“Fuck. My head.”

  Lucas groaned softly as he awoke. His head felt like someone had taken a hammer to it and gone wild. And as he attempted to open his eyes, he was forced to slam them shut as the room swam and spun. His head was pounding still, though the pressure and pain wasn’t as bad as it had been before.

  “Lucas?”

  Lucas’ head snapped around when he heard Fay’s voice. That was a mistake, though, and he hissed as the pain quickly spiked. He screwed his eyes shut, pressing a hand against his forehead and trying to make everything stop spinning.

  “Just take it easy,” Fay’s voice came from his left and Lucas relaxed as he felt the comforting warmth of her hand gripping his. He didn’t try to open his eyes again, focusing instead on just trying to breathe and deal with his headache.

  “Here. Drink this.”

  He could feel the cool glass being pressed against his lips as Fay leaned in. He felt her grip on his hand tighten a bit and he responded in kind. Despite the pain, knowing that Fay was there was enough to him relax. As the first drop of water hit his tongue, Lucas realized that he was actually thirstier than he’d realized. Within a couple seconds, the glass was empty and Lucas felt some of the pain in his head dissipate.

  “How are you feeling?” Fay gently asked.

  “Like somebody used my skull as a punching bag,” Lucas groaned.

  There was movement to his left and Lucas felt as the bed sank a little bit under the weight of another body. Then, he felt Fay’s arms wrap around him while her head rested in the crook of his neck. Lucas relished the contact and the warmth of Fay’s body against his and his arms immediately wrapped around her in turn. But when he heard a ragged, shuddering breath coming from his girlfriend, he got worried.

  “Fay?”

  “You’re an idiot,” She mumbled as she buried her head into his shoulder.

  “What did I do?” He asked.

  Fay pulled back from Lucas, and he slowly forced his eyes open. Fay was the first thing he saw, her expression marred by the worried frown that she wore. Then he saw Dusk, curled up a few feet away and still sleeping soundly despite all the noise. It was surprising that she hadn't woken up yet.

  The silvery blonde followed Lucas’ gaze, and she smiled as her fingers slowly ran through the soft, black fur of the familiar.

  “She stayed up all night,” Fay explained. “She was awake when I snuck in last night and was still awake when I woke up. She only passed out a little while ago.”

  “You snuck into my room?” He impulsively asked.

  Fay’s cheeks gained a bit of pink, and she shot Lucas a little glare. “We’re getting off track. What do you remember about last night?”

  Last night. Hearing that made him pause and look around. He kept his movements slow, but it wasn’t hard to notice how sunlight streamed in through the bedroom windows compared to the moonlight that had hung overhead when he’d been awake before. His head still ached, but Lucas tried to think back and recall just what had happened. He didn’t remember getting into bed at all.

  The last thing that Lucas really remembered about the previous night was the fight planned with Magnus. It was rough from the start, but he did manage to trick the man a few times.

  “I-“

  The exact details came back to him in a rush and Lucas grimaced as his headache worsened. He remembered how exhausted his body had been, how he’d started getting a bit lightheaded and how he’d taken bigger risks. And he remembered why his head was pounding so much in the first place. He’d stretched himself too far and tried to do too much.

  “I overdid it,” Lucas sheepishly admitted.

  “You think?” Fay spat back, though her words lacked any real venom. “Lucas, you were bleeding from your nose and eyes. I was terrified that you were going to die.”

  That fear and pain in Fay’s voice struck Lucas harder than any physical blow could have. His heart ached as he saw the worry in his girlfriend’s eyes as she remembered the event.

  Things should never have gotten to that point in the first place. He knew the consequences of pushing himself too far since Wren had explained it to him back when he’d been starting to learn more complex illusions. That memory was one that had stuck with him, partially due to the warning but also the pain.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  “Let me know if you start to feel a headache build at any point,” Wren said as she circled around an illusory copy of Lucas that was stirring an empty potion cauldron. “If you push yourself too far, you’ll hurt yourself.”

  “How can I hurt myself with an illusion?” Lucas asked as he kept an eye on the illusion, trying to spot any flaws before the older woman did.

  “Illusion magic is often thought to be closely related to Thought magic because the two have very similar downsides. When someone with either affinity pushes themselves too hard while using their magic, it can result in crippling headaches and migraines. If they push far enough, they can even cause permanent damage.”

