Chapter 38: Chapter 38

Leo and Heidi

Alea’s cabin, Germany 

It was an early morning back at the cabin as the sun rose above the tree line, casting the first light through the open window on the second floor. The first stray ray of light fell on Leo’s face, as it usually did. 

However, this morning was different. Leo was not dead asleep and woken up to the cold and harsh world. He was up long before the morning came, feeling refreshed and ready to meet the day. 

He got out of his sleeping bag and stretched as the light fell in the room. Checking the time, he saw that it was 6 AM, and by the lack of sounds in the cabin, no one was yet up. So he decided to go downstairs and get the breakfast started. 

Leo managed to get the fire going in the fireplace to warm up the slightly cool cabin before Heidi joined him. “Morning,” she said and walked into the kitchen. “Sleep well?”

“Yea,” Leo responded and threw another log into the fireplace. “Like a log,” he chuckled. “It is surprising, though.”

“What is?”

“I have not felt so good in the morning in a long while. Not since I was a child,” Leo responded and sat down in the chair next to the fireplace, watching the flames. “It is as if my whole body suddenly got fifteen years younger. I feel full of energy.”

Heidi got a cup of tea and joined him in the chair opposite, “That must mean whatever you did yesterday, you did it right. Ready for today?”

“That I am, though, would like to understand what happened yesterday. Is there some way to check?” he asked. 

Heidi thought about it for a second and asked, “Do you remember what we discussed back at the mansion? In the study? About how one meditates on their insights? I think you could try that, along with the visualization exercises. What do you think?”

“Sounds like an idea,” Leo responded. “Do you mind making some breakfast while I am at it? Let's go through a few recording crystals today while we have the time.”

“Sure,” Heidi responded and got busy in the kitchen. Meanwhile, Leo got comfortable and closed his eyes. Remembering the breathing pattern he used yesterday, Leo started breathing in and out rhythmically, all thoughts going away for a moment. 

All it took was a minute for him to appear again in the darkness. All sounds and smells vanished from around him, as if he went to another reality. 

‘Core space,’ he thought. ‘If Evan could see this. He would lose his wits.’ Not failing his concentration like he did yesterday, Leo focused on his core as it appeared before him. 

He turned his sight to examine the thing, noting the differences that were not there before he started the formation process. The pea indeed had grown to the size of a fist, in vibrant green color, almost shining. He could see waves of energy inside the core giving a green glow, swirling around in indistinguishable patterns. 

The pea had a transparent funnel connected to it, stretching out and above it. Leo could recognize the blue-white specks of mana flowing through the funnel and immediately understood its function. 

It served as a ‘road’ for external mana to make its way inside his core. Not seeing anything important, he willed himself out of the core space and opened his eyes. Back in the cabin, his nose and ears were hit with the smells and sounds of cooking in the kitchen.

He got up from the chair to join Heidi but took only a few steps before she said, “You back already? Took you like five minutes. Have a seat at the table. It's almost done.”

Seb and Evan joined them at breakfast, no doubt woken up by the delicious smells. “Mmm, what did you cook up, niece? That smells nice,” Seb asked and sat down at the table, Evan in tow. 

“Nothing special, uncle. Just some usual bacon, eggs, and toast. Enough for everyone. Please dig in,” she said and laid out multiple plates with food. Leo joined them at the table. In a minute, everyone had their serving and was eating in silence. 

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“What is the plan for today?” Evan asked, looking at Heidi and Leo. “Can I join you?”

“No can do, boy. You with me today,” Seb interrupted. 

“Doing what?” Evan raised an eyebrow. “Some house chores again?”

“No. We will be training,” Seb smiled and chewed off a piece of bacon. Evan just grunted, not too excited by this development. Sure, he had no idea what type of training old man Seb could provide, but he did not question him, knowing full well that he was more than he appeared. 

“We will resume the crystal lessons,” Heidi jumped in and said, sipping on leftover tea. “Leo is feeling much better today, so we will try to make the most of it,” Leo grunted in agreement and finished his egg and bacon, practically inhaling it. Then he got up. 

“Let's go?” he asked Heidi, going for the back door to the garden, where they had left the boxes with crystals, unafraid that someone would steal them. “See you later, guys!” he said and walked outside, not waiting for Heidi to join him, his curiosity taking over to learn something now that he had fully formed his core.

He went straight to the stacked boxes next to the mana-gathering array and saw that everything was as he had left it. Taking a crystal out of its box, he sat down and waited for Heidi to join him. 

In a minute, they were ready, and he activated the thing, feeding it a trickle of mana, noticing that it was much easier than before. The same monochrome woman appeared in a second and said, “Welcome back, initiate!

“I trust that the formation of mana core went well for you, and you are ready for the next lesson! In this lesson, we will cover mana channels. What they are and how they are used to form spells. More precisely, what role do they play in manipulating your internal and external mana.

“Now, let’s return to the topic of how internal mana differs from external, besides the fact that it has an affinity. The main difference we need to understand is that the external or natural mana is untamed and wild, potent even. It cannot hold any shape or form for long and always wants to return to its initial form. It is unstructured and free. 

“To harness the mana around you, you first need to make some part of it yours, hence the accumulation process, and then mix this part of mana that you control with the wild mana to form your spells.

“Why not use only your internal mana, you might ask? Well, because at the initial stages, you will not have enough of it to fuel large and more complicated spells, especially when training. You will just waste a lot of it while trying to form your first spells and will have to spend even more time gathering and converting mana to try again.

“That is why we use part internal, part external mana. With time, as you progress in skill and mastery and your core progresses in its stages, you will gain partial access to the mana around you. Then you will manipulate it more freely without needing to expend too much of your inner reserves. But enough about that. Mana channels.

“Mana channels are places where the magic happens, so to say. They enable you to transfer mana through your gates to expel it in a spell form of your choosing. More on those we will cover later. 

“Mana channels are essential because they serve as a riverbed, in a sense. The wider they are, the more mana you can manipulate. And the more rigid they are, the more energy you will be able to handle when you need to act quickly and perform mass-scale spells. 

“If your mana channels are malformed and untrained, it is easy to burst them and thus cripple yourself while casting a spell, as the backlash can affect your mana core and injure you. 

“So you might ask, how do I train them? Easy enough. You must gather and move mana around from your core through your channels. There is no need to cast spells for that. The movement is intent-based. You must will the mana out of your core to find the channels and then follow them. 

“When you have a firm grasp on how to do that, we will move on to the next phase. It will be related to how to mix your internal mana with external while it is not fully converted. And how to pass it through your mana channels. That is it for today's lesson! See you next time!”

The figure finished cheerfully and winked out. Leo groaned because the lesson was as unhelpful as he remembered all the others to be and said, “Back to meditation, is it?”

“Indeed,” Heidi confirmed and patted him on the back, getting up. “Have fun,” she smiled and left Leo to his torture. 

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