"...Ms. Foster has been given powers she was not ready for. So we are taking them away." Emery announces. What? How can they take away my abilities? It takes me a moment to realize that he had asked me to come onto the stage. "Using the ability restrictor made by Mr. Dizznee, Ms. Foster will not be capable of using her telepathy until the council decides she is ready." He puts the ability restrictor over my head, and the only thing I can think about is how much it hurts. I suddenly become aware of the fact that the ground is getting closer before I black out.
I wake up in the healing center with a splitting headache.
"Ugh…" I groan. Elwin, Dex, Edaline, Magnate Leto, Alden, and all 12 councilors are standing around my bed. Dex looks like he's been crying.
"Drink this." Elwin instructs me.
"Why didn't it work?" Emery demands of Dex.
"I… I'd have to adjust it so it can fit her exact abilities."
"Well go fix it!" Emery shouts. Dex flinches.
"You can't do this to her. It's a wonder there isn't any brain damage yet." Elwin protests.
"I think you'll find that we can do this." Alina says.
"Taking away someone's ability is like taking a part of them." Alden says.
"She cannot handle the abilities that she was created with."
"So we give her better training." Magnate Leto interjects.
"May I remind you that this isn't the first time she has broken the rules of telepathy." Clarette points out.
"It… it's ready." Dex says, his eyes looking watery.
"Good put it on her." Emery says. Dex hesitates. "I'll make this simple for you. Refuse, and I'll Exile you and your whole family." Edaline gasps.
"Hey, it's ok." I say when he doesn't move.
"You're going to hate me."
"I could never hate you."
"I didn't mean for this to happen."
"I know." He walks over.
"I should destroy this right now."
"No. Don't put yourself in danger for me."
"I should have listened to you when you told me to work on another project."
"Come here." I say. He leans over so I can whisper in his ear. "I'll make it through, and my feelings for you won't have changed. I love you."
"I love you too." It was the first time we said it to each other. He slips the circlet over my head, and the pain is almost overwhelming.
"Why are you doing this to her? She's clearly in pain." Elwin says. "The wise thing to do would be to take it off before any damage is permanent."
"That's not an option." Emery says. "10 of us voted that you should have to wear it until we agree otherwise. Until then, you will be considered talentless." The entire room seems to suck in a breath. Being talentless was one step above being a bad match or a multiple birth.
"Who voted that I shouldn't have to wear it?" Oralie steps forward, and I'm more than a little shocked when Bronte does too. But I'm not going to be picky about my allies. It's hard to think straight. My thoughts are all jumbled.
"We want to test if this thing works." Emery says. "Read my mind."
"Why you? You're a telepath, so you'll probably block her either way." Alina says. "She should read my mind."
"No, it shouldn't be a Counselor. You could be thinking about classified information." Alden says. Everybody keeps arguing over this for a while. Why is this a big deal?
"Let's stop arguing. This doesn't matter that much. Lori, read my mind. You have my permission." Magnate Leto says. I try to reach out to his thoughts. It's hard, but after a few minutes with the restrictor giving me a headache, I hear his thoughts. They aren't as loud as they normally are, but they're definitely there.
Lori, if you can hear me, don't say anything. What? I do the only thing I can think of. I fall back on my pillows, and pretend to pass out. Everyone rushes towards me. Oops. Didn't think this through.
"Huh?" I say, pretending to wake up from being passed out. Edaline gives me a hug.
"You shouldn't be putting her through this." Elwin says.
"This is her punishment for invading King Dimitar's mind." Emery says.
“That doesn’t make it right.” Edaline says.
“She will wear the circlet until we say otherwise, and that’s the end of it.” Alina says. Woah, this circlet must be playing weird tricks on my mind. Everything is changing. I… am having flashbacks. But… the circlet is still on…
I lay in my bed, not eating the fruit Edaline gave me. Someone knocks on my door.
“Come in.” I say, even  though I don’t feel like talking to Edaline anymore.
“Lori?” It’s Dex. I sit up straighter and smooth out my hair.
“Hey Dex.”
“I… I came to apologize again. I didn’t know the council would use it on you.”
“I’ve already told you a thousand times, this isn’t your fault.”
“Yeah, but if I hadn’t made it in the first place…”
“Nothing is inherently good or bad. This was just used in the wrong way. Maybe we can use it later to stop our enemies.”
“Yeah… I guess. But I must be the worst boyfriend ever. I made a torture device that they used on you.” He starts crying.
“No. You’re the best boyfriend I could ask for. And besides-”
“You’re going to tell me you’re fine, aren’t you? You’re clearly not. You look like you did while you were recovering from fading after that light leap. Yet another way I screwed up.”
“How was it your fault that I wanted to protect you before I knew how strong my concentration was?” He stays quiet for a minute.
“I… I can’t live with myself if I go on with my life without having to do something to pay for what I’m doing to you. Let me take that off. I don’t care if they exile us. We can run away together.”
“No. If we do that, they’d use anyone we care about as leverage. You don’t need to punish yourself.”
“I do. I deserve to go through what you’re going through since it’s my fault. I… I made one for myself. And you should be the one to put it on me.”
“I can’t do that Dex…”
“Yes. You can.” He hands me the new circlet. “Just make it quick.” I hold the disgusting device for a second. Then I throw it to Sandor. He catches it thanks to his goblin reflexes.
“Destroy that thing.” I request.
“With pleasure.” Sandor easily bends the awful device in half, while Dex just stares.
“You don’t need to pay for anything.” I say.
“Well what could I possibly do to make it up to you?”
