Chapter 144: Ingvild

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Ingvild opened her eyes slowly expecting to see the face of her gentle mother, but what she saw was the face of some people who she did not recognize.

"Welcome back, Ingvild."

One of the people wearing a white coat said with a gentle smile on his face. She tried to answer him but when she opened her mouth no words came out and she felt dryness on her throat.

"Here, little girl. Your throat must be dry after all that time sleeping."

A woman in a white vest said while helping Ingvild drink some small gulps of water. With her throat wet again, Ingvild tried some short words.

"How long I slept this time?"

Ingvild asked in a hoarse voice. The same woman in the white vest who had helped her drink the water replied to her.

"According to your file, you have been sleeping for four years. child."

The woman replied gently. Ingvild was not the worst case that she had seen in the last days of people waking up from the sleeping disease, but even so, to lose four years of your life sleeping was, sincerely speaking, frightening, even more at an age so young. Ingvild took in the woman's words while thinking about it. Four years. The time before she had been sleeping for eight months, and before that, three months. Who knows for how long she will be sleeping next. After digesting that news, Ingvild looked at all the faces around her and not seeing her mother, asked for her.

"Where is my mother?"

Ingvild asked. At that, the woman in a white vest looked at the group of people in white coats.

"Ok. It's time for you lot to leave."

The woman said in a no-nonsense voice, making some of the men chuckle at that.

"We will do exactly that, Doctor Nightingale."

One of them said and started to walk with the others out of the room, leaving behind only the woman in a white vest, Doctor Nightingale, and the other two people, a tall man with red-blond hair and a woman with black hair. The woman and man then approached Ingvild's bed with some hint of sadness on their faces.

"Your mother passed away three years ago, Ingvild. She got sick with an incurable disease."

The man said to Ingvild, who heard the news with a blank expression on her face. Her mother was dead. Her only family member was dead. Ingvild's head was spiraling into these thoughts without control until the man spoke again, shaking her out of that path.

"Sometime after being diagnosed with her disease, your mother looked for your biological father's family, so they could take care of you. Let's just say that they were not the good sort of people and didn't want the best for you. It was then that my wife and I decided to intervene. We offered a safe place for you and your mother where you could receive treatment for your sleeping disease. Unfortunately, in her case, there was nothing that we could have done for your mother beyond delaying the inevitable. But she promptly accepted the offer and moved with you to here, under different surnames. She then took the extra time that we managed to give her and wrote a lot of things for you."

The man said to Ingvild and snapped his fingers.

*snap*

At the side of Ingvild's bed, a pile of thick books appeared out of thin air. On top of them was an envelope that was sealed with a blob of red wax. Ingvild gave a small smile at that.

"I suggest that you start with the letter, she would have probably explained something in it."

The man said again while Doctor Nightingale helped her to take a sitting position on the bed by cranking a hand crank on the bed's side that slowly raised the top part of it. Ingvild took her eyes from the pile of books and single envelope and looked at the couple if the way that the woman was clinging to the man was any indication.

"I don't know your names yet."

Ingvild asked them. The man gave her a small smile before answering.

"My name is Erik Ravenclaw, and this is my wife, Serafall."

Erik said to Ingvild, who nodded her head in understanding. For some reason, the man's name was not strange for her. Erik then gestured to Doctor Nightingale.

"The name of the woman taking care of you is Florence Nightingale. She will be your nurse and doctor during your recovery time."

Erik said and Ingvild looked at the doctor again. Florence then gave Ingvild a small smile, which received a weak one in response.

"You say 'recovery' like I will not sleep again. I know that this disease that I have can not be cured."

Ingvild said while smiling weakly at that.

"That's where you are wrong, child. You will not be going back to sleep again. That is, not going to sleep beyond the normal sleeping time for a person daily. All those nosy people from before were here to be witnesses to the cure of the sleeping disease to be administered to you since you were the first half-Devil half-Human known to have it."

Florence said to Ingvild, explaining to the girl that she was cured. It took some seconds for the words to sink for Ingvild. When it did, a small tear rolled from the corner of her eyes. It didn't take long for the damn to rupture. Ingvild started to cry without stopping at that. But it was a cry of relief. Finally, she was cured. Florence quickly pulled the girl into a hug, allowing her to cry to her heart's contents.

