The Liberation of the Mages Heart

Solitary

Ruth Serbel was a lot, but no fool: he was a highly talented, very skilled mage and an academic. He was the right-hand man of Sir Riftan Calypse, the Lord of Anatol and Commander of the famous Remdragon Knights. He also was the descendent of the nobel Serbel Clan with distant Elven lineage and a former member of the renown mage tower, Nornuri.

He also looked far younger than he actually was, which is a result of his elven lineage, as well as his perfect and skin, silver hair and grey-blueish eyes. Most of the people would consider him quite handsome, but he didn't care about such superficial trivialities and especially not about what other people thought.

He considered himself headstrong and straightforward. Once, a mage of Nornuri, he decided to leave and has ever since been shunned. He learned to live with his deeds, the consequences of his decisions, fair-minded and straight-up.

One of the consequences was, that he casted a spell on himself, to ensure that he would never ever fall in love again. That he would never ever become a fool again.

Ruth Serbel was a lot, but certainly no fool. That he was sure of.

And that is were the story begins.

***

Ruth was gazing into the dark night sky staring at countless little sparkling lights floating around in the dark of what seemed like nothingness right now.

The mage was in deep thought. His silver-white ruffled hair shimmered softly in the light moonlight while he was staring into the sky.

He was thinking about her, just like every single night for the past three years. Three insufferable years have already passed, three insufferable years that his mind has been circling around her, three insufferable years that he had last saw her.

Belisent Elowen Calypse.

He closed his eyes and pictured her. Something within him was terrified that someday he might forget how she looked, how she smelled, how she felt - her petite figure, her sunkissed soft skin, her perfectly shaped oval face, her full juicy lips, her almond shaped dark orbs framed by thick black long lashes, her dark brown wavy hair falling softly down her shoulders and back, her sweet smile, her lovley scent, her melodious voice and laugh. How her hips swayed when she walked, how she looked at him. Something within him held on to those memories tightly.

***

She knocked three times on the heavy wooden door to Ruth's chambers in his tower, gritting her teeth in pain. She hadn't listened to him before and underestimated the situation, ending up hurt.

"I'm not here...", he snarled from inside and she knocked again, whimpering in pain: "Ruth.... Please...."

Ruth heard her whimpering and immediately knew that something was wrong. She sounded hurt and he instantly felt worried, rushing to his door. She was holding her side, cold sweat glistening on her face and she was panting.

"Sorry, Ruth... I got really hurt...", she was stumbling on her feet, almost falling, but he caught her.

She was badly injured. Her attempts to patch herself up were rather miserable. He cleared his throat, gently rolled up her shirt and sighed: "Looks like you underestimated the harpies...", he mumbled while inspecting her wounds. Deep cuts of the harpies claws were scattered on her back, their poison causing a painful infection.

"I know... you were right... I should have listened to you....", she admitted and Ruth smiled softly, starting healing her up, by lowering his hand over her wounds, starting with the deepest one: "You did pretty well though, I heard the mountains are cleared of all harpies now."