“Pay attention to what it feels like to you,” Vathorem said. He was frustrated, irritable. The only one who was not miserable was Dor.

“I can’t think when I’ve been charmed!”

“Then I guess you won’t get much thinking done in Vilahna.”

I glared at him. “You know I’m scared of that. I know you know it.”

“Then you’d better get to work,” he said. “Charm him, Dor.”

I began to protest, but Dor had me in his clutches in half a heartbeat. He didn’t need to touch me. He didn’t even need to say my name. He just looked at me, caught my eye, and smiled. That was it; that was all it took. It was not like when Sorcha had charmed me at all. There was no pull with him, just a one-sided hazy fascination. “You’re so smart,” I said, pulling my chair a little closer. Dor laughed. He thanked me. “You are so comfortable with yourself.”

“Oh, well, sometimes I am. Sometimes I’m not,” he said. “How do you feel?”

“Me? Fine. I feel fine.”

“Tell me how you feel.”

“I feel…fine? How are you so sure of yourself?”

“I am and I’m not. Depends.” He looked over at Vathorem and shrugged.

A flash of scalding magic burned me. It shook me out of the charms. I blinked and drew my knees up to my chest, an instinctive, protective gesture.

“Ariah,” Vathorem said. His voice was heavy, tired. There was no anger in it, but there was little patience in it, either. “How do you lose yourself so quick? I read you, and there’s hardly any you in there to even read.”

The magic left me shaken. I felt exposed and vulnerable. I crossed to the other side of the cabin and wedged myself in the corner, turned away from both of them. “It just happens.”

“You know you read Dor, there, when he charmed you. You know that? Those questions, you were parroting back to him the things he was thinking.”

I didn’t even know I’d asked questions. I had little memory of it at all.

“It didn’t burn,” Dor said. “I didn’t know.”

“Well, hell, boy, it was flattery. I’d not expect you to look all that close at it.”

Dor laughed.

A heavy silence settled over the cabin. I felt a tension mounting in Vathorem. It was a thing alive, this tension, a thing that grew, a thing with a beating heart of frustration. He left, and I immediately felt better. I sat down again across from Dor. “Don’t mind him,” said Dor. “He’s never been good with folks. Can’t take it personal. Try charming me now, without him in the room. Maybe it’ll go better when he’s not looming, making you all nervous.”