Ch. 1: Aidyn

  The pain of his Mental Bond unexpectedly snapping knocks Prince Aidyn to his knees. The pain of a second bond breaking only moments later consumes the prince, to the point that he doesn’t even feel the punch of an arrow burying itself in his chest.

  So great is Aidyn’s agony, until a woman’s blurred face appears above him, he forgets other people exist entirely.

  But the woman… Aidyn knows her. She’s a mage too. He works with her. They’re members of a Team Bond.

  She leans down, pressing so close to Aidyn that their noses almost touch. Even so, her voice doesn’t reach him. She has to shake him by the shoulders for the words to register.

  “Stay with us, Your Highness!”

  “Noelle,” he mumbles. That’s her name.

  Why is she being so formal? Noelle hasn’t called him by one of his titles since they were sixteen. He asked her not to the first day of classes. She’s a Memorizer, so she never forgets.

  Another voice, a calmer one, reaches his ears. “Pull the arrow out so his Healing Bond can close the wound.”

  Aidyn’s fear spikes, carving a narrow window of clarity through the thickening, pain-induced haze.

  That voice belongs to Brehanna, and she doesn’t sound worried enough. She doesn’t know he won’t heal. Not this time.

  Aidyn knocks away the hand that reaches towards the weapon protruding from his chest.

  “Leave it!” he groans through gritted teeth.

  Unfortunately, that’s all he gets out before the haze closes in again. The most important part of his warning, the part about not having a Healing Bond anymore, escapes as a barely audible whisper.

  It’s okay though. Brehanna hears him. She’s an Amplifier, so she can increase the strength of all her senses. It’s very practical, just like she is.

  Disoriented, Aidyn tries to hold on to the conversation that follows, but he only grasps bits and pieces. The main thing he catches is a rising level of panic in all the voices.

  “We have to get him out of here!”

  That’s Emmett, their jokester of an Illusion Mage. He rarely sounds as serious as he does now.

  “Not until we stabilize him, or he’ll bleed out!”

  Aidyn recognizes that voice too. Ellyse. She’s a Connector, but no one except a Bondsmyth can put broken bonds back together.

  There are more voices and more words, but he sinks deeper and deeper into the haze.

  More shaking follows.

  Aidyn surfaces to find Noelle leaning over him again, and catches the end of a shouted sentence.

  “—Love Bond, now!”

  Love Bond.

  Those words yank Aidyn out of the depths and into the present. He forces a single word out as loud as he can in response.

  “NO.”

  Noelle’s face disappears and another teammate, Taryon, replaces her.

  “We have to, Aidyn. We’re in the middle of nowhere. Even if we use your magic to move fast, there still aren’t any Healer Mages close enough.”

  It’s so hard to form the words, but Aidyn fights to get them out. “Another way. Please.”

  He puts as much desperation as he can into his voice. Taryon will feel it. He’s an Emotion Mage.

  Taryon’s expression softens in understanding, but he shakes his head. “A Soul Bond is your only option at this point, and since those don’t work by themselves, you’re going to have to form the full Love Bond.”

  “No… saving those…”

  “I know, Aidyn, and I’m sorry, but you WILL die if we don’t do this.”

  Dying from an arrow? How very un-Embermoorian of him.

  The pain tries to pull him under again, but he manages to stay afloat long enough to ask a critical question.

  “With who?”

  Noelle’s face reappears. “With me, Your Highness.” She looks as horrified as Aidyn feels, but keeps talking. “I’m the only one with available Emotion and Soul Bonds. But don’t worry! I know how to safely combine them into the Love Bond structure since I’ve done it before. Trust me, it will keep you alive long enough to find help.”

  While Noelle starts structuring a Love Bond with her magic, weaving the complex bond pattern around her hand, Aidyn drags out ragged breath after ragged breath. This can’t be happening. This isn’t how things are supposed to go! Aidyn wants to fall in love, for real, and then form a real Love Bond.

  “But I don’t love you!” The words tumble out of his mouth before he can hold them back. He’s not even sure if they are the right ones. All he knows is this isn’t what he wanted, and it’s so hard to think with the haze pressing in on all sides.

  “There are many types of love, Your Highness,” Noelle says without looking at him. She keeps her eyes on her magic. “Friends, family, co-workers; all relationships include love. We don’t need romance for the bond to activate.”

