Tale of a Hedonistic wizard

She shook her head, tears finally spilling over. "No, I don't want that. I fell in love with you, all of you, including your magic. But I need more than half a man, Jaegar. I need someone who's present, who can share a life with me, not just visit between crises."

The truth of her words hit him like a physical blow. He had asked so much of her - to accept his world, to keep his secrets, to wait faithfully for his return.

But what had he given her in return?

A life of anxiety and loneliness, punctuated by brief moments of wonder and passion.

"I don't want to lose you," Diana said softly, moving closer to him. "But I can't keep living like this either. Something has to change."

Jaegar looked at her, really looked at her, seeing both the woman he had fallen in love with and the stranger she had become in his absence.

The woman who had been brave enough to enter his world, and who had suffered for it.

The woman who, despite everything, still loved him.

But he also saw the impossibility of their situation. He was a wizard, bound by duties and powers she could never fully understand. She was a novize, tied to a world that he could visit but never truly belong to. The gap between them, once bridged by love and parental bond, now seemed as wide as the ocean.

"I don't know if I can be what you need," he admitted finally, the words tasting like ashes in his mouth.

Diana's smile was sad, knowing. "I don't know if I can be what you need either," she replied. "But I think we owe it to what we had - what we still have - to try."Nôv(el)B\\jnn

As they stood there in the darkening kitchen, the remains of the party still visible through the window, he knew he couldn't ask her to come with him, leaving her life behind. He didn't want to do that.

The whiskey bottle stood empty between them, a silent witness to their pain and their impossible choices.

Outside, the first stars were appearing in the winter sky, indifferent to the drama unfolding beneath them.

*

The kitchen had grown darker, the only light now coming from the small lamp above the stove and the faint moonlight filtering through the windows. In this half-light, Jaegar finally asked the question that had been burning in his throat like acid.

"Do you want to be with him?"

Diana's response came slowly, weighted with uncertainty. "I don't know, but I can't be without you." Her voice cracked slightly as she continued, "You were my life and you will be, but I don't know right now. I can't think properly." She took a shaky breath, steadying herself against the counter. "Maybe it's best we take some time off and decide later."

Jaegar looked at her - this woman who had been both mother and lover to him—a relationship that would scandalize both magical and novize societies.

At a young age, she had taken him in as a baby, becoming first his protector, then his lover.

Now, at twenty-two, he felt both older than his years and achingly young as he asked his next question.

"Did you sleep with him?"

The sound of the slap echoed through the kitchen before he even registered Diana's movement.

Her palm stung his cheek, her eyes blazing with fury and hurt. "How could you say that?" she demanded, her voice trembling with rage.

Jaegar stood there, accepting the blow, his cheek reddening but his gaze steady. "Mom," he said softly, "I know I may sound hypocritical, but I will say this. It's fine if you love him and want to be with him.

We can have a normal relationship."

He paused, the weight of his next words heavy on his tongue. "But if you want us to get back together, remember that I won't come back if you sleep with him."

The hypocrisy of his statement wasn't lost on either of them.

During his year away, Jaegar had found comfort in other arms, justifying it with youth and circumstance. Yet here he stood, demanding a fidelity from Diana that he himself couldn't maintain.

But their relationship had always been built on such contradictions: she, the older, nurturing figure who had become his lover; he, the powerful wizard who still sometimes needed mothering.

Finally, Jaegar stepped forward and pulled Diana into an embrace. She resisted for a moment before melting against him, her body familiar yet somehow different after their time apart. "I'm happy that you're safe," he murmured into her hair. "And from now on, nothing will happen to you. I will make sure of that."

Then, as he pulled away, he spoke the words that changed everything: "Goodbye, Mom."

The title hung in the air between them, heavy with meaning.

It was both an acknowledgement and a farewell - to their romantic relationship, to the pretence they had maintained for years, to the complex dance of mother and lover they had performed for so long.

Now, it was her choice, to be with him or be with a man who can stand with her and be with her all the time.

Diana stood frozen, tears streaming down her face as the weight of his words sank in.

This was her son, her wizard son. The boy she had protected had then grown to love in ways that society - both magical and novize - would never understand or accept. Their bond had been both a cover and a culmination of their complicated relationship, allowing her to protect him more fully while also expressing their love.

Now, with his simple "Goodbye, Mom," Jaegar was giving them both permission to step back from the romantic aspect of their relationship, to return to something that, while still complex, might be more sustainable. He was acknowledging that Thomas might be able to give Diana something he couldn't—a normal, uncomplicated love.

The kitchen clock ticked loudly in the silence that followed.