III. The Offer

The next morning busy Danielle with a usual move widely opened the window of Felix's bedroom at around nine o'clock and didn't miss a chance to complain about the strong smell of cherries and cigarettes that once again firmly stuck to the antique furniture of the room.

Felix only quietly huffed. This smell never disturbed him, in fact, now he was much more irritated by the fact that his clothes smelled like rather cheap female perfume.

"Well, Sir, next time you will choose your company more carefully," instructively noticed Danielle observing the moody face of his master.

Felix had already finished his breakfast when his butler informed him about Professor Hofmann, who was waiting for him in the main parlour.

"Good morning, dear Professor," said the redhead trying to look friendly.

"Ah! Mr Calliophis! Good morning! How are You doing?" the round man attempted to act lively. His messy grey hair and big, dark circles under his eyes clearly gave out the fact, that he had a difficult night though.

"I'm fine. But I see, You had a lot of work yesterday?"

"Oh, well... Just some cleaning up after that... You know, that blast a day ago. But Your potion is ready! And the lotion! And I dared to add a little chocolate to this set," Isaac kindly smiled handing Felix a little bag. "I assumed; some sweets will cheer up the one who is so seriously sick. By the way, who is the unfortunate one?"

"Mh, thanks. It's for a friend of mine. Thanks for helping me out, Professor," Felix answered politely.

"It's always my pleasure!  Do you need anything else?" Isaac wanted to sound polite, but he clearly wasn’t satisfied with the answer.

"No, thank You. I'll tell Alastair to grant You a small bonus for Your help."

"Oh, there is no need, Mr Calliophis! You don't owe me anything!" the round man negatively nodded and crossed his hands.

"As You wish. Come, be my guest. I, unfortunately, need to leave now but Danielle can suggest You tea with pie."

"Oh, that's very kind of You! You know, I can never say no to a pie!" Isaac smiled happily. "By the way, Mr Calliophis, do You know if we are getting a new healer teacher? I just...As a...As the head of the specialization, I need to know..."

"I don't know. You should talk about it with Alastair, that's up to him," Felix answered dryly approaching the front door.

"Sure, sure! Professor Alsiende knows best. I will ask..." mumbled the round man.

Felix shortly nodded and disappeared the next second. He teleported to the cottage in the woods, swiftly ran to the front door and impatiently and loudly knocked on it. A scared maid hurried to let the prominent guest inside and called her mistress. Annabelle didn't make Felix wait too long. She knew that her cousin was already angry enough with her and her older son, so the woman didn't want to cause more trouble.

"Good morning, dear! We didn't expect to see you today!" she opened her arms for a hug.

"This is to heal your son," Felix answered emotionlessly stepping back from the hugs.

"Oh, how wonderful! Thank you, cousin! You are our saviour!" Mrs Woodward's face lit up. "And the bird? Is it among the ingredients of the potion?"

"Annabelle!" Felix frowned and shouted out loudly, making the woman jump up in fear. "How dare you..." he was about to scream again as he noticed two pairs of hazel eyes spying on him from the second floor. "I have my honour and I would never fall so low," he had to force himself to sound softer. "Lilac was the one to attack. He committed a crime, and he will face his punishment. Now go to your son, don't make me be impolite with you again!" he ordered.

Mrs Woodward pressed her oval head into her shoulders and obeyed. She obviously wanted to disagree with the punishment, but the flaming eyes of her cousin clearly hinted to her, that every argument would just make it worse.

Felix remained alone in the large hall. He kept silent for a second and then raised his eyes to the two mysterious spies.

"I do hope you are not going to disappoint me like your older brother..." he said softly then slowly walked to the Lilac's room.

The family's healer put the lotion on the boy's wounds and carefully counted ten drops of the potion, adding it to fragrant herbal tea. It didn't last long after the first sip to see rapid improvements in Lilac's condition. The burns stopped pulsating, and, in a moment, deep wounds started to heal. The horrible scar that disfigured the young man's face started slowly disappearing, allowing him to see with both eyes and properly speak again.

"Would you be so kind to tell me, what for the God's sake made you think, that you are allowed to leave Occultikon without my permission?" Felix stared at his nephew precisely.

"I...Ah...Ugh...Aga..." the boy glanced at his mother. "We just wanted to hang out a little bit..." he muttered.

"Oh, I hope you had enough fun to face the consequences now!" the redhead frowned strictly.

"Uncle, I...Please!" Lilac begged.

"Poachers must be sentenced to prison according to the law, you know this. For attacking a Caladrius..."

