"At least that's the way it's been passed down in my families. After that, the citizens found when they explored their former borders that they were simply redirected to enter the kingdoms at another point. The children of the two kings exchanged households, visiting their homes only rarely and never for long, for fear of displeasing the sorcerer further. In the years since then, there have been some intermarriages but not many, since the truce between the kingdoms has always been forced and fragile, and never between the royal families. Until my parents."

He grimaced. "You see, my grandfather on my mother's side got the idea that the bit about the land and king being one meant that there should only be one king. Rather than fight each other over who should be king of the combined lands, he proposed his daughter marry the Czar's son. The Czar agreed and they built a palace for the newlyweds on the borderline between their two kingdoms, on what would have been the southern border of the sorcerer's land."

I kept quiet, waiting for him to finish. He sighed deeply before continuing. "They thought that joining the two kingdoms in love at the site of so many battles would appease the sorcerer's spirit. It might have worked if my parents didn't absolutely loathe each other. My father was a stupid, brutish man. He beat and raped my mother." He nodded as I gasped. "Fun, huh? That's how I was conceived."

I nodded vaguely, trying to reconcile such a horrible past with the happy go lucky man I had met in the garden. "What happened?"

"My grandparents, showing remarkable tact, offered each a chance to go home. As soon as I was born I stayed in the Middle Palace, as it came to be known. My parents visited when they thought about it, although never at the same time, of course."

I couldn't imagine such a life of isolation. "How awful."

He shrugged, his familiar grin reappearing, lighting the room and making the tension seem to disappear. "It wasn't that bad. I had nurses and tutors from both kingdoms, and I got to visit both of them a lot. I learned the ways of both kingdoms, good and bad, but the prejudices of either side didn't have time to sink in. I love both my countries equally, although in different ways."

"So why are you here? And what makes magic worse than death to you?" I walked over to my lab table and started to reheat my tea, mulling over what he'd said.

"Well, milady, I don't know why I am here, if you mean this world. I woke one morning and was here. As to here with you, well- STOP!"

I looked up, startled. Stop what? He snatched my teacup from my hand and placed it carefully on the workbench. "You must not have been paying attention… You poured out some of that acid and almost drank it."

I laughed, snatched up the cup and took a big drink. "Yes, well, tea with lots of lemon is certainly acidic."

He looked startled, then gave a snorted laugh. "You told me it eats through organic matter."

I shrugged delicately and took a dainty sip. "It does… Eventually. If you let it sit long enough."

"Score one for your side, milady. May I?" He gestured to the teacups and poured himself some "acid" when I nodded. "Remember how I said I was the first royal with combined blood?" I nodded and he continued. "There is another who is almost as well mixed. He is my father's first cousin, son of my aunt and a Rebian noble. He tried to stake a claim to the throne when my mother and father first separated but his illegitimacy made both kings hesitate and then it turned out my mother was pregnant, so the point was moot."

I began to see a pattern emerging as he continued. "After my mother's healer died, my mother came to my rooms at the Middle Palace and told me she had discovered that my father's cousin plotted against me. He had made her healer enchant me. Any magic cast to heal me would kill her. She begged me to give her a kiss goodbye before she made arrangements to heal me."

He sipped his tea and then stared into the cup contemplatively. "I couldn't allow that sacrifice. My mother has suffered enough for one lifetime and deserves to live it out to the fullest. I refused and set out in search of a cure. One night I went to sleep there and woke up here."

I thought about all he'd said for a moment. "Your illness… You said it started with flu like symptoms, but included a bad, metallic taste in your mouth?"" I felt like I had connected enough dots to see the picture.

"Yes. Since the beginning, but growing stronger as time passes." He must have picked up on the thread of excitement in my voice because he looked up, hope shining in his eyes.

"Do you still have the pills you were given?" I was definitely smelling a rat, now it just needed confirmation.

"Yes. I take them almost every day now, since the pain has grown so much." He took out a large bottle, still half full. "The healer had said to take one a day and more as needed, but I've avoided taking them unless the pain makes it absolutely necessary. I don't like the way they dull all of my senses."

I took the bottle from him and shook out a pill. He watched in silence as I crushed it and ran tests. I watched the sample change colors and exhaled. "Bingo."

"You have an answer, milady?" His voice was a mixture of astonishment, hope and disbelief.

I walked to the bookcase and, finding what I needed, flipped it open to the right page. "Read this."

His eyes scanned the page. "Yes, this is it! There are my symptoms exactly! What is the cure?"

I turned the book so he could see the title: A Study of Chronic Arsenic Poisoning. "Simple. Stop taking it." I took the bottle from him and dumped it in the garbage. "There are some treatments to remove the arsenic already in your system, and to help ease any withdrawal pains from the opium it was laced with, but you shouldn't need much since you don't show signs of severe impairment or addiction. Still, that was the most important step. Your reluctance to take the pills as you were told is what saved you. You never got a large enough dose consistently enough to finish you off."

"You mean I'm not going to die?" The disbelief was fading and the light in his eyes was truly beautiful to behold. I smiled, then laughed, almost giddy with the joy of having lifted this burden from him.

"All of us die, but you won't die from arsenic poisoning any time soon." He put his hands around my waist and spun me in a circle and then kissed me. Thoroughly.

Eventually he disengaged and smiled at me, loosening but not ending his embrace. "Milady Sylphiel, I could easily love you," he breathed the words out softly, his black eyes burning mine with their passion.

I broke away, fidgeting with the contents of my desk until I could get my thoughts together. "I'm sure you're very grateful, but there's no need to go that far. You don't even know me."

He came close, gathering my hands into his and gently kissing each palm in turn. "There is no doubt that I will be grateful to you for all eternity. For saving my life, I am forever at your service." He bowed, touching my knuckles to his forehead in a subservient gesture.

I would have pulled away but he held me fast, bringing my hands to his lips as he straightened to his full height. "But milady, I know the difference between gratitude and love. I know that you are a woman of courage and learning, a lover of beauty and possessed of a spirit of boundless compassion, willing to help any stranger, no matter how rude. I know you that your kindness even exceeds your overwhelming beauty. Do you think so little of yourself that you believe yourself only worthy of gratitude?"

I swallowed hard and backed away. I saw sincerity in his eyes, and something else I refused to acknowledge. "It's too soon. You don't know everything about me. You don't know the real me."

He looked into me eyes for a long moment and then nodded. "Very well. If it is your wish, I will get to know all of you, everything about you. In return I will tell you all about me and perhaps you might grow to love such a flawed person as myself." Before I could protest, he kissed me again. Breathless, I watched him leave in the direction of the guest quarters. My life looked a lot more interesting all of a sudden.