Chapter 26
They’d barely landed when Alric commanded Gunter to take Lina straight to Sora and his parents. Gunter hadn’t quite expected that, but after a second he realized what his king was up to.
The Abe Clan, out of all of them, would be able to examine Lina and possibly figure out what was wrong with her. And if they could determine that, or even reverse it, then it would be a huge step forward in gaining Lina’s trust.
Bargaining chip indeed. Assuming Sora could pull a rabbit out of the hat for them.
Which he had been pretty reliable about so far, so Gunter didn’t think this was much of a gamble.
He gave Lina a smile as he escorted her through the castle and up to Sora’s workroom floor. “I’ll take you to our resident doctor.”
Lina followed, casting uncertain glances back toward the courtyard, where the rest of the dragons and mages still stood. “Am I sick?”
“No, not for that reason. You seem well versed in lore, so do you know the name Abe?”
She blinked up at him. “Sure, Abe no Seimei. He was famous for his healing craft. Why?”
“We have one of his descendants in our clan. Sora Abe along with his parents.”
Her eyes were in danger of falling out of her head. “OMG! Seriously?!”
“Yes. It’s why Hoheit wants you to be examined by him first. Sora might well be able to tell why your magic isn’t functioning right.
If nothing else, he’ll be able to report your condition home, tap into others of his family.
The Abe family’s knowledge is intact; they remember far more than any other clan. ”
Hope lit up in her eyes, and she bounced in place a little. “The Abe Clan. God, yes, please let me meet them. Surely if anyone can figure me out, it’ll be them.”
“This way, then. I think he’s in his workroom.
” Gunter didn’t need to wonder about her reaction, her enthusiasm.
To her, the withered state of her magic must be like a chronic illness, one with no cure.
How much would she give to see a doctor who might be able to reverse that?
To have hope, for the first time in her life?
Lina’s reaction made perfect sense to him.
Gunter texted Sora as they went down the hallway and got an immediate answer of come ahead.
Someone must have talked to him already about the situation.
Gunter blamed Ravi. Alric would have updated Ravi on the situation during the flight back, and Ravi would have immediately turned around and shared it with everyone else.
The blabbermouth couldn’t keep a secret if his life depended on it, and he had absolutely no secrets from his mate.
Lina looked around her curiously as they walked. “It’s really pretty in here. Like a fairytale castle. You all really live here?”
“We do, and have for centuries.”
She looked wistful for a second. “I’ve never lived in one place for more than a few months. That must be nice, to just stay in one place.”
His eyes cut to hers. “The Jaeggi move around that much?”
“Yeah.” She sighed, then seemed to realize how much she had divulged. Her eyes watched him just as cautiously.
Gunter decided not to press the point. Trust. He had to build her trust in him first. “Do you know Nikki?”
“Yeah, why?” She perked back up again. “Oh, are they here? I haven’t seen them since that battle with you guys.”
Interesting that she’d used the right pronouns. “Yes, they’re here. Do you know them well?”
“Eh, only sorta. They didn’t really allow us to mix much with the mages they brought in. But Nikki wasn’t the type to really follow the rules, and sometimes they’d say hi. You know?”
No, he didn’t, but he’d definitely ask more questions of Nikki.
They reached the right door, and Gunter pushed it open without knocking first. “Sora. Here she is.”
Sora was indeed prepared, as he had a wide array of elements, wands, and such laid out on the table, much like an operating theater. His dark eyes swept over her with acute interest before he gave her a smile of welcome.
“Lina, I presume? I’m Sora Burkhard. Please, come in and have a seat here on the stool.”
She did as bid, although a bit nervously, her hands clutching the side of the stool. “Gunter said you’re an Abe?”
“I am indeed. A direct descendent, in fact.” Sora waved toward the assortment of tools with a graceful sweep of the hand. “My parents also want to attend and look at you, but they’re in the middle of something at the moment. They’ll join us later, if that’s alright?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“You’ll have to forgive all this; I wasn’t quite sure what to prepare for you. You’re the first Jaeggi I’ll be able to examine without a battle raging over my head.”
“Yeah, um, okay.” Lina did not look like she knew what to do about all of those magical tools. And she kept looking directly at Sora with this perplexed expression, as if not sure what to make of him, either.
Gunter had always wondered just how mages saw each other. It must be illuminating, in one way or another, as Lina looked a little awed by the mages. Sora especially, for some reason.
