I hate to do this to you guys one more time lol....

ALSO: The fecal matter is about to hit the fan! You guys remember what happened the last time I posted this right? riiiighhht?

ALSO#2: LAST chapter of the night! I have, however, been informed that I am free for a grand total of three days...this may be subject to change...I Dunno...BUT if it holds...hehehe

ALSO#3: Don't worry, the Eleanor and Leo Heart-to-Heart is still on its way...this ain't it :)

Chapter Twenty Nine - Foreshadowed Misery

*** Eleanor Cazador ***

The boys wanted to accompany me to meet Leo, but I had insisted on them staying back, it was going to be hard enough facing him I don’t need witnesses.

It wasn’t hard finding him, just had to ask around for the prince of Boraia. He hadn’t announced his arrival and he had not chosen to stay with me and his parents, but he was far too well known not to have been noticed. He had chosen a deep town pocket where there were barely any residents, it was all mostly empty.

I knocked on the door of his residence and waited.

A few moments went by and a girl I recognized opened the door.

“Sophia,” I couldn’t help but glare at her.

“H...hi Eleanor,” she spoke hugging the door, ever the shy and easily frightened girl. Maybe that is why Leo was ignoring me, because I am her polar opposite. “Co...come in,”

She gestured for me to enter. After I did she stood around awkwardly breeding silence.

“Where...is leo?” I hesitated, I wanted to leave.

“Upstairs,” she replied. “He’s busy right now.”

“Well he better make some time for me,” I said ignoring the girl who looked like she wanted to say more and made my way up. I pushed open the double doors there, they opened up to a large wide room full of books and trinkets I did not recognize.

There were many wondrous things, papers with designs I had never seen before, models of vessels and other things that were clearly of Leo’s design. There were some that I recognized and I couldn’t help myself from looking through them, touching the models marveling at how they had changed since their early conceptions.

As I looked through I noticed someone sitting at a desk, his back towards me, he was reading through a book with a mug in hand. He had it out as if for someone to take it, I guess some habits don’t disappear, I didn’t know it then, but a smile spread across my lips. I found myself subconsciously taking the mug from his hand and warming it as I used to do.

He didn’t lose a beat reading, even as he took the mug from me and sipped.

“Hmm…” he said after a moment turning as he did so, the ever familiar smile on his lips. “Hello my precious fire starter.”

My heart skipped a beat and I hated him for it.

“You don’t get to act like that,” I said with reproach.

He swiveled the chair so he was properly facing me and stood, I subconsciously took a step back. His hand came up to my neck as his fingers fiddled with a simple frail gold chain that clung to it. He pulled on it gently extracting from out of my dress shirt a burning star jewel.

There was a sad smile on his face.

I clasped it so he wouldn’t see it anymore, I felt like tearing it away and throwing it aside, but I would only regret it.

“What brings you here,” he asked.

“I...we...the professor needs your help,” I explained hating the fact that I was losing my nerve.

“So you did not come because you wanted to see me?” he asked. I looked up and his eyes were staring at me.

“What about you?” I asked glaring at him angrily. “Did you never want to see me? You ignored me even when I left.”

“I did want to see you,” he replied.

“Then why didn’t you?” I asked truly wanting to know.

“No matter what I say you will remain angry with me,” he said placing a hand on my cheek, I flinched away from his touch but he didn’t pull back his hand. I wanted to resist him, but I couldn’t.

His touch made me feel happy, it represented all I missed, they way he was before and how he used to treat me. I didn’t want him to pull his hand away and reveal the different person that was before, I found myself lost in his touch. When I realized what was going on I pushed him away and turned to leave.

“I...I’ll wait for you outside,” I said then rushed out of the room.

*** Kane ***

I watched as Eleanor zipped into the massive chamber grav skating, it was a skill she tried teaching us but no matter how much we tried we couldn’t get a handle on the skill. Following close behind her was the boy and elf we had seen almost a week ago, they too were grav skating with excellent proficiency.

