The Villainess Wants To Retire-Chapter 443: Strange

The silence that followed Eris’s question was heavy, punctuated only by the distant, muffled howl of the wind and the crackle of the fireplace.

Do you think you’re a dragon?

Soren’s mind, usually a fortress of cold logic, felt like it was reeling. The question hit him with the force of a physical blow, stirring up shadows he had spent a lifetime trying to ignore.

Why is she asking this now? What did she see? He thought of the way his magic felt lately... not like a tool, but like a sentient, hungry thing prowling beneath his skin. He thought of the ice that moved before he even commanded it, and the heat that didn’t burn him when he touched her.

He looked at her, his eyes searching hers for a sign of mockery, but found only a sharp, intelligent curiosity. He didn’t know the answer himself. He had never fully questioned the source of his power; he had simply survived it.

"Why do you ask?" he said, his voice carefully neutral, though his heart was hammering a frantic rhythm against his ribs.

Eris offered a slight, knowing smile... the kind that told him she saw right through his imperial mask. "I asked you first, Soren. Answer mine, then I’ll answer yours."

Soren let out a short, huffing breath, a small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth despite his tension. "Fair enough. You’ve called my bluff." He paused, staring into the dancing flames of the hearth as he considered the honesty she was demanding.

"I... don’t think so," Soren said, though the words felt flimsy even to his own ears. He looked back at her, his gaze intense. "But I’m curious. Truly. I want to know why you would ask that. What makes you think I am anything other than a man with a heavy burden of magic?"

Eris raised an eyebrow, her expression skeptical. "You don’t think so? That’s not a ’no,’ Soren. That’s a hesitation."

Soren ran a hand through his disheveled hair, the blonde strands catching the firelight. "I... honestly? I don’t know."

Eris sat up further, the fur-lined blanket sliding slightly down her shoulders. Her focus was absolute now, her amber eyes pinned on him. "You don’t know? How can you not know what you are?"

"Because according to every history book and legend in the Great Library, dragons only existed at the beginning of time," Soren explained, his voice taking on a professorial cadence to mask his unease. "There were only two of them... One was sealed away in the fire of the South, staring at me right now and the other... the Frostmother, Aenithra... she simply disappeared into the Long Dark centuries ago. Logically, the answer is no. I am a Nivarre. I am a man." He paused, his voice dropping an octave. "But..."

"But?" Eris prompted, leaning closer.

Soren shifted his weight, settling back against the cushions but keeping Eris tucked firmly against his side. "I should probably explain my magic. Or, at least, how I think it works. The truth is, Eris... I don’t fully understand it. Even now, after years of study and war, I am still learning the boundaries of my own power. And those boundaries... they seem to be moving."

Eris remained silent, listening with an intensity that made him feel seen in a way that was both comforting and terrifying. He never talked about this. To his court, he was an omnipotent force. To his enemies, he was a god. To admit ignorance was to admit vulnerability.

"It started when I was very young," Soren continued, his eyes glazing over with the weight of memory. "Most mages manifest their power gradually... a spark here, a chill there. It’s a slow bloom. Mine... mine was an explosion. It wasn’t a gift; it was a catastrophe."

He went quiet for a moment, his jaw tightening. "My earliest memory of my power... I was upset... I don’t even remember why. I threw a tantrum, and I froze the entire space around ms. Not just frost on the windows, Eris. Solid, thick ice. Everything in the room was encased in seconds. I nearly killed my mother. She was standing right next to me, and if she hadn’t been wearing a heavy winter cloak, she would have been a statue."

Eris took a sharp, jagged breath. She could see it: a terrified child standing in a tomb of his own making, unaware of the monster sleeping in his blood.

"That was when she knew," Soren whispered. "She knew I was too powerful. Too much like my father. She saw the danger I posed to the world, and more importantly, the danger the world posed to me. Soreth knew about my existence, of course, but he turned a blind eye for a time... perhaps out of some twisted sense of amusement."

He let out a bitter laugh. "My mother and the maids tried to keep me hidden. I was raised in the shadows of the secondary estate, kept away from other children, away from the court. I was utterly isolated. I thought the whole world was just four stone walls and my mother’s face even though now I hardly remember it."

"But eventually," he said, his voice hardening, "she was caught. Vetra found out. She realized what I was... The result of her husband’s unfaithfulness. The child of a mere slave. And I fell into her hands. My mother died shortly after I was brought to the palace. Soreth allowed it. Maybe it was guilt for what he’d done to her other children... but I suspect he just didn’t care enough to stop her. Not at first at least."

"What I do know," Soren said, refocusing on the present, "is that I am an ice mage. I have always been an ice mage. But it isn’t... normal. My mana... it’s almost unlimited. I don’t feel the drain that other mages describe. Spells that should leave a man bedridden for a week, I can cast and then go to dinner. Magic that should take decades of study to master comes to me instinctively. It’s as if the ice wants to obey me."

"Don’t you think that’s strange?" Eris interrupted. Her voice was direct, stripping away his justifications. "Unlimited mana, Soren? That isn’t just a ’strong’ mage."

She placed a hand on her own chest, over the spot where her heart... and the seal... resided. "Even in Solmire, the royal lineage is blessed with fire. But we have limits. If I didn’t have Pyronox sealed inside me, I would have a ceiling. Everyone has a reservoir that eventually runs dry. Unlimited mana isn’t natural. It’s..."