Immortal Tales - the boy with magic

Chapter Five - first part

Andre had slapped him three times.

Once for losing Valeria.

Twice for getting her captured.

Thrice for ruining his suit.

Thankfully, in her female form Andre was half of his size.

Then, she had bursted out crying on the floor. Everytime he tried to touch her she had started screaming again and collapsed. He took it upon himself to pack their necessities and clean out the apartment before the police came looking for them.

An hour later, he was ready to leave and Andre had somehow recovered her composure.

-I am good - she said simply. -Sorry for slapping you. It wasn't your fault. -

-Happy to be a punchbag - he muttered sarcastically. The sad thing? He would have actually happily been a punchbag for her.

"Yup, deeply pathetic" he thought.

"Some people would say it's romantic" his heart argued.

"Those people are also pathetic" his brain won.

Her golden striped eyes flew over their bags. -How is she gonna find us? - she asked, her voice dry from the tears.

-We are going to leave traces all over town. As soon as she frees herself, and she WILL, Valeria can find us. -

He had no idea what kind of clues they could use, but until she was in prison, there was hardly anything they could do without being discovered.

Andre frowned, a lonely tear rolling down her cheek and she hugged him. All of his muscles turned to jelly.

-We will find her, right? - she asked him. Andre never showed that kind of vulnerability. To anyone. Ever.

-Of course - he said, and not just for her. He wanted to find Valeria. She was the annoying sister he never had. She had trusted him with her life when she barely knew him. She had helped him adjust to the mortal world for over five years.

He owed it to her.

They left in the night to avoid raising suspicions by the neighbours. Leaving Rome behind seemed the most obvious choice, but they couldn't risk adbandoning Valeria to her own prison, especially because she was likely out of it already.

They moved to the countryside, to a small city called Pomezia. As an ex-fascist town, it had been just recently rebuilt. Lots of people had escaped and new people had come back from the war. They could easily blend in the poor crowd.

Andre got them a room in a decadent hotel with the remainings of their money and they laid down their suitcases. They would wait there for a couple of days, low profile. The owners had seemed surprised to even have guests and they didn't complain about their lack of ID.

Isaac bought every newspaper he could get his hands on and his heart sagged at the news that Valeria was still being held by the Italian polizia. Her trial would be in a few days, but the journalists didn't seem hopeful about her fate considering both her husband and sister had fled.

He decided to leave that detail out of the report he gave Andre.

-Why is she not escaping?! - asked Andre as confused as he was.

Isaac had ordered them some food. A little girl had politely brought it upstairs for them. The tray was so rusty it didn't seem safe to put any edibles on it, but he took it anyways and thanked the child. She blushed and run away without a word.

The immortal thought again about the moment of Valeria's capture.

-Maybe something the path-changer had done before the police got to her? - he offered, but that sounded like a poor idea even to his own ears.

Andre scratched her head and untied her ponytail, leaving her hair to fall on her shoulders.

-She could still free herself from the handcuffs... unless ... unless she couldn't use magic. -

What that even possible? For a path-changer to forbid them from using magic? Sure, he could prevent magic from being accessed for a short period of time, but he needed to be close to the subject. And he could not possibly do that for very long.

He took a bite of his pasta and crunched something metallic. Isaac spat out the food and noticed that the fork had broken form under his teeth.

A wave of nausea so strong hit him the stomach, he had barely enough time to reach the bathroom to threw up his entire dinner.

-Isaac? - asked Andre from outside the door. -Is everything all right? -

He had barely the time to think "What the Nature" that another wave made him crumble to his knees and hold the W.C. with both his hands. Cold sweat dropped down his forehead. Isaac felt his consciousness playing touch and go with his mind.

-Isaac, I am coming in -

He tried to say no, but his vocal cords did not obey. He emptied his gut again as his friend entered the bathroom with a tissue over her face and a pack of magical ointments.

-Finally you don't look pretty. It had started to intimidate me. - she offered. Isaac didn't know if he should take it as a compliment or just a polite way of saying how dreadful he looked at the moment. He decide to go for the first.

-Helpful - he muttered.

Andre helped him to lay down on the cold floor and held his head in her lap.

If only 99% of his thoughts hadn't been concentrating on not throwing up again, he would have enjoyed the closeness.

-Breathe this - she said, putting some sort of balm underneath his nose.

He felt suddenly better.

Not "able to get up on his own" better, but he could breath with more ease and even attempt opening his eyes.

Andre's golden eyes were focused on his, her expression frowning. He knew she was trying to understand what had caused his sudden illness. He had trained for years to be expert in healing, but Andre was a natural. She was able to compensate magic with skill most of the time.