Cyn was depressed. Ever since some bastard bard had made his life out to be some sort of sob story, the servants’ vision had become weird. The situation had aggravated when big brother and Gloria had left for their stint in the Army without so much as a hello. The uninformed had started to speculate it as Rheas losing favour and being exiled. Oh, how he would love to meet the fellow to express his ‘appreciation’.

To make matters worse, his Enlightenment had failed. It turned out that there was something such as being too talented. Who would have guessed?

Talent, that is, the development level of Aspects affected Aura in two ways. Firstly, it affected Aura regeneration rates. The more you excavated the potential of the Aspects, the faster you generated Aura. Secondly, it capped maximum output of Aura. You might have 10 years of Aura accumulated but with shoddy talent, you would only be able to use simplest techniques. The large Aura pool would just let you spam these techniques for a long time. Not very useful against an opponent chucking giant fireballs around.

That’s why people consumed their painstakingly accumulated Aura to develop their Aspects. Being years ahead of the curve was turning out to be a headache for Cyn as you needed at least a 1:1 ratio of personal Aura to external Aura, like Fame or Destiny.

Despite his current fame… or was it notoriety and position as an Iron Knight, his unnaturally developed Aspects made his regeneration several times faster than an average bloke. This meant that the influx of external Aura, which was about two times the average regen rate for personal Aura, was slower than his personal regen and thus a martial warrior he would remain until he could augment it somehow.

How did he, a complete rube when it came to all things magical suddenly become so conversant? Iron Knights had arcane library access. He had eidetic memory. Simple.

Arcane scholars assigned the unit vis to Aura regeneration rates, with 1 vis being equivalent to the regeneration rate of an averagely talented individual.

Thus, assuming no Aura loss due to utilization;

Current external Aura influx = 2 vis

Personal Aura generation = ~20 vis

Projected age at which he would inherit the title of Baron or its equivalent = 25 years

Thus, no of years left = 25-16 = 9 years

Aura influx for Barons = ~30 vis [1] .....................................................................[1. The Regiis Census, Circa 218]

Aura pool at 25 years of age = 20*9 vis-years personal and 2*9 vis-years external

Thus, amount of time required for Enlightenment after gaining the title of Baron (refractory period) = {(20-2) *9} / (30-20) = 16.2 years

He shuddered and shook his head out of its mathematical funk, earning him a raised eyebrow from Ira, who was coring an apple beside him. This was another problem he was facing. The sudden leap in his mental processing power had caught up with him. Just after his mutation, his body had subconsciously suppressed his mental faculties to their previous levels. Thus, he had no troubles adjusting.

But after erupting with his entire potential to block Baron Corvus' knife, his body had realized that there was a lot of grey matter lying about idle and adjusted his thought patterns to take advantage of it. For a couple of days, he had lived life in fast forward. It was like he was the only turtle among snails, his sense of time skewed and his reaction rates enhanced to match. The overclocked operation also burnt energy like there was no tomorrow, leading to perpetual hunger and five kilograms of lost weight.

After two days of incidents like this:

Cyn: “FatherIwishtoaccessthelibraryagaintoday.”

Baron Pavone: “W h a t… d I d… y o u… j u s t… s a y… s o n?

He had finally solved the problem by compartmentalizing his brain, converting 75% of it into a calculator-cum-analyser. This had been a veritable boon for the advancement of all his research projects. But sometimes, due to his inexperience with it, the compartment’s barriers gave way, resulting in brief episodes of mathematical glitching.

Ira finished slicing the apple, neatly arranging the fruit on a plate and placed on a small table between them. They were currently sitting on a couch in the library, Cyn, with an already memorized book in front of his face while she accompanied him. He could feel her emotions cycling through fear and anger. An irrational fear of him followed by anger at herself for being afraid. Her body swayed like a metronome, leaning away from him when she was afraid and towards him when she forced herself to approach him, to disprove her fears, when she was angry. It should have been funny... except, it wasn't.

