I AM A MAGE BUT WITH MILF SYSTEM

Her hair was down, loose around her shoulders. She held a small glass in one hand and a folded letter in the other, though she had clearly stopped reading some time ago.

She looked at Sera once. Then she raised a brow, a small, knowing smile curving her lips.

“It seems you have done your job,” she said.

Sera exhaled slowly. “My lady, I did my best.”

Vanessa set the glass down on the desk and gestured toward the chair opposite her. Sera crossed the room and sat, her posture straight despite the tiredness behind her eyes.

“So,” Vanessa said. “Tell me what happened.”

Sera told her everything.

She began from the moment she entered the room in the late afternoon and went through it in order, leaving nothing out.

The way Julian had watched her with those cold, unreadable eyes. The terrifying moment the wall of flame had roared inches from her throat. How she had ended up on her knees, choking and gagging on his cock while tears streamed down her face. How he had gripped her hair and used her mouth like a toy.

She continued with what came after.

The slow unraveling of the conversation, the small answers he had allowed through.

And then the question about Olivia and Vanessa.

And the way it had ended.

Vanessa listened to all of it without interrupting. Her expression moved through several changes during the story-telling, none of them significant. At certain points something sharpened in her eyes. At others her lips pressed into a faint, thoughtful line. By the time Sera finished, there was amusement sitting clearly on her face, and something that looked close to satisfaction.

She was quiet for a moment after Sera stopped speaking.

Then she let out a short, soft laugh.

“So,” she said, “My dear brother first threatens you with his flame… then fucks your throat without ceremony… and the moment you push about Mother and me, he throws you out.” She tilted her head, smiling. “How deliciously predictable… and yet not.”

Sera nodded, her cheeks flushing a little by Vanessa’s directness. “Yes, my lady. That is exactly what happened.”

Vanessa leaned back in her chair and looked at the candle. The flame bent slightly in some draft neither of them could feel, then straightened again.

“So he is still my brother at the end of the day,” she said. Her voice carried no particular weight. It was almost fond. “He may have hardened somewhere in Ezakael, whatever he found there may have sharpened him, but he is still him.”

She looked at Sera. “What do you think?”

Sera considered it for a moment. “You are right, my lady. He is still ruled by his desires. When I was giving him pleasure he was deep in it. Coordinating at the same time, giving answers while he was distracted, but still giving them. The defenses were lower.” She paused. “And then I do not know exactly what changed. The moment I named you and Lady Olivia directly, something shut.”

Vanessa nodded slowly.

“You pushed too far,” she said. “He is not a man who loses his composure after a single evening. Whatever he has become, he has more layers than that. You found the edge of one of them.”

Sera looked at her. “So the approach was wrong.”

“The approach was correct,” Vanessa said. “The timing was wrong. There is a difference.” She reached forward and picked up her glass again. “You said he told you to come back tomorrow.”

“Yes, my lady.”

Vanessa smiled. “Then he wants you. He could have dismissed you entirely. He did not.” She looked at Sera over the rim of the glass. “That tells me more than anything else you reported.”

Sera absorbed this.

“He thinks he is in control of himself,” Vanessa said. “But the fact that he called you back tomorrow tells otherwise. A man who is truly in control does not leave doors open.” She looked at Sera evenly. “So you go back tomorrow and do exactly what you did tonight. No more, no less.”

Sera nodded.

“But do not push,” Vanessa continued. “Do not rush toward anything. Let it happen on its own terms. Let him feel like he is the one setting the pace.” She paused, then added quietly, “And do whatever he wishes you to. Whatever he asks.”

Sera hesitated for just a moment. Her mind went back to the flame, the command, the feeling of having no control.

Vanessa saw through it.

“I know he is rough,” she said. Her voice was matter of fact, carrying no particular judgment. “You experienced that tonight. But he has never crossed a line with the women he has been with. Not once.” She held Sera’s gaze. “You will not be the exception to that.”

Something in Sera’s shoulders relaxed. She nodded slowly. “Yes, my lady. I will do my best.”

The room went quiet again.

The candle flame bent once in a draft neither of them could feel, then straightened.

“He is interesting,” Vanessa said finally. The word came out carefully, as though she had weighed several others before settling on it. “More interesting than I expected him to be.”

She looked at the candle for a moment longer.

“Which is exactly why I need to know what he is.”

**

Meanwhile,

Julian had already made his way out of the castle and was just stepping towards the garden entrance when a guard moved to intercept him.

“Lord Kraven,” the man said, bowing deeply. “Is everything all right?”

Julian offered a small smile. “I am just taking a casual walk.”

The guard nodded, but his eyes showed clear respect — the kind that had grown noticeably stronger since Julian’s return, and even more so after the incident in the corridor. Even though the man clearly belonged to the Duke’s faction, Julian had never once seen soldiers like him show this level of respect to their own young lord before.

“Should I accompany you, my lord?” the guard asked.

Julian raised a brow, mildly amused at how quickly his status had shifted. “No need.”

He walked past the guard and descended the stone steps into the garden.