Leo and Heidi

Sternenberg, Switzerland

Evan just laughed away the discomfort he felt from the scrutinizing glare of the large Alpha and said, “Ah, it does not matter, sir. We resolved it.” Heidi chose this moment to clear her throat to draw attention, “Can we get back on track, uncle? What are we going to do with him?”

Seb looked at the boy mage and said, “I think there is not much we can do. I do not know what is wrong with him, niece. He clearly is fine physically, and there is nothing I can do to heal him or help to wake him up. We will just have to wait.” Seb looked again at the boy and decided to cast the spell he tried on him in the church, back at Speyer - to check his core's level.

He went through the motions, both Peter and Heidi watching him intently, the latter recognizing the spell. This time the boy could not resist the spell, and it took hold almost immediately before Seb recoiled.

The way the core-level verification spell worked was fairly simple. The caster of the spell increased the resonance of his own core wavelength. As everything in the universe vibrated, the core was no exception. The wavelength was the rhythm at which the caster core pulsed, like a heart pumping blood. But in core’s case, it was mana being pumped.

Once the wavelength increased, the caster then reached out with his attuned mana and enveloped the target in it. This caused the pulsing of his own core to resonate with the target’s. Similar to how you would compare a rhythm from a metronome to the music you would hear.

This, in turn, allowed the caster to compare his core’s level against the target's. If it pulsed slower - it meant that the core’s development level was lower than the casters. In turn, if it pulsed higher - the core was at a higher level. By how much - was always a ballpark estimate. The best users of this spell could roughly compare the rhythms of previous cores they had observed.

For Seb, Leo’s core felt like the drum beat straight out of a heavy metal concert he had once observed back in Berlin around five years ago. Muds dressed in weird masks were growling at the audience and jumped around the stage too much. Seb found it distasteful and left as soon as he saw it at the time.

But what he felt from Leo now was no mere mud’s concert drum. No - it felt like thunder. Growling and bubbling in the vast distance. Getting ready to strike. His hair stood on its end, and his back got sweaty as he examined the core of the boy.

“Well? What do you think uncle?” Heidi asked expectantly. She was as interested as any party in the room about what happened to Leo’s core. Heidi found this part of Leo’s development the most interesting and bizarre, as no mage in the clan's recorded history has been able to advance their core from none to green in a span of days. Not talking about casting spells. No living soul in the clan was a free mage after all.

Seb shook his head and released the spell, before saying, “It is much worse than we thought, Peter. I cannot fathom what changes his core went through nor if it is permanent but it felt well above purple. Closer to white, I would wager, but I have not gotten a chance to observe such core, thank god.”

Peter stared ahead of him, straight at the boy, his brow pinched together, while Heidi gasped and whipped her head around to look at her uncle in shock. Lis chose this moment to grunt and turn on the bed she lay on, taking her father’s attention away from what he evaluated as the most dangerous mage he had ever met in the last few hundred years, besides her.

Peter took two steps toward the bed where Lis lay and sat down on one knee, giving her a hand as support while she got up in a sitting position, rubbing her eyes. “What happened?” she asked in a dry voice.

“You were knocked the hell out,” Heidi said without any fanfare, feeling lucky that she managed to cast a brief cushion of air before impacting the wall. Lis blinked a few times and opened her mouth to explain again what she thought of the witch, but at the last moment noticed their company.

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Peter noticed his daughter’s instant change of demeanor and frowned slightly, noting the fact. “How do you feel?” he asked her to make sure that she had indeed healed. Too much weirdness surrounded the boy, and he did not want his only daughter to get disfigured by untamed mana for no reason.

Lis shook her head slightly and stretched, noting that her ribs felt a bit sore but otherwise everything worked as advertised. “I feel fine, father. Whatever happened to me is now fixed.” She looked ahead of her and noticed that Leo was still out cold and asked, “Do you… know what happened to him?” She looked expectantly at Seb and her father, completely ignoring Evan and Heidi.