While she was crying, something caught Erik's attention. The man had felt some devil power influencing the weather outside. And its origin was the crying Ingvild. Erik walked to the room's window and looked outside. Heavy rain clouds were quickly forming on top of the hospital after being influenced by Ingvild's Devil's power.

"Sera, come to have a look at this."

Erik called Serafall, who walked to his side at the window.

"What is it, dear?"

Serafall asked Erik after getting to his side at the window.

"Look at the Sky."

Erik said and Serafall did. What she saw made her frown.

"Wasn't it a sunny day just minutes ago?"

Serafall asked Erik, who nodded his head in confirmation.

"Yes, it was. There is some Devil power influencing the sudden change in the weather. And it is coming from Ingvild."

Erik replied to Serafall. Saying the second phrase in a much lower voice that was just enough for only Serafall to hear. And Serafall heard it fi the widening of her eyes was any sign of it. She quickly looked at Ingvild, who continued to cry on Florence's embrace and then looked back at Erik.

"Can you put up a barrier to contain it? Weather control, or more precisely, the control over phenomenons of the weather that involve water is a power that comes from the bloodline of the original Leviathan."

Serafall said in a hushed tone to Erik, who nodded his head. Without any movement, Erik raised a barrier that enveloped the room using his magic. As soon as he did it, the thick clouds of rain that were forming over the hospital's building stopped building momentum, and without anything more 'feeding' them to grow, they started to slowly dissipate, which brought a small drizzle to fall in the region. Serafall looked at all of this with relieved eyes. She then looked at Ingvild with complicated eyes.

"She inherited Leviathan's bloodline power."

Serafall said in a low voice.

"And that is a problem because…?"

Erik asked Serafall.

"Not a problem per se. More like 'things will get more complicated'. Leviathan's bloodline power, or like they liked to call it, the Sea Serpent of the End, is a power that is exclusive to the original's Leviathan descendants. Even inside their family, the appearance of this power was a rare occurrence and it normally pointed out who would be the next ruler of the family. To give you an example, the current head, Katekerea Leviathan does not have the power of the Sea Serpent of the End and managed to get the head of the family position just because of her power and because she is the daughter of the previous head. So when I said that 'things will get more complicated', I mean it. If words of her ability get out, some people would do anything to get their hands on Ingvild, be that for their gains or what would be probably in Katakerea's case, to get rid of her together with the 'stain' on their family's honor."

Serafall said to Erik and turned to look again at Ingvild. The young girl had cried to exhaustion on Florence's bosom and was now being arranged comfortably on the bed by the woman. Serafall smiled at that scene.

"They could try, Sera. But they will not manage to do anything with her that she would not want."

Erik replied to Serafall and enveloped his wife into a hug. Serafall smiled widely at that while enjoying her husband's body heat.

"I know I can always count on you, Erik."

Serafall murmured to Erik. When Florence finished putting Ingvild to sleep, the three exited the hospital room and Erik raised another protective ward around it. This one only allowed the three of them to enter the room or people who they allowed to.

On the next day, Ingvild woke up from her sleep feeling refreshed. It took some time for her to get her bearing back and to digest everything that had happened the day before. At first, she thought that everything had been a dream, but that was cast away by the books together with one envelope that was pilled by her bed's nightstand. Ingvild then straightened up on the bed, taking a sitting position on it, and then reached for the envelope that was on the top of the pile. After breaking the wax seal on it with a small 'crack' sound, Ingvild took the letter from inside it and started to read it.

Half an hour later, when she finished reading it for the fourth time, tears were coming out non-stop from her eyes. It was a letter from her mother addressed to her. In it, her mother explained a lot of things that had happened while she was sleeping, together with saying how much she loved her and regretted not being able to stay with her for more time. She went on explaining the identity of Erik Ravenclaw together with his wife, Serafall Leviathan, writing that Ingvild could trust completely on them. The letter explained too what were the books that her mother had left. Supposedly they were a collection of all of her mother's knowledge on magic that she had written down for Ingvild since she would not be there to teach her about it.

After drying her tears with her bed's sheets, Ingvild carefully put the letter aside and took the first book of the pile. Taking some time to appreciate all the trouble that her mother had gone through for her, Ingvild soon dived herself on learning about what her mother wanted to teach her through her written words.

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