  The bond is almost complete now. All that’s left is for him to add his magic. He doesn’t have enough, but senses his teammates use their shared Strength Bond to give him the amount he needs.

  Darkness pulls at the edges of his vision as Noelle shifts her gaze to him, grasping Aidyn’s nearest hand with her magic-covered one. “I don’t care if the only thing you love about me right now is my magic, or that we’re teammates, or the fact that I can save you. Whatever love you can muster, no matter the motivation, I need you to pour it into this bond, and I need you to do it now.”

  Aidyn squeezes Noelle’s fingers and lets loose a scream, a guttural battle cry of a sound that scatters his fear enough to make space for everything the bond needs. He funnels it all into the woven structure, watching with regathering dread as his magic automatically threads its way through the pattern.

  Pressure builds as the bond creates an internal link between him and Noelle. It builds and builds in his heart, creating a vacuum that tugs him towards the center of himself, towards the place where his soul resides. Once their magic fully combines, the internal pressure explodes, and a foreign presence bursts open within him. As tidal waves of his heightened emotions rush into this newly opened space, something else shoots out of it.

  Bright, and warm, and even more determined than his pain, the light of Noelle’s soul wraps gently around the rapidly fading glow of his own.

  Ch. 2: Noelle

  Mage Noelle Allendale wakes with a start to find her field of vision completely obscured by flashing red text boxes. The one in front reads:

  Panic Mode Activated—Lower anxiety and/or pain levels to return to normal system processes.

  That’s not good.

  As a Memorizer Mage, Noelle’s magical ability collects everything she experiences and encounters—including emotions—and preserves, catalogs, and stores it all in her mind as data for her to retrieve, or Recall, at any time. As useful as Memorization can be, it requires a an extensive amount of organizational systems to manage. Panic Mode messes with those carefully constructed systems, making her magic even more difficult to handle than usual. The unhelpful mode also tends to catalog everything as problematic, hence the stack of alerts blocking her sight.

  Panic Mode always activates due to high levels of anxiety. Noelle pretty much always feels some level of anxiety though, so she isn’t utterly unprepared. She designed an entire system to help her deal with it a long time ago. Her frequently updated Anxiety Response System includes a long list of anxiety-reducing techniques. Usually, that means she can deactivate Panic Mode rather quickly.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  This time, unfortunately, pain is involved. Even worse, the pain she currently feels doesn’t actually belong to her. It belongs to Prince Aidyn, as a result of his bond breaks, which means she can’t do anything to reduce it. When she tries to at least handle the part that does belong to her (i.e., the anxiety), one of the compiled alerts pushes its way to the front of her vision:

  Anxiety Response System Unresponsive—Anxiety levels exceed threshold.

  Realms Below! She obviously did something wrong with her last update. An Anxiety Response System that shuts down in response to anxiety is 0% useful. Stupid thing.

  Figuring out what went wrong will have to wait, because a much more problematic alert pushes to the front:

  System Crash Imminent—Data Collection System is nearing intake capacity. Please expand or restructure immediately.

  Noelle swears, prompting a new alert about decorum. She sends it to the back of the line. She’s got bigger problems.

  Due to the unexpected nature of her and the prince’s new bond, Noelle didn’t have a chance to properly prepare. As soon as the idea crossed her mind, her systems notified her of the dangers. A sudden influx of that much data would eventually overwhelm her systems. The keyword in that sentence, the one she’d been banking on, was eventually. She’d hoped to have more than six and a half hours before anything crashed.

  Noelle’s Recall System very rudely overrides all the other alerts to remind her:

  Having time in advance to prepare didn’t make it any easier to manage a Love Bond last time.

  The truth of that statement adds to Noelle’s anxiety even more. As the crystal clear magic of Recall pulls up more discouraging data, she attempts to take several deep, calming breathes. Turns out, deep breathing exercises aren’t enough to combat being reminded in excruciating detail of all the ways she’s failed as a Love Bond partner in the past.

  At these thoughts, another of the many other alerts blocking her vision flashes at her:

  Warning—Note to self: DO NOT form another Love Bond. Love Bonds and Memorization Magic don’t mix well.