“Hello child,” the professor greeted the newcomer. “My name is professor Dolan, this is Teacher Gysh and Teacher Norma. Your little friend over there tells me you are a natural elemental fire user and an expert on seals.”

There was some doubt on the teachers’ faces, I guess they expected someone older.

“Indeed,” the boy simply replied. “Is that the seal? Eleanor has been telling me all about it and how you have been trying to activate it.”

“Yes,” the professor nodded excitedly. “With two elemental users surely now the seal will activate.”

The boy zipped over to the seal and lit a wisp that was not made of fire, it glowed bright and pure, almost like he was using elemental light.

“These are some extremely complex designs,” the boy said to the professor. I watched him waddle over excitedly.

“Indeed,” the professor placed his hands behind his back.

“See here,” the boy pointed to a spot on the seal and moved his fingers in a slow but erratic pattern. “Powerline conduits, absorption seals, these here are written in old fire runes, and over here...hmmm…”

The professor had been nodding his head and repeatedly saying “I see!” and muttering a lot under his breath. We all grew curious and gathered around them both, all but the elf girl and Eleanor.

“What is it?” the professor asked.

“Do you know the concept of space and time?” the boy asked. “Dimensions, singularities, gravity, magnetism?”

“I...hmmm no...I am familiar with magnetism and i guess time, but I don’t understand the other words,” the professor replied. “And space as a concept?”

“Well basically,” the boy explained. “This seal is a doorway, a doorway to what? I do not know.”

“Can you activate it?” he asked.

“Actually it is already active,” the boy replied. “I get the feeling that it has been constantly making small doorways, but without enough power this one won’t activate.”

“Do you think the girl and you can activate it?” the professor asked.

“I can do it myself,” the boy motioned for everyone to step back. “This is going to get intense to give me a bit of space please.”

After everyone gave him a good bit of space we all waited with baited breath. He was just standing there breathing in and out almost as if he was meditating moving his hands together in an up and down motion meeting up near his neck and moving back down to his waist.

Some moments went by before he dragged in one long gulp of air and unleashed elemental fire with such ferocity that it dwarfed anything Eleanor had ever done. The seal quickly turned a bright red color then it pulse, once...twice…

It shuddered before the seal was consumed into the stone and all that remained was a strange dark gateway.

Before anyone could react a large obsidian creature erupted from the seal and rammed Leo.

*** Leo Cazador ***

“Mother F…” I didn’t get a chance to finish as a burning skeletal minotaur with ram’s horns slammed into me. I could feel my entire chest cave in, not that it mattered it was healed by the time I slammed back down to the ground and rolled about like a ragdoll. Unfortunately I felt all the pain of having my body broken and mangled throughout the process.

I watched as Sophia stepped up and used the water ring to pull the hydrogen molecules in the air to form enough of a floating water ball to use it as a munition source for powerful water shots. one after the other struck the minotaur, it cowered from the water that caused it to steam and in turn caused it extreme pain. As it began to cower Sophia stopped her attack and turned away, she was never good with violence.

I took this chance to strike the bull reinforcing my body with dense mana, my steps shattered the stone floor as I rushed it. A double open palm strike sent it back from whence it came.

Using elemental earth I pulled the stone from the ground to create a barrier in front of the seal as I had no idea how to deactivate seal. I immediately noticed that a few of the unstable gates popping up here and there were stabilizing and forming permanent gateways.

This was not good.

“What was that?!” a boy I did not recognize spoke up. He was scrawny and the wind element flowed in his core.

“For now we have bigger problems,” I said catching my breath.

“A monster just came through here!” the same boy said. “What could possibly be worse.”

“I have been feeling it for some time,” I explained. “Small rippling disturbances in space, and now I know what they were. Unstable gates, probing connections. This seal doesn’t just act like a gate it is also a sort of beacon because some of those unstable gates have become permanent gates. If we don’t find them soon we are going to have a whole lot of problems.”

“What do we do?” Teacher Gysh asked no one in particular.

“I personally am going home and fortifying it against potential attack,” I replied. “As for you, well you run an academy full of mages and you have no personal army, I suggest you improvise.”.