BlinkedAndMissedIt t1_j87vwge wrote
Leo's arms instinctively shot up in an attempt to shield his face from the flames. Sitting still trying to process what just happened, he looked across the room. Two other students were sitting on a couch, both wide eyed with mouths agape . Glancing up, it appeared the flames didn't catch, and stranger still, no markings where the fire would have hit the ceiling. If it weren't for the other student's expressions and the still burning tips of his shoulder length blonde hair, he might have thought he was having a mental episode.
Without warning, a hand grabbed him on his shoulder and pulled him to his feet. Still shaken, he turned around to see a young woman. Clad in a leather jacket, blue jeans, and a look of intensity and purpose, she said, "Grab your things, especially that fucking notebook."
Still dazed, Leo quickly looked at the page he had been drawing on before shoving it in his backpack. It was a symbol he had seen many times over the last few weeks, not in real life, but in his dreams. The markings would appear on clothes in shops, graffiti on walls, tattoos on people he passed in the street, but never clear enough to make out all the details.
The woman dragged Leo out the room and began walking at a brisk pace towards the staircase. The florescent lights seemed really bright, and looking forward it almost appeared there were two of this woman. She looked back and said, "Just a bit further, can you make it down the stairs?"
The last words sounded as if they were coming from underwater and things started to go black. "Oh no you don't." He felt the woman put his arm over her shoulders and begin to walk him down the stairs.
"You have to stay awake. Once we get to my car I can help with the dizziness but I can't carry you by myself. Just walk slowly and lean on me."
The walk down the stairs and through the parking lot seemed like an eternity. After nearly passing out twice, Leo finally felt relief as he was sat down in the passenger side onto a dark grey leather seat. The woman shoved his feet into the car and shut the door, quickly looking around before entering the car herself.
"Wh-who are you?" Leo stuttered, barely conscious as he began to break out into a cold sweat.
"Circe. My name is Circe." The woman said as she started scrambling through her backpack for a small glass jar. Pulling out a small, purple, semi-transparent candy, she said, "Suck on this, and just relax for a minute." Shoving the candy into his mouth, Leo immediately felt his face go numb and eyes begin to water. The dizziness was replaced by acute awareness as he leapt up from his slouched position. A look of mild surprise on Circe's face as she said, "Just calm down."
"What the fuck is this?" Leo said as he spit out the candy into his hand, suddenly aware he had let a complete stranger stick something into his mouth.
Circe replied in a calm voice, "I can explain, just give it another minute. You already have color returning to your face. Are you feeling better?"
Leo took a second and the chills disappeared. He was no longer sweating and his hearing and vision had returned to normal. Seeing this woman clearly for the first time, she had pale skin with auburn brown hair. A thin scar across her right cheek that stretched from cheekbone to right under her lip. It must have been old as it had become barely visible. She also had a light accent but he couldn't place from where.
"I-I don't understand what's happening right now. I was just drawing, a-and some sort of fire shot up in front of me. Was that you?"
"No, it wasn't me. What's your name?"
"Leo. What is this? What did you give me?" He said pointing to the small purple candy in the palm of his hand.
"That is grape flavored candy, which I've infused with a simple arcane recovery spell."
Leo sat still waiting for a laugh or 'gotcha'. After a few seconds of silence and a dead serious look from Circe, "Well, thank you, I think. I don't really know what to say."
"Look, I'm not some crazy person. The candy helped, didn't it?"
"Yeah, but..."
"But I said spell and so I must be insane? Is that it?"
Leo leaned towards the door a bit more as the tone shifted a little. "Look, I'm not judging, if you believe in that sorta thing, ya know, th-that's great. I'm just not really into that sorta stuff."
"That's weird, because you just almost set the whole school on fire back there with 'that sorta stuff.'"
Circe looked forward for a second and took a deep breath. "Look, can I just see this notebook you were drawing in?"
