Chapter 50: Chapter 50

Leo and Heidi

Han’s farm,  Germany 

“Oppose the Pope? Are you mad?” Heidi asked, disbelief clear on her face. “Leo just started to grasp the basics of magic. Look what happened to him! He almost blew his head off. And the Bishop almost cut it off! And you want him to go against the Pope?”

“Calm down, please,” Seb said and sighed. “No one is saying that he will start slinging spells tomorrow and become some legendary mage or something. All that matters is that he can cast chaos magic. Or at least has shown an aptitude for it.”

At the same time, Hans interrupted them by bringing in a large tray with four teacups, a large pot, and several sandwiches. “You must be hungry, so I thought to make some tea for all of you,” he said and put the tray on the small coffee table next to the fireplace. 

“Thank you, Hans,” Seb nodded toward the man. “Will you join us?”

“Oh, no, thank you,” he said quickly. “I understand that you have matters to discuss before you leave. I want to catch up with you, Seb, a bit later if that is fine?”

“Of course,” Seb answered. Hans nodded to them and left the room, closing the door.

“I find him strangely familiar, uncle,” Heidi said, finishing observing the strange farmer and taking a sandwich from the tray. 

“Hans? He is a textbook farmer,” Seb answered, laughing slightly and taking a portion himself as Evan wolfed down his second piece. “I cannot imagine what you mean.”

“What about this chaos magic? It sounds ominous,” Evan asked, changing the topic, his mouth full of sandwich, pieces almost falling out. 

Seb paused for a second, cast a glance toward sleeping Leo, noting that he was still out, and said, “It is an affinity. A rare one at that.”

“Yes, so rare that it has been considered a fable,” Heidi jumped in and took a cup, pouring herself a healthy portion of black tea. “No one has been seen with this affinity for hundreds of years. Not since the Church and Conclave war.”

“You are correct, niece. I also thought it was a legend up until today, that is. The signs are clear, though,” Seb said, sinking in the chair and remembering what he had read. 

Gathering his thoughts, he began, “As you can imagine, there is not much information available on this topic after the purge performed by the Church. From what little information I could get my hands on, it was clear that one practitioner stood out and left a mark. One you can easily guess.”

“The Walpurga, right? It was Alea, who we saw in those recording crystals with Leo,” Heidi asked, not surprised.

“Indeed. She was the one who was noted multiple times in various recounts made by the Church in their papers. Why they even documented it is a mystery to me. But one thing was clear - they feared this affinity, and they feared her.”

“Why, though? I mean, sure, black and white lightning does look scary, but so does the simplest fireball,” Evan noted, cup in hand. 

“I agree. Even the most basic application of magic was a strange thing back then when magic was common. Chaos magic was mostly feared by those who knew what it could do.”

“And what was it? Cause diseases and kill in the thousands? That would be OP,” Evan said, smirking.

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“Do not be childish, boy. It was something worse - it could cancel out any magic, enchantment, charm, or spell. Even take away mage’s cores, rendering them useless,” Seb answered wearily, eying the sleeping Leo. “That someone with this affinity has resurfaced after so many years is beyond me. I do not beg to understand what the Church would do with Leo if they got their hands on him.”

“That worry was there before, uncle. It, no doubt, would be a hundred times worse now that the Bishop saw what Leo could do. They will hunt him down like a rabid dog. Though I would argue that they had been doing this for years with others, they managed to find. How else do you explain that no one with such an affinity had appeared? It is not that we have recorded some distribution of affinities in the people born with talent.”

“You may be right,” Seb said, thoughtful. “The few who remember, clan heads and older mages, know what the Conclave could achieve with Alea at their helm. It is a well-reserved memory in the clans how the Pope avoided confronting Alea until the very last moment.”

“Confronting? You mean like going to war?” Evan asked. “Guys, if the little performance in the forest is anything to go by, a war between someone as this Pope guy and another similar mage would devastate the continent.”

“Not only the continent, boy. The very planet. And both Pope and Alea knew this, of course. That is the reason we are still here today. No, everyone thought that the ones holding chaos affinity were harbingers of doom. A well-planted idea in the heads of the masses, even as educated as the mages were.”

“So what? What does this Pope guy sport if chaos is so bad? I thought that it couldn't get any worse,” Evan asked. 

“The Pope is the holder of another rare form of affinity - creation. This affinity is the direct opposite of chaos. Creation allows him to be in sync with the natural mana and use it almost as his own, though limited by his core's development level. Where it excels is the domain of, well, creating anything. It is even believed that he can raise the dead back to life. I think it is religious zealots who thought up that little fairy tale.”

“So why is he considered so evil?”

It was Heidi’s time to jump into the conversation by saying, “It is not the powers that make us evil, Evan. It is how we apply them. Alea had an affinity for chaos magic, but she was never reported using it blatantly on everyone around her. Taking magic away from her fellow Conclave members, even if they disagreed with her. No, from what little we know, she did the exact opposite of being a dictator - she wanted everyone to have a choice and an opportunity to grow. At least what little we could gather from her journal and the crystals.”

“And the Pope? Why is he worshiped worldwide as a great religious figure and among the clans and Church?” Evan asked, confused by the fact that something as dark as chaos was to be viewed from a positive angle.

“Because, Evan, it is the deeds that define us. And the deeds performed by the Pope have been nothing but atrocious. Mass murder of mages millennium ago, purges of muds over the years, creation of a religious cult, and so on. The list is a long one, Evan. And anyone with access to the information knows this. You have been living behind a veil of misinformation, thinking the world was safe,” she finished sadly. 

No one spoke for a minute, thinking and calming down. As usual, the first to speak was Evan, curious as to what to do next, asking, “So we just hide? I mean, what other option is there? Leo will go mad if we do.”

Seb chuckled and answered, “Funny you mention that. It was considered in the old days that chaos affinity holders went mad due to their powers. At least, that is how the Church justified putting them down in the documents I have read. But no, we will not hide and wait for all this to blow over. As it will not, ever. We will take matters into our own hands.”

“And how do you propose to do that? Before I came to Germany, I thought my boy here was having a little trouble with law enforcement. Now, you have laid out centuries-old plots by people I do not think are fully human anymore. They throw elements around as if breathing, and you have said that there are entities out there that are even worse than the one who blew our cabin to pieces. What hands are there to take matters into?” Evan asked hurriedly, afraid Seb would interrupt him. 

Seb paused for a moment, seeing that the young Evan had something they called “a mud moment,” and said, “I understand your confusion, but it would not be the first time mages have come together under a common cause. Our history, hidden for you up to this moment, had had many moments when mages and the clans rebelled against the oppression of the Church. Many parties have not forgotten old grudges and the damage done by the Church.”

“That was before they had such a strong grip on matters, uncle,” Heidi interrupted. “Not to kill the dedication you have, we must be real - the world is a different place now. The Church is close to something, and Leo got them spooked, admit it. How else could you explain a full-blown Bishop being sent our way?”

“I agree, niece; the world is a different place. But it has not seen a wielder of chaos for almost a millennium and such a young one as Leo here. How many days has he been exposed to our world? Three? And what has he achieved during those days? He formed a core and started to cast free mage spells and dueled a Bishop of the Church, as brief as it was. A strong one at that! Can you imagine what he will be able to do in six months? A year? Especially if you finish reviewing those crystals and start practicing with the oldest of the rebellious mages around the globe.”

“If we manage to live that long,” Evan said quietly. 

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