Eloisa was sitting on the sofa next to the television, thinking deeply. The food Massimo made was delicious, and the cold morning was relaxing, but they couldn't keep acting so passive.
Only one summoning was left for the next part of the ritual to begin, and the battle would begin.
The second most intelligent thing to do was to wait until there was only one couple left and then attack. But everyone was going to do something similar, so it wasn't as useful as one could believe.
The first most intelligent thing was to find a manasi, try to discover the type of magic they used, and create a strategy against it.
She couldn't count with Cosima and Massimo unless they were some super prodigies that could match people with a complete life of experience. They needed a miracle; could Eloisa force a miracle to occur?
The miracle needed four conditions to succeed.
First, Eloisa needed to be a great manasi; she was, so the first condition was already fulfilled.
Second, Eloisa needed to be a great teacher, but she didn't know if she was even half decent, so this could or could not already be fulfilled.
Third, Massimo and Cosima needed to be great manasies; they have already been used to the summon, so at least they had enough mana. Now, if they had talent, that was another thing. This condition was not fulfilled.
And fourth, they both have to be great students; they have managed to get into a university. So they probably were good students, but being good magic students was a different affair. This condition was the most important of them all, and she didn't know if it was fulfilled.
"Cosima!"
She called, Cosima quickly came from her room.
"What's happening!"
"I need you to buy something. It shouldn't be very costly."
"What is it? Is it to make this house into an unassailable castle like you said?"
"Ermmm, yes, that. Look, do you know where to find approximately fif— no, twenty toads? Preferably common toads, I think they are called bufo bufo or bufo toads."
"Twenty... Toads?"
"Better if they are female; those are bigger than the male ones."
"How big... are they?"
"Thirteen centimeters I think."
Cosima made a disgusted expression.
"They have to be alive."
"How am I going to bring twenty toads!? And what for!?"
Eloisa grinned. This was the first lesson she would be teaching, the magnificent master transmitting knowledge to the adorable student.
"Bufo toads are naturally resistant to low-level spells, and this property can be applied to surfaces covered with their blood or when you eat them."
"Eat... them?"
"Yes, that's why they ate them in France, at least at the beginning; then it became a cultural thing. The problem is that the resistance is weaker when you eat them."
"Are we going to eat them?"
Cosima looked beyond concerned for herself.
"This is your first lesson."
Ten minutes later, Cosima was walking next to Massimo.
"I know where they sell toads and frogs."
He said, when Cosima asked, that now they were together.
Walking in silence was uncomfortable for Cosima; her face started to turn red. She needed to say something, whatever thing.
"Have you been living in Florence all your life?"
She asked, completely sure that with this question she would break the ice.
"Yes, but not here in San Marco; I lived in Coverciano, and you?"
Massimo answered and asked the same question again. The conversation was flowing.
"Ah, I live in Montepulciano."
"I don't know where that is."
The conversation died, and the silence came back, but this time Massimo was uncomfortable, so he decided to start the conversation this time.
"So, why did you choose to study architecture?"
"Ahh, it's because I like to draw and mathematics; architecture is like the combination of both. What about you?"
"I love cathedrals and palaces, so I want to make more."
"You go to church?"
"Sometimes. I used to go more when I was a child."
"I don't think I have to more than three or four times."
"I suppose mages don't like the church very much."
"Hehehe, you are right."
Massimo decided to discuss something more serious.
"Do you think we can survive this... ritual?"
Cosima stopped walking; she was trying to ask the question.
"Look, I don't know. I think Eloisa is very good, but if the other twenty-one are at least half as good as she is, then we are in trouble."
Massimo stood next to her in silence for some time.
"What is the relationship between Domenico and you? Are you family?"
"No no no! Nothing like that! He was a friend of my father, and I saw him a few times when I was little! But your question is a bit funny; I asked the same thing to him about you."
"Really? Why?"
"Because the night I was kidnapped, he came for you."
"Really? I thought I was just kidnapped because we are roommates; I never saw him before yesterday."
In that precise moment, the words Massimo said made Cosima think about something they hadn't discussed yet.
"If Domenico is searching for manasies and you didn't even knew that you were one, how could he?"
"Ah?"
"He knew that I was one because we had already met, but how did he know you were one?"
"When I was kidnapped, they extracted some blood from me, made an analysis, and said something about mana and compatibility. Maybe they can analyze other things?"
