Leo and Heidi
Sternenberg, Switzerland
“What is so bad?” Leo asked, pulling away his hand, not liking the tone Seb used, nor being used to him being so blunt.
“The mana around you is too thick, boy. It is bound to stand out as a beacon to those looking for it unless we reign it in somehow. Frankly, I do not know how,” Seb answered, looking him up and down. “What exactly were you doing in the woods?” he asked Heidi.
She shuffled her feet and answered, “Well, I wanted to train Leo. That is why I asked you about what we can or cannot do here on the estate.” Seb frowned at her but said nothing for a second.
“Fucking freak,” Fadri snarled at Leo and spat at his feet. The next thing Leo heard was a loud slap, and Fadri lay down on the floor rubbing his face. Peter looked at him with contempt and said, “Watch your mouth! Never mind the manners. You act like an idiot. All those years of raising you and look what has become of you. If only you could be more like your brother.” Peter finished, motioning to Auriel who stood stock still, looking at his father in shock.
Fadri got up, red-faced, and turned around, leaving the group without a word. “That kid is going to be trouble, Alpha,” Seb said, watching the young wolf leave, his older brother running behind him to catch up.
It was Peter’s turn to spit as he said, “I know. But he still is my blood. And you know that he is more my responsibility than yours. Make sure to put him in his place before he acts out.” Peter levered his gaze at Leo and said, “Especially you. You have my permission. Sometimes even sons have to learn that their place is hard fought and earned in this world, not given.”
Leo nodded to the massive man, saying nothing. Heidi asked, “So, uncle, can you help us? I feel that we should do something about Leo’s condition.”
Seb thought about it, watching Evan in the distance, then remembered, “You still have the Codex, do you not?”
Heidi looked at Leo, who then looked startled but nodded quickly before saying, “It should be in the bag?” Seb understood his meaning, not willing to voice loud that they had grabbed a dimensional storage device. The proud Alpha might be a man of honor, but he knew too well that integrity is nothing before riches. Even the best of them succumb to greed, one of the cardinal sins of this world.
“Right, maybe it will have the answers. Go and check it out,” he waved them away. “It is not like I can read the damn thing anyway.” Peter chuckled and looked at Seb, “Is this you being what? Annoyed?” Seb looked at the Alpha and decided not to pick a bone with him, finding it a lost battle. So he chose to turn away and walk toward where Evan was, still working the fork at the cow dung. A scene Seb enjoyed maybe too much.
Leo looked at both Seb and Peter who were leaving, before asking, “What is up with your uncle? I find it weird how much he enjoys torturing Evan.” Heidi laughed and said, “Come on, let’s go.”
Both of them went back to the manor where the spatial bag lay in Leo’s room. Heidi explained, “Well, you do not know my uncle very well, but Evan is exactly the type of man Seb would love to watch his back.”
“What? Really? Why?” Leo started. “I mean, sure, he has some military training, but how does that measure up to you being able to sling literal fire, air, and whatnot?”
Heidi chuckled and answered, “Well, he did get on his nerves the first time Evan arrived. Trying to offer his pointers, or what was it? I mean, uncle is not used to someone treating him like an old man you have to teach how to use a computer. He is the one who does the teaching usually. So he went ahead and tested him. Turned out Evan can stand up for himself fairly well. Even against a mage like my uncle.”
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Leo whistled and said, “Damn, I did not know that. We have never fought exactly in our childhood, you know?”
Heidi looked at him, and said with a smirk, “Yea, I know. You do not exactly look like a brawler.” Leo glanced at his arms and said, “What? Why? I mean, I can stand up for myself pretty well.” Both arrived at the manor, and Hiedi said in a fun-mocking tone before walking in, “Yea, like you did before Fadri jumped on you.”
“He was damn scary, that one. What did you want me to do? I mean, I am afraid of big dogs!” he defended before her, walking back to his room and getting inside. Heidi closed the door behind herself, still chuckling. Leo wisely ignored her and went to his bedside table to get the bag out of the drawer. He opened it, willing some of his mana, and thought of the Codex, the book flopping in his hand.
Setting the bag back on the table, he sat on his bed and opened the book, Heidi joining him on his right. As before, she could not read anything on the pages and asked Leo, “Does it seem any different to you? I mean, I still cannot make out anything at all.”
Leo concentrated, pinching his eyes. Nothing changed for a second. Then the same vague diagrams and shapes appeared on the pages, still unreadable to him. “Still the same. Wait, I have an idea,” he said and thought of his mana.
In the mage world, it seemed that mana did a lot of other things besides casting spells. Like unlocking knowledge, bags, and doors. So why not also access some secret, coded book? So Leo did the only thing he knew how to do well - splash the book with some of his mana.
The change was instant. The book started to glow brightly, pulling at his core, and Leo felt the pull from his insides. “Damn!” he yelled as the book rose on its own right in Leo’s surprised face. Heidi jumped up from the bed and took a few tentative steps back from Leo, seeing that the book was now shining brightly as the sun.
“Emm, Leo? Maybe turn it off before it goes boom?” she asked, her voice sounding a little scared. Leo breathed hard and muttered, “If I knew how? I mean, it feels like the thing will suck out my innards. I cannot stop it!”
Then the bright ball of light stopped pulling mana from him and hovered in his face for a second before it shot straight through his chest, disappearing.
- - -
Heidi stared at Leo in horror, as he slumped down on the bed. She rushed over to him and checked his breath with a hand. ‘Still breathing,’ she thought with relief. She examined his pulse and found it elevated. His forehead - sweating as if he had a fever.
Not knowing what to do, she decided to find her uncle. However, before she could open the door of Leo’s room, it flung open, and a dark-haired female stood in the frame, looking her up and down as if evaluating. Then the brunette asked with a thick accent, “What the hell are you doing here, mage girl?” She looked behind Heidi and found the sweaty, sickly-looking Leo, out cold on the bed.
Lisbeth’s face scrunched up in anger, and she questioned angrily, “What the hell did you do, witch?!” Without waiting for an answer, she waltzed into the room, showing Heidi out of the way, and strode up to the bed where Leo lay, sweating. She examined him for a second and looked at Heidi, meeting her frowning gaze.
“That is my line. What the hell are you doing barging into the rooms of your guests?” Heidi asked, collecting herself. Weirdly enough, she wanted to protect Leo from the predator that had walked into their lives.
Lis got up from beside Leo, walked up to Heidi, and stopped a centimeter from her face, stating, “That is none of your business, witch. He and I have a connection now, like it or not.” Heidi’s eyes widened, suddenly understanding, and she muttered, “Cannot be. You bonded? How? Why? He is not a wolf.”
Lis backed away smiling and glanced at the boy on the bed. Then she answered, “Does not matter how. I will not explain myself to you. Know this, if you want something from him - you will have to go through me.”
Heidi looked at her in shock. Then she came out of it a second later, before blurting, “What? He is not some property that you can claim as your own. He will make his own decisions, like it or not.” Lis did not like the way the little witch was talking with her, and she took a tentative step toward her, extending her claws. No one in the clan knew how far her curse had developed itself, besides her father. It was getting much easier to control her forms, though, not without training.
However, before she could teach the little witch a lesson, Leo shifted in bed, drawing attention from both of them, and levitated a meter in the air above the bed, still unconscious. Both girls stared at him in disbelief for a second. Then his back arched as if possessed, and the room went white.