  “I am FULLY aware,” Noelle shouts at the alert, “but it was UNAVOIDABLE!”

  Love Bonds, like Team Bonds, are actually two bonds woven together. While the Soul Bond part is selective, allowing bond partners to activate and deactivate it at will, Emotion Bonds are passive. They remain perpetually activated, just like her Memorization Magic. As a result, she now has to constantly filter emotional data from two people instead of just one.

  The System Crash Alert reasserts itself.

  Noelle groans and gets to work adapting her Data Collection System as best she can on short notice. For now, it doesn’t have to be pretty. It just has to function.

  A very aggressive alert bullies its way to the front:

  Warning—Current Relationship Status with Prince Aidyn Catalogs as Professional: Collecting personal emotional data with Memorization Magic will most likely be interpreted as an unwanted invasion of privacy.

  This time, Noelle’s profanity prompts a different, albeit related, alert:

  An Official Investigation is Probable—Proceed with caution and all due respect.

  This alerts bring up a valid point. Yes, Noelle and Aidyn became close friends as teenagers while in school. However, their preparatory and university years are now far in the past. After graduating with their Mage titles, they went their separate ways and didn’t reconnect again until the prince hired her to join his Team Bond last year. The years separating their historically personal but currently professional relationship may not be a big deal to her, but almost a decade is a long time for anyone without Memorization. While all her data Recalls as if no time has passed at all, non-magical memories fade over time. As a result, the present matters more to most people than the past.

  The reality is, Noelle and the prince are presently co-workers. Not only that, but Prince Aidyn is, first and foremost, her boss. That means even though the friendship they developed in school remains as clear and strong to her now as it was back then, no one else is likely to see it that way.

  Prince Aidyn, an alert reminds her, before the Official Investigation alert pops up again.

  She needs call him by his titles now, even if he hates it.

  Noelle knew there would be serious backlash from her forming an unsanctioned Love Bond with a member of the royal family. That’s why it doesn’t surprise her to discover she’s currently laying on a standard issue military cot in a small, windowless room that her magic categorizes as a Holding Cell. Emergency or not, she broke the rules.

  An alert shuffles to the front of the stack, drawing her attention to the iron cuff locked tight around her ankle. While that also isn’t surprising, it definitely isn’t good. At least they are regular cuffs, instead of the type that cut people off from magic.

  Triggered by that observation, an alert about her Mental Bond flashes next:

  Warning—Access Has Been Denied to the Military Communication Network, i.e. Mil-Net.

  Inhaling sharply, Noelle scrambles to activate her Mental Bond, only to hear the network’s magical, built-in operator confirm in an infuriatingly calm voice: Access Denied.

  No no no! That means she can’t talk to anyone about what’s going on! What should she do?!

  An alert from her Recall System provides a suggestion:

  Use your Net-Link to check your access to the Embermoorian Communication Network, i.e. Ember-Net.

  Right! Like usual, she can only have one Mental Bond at a time. Thankfully, Embermoorian inventors created magical devices that let people have multiple. Noelle uses her biological Mental Bond for Mil-Net, since that’s a private network, and a Net-Link device to form an artificial bond with Ember-Net.

  Where is her mage cloak?! That’s where she keeps her device.

  Recall issues another alert with the information she needs:

  Hanging from a peg by the door.

  Noelle leaps up from the cot to check the pockets of her cloak. Thankfully, the chain attached to her ankle cuff is just long enough to reach it. All of the personal belongings she carries remain, except the one she’s looking for. Her Net-Link is missing. It must have been confiscated…

  Warning—Forms of Isolation Are Usually Reserved as Punishment for the Most Severe Crimes.

  Noelle clanks back to the cot, pulls the blanket up over her head, and curls into an anxious ball of misery. What has she done? The powers that be are clearly much more upset by her and the prince’s new bond than she estimated.

  It’s obviously not ideal that they had to resort to such extreme measures to keep the prince alive, but she did what was necessary and doesn’t regret it. How could she? Despite what other people will undoubtedly think, Prince Aidyn is her close friend and she cares a lot about him. There’s no way she could ever let him die while it was in her power to save him. Surely whoever investigates will understand.

  Noelle’s Recall System issues yet another investigation-related alert:

  Official Investigation Probable—Begin necessary preparations as soon as possible to offset negative circumstances.

