Flames of Fate

The magician of the invisible house (1)

She greeted me with a fake smile asking me if I was hungry or thirsty, I shook my head.

*gulp

'I can still feel the looks of the others in here …'

"Um ... I need help... out here is a wounded woman who needs treatment as soon as possible ..." even though it was urgent, I said it in a low voice.

She opened her eyes wide and put her hand on her chin with a thoughtful face.

"B-by chance ... is she short, blonde, and ... light eyes ?!" She said with a worried voice. Her accurate description made me realize that she knew her and that she was probably waiting for her.

"Yes-"

She instantly leaped over the counter with an athletic gesture and ran towards the club's exit.

"TOM! Take care of the counter! "

"EH ?!" A man replied. I did not understand from where, perhaps from the kitchen.

"It's urgent!" She screamed in a trembling voice. The man walked out through a door behind the counter.

She looked at him "Marie!" She screamed at him, her face worried. He nodded.

…

Have you ever felt completely disconnected from the world? As if the things that are happening around you are far away from you. You feel strange, everything seems like a dream, a distant vision, and suddenly you feel nothing more, becoming an external spectator.

So I felt in that moment, as I followed the run of that woman in the apron, while she was panicking and whispering something, perhaps a prayer.

As soon as we left the inn, the woman turned right and then left.

"It's there," I told her, pointing to the wooden cart on our left.

The woman walked over, lifted the sheet, and shivered at the scene.

"Marie ..." she said in a trembling voice, some tears ran down her face.

The injured woman was motionless, unconscious, but still alive.

"Can you save her?" I asked her.

"I don't ... but, I know someone who might ..." She didn't seem very convinced as she said it.

*Waah

The child began to cry, the innkeeper approached him, and the vision of that baby brought a little smile to her face.

"Oh ... this must be Leo ..."

The woman in the apron realized there was no time to waste. For now, she decided to leave the baby there.

She turned and ran to a clearing in front of the inn, on the opposite side of the dirt road.

'Mmh? Where… ' I followed her, unsure of her actions.

The woman started screaming "Rivorio! RIVORIO! " She screamed where there was nothing.

'Did she go crazy seeing her friend hurt!?' I wondered.

However, I was wrong, she was not screaming where there was nothing, in fact, in front of the woman appeared as if by magic, or rather, just by magic, a door made of maple wood, very simple without frills.

This door opened, showing a room behind it, and showing a man in his seventies.

He was bald and beardless, with a huge nose. At first glance his face reminded me of a muzzle of an elephant seal, don't ask me why.

He was dressed in a brown tunic, he was thin, and he helped himself to stand up with a walking stick he held in his right hand. This was thin and black, it ended at the top with a spherical metal knob which had some decoration in bas-relief.

"EHH ?!" He said gruffly and with a frown.

"Rivorio… I need your help! Marie ... Marie is hurt! " The woman in the apron pointed to the wooden cart where Marie lay.

"MMMhh ... take her in," he said, showing no real interest in the girl's situation.

"Thank you!" The woman in the apron turned and ran to Marie. She seemed surprised he accepted so quickly.

"MMMMMh, and who are you ?!" He asked me, his voice was indeed very hoarse and sour.

"Oh? Um, Eizo, sir… " I replied as respectfully as I could at that moment.

"What are you doing here?! Give her a hand, you fool" for the way he said it I wanted to argue, but he was right.

As the old man told us, the woman whose name I did not yet know, and I carried the helpless body of the girl inside and placed her on a dark wood bench, slightly decorated on the sides.

The room I had entered was lit by the same warm light that illuminated the inn's interior. There were various chandeliers, perhaps too many, and some even not working.

One that came down from the ceiling, one very old wall-mounted chandelier of twisted iron ending in a kind of flower in front of me.

To my right, there were two similar ones, one with broken bulbs and the other working. Then, there were three others to my left, of which only one was working.

The room was full of shiny dark wood shelves, with numerous books and small objects that I didn't understand their usefulness.

Then there were books, wandering pages, small objects of any material thrown on the floor all over the room; a huge table in front of me and even an olive tree to the left of the table. It was a room where order seemed non-existent and full of things that at first glance were completely useless.

The old man checked the girl's condition, his face frowned the whole time.

"MMMh ..."

"Can she live?" The woman in the apron asked impatiently.

"EHH ... that's a really good question ..." he muttered.

"You, slacker hero" it was addressed to me, "take me that ampoule with the red liquid inside, there on the shelf ..." He added, pointing to the shelf on my left with his finger.

I opened my eyes, "how-" "Quick!" He blurted out before I could say anything.

"Lilya! Take some olive branches." Now, turning to the woman in the apron.

Lilya and I followed his orders.

Having given him what he had asked us, the old man with a gesture tore almost all the leaves from the olive branches that Lilya had given him and dipped them in the cruet I had given him.

The liquid inside the ampoule began to boil, thicken and turn pink.

"W-what is it" I couldn't restrain my curiosity.

"MMh ?! EHH, it's a healing ointment, "red heart" powder, distilled water, and olive leaves… " The old man then asked us to leave his work area.

{TO BE CONTINUED ...}