My yelling caused quite the commotion. Frustration boiled within me, not just at Emma’s persistent clinginess but at everyone’s efforts to pair us together. I’m not interested in little girls—or washboards, for that matter! I thought irritably.

  The thought had barely crossed my mind when my mother, half-asleep and groggily rubbing her eyes, wandered into the tent. Stark naked.

  I froze. Thankfully, Emma acted faster than I did, covering my eyes just as my father rushed in with a blanket to drape over her.

  Some mental damage was done, though. I retreated to the corner of the tent, sitting silently as I drew circles in the dirt. Emma patted my back in what was supposed to be a comforting gesture, but I felt her amusement radiating like the sun. Maybe washboards are fine after all? I thought, determined not to associate future romantic interests with my mother.

  All Gods watching are chuckling at your expense!

  Goddess of Fate says: “Glad I made popcorn!”

  Goddess of Nightmares says: “Couldn’t have done better myself!”

  The gods, as always, found my suffering hilarious.

  Hoping to clear my head, I stepped outside into the crisp morning air. The events of the day were already weighing heavily on me, and I desperately needed a distraction. My thoughts turned to my elemental magic and the curse that had once affected Emma’s fetus.

  A question gnawed at my mind: if a curse is dark magic encased in life force, what would light magic encased in life force create? Curiosity sparked, I began experimenting. Borrowing a small amount of life force from nearby plants, I wrapped it around an orb of light. A prompt appeared, its message unexpected.

  Grand Blessing Method Learned!

  A non-programmed light blessing created. Blessings and curses require a circuit, runic formation, circle, or equivalent method.

  The message was enlightening but frustrating. Blessings, like curses, required a higher level of magical comprehension than I currently possessed. If I had a proper spell, I might have been able to create a blessing from it. Unfortunately, I was without spells—just raw, untapped potential.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  With nothing else to practice, my mind wandered to Arcway’s cryptic comment about my ignorance of someone’s feelings for me. I knew Emma was fond of me, but the specifics eluded me. Whenever I’d asked, she’d replied with a huff, “Figure it out yourself!”

  It was fair. Most women had always found me insufferable.

  A psychologist once told me it had something to do with growing up without a mother. I didn’t know how to handle women properly, he’d said. It wasn’t that I viewed them as objects—I respected women deeply—but on some subconscious level, I treated them with a kind of emotional object permanence.

  One day, my mother had been there, and the next, she was gone. Supposedly, this had left a profound psychological scar. When my girlfriend wasn’t around, for example, I wouldn’t think about her. It wasn’t intentional—I just wasn’t wired to maintain a constant connection. To women, that came across as insensitive.

  That insensitivity had been my downfall before. I’d once gone to a coffee shop for myself without even asking my girlfriend if she wanted anything. And now, I had broken the curse on Luna’s child without seeking her permission. It had been an impulsive act of curiosity, but I was fortunate she hadn’t hated me for it.

  What if that curse had corrupted her? I mused. What if Luna had turned full Darth Vader, forcing me on an epic quest to stop her, ending in tragedy?

  The thought spiraled into absurdity, but I knew the truth beneath it: my flaws were deeply ingrained, and I was lucky they hadn’t led to worse outcomes.

  I found myself reflecting on my previous life. I missed it. My home, my books, even the money I’d barely cared about at the time—it all felt like a distant dream.

  But what I missed most were the people.

  Both my parents and grandparents were long gone, and I had no siblings. But I missed my adopted son, Trevor, and my best friend, Lucille.

  Lucille.

  I’d neglected to mention her until now, but she had been a famous ghost, an expert in helping me with my work. After I lost my arm, she took pity on me and never left my side.

  I’d claimed that all women hated me, but Lucille had been different. Ghosts, after all, didn’t have gender in the traditional sense. She might have identified as female, but her motivations had nothing to do with attraction.

  I suspected she stayed more for Trevor than for me. Could you imagine a one-armed man trying to raise a child? While not impossible, Lucille refused to let me shoulder that burden alone.

  She had become family in every sense of the word.

  Now, standing under the pale receding moon, I felt the weight of their absence. I wondered what they were doing now, in the world I’d left behind. Did Trevor grow up strong and happy? Was Lucille still watching over him?

  The memories tugged at me, bittersweet and heavy, as I stared at the sky.

  And for the first time in a long while, I let myself miss them.

  . I'm not interested in little girls or washboards for that matter! I thought. Right then my mother that once would have been my idea of the perfect voluptuous woman walked in groggily rubbing her eyes. The problem, however, was that she was stark naked! I, fortunately, did not look at her before Emma managed to cover my eyes and my dad came running in and covered her in a blanket. Some mental damage was done though, and I went and sat silently in the tent corner, drawing circles in the dirt. Emma was giving me a pitying pat on the back. Maybe washboards are fine? I asked myself determined not to associate women I date in the future with my mother.