Heidi shook her head at the wolf girl, while Seb explained respectfully, “Not exactly, Lisbeth. We will know more if the boy decides to stop sleeping.” As on cue, it was Leo’s turn to groan as he regained consciousness and curled up in a ball on the bed. Heidi was instantly by his side, checking his forehead, noting that the fever had gone down. Lis almost jumped up as well but stopped at the last moment remembering that her father was still looking at her from the corner of his eye.

“Ugh,” Leo mouthed, unable to speak for a moment. He felt like that one time when he was eight and stuck an unlucky finger in the electrical outlet when plugging in his brand new toy car his grandparents gave him as a gift for Christmas. Soviet outlets, being unreliable as anything the state produced, decided that it will feed not only his toy but also him with the current. That was when Leo understood to keep his fingers out of places they did not belong. It still stung him.

This felt a thousand times worse. Then he felt numb pain in his left arm, not his whole body screaming in agony. It was not physical pain but something deeper, more profound. It felt as if hidden veins inside him were inflated and on the verge of bursting. Veins, no… channels, he thought, understanding that what most likely happened to him was that he had forced open all of his mana channels.

Not me. The book, he thought, noting to himself to go and check on his core space later. He gathered enough wits to understand that two very intimidating adults were staring at him expectantly, while two gorgeous girls were waiting on him to say something. How that last part worked, he had no clue. But he decided to think about that later.

“Hey guys, how is it going?” he asked lamely in a dry voice that cracked mid-sentence. Evan barked a laugh and dropped down in a nearby chair, breathing a sigh of relief, saying, “And that is the first thing you say? We should ask you the same. Good uncle here says that you almost cooked yourself. Mind shedding some light on that?”

Leo thought about it. What could he tell them? He had no idea what had happened, though he understood that he had gained access to some source of mana that was not common here down on earth. He unconsciously understood that the main reason for what happened to him, most likely, was connected to the dream he had. The one about the raging river of white. As noticed the sudden changes he experienced in his core after the said dream.

But as much as he trusted Heidi and her uncle, he barely knew Peter, and even less - Lis. He still remembered the awkward morning in her room and thought it was some trap by her, to get the Alpha angry and get rid of them. Little did he know that it was the exact opposite.

So Leo decided to play dumb and said, “Yea, about that. I have no idea.” He cracked his back and continued, “I came back and got the Codex to search for answers and pushed some mana into it. The book decided to suck me dry and then floated like a miniature sun before me, shooting in my face the next second.”

Seb looked around the room and saw that the book was nowhere to be found, so he asked, “And where is it now?” Leo looked around and under the pillow behind him and shrugged, “No idea. I guess it burned up.” Seb looked shocked at that and opened his mouth to explain to the boy that the greatest magic tome of the free mages would not burn and disappear if he sploshed some of his infant mana on it, but decided against it at the last moment.

“Not interrupt you, but I believe we have a situation,” Peter said, drawing attention away from Leo. “While I am not a mage, I have seen my fair share of your work during my long years. And whatever the boy did must have surely been noticed by the Church’s watchers.” Seb groaned, remembering the satellite system that monitored the mana levels on earth that white cloaks had.

“As such, I think our priority should be to get ready for what is to come,” the Alpha added seriously. “What will come?” Evan asked, his brow raised.

“The Church, dumbass,” Heidi said with frustration. As if they did not have enough problems on their plate. “The question is what we can do to get ready. No offense Alpha, but your contingent would not do much against the full force of the Church if they decided to attack,” Heidi added.

Peter raised an eyebrow at her, shocked at her gall. Before he could say anything, she asked, “So the real question is what we can do to get our Leo up to speed on his training. The learning crystals are too slow. We need practical guidance, and it was needed already yesterday.”

Peter regained his initial surprise that seemed to be the common theme with these mages and said, “I may know someone.”