Chapter Forty

*** Sophia Cazador ***

“Are you ok?” I asked.

Leo had woken up several hours ago, but his parents and a lot of people I had never met before had flooded into his room. They had left no space for me or Eleanor. They wouldn’t tell us what had happened, only that Leo had been hurt, but looking at him now it did not seem to be anything grievous.

He looked at me then at his hands, he seemed to be thinking about something very important as he closed his eyes and breathed in deeply.

“I am tired of this bed,” he said moving to the edge of the bed. He was dressed only in a pair of pants. The medics had removed everything else.

He had lost a lot of weight since he lost his powers, it was evident on his body, the muscle tone the soft layer of fat that was usually covered by was showing now. Each of his movements caused the muscles on his body to ripple, he was not bulging with muscle but what he had looked like it was made of iron cords.

“Are...should you be getting up?” I asked nervously.

“Yes,” he nodded. His hand ran across his ribs, there was a tender red line running across his left side, it was new.

“What’s wrong Papi?” I asked him as he walked over to the balcony, we were on the second story. He opened the doors and stepped outside barefoot onto the cold stone balcony.

He looked out into the horizon with a dazed look as if his mind was miles away as he suddenly began to sing a song in a language I did not recognize.

The ground began to tremble as his song continued to fill the air. The wind began to slowly pick up speed as the clouds above began to darken, I could feel the earth hum with natural energy. As his song continued the rain began to pour over the land, it started as a slight drizzle but quickly escalated to a total downpour.

“Papi?” I walked up to him worried, but he was too engulfed in his song that he did not respond.

The wind was now too much to bare, it was so loud that it drowned out the sound of Papi’s song.

I was about to stop him as lightning began to crash down when I heard someone burst in through the double doors of the Infirmary. It was lord Bastion and his wife Gianna.

“Leo?!” His mother called out. She had to raise her voice to be heard over the winds coming in from the open doors of the balcony.

Leo suddenly stopped singing and turned around to face us.

*** Leo Cazador ***

Since the very moment I woke up I could feel it, I could feel it in people and all around me, I could feel the power that once made me whole.

I wanted to test it from the very beginning but I had to work up the nerve first, I was far too terrified that it was only a dream, that it was only a lie. I was afraid that the power would slip through my fingers again.

When everyone left I still could not do it. My heart’s beat was overwhelming me.

I was left for a single moment to contemplate the meaning of the sensations running across my mind and body. The moment ended when Sophia entered the room and through her presence gave me the strength to do it, to grasp my power once more.

I would not show her a weak side of me again!

Once on the balcony I didn’t know what to do, it was as if everything I had ever learned about magic, as if everything I had ever mastered, simply disappeared. So instead of displaying a conventional power, instead of confirming my reawoken state via a standard spell or magic I decided on something unorthodox.

I began to sing a song, a song of my people, a children’s song to be precise that is used for the calling of the rain.

As the song left my lips I began to forge it with the power dwelling inside of me, the song became a command with great strength as the very forces of nature began to bend to its will. First the wind, then water and earth, and last the energy of fire.

I was back baby! I am back!

My mother broke me out of my indulgence but it did not matter, even the flexing of my fingers caused ripples in the foundations of space and that was all that mattered.

“I will be back,” I told them as the ground trembled beneath me.

Without waiting for them to respond I took off into the sky. I went supersonic in less than five seconds, In half a minute I was soaring at mach seven.

Only after I had drained myself completely did I stop to rest, I had slammed into the ground without even attempting to slow myself down. My complete power allowed me not only to survive the impact but by the time I dragged myself out of the crater I was fully healed.

Too tired to fly home I decided to drop where I stood.

That day I slept well.

The next day I decided to put my power to good use.

*** Illuminated High Council ***

Present:

Founding Father Granate

Mad Doctor Ludwig

Master Tinkerer Bjorn

Overseer Torrace

The Shadow Shadow

High Commander Ron Gosta

Granate - “Let's start with why was the great lord undefended while in his weakened state?”

Shadow - “He did not die.”

Ludwig - “Well at least you got that part of your job right.”

Shadow - “Forces unfamiliar to me stopped me from entering the shadows. As you all know my element is purely darkness allowing me the to use that which I am named after to travel from place to place. My team was able to continue following him but they were just initiates. It would seem to me that I was their target, with me unable to reach our lord he was left open to attack.”

Granate - “I am the second most knowledgeable mage in the world second only to our lord, there is no magic that I know of capable of doing that.”

Torrace - “What about the light attribute.”

Shadow - “I was stopped by an unattributed magic. I felt no presence and I felt no power but the shadows would not engulf me. They refused. The purity of my affinity makes me the most attune to darkness, I would have felt someone tampering with my shadows. It must be magic of a level we have no access to.”

Granate - “Such a magic does not exist.”

Shadow - “As you have said, you are the second most knowledgeable. We shadows do not answer to this council, I was called here for a different matter, speak of it or I will take my leave.”

Granate - “I know you used mind magic to erase the memories of all who saw your initiates, messing with the minds of the parents of our lord can have, dire consequences.”

Shadow - “With his power back he could have easily stopped me. He did not.”

Bjorn - “Lets move this along yes?”

Granate - “Fine.”

Ron Gosta - “So what is it that was so important that we all had to be summoned?”

Granate - “Our lord has made decisions that will impact the Illuminated as a whole.”

Granate presents a copy of the letter to all who are present to read personally.

Illuminated High Council,

I have decided to appoint official positions to the following individuals.

Granate ~ Academics Headmaster - From this point forth you will establish schools for all children from ages five to sixteen. I have attached a packet with all you need to know. You will also establish academies for further education.

Ludwig ~ Surgeon General of Boraia - From this day forth you will be establishing hospitals throughout the nation as well as forming a nomadic force of traveling medics who will go to the remote sectors of the nation. A packet is attached with the details.

Bjorn ~ Master Engineer - you will continue as you are, but by my command you are to not be interferred with and must be provided all resources as required. I have left you a special packet containing several plans on things I want developed. As the Orbital Station has as of yet to be purposed that will now be your research and development facility. Much of what I will reveal to you will be considered extremely classified, attached to your packet is an addition to your servant seal, this seal has extremely classified designs that will ensure the total destruction of all your research should you ever lose control of the information I am handing over to you.

Aside from these titles I have also included packets containing tasks for all of you.

Most important of all these tasks is the expansion of the illuminated military strength, Ron Gosta, due to the nature of your tasks I have included an addition to your seal to allow slight freedoms.

Your Lord,

Leo Cazador.