"But for doing that, they have to be close to you! So, or you were already in their eye, or you did something that caught their attention!"
"It has to be a place where they have access to my body, right?"
"The hospital! When was the last time you went to one!?"
"Yesterday! But I went last week also to get preventive healthcare!"
"So one of those masked men probably works there!"
Soon after this theory was assembled, they arrived at an animal store in a street called Via Rosina.
The store was small but wasn't cramped. The floor was the color of salmon, and the walls were magenta.
Cosima immediately went to the cashier.
"We want to buy twenty female, thirteen centimeters bufo toads."
Massimo was unable to maintain a straight face.
"Twenty? For what?"
"We are university students."
Massimo intervened, implying they were biology students.
"Are you going to feed snakes with them or something? I can't sell them if that's the case."
"I offer twenty euros for each frog."
Said Cosima, taking out her credit card.
"You can do whatever you want with the toads."
The cashier announced immediately, it looked like his morals were only worth four hundred euros.
"Are you going to pay with card?"
"Ah yes!"
Cosima took out her credit card. Massimo looked at it absolutely astonished, almost like if Cosima just paid like a diamond, and she did. The card was like any other he had ever seen; it seemed to be made of a diamond sheet with her name sculpted in it, and the name of the card was Farfali Unlimited Mastercard Financial World Elite Noble House.
The cashier was frozen in place. Slowly, he raised his head and made eye contact with Massimo before looking at the card again. Massimo thought he had seen rich people and millionaires before, but having your surname in the name of a credit card was a whole new level.
After a minute, they put all the toads in a plastic box, and Massimo made Cosima buy a piece of cloth to cover the box with so they could bring it to the residence without problems.
After arriving at the house, they told Eloisa the idea Cosima had just had about the possible location of one of the masked men.
"And how many people are at the hospital? Twenty?"
She inquired, giving an estimate.
"That would be problematic. There could be at least a hundred suspects."
Cosima calculated after a few seconds.
"A hundred!?"
"I would say at least two or three hundred."
Massimo added.
"But you aren't sure a manasi is actually there?"
"No."
They admitted in unison.
"It's better than nothing."
Concluded Eloisa before going to the box.
"What's this box made of?"
"Plastic. Was invented in the twenty century, I think."
Cosima told her, she was getting accustomed to explaining things to Eloisa. In her mind, if she had a child, she imagined it would be something like this.
"Don't open the box!"
Massimo exclaimed, seeing what Eloisa was about to do, but it was too late. Thinking that closing the plastic box would be as easy as closing a wooden one, she opened it to dedicate a quick glance to the toads, but she was unable to close it as fast as she wanted, causing all twenty toads to jump over her.
"CATCH THEM!"
Eloisa ordered while grabbing one that had the nerve to land on her neck.
"They are slippery!"
It took them an hour to get them all back in the box.
"Now, I'm going to give you your first lesson."
Said Cosima with the toads that jumped in her neck still on her hand.
"What is magic?"
"..."
"..."
"You have to answer!"
"Oh, errmmm, it's the... manifestation... of the impossible!"
Answered Cosima raising her hand, it appears old habits die hard.
"It's the... opposite of science?"
Eloisa moved her head lightly, half nodding.
"Those aren't bad answers, but they also aren't exactly it."
Tracing a rectangle in front of them, Eloisa murmured something, and a square appeared in the air, flaming red. Then she suddenly smacked herself in the front with her free hand.
"I forgot you have to hear me when I do a spell; forgive me. I'm going to say the next loud enough for you."
It was hard to tell who was the most focused between the two students. For Massimo, this was the technical explanation of what he thought was just a fantasy until yesterday. For Cosima, it was a masterclass in the art her lineage dedicated themselves to.
"You could say that science is cause and effect; all that science does is answer how nature works; everything happens because something made it happen, right?"
"Right."
"So, magic is the act of creating an effect without a cause."
"Say again?"
"Huh?"
"Ermmm, let's say fire, right? Things get hot, and they burst on fire."
"Yes."
"I'm following."
"So, the cause is what made the temperature rise, and the effect is the fire!"
"That would be according to the natural laws, right?"
Cosima asked, feeling like she was understanding something that was simple but she had lots of problems getting.
Massimo, on the other hand, took a notebook and started writing.
