A hard night, that's what it looked like. The storm whipped the cliffs with the wind and carried the foam of the waves in the air up to the high window of the castle, the thunder deafened the screams of pain caused by the contractions of childbirth.
Baron Nolak paced restlessly, the child was breech and things were getting complicated, he had already lost his first wife after the birth of his third child, and now it seemed that history was repeating itself.
Aulos was young to be a baron, but his father had died not long ago, all the responsibility of running the barony had been joined with the care of his children, the love for Leena and the concern for the birth, he was clearly overwhelmed as he sat in a rudimentary chair awaiting the outcome surrounded by his trusted men.
The only thing that relieved him, the only thing that consoled him was that this time his father-in-law, who was the rector of the magical university, the powerful Prestor Maer, was there in his castle to assist his own daughter with his magic in case something bad happened in the birth.
They could have called a healer from the Arverh temple, but it was expensive, it was unusually expensive, the temple only helped in the war efforts on the border, all healers were like an elite unit destined for the army, distracting them from that sacred mission had a cost.
After the death of his first wife the baron had gone through a bad time, closing himself off and neglecting his duties until his father died, and he inherited the title and with it the responsibilities, at that moment Leena came into his life to be his court magician.
The rest of the story was just chance and attention, Leena was funny, lively and crazy enough for the poor widower to go through the mourning.
Like most women, and especially witches, she had access to healing magic, but with childbirth it was impossible for her to apply the necessary care herself. Witches did not enter the service of the temple, they could be freer, although they also had to fulfill their role as healers. But in the end the magic university assigned her a suitable destination as a court magician, the rector Maer himself had interceded so that she went to that family and not to a noble house in the south.
After that, everything happened normally, he ended up falling in love with the young magician and marrying her. She had given him another daughter before this second pregnancy, but from the beginning everything had become complicated, the creature showed much more magical activity than normal, distorting the mother's powers. And now this, it came from behind, that boy seemed to want to be different and complicated from the beginning.
A maid was taking care of her two oldest sons who were still in the house and her daughter who was not more than a year and a half old so that they would not get in the way, so that they would not make the poor baron more nervous.
The thunder and the storm continued, it seemed that the gods were trying to ravage the entire north with the storm. The Nolak castle was on top of a cliff above the sea, controlling the entire city and the entire coast with their presence.
"Waaaawwwww.... waaaawwaaaaaw"
The baron entered the room, his wife was sweaty and half fainted from the pain, Prestor had a chubby blond child in her arms, his tunic soaked with the blood and fluids of the child and the birth. But the baron looked at his wife with concern. The child was big like his family, but he had a beautiful shock of blonde and red hair on his head instead of the characteristic black hair of the Nolak.
"Don't worry about her, Aulos, I've made sure she's okay, she just needs to recover... but I think we need to examine the child..."
"What do you mean Prestor? He looks healthy..."
"Too much Aulos, too much, he has too much mana inside... his body is too small for all that pressure... we need to test him as soon as possible..."
"Isn't there another solution?"
"No, there isn't, I've already talked to you and Leena about this since the first symptoms appeared, if the child is born with all the affinities and with a lot of power, we'll have to do the ritual, especially for the child... many babies have died from having the lion's curse... their bodies can't take it, and they end up dying. But it would be worse if he survived... All the cursed ones who have survived have caused great sorrow to the kingdoms. The law would force us sooner or later to kill him or someone would report him and that would be worse..."
"Will it hurt? Will he be okay?"
"I don't know Aulos, I don't know, this has never been tried before... If you had agreed to seal all of his power I could say what his life would be like, sad, weak and without magic, but I know that he could live like so many other peasants and commoners deprived of magic... But sealing only a part, I don't know what effects it could have..."
Leena regained consciousness, looked at her father and her husband, who were talking to each other while holding the child in their arms.
"Do it dad... test him and if it is what we fear, even if it is irreversible, even if we rob him of his entire future, do it, do the ritual... I prefer a living and weak child to one who dies without being able to do anything, or worse, that I am forced to see how they kill him in the future..."
"It will be as you say, my daughter..."
Fourteen stones of different types were placed on a table, one by one they were placed on the child's chest, all of them shot towards the ceiling... The worst suspicions were confirmed, not only did he have all the affinities, but his power was far superior to anything they had seen in a baby until then.
The grandfather took the child to the top of the highest tower of the castle. Despite being an archmage, Prestor Maer, he would need much more power than he had if he wanted to do it well. His figure was buffeted by the wind and the rain, the lightning drew his silhouette on the castle tower.
The Archmage raised his staff to the sky as he began to intone a litany, the words endowed with their own power made the clouds spin around the man and the baby. It seemed as if hell itself was going to break loose on the tower.
A lightning bolt struck the staff but did not seem to affect the wizard, uttering the final words of the first part of the litany he struck the child's chest with the staff.
"Ignis vei Sarma..."
A silver chain linked the child to the sky, and the chain was slowly introduced into his body.
He raised the staff and another bolt of lightning was again linked to the magic ritual as the grandfather struck the crying baby's chest again. Another chain made its way to the baby's body, the child was crying and suffering.
"Lirir vei Sarma..."
The staff descended on the child's body twelve times as arcane words were pronounced. The archmage raised his arms to the sky to shout the two final psalms of the litany and make the last two seals
"Ordal vei Sarma"
At that moment the child opened his eyes as if unnaturally for a newborn, and then he was dead, without breathing. The archmage ran... something had gone wrong... he was not supposed to die in the ritual... The ritual could not be completed on a dead child, but he could not leave it unclosed, otherwise he wanted to feel the backlash of the released arcane powers on his own body. Although his grandson was dead, the archmage raised his arms to the sky and closed the litany.
"Prium nela fiendet Legatus..."
He knew that he had one last energy left to seal, to chain, but he had not been able to complete the ritual no matter how much he had been preparing for it for months.
The clouds collided with each other while the eye of the storm was right above them, a ray of silver light descended from the heavens, it seemed like a chain of lightning that was going to strike them down, however before reaching the height of the magician they transformed into bright chains that stuck in the baby's chest, entering his dead flesh.
He had failed and killed his grandson in the attempt, he should never have tried this ritual, never tried before. The old archmage turned around with tears in his eyes, but at that moment the baby began to breathe again and scream at the top of his lungs as only a newborn can do.
The magician probed the state to check that the boy was okay, luckily he had survived. However, he did not know what consequences the incomplete ritual would have on the boy and his future, one of his affinities had not been restricted.
However, the archmage was worried, his calculations, his predictions implied that each and every one of the energies were sealed, however the boy's will had remained intact.
He needed to find answers, he needed to know what would happen to his grandson, he returned to the castle, handing the boy over to his parents' arms, and then he disappeared into the night.