Classic

"You blasted idiot," I heard Aurora's voice resound through my consciousness. "You really fell for the oldest trick in the book."

I tried to open my eyes, but she blocked my vision with her hands.

"I feel your indignance and desire to improve yourself," She continued. "But you need to rest right now. The Glacial Illusioner took a toll on your mind."

I opened my mouth to question her, but before I could ask, I felt my mind slipping into inky blackness.

"Maybe you'll learn caution," I heard her mutter before I went under.

When I awoke, the sky through the window was violently colored with the orange and red of the sunset.

"Good morning," Aurora said conversationally, startling me.

"Why am I tied down?" I asked, pulling at the woven steel ropes that held my wrists and ankles to the frame of the soft cotton bed I lay in.

"Side effect of the removal of the Glacial Illusioner," She replied nonchalantly, undoing them. "You were having violent seizures."

"That sounds fun," I muttered.

"It was not fun to see that," Aurora said sharply.

I rubbed my sore muscles sheepishly, sitting up and flinging my legs over the side of the bed.

"Why did you even respond to the Illusioner?" She demanded, anger bubbling up from her. "I wouldn't talk to you before the time was up!"

"Well, I didn't know that," I replied indignantly.

"You do now," She sighed, her anger dissipating.

An awkward silence ensued until I finally broke it.

"So, what is a Glacial Illusioner?"

"What does it sound like?" She snapped back.

I instantly thought of several images that I thought fit the bill.

"It's nothing so cuddly," She sighed. "It looks like an ice blue centipede with locking jaws that attach to the base of the skull."

"Oh," I said stupidly.

She reached into midair and pulled out the struggling creature she had just described.

Her description did it little justice. Its pearl white legs waved like an unholy ocean in the air as it flailed, its soft blue carapace glinting with the sunlight that still feebly reached over the horizon. Its silver mandibles opened and snapped shut with loud crack while it futilely searched for something to attach itself to.

"That was attached to my skull?" I asked disbelievingly, touching the back of my head gingerly, but finding no wounds.

"Yes," Aurora nodded, casually smashing its head against the wall, stunning it.

"Why not just kill it?"

"You're going to tame it," She held the dazed creature out to me.

"I'm going to what?" I shouted, my voice cracking.

"I wonder if you sound like that in bed," Aurora snickered.

"What happened to safe for work imaginings?"

She waved me off. "Take the Illusioner and tame it."

"How do I do that?" I asked, holding it by the base of its head, where its fearsome jaws couldn't bite me.

"Take your mana and use it to alter its soul," She replied nonchalantly.

"That's awfully ominous," I noted.

"Mhm. It works on people too," She agreed.

"Have you tried it yourself?"

"I have."

"That's not morally incorrect at all," I said sarcastically.

"When you're in battle, there's no time to consider what's morally correct or not," She gestured to the accursed creature in my hand. "Tame it."

"Why?"

"Because you're helpless on your own," She snapped. "Tame it or I'll tame you."

"How do I alter its soul?" I asked, feeling lost.

"Just force your mana into it, and the properties of mana will do the rest."

I began pumping mana into the creature, slightly distracted by imaginings if what it would be like to be tamed by Aurora.

"Focus!" She instructed. "It can still resist the corruption."

"Why does this even work?" I wondered to myself, feeling my mana burrow into the consciousness of the accursed bug in my hands.

After an excruciating amount of time, and expending enough mana to leave me shaking, I felt the little bug finally cave, forming a connection with me.

I sat down on the floor, exhausted.

"Man, I guess you're kind of cute," I muttered, patting the Glacial Illusioner's head.

"Now that you have given it your mana signature, it will be connected to you by its soul," Aurora said, interrupting my thoughts. "And, because of that, you're now something of a father."

I froze.

"It'd be more accurate to say that your soul is a father," She amended, enjoying my reaction.

"That makes you a mother," I countered.

"And what a happy day it is today," She laughed. "I've created life with you!"

"So, what do I do with it now?" I asked, nausea clawing at my throat as the Illusioner began crawling up my arm.

"You train with it," She responded matter-of-factly.

"Classic," I muttered. "How is it supposed to train with me?"

"Combat, of course," She handed me a piece of paper.

I looked at the paper, then quizzically looked at her. It was void of any mark or blemish.

"Turn it over," Aurora sighed, looking at me disappointedly.

I turned it over and felt my face heat.

On the paper was an image of a politician I knew well.

"Isn't this Clement Balthazar?" I asked, tapping the page with the back of my hand.

"Yep," Aurora grinned. "And your goal is to kill him."

"Ah, classic," I muttered, helpless.