(Continued in comments)
BlinkedAndMissedIt t1_j87w8tl wrote
Leo thought about jumping out for a second but grabbed his backpack instead. Reaching in, he took out the notebook and was met with an emanating red light. Speechless he handed the notebook over as he saw one of his drawing, simple lines that should have no depth, seemed to almost breathe on the page and move as the light slowly brightened and dimmed with each passing second.
Leo sat silently, watching Circe run her hands over the page, mumbling under her breath. Her eyes began to well up before she seemed to notice him staring and rubbed her eyes with the palms of her hand. "Leo, what's your last name?"
Caught off guard by the question, Leo answered, "It's uh, it's Wallbridge."
Circe seemed to notice the hesitation and said, "You don't have to tell me, it's just, this type of stuff, this isn't something people learn. This is something else entirely."
"I-I don't know, I never met my family."
She shifted in her seat to face him better. Grabbing the notebook, she put her finger next to the shifting lines, "Leo, what you did here, this is pure runic magic. I've read about it before, and we're taught about it in history, but this isn't normal, even by magical standards. Nobody has been able to do this for over 100 years. There was only one family that had true mastery over this, and they disappeared a long time ago."
"W-wait so you think I'm some sort of... what? A wizard or something?"
Circe smiled a little, "No, I wouldn't say that. But the fact that you're able to do this magic, I would say there's slim to no chance you're a normal human. This is a type of blood magic. Not in the sense that you use blood or anything, but it's only capable of being passed down through bloodlines, never learned. People have been trying for years to replicate some of the known runes, but it's never worked."
"So, you think this family that disappeared is what... my family?"
"I don't know." Circe said as her tone got softer, and her face bore a more empathetic expression. She could see he was beginning to get overwhelmed with all this information.
Leo had given up hope a long time ago of ever learning more about his family. He put his hands up to his face and rubbed his eyes a bit.
"I-I just need a minute." He said as he stepped out of the car.
A chill Fall breeze met his face as he exited the car. After pacing for a moment, he went over and sat on the curb, elbows on knees, hands on his face, and tears forming in his eyes.
"What the actual fuck is going on?" His hands were shaking, and the wind caused bumps to form on his arms.
Red foliage floated down in front of him, landing on the asphalt. Glancing down, the veins on a leaf began to contort and twist into a familiar symbol. His mind shifted immediately as he was taken back to his dreams. The same markings he had been seeing for weeks. A fear welled inside him and the leaf started to burn. After a moment of shock, he stood up and began stomping it out before the wind took it away. Sitting back down, a realization hit that these symbols might be more than him going mad, and that brought some solace.
After a few minutes, Circe came over and sat beside him.
"I'm sorry you never met your family. I can't imagine what that's like, not knowing anything about where you come from. I can't promise you all the answers, but if you're willing, I can get you information about your gifts, and you can do with that information whatever you want. I live not that far from here, and to be honest, I think you probably shouldn't stay here much longer. You didn't exactly use the most subtle magic back there, and those two other people seemed to get a good look at you."
Standing up, Circe reached down a hand to help Leo up. Leo took her hand and pulled himself to his feet.
"Thank you for what you did back there."
"To be honest, when I saw the flame I thought it was just magic gone wrong. But when I saw the notebook and the surprised look on your face, I figured there was something more going on. When you started to go limp I figured out it was your first time. Exerting that much energy can be dangerous if you don't have experience, and sometimes even with experience it can still drain too much. I-I'm glad I was there."
Circe smiled a little and started walking around to the driver side of the car, "So, you willing to take one more chance today? The library at my house isn't huge but it definitely has enough to get started."
Leo looked nervously at the car for a second before saying, "Can we keep this between us? The whole bloodline magic? I just don't want to get too ahead of ourselves."
She hopped in the car and popped the passenger door open. "Of course. It's not my secret to tell."
Leo took one last look at the Fall colored leaves lining the parking lot leading up to the school. He took a deep breath and got in the car, unsure of what awaits, but for the first time in a long time, hopeful for a new beginning.
Tabnakorion t1_j8b5r2o wrote
i need a full series, a manga adaptation, and an anime
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