Chapter 13 Margraves House

'The same dream again... The woman thats in front of me, but can't be seen. The blinding light glaring behind her. Her, welcoming me into an imbrace. The words that can't reach me. Why can't I see more than just this... Why am I having these dreams.'

Leo jolts awake. Immediately he can feel his body is in pain. ~Sigh~'I heal a lot faster than I used to, but I guess one night isn't enough to completely heal these injuries. Another 2 or 3 days should be enough, or at least I'll be healed enough to move on from this place.'

Leo looks around him. He can see the pile of burnt corpses, as well as Zack's, hanging from the pole. Margraves body is on the ground nearby where Leo is lying down. Slowly, Leo gets up, grunting while doing so, due to his wounds aching.

He slowly walks over to Margraves body. His face is caved in from all the punches Leo landed while he was angry the previous night. The hole in his chest is clearly visible, though blood is no longer pouring out of it.

'I can't believe scum like him got an ability.' Leo searches Margraves pants and waist, looking for anything he might have on him, but he had no such luck. Margrave had nothing with him, only the clothes he was wearing.

'There's a decent chance he just left his stuff inside that building over there.' Leo turns to face the largest building in the area. This building is meant for the highest ranking person in the camp.

'There's bound to be something useful in there. Even if there isn't, I'd like to sleep on a bed while I recover...' Leo hobbles over towards the large building, it could essentially be called a house. Its a two story building with a window in every room, with white curtains drawn over every window.

Leo opens the door and walks inside. The first room is basically just a way to the rest. The room is empty, with several doors spread along the walls, leading to other rooms. At the end of the room is a spiral staircase leading up.

'I'll check the bottom floor first.' There are three doors on the left and two to the right. Leo opens the first door on his left and walks into the room. 'It's a dining room.'

One large table sat in the middle of the room, with plates, glasses and cutlery set out on the table for a single person. Otherwise, the room was empty. There was a door on the far end of the room, leading to a room on the right of this one.

'Are all the rooms on this side connected?'

Leo opens the door and walks in. This room was a kitchen, filled the pots, pans and other assorted items used for preparing food. Another door was on the far end of the room, leading to the next.

Leo walked across the room and opened the door. This room was much smaller than the other two, but it was the most important. The room Leo is in now is a storage room for food.

'I can take enough food with me to feed a normal human for a week. For me that should last about 3 weeks since I only need to eat once a day. I would take more but carrying that much would be cumbersome.' Leo is pleased that he will easily be able to feed himself when he starts traveling again.

Exiting the room and heading to the main room with the staircase, Leo decides to go into the first door on the right. This room was some a sort of office. It had a large desk facing the door, with a window behind it. Paintings of different landscapes decorated the wall.

Leo walks up to the desk and starts searching through the drawers. There are only two in total, one on each side. The one on the left has nothing but a few notes about the guard rotations and the names of those who worked here.

The left drawer had only one piece of paper within, folded several times so that it could fit in the drawer. Leo took the piece of paper and unfolded it. It was a map of the mountain, showing a path that leads down to a nearby town or village. The map didn't extend past that point.

'Perfect, a map could save me days of travel. Following the path will be safer too, not that I can't handle myself if an animal attacks me.'

Leo folds up the map and puts it into his pocket to use later. He then goes to the room next door. These two rooms are not connected so Leo had to head back to the main area and enter through there.

The room was completely empty except for a chair placed in the middle of the room. There were blood stains all over the floor and walls.

'Is... this a torture room?

Leo's face darkens as the image of Zack hanging from the pole appears in his mind. Leo turns around and exits the room, slamming the door behind him.' If they weren't all already dead then maybe I'd use this room on them... See how they like it.'

For a few minutes Leo just stands there, trying to calm down before moving on. Once he feels like his emotions are in control he starts walking up the stairs. Leo was very surprised upon reaching the top, since the entire top floor was just one room.

A large bed with white bedsheets was against the back wall, furthest from the stairs. A desk and chair were pressed against the wall on the right, while on the left was a metal safe. The safe was about one meter wide and 1.5 meters high.

There was a separate area of the room that has a large bath tub, there's a small lever on the side of the bathtub, like a light switch.

Leo walks towards the safe immediately upon seeing it. The safe requires a key to be opened. 'I don't need to find the key, I'll just break it open.' Leo channels his power into his right hand. A blue glowing energy coats his hand for a second before it vanishes. 'What... Why am I completely out of energy. I didn't notice because of how tired I am but... It should have regenerated overnight while I was sleeping.'

Leo takes out the stones from his pocket, he's been carrying them around the whole time. He starts rotating them around in his palm and tries absorbing the energy. Just like it usually does, Leo's energy starts to fill up as he absorbs it from the stones movement.

'I've been absorbing energy until I'm at my limit every time I use some of it. This was the first time I've ever gone to sleep without being at my limit... I always assumed I regenerated slowly since I couldn't really feel much difference. It seems I was wrong, I don't regenerate over time, I have to absorb energy or I'll have nothing to use...'

Leo walks towards the bathtub and looks at it for a bit, there are several small holes along the inside of the tub going around it like a ring. After a while he decides to flip the switch and see what happens. Instantly water starts flowing out from the small holes. Leo is shocked since he's never seen anything like this before, he can't even begin to imagine how something like this would work.

Leo reaches out to touch the water, 'Its warm... What is this, how long has something like this existed... and how does it work...'

Leo decides to question everything later, right now he just gets undressed at cleans himself using the bathtub.

Afterwards, Leo dries himself and gets into bed. While lying there, Leo spins the rocks in his hand over and over again. Slowly absorbing energy, after some time passes, without Leo even realizing it, he falls into a deep sleep.