Leo and Heidi

Alea’s cabin, Black Forest, Germany

The morning came earlier than Leo expected. He woke up by the sound of chirping birds. His head was pounding, and he did not recognize where he was. Again. It was becoming a common theme for Leo.

Though he did recognize the snoring next to him. Looking to his left, he saw his childhood friend Evan sleeping soundly and drooling on a similar inflatable mattress Leo woke up on. Leo did not know how he got back inside or went up the stairs to the bed. He was surprised that his sleep lasted so long; as Seb had said yesterday, his training would begin by sunrise.

On cue, Seb yelled from downstairs, “Get up, you runts! The sun is out. We are burning daylight. Get down here. Now! Do not let me get up there and drag your asses out of bed!”

Evan groaned next to Leo and said sleepily, “Yes, grandpa. I am ready to run the course.” Then he turned around on his other side and tucked the sleeping bag tighter, seemingly unperturbed by the loud wake-up call from downstairs. On the other hand, Leo thought about how Seb could produce a sound like he was next to him from downstairs. No doubt some air magic-related stuff.

Not willing to make Seb wait longer than necessary, Leo got out of his sack and stretched, noticing the slight pressure in his arms and legs was back. Not as bad as it was before, but a sign that the mana accumulation issue was not fully fixed.

Going down the stairs to the first floor where the kitchen was, he was greeted by the smells of cooked omelets and bacon. Walking down, he saw that Heidi was busy in the kitchen, with Seb putting dishes on the table.

“Have a nice sleep, boy?” he asked, not raising his eyes.

“Indeed I did, thank you for asking,” Leo replied and sat at the table next to a mug of coffee and a dish filled with breakfast. “Do not remember how I got to bed, though. Also, my head is pounding like I drank vodka yesterday. And the strain in my arms and legs is back.”

Heidi put the last breakfast items on the table and sat beside Leo, saying, “Do not whine like a child. This means we did not fix your mana accumulation fully. We need to get to the core formation and finish it.”

“And that is what we will start today,” Seb said, joining them at the table. “I have already prepared the array for mana gathering and the first recording crystals for you to review. Where is the other grunt? Is he not going to join us?”

“Most likely not. If the thought of his grandfather cannot wake him up, nothing will,” Leo explained. “What is a recording crystal?”

Seb stuffed his face with bacon and eggs and said, “A recording crystal is a crystalline form that is enchanted to hold a recording of sorts. It functions as a video player, enabling the viewer to review a visual and audio of the recording.”

“So it is like a projector?” Leo asked, chewing on his breakfast.

“Something like it,” Heidi joined in. “It works like a hologram. Something similar to the recordings you could see in Stars Wars movies.”

Leo swallowed and drank a gulp of coffee before asking, “You have seen those? And what will we view today, then?”

“That is the thing. I do not know exactly,” Seb answered. “I could not access the crystals. There seems to be some sort of a seal on them, not allowing my mana to trigger them. Same as with the trapdoor from yesterday.”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Great. So we do not know if it will contain something useful?” Leo asked, a bit grumpy by the early morning.

“We do not. But you will still have to review all of them at some point,” Seb explained and took a sausage Heidi had cooked.

“How many are there?” Leo asked.

“Seb did not count fully, but there seem to be over a thousand. Thank God they were labeled and laid out logically,” Heidi explained, already finished with her breakfast, and now sipping on her coffee.

Leo stared at her, cup half raised, and said, “A thousand? How long is one recording, then?”

“It varies. Can be a couple of minutes to a few hours,” Heidi answered.

“Great,” was all Leo said before he was interrupted by Evan making his way down to join all of them at breakfast.

“What is that smell? It is mouth-watering!” he said, prompting Heidi to groan.

“Hey, man! Sleep well?” Evan asked and took a seat between Leo and Seb.

“Yea, like a log. You?”

“Same. I thought that I was woken up by grandpa yelling at me. Thank god it was just a dream,” Evan said, already stuffing his face with some toast and omelet. “What is the plan for today?”

“You and me, boy, we are going to town. We need to stock up. I did not expect so many mouths to feed,” Seb explained. “Heidi and our free mage in training will stay in the cabin and start his training today.”

“Oh! Can I watch?” Evan asked, excited to see how his friend would start his road to becoming the self-proclaimed chosen one.

“No,” Seb responded with finality, causing Evan to shrug and resume his breakfast. They all continued to wake up with breakfast in silence until everyone was finished.

Seeing that everyone was done, Seb said, “There is an outhouse outside on the left. Cannot miss it. There is no shower inside, just a tub, so you must make due with a bucket of water. Clean up, and we'll meet downstairs in ten minutes.”

Leo, Heidi, and Evan got up and went to obey, while Seb went toward the truck to wake the car up after the cold night, knowing that it could take a while. When Evan was done, he joined him, while Heidi met Leo downstairs to take him to his designated training area outside in the garden.

They walked through the back door and arrived at a small garden behind the cabin. It seemed to be overgrown with weeds and other wildlife over the years. Leo could see that the park once held some elaborate patterns, judging how the bushes grew, and saw that some stones were laid out with purpose below the grass.

“What is this?” he asked.

“From what I could glimpse, it looks like some sort of natural array. Made from wildlife, stone, and wood rather than silver and gold compared to the modern arrays,” Heidi explained and walked toward the freshly created mana-gathering array and a stack of boxes next to it.

“This is where we will start,” she said. “Take one of these crystals here,” she pointed toward the boxes. Leo went up to it and looked inside. In the box, he could see several colored glass orbs the size of a golf ball, with numbers starting from one and going up to twenties in this particular box.

“This is the recording crystal?” he asked, pointing at the ball in his palm.

“Yes,” Heidi answered, handing him the crystal with the number ‘one’ carved. “I suggest you sit down before we begin, as this might take a while. I learned to operate a recording crystal when I was a child, and it took me tens of tries to do it right before it played.”

“How encouraging,” Leo responded and sat down. “So what do I do?”

“Take it in your hand. Does not matter which one,” Heidi began her explanation. “Next will be tricky as you have not fully formed your core. Imagine a stream of energy that builds below your navel and travels through your stomach toward the arm and then the palm, into the crystal.”

Leo thought to comment on her explanation that it sounded exactly like you would read in a cultivation novel, at the last moment deciding against it, simply obliging and closing his eyes to visualize the process.

He tried to visualize his core, at the size of his thumb, muted green in color, right where his navel was. When he felt a connection snap in his mind, he continued by imagining how a wave of energy, a thread, would travel upwards and through his palm in the crystal he was holding in his right hand. With his eyes closed, he heard Heidi gasp and asked, before opening his eyes, “What is it? Did it break?”

“No,” she replied, shocked, and pointed to his palm where a pale monochrome figure stood above the orb, looking at Leo. “You did it in one go!”

“Welcome, initiate,” the figure managed to say before Leo squeaked and dropped the orb on the grass.