Moonlight Ball

There came a knock at the door, interrupting Sidrain’s thoughts. At first, he couldn’t quite place the sound, his mind still troubled from the upcoming demon hunt. His thoughts kept drifting to Iris, his beautiful lover, whom he longed to see but felt unsure if he should. Sidrain was a young man, full of energy and desire, and every passing day wore his patience thin.

But despite his longing, he couldn’t bring himself to act on his impulses. Even the thought of touching her fingertips made him tremble, and the fear of losing control over his desires gripped him tight. Every night, he dreamed of exploring her body, but the knowledge that they would have to be apart for a few weeks only fueled his desperation.

Midnight was not the time to see her, not now, not when she was in such a fragile state. Sidrain was all too aware of her exhaustion from her recent confession of what her stepbrothers had done to her. He knew that sexual advances would not be appropriate right now.

And yet, as he gazed out the window at the moonlit sky, Sidrain couldn’t help but curse his own weakness. He wished that Iris was a little less lovely, that her beauty didn’t torment him so. He wished he could suppress his desire and give her the space she needed to heal.

“Ruthna,” he whispered to the night, pleading for strength. “Please give me some patience.”

There was another knock , and Sidrain’s head snapped up. He strained his ears, trying to identify the sound, but it seemed to be coming from an unexpected direction. As he turned to face the window, his heart skipped a beat at the sight that greeted him.

There, standing on thin air, was Iris, her honey blonde hair shimmering in the moonlight. She laughed and flipped her hair, her smiling face too cute for words, but Sidrain’s mind was racing with concern.

They were on the third floor, for heaven’s sake!

“Ris!” he exclaimed, rushing over to open the window in surprise. There wasn’t even a balcony on this window. “What are you doing here?!”

Iris greeted him nonchalantly, but as she reached out her hand to him, Sidrain couldn’t help but hook his strong arms around her waist, pulling her towards him with force. She was surprised but landed softly in his embrace.

“Sid?” Iris looked up at him, confused.

Sidrain was speechless, his mouth still hanging open in shock. He struggled to find the right words, finally asking, “What if you got hurt?”

Iris smiled, lowering her head. “I’m a wizard. I don’t get hurt.”

Sidrain knew that levitation was a basic technique in magic, one that young apprentices loved to experiment with. But lifting a human body required a lot of magical energy and was inefficient. In comparison, it was much easier to make small objects fly towards oneself in an instant.

“Even wizards can get hurt, Iris,” Sidrain said sternly, holding her arm tightly. “Magic is not a toy to play around with. It requires immense concentration, and if you get distracted, even for a moment, the consequences could be deadly.” He couldn’t believe how reckless she was being, floating three floors up without any safety measures. Didn’t she know the risks involved? Hadn’t she already cheated death once before?

Iris grinned bashfully, trying to lighten the mood. “Sorry, did I startle you?” she asked.

It was a habit she picked up in the Magic Tower. Levitating up to his window was nothing out of the ordinary in the Magic Tower where she had spent most of her life studying under her teacher’s guidance. Her teacher had always greeted her with a warm smile and opened the window for her whenever she knocked like this, eager to satiate Iris’s insatiable curiosity about the world of magic.

If it were anyone else, she would have never thought of doing it. However, Sidrain was different. He was not just anyone. He was a king and the leader of the Dragon Subjugation Squad. She believed it would be fine since he had experience with wizards, but it turned out not to be the case.

“Wizards,” Sidrain muttered under his breath, shaking his head in frustration.

Sidrain had to resist the urge to scold Iris, whose innocent expression suggested she didn’t understand what she had done wrong. She watched his face, which seemed to hold back unspoken words, before speaking softly.

“I just wanted to see you,” Iris said, her full lips trembling as she carefully chose her words. “Because you didn’t come.”