"Felix, please!" Annabelle cried interrupting her brother. "I beg you! I beg you on my knees! You can ask whatever you want! The Woodwards will be endlessly loyal to you! But don't send him to prison!"

Felix stood up straight. His lips curved into a sly smile as he elegantly adjusted his wavy hair.

"Well...The Woodwards could be useful, that's right," he replied thoughtfully following his cousin with his hypnotically shining eyes. "Lilac will face a detention and community service, no prison. But..."

"But?" Annabelle replied with slight worry.

"My good friend, Professor Alsiende, wants to join the House of Nobles as the second member from our city. I would appreciate it if your husband could grant us his voice."

"But...We are... Narcissus is...he promised to vote for Lemonie." Mrs Woodward seemed pretty confused.

"Well. Either Narcissus changes his mind, or... I think it was four... Right, four years of prison one gets for poaching endangered creatures..."

"My father will vote the way you want!" Lilac said loud and clearly looking at his nodding mother. "He will, don't worry. Thank you, uncle!"

"I'm glad we could find a compromise," Felix clearly stared at his cousin with his wide open, evilly sparkling eyes. "It is better for your son and moreover, Professor Alsiende is a much better candidate, loyal to Occultikon. I suspect that Lemonie is highly influenced by the nobles of the la Manch Trinitas."

"His ideas though..." Annabelle objected quietly.

"His ideas are mediocre and populist. A war, the way he and his French patrons see it is way too barbaric. We here prefer more elegant ways," angry Felix's eyes almost ignited Mrs Woodward. "Oh, by the way. I'll spare you, but you must tell me which one of your empty-headed friends attacked the human child," he glanced at his nephew.

"Ah...Well...Erick ran after the child, I guess...Thomas stayed with me...What will happen to him?" Lilac looked scared.

"Oh, don't worry, I am not a monster after all," Felix answered kindly as he was about to leave the room. “Though wait...No, I actually am one," he added softly and with obvious satisfaction.

Felix disappeared in the dark fog before he even crossed the main hall. The next second, he was standing in front of a shabby block of flats in a noisy, bustling suburb of the huge human city. The man had always treated humans with certain squeamishness peculiar to almost all wizards. Now again this attitude made the redhead feel disgusted from having to walk the streets of the human city. He shivered and was already about to step towards the dull block of flats when its front door opened and a small figure with a bun of snow-white hair quickly ran out of it and marched away. Felix raised his thick eyebrow and shortly stared at his reflection in a car's window. A man like him dressed in a colourful floral shirt and leather jeans could hardly remain unnoticed that easily. Yet, Ragna obviously didn't pay much attention to him. The girl seemed to be in a hurry and was rather carefully looking where she was going vainly trying not to stumble in a hurry.

The redhead remained motionless for one more moment and then slowly followed the bird. He still needed to talk to her. At least, because he promised Alastair. Felix didn't feel comfortable weaving among humans. Every time somebody got way too close to him, the man jumped to the side with disgust. After half an hour of chasing he stopped in front of an old, beautifully decorated with intricate stucco house. He hesitated for a second, then grabbed his napkin, wrapped it around a door handle and pulled the door. The wood creaked letting the wizard inside a long, dark hall of the library.

Heavy steps of Felix's patent leather shoes loudly echoed in the corridors between endless bookshelves.

It was silent and empty. Dust was dancing in the air, lit by dim sunlight. The air itself was heavy and stale. It seemed like nobody had visited this library for at least several centuries.

Felix carefully examined every narrow corridor searching for the bird. Suddenly he felt a tiny sharp blade pointed at his neck. Ragna held a small paper-knife in front of her. The girl's big eyes, full of childish fear, were attentively following every wizard's move.

"Wow! So, you really hope to beat me with this toothpick?" Felix grinned calmly. "Hide this miserly of a weapon, I'm here to talk to you."

"If you don't like paper knives, I can suggest you lightnings!" Ragna answered strictly and frowned.

"Nah, I'm an experienced warrior magician, your lightnings won't be a big problem for me," Felix smiled with superiority putting his finger on the sharp end of the knife. "Totalis Interitus!" whispered the wizard and the blade turned into ashes.

Felix bent over right to the young woman’s face hypnotically staring at her with his golden-brown eyes. Ragna felt a strong but strangely pleasant smell of cherries and tobacco. She stepped back panicky searching for a way to retreat, made another step and stumbled on a pile of books, lying on the ground. The girl loudly squeaked waving her hands in an attempt to keep her balance. Felix rapidly held out his long hand, grabbed Ragna’s collar, and pulled her, getting her back on her feet.