  Noelle knows from experience that Official Investigations aren’t fun. That said, maybe it won’t be as bad this time? Her magic wasn’t fully functional last time, which it is now. And if there’s one thing Memorization is good at, it’s preparing large amounts of paperwork. Now that she’s conscious again, she should get to work on gathering information for the most likely reports. However, when she tries to enter the specially designed workspace she built into her Memorization Systems, another alert pops up. Because of course it does.

  Access to The Library is Denied—Due to low magical stores, the Integration Systems used to shift between the physical and magical realms are limited and already at capacity.

  Dang it! Why does everything about this have to be hard?! Noelle blinks back tears and starts mentally sorting through and gathering data for her and her teammates from within her drab little cell. She doesn’t have to use her beloved magical library to do the work. It’s just easier, more comfortable, and pretty much better in every way compared to her current physical surroundings.

  Warning—Forms of Isolation Are Usually Reserved as Punishment for the Most Severe Crimes.

  “I UNDERSTOOD YOU THE FIRST TIME,” she screams at the alert as her tears burst free.

  Panic Mode Activated—Lower anxiety and/or pain levels to return to normal system processes.

  “I know. We’ve been over this: even though I can feel everything Prince Aidyn feels, I can’t control any of it!”

  Warning—Current Relationship Status with Prince Aidyn Catalogs as Professional: Collecting personal emotional data with Memorization Magic will most likely be interpreted as an unwanted invasion of privacy.

  Noelle pulls the blanket tighter around herself. “You have made that ABUNDANTLY clear, but I can’t stop being a Memorizer Mage. Everyone is just going to have to understand that!”

  Warning—Insecurity Detected: Even if everyone forgives you for forming an unsanctioned bond, will anyone believe you deserve the access to his heart that a Love Bond provides?

  In answer to that pointed question, Recall offers as negative evidence the prince’s response from when she started structuring their new bond:

  But I don’t love you!

  Noelle sobs into her pillow as his words reverberate in her mind.

  It’s not like his statement surprises her or anything, so why does it hurt so much to hear him blurt it out?

  Noelle cries harder when another alert interjects:

  Warning—Note to Self: Do not fall in love again. Falling things shatter when they hit the ground, and the ground is always coming.

  “Don’t worry,” she whispers bitterly as Recall pulls up data from her last romantic relationship. “I have no intention of falling in love ever again.”

  At that moment, more panic floods into the new bond she shares with the prince. Like the pain, this panic isn’t hers.

  Warning—Prince Aidyn is Awake.

  A wild mixture of her conflicting relief and grief pours into their bond. Thankfully, the prince won’t sense any of it. His emotions are so intense and raw, anything she feels immediately gets swept away by what he feels, disappearing like a drop of ink diluting in a tank of water. Noelle is fine with that. She has enough to deal with as it is without worrying about him judging her feelings on top of everything else.

  The privacy-related alert flashes again.

  Noelle muffles another sob. She knows she doesn’t have any real right to feel the emotions currently battering against each other on his side of their bond. It is truly 0% of her business. Well, maybe it’s 10% her business. They are friends, after all. And because of that friendship, she can’t bear the thought of being this close to his suffering and doing nothing, especially when she’s gone through the same thing herself.

  When Recall pulls up data about her own bond breaks from three and a half years ago, she experiences it like it’s happening in the present moment all over again. The agony of reliving it fills Noelle with determination to do more for the prince now than just sit and watch. If her magic won’t let her forget, she might as well put remembering to good use. Noelle may have been on her own when her bonds broke, but Prince Aidyn isn’t. He may not like it, but he has her, and she will do whatever she can to help.

  Using her Recall System, Noelle pulls up and analyzes data from all the years she shared a Love Bond with someone else. It’s clear she doesn’t have the power to make pain disappear, but there is a way to spread it out so it isn’t as concentrated.

  As the pressure of the prince’s increasing panic continues to build, Noelle resists the urge to flee or fight against it. Instead, she further opens herself up to the emotional storm raging inside him, doing her best to simply make more space for it all.

  Warning—Low Magical Stores. Proceed with Caution.

  Noelle wipes away her still falling tears and dismisses the alert.

  She can handle this.

  She WILL handle this.

  What other option does she have?