A crippling wave of guilt for violating her very soul washed over him, driving him into a soul-crushing state of depression. He had to bring his entire mental faculties to bear to prevent himself from grabbing the fruit knife and slitting his wrists. This was another problem that had popped up due to an overly developed emotional Aspect. Mood swings and amplified impulsiveness followed by states of extreme apathy crippled his ability to function normally.

Unlike his mind, which could be partitioned, he had no real solution for his emotions. This was why he had sought out Ira despite her avoidance of him. Her emotional Aspect was as developed as his, if only for the emotion of wrath, yet, she was in perfect control. He had been pretending to read while inspecting her with his soul sense.

He turned to take in the sight of her. Lustrous black tresses, cropped short, her bangs framing her small face, a slim figure with legs that went on for miles. If his memory served him right, as he was sure it did, her assets, while not as large as his late wife’s, fit comfortably into his palms. She was a beautiful young woman. A beautiful young woman who had been spying on and manipulating him for years. Suddenly, he was angry too.

Depressing the feeling with great difficulty, he noticed her deeply furrowed brows and abruptly came to the realization… wasn’t he doing the exact same thing to her now? Come to think of it… she had only his best interests in mind when she curbed any of his paths that led to conflict with his brother. She had been an invaluable help in taking care of him when he became infatuated in his research and a great source of motivation and encouragement whenever he hit a bottleneck. His thesis wouldn’t have been completed if not for her silent support.

His dark eyes became gentle with gratitude and remorse as he realized how dangerous his violent manipulation of her soul and memory had been due to them being a result of his fumble with newly acquired abilities. Struggling briefly against the Chief’s aversion towards a relationship so soon after parting with his wife and unborn child, the young Pavone’s affection for her won out and he drew her into his arms.

As he basked in her presence, enveloping her with Aura imbued with his feelings for her, he mentally swore an oath to never again touch her soul. He felt her body stiffen in fear at his sudden proximity and slowly relax under the dual functions of his reassuring Aura and her fiery anger. After a long time, she separated from the embrace, her emotions tinged with a comfortable warmth, like smouldering embers.

When their eyes met, he found a different sort of heat there.

Wordlessly, they both set out towards their room. Reaching it, he impatiently bolted the door shut behind them. Turning around he found her already lacking a few pieces of clothing. The moonlight leaking through the window illuminated her in its silver brilliance giving her pale skin an ethereal quality. Disrobing at the quickest speed, even speeding up his perception of time temporarily in an impromptu bid to be the first to get naked, Cyn started laughing when they both finished simultaneously. His laughter infected her and Ira too burst into a fit of giggles. Their mirth continued for long minutes where one would stop only to be set off into another bout of laughter by the sight of the other.

They collapsed on the bed together, clutching their aching bellies. Tacitly, the both turned their face towards the other and their eyes met. She was the only woman who he had the own of flesh with and he her only man. The final reverberations of hilarity faded away, taking with them the final traces of her fear and leaving only the passion of the moment.

On the headboard, their shadows interlocked, meeting and parting as they led and were led to their respective climaxes. The room was suffused with the scent of their arousal, their moans and grunts interweaved in a symphony of passion. In a final spurt, Cyn de-archived his brain, pounding into her depths faster and faster till his hips were nearly a blur. The pressure built and built until with a scream of pleasure, her core convulsed around him, which drove him beyond his limit, making him release his lust deep into her with a low roar.

Scant of breath, he collapsed on top of her. As she stroked his hair gently while they basked in the afterglow of their affections, he felt his soul grow a little clearer as another contradiction between the two constituent souls was resolved.

After a quick mental calculation, the 16.2 years had turned into 16.5 years. He groaned internally, it seemed like he was digging an ever-deepening pit for himself to crawl out of.

Sighing, he nuzzled deeper into Ira’s warm embrace. For now, his troubles could wait.