The following day passed without incident.
Leon spent most of it in his room, exploring the phone, reading whatever he could find on the internet about the current state of Varen, dungeons, summoner rankings, and anything else that filled the gaps in what he knew. The estate was quiet around him in the way large houses tended to be, not empty, but still everything happening at a distance that kept itself politely invisible.
That night he summoned from the door again. He had some hope of something great coming through this time, but that was not the case, as yet another Skeleton warrior stepped through with identical greatsword like the ones before it. Leon looked at it for a very short moment before dismissing it into his summoner's space to join the rest, while he went to sleep.
Now his stepsisters didn't bother checking in on him when the familiar chill spread across from his room. Alice had asked why he kept summoning his summon every night, but he found aa way to dance around the question without giving a definite answer.
…
The following day, his stepmother returned around afternoon, as she had been away from home. This time, it looked like she didn't come back alone.
There was a man with her, a young man that looked around early thirties, wearing a composed and unhurried air around him, dressed in a fine suit. Leon would have placed him as administrative staff or perhaps a junior official of some kind, but his energy spoke of something different, there was just something about him that seemed to follow along him.
Following a soft knock, Leon's door came open, and is stepmother walked through into his room, followed by the visitor and Alice.
"Leon, dear. How are you?" Hi stepmother asked sweetly but in a cool voice.
Leon gave her a warm but subtle smile, "welcome back mum." He said. He noticed a reaction on her face, but it was controlled and he took note of that. "I'm fine. You've been away, how was your trip?"
"How did you know I travelled?" She asked and laughed a little, lightly. "It was good, and look at who I found wondering about?" She pointed at the man who maintained a neutral expression. "This is Mr. Max Coles. He is perhaps, the finest healers we have in this country."
Max nodded gently, "you honour me, Mrs. Carter." Then fixing his gaze on Leon, "I hear you have a broken limb?"
"Yes." He answered, the leg on full display.
Of course, Max was a summoner. His summon was a healing type.
Leon lay in bed and watched the man work and tried to reconcile what he was seeing with everything he understood about medical treatment. Well, he had to throw even that knowledge out the window, but at least he had expected some kind of healing light or something similar. Instead, he watched as Max's arm turned white, not just pale, but complete white. From his right forearm, the skin fell off on all four sides, as though cut out in a slim rectangular line.
Max didn't touch Leon with his palm, he just brought his hand close to his leg, the cast had been removed, and the tentacles from his arm touched Leon's skin for a few seconds, before burrowing into his skin. It looked painful, but Leon didn't feel a thing, though it was a bit disturbing to watch.
Within only a minute, the broken leg, which had been correctly set and properly cast and should have required weeks more before any weight could be placed on it, was simply no longer broken by the time Max finished. Leon stood beside his bed on two functional legs and pressed down experimentally and felt nothing beyond the ordinary sensation of standing.
'That's absurd,' he thought.
Looking at Max again, he couldn't help but factor into his memory the fact that they were genuinely wealthy and connected in ways he had not fully mapped yet. This was apparently the most sought after healer in all of Varen, and his stepmother just requested him to come and he did.
While Leon and Alice marvelled at the miracle they just witnessed, his stepmother and Max moved to a separate area for a private meeting. He spent the time walking around his room, reacquainting himself with the simple fact of having two working legs, which was more satisfying than he expected.
When the meeting concluded, he was called to the study.
It was a well-appointed room that smelled faintly of old paper and something warmer underneath, the particular atmosphere of a space that got used regularly by someone. His stepmother was behind the desk when he entered, and she gestured for him to sit without making it feel like a summons.
"How are you feeling now? No issues moving around, I hope?" She asked, genuine concern in her tone.
Leon nodded in a measured slow manner. "No problem at all. It feels great to be able to walk normally again."
"That's wonderful, dear."
They spoke briefly about some trivial matters, until the conversation "naturally" moved to Leon's awakening. They heard the news of what happened and the specifics surrounding his awakening, including the door and the fact that he summoned an undead skeleton warrior.
Leon didn't deflect any of it. He confirmed each point as she raised it, and when she finished he extended his hand and called one of his skeleton warriors through. It materialised beside his chair with its greatsword and its fixed expression and its quiet death energy settling into the study's warm atmosphere like a cold draft under a door.
His stepmother looked at it for a long moment.
He watched her carefully, reading for the reaction underneath whatever she chose to show him. Concern, perhaps, or the particular discomfort of someone confronted with something genuinely outside their zone of comfort.
What he saw instead was assessment. The focused, forward-looking attention of someone turning an asset over in their hands and thinking about what it could become rather than what it currently was.
"There is no phenomenon of that scale," she said, "that produces nothing of equivalent weight in return. There has been no false phenomena, only those who couldn't live up to their potential." She looked at the skeleton, then at Leon and held his gaze. "Don't lose faith in it. Be diligent. Whatever this is, it will grow into something that matches what announced it. I'm certain of that, and I believe in you, you can do it."
Her words didn't even feel as though she meant them to be comforting. She spoke with the certainty of a person stating facts rather than from a place of empathy.