  “Wait, seriously?” Lucas let his illusion fade and turned his entire attention to his teacher. “When were you planning to warn me about that?”

  Wren shrugged off the teen’s accusing tone and rolled her eyes. “Right now. You didn’t have anything complex enough to worry about before. Now we’re adding more and you’re hitting the point where you can strain yourself. If you feel a headache starting, be cautious how much further you go. I don’t need my apprentice killing himself because he went too far.”

  Circling around to his side, the old woman slapped a large wooden spoon she often used for mixing potions against Lucas’ knee and laughed as the teen recoiled at the pain. “And I never said you could let that illusion drop. Put it back up, and faster this time!”

  Lucas just grumbled and split his focus, reestablishing his illusion and watching as it stirred an empty potion pot.

  “Why does using complex illusions give me such a bad headache anyway?” He asked.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  “Illusions are a very mental heavy magic, child. Those headaches are our bodies way of telling us that we’re going too far. Either splitting our focus too far or trying to reach for magics that are outside of our ability to grasp,” Wren explained.

  “So, what? I’m stuck at a certain level that my magic dictates forever?”

  Wren laughed and shook her head. “No, no. Your magic is like a muscle. The more you use it, the more it’ll grow and develop. Over time as your mana settles and you grow more used to your affinities, you’ll be able to do more and more. But for now, you’ll find that you might hit your limits sooner than you’ll like. Just be careful of them, don’t try to push them, and you’ll be fine.”

  “And what about if I can’t avoid straining myself and going that far?” Lucas asked.

  He immediately flinched as the phantom pain of a hand smacking him upside the head washed over him.

  “You avoid those situations,” Wren replied dryly. “That’s what I’m teaching you, ways to avoid and sneakily deal with your situations. Now focus on your illusion, it’s not breathing!” Despite his best attempts to dodge, Wren was annoyingly fast with that spoon of hers and she was happy to smack his legs when he slipped up.

  “Ouch! Ease up you old hag!”

  “…”

  “Ow!”

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  As effective as Wren’s training was, Lucas found himself questioning his sanity to endure it every time he went back to the woman. He should have taken her warning more seriously, though, and the pain behind his eyes was likely punishment for ignoring her words.

  “I’m sorry I made you worry,” Lucas apologized, holding his arms out towards Fay.

  Thankfully, the blonde wasn’t mad enough at him to refuse the hug and practically collapsed into Lucas’ arms. For a time, the two simply held one another and Lucas sighed as the pain in his skull began to slowly ease and dissipate.

  The moment was ruined when Lucas’ stomach growled loud enough for both of the teens to hear. Lucas was the first to crack, a small chuckle leading to a proper laugh as Fay joined in a second later. It was a moment of amusement and relief that they both needed.

  When the noise caused Dusk stirred in Fay’s lap, both of them quickly quieted down. Fay didn’t want to wake the little fox, and after hearing what she’d done, neither did Lucas.

  “We should go and get you some food. Mom said you’d probably be hungry,” Fay whispered as she gently shifted Dusk off of her lap and onto the bed.

  “I feel like I haven’t eaten in days. Food sounds amazing right about now,” Lucas agreed.

  Being careful not to disturb the sleeping familiar, Lucas and Fay both slipped out of the bedroom and made their way to the kitchen. There, Lucas was surprised to see both Lissa and Magnus sitting at the table.

  “Lucas! You’re awake.”

  Lissa was the first to greet the two, rushing over and wrapping her arms around Lucas in a tight hug. It was a bit surprising, but he responded in kind after a second or two. Once Lissa had let him go, Magnus chose to speak up.

  “You gave us all a scare last night, Lucas.”

  He allowed Fay to lead him to the kitchen table as he hung his head. Hearing it from Fay had been bad enough, but the confirmation that he’d screwed up from Magnus was like salt in the wound. His whole hope with the fight had been to impress the man, and it seemed like he’d done the opposite.

  “Did Fay explain what happened last night?” Magnus asked as Fay and Lucas took a seat at the table. Even without saying anything, Lissa already began to heat up the stove to make some food.

  “No. What happened?”