"I didn't give you any permission to leave, birdy," he mumbled focused and confidently smiled. "Calm down, I swear, I am not intending to harm you...Besides, you are wonderfully dealing with it yourself."

Ragna blushed out of awkwardness and hid her eyes. She adjusted her small, black dress and gazed at the man.

“I hope, I’m not disturbing you from studying,” Felix charmingly smiled.

“No, but you are disturbing me from working,” Ragna replied puffing out her cheeks.

“Oh, you work here…Among humans…” the wizard said with undisguised disdain.

“Well, I generally live among humans, so nothing unexpected,” the girl shrugged and turned away to the bookshelves.

“Do you like it?”

“Hmm, humans don’t kill my kind, so I have nothing against them.”

“Only because they don’t know how to use your kind.”

“Fair enough for me,” Ragna replied smiling peacefully. “I just try to make the best out of my life. Conflicts between magical and human worlds are not interesting for me.”

“In the end, they will still affect you. Nowadays those annoying parasites with their technologies are everywhere, bringing disbalance and poisoning our lands.”

“Well…Humans use their technologies to survive. They can’t support their needs with magic and you guys left them without guidance. You shouldn’t be surprised now.”

“We left humans for a reason. Why should we help those who hunted us down and killed for centuries!” Felix hissed irritatingly trying to take his anger under control.

“Oh really?” Ragna suddenly turned to the man and attentively gazed into his motionless eyes. “What a familiar story…”

“I know. We weren’t fair to magical creatures as well, so you left, and you have your right to avoid wizards. Just like we have our right to avoid humans.” Felix said softly twisting a strand of Ragna’s snow-white hair on his finger.

“I don’t know. As for me, digging our old grievances, we all won’t go too far. My advice, next time wizards decide to deal with humans, try not to curse them with deadly diseases and natural catastrophes, so that they have fewer reasons to start a new inquisition.”

“Are you trying to lecture me, birdy? I don’t remember asking,” Felix whispered threateningly nearing the woman’s face.

“Reasonable comment. I guess my instinct of self-preservation failed this time. Anyways, I assume, you came to talk about something else?”

“That’s right,” Felix sighed and closed his eyes for a few moments trying to calm down. "I came to ask you; how much do you know about healing magic?"

Ragna raised her dark eyebrows. "Much enough to be more useful alive," she carefully replied.

"You know, there's a big Academy of magic in the city I'm from. Its principal, my friend, is looking for somebody who could teach healing. You seem to be suitable for this position."

"Meh, I'm not interested in magic," the girl waved her hand with neglect.

"This job is pretty well paid," Felix narrows his sparkling eyes.

"You got my attention," Ragna immediately turned her head to the wizard looking at him with a wide smile.

"Here, take this," Felix held out a small wooden box, decorated with wooden carvings.

"What's that?"

"It's a box with a portal. If you want to accept my friend's offer, open this box and the portal will bring you straight to Occultikon, to the Doctrina de Antiquis Academy. If you decide to become a teacher there, I, with my oath, will grant you safety. No uneducated youngsters or actual poachers will dare to touch you. And you can share your knowledge and questionable opinions with the children."

"Okay, okay. What's with money?" Ragna gazed at Felix happily.

"We will pay you in gold, you can later exchange it for human's money."

"How much?"

"Do you care only about money?"

"Well, I'm a student in need, you, fancy douchebag!" Ragna hissed.

“Or maybe I won’t grant you any safety…” Felix said thoughtfully nearing the girl and attentively staring into her eyes.

“Hey!” a loud voice unexpectedly thundered behind the two. “Who are you? What do you need here?!” Vince angrily stared at the redhead reaching out to his sabre case.

“It is okay, calm down. This nice gentleman is already leaving,” Ragna softly put her hand on the boy’s shoulder.

“Yeah, I would prefer not to stay in such company,” Felix winced.

“Get out of here!” Vince commanded ragefully.

“Vincenzo Brivio, please, be polite…” sighed the girl.

“Do me a favour and get out of here, please,” the boy slowly repeated staring at the redhead.

Felix huffed and stepped back. He wasn’t interested in controversy with this child. Humans were irritating and disgusting from his point of view, but murdering a kid was way beneath his dignity.

“Use the box if you don’t want to spend the rest of your days being surrounded by those cockroaches,” he mumbled shortly and disappeared into the darkness.

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