Leo and Heidi

Speyer, Germany

Leo woke up to a stack of boxes collapsing next to him as the truck they were traveling in came to a stop. After talking with Evan last night, while he and Heidi were making their way to Speyer, Leo fell asleep, too exhausted to do anything useful. As if there was anything useful to do, given that the book they took with them turned out to be a dead end, as they could not read a single word from it.

Leo got up slowly and brushed his head, looking for injuries. ‘Nice, I did not hit my head this time,’ he thought and pulled the rags off from top of him and stood up. Looking around, he saw that Heidi was up and said, “Good morning!”

“Morning,” she replied halfheartedly. Leo noticed that she wrapped the book up in one of the rags while throwing the rest of them in the corner.

“Have we arrived?” he asked.

“Seems so. The driver mentioned that he would be going non-stop toward Speyer to make it in time,” Heidi replied, walking toward the door. As promised, the trailer door opened within a second, revealing a smiling German man with blond hair and blue eyes.

Not wanting to impose, Leo hung at the back and waited for Heidi to exchange a few words with the driver before walking out. He was half-expected to be kidnapped and sold off into slavery; to his mind, it was not feasible to catch random truck drivers at gas stations and ask them for a ride in the back of the truck.

Their ride was uneventful, as after exchanging a few words, Heidi motioned for Leo to follow before she jumped out of the back of the truck, with no kidnapping attempt happening.

Sleeping for the most part and having no windows in the truck meant that Leo had no idea what the town they were in looked like before walking out of the car. It turned out to be cozy, even when covered in a downpour early in the morning. Their immediate surroundings were covered in two-story buildings built in a classical European style made from light brown bricks. On the other hand, the church they got off next to looked like it had seen better days.

Not waiting to get wet, Heidi ran ahead and hid at the church's entry from the rain. Leo ran after her, not bothering to find the truck driver to thank him for the ride; as it turned out, he had gotten in the truck and started to make his way toward wherever he needed to go.

Catching up to her and brushing his wet hair with a hand, Leo asked, “Nice ride, huh? I am not sure we are at the right place, though. This church looks old, but it is in a damn bad condition. Are you sure this is the right place?”

Heidi moved to answer him but was interrupted by strange, echoing noises from the church that sounded like multiple people talking in hushed noises. The whispering moved closer to them, almost around the corner, and made Leo’s hair stand up, his back sweaty.

“In all the movies I have seen, this is the part where you run before the ghosts catch you by the leg,” he said, half serious, half joking.

Not bothering to comment on his movie references, Heidi turned around and walked into the church, and said in a loud voice that echoed in the ample space, “I know that is you, uncle Sebastian. You can come out now.”

As on cue, the whispering stopped, and Leo heard footsteps. Coming out from a nearby shadow, he saw a hooded figure emerge. It removed the cloak to reveal a lumberjack-looking man dressed in a green patched-up jacket, heavy work boots, and a red beanie. The man had broad shoulders and a bushy face covered in a gray beard. His eyes had the same vibrant green color as Heidi did.

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“How nice of you to join us, uncle,” Heidi said and sat down on one of the long-wooden stools still intact.

“Leo, please close the door. Let's not let the rain in further than it needs to come,” she said.

“As bossy as ever, niece,” uncle Sebastian said, walking up to her and looking her up and down. “And you, boy, should not be yelling in places you expect no answer.”

“Leo, meet my uncle Sebastian Aer, my father's youngest brother. This is Leo, uncle,” Heidi said, hurrying the introduction along.

“Please, call me Seb. We are all friends here,” he replied, pushing out his palm for a handshake toward Leo, who had closed the door as requested. Leo gladly accepted the shake and felt Seb’s grip strong on his palm. Then he felt a chilling sensation run down from his hand to his navel. It felt like the space around him was vacated, and the air around him wanted to make its way inside him.

Not understanding what was going on, he panicked. Leo wanted to break free from his grip and pulled the hand away. However, Seb interrupted him, “Stop squirming, boy. You will only make it worse. I am no healing mage and have grown old without practice.”

“He is our clan’s most accomplished healer, along with his affinity for air, from the family side,” Heidi interrupted, seeing a look Leo had when they were fleeing from the mansion. He looked like a scared rabbit.

“That indeed I am,” Seb replied, releasing his grip on Leo. “Looks like Heidi was indeed right. You have half-formed a core. It is not like anything I have seen. It feels like you have formed a core attached to everything around you, not through mana channels as you would expect a normal mage to do.”

“Why is that important?” Leo asked, rubbing his hand and stepping away from the man before he could do anything more intimate than just grab his hand, not knowing what else was going on in his head.

“Because, boy, there is more mana in your body than in the core. The measuring stone only can measure what is in the core, which, if I am not mistaken, is green. Right, Heidi?” Seb asked, and she nodded her head in confirmation.

Sebastian continued, “That means your body contains more mana than the core, which is baffling as I have never seen anything like it.”

He finished and sat down on the same wooden stool next to Heidi, looking into her eyes, and said, “Looks like Viktor found quite the specimen.”

“Sorry to interrupt, but the specimen is right here,” Leo said with annoyance and sat down to join them. “Why does what you said matter? Heidi explained that I am no longer at risk of just dying right off the bat.”

“True,” Seb allowed, “However, the real reason is that you are a free mage, boy.” Seb smiled and looked at Leo, who in turn looked at him. Casting a glance, Leo could see that Heidi was not paying attention as she gazed toward the door, lost in her thoughts.

“Uncle,” Heidi began without moving her gaze, “Is that why you allowed us to come here? You knew?” She turned around and looked at Seb.

He raised his hands in defeat and laughed, “No, of course, I did not know per se. I heard rumors that the Inpes were moving to capture a free mage that resurfaced from the pagan lands. However, I did not know who it was or where the mage was located.”

Heidi looked at him for a second and nodded, “Good enough. Now that we are here, what do we do next?”

“Can I see the book you have been hiding in those rags there?” he motioned toward the book, which Leo covered next to Heidi on the stool.

She handed it over to him, asking, “Can you read it? As father said it would help Leo, we tried to look, but nothing was clear from the book. It is just gibberish.”

Sebastian took the rags and removed them one by one, slowly, as if recovering a gem. When all of them were gone, he stared at the book with reverence and did not open it for a minute. Heidi did not understand why he was suddenly so fixated and asked, “So? What is the book?”

Seb took a deep breath and exhaled, “That is not a mere book, niece. This is the Codex.”

“A codex of what?”

“This,” Seb raised the book slightly, “is an accumulation of all the secrets free mages of old had. Compiled by Alea, the last known free mage who stood up to the Church before mysteriously vanishing almost seven hundred years ago.”