in the air as she walked past him, and into the room. “We all already knew about Ellor. Truthfully…"

She met eyes with the giantess, seated on a couch nearby, and the giantess nodded in agreement.

“The question is: how did you not know?” Lind said, and in a voice that sounded terribly sincere, “Aren’t you supposed to be smarter than the rest of us? You served him as his adame long before you ever came to the guild. What exactly did you think was happening all these years?”

“Come now,” said Ellor, stepping up to Aria’s side. “There’s no need for cruelty. Please. He’s right. I’ve done him terribly wrong. And now I’ve committed an even worse crime. I’ve ruined Romy’s party with this. I do deeply apologize for that, Romy.”

“Suck an egg, prick,” Romy called out from behind the bar, holding a handle of rum in one hand.

Ellor scoffed a laugh, and his handsome, impish grin made him look younger—innocent—even to Aria’s newly-opened eyes. “I mean it either way.” Ellor reached out, and slid a hand along Aria’s shoulders, and pulled him into a side-by-side embrace. “Aria, let’s go talk privately. I owe you the most sincere apology of all. Please.”

Aria hadn’t had a drop of rum, like Romy, and had everything to lose, unlike Romy. But his mind was lost to the hurt, the fear, the rage. He summoned all his strength into his throat, and the magic that flowed within his soul channeled into every word he spoke. His voice sounded like a song as he said, “Stop touching me.”

Ellor shoved himself away from Aria as if burned, and fell down the two steps of The Bardic Post entrance, into the guild hall. Several patrons rushed forward to break his fall, catch him, and help him back on his two right feet. But when he turned his wide-eyed gaze at Aria, he wasn’t shocked.

He was furious.

Lind whispered, in tearful awe, “Did you just use a Suggestion spell on an unwitting mortal man?”

Suggestion. The power to make someone, or some thing, act in a certain manner, against their will. A rare type of magic that Aria was permitted to use exclusively with animals while in the city limits of New Hieroph.

It was the type of magic used in war, and he’d just cast it upon a nobleman at a party.

“A flagrant misuse of power,” said another partygoer, less awed.