Chapter 9: Chapter 9

Leo

Berlin, Germany

When Leo woke up and went down to the kitchen to find Heidi, he did not manage to appreciate the manor in all its glory. The short walk toward the study after their talk in the kitchen allowed Leo to see all the little details he had missed about this place. 

The kitchen, as he understood, was the odd room out, given that the rest of the manor he was seeing now was done in beautiful pastel brown colors, expensive tapestry hanging from the walls and the frames around the numerous paintings were from gold. There were so many of them that Leo lost count halfway. He got distracted by other decorations that reminded him the owner liked to travel and kept a memento of various cultures on display.  

The study, as it turned out, was even odder. Not only were all the walls covered in books, but its ceiling reached over five meters in height. It had a tiled square in the center of the room, surrounded by elaborately carved runes, similar to the same ones the suppressor bracelet had. After taking a step inside, Leo paused to evaluate the room and the square.

Heidi, noticing his hesitation, nodded towards the square and explained, “That is the training area, though usually, we use it to meditate on insights in a mana concentrated environment.”

“What type of insights?” Leo asked, looking at the books lining the walls.

Heidi noticed his gaze and answered, “Many of these books contain thoughts and ideas on magic written by other mages. They wrote them elaborately. To confuse the reader while making the author seem smart. Spells and magic study for mages is a field that allows them to show off how smart they are. And, like any good scientist, they like to compete by writing long articles, sometimes stretching into multi-series books about their discoveries.”

“And those discoveries teach spells?” Leo asked, eyeing the books.

“God, no,” Heidi laughed. “They teach you how sometimes old men go senile with age and blabber a lot on the same topic using too many words. Though, sometimes their blabberings can lead to gaining insights into the questions the reader of the article is searching for.”

Leo looked at the square again, noticing how the air simmered slightly above it, giving it a slight glow and mirage-like quality, something one would expect to see in a desert where the heat plays around with the scenery before your eyes.

“Alright, so the training you mentioned? Will it be me reading books and thinking about them?” Leo asked skeptically, turning around and having a better look at what seemed like thousands of books of all shapes and colors sitting on the shelves and waiting for their next victim.

“No, you are too young and inexperienced. We must first understand what is wrong with your core formation and stabilize it. Hopefully, my father will explain more,” Heidi answered, as a knock on the door interrupted them. A man walked inside and closed the door behind him.

Leo immediately noticed the uncanny resemblance he shared with Heidi in his vibrant green eyes. The man was not as delicately built as her, being a solid head taller than Leo and had broad shoulders and graying hair. He wore a black suit, one similar to a banker's. Leo could not help but compare the man to a fit football coach you would see in American movies due to his size. 

“Hello, you must be Leo,” the man said in a deep voice, reaching out for a handshake. “I am Viktor, Heidi’s father.” Leo grabbed his hand and gave it a solid, sure shake, as you would do when meeting a potential employer, to leave a good impression. 

“I trust she has explained to you the circumstances?” he asked.

“Just briefly,” Leo answered, releasing his hand and taking a step back.

“Let's sit,” Viktor pointed to the desk in the corner, a few meters from a fireplace with two guest chairs in front of it, and walked over, sitting down. Then he asked, “Which part did you find most unbelievable?”

“Well, mostly the part that I am supposedly dying, to be frank,” Leo answered honestly, sitting in the guest seat in front of the sturdy mahogany desk. “If what I heard is true, and believe me, it sounds bizarre, I am gathering some type of energy, and it is destabilizing my body?”

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Viktor raised an eyebrow, surprised by the maturity Leo displayed for a kid in his twenties. Sure, muds liked to dream and come up with lots of fantasies, but they usually fell into a stupor when confronted with the fact that there was more to the world than they knew.

“But to be fair, the core formation and mana usage part confused me the most,” Leo continued. “It  sounds bizarre that you cannot use magic as you see fit.”

“Though that is the reality we face, Leo,” Viktor said, catching Heidi’s eye. “It is to do with how we awaken to magic. Not everything is as easy as your writers and poets like to think in the books they create.

“You see, our awakening has become somewhat dependent on the mages who can do the spell required. As mana is not as sparse anymore in the world, our talents are awakened by others, holding power over us. And, what is more, when they awake us, a certain spell is cast, ingrained in our very core. They ensure we serve the cause the person awakening us is following.”

Leo frowned. He expected that magic was just a force of nature, tamed by the mages. He did not like all the complexity around it. So he asked, “What type of spell?”

“Core alignment is the name of it,” Viktor answered. “But the people who are not from the Church call it a Slave spell.  The caster makes sure that the person he awakens follows certain rules ingrained with runes in the core. If he does not, the core will lose its potency and collapse.”

Leo frowned further, ‘it sure sounds like slavery then.’

“And I must go through the same process to stay alive?” Leo asked to make sure.

“No, Leo. We are not sure what process you will need to follow. See all these books around you?” Viktor waved with his hands around the room. “I have read all of them, as I like to keep myself educated in the matters surrounding our world. None of these books mention a situation like yours in our day and age. No one in our field has documented what you are experiencing now and how to deal with it. What I have for now are just a few old legends and stories.”

That was not what Leo expected and wanted to hear. He saw all the information around him plastered on the shelves and heard Heidi’s explanations. He half-expected to solve his situation quickly and painlessly. 

“So we will have to improvise and change course as we go,” Viktor continued. “See the square there? We will use it to give your core access to a stable concentration of mana, to lessen the strain on the bracelet, hopefully prolonging its life. Expect to spend a lot of time there in the upcoming weeks.”

“Weeks?!” Leo exclaimed, leaning forward. “I cannot just vanish for so long, without leaving a single message to my friends!”

“In this regard, you do not need to worry,” Viktor said calmly, “I have taken the liberty to contact them and left a message saying that you got a great starting role in a corporate job here, in Berlin, with our bank. They sounded pleased when I explained why you had to leave so suddenly and why you will be indisposed in the upcoming weeks. No one will think you are missing.”

Leo was shocked, as all the facts before him pointed to the plain truth that he was kidnaped out of his bed, unconscious, and hauled off to Western Europe like a sack of potatoes. It felt strangely wrong, so he decided to be careful and understand the situation he was in, to get out of it if the need arose.

“Alright, I understand. However, what exactly do you expect me to do?”

“I expect you will let me help you and assist me in the methods I present. We will try to stabilize your core and then get you to learn the basics any mage knows before continuing to train your affinity, whichever that is.”

“Great! So let's get to it!” Leo responded with enthusiasm.

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