Chapter 45: Chapter 45

Heidi

Alea’s cabin, Germany 

The morning started as usual for her. Heidi ate breakfast with everyone else and had her daily dose of coffee. As agreed the previous evening, she joined Seb downstairs and planned to go through the treasure trove rather than sit with Leo on another lesson. 

“Are you sure he will be alright on his own?” Evan asked them the third time while moving through the narrow tunnel toward the storage room. 

“Quit nagging, boy!” Seb said impatiently. “Boy-mage is going to be fine. Or what? Do you want to go and be his instructor? Need I remind you how it ended for you yesterday?”

Evan sighed and said, “No, you do not, uncle. And I said I was sorry. It is common practice to honor one’s elders and offer pointers!”

“Pointers, my ass. You are just sad that I kicked your behind while you wanted to show off on an old man like me!” Seb scoffed and walked first into the storage room. 

“Woww…,” Evan said dreamily and observed the number of shelves laid out before him filled with items that looked to belong in a museum. “And is all that Leo’s?”

“Pff,” Heidi laughed and followed Seb inside. “As if he would know what to do with all this. Well, it is true that he found this place and gave us access, so it’s fair to say that some of this will be his, yes.”

“You have not seen the best part, niece,” Seb said and pulled out a nondescript brown leather bag, a satchel with a string to tie it closed. “Can you guess what it is? No need! It is a spatial bag. One of the rare ones. I have not grasped the size of this thing yet, but it can easily fit all of this room inside at first glance.”

“Really, uncle?” Heidi asked and reached for the bag, taking it and observing the craftsmanship. “It is exquisite.”

“Excuse me,” Evan butted in and asked. “Why is it so rare? If magic is real, surely spatial bags must be as well.” 

“Because, Evan,” Heidi began. “Spatial bags are one of the rarest items you can find these days. “It allows the owner to carry items that are many times its weight and size. As it stands, the enchantment on the bag will enable you to carry it around with no issue at all. It fully reduces the weight of the items inside.

“No one knows how to make one these days. You only inherit one from your parents if you are a clan scion or find one in a treasure chest as we did,” Heidi explained, handing the bag back to Seb. “I trust you started to move the items from here in the bag already?” 

“That I did,” Seb grinned. “Though I did not bind the bag to me. I guess we will allow our boy mage to do the honors.” 

“Bind? As in making it so that only you can access it?” Evan asked. 

“Yes, that is a common practice. Allows one to be sure that others cannot access the bag while touching it and willing their mana to recall wherever items are inside. Leo will need to do it,” Heidi explained. “How much stuff is left out and about?” 

“About a third. We should be able to finish the rest today,” Seb answered. 

Evan noticed how many shelves at the back of the room were empty and asked, “What is the rush?”

Seb sighed, glancing at Heidi to see if she would explain, and said, “We cannot sit around forever. The Church is looking for Leo and Heidi. And I do not trust that locals did not see and report the little fireworks our boy upstairs performed the other day. Such news tends to reach the Church’s ears. We need to be ready to leave at a moment's notice.” Evan nodded, agreeing with Seb’s assessment. 

*Boom*

They were interrupted by a loud eruption from upstairs that caused the ground below their feet to shake slightly. Seb cursed and yelled, running back toward the tunnel, “Dammit! It cannot be that they found us already! Hurry back upstairs!” Heidi grabbed the bag and ran after him with Evan in tow.

- - - 

Leo

Leo did not know how long he lay on the ground next to the oak tree. When he came to, he felt his head pounding and noticed a shadow looming over him. Opening a corner of his eye, he saw the familiar form of Heidi watching him. 

She said, “See, I said there is no attack. He just managed to do something stupid. So enlighten us, Leo. What the hell did you do?”

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Leo groaned and slowly rose to a sitting position, his back against the tree, and said, “Can you tone down a bit? My head is killing me now, and I feel dizzy.”

“She is right, boy. Man up. Now explain,” Seb interrupted with a loud bang, dropping something in front of Leo. Evan joined Seb and said, “It sounded like a bomb went off, Leo.”

 

Leo sighed and said, “It’s alright. As you can see, there is no one around. I was just practicing after I finished watching some lessons. I cast a decent fireball before it detonated in my face and launched against the tree. I feel like I want to throw up.”

“A spell? Really?” Heidi exclaimed in disbelief. “It is impossible. No one casts their first spell just a few days after core formation. Especially not something as complex as a fireball.”

“I understand, though it is something that I did,” Leo interrupted her, rubbing his temples, hoping the headache would go away. “Looks like I am cut out for this mage stuff. The lessons make a bigger deal out of it than it is.”

“Because it is a huge deal, Leo! Trust me when I say this, but our mages cultivate control for many years before moving to practical applications. Let me guess. You also managed to expend all your mana while at it?”

“How can I know?”

“Let me check,” Seb interrupted and took Leo’s hand. “I still cannot see your core, but I can see that you are an empty tank. Zero mana inside. Just slowly starting to build back up. No wonder your head is killing you, and you want to throw up. Mana exertion. It happens when you push out more mana than you hold. It could have killed you, boy.”

“Yea, like the fireball could not. Look around us,” Evan said, and Leo opened his eyes to check the aftermath. Only then did he notice that the grass a few meters away from him was burned black in a five-meter radius.

“Eh, I can see the danger,” Leo recognized. “You know how it is? You get this itch at the back of your head and just want to get through with what you must do, right?” 

Seb and Heidi looked at him and said, “No, we do not.” Heidi continued, “I guess it is my fault as well. I never explained the dangers properly. Nor our common practices, believing you to be too far away to need my advice. Leo, you have to be careful with magic. It is not a tool to play around with. All actions have consequences.” 

“I understand. I got lucky not blasting my hand off, right?”

“Yes,” Heidi confirmed and offered him a hand to get up, which he gladly accepted. “How is your head? Feels better now?”

“Yes, I am starting to feel like myself again. That is because mana is passively trickling back in my core?”

“Yes, you are right,” Heidi said as they walked back to the cabin, taking all the recording crystal boxes. Sitting down in the comfy armchairs, she continued, “For us, it is impossible to lose our internal mana completely. Our spell forms restrict that. Seeing as you are now, I understand that is not the case for free mages. It is dangerous because the mana core can implode if you use only your internal mana to fuel the spell. I guess that is exactly what you did, judging by the sound of the blast.”

“It was that loud?”

“Yeah, man, shook my knees,” Evan said, giving Leo a can of beer. 

“Boy, did you manage to discover your affinity?” Seb asked, sipping his own can. 

“No, unfortunately, not. The recording said I need a stone for that but did not mention how I can check one myself.”

“What else did it say?”

“Nothing useful, in my opinion. More training for me. I still need to form these things called the mana gates, which allow me to pool my mana for casting and understand how to mix external mana with my own while casting. Your spell forms do that for you, right?”

“Yes, they do,” Heidi said.

“Did you finish down below?” Leo asked.

“Almost. Only a little bit is left. And we have this cool thing to show you,” she answered and paused, feeling a torrent of mana accumulate from where the garden was. In a second, she heard a roar of fire as it impacted something.

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