“I’ve already forgiven you. Just come and sit with me for a while.” I barely get the last part out before I get another splitting headache. As Dex climbs on my bed, he must see that it hurts. He gets under the covers and sits next to me. I snuggle into his shoulder and a tear runs down my cheek.
“Things will get better.” Dex says, and I try my hardest to believe him.
What kind of trick is this device playing on me? Did… Oh. Right. How did I get two ability restrictor memories in a row?” That just seems cruel. What scene is forming now? Wait, A THIRD ONE? NO!
“You.” I say.
“Me.” He agrees.
“How could you do this? They took care of you for years!”
“And?”
“YOU KILLED THEIR DAUGHTER!”
“DO NOT MENTION JOLIE!” I can’t process that Brant is a pyrokinetic. He was the one who kidnapped me and Dex. He murdered Jolie, his fiance. I had come to see him when I read Jolie’s diary, and finally put the pieces together.
“Why? Why did you help them?”
“They were the only ones who would let me be who I really am. I was forced to live as a talentless for years, because MY ABILITY IS ILLEGAL. Nobody on the little council seems to realize that pretending that I never manifested doesn't make the fire stop calling. I can feel it… all the time.” He snaps and conjures a ball of fire. I jump back. “Does my ability disturb you?” He asks, growing the flames in his hand. “How do you feel about… Everblaze?” He conjures the yellow flames, and holds them in his hand. I try inflicting, but with the restrictor on, I can’t concentrate enough to get it out. “How does it feel? To have such an important part of you taken away?”
“Put the Everblaze out, Brant.”
“Hm, NO.” I don’t have a choice anymore. I hate to rope Dex into all this, but I’ll need some backup. I hit my panic switch. It will send Dex an alert that I’m in trouble, and my location. I’m trying to figure out how I can keep stalling, when he drops the Everblaze. I have just enough time to jump out of the way before I get burned to a crisp. I frantically hit my panic switch. Where is Dex?
“Brant, you don’t have to do this.”
“Oh, but I want to.”
“THIS ISN’T WHAT JOLIE WOULD’VE WANTED!”
“STOP TALKING!” He summons another ball of Everblaze. I dodge that one too, but I can’t keep this up forever. He’s about to summon another one when Dex leaps in. He sees the flames, and Brant, and me.
“DEX HELP!” I cry. He runs over to Brant and punches him square in the jaw. The punch looks like it hurts, and Brant flies back a few feet and lands on his back. I start stumbling over to Dex when Brant starts to scream in agony. When he fell over, his hand had slipped into the Everblaze. “WE HAVE TO PULL HIM OUT!” I can’t stop shouting. Dex and I each grab one of his flailing legs, and pull him away from the flames. He goes still, and it seems like he’s passed out. Dex leans down to check his pulse, looking pale. I try not to look at his hand, or shere his hand was. “Is he…”
“Still alive. But Lori, what happened? Why is there Everblaze here? Who is this?” More questions pur out of his mouth at a mile a minute, then he stops to take a breath. “Are you ok?” I start crying, and he comes over and wraps me in his arms.
“I’m ok.” I say after a minute. “I just wish we could…” I don’t know what I want, but it definitely doesn’t involve an ability restrictor.
“I know.”
“By the way, where did you learn to punch like that?”
“Oh, it’s a gadget I just finished. I call it the Sucker Punch. It releases a blast of air when you swing your arm to give your punch more power.”
“That’s… really useful.”
“I made one for you.” He hands me a bracelet, and I put it on, swinging my arm a few times to get used to how the air comes out.
“What do we do about him?”
“Who even is he?”
“That’s Brant. He was Jolie’s fiance. Then he started the fire that killed her. And I just discovered that he’s one of the people who kidnapped us.” I say, letting out a small sob. I lean into his shoulder for a minute.
“LOOK OUT!” Dex yells out of the blue, shoving me aside. We both make it out of the way just in time to avoid another blast of flames. They aren’t Everblaze, thankfully. We go in and grab him by the shoulders.
“How about you two let me go,” he says, realizing that he’s trapped. “And I’ll give you some information about the little trap your friends are planning to set on mount Everest?”
“What do you know about that?” Dex says. I’m panicking. How does he know about that?
“Are you really willing to take that risk?” Brant says. Dex looks at me.
“We can’t play games if their lives are on the line.” I say. “What do you know?”
“They think they’re setting up an ambush for us, but we have dwarves in the ground. As soon as they set foot outside the little cave they’re hiding in, it’s game over for them. But after you hold up your end of the bargain, you might have enough time to save them. Just send me on a beam of light on my pathfinder. Any one. I can’t since my hand doesn’t seem to be working right.” I hate letting him go, but I send him away.
“If we’re actually going to help them, you need to let me take off that ability restrictor.”
“Ok. Take it off. Then we’ll leap there.” He takes the awful device off my head, and I can instantly think clearer. We make the leap. Did something go wrong? I don’t think I’ve ever done this- aaannndd I’m having flashbacks. How did I trigger THREE DIFFERENT MEMORIES about the ability restrictor? That’s 6. I’m halfway through.

So I just realized that people are actually reading this! I honestly didn't think anyone would care. I probably should have added this in the first chapter, but oh well. This is the first fanfic I've ever shared with anyone. I already know exactly how it's going to end, and I have most of it written on a Google doc, but I'm open to suggestions. Also, I have alternate povs for a few scenes in this (including from Dex and Sophie), and I might share them if this gets a ton of reads or if I finish but want to keep writing. I'm obsessed with Dex (obviously) and Lori is basically my way of doing him, so she's loosely based off of me. Comment any questions/suggestions! Thanks for reading!