Dor charmed me without a word. We sat in the library of the palace, just him and I. He had been translating letters of asylum from Athenorkos to Semadran, and I was there to check and double-check his grammar and vocabulary. He had, in particular, problems switching tenses. “This conjugation here is wrong,” I said. I looked up to see if he was paying attention. Dor’s chin was lifted slightly. He stared down the length of his nose at me. One corner of his mouth turned up.

I felt the pull of it. I think he was bored, or perhaps he was stuck on someone. He may have been curious about me, like Fallinal all over again. Maybe he just wanted me to stop correcting his grammar. In any case, he wanted me. He wanted me there in a room with no locks.

I felt the pull of it, and my body moved towards him of its own accord. Dor smiled just a hair wider. The way he sat, the way he breathed a silent laugh, sent his amusement pouring into my mind. The shift in him was slight, fleeting, but the shift was a thing I sensed. I sensed it; my mind found it and tracked it. There was a startling moment of clarity there, an awareness that I was still there, that my mind still turned. I froze in place. I shut my eyes. And the charm broke.

“Did you just break that?” Dor asked.

“I…I think so,” I said. My eyes stayed close. I laughed. “I think I did.”

“I’ll go get Vathorem,” Dor said, and then he was out of the room.

Vathorem rushed in with Dor close at his heels. “You broke a charm?”

“I did!” I laughed, giddy, drunk on pride. “I did.”

Vathorem laughed. He clapped his hands together. “Grand news. Grand news. It’ll get easier from here, I’m sure of it.” He looked over his shoulder at Dor. “You know better than to charm him.”

“Falo, he broke it. If I’d not charmed him, he’d not have anything to break.”

“Dor.”

After approximately two seconds of defiance, Dor apologized. I accepted it. “What now?” I asked. “What’s next?”

“Now, Ariah,” Vathorem said, “now we work.”