Mei Ruan April 19th, 20XX

I opened my eyes to an elaborate ceiling that would have put any of the ones in my own residence to shame and a feeling of dull sluggishness in my bones.

I looked around a bit more past the ceiling but I still didn't know where I was. Clearly, I was still in the palace but I couldn't pinpoint exactly where I was.

Ordinarily, I would have just spread my magic perception around to feel it out but every time I tried it was like I was pushing sand through a narrow funnel. It took way more energy than the result called for.

A shuffling sound erupted from the couch across the room and the slightly dazed prince arose, looking tired but incredibly self-satisfied. He dusted himself off as he arose and began to approach me with a serious and anxious demeanor.

“ How are you feeling General? any discomfort or pains? everything still works alright?”

The closer he got to me the duller my senses got until I could only sense as far as the width room. Of course, it was a rather large room so it wasn't impossibly bad, but it was uncomfortable.

It was pretty clear that he wasn’t as much asking me how I was doing as he was asking whether I would be able to restrain myself from pouncing on him.

I cleared my throat before responding and started to run some magic through me to get a feel for my current status.

“My magic perception is dulled and that took down the other processes but those can be trained back up. It'll be a good opportunity to overcome my dependence on my magic perception I guess. I would consider this a success your highness.”

I had been briefed on what he intended to do before he had done the spell so I tried to address everything he had influenced.

He had obviously been waiting to hear that it had gone well because not even a second after I had finished he crumpled like a corpse onto the floor, a mere 10 feet away from me.

Of course, I panicked, how much magic had he expended to get like this? Even if he was a prince, or rather because he was a prince, doing a simple sealing spell shouldn't have drained him to this extent.

I quickly rolled off the bed onto my feet and carefully approached him, taking it to step by step. It had not occurred to me at first but after seeing him collapse from magic exhaustion like a child I had to be aware of the possibility that the sealing may have malfunctioned or may not have been strong enough.

I finally stopped five feet from him and debated calling Lillian into the room to help him up but even in my tired state, I realized how poor of a choice that would be.

At best people would say that I disdained the prince once the royal spell had worn off and at worst questions about his character and mine would arise.

The rules of society were much less strict than they had been in the past but it would still be unacceptable for a young unmarried man to be in a room with two unmarried females that weren't his aides.

Not letting myself over think it anymore I quickly strode forwards. Covering the short distance in three strides and picked him up.

As expected having direct contact shook the seals a bit, after all, that’s was when the spell was strongest but rather unexpectedly they held strong and aside from being slightly weakened they showed no signs of breaking.

I laid him onto the bed gently and looked at his face for what seemed like the first time.

The boy was unarguably beautiful, having borrowed sufficient genes from both parents to achieve a harmony of both’s best traits.

Unlike Askeli who was praised as the pinnacle of the ideal male fairy with cold detached looks like a distant ethereal celestial, the prince was much more lively and corporal, he seemed much more reliable as well and seemed to have a good grasp on his magic unlike most of his peers.

The prince stirred as I moved away and began to leak out small amounts of magic like his body was trying to drain all of it out.

It was a common trait for children under the age of 10 to manifest as a result of their bodies being unused to the magic that it had to process in order to function and cast magic. The body was lacking the natural cap that was developed with time and would usually end up absorbing more than it could keep and would leak out the excess during sleep.

Aruna, being a ¼ which had struggled with this and had developed her cap later than her peers.

It was a common and harmless thing but considering the prince's proven expertise I was worried that it was something more serious. After all, there was no way that the prince at almost 18 years of age would not have had enough experience with magic and would absorb too much by accident.

Right?

I quickly dismissed the thoughts from my mind and instead went to call Corin to help him out.