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Lachlan stood a few feet away, but he had his phone out, recording. I’d asked him to do so, another way for me to chronicle interesting situations like this one, give Gwyn another resource to refer to. My master and grandmaster had done the same, and it had saved my ass on more than one occasion. I bowed to their wisdom and continued the tradition.

Besides, I really hoped Jon and I could submit a research paper on this.

Wand in hand, I glanced at my fiancé. “Ready?”

He gave that roll on wave of the hand. “Rolling.”

“Perfect. For the audience, my name is Seiji Ito and I’m a chaos magician. This is my apprentice, Gwyn. I’m here with Jonathan Havili, and his anchor, Donovan. Jonathan is an extraordinary Reader, arguably one of the world’s best, but his ability is barely under any kind of control. Once I met him, I realized the problem is his Limiter is barely there.” I’d have to do some editing work later and fill in an explanation for what a Limiter was, but that wasn’t necessary at this point. “Right now, I’m going to try and link energy from Jon’s anchor bond with Donovan to the Limiter, and see if a little energy boost will be enough to revive it enough to function. I’ll be doing this by opening his aura with an Aperta Vis square.”

All right, that should be enough exposition. I turned back to them, and with the wand’s tip, drew out the square shape and rapidly filled it in. Then paused, double checked it, and yup that was fine. Gwyn hovered at my elbow, staring and jotting down notes in her own notebook. I approved, but would also check those notes later to make sure they were accurate.

Donovan didn’t turn his head but asked, “Will you need to do anything to me directly?”

“No, at least, not if this goes according to plan. But your proximity to Jon’s bond link will help, I think.”

“Ah, okay, I did wonder about that part.”

To Gwyn, I explained, “The fun thing about the square is that you can move it once it’s drawn out. Massively helpful, that, means I’m not forced to work from one angle. Or forced to draw out multiple ones.” I shifted it a little, so it was more directly over Jon’s anchor link, and stared at it hard.

No, I really was seeing that right. “Jon…correct me if I’m wrong, but you didn’t initiate your bond, did you?”

He startled, but thankfully didn’t turn his head. He did laugh, though, in something like memory and delight. “Your eyes are better than mine, Seiji. You’re correct, I didn’t. Donovan reached out to me so strongly that my psychic ability responded, initiating the bond without me even being aware of it.”

My jaw had dropped so hard it skittered under the couch and was entirely unreachable as I croaked out sounds. I know I’d just said…but—! “Wait, you bonded without realizing it?!”

“As insane as that sounds, yes. After I freaked out about it, I was too happy to even consider breaking it or trying to give us more time.”

Not surprised he’d had an initial freak out—because what the hell?!—but I could see why he’d settled quickly, too. I’d had days to observe Donovan, and he was the epitome of an anchor. Of what an anchor should be. Of course to Jon’s eyes, it was a cake walk to read that talent in his husband.

Huh. This man would inspire two papers at this rate.

“Well, that actually makes this easier, then. Your bond link uses Donovan as a foundation, which is a little unusual.”

Gwyn stopped frantically writing to ask, “What’s it usually look like, then?”

“Usually, it’s two sides of a link fitted together. It’s why it’s called a link, as it’s formed like one. The bond between the two is more like a chain connecting one to another.” Except where Jon and Donovan was concerned, apparently. Jon’s was more like a blocky foundation centered dead mass, and then connected by chain. Donovan wasn’t psychic, but damn, his willpower must be legendary.

All right, focus. “Gwyn, first thing I’m doing is setting a relay block here. Because there’s a gap between where his anchor bond sits, and where his talent sits, we need one.”

“Got it.” She peered a little harder at it. “Oh, it’s really tiny.”

“It doesn’t have to be big to do the job. Rather, we want to keep it as small as possible to not interfere in the energy flow of the spine. It’s there to help bridge a gap, not be a blockade.”

Okay, nicely set. Next part. I set myself to grazing just a little bit of power from the bond, up to the block, and teasing it upwards past that towards Jon’s head and the Limiter that was a ghost of itself.

A shiver danced along Jon’s spine.

“Sorry.” I kept working even as I apologized. “I know it feels weird. No one but your anchor and yourself should be touching your bond.”

“Yeah, agreed it’s weird, but it’s not unpleasant? Just odd.”

Most said that. I found all energy work natural, and had hardly needed to work on my own bond, so I had to take their word for it.

I teased up more energy, coaxing it along, and it was threadbare but as strong as a spider’s web as I pulled it upwards. Almost there, almost there…I shifted the square up some more, centered towards the back of Jon’s head. Ah, there.

The Limiter was truly atrophied, much like an organ that’d never fully developed. It resembled a dried out leaf, the structure twisted, collapsed in on itself, and in danger of disintegrating with a single puff of wind. I ever so gently feed energy into it for that reason. One wrong move on my part and this whole idea would collapse like a house of cards.

When the small strand of energy touched the Limiter, it flared a little, as if just coming to life. And then, to my wondering eyes, actually attached itself without me needing to do much of anything. Oh! Perfect, that was what I hoped it would do. I returned to the anchor point lodged near Jon’s heart, grabbed two strands this time, and then coaxed them up to join the first. These, too, latched on. I paused there, studying it for a long moment.