  “What happened,” Magnus sighed. “Is that you pushed yourself way too far and experienced your first bit of backlash. Whatever you chose to do at the end of the fight was too much and you collapsed from the strain. You were entirely out of mana by the time we had a healer come and check up on you. And if it wasn’t for him, you might not have woken up today.”

  That was something Fay hadn’t told him, and when he looked over at his girlfriend Lucas could see her grabbing the table in a white-knuckled grip.

  “I wasn’t really thinking about it at the time,” Lucas explained. “I just wanted to try and do better. So, I pushed past the headache and tried to win.”

  “You nearly did,” Magnus admitted.

  Those words caused Lucas’ head to snap towards the man. Thankfully, by that point his headache had died down to a dull throbbing.

  “Whatever that last technique you used was, it almost won you the fight. That thing you did could’ve killed me if I hadn’t been careful,” He explained.

  Lucas was shocked and based off the way that Fay’s eyes widened, it was something that she hadn’t known either. Lucas knew what he’d been creating, though, and he knew how lethal it could have been. He just hadn’t been properly thinking things through at the time. He’d gotten too lost in the fight to realize that he was genuinely putting Magnus’ life at risk towards the end.

  “I’m-“

  “Don’t apologize,” Magnus interrupted. “I don’t want you to apologize, I want you to learn from this and do better.”

  The conversation halted for a moment as Lissa came around and put a plate piled high with eggs in front of Lucas. They smelled great and he could hear his stomach roar in hunger once again. Magnus, thankfully, gave Lucas the chance to eat a bit before continuing.

  “First thing’s first, you’re not doing whatever that technique you tried anytime soon. Your body clearly isn’t ready for it, yet.”

  As much as he wanted to argue, Lucas knew the man was right. It didn’t mean he was fully willing to drop the concept entirely, though.

  “Second, we’re going back to normal sparring after last night. Things got way too heated and we both went too far,” Magnus added. “And lastly, you’re taking the rest of today off. No practicing your magic, no physical training, you’re going to relax and rest. You can get back to training tomorrow.”

  The sparring he would happily agree to. Despite having actually landed a blow, of sorts, on Magnus during their fight, he’d gotten heavily beaten by the man in the process. Being told that he couldn’t train for the day, though, that Lucas protested.

  “What! Why can’t I do anything? I feel fine now!” And after some food, he really did. Though he also happily accepted a second helping of food from Lissa when she offered. He was starving.

  “Lucas, we had to call a healer to check on you. For the rest of the day, we want you to take it easy. That’s not a big ask when you nearly put yourself into a coma, or worse, last night.”

  The reminder of how badly he’d fucked up was like a bucket of cold water being dumped on his head. All of Lucas’ fire and fight died down as he looked towards Fay again. She was staying quiet, but he could see the silent concern as she stared back at him.

  It was the worry in those green eyes that finally made Lucas cave.

  “Ok. I’ll relax today,” He mumbled.

  Feeling his girlfriend’s hand gently squeezing his under the table was a nice consolation, and it did mean he could spend more of the day with her.

  “Good,” Lissa said as she set down a third helping of eggs. “For now, eat up and recover. A healer’s magic tends to leave people very hungry. It might be magic, but magic can only do so much. Healing still drains the body of resources so make sure you eat your fill today.”

  Mouth full of delicious eggs, Lucas just nodded his head in agreement.

  “Don’t get me wrong, Lucas,” Magnus spoke up. “What you did last night, from start to finish, was impressive. You fought smart up until the end and did something I never thought you could. But I have to ask, what did you do at the end of the fight? How did you cut through my defenses?”

  “I’ll tell you if you tell me what that metal skin thing you pulled was,” Lucas shot back between bites.

  “It’s an armor technique I came up with a long time ago,” The man explained. “I can manipulate metal easily with my magic, but I can also create it from thin air at a higher cost. That armor is a last second defense mechanism I created using the strongest metals I could make. It’s not easy to get through it.”

  Which made it even more significant that his shadow blade had managed to cut through it…

  “Your turn,” He added.

  “I might have tried to recreate a monomolecular blade with my magic,” Lucas replied hesitantly.

  When he got blank stares in return, Lucas realized that there was finally something he knew about that the Stella family didn’t.

  It didn’t make explaining the concept of a monomolecular edge any easier, though.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~