"Yes, that's correct. Now magic, it's all about getting the effect by skipping the cause. Obviously, if I say some words, this toad shouldn't be able to combust."
"No, because there's no cause that makes the temperature rise."
Cosima seemed to be the type of student who intervenes a lot in class.
"But by using the soul, I'm able to reach the realm of the unnatural and pass around the laws of logic."
"Wait wait wait, using the soul?"
Massimo asked, looking up from the notebook. His expression was confused.
"I know it's a concept hard to grasp if you haven't never used it. You, as a person, have three principal parts: the body, the mind, and the soul. The body is what makes you alive, the mind is how you are alive, and the soul is why you are alive."
"I don't get it."
Cosima sighed, a bit discouraged. Massimo was using his whole mental capacity to come up with an allegory to confirm if he had understood Eloisa.
"The body... is the hardware, the mind is the operative system, and the soul is the software."
Cosima's face suddenly shined.
"Ah! If you put it like that, I get it. Is he right, Eloisa?"
"I don't know what those things are, but let's skip this concept and go forward."
Eloisa pointed to the fire square.
"That was a simple spell that everyone can do. It's beyond basic. Now I'm going to do one a bit more complex."
The toad on her hand started to move, scared, anticipating that something was about to happen.
"Le mie parole sono fiamme che ardono nell'aria."
After that, the toad relaxed again.
"My name is Eloisa Cobossi."
After saying that, fire manifested inside the square, creating letters that formed the sentence she just said.
"Magic has no limits but yourself. You have a lifetime to surpass your own limits. But beginning from zero would create a mediocre mage at best."
"So we are condemned to be mediocre?"
Cosima doubted, terrified.
"That's what manasi families are for. They left the knowledge for the next generations, so their descendants can quickly catch up to them and continue their work."
"I have a disadvantage then."
Commented Massimo with a troubled expression.
"Don't worry, if you have fire affinity, I will happily lend you part of the Cobossi investigation."
"Hey Eloisa, can you explain the affinities? I get the elemental ones, but what about the rest?"
This was the thing that Cosima cared about the most.
"I will do that later; let me end the thing about the investigations."
"Why are there investigations? Didn't you just say that the limit in magic was oneself?"
Massimo questioned with a puzzled look.
"Yes, you are your own limit when talking about your own capacity, like your body is your limit in terms of getting stronger. But enough about this; if I explain all at once, you are going to get more confused."
"And the thing you were saying about the investigations?"
Cosima reminded Eloisa.
"Ah yes, like science, magic is in constant development. I don't know if the manasies of today have already achieved this, but in my time, the principal investigations were the search for true eternal life, the method for making a true resurrection, the creation of a philosopher stone, and how to expand the quantity of mana in your own body."
"What Domenico wants is true eternal life, right?"
Massimo doubted, rubbing his eyes.
"And that's what my father wanted to do."
Added Cosima, almost for herself. A veil of sadness fell upon the place, so Eloisa continued to lift their spirits.
"My family was searching for something more humble. They were trying to recreate and surpass greek fire, which is a lost spell from centuries ago. Now, let's go to what I wanted to teach first. We will be making a low-level barrier against magic here until I can make the preparations for a better one."
"That's what the toads were for, right?"
Massimo questioned.
"Yes, we are going to kill them and make a circle around the house with their blood. Cosima, search for a bucket or something."
After finding one, Eloisa crushed the toad on her hand and squeezed it like a sponge without using magic. Massimo was dumbfounded; that was a superhuman feat, and she didn't seem to be more muscly than him. Maybe magical strength gives physical strength? He would ask the next opportunity.
Cosima was horrified; she didn't care about killing the toads, but she truly didn't want to touch them.
At the end, Cosima killed two, Massimo five, and Eloisa the rest.
"Some animals have special properties; salamanders have resistance to fire, and unicorns are very useful as magical catalysts. Toads have resistance against magic, and frogs are great conductors of it; don't ask me why; that's not my study area."
Together, the three went around the house, tracing a circle with toad blood with a paintbrush. They were lucky that their house was the furthest from the entrance and was next to a building outside of the residence wall, so they could cover the blood with dirt, dust, and similar things so normal people wouldn't see it and think it was blood at first glance.
"The next barriers will be easier to hide."
The day ended and Massimo made more food before planning the next thing to do.