“Hey, Sora, I brought your witch hazel.” Tori stopped in the doorway, eyes snapping to Lina, and he let out a low whistle. “Well, well, what do we have here?”
Apparently, word hadn’t quite gotten around the castle yet. Gunter stayed on guard next to her, just in case, as Tori had definite opinions of the Jaeggi. “This is Lina. She’s defected from the Jaeggi Clan and has come to us for help.”
“Has she, now.” Tori seemed to wrestle with that for a second before visibly relaxing, his shoulders coming down. He came around to stand at Gunter’s other side, watching Lina carefully. “And why would you do that?”
“Because I want my magic fixed,” she said readily, eyeing him in return. “And I don’t like how they drain other mages for magic.”
Tori liked that answer. He thawed a bit more. “Your clan attacked me several times, trying to drain me. They did get hold of my clanmate at one point. I’m glad to see not everyone in your family is an asshole. Sora, I take it you’re looking her over?”
“We’ve always wondered what was wrong with the Jaeggi’s magical cores,” he commented absently, pulling spell ingredients together.
“I might have an answer to the question shortly, thanks to Lina. Lina, what I’m about to do is a diagnostic spell.
It will overlay on your skin and clothes in red lines, telling me internally what is going on.
Much like a CAT scan, if you’re familiar with those. ”
“Oh, cool.” She sat very still, intrigued.
Sora spoke the spell, weaving it together, then stepped back for a moment and watched as lines of red drew themselves into numbers and letters all over her.
They made no sense whatsoever to Gunter, but apparently they said quite a lot to Sora.
His eyebrows steadily rose as he read her lines from head to toe.
“First of all, we really must get your anemia under control,” he said into the taut silence. “Your iron deficiency is deplorable.”
Lina’s jaw dropped. “You can see that?!”
“There’s absolutely nothing health-wise he can’t see,” Tori drawled. “Trust me. But don’t leave us in suspense, man. What’s wrong with her magical core?”
Sora opened his mouth to respond, then closed it again. “I’m not sure…how to explain what I’m seeing. It’s…hold on.”
Yuki chose that moment to walk in, her dark eyes sweeping over the room, taking it all in. “I’m not too late, I see. You’ve just begun the examination. Hello, child, I’m Abe Yuki.”
“My mother,” Sora explained with a wave at her. “Kaa-san, this is Lina. She’s already given permission to have you examine her as well.”
“Excellent.” Yuki slid past Gunter to come and stand at her son’s side, her eyes sweeping over the red lines as if reading a new, interesting novel. Which to her, it might as well have been. “Oh dear, we really must do something about that anemia.”
“I know, we’ll attend to it in a moment.”
Her brows furrowed. “Sora…adjust that. I can’t quite…am I seeing that right?”
“I don’t know myself. A moment.” Turning, he reached for a wand, casting yet another spell while using reflected sunlight to throw the image against a mirror standing nearby. It changed from reflecting the immediate surroundings to something else entirely.
Gunter, after a moment, realized he was looking at an internal image of Lina’s chest area—lungs, heart, rib cage—all in one frame. He had no idea Sora could even do that without a machine being involved.
Lina startled. “Shit! That’s cool!”
“It is,” Sora agreed with a twinkle in his eye. “And also helps to explain things better. Tori, could you grab that other mirror? Thanks. I need to use you as an example, if you don’t mind, so she can see the difference between her magical core and a healthy mage’s.”
Tori shrugged. “Yeah, that’s fine.”
Sora spoke the spell again, casting to the second oval mirror standing upright on the table.
Gunter was not well versed in medicine, and even he could see the difference.
It wasn’t so much the physical organs but the lack of a glowing web of fibers that should have been right next to the heart cavity.
Tori’s was there, spinning out like a spider’s web in all directions, connecting to the other organs.
It looked like gold filament, fine and strong, glowing brightly.
Lina’s…wasn’t. Gunter had to look hard to even see the fibers, as they were translucent and dull, barely discernable from the tissue.
“That is the difference.” Sora gestured between the two. “Your magical core isn’t alive, Lina. It has no power flowing through it. I would say your magical connection has been somehow severed, as if badly cauterized.”
As she stared at the mirrors, tears flowed down her cheeks unchecked. “Oh god. Oh my god. It’s so obvious and it’s really bad, isn’t it? Can you fix me? Like, is that even possible?”
“Hmm.” Sora turned to look at the mirrors, and the gears and cogs spun madly in his eyes as his full intellect turned to the problem.
Yuki also thought for a moment before offering, “I believe we can reverse this.”